Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 23 The people should be your bread and butter!

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at Xia Zhibai fiercely, his face extremely cold, and shouted: "What did you say?!"

Xia Zhibai looked directly at Zhu Yuanzhang, not retreating an inch, and said calmly and without arrogance: "I say, you! Will! Die!"

"How dare you!" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were full of frost, like copper bells, as if he wanted to eat Xia Zhibai alive on the spot.

The word "death" completely touched Zhu Yuanzhang's sensitive nerves. He was now extremely taboo and terrified about the word death.

He was also afraid of death.

There is also a great fear of death.

Since the death of Empress Ma, few people in and outside the court dared to mention this word. Now Xia Zhibai's answer made Zhu Yuanzhang angry and fearful.

He was angry at Xia Zhibai for daring to mention the word death in front of him, but he was afraid of something else, something that made it increasingly difficult for him to fall asleep.

He was worried that everything he had planned for the Ming Dynasty would become a failure.

So he is extremely filial.

The purpose was to prevent future generations from disobeying the rules he set, and to require all officials to follow the edict, urging future emperors to do as he asked.

This is the significance of spreading the Great Edict widely.

This is also what he is most worried about and afraid of. The reason why he has been committed to promoting "The Great Edict" over the years and making it almost known to everyone is because he wants to make it a golden law.

No one can disobey.

To ensure that the Ming Dynasty would last forever.

It was just that with Xia Zhibai's word "death", his long-standing anxiety and worry were completely revealed.

Zhu Yuanzhang panicked.

It was as if someone had pricked me in the pain corner.

He stared at Xia Zhibai intently, trying to see some clues from Xia Zhibai's face to strengthen his will that none of this would ever happen.

His Ming Dynasty would never become like that, and his descendants Zhu would never disobey the iron rules he set. Xia Zhibai was deliberately provoking him in order to achieve his ulterior motives.

Correct.

It must be like this.

Xia Zhibai watched Zhu Yuanzhang's expression change constantly, sighed in his heart, looked up at the dragon throne with its huge mouth not far away, and chuckled:
"Birth, aging, sickness and death are the inevitable laws of all things. No one can escape them, and you are no exception."

"You will die!"

"And the reason why you reacted so strongly is not because you are really afraid of death itself. As an emperor who has fought through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, you have seen too many deaths and have long since developed a heart of stone."

"Perhaps if death really happens to you, you will be a little shocked and angry, but what you are more worried and afraid of now is that everything you have worked so hard for will end with your death."

"And the eternal prosperity and wealth you planned for the Ming Dynasty and your Zhu family will be abandoned by those unworthy descendants."

"Finally, the Ming Dynasty fell!"

"Shut up!" Flames were burning in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, like a wounded lion, defending his last sovereignty and dignity.

His murderous intent towards Xia Zhibai reached its peak at this moment.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he has rarely been so furious, and rarely wanted to kill someone. Even Hu Weiyong did not have such a strong murderous intent as today.

"Are you scared?" Xia Zhibai stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Zhu Yuanzhang with a mocking expression.

"Afraid? Would I be afraid? What a joke!" Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, his eyes still cold and his mouth still unwilling to relax.

"What do we have to be afraid of?"

"We are the emperor."

"He is the master of this world."

"It has always been the case that others are afraid of us, but we are never afraid of others."

"Do you think these words can anger me? I've been through all kinds of things in my life. I've even had a knife put to my neck many times. Would I be afraid?"

"We know our descendants well. They are all filial children. They dare not disobey the rules we set for them."

"We are not sure about other families, but we are confident about ours."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said that he had always attached great importance to the education of the children of the Zhu family and the cultivation of filial piety. He believed that no one would dare to disobey.

He even specially distributed the "Great Edict" throughout the country so that officials could be supervised in the future and would not dare to act rashly.

Xia Zhibai laughed out loud.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked coldly.

Xia Zhibai said: "I laugh at you because you have been deceiving yourself for too long, or you have heard too many lies and you really took the officials' compliments seriously."

"Are the children of your Zhu family really obedient?"

"Do you believe this?"

"You are still alive now, and the princes who were enfeoffed in various places have turned a deaf ear to your words and ignored them. When you are no longer alive, who will really care about that pile of waste paper?"

"The living cannot be controlled by the dead."

"Even if you are an emperor."

"As for your other method of restraint, it is to publish the Great Edict throughout the country so that officials and common people can learn from it. When future emperors make mistakes, these officials and common people can hold up the Great Edict and ask for mercy."

"Don't you think that's too naive?"

"A book written by your Emperor Hongwu himself can have the same effect as the Imperial Sword? And your Majesty seems to have forgotten that this sword belongs to the royal family."

"Master, aren't you afraid?"

"Besides, would you really give officials these rights? You yourself refused to listen to the censors' advice and remonstrances, and you don't treat the officials as human beings at all. How desperate would the officials be to risk their lives to remonstrate with you?"

"Besides, your ideal officials are just stewards who manage the world for you. These people are servants of the Zhu family. How can they have such backbone and courage?"

"As for the common people, they are even more of a joke."

"When you publish the Great Edict, the expected scenario is that when these people are oppressed, they can hold the Great Edict over their heads and directly arrest the local nobles who oppressed them to file a complaint with the emperor. The various government offices along the way will also send people to protect them."

"But over the years, local rebellions have occurred one after another, and you have arrested corrupt officials one after another. Has there been a single citizen who has come to file a complaint with the emperor?"

"They can't even sue corrupt officials, how can they sue the emperor? Don't you think these ideas are unrealistic?"

Zhu Yuanzhang had a gloomy face.

Xia Zhibai shook his head and said solemnly: "Everything you have done for the world is actually a lesson learned from the demise of the Yuan Dynasty."

"You once said that the Yuan Dynasty lost the world because it was too lenient. The Qin Dynasty lost because of its brutality, and the Han Dynasty saved it by using leniency, and used leniency to overcome brutality, and that's how it won it."

"The Yuan Dynasty is too lenient, so you should help it with severity. Leniency and severity should complement each other, but you must make sure it is appropriate."

"The Yuan Dynasty's leniency is not what we call leniency, but it is different from the systems of other dynasties in the Central Plains."

"You think the failure of the Yuan Dynasty lies in the fact that it did not follow the tradition of centralizing power and ruling the world with force. Loose and limited chaotic management will only lead to disorder in the world and eventually lead to the collapse of the Yuan Empire."

“And you learned your lesson.”

"The Yuan Dynasty was lenient in speech, so the culture and education did not flourish; the Yuan Dynasty was lenient in punishment, so the punishment was not appropriate; the Yuan Dynasty was lenient in power, so the monarchy was not strong."

"After you founded the country, you have been madly trying to centralize power."

"It's just that the best centralized power in your mind is not like that of previous dynasties."

"Become a landlord instead!"

"In your impression, landlords are the most stable, long-lasting, and most effective way to manage a place."

"That's why you can so confidently treat officials as farmhands, beat, scold, and kill them at will, and treat the people as slaves, trampling and oppressing them at will."

"You think that you gave the people a way to survive, and that they should be grateful to you and give you everything, even their lives."

"Your so-called love for the people is nothing more than a landlord protecting his tools and livestock, and your close surveillance of the local area is just to prevent the emergence of the next Zhu Yuanzhang in the world."

"It's just that you're wrong."

"It's not that you gave the lower-class people a chance to survive, nor are you the people's king or father. On the contrary, it's the people who feed the empire you built."

"The people are your bread and butter!"

(End of this chapter)