Chapter 643: Always Like This, Is It Right?

Ma Wenying waited in front of this magnificent palace building, the Wu Ying Building. He was a bit at a loss and a bit dazed. Originally, he should be on the road to the underworld now.

He didn't understand. He didn't understand why Yan Shixuan let him return to the Luomu Battalion, didn't understand why the Great Ming navy didn't attack under Hangzhou City, didn't understand why the Emperor's imperial decree would be so protective of the soldiers, didn't understand why he didn't wear shackles, didn't understand why he would stand under the Wu Ying Building.

Until he saw His Majesty walking from afar, surrounded by a group of people, walking over an arch bridge.

Ma Wenying suddenly felt that it was not so important to figure out what all this was for.

Ma Wenying recognized His Majesty at the first time, because His Majesty was high-spirited and vigorous, walking forward with big strides while talking to the general in martial robes with gray hair beside him. Beside His Majesty and the general, there was a group of people. These people's faces were very young, and they followed closely, seemingly discussing something. Two of them had red faces, but they all lowered their voices for fear of disturbing the front.

This picture, Ma Wenying only felt so natural, it seemed it should be like this.

Ma Wenying felt it was wrong, because he had seen Wu Shanyan traveling. Everyone behind Wu Shanyan was silent, not daring to say a word, and even fewer people looked around.

Every time Wu Shanyan traveled in Hangzhou City, the honor guard was like walking corpses. Everyone walked according to certain rules. They seemed to be alive, but they were actually dead long ago. But His Majesty was full of vigor and vitality, and everything was so full of vitality.

The scene seemed a bit noisy, but it didn't affect His Majesty's majesty at all.

"Subject pays respects to His Majesty, His Majesty is mighty!" The four battalion commanders saw His Majesty walking over, hurriedly performed the great ceremony of five bows and three kowtows.

Zhu Yijun smiled and walked forward two steps, helped Ma Wenying up from the ground and said: "Exempt from courtesy, exempt from courtesy, Great Ming army is mighty!"

The Great Ming army always says His Majesty is mighty, and Zhu Yijun will say, Great Ming army is mighty.

"General Qi, this is Ma Wenying, Ma Sanye, of our Luomu Battalion." Zhu Yijun introduced these battalion commanders to Qi Jiguang. Zhejiang is the place where Qi Jiguang started. Until now, when supplementing southern soldiers, Qi Jiguang will still look for them from Zhejiang.

Ma Wenying was confused. Why is there someone calling him this nickname everywhere! It's fine to call it in the Zhejiang ground, but this has spread to the Holy Ears!

"Qi Jiguang, nice to meet you." Qi Jiguang said with a full face of smiles: "I have seen you, a brave warrior who killed twenty-two Japanese pirates. In the second year of Longqing, I passed through Hangzhou Prefecture from Fujian to the Southern Yamen and went to visit the wounded soldiers. I saw you. You were injured. When I went, you were sleeping, so I guess I don't have much impression."

Ma Wenying's heart was really ten thousand horses galloping! He didn't see Qi Jiguang at all! No one woke him up back then.

"Go in and talk." Zhu Yijun stepped on the moon platform of the Wu Ying Building, walked directly into the palace building, and went directly to the warm pavilion beside the drill ground.

After everyone sat down, Ma Wenying and other battalion commanders were really very nervous. They sat on the stool with half a butt, because their seats were beside General Qi. This is a kind of honor, and Ma Wenying also has a lot of pressure.

"Wu Shanyan is worse than you think." Zhu Yijun took out a memorial, handed it to Ma Wenying with some anger and said: "He used his power to gather money in Hangzhou Prefecture, raising forty concubines. These concubines lived on one street, which was found by Shen Shixing."

"He found 1,400 women to engage in a big selection of concubines in Hangzhou Prefecture. The number forty has a saying, four concubines, nine concubines, twenty-seven ladies. From the beginning, he was selecting concubines!"

Yan Shixuan really didn't list the crimes, because after Shen Shixing arrived in Hangzhou Prefecture, he found more crimes against Wu Shanyan, which included concubines, underground banks, silver outflow, etc.

Selecting imperial concubines was one thing, and Wu Shanyan's personal conduct was, in fact, of little consequence. But the most critical issue was that Wu Shanyan had violated another prohibition: the outflow of silver through underground banks.

The process was exactly the same as what the Criminal Investigation Battalion Commander Chen Mo had uncovered in Tianjin Guard: using gold as collateral to conduct internal and external flows, with silver—the blood and sweat money of the common people—being drained away in the form of goods.

This was something Zhu Yijun could not accept under any circumstances.

"He also deceived the Emperor. In the ninth year of Wanli, he reported to the imperial court that the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang had established a Secretariat to specifically handle military pay. But the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang have no Secretariat at all. Perhaps they do, but I suspect it is in Wu Shanyan's own pocket." Li Yougong reported the situation he had just learned.

"How audacious!" Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang's face changed!

The Secretariat was one of the important achievements after the establishment of the Capital Battalions; it was an office designed to ensure that military pay and reward silver were distributed correctly. Even Yunnan had established one!

After Wang Xiyuan returned to the capital from Yunnan, he had specifically reported on the situation of the Secretariats in various prefectures in Yunnan.

Ma Wenying, Yang Tingyong, and the others looked at each other in dismay; they did not know why this had provoked the Grand General's anger.

"Do not be constrained; speak your mind." Zhu Yijun put away his anger. The place where anger should be directed was definitely not at his own people.

"Hasn't it always been like this? It has always been so." Ma Wenying said, not understanding the reason; it had always been this way.

Zhu Yijun said very calmly, "Just because it has always been so, does that make it right?"

"The imperial court issues military pay to guest troops, and if they don't give it, that is wrong. They should protest for their pay. Even soldiers holding blades cannot get the compensation they deserve, let alone the poor laborers."

"Did no one explain the imperial edict to you? You should know that in Suiyuan, Viceroy Pan Jixun explained the policies to the soldiers." Qi Jiguang, a man who was usually so gentle, asked, unable to suppress the anger in his heart.

One must know that in Xuanfu and Datong, where rebels were clustered, the construction of Secretariats was very complete. Yet the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang, the place where he, Qi Jiguang, had started his career, actually had no Secretariat! The edict was issued in the ninth year of Wanli, and four years had passed; it was actually a name without substance.

"No." Ma Wenying said very firmly, "I have never heard of this order."

Qi Jiguang briefly spoke about the policy of improving the distribution of military pay through the Secretariat in the ninth year of Wanli. This was the experience of the Capital Battalions and a part of the 'Zhenwu' reforms.

The Secretariat distributes military pay in advance. That is, at the beginning of the month, before the fifth day, the military pay—whether in money, grain, or physical goods—must be distributed to the soldiers. If it is not distributed properly, the soldiers can go to the local Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office to report the Secretariat of the Ministry of Revenue, and it will be dealt with according to military law.

Military law is not civil law. The court for the trial is not the local county or prefectural yamen, but the local Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office. And the various Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's offices are directly subordinate to the Northern Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office. The Southern Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office is on the same level as the Northern one, but the officers of the Southern office are all half a rank lower than those of the Northern office.

This is to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that soldiers obtain the compensation they deserve.

Even in Suiyuan, this newly opened territory, the Secretariat system was constructed most thoroughly. In the Emperor's words: 'Poke a pole all the way to the bottom' and 'Overturn a boatload of people with one pole.' The former refers to the distribution of military pay and the auditing of the six registers and one account; the latter means that those who embezzle military pay will be implicated.

The entire Secretariat must be responsible for its own accounts. Once audited at the end of the year, they will be interrogated by the Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office.

Although the five tortures of the Tianjin Tianjin Weisuo Commander's office had long since fallen out of use, after a tour through the Dissection Institute and seeing that room full of Zhang Siwei, few people could withstand the fear in their hearts. People are far more cowardly than one imagines and will confess everything cleanly.

With the crime increased by three degrees, it is very easy to face beheading, so the officials at all levels of the Secretariat care even more than the soldiers about whether they have received their pay.

"So that's what the Secretariat is like." Ma Wenying said with some envy. If the Secretariat system in Zhejiang could really be completed, the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang would not have caused such a big stir. The lives of Ma Wenying and Yang Tingyong were very bitter, and the lives of the soldiers of the Nine Battalions were the same.

Zhu Yijun said with a serious expression, "The whole thing, from beginning to end, starting from the issuance of new money in the fourth year of Wanli, the soldiers of the Nine Battalions have been making concessions! It is these officials who deceive their superiors and hide the truth from their subordinates who, for their own interests, have continuously exploited and increased the burden, even forcing the soldiers to their deaths. Even at this point, the soldiers of the Nine Battalions, the Luomu Battalion, and Ma Wenying were still making concessions!"

"Ma Wenying was even willing to die to exchange for peace, letting the bureaucrats led by Wu Shanyan not make things difficult for the Luomu Battalion and the soldiers of the Nine Battalions."

"But these base Confucian scholars are always so insatiable; they want to advance three steps for every step they retreat!"

"Ma Wenying, Yang Tingyong, Zhang Wenyuan, Yang Zhi, I promise the soldiers of the Nine Battalions here: Wu Shanyan must die, and he will certainly be beheaded at the Yongchang Gate to show the public! Wu Shanyan's one thousand two hundred lackeys will also be beheaded before the end of the year! This is to give the people of Zhejiang an account!"

"Likewise, the Secretariat of the Nine Battalions must be thoroughly rolled out before the end of the year. If Shen Shixing can do it well, I will restore his original rank; if he cannot do it well, I will replace him with Ling Yunyi. If Ling Yunyi cannot do it, I will invite the Governor of Luzon, Guo Xingzhengmao, to do it. This matter must be done, and it must be done well."

"This is My promise!"

If the Emperor's edict cannot be executed, then one is not standing tall as an Emperor.

"Your subjects kowtow to thank Your Majesty for your grace." Ma Wenying hurriedly kowtowed to thank him. Even though they were far away in Zhejiang, they knew very well that the Emperor's promise would definitely be fulfilled.

A promise is meant to be fulfilled, not to be used as a pie in the sky.

Zhu Yijun signaled for everyone to rise and chatted about the plan to select 4,500 men to go to the Nagasaki Governor's office to supplement the troops and enhance the Great Ming's long-range projection capabilities. He asked for their opinions on the soldiers of the Nine Battalions. Ma Wenying and the others stated on the spot that they must go to kill the Japanese pirates; they absolutely had to go!

After the four Company Commanders left, Li Yougong reported Hu Zongxian's ambitions for the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang and analyzed another motive for Xu Jie wanting to kill Hu Zongxian: opening the seas had affected the interests of some scoundrels.

"The security of the Great Ming's maritime borders lies not on the land-based infantry battalions, but upon the waves of the sea." Zhu Yijun repeated Hu Zongxian's words from back then. Hu Zongxian had done it, but he hadn't finished it, and he had lost his own life in the process. If he could choose again, would Hu Zongxian choose to collude with Yan Shifan, frame Zhang Jing and Li Tianchong, and seize the position of Provincial Governor of Zhejiang and Viceroy for Pacifying the Japanese Pirates?

Thinking about it, he still would.

"Your Majesty, Your subject has discovered that Your subject was wrong." Qi Jiguang looked at the backs of the four Company Commanders and said sincerely.

"Oh? Where does the Grand General think he was wrong?" Zhu Yijun asked quite curiously. What exactly had Qi Jiguang seen in them?

Qi Jiguang said quite solemnly, "Your Majesty, Your subject has always thought that the eight characters 'report to the Son of Heaven, save the common people' were because of the eighteen taels of silver in military pay. For so many years, Your subject has always believed this. All the combat power of the Capital Battalions comes from these eighteen taels of silver in military pay."

"But looking at it now, Your subject was ridiculously wrong. It is only when the soldiers truly identify with these eight characters that they can achieve it."

The Luomu Battalion and the Jiuqu Battalion did not have eighteen taels of silver in military pay a year, and even their monthly nine-mace silver was embezzled and exploited. But the Nine Battalions of Zhejiang, established in the fortieth year of Jiajing, had been working diligently for twenty-one long years. They had repaired the dikes too well, blocking the path to wealth for certain scoundrels, which was why they were repeatedly harassed.

Zhu Yijun clearly did not agree with Qi Jiguang's view. He said quite firmly, "No matter what, military pay must be guaranteed to be distributed in full. People need to eat; one cannot rely solely on willpower. I also have money to give to the soldiers. As the old saying goes, even an Emperor does not send out hungry soldiers."

"Your Majesty is wise." Qi Jiguang stopped this topic and sang a song of praise. The Great Ming's military expenditure was 12 million taels of silver a year, which was very expensive. It could be saved a little, but the Emperor was unwilling to save, so the Grand General naturally would not look for trouble for himself.

Starting from the tenth month of the twelfth year of Wanli, the Ministry of Revenue began the Great Audit of the World, and the year-end review began. Every year, when the Ministry of Revenue reached this time, it was the busiest time.

San Niangzi brought five good horses and cartloads of wool, arriving at the capital once again. After completing the handover at the Yongding Woolen Mill, she received the acceptance bill and went to purchase the supplies needed for the grasslands to survive the winter.

The grasslands were already very cold, and the caravan would rush back before the snow fell, while San Niangzi would stay in the capital for the New Year.

San Niangzi staying in the capital would not affect the distribution of commercial goods returning to Guihua City, because there were rumors on the grasslands about the little story between San Niangzi and the Emperor. With San Niangzi in the capital, it could instead ensure that the distribution was fully carried out according to established rules.

It is good to enjoy the shade under a big tree.

San Niangzi returned to the Huitong Hostel. Ordinary foreign envoys stayed at the Siyi Hostel, but San Niangzi was the Provincial Administrator of Suiyuan, so she stayed at the Huitong Hostel.

"Being a dog for the Great Ming is truly an honor, unlike some stray dogs running around." San Niangzi said somewhat casually to the visiting Wang Chonggu.

Wang Chonggu was looking for San Niangzi because of the wool accounts.

"What nonsense! What dog for the Great Ming? Everyone is a person of the Great Ming! Where is the distinction between man and dog? San Niangzi, you must stop talking nonsense. The Great Ming and Suiyuan are one body. No one can destroy this, and the grassland people cannot destroy it either!" Wang Chonggu righteously corrected the error in San Niangzi's words.

San Niangzi looked out the window and said leisurely, "There is a weapon on the grasslands called a 'cannon stone.' It is made of black and white cow and sheep wool, twisted into thin and uniform yarn, and carefully woven into a hook rope shaped like a flower snake. The middle part is woven slightly wider, called a 'cannon nest.' When the hook rope is swung, the stone whistles in the air, and then when you let go, the stone whistles out, hitting the head of a wild wolf to drive away the wolf pack."

"Legend has it that it was invented by Genghis Khan to drive away wolf packs. Occasionally, a bone whistle is woven into the cannon nest, and the sharp whistling sound can scare away the wolf pack."

"Almost all children play with cannon stones because there are many wild beasts on the grasslands, such as wild wolves, black bears, tigers, and so on."

"Uh, there are Great Ming scholars who say that grassland people like wolves very much because they like the wolf nature and have martial virtue." Wang Chonggu spoke of an article he had seen. Great Ming scholars had always been like this, liking to cast aside the facts and not talk about them.

"Which grassland person likes wolves? Wolves are the most evil. As long as they enter the pen, they ruin the whole flock. They don't even eat them; they just bite, biting several to death at once, and dragging one away. Great Ming scholars are really strange. If you let them herd sheep on the grasslands for a few days, they wouldn't be able to say such bullshit." San Niangzi was almost laughed to anger!

"Now the children on the grasslands finally don't have to play with cannon stones from childhood. In the Western Regions, this thing is called 'Uga,' which means driving away wolves. Now, instead of cannon stones, they use firelocks to drive away wolves." San Niangzi leaned back in her chair. The grasslands were very good now, really very good. The children didn't play with cannon stones anymore.

"I came here specifically to ask for your opinion as the Provincial Administrator. Many people from Hetao and the Tatars have come to the yamen to complain, saying that the merchants pay wages monthly, but it is annual payment. Do you think this matter should be managed?" Wang Chonggu spoke of the real business he had come for. As the Minister of Justice, the payment in the grasslands was annual, not monthly.

How was this phenomenon formed? What was the reason behind it? Was there a need for strong intervention by the imperial court? How should it be intervened? To what extent should it be intervened?

"Don't manage it." San Niangzi said very firmly, "It should be annual payment. This matter of annual payment is because the Han merchants are kind-hearted, and it's quite good as it is."

"Han merchants are kind-hearted?!"

"San Niangzi, we are discussing the long-term peace and stability of Suiyuan. You must not talk nonsense to fool the imperial court. This is clearly exploitation; how can there be no wages until the end of the year?" Wang Chonggu tapped the table. He was not here to listen to pleasant words; he was here to solve problems. The more this problem was fooled, the more serious it would become.

"This Assistant Minister Wang has stayed in the capital, the place of greatest benevolence, for too long, so he thinks this is exploitation." San Niangzi said very helplessly, "The Hu people on the grasslands used to live days without knowing if they would see tomorrow. Do you think grassland people have any planning? Once they get their wages, they start eating, drinking, and having fun. Only after they spend all their money do they continue to work."

"If you pay them monthly, they will spend it all in three days. And grassland people are very fond of gambling. Viceroy Pan, in order to catch gambling, even sent out soldiers from the military colonies, but it was still useless. If you pay them monthly, they lose it all in one day, and then they start borrowing money everywhere. If they can't borrow, they rob; if they can't rob, they kill and set fires, becoming bandits."

Grassland people are not Han people, especially since their lives were too bitter before, and they didn't know if they could live to see tomorrow's sun. Therefore, grassland people generally live day to day. Under such a status quo, San Niangzi felt that Han merchants were really kind-hearted—they didn't give wages, they gave physical goods, and settled once a year.

"Is that so?" Wang Chonggu was stunned for a moment and said, "Is it really that the merchants are kind-hearted?"

"If there were any problems, I would have written a memorial and sent it to the imperial court long ago. This is also part of the transformation by imperial culture." San Niangzi said very firmly.

Transformation by imperial culture, a process of being reborn. San Niangzi believed that the path to complete reconciliation was unprecedentedly correct.

San Niangzi really felt that being a dog for the Great Ming was really not a bad thing. The Great Ming had its own high moral inferiority. Being a dog for the Great Ming was really ten thousand times better than being a stray dog. The Great Ming's high moral inferiority was specifically reflected in the fact that the Great Ming's consistent propaganda was: one Great Ming, all are subjects of the King. The identity the Great Ming gave to the Northern Tatars was human, not a vassal state, and not a dog.

In Hetao, in Jining Jining Hai Zi, in Guihua City, and in Womagang, it is very difficult to distinguish between Hu people and Han people by appearance, because the difference is really not big.

"Alright, then let's not intervene for the time being." Wang Chonggu had originally prepared three plans, using three prongs simultaneously, aimed at the merchants' behavior of paying annual wages on the grasslands. But looking at it now, none of them would be used.

"There is one more thing. I heard that under San Niangzi's direction, the Oirat tribes remaining in Helin moved south into Hetao and Guihua?" Wang Chonggu asked a very serious question. San Niangzi was an Oirat, and she had brought the Oirat tribes to the Great Ming. It was not for rebellion. If it were for rebellion, she would have gathered these Oirats in Guihua City to form a combined force.

But San Niangzi had scattered all the Oirats who moved south and mixed them with the Hetao people. In this way, in twenty or thirty years, where would there be any Oirats left?

San Niangzi nodded in acknowledgment and said, "Yes, the Oirats who remained in Helin and were unwilling to move west envied the life of the people in the Ordos. Under strong request, I moved them all to Hetao and handed them over to Viceroy Pan."

"China has an old saying: 'Those who understand the times are heroes.' At least the Oirats understand the times. There is another old saying: 'When one person attains the Dao, his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.' I am an Oirat, and poor relatives come to my door; I must always do something for them."

"The grasslands are getting colder and colder. If these Oirats remain in Helin, there will always be people harassing the Great Ming's mining area in Womagang. Moreover, the Shengzhou factory also needs miners and laborers."

The Great Ming soldiers would also be puzzled: why do barbarians always appear to harass our mining area?

"You brought your poor relatives to Hetao just to let them go to Shengzhou to dig coal and to the alkali pool to boil alkali?" Wang Chonggu asked with a frown.

San Niangzi looked at Wang Chonggu in surprise and said, "Assistant Minister Wang, put away your kindness!"

"Where is that vicious Wang Chonggu from before who let Jin merchants run to the grasslands to lend usury until people were ruined? For grassland people, being able to find a job as a miner is already a gift from Heaven."

"Rebellion is impossible. If they rebel, who will teach the people? If they rebel, who will promote pasture? If they rebel, who will organize coal mining? Unless their heads were kicked by a donkey, they would think of returning to the days of burning cow dung without even a pot."

"Look at the lives the seven Khalkha tribes are living now. Is that a life a person should live?"

San Niangzi shuddered with disgust. Although the grasslands of the past and the lives the seven Khalkha tribes were living now were much the same, it was different now. Now, the Ordos Tatars were all Great Ming people! Hetao had even built seventeen Confucian schools! There were eleven military colony guard posts.

This is the establishment of identity.

The seven Khalkha tribes were a very good control group.

Working is indeed bitter, but you must have work to do. Wang Chonggu had left Xuanfu and Datong for too long and had forgotten what the grasslands looked like before, nor was he very clear about what the grasslands looked like now, which was why he felt there was a possibility of rebellion.

Wang Chonggu's impression of the grasslands still remained in the era of Altan Khan. At that time, they were tit-for-tat, but now it had long since changed. From the day the Great Ming Capital Battalions broke through the 'Banban,' it had already been turned upside down.

"I have to say, the Emperor is truly a majestic ruler. With the post road built to Hetao and to Womagang, there is no possibility of separation again." San Niangzi was really not fooling Wang Chonggu. With the Great Ming having a Viceroy and military colony guard posts on the grasslands, and with the Great Ming army being able to deploy rapidly even without cavalry today, the centrifugal force had already been contained.

The Emperor's twelve years of hard work, day in and day out, had now reached the time of harvest.

San Niangzi described the changes on the grasslands. By the day the Western Regions were reopened, the strategy of complete reconciliation would be as stable as Mount Tai.

"Has that Korean King, who was cut off from tribute several times a year, not yet come to the capital to apologize?" San Niangzi asked about the changes in Korea. The last time she left, the Emperor was teaching Korea a lesson. The Great Ming's intention to destroy the Japanese pirates was so clear that even the children on the street knew it.

"No." Wang Chonggu nodded and said.

"Blame the Great Ming. 'If the son is not taught, it is the father's fault.' It's just that they were treated too well. A little beating and they will be honest." San Niangzi said so.

The Ministry of Revenue's Great Audit of the World audited all the account books that entered the capital and discovered a strange thing: the localities were crying poverty on one hand, while engaging in large-scale construction on the other. Crying poverty was understandable—the child who cries gets milk—but they were also engaging in large-scale construction and hoped that the imperial court would lift restrictions and let the localities build post roads themselves. Especially with the Southern Yamen and Zhejiang shouting the loudest, seeing that Songjiang Prefecture could build post roads itself, this clamor was getting louder and louder.

The question is, where did this silver come from?

Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan had always been unable to find the source of this silver. This time, Wu Shanyan's yamen was broken into, and Yang Tingyong knocked out three of Wu Shanyan's teeth with an old punch. Shen Shixing finally found a breakthrough in Zhejiang, obtained the account books, and allowed the imperial court to solve this doubt.

"So, the silver all comes from miscellaneous officials?" Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Guoguang, who had come to the Tonghe Palace to report.

Wang Guoguang took out an account book and handed it to Feng Bao, saying, "Taking Wu Yi County of Jinhua Prefecture in Zhejiang as an example, places like the Tieniu Gate, the three bridges of Shuxi, the Dujia Wharf, and the Liujiayuan Wharf all have established tax-splitting offices. In the eleventh year of Wanli, Wu Yi County's land tax and commercial tax converted into silver did not exceed 23,000 taels. Just these six tax-splitting offices had over 70,000 taels of tax-splitting. River transport, water transport, wharf shop taxes, and so on, added up to 114,000 taels of silver."

"And this is just one county, Wu Yi County."

There are two types of miscellaneous officials in the county yamen. One type is on the imperial court's roster: Inspection Offices, Water and Horse Stations, Urgent Delivery Posts, Daoist and Buddhist Association Offices, Benevolent Medicine Bureaus, County School Instructors, and so on. The other type is not on the imperial court's roster: Delivery Offices, Gate Officials, River and Lake Offices, Granaries, Warehouses, Verification Offices, Iron Smelting Offices, Tax Collection Offices, and so on.

The reasons for this type of miscellaneous official not being on the imperial court's roster are complex. For example, the Iron Smelting Office was the law of the ancestors. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the founding Emperor abolished official factories to let the people rest and recuperate, but the imperial court needed iron, and the localities needed iron materials, so the Iron Smelting Office was secretly established, or simply abolished in the records.

Therefore, the localities cry poverty, but they are really not poor to the point where the yamen cannot be maintained. Abolishing these miscellaneous officials who are not on the roster is what would really make them poor to death.

"So that's it." Zhu Yijun suddenly realized that, from beginning to end, the only thing poor in the Great Ming was the imperial court!