People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 710: The Scholars' Methods Are Very Powerful

Zhu Youwei was very surprised when she heard her husband say that the reason why a civil official recorded it like this, for example, to portray her grandfather Huang as a tyrant, was to cover up the truth that he had misled the country and the people.

She immediately asked, "Husband, what evidence do you have? Tell me, and I will tell Grandpa Huang and my father about it."

While the couple was talking, the old man had already taken Chen Han and Zhu Youwei's son Chen Jin for a walk.

After all, he was old, so he soon felt exhausted, so he returned to the pavilion and heard the conversation between Chen Han and Zhu Youwei.

At the same time, a eunuch came over and whispered, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince is here."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Zhu Biao had also arrived, he immediately said to Chen Han: "Monkey boy, I just heard you talking here again. Tell me why those scholars want to portray me as a tyrant."

As he was speaking, he saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince coming over, escorted by palace maids, eunuchs and guards.

As soon as he arrived, he paid his respects to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed, "My boss has already said that you should focus on your own things. There is no need to worry about your father all the time. Your father will not die for the time being."

Zhu Youwei and Zhu Biao became unhappy immediately when they heard the old man say such unlucky words.

Zhu Youwei even said directly: "Why do you say such unlucky words, old man? You must live a long life, and you must accompany my son to grow up."

When Zhu Biao heard Zhu Youwei say this, he also said, "Dad, Youwei is right. You will live a long life."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to hear that his son and granddaughter were so filial.

Zhu Biao then looked at Chen Han and said, "What other profound ideas do you have? Come and listen to them."

Zhu Yuanzhang also said: "Yes, you seemed to have some different opinions just now, tell me."

Chen Han took the teacup handed to him by the palace maid and tapped the celadon three times with his knuckles. This was his usual action when discussing matters with Zhu Biao.

Outside the pavilion, spring willows brushed across the water, startling a red carp.

"Your Majesty, do you remember the case of the empty seal in the ninth year of Hongwu?" Chen Han suddenly asked.

Zhu Yuanzhang paused as he twisted his beard. A sharp light flashed in his cloudy eyes: "Those parasites we killed dared to falsify the account books!"

"But the history books won't record that everyone in the account office of the Thirteenth Office of the Ministry of Revenue was privately carving official seals." Chen Han put the teacup heavily on the stone table, startling the child in Zhu Youwei's arms. "What these scholars are best at is beautifying collective corruption as 'forced by livelihood'."

Zhu Biao stroked the jade belt around his waist thoughtfully: "Just like the Party and Faction Persecution in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the nobles always said that the eunuchs framed the loyal and good people, but never mentioned that the land they annexed was enough to feed half of the Sili."

"Exactly!" Chen Han suddenly raised his voice, scaring Zhu Yuanzhang's great-grandson in his arms to giggle. He quickly lowered his voice: "When later writers wrote about the Hongwu Dynasty, they would always mention the 'Four Major Cases of Hongwu', but they never explained that behind each case stood an entire vested interest group."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly handed his great-grandson to the wet nurse and slapped his skinny hands on the stone table: "Go on!"

"For example, the Hu Weiyong case." Chen Han dipped his tea in water and drew concentric circles on the table. "The core circle is the Huaixi clique, the outer circle is the gentry who are attached to them, and the outermost circle is the poor students who were coerced. But the history books will only write that Your Majesty implicated 30,000 people——"

"Bullshit!" Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he spoke in dialect. "We killed those who deserved to be killed! If those students were really innocent, why would they accept land and properties to help others get official positions?"

Zhu Youwei suddenly exclaimed: "Just like the 'charity fields' in Songjiang Prefecture now? On the surface, they are helping poor scholars, but in fact, they are..."

She caught a glimpse of her father's suddenly gloomy face and stopped talking in a hurry.

"You are right, girl." Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, "In the territory of Zhang Shicheng, there are still nobles who use this method to win over scholars. Chen Han, tell Biaoer how the later generations recorded it?"

Chen Han took a deep breath.

He knew that what he was about to say would sting everyone present: "When the Ming History recorded the Guo Huan case, it specifically described the blood of the tortured officials soaking through the bricks of the imperial prison, but used tiny calligraphy to note 'recovering 7 million shi of stolen goods'. Readers will only remember the blood, and will not see how many victims these grains could save."

The teacup in Zhu Biao's hand suddenly tilted, and the Biluochun tea left a dark mark on the stone table. For the first time, the prince, who was known for his kindness, showed a sharp look: "So they used the pen of history as a knife to poke at the wounds of the emperor?"

"That's not all." Chen Han pointed to the peonies blooming outside the pavilion. "Like this purple peony, the writers would write about how many roots were damaged when your majesty transplanted it, but never mentioned that the original soil was crawling with termites." He suddenly turned to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Do you know how future generations will evaluate Fang Xiaoru, an old minister of Emperor Jianwen?"

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes and asked, "The one whose entire clan was executed by the fourth brother?"

"The literati portrayed him as a model of integrity, but no one questioned..." Chen Han's voice suddenly became hoarse, "He would rather let the war break out again in Jiangnan than to recognize the legitimacy of Emperor Yongle. The poems and essays praising him all imply that as long as the banner of loyalty is upheld, it is worth sacrificing any number of people."

A gust of wind swept across the water, causing the white hair on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead to tremble.

The old man suddenly grabbed some fish food and threw it into the lake. He looked at the splashes of water caused by the koi fighting for food and sneered, "I understand now. They want to blame the emperor's arbitrary decision for the fall of the country."

"The most ironic thing is the Jingnan Campaign." Chen Han took the opportunity to drop a bombshell, "The later generations of scholars scolded the Prince of Yan for usurping the throne, but they were collectively silent about the families of the Prince of Zhou and the Prince of Dai who were forced to death when Emperor Jianwen reduced the power of the princes. It was as if the princes were not the bloodline of Taizu, as if..."

"Enough!" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly shouted, scaring the child in the wet nurse's arms into bursting into tears.

The old man hurriedly took the pat from his great-grandson, but his voice was like ice: "Biao'er, now you know why we must reduce the power of the feudal lords? Those writers can even write about closeness and distance in reverse!"

Zhu Youwei suddenly interrupted with red eyes: "Just like they are now scolding my father for using the Jinyiwei to monitor all officials, but they don't mention how many memorials in the early years of Hongwu were written by the gentry? They write the policies that benefit the people as harsh policies, and slander the land survey as competing with the people for profits..."

"Because the pen of history is their golden ticket to exoneration." Chen Han made the final decision. "By portraying Your Majesty as a tyrant, all the bad policies of the Hongwu Dynasty will have a scapegoat. In this way, when officials in later generations are corrupt, they can justifiably say, 'It was all Zhu Yuanzhang who started this bad example,' and when gentry annex land, they can defend themselves by saying, 'Hongwu's harsh policies forced us to protect ourselves.'"

Zhu Biao suddenly stood up and walked to the side of the pavilion, looking at the golden tiles in the direction of the Imperial Ancestral Temple in silence for a long time. When he turned around, the golden thread on his dragon robe glowed blood-red in the sunset: "So history books are like a mirror, reflecting what the author wants people to see?"

"It's even more terrifying than this." Chen Han took out a booklet from his sleeve - this was a record of the cases of tampering in the History of Ming Dynasty after he traveled through time. "When Xie Jin was the editor-in-chief of the Records of Taizu during the Yongle Dynasty, he deliberately blurred the shadow of the Zhejiang gentry in the Empty Seal Case. When it was revised during the Wanli period, the Guo Huan case was simply written as a case in which Your Majesty enriched the treasury..."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly lifted his great-grandson up, letting the child's little hand reach the drooping wisteria flowers: "Did you hear me? If someone teaches you to read history in the future, first think about where the author sits!" The old man laughed with a choked sob, "Chen Han, do you think that future generations will really write about us in such a bad way?"

The pavilion was suddenly silent.

Chen Han looked at the wrinkles on Zhu Yuanzhang's face and recalled the sentence in the History of Ming Dynasty: "The emperor was suspicious and cruel, and killed his meritorious officials." He suddenly knelt on one knee and said, "But I have seen with my own eyes that an old farmer thirty miles outside Yingtian Prefecture still worships the fish scale book of the Hongwu period in the shrine - on it is the words of your majesty's personal approval, 'never to take the imperial examination'."

A tear fell on the stone table.

Zhu Yuanzhang grabbed all the fish food and threw it into the lake, startling all the koi in the pond. "Biao'er, pass the order to the Imperial Academy. From now on, compile the official records and make copies of the evidence of each case for archiving! We want future generations to know that the confessions of those bastards were all stamped with bloody handprints!"

Zhu Biao took out several blue-leather books from his python-patterned sleeve pocket. The four small cinnabar characters "Jinyiwei Secret" on the cover were particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.

The great-grandson in the old man's arms suddenly reached out to grab it, and Zhu Yuanzhang took the opportunity to pat his little hand with a notebook: "Little monkey, this is your grandfather's treasure."

"Your son was just about to report this matter." Zhu Biao spread the notebook on the stone table. Chen Han noticed that there were still stains of ink between the prince's fingernails - this regent prince must have just rushed here from Wenhua Palace after reviewing memorials.

As the pages turned, a few dried locust flowers fell. Zhu Biao pointed to one of the pages and said, "The 'Miscellaneous Talks on the Reform' recorded by the students of Suzhou Prefecture abruptly cut Chen Han's statement that 'the land tax should be adjusted according to local conditions' into 'the land tax needs to be adjusted according to local conditions'"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly sneered, his beard still stained with the cake crumbs that his great-grandson had pasted on him. "When we executed the officials who were convicted of the Empty Seal Case, they also punctuated the sentence in this way! They wrote 'Anyone who embezzles more than ten taels will be beheaded' as 'Anyone who embezzles more than ten taels', and fed the second half to the dogs?"

Chen Han took the book and looked at it carefully, his pupils suddenly contracted.

One page recorded the "New Policy" written by a Confucian scholar from Songjiang. It even tampered with the words "each prefecture and county should keep 20% to maintain integrity" when he promoted the "fire consumption to the public" policy, and changed it to "each prefecture and county should keep 20%". The most vicious annotation was: "This is evidence that the thief Chen and the local authorities shared the spoils."

"There's something even more outrageous." Zhu Biao turned to the page marked with red silk. "The Henan Provincial Censor wrote in a letter to his family: 'Prime Minister Chen said that officials and gentry paying taxes together is robbing the rich to help the poor', but he deliberately left out the following paragraph: 'However, the rich have fields stretching across miles, while the poor have no place to stand. This is not robbing the rich, but actually benefiting the people'."

The pavilion suddenly became so quiet that one could hear the sound of carp leaping into the water.

Zhu Youwei clenched her handkerchief tightly, her knuckles turning white: "They are trying to turn my husband into the second Zhang Jiangling!"

Zhu Yuanzhang unexpectedly did not ask any further questions, but just lifted his great-grandson up a little higher: "See? These scholars' pens are faster than our swords." The old man suddenly turned to Chen Han: "How is the implementation of your 'Performance Evaluation System' going?"

This is the assessment system he designed by combining Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation system and Yongzheng's system of maintaining integrity. I didn't expect the old man to remember the name so clearly. "The six ministries have been trying it out for three months, but..." He pointed to the last page of the book with a wry smile, "Now officials say that the 'performance evaluation system' is a 'harsh system'."

Zhu Biao suddenly started coughing violently, and Zhu Youwei hurriedly handed him tea.

After the prince recovered his breath, he took out another wax-wrapped secret letter from his bosom and said, "These are even more terrifying."

When the letter was unfolded, it turned out to be the "New Bamboo Branch Poems" compiled by Jiangxi scholars. It distorted Chen Han's "One Whip Law" into "Nine Whips Law", and the accompanying picture was a scene of nine poisonous snakes entangled a farmer.

"They are playing word games." Chen Han's voice was cold, "Just like the slander of Wang Jinggong's 'Green Mow Law' as 'Green Mow Tax'. Now I say 'the government warehouse charges three percent interest on borrowed grain', and when it spreads to the people, it becomes 'Prime Minister Chen wants to charge 30% interest'."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly handed his great-grandson to the wet nurse and poked his dry-branch-like fingers on the stone table: "Biao'er, have the Jinyiwei found the source?" The cold light in the old woman's eyes reminded Chen Han of the murderous intent in the empty seal case.

"Your son was just about to report." Zhu Biao unfolded a silk map with a dozen dots circled in cinnabar, "Suzhou Gu family, Songjiang Xu family, Hangzhou Qian family..." Chen Han's face became uglier with each name the prince read out - these were the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River whose interests were affected by his land survey.

Zhu Youwei suddenly exclaimed, "Didn't the Gu family just donate 5,000 dan of grain to help with relief?" She pointed to the scene of the poetry gathering recorded in the book, "That day they also wrote poems praising the 'New Policies Benefiting the People'..."

"That's right!" Zhu Biao slammed the table, "They sing praises in public, but in private..." The prince took out a beautifully bound copy of "Ode to the New Deal", which at first glance was full of flattering words, but hidden in the interleaf were the "Ten Crimes of Chen Han" written in tiny calligraphy.

Chen Han took it and looked at it carefully, and laughed angrily: "Great! What I said about 'collecting the arrears of previous years' was changed to 'forcibly collecting the old grain of previous years', and 'cutting down redundant staff' was changed to 'indiscriminate killing of officials'..." He suddenly stopped and pointed to the last item: "I never said this!"

Zhu Yuanzhang leaned over and squinted his eyes as he read: "'Chen Xiang's presence in the court is your Majesty's fault'?" The old man suddenly laughed out loud, and the sound startled all the sparrows in the tree. "I think I understand now. They don't dare to scold the emperor, so they take it out on you, a time traveler!"

The atmosphere in the pavilion became relaxed.

Zhu Biao stroked the jade belt around his waist anxiously: "But these remarks have already spread among the scholars. I am worried..."

"Are you worried that they will strike back after I die, just like they did to Zhang Juzheng?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly used a self-proclaimed name that Chen Han had never heard of, shocking Zhu Youwei so much that she almost dropped the teacup in her hand. The old man grabbed a book and tore it to pieces: "I want to live to see them suffer internal injuries!"

The scraps of paper fell on the lake like snowflakes, attracting koi carps to eat them.

Chen Han looked at the fish fighting for food and suddenly said, "In fact, what they fear most is that the historians will record the truth."

He pointed to the words circled in cinnabar on the remaining pages of the book: "These Confucian scholars deliberately did not mention how many more people the three million mu of hidden land that were surveyed could support."

"It's like they never record it." Zhu Biao suddenly spoke up, taking out another yellow silk memorial from his sleeve, "This was just submitted by the Ministry of Revenue this morning. After the implementation of the new policy, the number of farmers committing suicide in Suzhou and Songjiang alone has decreased by 70%."

Zhu Yuanzhang took the memorial but did not read it. Instead, he squatted down and used the memorial to tease his great-grandson who was chasing after the paper: "Little monkey, remember, the ink spots on the history books..." The old man suddenly stuffed the memorial into the child's arms, "You have to use real evidence to wipe them off!"

Chen Han and Zhu Biao looked at each other and simultaneously thought of "Records of Awakening from Delusion" from the Yongzheng period.

Perhaps, it is time for the Jinyiwei to compile the achievements of the new policy into a vernacular libretto.

The sound of evening drums could be heard in the distance, and startled water birds flew across the lake, casting long shadows in the setting sun, just like those deliberately elongated stigmas in history books...

(End of this chapter)