The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 544 Drug Prohibition
Once the harmful effects of opium and black smoke were confirmed, Emperor Qianwu immediately took swift and decisive action.

"Drug prohibition! Drug prohibition throughout the entire territory!"

Anything related to opium and incense smoke is listed as a poison.

Order: Medical clinics in all provincial administrations shall voluntarily surrender any related poisons. From this day forward, the use of opium is prohibited!
Anyone who sells opium or black incense will be severely punished, in accordance with the "Yongtai Commercial Law"!

Officials who facilitate drug trafficking, regardless of their rank, will be severely punished!
Officials or scholars with academic achievements who are also drug addicts will never be hired.

The emperor was furious, and a bloody storm ensued!
Several severe punishments were handed down, and they came crashing down on us.

The first to bear the brunt was that official who died remonstrating against the emperor.

The hope of achieving lasting fame through remonstrance is gone.

Died in vain!
His family will also be implicated!

Even the entire Censorate was completely overhauled by Emperor Qianwu during this opportunity.

Officials from the Jiangnan faction, who had impeached the Guanzhong Army and the Jiangnan Governor-General several times, were all demoted without exception.

Next.

The more than two hundred foreign merchants in Ili who had been imprisoned were in for a "good time"!

Their execution was scheduled for the following autumn, as decreed by Emperor Qianwu.

Prior to this, they were obliged to cooperate with the imperial court in conducting a nationwide tour of exhibitions.

What is being shown?
"I want them to stay for half a month in each provincial administration, especially to let the local gentry and landowners open their eyes wide and see what these people look like when they are having a drug craving."

The generals shouted in unison, "Your Majesty is wise and mighty! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

Isn't that brilliant and powerful?

They believed that by displaying these practices for a year, the harmful effects of opium and tobacco would spread to every corner of the entire kingdom.

Of course, there are punishments and rewards.

The General who effectively thwarted the foreigners' conspiracy deserves the greatest credit!

The cheap son-in-law, Governor-General of Jiangnan Gan Mingfu, is also a good one!

Judging by the time, it's about time he was transferred back to Shangdu to handle more tasks for him!

After venting his frustrations, Emperor Qianwu refrained from chatting with the leader of the Imperial Guards, his former personal guard, a man with a large beard, after the court session.

"Tell me again, what great achievements has the Grand General of the Nation made in recent years?"

The bearded man understood immediately and recounted the general's brilliant performance:

"First of all, the General recovered the entire Western Regions at a very low cost and gained an additional vassal state. His achievement is comparable to that of Marquis of Champion (Huo Qubing)!"

"He counts! The Great General is truly unprecedented and unparalleled!"

"The jade, gold, iron, coal, oil, and copper mines that the General handed over are enough to last for hundreds of years!"

"Yes, yes, yes! I even sent several groups of people to search for the treasure map presented by the commoner Zuo Wenxuan! Not to mention the huge amount of manpower and resources spent, how many family heirlooms could that tiny Western Xia Dynasty possibly have? Just look at these mineral veins presented by the General. If any one of them were mined, wouldn't one become richer than a country?"

"Your Majesty, you now own dozens of large mines!"

"Hahaha, the General says the mines are finite, and we must consider the future generations. We can't let them be mined away in just two or three generations! My General is unparalleled in loyalty and bravery, and has foresight beyond measure! He is a pillar of the nation, and I have gained a wise and capable advisor!"

The bearded man said, "Your Majesty is a wise ruler throughout the ages, and you will surely have virtuous ministers to assist you!"

Of all the civil and military officials, only the Grand General Who Protects the Nation deserves these honors.

Let's see how much tax revenue Kansai and Ansai pay to the imperial court each year.

Furthermore, the Kansai First Military Academy trains batches of military talents for the imperial court every few years. Its laboratories have produced countless incredibly powerful weapons.

Right now, it all comes down to the discovery of the poisonous substance and the hundreds of shipwrights and designers secretly recruited from Europe and sent to the Jiangnan Shipyard. A series of buffs stacking up!

No amount of praise is too much!

Emperor Qianwu was overjoyed: "Draft an imperial edict."

Today's dramatic events in the imperial court have affected not only the court but also the concubines in the harem, whose emotions have been like a rollercoaster ride.

Consort Ni had fainted from crying on her bed.

The Ni family of Wuyue was the largest supplier of Wuxiang tobacco in Jiangnan, and the governor of Jiangnan had something on them, so they couldn't clear their name no matter what!
Empress Jiang was also on tenterhooks.

The Jiang family is a family of upright officials, and their home turf is the Imperial College.

Although the Crown Prince has become close to several wives of high-ranking officials due to the fertility-enhancing and beauty-enhancing wine, he is still several years away from adulthood!
In addition, Emperor Qianwu is in his prime and decisive in establishing the heir apparent, so there is currently no obvious factional struggle between the legitimate and illegitimate sons in the court.

Do the math.

Besides the Jiang family, the only other family that can be considered natural princelings is the Gan siblings.

The three siblings of the Gan family are all powerful figures who have connections with the Crown Prince.

The thickest of these was impeached for two months straight!

How could Her Majesty the Empress not be anxious?
Especially today, someone with ulterior motives leaked the news to the Empress's informants that an official had died for his remonstrance in court.

Just half an hour ago, the Empress almost had a heart attack from the shock of this news.

The eleven-year-old Crown Prince Zhao Yu was also so anxious that his face turned pale.

Despite being the crown prince, he was powerless to do anything about such a terrible incident!
Fortunately.

Turn around.

General Gan, the "Golden Thigh," turned the tide and proved as reliable as ever, achieving new successes once again!
Empress Jiang drank a large cup of tea in one gulp, patted her chest in relief, and said:
"Your Highness, you must remember this: it was General Gan who gifted the Empress Dowager the finest beauty wine, which led to your conception. She and your brother-in-law have made great contributions to the country and its people! Such a pillar of the state must be treated well."

Zhao Yu nodded repeatedly, and a blush finally appeared on her pale face:
"Your subject will remember! The Great General has recovered the strongest country in the Western Regions, defeated the Hu people and made them submit, and guarded the western gate of the country. Father Emperor often said that with such a good general and his Guan Army, our Yongtai Dynasty can be guaranteed to be stable for a hundred years!"

Your son has heard that the General's eldest son is also a man of both literary and military talent, and is currently a scholar who has passed the county-level imperial examination. I truly hope to hear the good news soon that he will participate in the palace examination!

In Zhao Yu's eyes, the vast desert and yellow sands were not a good place to go.

Only those who are truly loyal to the court and their father would be willing to go there and suffer.

The General Who Protects the Nation is a loyal minister, an extremely loyal minister!

He will definitely befriend her eldest son!

If the Emperor is reluctant to reward the General generously because of others, he will definitely reward the General with the title of Prince in the future!
Gan Minglan, thousands of miles away, had no idea that the Emperor and his son held her in such high regard.

It was simply too useful, a weapon manufactured by the Kansai First Military Academy during the era of cold weapons, which in her eyes was still just a primitive form of firearms.

The western expedition was fought with great ease.

It's really not difficult at all.

Any other general could have succeeded!

Therefore, she did not take credit!

As for the issue of drug prohibition, it was her indignation as a person of later generations.

I believe that every Chinese person would make the same choice in her position.

Therefore, all of this was within the scope of her duties.

She really had no expectations for promotions or titles!

You asked her if she was afraid of becoming too powerful and being discarded after her usefulness was over?
She firmly believes that when the benefits she brings far outweigh the threats, anyone with a brain knows what to choose!