Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

“Nationalism is either all or nothing.”

“The worst-case scenario is that others have nationalism and you don’t.”

"We must use this double-edged sword well!"

Zhu Youjian was well aware of the harm of nationalism.

But he also knew that he had no choice in this regard.

Not to mention that Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty with the slogan of expelling the barbarians, the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty, Jianlu, is actually practicing the worst kind of racism in nationalism in Liaodong. These people used barbarians to change Chinese culture and massacred and enslaved millions of Han people in Liaodong.

If he hadn't used nationalism, some people in the Ming Dynasty would have thought that the Jianlu were just a rebellion and that their attack on the capital was just a change of dynasty.

Historically, many gentry in the Ming Dynasty held this view. When the Jianlu invaded Nanjing, they abandoned the Southern Ming emperor without hesitation.

Zhu Youjian promoted nationalism at this time in order to break the fluke mentality of some people and let them know that cooperating with the Jianlu was like seeking the skin of a tiger and that they would never be able to obtain equal status.

However, it is difficult to change the minds of some people, so he must enact strict laws to let people know what the consequences will be if they surrender to the Jianlu and that being a traitor will be infamous for eternity.

Congress and the Imperial Guard quickly drafted the "Bill to Punish Traitors" in accordance with his instructions and published it in the newspapers.

For a time, people were discussing this issue a lot, and they began to know what a traitor was and what a Chinese person was.

And they knew that Jianlu was an enemy country that rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and established its own country, and was the enemy of the Ming Dynasty:
"Nurhaci once said: God blesses me but not China."

"It can be seen that in his heart, he no longer considers himself a Chinese."

"Han Zi said: When Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, if the princes used barbarian rituals, they were barbarians; if they advanced to Chinese, they were Chinese."

"Nurhaci used barbarian rituals, which made him a complete foreigner. He was not only a dragon and tiger general who rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, but also an enemy from outside."

"The Later Jin he founded was an enemy of the Ming Dynasty, and all Han people who defected to the Later Jin were considered traitors."

"Everyone has the right to punish traitors, and their relatives will be exiled overseas."

People in the capital were talking about the article in the newspaper.

They were so tired of hearing the word "Jianlu" that they all knew it was the enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

However, many people have no idea what the nature of this enemy is.

Some people think that it was just a rebellion of the羈縻所, but it was just a big deal.

Some people consider it an enemy country, no less powerful than Mongolia.

Now the imperial court has made it clear that the Jianlu were not only rebels, but also one of the enemy countries after they established the Later Jin and continued to fight with the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty must use all its strength to destroy such an enemy country. The merit of pacifying the Jianlu will be treated as the merit of destroying a country.

On the contrary, the Mongols, who had always been regarded as northern barbarians, have now become vassals of the Ming Dynasty after Altan Khan and Ligdan Khan successively accepted tribute. The war between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty had long ended, and Mongolia was no longer one of the enemy countries.

This definition made many generals realize:
If you want to make a contribution, then go to Liaodong and fight the Jurchens.

Even if the battle on the grassland was won, the achievements would be far less than those made in the fight against the Jianlu.

The generals of the Ming army, stimulated by the Battle of Daning, all wanted to go to Liaodong:
They thought that the new troops they brought from the Beijing camp would be no weaker than Man Gui.

Cao Wenzhao, who had been determined to be sent to support Liaodong, was envied by many people. Even his superior Yang Jiamo wanted to swap with him.

However, Zhu Youjian would not agree to this request, because after the Battle of Daning, he had determined that it was only a matter of time before the Jianlu were eliminated. In this case, he naturally needed to seek stability to prevent any accidents in the capital and chaos in the world.

Therefore, the most important task of the new army of the Beijing Camp is still to guard the capital. He will not send out all the troops under his control.

That kind of gambling on national destiny is only suitable for small countries or people who are desperate. The current Ming Dynasty is far from that point, and what is needed more is stability.

Therefore, he still decided to send only 10,000 troops from the Beijing camp to fight in the Liaodong Campaign next year, and to transfer troops from local areas to supplement the troops transferred out.
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Chen Zilong, who was revising the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in accordance with the emperor's order, was interested in the provisions on dual nationality when he saw them.
"Dual citizenship means having two allegiances."

"The premise for the Ming Dynasty to recognize dual citizenship is that the other country recognizes the naturalized citizens of the Ming Dynasty and still has to be loyal to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty first."

"It would be nice if people in the late Han Dynasty had this understanding, but unfortunately many people are loyal to their lord first."

This is the dual monarchy, or the concept of two monarchs, that the emperor mentioned when he talked to him about the history of the Three Kingdoms.

Many chaos in the late Han Dynasty were caused by the fact that many scholars were loyal to their lords first and the emperor second.

Even Xun Yu, a talented assistant to the king, was troubled by this idea. When Cao Cao wanted to be crowned duke, he chose to commit suicide by taking poison.

Chen Zilong was moved at the moment and wrote an article which was published in Ming Pao, supporting the Ming subjects to be loyal to the Ming emperor first.

For a time, the theory of the double monarch became widely known.

Especially those scholars who served in the vassal states had a deep understanding of this. They published articles in newspapers to support Chen Zilong's views, saying that even if they served in the vassal states, they were still first and foremost subjects of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian was very impressed by the effectiveness of his articles. After learning that Chen Zilong had revised many chapters of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he supported him to serialize it in newspapers so that readers could read it and point out any errors or omissions that still existed.

Chen Zilong naturally obeyed the emperor's orders and took advantage of people's interest in the late Han Dynasty to publish his revised version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

This enduring work is indeed charming. The circulation of Ming Pao has increased again, and many people are discussing Romance of the Three Kingdoms:
"the river is long and tempestuous, it was like a hero."

"This song 'Linjiangxian' is great! It's a perfect opening for 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'."

"I heard that the emperor liked Yang Shen's poems very much and even had him worshipped in the Luzhou City God Temple."

"You are talking about old news. Yang Shen was named the City God of Yongchang Prefecture at the request of Yunnan officials and people because of his contribution to the education of Yunnan."

"He is now a proper City God of a prefecture, one level higher than the City God of a state."

……

People were talking about the opening words of the revised version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

To be honest, the Ming Dynasty did not have much to write about in terms of ci creation. Yang Shen's "Linjiangxian" was the best among them and was highly praised by people.

Although the lyrics talk about the Qin and Han dynasties rather than the Three Kingdoms, because the wonderful content of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is mostly in the late Han Dynasty, and the artistic conception of the lyrics is extremely suitable for the story of the Three Kingdoms, people think it is very suitable as the opening lyrics of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

It can be said that Romance of the Three Kingdoms received positive reviews from people on the first day of its serialization, making a great start.

Then in the next issue of the newspaper, people saw "Liu Xuande whipped the inspector angrily", and the discussion became even more heated:

"Wasn't it Zhang Fei who whipped the inspector? How did it become Liu Bei?"

"How can you change what Chen Hanlin wrote?"

Many people have heard of the Three Kingdoms story. Some people criticized it immediately after seeing the revised version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms change Zhang Yide's whipping of the postal inspector to Liu Xuande. Then, seeing the error message next to the article, some people wanted to write a letter and send it over.

But there are also people who are well-versed in history books and show off:
"It was Liu Bei who whipped the inspector angrily. This is recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms and the Classic of Rites."

"It's just that the person who wrote the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was uneducated and changed Liu Bei to Zhang Fei."

"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Luo Guanzhong is still used, and Chen Hanlin is correcting the original."

Reciting a passage from the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" shows that Chen Zilong revised it according to historical records.

Now many scholars dare not speak, for fear of saying something wrong and being accused of not understanding the classics and history.

But some people did not accept this and slammed the table and said:

"How could Liu Xuande, a kind and noble man, do such a thing?"

"Secretary Shi must be wrong. Lord Xuande would never do this!"

Obviously, this means that a benevolent monarch should be like Liu Bei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms and not accept such changes.

However, Chen Zilong's revised version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms made major changes to Liu Bei's image according to the emperor's order. The main purpose was to highlight Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness, as well as his indomitable "heroic spirit". This made people understand more clearly why Cao Cao said to Liu Bei, "The only heroes in the world today are you and me."

The fact that the protagonist of "The Inspector Furiously" changed from Zhang Fei to Liu Bei is a reflection of this point. The story of Liu Bei is told according to the records in historical books such as "Records of the Three Kingdoms".

This change was welcomed by some people, but difficult for others to accept. As a result, this version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms caused controversy as soon as it was published, attracting more people to watch it.
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Ai Nanying, who taught at the Normal School, also saw these things.

He and Chen Zilong had a feud because he was stopped by Chen Zilong when he challenged Zhang Pu to a debate. Later, Chen Zilong beat him up at a party, making him lose face.

So, after seeing Chen Zilong's revised version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" serialized in the newspaper, he immediately read it carefully, hoping to find the mistakes and make Chen Zilong lose face:
"It is said that the revision of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was arranged by the Emperor."

"If Chen Zilong loses face over this, how will he continue in the Imperial Academy?"

"I just don't believe that he can make every word worth a thousand gold and not change a single word!"

I read the published version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" several times, hoping to find out the mistakes.

However, to his disappointment, he really didn't find any major mistakes in it. At most, there were some controversial places.

However, these controversies have little impact, and most of them are based on the old version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". If he really picked them out, he would only be accused of nitpicking and be considered narrow-minded.

This made Ai Nanying even angrier, and he even thought of the pride Chen Zilong felt when he was rewarded by the emperor after revising "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Whenever he thought of this, he felt suffocated and said in hatred:

"no!"

"We can't let this person get away with it."

"I have to write a better article to suppress him, and it would be best if it could be read by the emperor."

He racked his brains to think of a way to suppress Chen Zilong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Although "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a novel, after being revised by Chen Zilong, it has become a historical reading that respects historical facts more.

Ai Nanying was also well versed in history. He dug out his previously written "Complete History of Ancient and Modern Times" and submitted it to a newspaper for serialization.

Given his writing style and reputation, newspapers certainly would not refuse. Datong Daily, chaired by Qian Qianyi, soon published the first volume of The Complete History of Ancient and Modern Times.

Ai Nanying had high hopes for this, but to his disappointment, not many people discussed his historical work. People were still talking about the Three Kingdoms story, and had no interest in the historical knowledge he wrote.

Of course, some people also praised him. Qian Qianyi wrote him a letter to praise his efforts in history and promised to recommend it to Mingzhi Bookstore for publication after the serialization was completed.

At the same time, Qian Qianyi also made several suggestions, one of which was to attach the lunar calendar next to the reign title. This is the case in Chen Zilong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where the Yellow Emperor's era is always attached to the reign title.

Ai Nanying was even more upset after seeing this, because he had realized that his "Complete History of Ancient and Modern Times" could not surpass "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". He could only think of another way to suppress Chen Zilong's limelight, because he could not surpass this person in writing history:

"If I don't write history, will I write scriptures?"

“How many people can read my scriptures and writings?”

His eight-part essays were well written and were used as models by many scholars. His previous dispute with Zhang Pu was about the eight-part essay style.

However, being good at writing eight-legged essays does not mean that one has a deep study of the classics. The most prestigious Confucian scholar in the world today is Liu Zongzhou, who was ordered by the emperor to compile the classics section of the Chongzhen Encyclopedia.

How could Ai Nanying, a mere juren, compare with Liu Zongzhou?

So writing scriptures didn't work, and not many people were interested in his scriptures.

Thinking over and over, scratching his head, Ai Nanying flipped through the newspaper randomly, and suddenly saw the content about the distinction between Chinese and barbarians in the newspaper, and an idea popped up in his mind:
“I can’t write the sutras myself, but I can write commentaries on them!”

"The distinction between Chinese and barbarians is correct. Confucius and Mencius both mentioned this."

"If this is written well, it will definitely overshadow Chen Zilong."

"Maybe the Emperor will see it, so Chen Zilong won't have all the glory."

He immediately flipped through the classics on the distinction between Chinese and barbarians and listed the viewpoints of ancient sages one by one.

Then write an article based on the words of Confucius and Mencius to explain the distinction between Chinese and barbarians.

The article adheres strictly to the "great defense between Chinese and barbarians" and is completely in line with Confucius and Mencius' interpretation of Chinese and barbarians.

Hao Jing and Xu Heng were severely criticized for their defense of the Mongols' rule over the Central Plains.

He also used Han Yu's words "If the princes use barbarian rituals, they will be barbarians; if they advance towards China, they will be Chinese" to support the emperor's naturalization of the barbarians and educate them to become Chinese.

It was also linked to Datong, believing that Datong could only be achieved by civilizing all foreigners.

Naturally, this article was also submitted to the Datong Daily. When Qian Qianyi read it, he was shocked and almost broke out in a cold sweat.

As the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, he knew that the current emperor had invited Yuan Shizu back to the Imperial Temple. However, the content of this article criticized this point:
"It is better for the barbarians to have no ruler than for the Chinese to have no ruler at all."

"According to Ai Nanying's explanation, barbarians can become Chinese if they enter China, but if a barbarian becomes a monarch, it would be worse than nothing."

"In that case, isn't it wrong for the emperor to place Yuan Shizu back in the Imperial Temple for worship?"

"This article cannot be published. Let the emperor take a look first."

He hid the article and presented it to the emperor first.

Avoid causing too much controversy after the article is published, which would make people criticize the emperor. (End of this chapter)