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Now Emperor Zhu suddenly used "Kang Qian Sheng Shi" to make a joke. Although the old farmers like Cui Laohan couldn't grasp the true humor of "Kang Qian Sheng Shi," they could tell that Emperor Zhu was speaking ironically, so they all laughed and teased Emperor Zhu, saying, "Yes, yes, Da Qing is indeed a prosperous era, with a famine every three years and a disaster every two years, truly prosperous!"
"Your Majesty's words are actually incorrect. After all, there's also a 'Yong' between 'Kang Qian,' so it should be 'Kang Qian Sheng Shi' with a 'Yong'."
"My father said that Kangxi, Kangxi, ate grain and drank thin gruel. Yongzheng, Yongzheng, left nothing behind. Later, when Qianlong arrived, he truly became deaf to money."
"If Da Qing is all prosperous, then what is the life we are living now? Is it that 'Da Tong' they talk about? Isn't it said that coal is produced there? Oh, so the great unity of the world means all the people in the world can dig coal freely?"
"..."
The conversation strayed further and further, and seeing it shift from a prosperous era to free coal digging, Zeng Cheng couldn't help but clear his throat and say, "Speaking of which, all the sins of Da Qing stem from one reason: they never considered us to be people like them."
Cui Laohan and the others immediately turned their attention to Zeng Cheng, repeatedly asking, "What do you mean?"
Zeng Cheng cleared his throat again, his expression unreadable as to whether it was mockery or shame. "Da Qing, from beginning to end, never intended to integrate into our Central Plains. They knew the empire was picked up, and they knew how unpopular they were, so they never allowed us Han people to go beyond the Great Wall. They claimed it was to protect their sacred land of origin, but in reality, it was to leave themselves a way out. It is precisely because of this that they signed all sorts of ridiculous treaties with countries like Russia, Nepal, Kokand, and Burma, wantonly selling out the interests of the Central Plains."
Cui Laohan and the other old farmers had never studied. Even though Emperor Zhu tried his best to promote literacy, he couldn't get a group of old men in their sixties and seventies to re-enter school. Therefore, these old men couldn't have read the "Qing Shi Lu." However, as the Grand Secretary of the Great Ming, Zeng Cheng had indeed read the "Qing Shi Lu."
The "Qing Shi Lu: Kangxi Shi Lu" recorded: In October of the twelfth year of Kangxi, the commander of the Qing navy, Shi Lang, invited the Dutch invaders, who had been expelled from Ryukyu by Zheng Chenggong, to use their galleons to capture the islands of Wuyu and Kinmen. Kangxi specially commended the Dutch Admiral (Dutch Naval Commander Potter) for leading his fleet to help defeat the Zheng army and allowed them to continue their rampant activities along the coast. In August of the following year, the Dutch Admiral led ten warships and a thousand soldiers, and agreed with the Qing army to attack the Zheng army in Penghu in early October, and then advance to Ryukyu after waiting for favorable winds. In February of the eighteenth year of Kangxi, Kangxi also "specially ordered the King of Holland to provide twenty galleons, carrying elite troops to jointly attack the two islands (Ryukyu and Penghu)."
"Ryukyu Wai Zhi" also recorded: "The Dutch Minister Yi Wang led the warships as vanguards, joined with Li Luotai's navy, and fought with all their might to pacify the islands along the coast. The original agreement was to jointly recover Ryukyu..."
In fact, even after Shi Lang captured Ryukyu, Kangxi still intended to cede sovereignty over Ryukyu to foreign bandits.
Who exactly wanted to sell out the interests of the Central Plains?
It was as clear as day!
Emperor Zhu chuckled and said, "If the Jian Yi truly wanted to integrate into our Central Plains, if the Jian Yi treated the people of this land as humans, and allowed them to barely survive instead of implementing policies like iron crops and shaving hair and changing clothes, why would I have raised an army to rebel against the Qing? Who the hell would risk their lives for nothing!"
Cui Laohan spat twice from his dry pipe, squinted his eyes, and said, "What Your Majesty said is true. It's about not being able to survive. My elders told me that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong back then were initially rebelling against the Great Ming, and later they all rebelled against the Qing and restored the Ming. If they could survive, would anyone have followed them to rebel?"
Speaking of this, Cui Laohan suddenly pointed his dry pipe towards the direction where the students were. "It's like those fools. No matter how much they argue, the people of this world haven't joined their rebellion!"
The common people vote with their feet. Let alone having enough to eat and wear, as long as their families could barely survive, the common people wouldn't think of rebelling. The key was that Da Qing simply didn't give ordinary people a chance to survive!
Zeng Cheng was afraid that Cui Laohan and the others would continue to talk about Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Although Zhang Xianzhong later rebelled against the Qing when the Great Ming was left with only half its territory, and even left a dying message before being shot and killed: "The three hundred years of legitimate rule of the Ming dynasty may not be completely extinguished, it is also the will of heaven. I die, you quickly return to the Ming, do not be unrighteous." However, Zhang Xianzhong had indeed dug up the ancestral graves of the Zhu family, and Zhang Xianzhong had also brutally executed Zhu Yiming, Prince Xiang of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Huakui, Prince Chu, Zhu Changhao, Prince Rui, Zhu Zhishu, Prince Shu, and their families and subordinates, tens of thousands of people. It was somewhat inappropriate to mention Zhang Xianzhong in front of Emperor Zhu now.
Therefore, Zeng Cheng wanted to change the subject: "Speaking of which, Yongzheng also wrote a poem of rebellion. But Yongzheng himself was a barbarian chief. No matter how much he engaged in intellectual purification, he couldn't target himself."
This time, not only Cui Laohan and the other old farmers were interested, but even Emperor Zhu couldn't help but be curious.
Yongzheng?
A poem of rebellion?
Zeng Cheng chuckled and said, "Ten thousand miles of clear blue sky, the magpie bridge is formed. The Heavenly Granddaughter still has an appointment, why is the human world so heartless? The crescent moon pierces the needle, and the flower shade drips with the water clock's sound. At night, while leaning alone in the cool air, the Milky Way is full."
"This poem, 'Qixi,' was written by Yongzheng. The phrase 'Ten thousand miles of clear blue sky' might refer to his successful victory over other princes and his wish to become emperor. 'The Heavenly Granddaughter still has an appointment, why is the human world so heartless?' is a statement to the other princes, indicating that he will not harm them."
This is pure nonsense.
Yongzheng enfeoffed his brothers as "A Qina" and "Sai Si Hei." How could this be "Why is the human world so heartless?" This is clearly "The human world is truly heartless!"
And although Yongzheng wrote poems himself, and his poems were more sophisticated than Qianlong's more than 40,000 doggerel verses, Yongzheng was very unfriendly to those who wrote poetry.
"The gentle breeze does not know letters, why does it randomly flip through books" is an incident from Yongzheng's reign!
Zeng Cheng continued, "The reason Yongzheng's poem is considered a poem of rebellion lies in the last line – 'At night, while leaning alone in the cool air, the Milky Way is full.' In the quiet of the night, still thinking of the 'Milky Way,' isn't this 'the heart longs for Han,' longing for the Great Ming?"
After Zeng Cheng finished speaking,
However, speaking of which, these scholars are really wicked. Da Qing entered the pass, and they surrendered to Da Qing. After surrendering, they were very obedient. Now that the Great Ming has been re-established, they want to stir up trouble again? They are just spoiled!
If they conceded this time and abolished the ancestral rule of "only scholars are not allowed" according to the students' demands, would these students who have tasted the sweetness demand more in the future?
Zhu Jinsong naturally did not want these troublesome matters to repeat themselves.
After laughing heartily, Zhu Jinsong then snorted coldly, "Right is right, wrong is wrong. Clearly, they are wrong, so why do you two act as if the court is at fault?"
Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming exchanged glances again and tentatively said, "Your Majesty, the gossip of the world..."
Zhu Jinsong waved his hand directly and asked with a smile, "Gossip of the world? Let me ask you, is this world the world of all people, or the world of scholars?"
Zeng Cheng was immediately choked speechless.
Before the Song Dynasty, the empire was nominally the emperor's empire, but in reality, it was the empire of the aristocratic families.
After the Song Dynasty, the empire remained nominally the emperor's empire, but in reality, it had already become the empire of the scholar-officials.
A scholar-official who did not want to become an aristocratic family was not a qualified scholar-official.
The people of the world were naturally not just scholars and aristocratic families, but scholars and aristocratic families could use the discourse they controlled to present themselves as representatives of the people of the world.
Therefore, Emperor Zhu's question itself was problematic – scholars could grandly claim that they were the people of the world, so this world was the world of the people of the world.
However, Zeng Cheng also knew that since Emperor Zhu asked this question, it meant that in Emperor Zhu's eyes, the people of the world were not limited to the group of scholars, but referred to all the people of the Great Ming.
After a long silence, Zeng Cheng bowed slightly and replied, "Your Majesty's heart is for the people of the world, but the people of the world may not understand Your Majesty's painstaking efforts."
Emperor Zhu chuckled and, instead of minding Zeng Cheng's advice, stood up and paced slowly, saying, "Right and wrong, merit and demerit, I do not have the final say, you do not have the final say, and those who want to ride roughshod over the people do not have the final say. The ones who truly have the final say are the tens of millions of people in the Great Ming – even if those scoundrels can deceive the people for a while, I will only bear the infamy for a few years. When the people see through their true colors, they will naturally give me justice."
Emperor Zhu's words were very steady, but they fell upon Zeng Cheng's ears like thunder from the clear sky, terrifying him.
"Riding roughshod" is actually an overused phrase. Not to mention that "Riding roughshod" is a clear warning in the "Book" in "The Records of the Three Kingdoms: Wei Zhi: Biography of Jiang Ji," and there is also a sentence in the seventy-first chapter of "Dream of the Red Chamber": "As long as the old Empress Dowager is pleased, she can ride roughshod as she wishes."
The Japanese royal family needed to take a share. They didn't care if the envoys sent to Ming were materials for study or not; they only cared about the aristocratic content of the envoys to Ming.
The Shogunate also needed to take a share. However, while the Shogunate cared about aristocratic content, it also cared about whether those envoys to Ming had talent for studying.
Only the remaining slots for envoys to Ming, after the distribution among various parties, were what Tokugawa Ienari could freely control.
Tokugawa Ienari had also considered taking all the slots for envoys to Ming, but after repeated consideration, Tokugawa Ienari had to abandon this beautiful idea.
Because Tokugawa Ienari had not yet succeeded in his usurpation, Gōkō Tennō was still the nominal King of Japan. The Edo Shogunate could hold power, but in terms of legitimacy, it was one step inferior to Gōkō Tennō. Moreover, Gōkō Tennō was still the lord of Japan enfeoffed by the Emperor of the Great Ming, so the allocation of slots for envoys to Ming naturally could not bypass Gōkō Tennō.
Succeed in usurpation?
Japan, "gekokujō" (overthrowing superiors) has always been a glorious tradition.
After hearing the attached conditions from Tokugawa Ienari, the daimyo and feudal lords present were all relieved.
As long as there were conditions, it was better than having no conditions at all.
As for the limited conditions given by Tokugawa Ienari, requiring that two slots be allocated to talented commoner scholars... Could this still be considered a condition?
Shimazu Hisamitsu and Matsudaira Nobunobu immediately took the lead in bowing and said, "Hai! We respectfully obey the Shogun's command!"
After Zeng Cheng and Liu Heming left the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Zhu, who felt completely drained, slumped into his chair and began to ponder.
Emperor Zhu ultimately decided to deal with all of them.
The so-called "law does not punish the masses" is more like the relationship between floods and dams.
When floods come, any dam is at risk of bursting. Only by strictly assigning responsibility to each person can everyone be urged to reinforce the dams diligently.
If, because of the so-called "law does not punish the masses," some scoundrels are allowed to collude and dig holes in the dams? Should those scoundrels be let go just because they have families?
The only result of doing so is to drag everyone down to death with them – dragging the common people today, the officials tomorrow, and perhaps even Emperor Zhu the day after?
After pondering for a long time, Emperor Zhu suddenly raised his head and said in a deep voice, "Transfer the Solun Battalion from Heilongjiang to Shangluo."
Emperor Zhu's act of withdrawing the Solun Battalion to Shangluo clearly told everyone: If you have the guts, then rebel directly!
Seeing Ke Zhiming hesitate, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but snort coldly, "What else?"
Ke Zhiming's heart trembled, and he bowed and said, "In addition, those students also requested Your Majesty to restore the imperial examinations!"
Upon hearing this news, Emperor Zhu immediately laughed heartily, and his expression gradually became ferocious.
Although Emperor Zhu had been trying hard to change, the Great Ming had ultimately not completely escaped certain characteristics of feudal dynasties.
Or rather, some residual characteristics of feudal dynasties were deliberately left by Emperor Zhu.
For example, "min bai guan" (commoners pay homage to officials) – commoners could bow and salute officials in daily life, but once a court session was opened, commoners should offer a bow of respect to officials.
Another example is the punishment of flaying and stuffing with straw, as well as implicating family members and even clan members – since they had received the bows of the common people, they should be prepared for the psychological consequences of being flayed and stuffed with straw for embezzling sixty taels of silver.
In other words, by the standards of the previous Great Ming or Great Qing, the current Great Ming might have hundreds of millions of Xiu Cai (scholars), but Juren (selected scholars) and Jinshi (scholars who passed the highest imperial examination) were still rare.
Now, these scholars, instead of serving the emperor, are kneeling outside the palace, crying and shouting to restore ancestral rules. What do they want to do?
In other words, by the standards of the previous Great Ming or Great Qing, the current Great Ming might have hundreds of millions of Xiu Cai, but Juren and Jinshi were still rare.