On November 26, the thirtieth year of the Hongwu reign of the Household Department, the Holy Decree was enshrined:

Said to know with the household official. If it's too peaceful today, I don't understand the hukou, and the slang teaches the book to save the world's hukou in the survey book and household post, and you go out of each household to teach the official, and the people he should have, all teach the official to write the name of his family, write it really, and the people have a household post with a half-seal survey, all take the survey, my army is not out of the expedition now, all teach to go to the states and counties to go around the land to point the household, than the survey is better than the good people, compared to the incomparable will be used to be the army, than in the meantime there are officials hidden, And he shall behead those who have judges, and the people shall take refuge from themselves, according to the law, and shall take their sins and use them as an army. Chin this. (Note 1)

Nanjing Xuanwu Lake was painted as a military restricted area in the Ming Dynasty, and was renamed Houhu Lake at this time. It is very different from the impression of the scenery as a royal garden for recreation in the Southern Dynasty, with a circumference of 40 li, less than one-third of the area in its heyday, and ordinary people are forbidden to enter. The five man-made islands on the lake are known as the Five Continents, and on Cheung Chau Island, 36 Yellow Book Vaults were built to store the Yellow Books of the world's household registration (formerly known as Huti), and the purpose of Houhu as a military administration was to protect these household registration and tax data. Twenty-five of the thirty-six warehouses had been used up at this time, and the iron law of making yellow books once every ten years was established in the Hongwu generation. (Note 2)

Of course, Li Hongyuan knew about the existence of the Yellow Book Library, and he also knew that it was Emperor Hongwu who clearly grasped the total productive forces of these more than 50 million people to the level of great detail, the number of households per household, the area of land owned, and the amount of field grain paid. After he landed on the island, he quietly entered one of the storerooms according to the notice, and there was an old man standing in front of the yellow book rack in front of him, who was pulling out a yellow square book one foot three inches long and one foot two inches wide and trying to look at it. The old man's eyes could no longer see the words written on it, and the old man did not look back, but said, "You are here, come and read the contents of this yellow book to me!" Li Hongyuan was about to kneel down to see the ceremony, the old man waved his hand impatiently, this Jiangnan first sword obediently took the yellow book, and read: "Hulin Rongyi Jiaxing Prefecture Jiaxing County Zero Su Township 23 Du Su Zi Wei people household registration family five, two men, Cheng Ding himself Chinese New Year's Eve nine years old.... The old man's originally cloudy eyes gradually radiated, and his slightly trembling fingers stretched out and pointed to Li Hongyuan and said, "This is the foundation of my great tomorrow!" When I first started the army, I thought about getting this thing right, and this yellow book library was very important, very important." Li Hongyuan paused and replied, "Your Majesty is far-sighted, and every thing in the world is naturally clear." Zhu Yuanzhang snorted: "You also need to be like them to make me happy? You come and go, and you don't serve well in the court, and you're very naughty. Tell me honestly, what do the people and overseas think of me, the founding emperor!" Li Hongyuan groaned for a while, and the old man muttered, "Just say it, what are you afraid of?" I forgive you for your innocence!' Li Hongyuan thought to himself that whoever you wanted to kill in the past thirty years would immediately chop it into meat sauce, so it was strange that I hesitated, but at this time, he was not allowed to think about it, and said: "Immediately win the world, and drive the Mongols back to Mobei." Get off the horse to rule the world, personally lead the six departments, and establish it as the ancestral law. In recent years, you will never be able to reclaim the newly cultivated farmland, and the ordinary people love you very much, and the future generations will definitely be rated as the famous ruler of the world on a par with the Tang Dynasty!" He has been a courtier for more than ten years, and he can't get rid of the habit as soon as he opens his mouth!

Zhu Yuanzhang's face couldn't see joy and sorrow, and he coughed again, and someone came out silently from the shadow of the wooden shelf where the yellow book was placed, and quickly took a small cup to feed Zhu Yuanzhang, and the old man said angrily: "What is this, it's unpleasant!" The man replied in a low voice that it was the doctor's account. Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, and the man disappeared into the shadows again.

After a pause for a while, the old man seemed to take a nap, then woke up and continued: "I just said there, yes, hehe, as wise as Tang Taizong, but there is an immortal Wu Zetian in the middle, and the Tang Dynasty has not really passed three generations. By the way, what do you think of the fourth?" Li Hongyuan thought to himself, he was really afraid of something, so he cleared his throat and said, "The folk Qing discussion said that King Yan is sitting in Beiping, and his merits are at ease in the hearts of the people. His majesty is well-organized, and he has the most father's style, but unfortunately he is a concubine (the actual record of Taizong seen in later generations is naturally born to Queen Ma who has been tampered with and become the main room). In recent years, I have heard that sincerity to the Buddha and restraint of temperament is not a blessing for the people of the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyes and said, "You haven't forgotten your original intention of being an official for the people, you are much better than those scholars who can only argue on the surface and ask for money on the inside, you are very good." But the fourth will be to the Buddha, hehe, hey, hey!" After speaking, he got up slowly and stopped for a while. Then he said, 'I have something for you to do, are you willing?' The light slowly appeared in the old man's cloudy eyes, and Li Hongyuan made a big surprise in his heart, if he refused this time, he would be chopped into meat sauce immediately, so he had to bite the bullet first, bow down, and it was a response. Li Hongyuan said again: "The Wa Kingdom of the Eastern Sea has come to spread the word...", I saw the old man retract his gaze, waved his hand, and walked out of the Yellow Book Library without turning a deaf ear, and several figures who came out of that side behind him followed. Li Hongyuan knelt down and kowtowed to his back, secretly thinking in his heart that Brother Sasaki would not be able to help him now, and at the same time knew that this should be the last time he would see this generation of heroes who were full of blood but rebuilt the Han Empire. Just as he was thinking, another person slipped out of the shadows, this time wearing eunuch clothes, and immediately preached: "Fengtian transports, the emperor edict says: If there is chaos in the country after I go, Li Hongyuan will act according to this will, and I will do this!" After that, he took a sword and awarded it to Li Hongyuan, and said, "This bag cannot be opened until the moment, so I hope to be careful!" Li Hongyuan said, "The grass people understand!"

Note 1: This is the original text of Emperor Hongwu's holy decree, which is very vernacular!

Note 2: By the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), the Yellow Book Library expanded to 787 warehouses, and the number of Yellow Books collected was nearly two million.

Note 3: From the physical map of Chongzhen Jiaxing County.