The land of Jiangnan is beautiful, the imperial capital of Jinling. The green water winds its way, the red buildings rise one after another. Xie Tiao wrote this five-character poem on his way to Jingzhou for his new appointment, when life was good and his career was going smoothly.

  Xie Tiao borrowed this poem to depict the prosperous scene of Nanjing, and also expressed his own ambition for fame and fortune. As the founding emperor of our great Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also said that Nanjing is a good place, with good feng shui, good people, and good scenery.

  It's a bit awkward to be the capital, this ancient Jinling, Jiankang has been the capital of six dynasties, Eastern Wu, Eastern Jin, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. Each of these six dynasties had experience with northern expeditions, but all ended in failure. When Zhu Gongzi ascended to the throne, he thought about it for a long time and still felt that Jiankang's feng shui was not good, as if the fate of the imperial court would be doomed to fail.

  At this time, Zhu Gongzi was ambitious to unify the world by marching north. If he used this place as his capital, wouldn't that be a curse on himself for being unable to march north? So although he had accepted the heavenly mandate to become emperor, Master Zhu's choice of capital belonged to his old home in Linhuai, which is Fengyang.

  Grand Duke Liu Bowen, a minister under the old master, strongly opposed it, believing that Fengyang was the emperor's hometown and could not be used as the capital. Moreover, since Jiankang had been renamed Yingtian, which meant "responding to heaven's will", it was natural to fix the capital here.

  Actually, Liu Bowen was warning Zhu that you must not forget that it is not only your hometown, but also the hometown of Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and Li Shan. If our group of Zhejiang scholars went there, it would be nothing; we are just a bunch of unrooted floating duckweeds. But for these Huaiyang nobles, going back was like returning home in glory. At that time, relying on their intricate clan relationships and local connections, your imperial power would be threatened.

  Mr. Zhu also agreed that this matter cannot be prevented, and since it is so, we can only follow the destiny and settle in Nanjing. However, the painful experience of the Six Dynasties has always been a thorn in Mr. Zhu's heart, so the imperial city must be rebuilt in a new location.

  Liu Bowen expressed no problem, personally measuring the feng shui terrain, deciding to build the imperial city south of Zhongshan, taking soil from three mountains to fill the Yanque Lake, and later introducing Qinhuai River water into the palace city as Jinshui River, forming a golden city embracing situation.

  However, the soil of these three mountains was still not enough. The imperial city had just been completed for a short time when a landslide occurred, and the entire foundation of the imperial city sank, becoming a terrain with low north and high south. As soon as the rainy season arrived, the Jinshui River became like an unbridled wild horse that could not be stopped, and the Fengtian Hall, Huagai Hall, and Jinxin Hall were all flooded.

  It wasn't long before the autumn rain arrived, and the Jinhe River had already overflowed onto the steps of the Fengtian Temple. Zhu Yuanzhang stood there, frowning at the turbulent waters below, without saying a word.

  The eunuchs serving around him all lowered their heads, trembling with fear. Every time this happened, one of them would be unlucky because when the master got angry, these slaves had to take responsibility for appeasing the master's anger.

  At the moment when Zhu Yuanzhang's temples were bulging with rage, a scattered rider arrived outside the palace and handed a secret report to a small eunuch.

  "Your Majesty!" The little eunuch respectfully presented the secret memorial, and Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his anger to take it and examine it. The surrounding attendants all let out a sigh of relief, knowing that when their master had important matters to attend to, he wouldn't bother with trivialities like the flooding of the Golden Palace.

  Zhu Lao Ye Zi looked at the confidential document in his hand, and sneered repeatedly in his heart. Since he established the Great Ming Dynasty, it can be said that the rectification of official governance was unprecedented in ancient and modern times, and the requirements for officials were extremely strict.

  The old man believed that the evil of officialdom was nothing more than greed, and he also allowed the people to actively report and expose officials, even allowing them to rush into government offices to capture corrupt officials, and no one else could stop them, which further increased the punishment for corrupt officials.

  However, this "common people catching officials" seems to have given the common people a great deal of power, but in reality, there is no ordinary person who wants to do so in local areas. Since ancient times, it has been the case that ordinary people do not fight against officials, and this is also true in our dynasty...

  "Go and summon Mao Guan for me!" Zhu Yuanzhang ordered indifferently.

  "Your humble servant, Mao Zong, pays his respects to Your Majesty. May the Emperor live forever and prosper." A thin, middle-aged man with a pair of triangular eyes that occasionally flashed with a sharp light knelt on the ground, paying homage.

  "You've seen this thing, right?" Zhu Yuanzhang threw down that confidential document.

  He knew it was the one he had sent over earlier without even looking and hastily replied with respect, "I have read it."

  "Tell me, how has the investigation into the private sale of official grain that I ordered a few years ago progressed?" Zhu Yuanzhang leaned back in his dragon chair, his face expressionless.

  "I am guilty of death, the private sale of official grain is a matter that has no clues except for a few prefectures, but I am sure that there are high-ranking officials in the court who are supporting this, otherwise my inspection would not have yielded nothing."

  "Nonsense! I also know that there are people in the court who are sabotaging, this group of moths is cutting off the foundation of my great Ming dynasty, they are the eternal enemies of my great Ming!" Zhu Yuanzhang shouted loudly, he was very disappointed with the Imperial Censorate, thinking that after all these years they should have found something, but unexpectedly they only caught a few small fish and shrimp.

  Mao Ze wiped the sweat from his forehead, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and began to speak: "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty. The Censorate is responsible for monitoring the world under your imperial orders, but our agency only has the power of surveillance and no further authority. Sometimes, in order to obtain information about the next step, it is necessary to use intimidation and temptation, but the Censorate is not allowed to show its face in public, which is also an imperial decree. Therefore, until now, things have been slow to progress. If Your Majesty grants us the power of inspection and arrest, I guarantee that we will achieve results within three months!"

  Ma Chao finished speaking and then knocked his head to the ground, no longer speaking. He knew that what he had just said was already quite presumptuous. To think that if they were allowed to have the power to arrest people with a fan, it would be terrifying for everyone under heaven. From now on, all officials would change color when hearing the name of the Inspector's Office, and thinking about this scene made Ma Chao feel inexplicably excited...

  Sitting on the dragon chair, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent and thoughtful. Although Mao Guozheng had a hint of accusation in his words, Zhu Yuanzhang never intended to compromise on the issue of corrupt officials, and what Mao said also made some sense. After all, relying solely on secret investigations could not thoroughly clarify the matter.

  Master Zhu thought for a long time and still felt that it was not suitable to give the power of inspection to the officials at this moment, because today's border military report stated that recently there have been Northern Yuan people raiding various passes along the Great Wall, as if they were going to make some big move.

  For now, we can only temporarily tolerate these corrupt officials at home. The real wolves are the external enemies outside the Great Wall. If the border is breached, no matter how hard he tries to rectify the government, it will be a futile effort.

  With a wave of his hand, Zhu Yuanzhang signaled that Mao Gu could leave. He walked back to the steps outside the hall, looking up at the continuous autumn rain in the sky, and felt somewhat annoyed and uneasy in his heart.

  Although the Ming dynasty seems to be flourishing now, in reality internal and external troubles are still endless. At 52 years old, he is somewhat tired at this moment, the daily memorials and reviews have given him a headache and made his heart anxious. Looking at the bandits and disasters that continue unabated throughout the country, he can only sigh and say "the world has just been pacified but the people's livelihoods are not yet stable".

  After watching the autumn rain for a while, Zhu Lao Ye returned to the palace and instructed his personal eunuch: "Summon Tang Deng, Minister of War, Wang Zhi, Deputy Minister, and Li Ke, who has just entered the palace to see me..."

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