Chapter 785 The last handful of rice
This thing that Huang Zifu tinkered with seems to have no value at all at the moment.
Two slightly curved wooden boards are fixed together. When released under traction, it can glide a distance of less than a hundred feet. The unpowered glider has no application other than flying at sea to observe the enemy's situation.
And it cost Gewuyuan 230,000 silver to make such a useless thing. It seems to be a waste of national funds. How many children who can't have enough food to eat can be fed by converting this 230,000 silver into food. foot! Besides, you, the Ming Emperor, will continue to invest in such useless things. Isn’t this a waste?
What a waste of paying for personal preference!
Court and emperor, please stop running and wait for your people! Wait for your soul! Wait for your morals! Wait for your conscience!
Obviously, this is a kind of nonsense. It sounds like a petition for the people, and it sounds like a cry for the people. In fact, it is bullshit that takes advantage of the people's self-respect and has no use other than inciting emotions.
The return of the Ming Dynasty on the Imperial Palace has long exceeded its investment. Just the Shengping series of steam engines created millions of goods for the Ming Dynasty to meet the internal and external needs of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Zaiyu's steam turbine still had no practical use and could only rotate slightly. Its application scenarios were far inferior to those of reciprocating steam engines. However, in the process of research and development, Daming gained too much.
Although steam engines cannot be used on airplanes, as long as they continue to develop, increase horsepower, continue to be miniaturized, and improve thermal efficiency, they can be used on ships. Steam ships do not care much about the weight of the fuel.
Every year, the Royal Institute of Furniture produces various useful and useless experiments and results. If they are not useful now, it does not mean they will not be useful in the future.
For example, Gokuyuan has recently been boiling green vitriol and saltpeter under pressure to obtain extremely corrosive gold-killing water, which can even corrode gold.
Zhu Yijun knew that this was nitric acid. If this thing reacted with grease, it would be the famous TNT explosive.
In the current lack of a reliable enough power source, Ming Dynasty can only accumulate a lot of gliding experience. When a reliable and stable internal combustion engine is invented in the future, it will become inevitable for aircraft to fly into the sky.
"For the way of investigating things, I only have silver." Zhu Yijun gave full support. For such a romantic thing as exploring the boundaries of human cognition, only silver's support is the most sincere blessing.
"Your Majesty, the Gewuyuan still has money. The 72-horsepower Shengping Iron Horse has just been mass-produced. Each one will be given to the Gewuyuan." Zhu Zaiyu chose to politely refuse. The Gewu doctors are in need of money to tinker with things. , but Gewuyuan can be responsible for its own profits and losses. The balance of 400,000 silver last year has not been spent, and now it has become 600,000 silver.
"Two hundred thousand silver a year, that's it." Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "The money of Gewuyuan belongs to Gewuyuan, and my money is my money."
Zhu Zaiyu thought for a while and bowed his head and said: "I thank your Majesty for your kindness."
Zhu Zaiyu, the king of virtue, is like a nerd who only likes to study. It's not that he doesn't know how to be worldly, it's just that most people are not worthy of him using his brain to be worldly.
He immediately agreed. In fact, it was due to political considerations. The Imperial Palace always refused the emperor's money. As time went by, was the word "royal" the emperor's royal family or his majesty's royal family?
In any case, His Majesty must maintain a high sense of participation. The sense of participation that I am at the helm of the Gewuyuan will be judged in the future. This is the result of His Majesty’s full support of the Gewuyuan and its brilliant achievements. This investment is all merit and evidence.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had many things to do and was very busy every day. Zhu Zaiyu demonstrated the glider to showcase cutting-edge achievements. At the end of the glider demonstration, Zhu Zaiyu would take the emperor to the northeast corner of Beidaying, where a new official factory was put into operation. use.
When Zhu Yijun left the test flight site, he kept looking left and right, frowning. He was looking for something, and something was missing during this test flight.
"What is your Majesty looking for?" Zhu Zaiyu asked doubtfully.
Zhu Yijun hesitated and said: "It's nothing."
Standing in front of the official factory, Zhu Zaiyu said with emotion: "This is a fully mechanical mint affiliated to the Internal Affairs Bureau. After it is put into operation, it can print 14 million silver coins a year. Replacing the backward spiral printing machine, the silver coins produced are more exquisite. ”
Zhu Zaiyu took out a new silver coin and handed it to His Majesty. There are teeth on the outer edge of the silver coin, just to ensure a sufficient amount. Some merchants like to scrape a little bit of silver wire from the outer edge of the silver coin to make a profit, but the edge teeth prevent This thinning behavior also has the same effect as the edge belt table.
"Let's go in and have a look." Zhu Yijun walked into the fully mechanical mint.
The mint has about 800 acres of land. The courtyard walls here are very high. There are several towers set up around the walls. People patrol the grounds day and night. There are three gates in the grounds. The soldiers check everyone. Only after receiving the waist card did he choose to let him go.
There are twelve fully mechanical workshops in the mint. Each workshop is equipped with three iron horses. Thirty-six iron horses with 72 horsepower are roaring. Zhu Yijun felt the power in them.
Zhu Zaiyu introduced in detail the coinage process of the fully mechanical mint.
All the variegated silver and gold and silver from the national treasury and the Ministry of Communications and Industry are handed over to the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry for refinement into gold and silver. Copper and tin are added to the gold and silver to maintain the hardness of the silver coins. All the silver materials coming to the mint contain Silver 92.5% silver material.
The silver material is heated and forged into silver bars, which pass through the rolling mill to become thin silver bars. The lathes cut the bars into embryonic cakes, anneal them again to tie the edges of the embryonic cakes, and put the embryonic cakes into the rolling press to roll them into silver coins.
In the past, manual screw presses were used. The manual printing speed was slow, not exquisite, and the pressure was not easy to accurately control.
But now the entire machinery workshop has replaced all the rolling, rolling, turning, cutting and pressing with steam engines, and the production efficiency has been greatly improved.
After all the silver coins were inspected in the factory, they were transferred to Taicang, the internal funds, and flowed to the Ming Dynasty.
Each silver coin was rolled and stamped, and the court valued it at three cents. The Bingzhan Bureau Mint's output of 14 million silver could get 420,000 silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs a year, and the craftsmen only had 2,000 people to mint coins. Bureau, the average labor compensation is sixty-three silver per year, and the median is thirty-three silver per year.
A craftsman with about three years of experience can earn an annual salary of thirty-three silver.
And a sharp soldier in the Beijing camp does not count as a reward, it is only twenty-three silvers a year.
All silver other than labor remuneration is used for site expansion, purchasing machinery, equipment maintenance, purchasing various materials, etc. After all, a seventy-two iron horse costs 17,000 silver.
"Is this a hydraulic printing machine?" Zhu Yijun looked at the printing machine in front of him and said curiously. The printing machine in front of him was as long as a desk. He did not disturb the craftsmen, but let them demonstrate it once.
Each hydraulic printing machine can print 146 silver coins at a time, and does not require too much post-processing. It is formed in one piece. Zhu Yijun witnessed this magical scene.
Each of the beautifully crafted silver coins must be weighed three times to ensure a sufficient amount, but also to ensure that no excess will cause losses to the official factory.
"Very good, fourteen million coins a year, that's enough for the time being." After Zhu Yijun inspected the mint, he was very satisfied with the work of the Institute.
The scale of the Bingzhan Bureau Mint's annual printing of silver coins was once the biggest obstacle to the Ming emperor's ability to invest on a large scale. Now this obstacle has finally disappeared, and the output of silver coins has finally exceeded the total inflow of silver, beginning to consume the Ming Dynasty's existing silver.
The Bingzhan Bureau Mint will not blindly expand production. The expansion is determined by how much silver the Ming Dynasty can collect and store every year.
After leaving the Bingzhan Bureau Mint, Zhu Yijun told Zhu Zaiyu a few words, just talk if you need money. Now there is still 1.2 million silver in the internal funds that can be used. The reason why there is only this little money is the remaining silver. All of them were given to Wang Qian to collect gold.
In the next ten years, Zhu Yijun will have no money even if he wants to live a luxurious life. He will only keep part of the silver as military rewards, and all other silver will be converted into gold for storage to ensure that after ten years, there will be enough gold in the internal fund to issue banknotes.
Whether banknotes will be issued in ten years will be discussed at that time, but Zhu Yijun must ensure that he has enough gold and the ability to issue banknotes. This is the key.
"Uncle Emperor, stay here. I'm going back to the palace." Before leaving, Zhu Yijun stood beside the jade chariot and refused to get in. He looked around, hesitated and asked, "Isn't there a glider model this time? Zhi'er likes these very much. ”
Zhu Zaiyu finally knew what the emperor was looking for when he left the test flight site!
Looking for models!
"Here." Huang Zifu slapped his forehead and hurriedly asked someone to bring the seven prepared models.
These are all models made in equal proportions. These seven models are 5 types of single-wing gliders and 2 types of bi-wing gliders. Each one can fly and has been carefully weighted so that it can land smoothly when there is no wind indoors. glider.
Huang Zifu was a little nervous for a moment and forgot that this model is very important. At least His Majesty will be able to think of their group of people when he sees it. The four words "Jian in the Emperor's Heart" are much more important than millions of taels of silver.
Without the words "Jian is in the Emperor's Heart", Gewuyuan would immediately be criticized by the cheap Confucian scholars, and they would be forced to counterattack.
"I also want it for Zhi'er. He is clamoring for toys when he grows up. He is a child." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and asked Xiao Huangmen to carry it to the car. He didn't talk nonsense. He would definitely give it to Zhu Changzhi to play with when he had enough.
"Okay, stay here, no need to send it off." Zhu Yijun watched the model as tall as half a man get into the car, and then left the Beitucheng Mint with a smile on his face.
"Farewell to Your Majesty." Zhu Zaiyu and the Doctors of Gewu bowed respectfully and bid farewell to Your Majesty.
Zhu Yijun returned to Tonghe Palace happily. As soon as he sat down and started to deal with the memorial, his expression became solemn. There was a vermilion sign on the floating ticket. This sign was posted by the chief minister of the cabinet, which means an urgent matter.
"A civil uprising occurred in Ruijin County, Jiangxi Province." Zhu Yijun took a deep breath, opened the memorial, and read it carefully.
The scale of the civil uprising was large, exceeding 30,000 people. The civil uprising was mainly composed of local tenants, who called themselves Tian Bing;
Thirty thousand field soldiers gathered into the city and successively attacked Ruijin County and Ninghua County in Ningdu County. They forced the magistrates of the three counties to print tens of thousands of land equalization posts. The demands of the civil revolution were land equalization and rent reduction.
Feng Bao spread out the other two memorials from Jiangxi and said: "There is a Jin gentry in Qingtai, Taiping and Huaide townships of Ningdu County. Their surname is Shi. The Shi family occupies 80% of the land in these three townships. It can be regarded as the home of half of Ningdu County. .”
"The name of the patriarch of the Shi family is Shi Chengwu. One acre of land in the Shi family requires a rent of six tons of grain. It was because of this rent that the civil uprising broke out."
"Since the Yongle period, the Shi family has been collecting one stone and two buckets of rice per acre of land. The land in Shangsanxiang is fertile and can produce two stones and four buckets of rice a year. The rent and tax of these six buckets of grain are actually not counted. Too high.”
"After Shi Chengwu's father died, Shi Chengwu became the head of the family. When Shi Chengwu totaled it, the tenants got three times as much as he did! The tenants got one stone and eight bushels, and he only got six bushels. Moreover, the court's taxes also cost them a stone. It is simply unreasonable to bear the responsibility of the whole family!”
Zhu Yijun immediately asked: "I collected one stone and two buckets before, why did I collect six buckets now?"
Feng Bao handed the memorial to the emperor and said: "Shi Chengwu's father reduced the rent in the third year of Wanli. In the third year of Wanli, there was a drought in Jiangxi. There was a severe drought and people were hungry. Pan Jixun, who was the governor of Jiangxi at the time, asked for a rent reduction."
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"Shi Chengwu's father waived the rent that year and led the villagers to dig twelve wells. The following year he reduced the rent, and everyone among the tenant farmers praised him for his good work."
"Shi Chengwu wants to increase the rent, but he can't do it at all. Just when he said he wanted to increase the rent, all the tenants stopped renting. Several tenants even left, going to Fujian and Jilong Island. Tamsui Town of Jilong Island is reclaiming wasteland. Once the land was reclaimed, the tenants began to leave. ”
"When the rent increase could not be continued, Shi Chengwu began to ask for annual regulations, that is, every New Year, these tenants had to honor him, and the tenants began to leave again." Only after Zhu Yijun read the memorial did he know what happened to trigger the civil uprising.
Shi Chengwu couldn't raise the rent, and he couldn't do it according to the annual calendar. This clever guy suddenly had an idea and came up with a good trick to set up a gambling house.
He couldn't do it alone, so he found six Jin gentry families in three counties and set up gambling houses. Within three years, all the tenant farmers owed money to the Jin gentry. It was only natural that they should pay back their debts. .
Everyone is the same. If you owe money, you will not have enough confidence. At this point, it will be easier to handle. Starting from the ninth year of Wanli, the three county gentry headed by Shi Chengwu began to increase the rent. In addition to the rent increase, they also began to ask for annual records. .
"This Shi Chengwu! If you rebel against him, you dare to violate my imperial edict!" Zhu Yijun was furious after reading the memorial.
He ran a gambling house, increased rents, and asked for annual records. It could be said that he did it secretly, but he actually dared to openly disobey the imperial edict!
Zhu Yijun has a clear imperial edict that the benefits of beans, wheat, rape, potatoes, and ginger can be made late, and no tax or rent can be collected, and this must not be violated.
There is no tax for common people to grow sweet potatoes. If the court does not collect taxes, the landlords have no name to collect rent. Therefore, sweet potatoes are generally not grown in Changtian, and the landlords will not let them. Most of them grow sweet potatoes in wasteland. Sweet potatoes are a food to save people from famine, and they are used to save lives. grain.
This ban on sweet potatoes has been implemented for fourteen years. Wherever sweet potatoes are popular, everyone knows about this ban.
Shi Chengwu runs a gambling house, increases rent, and pays annual rent, but also charges rent for late grain production!
The last straw that broke the camel's back was the late payment of grain rent, which completely aroused public anger. Even the emperor and I didn't accept it, so you, a gentry, have to accept it too!
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
Tenants Wan Ganchang, Lian Yuanhou, Zheng Sanwan and others gathered the tenants and called them Tianbing. After Ruijin was conquered, they invited tenants from the three counties to join forces to resist rent.
Feng Bao bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, in the three counties captured by Tian Bing, the yamen are still there, the post offices are open, and letters can be exchanged with the governor's yamen."
"The Tian soldiers requested to make an alliance. The covenant included the reduction of rent, the elimination of new year's festivals, etc., the closure of gambling houses, the request for land equalization orders, and the elimination of traitors. Only when the court agreed to the alliance, the 30,000 Tian soldiers would return to the fields."
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In fact, it was very dangerous for Tian Bing to make such a request. Under normal circumstances, the emperor would send troops to suppress them instead of agreeing to their demands.
But Your Majesty is different. The people are not blind and do not know anything. From the abolition of slave status in Sochi, to the mutiny in Jiuying in Zhejiang, to Shen Shiqing leading the tenants to resist, shouting, tell my mother , I am not a coward. The emperor made many choices before letting Tian Bing choose to wait for the holy order.
From the magistrates of Ningdu, Ruijin and Ninghua counties, to the magistrates of Ganzhou Prefecture, and then to the left and right in charge of government and participation in politics in Jiangxi, the inspectors of Jiangxi and the governors of Jiangxi, so many ministers did not dare to say in their memorials that in fact, the Tianbing Rebellion , partly because the emperor was used to it.
The emperor was accustomed to many things, but one thing was the most important. The emperor's land equalization in Zhejiang was very prosperous.
The news of the return of farmland in Zhejiang spread to Jiangxi. The tenants in Jiangxi saw that not only did they not have an order to return their land, these gentry also tried every means to increase taxes, increase annual taxes, increase gambling houses, and even raise rents for late grain production. All of this was done by Your Majesty. Why were the people so different from each other that they finally got into trouble?
"The memorials of Yu Li, the chief envoy of Jiangxi Province, Wang Xiangkun, the inspector-general, and Cai Guozhen, who participated in the political affairs, said that in order to prevent the civil uprising from further expanding, they had temporarily agreed, but Tian Bing still refused to retreat and would not give up until he saw the imperial edict. "Feng Bao told the emperor about the local disposition.
The local government agreed, but did not agree to Tian Bing's conditions. Instead, they sent troops to suppress Tian Bing. The local officials were afraid that the emperor would send the Beijing camp to suppress them. The slogan of the Beijing camp was: report to the emperor and rescue the head of Guizhou.
Moreover, Tian Bing has not attacked the yamen yet. He has only arrested three people from the gentry families who run gambling houses, and sent troops to suppress them, which intensified the conflicts. When chaos breaks out in Jiangxi, the rebel soldiers may not kill these local officials, but Your Majesty will definitely meeting.
Agreeing to prevent further expansion of unrest is the only option.
The fate of Li Hongdao, the magistrate of Taizhou, Zhejiang, told local officials in Jiangxi that it was impossible to cover up this kind of turmoil. The tax collectors in all states and counties would definitely report to the emperor what happened.
However, the Tian soldiers still refused to leave, and still occupied the main roads, markets, and government offices in the three counties. In the eyes of these rebellious tenants, what the local dog officials promised did not count at all, only what the emperor promised counted. ! These dog officials dare not violate the emperor's promise!
Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Wang Guoguang, Shen Li and other cabinet ministers still had the same attitude in asking for an imperial edict from the emperor.
The opinion of the cabinet minister is that since the land return order has begun in Zhejiang, it will inevitably be implemented throughout the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. Even if there are no conditions for the implementation of the land return order, rents must be reduced and the landlords' gains from the land must be reduced. beneficial.
Wang Guoguang's meaning is clear. Only by reducing rent can these rural gentry and gentry give up land rent and tax and turn to industrial and commercial investment and development. Only in this way can strong people be attached to production relations and shift to large-scale free employment production relations. Only in this way can the transformation of small peasant economy into commodity economy be completed. .
Landowners such as rural sages and gentry are obstacles to the progress of productivity and production relations.
"The decree is issued to Jiangxi. By the way, these three Jin gentry who run gambling houses, collect annual revenue, and collect late grain crops will all be escorted to the capital by me!" Zhu Yijun chose to agree with the cabinet's opinion.
Many things seem to have many choices, but in fact, when the Wanli Reform has reached this day, Zhu Yijun has only one choice, to go on.
The only more difficult thing about Tian Bing's request was that the order to return Tian Bing was implemented in Jiangxi.
The execution of the land return order requires a certain foundation. The biggest foundation is that the tenants realize that this is a squandering, so that the court can have the confidence to support it. When the field soldiers make such a fuss, the biggest foundation for the land return order is there. .
But this does not mean that the land return order can be implemented. The situation in Jiangxi is much worse than that in Zhejiang. Zhejiang has nine camps and Zhejiang yamen have a lot of money, so much that they need to build the Zhejiang East Canal. However, Jiangxi is poorer than Zhejiang, and there are no Ninth Battalion must implement the land return order. Without that condition, there is no point in imposing it forcefully.
"Are the magistrates of these three counties clean? I don't think so." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and said solemnly: "The three gentry families headed by Shi Chengwu ran gambling houses, increased rents, and collected annual taxes, and finally forced them out How can the county magistrate not know about the civil unrest? ”
"If there is no deliberate cover-up here, I, the emperor, will not do it anymore."
"It's just a matter of being greedy for money. It's a crime to cause civil unrest."
The three gentry families acted like a puppet, and behind the ghost was a tiger. If there was no support from the local government, they would not dare to go so far.
Zhu Yijun couldn't tell anything from the memorial. The imperial edict he issued was also to appease the people. He needed to collect tax reports from Tiqi before making further decisions.
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not kept waiting too long, because the post road was not cut off, so Tiqi's Tangbao and the memorials from local officials arrived at the Jingtang. Only then did the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and all the officials in the Jingtang learn the full story of the matter. .
Gambling houses, increasing rents, asking for yearly records, and late collection of grain rents are all the background of this Tianbing Rebellion. In fact, the people of the Ming Dynasty have been living in this way for more than two hundred years.
What really ignited the people's anger was that the Ningdu County government officials and Shi Chengwu's servants went to the countryside to collect rent. While violently collecting rent, a life was lost.
The villagers found the elders in the village and asked the elders to seek justice. The elders brought out the government decrees from when Pan Jixun was still in Jiangxi. Pan Jixun asked the landlords to collect rents in Jiangxi, not the tenants.
At that time, Pan Jixun held up a knife and forced the virtuous gentry to bow their heads. Pan Jixun had been in Suiyuan for five years, and the gentry were no longer willing to admit that the land rent included court taxes.
The elders in the village took Pan Jixun's certificate from that year and refused to pay extra land tax. The land tax for the Jin gentry's land was included in the land rent.
During the push, Shi Chengwu's servant pushed the elder to the ground. By coincidence, the elder hit the stone. He was over sixty years old and left like this, and his anger was completely ignited.
If you collect taxes, you will collect taxes. How about killing people?
The practice of government officials going to the countryside to collect rent, which had been inactive for more than ten years, was the direct cause of the outbreak of civil unrest.
"My struggle volume is still very clear. These people can read the third volume of Class Theory and won't worry about these things." Zhu Yijun continued to read the Tang News and said to Feng Bao.
Feng Bao thought for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, what you mean is, the last handful of rice?"
Zhu Yijun nodded when he heard this and said: "Yes, it means the suddenness of conflicts and struggles, but when it comes to chanting, it is a bit obscure. Your statement about the last handful of rice is very appropriate."
The last handful of rice is an apt expression.
Conflicts and struggles erupt suddenly.
County magistrates, government officials, rural gentry, and servants do not want to force the poor coolies to the point of desperation, because history has proven countless times that when forced to the point of desperation and the world is overturned, the poor coolies will resist. .
But the tenants have been tolerant, and the tenants themselves are persuading themselves.
The gambling house is because the gamblers cannot restrain their greed; the rent increase is because they used to collect so much, but now it is restored; the year is about filial piety, after all, the land deeds in the hands of the Jin gentry are passed down from generation to generation; the late harvest grain rent is collected, Every inch of this landscape is owned by its owner.
Until the elder in the village died in front of him, the self-deception completely failed. From being docile and letting others bully him, to picking up all the weapons he could to resist, it turned into a huge change that could not be ended in a moment.
The same thing happened when the prefect of Taizhou Prefecture in Zhejiang suppressed the tenant farmers. Li Hongdao never understood until his death why these docile tenant farmers suddenly started to resist?
Landowners or power holders, virtuous rural gentry, powerful right-wing officials, and government officials cannot clearly know and decide the limits of grain rent, taxes, and private demands. They do not know whether what they ask for is what they want. The last handful of rice in the common people's rice vat.
The reason is also very simple. Because meat eaters do not participate in labor, they cannot correctly measure the income from labor, and they do not realize that these rice grains are their last bite. Meat eaters often feel that they can squeeze out more to satisfy their desire for material and food. Possessiveness of wealth.
Zhu Yijun sighed heavily and said: "The rural gentry, powerful and right-wing people, including the Yamen court, all feel that they can still get more. The people still have oil and water, and they can squeeze out a little more. They don't even realize that they have already He reached out to the last handful of rice in the common people's rice vat. ”
"Similarly, the poor coolies don't know where the limit of their patience is. To endure a little longer is the choice of most people. But when something suddenly happens, the thread is broken, and they can only choose to fight to the death. Then from point to surface, it burned throughout the Ming Dynasty."
"By the time I react, it's too late and I'll regret it."
The third volume of the struggle volume will eventually lead to the natural inference that the Ming Dynasty will perish.
The sudden intensification of conflicts made the conflicts that broke out without clear boundaries and unpredictable. This kind of uncontrollability made Zhang Juzheng unable to accept it.
But on the other hand, this can actually be prevented to prevent conflicts and struggles from intensifying to the point of being beyond control. The solution is really simple. If you don’t overdo it and leave a mouthful of food for the people, there will be no trouble. The sky collapsed.
The second volume of Class Theory is about distribution.
"Arrest these three county magistrates and take them to the capital together." Zhu Yijun gave another clear order.
(End of chapter)