I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1056 Class Identity is Greater Than Ethnic Identity
Zhu Yijun originally came to the imperial prison to ask Lü Kun why he instructed three brokers to collude with so many officials to attack Wang Guoguang's posthumous reputation, what his political purpose was, and whether it was authorized by court officials.

But the moment Zhu Yijun saw Lü Kun, he felt relieved. He didn't ask any questions. He was certain that no ministers had instructed him to do so, because Lü Kun's pedantic and uncouth manner was too overpowering. Ministers wouldn't notice him, and they wouldn't bother associating with him, lest it hinder their advancement.

Lü Kun was the typical lowly scholar of the Ming Dynasty: somewhat ambitious, but with mediocre abilities, lacking aspirations, always shirking responsibility, and fond of finding excuses for his mistakes. His greatest skill was opportunism, taking advantage of every opportunity, stirring up public opinion, and then profiting from the chaos.

The forty-three officials who were flogged and exiled were not innocent at all, because they were all the same kind of people.

Those who truly lead the Ming Dynasty forward are people with upright spines, a deep-seated ambition, lofty aspirations that they put into practice, and unwavering perseverance. When faced with any difficulties or obstacles, they will immediately seek solutions rather than evade them or pursue personal gain.

The financial predicament left by Zhu Yuanzhang was a mountain-like problem that confronted the first cabinet of the Wanli Reforms. This problem was so great that, for the past two hundred years, scholars and officials had either intentionally or unintentionally avoided it, fearing that they would get involved.

Wang Guoguang encountered this problem and tried to resolve it, even incidentally resolving the border area's food and supplies issues that had been disrupted during the Sino-French Cultural Revolution.

And these people, when faced with any trouble, claim to be clear-headed, saying that they can do whatever they want with killing or torture, and that a scholar can be killed but not humiliated. As soon as they see the slightest problem with the Ming Reform, they start cursing and swearing. As soon as they see the slightest achievement of the Reform, they become sarcastic and cynical. Their judgment of the Ming Dynasty, the court, and the emperor is always that this is no good and that is no good.

It's unacceptable to disobey him or not; it's unacceptable to not give him power.

These kinds of lowly scholars, besides being noisy, have never brought even the slightest help to the survival of the dynasty, the reform and innovation of the Ming Dynasty, development, or the people.

The only purpose of living is to waste food.

Even Gao Panlong, that lowly Confucian scholar, after learning about contradictions and class theory, could fully understand that the imperial court's caution in returning land to the people was to reduce the suffering of the common people.

After returning to his study in Tonghe Palace, Zhu Yijun thoroughly investigated the case of Lü Kun.

Lu Kun and other high-ranking officials are all the same kind of people. They take huge risks to acquire silver, which they then give to their favored mistresses, hoping to leave some wealth for these mistresses and their children. They end up in prison, but these mistresses start to squander the silver, resulting in a farcical situation.

If viewed from this perspective, Emperor Zhu Yijun seems to be a laborer. He was very diligent, working like an ox or a horse all day long, and he was very frugal, wishing he could split every penny in half to spend.

His diligence benefited the Ming Dynasty, and his frugality became an investment in the Dinghai education system, resulting in eighteen universities and providing students with tuition fees, ensuring that students would not have to bow down for a meager living while studying.

However, unlike Lü Kun, even if Zhu Yijun failed, no one would ridicule him, because Zhu Yijun's motivation for doing all this was simply:

Everywhere was filled with sorrow and bloodshed, all for the sake of saving the common people.

He was the emperor, he had obtained supreme power, so he had to do this: shoulder the responsibility of the nation and lead the Ming Dynasty out of crisis.

The Wanli Emperor in history was a man who could let go. Unable to win against the court officials, he hid in the inner palace for thirty years, shirking all responsibilities. He didn't submit memorials or even appoint or dismiss officials. By the time of the great defeat at Sarhu, the Ming Dynasty was already dead, but it hadn't collapsed yet due to inertia.

He enjoyed himself, but he brought suffering to the world, and this suffering lasted for three hundred years.

Grand Minister Shen Li and Junior Minister Gao Qiyu submitted another memorial requesting that Wang Guoguang be given the posthumous title of Wending. After Zhu Yijun approved it, Wang Guoguang was promoted one rank and buried in Jinshan Cemetery, thus ranking among the meritorious officials of the Ming Dynasty.

On the seventh day after Wang Guoguang's death, Zhang Juzheng rushed back to the capital from Tianjin to see his old comrade-in-arms off on his final journey.

The entire Ministry of Revenue attended Wang Guoguang's funeral; for the Ministry of Revenue, Wang Guoguang was like their patriarch.

Before the Wanli Reforms, the Ministry of Revenue was a government office that everyone could step on. Anyone could spit on a Ministry of Revenue official. Every year at the end of the year, almost all officials would curse the Ministry of Revenue, and even the emperor would curse it.

Because of the national treasury and domestic treasury expenditures, they could only work for three months, and the officials did not receive their salaries.

After the Wanli Reforms, the Ministry of Revenue became a true Ministry of Revenue, and its officials could hold their heads high instead of having to hide their faces and walk away when they saw their colleagues.

If the emperor doesn't intervene, many officials in the Ministry of Revenue will.

No one would easily hand over the power they had worked so hard for. The centralization of taxes across the country into the imperial court was a fundamental policy that truly justified the Ministry of Revenue's status. Anyone who tried to undermine this policy was essentially threatening the very authority of the Ministry of Revenue's officials.

After the emperor had him flogged, no one dared to speak ill of Wang Guoguang's posthumous reputation anymore.

Zhu Yijun was fairly satisfied with the result, exiling forty-three officials to Liaodong, and then ordering Lü Kun to be beheaded and his head displayed to the public.

The cabinet ministers did not reject the emperor's edict. The next chapter was sent to the Ministry of Justice for review. After the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review reviewed the edict, they wrote the imperial edict and presented it to the emperor. Lü Kun would be executed in the autumn, which would be after His Majesty returned to the capital from Songjiang Prefecture.

The reason for executing him after the autumn harvest was mainly to investigate whether Lü Kun had any accomplices.

Wang Jiaping made it all too clear in his letter that the fundamental contradiction behind this matter was the contradiction between the central government and local governments. Under the circumstances of the Ming Dynasty's tax reduction policy, local finances that relied on land taxes became strained, and the struggle against corruption was not as easy as it used to be under the heavy hand of the imperial court.

The Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate all believed that Lü Kun was not alone; he was simply the one who jumped out the fastest, and that a thorough investigation was needed to determine if he had any accomplices.

The charges brought by the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review are different from those brought by His Majesty the Emperor.

His Majesty the Emperor charged them with "forming a treacherous faction," namely, "forming cliques, disrupting the government, privately selecting cronies, and slandering and framing others." According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the ringleader should be beheaded.

This is also why the emperor did not face collective opposition from the cabinet and court officials when he wanted to punish those who spoke out. These guys were making false accusations, and the ministers were actually afraid of this. If the censors really had the power to make false accusations, then it would be like the King of Hell calling on someone to die.

History has taught us this lesson: Zhao Gao pointed at a deer and called it a horse.

However, the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review believed that Lü Kun's actions of keeping brokers, colluding with officials, disrupting the court, and printing seditious books constituted treason, that is, an attempt to overthrow the court.

If it weren't for His Majesty's decisive and swift action, those wicked books that Lü Kun had obtained would have caused immense chaos. If Lü Kun had succeeded, Wang Guoguang would have suffered humiliation instead of gain, and it could have truly jeopardized the very foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

In the end, Zhu Yijun did not escalate Lü Kun's crime to treason, but instead sentenced him to death as a member of the traitorous party. The main reason was that Lü Kun did not have the ability to overthrow the Ming Dynasty.

On the third day of the third month of the twenty-second year, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty once again made a southern tour and stayed there. This time, the stay was the same as last year, lasting for six months, and the entourage was almost the same.

The only difference is that the ministers who remained in the capital changed from Ling Yunyi as the main minister and Shen Shixing as the assistant minister to Shen Shixing as the main minister and Gao Qiyu as the assistant minister.

It was Ling Yunyi's suggestion that Gao Qiyu remain in the capital. Ling Yunyi believed that Gao Qiyu, as a loyal minister, could effectively suppress the ambitions of the ambitious faction.

Before setting off, Zhu Yijun summoned the holders of the keys to the Tonghe Palace Treasury: General Qi Jiguang, Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, Director of the Imperial Academy Zhu Zaiyu, and Grand Minister Zhang Xueyan. He also invited Li Rusong, Shen Shixing, and Hou Yuzhao to witness the ceremony.

Under the protection of the imperial guards, everyone entered the vault together, and after checking all the stored gold bars, the gold bars for this year were weighed and put into storage.

After the amount was counted, the emperor personally locked the door of the Tonghe Palace Treasury. Qi Jiguang handed the key to Li Rusong, and Zhang Juzheng handed the key to Shen Shixing, which was considered a formal handover of power.

Hou Yuzhao observed the entire ceremony. Rumors circulated that there was no gold in the Tonghe Palace treasury, which is actually quite in line with human nature. How much gold is in the treasury is ultimately up to His Majesty.

But after he checked, he confirmed that it existed, and the quantity matched the records perfectly.

Before this moment, Hou Yu Zhao always felt that the gold and paper money would collapse sooner or later. The Central Plains dynasties had been issuing paper money since the Song Dynasty, and after hundreds of years, it always ended in a dismal failure. Even Felipe II's gold bonds went bankrupt three times.

Historical experience tells Hou Yu Zhao that gold and paper money are unlikely to have a long-term stable existence.

When he saw the gold ingots, he was certain that the Gold Note would not collapse, not because he actually saw gold.

Rather, it's because Your Majesty is so meticulous in your work that you've reached an unchecked level, much like the self-disciplined Wang Guoguang.

With Your Majesty here, the precious paper money will remain as strong as Your Majesty's reputation.

The essence of the precious paper is debt, and the essence of debt is faith. As long as Your Majesty's credibility exists, the precious paper will continue to exist.

On March 2nd, just before his departure, Zhu Yijun received a memorial from Luzon pleading for help.

Wang Qian reported that a riot had broken out in Tongzhang Town, Luzon, and that Yin Zongxin had taken command to quell the rebellion.

This incident immediately caused a great uproar in the imperial court. However, the situation at the front was still unclear, so the court did not make a decision immediately. Instead, it ordered two battalions of twelve ships from the Nanyang Fleet to be stationed at Miyan Port to prevent the riot from getting out of control.

Zhu Yijun hurriedly headed south, and in just half a month, he arrived at the Songjiang Prefecture Palace on March 18th. The situation in Luzon gradually became clearer.

"The reason given by the Luzon authorities for the riots is that the officials forced the people to rebel." Zhu Yijun looked at the large pile of memorials and reports of victory in front of him and understood the specific situation.

The riots took place on Mindanao Island.

The Governor-General's Office of Luzon, from north to south, comprises Luzon Island, the Cebu Islands, and Mindanao Island at the southernmost point. The further south one goes, the weaker the control the Ming Dynasty and the Governor-General's Office of Luzon have over it.

In the ninth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, the Ming Dynasty discovered a copper-gold mixed mine in the southern part of Mindanao Island and established Tongzhang Town there. It was one of the twelve copper towns in Luzon and a pillar of the Ming Dynasty's rule over Luzon. This copper-gold mixed mine was a rich mine, and people flocked to it because of the minerals. Countless gold prospectors came to the area.

As Tongzhang Town has grown and expanded over the years, conflicts have also intensified.

Tongzhang Town is located in the south of Mindanao Island, an area where the control of the Luzon Governor-General was relatively weak. Defeated Spanish colonists and their descendants generally lived nearby, as well as a large number of the original Spanish tribes who had submitted to these "red-haired barbarians".

This riot in Tongzhang Town was initiated by Han people from Han villages, but the root cause of the riot was the officials sent by the Governor's Office.

Although these foreigners and those who submitted to the foreigners accepted the rule of the Ming Dynasty, they still adhered to Catholicism and had a strong sense of unity. The county officials and clerks sent to Tongzhang Town were unable to handle cases impartially. When cases involved Catholics, they always favored the Catholics, punished innocent people, and dealt with the matter perfunctorily, which made the Catholics even more arrogant.

According to Wang Qian, after Yin Zongxin arrived in the area, the rioting Han people complained that the local clerks and officials would issue summonses based on a complaint from a Christian or a word from a missionary, and then extort money from the people. After the case was settled, they would not distinguish right from wrong and would often suppress good people in an attempt to extort money.

In order to reduce trouble, they disregarded right and wrong, bullied whoever was easy to bully, and were afraid that after the case was closed, these closely united believers would storm the government office. Therefore, they were very biased, which led to this rebellion.

They had no choice but to riot; if they didn't resist, the Christians would really rob them of their food, burn their houses, kill their families, and steal their wives.

Luzon made no attempt to cover up its mistakes, characterizing the Tongzhang Town Han Chinese riot as an act of oppression by officials.

When Yin Zongxin arrived, he hanged all the officials and clerks of Tongzhang Town, and immediately quelled the riot.

Yin Zongxin could certainly do that, because in Luzon, apart from the officials of the Governor's Office who were appointed by the court, the rest were appointed by Yin Zhengmao and his son Yin Zongxin, and were considered Yin Zhengmao's retainers.

This situation will gradually change. The Ming Dynasty will move from appointing governors-general and provincial governors to appointing local officials. Yin Zongxin not only punished the local officials and clerks, but also began to crack down on these Christians, declaring them as religious bandits. This campaign will last for about six months. Anyway, the Nanyang Fleet has arrived at Miyan Port, and someone will cover for him. If he loses, he can just fight again.

Yin Zongxin's reasoning was also very reasonable: the cult bandits had seized the mine, and this six-month operation was to suppress them.

When Yin Zongxin arrived in Tongzhang Town, he discovered that the situation was even worse than he had imagined.

The mineral veins discovered by the Ming Dynasty geomancers in the ninth year of the Wanli reign have been completely occupied by these religious bandits.

To avoid being blamed by the governor's office, the head of Tongzhang Town adopted a contract system similar to the tax farming system. Every year, a certain number of kilograms of red copper were handed over, and the officials colluded with each other to cover it up, keeping it a secret from the governor's office. They treated the Han people like servants.

To avoid this situation, Yin Zongxin planned to inspect the Twelve Copper Towns every year to prevent such deception from happening.

“There is constant criticism in the court.” Zhu Yijun looked at another pile of memorials in front of him with a wry smile.

The traditional plot of winning a single sentence but losing two books has been repeated once again. When he won, there was only one sentence: "The Emperor dispatched Zheng Mao, the son of the Imperial Family, to Luzon, where great order was restored."

This is not a defeat yet. It's just that the Han people couldn't stand the oppression and rose up in rebellion, causing a little unrest. From the cabinet down to the officials, everyone in the court was reflecting on the situation.

From the perspective of system building, why do we only think of inspections after something goes wrong? Where were we before? Such a simple solution—we can think of it now, but we couldn't before?
From the perspective of the emperor's rule, it was believed that the court had been too indifferent to Luzon and had not established effective rule, which was the court's fault.

Others consider Yin Zhengmao's excessive benevolence, arguing that his benevolent policies, his over-reliance on dispatched officials, and his allowing the Hongmao barbarians and Yi people to continue to multiply and live to this day led to the tragedy.

There are many perspectives and many reports, but in summary, it all boils down to one sentence: how to avoid similar situations from happening.

There's nothing that can be done about it. The Ming Dynasty is completely performance-based, where winning is taken for granted and losing is unacceptable. People want to trace back eighteen generations of their ancestors to find out why they lost and avoid losing again.

"In short, it's just that I haven't had the time." Li Yougong had been to Luzon many times, so he understood better why this happened—it was simply because he hadn't had the time.

The Luzon Governor-General's Office was a newly established area, completely different from the concept of recovering Suiyuan. Many things were built from scratch.

The error correction mechanism, which the Ming Dynasty scholar-officials believed should exist naturally, is actually a fruit that only appears when politics matures to a certain extent.

Previously, the Governor-General's Office had focused its main efforts on eradicating remaining evils and establishing rule, so it was normal for some problems to arise.

“On this point, you and Wang Qian share the same view,” Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

Wang Qianzhen was indeed serving as the governor of Luzon. He summarized the reasons for this rebellion caused by officials forcing the people to revolt and the Han people's uprising as the failure to establish a corrective mechanism. It wasn't that Yin Zhengmao didn't understand, but rather that he couldn't afford to.

"However, arrest this Li Yashi and imprison him in the Huangpu River Garrison for twenty...ten days!" Zhu Yijun singled out Li Yashi.

In his memorial to the throne, Li Yashi mocked the Ming Dynasty officials for their lack of knowledge.

This is no big deal, why make such a fuss? The three viceroyalties established by Spain in Mexico, Peru, and Chile are now almost like the viceroyalties of the Ming Dynasty. If they weren't treated too harshly by their home countries, why would they switch sides?
These are all unavoidable challenges in opening up the seas and expanding overseas, involving a series of issues such as the identity, status, treatment, and recognition of people living abroad.

This is just the beginning. Some meat-eaters are like this, not treating barbarians as human beings, nor their own people as human beings.

Have you heard of the white slave trade? Even His Highness Prince Lu received white slaves from the Governor-General of Mexico.

The symptoms in the Ming Dynasty can really be said to be very mild. When Yin Zongxin arrived in the local area, he hanged the officials directly and did not care about the lives of the Han people. In the eyes of Felipe II, the Spanish who went to sea were all pirates, the treasure ships of the homeland were all pirates, and even the overseas governor's offices were regarded as enemies.

Zhu Yijun certainly wanted to imprison him. He had rushed south upon hearing the news of the riot and arrived in Songjiang Prefecture in just fifteen days. By now, General Qi Jiguang and Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng had only just arrived in Xuzhou.

Zhu Yijun's hasty southward journey was likely due to his fear of delaying state affairs. If a major problem arose in Luzon, the overall situation regarding the Ming Dynasty's opening of the sea might change.

Li Yashi's sweeping generalization makes the Ming emperor seem ignorant; if not him, then who should be blamed?

"Your Majesty is magnanimous." Li Yougong believed that this magnanimity was no exaggeration. If it were another emperor, Li Yashi would have had a thousand heads to be chopped off. Of course, if it were another emperor, Li Yashi would not have said these things.

The saying that class identity is more important than ethnic identity is perfectly illustrated in this case.

Yin Zhengmao carefully selected officials, but these officials, in order to maintain their rule or, during the long term, changed their beliefs and stances because they were rulers.

These officials chose an easier path, colluding with the local ruling class and driving the Han Chinese who went to pan for gold into rebellion.

Wang Qian used eight characters to objectively describe the motives of these officials in doing so: "Suppressing good citizens in an attempt to gain favor." They were lazy and negligent in their duties, and they taught the people not to be trifled with, so they punished good citizens.

But these days, how many people who go to sea are truly docile and law-abiding citizens? They rose up in rebellion, and now all of these officials have been hanged.

The situation was not serious, but Yin Zongxin still wrote a letter of apology, saying that as the newly appointed governor-general, he had not been strict in managing his subordinates and had not been good at judging people, and hoped that His Majesty would punish him.

After much deliberation, Zhu Yijun decided to let Yin Zongxin atone for his crimes by handling the affairs of Tongzhang Town well, which would offset his mistakes. If he failed to handle the matter well, he would be severely punished.

The reason Yin Zongxin was allowed to atone for his crimes was that if he did not, the deceased Lord Guoxing would have to do the work.

This is also why Li Yashi insisted on staying in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty would hold someone accountable for every extreme conflict. In every case, someone, and someone of high rank and power, must be held responsible.

This accountability mechanism is also a product of a highly mature political or civilizational system.

At least in the West during the Wanli era, such an accountability mechanism was not established.

This accountability mechanism is also reflected in the recent major construction of the Beijing-Guangzhou Expressway.

For example, in a certain section of the project, the foundation soil was compacted at half-foot intervals, for a total of eight layers. In some sections, in order to meet the construction schedule and save manpower, the soil was compacted all at once, resulting in a four-foot-thick layer being compacted at once. This led to accountability issues and the entire project being rebuilt.

In an era when bricks used to build city walls were engraved with the craftsmen's names, this was already a serious case of shoddy workmanship.

Zhu Yijun arrived at the Huangpu River Imperial Palace and received news of Ma Li'ang's death.

For the past six months, officials in Songjiang Prefecture had been keeping a close eye on the news, confirming it through reports from global trading caravans, Ming Dynasty merchants in various places, and word-of-mouth among sailors of various merchant ships.

Marion died in the Bastille in Paris, and her remains were seized by the priests of the Holy Light and sent back to Lisbon. The King of Portugal declared that Marion, the Holy Light, should return to the light.

"So she didn't survive in the end?" Zhu Yijun sighed with some regret as he looked at the news that had been confirmed by multiple sources. He had only met Ma Li'ang twice, and her death in this way still made Zhu Yijun feel a pang of sorrow.

"Henry IV has some nerve!" Zhu Yijun was furious. Marion was a key figure in expanding the influence of the Ming Dynasty. She was even a saint who had met the emperor and received special guidance from him. How dare Henry IV kill Marion!

The Ming Dynasty was not fully aware of what had actually happened, only knowing that Marion had died in the Bastille. Zhu Yijun naturally assumed that the victorious Henry IV had secretly executed Marion.

Henry IV would surely cry foul if he knew!
Once he became king, he wanted to be emperor, to be Caesar. Marie Antoinette was such a useful weapon, and Henry IV also wanted to use her. These French nobles, however, only paid lip service to his orders.

In addition to wanting every French peasant to have a chicken in their pot, Henry IV also wanted to abolish all the various French languages ​​and have everyone speak only the Parisian-accented French.

He had so many things he wanted to do. The light that the Church of the Great Light had always pursued was the same light that Henry IV had pursued!
"Ministry of Rites, this matter cannot be left like this. We need to devise a countermeasure." Zhu Yijun issued a very direct order, demanding that the Ministry of Rites formulate a countermeasure policy. Marion cannot die in vain.

Li Yougong hesitated, ultimately not revealing his true feelings. What he really wanted to say was that with Marion's death, the Great Light Cult was finally complete. When she was alive, defeating her alone was enough; now that she had died on the path of spreading light, defeating all her followers was necessary.

Those who yearn for the light cannot be eradicated.

Marion is dead, but in some ways she is still alive, and will continue to live.

The Ministry of Rites delivered the memorial to the Emperor in just one hour. Last year, news broke that the Great City of Light had been jointly attacked and destroyed by French nobles. The Ministry of Rites had also prepared a series of measures to deal with the French disobedience.

They dared to kill even the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming army did not have such strong long-distance deployment capabilities, it could still prevent France from being included in the opening of the sea.

This comprehensive set of measures included prohibiting French merchants from purchasing Ming goods in Lisbon, prohibiting France from purchasing Ming ships with three or more masts, prohibiting all Ming ports from supplying French merchant ships, denying permits to any French merchant ships, prohibiting them from entering areas under Ming control, and not recognizing any overseas territories established by France, among others.

Some of these clauses may seem useless, but as the Ming Dynasty opens its seas and expands its overseas reach and influence, over time, they will be enough to give France a hard time.

Zhu Yijun approved the memorial in imperial edict. Once the facts were confirmed, France would have no choice but to sit at the same table as England.

"Your subject, Marquis Shouli, pays his respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty!" On the day of His Majesty's arrival, after arranging all defenses, General Chen Lin of the Navy paid his respects to His Majesty.

"No need for formalities, please sit," Zhu Yijun said with a smile. "There's absolutely no need for such a grand display."

Because Zhu Yijun rushed south, he brought only half of the Imperial Guards and one infantry battalion, and had only 4,500 troops under his direct control.

In order to welcome the emperor, Chen Lin deployed all 85,000 soldiers of the Songjiang Navy who were not on patrol around the Huangpu River Imperial Palace, with guards every three steps and sentries every five steps, and even prohibited ships from navigating the Huangpu River.

"It is only right and proper," Chen Lin said in a muffled voice. He didn't want to be a sinner in history, and this was a rare opportunity to prove the loyalty of the Songjiang Navy.

"The Huangpu River cannot be blocked off like this. We cannot let the people's livelihood be delayed just because I am here," Zhu Yijun said calmly.

Chen Lin wanted to say something, but he still bowed his head and accepted the order, saying, "Your subject obeys."

Your Majesty's orders must be obeyed; military orders are absolute.

Chen Lin was actually a little worried that with the Grand General gone, someone might take the opportunity to incite a rebellion and assassinate the Holy Emperor.

Zhu Yijun knew Chen Lin's concerns. After all, the emperor's safety had previously been guaranteed by the elite troops of the Beijing Garrison. Since the emperor was no longer young and the country was no longer in doubt, the elite troops of the Beijing Garrison had never put His Majesty in danger. Now that the navy was in charge of defense, if something happened, how would history judge Chen Lin?
"I am right here. If you have the guts, come on," Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

With his 4,500 men, he had enough to completely overrun Songjiang Prefecture.

It was Chen Lin who betrayed the emperor and led the navy to besiege the Tonghe Palace. These 4,500 men were enough to hold out until Qi Jiguang led his army to the capital, or even until Li Rusong led the elite troops of the Beijing garrison to come to the emperor's aid.

(End of this chapter)