Chapter 998: The Great Upright Official Hides and Seeks, Xu the Goiter Only Uses the Back Door

The logic is easy to understand, but truly putting it into practice is extremely difficult. The Confucian logic of self-cultivation has been preached for two thousand years, yet how many Confucian scholars have truly learned to cultivate themselves? Logic is logic, but the reality of implementation is an entirely different matter.

Likewise, because of the Emperor's support, the scale of the Zhang Dang became unprecedentedly massive, and Zhang Juzheng's own position was as stable as Mount Tai; there was almost nothing that could shake his standing. He had already become a symbol, an icon, of the Wanli Reform.

At this time, whoever was the leader of the party, everyone knew that prosperity leads to decline, and they had to carry out a severe internal party purge to allow this organization to survive.

Everyone understood the logic, but truly doing it was a thousand times difficult. Taking the courage to "sever the wrist to save the arm" sounds simple, but if it were really that simple, why didn't Yan Song, Xu Jie, or Gao Gong do it? Even Shen Shiying didn't do it; when Shen Shiying became the party leader, he immediately threw a grand banquet for guests.

Zhang Juzheng chose to have everyone pass the test; even direct disciples of the Zhang Dang like Shen Shiying and Wang Xiyuan were within the scope of the investigation.

Zhu Yijun felt that Zhang Juzheng was a bit too harsh, but since he had already promised Zhang Juzheng to purge the party, naturally there was no logic in going back on his word. Although it caused a certain amount of turmoil, because the matter of Fu Zuozhou's 40,000 silver was not a key point of supervision as long as it didn't cross the line, the turmoil was overall controllable and would not have a trend of further expansion.

In the second month of the 20th year of Wanli, the most eye-catching event was naturally the posting of the results outside the Donghua Gate. These four hundred people became the new Jinshi of the Great Ming Dynasty, leaping over the dragon gate to become the ruling class of the state's official selection.

Another matter was also quite eye-catching, and that was that the Dissection Institute, after long-term research, had figured out the basic principles of "dim vision."

The great physicians of the Great Ming Dissection Institute divided the specimens into two groups and conducted a follow-up study lasting five years, finally reaching the conclusion that dim vision was the result of human sugar poisoning, which eventually led to lesions in the eye organs; it was not a problem with the eyes, but a problem with eating.

This article published in the *Gewu Bao* regarding sugar toxicity caused extremely widespread controversy.

This was because in the process of the great physicians' research, they used the diet of Emperor Xuanzong: in the morning, sugar-wrapped grapes, candied kumquats, etc.; lunch must have sesame oil sesame cakes, sweet and sour soup, shredded pastry soup, etc.; dinner had milk and honey-boiled milk-honey soup with oil and sugar, etc.

This was slightly presumptuous, and the symptoms of deep sugar toxicity all matched the symptoms of Emperor Xuanzong in his later years.

Dim vision, drinking twenty pots of tea a day to quench thirst, getting up twenty times a night to use the toilet, foot sores festering to the bone, ten fingers falling off, etc., were all symptoms of the middle to late stages of sugar toxicity.

The great physicians had no explanation for this, and the Emperor seemed to have no investigation into it, leading to the public opinion attacking the Dissection Institute, which was somewhat unable to be selected.

After all, the person who should care most about this matter was the Emperor; how could they use the ancestors' recipes for research? But since the Emperor didn't care, no amount of attacks were of any use.

The reason the Emperor didn't care was that this was specially approved by the Emperor. In this era where sugar was more expensive than medicine, with so much sugar, without the Emperor's grace, this topic of the Dissection Institute would have died in the womb.

Emperor Xuanzong took the blame for Emperor Renzong; in fact, Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong ate about the same, and the symptoms were also very similar.

Emperor Renzong actually learned the eating habits of his father, Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di. The key was that Zhu Di spent his whole life marching and fighting; he ate this way because his consumption was too high, and if he didn't eat this way, he couldn't fight.

The reason Zhu Yijun wanted to do this topic was that he discovered in the twelfth month of the ninth year of Wanli that Qi Jiguang had certain symptoms of diabetes, which was what the Dissection Institute called sugar toxicity.

When marching and fighting, the appetite is large. Once there were no combat missions and only training missions, Qi Jiguang's body should have become fat, and he should have had a general's belly.

But after fighting the Andahan Khan in the ninth year of Wanli, Qi Jiguang had no wars and served as the Duke of Fengguo in the capital. Instead, he lost weight; he ate a lot, drank a lot, and excreted a lot, but his weight was dropping. This made Zhu Yijun quickly approve this research that had previously been deemed "quite wasteful."

Since then, Qi Jiguang couldn't get enough to eat. The great physicians strictly limited Qi Jiguang's food intake every day. Once, Qi Jiguang even complained to the Emperor half-jokingly, saying he hadn't eaten a full meal in a few days in his life and was afraid he would become a starving ghost.

Qi Jiguang had no way to deal with these great physicians; one by one, they were not afraid of death at all, so he had to go to the Emperor to complain. The Emperor publicly called the great physicians to his side and scolded them severely, but privately, he gave the great physicians extra generous rewards.

The Emperor and the great physicians were all doing it for Qi Jiguang's own good; he naturally knew this, and he also had perseverance. Since then, Qi Jiguang restrained his desires for food and drink.

What Qi Jiguang said was not an exaggeration.

He was a hereditary military officer, similar to Li Chengliang's, and both needed to pay a considerable amount of silver to inherit. In order to keep the hereditary military position, the family had to keep saving silver, and large amounts of money were used to inherit the official position.

Qi Jiguang's life from childhood was not one of great wealth. When he went south to pacify the Japanese pirates, it was even more of a "one meal full, one meal hungry" situation. Fighting was like that; he didn't know when he would be able to eat a hot meal.

When he arrived at Jizhou to resist the Hu, Qi Jiguang often took his personal guards to the grasslands to scout the enemy situation. The places he guarded, such as Jizhou and Xifengkou, were among the few passes where the Northern Hu could break through the Great Wall, so he often had to go out of the pass to scout the enemy situation.

Now that he had finally captured the Andahan Khan alive and brought him back to the capital, the great physicians sent by the Emperor asked the Duke of Fengguo to eat less and more often, and to strictly control his diet. There was no big fish or meat, and even full meals had to be controlled.

The great physicians of the Dissection Institute spent five years conducting long-term follow-up research on the powerful and wealthy who showed similar symptoms, formulating a diet based on weight and different symptoms of sugar toxicity, and a thirst-quenching prescription specifically for mild sugar toxicity.

This food was not delicious, but it could indeed cure diseases and save lives.

In the words of the great physician Pang Xian: "Now, the great general Qi Jiguang's body, physical strength, endurance, and reaction ability are much better than many thirty-year-old playboys. Qi Jiguang is sixty-four years old this year, and he can still dance a twelve-foot steel spear. How many young playboys can dance it?"

A twelve-foot steel spear, one zhang two chi (3.84 meters), weighing sixty-eight catties, this thing was a heavy spear used for martial arts practice and the battlefield, called a "first-line spear," with a wooden handle, nine feet long, weighing only three catties. The sixty-eight catties were mainly used for practicing martial arts; they were heavy weapons that only fierce generals could dance.

Qi Jiguang could dance the twelve-foot steel spear as if it were an extension of his arm, while most people found it difficult even to hold it steady.

If Qi Jiguang didn't have great perseverance and didn't cooperate with the great physicians' diet therapy and medicinal meals, I'm afraid Qi Jiguang wouldn't have been able to hold this twelve-foot steel spear between the 15th and 16th years of Wanli.

The reason this thirst-quenching prescription caused great controversy, besides being related to the causes of death of Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong, was that the sugar toxicity described by the Dissection Institute was very common among the powerful and wealthy of the Great Ming.

"According to the research of the Dissection Institute, by the time sugar feet and dim vision appear, it is already beyond cure, because the stomach has already controlled the brain. When symptoms like sugar feet and dim vision appear, the hunger is even more severe than a drug addiction. This is what the great physician Fan Wuqi said." Feng Bao informed the Emperor of the undisclosed research of the Dissection Institute.

The great physicians actually knew that by this point, there was no cure, but the great physicians could not tell the patient this cruel fact.

The instinct of human desire for food had already exceeded the limits of willpower, so early treatment and early intervention were advisable.

"Actually, according to Fan Wuqi, by the time the 'three-more-one-less' stage is reached—that is, eating more, drinking more water, excreting more, and weight loss—the condition has already reached the point of inevitable deterioration. But General Qi has great perseverance, which is why he saved himself. This is a case among cases." Feng Bao added an extra explanation.

The great physicians believed that Qi Jiguang's case had little reference value; it wasn't that the great physicians limited him well, but that the Duke of Fengguo himself restrained that instinctive appetite, allowing his body to move toward a positive cycle. This perseverance was simply not possessed by ordinary people.

"Do you think I will get this disease like General Qi in the future?" Zhu Yijun put down the *Gewu Bao* and asked Feng Bao.

Feng Bao said very affirmatively: "Your Majesty does not overeat. According to the ancestral system of Hongwu, there are twelve dishes in the morning and evening, and twenty-four dishes at noon. Your Majesty only has two dishes in the morning and evening, and only four dishes at noon, one bowl of rice, one bowl of soup, plus the need to drill troops and horses. I don't think it will happen, and I even feel it's not enough to eat."

The Emperor is thirty years old this year. According to the general trend of Great Ming emperors dying suddenly in their thirties, the Emperor should be preparing for his funeral.

But Feng Bao believed that His Majesty was definitely not a short-lived ghost. Just look at His Majesty's diet. His Majesty was aiming to live longer than Zhu Yuanzhang. Being so burly and so busy, eating so little, it was somewhat hungry, mainly because drilling troops and horses was very physically demanding.

His Majesty now had already violated the frugality of the ancestral system.

This research by the Dissection Institute on sugar toxicity and thirst-quenching had great medical value and provided a relatively effective treatment plan, but the problem was whether people could execute it in place.

People were more timid than they thought. Not to mention the regret chair of the Southern Yamen, when the yamen runners came to the door, basically everyone was terrified.

Likewise, human willpower was much weaker than imagined. Once the symptoms of "three-more-one-less" appeared, it was actually very difficult to control one's diet.

The Dissection Institute was a product of Zhu Yijun's "not attending to his proper duties" back then, and these products were bringing many changes to the Great Ming.

"Your Majesty, something happened at Xu Chengchu's door during the New Year." Feng Bao searched for the situation from the reports of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and placed it in front of His Majesty.

This was a small, inconspicuous matter.

Xu Chengchu's second son was only ten years old this year, just the age to run wild, but Xu Chengchu closed his doors and refused visitors during the New Year, making it impossible for this second son to go out and run wild. Other children were playing with firecrackers and fireworks outside, but Xu Chengchu's second son could only hide at home and see no one.

On the morning of the second day of the New Year, Xu Chengchu's second son, taking advantage of his father's absence, wanted to sneak out to play. Just as he opened the door, someone delivering a gift stepped forward directly. This gift-giver had waited for a long time before waiting for the door to open.

The ten-year-old child had some conflict with this gift-giver. The gift box contained a raw stone from Yunnan, already cut open, which was jade, and the raw stone weighed nearly five catties. The child didn't want it, but the adult delivering the gift kept pushing it into the door.

The child was somewhat at a loss and immediately cried out loudly. This adult delivering the gift was even more at a loss. In his anxiety, he took out several gold banknotes, at least a dozen, saying it was New Year's money.

Xu Chengchu's second son tore up these gold banknotes, and taking advantage of the other party's stunned state, retreated into the house and closed the door.

This matter was seen by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who recorded it and called it: "The Great Upright Official Hides and Seeks, Xu the Goiter Only Uses the Back Door."

A child couldn't even go out to set off a firecracker without hiding, otherwise, he would be caught by someone as a handle. With a big hat of "hypocrite" put on him, Xu Chengchu, this upright official, pure stream, and anti-corruption censor, all became a joke.

Being an upright official was just that difficult.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard's subsequent investigation found that, in fact, most people who gave gifts to Xu Chengchu were aiming to build a good relationship, with no other purpose. They were just afraid that if they didn't give this silver, the knife of the Anti-Corruption Department would fall on some yamen, affecting their business.

Like the person who gave the raw stone, he was a broker for the luxury households in Xitucheng, mainly doing jade business.

This broker had received instructions from his proprietor before the New Year. These luxury households in Xitucheng had no other meaning; they were just afraid that the tax barriers, tax collection bureaus, and local yamens along the way would use the excuse of "strict inspections from above" to block their merchant caravans.

"Strict inspections from above" meant giving more money. But whenever there was any movement in the imperial court, the first to suffer were these traveling merchants. If they had a relationship with Censor Xu Chengchu for New Year's greetings, they could pay a little less.

"He didn't want it, but they pushed it hard?" Zhu Yijun finished reading this report and asked with some emotion.

Feng Bao smiled and said: "Being able to push it hard is also because Xu Chengchu's official rank is small. If his rank were a bit higher, with a gatekeeper at home, a few guards, and two stone lions squatting in front of the door, even if they wanted to push it hard, they wouldn't have this path, right?"

Giving gifts was really not that easy.

Xu Chengchu is in the Anti-Corruption Department, and he sees it very clearly: Wang Zhuan started from the inescapable human favors and social interactions, then moved on to helping with small, reasonable, and legal matters, and finally progressed to small, unreasonable but legal matters.

If Zhang Juzheng hadn't acted in time, Wang Zhuan would certainly have continued to slide downward, turning into major matters that were both unreasonable and illegal.

"Zhixing Zhixing Heyi of knowledge and action to reach conscience is truly difficult." Zhu Yijun gave a vermilion approval to this report. The reason the Embroidered Uniform Guard took a month to report it was mainly to investigate whether these people who gave gifts to Xu Chengchu had any problems and who was behind them.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard used Xu Chengchu as bait for their own performance evaluation. Any problem found was an indicator for each yamen.

Zhixing Zhixing Heyi of knowledge and action was really, really difficult.

"Those few censors who went to Songjiang Prefecture have submitted joint memorials, requesting that all local students in Songjiang Prefecture go to the naval barracks to drill troops and horses every year." Feng Bao saw that His Majesty began to process the memorials and placed them in front of His Majesty.

Zhu Yijun held several memorials and asked with some confusion: "Didn't I give a vermilion approval? They are a bit too extreme. Wang Qian's school rules and mottos are completely sufficient."

"The censors were a bit vague, causing Minister of Rites Shen Li to issue an official document to Songjiang Prefecture, asking why they were biting and not letting go. Only then did these few censors explain the details." Feng Bao explained the details.

What exactly did these censors see that made them defy the Emperor's anger and the pressure of the Cabinet to submit such joint memorials?

They had angered His Majesty and were sent to Songjiang Prefecture by His Majesty.

These censors went to a place called Tianma Academy, located in Huating County.

The chaos in Tianma Academy made these censors become upright officials. They were afraid that their own children would also become like the students of Tianma Academy.

Songjiang Prefecture was changing with each passing day, and there were many new nobles. These new nobles were generally busy and had no generational family mottos. Some people set their sights on these new nobles.

The public schools built by the imperial court were collective teaching; whether one succeeded or not depended entirely on one's own fortune. And good private schools were not something one could enter just by having silver. For some strict academies, the entrance examination alone was as difficult as ascending to heaven for new nobles without family learning.

Tianma Academy was established against this background. Several brokers got together and hired some famous Confucian scholars with heavy money, but these famous Confucian scholars took the silver but didn't go to Tianma Academy to teach, instead arranging for their own unpromising disciples to go.

There was a problem with the academy's original intention of seeking profit, and the character of the teachers was also not up to standard. These students entered the mountains as if they were isolated from the world. Plus, their parents were busy and had no time to discipline them, and they had spent heavy money, entrusting too many, or even bizarre, expectations.

These reasons eventually led to the students of Tianma Academy having extremely strange thinking, acting very radically, and having very bad personalities.

They competed in luxury and comparison. These students had already competed in luxury to the point where they compared whose study companion was better-looking and could fight better. Their bullying of timid and weak people was expressed without any concealment.

Feng Bao summarized: "These students of Tianma Academy are even more miserable than the children in the village whose parents go out to work. At least these children left in the village still have elders and elders of the same village and clan to educate and discipline them. These children who arrived at Tianma Academy have already lost their humanity and only have conflicts of interest."

This was a murder case that made the censors' hair stand on end. The censors were in contact with various cases all day long and prided themselves on being well-informed. What made them hair-stand-on-end was: three children beat another child to death in front of so many people, and not a single student of Tianma Academy dared to speak out, and they actually covered it up for nearly a month.

Zhu Yijun frowned and said: "Then sending them to the navy to drill for a while can solve it? Why, is the naval drill method some kind of panacea?"

"It can." Feng Bao picked up a memorial and said: "General Qi's training method is indeed a panacea."

The *Jixiao Xinshu* talks about how to train troops. The Capital Battalion and the Navy both have a consistent training method. The Duke of Fengguo's training method is mainly to cultivate collaborative ability. In single combat, sharp soldiers may not be the strongest, but in group combat, they are invincible in the world, because of collaboration and because of organizational degree.

"Report to the Son of Heaven, save the common people below" is the general guideline for training troops, and around this guideline, the Great Ming also has moral requirements for soldiers.

These eight moral requirements are: frugality, justice, righteousness, humility, caution, honor, sincerity, and compassion.

These eight moral requirements were copied by Qi Jiguang from the doctrines of the Great Light Sect. They are His Majesty's Eight Great Virtues. After all, when it comes to religion, the West is more skilled, the experience is richer, and the extraction is more accurate.

As soon as Qi Jiguang saw these Eight Great Virtues, he immediately formulated a series of training and military regulations around these eight virtues.

People can be disciplined. Boring and repetitive training forms habits, and habits slowly become nature, and they will think it should be so. After a long training time, these Eight Great Virtues will evolve into two words: loyalty.

It wasn't that the censors were making trouble, but that they went to the naval barracks and saw it with their own eyes.

"The censors couldn't find a place to train morality, so three months in the first year, two months in the second year, and one month in the third year, drill for a while. Even if they are hypocrites, they will know what is right and what is wrong." Feng Bao whispered: "In the barracks, if you can't do it, you will really get beaten."

For example, frugality. In the camp, as long as there is a little waste in the meals, the day's training cannot be completed, and you will have to be hungry at night and unable to sleep.

For example, caution. In confrontation training, if you are not cautious enough, you will be beaten by the more cautious opponent, and even implicate your companions.

For example, honor. The army is the place where collective punishment is most severe. As long as you don't pay attention to your own honor and don't pay attention to collective honor, if you are humiliated, you will implicate others.

For example, sincerity. In the camp, the price of lying is very high. Being kicked by the squad leader or platoon leader is light; collective punishment is the most terrible.

For example, compassion; in collaborative training, if one does not look after the weak, the whole group is punished, so one must help whether one wants to or not—if one doesn't help, the whole team is punished and goes hungry.

There are very, very many similar military regulations and training designs, especially in the first three months of training, where every item is extremely harsh. Through ingenious design, strict punishment, clear rewards, and tedious, repetitive training, Qi Jiguang achieves his desired goals, truly turning the training of soldiers into a furnace—grab them, and they are instantly refined.

No matter what kind of trash is sent into the ranks, under long-term training, they will all be refined into qualified soldiers.

The censors saw the chaos at the Tianma Academy; while they had lingering fears, they also felt lost. Relying solely on Confucian classics is no longer enough to resist the impact of materialization on human morality. Wherever commodity economy reaches, "money first" will sweep away all moral cultivation with an invincible posture.

More than a dozen censors looked toward the military ranks in unison; they had to admit that they could only seek help from the martial men.

"So that's how it is." Zhu Yijun finally understood clearly why the censors had to submit such successive memorials. If they had even a single other way, they would not seek help from the martial men they had looked down upon in the past.

"But three sessions in three years, totaling six months of military training—isn't the intensity a bit too high?" Zhu Yijun sensed the problem and put in a good word for the students.

The censors are a bit radical. Three sessions in three years, totaling six months—Zhu Yijun could handle it, as he goes every day, but can these students, who can't even handle a cockfight, endure this suffering?

The censors are playing this "three in, three out" game; the starting point is repetitive memory, which is roughly similar to training dogs...

"If they can't endure it, then they can't endure it." Feng Bao's words were meaningful; those who cannot endure it are weak cowards, and they will naturally be eliminated by the cruel world.

"Fine. Then let's do as the censors say, and see how it goes in Songjiang Prefecture." Zhu Yijun still approved this memorial; the Dinghai academic system is a fundamental national policy, and its execution cannot be distorted.

Shen Shixing, together with the five prefectures of Jiangnan, submitted a memorial on returning land, stating that the return of land to the five prefectures can be completed in about three years.

The Great Ming's land return policy is advancing steadily and with difficulty.

Returning land is intended to thoroughly disintegrate the Great Ming's small-scale peasant economy. This process has both pain and harvest. Wang Xiyuan, the Governor of Yingtian, is in overall charge of this task. He specifically ran to Hangzhou Prefecture, found Hou Yuzhao, asked in detail about the problems of returning land, and stayed in Hangzhou Prefecture for three months to deeply understand the solutions to the problems of returning land and the aftermath.

"I never thought that returning land would be so difficult." Zhu Yijun looked at this ten-thousand-word memorial, which recorded many problems encountered in returning land; a slight carelessness would lead to failure.

The most troublesome thing is that farmers and tenant farmers have united to oppose the imperial court's return of land, and it is not a problem in one place, nor is it stirred up by local gentry. If it were stirred up by local gentry, it would be simple—just kill them.

Jiangnan has many workshops, so there are many opportunities. Some people have become craftsmen in the city and are unwilling to return to their hometowns to farm.

Once the imperial court returns the land, it is equivalent to fixing the farmers and tenant farmers to the land. Taking advantage of the increase in workshops, becoming a craftsman is better than having descendants all be farmers.

Farming is not a beautiful thing. Farmers just have less knowledge, but they are not stupid at all. At present, the agricultural surplus from farming is all supplied to craftsmen to eat. Farmers are not willing to just be producers, rather than consumers and meat-eaters.

They do not want to become exploited producers in the division of labor of the Wanli Reform.

Admittedly, in the eyes of the imperial court, craftsmen are also exploited producers, but for farmers, entering the city as craftsmen is still a better life.

Pulling a rickshaw at Zhaoyang Gate earns one hundred copper coins a day, and the food and housing are not very good, but one can still save some money. This is already a life that farmers yearn for extremely.

The contradictions of returning land are much more complex than Zhu Yijun imagined. The Wanli land survey took a full nine years to complete, but the Wanli land return—who knows when it will be generally completed.

"Your Majesty, this matter of returning land can only be done bit by bit. If the foundation is insufficient, it will harm the people instead of protecting them." As the Inner Minister, Feng Bao reminded His Majesty that this matter really cannot be rushed.

If the world were overturned, the destiny exhausted, and the mandate lost, then one could confiscate and equalize land with a single stroke. But to innovate and reform, one can only return land bit by bit, rather than equalizing it.

Returning land in areas without an economic foundation will only cause the small-scale peasant economy and order, which could originally be self-sufficient, to completely collapse. Due to reasons like transportation and productivity, a commodity economy cannot be formed, and it will only harm the people and leave them displaced.

Difficult? It's right that it's difficult.

If it weren't difficult, the many self-rescue reforms in history wouldn't have failed.