Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 261 The Emperor's Will is the Will of Heaven
With the appointments of the three directors of the Foreign Intelligence Department, the Supervision Department, and the Anti-Corruption Supervision Department, as well as the new commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, finally settled, this behemoth of power, personally nurtured by the emperor, has revealed its chilling skeleton, enough to keep officials and nobles awake at night.

The five newly appointed leaders stood with their heads bowed, followed by the commanders, garrison commanders, and chiliarchs behind them... They were the most solid backbone and the sharpest claws of the Huangming Andu Prefecture.

At this moment, these people were filled with emotions more complex than when they carried out any bloody mission in the past.

The newly established Three Departments took away almost all of the core powers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, leaving them like tigers stripped of their claws, with no clear path ahead.

The newly appointed superiors are either former colleagues or outsiders, and there is a subtle tension and undercurrent between them.

A sense of awe for the unknown and uncertainty about one's future intertwine to form a silent, giant net that hangs over everyone's heart.

Just as the oppressive atmosphere reached its peak, the Emperor suddenly walked towards them.

The supreme majesty that had just been so domineering and whose words carried the weight of the law vanished, replaced by a gentle smile that sent a shiver down the spines of everyone present.

"Today, I will reward those who have rendered meritorious service."

The emperor's voice was no longer as cold and loud as before, but instead carried a hint of warmth. The eunuch attending him was about to step forward and raise the tray of rewards that had been prepared, but was stopped by a look from Zhu Youjian.

The emperor himself took a stack of brand-new banknotes and a land deed jointly signed by the Ministry of Revenue from the tray and walked to the front of the line.

"Lin Xuan," the emperor's gaze fell on a resolute-faced commander, and he called out his name accurately, "In the Meridian Gate Incident, you were the first to draw your sword and deter those arrogant rebels. Your bravery surpasses that of the entire army, and you deserve to be rewarded."

Zhu Youjian did not have the eunuchs do it for him, but personally handed the thick stack of silver notes and the certificate symbolizing hundreds of acres of fertile land to the commander named Lin Xuan.

At that moment, Lin Xuan felt as if the light paper was a thousand pounds heavy. His hands trembled as he took it, his throat tightened, and he knelt down heavily: "Your Majesty, I... thank you for your grace!"

Zhu Youjian bent down and patted his shoulder personally, "Serve me well. I will not mistreat my own people."

"One of our own!"
These three words were like a warm current, instantly striking the deepest and softest part of the hearts of all the Imperial Guards present.

They were the emperor's henchmen, the hounds in the eyes of the world, and the lonely souls walking in the darkness. Who, especially the ruler of a country, ever regarded them as one of their own?

The emperor did not stop.

He walked toward the second person, a slightly thin commander.

"I remember you, Chen Ji. It was you who found the secret passage to the Duke Yansheng's mansion when we went south to Qufu, and caught the culprit red-handed. This is a remarkable achievement."

The reward was handed over personally once again.

My shoulder was gently patted again.

The phrase "I will not mistreat my own people" rang out once again.

The moment Chen Ji accepted the reward, his eyes suddenly reddened.

Next, the third, the fourth...

The emperor seemed to possess a register of merits etched in his mind. As he walked slowly through the ranks, he could accurately call out the names of several distinguished captains and clearly mention their specific contributions in particular operations.

"...It was you who helped with the disaster relief in Shaanxi..."

"...When the investigation into the Jiangnan salt scandal was launched, I remember you were the one who led the team and sealed off eight of Yangzhou's largest private salt warehouses overnight..."

He personally presented silver and land grant certificates to all the officers present who had rendered meritorious service, including the commanders, garrison commanders, commanders of thousands, and commanders of hundreds.

Every time, he handed it over in person; every time, he patted it on the shoulder in person; every time, he would say those words that were enough to make them give their all—"one of us."

Inside the lobby, the atmosphere took a strange turn.

The previous feelings of oppression and confusion were completely replaced by a fervent sense of honor.

These men, who usually treated human life as worthless and risked their lives on the edge of a knife, were now so excited that their faces turned red and they were at a loss for what to do.

They held their heads high, trying their best to show their most valiant side in front of the emperor, but when the emperor actually stood in front of them, they would be as nervous as new recruits entering the army for the first time.

Finally, when the last reward was distributed, the hall was filled with people kneeling down, many with tears in their eyes, prostrating themselves in a deep bow, unwilling to rise for a long time.

The majesty of a monarch can inspire awe.

The grace of a monarch can make people willing to die for him!

At this moment, they no longer felt the emperor's coldness and oppressive aura, but rather the supreme glory of being recognized by the emperor, regarded as his confidant, and regarded as his right arm!
The idea that Lao Tzu could truly die for the emperor grew wildly in the hearts of every one of them, like weeds sprouting insanely.

Zhu Youjian looked at what was in front of him and nodded in satisfaction.

He didn't say anything more, he just waved his hand gently.

"Go back."

"My lord, I obey your order!"

After a thunderous response, everyone stood up one by one, retreating with a sense of exhilaration and exhilaration as if they had been reborn.

In the blink of an eye, only the emperor and his newly appointed five core leaders of the Huangming Andu Prefecture remained in the huge hall: Governor Tian Ergeng, Chief of Intelligence Lu Wenzhao, Chief of Supervision Liu Qiao, Chief of Anti-Corruption Zuo Liangyu, and Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Li Ruolian.

The warmth and friendliness of the moment vanished, and the atmosphere became serious and focused once again.

The real discussion is only beginning now.

……

The inner hall of this old prince's palace was much smaller than the outer hall, and the furnishings were much simpler, with only a huge map occupying the entire wall.

Zhu Youjian took his seat in the main seat and gestured to the five men not to stand on ceremony and to take their seats.

"Minister Tian," the emperor said, getting straight to the point, his gaze fixed on Tian Ergeng, "how is the new policy being implemented in Yingtian Prefecture progressing?"

Upon hearing this, Tian Ergeng immediately stood up and took out a file from his pocket.

This dossier is quite different from the traditional memorials that court officials are used to submitting.

It lacks ornate, parallel prose and empty, quoting arguments.

Opening it reveals clear entries, cold data, detailed lists, and even simple relationship diagrams drawn in red ink.

This is precisely the tremendous transformation that Tian Ergeng underwent under the emperor's subtle influence.

He is gradually transforming from a traditional cruel official who only knows how to use torture to interrogate people into a cold-blooded and capable official who is well-versed in the art of paperwork, who values ​​a mountain of case files and prioritizes practical results in all his actions.

“Your Majesty,” Tian Ergeng began his report in a calm and clear voice, “as Your Majesty has decreed, we have conducted a long-term secret investigation and assessment of all nobles, officials and gentry families of the third rank or above in Nanjing.”

He opened the case file and presented it to Zhu Youjian.

"This is the first part—'List of Compliant Individuals.' Among them, Duke Xu Hongji of Wei was the first to investigate his 71,000 mu of land and pay back 320,000 taels of silver in back taxes accumulated over the years. Following him was the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel..."

The report meticulously listed the name, official position, specific time of cooperation, and the specific amount of land and property that each "collaborator" voluntarily investigated and handed over, with a level of clarity that was astonishing.

"...However, there is also a second part." Tian Ergeng changed the subject and turned to the second half of the file. "This is the preliminary summary of the 'List of Resistants' and the evidence."

"Most officials and gentry in Nanjing knew that the Emperor's will was unpredictable, and whether they were genuinely afraid or feigning compliance, they all openly and proactively investigated their land holdings and paid back taxes. However, there were still a few who thought themselves clever,"

Tian Ergeng's voice turned cold. "They thought the storm had passed and His Majesty might not be able to see through everything. Not only did they hide their family property and land, but they also secretly colluded to form an alliance and openly resisted the new policies."

Zhu Youjian listened quietly, his relaxed brows unconsciously furrowing again.

His fingers tapped rhythmically on the smooth rosewood table.

The four newly appointed directors—Lu Wenzhao, Liu Qiao, Zuo Liangyu, and Li Ruolian—were all sitting upright, eyes downcast, even their breathing slowed down.

They knew that the emperor's patience was wearing thin.

Finally, Zhu Youjian stopped.

He slowly raised his eyelids, his gaze deep and unfathomable, his tone so calm that it betrayed no emotion.

"Oh? It seems I haven't killed enough people on my southward journey, making them feel... my blade is getting a little dull?"

This casual question, like a gust of cold wind from the eighteenth level of hell, instantly blew into the inner hall.

Everyone present understood how deeply the emperor loathed and how utterly intolerant he was of such hypocritical tactics.

The concepts of "the law does not punish the masses" and "this will not be repeated" simply do not exist in front of this young emperor!

The atmosphere froze instantly.

Tian Ergeng seemed to have long been accustomed to His Majesty's majesty. He simply bowed even more respectfully and presented the detailed "Report of the Defiant" with both hands.

"Please review this, Your Majesty. This is the chief culprit of the stubborn resistance."

Zhu Youjian took it expressionlessly and turned to the first page.

When Zhu Youjian's gaze fell on the name on the first page of the report, his brows furrowed instantly, and he felt a sudden, inexplicable headache. [Prime Minister: Earl of Xincheng, Zhao Zhilong.]

Zhu Youjian remembered this name.

For no other reason than that in his fragmented memories from another time and space, this Earl of Xincheng, Zhao Zhilong, was one of the leaders who opened the city gates and surrendered when the Qing army marched south in history.

interesting!
A guy who can't betray himself in the future, but is already causing trouble for himself in the present!

Zhu Youjian suppressed the inexplicable irritation in his heart and continued to look at the evidence of crimes collected by Tian Ergeng.

[Background: Descendant of Zhao Yi, a meritorious official of the Jingnan Campaign. His ancestor, Zhao Yi, rose to the rank of Vice Commander-in-Chief during the Jingnan Campaign, led his troops to surrender to Emperor Taizong, and was granted the title of Earl of Xincheng. This title has been hereditary for ten generations. He held a prestigious position among the Nanjing nobility, with a wide network of students, friends, and connections, and was known as a leader of the Qingliu faction.]

"Another damn leader of the 'pure stream' movement?" Zhu Youjian's lips curled into a cold smile.

[Criminal Offense 1 (Common Crime): Secretly instructing stewards and tenants to intimidate and drive away officials sent by the court to survey fields through violence, coercion, and destruction of farm tools; forging previous land deeds and death certificates of servants, registering thousands of acres of fertile land under the names of long-deceased servants to evade investigation; repeatedly inciting and colluding with other hesitant nobles at private banquets to resist the "unified tax payment" policy, claiming, "If we share the fate of the nation, how can we pay taxes to the emperor?"]

Upon seeing this, Zhu Youjian only felt annoyed.

These are all predictable methods, routine practices of the nobility of this era, and nothing new.

However, when his gaze shifted to the next charge, the one that Tian Ergeng had highlighted in bold red ink, he was completely stunned.

[Criminal Offense Two (Core Offense, Subject to Your Majesty's Judgment): Upon investigation, Zhao Zhilong, in order to evade land census and taxes, actually "offered land to Buddha."]

This person, under the guise of "charity" and "praying for His Majesty," donated all of his family's three largest and most fertile estates, totaling 8,627 mu of high-quality paddy fields, to Jiming Temple and Qixia Temple outside Nanjing.

[After the donation, the temple abbot immediately issued a document, citing the need to "recruit tenants" and "maintain the incense offerings," to "lease back" all 8,000 mu of land to Zhao Zhilong's family members and trusted stewards for continued cultivation and management.]

[Zhao Zhilong only needed to pay a "charity fee" to these two temples each year, far less than the normal national tax, to continue enjoying all the produce of his more than 8,000 mu of fertile land without any problems. Preliminary calculations show that this allowed him to evade more than 30,000 taels of silver in taxes from the imperial court annually.]

Zhu Youjian stared at the four characters "offering land to Buddha" and looked at them twice to make sure he hadn't misread them.

For a moment, he even felt a ridiculous urge to laugh.

He recalled how companies in later generations registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes.

How similar!

Once he fully understood the logical loop of this entire operation, his absurd smile was instantly replaced by a volcanic eruption of rage!

The emperor's face visibly changed from gloomy to ashen, and then from ashen to a terrifying purplish-red.

The fingers gripping the report were so tightly that the knuckles were white and the veins were bulging!

This is not just tax evasion!
This is an open challenge to imperial power and a trampling of national law, using the guise of a temple!
They actually dared to use the most shameless flattery of "praying for His Majesty" to carry out the most vicious act of emptying the national treasury!
"boom!!!"

With a loud bang, Zhu Youjian could no longer suppress the thunderous rage in his chest and slammed his fist on the rosewood table.

"Damn it!"

A furious curse, filled with boundless violence and murderous intent, burst forth from the mouth of the supreme ruler without warning.

"These damned scoundrels, how could they come up with such a despicable and childless scheme?!"

The emperor's thunderous rage froze the air in the entire inner hall.

The five giants remained silent, not daring to even breathe loudly.

They had never seen the emperor unleash such undisguised rage!
Zhu Youjian suddenly stood up, his chest heaving violently. He no longer looked at the report that made him nauseous, but paced back and forth in the hall like a caged beast that had been provoked.

Zhao Zhilong's "outrageous move" was like a lightning bolt, cleaving open a huge blind spot in his thinking.

"I said... I said I forgot something..." He gritted his teeth and muttered to himself, his eyes flashing rapidly, his brain working at an unprecedented speed.

"I've been thinking about how to deal with the officials and gentry, how to deal with the aristocratic families, how to deal with those deeply entrenched noble clans... My sword has been slashing at each and every one of them..."

"...But they forgot about these bald monks who do no production, pay no taxes, and do not contribute grain!"

In Zhu Youjian's mind, those bloody records in the history books flashed by instantly—the calamity of the Three Wu and One Zong!
Why did emperors like Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Emperor Wuzong of Tang, and Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou all raise their swords against Buddhism?

In reality, at that time, Buddhist temples occupied vast tracts of land, did not pay taxes, privately ordained monks and nuns, and did not serve the king; they squandered gold and bronze to cast statues of gods.

When an interest group grows to the point of competing with the nation for survival resources, it has become a major pest of the country, and if it is not eliminated, the foundation of the nation will be shaken!
But why, in the more than two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, has there never been such a thunderous act?
So much so that Zhu Youjian overlooked the sickle hanging over his head?

No, actually Zhu Yuanzhang also imposed restrictions. He came from Huangjue Temple and had been a monk, so he was naturally the most knowledgeable about all the sordid ways involved.

Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he established the strictest rules—to investigate temple properties, strictly determine the number of monks, and issue ordination certificates!
Then, the first riddle master of the Ming Dynasty also engaged in religious infighting due to his personal likes and dislikes, but he did not settle accounts with the temples from an economic perspective.

It was precisely because Zhu Yuanzhang's strict rules still existed in terms of legal principles, while the Emperor Wanshou's suppression was driven by personal motives, that the problem of Buddhist temples over the past two hundred years has always been seen by successive emperors as a controllable problem rather than a fatal flaw that must be eliminated!
Therefore, Zhu Youjian always kept his eyes on the officials, gentry and noble families in the public eye, but ignored this huge malignant tumor hidden in the shadows!
But now, Zhao Zhilong's shameless "offering of land to Buddha" is like a resounding slap in the face to Zhu Youjian, making him completely sober up!

After more than two hundred years of loosening, Zhu Yuanzhang's reins were already rotten and unusable!

The tiger that Emperor Gao had imprisoned in the cage had long since broken free from all restraints in the shadows, becoming fat and bloated, and even learned to collude with the corrupt officials inside and outside the country, becoming their last refuge for hiding their filth and escaping the law!

Zhu Youjian's thoughts became clearer than ever before.

His gaze returned to the secret report that Tian Ergeng had presented.

If his first reading had filled him with shock and anger, now he was doing so with the coldness and focus of dissecting a corpse, reconnecting and recombining every piece of information, every name, and every amount of land ownership in his mind.

At this moment, this intelligence was no longer an isolated case in his eyes, but a pathological diagram depicting the rotting body of the Ming Dynasty.

Following the lines on this map, he finally saw through these temples scattered all over the world, which had transformed into a completely different, ugly face.

Under the shimmering light of the Buddha's golden body, they had become the empire's most greedy super-landlords.

The alarming data in the secret report showed that, under the guise of "donations" from believers, they brazenly seized fertile land across the land, possessing vast tracts of farmland, yet they disregarded the national tax laws, paying not a single grain of rice or a single coin! The wealth of the Ming Dynasty was being silently drained away beneath these robes.

Subsequently, it became a place for money laundering in the corrupt officialdom. The report vaguely mentioned several huge sums of "offerings" that pointed directly to several corrupt officials who had already been dismissed.

The ill-gotten gains plundered from the people can be transformed into "merit money" and deposited into the temple's donation box, thus turning shady accounts into something glittering and becoming "Buddha's blessing."

Zhao Zhilong's actions further exposed their most shameless function—a tax haven for bureaucratic landlords to resist imperial power!

Countless Zhao Zhilongs "donated" their land to Buddhist temples, transforming themselves from "landlords" into "tenants," thus comfortably evading the taxes they should have borne for the Ming Dynasty.

Temples became their best refuge for resisting the imperial court and undermining the foundation of the nation!

When all these things become intertwined, the high walls of the temple no longer isolate the secular world, but the law of the land!

They naturally evolved into lawless zones!
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian stopped in his tracks.

The overwhelming rage in his eyes had completely faded, replaced by a killing intent colder and more resolute than the permafrost.

Zhu Youjian finally realized that this was not a minor problem affecting one person or one place, but a chronic disease that had already spread to the two capitals and thirteen provinces and was now terminally ill!

He slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over Tian Ergeng and Zuo Liangyu in turn.

"Tian Ergeng," the emperor's voice was filled with murderous intent, "this report is very well done. Continue the investigation, find out for me everyone on the list who has used this method, or is currently using it!"

"Your subject obeys the decree!" Tian Ergeng replied in a deep voice.

Then, Zhu Youjian's gaze fell on Zuo Liangyu, the newly appointed director of the Anti-Corruption Supervision Department, who had not yet been stained with blood.

"Zuo Liangyu".

"Your subject is here!" Zuo Liangyu immediately stepped forward and knelt on one knee.

"I am now handing over the first case to your Anti-Corruption Inspectorate."

Zhu Youjian looked at him and said, word by word.

"Immediately mobilize the most shrewd, sharp-eyed, and ruthless members of the former Embroidered Uniform Guard. I not only want you to investigate Zhao Zhilong, but he is just a small fish that has been pushed to the forefront."

Zuo Liangyu suddenly looked up, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

The emperor's voice, with a chilling calm, continued:
"I order you to search every temple and Taoist monastery in Nanjing and the surrounding prefectures and counties!"

"Investigate for me item by item how many fields and shops they own! Where did these fields come from, to whom were they given as gifts, and where are the documents of the gifts now!"

"I also want to know exactly how much incense money and merit money they receive each year! And where does this money go!"

"I need to know," Zhu Youjian paused, each word uttered through gritted teeth, "how much money that rightfully belongs to me has these unproductive bald monks and bastards hidden away for those traitors and parasites under my command all these years!"

A cruel smile slowly crept onto Zhu Youjian's lips, a smile filled with boundless killing intent!
"They always talk about karma and retribution, but I can't wait any longer!"

"From this day forward, my will shall be the will of Heaven!"

(End of this chapter)