People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 704: Even the Emperor is powerless to change the great era
However, the reason why some people do not recognize Zhu Yuanzhang's tools is not because they think Zhu Yuanzhang is not a good person, but because they are unwilling to admit it because they have always felt that Zhu Yuanzhang was just a peasant.

There were even many scholars, especially those in the Qing Dynasty, who looked down on Zhu Yuanzhang in their hearts, because of a very simple reason.

Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards scholars was somewhat similar to that of Liu Bang, and even worse than Liu Bang's, because at least Liu Bang, an emperor born in a peasant family, did not kill so many scholars.

However, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely harsh towards scholars. First of all, he himself was not particularly fond of scholars, especially because of his own background. He was very disgusted with those scholars who defected to the Yuan Dynasty.

It is precisely because of this reason that even though Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to use these scholars to govern the world, his attitude towards them was actually not good at all. This is a visible reason.

Because even during the thirty years of Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, he killed a lot of scholars and wealthy gentry.

It is precisely because of this that they have always treated Zhu Yuanzhang with an attitude of contempt for his birth, and have always been doing things in a confrontational process.

Because of this, their relationship has always been very tense, and there is no way to change it. This is equivalent to a contradiction between two classes, because they have always been using a sharp confrontation, and then formed something like a culture.

If it was just to fight against Zhu Yuanzhang, it would be understandable, but the same was true for Emperor Yongle later. It can be said that Emperor Yongle himself was rebelled against. Even though he had been trying hard to create an identity of being orthodox, not everyone is blind and not everyone is deaf.

In fact, many people have already known his identity for a long time, so they have never truly had a deep recognition of Emperor Yongle in their hearts.

Because, during the twenty years that Prince of Yan Zhu Di was the emperor, there had been many various rumors circulating. For example, Zhu Yunwen, who had disappeared to an unknown place, would pop up from time to time like a ghost, and from time to time he would reveal things that made Prince of Yan Zhu Di very disgusted.

Because of this, there have always been some rumors now. It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was not actually dead at that time. He disguised himself as a monk and escaped from the tunnel.

There are even many TV dramas and movies that say that Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have seen through that his princes and grandchildren would fight to the death for the throne.

So before he died, when Zhu Yunwen became the crown prince, he began to make preparations for Zhu Yuanwen, for example, preparing a set of monk's clothes in the underground palace of the imperial palace.

What this means is that if one day your uncles really want to rebel against you and advance within a few kilometers, you will still have a chance to simply shave your hair, disguise yourself as a monk, and escape from the tunnel.

Zhu Yuanzhang was simply regarded as a living god. Many people regarded Liu Bowen as a living god, but no one expected that Zhu Yuanzhang was also regarded as a living god.

It seemed as if Zhu Yuanzhang could really predict that his son Zhu Di would definitely rebel against his grandson.

But in fact, there has always been a question: if Zhu Yuanzhang could really predict it, why didn't he kill Yan Wang Zhu Di? In this way, his grandson's throne would be more stable.

This is obviously a folk story, but why has it been passed down for so long? Even in modern times, many people still believe this. We can't say that all the people today are fools, but why do these stories still exist?
In fact, it is essentially because he looked down on the emperors of the Zhu family. He always felt that these emperors of the Zhu family were barbaric and liked to kill people.

Because there is a very simple logic that can explain all of this, that is, if these emperors were really respected, these rumors would not have come out, and the reason these rumors could come out must be that someone was spreading them. Ordinary people would not take the initiative to spread these things, but who would spread them?

It can only be those scholars, because only scholars will record these things, and then these stories can be passed down, and only in this way will those stories appear more real.

Why did those scholars spread these rumors? It's very simple, because when Zhu Yuanwen was the emperor, he was very polite and kind to those scholars, so they missed the relaxed feeling when Zhu Yunwen was the emperor.

So these rumors were spread in order to undermine the legitimacy of Yan Wang Zhu Di's emperorship. At the same time, even though Yan Wang Zhu Di made so many achievements after becoming emperor, he still could not gain real respect from scholars, which is why there were so many messy rumors.

So these rumors have always existed, have always existed, and may always be circulated among the people, so it can be seen that they have never really looked down upon the people of the Zhu family.

As a result, many ordinary people now have many misunderstandings about the Ming Dynasty due to this kind of wrong or one-sided propaganda. These misunderstandings are because the scholars at that time were not treated well by the emperor of the Zhu family, so they hold a grudge.

So much of the cleansing work Zhu Yuanzhang did to get rid of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty has actually always been effective, and has always been aimed at making the cultural traditions of the Han nationality more pure.

However, this action has not been recognized by many people. They have always thought that such actions are just to cover up their cruelty. In fact, this is not the case. All the things Zhu Yuanzhang has done have been particularly good.

It was only after Chen Han came to the Ming Dynasty that he realized that there were many engines that had never been recorded in history. Even if these engines were recorded, they would be changed by many scholars with ulterior motives. They had to ensure that some slanderous words about the old man were left in the history books. Only in this way could they feel better.

So much so that now when Chen Han thought about how there are so many rumors in modern times, he felt very uncomfortable, because after he came to the Ming Dynasty, he truly experienced Zhu Yuanzhang. In fact, even though he was thinking about how to be complete in his heart, he was always thinking about how to make the people of the Ming Dynasty live a little better.

After all, he is really a very approachable person. Many people who don’t know him think that Zhu Yuanzhang must be a very difficult person to approach.

But it was not until Chen Han himself came to the Ming Dynasty that he discovered that the old man was a very lonely person. It is conceivable that no one dared to speak to him during the years when he was the emperor. This was because he was not an ordinary emperor. It can also be seen that he had actually been silently enduring all these years.

For example, at the beginning of the founding of the country, there were so many Huaixi nobles who, relying on their own merits, began to do evil. Why did those Huaixi nobles take it for granted that they were qualified to do evil?

It was because the Mongolian nobles of the Yuan Dynasty used this method. After they conquered a place, they began to enclose land. This legacy made the Huaixi nobles feel that they had made so many contributions, so they could do whatever they wanted with their families and use the tenants of the land they were granted as slaves.

After seeing this trend, Zhu Yuanzhang certainly wanted to stop it, but he could not present these problems at the very beginning, because at that time there were many unresolved problems in the north, south, and even the east, and these Huaixi nobles were needed to lead the troops to fight.

In fact, Lao Zhu had always been thinking about how to make up to the brothers who fought with him. He tried his best to give them many rewards, but he still did not really understand that once people have power, they will be instinctively driven by the three attributes of power.

What are the three attributes of power? First, exclusion; second, aggression; third, abuse.

Most of the Huaixi nobles were born in the countryside, and they relied on force, luck, or the people who followed them to seize the current country and the current position, so of course they want to vent.

They are not people with moral integrity and quality. Not everyone can be like Xu Da, who did not become arrogant even after achieving success.

Because most people begin to abuse these rights after they have them, and the result of the abuse is great harm to the people.

But they never thought that this was wrong. They just thought that this was what I deserved, and that this was the compensation I had to get after risking my life to build my empire.

But they did not think that the rewards given to them by the court were enough. One explanation is that these male monkeys who came from mud legs began to explode after they gained power.

Having suffered such oppression, they vented all their resentment and anger at the powerless ordinary people.

It is precisely because of this that they have become more and more cruel, especially towards ordinary people. They do not have the simplicity and empathy that they had when they were ordinary people. They only see one thing, that is, they now have the power to exploit others, so I must exploit others.

This is what those people think.

After seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's actions, Chen Han came to a conclusion that the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang had to purge those people was because these people simply did not have the qualities that the Huaixi nobles or dukes should have.

Instead, they intensified their dissatisfaction with life and their desire to abuse power after gaining it, venting it on ordinary people.

Therefore, only after Zhu Yuanzhang purged them was he able to truly eliminate the spread of such behavior and thoughts from the root, which was actually a responsibility to the entire Ming Dynasty.

Everyone only sees that Zhu Yuanzhang massacred those old brothers who followed him to conquer the world, but they fail to see a problem, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang’s old brothers were not qualified to become those high-ranking brothers.

If these new rich people get all this money and status, they should put this honor aside and live like ordinary people. Even if this is a relatively high standard, you are already rich, so what else do you want? The common people have suffered enough, but you didn't let them go.

If this is the case, then what is the difference between you and those who exploited you? There is no difference.

So now Chen Han sees the old man slowly getting old in front of him. When he thinks of all the suffering the old man has endured over the years, he feels it is not worth it and he feels very wronged for the old man.

It made him feel that he had not done well. After coming to the Ming Dynasty, he knew clearly what the history was going to be like and what history would do to the old man. He knew what the old man should do to change this evaluation, but he could not do it.

Why? Because he has no way to change the course of history by himself.

It was not until he arrived in the Ming Dynasty that he realized why Yi Xiaochuan in the myth must have wanted to respect history. It was because it was actually difficult for an individual to change the general trend of history.

Because even if you know the trend of history, even if you keep thinking about how to change history and what has been lost, there is no way to recover it, because there are many things that you cannot change after you know history. It is a very simple truth, that is, personal ability cannot compete with the entire era.

Because many historical trends cannot be changed by one person making so-called changes. Even Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor, had no way to change many inertias and changes in the entire historical trend, even if he was the emperor.

It was not until he had this feeling that Chen Han finally understood why people must respect history, because in the face of the great torrent of history, any individual effort would seem so insignificant.

If you stand in the way of the rolling carriage of history, you will become an ant crushed under the wheels...

(End of this chapter)