prosperous age

Chapter 983 1072 Southwest

Zhang Juzheng did not immediately agree to Wei Guangde's proposal to take over parts of Luzon first, but instead wanted to decide the feasibility of the proposal through a ministerial meeting.

Wei Guangde was not angry. This matter was indeed a big one. It could be said to be the first of its kind in a hundred years of history.

As the Prime Minister, it seems okay to be cautious.

After coming out of Zhang Juzheng's duty room, Wei Guangde continued his work, reviewing the memorials sent to him, and put the matter aside for the time being.

As for drafting the charter, he planned to go back in the evening and think about it carefully.

In the lobby of Yunnan Provincial Administration Commission, Yunnan Governor Wang Ning was standing here with a serious face. He paced back and forth in the room from time to time, fully showing his inner tension at the moment.

Wang Ning, whose courtesy name was Daofu, was from Yicheng County, Huguang, and was a fellow villager of Zhang Juzheng.

At the same time, he was also a Jinshi in the 35th year of Jiajing, the same year as Wei Guangde. This is why Wei Guangde did not object when Zhang Juzheng proposed to transfer officials from Yunnan.

Well, I can only say that he is really lucky, as he has connections with the prime minister and the second prime minister of the dynasty.

As for Wang Ning, Wei Guangde also learned some information about him in Yunnan from the Jinyiwei. It seemed that Wang Ning had a bad reputation in Yunnan.

In fact, if you think about it, if he really had a close relationship with Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde, how could he be sent to Yunnan to be an official, even though he was promoted to governor, a high rank.

Such a position is often used to take care of some people with connections, or to send people off for work, so the rank is high, but the actual benefits may not be good.

Among them, the person who had the worst relationship with Wang Ning was Li Zhi, the prefect of Yao'an.

Speaking of Li Zhi, he has to be said to be a remarkable man in the Ming Dynasty. He was born in Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province in October of the sixth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. His ancestors moved to Fujian after the Yuan Dynasty.

Li Zhi lost his mother at a young age and went to study with his father. He made rapid progress in his studies. He was stubborn since childhood, good at independent thinking, did not believe in Islam, was not bound by traditional Confucian concepts, and had strong anti-traditional ideas.

In terms of social value orientation, he criticized the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, praised the achievements of merchants, and advocated utilitarian values, which was in line with the development requirements of the budding capitalism in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Li Zhi's original surname was Lin and his given name was Zaizhi. Later, he changed his surname to Li and his given name to Zhi. His courtesy name was Hongfu and his pseudonym was Zhuowu. His other pseudonyms were Wenling Jushi and Baiquan Jushi.

Li Zhi's family was poor in his early years. He learned to read and write with his father who was a teacher for a living. He passed the examination for a scholar at the age of 22 and the examination for a juren at the age of 26. After that, he failed in the imperial examination and entered the official career as a juren. He served as a teacher in Gongcheng, a doctor of the Imperial College, and now the prefect of Yao'an.

Li Zhi's "theory of childlike innocence" in literature emphasized sincerity and advocated that creation should be "absolutely true and absolutely true". He opposed the then popular "imitation of the ancients" style of writing. This tendency also had an important influence on late Ming literature. He wrote "Burning Books", "Continuation of Burning Books", "Collecting Books", "Continuation of Collecting Books", etc.

Li Zhi was deeply influenced by the "Taizhou School", a branch of "Yangming School", and regarded himself as a "heretic".

In response to the situation at that time when official schools and the intellectual class only regarded Confucian Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism as authoritative, he denounced Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism as pseudo-Taoism and proposed that one should not "take Confucius' right and wrong as right and wrong."

Most of his poems and essays criticized the retrogressive ideas of the Seven Early Masters and the Seven Later Masters, and believed that "The West Chamber" and "Water Margin" were "the best literature of all time". The three Yuan brothers of the Gong'an School were deeply influenced by them.

In his later years, he was quite interested in history. He compiled "Collected Books" based on the official histories of successive dynasties, and also collected extensive materials from the Ming Dynasty to write "Continued Collection of Books", which made some breakthroughs in traditional historiography.

Li Zhi criticized the Confucian classics and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, which were regarded as the golden rule by the feudal rulers. He expressed great contempt for the Confucian classics "Six Classics", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius", believing that these were not the words of sages, but were elevated by later generations and could not be regarded as unchanging truths.

These works are the essays of the ignorant disciples and pedantic followers of the time. Most of them are not the words of sages. Even if they are the words of sages, they are only temporary remedies and cannot be regarded as "words on everything."

In "Burning Books: Praise for Liu Xie" and "A Brief Introduction to the Sacred Teachings" in "Continuation of the Burning Books" and "Inscription on the Portrait of Confucius in Zhifoyuan", he belittled Confucius in a playful and sarcastic tone, which was a bold move in an era when Confucius was revered as the most holy teacher.

He believed that Confucius was not a saint, that there was nothing special about Confucius, that everyone could be a saint, and that there was no need to learn from Confucius. This pulled Confucius down from his supreme saint status.

If you insist on worshipping Confucius as an idol and imitating his words and deeds, that would be an ugly thing to do.

Li Zhi denied the orthodox status of Confucianism and denied that the teachings of Confucius and Mencius were the "ultimate theory for all ages" that "surpassed the ancient and modern times". He believed that they could not be treated as dogma and applied casually.

The Six Classics, the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius "are the pretexts of Taoism and the source of hypocrisy". Li Zhi's criticism of Confucius and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius has indeed reached the point of "not being a saint and not having the law".

This made him a famous thinker and writer in the late Ming Dynasty, and also a master of the Taizhou School. Perhaps it was precisely because of his heresy that his path to the imperial examination was cut off at the joint examination.

Although Li Zhi had made remarkable achievements in Yao'an, he was attacked and excluded by his superiors because of his unreasonable ideas, and was not tolerated by the powerful people in society at that time.

They fabricated all kinds of charges and were determined to put Li Zhi to death. Those who confronted him at the time included the patrol officer Luo Wenli and the governor Wang Ning, who falsely accused Li Zhi of "being too moral" and claimed that "he should be punished according to the law."

It can be seen that the officialdom in Yunnan was still relatively chaotic under Wang Ning's governance at that time.

However, at this time, what Wang Ning was worried about was not the conflict between him and Li Zhi, but the news from the capital, which made him terrified.

Although he initially disagreed with the capital's attention to Myanmar, he became a different person after receiving the news from the capital.

The Xuanwei Offices outside Yunnan had actually long been out of the jurisdiction of the Yunnan government. The responsibility did not lie with him. The situation had already begun to get out of control during the Jiajing period.

Think about it, the imperial court's thousand-man army died there, and there was no investigation afterwards. They just beheaded a few so-called "bandit leaders" and closed the case, which gives us an idea of ​​the situation.

After Wang Ning came here, he knew the situation outside the region and didn't want to meddle in other people's business, so he pretended to be deaf and dumb and tried to fool people.

But now it seems that it is no longer possible, the court has already known about it.

In a war, although he, as the governor, would not personally go to the battlefield to wield a sword and kill people, he could not help but feel afraid.

Yunnan is home to many ethnic groups, most of which are unwilling to submit to the king and are difficult to govern. If it goes to war with Myanmar, I'm afraid those chieftains will cause chaos.

Well, actually, what he was worried about was not necessarily the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar, but the unruly chieftains in Yunnan.

No matter how chaotic Myanmar is, it will not affect his official hat, but the loss of Yunnan, the loss of troops and territory will cost him his life.

In fact, the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty also knew the character of the local garrisons, and they did not dare to count on them for a big increase.

Therefore, even though there was an early warning in the capital, Wang Ning still chose to pretend to obey while secretly disobeying. That is, he would try to find a way to cover up the matter with Myanmar, while paying special attention to the chieftains in Yunnan, always on guard against any rebellious intentions on their part.

As for Li Chengliang, the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Right Military Governorate in the capital, who was patrolling the border, he did not take it seriously.

  The garrison is in such a rotten state, what else can we expect?

Not long after, a master finally walked in from outside the hall. He bowed respectfully to Wang Ning, and then said slowly, "Dong Weng, the situation is a bit bad."

"How is it?"

Upon hearing what his master said, Wang Ning was shocked and asked.

"Whether it's Mengyang, Mubang, Laos, etc., they all have their own reasons for not wanting to come."

Having said that, the lawyer took out a few documents from his sleeve and handed them over.

Wang Ning took the document, flipped through it quickly, and then threw it to the ground.

Originally, Wang Ning was thinking of asking those leaders to come over just to go through the motions. Even if they didn't show up, he could at least send a representative to take charge.

But now it seems that the majesty of the imperial court is really worthless in the eyes of these barbarians.

"There's no way this matter can be resolved."

Wang Ning sighed and sat on the armchair next to him. "Dongweng, why don't you inform Pingxi Hou and ask him to make preparations this morning?"

The master reminded.

"Why do you need me to inform you? Didn't the Right Army Commander's Office already give the order?"

Wang Ning lowered his head and said.

Indeed, there have been many official documents sent from the capital in the past six months, and the sealing of Yunnan’s grain and salaries was one of them.

Now that I think about it carefully, the imperial court had actually begun preparing for war at that time and stored war supplies in border towns.

"Then inform all prefectures and counties, especially those on the border, so they can prepare early?"

The master spoke again.

"This is the only solution for now. We should do our best and leave the rest to fate."

Wang Ning answered, but then he seemed to think of something, looked up at his master and said, "Tell me, is it feasible for me to summon all the chieftains to Kunming at this time?"

Until now, Wang Ning was still not considering letting the Ming army and the chieftains on the border be prepared, but was thinking about transferring all the chieftains to Kunming so that they could be controlled more easily.

As long as people are in Kunming, there is no need to worry about them making any unusual moves after the war breaks out.

  The master naturally understood Wang Ning's plan, and after thinking about it, he said, "But what about those chieftains on the border?

If we summon them to Kunming, they will be leaderless.

If Myanmar attacks at this time, the consequences will be huge."

“That’s why I hesitated. If I summon all the chieftains, they will obey me. But if I summon only some of them, I’m afraid they will overthink and refuse to come, which will be even more troublesome.

Yunnan cannot afford to be in chaos at this moment."

Reminded by his master, Wang Ning had no choice but to speak.

"Dong Weng, I think we should first send an official document to the prefectures and counties so that they can make preparations in advance.

As for the matter of summoning the chieftains, we will think about it again and come up with a solution that satisfies both parties before executing it.”

The master suggested.

He was very clear that the stability of Yunnan must not be affected, which was the top priority.

Wang Ning nodded solemnly and sighed, "That's the only way. Go write the official document and bring it to me for my seal."

Although the Ming Dynasty court did not arrange too many deputies for officials to help handle official business, the officials themselves were still very smart. They came up with solutions on their own to reduce their burden without having to pay some money.

Although the term "shiye" is said to have originated from the official position "mu ren" during the Zhou Dynasty, in fact, judging from literary works, at least in the literary works of the Ming Dynasty, there is no such character as "shiye".

Therefore, it can only be said that the staff before the Ming Dynasty were more of auxiliary officials around officials, and should be completely different from the advisers who were popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even during the Republic of China.

The origin of legal advisors should be in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, evolving from the Shaoxing clerk gang. They used their familiar professional knowledge to help their employers with their work and get paid.

After sitting for a while, I suddenly thought of someone. I have to discuss this matter with him first.

The person he thought of was certainly not Pingxi Hou, but Luo Rufang, the current deputy inspector of Yunnan Province, who was stationed in Yongchang, the prefecture closest to Mengyang.

It can be said that the place where war is most likely to break out with Myanmar is Yongchang Prefecture.

Moreover, the western part of Yongchang Prefecture was mostly ruled by chieftains. If the chieftains of Yongchang Prefecture were won over by Mang Yinglong and the gate was opened, the Burmese army could march straight in from Yongchang Prefecture, attack Lijiang Prefecture in the north, and directly reach Kunming in the east.

As for other border areas, it is inconvenient to mobilize large troops due to terrain constraints, so entry into Myanmar has always been through here.

"No, this matter has to fall on Luo Rufang's head."

Wang Ning murmured to himself.

Yes, just being a fellow villager and classmate is not enough, Wang Ning wants to bring more people together.

He didn't know that some of his good friends had already got through to Zhang Juzheng, and because they were from the same hometown, they spared him punishment.

Luo Rufang, whom Wang Ning wanted to meet, had more seniority than him. He was a third-class Jinshi in the 32nd year of Jiajing. However, he was from Nancheng, Jiangxi Province, and was considered a fellow villager of Wei Guangde.

At this time, the responsibility of a deputy inspector was not too great, but he was still involved to some extent.

Only by tying together officials from Huguang and Jiangxi, the two decision-makers in the cabinet will have to have some concerns.

So in the following days, Kunming did nothing except issuing warnings to all prefectures, cities and counties in Yunnan, asking them to be on high alert.

Wang Ning's mind was focused on the officials in Yunnan, Huguang and Jiangxi, and the correspondence between them was constant.

While Yunnan officials were becoming highly nervous, Mang Yinglong was also feeling a little anxious in the royal palace in Toungoo, the capital of Myanmar's Toungoo Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty sent orders to several Xuanwei offices, asking them to send envoys, which revealed something strange.

The Ming Dynasty has not issued such an order for many years.

In previous years, each department would complete the reporting procedure by sending a document, but the envoy would still have to go to Kunming in person.

Although he had just conquered Laos, Mang Yinglong still saw the fatigue of his soldiers.

Originally, he planned to rest for a year before attacking the remaining forces in Mengyang, and then directly border the Ming Dynasty, looking for an opportunity to test the Ming Dynasty's strength.

But unexpectedly, at this critical juncture, the Ming Dynasty seemed to have some changes.

Although Mubang and Mengyang were concerned about their own strength and did not dare to report the true situation in Myanmar to the Ming court, Mang Yinglong was no fool.

If the Ming Dynasty really frees up its hands to target Myanmar, the people of Mengyang and Mubang will probably turn against him immediately and sell him out.

In any case, Mang Yinglong was still a little afraid of the Ming Dynasty. After all, it was a big country.

In the past, he just thought that the Ming Dynasty would not pay attention to the affairs of the southwestern border, so he dared to attack Jiaozhi, Siam, Laos, etc. But if the Ming Dynasty really blamed him and wanted to use force, it would be impossible to say that there was no pressure.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty."

At this time, someone came in from outside the palace.

The visitor was one of his men. After paying his respects, he reported: "The border prefectures and counties of Yunnan seem to be fine as usual."