I am not cold-hearted and ungrateful, and I am worthy of you; if you are ungrateful, I can be kind and merciful, but I can also be cruel and ruthless.

Old Wei held the ginseng box and left with many thanks.

The emperor sat in his chair, thinking for a long time, and ordered the palace maids to go and convey the imperial edict, commending the meritorious officials such as Shouning Marquis and Wujing Marquis. The reason was simple: these families had sons serving in the army and had made military achievements in the Ping Liao Campaign.

Mencius said, "The influence of a gentleman will be cut off after five generations!" Ordinary people also have a saying, "Wealth does not last beyond three generations!"

Originally, this law described the implicit rules of the alternation of wealth and poverty in the world, but little did people know that this law has also become a curse for the change of dynasties in China.

Of course, the emperor didn't dwell on whether the fifth generation would inevitably decline. He was concerned with the Ming Dynasty's hundreds of years of existence. Those useless people who had been able to eat and enjoy luxury all day long because of their ancestors' merits should no longer be supported in vain.

Zhu Chunchen was the beginning, while Marquis Shouning, Marquis Wujing and others saw things more clearly. With their sons contributing to the court, how long could the emperor tolerate them?

There was also the Mu family, who had ruled Yunnan for generations, and the Yunnan officialdom. After the Shean Rebellion was quelled, the army entered Yunnan, and it was time to clean up the mess.

I hope that my severe punishment and reward will make those nobles understand.

The emperor gave a bitter smile and felt that he couldn't expect too much.

The main reason is that the root cause is difficult to eradicate, and it is a Chinese tradition. After building a large family fortune, one naturally wants his children and grandchildren to have less hardship and more enjoyment.

Then, they start businesses, maintain them, squander them, fall into decline, and perish, each generation becoming worse than the previous one, ultimately becoming nothing more than waste. This is the cyclical law of wealth not lasting more than three or five generations, and it is closely tied to Chinese tradition and society.

Zhu Youxiao knew that this was difficult to change. But he had to make an effort, for the sake of others as well as himself. He encouraged the maritime merchant group's external penetration and expansion of territory, even offering them titles as rewards.

Similarly, he also needs to give his descendants experience and not let them sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor and become incompetent waste.

Although he thought so, the emperor did not have much confidence. Who doesn't want promising children, but how many people can get what they want?

Well, have more children and choose the best ones! The emperor stroked his forehead and felt that he should work harder.

……………………

The Liaodong campaign ended, and the imperial court officially declared victory over the Liaodong region. The news spread like wildfire, spreading throughout the country thanks to the government's full-scale propaganda.

The people were encouraged and the imperial court became more powerful. This undoubtedly gave a boost to the suppression of the Shean Rebellion.

The southwest has always had complex public sentiment and numerous chieftains. The She'an Rebellion lasted for more than ten years. One reason was that the terrain in Shuixi was complex, and the other was that some chieftains secretly assisted the rebels.

When the rebellion first broke out, "the forty-eight tribes and other chieftains, such as An Bangjun and Chen Qiyu, rose up in response", and the remaining chieftain forces in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and even Bozhou all responded.

So much so that Zhu Xieyuan said in his memorial: "Wumeng, Mang tribe, An Xiaoliang and She Chongming were lured by Chief An and united the chieftains of four provinces to resist me. I was the only one who held on in the crisis with my own army."

Of course, the Ming army's combat effectiveness was also a problem. The troops in the inland areas were still far behind the border troops.

However, under the emperor's personal guidance, the troops suppressing the rebellion had made great improvements in officer configuration and weaponry. In the process of fighting and training, their combat effectiveness also steadily improved.

Especially when the emperor provided gold and silver to support the war, the long-term siege and blockade were successfully carried out.

This strategy was similar to the one used to pacify Liao, transforming the war into a war of attrition involving manpower and supplies. Neither the Jiannu nor the She'an rebels could outlast the resilient Ming Empire, which was reinvigorating itself by promoting its strengths and eliminating its weaknesses.

The determination shown by the emperor made the chieftains who openly helped the rebel She'an feel awe-inspiring and fearful.

The purpose of the chieftains who participated in the rebellion was not to destroy the Ming Dynasty, but to seek their own independent status by inflicting a blow on the Ming Dynasty through war.

Or force the Ming Dynasty to sit at the negotiating table and increase its bargaining chips to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Yang family of Bozhou.

That’s right. After the rebellion of Yang Wanlong, the chieftain of Bozhou, was suppressed, the Ming Dynasty directly adopted the policy of changing the chieftains into officials, dismantling Bozhou and incorporating it into the provinces directly controlled by the court.

Seeing the fate of the Yang family in Bozhou, the chieftains could not help but feel grief. They were all hereditary rulers, so who would be willing to give up their power as local emperors?

However, the emperor would never forgive the rebel leader She'an and would never surrender. His determination to destroy the rebels was a real blow to the chieftains who assisted the rebellion.

As the She'an rebels failed in several attacks and lost hope of breaking the siege and blockade of the Ming army, the minds of the chieftains also changed.

Obviously, forcing the imperial court to surrender or sit down to negotiate terms was completely impossible. There was no need to worry about the future reform of the natives. If the Ming Dynasty successfully suppressed the rebellion, severe punishment would befall them immediately.

Moreover, the emperor would never forgive the rebel leaders She Chongming and An Bangyan, and was determined to destroy the Yongning Xuanwei Office in Sichuan and the Shuixi Xuanwei Office in Guizhou, but he never said that he would eliminate all the chieftains involved with the rebels.

The emperor was also very clear that although the policy of changing the system of natives to officials was the general trend, it would be a policy that would not be worth the cost to forcibly implement it before the national strength was fully restored.

The emperor also understood human psychology quite well. As the saying goes, "When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter." As long as the She'an rebels showed signs of defeat, not only the chieftains who aided and abetted the rebellion, but also the local leaders within the She'an rebels would continue to defect to the light in order to preserve their lives and property.

The facts were just as the emperor had expected. The rebels outside Shuixi were gradually eliminated, the Ming army occupied important river locations, and repelled the counterattacks of the She'an rebels several times. The situation gradually reversed, and more and more chieftains surrendered.

When the Ming army began to seize the land in Shuixi and settle there for a long time, the imperial court issued an edict to reward meritorious soldiers with the land as hereditary property. Even the rebels were in a state of panic, knowing that they would be difficult to defeat.

Even so, Anzhi sent people to surrender several times, but they were all rejected by Fu Zonglong. He had only one condition: surrender unconditionally and wait for the court to deal with him.

Everyone knew the imperial court had made up its mind: Shuixi, like Bozhou, would no longer have native officials. The Shuixi An clan, which had been passed down for millennia, had now reached its end.

Traveling through the forest valley, Xu Hongyu returned from a raid with a team led by him, and he was in a very good mood.

After dozens of battles, Xu Hongyu was already commanding a thousand men. Through continuous training and combat, he and his men became increasingly familiar with the complex terrain of Shuixi.

According to Fu Zonglong's plan, the blockade and siege must be so tight that not even a grain of rice can get into the water and not a single thief can escape. Once this is achieved, the rebels will be frequently harassed by surprise, tiresome and constantly eroding their strength.