I'm really not doing business

Chapter 900: Go to hell and tell the King of Hell!

When Zhu Yijun said there was a pause, he was just hanging a sword over the heads of powerful local officials, local gentry and nobles in Zhejiang, threatening them all the time to prevent them from forgetting that the Ming Dynasty still had the means to intimidate and punish.

The governors and generals who returned from Liaodong were all ruthless men. Li Chengliang killed the lowly scholar Zhang Liming in the street and was exiled to the Seven Guards of Guanxi, while Hou Yuzhao made himself a living devil because they all came from Liaodong.

The development of Liaodong was achieved through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, not through conspiracies and tricks. Every inch of land in Liaodong that the Ming Dynasty occupied was developed with real swords and guns, and with blood and sacrifice.

The Minister of Personnel Liang Menglong gave the emperor a new list. After executing 132 people who pretended to be crazy and stupid, Zhu Yijun arrested a group of brokers and compradors, all of whom were bribers.

The list of names Liang Menglong gave was a list of bribe-takers. The opinions of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate were that they were involved in treason and should be dismissed, stripped of their honors and titles, and exiled to Jinchi and Yehai City, never to be released.

"According to the cabinet ministers' opinions, send them to Jinchi City and Yehai City." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in front of him and finally exiled all these people to Southeast Asia. There was a severe shortage of people in Southeast Asia, so it was a good way to make use of the waste.

The officials who should be killed have already been killed. As for the remaining officials, their crimes of bribery and corruption do not warrant the death penalty.

"The means of bribery are indeed sophisticated. If they were not afraid of being hanged on the Chaoyang Gate, the powerful and powerful would not have said it so clearly. Since Hai Rui and Hai Wenzhong left, the wind of corruption has risen again."

"In fact, the Southern Court has formed a group of political lobbyists, called brokers and compradors, but in fact a bridge of corruption." Zhu Yijun looked at the case file and rubbed his brows.

The struggle situation is becoming more severe and complicated, and corruption is becoming more and more professional.

This is not the fault of the new Chief Governor Lu Guangzu, who was incompetent. In fact, among the more than 600 corrupt officials investigated this time, most of the corruption occurred when Hai Rui was still in power. Hai Rui and the emperor were very clear that corruption could never be completely caught.

Fighting corruption and catching corrupt officials will only increase the cost of corruption for officials, reduce the amount and scale of corruption, and prevent corruption from becoming a disaster that destroys the country.

It is really unrealistic to excessively pursue high moral standards and a world full of honest officials.
But tolerating corruption will definitely lead to the destruction of the country, because corruption will inevitably lead to inefficiency.

Zhejiang Governor Wu Shanyan, because the Zhejiang local government had too much money and had nowhere to spend it, felt that the Nine Battalions that were out on patrol to repair dikes and canals were too much of an eyesore, so he wanted to cut the salaries of the Nine Battalions and disband the Nine Battalions, which led to a mutiny.

In Wu Shanyan's plan, once the construction of the East Zhejiang Canal began, it would become a long and protracted field of corruption, in which all the money in the treasury would be spent in the name of rationality and compliance.

The entire East Zhejiang Canal cost 3.5 million taels of silver and took four years to complete. But if Wu Shanyan were in charge, he would have dared to add 40 years to the construction period, leaving a huge hole of 35 million taels of silver.

The money was spent, but not a cent of the road was dug.

Excessive corruption will inevitably lead to inefficiency.

Professional bribery means that the means of bribery are extremely professional, highly concealed, and completely reasonable and legal in the accounts.

Before Hai Rui started his anti-corruption campaign, "ice tribute" and "carbon tribute" were rampant, and local officials had to give money to the hosts every year, blatantly engaging in corruption.

Corruption has now become reasonable and legal, but the Censorate does not care about that. The Censorate's standard for corruption is to harm public interests and enrich private individuals. As long as this standard is met, it will be classified as corruption.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was no clear definition of corruption. There was no clear boundary between what was considered corruption and what was not.

When the Ming Dynasty Code was being revised, the censors were very dissatisfied with such vague clauses, but in the end, the Ming Dynasty Code did not have any explicit provisions.

This is to deliberately use the vague clause of "if the punishment is unknown, the power is unpredictable" to expand the definition of corruption. Anyone who embezzles public funds for personal gain is considered a corrupt official.

For example, Zou Guangyao, the prefect of Chizhou Prefecture, was the epitome of this. It was not without reason that he ordered the yamen runners to rob kelp boats.

Zou Guangyao was not a famous scholar, but he could earn anywhere from five thousand to tens of thousands of silver coins every time he gave lectures, and that was three to five times a year. Many people fought hard to get such an expensive seat, but couldn't.

In addition, Zhu Yijun read Zou Guangyao's books and thought they were nonsense. Even if he really talked about Confucianism, Zhu Yijun thought they had some value. It could be ambiguous whether he was corrupt, but he was not. Zou Guangyao talked about growing flowers, the varieties and methods of growing plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum.

Zhu Yijun read a part of it and his brows were twisted into knots. What Zou Guangyao said about the method of raising plants was completely wrong. If they really followed his method, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum would not live more than a month. It was such a waste of things.

A copy of "The Four Gentlemen" was priced at fifty silver coins, and a total of five thousand copies of the fine edition were sold.

Zou Guangyao had a distant nephew who was studying in his hometown of Chengdu, Sichuan, preparing for the imperial examination. During the four years that Zou Guangyao had been in office, this nephew had made a full 170,000 silver coins. The key point was that when this nephew was arrested, he was completely confused and had no idea what was going on.

In fact, it is holding on behalf of others.

Someone opened an account in Yanxing Tower in Beiya under the name of Zou Guangyao's distant nephew, and then bought low and sold high in the market, making a profit of 170,000 silver coins in four years. Everything seemed reasonable and legal.

But in fact, it is just a game of transferring money from one hand to the other. You can play this game by simply buying all the circulating ship tickets of several nearly scrapped five-masted ocean-going ships.

Moreover, this was a group case involving more than just Zou Guangyao. Among the more than 600 corrupt officials who were uprooted in this tribute selection case, more than 400 had similar charges of taking bribes.

Zou Guangyao is a typical example among them, who made 300,000 silver coins in three years.

You should know that during the Sichuan Head-Hanging Case, Luo Yao, a student of Zhang Juzheng and former governor of Sichuan, tried his best but only managed to make 340,000 silver coins in three years. Even so, Luo Yao was still scolded by Wang Qian as a pauper, a poor ghost who extorted 340,000 silver coins from the people.

The struggle situation has become severe because the enemy is also becoming cunning.

If we check the accounts and find that the expenditure is reasonable and legal, does that mean it is not corruption? This will only create a false image of "cleanliness", but in fact it is still the inefficiency caused by corruption.

"I have read the memorials from the Northern Court. The Censorate and the Six Ministries are full of opinions. They usually talk so much, but why don't they say a word about Hou Yuzhao's affairs?" Zhu Yijun found something strange. Hou Yuzhao, the living devil, was not impeached.

According to the past treatment of Yin Zhengmao, Ling Yunyi, Wang Yi'e and Shen Shixing, the censors would have submitted a series of memorials to criticize Hou Yuzhao harshly, but this time, the censors turned a blind eye and said nothing.

Feng Bao whispered, "When your majesty is here, it's fine to say a few nonsense, just take it as a rebuke to Chen Shan. When your majesty is not here, if you say nonsense, you will have to go to the Chengtianmen execution ground when your majesty returns to the capital."

"This tribute election case has caused such a big stir. If you speak out now, it will be easy for people to think you have ties with the rebels. You should be cautious in what you say and do."

The censors were not stupid. The current situation in Zhejiang Province all started with a fire in Renhe County.

Hou Yuzhao's behavior was to vent the anger of His Majesty. The censors spoke nonsense during the tribute selection period. They were not performing their duties at all, but were seeking death.

The emperor's nerves are most sensitive right now. If he insists on touching this bad luck, he will only bring disaster upon himself.

Don't hit the diligent or the lazy, just hit the one who is blind.

It has been seventeen years since the Wanli Reform. The censors are very clear about when people can talk nonsense and when they cannot. Shen Shixing and Wang Jiaping can be impeached, but Hou Yuzhao cannot.

"The censors of our Ming Dynasty are as flexible as Doctor Shen." Zhu Yijun understood the reason. Keeping a low profile and protecting oneself is a tacit understanding among officials.

"Your Majesty, Wang Ci Fu is here." A eunuch hurried in, and Wang Chonggu suddenly came to the Mochou Lake Palace.

"Xuan."

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. I hope your Majesty is in good health." Wang Chonggu bowed his head in greeting.

"No need to formalities, take a seat. What brings Wang Ci Fu to my Mochou Lake Palace?" Zhu Yijun asked with some confusion. If there was something, Wang Chonggu would submit a memorial and wait for the emperor to summon him.

Wang Chonggu looked embarrassed and hesitated to speak, but finally said: "I am here for my unworthy and rebellious son. I beg Your Majesty to spare his life."

"Where do you come from? Wang Qian, the prefect of Songjiang, is doing a good job, why should you spare his life?" Zhu Yijun suddenly raised his head and said with a frown.

Wang Qian, a plain-clothed censor who came from a family of officials, was praised for his morality by even Hai Rui and Zhang Juzheng. The reason why this man was not greedy or corrupt was that he was rich enough.

Zhu Yijun and Wang Qian had a very good personal relationship, but if Wang Qian committed crimes because of his personal relationship with the emperor, Zhu Yijun would not tolerate him.

"He judged a case that caused a huge uproar." Wang Chonggu, the Minister of Justice and a veteran of criminal law for 17 years, described the case in detail from beginning to end with a helpless look on his face.

There was a villager named Ma Sanqiang in Sanlianzhuang Village, Shanghai County. He was the third child in the family. His eldest brother, Ma Daqiang, died at the hands of pirates at the age of sixteen before he got married. His second brother, Ma Erqiang, went out to sea as a sailor, going out in wind and rain and away from home for entire years.

Ma Sanqiang was born into a poor laborer family. He went to Liuji Tofu Shop in Shanghai County to make tofu. He worked from dawn to dusk for seven years and became the master craftsman of Liuji Tofu Shop.

The three most difficult things in life are forging iron, rowing boats, and making tofu. The tofu needs to be boiled in brine, and the freshly made tofu is very hot, but if it is not handled while it is hot, it cannot be shaped.

Ma Sanqiang earned money with his own hands. He worked at Liuji Tofu Shop and was paid fourteen silver coins a year, which was not much, but not too little either.

The year before last, Ma Sanqiang finally saved enough money to build a house in Sanlin Village, get married and have children. His wife stayed at home to take care of her mother while he continued to work at Liuji Tofu Shop.

In the summer of the 16th year of the Wanli reign, when Ma Sanqiang was grinding tofu, his donkey went crazy. He went up to stop it and was kicked twice by the donkey. His legs were broken and it took him more than half a year to recover.

Ma Sanqiang felt that given his situation and the fact that he had not been working for half a year, the boss should at least give him some money out of consideration for their years of friendship. If he did not stop the donkey from going crazy, the entire tofu shop might be ruined by this crazy donkey.

Liuji Tofu Shop has 143 craftsmen and is one of the best tofu shops in the whole Shanghai County. Because of their excellent craftsmanship, their tofu is firm and does not fall apart. They supply the big restaurants in Shanghai County and make a lot of money.

The boss of Liuji Tofu Shop was Liu Youjia, who was considered a wealthy family in Sanlin Village. After the sea was opened, he became even richer.

Liu Youjia didn't give Ma Sanqiang a penny, saying that if he didn't want to work, he could do it, and there were plenty of people who could do it.

Ma Sanqiang was not convinced. He told Liu Youjia that he would be compensated with five taels of silver for the injury and that was the end of it.

Liu Youjia's idea was very simple. If he gave money to Ma Sanqiang, he would have to pay for any accidents in the workshop in the future. However, he was stingy and refused to give a single cent.

Ma Sanqiang had no choice but to leave, but he did not expect that seven days later, the yamen runners would come to his door.

It turned out that Liu Youjia directly reported Ma Sanqiang to the Shanghai County Government!

The plaintiff sued Ma Sanqiang because he saw that his mother was sick, his children were young and he had a lot of expenses, so he deliberately provoked the donkey to go crazy in order to extort money. He even dragged the crazy donkey to the gate of the yamen and said that the wound on the donkey's butt was caused by Ma Sanqiang on purpose.

The case was first tried by Yao Guangqi. Yao Guangqi, a ruthless man who was willing to take a knife in the face because of Haidai, sentenced Liu Youjia to pay 15 silver coins instead of the 5 silver coins requested by Ma Sanqiang.

Liu Youjia was not convinced. He had a lawyer and solid evidence, but this judge not only failed to see his injustice, but also asked him to pay fifteen silver coins. He refused to pay and insisted on paying.

"Wait, is Liu Youjia sick?" Zhu Yijun interrupted Wang Chonggu's case statement and said with his hands spread out, "The lawyers in Songjiang Prefecture are not cheap, even for a case like this, the total cost should be at least twenty silver coins."

"Giving Ma Sanqiang five silver coins would solve the problem, but why do you have to give the lawyer twenty silver coins?"

Wang Chonggu shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, hiring a lawyer in the Northern Court costs 20 silver coins, in Songjiang Prefecture 30 silver coins, and in Shanghai County 40 silver coins."

The silver in Shanghai County is Shanghai silver, which is different from the silver in other places. Its purchasing power is a bit weak. Twenty silver is the price in Beiya, and forty silver is the price in Shanghai.

"Yes, I am too narrow-minded to think that even elephant dung can be sold in a place like this." Zhu Yijun realized that he still underestimated the expensiveness of Shanghai.

Wang Chonggu went on to say: "Liu Youjia is not ill, he just wants to set rules! In the future, if anyone gets injured in the workshop and dares to ask him for compensation, he can sue the other party and put him in jail, and no one will dare to ask for compensation in the future." "Your Majesty also knows Yao Guangqi. Since he worshipped Ling Butang as his master, he has completely changed. He sentenced Liu Youjia to pay fifteen silver coins."

"Liu Youjia refused to pay, so he asked Xu Sihai, the local boss of Shanghai County, to help him beat Ma Sanqiang and teach him a lesson."

"Xu Sihai sent four people to Ma Sanqiang's home and beat him up. Ma Sanqiang's mother was seriously ill and bedridden. She stood up to stop them, but was pushed and hit the corner of the table. Unfortunately, she died."

"Ma Sanqiang's wife is extremely beautiful. These four men are hooligans. They raped Ma Sanqiang's wife because of her beauty."

"The wife couldn't bear the humiliation and jumped into the well the next day. The child was frightened and died three days later."

Zhu Yijun clenched his fists immediately and asked calmly, "What happened next?"

Zhu Yijun was not a good man. He just couldn't bear to see this kind of suffering. It would have been fine if he didn't know about it, but if he knew about it, he would definitely intervene.

Wang Chonggu said helplessly: "Shanghai County sent police officers to investigate the case, but Ma Sanqiang could not wait any longer. He sharpened his knife, sneaked into Liu Youjia's house through a dog hole, waited until midnight, and started killing people in the dark. All night long, Liu Youjia's family of thirteen people were killed by the knife."

"Ma Sanqiang wanted to commit suicide, but he was held down by the servants and taken to the county government office."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yijun unclenched his fist and said, "You deserve it."

"Your Majesty, Ma Sanqiang killed an entire family, even the children." Wang Chonggu reminded His Majesty that Ma Sanqiang was a murderer, and a vicious criminal, who killed an entire family.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "You force the poor to work hard, and let them die of poverty, starvation, and hardship, and you don't allow them to fight to the death? How can this be justified?! Liu Youjia would have been fined five silver coins at the beginning, but he insisted on filing a complaint. When the complaint failed, he hired someone to kill him. Liu Youjia's entire family died, and so did Ma Sanqiang's entire family!"

"Liu Youjia deserves this! Go to hell and tell the King of Hell!"

Wang Chonggu was confused by what the emperor said. He sorted out his thoughts before saying, "Xu Sihai sent four people to Ma Sanqiang's house. Liu Youjia just wanted to beat Ma Sanqiang up, not to harm Ma Sanqiang's entire family."

"This trend cannot be allowed to continue, otherwise private fighting will inevitably arise again."

Wang Chonggu came to plead for his son, but ended up explaining the basic concepts of the law to Your Majesty first. Your Majesty's judgment will only intensify private fighting.

"What you said is not right. The court should investigate the case slowly. Can they really give Ma Sanqiang justice? The person is already dead. Ma Sanqiang's old mother is dead, his wife committed suicide, and his child died of illness!"

"I think the government is not able to give him justice. If Liu Youjia hadn't pressed him hard, how could this happen?"

“This is not a matter of private fighting.”

"The people are brave in public fights but timid in private fights because of strict laws. Private fights outweigh public wars because there are no officials above to punish the unjust and there are cliques below, so private fights outweigh public wars, and wood and stone are sharper than weapons!"

"You tell me the law. Should Ma Sanqiang's mother, wife and children go to the King of Hell to seek justice?" Zhu Yijun said, shaking his head.

If those in power cannot punish officials who break the law, and the lower classes have clan forces that collude with each other, then private fighting will outweigh public warfare, and the sticks and stones in the hands of ordinary people will be more lethal than weapons like swords.

This is all the wisdom of our ancestors, and Zhu Yijun never thought that he could be smarter than them.

This is not a private fight, but the oppression of one class by another, which leads to resistance. It cannot be simply summarized as a private fight.

"Your Majesty, please wait a moment." Wang Chonggu is old, and His Majesty has been eloquent since he was a child, with meticulous and clear logic. He also regards the theory of contradiction and class theory as the principles of governing the country, and practices them in his daily life.

For a moment, Wang Chonggu didn't know how to refute His Majesty.

"Things have gotten to this point and Shanghai County is unable to handle the case, so it has been transferred to the Songjiang Prefecture government office. My son Wang Qian has accepted the case." Wang Chonggu first avoided His Majesty's questioning and instead finished telling the story.

Zhu Yijun asked, "Yes, Wang Cifu came to plead for Wang Qian. How was Wang Qian dealt with?"

"Wang Qian is disregarding human life." Wang Chonggu said helplessly. The conflict had escalated to this point. As the prefect of Songjiang, Wang Qian should have found a way to calm things down instead of further exacerbating the conflict.

But Wang Qian refused to do so. After arresting Ma Sanqiang, he took the yamen runners to capture Xu Sihai and other bandits in the city.

Xu Sihai was a well-known local tyrant in Shanghai County, with more than 200 lackeys under his command. When Xu Sihai refused to be arrested, Wang Qian ordered that anyone who resisted should be killed without mercy and personally went into battle, which completely intensified the conflict.

At the arrest scene, Wang Qian used a compound crossbow and a bird gun to kill the entire bandit nest.

That’s not all. Xu Sihai found out that four of his men had committed murder, so he arranged for them to flee to another place to avoid disaster. The four didn’t run far, they ended up in Taicang, Suzhou.

"Our eldest son Wang pointed a powerful crossbow at Xu Sihai's head and forced him to tell the whereabouts of the four murderers. Xu Sihai was so scared that he peed his pants and directly pointed out the murderers. Did they catch them?" Zhu Yijun's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Wang Qian is still a young man and his blood is still hot.

Wang Chonggu was helpless. His Majesty couldn't grasp the main point of his words today. Was the main point Wang Qian asking about the whereabouts of the four people? Was it Wang Qian who led the yamen runners to kill people?
Killing someone without trial is obviously against the rules.

"Caught him." Wang Chonggu took a sip of tea and answered His Majesty's question.

"Now that he's been caught, why is Wang Ci Fu still pleading for Wang Qian?" Zhu Yijun really didn't understand why Wang Chonggu was pleading for Wang Qian.

Isn't this done very well?
"Your Majesty, Wang Qian is taking human lives lightly! He also overstepped the boundaries of the law and took the Songjiang yamen runners to Suzhou Prefecture to arrest people. The Suzhou Prefecture did not dare to offend Wang Qian. Wang Qian has a father who is a deputy prime minister, so they had to file a complaint with the cabinet." Wang Chonggu once again reminded His Majesty that Wang Qian had done two extraordinary things.

Disregard for human life and overstepping the boundaries of law enforcement.

Wang Ci Fu realized that His Majesty either didn't understand or was protecting Wang Qian, so he handed the case file to His Majesty and asked him to check it personally.

"Where did he take human life lightly?" Zhu Yijun pointed at the case file and said, "Xu Sihai arrested and gathered his minions, took out a crossbow, fought against the government, and shot and injured the government officials. If Wang Qian had not ordered the killing, what kind of official would he be? Who would be willing to listen to him?"

“It is indeed inappropriate to enforce the law beyond the boundary.”

Wang Qian was a wealthy playboy in the capital, and he was probably furious. He didn't think too much about it and just took the yamen runners to arrest people. He didn't even give an official document to the Suzhou government, which scared the Suzhou government so much that they thought there were Japanese pirates!
"Fine him half a year's salary and don't cross the line or cause trouble in the future." Zhu Yijun wrote on the file.

Wang Chonggu looked at the most important charge on the case file and said, "What about Wang Qian's murder? He must be punished for that, too."

Zhu Yijun waved his hands and said, "This cannot be punished. Xu Sihai openly resisted arrest, and the yamen runners did not fight back? Even if the villagers resisted taxes, the yamen runners who went to the countryside to collect taxes would fight back."

"Xu Sihai secretly stored bows, crossbows and armor, which is a serious crime of harboring a criminal and is suspected of treason. He also hid three sets of armor, which is punishable by death and there is no problem with his punishment."

Even if we look at it from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty laws before the Wanli Reform, there was nothing wrong with Wang Qian's handling of the matter.

"It's a mess, everything is a mess." Wang Chonggu signaled His Majesty to pause for a moment as he wanted to sort out his identity.

He, Wang Chonggu, came to plead for Wang Qian, but as the conversation went on, the roles were reversed. He, Wang Chonggu, called for his son to be beaten and killed, but His Majesty, on the contrary, strongly defended him.

Is a half-year salary deduction a punishment? Wang Qian’s Suiyuan Road tickets and dividends for one year are equivalent to the salaries of a hundred first-rank officials! Wang Qian doesn’t need this little money at all.

"Your Majesty, there is no evidence of Xu Sihai's illegal crime. Handling the case in this way may cause panic among the people." Wang Chonggu took another sip of tea before he organized his words.

Wang Qian handled the case in this way without paying any attention to the impact.

Zhu Yijun said: "Influence, what influence? People are panicking? Who is afraid? Only the wealthy families and businessmen who are unwilling to pay compensation are afraid!"

"Just because Xu Sihai is a dog raised by a wealthy family in Songjiang Prefecture, he can't be killed? In Songjiang Prefecture, the court still has to listen to the words of these wealthy families? If the wealthy families say it's okay to kill, then he can be killed. If the wealthy families say it's not okay to kill, then it's like taking human life lightly?"

"Is this the Ming Dynasty, my world, or the world of these wealthy families?"

"absurd!"

"Wang Ci Fu, let Wang Qian bring the criminal to a public trial. Post a notice and tell everyone the details. Let the people judge whether Wang Qian's behavior is right or wrong!"

"Everything started because of a claim for work injury compensation. If Liu Youjia had a little bit of humanity, he wouldn't have pushed an honest man to this point!"

"This case is not just a criminal case, it's also a political case. If I were to talk about legal principles, wouldn't I be forcing poor people like Ma Sanqiang to rise up in rebellion?"

"When the time comes, when the people start to riot and attack the capital, and chop off my head, will I regret it?"

"Ma Sanqiang cannot be executed, so just exile him to Japan."

"I have made up my mind, no need to say more."

Wang Chonggu did not accept the order and did not speak. Instead, he sat in his seat without saying a word. He wanted to persuade His Majesty but did not know how to start. His Majesty had already made up his mind, and if he, Wang Ci Fu, said anything more, it would be very tactless.

Zhu Yijun saw Wang Chonggu's attitude and knew that he had to persuade Wang Cifu, who was in charge of criminal law, today. The emperor thought for a moment and said, "Wang Cifu, I know what you are thinking. You just want to say that I ignored the laws of the Ming Dynasty and made decisions based on my emotions, just like Felipe II, right?"

"Your Majesty, I would never dare to do that!" Wang Chonggu was frightened. Felipe was old and senile, just like a child. Wang Chonggu would not think so, let alone dare to think so.

Zhu Yijun continued, "Wang Ci Fu, I did not make this decision in anger."

"Do you still remember the Yanzhou Confucius Mansion case? Chen Dazhuang killed a dog and was forced to flee Shandong."

"And Chen Dazhuang's father had to wear mourning clothes for the dog and keep vigil for the dog for 27 months. Killing someone is not enough. There is no such thing as bullying people."

"In the case of Confucius Mansion in Yanzhou, I went even further."

"The case of Ma Sanqiang is exactly the same as the case of Confucius Mansion in Yanzhou. The only difference is that Ma Sanqiang did not trust me and the court and chose to do it himself. That's why I exiled him instead of letting him become the hereditary Wei Yi Taibo of Da Tieling like Chen Dazhuang."

"Does Wang Ci Fu hope that a large number of Yanzhou Confucius Mansions will appear in Songjiang Prefecture, the bridgehead of our Ming Dynasty's opening up to the sea and the world's trade and economic center?"

"I absolutely cannot accept such an outcome!"

"That means the Wanli Reform was a complete failure! It means I lost, the court lost, the people of the Ming Dynasty lost, and only these wealthy families won."

"Your Majesty is right. I will follow your instructions." Wang Chonggu was silent for a long time before he accepted the result.

Wang Chonggu found that he was unable to argue with His Majesty. If His Majesty made a decision in anger, he could still say a few words, but after all, he could not sit at the table with the children.

But Your Majesty has made it very clear that this is the result of serious consideration and weighing of the pros and cons.

The Ming Dynasty absolutely could not accept the appearance of a large number of Yanzhou Confucius Mansions in Songjiang Prefecture, nor could it accept Songjiang Prefecture becoming the Netherlands region of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)