Chapter 541: Infinite Power, Infinite Responsibility

The Qizhou Composting Case is Lin Fucheng's accusation against the entire class of inferior gentry in *Xiaoyao Yiwen*. It is a typical example of the bankruptcy of the Great Ming's self-cultivating farmers and an oblique criticism of the imperial court. This kind of oblique criticism is allowed by Zhu Yijun, this Young Master Huang.

Zhu Yijun was never someone who could only listen to pleasant words. Even the Daoist master could tolerate Hai Rui's "Security Memorial," so Zhu Yijun could naturally tolerate a free-thinking writer who wanted the Great Ming to be better.

When the means of production are highly concentrated, it inevitably brings about a lack of freedom, which is strong personal attachment. When the Qizhou Yan family made these tenant farmers bury that family alive, the tenant farmers had to do it. If they didn't do it, they would be evicted. For tenant farmers, eviction meant starvation. In this situation, the tenant farmers could only be accomplices.

The ability of the local gentry to coerce tenant farmers into mutual harm at the bottom is like an instinct, just like eating and drinking.

This family of nine who were buried alive was surnamed Chen. The old father was sixty years old. The family had 53 mu of land and four sons, two of whom were married. The conflict was not about the land, but about marrying a wife.

Chen Laosan and a girl from a neighboring village were flirting with each other. A young lady who didn't leave the house and didn't engage in production was something only a wealthy family could afford to raise. Poor people without status also had girls who were laborers. The two families' fields were relatively close, and they had feelings for each other while doing farm work in the fields.

Chen Laohan put his face in his pocket and went to propose marriage. The girl was full of willingness, and the girl's father owed money to the Qizhou Yan family. Plus, the betrothal gift given by Chen Laohan was not small: three mu of land, three taels of silver, and two shi of grain.

Three taels of silver could pay off the debt, two shi of grain could provide for the family's use this year, and three mu of land could guarantee future income. Chen Laohan was very sincere. The girl was willing, and her parents felt the betrothal gift was very generous.

The order of parents and the words of the matchmaker—a perfect match.

Originally, this was a very ordinary marriage matter for a farming family. The two villages were beating gongs and drums, preparing for a long-lost liveliness.

In the seventh month of the second year of Wanli, Chen Laohan rented a mediocre horse from the station, put a big red flower on the horse, and the station soldier was responsible for leading the horse. The water horse station also took out the old sedan chair that had been abandoned for a long time and cleaned it up as the bride's sedan chair. Naturally, it was not an eight-bearer sedan chair, but a two-bearer sedan chair was also very prestigious in the countryside.

On the eighth day of the seventh month, Chen Laosan went to pick up the bride. After picking her up, the eldest young master of the Qizhou Yan family arrived, wanting to drink wedding wine.

Chen Laohan took his sons, nodding and bowing, and welcomed the Yan young master into the house, even feeling very prestigious. This was Yan Youli, a famous gentry in the ten miles and eight villages!

Yan Youli didn't eat a single bite of the banquet. He had no interest in the rural banquet. There were more than ten tables, but only one pig was killed. What kind of oil and water could there be? The goal of Yan Youli's trip was the newly married bride.

Or rather, this was a target he had been eyeing for a long, long time. Originally, the new bride's family was about to go bankrupt, and this new bride was already his object in his palm. The cooked duck suddenly flew away. Chen Laosan actually dared to marry the maid he wanted.

When entering the bridal chamber, Yan Youli brought his running dogs into the bridal chamber, wanting to "tease the bridal chamber." According to rural customs, this bad habit of teasing the bridal chamber was very common. It was to make it lively, to let young people not be so shy, and to be open at night.

This is a bad habit. How many grudges started from teasing the bridal chamber?

The wealthy young master Zhu Yijun came into contact with most was Wang Qian, the rebellious son spoiled by Wang Chonggu. Although Wang Qian and his father often had a "father-kind-son-filial" relationship and made many jokes in the capital, Wang Qian's growth experience was also walking north and south with his father, which could be considered seeing many human affairs, and his actions had quite a bottom line, or rather, he still had a pursuit for the beauty of the world.

This wealthy young master Wang Qian had a method and a bottom line, which didn't mean that all the wealthy young masters of the powerful families in the world were like this.

Yan Youli entered the bridal chamber and didn't leave until the middle of the night. If it were just tying up the new bride with his running dogs and then fiercely humiliating her, that would be it. Such things happened often, and the Chen family could only swallow this breath. What Yan Youli did most excessively was to torture the bride who was married in a proper way to death.

Tortured to death alive.

Chen Laohan found the village head, and the village head took the clerks from the county yamen to Yan Youli's house to discuss this matter.

Yan Youli was not at home, saying he had gone out to study. Yan Youli's father, Yan Chongyi, did not show up at all and let his foster son handle this matter.

It was called a foster son, but it was actually the head of the family's running dogs. Yan Chongyi let the foster son handle it. The foster son was very polite on the surface, sending away Chen Laohan, the village head, and the clerks. It was truly very polite, even saying that the child didn't understand things and that the expenses for Chen Laohan's family to marry a wife would be compensated by the Yan family. As for the new bride's family, the Yan family would also compensate.

This foster son was a typical smiling tiger. He said words to settle the matter in front of the yamen, but turned around and brought his running dogs to Chen Village.

It looked like he was coming to pay compensation, but in fact, it was not at all. The foster son and his running dogs smashed Chen Laohan's family to pieces, cut the throat of the dog raised at home, and hung it upside down in the room where the new bride died, saying it was to drive away evil. Blood flowed all over the room, looking exactly like the day the new bride died.

In the countryside, there was widespread tax resistance. Chen Village was Chen Village, so naturally, everyone was surnamed Chen. The people in the village heard that these Yan family members still dared to come, so they took hoes and the like, preparing to let the Yan family's running dogs go back to where they came from.

The foster son was not panicked. He threw ten taels of silver on the ground and said that whoever composted the Chen family of nine would get these ten taels of silver. If the Chen family of nine was not composted today, no one in Chen Village would be able to plant a single mu of land. Eighty percent of the entire Chen Village were tenant farmers, renting the Yan family's land to farm.

The final result was that the Chen family of nine was composted.

This case happened in the second year of Wanli.

Lin Fucheng left a blank space for the Qizhou Prefecture yamen in *Xiaoyao Yiwen* and did not explain the role played by Qizhou in the whole incident. But the scholars of the Great Ming were not fools. A little reading would naturally lead to doubts: What was the yamen doing? Was it just simple inaction?

The troublemaker Chen Laohan's family was composted, and the case was closed hastily with a scapegoat caught by the county yamen. The fifty mu of land all belonged to the Yan family. Yan Chongyi even made a special trip to Chen Village to give these fifty mu of land to the tenant farmer who led the killing of Chen Laohan's family. This tenant farmer turned around and became a local bully in Chen Village.

Yan Youli naturally returned from his studies and continued to act recklessly, causing harm to the countryside.

Chen Laohan had four sons. This case of a family of nine being composted did not end.

There was another family in Chen Village, a total of three people. The old father was chronically ill, and everything that could be sold in the family had been sold. They were really hungry, so the youngest son of this family went to steal sweet potatoes in these fifty mu of fields. After the bully caught him for the first time, he hung him up and beat him, saying that if he stole again, he would be composted together.

Talking about ritual, righteousness, integrity, and shame to people who are hungry is a very shameless act. This family of old and weak went to steal sweet potatoes again, and the bully composted this family of three as well.

The bully also had words: I have already put out the word; if I don't compost them for stealing sweet potatoes again, what should I do if the poor people from ten miles and eight villages all come to steal sweet potatoes in his fields?

Later, this "composting" became a synonym for killing in the Qizhou area and became a common practice.

Last year, there was a locust plague. The He clan of Gaoyang did not reduce rents and was wiped out. Did this Yan clan reduce rents? They did not. If rents are not reduced in a disaster year, banditry will inevitably arise. The Yan clan had vast estates and great wealth, and the local mountain bandits could not breach their fortified village.

There are a total of 604 fortified villages in the entire Baoding Prefecture; a "fortified village" is a wall made of earth and stone surrounding a village or town.

Lin Fucheng said: "Since the Altan Khan's incursion in the Gengxu year, mountain bandits have run rampant in the capital region. The former Grand Coordinator imitated the 'strengthen the walls and clear the fields' strategy, causing the people to build earth walls to form fortified villages and repair weapons for self-defense. Over several years, the masters of these villages have resisted taxes and levies and usurped the power of life and death; the decrees of the prefectural and county officials have become ineffective."

That is to say, after the Altan Khan's incursion, the people were allowed to build fortified villages for self-defense. 604 such villages were built in the Baoding area. The Altan Khan is already dead, but these fortified villages remain in Baoding Prefecture. These village masters have taken the lead in resisting the imperial court's taxes and levies, and they even kill people at will. The government's decrees simply cannot be enforced, and repeated prohibitions have failed.

Starting from the tragic case of Old Man Chen's family, the scope has expanded from small to large, encompassing the fortified village society of Baoding Prefecture.

This is the background of Yan Youli daring to kill the new bride directly on the wedding night. They were not afraid of any public order and good customs, nor were they afraid of the law, because they were the local public order and good customs and the law.

If one says that scholars are full of conspiracies, scholars cannot refute it. But if one says that scholars cannot understand what Lin Fucheng is saying, then they are not worthy of being called scholars.

In the whole article, Lin Fucheng was only scolding the state yamen of the Qizhou area? The Baoding Prefecture yamen? He even scolded the imperial court along with it.

The incursion of the barbarians in the 29th year of Jiajing created the fortified village society that is prevalent in the Baoding area, and it also caused the tragedies of thousands of families like Old Man Chen's.

Why did the New Policy set out? Wasn't it because of the captive rebellion in the Northwest and the Japanese pirate scourge in the Southeast, which tossed the entire Great Ming country into a thousand holes?

Therefore, there is no need to worry about the success of the New Policy making people forget the reason for the reform, because the powerful and wealthy of the Great Ming always use their own lower limits to tell the world why they set out in the first place.

"Isn't this Lin Fucheng just a writer? How does he know so many things?" Wang Jiaping read *Xiaoyao Yiwen* and immediately had questions.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "The Baoding area is just using Lin Fucheng's mouth, hoping to attract the court's attention. When Lin Fucheng arrived, the local officials who wanted to progress were like cats smelling fish, rushing up, wishing they could tell Lin Fucheng everything, fearing that Lin Fucheng would know too little."

Lin Fucheng didn't even know Young Master Huang's true identity, because Lin Fucheng couldn't take the imperial examination and was not in this system, so he didn't have a very clear understanding of the secret agents' ecological niche in the court.

"In Provincial Governor Wang's view, how should the Baoding area matter be handled?" Zhu Yijun asked for Wang Jiaping's opinion.

"In your view, Grand Coordinator Wang, how should the situation in the Baoding area be handled?" Zhu Yijun asked for Wang Jiaping's opinion.

"Inferior gentry" is Wang Jiaping's description and characterization. It is not that there are no good people among the local gentry and scholars. For example, Ma Yilong, the teacher of the Great Ming Emperor's agricultural teacher Xu Zhenming, was a typical good person. He spent his whole life leading refugees to reclaim wasteland and farm. Of course, the results of his efforts disappeared soon after his death

"Vicious gentry" is Wang Jiaping's description and characterization. It is not that there are no good people among the local worthies and gentry; for example, Ma Yilong, the teacher of the Great Ming Emperor's agricultural tutor Xu Zhenming, was a typical good man who spent his whole life leading displaced people to reclaim wasteland and farm. Of course, the fruits of his efforts vanished into thin air soon after he died.

If one does not distinguish between local worthies and gentry, these good people will also turn into bad people.

According to the laws of the feudal imperial system, vicious gentry like Yan Chongyi and Yan Youli deserve to be turned into compost a hundred times over.

The Emperor is the greatest member of the gentry in the world—the leader of the gentry. Under the laws established by the leader of the gentry, Yan Chongyi and Yan Youli should also be buried alive and turned into compost because they built fortified villages to resist the imperial court's decrees.

"The officials in the Baoding area must also be held accountable, especially the Qizhou Prefecture yamen. They should all be stripped of their official status, exiled to Suiyuan, and made to atone for their crimes through service. As for those who shielded and indulged the Yan clan's great treason, they should all be buried alive and turned into compost." Wang Jiaping further proposed his disposal opinion: the officials in the Baoding area should be universally punished, and the Qizhou Prefecture yamen should be wiped out in one fell swoop.

The local officials in Qizhou who specifically shielded the criminals must be dealt with in the same way to appease public anger. Without the shielding and indulgence of the Qizhou Prefecture yamen, the Yan clan could not have been so arrogant; even Xu Jie did not dare to act so wantonly.

Wang Jiaping is indeed very good at playing dumb, but there are some things he will not play dumb about. Bearing the pressure of being impeached, he went to see Fan Yingqi.

Wang Jiaping thought of a person: the Grand Secretary Yang Shiqi of the Zhengtong era. Yang Shiqi's son acted just like this in the provinces, trampling on human life and bringing disaster to the local community.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "Reasonable. Then let us follow the words of Grand Coordinator Wang; that is also my intention."

The Baoding Grand Coordinator Xin Zixiu had actually long ago explained the situation very thoroughly in a secret memorial. Chen Mo, the Embroidered Uniform Guard who followed Lin Fucheng, also reported it. When Lin Fucheng writes an article, Young Master Wang has to read it, and Young Master Huang also has to read it; it is only allowed to be published after they have read it. It is not as if there is no review process.

That Lin Fucheng can speak out shows that the Great Ming Emperor, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Ministry of Justice, and the Baoding local authorities have already prepared for a solution.

Wang Jiaping asked with some curiosity, "How does Your Majesty think it is appropriate to handle this?"

If he does not mention burying them alive, will His Majesty not do it? Wang Jiaping does not think so. He knows the terror of the Emperor; His Majesty was already difficult to deal with at ten years old, and he already had a very clear understanding of principles.

Sometimes, His Majesty appears very easy to talk to, but in reality, when His Majesty kills people, he is never soft-hearted.

That room full of Zhang Siwei is enough to explain the problem.

"Send troops to Baoding Prefecture." Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Jiaping and said, "The elite troops of the Capital Battalion have not moved since their triumphant return from Suiyuan. A sword becomes sharper the more it is used. Village masters like the Yan clan can only be called 'sitting bandits,' not vicious gentry. 'Vicious gentry' at least carries the word 'gentry.' Are these village masters worthy of being called vicious gentry?"

"Your Majesty is wise," Wang Jiaping said sincerely. As expected, His Majesty has a solution for a conflict that has intensified to such a degree, and it is a very good one. Sending troops to suppress the bandits may seem simple and crude, but it is the only way and the most appropriate way.

Vicious gentry are morally corrupt, but they are not these kinds of "sitting bandits." These village masters only have the value of being turned into compost.

The Baoding Grand Coordinator Xin Zixiu saw the situation in the Baoding area and was anxious in his heart, but he had no way to act. At that time, there were no secret memorials; anything submitted to the imperial court would become known to the whole world. Therefore, when Lin Fucheng went to Baoding, Xin Zixiu immediately knew this was an opportunity.

Getting information from the top to the bottom is really very, very difficult.

Zhu Yijun asked about the situation in the two Guang provinces. Wang Jiaping did not just report the good news and hide the bad. The two Guang provinces have tasted the dividends of opening the seas and are developing vigorously. Development can cover up many problems, but Wang Jiaping still found a private market. The phenomenon of smuggling and illicit trading is very common and serious throughout the two Guang provinces, requiring more maritime defense inspectors. Moreover, Wang Jiaping also discovered that some people are introducing poppy cultivation.

"The plantations in the Yuanxu Islands grow poppies, so it is very difficult to ban the influx of poppies. However, the Yuanxu Islands are in the process of being developed; they cannot even be counted as 'jimi' (loose control) territory." Wang Jiaping said with a hint of helplessness. On the road of development, one will always encounter all kinds of problems.

This informal audience ended here. Zhu Yijun left the Royal Academy of Investigation of Things and returned to the Imperial Study in the Tonghe Palace. Soon, Zhang Juzheng arrived.

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty. May Your Majesty be well." Zhang Juzheng bowed his head again and said very sincerely, "Your Majesty, I am guilty."

The Qizhou compost case—this major case—is impossible for the Emperor to handle without bypassing the Cabinet. Zhang Juzheng waited until Lin Fucheng's miscellaneous report was published before coming to admit his guilt.

This was also the difficult part for the Baoding Grand Coordinator before: Zhang Juzheng's culpability.

As the Grand Secretary who "is not a minister but a regent" and held supreme power in the early Wanli years, Zhang Juzheng has turned the world into this state; he cannot escape his culpability. Therefore, the Baoding Grand Coordinator Xin Zixiu could not submit a memorial before, because submitting a memorial was equivalent to slapping Zhang Juzheng in the face: "You, Zhang Juzheng, have been regent for ten years, determined to reform, and after ten years, the world is still not well-governed."

Previously, You Qi had asked Zhang Juzheng if he wanted to teach Lin Fucheng, that big mouth, a lesson.

"Teacher, are there gods in this world?" Zhu Yijun waved his hand and asked a question.

"Talk of gods and ghosts is all heresy." Zhang Juzheng answered this question very firmly. At the beginning, his monopoly on the imperial lectures started from the interpretation of heresy. Zhang Juzheng was very disgusted by talk of gods and ghosts because the Daoist Emperor used to hide in the Western Garden all day practicing mysterious arts, leaving the world in decline.

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Therefore, Teacher is also not a god, and not every kind of guilt should be blamed on Teacher's head."

Power and responsibility are equal. Since this contradiction was raised, it has been discussed relatively. Zhang Juzheng's power as regent was infinitely great, so his responsibility was infinitely great. So, if one really says he is guilty, he is indeed guilty. But these deep-rooted problems need to be solved bit by bit; praying to gods and worshipping Buddhas cannot solve them.

Zhang Juzheng is really not a god; he has already done his utmost. It is even less a matter of his incompetence; enriching the country and strengthening the military were the most urgent things that needed to be done at that time.

"Your subject thanks Your Majesty for your great kindness." Zhang Juzheng bowed his head again to thank him. In fact, he has now become a conservative. Apart from patching up the new laws of the past, he has objections to many things. If His Majesty really uses this matter to make him retire, he, who has already completely returned power to His Majesty, has actually completed his mission of "assisting the young ruler and stabilizing the state."

If His Majesty is tired of his conservatism, he should leave when it is time to leave, so as not to be a nuisance.

Clearly, His Majesty is not yet prepared to drive Mr. Zhang away. Mr. Zhang and the "Mr. De" of the Prince of De are the two most important cultural foundations of the Wanli Reform.

Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said very clearly, "The problem in Baoding is not Teacher's fault."

"The Altan Khan's incursion shook the world, and the people of Great Ming had no choice but to migrate, while the local areas had no choice but to build fortified villages for self-protection. Rural farmers went bankrupt everywhere due to the ravages of war, and the means of production became more concentrated, resulting in a situation in the Baoding area where there was effectively no government yamen, and all matters were decided by the fortified villages themselves."

"Without a power that transcends all collectives, it is impossible to reconcile contradictions, and human nature has no constraints, naturally deteriorating."

These words actually contradict the Confucian and Mencian doctrine of "human nature is inherently good," and instead fit more closely with Xunzi's "human nature is inherently evil."

Is human nature inherently good or inherently evil? Zhu Yijun thinks it is inherently evil.

"Your Majesty is wise," Zhang Juzheng bowed his head again and said.

Only then did Zhu Yijun relax a little and said, "Li Rusong is to lead troops to Baoding for an armed patrol. For any place that refuses to dismantle its fortified villages, suppress the rebellion. The Baoding local authorities should also form engineering regiments to reclaim wasteland, maintain water conservancy, and level and harden roads. All these matters, Teacher, will be hard work for you."

"Your subject accepts the imperial order," Zhang Juzheng said very seriously. "Your subject requests that a thousand-man battalion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard lead a thousand cavalry to Qizhou to first attack and destroy the Yan clan's fortified village, killing the chicken to warn the monkey to achieve a deterrent effect. This is both to 'move the log to establish trust' and to thoroughly investigate and clarify their criminal evidence."

"If the result of the investigation is that it is indeed true, how does Teacher think it is appropriate to dispose of them?" Zhu Yijun was curious about the conservative's opinion.

"Skin them and stuff them with straw." Zhang Juzheng did not hesitate and chose the ancestral laws. Although skinning and stuffing with straw is for dealing with corrupt officials, it can also be used to deal with the Yan clan.

"Let's use compost instead," Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said. "The imperial court hasn't done this kind of thing for two hundred years; I'm already out of practice."

"The chief physician of the Dissection Institute is skilled at dissection." Zhang Juzheng thought this was not a technical problem.

"Compost is good; compost can also nourish crops. Compost is equal retaliation; it is 'counter-punishment'." Zhu Yijun still chose to refuse. The Dissection Institute's main responsibility is medical research; dissection is mainly for the development of anatomy. The most important thing is equal counter-punishment.

"He who rises by this will surely perish by this." Zhu Yijun prefers immediate retribution.

"That works too; it's waste utilization." Zhang Juzheng did not feel there was any difference between these two methods. Beheading and displaying the heads to the public is really too cheap for these sitting bandits.

As for whether the punishment is just, that is all up to the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, the Songjiang Shipyard has submitted a memorial to specially manufacture a maritime flag, to be hung on the mast alongside the Big Dipper flag." Zhang Juzheng took out a memorial. Hanging only the Big Dipper flag at sea is a violation of Great Ming's ritual laws; it requires an additional flag symbolizing the Emperor, which is the Sun and Moon flag.

And now, at the request of the Songjiang Shipyard, the Ministry of Rites is establishing a new imperial command flag.

"Is the pattern a bit too complicated?" Zhu Yijun was not dissatisfied with the pattern; it was just an ordinary vermilion circular dragon pattern flag. The circular dragon pattern is good-looking, but this thing is embroidered stitch by stitch with gold thread; one side requires several months of work from a weaver.

"What we want is complexity, so it cannot be forged. It is mainly for distinction." Zhang Juzheng explained in detail why the flag was designed with such a complex pattern. For anti-counterfeiting purposes, the specially manufactured circular dragon flag is a special flag that can only be hung by official ships directly under the imperial court. The complex style and dragon pattern are all to prevent imitation.

Imitating the circular dragon pattern is equivalent to treason. The strictly hierarchical ritual teachings and laws are very conservative in this regard, and it is not something that Wan Shihe or Wan Wugu can change.

"Hmm, then approve it." Zhu Yijun finally approved this version of the plan.

Previously, there was no distinction between official ships and merchant vessels; they all hung the Big Dipper flag and the Sun and Moon flag. Now that the Great Ming official ships are changing flags, it is to prevent people from smuggling and illicit trading in the name of official ships. The wealthy and powerful earn the money, but the imperial court gets the blame.

Smuggling by impersonating official ships is a new situation of smuggling and illicit trading reported by Wang Jiaping after he arrived in the capital, especially in the name of the imperial court, which makes it difficult for local authorities to investigate—investigate and it's wrong, don't investigate and it's also wrong.

During the Great Ming metropolitan examination, some brokers would swindle in the name of imperial officials. Ninety-nine percent of this was fake, but one percent was real, so the Shuntian Prefecture yamen could not investigate.

This situation also occurs in maritime trade, where some people swindle everywhere in the name of the Emperor, making local anti-smuggling efforts hesitant.

The reason for designing the new imperial command flag in this way is that only fleets hanging this kind of flag are the imperial court's official ships, and others are not, which facilitates local law enforcement and anti-smuggling.

The Great Ming imperial court cannot become an obstacle to local anti-smuggling efforts.

"I got some good things from my Imperial Uncle!" Zhu Yijun introduced the toys he had gotten from Zhu Zaiyu.

Zhang Juzheng frowned. How old is he, and he's still playing with toys? When Zhu Yijun took out those hydraulic transmission toys, Zhang Juzheng could not take his eyes off them. These are not toys; this is the future.

On the 20th day of the third month of the 11th year of Wanli, the Great Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun appeared in the Northern Camp as usual. This day was not for reviewing troops, but for seeing them off. The one leading the expedition this time was not General Qi, but Li Rusong. Li Rusong would lead three cavalry battalions, six infantry battalions, and one chariot battalion, totaling 30,000 troops, to Baoding Prefecture to preside over the major task of dismantling fortified villages and burying the sitting bandits.

It is not burying vicious gentry, but burying sitting bandits. Zhu Yijun does not agree with Wang Jiaping's characterization of these people; a bandit is a bandit.

The Yan clan of Qizhou—Great Ming has already expelled them from the gentry register and characterized them as sitting bandits. The local worthies, gentry, and wealthy and powerful of Great Ming have always been the objects of Great Ming's unity. As long as they abide by the law, the imperial court will not be harsh; if they are willing to follow the imperial court's footsteps and do some things, then they are good people.

The Sun clan of Songjiang caught the east wind of Great Ming's opening of the seas and soared, becoming the second most luxurious household in Great Ming. The first most luxurious household is Wang Chonggu.

There is also the Huang clan of Penglai. Huang Yuanxian of the Penglai Huang clan does kelp business all the way to Xuanfu and Datong, and is expanding toward Suiyuan.

This is the first time Li Rusong has independently led the Capital Battalion to attack. Qi Jiguang is already 55 years old. Although he can still fight well, long-distance marching and leading troops in battle are the most tiring. Considering Qi Jiguang's health, if Qi Jiguang, as the Duke of Fengguo, had to set off for such a small matter, that would be giving these sitting bandits too much credit.

Are Yan Chongyi and Yan Youli worthy of Qi Jiguang making a move?

Zhu Yijun is a wicked person, a wicked person who wants to turn people into compost, but sometimes, a wicked person needs another wicked person to grind them down.