I'm really not doing business

Chapter 889: I can’t give them what they want, and no one can give it to them
This extremely high-end restaurant in Songjiangfu sells ingredients made from elephant dung, which is actually selling emotional value and aphrodisiac.

Emotional value is emotional benefit minus emotional cost. It is a kind of exchange value. In essence, it is an emotional exchange, a transaction that satisfies the spiritual and emotional needs of customers.

The business of selling emotional values ​​is not new. For example, religion has been selling emotions since its inception, selling anxiety, fear, anger, and comfort. Indulgences are the most typical example.

In fact, tax stamps are also selling fear. Zhu Yijun never denied that his tax policy and indulgences had the same goal.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty established the Tax Inspection Office. While inspecting taxes across the country, he also took strong measures against those who refused to pay taxes. This created fear that those who did not pay taxes would be visited by the Tax Inspection Office, and established a consensus that taxes must be paid. The remaining stubborn elements were actually visited by the Imperial Guards.

Selling emotions is not just negative, there can also be positive ones, such as selling atmosphere, selling recognition, selling support and so on.

The prostitutes in brothels sell more expensive things than those in private brothels (kē refers to secret prostitutes). What brothels sell is a positive atmosphere and emotional satisfaction. Visiting a brothel is high-end, while going to a private brothel is to satisfy physical needs.

They are the same thing, one is in heaven and the other is in hell.

Providing emotional value has a cost. This restaurant in Songjiang Prefecture sells real elephant dung, not food that looks like dung. The elephant dung is hard-earned and is transported from Yunnan and Toungoo. Moreover, the restaurant is gorgeously decorated to make customers feel that the elephant dung sold at a high price does have aphrodisiac effects and is worth the money.

In addition, the threshold of this restaurant is not low at all. It provides another kind of value, social value, which is also a kind of exchange value, the value of social relationship exchange.

Birds of a feather flock together. Thresholds and curiosity can be sufficient prerequisites to screen out people of the same kind. This is also part of the invisible value, which is why there is a constant stream of people coming.

Value includes use value and exchange value, while prices are set around value and fluctuate around supply and demand.

This is the content of "Production Diagram" written by Jiao Hong a long time ago based on the labor theory of value in Qiu Jun's "University Expanded Commentary Supplement".

The case of Songjiang Prefecture was not incomprehensible to the people of the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, the literati who were willing to read the results of the Wanli Reform could understand the occurrence of this phenomenon. It was normal, but unreasonable, because eating shit was really not good.

However, this restaurant was investigated and punished by Wang Qian for selling elephant dung in the name of aphrodisiac, which is completely in line with the laws of the Ming Dynasty. He was committing fraud, and elephant dung cannot be used to enhance male sexual function.

Emotional value needs to be supported by actual use value, just like the Ming Dynasty's winning theory must be supported by performance. You can only win if you actually win, and you cannot pretend to win if you don't win. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty's winning theory, which is based on the principle of "one doer, one is faithful" will become the barbarian winning theory of "I think, therefore I win".

The barbarian winning theory is that I think I won, so I won. As for whether I won in reality, it doesn’t matter.

Zhu Yijun was very free on his southern tour. He had originally planned to attend a gathering in the Southern Court, but after learning from the imperial guards, he knew that there was no gathering in the Southern Court.

Since the tribute selection process began, many regular guests at the gatherings have been imprisoned in the Southern Pacification Office's Tianlao, and some have even been executed.

This indirectly reflects who controlled the public opinion on wind power in the past.

The emperor wanted to listen to the collective talk, but there was no collective talk in the Southern Court, so he had to wait until the case of selecting tribute students was settled. However, there would still be at least three months of high-pressure time when everyone would be in danger.

Zhu Yijun's southern tour brought fear. The last time it was torture in Nanjing, and this time it was house searches and killings.

Zhu Yijun picked up Lin Fucheng's "Travels in Southeast Asia" and read it carefully. Zhu Yijun liked the efficiency priority, five factors of industrial agglomeration, and the inevitable struggle between the country and the dynasty proposed by Lin Fucheng. Zhu Yijun liked these contents very much and agreed with many of the contents in it.

Zhu Yijun flipped through a few pages and said with a frown, "The attitude of the Prince Consort Yin Zongxin towards the barbarians may have been influenced by Lin Fucheng. You should know that before Lin Fucheng arrived in Luzon, the Marquis of Sishui, whose surname was Zhengmao, still adopted a conciliatory policy towards the barbarians."

"But after the Luzon massacre of an entire Han Chinese family, Yin Zhengmao was no longer soft-hearted."

"Yin Zongxin himself was a scholar-official who was deeply influenced by the debate between Chinese and barbarians. After witnessing the tragedy, he naturally believed Lin Fucheng's point of view more."

People can be tamed by the environment. This was a very rebellious statement that Shen Shixing said to Zhang Juzheng after returning to the capital from Songjiang Prefecture, but it was true.

Yin Zongxin was obviously tamed, a combination of active and passive self-taming, and the ultimate result was a natural distrust of the barbarians.

"But Lin Fucheng's words cannot be refuted." Feng Bao carefully put forward his own point of view.

Feng Bao had also read Lin Fucheng's Travels in Southeast Asia, and he was right about one point.

Lin Fucheng begins by observing the living conditions of a Japanese slave and describes the misery of his life, but Lin Fucheng tells everyone in the book not to sympathize with the Japanese slaves, barbarian slaves, black aborigines, savages, Nanyang sisters, etc. There is no need to sympathize with them.

As poor laborers, why shouldn't we sympathize with the barbarians who share the same miserable experiences? Because the culture of these barbarians is completely different from that of the Ming Dynasty.

Before oracle bone inscriptions were taken seriously, scholars and officials generally believed that the Shang king worshipped ghosts and gods. However, oracle bone inscriptions told the scholars and officials that the Shang king only worshipped ancestors and natural gods, and only gave them two fish during festivals.

In this way, the Shang king, as the ancestor of the Central Plains, immediately became reasonable.

From Emperor Zhuanxu's creation of a connection between heaven and earth to the destruction of Buddhism by the Three Wus and One Zong, the Central Plains completely disenchanted theocracy. Even the land god of Jinan Prefecture was Tie Xuan, a historical figure. The Ming Dynasty had a deep-rooted ancestor worship.

The second is the worship of bloodline. Since Huang Chao, although clan culture is still quite widespread in the Ming Dynasty, clans are not aristocratic families.

The most typical example is the second of the five major cases of the Wanli period, the Yanzhou Confucius Mansion case. In fact, the Ming Dynasty punished Duke Yansheng more than once.

For example, Zhang Tianshi, the head of Mount Longhu, rarely challenged the imperial power. He mostly compiled the "Daoist Canon" under the leadership of the court. It was a great honor for him to receive funding from the court.

Zhu Yijun met with the Linzi Wang family in Jinan Prefecture. Their ancestral home and tombs covered hundreds of acres and were the source of the Langya Wang family. However, the Langya Wang family was spread all over the world, and none of them respected the Linzi Wang family as the ancestral family. Each family had its own ancestral hall, and they had long been separated.

In the pre-Qin period, there were generally no surnames and the common people were aristocrats. The worship of bloodline could not be established in the Ming Dynasty. No matter how many generations back a family went, they were all famous families.

Huang Chao killed all the aristocratic families, and the worship of bloodline became a complete fallacy.

After the Ming Dynasty completed the demystification of theocracy and bloodline, it thoroughly established the most basic pragmatism and rationalism.

Throughout the dynasties, no matter who sat on the throne, he had to accept performance evaluation. If he failed to pass the evaluation, the whole country would be in turmoil, the poor and laborers would rise up, and the dynasty would be replaced.

Pragmatism and rationalism are cultural identity and ethnic identity, not theocracy or bloodline identity.

But in Southeast Asia, Japan, and the West, theocratic identity and bloodline identity still take precedence over cultural identity, ethnic identity, and class identity.

According to the third volume of class theory, the struggle volume, the barbarians such as the Japanese slaves, the barbarians, the black barbarians, the raw barbarians, the golden-haired barbarians, and the red-haired barbarians, their targets of struggle are primarily pagans and races, rather than class enemies.

Therefore, the literati of the Ming Dynasty could put away their meaningless sympathy. Whether from the perspective of theocracy or bloodline, it was impossible for the people of the Ming Dynasty to gain the genuine recognition of the barbarians. They could not piss in the same pot at all. People did not treat you as human beings at all.

You are an unbeliever, so you should be nailed to the wall of unbelievers;

If you are not their descendant, you shall die, and every bite of food you eat shall be considered a gift.

Similarly, barbarians can never become Ming people.

"Theocracy will all return to practicality, blood and food will eventually turn into smoke, the barbarians use theocracy to determine the superior and inferior, and use blood to distinguish between noble and humble. Heretics should be burned, and hybrids will have no descendants. The distinction between Chinese and barbarians is not about yellow, white, black, or red. It is actually the way of the gods and the human heart." Zhu Yijun summarized Lin Fucheng's travel notes, and after a moment of silence, he said, "I agree very much."

"I have never been to Southeast Asia and have not conducted any investigation, so naturally I cannot express an opinion. I cannot refute his point of view." Zhu Yijun could not refute Lin Fucheng's discrimination against these barbarians, nor did he want to refute it.

Theocracy, bloodline, culture, ethnicity, and class, these five identities have different importance among the different classes in the Ming Dynasty, but no matter which class, theocracy and bloodline are always the last.

The lower class people pay attention to ethnic identity because they have nothing else except their ethnicity;
Cultural nobles like culture, and they use words that others cannot understand to pretend to be elegant.

The ruling class should recognize class identity more, but often tends to lean towards cultural identity.

But in Japan, Southeast Asia, and the West, because of the popularity of religion, theocracy and blood identity are more recognized.

The same is true in North Korea. The culture of illegitimate children in the families of the civil and military classes in North Korea is simply appalling. This is a typical case of bloodline identity.

Some incomprehensible phenomena become obvious.

May is a busy month, because this month the wine will be inspected and the best wine in the world will be selected. Even if the emperor is on a southern tour, it will not affect the awarding of the best wine in the world.

This year, after layers of selection, the wine from Maotai Town, Guizhou finally came out on top and won the title of the best wine in the world.

Zhu Yijun was not fond of drinking and seldom drank. He really could not tell good from bad. As long as the fee was enough, he would give out the award. It was a business behavior.

What surprised the scholars and officials in the Southern Ya was that this year's Chonggu Progress Award was to be awarded in the Southern Ya. In the 17th year of Wanli, it was awarded to seven chief medical officers of the Medical College of Songjiang University.

These seven medical officers spent all day collecting mud from sailors' shoes at the dock, and finally cultivated a higher-yielding Penicillium, allowing penicillin to finally leave the anatomy department and become a very scarce and precious commodity.

Penicillin, a life-saving miracle drug, is not even available to ordinary powerful people. It is only used in the Beiya and Songjiang Prefecture Huimin Pharmacies when it comes to saving lives. That is to say, Zhu Yijun has some stock in his hands, which he can use as a reward.

Penicillin was very expensive. One ounce of penicillin sold for sixteen ounces of gold, but it was still in short supply.

This stuff is so expensive that there are no people who can counterfeit it, because the people who can afford penicillin are all powerful and wealthy families. If you fool these top meat eaters, the meat eaters will have ten thousand ways to kill these counterfeiters.

The Chonggu Progress Award is not awarded every year. If there is no major scientific and technological breakthrough this year, it will be vacant. If there are multiple major breakthroughs this year, they will be listed together. The award is mainly based on contribution, not years of service.

This money came from the dividends from Wang Chonggu’s investment in Southeast Asia.

The Chonggu Progress Award was presented to the winners personally by Wang Chonggu in the presence of the emperor. In the interval between the selection and execution of tribute cases, he accompanied the officials of the Ministry of Rites to prepare for the award ceremony inside the Chaoyang Gate of the Nan Ya.

Before presenting the awards, Zhu Yijun met with the seven great medical officers and expressed his sincere gratitude for their contributions on behalf of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

These two sentences were engraved by Zhu Yijun on the golden reward plaque, representing their achievements. They are great doctors who will surely go down in history.

On the third day of June in the seventeenth year of the Wanli reign, the Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun once again appeared at the Chaoyang Gate of the Southern Court. At the same time the emperor appeared, the Taichang Temple music band began to play music, with grand trumpet and drum sounds, and a long ritual music, announcing the start of the award ceremony.

This time the event is grand and there are five levels of technical progress awards. The first-class award for extraordinary achievements will be presented by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty himself. Only the seven medical officers who improved the production of penicillin will be awarded the first-class award this time, but more than thirty other awards will be presented together.

The Qigong Plate is made of 596 liang ( grams) of pure gold. It is a rectangular ivory plate, inches long, inches wide, and inches thick.

The inscription on the front reads: On the third day of June in the seventeenth year of the Wanli reign, Wu Youxian respectfully prepared the auspicious Penicillium mold method, wishing the people from all corners of the world a long life and good health; calling harmony to the earth and the sky, and bestowing special rewards.

The inscription on the back reads: [Wang Chonggu presents this to a man of great reputation.]

Cabinet Minister Shen Li read out the emperor's edict, which clearly expressed the emperor's support for the national policy of developing the country through technology, and will continue to promote the continuous development of productivity. The edict emphasized that the imperial power, the court, and the official factories should play a leading role, closely combine with a pragmatic spirit, determine the important position of craftsmen in developing the country through technology, and continuously promote continuous innovation in industry, commerce, and agriculture.

After Shen Li read out the imperial edict, Wu Youxian led the remaining six chief medical officers to meet His Majesty and received the reward plaque for extraordinary merit from the emperor.

In addition, statues of these seven people will be added to all the people-friendly pharmacies in the Ming Dynasty, and their contributions will be commemorated on stone for future generations to admire.

After a total of thirty awards were announced, Feng Bao read out the imperial edict. This part of the imperial edict was an additional reward. More than fifty medical officers and craftsmen headed by Wu Youxian would all receive a share, including silver, silk, fine woolen cloth, carriages, and so on.

Amidst thunderous cheers, cannon salutes and fireworks, the Technology Progress Award ceremony came to a successful conclusion.

"Can you please let me go? I don't want to go." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in front of him and said with some embarrassment. After seventeen years, the emperor finally learned to strike on his own initiative. There was a job that even the workaholic emperor didn't want to do.

Feng Bao had never seen His Majesty have such an attitude towards government affairs, and he even wanted to push it to Zhang Juzheng. Normally, His Majesty was more diligent than a donkey on a millstone.

In fact, it was nothing big, just a meeting with the powerful and wealthy people in the Southern Court.

The last time in Jinan Prefecture, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou Prefecture, His Majesty the Emperor met with these powerful and wealthy people. His Majesty said that he was more tired than holding ten court meetings. He was really tired.

"Your Majesty, we still have to meet him." Feng Bao could only persuade him. His Majesty was on strike, which was a blank in Feng Bao's experience. He had no idea how to deal with it.

Your Majesty has already wasted quite a bit of time. Many powerful and influential people have been waiting for almost half an hour. Even the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are waiting.

Zhu Yijun stood up helplessly and said to Feng Bao: "I know what they want, but I can't give it to them. They know I won't give it to them, but they still want it. They dare not say it, and they speak hesitantly. A word is more roundabout than the eighteen bends of the Yellow River!"

"Feng Daban, do you know what they want?"

"What?" Feng Bao saw that His Majesty was finally willing to move, and hurriedly asked in agreement.

Zhu Yijun exhaled heavily and said in a stern voice: "They want the Ming Dynasty and want to sit on the throne! What they want is for no one to control them and for them to do whatever they want. How can I give them that?"

"I can't do whatever I want! How can I let them do whatever they want?"

Feng Bao shuddered. His Majesty dared to say this, but he didn't dare to listen. Otherwise, let the East Factory's guards kill them all? That was not appropriate. After all, they had not rebelled, and the rebellion was not obvious. Killing people for no reason would only make His Majesty lose support.

Eunuchs take the blame for Your Majesty, not for Your Majesty. Such eunuchs are traitors.

The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister who were waiting at the Mochou Lake Palace looked at the time and the sky and saw that His Majesty was unusually late.

As far as Wang Chonggu could remember, His Majesty had only been late once, and that was on his wedding. He was late for a total of two quarters of an hour. This was the second time, and he had been late for nearly half an hour and had not yet arrived.

"It can be seen that Your Majesty is truly fed up with these worldly affairs." Wang Chonggu said to Zhang Juzheng with a smile.

Zhang Juzheng said helplessly, "It's not that I'm tired of the ways of the world. Your Majesty never complained about being tired when meeting with poor people. It's really tiring to deal with these powerful people and wealthy people, and you have to be very smart."

"For example, recently some powerful and wealthy people have read Lin Fucheng's theory of efficiency and profit, and have begun to want to interfere in the government-owned factories. These powerful and wealthy people hope that the government-owned factories can be more efficient."

The powerful and wealthy prescribed five remedies for the bloated and rigid state-owned factories of the Ming Dynasty, or in other words, five steps to increase the efficiency of the state-owned factories.

In general, the approach is to use layoffs as the main means to streamline the staff of state-owned factories and establish more efficient state-owned factories.

The first step is to eliminate a series of unnecessary bloated institutions in government-owned factories, such as craftsman schools, childcare classes, public pharmacies, and bookstores, and cut all welfare benefits. This will save more than 30% of staff and reduce bloat.

The second step is to eliminate and buy out the non-profit departments in the government-run factories, that is, to outsource them to the private workshops in the industrial clusters, reduce costs and increase efficiency, further reduce unprofitable government offices, and reduce bloat;

The third step is to continue the layoffs. This time, only people in will be hired, those who do not work, those who work slowly, and those who work quickly but are unqualified will be laid off in turn.

The fourth step is to divert people. During the process of layoffs, if some people cannot be laid off due to nepotism, they will be diverted to other idle departments or government-owned factories to be disbanded.

The fifth step is to bear the profits and losses by themselves. Some government-owned factories rely on the money from the court to survive all day long. Bearing their own profits and losses can effectively reduce the financial expenditure of the court.

In this way, government-run factories naturally become more efficient.

Of course, in this case, the government-owned factory might no longer exist, or it might become someone’s own business.

These five steps are based on efficiency first and seem reasonable.

When Wang Chonggu heard this, he immediately said angrily: "Bullshit! Do you think I'm a three-year-old kid? Are you kidding me?! When I was fighting the Japanese pirates, they weren't even born yet!"

"Traitors, every one of them is a traitor!"

"If you're interested in your Majesty's wealth, just say so. What a bullshit! You should all be hanged on the Chaoyang Gate city wall. You'll repent after ten days of hanging!"

Wang Chonggu was extremely angry because when he saw the petition, he realized that it was not Zhang Juzheng who was instigating discord, but these powerful and influential people really thought so and were planning to do so.

"Your Majesty has arrived!" Feng Bao shouted and led His Majesty into the West Flower Hall.

Zhu Yijun was full of surprise and said, "Why is Wang Ci Fu so angry? I heard Wang Ci Fu's angry shouts outside the door. Wang Ci Fu is old and his anger is harmful to his health."

"Your Majesty, we are here to greet you. May your Majesty be in good health." Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Shen Li and Zhang Xueyan bowed their heads in greeting.

"No need to be polite." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and sat on the bench on the platform.

Wang Chonggu explained the matter in detail, and then explained: "These five steps can be said to be murderous step by step. Welfare cuts, where are the people's hearts? Repairs and equipment cuts, the life of the government factory depends on the hands of the people."

"Reduce the number of employees. Those who are connected to the factory cannot be laid off. Divert the remaining most capable craftsmen to their own workshops, right?"

"The final profit and loss are your own responsibility. It sounds better than singing! Some government-owned factories have not made any money yet, so are they going to stop operating?"

"The highway has been built for 18,000 miles, but the cost has not been recovered yet. According to the Ming Dynasty's estimate, it will take 400,000 miles of highway to be enough for the people. As long as the highway is still under construction, the cost will never be recovered!"

"The Dinghai school system is a business that will always lose money. Forget it. Let's learn from the colleges in Jiangxi and turn the schools into money-making places!"

"You are poor, you are born a jerk, and you can never go to school!"

"According to their opinion, this road should not be repaired! They are a bunch of insects, talking nonsense and misleading the public! They should be hung on the Chaoyang Gate city wall for ten days!"

Wang Chonggu initially disagreed with Your Majesty exposing the corpse for ten days, thinking that it was a bit undermining Your Majesty's wisdom and that killing people was too humiliating.

Now he had only one attitude: hang up! Hang up hard!

All the remaining rebels in the tribute election will be put up for debate!

If we don't hang up this now, we'll rebel!
"Ci Fu Wang, please be patient." Zhu Yijun signaled Wang Chonggu not to be so anxious. This was not Lin Fucheng's fault. He proposed efficiency first, but he did not want to abolish the welfare department. He was just taking advantage of the issue.

According to Lin Fucheng's efficiency-only theory, it was precisely because of these welfare departments, such as the craftsman schools, childcare classes, the people's pharmacies, the bookstores, etc., that the craftsmen truly recognized the concept that the government-owned factory was their home, and thus truly improved efficiency.

The parenting class was a small thing that Wang Chonggu did besides running the union.

Wang Chonggu worked in a government-run factory and found that some parents were craftsmen in the factory. The father was a weaver and dyer, and the mother was a weaver. They had to go back to work after the confinement period. When their parents were no longer around or in their hometown, their babies were left unattended.

In response to this situation, Wang Chonggu set up a childcare class in the government-run factory to specifically take care of these children.

He also specifically asked the Legislative Office to send people to keep an eye on the children and conduct regular spot checks on them. He himself also went there once a month. If he found any wounds or bruises on the children, the childcare classes would be in trouble and would face the wrath of Wang Ci Fu.

Wang Chonggu is proud of the parenting class. As for improving production efficiency, production enthusiasm and enhancing the subjective initiative of craftsmen, Wang Chonggu's path dependence is to solve the worries of craftsmen.

Wang Chonggu learned all this from the emperor.

Why did the Duntai Yuanhou and the Haifang Patrol Inspector remain loyal to His Majesty whom they had never met? Knowing the danger, they gambled their lives for a three-inch round dragon flag sticker, which was not worth even a penny.

Isn't it Your Majesty who has solved all the worries of the Duntai Yuanhou and the coastal defense inspectors?

The childcare class costs little money, but it is a big deal to allow the craftsmen to work hard with peace of mind. This is what Wang Chonggu is good at, doing big things with little money.

"He just focused on the bloated and rigid government-run factories and the corruption and taking advantage of the situation among the people, without saying a single word." Zhu Yijun patiently read the memorial handed over by Zhang Juzheng and sneered at the views expressed in it.

The transition from official to civilian is not a panacea that works overnight. Civilian communities have their own problems, and we cannot fight corruption with high pressure. Over time, they will still be bloated, rigid, corrupt, and take advantage of the situation.

From an individual to a country, any organizational system will inevitably have these problems as long as it cannot complete its own metabolism, without exception.

Zhu Yijun met with these powerful and wealthy officials in the Southern Court. After they paid their respects to him, Zhu Yijun remained silent.

The only sound in the entire West Flower Hall was the sound of the wind blowing the gauze curtains, which made people shudder. This atmosphere made these powerful and influential people retreat.

Sometimes, the emperor's silence can be deafening.

For the powerful and wealthy people in the Southern Court, the pressure of meeting the emperor this time was really too great.

The powerful people in Jinan Prefecture, Xuzhou Prefecture, and Yangzhou Prefecture all wanted to meet the Emperor, but they had never heard that Your Majesty was so terrible. They all said that Your Majesty was kind and tolerant.

Zhu Yijun looked at it for a long time before he said, "I fully understand what you are thinking, but today I want to tell you clearly."

“If you feel the sky is dark, then you can survive in the dark; if speaking out and shouting is dangerous, you can remain silent; if you feel powerless, you can curl up in a corner and let others shelter you from the wind and rain.”

“You hide in the corner and remain silent, but please don’t stay in the corner and belittle and ridicule those who are braver than you. The light they pursue may shine on you.”

“A person can be humble like dust, timid like an ant, but he must never be twisted like a maggot.”

"That's not a human, that's a barbarian."

When Ye Xianggao heard the emperor's instructions, he immediately began to write quickly. He wrote it once, but felt that it was not good, so he took the page off, changed to another one and revised it carefully before he was satisfied with recording this passage of the sage's instructions.

Zhang Hong took a look and made sure that Ye Xianggao was not being sarcastic towards His Majesty, then he nodded with satisfaction.

In June of the 17th year of the Wanli reign, the emperor received the mandate of heaven and toured the southern capital. He summoned the elders of his hometown and issued an edict to instruct them: If you feel that the sky is dark, you can creep in the obscurity; if you feel that coughing is dangerous, you should remain silent and control yourself; if you think that you are weak, you can curl up in a corner and hope for the protection of benevolent people.

However, when you are crouching in darkness, you should not slander heroes. The light they seek may only reach you.

God created human beings, but human beings are as small as dust and as timid as ants. However, how can we move crookedly like maggots and lice?

As for the last sentence, Ye Xianggao did not write it in the daily notes. Your Majesty’s scolding cannot be recorded in detail, as that would undermine your wisdom.

Ye Xianggao just wanted to say, Your Majesty is right to scold!

It's no wonder that Wang Ci Fu and His Majesty were angry. Some insects would take advantage of any opportunity they were given.

(End of this chapter)