My God, I am the emperor, the lord of mankind.

Chapter 268 For the refugees
"The minister is so complimentary!"

When the Wang Shilang heard this, he was obviously very satisfied.

He didn't show any grudge at all because of Peng Ze's conflict with his father in his early years.

He stood on the bow of the ship and looked at the distant Jinling Mountains where the flames were blazing and the cannons were rumbling.

Suddenly the conversation changed.

"Today, the Ming Dynasty has a prosperous military force that has never been seen before in ancient times. The Rong and Di dare not commit crimes. Today, we have the ambition to expand the territory. But why are there always treacherous villains in the court trying to deceive the emperor and bring disgrace to the soldiers? I would rather Yutu and the foreign barbarians, seeking a peaceful rest, actually used the imperial court's food collection in the south to cause trouble! Such a treacherous traitor must be eliminated!"

Next to him, the Minister of War named Wang Jinglong, who has the same name as a certain Ming war god in the early Ming Dynasty, said.

Although Peng Ze disagreed, considering that he and he were still in the same camp, he just frowned and did not refute.

Even though he and the father of the person in front of him had some unpleasantness during the Zhengde period because they competed for the position of Minister of the Ministry of War.

But these are not important to Peng Ze now.

For this old fox who has understood the entire operating rules of the Ming Dynasty very early.

It doesn't matter whether he had an official career in his early years or a military career in his middle age.

They are just tools for him to build a career and facilitate the family to gather wealth and power.

He knew exactly what he was going to do.

He is also very clear about the status, responsibilities and obligations of himself and his family, or the world's wealthy families, in the entire "world" system.

As for ordinary people, ordinary people, in the magnificent edifice for which they strive, are nothing more than gravel destined to be used as the foundation to support the majestic and gorgeous imperial pavilion above their heads, which symbolizes the "absolute justice" of this nation.

There is only one thing to worry about now.

That is the emperor's attitude towards this.

But after this period of contact in Jinling, Peng Ze could vaguely feel it.

Although Zhu Houcong's attitude is now ambiguous, he has used the Eastern Expedition as an important matter for the court.

And temporarily put the petition on hold to appease Beichen's panic.

After all, if it is true as that person said, the South has been almost exhausted by successive years of war.

So once the transportation from the south is cut off, there is a risk of financial collapse in the north at any time.

Now is the time when the Holy Lord is alive, when heroes cross paths and horses, and make achievements.

The South's blood transfusion to the entire empire must not stop.

The ruling faction of the empire has even secretly formulated a plan at the Ministry of War.

If this winter in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places, famine really breaks out due to the excessive collection of taxes by the imperial court, triggering a new round of peasant uprisings in the south.

Then the elite troops of the empire stationed in Jinling to clean up the defeated remnants of the sharks will immediately enter the southeastern provinces with the support of the Zhejiang gentry, mainly the gentry group headed by the Xie family, and begin to use force to suppress the rebellion.

If it were in the past, in this world with extraordinary power, the Ming court would still have to worry about evil cult forces such as the White Lotus Smell Incense Society using their sorcery to cause trouble through civil uprisings. The rapid suppression of uprisings often spread to several provinces, causing further shutdown of the imperial bureaucratic machinery and further deterioration of the imperial finances.

But now, the Ming Dynasty is powerful, the soldiers are ferocious, and the officials are cruel. The powerful people in the world are all bowing down to show their submission. The White Lotus Sect is like a rat crossing the street under the continuous suppression of the Ming Dynasty, and its vitality has been severely damaged.

In this way, no matter how large the scale of civil uprisings and riots is, as long as the whole country does not collapse, the Ming court relies on strong soldiers and unique people and skills.

The worst case scenario would be like what Emperor Taizong did when he suppressed the uprising in Shandong and Hebei.

The army swept through, leaving not a blade of grass behind.

"Anyone who joins the bandits will be killed, and his wife and children will be confiscated by the government and made into slaves."

Although during the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang did not hesitate to stipulate in the form of law that if the people killed officials and rebelled, only the culprits would be killed. Not only would the accomplices not be held accountable, but their family members would not be held accountable for their faults.But when it comes to corrupt officials, Zhu Yuanzhang "snatches the skin and gets the grass." If officials and powerful men collude to rebel, all three tribes will be wiped out.

But his successor obviously did not have such a bodhisattva heart.

Starting from Zhu Di, when dealing with peasant uprisings all over the world, the actions of the Ming army were not at all like Hongwu's enlightened style.

His actions became more and more brutal.

Instead, they began to adopt a policy of appeasement and surrender in response to uprisings by local powerful people.

It is exactly the opposite of the policy implemented by Zhu Yuanzhang during the Hongwu period.

After that, the Ming Dynasty adhered to the principle of killing all the poor when they rebelled, and recruiting powerful people for promotion and promotion.

The Ming army had a fine tradition on how to deal with peasant uprisings.

"Now we have thousands of Ming Dynasty ships and tens of thousands of sailors. As long as we block the river, will the refugees be able to fly across the river?"

After hearing Wang Jinglong's words, Peng Ze echoed.

"Then it will be the time for the civil and military talents of the imperial court to make contributions!"

Listening to the words of this man named Peng Ze, who was personally appointed by the emperor as Minister of War.

Wang Jinglong naturally knew his details.

Although this man was a civil servant, he made his fortune by pacifying the peasant uprisings in the country.

Although he was forced to voluntarily report his old age and return to his hometown because of his affair with Hami, due to his merits, he was re-employed twice by the imperial court as Shangshu Lang during the Zhengde and Jiajing dynasties.

With such a living example in front of us, how can we not make people feel restless and want to imitate it?

As for possible uprisings, refugees, famine, and the life and death of the people...

What does this have to do with those wealthy families who serve ghosts and gods and whose families can really be traced back thousands of years?

This specious world of feudal patriarchal law and Qin's autocracy is even more cruel than the world Zhu Houcong lived in in the past because of the existence of those extraordinary beings.

There is absolutely no exaggeration in Zuo Si's satirical line about the Wei and Jin dynasties: "The world's richest men sneak into high positions, and their handsome men are all subordinate to their officials."

But the only constant between the two worlds is that all costs will always be borne by the weakest.

War, famine, epidemic...

Rich families can rely on the magic passed down from generation to generation in their blood to easily survive disasters that to ordinary people are like overturning disasters.

Then he easily stepped on thousands of corpses and innocent souls, continued to climb up to authority, and demanded wealth from the people of the world.

Under this abnormal and high-pressure system, the imperial examination system was born, which abandoned the influence of foreign arts and spread to all levels of the empire.

Maybe this is historical justice.

Or maybe it's the pity of those who truly have power.

Even if demons are raging and people are eating each other, there is still justice in this land.

Those who have climbed to great heights have not forgotten that they are not beasts, but that they hold in their hands the fire of great civilization.

They shoulder the mission of saving this nation, preventing humans from becoming the food of those abominable things, and never allowing those evil gods to completely control the country through their relatives among humans, blocking the path forward for civilization.

But Zhu Houcong is destined to still have a long way to go before completely expelling many evil gods and demons from this land.

(End of this chapter)