Chapter 981

Before Zhang Juzheng returned to the Quanchu Quanchu Quanchu Huiguan to write the memorial, he first had You Shouli retrieve the letters he and Li Chengliang had exchanged over the years; he needed to confirm many situations in Liaodong.

Li Chengliang is a rough man who rambled on about many things. These letters helped Zhang Juzheng understand the situation in Liaodong.

There were many, many letters, such as how to catch bighead carp when Chagan Lake was discovered, how to send live fish to the palace, and so on.

Bighead carp were a congratulatory gift from Liaodong to His Majesty. The Emperor issued two decrees not to offer live fish as tribute, as it was labor-intensive and costly, but Li Chengliang and Hou Yuzhao went their own way, and in the end, His Majesty could only let them offer live fish as tribute.

Because they offered live fish to His Majesty, the bighead carp from Chagan Lake could be sold in Liaodong, Northern Zhili, Shandong, and other places.

The Emperor said they were good after eating them, so they naturally sold well.

During the Emperor's two southern tours, countless commercial goods that the Emperor had "eaten and said were good" appeared along the way: Wanli tribute noodles, Wanli tribute pastries, Wanli imperial cakes, etc. As for whether His Majesty had actually eaten them, Zhang Juzheng did not know.

What the Emperor eats and how many bowls of rice he eats a day is a confidential matter. Yang Bo was once questioned by His Majesty: "Why are you so curious about how many bowls of rice I eat a day?" Yang Bo was terrified and knelt on the ground, unable to rise.

Merchants following the army are an ecology that most scholar-officials do not understand. The spoils of the Great Ming army's conquests were eventually handled by these merchants, and these merchants were also one of the main forces in reclaiming wasteland.

Zhang Juzheng also looked up many old historical records from the Hongwu reign and consulted the "Regulations on Salt" formulated in the third and fourth years of Hongwu, which is the "Opening-Middle Method."

Using salt and tea as intermediaries to recruit merchants to pay for military grain, horses, etc., and to reclaim wasteland were all provisions of the Salt Regulations.

Commercial reclamation and military reclamation were systems designed by Emperor Taizu Gao in the early Hongwu years, and this set of systems operated effectively until the fifth year of the Hongzhi reign of the Xiaozong Emperor.

"Xiaozong..." After checking all the old cases regarding the Opening-Middle Method, Zhang Juzheng could not calm down for a long time; he really found it hard to describe.

In the fifth year of the Hongzhi reign, the Minister of Revenue Ye Qi made changes to the Opening-Middle Method and proposed the "Discount Method." Merchants no longer had to travel long distances to transport grain and other goods to the border areas; they only needed to pay silver at the salt fields to obtain salt.

This seemed to directly increase the imperial court's annual revenue, but soon, the silver obtained from paying at the salt fields to get salt only amounted to about 1.3 million silver by the time it reached the imperial treasury. This amount of silver was not even as high as the profits from the kelp business.

The salt law of the Great Ming was also largely destroyed by the "Discount Method" that this pair of monarch and subject, Ye Qi and the Xiaozong Emperor, thought of on the spur of the moment.

The reason the salt law was destroyed is simple: because it was the salt fields that paid the silver, and the silver was taken away layer by layer from the bottom to the imperial treasury. By the time it reached the imperial treasury, only 1.3 million silver remained. The officials at all levels had already been very respectful to the imperial court.

The salt law was destroyed, and the Great Ming's fiscal revenue plummeted. This was one thing, but the key was that commercial reclamation abandoned a large amount of land, bringing about the evil consequences of insufficient military grain and empty border reserves.

Originally, merchants reclaimed land in the Nine Frontiers and used the grain from the reclamation to exchange for salt permits at the guard stations, and then sent the salt permits to the hinterland, where the main family took the salt and sold it everywhere.

But after the Discount Method, merchants did not have to work hard to gather tenant farmers to reclaim land; they only needed silver to exchange for enough salt. Merchants began to abandon land on a large scale at the border. In just less than five years, the supply of military grain decreased by 20%.

The price of rice at the border soared, reaching as high as five taels of silver per shi at its peak!

The two percent of military grain from merchants' commercial reclamation is so important because the Nine Frontiers are military-controlled areas, representing that the ecology here is actually very fragile, and one move affects the whole body.

The Nine Frontiers themselves were in a state of "insufficient grain and slight shortage." Merchants abandoning land on a large scale led to a 20% reduction in grain supply, which for the Nine Frontiers was equivalent to the sky falling.

Never mind the Nine Frontiers; even if the grain in the capital suddenly decreased by 20%, the price of grain in the capital would soar from five mace per shi to a price that would starve 20% of the people.

The first person who tried to destroy the Opening-Middle Method was Liao Yongzhong, the same Liao Yongzhong who drowned the Little Ming King. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and almost killed Liao Yongzhong.

The Discount Method that Ye Qi and the Xiaozong Emperor came up with on the spur of the moment thoroughly ruined the Great Ming's salt tax and also ruined the supply of military grain at the border. In Zhang Juzheng's eyes, they must also bear a certain responsibility for the rise of Altan Khan and Altan Khan's invasion of the capital region.

Because if the Nine Frontiers had not been ruined, Altan Khan would not have been able to cause such a big mess.

Zhang Juzheng took out Li Chengliang's letters after arriving in the Western Regions and read them for a long time, confirming that Li Chengliang still had merchants following the army when he arrived in the Western Regions, and the number was very large.

Although Li Chengliang's retainers only numbered a mere three thousand, the postal couriers, merchants, laborers, civilians, cooks, prostitutes, etc., following the army exceeded twenty thousand.

"This Marquis of Ningyuan, I don't know what to say about him. Is he really that obsessed with that flower building?" Zhang Juzheng finished reading all the letters, copied down the key contents, and shook his head helplessly.

He didn't know how many times he had told Li Chengliang, but Li Chengliang just wouldn't listen and insisted on tinkering with that flower building.

Last time, Li Chengliang had a conflict with the Liaodong Provincial Governor Zhou Yong because of the Tieling flower building. Li Chengliang felt that because Zhou Yong was self-disciplined and refused to go to the flower building with him, he was not "one of his own"—a mountain bandit style of doing things.

Now Li Chengliang has built another flower building in Hami and even set up a Hu-dance hall, which has been impeached by Gansu censors many times. Many merchants ran to Hami, and that flower building became a must-visit place, making many people restless.

Not only were there flower-house women from the hinterland following, but Hu women were also a major feature of the Hami flower building.

When Li Chengliang went to the Western Regions, the merchants following the army also followed the tradition of the past few thousand years and began to reclaim land in the area. This March, Li Chengliang banned all merchants from reclaiming cotton fields, stipulating that they could only grow grain and not cotton, which made the merchants complain endlessly.

But in the Western Regions, Li Chengliang's words were more effective than imperial decrees. The Emperor talks about reason, but Li Chengliang has a mountain-king style of doing things and doesn't reason with you at all. If you don't listen, he drives you away; if you make trouble, he kills you. The merchants could only switch to growing grain and dared not grow cotton.

Li Chengliang stipulating this was not just messing around. Growing cotton everywhere led to a decrease in grain production in the Western Regions. Grain in the Western Regions was already insufficient within the area and extremely lacking, so growing cotton made it even more lacking. He could only cut it off like this and not allow merchants to reclaim cotton fields.

Li Chengliang also knew this was not a long-term strategy and specifically invited the Grand Minister of Agriculture from the Academy of Agriculture to see if there was any way.

The Grand Minister of Agriculture had no way, but he thought of a way.

The agricultural doctor from the Academy of Agriculture who went to Hami in the Western Regions was Ke Yanchang, who was like a "fixed-sea divine needle" in Suiyuan.

Ke Yanchang successfully cultivated the purple-root grass sent by the Ross country, planting it all over Suiyuan, and while in Gansu, he cultivated fast-growing poplars. Now, the Zhong-Sheng Good Potato No. 1, which the Great Ming is vigorously promoting, was also cultivated by the team led by Ke Yanchang.

The Chonggu Progress Award for the twentieth year of the Wanli reign has already been awarded to Ke Yanchang, but Ke Yanchang has no time to receive the award, so it will be kept by the Emperor himself.

Now Ke Yanchang is trying to find a way to solve the problem of the vast salt-alkali land in the Western Regions. If there is a good way, merchants can be allowed to reclaim cotton fields, and commercial reclamation, military reclamation, and civilian reclamation can enter a virtuous cycle.

"The alkali land is white, planting a few crops a year. The seedlings are not many, and there is no harvest in autumn."

Salt-alkali land is the main problem hindering the increase of grain production in the Western Regions, and Ke Yanchang is looking for a variety of salt-tolerant plants, hoping to tame these plants to drain salt from the salt-alkali land.

Moreover, most of these salt-tolerant plants are high-quality forage. After all, animals are willing to chew stones for a mouthful of salt, and wild wolves will jump into sheep pens to lick urine stains.

If salt-tolerant plants suitable for growth in the Western Regions can be cultivated, a virtuous cycle of salt-tolerant plant salt drainage, animal husbandry, and expansion of cultivated land can be opened up. As long as this link is opened, grain production in the Western Regions will continue to expand.

If the Great Ming can effectively control the Western Regions for more than two hundred years, and this cycle can circulate for two hundred years, the Western Regions will be the "since ancient times" in name and reality, and no one will be able to cut the Western Regions off from the Western Regions again.

Ke Yanchang's Chonggu Progress Award medal is kept by His Majesty himself until Ke Yanchang returns to the capital, when it will be personally awarded by His Majesty.

Pang Xian also once missed the award ceremony for the Progress Award. At that time, he was in Suiyuan planting cowpox to prevent smallpox. More than a year later, it was personally awarded by the Emperor to Pang Xian. Pang Xian is a student of Li Shizhen, and the student has surpassed the master.

Zhang Juzheng synthesized all of Li Chengliang's letters and various policies regarding the Opening-Middle Method and began writing the "Wanli Liaodong Migration Memorial."

This was originally something Qi Jiguang was supposed to write, but Qi Jiguang is a Grand General and is not very familiar with political affairs. Zhang Juzheng wants to help Qi Jiguang complete this work, which is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as "New Book of Discipline and Efficiency" and "On War"—

the "Migration Memorial."

Qi Jiguang returned to the Grand General's Mansion to help Zhang Juzheng write the "Memorial on Resident Craftsmen and Official Recruitment."

Zhang Juzheng is not familiar with the collective of craftsmen because Zhang Juzheng has never supervised the great construction of the empire, nor has he supervised official factories. Qi Jiguang, however, is very familiar with craftsmen because his personal guards are Yiwu miners.

These Zhejiang soldiers followed Qi Jiguang in battles south and north, made great achievements, and also discovered the Woma Gang mine group while conquering Suiyuan.

Regarding the collective of craftsmen, Qi Jiguang is really very familiar with them. He combined resident craftsmen with past experience, wrote a ten-thousand-word memorial, and sent it to the Quanchu Quanchu Quanchu Huiguan to help Zhang Juzheng complete the final step of the official recruitment law.

To this day, Zhang Juzheng still does not know that the official recruitment law was originally a bad idea Wang Qian had in front of the Emperor, but at that time, Wang Qian only had a preliminary idea, and the perfection of the official recruitment law was completed by Zhang Juzheng himself.

On the fourth day of the eighth month of the nineteenth year of the Wanli reign, at the Wenhua Hall court discussion, Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang submitted their memorials respectively.

"Master, General Qi, for the sake of the Great Ming, you have exhausted your efforts. I, on behalf of all the people under heaven, thank you both," Zhu Yijun said sincerely after reading the two memorials.

According to the ancestral laws, the landholdings of the powerful and influential families had already reached the point of exterminating the nine clans.

Taking the Kong Family of Yanzhou as an example, the direct line of the Kong Family of Yanzhou occupied more than thirty thousand qing of land, which was a terrifying figure of a full three million mu.

The Wanli Emperor doted on Consort Zheng's son, Zhu Changxun, which sparked the fifteen-year-long National Foundation Dispute. Zhu Changxun was enfeoffed as the Prince of Fu and sent to Luoyang. At first, the Wanli Emperor wanted to bestow forty thousand qing of land, but in the end, he only gave twenty thousand qing. These two million mu of land thoroughly intensified the contradiction between people and land at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

And under the Duke Yansheng of the Kong Family of Yanzhou alone, there were a full thirty thousand qing of land.

There were over eight thousand powerful and influential households in the Great Ming, and the land under their names exceeded four hundred thousand qing, accounting for a massive 5% of the Great Ming's total land!

If Zhu Yuanzhang were the Emperor, these eight Battalion Commander would all be exterminated to the nine clans, because the official land controlled by the Imperial Manor was only fifty thousand qing. The powerful and influential households combined actually had more than eight times the land of the Emperor.

"Minister Shen is a bit too radical." Zhu Yijun said sincerely.

"Now is not the time." Zhang Juzheng said to Shen Shixing.

"The Master once said: 'The world is plagued by annexation!' Wasn't this the reason why the Master left the court and returned to the court back then? Thirty-nine years have passed, and we still have to wait? How much longer do we have to wait!" Shen Shixing still stubbornly took out the memorial and fiercely threw out a boomerang.

Zhang Juzheng left the court in the thirty-third year of Jiajing, indulging in the landscape for three full years, before returning to the capital, determined to solve the problem of land annexation in the Great Ming.

Thirty-nine years later, Zhang Juzheng still hadn't solved the problem. Except for the prefectures where the five Maritime Trade Offices were located and Zhejiang, no land had been returned.

In thirty-nine years, Zhang Juzheng had also changed from the extremely radical faction of the past to the conservative faction of today.

And the young and vigorous Shen Shixing could no longer wait. He felt that Zhang Juzheng had changed a bit, becoming one of the obstacles to reform.

Zhang Juzheng no longer felt anything about the boomerang; he had been hit by too many of them over the years. His expression was just a bit bitter. Shen Shixing, this disciple he thought highly of, didn't quite understand his

painstaking efforts.

In the matter of reform, the most feared thing was becoming increasingly extreme during the process of reform, destroying oneself in the extreme.

Zhang Juzheng agreed 120% with the understanding of Wan Shihe, this Grand Minister of Rites. There must be a conservative faction of sufficient weight in the court; otherwise, the reform would lose control, and the resulting disaster would be even greater than not reforming.

"Shen Shixing, are you crazy!" Zhu Yijun's expression changed drastically when he heard Shen Shixing's clamor, and he immediately reprimanded him sternly!

"I deserve to die ten thousand times." Shen Shixing was startled and hurriedly knelt on the ground to plead guilty. Shen Shixing still couldn't withstand the Emperor's thunderous rage.

"Master, don't pay attention to him. He made a little contribution and doesn't know who he is anymore." Zhu Yijun said to Zhang Juzheng, "Without the Master leading the way, protecting, and caring for him, could he have today?"

"Actually, he is just a bit anxious. If the matter of returning land is not finished, I fear the Master will also have unfulfilled wishes after a hundred years."

"When he sits in the Master's position, he will understand the Master's painstaking efforts. Relying on the 'Dinghai Shenzhen Tie' (Stabilizing Needle) in the court, he wants to be fast and anxious. When he becomes that 'Dinghai Shenzhen Tie', he will know the difficulties involved."

Zhang Juzheng didn't have any special feelings about Shen Shixing's disobedience. It was mainly because this disciple of the Emperor said much harsher things when arguing with Zhang Juzheng.

Arguing was arguing, but everyone's goal was the same: the Wanli Reform. This was the greatest consensus. As long as this consensus remained, it was the greatest foundation. Everyone was a comrade, a companion, and a fellow traveler.

The reason for this difference in understanding of policy was simple: Zhang Juzheng had suffered from the Single Whip Law, and the taste of eating his own words was not pleasant. But Shen Shixing was a Regional Inspector in Songjiang, and he only saw the great success of the Single Whip Law.

"Actually, what Shen Shixing said is also correct. Some wealthy prefectures in Jiangzuo and Jiang You can also start returning land." Zhu Yijun expressed his own views.

In recent years, many prefectures in Jiangzuo and Jiang You had found the Regional Inspectors of Yingtian, Li Le and Wang Xiyuan, trying to get the Emperor to provide them with policy support to return land, but they were all rejected by Zhang Juzheng.

The biggest characteristic of these few prefectures was wealth: lots of silver, rich industries, and low land output. The social unrest caused by returning land was small. The biggest characteristic of these prefectures was that many powerful and influential families no longer tried to annex land further.

Returning land in Zhejiang was like eating half-cooked rice. After Zhejiang ate this bowl of rice, it erupted with great production enthusiasm, especially since grain prices no longer fluctuated. There were not many idle people on the streets of Hangzhou Prefecture. Zhejiang had taken a step ahead. If the prefectures of the Southern Yamen were a few steps slower, they would likely be left far behind by Zhejiang.

"I am just afraid that this land return order will follow in the footsteps of the Single Whip Law." Zhang Juzheng said with a hesitant expression, "How about, we try?"

Of course Zhang Juzheng wanted to return land to the entire Great Ming territory immediately. It wasn't that he couldn't do it, right? If he could do it, it wouldn't be Shen Shixing's turn to throw a boomerang.

"Then let's try. Minister Shen, get up too, and present the memorial." Seeing that Zhang Juzheng had agreed, Zhu Yijun said to Shen Shixing.

Shen Shixing presented the memorial, and Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng initially determined four prefectures to carry out land return: Suzhou Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Yingtian Prefecture.

"Minister Shen, how about adding Xuzhou Prefecture as well?" After determining the four prefectures in Jiangnan, Zhu Yijun looked at Xuzhou Prefecture on the map. This prefecture did not have sufficient conditions for land return. If land was to be returned, it would require strong support from the court.

This was a policy tilt made under the Emperor's selfishness. The 7% willingness to enlist in Xuzhou Prefecture was truly too dazzling.

Moreover, the Xuzhou Machinery Factory was already under construction and could be partially put into production next year, with full production in three years. Once the Xuzhou machinery was completely stabilized, Xuzhou Prefecture would have the foundation for land return. It was just three years early.

"I think it is good." Shen Shixing knew very well that this was the Emperor's personal request and immediately agreed. Four sheep had to be driven, and five sheep also had to be driven. Although this fifth sheep was slightly thin, as long as he, the shepherd, took good care of it, this fifth sheep could also grow strong.

Shen Shixing had no idea that the Emperor had conducted a loyalty test; he only thought that His Majesty was rewarding Liu Tang Shunzhi for his merits in settling and pasturing the people. After all, the Xuzhou Machinery Factory was His Majesty's reward for Liu Tang Shunzhi's extreme compliance.

Fourth, bandits and gang members ran rampant. Even the coal carts of the Western Hills Coal Bureau had been hijacked along with the carts and goods. Some children went out to buy soy sauce and disappeared without a trace. The six offices of Shuntian Prefecture accepted bribes and condoned and shielded human traffickers and slave traders.

Fifth, office vermin were rampant. The people all said: "One less runner in the office, one less vermin among the people." These office vermin could be said to do all kinds of evil, and their harm was equal to that of bandits and gangs.

Sixth, black workshops. They did not follow the imperial edict to sign contracts with laborers, but established production relations similar to deeds of sale. Black workshops were everywhere.

Seventh, collusion between officials and merchants. Corruption in the six offices provided too many conveniences for these merchants, passing off the fake as the real, passing off the inferior as the superior, so that the people had nowhere to cry out for justice.

Eighth, condoning the private keeping of slaves. The wealthy households that moved from the Western Earth City kept slaves in every household, from a dozen to over a hundred. The Shuntian Prefecture office was derelict in its duty and watched coldly from the sidelines.

"Eight matters, not a single one is a false accusation. But don't these supervising secretaries and censors ask why it is like this? The clerks and runners of the six offices are 80%

students and subordinates of the powerful and influential families in the city. How can Yang Junmin manage them? What can he use to manage them?"

"What kind of 'Heavenly Dynasty' is this! What kind of 'at the feet of the Son of Heaven,' the place of supreme goodness!" Zhu Yijun slammed the table and stood up, tearing down the red silk covering the map, looking at the glaring words "Shuntian Prefecture 'Hundred-One'." The more he looked, the more glaring it felt.

"Feng Bao!" Zhu Yijun stared at the map for a long time and said loudly.

"I am here."

Zhu Yijun looked at the map and said, "Summon General Qi."

"I obey the edict." Feng Bao bowed again and went personally to the Grand General's Mansion to invite Qi Jiguang to the Tonghe Palace.

Yang Junmin was not the culprit; otherwise, it wouldn't be eight matters, but nine. If Yang Junmin were corrupt, he would be the first to bear the brunt, but Yang Junmin was not corrupt.

In the few years since Yang Junmin returned to the capital, he had truly been working conscientiously, which was already very difficult. But from top to bottom, the Shuntian Prefecture office was full of students and subordinates of the nobles. The atmosphere in the capital becoming like this was 80% because of these vermin.

Yang Junmin was not Wang Xiyuan and really couldn't afford to offend this group of nobles. Wang Xiyuan was a student of the Senior Grand Secretary and the Emperor's teacher, a fellow disciple of the Emperor, and had the merit of inspecting Yunnan, so he was in the Emperor's heart.

Yang Junmin had his father's connections, but Yang Bo was defeated and resigned back then. Besides, when people leave, the tea goes cold. Yang Bo had been gone for many years; how many of those connections were still useful? The Jin Party had already completely disbanded.

The job of Vice Prefect of Shuntian was truly hard to do, suffering from multiple sides and having bitterness that couldn't be spoken.

"I pay respects to Your Majesty. May Your Majesty be at peace." Qi Jiguang walked into the Imperial Study of the Tonghe Palace with a dragon-like gait and bowed his head.

"I am not at peace. General Qi, sit. I will explain the chaotic situation in Shuntian Prefecture to you in detail." Zhu Yijun explained the chaotic situation in Shuntian Prefecture to Qi Jiguang in detail.

After Zhu Yijun poured out his grievances, he said with a heavy expression, "The six offices and runners of Shuntian Prefecture cannot be controlled by these powerful families. In these memorials, every matter is true, but Yang Junmin is not the culprit. Even if I cut off Yang Junmin, the capital won't get any better."

"My idea is to have the Capital Battalion send clerks and elite soldiers to take over the six offices of Shuntian Prefecture."

"Your Majesty, absolutely not." Hearing the Emperor's idea, Qi Jiguang immediately said, "This move will likely cause the court and the public to boil over."

The reason for the boiling was simple: this was the Emperor digging his own grave.

The entire process of Sima Yi's coup told everyone the three elements of a palace coup: control the city gates, control the armory, and control the Wenyuan Pavilion.

Controlling the city gates controlled the entry and exit of personnel; controlling the armory disarmed the entire capital; controlling the Wenyuan Pavilion meant that the Emperor's decrees couldn't leave the palace, stripping the Emperor of administrative power. Even a blood-written edict on a sash would be useless.

Qi Jiguang could impose military control over any county in the world, and even impose comprehensive military control over many places to survive the heavenly changes, just like

Li Rusong went to Rongcheng.

But the Grand General, above all, could not take over the capital.

The Emperor trusted Qi Jiguang's character, but Qi Jiguang was still afraid that someone would want to engage in "putting on the yellow robe." Being the Duke of Fengguo was enough to pass down to descendants; Qi Jiguang didn't want to be Sima Yi—even a dog wouldn't do it!

The army could be temporarily mobilized into the city, but it absolutely could not be permanently stationed in the city.

"General Qi, my meaning is half and half." Zhu Yijun wasn't a child; he hurriedly explained that it wasn't all of them.

"That is still too many. There are eight thousand runners in Shuntian Prefecture. Even one-tenth, eight hundred elite soldiers from the Capital Battalion, are enough to suppress all of them. No, no." Qi Jiguang waved his hands repeatedly and said.

Eight hundred elite soldiers could be used as eight thousand border troops. For that group of vermin in the Shuntian Prefecture office, saying one against ten was an exaggeration; one against twenty was more than enough.

"Sigh." Zhu Yijun also knew that Qi Jiguang wouldn't agree, so he continued, "Then how about retired soldiers?"

"Your Majesty, retired soldiers from the Capital Battalion are also soldiers." Qi Jiguang said something inexplicable. If one understood the Capital Battalion, it wouldn't be hard to understand this sentence.

Retired didn't mean that the elite soldiers of the Capital Battalion had nothing to do with the Capital Battalion. The families of the elite soldiers of the Capital Battalion would live in the Capital Battalion for three generations, and only the fourth generation would leave the military register and be attached to the civilian register of the capital.

Moreover, most of the descendants of the elite soldiers of the Capital Battalion would also participate in the selection for the Capital Battalion.

Zhu Yijun had also considered the option of outsiders, choosing to transfer clerks and runners from outside to fill the positions, and rewarding them with quotas for the Official Selection Law at the Imperial University, but a little consideration showed it wasn't feasible.

In the capital, if you hit a brick, it's all nobles. These nobles in the capital really could only be managed by nobles.

"I am at my wit's end." Zhu Yijun spread his hands, admitting his incompetence. Except for the Capital Battalion, he really couldn't think of a good way.

Qi Jiguang saw His Majesty say this and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, if there were a way for this matter, so many Prefects of the Capital in past dynasties would have solved it long ago. In the Han Dynasty, moving wealthy households to guard the mausoleum led to the 'Five Mausoleum Youths' who were arrogant and ran rampant."

When it concerns oneself, one becomes chaotic. In Qi Jiguang's view, His Majesty was too eager to solve the problem of "Hundred-One" in the capital.

From the longitudinal scale of history, this was fundamentally an unsolvable problem, from the Five Mausoleum Youths to the wealthy households in the Western City today;

And from the horizontal scale, the War of the Three Henrys in France was concentrated in the Paris region, causing infighting.

This place of supreme goodness in the capital had been like this throughout ancient and modern times, an unsolvable problem.

The Emperor was one of the few wise monarchs in the world, but wanting to thoroughly cure this incurable disease that had remained unresolved for ages was almost impossible.

The Prefects of the Capital before Yang Junmin—Wang Yie, Shen Yiguan, Wang Xiyuan—were all virtuous ministers. If there were a way, they would have proposed it long ago.

"To put it bluntly, when I was fighting on the front lines, I was most afraid of receiving letters from some noble in the capital. Your Majesty, it's not just me, but also

the Marquis of Ningyuan Li Chengliang, the Marquis of Sishui Yin Zhengmao, and the Marquis of Yingyang Zhang Yuanxun, they are also afraid." Qi Jiguang said with lingering fear, "Like Ma Lin, who is the noble Marquis of Yangcheng, he still has to wear armor and hold weapons, and be the first to charge. There are actually not many such generals."