39: Chapter 39 The Living Yama's Imperial Patrol

"Sweeping Away the Black and Eliminating the Evil?"

General Wang Bi's loud voice buzzed in the side hall. He scratched his head, his face full of big question marks, "Your Highness, this term is fresh. Aren't we going to investigate the farmlands? Why does it sound like we are going to suppress bandits?"

The others were also full of confusion, their gazes turning in unison toward Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong, who was sitting calmly in the main seat.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong did not answer immediately. He picked up his teacup, used the lid to gently skim off the foam, but his gaze drifted past the crowd and landed on the most seasoned and steady Duke of Ying, General Fu Youde.

"Uncle Fu, your military and political experience is the most abundant. Please tell us, if we go to Jiangnan with such great fanfare, under the banner of investigating farmlands, what will be the result?"

General Fu Youde heard this, his cloudy old eyes narrowing slightly. He pondered for a moment before slowly speaking, his voice hoarse but clear and logical: "Replying to Your Highness, if it were really like that, I fear we would be unable to move an inch. The lightest result would be local officials playing Tai Chi with us; a single sentence like 'the account books were accidentally damaged and cannot be checked' would be enough to push us back. They are civil officials, we are military generals; if we argue with them, we won't gain any advantage."

He paused, glanced at everyone, and continued: "Going a step further, the local gentry will inevitably collude in secret. They only need to take out a little money and grain, incite some uninformed tenant farmers and refugees, surround our government offices, create a few 'civil riots', and raise the banner of 'officials forcing the people to rebel'. At that time, should we suppress them or not? Once we resort to weapons and blood is shed, the matter will completely blow up."

"Exactly!" Chang Sheng slapped his thigh and spoke up indignantly, "At that time, those censor officials in the capital will definitely pounce on us immediately! They will say that we military men are interfering in politics, poisoning the people, and causing chaos in Jiangnan! Damn it, these sour scholars are best at playing this game!"

General Fu Youde looked at Chang Sheng approvingly and finally concluded: "In the end, not to mention a tael of silver, I fear we won't even be able to collect a single grain of rice, and instead, we will be tainted, damaging Your Highness's reputation. Those gentry will be completely unharmed, and might even gain a good reputation for pleading for the people. This business would be a total loss."

These words caused the fierce generals present, who had killed countless people, to frown deeply. They were not afraid of war, nor were they afraid of death; what they feared was this kind of soft-knife killing, the frustration of having strength but nowhere to use it.

"Well said."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong finally put down his teacup, nodded, affirming General Fu Youde's analysis, and then, his words shocked everyone: "Therefore, this time when we go south, we will not investigate farmlands, and we will not collect taxes..."

He looked around at everyone, a cold light flickering in his pitch-black eyes, and said word by word: "We are going to kill people and confiscate property."

"Hiss—"

A sound of collective gasping echoed in the hall.

Even General Lan Yu could hardly sit still. He lay on the couch, struggling to lift his upper body, looking at Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong with shock and uncertainty. This, this is too... too bold.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong seemed not to see everyone's reaction. He stood up leisurely, paced to the "Map of the Great Ming Territory" hanging on the wall, and looked towards the prosperous land of fish and rice in Jiangnan.

"The so-called 'Black' refers to those gentry and powerful clans that occupy the locality, annex land, bully men and women, hold hundreds of lives in their hands, yet can still be treated as guests of honor by the local government. They are the termites of the Great Ming, the malignant tumors rotting to the root."

"The so-called 'Evil' refers to those local officials who collude with them, accept bribes, treat human lives like grass, and treat the 'great ming code' like toilet paper. They are the accomplices of these malignant tumors, the maggots on the rotting flesh!"

"We will not make an enemy of all the scholars in Jiangnan; that would be too stupid. We will only strike those leaders who have confirmed evidence of crimes, triggered monstrous public anger, and long deserved to be chopped into a thousand pieces. We are not imperial envoys sent to collect taxes; we are Yama, acting on behalf of Heaven, representing His Majesty, and representing the wronged souls who died miserably under their hands, coming to claim their lives!"

"Therefore, this trip is called 'Sweeping Away the Black and Eliminating the Evil', and it is also called Touring on Behalf of Heaven!"

These words were like a sudden enlightenment, causing old foxes like General Lan Yu and General Fu Youde to widen their eyes instantly; they finally understood Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's intention.

Investigating farmlands, they were not good at it.

Killing people, they were the masters!

"Don't they like to burn account books and leave no evidence?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong turned around, a trace of a smile on his face, "I don't want account books; I only want heads. Jiang Wan's 'Embroidered Uniform Guard' will lay all the evidence of their crimes before me. We will kill according to the roster; who dares to say 'no'?"

"Don't they like to incite the people to make trouble? I will carve their crimes onto stone tablets and erect them at the gates of the county government offices, so that all the people in the world can see who is really exploiting them, and who is making them unable to eat their fill even after paying taxes!"

The entire side hall was deathly silent.

Duke of Cao, who was lying on the couch, had a strange light flickering in his peach-blossom eyes. He had been silent, just listening quietly, when he suddenly keenly captured the most critical question. He struggled to lift his head and asked cautiously: "Your Highness... then... then what about the money from the confiscated property?"

This question instantly pulled everyone's attention back. That's right, after killing people and confiscating their property, what happens to all that shiny silver?

"Well asked."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong looked at Duke of Cao approvingly. This playboy's brain turned faster than anyone else's when it came to money. He did not keep them in suspense and said directly: "Investigating farmlands and collecting taxes, that is national tax; every cent must go into the national treasury. We can see it, but we can't touch it."

"But 'Sweeping Away the Black and Eliminating the Evil' involves confiscating ill-gotten gains."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong held up three fingers.

"I will make the decision: thirty percent of the confiscated proceeds will go to the national treasury."

He held up two more fingers.

"Twenty percent will be distributed on the spot to the local people who have been oppressed."

Speaking up to here, he paused, his gaze slowly sweeping over everyone present, from General Lan Yu to General Wang Bi, from General Fu Youde to Chang Sheng. Everyone's breath seemed to have stopped at this moment.

Finally, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's voice sounded again, not loud, but it exploded in everyone's ears like a thunderclap. "The remaining fifty percent... is the reward money for the soldiers on the expedition!"

"Boom!"

The atmosphere of the entire side hall was instantly ignited.

"Damn it!" General Wang Bi was the first to jump up from his chair. He slapped his thigh, his whole face flushed red, and the veins on his neck bulged, "We can even split money for killing people! What kind of god-like job is this! Your Highness! Just tell us who to kill! This general is willing to be the vanguard! No! No need for a vanguard, this general will even lead your horse!"

Even old foxes like General Fu Youde and General Feng Sheng, who were used to storms, found their breathing becoming heavy at this moment. They looked at each other and saw undisguised shock and ecstasy in each other's eyes.

The old emperor had just peeled a layer of skin off them, confiscating most of their family property, making them hurt so much they couldn't sleep for several nights.

But what about the new master?

The new master is going to take them to cut meat from others! And cut it back ten times, a hundred times over!

What did the Huaixi Nobility start with? Wasn't it just following the old emperor all the way from south to north, capturing a city, robbing... cough, capturing a city! This is the way of making a fortune they are most familiar with and like the most!

"Ouch! Oh my!"

Duke of Cao, lying on the couch, was so excited he wanted to turn over, but ended up pulling the wound on his back again, hurting so much that tears almost came out, but he was muttering to himself.

"Your Highness is wise! Your Highness is simply... simply a living God of Wealth! The Wu Family in Suzhou, the Shen family in Yangzhou, the salt merchants in Songjiang, the silk shops in Hangzhou... My god, if we confiscate a few of these... ouch... it hurts to death... but it feels so good!"

His ghostly appearance of crying and laughing, hurting and feeling good, made General Wang Bi next to him feel a chill.

Seeing everyone's frenzied reaction, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong nodded with satisfaction.

Immediately, his face turned cold, and he timely poured a bucket of cold water.

"However, I must say the ugly words first."

The frenzied atmosphere in the hall cooled down instantly with his cold voice.

"We are the Royal Army, we are going to 'Sweeping Away the Black and Eliminating the Evil', not to be robbers. All actions must have ironclad evidence verified by the 'Embroidered Uniform Guard', and must have the testimony of local people. Whoever dares to harass the people without cause, whoever dares to loot privately, whoever dares to point their butcher's knife at innocent people, don't blame my sword for not recognizing anyone."

"And, you must remember, our ultimate goal is still to investigate farmlands. It's just that we will first scare them and subdue them, making them cry and beg us to investigate their family's fields!"