I'm really not doing business

Chapter 689: On the Self-cultivation of Treacherous Officials

The Classic of Mountains and Seas records a wild beast called "Bingfeng", which lived to the east of Wuxiang State. It was a pig with two heads on one body. When encountering problems, both heads wanted to escape, one to the left and the other to the right, caught in a dilemma and unable to use their strength in either direction, and thus unable to escape.

This is why Fu Xizhi has come forward step by step. Some things are public on one side and private on the other. On one side it is personal will and on the other side there are people pushing him forward. On one side he is armed to the teeth and risking his life to defend the Ming Dynasty, and on the other side he is corrupt and ruthless for the sake of money and wealth. All of this is Fu Xizhi.

He doesn't do these things just because he doesn't want to.

Under the dual alienation of power and money, things have come to this point today. Fu Xizhi did not defend himself too much, nor did he have room for debate, because he knew very well that the smuggling volume of 50,000 kilograms was the current volume. As the business continued to expand, it would get out of control and eventually become unmanageable.

He knew very well that he deserved to die.

Before his death, Fu Xizhi did not make random accusations and drag the Duke of Wei's Mansion into the water, because it was already embarrassing enough.

Some people are dead, but they are still alive. Some people are still alive, but they have been dead for a long time. Fu Xizhi is a living dead.

"Lin Fucheng said that when people are alienated by religion, money, and power, just like taking opium, they will develop inner demons. The inner demons will grow stronger as they continue to do evil, slowly controlling their behavior, and eventually turning them into living dead. This is the ultimate appearance of alienation." Zhu Yijun talked about the results of Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi's thinking.

The ultimate result of alienation is the living dead.

Fu Xizhi put this truth into practice through his own practice.

"I, a guilty minister, deserve death." Fu Xizhi let out a breath of foul air, and his whole body collapsed. He had originally wanted to confess honestly and maintain his dignity in the last moments of his life, during the final trial by His Majesty, but now that His Majesty's inner demon statement had come out, Fu Xizhi knew that he had no dignity at all.

He was not waiting to die, but had already died a long time ago.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "There are eight opinions in the imperial court. You are a second-rank minister, so you should be considered as a noble. You fought bravely and made contributions to the Japanese invasion, so you should be considered as a meritorious official. You went to Japan to sell some things, and at most you will be dismissed and investigated. Maybe you can still retain your reputation. After your death, under the pens of literati, you can become a banner for the wronged scholars in the court."

"But these things contain saltpeter, so I can't give you the Eighth Plan."

"You will be beheaded immediately, and your family and relatives will be exiled to Java."

Zhu Yijun gave Fu Xizhi the last bit of dignity by beheading him in public instead of taking him to the dissection hall to be used as a specimen.

"I, your humble servant, bow my head to thank the Emperor for his grace." Fu Xizhi bowed his head again to thank the Emperor for his grace.

His crime was extremely serious. If he had been sentenced according to the imperial edict, his entire family would have been executed. If he had been sentenced according to the Ming Dynasty's usual public opinion, he would have been sent to the execution ground for collaborating with the Japanese. Both the upper and lower classes could accept this. However, Your Majesty ultimately sentenced him to immediate execution and did not make a specimen of him. His entire family was punished with exile.

His Majesty said that he would not discuss honors, but in his heart he still commended Fu Xizhi for his merits. All civil and military officials who had made contributions in suppressing the Japanese pirates and killing the Japanese pirates would receive extra preferential treatment from His Majesty. This was also a common practice.

"Take him away." Zhu Yijun waved his hand, signaling the imperial guards to take the prisoner away.

"I, your humble servant, take my leave." After paying his respects, Fu Xizhi left Nanhu Villa under the escort of the imperial guards.

Zhu Yijun wanted to meet Fu Xizhi to find out the truth and ask him why he did this. It was also to avoid false cases and wrongful convictions, such as Hu Zongxian being killed in Tianlao by Xu Jie.

Hu Zongxian wrote a memorial of defense while in prison, but this memorial was never sent to the emperor.

Fu Xizhi was a second-rank official. Zhu Yijun met him to prevent someone from making up stories in the future, saying that the imperial guards had framed him.

The judgment was made by Zhu Yijun himself, so there is no need to put the blame on the Tiqi. Anyone who colluded with the Japanese must be put to death.

Zhu Yijun's eyes were always on Fu Xizhi. He walked slowly with his head buried deeply, and left like a puppet.

"Feng Daban, do you think I will become like him in the future?" Zhu Yijun suddenly asked.

Feng Bao was stunned for a moment, thought seriously for a long time and said, "No, Your Majesty, a scholar must be broad-minded and resolute. Your Majesty is broad-minded and resolute. Even if the scholars and officials throw ten thousand buckets of dirty water on Your Majesty, time will prove that Your Majesty is right."

Involuntarily? Two pigs? Hai Rui, Zhang Juzheng, Yuan Hongyu, Shen Li, and others were all old. How could they live according to their own will? Even though the world was extremely bad, they still stubbornly persisted.

A man of great resolve will not be swayed by those behind him. Perseverance is your Majesty's virtue.

"You are optimistic and your flattery is deafening." Zhu Yijun picked up the memorial with a smile. It has been more than ten years since Feng Bao arrived, and he is still the same, a flatterer.

Feng Bao waved his hands and said, "I am not optimistic, nor am I flattering you. Ever since Grand Master Wan Shihe started reading history, I have also read a lot of history books. I have never seen a sage ruler like the ones in the books. I have only seen a sage ruler like your majesty."

Those sage kings are dead, but Your Majesty is still alive. Feng Bao does not think that Your Majesty is worse than those wise kings in history.

"Okay, let's get to work." Zhu Yijun was too lazy to argue with Feng Bao, so he chose to go to the government office. The Northern Yamen had sent in some memorials that required the emperor to deal with personally.

Ling Yunyi was domineering in Henan and was reported by the powerful and wealthy people in Henan. What surprised the emperor was that although the powerful and wealthy people in Henan scolded Ling Yunyi for being domineering, they only hoped that the emperor could make Ling Butang be more restrained and had no intention of driving Ling Butang away.

In the words of Henan gentry: Ling Bu Tang is domineering and overbearing, but he acts in an upright manner.

Just kill them. Some people really deserve to be killed, and even the gentry think they deserve to die.

Ling Yunyi does things in an open and aboveboard manner. There are two words to describe everything: fair, fair, and damn fair.

When repairing the Yellow River embankment, the allocation is based on the amount of land you own. The amount you allocate is based on the amount of land you own. This is fairness. People are not worried about the lack of land, but the inequality of distribution. For such allocations, the money of the wealthy and powerful must be returned in full, and the money of the local gentry must be divided 30% and 70%. It would be strange if the local gentry were willing to donate! Didn’t the clan unite to resist the imperial decree?

The royal palace and the powerful and wealthy did not do the land survey, so the local gentry and nobles were asked to do the survey. How could they be willing?

But when Ling Yunyi does things, whoever has more land will pay more money and grain, and the land will be surveyed together, no matter who you are. The local gentry in Henan recognize Ling Yunyi very much, but they still think that Ling Yunyi's knife is too scary.

Shen Yikuan reported to the court that he had not yet found the salt lake that the Western Region merchants mentioned, which was actually the potassium salt lake. He hoped that the court could give him more time, as these Western Region merchants were tight-lipped and needed some torture instruments to pry open their mouths.

Shen Yikuan was a scholar from Zhejiang. In his eyes, barbarians had the faces of wolves and the hearts of beasts, and were not human beings.

The debate between Chinese and barbarians is a discriminatory theory. It is natural for the people in the Central Plains not to treat the barbarians as human beings.

This arrogance of not treating barbarians as human beings did not continue until after the Second Opium War, when, at the very strong request of the British, the terms "barbarians" and "barbarians" were removed from the diplomatic documents and replaced with the word "foreigners". Article 51 of the Sino-British Treaty of Tianjin stated: "From now on, in all official documents, whether in Beijing or outside, the word "barbarian" shall not be mentioned when referring to officials and civilians of Great Britain."

When the Treaty of Tianjin was signed, the British regarded this word as a great humiliation, and even said that if it was not changed, they would not talk about it and would continue fighting.

Shen Yi Guan was the mainstay of the Zhejiang Party. He was also a traditional scholar-official. He opposed torture, but the barbarians were not human beings, so he planned to use torture to find the potassium salt lake that could bring good harvests to the land.

The Salt Lake, also known as Lop Nur, is located in the desert. During the Wanli period, Lop Nur had not completely dried up and was still an oasis. If we could find Lop Nur, we could find the fulcrum for advancing into the Western Regions, which was an important step in reopening the Western Regions.

News came from Yunnan that the Ming Dynasty had restored a Xuanwei Office and requested that it be renamed a prefecture, which would be under the jurisdiction of Yunnan.

Mu Changzuo, Duke of Qian, and Liu Jing, General of Sichuan, suggested that the prefecture be renamed Mubang Prefecture, be under the jurisdiction of Yunnan, and become a territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the idea of ​​Yunnan Governor Liu Shizeng was completely opposite to that of the Duke of Qian and Sichuan General. Liu Shizeng meant to change the Mubang Prefecture into the Mubang Governor's Prefecture, with the Duke of Qian as the Governor of Mubang. If the whole of Toungoo was taken over in the future, the Duke of Qian would also serve as the Governor-General of Toungoo.

Because of this, Wen and Wu quarreled fiercely.

It was not that Liu Shiceng had any ill intentions. His reason was that Mubang was a place that the Duke of Qian conquered without spending any money or grain from the imperial court. It was a place that they had conquered themselves. The war had progressed to this point, and it would be unreasonable not to give some substantial rewards. So he might as well just give them a substantial fiefdom.

Mu Changzuo's idea was that the main force this time were all Han soldiers, and the ones fighting were Liu Jing and Liu Dadao. On the contrary, the foreign troops such as the raw Miao and cooked Miao that had been raised by the Duke of Qian's Mansion for countless years were useless and had a counterproductive effect, and their Dali nest was almost stolen.

Mu Changzuo refuted Liu Shizeng: How can it not cost the court money and grain? Your Majesty's reward, the Han soldiers in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou, all worked hard, and when it came time to pick the peaches, his Qianguo Mansion took all the spoils. It doesn't make sense.

"Why do I feel that the Yunnan side is playing a double game with me?" Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and felt that something was not right. In the past, quarrels always arose over the uneven distribution of spoils, but now they were pushing the peach back and forth and blaming each other.

"Your Majesty, the reasons they gave were not what they had in mind."

"The Duke of Qian has thought clearly. Being the governor of Mubang is not as comfortable as being a prince of the Ming Dynasty. What's more, the newly opened up areas are full of unruly people and difficult to govern. It is better to hand them over to these civil servants and let them deal with it." Feng Bao explained from his standpoint the reasons why the Duke of Qian strongly opposed to allocating himself a fiefdom.

According to the Zhou Dynasty's system of enfeoffment, if one was really granted land, he would be attacked within a few years and would lose both the fiefdom and the title.

Besides, all the etiquette of the Duke of Qian's Mansion is in accordance with the standards of the royal palace. The Prince Mu's Mansion is not just talking. It is the ancestral system to divide the fiefdom without granting the land. It is not allowed to do anything that is alienated from the Ming Dynasty.

"What about Liu Shiceng?" Zhu Yijun agreed with Feng Bao's statement. It was understandable that the Duke of Qian did not want the fiefdom. Being the King of Mubang or the King of Toungoo was useless. Ten thousand Kings of Mubang were not as good as one Duke of Ming. There were only six Dukes in Ming Dynasty. Apart from the Duke's Mansion at the beginning of the country, there was only one other, Qi Jiguang.

Among Zhang Yuanxun, Marquis of Yingyang, Yin Zhengmao, Marquis of Sishui, and Deng Zilong, Earl of Shilong, who would be willing to give up the title of the Ming Dynasty and become the king of a foreign country?
If Mu Changzuo really had this idea, all the ancestors of the Mu family would be so angry that they would crawl out of their graves.

"Liu Shizeng's idea is actually very normal. If it is designated as a prefecture and is affiliated with Yunnan, it will have to be ruled by the king. But who would be willing to go there? It would be worse than a hereditary chieftain, Your Majesty. People over there can't farm there. In Liu Shizeng's eyes, it is worthless." Feng Bao could understand Liu Shizeng's idea. If it really became a prefecture, the local officials in Yunnan would scold him, Liu Shizeng, for finding a crappy job for the bureaucratic class.

Zhu Yijun nodded again and said, "That makes sense."

Mubang Xuanweisi was conquered by the Ming army. There were many Han people in this place, which previously accounted for more than 60% of the population. Although not as high as the 80% in Suiyuan, it also met the conditions for kingship. In addition, with the conquest of the Ming army, these Miao people, both young and mature, ran away or died, and the proportion of Han people rose again.

If we take it all, the cost of ruling will be high. If we don’t take it, we have already conquered it, and we are in a dilemma.

This state of confederation is not only for individuals, but also for state affairs. "So, they should stop arguing. It should be divided into a prefecture and subordinate to Yunnan. Just like Yunnan in the past, many local chieftains should be set up to govern themselves. This kingship should be done slowly and over a long period of time." Zhu Yijun made the final decision. In name, it was subordinate to the Yunnan Provincial Administration, but in reality, it was still a local chieftain's self-government, which took care of all forces in Yunnan.

The establishment of a king's rule is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it may take more than one hundred or two hundred years. This time will be shortened with the improvement of productivity, but it cannot be accomplished in ten or twenty years.

Zhu Yijun approved a total of five memorials, all of which were about important affairs of the country. Zhu Yiliu handled all miscellaneous affairs.

Prince Lu was impeached again!
This time it wasn't that the censors were finding faults, nor was it that Prince Lu was misbehaving again. Prince Lu's misbehavior was not worthy of the censors' impeachment. It was really that Prince Lu was so inconsistent in reviewing memorials that he worked for three days and rested his nets for two days. The memorials sent to the palace had not received a reply for seven or eight days, causing complaints from the bureaucrats in the Northern Yamen. Administrative efficiency had declined, but the bridle of the performance evaluation system would not be loosened, causing some censors to want to run to the palace to surrender!
But he was worried that the unreasonable Zhu Yiliu would throw him directly into prison, so he had to ask His Majesty to go back as soon as possible.

Prince Lu even made a special memorial, criticizing the bureaucrats for writing memorials that were confusing, lengthy, and lacked effective information, with scattered information and no punctuation, which made things difficult for him, a child! He was still a child, and if he read slowly, he would be yelled at. These people even had to complain to His Majesty. Who is the child after all! You can't afford to sue the parents, right?

Zhu Yijun could only draft a sternly worded imperial edict, admonishing Zhu Yiliu not to be too playful and to approve all the memorials that needed to be approved, even if it was just a stamp.

Zhu Yijun had just finished reviewing the memorials when Wang Chonggu arrived. Wang Chonggu came to report on the results of Operation Spring Thunder and the leading role of the government-run factories.

Wang Chonggu's Spring Thunder Operation was executed very well. It was a high-pressure policy, with a sentry every three steps and a guard every five steps. If you touched a money bag, you would be caught within five steps. How about holding a child? Petty thieves were thrown on the ship and sent to Java. The Ming emperor was determined to get this fertile land of Java.

"Wang Ci Fu, I heard that others call you Five-Step Snake." Zhu Yijun talked about an interesting story in Nanjing City recently. During the Spring Thunder Operation, Wang Chonggu also got a nickname, Five-Step Snake.

The five-step snake is extremely poisonous and will fall down after five steps. The intensity of Operation Spring Thunder is just like that of the five-step snake. Of course, with such intensity, the sky in Nanjing city suddenly became clear and the air was fresh. Wang Ci Fu, who presided over Operation Spring Thunder, became the five-step snake.

"I thank them for giving me a nickname. It's not the wrong name, but I hope they can always remember it." Wang Chonggu said calmly, "I never believe in moral restraints. I only believe in fear. As long as they remember this nickname, they won't dare to be too presumptuous."

"If they dare to embarrass the craftsmen, I will embarrass them."

Wang Chonggu and Wang Qian are authoritarian worshipers. They only believe in the effectiveness of intimidation and fear. It is useless to teach them with earnest words. It is better to hit them with a punch.

This is roughly the idea of ​​the Legalists, to enforce the law and support education.

"There is a miscellaneous newspaper in the Southern Court. Would you like to take a look, Wang Ci Fu?" Zhu Yijun took out a miscellaneous newspaper from the table, circled an article in the miscellaneous newspaper, and handed it to Wang Chonggu.

Wang Chonggu took a look and frowned, saying, "Your Majesty, this is just a stinking fart from a lowly scholar! In any case, the government factory cannot change long-term workers into short-term workers."

The content of the miscellaneous newspaper affirms the broker-comrades employment method. The whole article discusses the positive significance of the broker-comrades employment method. In the miscellaneous newspaper, the editor believes that government-owned factories should also have a certain amount of short-term workers.

Too many long-term workers in government-run factories can easily lead to inbreeding, bloat, rigidity, and inefficient production. The introduction of the short-term worker system can effectively solve these problems. The most important thing is that it can save costs and money. The labor remuneration of a long-term worker is very high, and it is also expensive to train him, but government-run factories and private workshops do not actually need so many skilled craftsmen.

Skilled craftsmen produce high value-added goods, and these high value-added goods often have high profits and high prices, such as silk and worsted wool. The market for high value-added goods is very low, so there is little demand for skilled craftsmen.

The imperial court as a whole denied the broker-comrades employment method, which meant denying short-term workers and using visible hands to interfere with market adjustments. It was impossible for everyone to be a skilled craftsman, just as it was impossible for everyone to be a Jinshi or a Juren.

The whole article makes a lot of sense.

But Wang Chonggu thought it smelled terrible.

Wang Chonggu put the newspaper down, shook his head and said, "The content of this newspaper is wrong. It is caused by not understanding the system of resident craftsmen. Your Majesty, short-term workers do not save money, especially for government factories. Apart from convenience, I can't think of any other reason."

"Not saving money?" Zhu Yijun was stunned.

"Your Majesty, without skilled craftsmen, private workshops can at most produce goods with low added value. The same cannot be said for state-owned factories. If they can only produce goods with low added value, how can they occupy a dominant position? How can they serve as the backbone? It really does not save money. The profit created by a skilled craftsman is ten times or even more than that of an apprentice." Wang Chonggu first corrected His Majesty's prejudice.

Temporary workers really don’t save money, especially in state-owned factories.

Wang Chonggu went on to say, "People who don't work are often like this. They have never seen the craftsmen in the government factories. Even the top craftsmen among the fifth-level craftsmen are people who can't sit still. If you don't let them work, they will scold you. They always want to tinker with something, just like these scholars. With ink in their stomachs, how can they not write something?"

"Of course there are people who abuse their privileges in the government-run factories, but the tricks used by the craftsmen are far inferior to those made by these scholars. Tsk tsk, I don't know how Bi Zheng has the nerve to say that the craftsmen abuse their privileges."

"In the eyes of a lowly scholar, the whole world is lowly!"

This problem that is being widely publicized certainly exists in government-owned factories, but the biggest problem is inbreeding. The Ming Dynasty itself was a hereditary artisan household system.

"Your Majesty, craftsmen occupy a dominant position in government factories, which is something that you, the humble scholar, do not understand." After much thought, Wang Chonggu decided to explain this issue clearly to His Majesty.

"The craftsmen are not satisfied with the bosses and the nonsense of the officials. They can show it, and even point their fingers at the officials and scold them for meddling in their affairs. When my son was taking his pen to the woolen factory to see the iron horses, someone from the law office asked Wang Qian to put on his hat."

"Government factories are responsible for production, and that's how production works. Everyone takes care of their own business."

"The reason why the resident craftsman was so bold that he even dared to embarrass Wang Qian was that Wang Qian had no choice but to wear his hat because the expulsion of the resident craftsman was not controlled by the officials. Instead, the Legislative Office would investigate the whole matter and send it to the General Office. If it involved a criminal charge, it would be transferred to the government office. If it did not involve a criminal charge, it would be handled at the discretion of the court."

"Your Majesty, the resident craftsmen are the fixed assets of the government factories. They are the assets that turn raw materials into commodities and money. Unless there is a criminal offence, it is not allowed to easily dismiss the resident craftsmen."

The resident craftsmen and the craftsmen in the workshops are completely different things, and this is something that the inferior scholars do not understand.

There was metabolism in the Ming Dynasty's official factories. The metabolism of official factories was called elimination. The failure to meet the established assessment standards, repeated violations of work safety regulations, major production accidents, and political elimination were the metabolism of official factories. However, the personnel in official factories were generally more stable than those in private factories.

The assessment standard is 70% of the most efficient craftsman among the five-level craftsmen. However, the Xuzhou coal mine is controlled by private hands, and the assessment is often based on the highest efficiency and additional workload. It is impossible to complete the assessment.

If there is an assessment, there will be six books and one account book. Officials cannot make things difficult for craftsmen. Craftsmen have their own accounts, the workshop has its own accounts, the factory also has account books, and the factory also has account books.

These are the lessons learned from the construction of the state-owned factory.

What hurt Wang Chonggu the most was the political purge.

Previously, there were prostitutes who turned good and went to work in government-owned factories. They used the background of the government-owned factories and their identities as weavers to deceive people into marriage. Since then, prostitutes were not allowed to work in government-owned factories. There was a prostitute in the Nan Ya who turned good, but she was just one day away from entering the government-owned factory and was finally hanged in front of the weaving bureau. However, the policy was still not changed.

This decree had follow-ups, and it became even more severe. The weavers who came from brothels would be required to take more stringent exams in Chengdu than others, and were more likely to be eliminated by government factories.

Many of the weavers who came from brothels and worked in the Weaving Bureau and the woolen factory were already skilled craftsmen. They suffered heavy losses in the political purge. Not all brothel girls voluntarily stepped into the hell of the red-light district, but when the government factories closed their doors to them, the weavers who had already landed in brothels were also implicated.

"Thank you for your hard work, Wang Ci Fu, in managing the government-run factory." Zhu Yijun praised Wang Chonggu, saying that he really worked hard.

"Your Majesty, I am old, and Wang Qian is not interested in these things. He spends all day in that trading house and earns more money than me. I am actually worried that after I die, there will be no one to succeed this state-owned factory." Wang Chonggu said with some emotion.

Hai Rui did not deal with Wang Chonggu because without Wang the butcher, Your Majesty would really have to eat hairy pigs.

The state-owned factory is a national strategy. If Wang Chonggu leaves this position, there will be huge changes. The powerful and influential people are right to assassinate Wang Chonggu, because the state-owned factory is built on people.

The woolen factory was originally built just for the purpose of weakening the power of the Northern Tartars, and it has gradually developed to its current scale.

Wang Chonggu shook his sleeves, took out a memorial and said, "I have summarized several methods for the management of government factories and formed laws and regulations. However, these laws and regulations must be changed according to the times and cannot be rigidly followed. Otherwise, the government factories will not last long. After much thought, I have written a memorial and I beg Your Majesty to review it."

After reading Wang Chonggu's memorial, Zhu Yijun said in a serious tone, "All the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty should thank Wang Ci Fu. Not only the official factories, but also the bureaucrats of the entire Ming Dynasty should read this "Memorial on the Laws and Regulations of the Official Factory"."

This memorial not only talks about how to manage government-owned factories, but also about how to be an official.

To sum it up in four sentences:

Be sympathetic and concerned about the group; be vigilant and keep a distance from the individual;
Follow the system and procedures strictly; leave traces in everything you do.

These four sentences fully explain the principles of government-run factory management. They also talk about how to be an official. If we talk about it in detail, it is very, very complicated. Generally speaking, the demands of the group are generally reasonable, but the demands of individuals are usually to seek privileges. This is an inevitable part of human nature.

Although the system and process are rigid, they also serve to protect oneself. Everything must leave traces, preferably with written evidence, to prevent the enemy from catching hold of one's hand as one rises and falls in the political arena.

If you can do these four things well, you can be called a qualified bureaucrat.

"Your Majesty, thank you for your compliment." Wang Chonggu stood up and took his leave. His steps were very brisk and steady.

Zhu Yijun held the memorial in his hand and said with a smile: "I think Wang Cifu was inspired by what happened to Fu Xizhi and wrote this memorial. If this memorial is renamed "On the Self-cultivation of Traitorous Officials", it will probably attract a lot of attention."

Since Wang Chonggu had presented the memorial to the Emperor, he didn't bother to care whether the Emperor published it in the official gazette or in print.

Zhu Yijun planned to change the name of the memorial to attract Ming bureaucrats to read the book in order to prevent themselves from being alienated by power and eventually being thrown into jail.

"Will such a change be too hurtful to Wang Ci Fu?" Feng Bao said with a frown. The past is the past, and the present is the present. Wang Ci Fu is not a treacherous minister now. Saying this will hurt the minister's feelings.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "You are right. He can say what he wants, but I cannot say that to him. Now Wang Cifu is loyal to the emperor and the country."

"How about this? Change the title to "On the Self-cultivation of the Five-Step Snake." The Five-Step Snake is a nickname approved by Wang Ci Fu himself."

"I obey your order." After thinking it over, Feng Baosi felt that the latter name sounded better, and it could also have a deterrent effect by promoting the reputation of the five-step snake.

(End of this chapter)