The waves stirred up by the big ship crashed on the pier embankment. Zong Mao stood at the bow of the boat. This was his third return after fifteen years of leaving Jiangnan. The first time was to investigate and punish Chen Huwei, the commander of the Navy of the Southern Army, for not abiding by the law. He is the prime minister and has no authority to manage military affairs. But he was the most powerful prime minister in the Great Zhou Dynasty. After verifying that Chen Huwei had killed so many maritime merchants, he did not hesitate to order Chen Huwei to be arrested and taken back to the capital to be handed over to Dali Temple for trial. He could not forget Chen Huwei's vicious curse in the heavenly prison: "You will not end well if you are so domineering. I will wait for you in the underworld." The second time was the backlog of cotton cloth and iron smelting in various workshops in the south of the Yangtze River. Prime Minister Zhou, who had an image of being tough and domineering to others, personally went to South Zhili to appease the workshops and merchants. The emperor ordered the Shangshu Sheng and the Privy Council to jointly formulate a crazy war plan that lasted for ten years, and it has not ended yet. The navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty walked through the route that Zheng He used to sail to the Western Seas, and followed Xifan's fleet to the place that His Majesty could only see on the map. They were not promoting the majesty of the court, they were doing it for wealth, and at the same time for the workshop of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Goods find a market. Zong Mao had never read a Confucian book seriously, so he dismissed the majesty preached by Huang Zongxi, the head of the Imperial Academy. This time, he didn¡¯t want to come, but His Majesty burst out with unprecedented anger over the Jiangnan Workshop forcing people to be slaves, and ordered him to deal with it personally. It has been an open secret in recent years that the workshops forced people into slavery. Since the backlog of goods in the workshop, the owners could not afford to hire workers, so they began to withhold wages. Three years ago, when laborers rioted in the Taipingfu mine, he forced the governor of Southern Zhili to suppress it, killing more than 2,000 people. But no one dared to impeach him. Since Ma Shiying of the Metropolitan Procuratorate retired and returned to his hometown, no one in the court stood against him. The sun was shining brightly, and more than a hundred officials were waiting in front of the pier. They all looked at the tips of their shoes and did not even dare to raise their heads. No matter who has been the prime minister for more than ten years, he will have such majesty. Zongmao stepped off the boat, accompanied by his attendants holding ceremonial umbrellas. He occasionally felt that he was more like the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty. The empire was completely managed by the Shangshu Province, and the Dali Temple was also controlled by his disciples. The emperor often went hunting in the Monan grassland, bringing with him more than a dozen sea turtles donated by Liaodong. After hunting, I would talk about Buddhism with the master. Ten years ago, I enshrined the emperor as a living Buddha, but it was all a trick to deceive the Mongols. But this idea is just an occasional lust, because the Privy Council is getting farther and farther away from him. The Ministry of War was also established in Shangshu Province. He also tried hard to regain some powers, but it was completely impossible. The attendant opened the sedan door and he got into the sedan. "Getting up the sedan chair" The sedan chair of the Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty passed in front of the officials of all sizes in Nanzhili. ¡°It wasn¡¯t until the sedan chair was far away that more than a hundred officials dared to raise their heads. Some people reached out and slapped their chests and stuck out their tongues. The owners of each workshop are all disciples of the Prime Minister. If you don't stay close to the Prime Minister's house, how can you earn Dazhou treasure money. Zongmao felt extremely embarrassed. If the crime of using labor slaves was investigated, who among the workshop owners in Jiangnan would be able to get away with it? In the past ten years, the Zhou Dynasty conquered Liaodong, ruled Monan, and turned Mongolian pastures into Han fields. There was no place where money was not spent. If it weren't for his ban on internal affairs, how could the Ministry of Revenue have provided money to support the war in the north? Unlike the many wealthy countries on the other side of the sea, there was very little wealth gained from the war. The government soldiers escorted the Prime Minister's sedan along the way as it entered Nanjing City. Wang Yuekui, the governor of Southern Zhili, trotted up to show the way to the mansion. He had ascended to the position of the fattest governor of the Ming Dynasty three years ago and was promoted by the entire clan. Wang Yuekui brushed aside the attendant and said, "Your Majesty, please." There was a world of difference between the inside and outside of the house. Zong Mao was slightly surprised when a gust of cool air hit his skin. Wang Yuekui lost no time in putting on a flattering smile: "Knowing that the Prime Minister came from the capital and could not bear the heat of Nanjing, I humbly put some ice cubes in this room." How much ice cubes should be put to cool such a big room? This kind of thinking is in It flashed through Zong Mao's mind and was never found again. Although he felt it was inappropriate, he liked Wang Yuekui's gesture very much. He was a person who knew what was good and what was good. Zong Mao walked into the room, sat down, and ordered: "Call all the shop owners from Suzhou, Taiping, Hangzhou and Nanjing tomorrow. I have something to say." Wang Yuekui quickly replied: "Here, they are all waiting for Enxiang in Nanjing. " "Well," Zong Mao waved him away and said, "His Majesty banned foot binding and abolished lowly status thirteen years ago, and banned the sale of body contracts ten years ago. Each family forcibly detained labor slaves. According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, they were punished with confiscation. Wang Yuekui dared to leave. "These people are Enxiang's disciples." "Why are you kneeling?" Zong Mao couldn't hold back his disgust. "Did you kill my disciple?" "They there are so many of them, I'm afraid the rabbit will bite if it gets angry."?It goes without saying that if something happens to so many workshops under the rule of Nanzhili, he will definitely not be able to escape conviction, and those people will definitely get him out. "A rabbit will always be a rabbit," Zong Mao's voice was cold, "What are you afraid of? Get out of here." Wang Yuekui crawled out of the mansion. It is definitely not possible to deal with so many workshops at once. Zongmao is a little embarrassed. He must find a few scapegoats. Judging from His Majesty's reaction this time, it's impossible to do anything without blood. In the past few years, he has become accustomed to handling things in such a simple way. Now, he only pays attention to two things: whether the granaries in various places are full, and whether the Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue is sufficient. As long as nothing goes wrong in these two places, there will be no trouble in Dazhou. Wang Yuekui left, the room was very cool, and Zong Mao felt comfortable. "It has been fifteen years. No matter who has been in this position for fifteen years, he will slack off." In the past fifteen years, there have been countless overt and covert fights in the court, and the emperor will always be on his side. Ma Shiying, Liu Suifeng and all the people who were waiting to see his jokes were beaten down by him. Sometimes he knew that he was wrong. He violated the "Da Zhou Law" that he personally participated in formulating, but the emperor finally forgave him. , because he knew what His Majesty wanted, and what he did was what His Majesty wanted to see. For example, he never bothered to study in official or private schools dominated by wisdom. ¡°For example, he did not have good relations with the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army. ¡°For example,, his relationship with the prince is not that good. Zongmao scratched his head, thinking that His Majesty's temper came suddenly. Originally, His Majesty was going to wait for the scorching summer to pass before returning to the capital, but His Majesty did not visit Liaodong as planned, and seemed to have come back specifically for the workshop. How many labor slaves were used in the workshop? Zong Mao had heard that a group of Kunlun slaves were brought back from the sea trade the year before last. They were completely black, but he had never seen it with his own eyes.