I'm really not doing business

Chapter 958 Destroying Extraordinary Skills to Secure the People's Livelihood
All political activities, regardless of their purpose or how tortuous their path, ultimately lead to one thing: the reckoning with political enemies.

Regardless of the political activity, this is an inevitable destiny.

Zhang Juzheng, while reading history, also held a high position and participated in the activities to bring down Yan Song and Xu Jie. He himself was the mastermind behind the downfall of Gao Gong.

Zhang Juzheng didn't particularly care about his posthumous reputation. Even if he had, he wouldn't have acted as regent. Throughout history, no powerful minister who acted as regent has ever had a good reputation, whether for personal gain or for the sake of the country.

He planned to do all the dirty work for His Majesty while he was still alive, and to carry out a comprehensive purge of all his political enemies in the name of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The purge of political enemies is a manifestation of the repeated infighting among various factions in the court for their own interests, which has intensified and become irreconcilable. This is something that could not be avoided, and it cannot be prevented by the presence of a single, dictatorial, and wise ruler in the court.

Zhang Juzheng even believed that it would be best if the emperor could still carry out the purge. If he couldn't even do that, it meant that the order led by the court had completely failed, which meant that the Mandate of Heaven had been lost.

This was most evident at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when the Yuan emperors were unable to launch any purges against their officials and even had to appease them in order to barely mobilize their power.

Zhu Yijun took a deep breath and said helplessly, "I understand your concerns, but there are never winners in factional struggles, only survivors."

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhang Juzheng carefully considered the emperor's words. After such a great purge was launched, no one could completely control the situation. There were too many uncontrollable factors in the process of the struggle. In the end, there were only survivors, no victors.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Juzheng began his account of the Yuan dynasty's inability to conduct a thorough purge, continuing until the Northern and Southern Examination Cases of the 30th year of the Hongwu reign. Zhang Juzheng provided a very concise and succinct summary of the process by which the Yuan dynasty lost its mandate of heaven and the Ming dynasty began.

"The Hongwu era was a time of complete abandonment of the old order of the Yuan dynasty and a time of reform and innovation. All military, political, and major cases during the Hongwu era revolved around how to accelerate the break from the old order and establish a new one," Zhang Juzheng concluded.

Zhang Juzheng's meaning was very clear: from the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Song dynasty when the imperial examination system was fully mature, it opened up channels for upward social mobility to a certain extent and alleviated the pressure of class solidification. However, by the end of the Northern Song dynasty, a new solidified group had formed in the Central Plains.

These gentry, represented by the gentry, quickly colluded with the old aristocratic families, and blocked upward mobility by monopolizing the right to interpret cultural scriptures.

The major cases during the Hongwu era were all about the path to power and advancement. This conflict intensified to an irreconcilable point, with the most intense being the North-South Examination Case.

"So, according to your logic, the Jingnan Campaign was a continuation of the Northern and Southern Examination Cases?" Zhu Yijun frowned, suddenly realizing that, according to Zhang Juzheng's explanation, the Jingnan Campaign seemed inevitable.

Suppose Zhu Yuanzhang passed the throne to Zhu Di, and Zhu Di himself chose the same path as Zhu Yunwen, there would probably still be a rebellion in the north, because the various policies of Jianwen's New Deal completely blocked the path for northerners to gain power, leaving no gaps.

"Your Majesty is wise. These are just my personal opinions, nothing more than idle talk." Zhang Juzheng glanced at the position of the scribe in the middle of the book. Ye Xianggao had probably fallen into the latrine and hadn't returned. It was precisely because no one was recording that Zhang Juzheng used the theories of contradiction and class to briefly analyze the process of the loss of the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.

The Wanli Reforms, especially the Dinghai Education System, were almost identical to those of the Hongwu era, both opening up new paths to power and new avenues for advancement.

The path to heaven was firmly controlled by lowly Confucian scholars. The Dinghai education system and the official examination system opened up a new path for officials to advance through science and engineering, thus opening up a channel for promotion so that everyone could ascend to heaven.

With one command, the gates of heaven are opened, and all paths shake the universe.

This would inevitably affect the interests of those who originally held a monopoly, including powerful families who were hit by the land survey and land reclamation, officials who lost their rent-seeking opportunities due to the reform of the bureaucracy, old and corrupt conservatives, and cultural nobles whose interests were affected by the Dinghai education system. The core interests of these groups were greatly impacted during the Wanli Reform.

"Your Majesty, in the early years of the dynasty, there was a wind that stopped tributes from being offered." Zhang Juzheng then mentioned the wind that stopped tributes from being offered in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng described a phenomenon in politics called the "hyper-organization phenomenon".

In the absence of clear orders or a clear authoritative figure, the government relied solely on the tacit understanding among officials in various government departments to resist the imperial decrees through collective consensus and action.

During the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the Yuan emperors were unable to carry out any purges against their officials. For the newly established Ming dynasty, the policy of stopping donations and public opinion that lasted for decades and even had a lasting impact during the Wanli era was a true reflection of this super-organizational phenomenon of collective understanding, collective action, and no need for organization to confront it.

This was Zhang Juzheng's real concern, and his intention to use the Anti-Corruption Bureau to purge disloyal individuals, thereby undermining the collective consensus on counterattacking and settling scores with Wanli's reforms through high-pressure political actions.

Zhang Juzheng explained his motives for using the Anti-Corruption Bureau to carry out the purge. He also reminded His Majesty of the dangers involved and hoped that the emperor would be keenly aware of the safety valve, the critical point: official factories, opening the sea, taxation, and official corruption.

The official factories were the most important because they were not only the most important source of tax revenue for the imperial court, but also the most important source of soldiers for the Ming Dynasty, and the foundation for the Ming Dynasty to change production relations and improve productivity.

In fact, the simplest way to counter the Wanli Reforms was to immerse the emperor in the narrative of a benevolent ruler.

This is the simplest and most effective method, but it doesn't work for Your Majesty. It's not that Your Majesty doesn't pursue benevolence and righteousness, but rather that the benevolence and righteousness that Your Majesty pursues is more similar to the benevolence and righteousness that Xiong Tingbi understands.

The benevolence to split a person in two vertically; the righteousness to smash the enemy's head into his chest.

The argument between the emperor and the prime minister ended, and the prime minister eventually compromised and accepted the emperor's solution.

Lu Guangzu entered the cabinet as the chief censor of the Censorate and was put in charge of all matters of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Chen Mo also received an imperial edict and became the first commander of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Chen Mo found the appointment somewhat hard to understand. Was the Anti-Corruption Division only responsible for fighting corruption?

In fact, Chen Mo had long been prepared. If the emperor needed him, he could be the knife to launch a great purge, cleaning up what needed to be cleaned up, removing the rotten parts and throwing them into the dustbin of history.

Chen Mo, while serving in the Northern Garrison, always managed to learn many secrets. Even the powerful Emperor Chengzu (Chengzu Wen Emperor) still wanted to make Ji Gang the treacherous minister, sending all the difficult enemies to meet Emperor Taizu.

But His Majesty's decree was above all else, and Chen Mo, who was ignorant of politics, chose to obey it.

Zhang Juzheng's description of the collective tacit understanding, collective actions, and super-organizational phenomenon of counterattacking against the Wanli Reforms without the need for organization was actually an overestimation of the enemy's capabilities. This phenomenon generally appears in the twilight of an empire and the establishment of a new dynasty.

In this feudal imperial era, where the execution of nine generations of one's family was legal, what most powerful figures, wealthy merchants, and local gentry feared most was the emperor going mad.

They implement decisions made on a whim, change policies frequently and erratically, and kill indiscriminately without considering which class to fill the gap if they dislike a certain class.

His Majesty the Emperor and the Grand Secretary overestimated their will to resist and gave them too much credit. The greatest consensus was that when facing a bloodthirsty emperor, the best course of action was not to provoke him, but to counterattack the Wanli Reforms, since the emperor truly did execute nine generations of his family.

Moreover, a key point that the emperor and his chief minister take for granted and easily overlook is that the emperor himself is truly very active and energetic.

Zhang Juzheng was already used to this and didn't find it unusual, but an energetic emperor is really hard to deal with once you've seen him a lot.

The emperor's profession itself occupies the highest level of the social class. He possesses supreme privileges that no other class has. In addition, he has accumulated enough experience through long-term diligent governance. His officials have almost no way to deal with a diligent emperor.

Because the emperor himself had seen those tricks before, more than once, and even used them better than you, his ministers.

Zhu Yuanzhang was a beggar at Huangjue Temple. Since Huangjue Temple didn't provide food, he had to beg. He had little experience in governing, was not born into nobility, and had not received any imperial education. However, after accumulating enough experience, the tricks of his officials were basically useless against him.

The weather in July was extremely hot, but the exquisitely designed Imperial Study in Tonghe Palace was quite cool. The imposing Ming Emperor leaned back on his dragon throne, holding two memorials in his hands. He had received good news and bad news.

The good news is that Li Le, the governor of Songjiang, Wang Xiyuan, the governor of Yingtian, and Hou Yuzhao, the governor of Zhejiang, jointly conducted an industrial survey of cotton textile manufacturing in the Ming Dynasty. Similar to the land survey and population census, they carried out a comprehensive survey of cotton textile workshops in Songjiang Prefecture, Jiangzuo and Jiangyou, and Zhejiang.

The current cotton cloth production of the Ming Dynasty has exceeded 32 million bolts, with more than 2 million three-spindle spinning wheels and looms. There are more than 1.2 million cotton textile artisans and more than 700,000 weavers. The artisans work more than 305 days a year, working more than six hours a day, from morning to night, regardless of the cold or heat.

The relative production surplus mentioned by Lin Fucheng has already appeared in cotton cloth.

Of these 3200 million bolts of cotton cloth, only 800 million were exported overseas. The rest were consumed by the Ming Dynasty. Only one-quarter were exported, while three-quarters were sold domestically.

The mechanized workshops that the Ming Dynasty was continuously promoting encountered enormous resistance. Any cotton spinning workshop, including the official factory, would be blocked by craftsmen and weavers when machinery entered the factory. Moreover, the obstruction was very serious. In the past six months of the eighteenth year of Wanli, none of the iron horses were able to enter the factory smoothly.

One Shengping No. 7 iron horse can replace three hundred craftsmen and weavers. The roaring iron horse devours the lives of the craftsmen.

This is good news, but also a challenge.

The bad news is that Liu Jiwen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, successfully collected the debt, and the four major families of Annam actually raised the money to repay the Ming Dynasty. This prevented Liu Jiwen from venting his anger.

This is bad news. Liu Jiwen bought a large number of IOUs at a low price. His intention was not to collect debts, but to find a reason to beat up Annam. His real goal was to force the four major families of Annam to cede Da Nang to the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Jiwen didn't care about the life or death of Annam, nor did he care about the meager sums; he only cared about whether Da Nang was in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

Since the four major families in Annam have paid off their debts, they can only find another reason.

"Li Le, Wang Xiyuan, and Hou Yuzhao, temporarily suspend the construction of the mechanical workshop. Do not let it escalate to the point of destroying advanced technology to ensure the well-being of the people." Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment, then approved the first memorial, deciding to postpone it.

In the fourth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, there was a craftsman in Suzhou named Wang Erxiao, who apprenticed under Huang Zifu. He was very skillful and made a water-powered spinning machine. Wang Erxiao thought that with this amazing invention, he could become a wealthy man. However, this water-powered spinning machine, which was equivalent to eight machines and required twenty fewer people, was destroyed by the Suzhou government under the pretext of being a bewitching artifact.

Wang Erxiao could only make some strange and ingenious things to make people laugh and earn a living. Later, Huang Zifu became a Doctor of Natural Sciences because of Tan Lun's recommendation. He summoned Wang Erxiao to the capital, changed his name to Wang Danyi, and studied at the Quan Chu Guild Hall for three years. Then he studied at the Institute of Natural Sciences for five years. He successfully passed the examination of the Institute of Natural Sciences and entered the Institute of Natural Sciences to become a Doctor of Natural Sciences.

Wang Danyi wrote an article in the Gewu Academy entitled "Destroying Extraordinary Techniques to Secure the People's Livelihood." It wasn't that the Suzhou Prefecture didn't want Wang Danyi to make money; it was simply that the water-powered spinning machine had left nearly a thousand people in Suzhou without a livelihood. The Suzhou Prefectural Government had no choice but to smash the spinning machine to appease the people.

This predicament has resurfaced in the cotton textile industry of the three regions fourteen years later.

Upon seeing the Emperor's imperial edict, Feng Bao frowned and said, "Craftsmen and weavers have to work for more than 300 days a year, six hours a day, from morning till night, enduring all kinds of hardships, only to earn a meager income to make ends meet. If mechanical workshops are built and promoted, craftsmen can work for dozens of days less each year and one or two hours less each day. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Cotton textile artisans worked very hard, rarely getting a break throughout the year. They worked six hours a day, and their daily wage was a mere fifty copper coins, or seven fen of silver. That seemed like twenty fen of silver a year, while the annual salary of elite soldiers in the Beijing garrison was only eighteen fen of silver.

But craftsmen and weavers are not like the elite soldiers of the capital garrison. The capital garrison provides lodging and food, and children can go to school. For craftsmen and weavers, firewood, rice, oil, salt, and water all cost money. At the end of the year, a strong laborer can only save up to six taels of silver at most, which is already very difficult to raise a child.

According to the original plan of the imperial court, the roaring iron horses could reduce the working time and intensity of heavy laborers, make the workshops more efficient, pay more wages, and allow the people to live and work in peace and contentment. With more free time and money, they could buy more goods and increase demand. It seemed like a win-win-win situation and a wonderful thing!
However, in practice, the introduction of iron horses into factories did not reduce working hours and intensity. Workshops with more efficient iron horses would only choose to lay off craftsmen. People would not only fail to live and work in peace, but would also be exhausted and unable to find a livelihood. Local governments would not dare to watch strong laborers have no livelihood and be idle.

How many yamen runners could there be? One Shengping No. 7 machine would mean three hundred craftsmen losing their jobs. In a county, ten iron horses would mean three thousand able-bodied men were idle. The attitude of local yamen towards iron horses has also changed. From the initial enthusiasm to grab a large number of iron horses, they have now become conservative and wait-and-see, or even resistant.

This is what Wang Danyi referred to as destroying extraordinary skills to ensure the well-being of the people.

This contradiction is a long-term one, and it will circulate repeatedly, escalating in a spiral.

Feng Bao believed that the imperial court should intervene to mediate, reduce working hours and intensity, guarantee employment and wages, and thus promote the development of mechanized workshops.

"Your idea is excellent." Zhu Yijun wholeheartedly agreed with Feng Bao's view that the court should intervene.

"Your Majesty is dull-witted." Feng Bao was somewhat puzzled. Since His Majesty agreed with it, why did the imperial edict still postpone the construction of the mechanical workshop?

Zhu Yijun sighed, pointed to the memorial, and began to say: "Because the three regions produce 3200 million bolts of cotton cloth a year, I also hope that the imperial edict is omnipotent, that I can change this situation with just one word. I don't sleep all day long, I talk and write imperial edicts every day."

The cotton textile industry is in a state of relative surplus production. This relative surplus is due to insufficient demand, not an absolute abundance of supply. The increase in demand cannot keep up with the increase in supply.

With 130 million people, everyone in the Ming Dynasty could afford cotton cloth. Even if it were 320 million or 3.2 billion bolts, let alone 32 million, the production capacity would be sufficient. Cotton mills would scramble for iron horses to increase production capacity, seize the market, and profit, without the court having to promote it.

Zhu Yijun postponed the construction of the machinery workshop for one purpose: to slow down the increase in supply and wait for the increase in demand to fill the gap.

The main obstacles to the growth of demand in the Ming Dynasty were not only labor-management conflicts and relations, but also the construction of imperial roads, roads and bridges. The total length of imperial roads in the Ming Dynasty was less than 50,000 li. If the Ming Dynasty had 400,000 li of imperial roads, it would only require a mere 32 million bolts of cotton cloth. There was also the silver dam. The Ming Dynasty's silver was blocked along the coast and in major cities. In places with money, there was more money than could be used, while in places without money, people were still bartering.

This is not something that can be regulated by an invisible hand, but rather requires the intervention of the visible hand of the imperial court.

Zhu Yijun had already distributed large amounts of silver to Shaanxi, Gansu, Suiyuan, Beizhili, Henan, Huguang and other places through the imperial highways. The amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty was limited, and the investment in the construction of the imperial highways was to deliver silver to remote areas.

This process takes time, a lot of time. Zhu Yijun was in his prime, and he was willing to dedicate his life to these things.

"But you're right, let's set up a separate office in Songjiang Prefecture and try to implement it. Don't rush things." Zhu Yijun considered it again and decided to launch the new labor protection policy in Songjiang Prefecture. As for the results, they would see as they went along.

"Your subject obeys the decree." Feng Bao bowed his head and accepted the order. A large part of the reason why various strange problems occurred in Songjiang Prefecture was that the Ming Dynasty placed the pilot of its new policies in Songjiang Prefecture.

As a bridgehead for the opening of the sea, the transformation of the commodity economy, and the change of labor relations, it would be strange if Songjiang Prefecture didn't have some strange things happening.

"Wang Qian is reporting a matter." Feng Bao took out a new memorial, which came from Wang Qian, the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture.

Zhu Yijun opened it and looked at it for a long time. He said three things in total.

The first thing Songjiang Prefecture did was to conduct a thorough search of the Blissful Religion, even going deep into the countryside. They found very few Blissful Religion members, but destroyed dozens of other illicit religious sects that were not recognized by the court, most of which were evil spirits.
The second thing was that Songjiang Prefecture put into operation twenty-seven new coastal defense inspection stations, fourteen of which were located in the Ryukyu Islands, to crack down on smuggling and conduct comprehensive inspections of passing ships.

When the Ryukyu Governor-General's Office was abolished, the Ryukyu Islands were assigned to Songjiang Prefecture, and Keelung Island was assigned to Fujian Province. Therefore, the defense of the Ryukyu Islands was submitted to the Emperor by Songjiang Prefecture.

The third thing is that Toyotomi Hideyoshi of the Momoyama Shogunate in Japan launched a campaign to suppress the Gokuraku Cult, but it failed completely. After receiving the imperial edict last year, Toyotomi Hideyoshi planned to use force to eliminate the Gokuraku Cult.

However, this quickly aroused opposition from the court nobles and daimyo of the Japanese shogunate. This opposition was extremely fierce. Oto Tomonori, who advocated the use of force to eradicate the Gokuraku sect, was exiled to Shimotsuke Nasu in the midst of a fierce struggle, and was killed by bandits on his way to exile.

The reason why Tomonori Oto was brought down was that after Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the shogun, he raped several daughters of court nobles. The cries of these daughters aroused widespread sympathy.

Because it was generally believed in Kyoto that women would not use their chastity to make false accusations, everyone in Kyoto believed that Tomonori Oto had really done such a wicked thing.

Oto Tomonori was unable to defend himself. After he was killed on his way to exile, Toyotomi Hideyoshi noticed something was wrong and ordered an examination. To everyone's surprise, all of his daughters were virgins.

This is a complete fabrication, a rebellion by the Blissful Sect against a military crackdown.

"The Blissful Sect's infiltration of the capital has reached a point where it is ubiquitous." Zhu Yijun said after reading Wang Qian's memorial: "Next, Yang Junmin, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, should immediately conduct a thorough investigation of the capital to prevent the infiltration of evil spirits."

The evil forces here are not simply the Blissful Religion, but also include the Unity Cult from back then.

Wang Qian said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's suppression of the Paradise Sect was a complete failure because, after the incident, Toyotomi Hideyoshi not only failed to punish the nobles and the woman who made the false accusation, but also abolished the "false accusation and retribution" clause in the Japanese legal code.

Japan's laws were completely copied from the Tang Dynasty's laws, and were similar to the Ming Dynasty's laws, including the principle of punishing false accusations. However, this principle was abolished after Oto Tomonori was murdered.

The reason for its abolition is that the outdated principle of retaliation is too harsh and easily leads to abuse, resulting in the punishment of false accusers exceeding the harm caused by their actions, thus making the crime disproportionate to the punishment.

"Toyotomi Hideyoshi has lost all his ambitions." Zhu Yijun sighed, somewhat wistfully.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was corrupt. Faced with the increasingly worse situation in Japan, he had given up resistance and allowed the country to decay and rot. If he continued to fight, the daimyo who fought alongside him would die one by one. It would be better to be a nominal king of Japan and die in wealth and glory.

“Japan has now reached a point where people no longer marry or hold official positions, their desires are halved, they lack food and clothing, and the proper relationship between ruler and subject has ceased.” Feng Bao shuddered. He was a eunuch without worldly desires, but he valued his career very much. No matter what, he wanted to become the patriarch of this palace!
The relationship between ruler and subject had ended, which was the reason for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's choice; no matter what he wanted to do, he could no longer do it.

This was said by Yang Zhu of the pre-Qin period. It means that people's desires are disappearing. They are unwilling to have weddings or funerals, and they do not even pursue fame, fortune, or status. All desires are decreasing. If they no longer pursue fine clothes, tall houses, or delicious and abundant food, then the relationship between ruler and subject will begin to disappear.

The current state of Japan is a true reflection of this statement; Japan is visibly collapsing.

"The Japanese are flocking to the mining area because the Ming army is stationed there and will cleanse the evil spirits." Zhu Yijun mentioned a phenomenon: the Japanese are gathering in the mining area. For example, the population of Iwami Silver Mine, where Xiong Tingbi is located, has exceeded 150,000 and is still increasing.

However, the silver mining at Iwami Silver Mine could no longer support more people. Therefore, Xiong Tingbi prohibited the Japanese from fleeing to the mining area. Three months later, almost every Japanese mining area controlled by the Ming Dynasty closed its doors to the Japanese, not allowing them to enter the mining area anymore.

Japan was on the verge of collapse. In order to prevent the maggots in the cesspool from crawling onto the dining table of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty built a physical wall of copper and iron with the Tsushima, Jeju Island and the Nagasaki Governor-General's Office to prevent the various chaotic phenomena of Japan's collapse from spreading to the Ming Dynasty.

"Because the Blissful Religion in Japan has caused great chaos, Luzon, Palembang, and even the Governor-General's Office of Kinchi are treating the Blissful Religion as a major enemy. However, I have noticed that the Blissful Religion in Southeast Asia has not shown the same madness as in Japan." Zhu Yijun noticed a very peculiar phenomenon.

While the Blissful Religion was extreme in Japan, it was quite moderate in Southeast Asia. Even in Luzon, it was more about mutual aid among the lower classes than infanticide or evil spirit worship. This difference caught Zhu Yijun's attention.

Songjiang Prefecture's vigorous investigation of the Blissful Religion was carried out on imperial orders, but the Blissful Religion did not cause any trouble in Songjiang Prefecture. Of course, this was also related to the fact that Songjiang Prefecture intervened relatively early.

However, the Luzon Governor's Office did not have enough manpower to carry out a strong crackdown, but the Blissful Cult did not exhibit the same terrifying harm as it had in Japan.

"The land shapes its people, and the rampant spread of the Blissful Religion in Japan is because the country's order is sliding into complete chaos," Feng Bao offered his opinion.

There are many reasons why the Lakshmi sect in Southeast Asia did not dare to go mad. For example, there was a conflict between Buddhism, Hui, Da Guangming, Catholicism and Lakshmi religions, and they dared not be extreme in order to avoid being eliminated. For example, most of the Lakshmi followers in Southeast Asia were Japanese, and they dared not cause trouble because they had left their homes. For example, the civil and military officials of the Governor's Office of Luzon and Palembang had a natural aversion to religion and were unwilling to compromise their principles.

But Feng Bao believes the most important reason is that people in Luzon can afford to eat.

Although life on the plantation was tough, as long as you were willing to work hard, you could still get a decent meal. But in Japan, no matter how hard you worked, getting food was a problem. The different environments were the reason why the Pure Land religion differed so much in the two places.

The same was true in the Ming Dynasty; the more remote and impoverished the area, the more rampant evil spirits became.

While the supreme emperor diligently handled state affairs as always, the newly established Northern Garrison Command of the Ming Dynasty, under which the Anti-Corruption Division was located, began its first major undertaking, directly targeting the massive construction project, the Beijing-Guangzhou Highway.

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(End of this chapter)