Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 20: Indecisiveness, Quantum Mechanics

After the speech, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly.

Of course, he also understood that Zhu Biao's special status determined that he was the most suitable successor at this stage.

I just didn't expect that the deeper reason behind this was still due to defending the country.

But perhaps this is exactly what he wants.

Being born a commoner emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang was destined to have a narrow vision. He only thought about high-pressure rule and did not dare to implement any relaxed policies.

But he forgot that any prosperous dynasty in history was rarely created under high-pressure rule.

Social development requires the liberation of productivity, and the country needs economic and agricultural recovery.

Under high-pressure rule, everyone is terrified and living a miserable life. Where does the subjective enthusiasm come from to devote themselves to development?
Even though many people believe that the Qing Dynasty was a dynasty that exercised a high degree of control and high pressure on the Han people, few people actually know that society became increasingly relaxed starting from the middle and late Kangxi period.

Policies including light taxation, living in harmony with the people's livelihood, rent and tax reductions, and never increasing taxes were implemented during the Kangxi period.

There is also a policy of levying taxes on newly reclaimed land after ten years, which greatly stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for reclaiming wasteland and led to a rapid increase in the area of ​​cultivated land.

During the Yongzheng period, a large number of reforms were carried out, which further promoted social relaxation.

In particular, a series of policies such as equalizing the land tax, returning the fire consumption to the public, and requiring officials and gentry to serve and pay taxes together greatly reduced the burden on the people.

Moreover, due to the relaxed policies in the middle and late Kangxi period, corruption among officials was rampant. It was only after Yongzheng's strict investigation of the civil service that the political situation became clear.

It can be said that Qianlong's grandfather led the Qing Dynasty's policy of recuperation and development, and Yongzheng increased this intensity, leaving behind a huge legacy of prosperity in the early period of Qianlong's reign. This led to the birth of the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous era.

Although Zhu Yunfeng hates the Qing Dynasty like most people, from an objective point of view, this is an undeniable fact.

Because in the past, he was like many history-blind people, including some history UP hosts on Bilibili, who all belittled Yongzheng, saying that these policies were not that great at all and that the common people were still the ones who suffered.

It was not until he watched Professor Du from the School of History of Nankai University's lecture on "Finance in the Qing Dynasty" that he understood what Yongzheng's reforms actually meant.

To put it simply, Yongzheng changed the Qing Dynasty's indirect taxes into direct taxes, merged the originally cumbersome taxes, made it impossible for gentry and bureaucrats to pass on taxes to the people, and eliminated the process of corruption among middle-level bureaucrats.

This will also allow the people to pay less and the treasury to earn more, but it will harm the interests of the middle-class landlords, gentry and bureaucrats.

Qianlong inherited this system and did not abolish it until his later years.

It was precisely for this reason that the relationship between the bureaucrats and the emperor became extremely tense from the Yongzheng period to the late Qianlong period, forcing Qianlong to later cancel the policies formulated by his father.

But even so, it was enough for Yongzheng to accumulate enough wealth during his reign, allowing Qianlong to squander it in his early years.

Therefore, we can only say that Yongzheng was indeed one of the most capable emperors of the Qing Dynasty. Otherwise, with Qianlong's incompetence in his later years and Jiaqing's drastically declining national strength, the Qing Dynasty would have been destroyed before the early 20th century.

This is the situation in the Ming Dynasty now. In the early days of Zhu Yuanzhang's founding of the country, he needed to use high-pressure policies to maintain his rule.

For example, the restoration of the feudal system and the policy of preferential treatment for royal family members led to rebellions by princes in the early Ming Dynasty and hundreds of thousands of parasites in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The implementation of the policy of seclusion from the outside world deprived the Ming Dynasty of the opportunity to engage in foreign trade and also made it out of touch with the world.

The hereditary household registration system and the Weisuo system made the classes rigid and difficult to transcend.

The Jinyiwei was established and a secret police rule was implemented, allowing officials and civilians to inform on each other, so that everyone was in danger.

He killed many meritorious officials, causing the ministers to become alienated from the emperor.

Although it is undeniable that his policies were designed to meet the needs of the time.

For example, the purpose of enfeoffment of vassal kings was to replace the military power and positions of the founding heroes and to prevent and resist the invasion of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Killing meritorious officials was for the purpose of centralizing power.

Household registration and garrisons were also established to better manage the people and the army.

But it is also undeniable that as time goes by, these systems can only meet the needs of the time, but cannot meet the needs of subsequent national development.

By the time the next emperor came to the throne, these policies that were originally used to consolidate the country had turned into evil policies that dragged down the country.

But if the next emperor was Zhu Biao, then based on his political ideas, he would inevitably start to take the path of light taxes and levies, and living in harmony with the people, so as to quickly restore the national strength of the Ming Dynasty.

So Zhu Yunfeng did not lie. Even though this matter has not been verified by history, if Zhu Yuanzhang brought Zhu Biao here for treatment and did not let Zhu Biao die from the cold, then as long as Zhu Biao lived another 30 years, it would not be difficult to create a prosperous era for Zhu Biao.

After listening to Zhu Yunfeng's words, the only thing Zhu Yuanzhang disagreed with was that his policies were too harsh and not conducive to development. However, he agreed that Zhu Biao was the most suitable successor at the moment because he himself thought so too.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang did not dwell on the other party's evaluation of his harsh policies, but asked: "You said that during the reign of the fourth son, the seeds of disaster for the demise of the Ming Dynasty were sown. What were those seeds?"

"Want to know?"

Zhu Yunfeng looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with a smile, and his tone was not as overly respectful as before. Instead, it had a bit of the feeling of communication between peers.

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes and looked him up and down, then nodded and said, "I want to know."

"Then let's eat first."

Zhu Yunfeng looked at the time and saw it was already past 11 o'clock, so he stood up and stretched, saying, "I'm tired, sleepy, and hungry now. I didn't sleep well last night, and I've been busy this morning. I'm starving."

After he said that, Ji He realized how hungry he was.

The working hours for civil servants are generally from 9 am to 5 pm, which is commonly known as nine to five.

But the Poverty Alleviation Office is an exception.

Among the grassroots positions, the work intensity and pressure of the Poverty Alleviation Office have always been the greatest, without a doubt.

Especially the staff of the Poverty Alleviation Office in mountainous areas, who go to the mountains and the countryside and are very tired.

Many civil servants working in the Poverty Alleviation Office die on the job at a young age. Many of them have gray hair in their thirties and look like they are in their forties or fifties. You can imagine how great the work pressure is.

But the situation has improved a lot in recent years.

Because decades of consistent poverty alleviation work have achieved remarkable results, more and more families across the country have been lifted out of poverty. In addition, taking the civil service exam is more popular than before, and the increase in the number of civil servants has also alleviated a lot of pressure.

Ji He was lucky to have come at a good time, as many of his predecessors in Lansha Town had already done similar work in poverty alleviation.

Currently, the town has a registered population of more than 7, 43 villages and 1 community. The number of people who have escaped poverty has increased significantly, the number of poor people has decreased, and the pressure is not as great as before.

So apart from temporary tasks, Ji He is not that busy most of the time. He can go to work at 9 am and get off work at 5 pm. He can occasionally sneak out to relax, which is much better than the high-intensity work before.

Before, Ji He usually got up around 8:20, drove to the town to work, and bought some breakfast in the town to get by.

It's raining today so we have to take a detour. The original plan was to arrive at 7 o'clock, but because of Zhu Yuanzhang's matter I had to take a day off today and haven't eaten yet.

He also stood up and muttered, "I was supposed to go to Grandpa Fang's house today to do some door-to-door condolence work, but now I can't go anymore."

"We can do the same thing tomorrow. It won't take too long."

Zhu Yunfeng knew who the Grandpa Fang he was talking about was.

Ji He said, "Let's eat first, I'll go to the kitchen."

"Let's go together."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "I bought some vegetables when I came back from town."

He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "You guys should eat something too? Man is like iron and rice is like steel. If you don't eat, you will be hungry. In the future, we should cooperate for mutual benefit. This is the national policy of our country. It is really good when everyone is good together. But we still have to eat."

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows, hearing a hint of hidden meaning, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he asked, "What time is it now?"

"11:17, um, it should be a quarter after noon in the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yunfeng said.

"Then I won't eat it."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and stood up, saying, "I have to go back and deal with the pit. I need to repair it a little bit so that it will be easier to get in and out in the future."

Ji He had been to the Ming Dynasty and knew that the stone tablet of the Ming Dynasty was in the pit, so he wondered: "Anyway, time travel depends on the stone tablet, not the pit, so why do we need to repair it? Can't we just take out the stone tablet and fill up the pit?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a strange expression: "I don't know why, the stone tablet must be placed in the pit. If it is taken out, it can't come over."

"Is there such a thing?" Zhu Yunfeng became interested and said, "Then we will send you there first, so we can study what is going on."

"okay."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

The four of them then returned to the cellar.

Looking at the stone tablet that had been placed deep in the cellar and had perhaps not been moved for dozens or even hundreds of years, Zhu Yunfeng suddenly had an idea.

He said, "Let's try to move the stone tablet first to see if we can get through."

Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated and said, "Let's not try it. If we move it and destroy the magical instrument, it will prevent me and the fourth brother from returning. That would be a disaster."

"Magical weapon?"

Zhu Yunfeng frowned and asked, "What kind of magical weapon is it really?"

"What else could have brought me here if not a magical weapon?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"Maybe so."

Zhu Yunfeng did not comment.

As a materialist fighter, he didn't quite believe it.

It’s not that if you don’t believe in it, it doesn’t exist. It’s just that consciousness is unified with matter, matter determines consciousness, and consciousness is a reflection of matter.

If you say that there are supernatural powers in this world without having seen them with your own eyes, then that is idealism.

If there really is something supernatural and people have seen it with their own eyes, then we need to study it.

The ancients believed that traveling between these two worlds was a divine method.

But at least until Zhu Yunfeng saw with his own eyes a fairy standing on the clouds and looking down at him, he did not believe in the existence of fairies.

Therefore, he believed that there must be some scientific principle for traveling between the two worlds, but he just hadn't discovered it yet.

"Okay, I'll be leaving first. Lao Si, you stay here."

Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"Yes."

Zhu Di already had a bitter face at this time.

I feel a little sad.

Zhu Yuanzhang walked forward and touched the stone tablet, then disappeared from the sight of the three people.

Ji He and Zhu Yunfeng walked over and squatted in front of the stone tablet. Ji He asked, "What on earth is this stone tablet? Is it a supernatural power?"

"I don't know, but I think it's definitely not some magical weapon that Zhu Yuanzhang mentioned."

"why?"

"What kind of magical artifact can't be worn if it moves a little bit?"

"What if it's a magic array? In novels about cultivating immortals, magic arrays become useless if they move."

"Where is the magic array? In the stone tablet? If it is in the stone tablet, then it won't become unusable after being moved, because the main body of the magic array is the stone tablet, not this place. If it is in this place, then where did the magic array come from? There must be something to set up the magic array, at least a hexagram array should be drawn on the ground. What thing here looks like something in a novel about cultivating immortals?"

"That makes sense. How do you explain the ability to travel back and forth through space?"

“Maybe there’s a scientific explanation.”

"How to say?"

"Space nodes, quantum mechanics, or five-dimensional space?"

"Does that make sense?"

"wait."

Zhu Yunfeng took out his mobile phone and searched for a video called “11 Dimensions of the Universe” on Bilibili.

He opened it and two people watched it. The fifth dimension referred to the parallel universe.

"I remember the movie I watched before, 'The Blink of an Eye', was about a parallel universe, but hers was a journey through consciousness, while this one was a journey through body."

Ji He said.

"There's a saying in Stargate and Doctor Strange that it's the quantum effect."

Zhu Yunfeng touched his chin and looked down at the stone tablet.

"Look at the comments below. Isn't this popular science for the common people?"

Ji He was surprised and said, “And that’s all made up by science fiction movies.”

Zhu Yunfeng shrugged: "It can't be considered as a folk scientist. The cosmic dimension and parallel space are all models deduced from physics and mathematics. It can only be said that it is a theory that cannot be realized. The theory is realized in science fiction movies. Quantum mechanics is indecisive when it comes to things. It's possible that something that cannot be realized in the whole world can be realized here."

"Damn, a science fiction movie shining into reality, right? Pretty outrageous."

Ji He couldn't help but say something nice.

Zhu Yunfeng said: "Now we can boldly assume that perhaps this place is a spatial node, and the stone tablet acts as a transmitter connecting two parallel universes, and the way to activate it is to touch that dot, so that you can travel to another parallel universe through the quantum effect."

"That sounds pretty damn scientific."

Ji He scratched his head. His academic performance was okay, otherwise he would not have been able to pass the civil service exam. He just didn't study as many subjects as Zhu Yunfeng.

But he soon thought of another question and said, "Space conversion should not violate the laws of physics. Since it is a quantum effect, it must also require energy. Where is the energy?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's in the stone tablet."

"How does the stone tablet store energy? It sounds very mysterious."

"There's nothing I can do but explain it this way. I hope these are really parallel universes that don't interfere with each other, otherwise it will be troublesome."

"How to say?"

“The grandfather paradox.”

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "If it weren't for the parallel universes that didn't interfere with each other, would our troubles in the Ming Dynasty have affected us until now?"

Ji He looked at Zhu Di, who had big blinking eyes and a confused expression, and nodded, "That makes sense. If Zhu Biao hadn't died, Zhu Di's descendants wouldn't have been able to become emperors. That would have caused a huge butterfly effect. God knows what would have happened."

"So we'd better hope that it's just like what we said, science fiction shines into reality, this stone tablet is a fixed spatial coordinate, its function is quantum transmission, and the place it goes to is also a parallel universe, otherwise..."

As Zhu Yunfeng spoke, his expression became even more bitter.

If it can change the world and make the country better, then it's understandable.

If a paradox occurs and the country becomes a mess, it will be a big problem.

He doesn't want to become the sinner of the whole of China.

And most importantly, under the grandfather paradox, he changed the history of the Ming Dynasty. Will he still exist in the future?

It is hard to say whether all of Zhu Di’s descendants disappeared or became different people under his influence.

Will he suddenly disappear from the face of the earth at that time, and the whole world will be replaced by a new group of people?

This is the most terrible thing.

(End of this chapter)