Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 207: Taizu's benevolent rule, rebellion
"What does this notice say?"

"Your Majesty the Great Ancestor came to save the world, killed Zhang Xianzhong, defeated Li Zicheng, eliminated corrupt officials, and investigated traitors?"

"The imperial court actually issued such a notice? Is this true?"

"Can a government notice be false?"

"It also said that this year will be the year when our Ming Dynasty will fall, and the court is now hunting down officials who committed treason."

"Not only that, the gentry were also arrested. Did you know that Mr. Huang was arrested yesterday?"

"Ah? Huang Bapi was actually arrested?"

"You are still too behind the times. Not only Huang Bapi, but also Mr. Zhou, Mr. Liu, Mr. Sun, and even Mr. Fan, the Tongzhi of Hangzhou, have been arrested."

"Oh my god, I can't imagine it."

The gate of Qiantang County Government in Hangzhou was crowded with people who came to watch.

Early this morning, for some unknown reason, the county government runners walked through the streets, beating gongs and drums and posting notices everywhere.

In the past, most notices were posted at the entrance of the county government office. But today, they are posted on the walls of shops along the street, on road signs at crossroads, and in many other places.

In less than half a day, the entire Qiantang County, Renhe County, and even the city of Hangzhou were in an uproar.

Because the content of the notice was so explosive.

Taizu became an immortal and traveled through the long river of time. In the future, he saw that the Ming Dynasty was about to perish, so he used up all his magical powers to come down to earth to save the world. Now he has arrived in Nanjing.

In the future, the Ming Dynasty was actually destroyed by the traitor Li Zicheng, and Prince Fu restored the country in Nanjing. As a result, the Jian Nu army went south, occupied the land of China, and established the so-called Qing Dynasty. Many officials and gentry collaborated with the enemy and sold out the country.

Seeing these things, many people became confused.

The current situation in the Ming Dynasty is incomprehensible to ordinary people, even many officials and gentry. After all, there were information barriers in ancient times, and it took one or two months for a document from the court to arrive. No one knows what the current situation of the country is.

The people only knew that the world was becoming increasingly difficult, taxes were becoming heavier, news of bandits wreaking havoc came from various places from time to time, public security was becoming increasingly worse, and many people were becoming increasingly impoverished.

They didn't know what happened in the Ming Dynasty, nor did they know what the future would be like. They were just used to the Ming Dynasty, so they just continued to live their lives. The people in Jiangnan were better off than the people in the north who were affected by the disaster, and at least they could barely survive.

Now let’s look at it again.

People just know.

Oh.

It turned out that the Ming Dynasty was on the brink of national destruction.

"You say, has His Majesty the Great Ancestor really come? Could it be that someone is impersonating the Great Ancestor?"

"If I give you ten times the courage, would you dare to pretend? Now the officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are willing to follow His Majesty Taizu, and many of them have gone to the Hongwu Dynasty through the magic tools."

"Ah, I hope His Majesty the Great Ancestor can clean up the bureaucracy and reduce taxes. My family used to be quite wealthy, with more than 20 acres of land, two acres of mulberry trees, and one acre of house. Now we can barely make a living."

Someone sighed and said.

The literary style in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions is relatively strong, and the literacy rate is very high. In addition, the social atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty was relatively open, and the Donglin Party encouraged free speech, so there were still many people who could read and dared to speak.

The northern region is plagued by disasters these days.

Affected by the Little Ice Age, severe famine occurred in Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and other areas, and there were also considerable disasters in the southern region.

According to historical records, during the Chongzhen period, even in areas such as Guangdong and Hainan, where the temperature remained around 20 degrees Celsius in winter in later generations, there were records of snowfall many times, which shows how severe the abnormal weather changes were during this period.

The Taihu Lake Basin is a major grain-producing area, and due to the catastrophic climate, grain production has also decreased to varying degrees. In addition, many landlords in the south of the Yangtze River have switched from rice to mulberry trees, planting cash crops such as cotton, mulberry trees, and hemp, which has further exacerbated the decline in grain production.

Then the imperial court imposed heavy taxes on self-cultivating farmers, and many people in the south of the Yangtze River could not survive. There were even cases where officials forced the people to rebel, such as the Xudu Rebellion and the White-headed Army Rebellion, which showed how difficult the world was today.

"Give way, give way."

At this moment, another yamen runner pushed aside the crowd of onlookers and walked in outside the notice board and posted a new notice next to it.

"Look, look, what happened again?"

"Don't crowd, don't crowd."

"Someone come read it to me."

After the bailiffs left, the people gathered again immediately.

"Your Majesty, in consideration of the hardships of the people, will cancel all taxes in the designated areas for one year and permanently cancel the three levies. Those who do not have land or have less than five acres of land at home can register with the government within one month. All the land confiscated from traitorous officials, corrupt officials, and traitorous landlords will be distributed to the landless people. Those who falsely report or conceal the facts and claim more land will be killed without mercy."

Someone read the notice aloud.

Of course, in reality it was not like that. Instead, it was written in the first-person tone, and the content was something like "I am thinking of the hardships of the people of the Ming Dynasty, so I will reduce taxes for one year and will never increase the three levies again."

But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, many places were already no different from the local dialects of later generations.

Moreover, from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was an important period of language and cultural development in China. The ancients' daily speech was no longer so flowery, but mostly used vernacular slang.

So this is roughly what it means when translated.

When the people around heard that Zhu was going to distribute the land confiscated from the traitorous officials, corrupt officials, landlords and evil gentry to the people, they were all excited.

Someone said in disbelief: "Can I get the land now?"

"This is the benevolent rule of His Majesty Taizu. It is a benevolent rule! It is great. My family can also get land."

"Doesn't your family run a small business? Can they also claim land?"

"I can barely make ends meet with my small business. The family's land was sold a long time ago."

"I am willing to follow His Majesty Taizu. From now on, whatever His Majesty Taizu says is what I will follow, even if it means killing me!"

Some people were amazed, some were ecstatic, and some were very unhappy.

What is amazing is that the imperial court actually issued land.

What made me ecstatic was that my family didn’t have that much land, so I could own some land.

What makes people unhappy is that their family may have just over five acres of land, and when they see others being able to own land, they feel unbalanced.

In fact, most of the lower-class people who can live in Hangzhou are workers, such as those engaged in manual manufacturing or other manual labor.

Many self-employed farmers went bankrupt and were forced to sell their land to landlords, and then ran to the city to work.

Now that they saw that the court was actually going to distribute land to them, they were delighted for a moment. In a very short period of time, Zhu won great support and prestige among the people.

Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige in the Ming Dynasty was already extremely exaggerated, and this made it even more terrifying.

Within just a few days, the news spread throughout the entire Jiangnan region, and the people in the Jiangnan region naturally showed increasing admiration for Zhu.

But this caused hardship for many officials and landlords.

As the saying goes, investigating corruption requires evidence, cracking down on organized crime requires a list, and fighting terrorism only requires coordinates.

It is extremely difficult to sort out the bureaucracy when it is complicated and impossible to tell who is honest and who is corrupt.

But Old Zhu did not follow the usual path. He did not care who was corrupt and who was honest, but used loyalty and treachery as the dividing line.

Whoever is loyal is the one we want.

Many officials who were judged to be patriotic and loyal were actually corrupt officials behind the scenes.

After all, in the Ming Dynasty, if you are not greedy or possessive, you will be like Hai Rui, who had to borrow money from friends to handle the funeral when his mother passed away.

But these corrupt officials died for their country.

So Zhu could temporarily ignore their corrupt behavior and entrust them with important tasks.

This approach cannot be said to be wrong, but it is very one-sided.

Because although the vast majority of people remain dignified and sacrifice their lives for their country, dying for their country does not mean they have no selfish motives.

Moreover, many of these officials did not die for their country, but did not serve the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. This does not mean that they were absolutely loyal.

If we count Ming Dynasty officials as 100%, 10% died for their country, 60% to 70% surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and 20% to 30% of the officials did not serve the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

It was naturally impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to kill all these people, as it made no sense, so they basically retained their original official positions.

The officials in Jiangnan were deeply involved with the landlords in Jiangnan. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to affect the interests of the landlords in Jiangnan, and many of the people he wanted to kill were friends and relatives of these officials who had died for their country. Naturally, they had to think carefully about it.

The vast majority of them eventually chose to follow Lao Zhu's footsteps.

They knew Taizu's character very well. When Taizu came, there would be mass killing, and it was inevitable that Jiangnan would be plunged into a bloody storm.

It is already very difficult to save yourself in this situation, let alone save your friends.

Therefore, most officials followed the instructions and orders given by their superiors and began to find ways to arrest those treasonous officials and local tyrants and evil gentry within their jurisdictions.

At the same time, their property was checked and their land was distributed to the people in order to ease the increasingly acute social contradictions.

But there are still a few parts that are unclear.

In the face of national affairs, they are willing to sacrifice their lives for their country, but in private relationships, they are hesitant and ultimately make mistakes.

Cao Gu, the governor of Jiangxi, did not die for his country after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, but he did not serve the Qing court when the Qing court summoned him, so he naturally would not be held accountable in this turmoil.

He himself was a member of the eunuch party and had close relations with many other members of the party.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, after the purge by Chongzhen, the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party were already in name only, but the political aftermath had a great impact. For example, after Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng came to power in the Hongguang Dynasty, they revived a large number of the original Eunuch Party.

Except for a very small number of eunuch party members who died for their country and some who did not serve the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, most of them surrendered.

Chen Juqing is one of them.

He was a Jinshi in the second year of the Tianqi reign, and served in the Six Ministries, Langzhong of the Ministry of Works, and You Shilang of the Ministry of Rites. He was the chief examiner of the Yingtian County Examination and helped Cui Duo, the son of Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the Five Tigers of the Eunuch Party, to pass the examination.

Later, when the eunuch party fell, he was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown in Jiangxi.

After Zhu Yuanzhang arrived in Nanjing, he summoned a large number of officials who later died for their country and those who did not surrender to the Qing court to a meeting in Nanjing, asking them to go back and arrest people.

Cao Gu had a very good relationship with Chen Juqing. After hesitating for a long time, he was confused and told Chen Juqing the news.

The original plan was to let Chen Juqing escape, hoping that he could hide and seek refuge.

But as a big landlord in Jiangxi, Chen Juqing owned so many mansions and land and had such a large family, how could he be willing to run away?

It was late February, approaching spring, in Yugan County, Raozhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province. Outside the county town, there stood a manor with terraced houses. The owner of the manor was none other than Chen Juqing.

If the Donglin Party misled the country and the people, then the Eunuch Party brought disaster to the country and the people.

In fact, since the reigns of Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen, the Donglin Party has been in power for very little time, and by the Tianqi period it was completely suppressed by the Eunuch Party.

Therefore, the Donglin Party’s demands to crack down on corruption, open up channels for people to express their opinions, equalize land and labor service, and collect commercial taxes were never realized.

On the contrary, under the leadership of Wei Zhongxian, commercial taxes in Jiangnan were reduced, and the industry and commerce in the Jiangnan region progressed rapidly, leading to the emergence of the "sprouts of capitalism" mentioned in history textbooks.

There are a lot of rumors about the Donglin Party on the Internet in later generations, such as "Fujian's tea tax is 12 taels a year", "The Donglin Party changed the customs tariff so that the customs could not collect taxes", and "Forcing Chongzhen to abolish the eunuchs in charge of the rivers", which are not recorded in any historical materials.

The only problem was that the Donglin Party was indeed against collecting mining taxes, but that was because the mining taxes were too outrageous. Historical records show that "(Eunuchs) either collected taxes on the market, or collected taxes on shops, or were in charge of taxes alone, or were in charge of mining. The corrupt people bribed the eunuchs and gave them a command of a thousand households, using them as their minions. They would set up flags and build factories after traveling dozens of miles by land and water. They would rob merchants who were cowardly and confiscate their property. Even luggage was searched. They also set up local merchants, and required rice, salt, chickens and pigs in remote villages to pay taxes. Wherever they went, there were frequent civil unrest, but the emperor generally protected them and did nothing."

There was even a local famine crisis when even the eunuch Liu Chengdu, who was in charge of collecting taxes, felt that the taxes could not be any more severe and wrote a petition requesting a reduction. However, the imperial edict still required a levy of 40,000 taels.

Under such circumstances, mining taxes were already heavy levies and an extreme exploitation of the people, so it was normal for the Donglin Party to oppose them.

So from the perspective of the people, the Donglin Party can be said to be speaking for the people and fighting against corruption and the eunuch party, the interest groups behind the big landlords and big businessmen.

However, because the way they did things displeased the emperor and did not solve any problems, and because their own internal personnel were not clean, they put forward good ideas but did bad things, which exacerbated the unrest in the country.

In addition, Chongzhen was incompetent and self-willed; the eunuch party was bad and purely evil.

In the later period of the Donglin Party, a large number of upright people were slaughtered by the eunuch party, and the remaining ones were all moral hypocrites, which further highlighted the collapse of the country's administration.

However, it must be noted that Chongzhen was the main culprit for the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and the Eunuch Party was the main driving force. The party struggles between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party exacerbated the demise of the Ming Dynasty. In terms of ranking, the Eunuch Party is definitely worse than the Donglin Party.

Because the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party were essentially two loose alliances and were not united parties at all.

The Donglin Party was initially a group of idealists, but later became moral hypocrites.

The eunuch party simply wanted to protect their own class interests.

Therefore, the eunuch party's massacre of the Donglin Party naturally broke the rules of party struggles and physically eliminated the other side, exacerbating political instability.

However, there were also many differences within the eunuch party.

Even some eunuchs were very upright and sympathized with the Donglin Party. Many of them died heroically for their country when the country was in danger.

The real problem of the eunuch party was actually corruption, acting as a protective umbrella for big landlords and big businessmen, and brutally suppressing members of the Donglin Party, killing a large number of loyal and righteous people like Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou.

The remaining Donglin Party members gradually turned into moral hypocrites, shouting slogans but failing to come up with solutions to the problems. They thus became false moralists and lost their original idealism.

But it is not true to say that they are all hypocrites, there are still many upright people.

Before the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, most of the Donglin Party had died. Only a few people such as Qian Qianyi, Zhang Fengxiang, and Fang Kezhuang surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the rest basically died for their country.

Therefore, on the moral level, the Donglin Party still has something to offer.

In contrast, the eunuch party is essentially a group of corrupt officials. Its members bribe people from top to bottom, accept money, and act as protective umbrellas for large landowners and big businessmen. Naturally, their moral level is not high.

Among them were Zhang Heming, Li Yingjian, Wang Danian, Yang Weiyuan, Zhang Jie, Zhu Guozuo, Yu Huang and other people who died heroically for their country.

But among the huge eunuch group, they can only be regarded as a very small minority.

Most of the eunuch party members who survived until the 17th year of Chongzhen basically surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. In "Bi Chen Zhuan" alone, there are as many as seventy or eighty eunuch party members and officials related to them.

After all, they were all running dogs of Wei Zhongxian, and it was considered good enough that they did not serve the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, there was no question of them having much character and integrity.

All we can say is that human nature is complex. In terms of protecting their own interests, some literati can join the eunuch party, but when it comes to national affairs, they can also sacrifice heroically for their country. It is difficult to tell right from wrong.

But as a member of the eunuch party, Chen Juqing had very poor character.

The courtyard outside the house is densely populated, and the house is clean and cool, with various pear-leaf-wood tables and chairs placed everywhere. There are also calligraphy and paintings hanging opposite the door of the hall, and couplets on both sides, which show the integrity and open-mindedness of the officials.

Chen Juqing looked at the letter in his hand, his eyes wide open and the expression on his face was horrified.

The letter contains his life story.

He was corrupt and fawning on the eunuchs in his early years, and joined the Qing Dynasty's Jiannu army that invaded the interior in his later years. He even compiled the "History of Ming Dynasty" under the emperor's order and presided over the imperial examinations in the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty.

Cao Gu also advised that the Jiangxi Governor Kuang Zhao was ready to find a way to capture and kill him, so he should immediately leave Jiangxi by boat and go to Guangdong to seek refuge.

After a long time, Chen Juqing wiped the sweat from his forehead, crumpled the letter in his hand into a ball, tore it into two pieces and threw it on the ground, his face full of anger.

What a bullshit Taizu descending to earth.

It was just a fabrication by a counterfeiter, who even accused me of treason and surrender. It's really ridiculous.

Chen Juqing was burning with anger and felt his mouth was dry, so he reached for the teacup beside him and was about to take a sip to calm down.

"master."

At this moment, the housekeeper came in hurriedly and said, "Master, the Jiangxi Governor's Office sent a letter saying that the court might want to reinstate you and invite you to Nanchang."

"Snapped!"

The teacup in Chen Juqing's hand suddenly fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

"master?"

The housekeeper was startled.

"roll."

Chen Juqing roared.

"Yes."

The housekeeper turned around and ran out in a hurry.

Chen Juqing was breathing heavily in the room alone, and it took him a long time to calm down.

He certainly didn't think he would betray his country in the future.

But judging from the current situation, the so-called "Emperor Taizu of Ming" has already won over the Governor of Jiangxi.

Having been in officialdom for many years, he knew very well that the current situation was very unfavorable for him.

The Governor of Jiangxi was the highest official in the area and held the power of life and death over the local area. It was very easy to deal with him, a dismissed official.

Moreover, Cao Gu's letter also said that Kuang Zhao planned to invite him and other "traitorous" officials to be captured and killed to Nanchang, and then catch them all in one fell swoop when they arrived at the banquet.

Before, he thought it was a bit outrageous and wondered whether he should write back to persuade Cao Gu to contact other officials to see if he could raise an army to eliminate the fake Taizu in Nanjing.

It seems difficult now.

Because even Cao Gu asked him to escape instead of talking to him about whether the "Taizu" in Nanjing was real or fake, which shows that Cao Gu himself also believed in the Taizu in Nanjing.

So this means that the senior officials in Jiangxi have basically submitted to the "Taizu" in Nanjing, and it is impossible to persuade them.

Thinking of this, Chen Juqing slowly regained his composure and began to think about countermeasures.

Cao Gu wanted him to escape, but he obviously didn't want to.

His family is a big family in Jiangxi. Not only does their clan exist here, they also own a large amount of land. It is impossible for them to give up so many properties.

But sitting back and waiting for death is probably not an option either.

Then the only way is probably to raise an army.

Chen Juqing narrowed his eyes, looked at the letter on the ground, picked it up again, and put the two halves together.

Cao Gu was not stupid enough to give him the entire list of people that Kuang Zhao wanted to kill. He just told him these things and asked him to escape as soon as possible out of friendship.

However, Chen Juqing also heard that many officials from Jiangxi went to Nanjing some time ago, and some officials were suddenly called to Nanchang by Kuang Zhao.

In addition, many officials were not called over, and this incident caused the Yugan County Magistrate to talk in surprise with several unemployed Jinshi scholars when they were drinking and chatting together.

At the time, I thought it was official business, but now it seems that he might have ulterior motives.

Think of this.

Chen Juqing already had an idea.

Since you want to arrest us, it is only natural for us to resist.

(End of this chapter)