Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 185 He respects us, but he is not afraid of us!

Fengtian Temple.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao came back again.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were as calm as water, and no one could tell from their expression.

He put the crumpled memorial in his hand on the table and stared at it with a complicated expression. In the end, he did not choose to restore the memorial, but took the ball of paper to the candle and burned it directly.

Zhu Biao was startled.

He knew that his father would be angry about this, but based on his father's past temper, he would still read the memorial after being angry. But this time, his father made an exception. Not only did he not read it, he also chose to burn it directly.

This is very unusual.

This memorial indeed made my father feel disgusted and dissatisfied.

even
Maybe with a bit of panic.

This was the first time Zhu Biao had seen such abnormal behavior in all these years.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood beside the candlelight, his wrinkled face changing little by little as the candlelight flickered.

finally.

Under the gaze of the father and son, this newly submitted memorial completely turned into ashes and ceased to exist. Except for Xia Zhibai, no one else knew what was written in it. Only Zhu Yuanzhang, who took a quick glance at it, might know what was written on it.

Zhu Yuanzhang's body seemed to be frozen. He just stood there straight, staring blankly at the remaining ash.

"Father." Zhu Biao called softly a few times.

Zhu Yuanzhang came to his senses, turned around and returned to the platform, with fatigue in his eyes becoming more obvious.

He looked at Zhu Biao wearily and said, "Boss, it's getting late. You should go back and rest first. We still have to deal with these memorials."

"The court is short of people now. If we don't work harder, there will be chaos in the court."

Zhu Biao cupped his hands and said, "Father, I am not tired."

"I am willing to stay by your side, serve you, and help you solve your problems."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head. He picked up the memorial he had read before and nodded at Zhu Biao, indicating that Zhu Biao should take it.

Zhu Biao looked hesitant, and after hesitating for a moment, he reached out and took it.

He was also curious about Xia Zhibai's memorial.

"Take it back and have a look."

"Although I don't like Xia Zhibai's ambition or his strong attitude, to a certain extent, he has indeed done a thorough study of the world. It's just that he is not me. The world is too important to him, but I have more than just the world in my eyes."

Zhu Biao asked, "Father, what exactly does Xia Zhibai want to do?"

He asked anyway.

Xia Zhibai is a very contradictory person.

On the one hand, he appears to be very cunning, and on the other hand, he appears to be very simple.

His eyes are fixed on the world, but he is secretly at odds with the world.

He is ambitious and courageous, but seems very frivolous, making people dare not trust him easily, yet he can create miracles at times.

This is a mysterious existence.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Biao, who continued to take out a memorial and said softly while flipping through it: "He wants to rebel, but he doesn't dare to rebel against me. He disdains everything I have established, and tries to persuade me to listen to him in his own way."

"In Xia Zhibai's eyes, our Ming Dynasty is destined to be short-lived and will perish in the second generation."

"He believes that the Ming Dynasty we established is the Qin and Sui dynasties in history."

"He respects us, but he is not afraid of us."

"What he respected was that I rose from a commoner to the emperor, what he respected was that I truly achieved 'expelling the Tartars', and what he respected was that I truly regarded 'bridging the north and the south' as ​​my life's work."

"But at the same time"

A cold light flashed in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

He said coldly: "He looks down on me and thinks I am just a peasant who doesn't know how to govern the country. Even if I read a lot of books, understand a lot of principles, and learn a lot of lessons, I am still following the old path of history. He thinks I am not a good enough emperor."

"He wants to teach us how to do things!"

"He thinks our world should be governed according to his ideas."

"He felt that the Ming Dynasty should not wear new shoes and walk the old path."

"He thinks that since I came from the peasants, I should always keep the peasants in mind. I shouldn't turn my back on him just because I became the emperor, and I shouldn't completely break off with the Zhu Yuanzhang from the common people. What he wants is for us to take the people as the foundation, reorganize the world, and establish new rules and regulations for the world."

"He wants us to be the great saint of this world!"

Zhu Yuanzhang flicked his sleeves, still calm, but his tone was icy cold.

When Zhu Yuanzhang spoke coldly, Zhu Biao suddenly felt a piercing chill on his body. An invisible pressure emerged from Zhu Yuanzhang, as if a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood were pressing down on the hall, making it hard for him to breathe.

The whole hall was dead silent.

Zhu Biao subconsciously held his breath.

"Xia Zhibai is arrogant, aggressive, and restless, but these are just the views of a scholar." Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, his eyes full of indifference and disdain: "He has no idea how important the world is, nor how difficult it is to govern it. Does he really think that he can get things done by relying on some wild ideas?"

"We've killed so many people over the years, but we still can't suppress these bastards. Why does he think he can do it?"

"Even his own salt shop can be bullied by others, how dare he speak so shamelessly in front of us."

"Fool!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and every word he said was sharp.

But beneath the hysteria, there is also a strong sense of anxiety.

Because Xia Zhibai revealed a truth, a truth that Zhu Yuanzhang was unwilling to believe but yet recognized, that is, the "scholars" of the Ming Dynasty could not go back. In this "Guo Huan case", the number of ministers confiscated was not large, but the "officials" and "landlords with status" under them were too many. Otherwise, more than 24 million shi of money and grain would not have been confiscated.

This is no longer a Chief Secretary issue.

But twelve!
The entire Ming Dynasty was no exception.

This was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Zhu Yuanzhang.

He spared no effort in cracking down on corrupt officials and promoting the "Great Edict" in an attempt to rectify the long-standing unhealthy practices in the world and return the world to the ancient ways. However, the results of these investigations slapped him in the face time and time again.

But it was impossible for him to really do what Xia Zhibai wanted.

Too dangerous.

Even he couldn't control it.

Doing it all at once means chaos, chaos means uncontrollable, and uncontrollable means something will go wrong.

The Ming Dynasty is now in an embarrassing situation.

Neither up nor down.

on?
The unhealthy tendencies in the world have long been rampant and desires are insatiable.

He had tried so hard to curb it, but to no avail. Based on his understanding of the world, he knew that local officials at all levels had used the power granted by the old hierarchical system to seize wealth to satisfy their ever-expanding desires, and the situation had developed to an alarming degree.

Just as Xia Zhibai said, the traditional political situation is becoming increasingly corrupt.

The internal structure of the old system has been destroyed.

He is well-versed in the history of the world, so how could he not understand this situation?

Because of this.

He deliberately implemented "small government" throughout the country, that is, he tried his best to reduce the number of local officials and curbed the spread of the disease in the most subjective way.

But it can only delay it.

And he took another powerful measure.

Just kill!

As long as he kills them quickly enough and kills enough of them, these corrupt officials will all be eliminated before they can threaten the court. In this way, he can ensure the survival of the Ming Dynasty and the descendants of the Zhu family will be able to rule the world securely.

Therefore, what Xia Zhibai said before that Zhu Biao was not like his father was correct.

Zhu Biao is indeed different.

He is too soft-hearted to take strong measures.

They have never dared to really kill them all or completely eradicate them.

Zhu Yuanzhang regained his composure. He looked at Zhu Biao indifferently, a gloom flashed across his eyes, and he said in a deep voice: "Biao'er, you need to always remember that the emperor cannot have any emotions. Except for the people of our Zhu family, everyone else can be killed, dares to be killed, and must be killed."

"There is no closeness."

"It's either life or death!"

Zhu Biao was startled, knowing that his father was teaching him: "I will remember this."

"I don't want you to remember this, but I want you to do this in the future. It's not easy for us to conquer this world, but it's even more difficult to keep this world. We are born as peasants, and not many people in the world look up to us. But we have to work hard to make a name for ourselves and rule this world." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Zhu Biao nodded quickly.

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand: "Okay, it's getting late, you should go back first."

"After you go down, you should take a good look at this memorial written by Xia Zhibai. Although some of his ideas are unacceptable, they may be taken as a point of view from another perspective."

"Your son obeys your order." Zhu Biao said.

He looked at the many memorials on the desk, with a hint of worry and concern in his eyes.

Zhu Yuanzhang no longer spoke.

He concentrated all his attention on writing the memorial.

After standing still for a while, Zhu Biao glanced at the memorial in his hand and said respectfully, "Father, please rest early. I will take my leave now."

Done.

Zhu Biao slowly left the hall.

After returning to the East Palace and doing some simple cleaning, Zhu Biao went to the study.

He had no mood to sleep right now.

He couldn't fall asleep without reading Xia Zhibai's memorial. He asked the eunuch to hold the lamp beside him, placed the memorial neatly on the desk, and read it carefully. He read it all night long, and only when it was light in the sky did Zhu Biao reluctantly put the memorial down.

He already knew why his father looked so pale last night.

Because Xia Zhibai didn't care about the current social hierarchy at all, all the distinctions were made based on assets. This kind of distinction completely flattened the originally huge gap between the upper and lower levels, and made everything completely clear at a glance.

at the same time.

It also points out the problem of the Ming Dynasty in achieving long-term stability.

That is, land is limited, but human desires are unlimited. As time goes by, the appetite of existing landlords will only grow bigger and bigger, and they will certainly encroach on the land of the people. When the people are left with no land and completely become farmhands or slaves, the world will be overthrown.

Want to contain.

We can only unite the people at the bottom of society.

But as Xia Zhibai said, the Ming imperial family is the largest landlord in the world. Who can guarantee that if the Ming Dynasty is lenient to these lower-class people, these people will not covet the imperial family's things?

Wouldn't it be like shooting oneself in the foot in the end?
Who would be willing to do this?

(End of this chapter)