Chapter 633: Swords and Soldiers

Jiajing 26th year, May 21st, night.

Great Shu, Forbidden City.

Grand Secretariat.

Zhu Zai poured a cup of tea slowly, brought it to the tip of his nose to taste the tea fragrance, shook his head, then took a shallow sip of tea, squinted his eyes and leaned back on the chair, and let out a long breath.

"Ha—"

He smacked his lips.

"Li's lazy days..."

"Tsk tsk, it's not that there are no merits..."

He squinted his eyes and looked at the stack of memorials on the table, which was less than half a foot high, and had already been written by other cabinet officials. Most of the disposals were considered appropriate. He only needed to glance at them roughly, then use a vermilion brush to circle them, and then distribute them to the Six Ministries for execution.

Recalling the frustration of three years ago, Zhu Zai nodded with satisfaction.

"Cleaning up the world is not that difficult~"

Of course, this was just a joke by the old man to entertain himself.

Three years were not enough to reverse the world.

At the moment, only the capital had roughly rebuilt a team that could operate smoothly. Local affairs were still emerging one after another, the Jianghu was still turbulent, Japanese pirates were still appearing sporadically, and the newly emerging evil Jianghu sects could not be killed clean...

But, the general trend had been reversed.

A large number of officials verified by the Imperial Guard were promoted, quickly filling the vacancies, and after three years of tempering, they had begun to mature; Wudang, Shaolin, Gai Gang, and Cao Gang had completely turned to the imperial court, and the new order of the Jianghu was being established bit by bit.

Within the Imperial Guard, seedlings with hope of cultivating into Heaven-Men had begun to emerge, and the cultivation method created by Li Miao to improve aptitude had also begun to be implemented. A large amount of wealth had been confiscated from corrupt officials, families, and eunuchs, so Zhu Zai could safely reduce taxes for the people.

Wang Hai was presiding over the reconstruction of Nanjing, An Ziyang was leading a team to clean up from north to south, county by county, killing people, distributing land, and distributing money, while Zheng Yi was taking Gao Anyu from south to north, sweeping away the powerful families who made moves due to fear one by one.

Of course, because the Xuanlan cultivation method spread, the Jianghu had not been peaceful in the past three years, and there was no lack of evil Heaven-Men with strength exceeding ordinary offerings. The largest scale was when three evil Heaven-Men who cultivated Xuanlan jointly established a huge mountain gate named "Three Immortals Mountain." For a time, the evil and green forest people who were chased by the Imperial Guard were gathered and followed.

A month later, Cao Gang and Gai Gang sent invitations to the sects of the world.

There were only three words on the invitation—Moon Appreciation Banquet.

The location was at Three Immortals Mountain.

The Jianghu people who didn't know why arrived at the bottom of Three Immortals Mountain on time, but only saw that on the collapsed mountain gate, an ordinary iron sword strung up the heads of the "Three Immortals." Below the heads, Mei Qinghe sat cross-legged on the ground, and the disciples of the Five Mountains Sword Sect were moving the corpses from the mountain and piling them up.

In front of the corpse pile were hundreds of wine glasses already filled.

Three days, the wine in the cups was finished.

Since then, for a month, You Ziang re-hung the wooden sign of the Moon Appreciation Banquet on the mountain gates of major sects.

Of course, it was not that there were no deep-minded evil Heaven-Men who didn't show up for a while and were secretly accumulating strength... Then he would have three results.

Either, have his head smashed by the Shaolin abbot with a human face on his chest.

Or, have his head smashed by the Wudang Heaven-Man who was god-like and swaying.

Or... have his head smashed by a certain Imperial Guard Commander who had been wandering around for three years.

Thinking of this, Zhu Zai sighed.

"Don't know when Li will return... why has he been gone for so long..."

"Is Japan difficult to handle?"

Li Miao had been at sea for more than three months, and no news had been sent back yet.

Zhu Zai knew that if there was anyone in the world who didn't need to be worried about, it was Li Miao... But he had been inexplicably restless these past few days.

If it was just an ordinary restlessness, he wouldn't be worried.

After all, he was already old, and occasional palpitations were not very rare things.

But—he was not the only one with this feeling.

Zhu Zai raised his eyes and looked to the right.

In front of the window on his right, stood a figure in a bright yellow dragon robe, who turned his head after noticing his gaze, his clear face frowning tightly.

Zhu Zai's heart sank.

"Still?"

"Hmm."

The Emperor replied.