Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 343: To be a rat or to be a human!

Li Shanchang did not comment.

People are selfish, especially after experiencing a period of ritual collapse and music breakdown, how easy is it to rebuild a positive system? If it were really that easy, His Majesty would not be so obsessed with his own private interests.

Li Shanchang looked at Xia Zhibai, pondered for a while, and said, "Do you think what you said will come true?"

Xia Zhibai said with certainty: "Yes."

"why?"

Xia Zhibai said: "Where there is a will, there is a way. Everything depends on human effort. As long as you work hard, you will achieve your goal step by step. The road ahead may be tortuous, but the future is definitely bright. Isn't the world today moving from chaos to order?"

Li Shanchang shook his head.

He picked up his chopsticks, picked up a piece of fish, and said as he ate, "Do you really think the world is heading for peace and order?"

Xia Zhibai suddenly fell silent.

Li Shanchang snorted and said indifferently: "You may have seen the current situation in the world. People are selfish. Being able to repair and maintain the world after the war is already the current limit. If you want to go further, all parties will no longer support it."

"I understand that you have fighting spirit, ambition and drive, but you have to face reality."

“That’s the reality.”

"And can the great peace in history really be considered a prosperous era? In prosperous eras, there have always been many dead bodies. Not being able to support so many people and managing such a huge system is a problem faced by every court. How could the Ming Dynasty be an exception?"

"Some things you've always known."

“I just won’t accept it.”

"Perhaps some of your opinions are inspiring and exciting, but facts must always be grounded. Ungrounded rhetoric will only become a laughing stock in the end. I don't know what you said to His Highness that made him change so much, but I need you to remember that nothing in the world is easy."

“It’s easy to change a person.”

"But to change the whole world, we must use all people's hearts to achieve success."

"The Ming Dynasty was founded by our subjects. We have deep feelings for the Ming Dynasty. We do not want the world to experience so many ups and downs, nor do we want the world to regress due to some absurd and ridiculous behavior, or even to see the situation of exchanging children for cannibalism and people living in misery again."

"The troubled times are so tragic."

Xia Zhibai smiled faintly.

He looked at Li Shanchang, who was calm and composed, with a hint of contempt on his face, and said, "Grand Master, you are still thinking about your own private interests. How can a minister decide whether the world moves or not? The decision-making power has never been in your hands, but in the hands of the emperor and the people of the world."

“When the people believe that the world needs reform, no matter how much the court tries to stop it, there will always be someone who makes an earth-shaking voice.”

"The Grand Master's feelings towards the Ming Dynasty are really a bit snobbish, not pure, and not sincere."

"If the Grand Master really cares about the world."

"The Grand Master may say a few more words to me."

Li Shanchang frowned.

He looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously and asked puzzledly: "Oh, what words do you think I should say?"

He also became interested at once.

"There is no such thing as a meritorious official in the dictionary of the Ming Dynasty!" Xia Zhibai said word by word.

Li Shanchang's face changed drastically.

The look he gave Xia Zhibai was filled with shock, anger and dissatisfaction.

Xia Zhibai drank the wine in the glass, then wiped the corners of his mouth with satisfaction, and said with a smile: "This is the true selfishness of human nature. These ministers who founded the Ming Dynasty have actually received the rewards they deserve from the world. Now they are in high positions, enjoying the glory and wealth that ordinary people can hardly achieve. They are also praised by the world, gaining both fame and fortune. Normally speaking, your contributions to the world have actually been paid off."

"It's just that you are not satisfied, nor are you willing to stop here."

"Desire is insatiable."

“The mountain is always higher than the other one.”

"I always feel that I have made such a great contribution to the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and I deserve to enjoy more benefits. However, I have never thought that the fame and fortune that I should have enjoyed were actually fulfilled when the country was founded. What you should really do now is to contribute to this new empire, so that you can get the fame and fortune that you should have."

“That’s only fair.”

"But how many people can 'start over' nowadays? Most of them are just resting on their past achievements, eating out, standing still, or even not making any progress. Moreover, many are complacent and always use their past achievements to bully others."

"Isn't this just embarrassing?"

"I don't deny that most people in the world are selfish, but the Grand Master only sees the selfishness of the officials below him, but not his own 'greed'. If the upper class themselves can't put themselves in the right position, why would the officials below follow suit?"

"As the saying goes, the more you do, the more you get. You are in high positions. Even if you only do a small thing, the rewards you get are thousands of times greater. But even so, you are still not satisfied. You still think you are being looked down upon and that the court is unfair."

"They even taught their subordinates a lesson, telling them not to be too greedy."

"How ridiculous."

Xia Zhibai sneered and shook his head, his eyes full of mockery and sarcasm.

Li Shanchang's face turned red with anger, and his eyes were filled with rage as he looked at Xia Zhibai, but he did not flare up in the end.

Xia Zhibai ignored Li Shanchang's anger and continued, "If the Grand Tutor wants to ask me why Your Highness changed in such a short time, I can indeed answer it for you, just like Li Si, the Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty in history."

"There is such a short passage in the biography of Li Si."

"When I was young, I was a minor official in the county. I saw rats in the toilet of the official's house. They ate unclean food and were often frightened when they were close to people and dogs. Li Si went into the warehouse and saw that the rats in the warehouse ate the stored grain and lived under the big veranda. They did not worry about people and dogs. So Li Si sighed and said: 'The virtue or vice of a person is like a rat. It depends on where it lives!'"

Li Shanchang nodded.

Of course he knew this story.

But why did Xia Zhibai suddenly mention 'Li Si'?
Xia Zhibai said leisurely: "This story of Li Si may give many people inspiration, but if combined with Li Si's life, it gives people more warnings, because whether it is a rat in the toilet or a rat in the warehouse, it is still a rat in the end."

“No matter how many times a mouse changes its position, it is still a mouse. Its essence does not change.”

"So Li Si can't escape the fate of being a rat either!"

"So this story, in my opinion, actually has two meanings. It allows people to put themselves in the shoes of the mouse that moves, or to be the person who observes the mouse and takes it as a warning."

"It's just that most people in the world would rather go from being a toilet rat to being a warehouse rat."

"I don't want to be a human being!"

(End of this chapter)