The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 344: The Minister of Rites Goes Crazy
Wanli wanted to take this opportunity to destroy Japan.

So, how many troops are needed to destroy Japan?

No one really knows this.

Because no one in history has ever succeeded.

When the Northern Yuan Dynasty was at its most powerful, it launched two expeditions to Japan.

As a result, whether it was because of a storm at sea, or a lack of food and supplies after landing, whether it was an excuse or a real accident, nearly 200,000 troops were lost in the water, and few returned.

A certain country in later times also tried this when it was at its most powerful.

As a result, it took more than 700,000 troops to capture the outer islands alone.

Later, according to deduction, at least five to six million troops would have to be deployed, and there would be three to four million casualties.

Therefore, a certain country stopped fighting a landing war and simply changed its approach.

In short, it is not very difficult to defeat Japan in its vassal state, Korea, but it is extremely difficult to truly destroy Japan.

Wanli didn't know how many troops he should deploy.

He could only recruit as many troops as possible to avoid failure.

Unexpectedly, while he was issuing orders to frantically recruit troops, something big happened in the southeast.

Early in the morning at about noon, he had just arrived at the imperial study and was about to review the memorials when Shen Li came in holding a pile of memorials.

When he saw Shen Li's anxious face and the pile of memorials, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "What's wrong, Zhonghua? What happened?"

Shen Li sighed repeatedly and said, "Alas, Your Majesty, something happened to Zhaolong."

Something happened to Zhu Guozuo?

Upon hearing this, Wanli couldn't help but frown slightly.

Zhu Guozuo's journey was not smooth, because when the Fengzhou fleet set out it was midsummer and the wind was blowing from the south.

After the five 2,000-ton Fujian ships left the Yangtze River estuary, they were sailing against the wind and the current, and could only be towed by the centipede boats.

Zhu Guozuo finally arrived in Fuzhou Prefecture, but encountered another problem.

The sea merchant Chen Shen couldn’t find anyone!
It is obvious that the Zhejiang Party felt that there was something wrong with Zhu Guozuo's trip, so they hid the maritime merchant Chen Shen in advance and even killed him.

Zhu Guozuo had no choice but to look for it there.

That was all he knew. Zhu Guozuo had probably been searching for it for a long time but couldn't find it, so he was too embarrassed to report it.

Therefore, there has been no news from Zhu Guozuo during this period.

Unexpectedly, something happened to Zhu Guozuo!

Is the Zhejiang Party so bold?
That was the governor appointed by him, and also the Minister of Rites.

Wanli frowned and opened the memorial, and a smile appeared on his face.

It turned out that it wasn't Zhu Guozuo who was in trouble, but this guy was crazy and killing people!

This pile of memorials were all from censors impeaching Zhu Guozuo.

Zhu Guozuo seemed to have gone crazy all of a sudden, and he started to chop anyone he caught!
He chopped off officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, officials from the Ministry of Justice, and officials from Fuzhou Prefecture. He even chopped off yamen runners, jailers, vendors, and so on without any regard!

Wanli read the memorial calmly, then smiled slightly and said, "Zhonghua, Zhaolong is fine, why are you so anxious?"

Is this okay?

Shen Li shook his head and sighed, "Your Majesty, the last person to do this was Zhu Wan, the Right Vice-Chief Censor of the Supervisory Office and the Governor of Zhejiang during the Jiajing period. Zhu Wan eventually committed suicide by drinking poison!"

Zhu Wan?

What a coincidence, both of them have the surname Zhu. Although they are not members of the Zhu family, they are still a family.

Zhu Wan, the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief of the Inspectorate and Governor of Zhejiang during the Jiajing Dynasty, killed people without any regard for anyone. He killed pirates, bandits, rebels, roving bandits, Japanese pirates, European barbarians, etc. It is unknown how many he killed.

As a result, officials in the court filed impeachment petitions frantically, saying that he had killed civilians and that he was slaughtering the people and killing innocent people to claim credit!
Emperor Jiajing didn't know what was going on, but he ordered the arrest of Zhu Wan and brought him back to the capital for trial.

Zhu Wan knew that she could not escape the clutches of the wealthy maritime merchants from Zhejiang and Fujian, so she left a suicide poem and drank poison.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing probably felt that it was difficult to offend the public, so he simply abandoned Zhu Wan to calm the situation.

Am I still afraid of offending the public now?

Wanli laughed coldly and said, "Do they want me to kill Zhaolong in vain? Zhaolong was sent by me, and I asked Zhaolong to kill the person. They are dreaming if they want to take revenge on Zhaolong." Are you so tough?
Upon hearing this, Shen Li couldn't help but reveal a trace of worry on his face.

He was not worried about himself, he was worried about Zhu Guozuo.

This time, Zhu Guozuo offended too many people.

Wanli thought for a moment, then said aloud, "Send Luo Sigong to see the emperor."

After a while, Luo Sigong came quickly.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli pointed to the impeachment memorials and said, "Sigong, write down all their names. Thoroughly investigate their backgrounds, their teachers, and whether they have committed any crimes behind the scenes. Those who have committed crimes will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for punishment. Those who have not committed any crimes, remember them for me, and I will settle accounts with them later."

Is this a tough stance against the Zhejiang Party?
Shen Li thought for a moment, then asked carefully, "Your Majesty, how should we deal with these memorials?"

Wanli pondered for a while, then said decisively: "All the memorials impeaching Zhaolong will be kept in my palace. I want to see what they want to do and what they can do."

Does this mean we won't have to fight each other for the time being?

Shen Li quickly bowed and said, "I understand."

What does the Zhejiang Party want this time?

The next morning at about noon, Shen Li came again with a stack of memorials.

When Wanli saw the small stack, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why, didn't they submit a memorial to impeach Zhaolong?"

These guys must be scared.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Justice suddenly arrested several censors.

Shen Li nodded repeatedly and said, "No one impeached Zhaolong today. It was Zhaolong's memorial that came."

Oh, it was Zhu Guozuo who submitted the memorial.

What is the situation in Fuzhou Prefecture?

Upon hearing this, Wanli opened Zhu Guozuo's memorial and took a closer look, and couldn't help but frowned slightly.

Zhu Guozuo investigated for such a long time, and the result he found out was that the sea merchant Chen Shen was most likely murdered to silence him.

He arrested the officials, yamen runners, jailers and others who were in charge of the case and interrogated them, but none of them could tell him the whereabouts of the sea merchant Chen Shen.

He had no choice but to drag out those involved in the case and beat them to death, hoping to scare the monkeys and get some information out of them.

It seems that Zhu Guozuo can't find the whereabouts of the sea merchant Chen Shen.

There are too many people who disappear inexplicably these days.

The sea merchant Chen Shen was the messenger sent by the Crown Prince of Ryukyu to report the news, but these guys actually threw him into jail and slandered him as a Japanese spy.

This case is absolutely ridiculous and makes no sense at all.

The Zhejiang Party probably felt that this case could not be resolved peacefully, so they simply killed the sea merchant Chen Shen to silence him so that there would be no evidence against him.

Can I let you get away with this case with such despicable means?
When two countries are at war, they still don't kill envoys. How dare you kill the messenger who brought the news to silence him? This is outrageous!
Wanli frowned and thought for a while, then picked up the pen and wrote in red: I want to see the person alive or the body dead. If you don’t hand it over, then continue to chop. Anyone involved in this case will be chopped off!

This means that there will be a big involvement.

Shen Li took the memorial and looked at it, and couldn't help but said worriedly: "Your Majesty, it would be dangerous to kill Zhaolong like this."

This forces people to take risks.

The reason why Wanli took advantage of the issue and made so many connections was actually to warn those local officials not to think that they could act lawlessly just because the emperor was far away.

However, it would be dangerous if he let Zhu Guozuo chop him like this.

A desperate dog will jump over the wall, not to mention that the other party is a local tyrant.

Wanli thought carefully and then said decisively: "Pass on my decree. Order Deng Zilong to mobilize the navy ships and take all 100,000 newly recruited navy officers and soldiers to Fuzhou Prefecture. Anyone who dares to harm Zhaolong will be killed without mercy!"

It is already autumn now, and the north wind is blowing. It is smooth sailing for the navy ships to go to Fuzhou Prefecture. It will take less than three days to reach the 2,000 miles from Nanjing to Fuzhou Prefecture.

With the support of Deng Zilong's 100,000 naval officers and soldiers, Zhu Guozuo went crazy and tried to implicate many people. He dragged out and beheaded anyone he thought was involved in the murder of the Ryukyu envoy, regardless of whether they participated or not, even if they had a private relationship with him!
He chopped off so many people that all the officials from Zhejiang and Fujian were chopped to pieces.

The problem is that Zhejiang and Fujian officials have no way to deal with this guy.

They have already impeached Zhu Guozuo frantically, but not only did Wanli not dismiss this guy from his post and investigate him, he also let Deng Zilong lead 100,000 naval officers and soldiers to support him. What else can they do?
Even if they wanted to rebel now, they couldn't gather more than 100,000 troops in a hurry.

(End of this chapter)