Chapter 837: The Poison of the

The Korean envoy Li Li Houbai dared not commit suicide. If he had dared to commit suicide, he wouldn't have waited until now. Ending one's own life requires courage, especially for someone like Li Li Houbai who has read many books, understands reason, and has no worries about food and clothing.

He had many opportunities to commit suicide. For example, when the Japanese pirates swept through like autumn wind and fallen leaves in one month and reached Pyongyang, the destruction of the country was right before his eyes; for example, when Li Yan was killed by Li Li Shunchen, his monarch was already dead, and Korea had effectively ceased to exist as a country. He could have committed suicide then too.

But he didn't. Yet, on the eve of the Great Ming finishing cleaning up the mess in Korea, he chose to take advantage of the Emperor's meeting with foreign envoys to make some inappropriate conditions, trying to let the Great Ming kill him.

He lacked the courage to commit suicide. He wanted to use the Emperor's sword to kill himself while also wanting to leave his name in history.

Zhu Zhu Yijun saw through Li Li Houbai's true face. In fact, he hadn't even decided whether he wanted to die or where Korea should go. If the deposed Korean King Li Yan had been a monarch worth following, and if the Korean royal family and civil and military officials had governed the country diligently so that the people were peaceful and prosperous, Li Li Houbai would definitely have died for his country when it fell.

But it wasn't worth it.

Li Li Houbai knew deeply that being beaten to Pyongyang in one month was a total collapse. That Korean royal family and that Korea were not worth following with one's life.

Zhu Zhu Yijun didn't care much about Li Li Houbai running to Korea to lead the Korean people to resist the Great Ming.

The Annam of the Yongle and Emperor Xuande years was completely different from the current Korea. Korea's population of 9 million had slipped to 4.5 million in just two years. This blood feud was avenged for Korea by the Great Ming army.

When Gao Zhu Qiyu was negotiating with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hideyoshi proposed a condition, hoping that the Great Ming would not send soldiers and civilians from Korea to Japan's mines. Toyotomi Hideyoshi would rather have Great Ming people stationed there than Koreans, because in the eyes of the Japanese, they were all Great Ming vassal states, but there was still a distinction between high and low.

The Japanese always believed that they were defeated by the Great Ming, not Korea. As the defeated party, Korea was not qualified to station troops in Japan.

On the other hand, the Japanese were afraid—afraid of Korean retaliation. These Koreans didn't care about any moral anomie at all; they didn't hesitate to kill.

Influenced by Wan Wan Shihe's view that "barbarians are wolf-hearted and beast-hearted," Zhu Zhu Yijun always believed that the barbarians of this era could only understand the language of the fist. If you beat them up, they would be honest, and they would adapt themselves.

Secondly, Zhu Zhu Yijun wasn't worried at all that Li Li Houbai could stir up any trouble after returning to Korea.

Great Ming people couldn't understand the thoughts of Koreans, Japanese, Annamese, and Filipinos. Even if they were all in the Confucian circle, there were still huge cognitive differences.

These people could never decide their own destiny and could only let others decide it. They couldn't imagine what it was like to decide their own destiny, and the experience their ancestors left them wasn't

about grasping their own destiny, but about the experience and thinking mode of "self-adapting to recognize a father."

Even the meat-eaters and scholars in these places were like this. When discussing problems, they would always talk about "Ming father," "Spanish father," or "Western father." Always calling them "parent states" was this typical "self-adapting to recognize a father" mode at work.

Without a father on their heads, these people felt panicked and strange. Only by having a father riding on their heads, pointing fingers at them, could they feel at ease.

Even Westerners were like this. Red-haired barbarians, golden-haired barbarians, and even the Ottomans were like this. It's just that the father on their heads was that invisible and untouchable God, that is, religion.

This caused great trouble for the Great Ming Ministry of Rites officials, because the barbarian envoys from these places liked to recognize fathers themselves and habitually thought that others would also recognize fathers. Because these barbarian envoys could only be chess pieces and chessboards, they particularly liked to choose sides, and naturally thought that the Great Ming also had to choose sides.

But the Great Ming knew deeply that it was a chess player and didn't need to choose sides.

For example, in the conflict of Spain's expedition to England, while the Great Ming was a friendly state to Spain, it also provided salt to the Netherlands for their alliance, distributed goods in France, provided new-style ships, and would also do business with the Ottomans.

Making money, it's not shameful.

Wan Wan Shihe once defined this "self-adapting to recognize a father" thinking pattern as the "poison of the Jimi policy, the deep-rooted illness attached to the bone, spineless and masterless, with a spine hard to straighten."

That is: the colonial thinking trap.

Even Annam, which had gathered a consensus of resistance due to various reasons, had never escaped this colonial thinking trap.

During the Emperor Jiajing years, because of the rebellion of powerful ministers, Annam chose to kneel. During the Yongle years, Annam changed from a vassal state to an internal prefecture of the Great Ming. During the Emperor Xuande years, it changed from an internal prefecture of the Great Ming back to a vassal state. During the Emperor Jiajing years, it changed from a vassal state of the Great Ming back to a territory of the Great Ming.

The Mo clan of Annam was the Great Ming's Annam Regional Military Commissioner, with a rank of from the second grade, a hereditary local official.

From beginning to end, Annam had never escaped the prefix of "Great Ming."

Korea was also deeply trapped in this colonial thinking trap. There was no universal consensus of resistance. Li Li Houbai returning to Korea wouldn't be able to make any waves.

"Proclaim the Spanish envoy Pedro to see me." Feng Bao flicked his whisk and proclaimed the envoy to see the Emperor.

"I pay respects to the Great Ming Emperor. Long live the Great Ming Emperor, long live, long live." Pedro performed the ceremony. Even though he had made many efforts, this mission still failed to achieve his wishes. The friendly relationship between the Great Ming and Spain seemed to be drifting further and further apart.

This was not Spain's fault, nor was it the Great Ming's fault. As time passed, the competition between the Great Ming and Spain over the ownership of the "Empire on which the sun never sets" intensified, and their interests no longer converged, which led to this situation. Although they had some very beautiful memories, they eventually gradually reached today's situation.

"Exempt from the ceremony. Has the fire in the rich silver mine not ended yet?" Zhu Zhu Yijun asked about the situation of the rich silver mine.

The Great Ming and Spain were friendly states, but the boat of friendship said it would capsize.

This all started with the mountain fire in the rich silver mine. Spain used the mountain fire in the rich silver mine as an excuse to reduce the import of silver to the Great Ming, which caused the Great Ming's economic development to fall into the fear of a currency famine again.

Pedro took a deep breath and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the fire in the rich silver mine has been extinguished, but it will take some time to restore production."

"You must guard against fire. If your country cannot prevent fire, the Great Ming can provide some help. Oh, by the way, has the rebellion of the barbarians in the rich silver mine subsided?" Zhu Zhu Yijun asked another question with a smile.

This was another excuse Spain gave the Great Ming: the mountain fire led to a decrease in land output, the natives of the rich silver mine began to riot, the Viceroyalty of Peru could not control the situation, and the silver output of the rich silver mine was blocked, so they could not provide sufficient silver.

"The unrest has gradually subsided." Pedro answered with a stiff scalp.

"You have also heard that the Great Ming has successively established the Golden Pool Viceroyalty and the Great Iron Ridge Guard—one produces gold, the other produces iron. The Great Ming's campaign against Japan has also been relatively smooth. Japan has already agreed to hand over all mineral production. I hope the rich silver mine will not have any more fires or rebellions." Zhu Zhu Yijun added another sarcastic remark.

What mountain fire, what rebellion—they were all excuses. The silver was transported back to Spain by the treasure fleet to prepare for the expedition to England.

"I will definitely report the issues Your Majesty mentioned to His Highness after I return to the West." Pedro was not a fool, of course he understood the Emperor's dissatisfaction.

Zhu Zhu Yijun asked again: "Legaspi gave you a stack of Great Ming treasure notes. What do you think of these treasure notes?"

The Great Ming had established a brand-new currency issuance system around the gold treasury of Tonghe Palace and had already begun pilot projects in Shuntian Prefecture. These treasure notes were generally regarded as silver notes by the common people. Silver notes and treasure notes were very similar, but they were still different. Silver notes were accounting currency, while treasure notes were credit currency.

Pedro thought for a while and said: "The printing is very exquisite, and the paper is wear-resistant and waterproof, not easy to damage, and the anti-counterfeiting is excellent. It is more exquisite than the silver notes in many money shops in the capital, and also better than the gold bonds currently circulating in Spain."

Pedro spoke the truth. Compared with Great Ming treasure notes, the gold bonds that Philip had come up with were no different from toilet paper. They were just handwritten bonds, easy to lose and damage, and inconvenient to use.

Of course, the subtext was also very clear: the Great Ming had supplemented its liquidity in its own way, and silver would not be an obstacle to the Great Ming's development.

Legaspi had instructed Pedro not to threaten the Great Ming with silver. First, threats were useless; second, provoking confrontational emotions would only be bad for Spain.

"Supreme Great Ming Emperor, as a distant friendly state, can we obtain some promises from Your Majesty?" Pedro said with a solemn face.

Zhu Zhu Yijun sat up straight and asked: "What kind of promise do you want?"

"Do not sell firearms, ships, and other military items to England." Pedro put forward his request.

Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded and said: "Regardless of whether Spain requests it or not, as long as England has not met the Great Ming's requirements and revoked the privateering license, the Great Ming will not sell firearms, warships, gunpowder, bows and crossbows, armor, or long and short weapons to England, and will not even allow English merchants to obtain Great Ming goods."

"Of course, if the English buy them from others, I am powerless and beyond my reach."

The English could of course obtain some commodities through transshipment, but the cost and premium of transshipment would be paid by the English.

Passing through someone else's hands at sea meant a premium of more than 30%. England didn't have many colonies now, and the wealth accumulated from enclosure was not enough for them to squander.

Zhu Zhu Yijun added: "This is a consensus based on morality. The risks at sea are already great enough. The existence of pirates seriously affects free trade. Fighting pirates and maintaining the business environment of the ocean is basic morality, not a promise I made to Philip. Once England revokes the privateering license, the Great Ming will also consider the relationship between the Great Ming and England based on its own position."

It was possible for England to ban privateering, but it was unlikely.

England needed Great Ming goods, but the Great Ming was far away, and standing in front of it was a Spain that wanted to launch an expedition against it. To deal with the Spanish Armada, England could only use its privateer fleet. Therefore, no matter what, England could not ban privateering licenses.

Zhu Zhu Yijun did not give a concrete promise, but he told Pedro the principles of the Great Ming's actions: fighting pirates and maintaining an orderly and healthy business environment on the ocean was very beneficial to the Great Ming.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, even if it is based on moral consensus." Pedro breathed a sigh of relief. This was another purpose of his coming to the Great Ming this time: to ensure that the Great Ming would not intervene in the Anglo-Spanish War.

Even if the boat of friendship had capsized, Philip didn't want the Great Ming to affect the situation in the West, especially the Anglo-Spanish War, just as the Great Ming didn't want Spain to interfere in any affairs in Nanyang.

Zhu Zhu Yijun chose to respect Philip's choice.

"I solemnly warn Spain: the Great Ming provides high-quality and inexpensive commodities, and you use silver to buy them. This is trade. It is not that I am bullying or oppressing your Spain. Do not always put on the posture of a victim. You can choose not to come to the Great Ming to buy commodities. If you continue to chatter, don't blame me for closing the gates." Zhu Zhu Yijun severely warned Spain about its narrative style.

This warning included the punishment of closing the gates.

What is called Spain coming to the Great Ming to pay tribute? What is called Spain suffering huge losses in trade with the Great Ming? What is called the huge trade surplus triggering Spain's price crisis? What is called Great Ming goods impacting and causing the bankruptcy of workshops in Spain and even the entire West?

You can choose not to come!

Spain's style was actually a unilateral narrative. They only saw that they had lost silver and gold, but didn't see that they had taken away ship after ship of goods. Every tael of these goods was the labor achievement of the Great Ming people, and every tael of silver was the blood and sweat of the Great Ming people.

Zhu Zhu Yijun valued silver because it was all exchanged by the common people with their labor. Every tael was worth valuing.

"Taking every bit and using it like mud is a betrayal."

The reason why the Great Ming Emperor could warn Spain in such a tone of admonition was entirely because the Great Ming could now issue currency, and the Great Ming had taken over the mining rights of Japan. With this foundation, it didn't need to rely on the influx of Western silver, so it could stand from the perspective of strength and admonish Philip's delusional narrative.

Before, Zhu Zhu Yijun wouldn't have done this. After all, many of the Great Ming's policies were closely related to the silver flowing into the Great Ming from the West.

Now that the currency no longer relied on the West, Zhu Zhu Yijun began to deny this narrative. The West was never the victim of the galleon trade; otherwise, they wouldn't have come once a year for sixteen years.

Spain's style was actually related to Spain's economic distribution model at the time. The distribution model of Spain, in the final analysis, was one word: rob.

The most typical example of this was the Spanish treasure fleet.

The treasure fleet usually had two branches. One was the Caribbean fleet, organized by the Spanish royal family and nobles together, sailing from the mainland to the New World, anchoring in the Caribbean Sea. The goods plundered from the New World were usually assembled at the port of Acapulco in Mexico and transported by land to the port of Veracruz in the Caribbean.

The other was the Manila fleet, sailing from the two Americas to Manila in Luzon.

The Spanish royal family extracted one-fifth of the treasure fleet as tax, and the remaining nobles, shipowners, and crew members divided the spoils together. The credit of gold bonds was not gold, but these treasure ships.

People generally believed that Philip could pay these bonds because the treasure ships brought back countless treasures every year.

Philip usually sold licenses to maintain his power from being challenged, using treasure ship licenses to reward and win over his allies.

The red-haired barbarians who were used to robbing, when they arrived at the Great Ming, couldn't beat them and couldn't rob them, so they honestly took out silver, handed it to the Great Ming, and then exchanged it for the goods they needed. Yet, because silver flowed to the Great Ming, they talked nonsense and used a unilateral narrative.

Zhu Zhu Yijun said with a stern face: "People cannot be so shameless."

"If you are worried about silver flowing to the Great Ming because of trade, you should try every means to improve the variety and quality of your commodities; if you fear the impact of Great Ming goods, you should try every means to reduce the cost of commodities to prevent Great Ming goods from entering the West; if you fear the quantity of Great Ming goods, you should improve production efficiency and methods."

"Instead of this kind of affectation, isn't this bullying the Great Ming people for being honest and not talking much! Should honest people be bullied like this?"

"Your Majesty's lesson is correct." Pedro was choked and couldn't speak, stunned for a long time. Finally, he accepted this admonition. It was indeed fair free trade, and it was indeed a matter of mutual consent.

Pedro knew very clearly that every word the Emperor said seemed to be correct. The Emperor was not old, and his truth was not much.

The Great Ming had the military power to protect itself. If you couldn't beat them, you couldn't rob them. If normal means could compete with the Great Ming, they would have long ago brought ships full of goods to the Great Ming for dumping. Why would they be here playing the victim?

Spain, England, even five or six-year-old children were drilling chimneys!

In fact, Philip II knew very well how to become a strong opponent of the Great Ming: that was for the entire West to unite closely. Those with food provide food, those with craftsmen provide craftsmen, those with raw materials provide raw materials, and work together to study constantly. Even a loose commercial alliance could greatly improve the competitiveness of the West.

It was a pity that Philip had made great efforts for this, but the results were minimal. He knew very well that this was difficult to achieve. If he wanted the entire West to unite, there was only one way: that was for Rome to return like lightning.

However, Rome was dead, and the Romans in Italy were a minority.

Pedro had gains and losses in this audience with the Emperor. The deep friendship with the Great Ming was becoming thin, and the two countries had changed from cooperation to cooperative confrontation. However, what was gratifying was that the Emperor's dissatisfaction with privateering licenses made it impossible for the English to obtain any help in the Great Ming.

This year, they didn't even allow the English envoy to travel from the Ten Thousand Nations City in Songjiang Prefecture to the capital to see the Emperor. The English envoy came in vain.

Zhu Zhu Yijun successively met with envoys from France, the Netherlands, and other countries, fulfilling his promise to sell salt and distribute Great Ming goods in the City of Great Light, and both returned satisfied.

"Envoy of the Shah, I cannot agree to your proposal of exchanging 50,000 taels of silver for the status of permanent residence and free movement in the Great Ming." Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at the state letter in front of him and said very firmly: "The international students of the Mughal State, after finishing their studies, should return to the Mughal State. What are they doing staying in the Great Ming?"

"I cannot promote them."

Since the An Lushan Rebellion, the Song and Ming dynasties didn't use many barbarians. After all, there was such a huge historical lesson there, and one couldn't turn a blind eye to it.

The Mughals were also barbarians. They should go back to where they came from. Zhu Zhu Yijun could not possibly agree to exchange silver for permanent residence and free movement status.

"I heard that the Great Ming's state treasury and inner treasury were empty, so I boldly made this suggestion. If Your Majesty doesn't need it, then I will tell His Highness Akbar." Shah Mammat was not particularly concerned. This matter was proposed by the Mughal King Akbar, just asking whether the Emperor would allow it.

Fifty thousand taels of silver per person was really a lot, and it was just buying an identity, but the Emperor didn't agree, so that was it.

The Great Ming was the Celestial Empire. Some international students wanted to stay after studying, so they wrote letters back to the Mughal State to inquire.

"Regarding the joint anti-drug efforts, the Great Ming highly approves. You can communicate with the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice to crack down on opium trafficking together." Zhu Zhu Yijun mentioned another matter from Shah Mammat: cracking down on opium trafficking.

"Moreover, your King is a bit overly worried. According to the research of the Great Ming Dissection Institute, as long as the imperial court and government offices can still perform their basic functions, crack down on drug dealers, and suppress the circulation of drugs, the death rate of opium users will be greater than the spread rate of drugs."

"In the end, the scale of users will never be able to expand, and the scale of the producing areas will not be able to expand, because the extinction of users will lead to a backlog of large amounts of opium."

After hearing about the Great Ming's strict anti-drug efforts, Akbar wanted to learn from the successful experience. The Great Ming immediately expressed its welcome and shared anti-drug technology, working with the Mughal State to crack down on drugs.

However, Akbar was a bit overly afraid of the harm of opium. He was worried that the opium that couldn't enter the Great Ming would all run to the Mughal State, causing a crisis.

Shah Mammat bowed and said: "Respected Your Majesty, not every imperial court is like the Great Ming, operating like a precision machine. In our Mughal State, it is a loose alliance, which makes it very difficult to promote the anti-drug cause downwards. Therefore, prohibiting opium from flowing out of the Malacca Strait still needs to rely on the Great Ming."

This was also the purpose of Akbar's plan to buy "Great Ming nationality." Akbar just had the idea of sending money, and whether they stayed or left didn't matter. He just wanted to send some silver to the Emperor, hoping that the Emperor would continue to exert effort in banning drugs in the Malacca Strait to prevent opium from spreading to the Mughal State.

If opium spread to the Mughal State on a large scale, he, Akbar, would have no ability to ban it.

Oda Ichi was the last envoy to be received. She presented a detailed rule for mineral handover.

This detailed rule was to hand over the ownership of the mines to the Great Ming. This detailed rule made very clear plans for the establishment of mining areas, such as the ten-li area around the mine being Great Ming territory, organizing Japanese slaves to mine, and other related matters.

This detailed rule was exactly the same as the one presented by Gao Zhu Qiyu, and there was no deception.

After Oda Ichi left, Zhu Zhu Yijun held this detailed rule in his hand and said: "These Japanese daimyo are very supportive of this detailed rule, because after the Great Ming stations troops, the Great Ming army can't mine by itself, so it needs these Japanese brokers and daimyo to organize and recruit craftsmen and Japanese slaves to mine."

"Brokers, and even these daimyo, their interests were not damaged, and their status even became more consolidated. The peasant uprisings would become timid because of the stationing of the Great Ming army."

This detailed rule could be described as extremely harsh. If it were placed on the Great Ming, it would definitely be unacceptable. Even if it were placed on the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty wouldn't dare to sign it.

The "Kyoto Treaty" required the cession of mineral rights, but there was no time limit, and the Great Ming also had exploration rights. The discovered minerals also belonged to the Great Ming.

Such a treaty gained the support of many daimyo, because these daimyo were beneficiaries, not victims. The Great Ming needed to use them. The minerals were worthless if left there. Everything mined out belonged to the Great Ming, and the Great Ming would provide Japanese currency.

"The Great Ming should take this as a warning. Being too restrictive on trade and always talking about gathering wealth and promoting profit and material desires running rampant is the rotten talk of base Confucians. But if one is too focused on commerce, the country will definitely not be a country. To some extent, the heartbroken appeals of the restorationist scholars have played a certain role." Zhu Zhu Yijun summarized.

These brokers and daimyo were truly damned, selling out collective interests without any psychological burden.

"Japan has the ambition of a wolf. Now the Japanese respect the Great Ming because the fast sailing ships built by the Great Ming are used for war, not for fishing. If we really listened to what these base Confucians said, cultivating civil virtue to soothe distant people, I'm afraid the Japanese would be shouting to enter the Tang Dynasty now." Zhu Zhu Yijun felt that he had been too affirming of these base Confucians and added a point.

Cultivating civil virtue to soothe distant people can neither cultivate civil virtue nor soothe distant people, because these barbarians simply cannot understand any reason other than the fist.

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Zhang Juzheng led the group of ministers to sing praises. The restorationist scholars were not completely useless. It was certainly not okay to suppress commerce too much, but being too focused on commerce would indeed make the country not a country.

After the court meeting, Great Ming Emperor Zhu Zhu Yijun changed into casual clothes, took a group of Embroidered Uniform Guards, set off from the Grand General's Mansion, and headed towards the Yanxing Tower. There was a gathering of the Huang family of Penglai, Young Master Huang, today, and he was going to listen. The content of the discussion was Great Ming treasure notes.

Zhu Zhu Yijun wanted to know the views of the Great Ming scholar-officials on the issuance of treasure notes.

The Great Ming issued currency again. Wealthy merchants were scrambling for it, while scholar-officials had set off a discussion on treasure notes. Recent gatherings were all centered around treasure notes.

Most scholar-officials expressed surprise and shock!

The Great Ming Emperor actually used the gold in the inner treasury as a reserve to issue currency. It was even more terrifying than the sun rising from the west. Some even thought that the Great Ming had suffered the biggest defeat since the Emperor Wanli Reform in Japan, so the Emperor was willing to take out gold as a reserve for issuing currency.

The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain.

Great Ming scholar-officials generally believed that the Emperor, who would rather watch the Ao Mountain fireworks show with a telescope at the Zhonggu Tower during the New Year than reward the hundred arts, was very frugal. Qi Qi Jiguang losing a battle was more reasonable than the Emperor taking out gold.

This was undoubtedly prejudice! Thorough and thorough prejudice!

The Emperor, who had always been frugal, had made such a huge concession for the prosperity of the Great Ming!

The gold treasury was only for entry and not for exit, and it would increase the gold reserve by 1 million to 1.5 million taels every year to increase the credit of the treasure notes.

Zhu Zhu Yijun stood in front of the door of the Taibai Tower, looking at the topic of today's gathering, his face full of confusion. He was reflecting on himself, wondering if he had been too kind and gentle on weekdays.

Today's topic: "How about issuing twelve Zhen Guan of treasure notes to every Great Ming commoner every year?" ===== CHAPTER 838 =====

The Emperor ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guards to investigate and see what this An Xifan was planning and whether there was anyone behind him.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards acted quickly. By dusk, the situation was clear. An Xifan was indeed from an official family. After much inquiry, he learned that he had been implicated by his teacher and could not take the imperial examination, so he planned to return to the Southern Capital. On a sudden impulse, he decided to imitate the old affair of Zhao Zhao Nanxing.

"Exile this Zhao Zhao Nanxing to Wang Chonggu Fortress, and exile An Xifan to Elder Jinchi, never to be employed again, and never to return to the hinterland of the Great Ming." Zhu Zhu Yijun finally made a decision, not only disposing of An Xifan but also incidentally pursuing

additional punishment for Zhao Zhao Nanxing.

If you can bear the cost of exile, then deliberately provoke the Marquis of Marquis Ningyuan.

Zhu Zhu Yijun did not engage in punishing people for their words. This matter would definitely turn into a literary inquisition like "The breeze flips the book."

The harm of a literary inquisition is not a question of how many scholars die, but of completely hindering the popularization of education.

For example, the Qing Dynasty had a very unpopular but very common household registration called "cold registration," where those who had not achieved fame or official position within three generations were listed as cold registration and were permanently barred from the imperial examinations.

There is a stone inscription in Lingyun County, Shen Sicheng Prefecture, Guangxi: "The bad customs of Lingyun County: in the student examination, there is a distinction between warm registration and cold registration. Even if a father or brother sends a child to study, the Southern Yamen clerks often use the cold registration to extort them."

If no one has been an official within three generations, you don't have to go to school, because if you go to school, you have to change your name and surname to a warm registration family, otherwise you cannot participate in the imperial examination.

And this rule is one of the poisonous legacies of the literary inquisition.

Besides this, launching a literary inquisition will lead to another terrifying phenomenon: the massive closing of printing shops.

The craftsmen of these book shops don't know which book will have taboo places. If they are involved, it will be a disaster of extermination. Book shops close, there are no books to use, and if you want to read, you can only copy books.