Give them a little funny shock

Chapter 642 Angry Doraemon (Part 736)
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a peasant family, it was obvious that he did not really feel sorry for his peasant brother. Everyone knew this, or knew it very well.

However, there will always be some people who have unrealistic fantasies about such a standard feudal emperor.

As an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally did not have the so-called "love for the people like his own sons". In fact, it was impossible for an emperor who truly "loved the people like his own sons" to exist in the feudal dynasty... Well, there was Shi Hu.

This person truly loves his people like his own children.

Everything Zhu Yuanzhang did as an emperor was to maintain his rule and make his Zhu family's empire last for thousands of years. Even his attitude towards his people was probably more exaggerated than that of the emperors of the feudal dynasties in history.

After all, in Zhu Laoba's eyes, the best people in the world should be those from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. After all, the name of the book "Da Gao" comes from an article in the ancient book "Shang Shu", which records the admonitions of Zhou Gong to his subjects when he went on an expedition to the east to conquer the remnants of the Shang Dynasty.

And the people under his command should naturally be like the people of that time, honestly farming, hard labor without any complaints, and loyally serving their king. Just like what is said in the Great Edict: Restore the old rule of the former king of Zhong... That Guo.

The general meaning of this sentence is very simple, that is: the best people are the people during the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the slavery period.

It is precisely because of this that during Zhu Yuanzhang’s Ming Dynasty, an evolved version of the baojia system, namely the zhiding and luyin system, was introduced, which severely restricted ordinary people’s travel and made them semi-slaves.

Of course, there is nothing much to say about this. After all, our ancestors did the same thing. Road passes have basically existed in every dynasty, and only a few dynasties did not have them.

It's just that Zhu Laoba, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, carried forward this system and strengthened it. The Ming Dynasty and the later Ming Dynasty also became the ultimate state of the feudal dynasty on this land. Of course, the Ming Dynasty is still a little worse than the Qing Dynasty, which is the true ultimate form of the feudal dynasty.

Then I was bullied by foreigners.

However, there is no Qing Dynasty in this era, and the ancestor of this dynasty is still working for some general of the Ming Dynasty, so we will not mention it for now.

The hierarchy he strengthened, such as the "Ming Dynasty Law: Household Law", can well demonstrate this point:
Anyone who slaughters cattle and horses without permission shall be punished with 100 strokes of the cane.

Beating and killing slaves or captives shall be punished one level less than the death penalty for ordinary people and shall be punished with 170 strokes of the cane.

Any head of a family who allows his slave to marry a good woman shall be punished with eighty strokes of the cane.

Anyone who mistakenly regards a slave as a good person and becomes a husband or wife with a good person shall be beaten with ninety sticks and both parties shall be divorced and make amends.

Slaves still existed in the Ming Dynasty, as they did in every feudal dynasty, they were just given a relatively "pleasant" name. In fact, the lives of slaves were not considered lives in most cases.

There is another more important thing about Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, the revival of the human sacrifice system. Of course, this can be excused. After all, one has to cross the river by feeling the stones of his predecessors. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in the Yuan Dynasty, naturally had to inherit the fine traditions of the Yuan Dynasty.

It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang's combination of measures has basically realized his idea: that is, to turn the Ming Empire into a semi-slave society similar to the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Of course, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, these systems that tied people up tightly had basically become meaningless. After all, everyone was not a coward and they naturally liked to make things difficult for themselves.

Moreover, the gentry and literati of the Ming Dynasty were famous for their openness. They were so open that when missionaries from the West heard about their tricks, they were shocked and shouted "God!"

In the core areas, they implemented a semi-slave system, tying the people to their land. In the southwestern border areas, in order to "prevent the barbarians from coveting the Central Plains", they joined forces with the local chieftains and the Mu family to implement a thorough serfdom system in the local area.

Because of this system, in the decades after his death, the Ming Dynasty created millions of refugees in the central region. For example, the "Biography of Xiang Zhong" and "Biography of Yuan Jie" in "History of Ming Dynasty" are all manifestations of Zhuge Liang's genius institutional design.

It cannot be said that Zhu Yuanzhang was not smart, nor can it be said that Zhu Yuanzhang was incapable. On the contrary, although he was born as a peasant and started with nothing, he loved learning very much. After becoming emperor, his knowledge level was far higher than that of ordinary people.

The reason why he did this and designed such an imperial operating system was very simple: he was an emperor, an emperor of a feudal dynasty.

Of course he will do whatever benefits himself and strengthen his power.

A large number of refugees were created in the central part, and a maritime ban was issued in the coastal areas. I have to say that the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty later were really the same... uh, forget it.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also had his shining points. For example, when he was building the royal palace, city walls, and imperial tombs, he was often able to get along well with the workers on the project.

They did get along well with each other, there was nothing wrong with that. Thanks to his lower-class background, he naturally "understood" the lower-class people and their thinking patterns better than the average feudal emperors.

Therefore, he became the de facto biggest supervisor of these projects - could there be a bigger supervisor than the emperor?
As a result, the number of workers executed by him personally reached tens of thousands.

However, for Zhu Yuanzhang, this number is actually very restrained, just a drop in the bucket.

"Ming History: Biography of Xue Xiang" records:
Grand Tutor Li Shanchang reported to the emperor that the craftsmen used the method of exorcism, and the emperor was about to kill them all.

Xiang separated those who were not at work and did not prepare for the work, including the iron and stonemasons, and saved thousands of lives.

Excluding those who were executed by Zhu Yuanzhang's order, there were countless similar craftsmen who built the city walls, palaces, and imperial tombs.

For his own selfish reasons, he was determined to build Fengyang City, the secondary capital, but what was the result? Not only did it cost the people money and time, but it also created the largest ghost town in the Ming Dynasty.

During the Wanli period, the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang, the place where he was born and the secondary capital he longed for, was left with only 13,894 people as recorded in the Ming Shilu.

The "Fengyang New Book" further records: the fields had no harvest, and the refugees who had been there for years all moved to Jining and Linqing to seek food, and there were tens of thousands of them.

Therefore, there came into being a song called “Fengyang Flower Drum”.

(End of this chapter)