A few breaths later, the question appeared.
[Question: During the Jiajing reign, dozens of Japanese pirates landed in Great Ming from Zhejiang, roamed thousands of li, ravaged more than twenty prefectures and counties, and killed over a thousand Great Ming officers and soldiers. Which of the following cities (including its outskirts) did these pirates fail to reach? Enter your answer within fifty breaths, using the map.] (Attached: Map of southern Great Ming) [A: Kuaiji.] [B: Hangzhou.] [C: She County.] [D: Wuhu.] [E: Nanjing.] [F: Wuxi.] [G: Suzhou.]
Upon seeing the question, Liu Bang and Zhang Jiao first turned their attention to the "Map of southern Great Ming"-they had never seen such an exquisite, detailed map.
Liu Bang even immediately took out a brush and a large piece of silk and began copying it with all his might.
Zhang Jiao wanted to record the map too, but when he tried, he found that even sitting up was difficult, so he could only abandon the idea.
Meanwhile, in Great Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened completely when he read the question.
"Dozens of Japanese pirates roamed a thousand li, ravaged over twenty prefectures and counties, and killed more than a thousand officers and soldiers?!"
"This actually happened in our Great Ming in the future?!"
"Jiajing... was there not a single decent emperor in that bastard Fourth Son's line?!"
"Japanese pirates... and to think we designated Japan a country never to be conquered a few years ago! Who would have thought its pirates would run so rampant in the future!"
At that moment, Zhu Yuanzhang nearly exploded with fury, almost forgetting to enter his answer.
Only when the hourglass in the group showing the remaining time was nearly empty did he hurriedly select E.
With the map for reference, he could tell at a glance that "Nanjing" was Jinling, the present capital-he had learned during the second group chat that Zhu Di had moved the capital to Beijing, so he was not surprised.
In his view, even if Jinling was no longer Great Ming's capital, it remained an extremely important city. Its renaming to Nanjing, and Beiping's renaming to Beijing, were proof enough.
Surely such an important city had at least ten thousand troops stationed there?
Thus, he thought that however rampant those few dozen pirates were, they could hardly have entered Nanjing's vicinity.
Elsewhere, Liu Bang thought much the same.
He had not known whether Great Ming's capital was Beijing or Nanjing, but he knew that before this, the only place under heaven with "capital" in its name had been Haojing of the Western Zhou.
Moreover, the map clearly showed Nanjing in Yingtian Prefecture, and the earlier short video about Zhu Di had mentioned that Great Ming's imperial palace was located there.
He therefore concluded that Nanjing was Great Ming's capital, and naturally believed that however brazen these pirates were, they could hardly have reached the vicinity of the imperial capital.
Zhang Jiao, lying on his litter, was so muddleheaded from his grave illness that he momentarily forgot the mention of Yingtian Prefecture in the earlier video about Zhu Di, and could scarcely analyze so much.
He looked at the seven choices before him, then at the map, and simply chose the place farthest from both the coast and the great river, the Yangtze-She County.
Fifty breaths later.
In the group.
[Administrator: Time is up. Your choices and the correct answer will now be announced.] [Liu Bang: E.] [Zhang Jiao: C.] [Zhu Yuanzhang: E.]
Seeing these results, Liu Bang immediately brightened.
"This question concerns Great Ming, so Old Zhu must know best. Since even he chose Nanjing, the answer must be Nanjing."
Zhang Jiao's eyes dimmed-had he chosen incorrectly after all? He wondered what punishment he would receive.
Zhu Yuanzhang also thought he had answered correctly, but knowing that this had truly happened in the future of Great Ming, he could not feel pleased at all.
Yet what appeared next made him even less pleased-indeed, it sent him into a towering rage.
[Correct answer: G.]
Suzhou?
Not Nanjing?!
In that instant, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened, and fury filled his chest!
"Those few dozen Japanese pirates actually fought their way to Nanjing? How could that be? How could that be!"
"Was our Great Ming on the verge of collapse then?"
"But even if the dynasty were nearing its end, as in the Late Yuan, a vital city like Nanjing should never have let a few dozen pirates reach its outskirts!"
"Or did those pirates infiltrate Nanjing in disguise?"
Amid his anger, Zhu Yuanzhang began to question it-he absolutely could not accept that the pirates had brazenly entered Nanjing's territory.
Elsewhere, Liu Bang was also quite astonished.
"It actually wasn't Nanjing, but that Suzhou?"
"Wasn't Nanjing Great Ming's capital? Could it be... that these pirates once sneaked in?"
Zhang Jiao was somewhat puzzled too, but lacked the strength to ponder it further and merely watched the group chat window before him.
[Administrator: All three answered incorrectly, triggering the explanation stage.]
Then the group chat windows before the three men changed, and a video began playing.
Figures that looked very much like real people appeared in the video, accompanied by narration all three could understand and written text.
"In the Thirty-Fourth Year of Jiajing, the Jiajing Emperor had been obsessed with cultivating immortality for years. To rake in money for alchemy and Taoist rites, he manipulated the court through imperial power games and placed great trust in the corrupt, power-hungry Yan Song and his son, causing official administration to decay, corruption to become rampant, and Great Ming's strength to decline by the day."
"As early as the Second Year of Jiajing, officials and gentry in the southeast had proclaimed the maritime prohibition an ancestral institution to monopolize the immense profits of maritime trade. Ignoring the reality that coastal residents depended on the sea for their livelihoods, they used the Japan Envoys' Tribute Dispute as a pretext to impose a complete maritime ban."
"In reality, this policy failed to eliminate smuggling. Instead, it robbed many coastal fishermen and ordinary merchants of their livelihoods, forcing them to collude with Japanese pirates and form numerous sizable raiding bands that ravaged the coast."
"During the Jiajing reign, Great Ming's military garrison system had all but ceased to exist in anything but name. Military preparedness in the southeast was especially neglected, and its officers and soldiers had little fighting ability."
"Thus, although the pirate band in the question numbered fewer than a hundred, after landing on the Zhejiang coast they were able to raid Kuaiji, plunder their way through Hangzhou, and move on to pillage Changhua, Tonglu, Chun'an, and other places."
"They then fought their way from western Zhejiang into Huizhou, repeatedly defeating Ming forces several times their own number in She County, Jixi, Jing County, and elsewhere. There were even instances of pirates catching Ming arrows with their bare hands, and several hundred Ming soldiers routing at the first clash. By contrast, the common people of Wuhu used stones and lime to capture or kill more than ten pirates."
"Although only fifty-three pirates remained by then, they had learned how weak Great Ming's armies were and grew ever more arrogant. After defeating several Ming forces, they fought all the way to the walls of Nanjing and attacked its gates."
"Although Nanjing had over ten thousand Ming troops, they were so frightened that they shut the gates tight and dared not venture out to suppress the pirates, allowing them to plunder the outskirts and withdraw at leisure."
"After leaving Nanjing, the few dozen pirates marched swiftly day and night for over a hundred li, intending to raid Suzhou, famed for its wealth. The Suzhou Governor waited for the exhausted enemy at Hushu Pass and wiped them out through fire attacks and searches."
Alongside this narration, a translucent map appeared in the video. A striking red line began at Shangyu County, Zhejiang, wound thousands of li through Zhejiang and Jiangnan, Zhili, passed through over twenty prefectures and counties, and finally ended at Hushu Pass in Suzhou Prefecture.
By then, in the Western Side Hall of the Hall of Heavenly Favor, the veins on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead were throbbing, and even his hands trembled slightly with anger.
"An emperor obsessed with cultivating immortality, who favored corrupt power-mongers? And he reigned for at least thirty-four years?!"
"With such a wretched descendant as emperor, how could our Great Ming not perish!"
"And our excellent military garrison system, soldiers farming the land, defense combined with cultivation, supporting a million troops without costing the common people a single grain of rice-how could it have deteriorated until it existed almost in name alone?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was both furious and bewildered. The muscles around his eyes twitched with anger, and at last he could not help slamming his palm onto the imperial desk, making even Yunqi outside the hall doors shudder.
"It must have been because the court had a foolish emperor and treacherous ministers, while the provinces were full of corrupt officials! Otherwise, how could a perfectly good military garrison system have rotted to such an extent?"
"And the maritime prohibition..."
At the thought of the maritime prohibition, Zhu Yuanzhang's anger eased slightly, but his brow furrowed more deeply.
In truth, his original intention had also been to enforce the maritime prohibition strictly forever.
In his view, the coast produced little grain anyway. Without a strict maritime prohibition, not only would coastal residents suffer raids by pirates, but some fishermen and merchants would even collude with them for personal profit.
Moreover, allowing the common people to sail abroad and trade privately would cause Great Ming's goods and currency to flow overseas. Even its people might flee abroad, reducing the local registered population.
A strict maritime prohibition would not only eliminate these evils, but also bring about the pirates' decline and extinction. Then he could trade with foreign countries through tribute missions and bring all the profits of maritime trade into the court's hands. Would that not be splendid?
Zhu Yuanzhang believed there was nothing wrong with this reasoning.
"In the reward video earlier, one of that brat Fourth Son's achievements was sending men on seven voyages to the Western Ocean, bringing the myriad nations to pay homage."
"From that, it seems likely that our maritime prohibition had already produced remarkable results by then, bringing the pirates to ruin and allowing the Great Ming Navy to range across the Eastern Sea, South Sea, South Seas, Western Ocean, and other waters, extending its might over the myriad nations."
"If so, why did the explanation in the group just now never mention the Great Ming Navy? Where was the navy that made seven voyages to the Western Ocean during Fourth Son's reign? Did it vanish into thin air?"
"Or was the Jiajing era so long after Fourth Son's reign that even the fleet capable of reaching the Western Ocean had rotted away?"
For a time, Zhu Yuanzhang could turn it over a hundred times and still find no answer.
"And the explanation said the southeastern officials and gentry used ancestral institutions to impose a complete maritime prohibition, while their real aim was to monopolize maritime trade profits. What did that mean?"
"Could it mean that neither the court nor ordinary people could engage in maritime trade then, and only the southeastern officials and gentry could?"
"If so, they must have corrupted the coastal military garrisons of the southeast to the core, and even colluded with the Japanese pirates!"
"The southeastern officials and gentry..."
At this thought, murderous intent surged through Zhu Yuanzhang.
He recalled the Rebel Army Group's explanation once more and felt that it did not seem to support the maritime prohibition. An earlier question involving the maritime prohibition had seemed much the same.
Could his maritime prohibition policy have problems too?