The Ming Dynasty: The opening scene features Zhu Di angrily accusing him of illegitimate succession.

Zhu Di sat on the dragon throne, his chest heaving violently, his murderous intent surging for what felt like the umpteenth time.

The silence within Fengtian Gate was as firm as iron. All the officials bowed their heads and held their breath, none daring to look up at the enraged Yongle Emperor on the dragon throne.

Slandering the founding emperor and denouncing the precious paper money were both capital offenses, and Lin Yue was truly pushing himself to his death.

After a long while, Zhu Di suddenly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the rage in his eyes had subsided somewhat: "You arrogant brat, you deserve to die!"

However, considering that your points about the flaws in the paper money system may have some merit, I will spare your life for now.

Zhu Di roared, "Guards! Throw Lin Yue into the imperial prison and keep him under strict guard. No one is allowed to visit him!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yue was not pleased but rather greatly alarmed.

Seeing that he was still alive, he immediately intensified his attack, unleashing a torrent of abuse at Zhu Di.

"Your Majesty! You dare not kill me because you fear that after my death, the world will say you cannot tolerate ministers who dare to speak frankly and offer honest advice!"

Seeing that Lin Yue was about to speak, Ji Gang became anxious and rushed forward to drag him away, but he still struggled and shouted.

"If Your Majesty does not prohibit the use of paper money, why not quickly kill me, so that I will not be heartbroken to see the decline and collapse of the Ming Dynasty?"

As long as the paper money is still in use, the Ming Dynasty will be cursed by the people because of this mulberry bark paper!

"If paper money is not abolished, the Ming Dynasty will surely perish!"

......

Lin Yue came to the Imperial Prison again. It was still so dark and damp, with the air filled with the smell of mildew and blood.

Actually, places like Nanjing, which are neither in the north nor the south, are quite uncomfortable. Winters are cold and snowy, but not as cold as Beijing, so no heating system has been built.

To combat the severe cold, the Forbidden City in Beijing had a complete heating system for its main halls, so the "cold palace" in the Ming Dynasty was literally a cold palace without heating.

Ironically, the Manchus, upon invading the country, didn't know how to use heating systems; instead, they regressed to burning charcoal for warmth, which is truly laughable.

Lin Yue was imprisoned this time, wearing heavy shackles, yet he remained restless.

He slammed his fist on the iron bars and shouted, "Warden! Bring me pen and ink immediately! I have urgent business to report to His Majesty!"

The jailers reacted immediately upon hearing the noise, without hesitation.

Last time this person was imprisoned, he was released and promoted the next day. Who knows what fate awaits him today?

Since they dared not offend anyone, they simply became even more careful in serving others and avoided offending anyone easily.

Lin Yue lay on the cold stone table, writing furiously, detailing the drawbacks of the paper money and the reform measures.

Soon, the exhilarating and insightful "Precious Notes" was published.

As he wrote with great enthusiasm, Lin Yue's pen moved with incredible speed and fluency, even including modern financial theories and class analyses, completely disregarding the generational divide and simply stating his thoughts.

"Currency is a token of trust."

It must have gold and silver as anchors and government treasury as proof in order to have any credibility!

The Taizu Baochao (太祖宝钞) has no anchor or reserve; it is essentially a counterfeit currency issued by the state. Exchanging empty words for goods from the people is not conducive to trade, but rather plunder.

"Inflation, though nominally a sign of rising prices, is in reality a sign of poverty!"

With the rampant issuance of paper money, the rich possessed land, gold, and silver, and their assets multiplied with inflation. The poor, on the other hand, only had paper money, and their purchasing power was reduced by nine-tenths, causing their life savings to vanish.

As the ancient sages said: "The rich multiply their wealth, while the poor become more impoverished. This is not due to the injustice of Heaven, but to the evil of the system's design! The imperial court uses paper money to seize the empire; this is not a tax, but exploitation."

"The drawbacks of paper money are not limited to inflation."

Members of the imperial family, nobles, officials, and landlords held vast amounts of paper money, which they could exchange for gold and silver and acquire land through their privileges.

Farmers and weavers toil year-round, only to earn a worthless piece of paper, ultimately leading them to sell their children and become homeless.

So-called adherence to ancestral rules is nothing more than protecting the powerful and wealthy, treating the common people as lambs to the slaughter. This class divide is not merely a matter of wealth or poverty, but a matter of life and death!

Ink splashed everywhere, but Lin Yue was oblivious, continuing to write furiously.

He wrote down everything about how capital pursues profit, how the powerful control property, and how bureaucrats hold onto wealth. If he weren't concerned about the impact, Lin Yue would have recited the outline from memory.

Lin Yue wrote a lot and was quite moved.

The problem with paper money is indeed a major problem for the whole country. When the court issues paper money to officials, these officials, who have power and influence, naturally want to shift the risks to merchants and ordinary people.

In the end, it's the ordinary people who suffer the most.

Some compassionate Lin Yue took the chicken blood that the jailer had thoughtfully placed there and wrote two lines of large characters on the stone wall.

"Wailing cries and blood-soaked cities, all for the sake of saving the common people!"

The bright red chicken blood was particularly striking in the damp prison. Lin Yue looked at his masterpiece and a smug smile appeared on his lips.

If Zhu Di were to see his outrageous and aggressive "Precious Notes," he would surely be unable to tolerate it, and Zhu Di would undoubtedly be doomed!

Lin Yue had just put down the dead chicken when a cold snort, half-smile, came from behind him: "Lin Yue, you certainly know how to put on a show."

Lin Yue turned around abruptly and saw Zhu Di, dressed in ordinary clothes, standing at the prison gate surrounded by Ji Gang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, looking at the blood-red words on the stone wall with a complicated expression.

"Uh, Your Majesty?" Lin Yue was taken aback.

Ji Gang opened the cell door, and Zhu Di slowly walked into the cell, his gaze falling on the two lines of blood-red poem, his brows furrowing slightly.

He sighed softly, his tone tinged with emotion: "The land is filled with sorrow and the city with blood, all for the sake of saving the common people. You are truly compassionate and have the world in your heart."

But when Zhu Di's gaze fell on the porcelain bowl on the ground and the still-wet chicken blood between Lin Yue's fingers, his emotion vanished instantly, and his expression became utterly speechless.

"If you are afraid of pain, why not use ink instead of chicken blood?"

Using chicken blood to write the word "blood" is truly... utterly incongruous.

Lin Yue stood tall and proud, his voice righteous and resolute: "Only a letter written in blood can truly express loyalty! Words written in ink are light and fleeting; how can Your Majesty know the depth of my sincerity?"

Zhu Di looked at his nonchalant attitude and raised an eyebrow, suddenly remembering the poem "Ode to Limestone" from last time.

"Speaking of which, when you were imprisoned last time, you tried to kill yourself in jail, writing something in blood that said, 'I fear not being ground to powder, but only wish to leave my integrity in the world.' Was that also written with chicken blood?"

Lin Yue nodded in agreement.

An eerie silence fell over the prison. Ji Gang and the jailers lowered their heads, their shoulders trembling slightly.

They were professionally trained Imperial Guards and prison guards who would never smile, no matter what the situation, unless they absolutely couldn't help it.

The eerie silence inside the prison didn't last long before it was broken by Zhu Di's loud laughter.

Emperor Yongle pointed at Lin Yue's expression, which was both resigned to death and somewhat embarrassed, and his face lit up with laughter.

"Hahaha, what a brilliant person! What a brilliant person!"

When Ji Gang and the jailers saw that His Majesty had spoken, they could no longer hold back and burst into hearty laughter.

For a time, the prison was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Zhu Di laughed heartily, clearly genuinely happy, even the hem of his dragon robe trembled.

"Writing a letter in chicken blood, and daring to try and fool me twice! In the whole world, only you, Lin Yue, have such audacity!"

Zhu Di laughed and shook his head, his eyes displaying a complex expression comparable to the palette in a CEO romance novel.

"If I say you are loyal, you dare to point your finger at me and curse the founding emperor; if I say you are treacherous, you are single-mindedly trying to eliminate corrupt practices, and you even write memorials in prison."

She's someone you both love and hate!

Lin Yue stood there, feeling incredibly awkward.

Using chicken blood as a pledge of loyalty is merely a way to express loyalty and seek a quick death, but being exposed on the spot and ridiculed to one's face is extremely undignified.

Lin Yue stiffened his neck, wanting to argue, but didn't know what to say, so he could only brace himself and pretend to be calm.

Zhu Di laughed for a long time before gradually stopping.

He glanced at the two bright red characters on the stone wall, then his gaze fell on the still-wet ink of the "Precious Notes" on the table.

"Enough." Zhu Di waved his hand. "Since you are so fixated on the matter of paper money, I will see what shocking things you have to say."

Emperor Yongle bent down to pick up the memorial, unfolded it and read it carefully. At first, he was somewhat indifferent, but the more he read, the more his brows furrowed and the more he frowned. Soon, the smile on his lips gradually froze, and his face darkened inch by inch. The ease and joy he had just felt vanished.

The memorial was written in a wild and unrestrained style, not only denouncing the paper money for being unanchored and unreserved, and for its rampant inflation, but also directly targeting Zhu Yuanzhang.

The text is extremely sarcastic and biting, accusing the Hongwu Emperor of using the nation's credit to create counterfeit currency and openly plundering the country through the excessive issuance of paper money.

What enraged Zhu Di even more was that Lin Yue wrote in his memorial that "Emperor Taizu's actions are in fact economic enslavement, no different from the oppressive policies of the Qin Dynasty, and even worse."

Lin Yue also wrote many previously unheard-of terms such as capitalist exploitation, bureaucratic class, and class divide, completely refuting Zhu Di's idolized father in terms of finance.

Zhu Di gripped the memorial tighter and tighter, his face turning ashen, his murderous intent surging once more.

Lin Yue's slander of the Baochao (precious paper money) was tolerable, but his unbridled insults against the Taizu Emperor, claiming that the evil of the Baochao was unprecedented in history, were simply appalling.

Lin Yue naturally knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had made great contributions to China, but in order to provoke Zhu Di, he could only make things difficult for the Hongwu Emperor.

"You brat! How dare you!"

Zhu Di suddenly threw the "Precious Notes" to the ground, scattering the papers all over the floor and making a loud noise that shook the walls.

"Emperor Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty and saved the people from suffering. How can you slander him like this?!"

"How dare you compare the sage ruler to the tyrannical Qin dynasty and portray ancestral laws as evil! If I don't kill you today, it will not be enough to appease the spirit of the founding emperor in heaven!"

The laughter of Ji Gang and the jailers stopped abruptly, and they all lowered their heads in silence, no longer making a sound.