I'm really not doing business

Chapter 578: Don’t admonish those who have gone by, but you can still pursue those who have come.
In addition to telling the emperor a story about Old Harry, Li Le also told an old story about the Longjiang Shipyard.

There is actually nothing unusual about Old Harry's story. He is just a typical poor coolie, but his life changed when the Ming Dynasty arrived in Luzon.

The story of Longjiang Shipyard is not uncommon.

The new Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard was built on a new site, not on the old Longjiang Shipyard.

One hundred and seventy years have passed, and the world has changed dramatically. All the boat ponds of the old Longjiang Shipyard have been filled in and turned into fertile fields, and even the original traces can't be found. In the past two years, with the continuous improvement of production capacity, Longjiang Shipyard has expanded production and planned to rebuild the second factory on the old site.

Rebuilding the ship required excavating the old site and sorting out the past. During this process, a notebook called "Xingcha Notes" was found. This notebook was placed in the same box as the "Longjiang Shipyard Chronicle". When it was dug out, although it was a little rotten, it was still well preserved because it was buried deep underground, and the handwriting was recognizable. After a year of careful identification and annotation, this notebook saw the light of day again.

There was no name on the note, so Li Le called him the gravekeeper.

The notes record what happened to the Longjiang Shipyard after the cessation of trade with the West. The shipbuilders who had migrated there in the early years of the Yongle reign lost their livelihoods and scattered. The boat ponds were filled in and people began to "focus on basics" by farming. There were fewer and fewer craftsmen and more and more farmers.

When the Longjiang Shipyard was first built, the work was in full swing. Hundreds of thousands of shipbuilders were recruited from all over the country to work in various shipyards. All the craftsmen thought that they would live like this for generations until the building collapsed.

The gravekeeper clearly records the desolation after the building was deserted. When the building collapsed, everyone was struggling to open up the sea, but no one cared about what would happen to the craftsmen who left their homeland and had no land to cultivate.

It is the tomb of the Longjiang Shipyard, the tomb of the voyages to the West during the Yongle and Xuande periods, the tomb of that era, and the tomb of the Ming Dynasty's maritime power.

The gravekeeper mentioned one thing in his notes.

In the early years of the Zhengtong period, local powerful people and wealthy people requested the court to buy the useless Longjiang Shipyard seven times. The memorials always entered the palace very smoothly. The Three Yangs in the cabinet seemed to be happy to see it happen and chose to turn a blind eye to it, but in the end they could not get the emperor's approval.

At that time, the Empress Dowager Zhang, the Queen of Emperor Renzong, was still alive. She would not allow such a thing to happen and refused on the grounds that "the ancestral heritage should not be sold."

Renzong died a year after he ascended the throne. Xuanzong died young at the age of 36, leaving the Empress Dowager to take care of her grandson and the Ming Dynasty. As a woman, the Empress Dowager might not be able to do much, but she persisted in not selling off the ancestral foundation.

The reason for stopping the opening of the sea was that the income was not enough to cover the expenditure and it was not beneficial to the country. As a result, the powerful and wealthy people earnestly requested the Longjiang Shipyard, and did so for seven times in a row. If the voyages to the West were really not profitable, why did the people earnestly request the shipyard?
Were the Three Yang Cabinet in the early years of the Zhengtong period really the so-called wise, good and capable ministers?

"Go and call the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan over." Zhu Yijun said to Feng Bao. Zhu Yijun really liked this toy set made by Wan Shihe. Of course, this time, Zhu Yijun really gave the toy to Zhu Changzhi to play with and did not keep it for himself.

He has already played it.

Zhu Yijun continued to look through the notes in his hand. The palace rejected the people's request to buy the shipyard on the grounds that the ancestral heritage could not be sold. But these powerful and wealthy people obviously did not intend to let go of the shipyard. In December of the sixth year of Zhengtong, the weather was dry and a fire swept through the entire Longjiang Shipyard. Not much was left of the Longjiang Shipyard in the fire.

If you can't get it, destroy it. After a fire, Longjiang Shipyard was completely in ruins. The last batch of craftsmen who were waiting for the clouds to clear and the moon to appear also left the shipyard.

As a flattering minister, Wan Shihe knew that His Majesty was in a very bad mood from the moment he stepped into the imperial study of Tonghe Palace. The atmosphere in the imperial study of Tonghe Palace was a bit depressing.

"Grand Master, please take a look at this." Zhu Yijun handed over the annotated notes.

Wan Shihe looked at it for a long time, then he slammed the table and stood up, saying loudly: "This is simply too much! Isn't this bullying!"

The Ming Dynasty was quite disdainful of the Song Dynasty. One reason was that the Ming Dynasty inherited the Tang system, so it was somewhat disliked by the Song Dynasty. This dislike was caused by many reasons. One part was because of the death of Han Song, the Little Ming King, and the other part was that the Song Dynasty was not a unified dynasty after all.

The Central Plains has a very clear definition of great unification, that is, I am the king of the world and all quarters come to congratulate me. In the cognitive world, I am the only emperor. This is great unification. Liao, Jin and Western Xia all had emperors, and the Song Dynasty also had records of them surrendering to the emperor. The sentence "I have made the proposal and now I have come to draw the border" cast a huge question mark on the Song Dynasty's definition of great unification.

Another reason why the Ming Dynasty despised the Song Dynasty was that the Song Dynasty came to power in an illegitimate way. Zhao Kuangyin did end the dark age of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, but he also put on the yellow robe and bullied orphans and widows.

In Wan Shihe's opinion, regarding the seven times Longjiang Shipyard proposed to buy it, the royal family had clearly rejected it and argued that it was the ancestral foundation, but the memorial was still allowed to enter the palace! This was bullying the orphans and widows.

The Ming Dynasty experienced two periods of young rulers and national uncertainty. Comparing with Zhang Juzheng, we can find that except for preventing the emperor from being too extravagant, Zhang Juzheng really never bullied the orphans and widows in the palace. Of course, this was based on the fact that in the third year of Wanli, when the country's financial resources were not yet abundant, Zhang Juzheng increased the gold and silver taels from one million taels of silver to 120 million taels of silver, and made such a request.

"No wonder Zhang Cong called Yang Shiqi a traitor and a traitor to Hui!" Wan Shihe got angry for no reason when he read the notes. To put it bluntly, the contradiction between imperial power and ministerial power has always been that when the ruler is strong, the minister is weak, or when the ruler is weak, the minister is strong. Zhang Juzheng's shouting "I am not a prime minister, but a regent" is a typical example. However, there is a bottom line to bullying people.

Zhang Cong was a famous official in the early years of the Jiajing reign. Most of the new policies implemented by Zhang Juzheng, except for the performance evaluation system, were just a re-edit of Zhang Cong's new policies, including the equal land distribution and labor service proposed by Wang Chonggu, which was also the proposal of the Minister of War Tang Long.

"Is this how Zhang Cong evaluated Yang Shiqi?" Zhu Yijun was stunned. He really didn't know.

Zhu Yijun had never expected that Yang Shiqi would be insulted as Qin Hui. Are all the scholars in the Ming Dynasty so capable of such a strong offensive power?
Wan Shihe nodded and said, "I checked the old case. Zhang Cong said: The traitor Hui's treachery has stained the history books, and Yang Guan's incorruptibility is still mentioned today. Don't you know what to warn? He mainly criticized Yang Shiqi and the other three Yangs for destroying the laws of our ancestors. The Emperor Taizu Gao had abolished the prime minister, but they restored it."

"Later, Zhang Cong said in his "Third Letter on Changing the Era to Jiajing": Today, scholars only blame the corrupt officials for the chaos in government and the abuse of military merits, but they don't know that the abuse of military merits did not start in the early years of Zhengde, but began after Zhengtong. It was all the fault of the governors-general who failed to record and verify, and the Ministry of War who failed to be fair."

"Not only Zhang Cong, Gui E also said: Yang Shiqi abandoned Zhuai for Han, but abandoned it as an example. It was a poor scholar in power, the upper and lower classes were stable, bribery was rampant, and the discipline was weak. He abandoned the land of ten counties in the territory, which was like a person who refused to go to the hall when he was studying. Yang Shiqi was a criminal of Emperor Taizong, so how could he be punished?"

"To call Yang Shiqi a criminal of Emperor Taizong Wen is a lowly scholar, and his main crime is to abandon Jiaozhi."

Gui E was the founder of the Ming Dynasty's Single Whip System and an important figure in China's transition from rent, labor service and levies to monetary taxation.

Gui E criticized Yang Shiqi mainly on three issues: the abandonment of Jiaozhi, Hetao and Daning Wei. Especially on the issue of Jiaozhi, Yang Shiqi cited the example of the Han Dynasty's abandonment of Zhuya, Hainan, and eventually contributed to the abandonment of Jiaozhi.

Yang Shiqi cannot escape the blame for the loss of territory.

The Ming Dynasty gave up the Thirteen Offices of Jiaozhi, which meant it gave up going out to sea and giving up the inflow of silver. This made monetary tax a miraculous thing that could not be realized. It would be strange if Gui E could look up to Yang Shiqi.

"Your Majesty, the reason why Zhang Cong wants to criticize the Three Yangs is that after the Three Yangs, the Ming officialdom's evaluation of the achievements of the civil and military officials on the border has changed. It has changed from how many enemy troops have been defeated to how long the border walls have been built, how many camps and forts have been built, and how many city passes have been repaired. Since Wang Ji killed the commander-in-chief An Jing in the second year of Zhengtong, there has been no record of how many civil and military officials have trained troops or how many enemy troops have been defeated in the past 150 years."

"This is the beginning of the great evil of promoting culture and military power, and it is also the despicable part of the Three Yangs."

Wan Shihe explained in detail why Zhang Cong and Gui E, two important ministers who had carried out reforms during the Jiajing period, looked down on these three people. Since then, the military preparations of the Ming Dynasty were in decline, the borders were unprepared, and the military affairs were completely ruined.

"I see." Zhu Yijun thought that he was the only one who disliked Yang Shiqi and the other three Yangs, but it turned out that it was not just his prejudice. Even his fellow ministers like Zhang Cong and Gui E despised them.

Whether it was abandoning land, usurping the power of the lord, or destroying the ancestral laws under the banner of rites and laws, they were all heinous crimes of treason. Gui E even labeled Yang Shiqi and others as criminals of Emperor Taizong, which was a direct insult.

"The past cannot be changed, but the future can still be pursued. The past cannot be undone, but the future is still possible. Everything is still possible. After copying this note, keep it in the Ministry of Rites for future history writing." Zhu Yijun said with a sigh. It is useless to fuss over the past. We should look forward.

"Grand Master, Zhier likes your toy very much. What you advocate, that we should win at the starting point, is really to my liking." Zhu Yijun praised the toy made by Wan Shihe. Wan Shihe did a good job in etiquette and law.

When Wan Shihe first entered the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Yijun thought that he would leave soon like Lu Shusheng. Unexpectedly, he still stands today and has become an evergreen tree in the court, standing firm no matter how strong the storm is.

This is related to Wan Shihe's position. He is a complete imperialist.

"This is what I should do." Wan Shihe said cheerfully, "As long as the heir likes it, that's fine. Your Majesty, isn't it time to appoint a crown prince?"

Wan Shihe asked the question seemingly casually, but he had been hesitating for several days, just looking for a suitable opportunity to ask. This topic was extremely sensitive, and any mistake could lead to a major party-ban incident.

Your Majesty has three sons, the eldest son Zhu Changzhi, the second son Zhu Changchao, and the third son Zhu Changxun. Zhu Changzhi is the eldest son and the legitimate son. Regardless of whether he is legitimate or illegitimate or whether he is the oldest, Zhu Changzhi has the full legal status. He was made the crown prince early on, which made people feel at ease.

"Grand Master of the Imperial Clan knows what I am worried about." Zhu Yijun looked at Wan Shihe and said calmly, "No."

"I obey your order." Wan Shihe immediately bowed his head and said, he didn't even ask another question, he knew very well what His Majesty was worried about.

Since Emperor Xiaozong, the succession to the throne of the Ming Dynasty became abnormal. Emperor Xiaozong had only one son, and Emperor Wuzong had no heirs.

Emperor Shizong's first son died at two months old. In October of the 15th year of Jiajing, his second son, Prince Zhuangjing, was born. He was made crown prince in the 18th year of Jiajing. He was crowned on March 16th of the 28th year of Jiajing. He fell ill on the 17th and died soon after.

During the Jiajing reign, there was no more crown prince. From then on, Emperor Shizong began to believe that two dragons could not meet. Not only did he not appoint a crown prince, he even did not see his own son.

All the officials of the Ming Dynasty were talented. They forced the emperor to live in Tonghe Palace and even moved away from the West Garden. It was obvious who they were guarding against. Even Wan Shihe himself was a target of guarding.

After knowing the clear attitude of His Majesty, Wan Shihe could act appropriately. "I will take my leave." After finishing his work, Wan Shihe bowed his head again and chose to leave.

Zhu Yijun stared at Wan Shihe's back, stunned for a moment, and asked Feng Bao: "Will Grand Master of the Imperial Clan not fight for it again? I said no, and he just obeyed my order and left like that?"

The national case during the Wanli reign lasted until the day when Prince Fu was enfeoffed. The emperor and his court officials had been arguing over it for so many years, and the struggle had been extremely fierce from the beginning.

As a result, Wan Shihe left so easily without even saying a word.

"Your Majesty, the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan has probably been holding back this question for a long time. It took a lot of courage for him to ask it today. The Grand Master of the Imperial Clan has no right to argue with Your Majesty on this matter." Feng Bao said in a low voice, "The Grand Master of the Imperial Clan is very brave. I don't even dare to ask. No one in the court dares to ask."

The current emperor of Ming Dynasty is not at all like the previous emperor, Longqing Emperor. Instead, he is most like Daoye, especially the Daoye emperors of the previous 20 years. Both were young emperors, both worked hard to govern the country, both carried out reforms, and both had famous and wise ministers in the court. The only difference is that Zhu Yijun does not have the historical burden of Emperor Wuzong and can vigorously strengthen the military power.

In the early years of the Jiajing period, there were no conditions for strengthening the military. Emperor Wuzong, because of his love of military affairs, made himself extinct. He even fell into the water while personally leading an army to quell a rebellion and contracted an illness. He developed a variety of diseases, from colds to pneumonia and finally passed away.

It is common sense that riding a horse can easily damage one's roots. Qi Jiguang had always refused to let the emperor ride a horse until the emperor had a solid foundation in horse stance. Only then would he allow His Majesty to ride a horse.

Because the environment was the same, the appointment of a crown prince became a topic that could not be touched, just like during the Jiajing period.

Wan Shihe dared to ask this question in such a seemingly nonchalant manner, which showed that he had already mustered up all his courage. It would have been too difficult for him to argue with the emperor about appointing a crown prince early.

Wan Shihe was teased by scholars as Wan Wugu, but was there anyone in the court who dared to ask this question? Even Feng Bao didn't dare.

As the Minister of Rites, Wan Shihe must know the Majesty's clear attitude before he can do anything. If the Majesty says not to appoint a crown prince, then he will not do so for the time being. It will not be too late to do so when the Majesty feels it is necessary to appoint a crown prince.

At the beginning of October in the eleventh year of the Wanli reign, Shi Maohua finally settled down in the capital. Shi Maohua declined all visits, including those from the Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng and the Second Prime Minister Wang Chonggu, and remained closed to visitors. Since he had already retired, he had to act like a retired person. The same was true for Liu Xian and Ma Fang.

Shi Maohua brought the imperial edict of His Majesty to promote him to a higher position and grant him a house, and came to Tonghe Palace to express his gratitude in person.

"No need to perform the formalities. Sit down and talk." Zhu Yijun waited in the imperial study. When Shi Maohua walked in, he immediately spoke up and spared Shi Maohua the formalities, as Shi Maohua was still ill.

Shi Maohua bowed his head again and said very solemnly: "I thank your majesty for your grace."

"Shibudang, it has been more than seven years since we parted at Huangji Gate. At that time, Shibudang told me that he wanted to get back together, and now it has been done." Zhu Yijun talked about what Shi Maohua cared about most.

Shi Maohua said with a relaxed look: "Yes, I was worried at the beginning, and I was afraid that what I said would be regarded as alarmist by the scholars in the court. In the border areas of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, there is little food and many soldiers. Civil unrest in other places would just be people rising up, but if there was unrest in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, it would be a war."

"It's all right now. The thing I was most worried about will not happen."

"Your Majesty, I underestimated the Chidao. Even if the Western Regions are not reopened, the Chidao is there, and the Hetao is there. We can hold on without reopening the Western Regions. The Ming army can reach the Hetao within five to ten days. That is the heartland and will not be lost again."

Zhu Yijun said with some doubt: "Shibudang thinks that we don't need to reopen the Western Regions?"

"Of course not. We have to open it. There are mines in the Western Regions and we can grow cotton." Shi Maohua shook his head and said, "Reopening the Western Regions will be a barrier."

"I am old and I am taking advantage of my age. Your Majesty has never fought a war. In fact, if there is a war, the battlefield takes place in our hinterland. Whether the Ming Dynasty wins or loses, it will be a loss. But fighting in the border areas is completely different. Suiyuan and the Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated. This is the depth. If there is a conflict in these places, there will be no disaster of overthrow."

Depth and buffer zone, these are the two things Shi Maohua wants to talk about. Only by establishing more depth can the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty be safer.

Shi Maohua still advocated the reopening of the Western Regions. What he wanted to say was that he lacked understanding of the Chidao. It was not until he saw it with his own eyes that he realized that he had completely underestimated the terrible impact of this thing on the military. The main force of the Ming Dynasty was still the infantry battalion, and the projection speed and ability of the infantry battalion determined the territory of the empire.

"Reopening the Western Regions is imperative." Shi Maohua said with certainty.

Zhu Yijun and Shi Maohua talked about Gansu. The enthusiasm of the Ming Dynasty literati was something Zhu Yijun had never expected. The Ming Dynasty literati still wanted to make progress. In Gansu, one year in office was equivalent to two years, and they could also make meritorious services. The recent focus was to catch spies, spies from the Western Regions who were spying on the movements of the Ming Dynasty court.

The next step was to travel as an envoy to various countries in the Western Regions to show his power. This envoy would naturally be born in Gansu Province and was destined to go down in history.

"Your Majesty, I find this capital city so chaotic and chaotic." Shi Maohua said in confusion.

"It's burned by coal." Zhu Yijun said with a little helplessness. The capital was not a suitable place to live. Zhu Yijun originally built a house outside the Yicheng Earl's Mansion in Xishan, but Shi Maohua's health still needed to be monitored at all times, so it was more convenient to live in the city.

"I have heard about the coal burning issue in Shaanxi. I am talking about those miscellaneous newspapers in Beijing. They are too bold! Why does Your Majesty condone their nonsense?" Shi Maohua shook his head. Your Majesty misunderstood what he meant. He was not talking about the coal smoke, but the nonsense that the editors of the miscellaneous newspapers were talking.

If people don't burn coal, they have to burn firewood. In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, all the firewood that can be cut has been cut. Where is the firewood left to burn?

In Shi Maohua's opinion, the content of the Beijing miscellaneous newspapers was too unorthodox, and the trend stirred up by these people was extremely dangerous to the Ming Dynasty.

Shi Maohua was never a rigid and conservative person. It was not that he could not accept new things. He was very interested in iron horses. He had a positive attitude towards the highway, iron horses and mechanical workshops and tried to learn about them carefully, thinking about their significance to the country. However, Shi Maohua could not accept the nonsense of these people.

"They are stirring up public opinion like this to hollow out the foundation of the Ming Dynasty." Shi Maohua said with certainty: "These people are completely controlled by the powerful and wealthy. Everything they say and do is for the sake of profit. They are the dogs of whoever they eat from. It has always been like this."

"But if we need to think critically, we have to allow them to exist and speak. There are also people like Lin Fucheng, Li Zhi, and Geng Dingxiang. Besides, the Ming Dynasty also needs miscellaneous newspapers. Only official newspapers are not enough." Zhu Yijun thought for a while and said, "Letting people speak will not bring down the sky, but I will not allow them to talk nonsense."

"That's true. The Wanli Reform does need more voices." Shi Maohua agreed with His Majesty's point of view. He still insisted, "These miscellaneous newspapers don't distinguish the truth from the false, and they publish randomly just for the sake of speed. They publish faster than others to increase sales. In order to attract people to buy and watch, they will deliberately exaggerate the facts, confuse right and wrong, and call a zebra a zebra."

"Rumors are everywhere in the capital. I still think the harm outweighs the benefits. I think we should monitor and examine these miscellaneous newspapers to confirm that they have the ability to publish, rather than letting them grow wildly. We should also falsely accuse the rumormongers and rescind their qualifications to publish."

Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing. Although movable type printing has undergone several updates and iterations, a news censorship mechanism has been established in the West. In the Ming Dynasty, development was completely free. In Shi Maohua's view, this kind of freedom allowed rumors to run rampant. Redundant and false information filled the capital, which was very dangerous.

Shi Maohua thought for a moment and said, "If someone says that I am blocking the channels for speech, then I should blame the famous ministers. I am an old man, so I don't care whether I am scolded or not."

"Minister Shi is loyal to the emperor and the country." Zhu Yijun said with a smile, "That's not necessary. Minister Shi doesn't know that there is actually censorship, otherwise wouldn't these miscellaneous newspapers be evil books? Some miscellaneous newspapers have also been banned. Grand Master Wan Shihe has long been saddled with this infamy. The content that Minister Shi has seen is within the scope of allowed discussion."

"They dare to bark so loudly in the newspapers when there is censorship?" Shi Maohua said in surprise. "The so-called liberals' opinions, except for the articles by Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi, are simply unbearable to read. They eat the food given by others and wag their tails like dogs to beg for mercy. How dare they talk about freedom?"

"What did Shibudang see?" Zhu Yijun asked curiously.

Shi Maohua shook his sleeves, took out a newspaper and handed it to Feng Bao, frowning and saying, "They confuse laissez-faire governance with freedom. It's simply nonsense."

Zhu Yijun opened the magazine and read it carefully. No wonder Shi Maohua reacted so strongly. The content of this magazine discussed the evils of gentlemen. In this magazine, there was only one point of view, that is, it was often the will of the "big guys" and their ambitions that turned the Ming Dynasty into a hell on earth.

The blood on the border turned into a sea, but Emperor Wu was still determined to expand the border. He opened the poem with a famous line from Du Fu's "Marching to the Frontier".

The "Emperor Wu" here apparently refers to Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, but in fact it is a common taboo in the Tang Dynasty. Du Fu was talking about the great harm caused to the Tang Dynasty by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang who continued to wage war during the Tianbao period and was defeated repeatedly.

The rebellions of An Lushan and Shi Siming were also due to their awareness of the weakness of the Tang Dynasty court.

After the criticism, they are trying to sell the idea that the invisible big hand can keep everyone in their place, instead of using the visible big hand to interfere. Every interference by the court is a sin, which infinitely elevates the level of ruling by inaction and regards ruling by inaction as great freedom.

"This Pen Zheng doesn't even understand the four words 'rule by doing nothing'." Zhu Yijun put down the newspaper, shook his head and said, "Just wait and see, Shibudang, someone will teach him a lesson. Isn't he advocating the invisible big hand? When others see him make a mistake, they will naturally turn against him."

Governing by doing nothing never means doing nothing. Doing nothing means not doing anything recklessly. Its core concept is Tao.

The Tao is invisible and inactive, but it has its own rules. The Tao uses rules to constrain the operation of all things in the world. Extended to governing a country, governing by inaction means: governing the country by system, constraining the behavior of subjects by system, being careful and thoughtful when designing the system, and not causing inconvenience easily after its implementation. This is not acting recklessly, that is, governing by inaction, not inaction.

It is obvious that this writer has no idea about the principle of governing by doing nothing, and someone else will soon correct him. Stepping on others is also one of the ways to quickly gain fame. The contempt among intellectuals is more vividly reflected in the circle of miscellaneous newspapers.

"Now that Your Majesty has said that, I am indeed not so worried." Shi Maohua thought about it seriously. The more the truth is debated, the clearer it becomes. The more the truth is explained, the clearer it becomes. Those who talk nonsense will naturally be trampled underfoot.

"Your Majesty, I am in the border area, not in the capital. What I want to say is that we cannot let the Western Regions become another Jiaozhi." Shi Maohua took out a memorial with a solemn expression and said earnestly, "Your Majesty, I don't want you to underestimate the difficulty of reopening the Western Regions."

(End of this chapter)