I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1018 My heart and actions are as clear as a mirror; all my deeds are for justice.

His Majesty believed that establishing the Songjiang Cotton Mill was like the left hand attacking the right, but Feng Bao thought about it carefully and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, the price of coal in the capital..."

Your Majesty is certainly right, but there are times when Your Majesty's thinking is not so thorough. At such times, as the Inner Chancellor, it is my duty to provide Your Majesty with some examples to illustrate the issues.

The coal price in Beijing is a case in point.

Your Majesty is wise and insightful. As long as Feng Bao points out the key point, Your Majesty will immediately understand why Wang Qian thought of using the official factory to fight against the behemoth of monopoly capital.

Before the establishment of the Xishan Coal Bureau, coal could not be delivered to Xishan whenever there was continuous rain or snow, causing coal prices in the city to soar and making life difficult for the people. When Altan Khan invaded in the 29th year of the Jiajing reign, the price of coal had increased nearly a hundredfold. This was the result of handing over the coal to the people.

After the establishment of Xishan Coal Bureau, the price of coal stabilized at six wen per jin (0.5 kg), a price that remains unchanged to this day, regardless of wind or rain.

There were 132 trades in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and the coal burning trade was one of them. The coal burning trade and the coal market were previously in the hands of military officers and wealthy households in the western city. For this reason, when Wang Chonggu was alive, he still faced impeachment from the censor for excessive embezzlement and forcibly took over the coal market in Zhengxifang and Chongbeifang as government property.

Concentration of production, concentration of assets, and concentration of markets are the three major characteristics of monopoly capital. At that time, Xishan Coal Bureau had concentration of production and concentration of assets, but the coal market was controlled by powerful figures. Even though the price had not changed due to rain and snow, these powerful figures still used the excuse of raising prices.

Ultimately, this led to the Ming Dynasty being forced to monopolize coal, coke, steel, and iron.

Prices skyrocket whenever there's continuous rain or snow. Don't the Ming Dynasty's officials, who have such a wide reach, care about this? They really don't.

First, they didn't know that scholar-officials were not physically active, and they didn't need to care about things like firewood, rice, oil, and salt.

Secondly, these are their business in the first place.

The head manager of the Zhengxifang Coal Market, named Liu Xiangyu, once wrote with great pride:

I make my living by trading coal. I either give it to the families of scholars and officials for free or accept half the price, and they all say that I am hospitable and righteous. When it rains or snows continuously, I can make several times the profit from one coal. I work hard all day long, but I can only make a living. I give the rest to noble people in order to avoid the pain of being taken advantage of.

This Liu Xiangyu was a hospitable and righteous man in the eyes of the literati. Most of the extra money he earned during the rainy and snowy weather was actually given to these literati and nobles in order to seek their protection and prevent them from making things difficult for him.

"Then let's set up the project." Upon hearing Feng Bao's words, Zhu Yijun suddenly recalled an old story: the elite soldiers of the Beijing Garrison had once entered the capital. On that occasion, the soldiers pushed small carts with flags, which were filled with coal briquettes, and delivered the coal briquettes to various neighborhoods for sale at a fair price.

Wang Qian's solution stemmed from the success of the Xishan Coal Bureau. There was successful experience to learn from. Even today, the Xishan Coal Bureau is a coal and steel joint venture and the largest steel plant in the Ming Dynasty, but people still call it the Xishan Coal Bureau because of its stable coal supply.

Wang Qian's purpose in establishing the Songjiang Cotton Mill was not to kill the behemoth of monopoly capital, but to ensure that when this behemoth committed wrongdoing, the imperial court had the means and ability to intervene in cotton prices, thus making this behemoth something to fear.

Otherwise, the imperial court would have no cards to play, and this behemoth would inevitably get out of control, with unpredictable consequences.

In his memorial, Wang Qian also mentioned another recent scam in Songjiang Prefecture. Zhu Yijun carefully read and understood Wang Qian's meaning before realizing that Wang Qian was referring to a trust.

Trusts were not a new concept in the Ming Dynasty. Many people thought they were new, but they were actually quite old and had existed for a long time.

In the first year of the Huangyou reign of the Northern Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan was demoted, which meant that the Qingli Reforms had completely failed. Fan Zhongyan's bitterness can be imagined. He could not change the world, so he chose to change his own family.

In the first year of the Huangyou era, Fan Zhongyan used his meager savings to purchase 1,000 mu of land and established the Fan Family Charitable Estate. He also formulated thirteen rules to manage the estate.

The land in the charitable estate does not belong to any individual but is collectively owned by the family. It is the public property of the Fan family and is used to help widows, widowers, orphans, the elderly, and children in the Fan family, as well as to provide for the basic living needs of concubines for education, weddings, funerals, and other occasions.

By the 20th year of the Wanli reign, the Fan Family Charitable Estate was still being managed properly. Even after experiencing major dynastic changes such as the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the land area of ​​the Fan Family Charitable Estate had increased from the original 1,000 mu to 5300 mu.

Such isolated cases do not demonstrate the viability of trusts.

This kind of charitable estate based on family land was very popular in the Ming Dynasty, but some were managed well and some were not. Not everyone had an ancestor as famous as Fan Zhongyan. Moreover, the Fan family was very wealthy, and these five thousand acres of land were really nothing. In order to maintain a good reputation, they naturally had to do their best to maintain it.

Most clan-owned charitable estates in the Ming Dynasty could only last for three generations before dispersing and going their separate ways.

The first generation had amassed a great fortune and acquired communal land. At this time, the patriarch was still alive, and everyone was happy and harmonious. Everything seemed wonderful.

In the second generation, the teacher of the family school suddenly changed from a well-known scholar to an unknown student, not even a Xiucai. Your child was already unruly, and without a famous teacher to discipline him, he naturally fell behind.

You were puzzled, but after making some inquiries, you learned that the clan chief had invited the scholar to his home to give his sons special tutoring.

You were furious and angrily went to question the clan chief, asking how he dared to disobey the ancestral teachings! The clan chief was polite on the surface, but secretly he stopped your family's monthly allowance.

Monthly payments are becoming less frequent and are being made later and later, from every three to five months at the beginning to not being made at all for half a year.

If you inquire further, you'll find that the young mistress has put all the money into loans. The interest earned has nothing to do with you, but your monthly allowance is being used for it. You can't do anything about it, but you've had to put up with it, since it's not that it's not paid at all, it's just that it's delayed.

By the third generation, the monthly allowance was no longer just delayed, but simply stopped altogether. This was because a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations had emerged from the clan head's family, and your branch of the family dared not resist, since a scholar was a powerful figure who held a position in the county or even the prefectural government.

The纨绔 (spoiled brat) of that clan chief's family can redeem a courtesan for eight hundred taels of silver, but you, a concubine from a collateral branch, can't even scrape together a red ribbon for weddings and funerals. Now, you can't even send your children to school because the family school has closed down due to poor harvests on the clan's land.

No one knows what the harvest will be like.

By the fourth generation, they had basically gone their separate ways.

This was still a family estate bound by blood ties, while the new business in Songjiang Prefecture was not bound by blood ties, but by credit.

"Because he didn't trust his unfilial descendants and was afraid they would squander all the money that he couldn't spend in several lifetimes, he found a merchant group and strangers to manage the money, and only needed to distribute some interest to his descendants every year."

"How could anyone fall for such a trick that wouldn't even fool pigs in a pigsty?" Zhu Yijun stared blankly at Wang Qian's memorial, puzzled and greatly shocked.

If you say where the silver goes, then the silver is entirely yours;
On the contrary, if the silver is nominally yours but you can't actually use it, then the silver isn't yours.

Zhu Yijun always felt that the people of the Ming Dynasty were very shrewd. Was this a scam? They couldn't even fool a pig.

However, according to Wang Qian, Songjiang Prefecture had already cracked seven similar scams in succession. Wang Qian even summoned the prominent and wealthy merchants of Songjiang to the prefectural government office and had the criminal investigation department explain the cases to them.

But it didn't work; there were too many fools and not enough scammers.

"Initially, it was a few large families who created this to prevent their property from being confiscated. Later, it was exploited by the brokers and agents that were everywhere in Songjiang Prefecture, and eventually it turned into this." Feng Bao made a special effort to find out the whole story. After all, it was a memorial to His Majesty. If His Majesty asked him questions and he, Feng Bao, knew nothing, how could he continue to serve as an ancestor?

The Ming Dynasty Tax Bureau was a violent tax collection agency. This agency had its own independent armed force, which was even better equipped than the local garrison troops. The Songjiang Prefecture Tax Bureau had seven nine-pound cannons.

If someone evades taxes a third time, the tax inspectors will come and confiscate their property. To deal with this situation, some large families have devised a system of mutual guarantee and trust: my family's money is managed by your family, and your family's money is managed by my family. If the property is confiscated, I will not have a single penny in my name, and even my house will belong to someone else.

This mutual guarantee and trust is based on the premise that the families are of equal size.

But the tax inspectors don't care about this or that, why would they try to outsmart the violent government? The tax inspectors' approach is to punish everyone involved.

What a load of rubbish about mutual guarantee and entrustment! In any case, mutual guarantee and entrustment means joint punishment. The imperial court takes 70%, and the tax bureau can keep as much as 30%. Occasionally, there are cases of ineffective inspections, and the silver within the scope of these ineffective inspections ends up in their own pockets. To say that they scraped the ground three feet deep is an understatement.

Moreover, this mutual guarantee and entrustment became a reason for the tax inspectors to extort money. After all, the nominal property was protected by the Ming Dynasty law, so the tax inspectors did not dare to go too far. But there were many different interpretations of the property outside of the nominal property.

The Tax Bureau was never a good government office, but powerful and wealthy families, local gentry and gentry in the Ming Dynasty refused to pay taxes. During the Hongzhi era, the number of acres of land in the Ming Dynasty dropped from eight million hectares to four million hectares. With an annual tax revenue of five to six million taels of silver, they could do nothing.

If you go too far to correct a wrong, then the emperor had no choice but to do it this way.

The only way to avoid being approached by the tax authorities is to pay taxes on time and in full. Don't let the tax authorities target you or initiate the tax audit process. Once they do, you'll be severely punished, if not ruined. The saying that tax collection notices are a death warrant is never just empty words.

The mutual guarantee trusts established by these families of similar size became a case for brokers and compradors to deceive people. They would often cite the case of the Fan Family Charitable Estate and praise it extensively to make people believe that trusts based on trust are credible!
In addition, these brokers and compradors like to use the reputation of cultural elites as a selling point, saying that they are from a certain thousand-year-old family business, and that integrity is paramount. Who would risk their centuries-old or thousand-year-old reputation for such a small amount of money?

This is actually screening out fools. Trust in mutual guarantee, trust in the Fan family charitable estate, and trust in integrity first. After three rounds of screening, the people who can be deceived are basically filtered out. Then it's just a matter of time and effort.

Feng Bao said helplessly, "The seven cases that Prefect Wang investigated in Songjiang Prefecture totaled more than 540,000 taels of silver. Your Majesty, we really don't have enough swindlers."

540,000 taels of silver is a lot, almost enough to cover the cost of the late emperor's mausoleum. The late emperor's mausoleum cost 500,000 taels of silver, and later, for renovations, the emperor allocated another 100,000 taels of silver, so the cost of the late emperor's mausoleum was 600,000 taels of silver.

Zhu Yijun remained silent for a moment, then looked at the memorial again, and finally felt somewhat relieved.

"Good words can't save a suicidal person. Wang Qian has done his best. He even had the criminal investigation department explain the cases. With so many people suffering losses and being deceived, naturally no one will believe it anymore." Zhu Yijun wrote a critical comment on Wang Qian's memorial. Excessive interference from the court would be criticized as meddling, and it was truly a thankless task.

Zhu Yijun did not believe in these things. According to this principle of prioritizing trust and integrity, all the officials appointed by the Ming court to local posts were entrusted to them by the emperor because he trusted them. However, every year, a whole bunch of corruption cases could be uncovered. They had failed the emperor's grace and trust.

Despite his busy schedule, the Ming emperor met with the Portuguese envoy and inquired about the situation in the West. The Portuguese envoy left the Ming Dynasty with a sufficient amount of goods. In fact, this Portuguese transaction was smuggling.

However, due to the absence of the Spanish galleons, everyone along the route tacitly chose to turn a blind eye.

After all, goods from the Ming Dynasty were hard currency; sufficient quantities couldn't be purchased elsewhere. Take cotton cloth as an example: the West wanted to spin cotton in Bengal to replace Ming Dynasty cotton cloth, but the quality was poor, the price was high, and most importantly, the quantity was insufficient. Ultimately, they still had to rely on the Ming Dynasty. Economies of scale are one of the core advantages of a commodity.

Ye Xianggao was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the eleventh year of the Wanli reign. He became a Shujishi (junior compiler) in the Hanlin Academy and was appointed as an editor. He wrote the daily records of the emperor's life for several years. In the twentieth year of the Wanli reign, he was appointed as the prefect of Jilin Prefecture. When Ye Xianggao arrived in Jilin, he realized that he had been tricked. This Jilin Prefecture was too big!
One Jilin Prefecture is equivalent to nine prefectures in the hinterland. Managing such a large territory made Ye Xianggao somewhat uneasy.

Within just three days of arriving in the area, he quickly understood why Hou Yuzhao prioritized his own position. In this place, those with a long braid at the back of their heads were considered enemies, bandits, outlaws, or mountain thieves, while those with long hair were considered Ming citizens. It was that simple and direct in determining their stance.

On his third day in office, he encountered a raid by the Haixi Jurchen and the Wild Jurchen. A group of 300 bandits appeared in Songyuan, on the upper reaches of the Songhua River, and plundered three Ming camps. If the camps had not been guarded by the Liaodong Guard and if the people had not been both farmers and soldiers, they would have been able to repel the enemy. Otherwise, the three camps would have been plundered by the bandits.

The three camps and six hundred men were bound to die at the hands of the bandits.

Meanwhile, Li Rumei, the fifth son of Li Chengliang, the Marquis of Ningyuan and the General of Jilin, ordered the troops of the three towns of Jilin to launch a three-month campaign to suppress bandits. The campaign was large-scale and anyone who did not grow their hair was to be killed.

The monks in the few temples in Jilin all began to grow their hair long, fearing that they would be identified as foreign spies, because not growing their hair would be considered a crime and they would be punished as spies.

When Ye Xianggao was in the capital, he knew nothing about these things, because the memorials from Liaodong never mentioned the details. They only said that the barbarians admired the king's rule and were willing to cut off their queues and submit. They were indeed required to cut off their queues and submit, or they would lose their heads.

Moreover, in the minds of most scholar-officials in the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong was not important at all. It was a small place with little land and a small population, so they did not care much about what happened there.

Even though Ye Xianggao could see the map of the Ming Dynasty every day, he didn't know that Jilin was such a big place until he arrived there!
The most important thing in Jilin Prefecture was to issue the land reclamation permit. All land that had been owned for more than three years had a land deed. Ye Xianggao quickly took over this task. Everything else was carried out in accordance with the land reclamation order left by Hou Yuzhao. In other words, he only needed to manage the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau.

Right now, there's something that's making Ye Xianggao a little unsure: Jilin County, the seat of Jilin Prefecture, is the site of the Jilin Shipyard from the Yongle era.

However, Jilin County was not suitable as the seat of government. Changchun County, 200 li away, was more suitable. Changchun County had three times the population of Jilin County, with a population of over 100,000, while Jilin County had less than 30,000.

Jilin County is located in the eastern part of Jilin Prefecture. The northeastern part of Jilin Prefecture is mainly forestry, the western part is agriculture and animal husbandry, while the central part is entirely agricultural and is also the most suitable place for farming.

Changchun County is the most suitable location as the political center.

Simply put, Juyong Pass is important, but the capital is Beijing, not Juyong Pass.

But here's the problem: this is a legacy issue. Legacy issues are the accumulation of long-term operational errors in the entire system, and correcting them is extremely difficult.

This Jilin region was designated by Emperor Chengzu Wen in the past. If you, Ye Xianggao, want to change the location, are you questioning Emperor Chengzu Wen?
The Ming Dynasty established the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau to develop Liaodong, and the bureau and the Jilin Prefecture government office were located in Jilin County. This was a decision made by the former governor Hou Yuzhao and the former general Li Chengliang.

You, Ye Xianggao, a newly appointed prefect of Jilin Prefecture, want to relocate the prefectural city. Are you questioning Hou Yuzhao and Li Chengliang, thinking that they are not as knowledgeable about the situation in Liaodong as you are?
Li Chengliang and Hou Yuzhao are both still alive!
Jilin was still the territory recovered by the Ming Dynasty, and the historical inertia was very small. Even with such a small inertia, Ye Xianggao was unable to make up his mind to relocate the prefectural city to Changchun County.

Because if the imperial court supported the relocation of the prefectural city to Changchun, it would mean that Hou Yuzhao and Li Chengliang were wrong;

If the imperial court doesn't support him, then Ye Xianggao is wrong, and he should resign from his post as the prefect of Jilin; nobody respects him anymore.

Another problem is that when practicing Tai Chi and push hands, you push and I push, and this thorny issue is pushed away. After a while, no one will care anymore.

Three months ago, Ye Xianggao made up his mind and wrote a letter to Hangzhou to express his thoughts to Governor Hou for the development of Jilin Prefecture, but he did not receive a reply for a long time.

"Prefect Ye! Governor Zhao's letter has arrived!" The clerk, overjoyed, rushed into the prefectural office with a box in hand.

For Jilin to develop, it was necessary to relocate the prefecture. Like relocating the capital, this was a very important matter because the phenomenon of multiple authorities issuing orders had gradually emerged. Changchun County had a large population, land, grain, and military, so the orders of the Jilin prefectural government could not be obeyed.

Being completely accountable to superiors is something only a mature bureaucratic system in the hinterland can achieve. Jilin Prefecture was still in the development stage of agricultural reclamation, and it was common for things to become too powerful to be controlled.

Moreover, the magistrate of Changchun County was an old friend of Hou Yuzhao, so he cared even less about Ye Xianggao, the prefect. Sometimes, the magistrate of Changchun County would directly discuss with General Li Rumei of Jilin and then inform Jilin Prefecture of the decision.

So, does Ye Xianggao oppose or agree? And does his opposition or agreement matter?

Economic status determines political status; this applies not only to individuals but also to local government officials.

Songjiang Prefecture has been striving to become a secondary capital in recent years, and even wants to seize the secondary capital status of Yingtian Prefecture. This is for the same reason: Songjiang Prefecture has sufficient economic status, so it naturally seeks a high enough political status.

Ye Xianggao picked up the box, closed his eyes to rest for a moment, and looked at the sealing wax on the box with some trepidation. Regardless of whether Hou Yuzhao replied, Ye Xianggao's act of writing the letter was already very abrupt, and he had already offended Hou Yuzhao thoroughly.

Hou Yuzhao's land reclamation in Liaodong was his proudest achievement in the first half of his life. Ye Xianggao's letter partially negated Hou Yuzhao's achievements.

To the average person, Ye Xianggao, what are you trying to do? Do you want to climb the social ladder by stepping on me?
However, Ye Xianggao had to make a great deal of determination to write the letter when Jilin Prefecture was to develop.

He carefully removed the sealing wax from the box, revealing a memorial to the emperor. He opened the memorial and stared at it for a long time before saying in a daze, "Is Governor Hou really this kind of person? He's completely different from what I thought. He's even written a memorial, wanting to co-sign it with me to relocate the prefectural city to Changchun."

Hou Yu Zhao was no ordinary person. If he were an ordinary scholar, he would never have gone against the grain and become close friends with a scoundrel like Li Chengliang.

Hou Yuzhao thought Ye Xianggao's words made sense and knew Ye Xianggao's concerns. He directly paved the way forward for Ye Xianggao, and the Jilin local authorities had no way to oppose this memorial.

Although Li Chengliang was no longer in Liaodong, his son and his retainers were still there. Hou Yuzhao's opinion was Li Chengliang's opinion, because Li Chengliang was not good at court infighting and was prone to falling out with the Liaodong governor. Therefore, Hou Yuzhao's statement often represented Li Chengliang's opinion.

Below the memorial was a letter, a reply from Hou Yu Zhao.

In his letter, Hou Yuzhao said that he had written to Hami City to inform Li Chengliang and gave him a few special instructions, telling Ye Xianggao to do a good job as prefect and not to have any worries. Liaodong is in the process of reclamation and development, and all systems should be changed with reclamation and development, adapting to the times and the situation.

Old Zhao also gave Ye Xianggao a few words of advice, feeling that Ye Xianggao was too old for his age, too senile, too worried, and too conservative.

Why have so many concerns? Ye Xianggao is an official appointed by the emperor, and His Majesty is his biggest backer. With His Majesty by his side, to still be so hesitant and cautious would be to lose the vigor and sharpness of a young man.

Young people should be more spirited!
After reading the letter, Ye Xianggao was somewhat enlightened. He even felt a little annoyed, realizing that he had been acting somewhat foolishly as an official and had indeed been timid and hesitant.

When he left the capital, he dared to point out the flaws in the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty in front of the emperor, pointing out the historical problem of the imbalance between power and responsibility in the Ming cabinet system. However, when he arrived in Jilin Prefecture, he was hesitant at every turn and ended up accomplishing nothing.

During his time in Jilin Prefecture, he lost his perseverance and his indomitable courage and determination.

My heart and actions are as clear as a mirror; all my actions are righteous, so what is there to fear!

After signing his name on the memorial, Ye Xianggao immediately began to order preparations for the relocation of the prefectural government office. Even though Changchun County did not have a prefectural government office, he would set off as soon as the imperial edict arrived. Wherever he was, that place would become the prefectural government office.

“Prefect Ye, I’ve actually heard some unpleasant rumors lately, and Governor Zhao’s words make some sense.” The clerk hesitated for a moment before offering his advice, agreeing with what Hou Yu Zhao said.

Ye Xianggao's talent was widely known, and the local officials in Jilin were all looking forward to his appointment as Prefect Ye, who would lead Jilin in its struggles against the imperial court and the foreigners. However, when Ye Xianggao arrived, he became somewhat timid and hesitant, which naturally disappointed them.

"Public" means not only impartiality, but also prioritizing public affairs.

The local magistrate was of low status and his voice carried little weight. General Li Rumei of Jilin could not oppose her father's decision. The entire Jilin region knew that Jilin County was not suitable to be the seat of a prefecture, but no one could say anything. They all waited for Ye Xianggao to take the lead.

As a result, Prefect Ye failed to make any significant impact upon taking office, leaving local officials quite perplexed.

These county magistrates were actually watching and waiting to see how Ye Xianggao would decide whether he could become the prefect of Jilin. Although he was called the prefect of Jilin, in terms of jurisdiction and authority, he was actually the governor of Jilin.

"Governor Hou's surname is Hou, not Zhao." Ye Xianggao was quite calm, correcting the clerk's incorrect address. He thought for a moment and said, "Notify the magistrates of Songyuan, Changchun, Baicheng, Siping, Liaoyuan, and Tonghua about the relocation of the prefectural seat to Changchun County."

"Furthermore, strictly enforce the order to grow hair. Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free. If the bandits attack our weak points, there must be an inside accomplice."

"Yes!" The clerk knew that Ye Xianggao had returned.

Young people should have drive and ambition when they do things!
The relocation of the prefectural capital demonstrates Ye Xianggao's courage to break with convention and shows that he did not use Jilin as a stepping stone to enhance his resume, but rather genuinely cared about and led Jilin's development.

The strict enforcement of the hair-growing order would, if known to the scholar-officials in the capital, those unaware of the situation in Liaodong would perceive Ye Xianggao as ruthless and would impeach him under the pretext of appeasing the distant peoples.

What the local magistrates and Jilin soldiers were most afraid of was not that Ye Xianggao was a coward—cowardice is one thing, but a conservative, pedantic, and inflexible scholar-official who clung to the idea of ​​pacifying distant peoples and believed that the order to allow hair to grow should not exist. That would be a real problem.

If that's the case, then Ye Xianggao might as well be a coward who doesn't care about anything and lets the local magistrates and generals do what they want.

The Ming Dynasty already possessed extremely high moral standards and was willing to give foreigners a chance to assimilate. Not to mention the bloodshed during the Ming Dynasty's land reclamation, the Western colonization of North and South America was also a bloodbath with countless corpses.

Act according to the times and decide according to the situation. Say what you should say at the right time. Li Chengliang was in the Western Regions and he still made the Hui people raise pigs. If they didn't, they were considered spies and unwilling to be ruled by the king. If we don't do some things now, we will leave sins for future generations.

It's not really Ye Xianggao's fault. He had been in Beijing for a long time and didn't have much experience when he first arrived in Jilin.

It's okay to lack experience; you'll gain experience as you go. The worst thing is to lose your drive and become afraid to move forward when you encounter difficulties or setbacks.

(End of this chapter)