Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

"Your Excellency is truly awe-inspiring! We, the Shanxi Merchants Guild, will henceforth follow Your Excellency's lead in future border trade! We will report any unusual activity by the Tatars to the Northern Garrison Command immediately, without the slightest concealment!"

Qiao Shouye was extremely shrewd; he immediately knelt down and swore an oath to the heavens.

Pei Yuan nodded in satisfaction.

"Those who understand the times are wise. The palace is almost finished, and the navy has entered the port. I should also submit a memorial to the Emperor, inviting him to come to Tianjin to inspect the century-old foundation of the Ming Dynasty."

Several days later.

The capital city, the Forbidden City.

The first snow of early winter fell thickly, covering the square in front of Fengtianmen with a thick white blanket.

Inside the East Warm Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, the floor heating system was blazing hot.

Emperor Chenghua, Zhu Jianji, dressed in a bright yellow casual robe, leaned against the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed), holding in his hands a secret memorial sent by Pei Yuan with urgent delivery over 800 li (approximately 400 kilometers).

He was so excited that his face flushed and even his hands, which were holding the folding book, were trembling slightly.

"Your Majesty, has there been good news from Tianjin?"

Wang Zhi, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, carefully served a cup of ginseng tea and tentatively asked a question.

"Extremely good news!"

Zhu Jianji slammed the folding book heavily on the table, stood up abruptly, and paced excitedly back and forth in the warm chamber.

"In his memorial, Pei Yuan stated that the Zhenhai Fort Palace had been completed, its magnificence far surpassing that of any palace or villa throughout history. More importantly,"

"The Ming Dynasty's two 1,000-ton treasure ships and fifty warships are all anchored in the harbor outside the palace, awaiting my inspection!"

Zhu Jianji walked to the window, looking at the snowflakes fluttering outside, his eyes filled with an arrogant imperial pride.

"Since the reigns of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Chengzu, the Ming Dynasty has not witnessed such a magnificent maritime military might for decades."

"I want to personally witness from the city walls of Tianjin how the warships of the Ming Dynasty will awe the world!"

He turned around abruptly and gave a loud order.

"Wang Zhi! Convey my decree! In three days, I will be on an inspection tour of Tianjin, residing at the Zhenhai Fort Palace!"

"The Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet, and the ministers of the Six Ministries and Nine Departments, are all ordered to accompany the Emperor!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhi was startled and immediately knelt down.

"Your Majesty, it's freezing cold. Are you really going on an inspection tour outside the capital? I'm afraid the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate..."

"If they dare to obstruct me, I will dismiss them from their posts!"

Zhu Jianji snorted coldly, exuding an air of domineering arrogance.

"I paid for this palace myself, and now that it's complete, what's wrong with me going to stay there for a while? Send out the decree! Anyone who dares to suggest retreating is showing contempt for the might of the Ming Navy!"

As expected, the imperial edict caused an uproar throughout the Ming Dynasty court.

Inside the Wenyuan Pavilion.

Grand Secretary Li Xian looked at the copy of the imperial edict in his hand, so angry that his beard trembled and his vision blurred.

"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"

Li Xian slammed his hand on the table and roared at the Grand Secretaries and Ministers in the room with great indignation.

"Now it's the dead of winter, the weather is freezing. Instead of governing from the palace, the Emperor has gone to the shores of the Bohai Sea to brave the cold wind!"

"Pei Yuan is even more sinister. Under the guise of building a summer palace, he has stationed troops and built a city in Tianjin. Now he has also moved his naval fleet into the inland sea."

"What is he trying to do? Is he trying to use the emperor to command the feudal lords?"

The Minister of War also looked worried.

"Your Excellency is right. The Emperor is a man of immense power; how can he leave the capital so easily? Moreover, we know nothing about the final form of Zhenhai Fortress."

"What if Pei Yuan has set up an ambush in the city..."

"He wouldn't dare!"

Li Xian gritted his teeth, a resolute glint in his eyes.

"But how can we, as subjects, sit idly by while the Emperor goes on his tour? Pass on my message: have the censors of the Censorate prepare their memorials!"

"Tomorrow morning at court, I will lead all the officials in a desperate remonstrance before Fengtian Gate!"

"Even if blood is spilled on the spot, we must never let the Emperor step out of the capital!"

The next morning.

After the snow cleared, the wind outside Fengtian Gate was biting cold.

More than a hundred civil officials, led by Li Xian, knelt in the cold snow, holding their ceremonial tablets, and shouted, "Your Majesty, please reconsider!"

The scene was truly awe-inspiring.

They seemed determined to remain kneeling until the emperor retracted his decree.

However, Zhu Jianji did not appear at Fengtian Gate.

The one who came out to deliver the imperial decree was Wang Zhi, who had a fake smile on his face.

"My lords, His Majesty has issued an imperial edict."

Wang Zhi, speaking in a high-pitched voice, looked down at these shivering, upright officials.

"His Majesty said that my inspection tour of Tianjin is to review the nation's most important instruments and to reassure the people. Since you ministers are loyal to the emperor and love your country, there is no need for you to suffer in the cold here."

"Go back and pack your bags. Tomorrow morning, you will all set off with me to Tianjin to broaden your horizons."

"Anyone who dares to feign illness and refuse to go is plotting something and will be punished for deceiving the emperor!"

After Wang Zhixuan finished reading the imperial edict, he flicked his whisk and turned to return to the Qianqing Palace.

The civil officials were left standing there dumbfounded.

Li Xian knelt in the snow, trembling with anger.

The Emperor is determined to protect that treacherous minister, even going so far as to use the crime of deceiving the Emperor to coerce them into going with him!

"Go! I want to see just how extravagant and decadent this 'gentle paradise' Pei Yuan has built in Tianjin with the hard-earned money of the people of our Great Ming Dynasty!"

"I will expose that traitor in front of the Emperor!"

Li Xian stood up with the help of his colleagues and said through gritted teeth.

Two days later.

The grand imperial procession, escorted by tens of thousands of elite Beijing garrison troops, trudged through the snow.

After leaving Zhengyang Gate, we headed towards Tianjin.

This procession was extremely large, with Emperor Chenghua, Zhu Jianji, riding in a luxurious jade carriage pulled by six horses.

The imperial guards surrounded them from front to back.

Behind the procession was a long line of carriages carrying civil and military officials.

Due to the snow making travel difficult, this journey, which normally takes only two days, took a full four days.

Along the way, the civil officials who sat in the drafty sedan chairs suffered greatly.

Not only were they bruised and swollen from the cold.

When resting at the post station at night, one had to endure the unpleasant smell of charcoal fire.

Whenever they suffered, they would curse Pei Yuan's ancestors for eighteen generations over and over again hundreds of times while inside the sedan chair.

In their minds, Zhenhai Fort must be a place of carved railings and jade steps, a wine pool and meat forest, filled with bewitching dancers from Jiangnan.

It is a den of iniquity specifically designed to corrupt the will of a monarch.

Noon on the fourth day.

The royal procession finally arrived at the high ground at the mouth of the Haihe River.

"Your Majesty, Zhenhai Fort is just ahead."

Wang Zhi respectfully reported this from beside the carriage.

Zhu Jianji's spirits lifted, and he immediately ordered someone to lift the carriage curtain, then, with the help of a eunuch, stepped down from the imperial carriage.

Upon hearing of their arrival, the civil officials behind them also climbed out of their sedan chairs.

Li Xian took a deep breath of the cold sea breeze, straightened his official robes, and prepared to unleash his scathing rant at any moment.

However, when they raised their heads and looked ahead along the official road...

Everyone, including Li Xian, stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning, their eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.

There were no carved beams and painted rafters, no vermilion gates, and no string and wind instruments.

What lay before them was a terrifying city wall, ten miles long and towering into the clouds, resembling a black dragon!

The city wall was entirely constructed of massive bluestones, with molten iron poured onto its surface.

It reflected a despairing, metallic sheen in the winter sunlight.

On the city wall, there is a sturdy gun emplacement at intervals, with the dark muzzles of heavy cannons coldly overlooking the vast land.