I'm really not doing business

Chapter 780: Bones exposed in the wild, no rooster crows for a thousand miles

Shen Li was the Minister of Rites and Grand Master of the Imperial Clan. After Wan Shihe left, he had to represent the principles of rites and rituals. He read On the Rise and Fall of the Nation and felt that it did not suit his taste. It did not resemble the writing style of the Ming Dynasty literati. The Ming Dynasty literati would first flatter the emperor and then discuss specific issues. For example, when Hai Rui criticized the Taoist priest, he would say that he was devoted to Taoism and ignored the world.

The style of criticizing the emperors of the Ming Dynasty was relatively direct. During the reign of Jiajing, every family was clean; during the reign of Wanli, every family was evil.

Therefore, Shen Li judged that this was not a trick played by the Ming Dynasty literati. His Majesty, who was diligent in his work, was the wise ruler that everyone in and outside the Ming Dynasty had sincerely hoped to see after the 21st year of Jiajing.

Shinichi Kanda was a tough nut to crack. When the Ming Dynasty's overseas banknotes poured into Japan, Shinichi Kanda began to prepare to use the local "bad money" and the Central Plains "imported money" to fight against them. The Ming Dynasty printed money, and Japan also printed money. The main purpose was to use bad money to drive out good money, prevent excessive influx of Ming Dynasty currency, and control all the port economies of Japan.

This was a very courageous approach, and given the Ming Dynasty's overall offensive stance towards Japan, it was a life-threatening move.

After the Ming Dynasty learned about this, it immediately informed the Shogun of the Azuchi Shogunate, Oda Nobunaga, to escort Kanda Shinichi to the Ming Dynasty, and even fought a battle for this. The court did not kill him immediately, but kept him in the Ming Dynasty so as not to disrupt the Ming Dynasty's overall strategy against Japan.

Shen Li sent his opinions to the Northern Pacification Office. The Northern Pacification Office's guards looked for the rebel everywhere but couldn't find him. With the idea of ​​trying every possible means, the guards rushed to the Shiyi Pavilion. Before the guards found Kanda Shinichi, Kanda Shinichi decisively chose to commit suicide by taking poison.

The Tiqi immediately dragged Kanda Shinichi to the dissection hospital. After drinking half a bowl of soapy water, Kanda Shinichi vomited all over the place, but did not die.

"The Tiqi just found some clues that were not clues. It was a routine questioning. If you didn't commit suicide, who would know that you had something to hide?" Zhao Mengyou looked at the file in front of him. It was originally a unsolved case, but he didn't expect it to have a sudden turn of events.

After the fire destroyed the houses in the east of Tongzhou, all clues were completely lost. If Kanda Shinichi had not committed suicide, it would have been hard to tell when the truth would have come out. This suicide directly confirmed it.

"I was scared." Kanda Shinichi sighed heavily and said, "The detective skills of the Tiqi are very strong, which is rare in the world. I thought you all knew everything when you came here, so I committed suicide by taking poison."

Shinichi Kanda was extremely nervous. When he heard that the imperial guards had arrived, he felt as if the sky had fallen. Only if he died would the case become an unsolved case and his plan would not go to waste. As long as he was not caught directly, this case would always be a thorn in the emperor's heart.

The chief physician of the Jiekuin was a very skilled doctor. Shinichi Kanda did not die but was tortured by soap powder liquid several times.

"You would have died if you had slit your throat, but you were saved instead by taking poison." Zhao Mengyou said with a frown.

Shinichi Kanda shook his head and said, "You need a sharp weapon to cut someone's throat. I brought that bit of arsenic back to Shiyi Pavilion with great difficulty. The management of Shiyi Pavilion is very strict."

Shinichi Kanda lived in Shii-kan and appeared to be an envoy of the Azuchi shogunate, but the guards he was under were so strict that he was treated like a prisoner.

"Why did you spread the evil book?" Zhao Mengyou flipped through the case files and said with a frown, "I thought it was a powerful and powerful person who opposed the new policy, but I didn't expect it was really a Japanese pirate."

"The Ming Dynasty is a great country with everlasting national strength. It is difficult to defeat it from the outside, but a solid fortress is often breached from the inside. I see hope. The Ming Dynasty is now like a volcano waiting to erupt. It only takes a little spark to set the fire all over the Ming Dynasty." Shinichi Kanda does not look injured, but he has actually taken several large-scale memory recovery spells and has become very honest.

Say whatever you want, just wish for a quick death.

Most people in the Ming Dynasty had never seen a volcanic eruption and did not understand what a volcanic eruption was. Mount Fuji, one of the three sacred mountains in Japan, began to become active during the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang. The eruption lasted for two hundred years until the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty. After a rest of four hundred years, Mount Fuji became active again in the sixth year of Zhengde of Emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty.

Mount Fuji is active for two hundred years at a time. When it erupts, the top of the mountain will burn, with smoke darkening the sky during the day and flames lighting up the sky at night. The sound is like thunder, ash falls like rain, and the rivers below the mountain are all red. The flames are about twenty feet high, and the smoke column covers the sky and goes straight into the sky.

Every time Mount Fuji volcano becomes active, it creates new peaks and lakes. This kind of physical collapse of the sky and the earth is incomprehensible to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

There are nearly eighty volcanoes similar to Mount Fuji in Japan.

This is why Japan is determined to attack the mainland. With disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, one can imagine how much Japan covets the Central Plains.

In Japan, "entering the Tang Dynasty" is a consensus and even the dream destiny of all Japanese.

Shinichi Kanda knew the Ming Dynasty very well. He was well aware of the strength of the Ming Dynasty's army and the fragility of its politics. The Ming Dynasty's politics seemed stable, but in the 15th year of the Wanli Restoration, many conflicts of interest had accumulated and were waiting to break out. Now the Ming Dynasty's political situation seemed stable, but in fact it all depended on the sanity of the emperor alone.

Shinichi Kanda raised his head and said, "The Ming Dynasty has three volumes of Theory of Contradiction and Theory of Class. Since the Wanli Restoration, a new bourgeoisie has emerged in the coastal areas. They have gained sufficient economic status and are seeking a higher political position."

"As for the old local gentry, powerful people and wealthy people, their land is no longer the best means of production. The assets accumulated from land are far inferior to those of handicraft workshops and machine workshops. They are losing their economic status and their political position is becoming precarious."

"At this time, all it takes is a small spark. For example, if the emperor, in order to vent his anger, hunts down, harasses, and frames the extravagant households in Xitu City, then the emerging bourgeoisie along the coast will rush in to gain power and tear the local gentry and powerful people to pieces. This kind of intense activity will never last for a day or two, and will never end in a year or two."

"I was actually prepared to be caught by you, but unexpectedly, the emperor didn't seem to intend to do anything."

"Isn't the Emperor angry?"

Shinichi Kanda is very sure that the current political system of the Ming Dynasty is very dangerous. The emperor controls the Beijing military camp and the navy, and the imperial power has reached its peak since Yongle. As long as the emperor is a little more irrational and wishful thinking, it will be natural for the Ming Dynasty to fall into crisis.

As long as the emperor becomes irrational and makes some slightly radical decisions for the sake of his own ambitions, he could cause greater divisions in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty had a very complete supervisory agency, a systematic and independent supervisory agency directly under the emperor. The Six Departments Corridor could work in the cabinet together with the Wenyuan Pavilion. The Six Departments' Secretaries and Censors were of low rank but powerful, with a multi-layered and multi-monitoring network and multiple supervisory methods, which gave the Ming Dynasty a strong error correction capability.

However, the Ming Dynasty’s power to correct mistakes was unable to correct the emperor. All supervisory systems were designed to supervise officials. The supervisory system was only an appendage of the emperor and had never had the function of supervising imperial power.

People with power will not stop exercising their power until they reach the limit of their power, and only after an extremely fierce struggle.

People who hold power, without exception, feel that they are omnipotent. They believe that as long as the world changes according to their ideas, it will last forever. This is the inevitable alienation of power.

The Ming Dynasty’s discussion on the alienation of power was always superficial because it was easy to discuss it on the unitary autocracy of the one country.

Power will inevitably breed corruption. The greater the power, the more corruption there will be. Absolute power is equivalent to absolute corruption.

This is also what he repeatedly discussed in "On the Rise and Fall of the Nation". A political system in which the rise and fall of the nation depends on the emperor alone is undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

As long as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty lost his mind and made some foolish decisions, even if it caused bad consequences, the power of correction would be ineffective against the emperor. Even if there were people like Hai Rui who risked the world's condemnation to give advice, how could the supreme emperor admit that he was wrong!

The emperor refused to admit his mistake and refused to revoke his order. He insisted on his own way, creating greater rifts and plunging the Ming Dynasty into internal troubles. Even if Japan lost in the Korean battlefield, it would not lose its capital, that is, its homeland.

If you lose, you go back to lick your wounds and wait for the next attack.

After careful planning, in the end, nothing was gained. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a little too rational. He neither closed the Nine Gates nor arrested the writers of major poetry societies, nor did he angrily cause trouble for the luxurious households in Xitu City.

Zhao Mengyou thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty just thinks your accusation is a little funny, mainly because it doesn't make sense. You are right, but none of your accusations are relevant to Your Majesty. They are even worse than the rumors written by Li Yashi. At least the rumors written by Li Yashi can still make Your Majesty angry."

Zhao Mengyou clearly remembered that the day when Li Yashi said that the Tax Inspection Office was the Inquisition and the collection notice was an indulgence, His Majesty was really angry and Li Yashi was imprisoned for nearly a month.

Zhao Mengyou has always been by His Majesty's side. Kanda Shinichi criticized the imperial system. His Majesty's fourth volume of class theory was much more excessive than Kanda Shinichi's. His Majesty's fourth volume even said bluntly that the imperial system would surely perish. If it weren't for the teacher's stopping him, the emperor would have finished writing the fourth volume and made it public.

Shinichi Kanda is a very strategic and brave man. He claims to have sufficient understanding of the Ming Dynasty, but he does not know Your Majesty well.

Zhao Mengyou smiled and said, "I am just a Tiqi. You said that absolute power is doomed to absolute corruption. I agree with you very much. However, the Prime Minister said: It is time to say what you want. In today's world, the imperial system is still the best way for a hundred years. A stable dynasty is more important than anything else."

Kanda Shinichi's expression changed several times. He clenched his fists and slammed the table with force. He said loudly: "The Zhu family's kingdom is gone, but the people are still there! Dynasties can change, but the people will not disappear! What does it mean that a stable dynasty is more important than anything else? What kind of consensus is this!"

"I am just a warrior. My loyalty to His Majesty is above all else. I am not good at debate." Zhao Mengyou thought for a moment before saying, "But I can answer your question, Kanda. Let me ask you, what is the world?"

"The world consists of the people!" Shinichi Kanda said loudly. This was a universal answer that fits the idea that the people are the foundation of the country, and it was equivalent to no answer at all.

Zhao Mengyou sighed and said, "Um, do you know Xiaoyao Yiwen? It's the magazine that promotes limited freedom. The editor Li Zhi just finished serializing a topic recently, which is the change of dynasties and the rise and fall of population."

"Before Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty had a population of more than 5900 million, but when the Eastern Han Dynasty was newly established, it had less than million people. There were some hidden people among them. Does the millions of people you mentioned include those who died in the war?"

"At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Huan, there were more than 5600 million people. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the country was divided into three kingdoms and there were endless wars. By the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty, Wei had 66 households and 448 million people, Shu Han had 28 households and 94 people, and Wu had 52 households and 230 million people. The total population was only 800 million. Even if hidden people were included, the chaos at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty still killed tens of millions of people."

"White bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crow for thousands of miles."

"Changing dynasties requires the lives of tens of millions of people, so treason, rebellion, and conspiracy are the most unforgivable crimes. Maintaining the survival of the country is itself protecting the people from living in order, rather than war."

"You intended to overthrow the rule of the Ming Dynasty, which is equivalent to killing nearly 10 million households and tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty, so you deserve to die. Do you understand?"

The world is indeed in tatters, but the Han Dynasty has always had loyal and good people, and there have always been real men who stand up and repair the situation. As long as the broken ship of the Ming Dynasty can be repaired, we should not give up until the broken ship is really about to sink. Then, what will happen and how many people will die, only God knows.

Zhao Mengyou ordered the cavalry to find a copy of Xiaoyao Yiwen, and said with a smile: "Read it yourself, and be an informed ghost. I am a rough man who understands more than you."

Loyalty is originally an illusory concept. No matter how many times you tell yourself you are loyal, it is still a deception. But after Li Zhi completed the topic of dynasty changes and population rise and fall, warriors like Zhao Mengyou had a concrete understanding of loyalty. Zhao Mengyou's loyalty to His Majesty is loyalty to all the people.

Report to the emperor and save the people. Reporting to the emperor is equal to saving the people, and saving the people is equal to reporting to the emperor. This is true when the emperor is wise.

"No! It's not like that! It's not like that!" After reading Li Zhi's article, Shinichi Kanda kept shaking his head like a rattle and kept talking to himself.

He claimed to be a man of talent, and he thought his theory was impeccable. He thought the theory that the rise and fall of the world depended on one person was absolutely correct, so he said that the people would remain even if dynasties changed. But Li Zhi clearly told Kanda Shinichi that at least half of the people would become dead bones on the roadside if dynasties changed.

The collapse of his theory was more painful than killing him.

"If political activities become disorderly, they are bound to affect thousands of households and everyone." Zhao Mengyou repeated a sentence that His Majesty had said to himself. The military is an extension of politics. Violent and aimless rectification activities will cause violence to get out of control and eventually endanger thousands of households.

Zhao Mengyou sat down at the desk and began to organize the case files. In the afternoon, when he had finished organizing the case files and evidence, he went to Tonghe Palace to report the details to His Majesty.

"Kanda Shinichi is crazy." Zhao Mengyou told his majesty a piece of news. He said with a strange look on his face, "He thinks he is one of the smartest people in the world. He thinks his ideas are perfect. But he is just like those believers in the West who went to heaven only to find out it was hell. Kanda Shinichi can't accept it."

After reading the file, Zhu Yijun said, "He is crazy. He still needs to be sent to the torture chamber."

"The powerful and wealthy people of the Ming Dynasty should thank Kanda Shinichi. I thought that these powerful and wealthy people were dissatisfied with the tax increase and deliberately spread the evil book. I plan to ask the Tax Inspection Bureau to investigate who is holding a grudge."

Zhu Yijun is indeed rational and will not go crazy, but the tax inspectors in the Tax Inspection Office may not be so rational. They may conduct a crazy tax inspection and make everyone frightened and uneasy.

"He is wrong about one thing. Ming politics is not as fragile as he thinks. The slightest disturbance will lead to a life-and-death struggle." After reading the confession, Zhu Yijun said with certainty: "It would be great if the Ming Dynasty was really as clearly divided as he thinks. This is where the world is broken. You are in me, and I am in you."

"The politics of the Ming Dynasty is not stable, but a stagnant muddy place."

Shinichi Kanda's imagination of Ming Dynasty politics is rather naive. He thinks that it is a clear-cut opposition, so he only needs to throw a match to ignite this powder keg. However, the affairs of the world are a mess and are entangled with each other. This is the biggest disaster.

Shinichi Kanda was willing to sacrifice his life for his country, but what he did was meaningless.

If it was really possible to eliminate a clear enemy with just a single order, Zhu Yijun would have done it long ago. Why would he wait for Kanda Shinichi to instigate him?

There is no clear enemy at all. As long as the treacherous ministers do not jump out themselves, everyone is a loyal minister and everyone is loyal to the emperor and the country.

The struggle paper says that we must clearly know who the enemy is, and this alone is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

"Your Majesty, the Chief of Justice Chen Mo has reported on the situation in Xuanfu, Shanxi, which is better than expected." Zhao Mengyou took out another memorial. Chen Mo's investigation in Xuanfu. Chen Mo, who was born in Xuanfu Duntai Yuanhou, naturally had his own connections to inquire about the situation when he returned to Xuanfu.

In addition to personal connections, the two hundred Ti cavalry were sent out to ask the people what was going on.

"Did Zhou Liangyin really accomplish this?" Zhu Yijun finished reading the memorial.

Zhou Liangyin did not lie, nor did he exaggerate. He really achieved the elimination in Xuanfu and Datong. The situation was even better than what Zhou Liangyin said. Of course, the censors' criticism of Zhou Liangyin was not a false accusation.

Zhou Liangyin's method of elimination was to eliminate dissidents and eliminate all the people affiliated with the Jin Party. The strange thing here is that Zhou Liangyin was from the Jin Party.

The members of the Jin Party were removed and replaced by members of the Gong Party. Most of the clerks in each county came from government factories.

Zhou Liangyin's methods were ruthless and quite effective. He planned to complete the cleanup of the entire Shanxi Province within three years and restore peace and prosperity to Shanxi.

"According to Chen Mo, it is indeed Zhou Liangyin who has the ability to purge and remove those members of the Jin Party. There is another reason why Zhou Liangyin did not tell the court, which is that Shanxi is too poor now, and poverty will lead to change." Zhao Mengyou explained the basic environment of the purge.

Shanxi's poverty and taxation can no longer support the huge number of officials, so they must be eliminated.

After Altan Khan invaded the capital in the 29th year of Jiajing, the disputes between the Ming Dynasty and Altan Khan were mainly concentrated in Datong and Xuanfu in Shanxi, and the prefectures, counties and cities within Yanmen Pass had to support Xuanfu and Datong. Although the war basically ended after the peace talks in the 5th year of Longqing, the confrontation and high border defense costs were still sucking Shanxi's blood.

In the tenth year of Wanli, Altan Khan was finally eliminated and the war ended. When the external threat disappeared, Shanxi was devastated by the battlefield outside the Great Wall. Without external threat, the government offices at all levels had no reason to ask for donations from the powerful, local celebrities, and merchants. The excessive number of government officials and the financial situation of the government offices at all levels that were unable to make ends meet formed a contradiction.

In a state of war, everyone has a higher level of tolerance because of the threat of the enemy. After all, the enemy will really kill your entire family and take away your wife and children.

When the war is over, tolerance will decrease, and the heavy taxes and levies that were imposed in the name of war will no longer be recognized. The deficits of various government offices in Shanxi are getting bigger and bigger, and the sentiment of anti-tax is also increasing.

Zhou Liangyin's success in the elimination was due to the right time, right place and right people. This certainly does not deny Zhou Liangyin's contribution. Without his ruthless actions, it would have been difficult to solve the problem.

After Zhu Yijun dealt with the report from the Imperial Guards, he picked up the report on the table. Some situations had occurred on the Korean battlefield that were beyond Qi Jiguang's expectations. Qi Jiguang reported it to the court and told the emperor and cabinet ministers not to worry too much.

In the wild, the Ming Dynasty's casualty ratio still remained at a terrifying ratio of single digits to thousands. One infantry battalion could withstand a charge of 30,000 people from the opposite side, and kill, wound, or capture thousands of enemy troops with an extremely small casualty ratio.

However, Qi Jiguang underestimated the tolerance of the Japanese pirates. Each Ming soldier consumed six kilograms of food a day, and the Liaodong army consumed slightly less, at five kilograms. But it was not the same for the Japanese pirates. Each Japanese pirate consumed only one kilogram of food a day, and they could maintain the basic front line.

If the Ming army is only given this little food, I'm afraid they will rebel.

The Ming Dynasty sent Duntai Yuanhou to investigate the Japanese pirates' camp and concluded that the grain in Zhongzhou would probably be used up in a month. As a result, the Japanese pirates held out for three months before receiving logistical supplies.

Qi Jiguang could only admire such tolerance.

The second unexpected thing was the Japanese-style fortress of the Japanese pirates.

(Japanese-style castle)

The main structure of the city of Ming Dynasty is the wall, and almost all the city defense designs are developed around the wall;

The main structure of the castle of Tessy is the tower, formerly an arrow tower, and later a gun position;
The main structure of Japan is the road, and the overall design is to prolong the exposure time of the attackers to the firepower of the city defense, mainly by taking a winding route.

The Japanese castle is built like a maze. Even if you break through the city gate, you will have to face enemy firepower on the way up the mountain, which makes it really difficult to attack.

Similarly, this is also one of the reasons for the fragmented political structure of Japan. In a city like this, without sufficient firearms, it would be very difficult for more than a thousand people to defend the city, as long as there were no traitors, and tens of thousands of people to attack the city at the same time.

In the wild, it was as easy for the Ming army to fight the Japanese pirates as an adult beating a child, but in the Japanese-style castles, it was really difficult for the Ming army to chew this tough bone without using artillery.

Of course, it would be very simple with artillery.

The Japanese bird gun is called iron cannon, and the Japanese artillery is called "country collapse". The meaning is very clear. As long as the number of artillery is large enough, these mountain cities can be completely destroyed.

These Japanese-style castles were the product of hundreds of years of infighting among the Japanese pirates. They were the result of experience accumulated through countless actual combats and carried the greatest malice of the defenders. The Japanese pirates built sixteen such disgusting mountain castles in Chungju, Busan and other places.

"Hideyoshi Hashiba has not yet moved to the mainland. He is building a castle in the Busan defense circle." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in front of him and said solemnly: "This thing is really disgusting."

"Didn't General Qi say there was a way?" Feng Bao said with a frown.

He finally understood why Oda Nobunaga had to delay the war and agree with the Ming Dynasty to use Imjin as the boundary, with the area north of Seoul belonging to the Ming Dynasty and the area south of Seoul belonging to Japan. He intended to set up defenses in Seoul, Incheon, Chungju, Busan and other places to block the Ming army.

Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi also had people to rely on. As long as the Ming army did not want to suffer huge casualties, they had to slowly consume the enemy's strength. These mountain cities had broken through so many lines of defense, and the Ming army had also gone through a long expedition and could no longer attack the Japanese mainland.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "General Qi's idea is to defeat the enemy with force. If we really want to attack, we can use artillery to flatten these mountain cities."

Among the three major expeditions of the Wanli period, there was the Battle of Bozhou at Hailongtun. Hailongtun was also a similar mountain city, and it was easier to defend and more difficult to attack. However, it was eventually broken by the Ming army's artillery.

The Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun underestimated the enemy and equipped the front line with too many artillery, which once became a problem for Qi Jiguang. But now, facing the castle carefully prepared by the Japanese pirates, his artillery came in handy.

Be fully prepared, there will always be a time when it will be useful. When attacking Japan, you need to use enough artillery to wipe out those disgusting Japanese-style castles.

"It's just a waste of gunpowder." Feng Bao said with a smile. If all they needed was gunpowder, it would be too simple. It would cost lives, and Your Majesty would feel bad, but using gunpowder would be the more the better.

The Ming Dynasty now only produces 1.5 million kilograms of gunpowder a year. It is not that it can only produce this much, but that no matter how much it produces, it will have no use. If it really doesn't work, it can open a few more production lines, turn all the saved saltpeter into gunpowder, and expand the scale of craftsmen.

Recently, the saltpeter-making masters have developed a highly corrosive liquid made by boiling green alum oil and saltpeter together. The craftsmen call it "gold-dissolving water" and are still exploring how to prepare it.

More skilled craftsmen equal more productivity, this is the experience summarized by the Ming Dynasty.

Are sixteen mountain cities too many? Use gunpowder to fill them. If it is not enough, double the amount.

If doubling the amount of gunpowder is not enough, and cutting off the supply to these mountain cities is not enough, and letting them starve for a year, then use the Japanese to build a wall around them, and surround them for three to five years. If they can't break the shell, then just surround them. The Ming Dynasty can afford it.

If we lose to the Ming Dynasty in field combat, we will lose the initiative, our offensive capability, and our mobility.

Zhu Yijun picked up the second memorial, which came from Wang Qian of Yanxinglou Trading Company.

"Wang Qian's cut is too harsh." Zhu Yijun shuddered. Wang Qian's sickle was too sharp. He had already learned how to wash the dishes.

(End of this chapter)