The Holy Emperor of Ming

Chapter 263 The Eight Major Gangs
Nearly four years, hundreds of millions of taels of silver worth of training, and the unremitting support of the Ming Dynasty court.

The Imperial Guards, especially the Imperial Uniform Guards, had become a real behemoth.

Its real strength has never been the high-level combat power of the Jinyiwei.

Three grand masters are far from being worth hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

The real strength of the huge Jinyiwei is now reflected in two points.

The first is intelligence capability. No one in the world knows how many spies the Jinyiwei has now.

That’s right, even Zhu Houzhao and Guo Bujing didn’t know about it.

Because an ordinary Jinyiwei might casually develop a few spies, who might be useless throughout their lives. They are just random and naturally will not be reported or officially recorded.

This is the horror of the well-fed Jinyiwei growing wildly on the vast platform.

Even the lowest-level Jinyiwei wanted to advance themselves and make achievements.

As such, naturally no one knew how many spies the Jinyiwei had.

Only a few people can feel the horror that penetrates every corner.

Maybe the male head of an ordinary family, maybe an ordinary old farmer, maybe a beggar on the roadside, or even a child, can be a spy of the Jinyiwei.

Its tentacles reach into almost every corner of the Ming Dynasty.

Sometimes, even Guo Bujing and other core leaders of the Embroidered Uniform Guard felt scared.

Afraid that the Jinyiwei were too powerful.

If Zhu Houzhao had not always trusted and supported them, Guo Bujing would have taken the initiative to propose splitting part of the Jinyiwei's intelligence capabilities.

The second point is the strength of the Jinyiwei itself.

Not the upper level, but the lower middle level.

In the past four years, a large number of people in the innate realm have not been cultivated, but countless resources are enough to raise the strength of the middle and lower levels of the Jinyiwei to a terrifying level in front of any martial arts force.

Only the Ming Dynasty court today can train tens of thousands of upper-middle-level experts.

Other forces don’t even think about it.

Resources worth hundreds of millions of taels of silver are no joke.

Even among the Jinyiwei who are at the innate realm with middle to upper level combat power, there are more than eighty of them.

Think about Shaolin, a thousand-year-old temple. There are only more than thirty of the two great leaders of the righteous path, and even fewer in Wudang.

You can understand how terrifying the number of over eighty people in the innate realm is.

In just a few years, the imperial court easily surpassed all martial arts forces.

This is the power and terror of a country’s court.

Regardless of whether the country's court has control over all domestic power, it has great righteousness and a platform that can accommodate all identities, positions, etc.

It is really not difficult to increase the innate realm.

Of course, this requires a court that is thriving and becoming increasingly powerful.

It is precisely because of these two strengths of the Jinyiwei that Guo Bujing dared to guarantee that with the help of other parties in the court, he could deal with the countless small and medium-sized urban gangs that oppressed the people throughout the one capital and twelve provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

He knew best about the strength of the Jinyiwei in various places and had confidence in it.

As for the other capital province, the town gangs that oppressed the people in northern Zhili have been almost wiped out, not to mention those in Jin.

The Jinyiwei is confident that they can deal with small and medium-sized gangs in towns, but not large ones.

For example, the Money Gang has a powerful grandmaster.

To ensure that it is taken down, at least two grandmasters must take action.

There are only three Jinyiwei in total and only one in Dongchang, which is too few.

However, there are several gangs that need to be dealt with this time, such as the Jinqian Gang, which have powerful grandmasters, so it is necessary to mobilize the court's experts.

At the same time, in order to deter all parties and prevent the other martial arts forces from acting rashly, more and stronger masters are needed to guard the four directions to ensure that the other martial arts forces dare not take action.

To mobilize these experts, Zhu Houzhao needs to personally agree and issue orders.

Guo Bujing explained one thing after another, and Zhu Houzhao listened carefully.

It was only then that he realized that within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the small and medium-sized town gangs that oppressed the people, there were also many large ones.

These large urban gangs have a minimum of nearly 10,000 people and a maximum of tens of thousands of people.

The most important thing is that these gangs are supported by the flesh and blood of countless Ming people.

What are town gangs?

Town gangs are different from many righteous forces. They have their own fields and special "businesses", and they make friends with local forces such as gentry, landlords, and merchants within their sphere of influence to obtain offerings.

Although they also sucked the blood of the people, at least there was a layer of separation.

On the surface, they only sucked the blood of powerful gentry, landlords and businessmen.

As for how these people suck the blood of ordinary people, as long as they don't go too far, the righteous forces generally turn a blind eye.

In short, the righteous forces have at least maintained general peace and stability within their sphere of influence.

Town gangs are evil. They don’t have so many scruples. Most of them are not just landlords, gentry, businessmen, etc. within their sphere of influence. They get close to ordinary people and suck their blood.

Collecting protection fees, collecting money from woodcutters, collecting money from fishermen, forcing young and strong people to join gangs, various forms of oppression, etc.

They are the ones who oppress the lower class people the most. The Sun Moon Sect is actually a town gang that oppresses the people.

In addition to these town gangs that oppress the people, there are also evil forces like Yihua Palace, which are far away from the towns and not close to the people, and are more like "bloodsuckers" like the righteous forces.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao had known about all these situations for a long time.

If you don’t know, how can you cleanse Jin?
But he has been enduring it, and has been enduring them for a long time.

Of course, the power of the imperial court has become increasingly powerful in recent years, the prestige of Emperor Shengwu is at its peak, and the imperial court has a very thorough administration, and the factory guards keep a close eye on things.

These urban gangs that used to oppress the people have become much more restrained, allowing the lower-class people to survive and they dare not cause deaths easily.

But Zhu Houzhao's desire to cleanse them never weakened in the slightest.

This incident with the brothel and pimp shop just happened to implicate them.

Then there will be no more waiting. All those who oppress the people will be purged.

“Your Majesty, so far, there are a total of eight large-scale urban gangs that we have determined to eliminate.

There are great masters in charge of each of them, and there may even be stronger ones.

For example, the Fu Yu Sword and Lang Fan Yun of the Nu Jiao Gang.

According to the words of King Mighty and the Old Prince, Lang Fanyun may have reached the level of Grand Master.

There may be others, such as the Sword Master Dugu behind Wushuang City. He has not appeared in the world for many years, so it is impossible to be sure to what extent he has reached.
These are only the eight confirmed so far. After the brothels, gambling houses, and pimping houses in various places are closed down, who knows how many more there will be?"

Guo Bujing said solemnly, paused, and then said: "Therefore, Your Majesty, I suggest that these large town gang forces can also be distinguished."

"How to distinguish?" Zhu Houzhao frowned slightly.

“Your Majesty, there are six forces, such as the Money Gang, Tianxiahui, Happy City, Qianluo Mountain City, Zunxin Sect, and Western Demon Cult.

The strongest ones are their gang leaders and city lords. As leaders, they are of course not free from responsibility. They are the source of crime and must be taken down.

But Lang Fanyun of the Angry Dragon Gang and Dugu Jiansheng of Wushuang City are different.

According to the news, the two of them had long since stopped caring about external affairs, and the crimes of the Nujiao Gang and Wushuang City in oppressing the people had nothing to do with them.

Is it possible to negotiate with them, win them over, and make them cooperate with the court?" Guo Bujing said seriously.

"Old Guo, do you think Lang Fanyun and Dugu Jiansheng have no responsibility?" Zhu Houzhao frowned and looked at them.

"Your Majesty, I—" Guo Bujing was speechless.

"I tell you, when a flood strikes, not a single drop of water is innocent.

The people of the Ming Dynasty are not living well. I am the biggest problem, and none of the officials are innocent.

Lang Fanyun and Dugu Jiansheng may not have oppressed the people, and may even have been kind-hearted, but as members of the Angry Dragon Gang and Wushuang City, and the strongest people there, they cannot escape responsibility.

A crime is a crime, and they cannot be exempted from punishment just because they are stronger.

I don’t care about other countries, but it’s not allowed here in Ming Dynasty.”

"I know what you are thinking. I think they are not bad people and are strong enough to be won over.

However, if they are innocent and can get away with it, then where is the court's law?
In my eyes, no matter who he is, if he is guilty, he must be punished, without exception." Zhu Houzhao said seriously.

"I know I was wrong. Please punish me, Your Majesty." Guo Bujing immediately saluted.

The people present saluted together because this idea was decided by them together.

Zhu Houzhao said more seriously: "You deserve to be punished. You have never reduced the responsibility of the other party because of your status.

But now, you are reducing the other party's responsibility because the other party's martial arts strength is too strong.

We must never have this kind of thought.

So what if he is at the highest level of Grandmaster? Even if he is at the highest level of Heaven and Man, if he makes a mistake, I will never let him go.

Those who deserve to be punished should be punished, and those who deserve to be killed should be killed, without exception."

Guo Bujing and others looked ashamed, especially Guo Bujing and Yan Nantian.

They have been the Imperial Guards and constables for so many years, so of course they know that Lang Fanyun and the Lonely Sword Saint are definitely responsible.

But in addition to doing good for the Ming Dynasty, they were also inevitably influenced by their strength, and knew that these two were not bad people, but rather rare infatuated swordsmen and local heroes, and they had a good impression of them.

Only then did I agree.

"This time, I will first fine you silver, according to the level of your position, the lowest is one thousand taels of silver, and it will double for each higher level.

Next time, if you have this mentality again, you don’t have to stay in this position.” Zhu Houzhao said seriously.

These are very important issues and should not be taken lightly.

"Yes." Everyone responded solemnly.

Zhu Houzhao's expression eased a little, and he thought: "These two people cannot escape responsibility.

But if they themselves have not harmed the people, I can give them the opportunity to redeem themselves with meritorious service.

It depends on whether they are willing or not.

If you don't want to, then you can be sentenced according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

I will tell the people who deal with them."

(Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will be updated before 10 o'clock.)
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(End of this chapter)