Chapter 834: Iron Bones Cast a Sea Without End, A New Heaven Re-debates the Moral Code

The Great Ming established the Great Iron Datie Datie Lingwei and the Golden Pool Viceroyalty in the Absolute Continent. This was of extreme significance to the Great Ming, providing the essential material conditions for the empire to transition from a land power to a sea power.

The iron and gold mines of the Absolute Continent were inexhaustible; at least, given the Great Ming's current level of productivity, they could not be mined out even if the Great Ming were to perish.

High-quality iron ore injected an endless, inexhaustible driving force into the Great Ming's coal and steel integrated operations;

while the gold mines provided sufficient credit guarantees for the Great Ming to issue currency, which could significantly alleviate the empire's dire shortage of money.

The immense profits were impossible for anyone in the Great Ming to ignore; even the most stubborn and benighted pedantic Confucians could not disregard such terrifying gains.

Everyone had to value the profits from the sea, thereby rewriting the traditional path of a land power and forcing the empire to make corrections in finance, technology, policy, and ideology.

"The orderly production of the Great Iron Datie Datie Lingwei and the Golden Pool Viceroyalty can declare that the Great Ming's 'Open Sea' faction has completely overwhelmed the 'Sea Ban' faction, because this truly leaves a legacy for future generations," Zhu Yijun said sincerely as he looked at the floating slips on Chen Dazhuang's memorial.

The Great Ming Minister of Revenue, Zhang Xueyan, indicated on a floating slip that they could emulate the ancestral laws from the beginning of the dynasty—the migration of people from Hubei and Hunan to Sichuan—to relocate the "wandering and idle" people from areas where the contradiction between people and land was acute, such as Zhejiang, Su-Song, and the regions east and west of the Yangtze, to the Absolute Continent to populate the region.

If the Han people do not multiply, even if one gains a vast expanse of a thousand territories, it remains but a wilderness beyond the fence.

If enough Han people were not relocated there, even vast territories and frontiers would still be like wilderness beyond the fence, not belonging to the Great Ming.

By the sixteenth year of Wanli, there were still scholar-officials chattering incessantly, shouting that opening the sea was the greatest evil policy causing the collapse of the Great Ming's rites and music, and that the imperial court's accumulation of wealth and promotion of profit was the original sin of the Great Ming's moral corruption, with the massive influx of silver leading everyone to pursue profit.

The Great Ming Emperor turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the crisis of moral decline, instead immersing himself in mountains of gold and silver, unable to see the existence of the crisis, which left these scholar-officials heartbroken, running about and crying out.

The problem was, if silver did not flow in, would the Great Ming's morality not have been corrupted?

These scholar-officials possessed quite a few followers; the restorationists and conservatives united, hoping to persuade more ministers to join them in urging the Emperor to turn back from his misguided path. The phenomena these scholar-officials criticized were real, which was why there was so much agreement.

The influx of silver had indeed led to the disintegration of old values of good and evil, and the establishment of new ones. In the eyes of these scholar-officials, the new moral standards were undoubtedly heterodox and rebellious.

Indeed, various signs indicated that during the period of economic transformation, there was a huge impact on morality.

"Xiaoyao Yiwen," as the leader of the limited liberal faction, once published a brilliant article titled: "Laughing at Poverty, Not at Prostitution."

For a thousand years, regardless of the era, the social status of prostitutes had been extremely low. But in recent years, there had been new changes in Songjiang Prefecture.

These prostitutes seemed to have undergone a transformation, becoming bright and glamorous. Some of the top courtesans had even become objects of competitive pursuit, becoming the fulcrum for establishing interpersonal relationships.

These top courtesans moved gracefully among many celebrities, great scholars, and wealthy merchants, acting as go-betweens and becoming commercial brokers.

The pomp of these people of the wind and moon became increasingly grand, making people deeply envious. The entire Shanghai County and Songjiang Prefecture were addicted to money and intoxicated by sensuality, unable to extricate themselves.

Some poor commoners also regarded their daughters as a way to get rich: "Among families of middle status or below, when raising a daughter, one must teach her songs. Daughters are often scouted by wealthy merchants and can instantly bring in ten thousand gold; otherwise, they enter the registry of the pleasure quarters, and can also marry into wealth."

The decadent life of prostitutes even aroused the envy of many young women who were inexperienced in the world.

With material desires flowing everywhere, in the Songjiang Prefecture region, everyone mocked poverty but did not mock prostitution. They mocked the poor laborers who worked hard but struggled, while no one ridiculed those who engaged in improper industries to obtain excess returns they should not have had.

For the sake of a wealthy life, many began to take risks, committing evil and breaking the law, but the only thing they could not be was poor.

Material pursuit gradually became the universal consensus, or even the only consensus.

Wealth was viewed as the only symbol of success, while poverty was considered a failure of personal ability. Mockery of the poor and tolerance for the wicked seemed to suggest that as long as one could succeed and obtain immense wealth, no matter how great the crime, it could be forgiven.

Some wealthy merchants who appeared infinitely glorious on the surface had backgrounds that were not clean, but people did not care at all. They still completely relied on the amount of material wealth to divide people into different ranks, crazily pursuing the wealthy merchants and powerful gentry high above in the clouds, worshipping them like gods and treating their every word and action as the golden rule.

These crazy believers never thought that many of the sufferings they experienced came from these evil gods they had placed on the altar.

Li Zhi analyzed that behind this phenomenon was the contradiction between rapid economic development and the rupture of the social value system.

Under the huge impact of the commodity economy, traditional Confucian morality—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust—was set aside, and moral concepts fell into chaos and decline.

Even the liberals felt that Songjiang Prefecture, having completed its transformation into a commodity economy, was somewhat too free.

If this continued, Songjiang Prefecture might turn into the Pure Land of the Bliss Sect, a kingdom of God on earth. This was not something glorious; the Bliss Sect was undoubtedly an evil spirit that harmed people, and even human sacrifice was very common.

Li Zhi, who advocated freedom and even dared to attack Confucius, felt that Songjiang Prefecture needed some reins and shackles to stop the continued moral decline.

Zhu Yijun wrote a vermilion comment on Chen Dazhuang's memorial and said to Feng Bao: "Mountains of gold and seas of silver wash away old thoughts; steel muscles and iron bones cast a new soul."

"Our Great Ming people have fallen ill. This

is my fault. Originally, Great Ming people were all Confucian scholars who wanted to 'examine themselves three times a day' and engage in self-reflection and self-criticism. Now, I am governing the country based on the theory of contradictions, which is why this root of illness has been left behind."

"Your Majesty, I do not understand. What illness has the Great Ming contracted?" Feng Bao asked with a puzzled face.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "The illness of only staring at the bad."

"Only seeing the evil of the massive influx of silver, staring at these evils and criticizing them vigorously, but failing to discover the good that followed the massive influx of silver. The Great Ming is full of newly opened workshops everywhere, roads are being repaired everywhere, and the lives of the common people have become better because of the increase in commodities. Even the abandonment of land is decreasing."

"The rapid flow of commodities has driven the development of productivity. Iron plows, iron shovels, and winnowing machines have appeared in farmers' homes. Winnowing machines were popular as early as the Han and Tang dynasties, but by the Wanli years, they had disappeared from the homes of commoners. The spinning and weaving machines driven by iron horses have greatly increased the scale and efficiency of production."

"People always ignore the changes around them, and even think that all life is taken for granted. 'It's the Great Ming, the Celestial Empire, it should be like this.'"

"Actually, this is just the inevitability of development. 'Although Zhou is an old state, its mandate is new.' Old morality, good and evil, and order are changing, and new morality is being established."

"Pursuing wealth is not wrong. On the road to pursuing wealth, moral anomie and sliding downward is wrong, and is evil."

Great Ming scholar-officials were busy criticizing and had become accustomed to the changes happening around them, not feeling there was anything to it, but people's lives had indeed become prosperous.

Winnowing machines, a farm tool passed down for a thousand years, appeared again in farmers' homes. In many villages between the countryside, new threshing grounds were built on flat land at higher elevations to dry grain. These threshing grounds were usually two or three acres in size, paved with cement and leveled, with livestock pulling stone rollers to husk the grain.

Every ten miles or so, there would be a mill to process the husked grain into flour, and incidentally process various sweet potatoes for farmers into potato flour, and press oil from the beans, soybeans, and cabbage seeds collected. Sesame would be made into small-mill fragrant oil and sold everywhere.

The sweet potatoes and peanuts planted by villagers on wasteland could be used to save them from famine, and peanuts could be used to press oil.

The cultivation and breeding of *Artemisia annua* led by the Dissection Institute had been completed. After the flower branches of *Artemisia annua* were dried, honey was added to neutralize the bitterness, and a little granulated sugar was added. The resulting "Pagoda Sugar" had already begun to be distributed to official schools such as the Capital Battalion and artisan schools for children to deworm.

The past practice of using arsenic for deworming was being gradually abandoned. Arsenic was a highly toxic substance, and its purity varied from place to place. Drawing up a standard was instead harmful to people, and one could only rely on experience.

In this era, drinking raw water and stream water was very common. In the absence of effective disinfection methods, children with weaker resistance had a very high chance of contracting roundworms after drinking raw water and stream water. Therefore, at a fixed time every year,

deworming, and children receiving pagoda-like sugar, became a shared memory.

These were the goods that followed the massive influx of silver and the opening of the sea.

The Great Ming Emperor, the imperial court, scholar-officials, and even the common peddlers had gradually realized the negative impact of the decadent phenomenon of "laughing at poverty, not at prostitution." This moral anomie not only exacerbated social differentiation but also damaged social cohesion and even harmed the interests of the majority.

Reflection on moral anomie had begun, and reflection was the beginning of moral reconstruction.

With moral reconstruction, attitudes toward the poor would change, tolerance for illegal occupations would decrease, and people would once again pursue fair and just morality.

This was the ability of the Great Ming Emperor, Wan Shihe, and Shen Li to always emphasize self-correction, self-mediation, self-repair, and self-healing. Theoretically, the stronger this self-correction ability, the more resilient the society, and the more capable it would be of dealing with various crises with ease, even without excessive interference from the imperial court, it could self-correct.

Of course, when one is seriously ill, one must prescribe the right medicine; if one tries to tough it out, the longer it drags on, the greater the problem becomes. In the process of moral reshaping, the imperial court must fulfill its duty to mediate contradictions. In fact, the court's high officials have had expectations regarding moral anomie and moral reshaping from the very beginning.

The cabinet led by Zhang Juzheng, from the moment Zhang Cheng and Zhang Jin split the large sailing ships arriving at Yuegang without an imperial decree, had had very in-depth discussions on how money affected the Great Ming.

"Your Majesty is wise." Feng Bao did not refute the Emperor, but in his eyes, the Great Ming pedantic Confucians only stared at the evil to criticize it. This was not the Emperor's fault at all, nor was it caused by the theory of contradictions. The bad habit of Great Ming scholars picking bones out of eggs and criticizing for the sake of criticizing had not been for one or two years, or five or ten years, but for hundreds of years.

This was an old problem, not a new one brought about by the Wanli Reform.

"Your Majesty, Song Shanyong, the libationer of the Capital Normal School, has arrived." A young eunuch walked into the Tonghe Palace and reported that a minister had come to pay a visit.

"Summon him."

The construction period of the Capital University was only one year, and the spring enrollment was about to begin. The main target of enrollment was still some scholars who could not find a good way out in the capital. The first enrollment was about five hundred people.

The Great Ming's imperial examination for each subject involved five thousand people competing for three hundred jinshi spots. Even though there were two expanded enrollments during the Wanli years, there were still only four hundred, among which fifty mathematics jinshi had to take exams for the Institute of Investigation of Things or teach at the Royal Institute of Technology.

"In the flush of success, the horse's hooves feel swift; in a single day, one sees all the flowers of Chang'an." Placing on the golden list is for the few; failing the examinations is the lot of the many.

The entrance examination of the Capital University had very strict standards, with a four-year academic system. After graduation, they had to go to various places to serve as libationers, instructors, and school officials of normal schools. Therefore, the selection of personnel was also relatively strict.

"The sinful minister pays respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty, long live, long live." Song Shanyong's gait carried steadiness and composure. Upon entering

the door, he performed the grand ceremony of five kowtows and three bows in a proper manner.

Slightly different from what Zhu Yijun had imagined, Song Shanyong, who was over fifty, had a thin face with several wrinkles of varying depths on his forehead, like a book scroll. His figure was quite thin, and the years of sitting and lecturing had made his waist somewhat stiff.

His face was somewhat sorrowful. The eighteen years at Tianxiong Academy, the hostility of local powerful gentry, the jealousy of private schools, and the expectations of his disciples—all of this was like an invisible net that trapped him, unable to move.

Even if Xu Chengchu had not investigated his corruption case, he would have been unable to hold on much longer.

"Exempt from the ceremony, sit down and speak." Zhu Yijun had no intention of making things difficult for Song Shanyong. Song Shanyong was indeed a sinful minister, but Zhu Yijun had promoted him. There were still too few honest officials, and they were not enough to use.

After Song Shanyong sat down, he hesitated repeatedly, appearing very conflicted, just like the eighteen years he had spent struggling between being corrupt or not, and between compromising or not. Finally, he bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, the minister dares to speak. This Dinghai academic system is vast and mighty, but I fear this Dinghai academic system has a head but no tail, and cannot start well and end well."

"This Dinghai academic system is still too expensive. An investment of hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and maintaining it will also require tens of millions of taels of silver. I fear the imperial court can hardly afford it."

Telling the truth is much harder than telling a lie. It is like this at any time. Three minutes is already very impressive; it is just telling a lie with eyes open. Song Shanyong did not tell a lie with eyes open, but chose to tell the truth. The cost was the problem he saw.

Song Shanyong was very worried, fearing that this was the Great Ming Emperor's love for grandeur. After all, the Emperor always lived in a world of lies created by the joint efforts of everyone around him.

Zhu Yijun sat up straight, nodded, and said: "I know. The Nine Dragons University requires an investment of six million silver per term, lasting four years. These local normal schools, even with donations from powerful gentry, require three point two million silver per year. This adds up to nearly ten million silver."

"The imperial court's annual revenue last year was only 41 million silver. The military pay for the Nine Frontiers plus the Capital Battalion and the Navy takes up 12 million silver. This one academic system requires ten million silver a year, or even more, for decades. Now the imperial court is still repairing the post roads. For the imperial court, it is a very heavy burden."

"Fortunately, the Great Ming now really has mountains of gold, silver, copper, and iron. The silver mines of Japan, the gold mines of Golden Pool, the copper mines of Luzon, and the iron mines of Great Iron Ridge can support my reckless actions."

"Your Majesty... is wise." Song Shanyong's "wise" was not from the heart; he was somewhat hesitant.

Because Song Shanyong still had a truth he knew he shouldn't say, so he didn't say it.

Zhu Yijun showed a smile. He knew why Song Shanyong was hesitant. Great Ming ministers all sang praises of the Dinghai academic system, calling it benevolence, goodness, and a merit for the present and a benefit for the future. Only no one dared to say that this Dinghai academic system was digging at the very foundation of the imperial system.

You are promoting universal education and enlightening the people's wisdom.

If the people are enlightened, do you, the Emperor, still want to sit firmly on the throne?

Since ancient times, what the Emperor wanted was long-term stability, to be unchanged for ten thousand generations. Only by completely monopolizing education in the hands of a few, and everyone sharing the spoils together, could it last for a long time. The Emperor and a few scholars maintained a stable order together until the total collapse.

The result of enlightening the people's wisdom was to cause a structural political crisis. Autocracy and monopoly of power would be widely opposed, finally forming a social consensus. Universal education would provide ideological soil and talent reserves for institutional change.

"Your Majesty..." Song Shanyong felt his scalp go numb from the Emperor's smile. He felt that the Emperor had already seen through the truth he hadn't spoken.

Zhu Yijun thought for a while and said: "Sure enough, Mr. Song is not liked by the powerful gentry of Great Ming Prefecture. Actually, it is because he cannot hide things in his heart. You haven't finished speaking, and I know it too. But 'Zhi'er recites the Dynastic Song': Huang, Yu, Xia, Shang, Zhou; Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Qin; Two Hans, Three Kingdoms, Jin; after Jin, North and South divide; Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song; Yuan, Ming pass to today."

"There has never been anything that remains unchanged for ten thousand generations. Mr. Song, if you have leisure time, you can read the third volume of the Theory of Classes."

Song Shanyong obviously hadn't read the third volume, the Struggle Volume, which explained all these things very clearly.

"The minister obeys the decree." Song Shanyong breathed a long sigh of relief. He was just a teacher. He was just worried that the Emperor didn't understand these things and was being deceived by those around him, and would flip the pancake again. As for the fate of the empire, he didn't need to plan far ahead.

Since the Emperor knew that the Dinghai academic system was digging at the roots of imperial power, there was nothing to worry about. The Emperor knew very well what he was doing.

Zhu Yijun talked with Song Shanyong for a long time, mainly about some problems of the Capital Normal School, such as whether to continue teaching traditional Confucianism. Zhu Yijun still recognized Confucian learning, but the Hundred Schools of Thought also had to be taught, and science and engineering also had to be taught. Moreover, science and engineering were the main subjects, and the selection of students also had to test mathematics.

Some mathematics problems were logic problems, examining the logic of the students.

Song Shanyong found certainty from the Emperor. This Dinghai academic system was neither a love for grandeur nor a rash move on a whim, but a decision made after careful consideration of all costs. This was the main purpose of Song Shanyong's audience with the Emperor.

And the Emperor also found certainty from Song Shanyong. This was an honest official who was willing to tell the truth and was very capable. The Dinghai academic system involved the political direction of the Great Ming for the next few decades and could not be sloppy. And the students of the normal school had to go to various places to train more teachers.

If Song Shanyong rotted here, the Great Ming would rot in a large area.

"The minister takes his leave." Song Shanyong bowed again and left the imperial study of the Tonghe Palace. With the Emperor's backing, he could work with peace of mind.

On the seventeenth day of the sixth month, Zhu Yijun concentrated on summoning the envoys of various countries.

Among these envoys was a rather awkward person, the Korean envoy Li Houbai. He and Yin Genshou were both envoys stationed in the Great Ming by Korea. Yin Gen

shou was killed in the Seonggyungwan by the deposed Korean King Li Yan, who believed that the humiliation given by the Great Ming Emperor was the envoy's fault.

With the Korean state abolished, Li Houbai's status became awkward.

"Li Houbai, do you mean you want Korea to be restored?" Zhu Yijun looked at Li Houbai kneeling on the ground and at Li Houbai's memorial on the imperial desk, asking with a face as calm as water.

Li Yan was dead, but the Korean Li clan relatives were not all dead. Theoretically, there was an option for restoration.

Shen Li was shocked. This was completely different from what had been agreed upon! This Li Houbai had actually swapped the memorial submitted to the Emperor!

"Your Majesty, the minister is terrified and begs for an order. With the divine power of the heavenly army, the Japanese threat has retreated. I implore Your Majesty to have mercy, restore the fence, and abolish the king Li Yan. His sins are monstrous, and he deserves to die. But the Great Ming also has ancestral laws, and Korea is a country not to be conquered." Li Houbai bowed again and said loudly in panic.

Zhu Yijun flipped through the memorial in his hand and asked calmly: "Li Houbai, do you want to use my ancestors to pressure me?"

"The minister dares not!" Li Houbai was so scared that his legs cramped, but he still said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, Korea regards the Great Ming as a parent state. Today, the Japanese threat has been eliminated, and the great hatred has been avenged. Korea has many mountains and little fields and is quite barren. It has no gold mines, let alone silver mines, and even coal is buried very deep."

"For the Great Ming, Korea is nothing but a chicken rib. I beg Your Majesty to allow Korea to be restored!"

After the Imjin War, the Great Ming withdrew its troops from Korea. It was only after searching all over Korea and discovering that the silver mines were exhausted that it reluctantly withdrew from Korea.

Korea had no silver mines, but Japan did.

"I see. You want to be a loyal minister." Zhu Yijun read the memorial again and confirmed Li Houbai's purpose. He submitted the memorial and met the Emperor, which was seeking death. He wanted to die for his country.

Throughout the dynasties, there had been no shortage of scholar-officials who died for their country when it fell. Behind Li Houbai's behavior was the interpretation of the moral code of "ruler and subject," the idea that "starving to death is a small matter, losing one's integrity is a great one," and an instinctive resistance to the total collapse of his own social role.

"The minister deserves to die ten thousand times." Seeing that the Emperor was angry, Shen Li hurriedly stepped out of the ranks, knelt on the ground, and pleaded guilty.

Clearly, Li Houbai had been very cooperative before. The scene that should have been staged in the Wenhua Hall today was Li Houbai submitting a memorial, requesting the Emperor to fully implement the county system in Korea. The memorial was drafted for Li Houbai by the Ministry of Rites, but the memorial Li Houbai submitted was not the one written by the Ministry of Rites.

This was clearly a dereliction of duty by the Ministry of Rites.

"Great Minister of Rites, exempt from the ceremony. Bring the memorial of the Ministry of Rites." Zhu Yijun said with a smile on his face: "Great Minister of Rites, what is your fault? He is sincerely seeking death, but dying like this just looks more tragic, and he can leave his name in history."

Zhu Yijun remembered someone, the envoy from the Guoa Viceroyalty, Rui De. After learning the news of the fall of Malacca, he committed suicide in the Siyi Hall. Zhu Yijun even issued an imperial decree to bury Rui De officially, and even asked Liu Ji to go to the West to specifically understand Rui De's life and complete his epitaph.

Zhu Yijun looked in the direction of the Secretariat and saw that the Secretariat had already gone to the restroom. He wrote a vermilion comment on the memorial of the Ministry of Rites and said to Li Houbai: "Look, as long as the people in this Wenhua Hall don't speak, you are still the last envoy to request the county system for Korea."

Li Houbai looked at the Emperor in horror. He never expected that the Emperor would be so shameless in this Wenhua Hall!

Zhu Yijun saw Li Houbai so shocked, and then continued: "Can you be reasonable?"

"Regarding the Japanese invasion of Korea, the Great Ming received the news and told Japan about the movement three months in advance. What were your king Li Yan and your civil and military officials doing? One month! It only took one month for the Japanese to reach Pyongyang!"

"Korea claimed to have 200,000 soldiers, but couldn't even hold on for a month. Korea originally had 9 million people. Department Head Ling made a simple Yellow Register in Korea and counted them. Do you know how many there are now? 4.3 million people, not even half! War, plague, and famine are raging, shocking to the eye, with corpses strewn across the fields."

"It was fortunate that Li Rusong set off a little earlier. Otherwise, the Great Ming army would not even have had a place to stand when it intervened. If Pyongyang and Uiju had fallen into the hands of the Korean monarch and ministers, the Great Ming army would have had to launch a landing operation. The difficulty can be imagined."

"It was Li Yan who failed the people, and then the people abandoned the rule of the Korean royal family."

"My Great Ming army fought for two full years before driving the Japanese out of Korea. Those mountain fortresses were exchanged for the blood and sacrifice of the Great Ming soldiers. If the Great Ming hadn't had so much heavy armor and so many cannons, how many people would the Great Ming have lost in those mountain fortresses?"

"You talk about ancestral laws, I acknowledge them, but I also have to consider the present, and I also have to give an account to my people."

Li Houbai did not expect the Emperor to change the subject and start reasoning. Some hope rose in his heart, but after hearing the Emperor's words, he understood that the imperial will was decided. The Great Ming had paid a huge price in manpower, material resources, and financial resources, shed blood and sacrificed, drove away the Japanese, and combed out Korea's production relations. A new order was being established, and the Great Ming would not give up no matter what.

Otherwise, how could the Emperor give an account to the auxiliary ministers, court ministers, ministers, local officials, and the people?

Moreover, there was no widespread resistance in Korea. The vast majority of Koreans happily joined the Great Ming nationality and became Great Ming people, which was what Hou Yuzhao proposed: "One Great Ming, all are royal subjects."

"Then can we find a Korean royal clan member to inherit the throne? The minister is willing to die." Li Houbai retreated to the second best, hoping to end up like Ryukyu.

"No, Korea is the county land of the Great Ming. Those who do evil must be punished! Now Korea is mine, it is the Great Ming's, and of course, it cannot be treated as a barbarian land."

"Your life is not worth money. If you want to die, die. Just hit your head against the pillar in this Wenhua Hall right now. I don't care about this bit of bad reputation." Zhu Yijun waved his hand. He didn't care about any historical evaluation at all.

Korea was not Japan. This was the gateway to the northeast of the Great Ming.

Those who do evil must be punished. If rewards and punishments are not clear, the world will be in disorder.

Zhu Yijun waited for a while, and seeing that Li Houbai did not move, he asked: "Are you going to die or not? If you don't die, leave. I allow you to go back to Korea to have a look, and even allow you to gather a party to restore the country. I want to see whether the Koreans follow you or the Great Ming."

"If you want to be Le Loi, no problem, just go ahead and do it!"

Li Houbai looked at the pillar, finally kowtowed and said: "The minister takes his leave."

Zhao Mengyou looked at Li Houbai's back with an unkind expression. He was not a good person. He would not let Li Houbai go back. Some dirty work had to be done by someone.

Le Loi took advantage of the Great Ming's inability to spare hands back then and led the Annamese to rebel. The Great Ming eventually lost Annam, and it had not been recovered to this day.

"Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng stood out and said with some worry.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "Mr. Zhang, don't worry. He won't commit suicide. If he wanted to die for his country, he wouldn't have brought this memorial to the Wenhua Hall. He just couldn't make up his mind to die, so he wanted me to kill him."

"He won't leave the Great Ming to return to Korea either. He can't bear to." ===== CHAPTER 835 =====