Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 740: Mercy and Kindness
The later interpretation of this strategic retreat is quite good.

But this statement reminds me of the words "the bandits' power was greatly weakened" recorded in the "History of Yuan Dynasty", which is not so good.

After this bad mood was passed on to his son, the fourth son, through a slap on the back of his head, Ming Tianzi's mood suddenly brightened up a bit:

The task of reviewing and proofreading the History of Yuan Dynasty is urgent!

……

"Does Cheng Qian remember my shame at Weishui?"

The memory couldn't be more clear, and Li Chengqian immediately thought of his former father.

He was told in a thunderous voice to remember the shame of the Turks and in a stern tone to understand the danger posed by the barbarians.

Whenever talking about border threats, Li Chengqian's heart would tremble with fear, and he also became curious about the Turks. How could they prevent this god-like Aye from winning?

Fortunately, these situations were quickly reversed.

Aye no longer spoke harshly to him. The Jie Li Khan, who had been scolded countless times, was now captured. Li Chengqian went to see it. The room was filled with the stench of stench, and it was nothing like the mighty ruler he had once thought it was.

Li Chengqian nodded:
"General Li was ordered by His Majesty to lead the army. He launched a surprise attack on a snowy night and pursued the enemy northward. He defeated the enemy in one battle and captured their chieftain, thus enhancing the prestige of our Tang."

Li Shimin laughed and said, "Don't mention the word old in front of General Yaoshi."

Then he asked again: "How did I deal with it when the heavy troops were outside?"

Li Chengqian tried hard to recall:
"I often worry about the army encountering natural disasters, and can't fall asleep at night and complain to my mother..."

"Cough!" He coughed loudly, glared at several smiling ministers with a ferocious look, and said unnaturally:
"I am talking about governing the country. Do you have any suspicions about General Yaoshi?"

Of course not. In fact, Li Chengqian recalled that his father's worries and concerns were never shown in the court. All government affairs were in order and no different from usual.

And even if they were worried, they were only worried about the unpredictable weather, and never said anything about General Li's independent troops.

Thinking of this, Li Chengqian subconsciously glanced at Yuchi Jingde who was sitting on the side. It was said that when this general surrendered to Aye, there were countless people who advised to kill him, but in the end, Aye overcame all objections and appointed him as the commander of the army. That's how it was...

Logically, he should have thought of General Yuchi's reputation on the battlefield, but somehow the three words "Xuanwu Gate" first popped into his mind.

Li Shimin on the other side naturally didn't know what his son was thinking. At this moment, he was really a little sad. He stood with his hands behind his back and said:
"As a ruler, trust is the most important thing. If you lose trust in your generals, you will fail. If you lose trust in your ministers, you will decline. If you lose trust in your historians, you will perish. If you lose trust in your people, you will lose trust in the world and end up being exterminated. You should be careful in what you say and do."

These words made Li Chengqian sober up immediately, and he suddenly remembered what his mother had said not long ago about Aye Lingqi Zhulang recording the events of Xuanwu Gate.

Whether it is the classics of the ancients or martial arts and military strategies, they all have teachers. However, these things have always been taboo among people around me. Perhaps... I can ask my father about it when I come back from Hebei?
[Toghto was poisoned to death in 1356. Although theoretically the Yuan Dynasty still had years to last, it had basically entered its garbage time.

Because whether it is Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty indulging in the various Tantric practices of "dual cultivation of men and women", or the warlord regent of the Yuan court drinking and killing people and defiling the harem, it is probably not what the audience is interested in. So we simply fast forward to the part that nailed the coffin of the Yuan Dynasty:
Why did the Yuan Dynasty, an empire with the largest territory ever, lose the world?
Scholars of all generations have discussed the reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, as we have just discussed.

The Sinicization was too shallow, paper money was issued excessively, the transfer of power was always accompanied by bloodshed, the control of the Yellow River led to the Red Turban Rebellion, etc. When talking about these reasons in the past dynasties, they basically said that if these problems had been solved, the Yuan Dynasty might have been able to survive for a few more years.

It lasted for a few years rather than hundreds of years. It can be seen that scholars who hold this opinion also know that these can be regarded as the reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, but whether they are the main reasons still needs to be questioned.

On this issue, Zhu Yuanzhang, who personally watched and took action to sweep the Yuan Dynasty into the garbage dump, must have the most say.

A common saying nowadays is that Zhu Yuan believed that "Yuan lost the world because of its leniency." At first glance, it sounds as if the masters of the Yuan Dynasty were very magnanimous, and it was just you bunch of unruly people who were ungrateful.

This statement is only found in the "Huang Ming Baoxun" published in the seventh year of Hongwu. However, in this earliest version, as long as you read it from beginning to end, you will know that when Zhu Yuanzhang said leniently, he definitely did not mean being lenient to the world, but was saying that the laws of the Yuan Dynasty were lenient.

To understand this statement, we can synthesize the statement in the "Letter to Liu Ji" in "Collected Works of Mr. Liu, the Earl of Chengyi" during the Chenghua period: "Hu Yuan lost because of his leniency. If I want to pacify China, I must be ruthless."

As well as the statement in the Hongwu edition of "The Preface to the Imperial Ming Ancestor's Instructions" that "the Yuan Dynasty's policy of appeasement should be abolished."

In essence, they are all saying that the laws of the Yuan Dynasty were too lenient, to the point where they were lax and had no taboos, rather than being lenient.

If there are still people who think that the Yuan Dynasty was benevolent, then Zhu Yuanzhang's parents, elder brother and elder sister who died of starvation and illness would probably have something to say.

Similarly, the great Confucian scholar Song Lian also said in the History of Yuan Dynasty that "the credit of Yuan's criminal law lies in its benevolence and kindness", which seems to be praising the Yuan Dynasty.

But then it goes on to say "their mistake lies in being lax and not knowing how to be self-disciplined." The kindness here has nothing to do with mercy. Its essence is the same as what Zhu Yuanzhang said about "leniency," that is, inaction.

The most typical example of this kind of "leniency" is the well-known tax-farming system, which subcontracted the entire country out and cooperated with local "big families", "chieftains" and "nobles" to entrust these local tycoons to help manage the local areas. As long as the locals paid enough taxes, the central government would turn a blind eye. This is also the reason why the Yuan Dynasty attached great importance to the promotion of civil servants rather than the imperial examinations.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the biggest hidden danger was that officials did not care if landlords did evil, and the central government did not care if officials did evil. The central government had no enforcement power at the local level. This was also the direct reason why Yuan Renzong's "Yanyou Manager" could not be implemented at all and had to be launched directly.

Moreover, if we look back further in the History of Yuan Dynasty, we can see that after Emperor Chengzong of Yuan came to power, he also wanted to rectify the officials, but a casual investigation revealed more than 18,000 cases of corruption.

In such an environment, it didn't seem strange that Fan Mengduan, with only five people, wiped out the central officials of a place and acted tyrannically behind closed doors.

Another famous organization in the Yuan Dynasty was the Qingfeng League located in Qianshan, Jiangxi. This should be the earliest large-scale organization that printed counterfeit money in history. Its founder, Wu Youwen, directly dragged both the black and white circles of Qianshan Prefecture into the water. As a result, even though everyone knew that this was a counterfeit money den, it was still able to get away with it for more than ten years.

Here we can directly apply the teacher's words: "Governing a country is governing officials... If everyone is shameless, corrupt, and does evil, and the country has no way to punish them, then the world will be in chaos."

The Yuan Dynasty was the worst in all dynasties in terms of grassroots management, and the country was destroyed because of the lax administration of officials.

Therefore, what Zhu Yuanzhang said about the lax laws and management in the Yuan Dynasty, combined with the shallow sinicization and excessive issuance of paper money mentioned earlier, are almost the main reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.

At this point, we have finally turned the page for this issue. Next issue: An unprecedentedly complex country. 】

(End of this chapter)