"The strength of tools can break ten thousand methods." Pan Yun brought Zhu Jianji to Wuzhe Guard. Looking at the increasingly prosperous scene and the growing number of houses along both banks of the Songhua River, she said, "But only benevolent governance can shatter ethnic prejudice."
Only nine years old, Zhu Jianji's eyes shone brightly. Looking obedient, he nodded repeatedly. "Master Hu taught me the same thing. I must treat every people equally. If I regard them as brothers, they will return to me the friendship of brothers."
Pan Yun smiled. "Did you remember it all?"
Zhu Jianji answered obediently and loudly, "I remembered!"
"Good. Now bury it in your heart. You must remember: those not of our race must harbor hearts unlike ours. If the Ming Dynasty is to enjoy lasting peace and stability, foreign peoples must be guarded against!"
Zhu Jianji stared wide-eyed in shock, utterly at a loss.
Pan Yun said, "To be an emperor, you must know when to be gentle—and when not to be."
Next, Pan Yun shattered his fixed impressions and took him racing through the various tribes.
This was Wuzhe Guard, a military Wei Suo under Nurgan Commandery.
Three years earlier, the emperor had decreed the abolition of Nurgan Commandery's tributary prefectures and named this place after a great river within its borders—the Heilongjiang.
The Ming Dynasty formally placed this region under direct rule, establishing a Wei Suo and a Provincial Administration Commission at Wuzhe Guard. The two capitals and thirteen provincial administrations became the two capitals and fourteen provincial administrations.
Less than half a year after the order was issued, the rebelling tribes had accumulated to sixteen.
Yet before they could unite, they were defeated and scattered by Ming troops who seemed to have sprung from nowhere.
Only when they came to