Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 53: Can politics be played like this?

At eight o'clock in the evening, Queen Ma was still awake.

She usually waits until eleven o'clock.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang would sometimes go to chat with her after get off work at ten o'clock.

So during this period of time, Empress Ma would often read books by herself and wait for her husband Zhu Yuanzhang to come and see her.

If Zhu Yuanzhang didn't come, he would send someone to tell him.

When the eunuch Wu Ji went to Kunning Palace to tell Empress Ma that His Majesty invited her to have a midnight snack together, she was surprised.

Chongba knew that she would not eat after dinner and would go to bed at the end of the hour of Hai.

Why would he suddenly go against common sense and ask her to come over?
However, since it was Chongba who called, Empress Ma did not hesitate and immediately set off from Jiaotai Hall to Qianqing Palace.

Not long after, Queen Ma arrived.

When everyone in the study saw her, they all stood up. Zhu Biao and Zhu Di bowed and said, "Mother."

"Hello, Grandma Taizu."

Zhu Yunfeng also greeted politely.

Ji He was a little at a loss and a little embarrassed. In the end, he could only say, "Hello, Queen Ma."

As an outsider of the Zhu family, if I visit a friend's house, I will definitely say hello to the elders, such as uncle or aunt, or grandpa or grandma.

But the problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma are of a very different generation, more than twenty generations apart. Ji He probably wouldn't be able to figure it out even if he sat on the rocking car in front of the supermarket downstairs from his house for a whole day.

It was the first time that Empress Ma saw them. She looked them up and down curiously and found that their attire was completely different from theirs. Both their clothes and hairstyle were very different from those of people of their time.

She looked at Zhu Yunfeng and guessed who he was from the name he addressed her, so she said, "Are you Yunfeng?"

"Yes, Grandma Taizu."

Zhu Yunfeng respected Empress Ma very much, bowed slightly and said, "I am your 27th generation descendant."

"Giggle."

Empress Ma smiled and said, "I didn't expect that I'm already this old, good boy."

As she spoke, she came over, took Zhu Yunfeng's hand and said, "I heard that your ancestors once changed their surnames in order to survive. After the Ming Dynasty fell, the descendants of the Zhu family must have suffered a lot of grievances."

"Yes, Grandma Taizu."

When Zhu Yunfeng saw her kind look, he immediately thought of his grandmother. He couldn't help but said with a sour nose: "Our ancestors fled to the deep mountains and old forests, and they were as worried as dogs that had lost their homes."

Empress Ma patted the back of his hand gently and said, "Is your family still here?"

Zhu Yunfeng said honestly: "My grandparents and my grandparents have passed away, but my parents are still alive, they are just divorced, and I usually live alone."

"poor child."

Empress Ma said distressedly: "This will be your home from now on. If you miss home, come to Daming and see your grandmother. In Daming, no one will bully you."

"Thank you, grandma."

"All right."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Come and sit down. The children are all here this time, so I want to have a meal with everyone and talk about state affairs. Why do you always like to talk about family matters?"

Empress Ma glared at him in dissatisfaction and said, "Since Yunfeng is my descendant, he is my family. You don't treat him as a family member, but I do. He is my grandson. What does it have to do with you that I love and care for my grandson?"

"Girl, you."

Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to smile bitterly and said, "Who said I don't consider Yunfeng a family member? He is also my grandson."

Afraid that they would quarrel, Zhu Yunfeng hurriedly said, "Grandma, I brought you a gift, please take a look."

As he spoke, he took out the gifts from the gift bag and introduced them one by one.

There are elderly people wearing expensive winter clothes, there are brand-name skin care products, and there are also some daily necessities such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, facial cleansers, etc., everything you can think of.

Empress Ma didn't think there was anything wrong at first. After all, she was the empress. What had she not seen?
In fact, toothbrushes and toothpaste also existed in ancient times, but they used animal brushes and green salt to rinse their mouths, which was not as convenient as it is today.

There are also skin care products, which also existed in ancient times, such as pearl powder, honey, milk, egg white, etc., and some Chinese herbs are added to beautify the skin.

But when Zhu Yunfeng opened a box of skin care products and applied the milk-white night cream on the back of Queen Ma's hand, he was immediately surprised to find that after spreading it evenly, not only was there a faint fragrance, but her skin also became much smoother and whiter.

Firstly, the effect is immediate, and secondly, it is easy to use.

Seeing this, Queen Ma was delighted for a moment and said, "Child, this gift must be very valuable. I cannot accept it."

"Not expensive."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "In our modern times, everyone can afford it."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "Just accept this gift from the child."

"Okay, Grandma, I'll take it."

Empress Ma touched the back of her hand and was really pleased with it, so she said, "Yunfeng, as an elder, you have to return the gift. Grandmother came in a hurry and didn't bring anything. I'll ask Jin'er to bring you some gifts later."

"no, I'm fine."

Zhu Yunfeng hurriedly said, "It is my duty as a younger generation to show my filial piety to you. How can I ask for your things? Besides, my grandmother is young and beautiful, so this gift is just the icing on the cake."

"Hehe. This kid."

Empress Ma laughed so hard that she couldn't stop, then she gave Zhu Yuanzhang a cold look.

She really likes Zhu Yunfeng.

Not only is he polite, but he's also sweet-talker.

When Zhu Yuanzhang came back from modern times, he angrily said that Zhu Yunfeng was an unfilial descendant.

Now it seems that she probably knew that Chongba had a bad temper and bullied her grandson.

After all, Ma Xiuying wouldn't believe anything bad about such a well-mannered child.

"Your Majesty, dinner is ready."

At this moment, the eunuch Wang Dong stood at the door and said.

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Let's go to the side hall."

The group went from the study to the side hall.

Many palace maids came in carrying plates of exquisite dishes and placed them on the table.

Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He saw a wide variety of delicious dishes, but unfortunately there were no chili dishes. The taste was too light and did not suit the appetite of Hunanese people.

After all, chili peppers were not introduced until the late Ming Dynasty, and there was only Sichuan pepper in the early Ming Dynasty.

"These dishes are made with the seasonings you brought. I tried them before and they tasted pretty good."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

"I also brought a lot of condiments and clothes for you this time. Winter is getting colder and colder, so everyone should take good care of themselves."

Zhu Yunfeng quickly said that he was not an ungrateful person.

If others are nice to him, he will definitely give feedback.

Now that Old Zhu's attitude has softened a lot, of course we can't go against him on everything. "Okay, okay."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly.

Zhu Yunfeng took out a small notebook from his backpack and continued, "The phone I bought for you doesn't have internet here, so you can't use it. But I can download some historical materials from it for you to read. If you think the historical materials are too long and not entertaining enough, I can also give you something else to read when you are bored. When Grandpa Taibo comes over tomorrow, ask him to bring it back to you. This thing in my hand is something I prepared to use against the Jianzhou Jurchens. Take a look."

"Oh?"

Zhu Yuanzhang took the notebook.

He has been trying to find a way to get rid of the Jianzhou Jurchens, but he has never found a suitable reason. He once asked Zhu Yunfeng about this, and Zhu Yunfeng said that he had a hundred ways to make the Jianzhou Jurchens disappear.

But later Zhu Yunfeng went to the city to spend lavishly and didn't reply to his letter for the past two days. Unexpectedly, he brought back the sorted solutions today.

He opened the first page and saw that it was actually a directory.

The catalogue consists of five main categories: economic control, ideology, educational thought, intimidation and coercion, and deterrence by force.

Each article contains at least a dozen and at most dozens of strategies. After reading all of them, it seems that there are really hundreds of ways.

Open any article about economic control, and you will find that the first method is economic harvesting.

Zhu Yunfeng gave an example in economic harvest.

For example, we can declare to the Jianzhou Jurchens that our Ming Dynasty wants 50,000 furs this year and is willing to buy them at a high price.

These Jianzhou Jurchens usually produced no more than 20,000 sheets a year.

In order to get the order for 50,000 furs, the Jurchens of various Jianzhou tribes went on a frenzy of hunting wild beasts, spending all their savings to collect the 50,000 furs.

However, once they had gathered the pieces, the Ming declared that we had made a mistake in our estimate and that we did not need 50,000 furs this year.

But if you are willing to sell, Ming Dynasty can still buy it at a low price.

At this time, the Jianzhou Jurchens had already spent a lot of effort and invested huge costs to obtain these furs. If they could not sell them, they would have to keep them in their hands. Eventually, they would lose everything and be forced to sell them to the Ming Dynasty at a low price.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty launched a round of brutal economic harvesting against the Jianzhou Jurchens, dealing a heavy blow to their economy and even all aspects of life.

Because the Jianzhou Jurchens were a fishing and hunting tribe, hunting was only one of their ways of survival, and their main source of income was fishing.

Due to the existence of Liaoze, fishery resources were more abundant in Northeast China at that time. Therefore, fish was the main food source for the Jianzhou Jurchens, and wild animals were a secondary food source.

The Ming Dynasty's tactics made a large number of Jurchens engaged in fishing give up fishing and turn to hunting. However, the number of wild animals was small, unlike the abundant fishery resources in the Northeast where a lot of fish could be caught with one net. This inevitably led to a shortage of food storage for them.

The entire Jianzhou Jurchen tribe would also fall into decline and hardship as a result.

Seeing this strategy, Zhu Yuanzhang did not applaud, but first wondered: "Will this work?"

"what?"

Zhu Yunfeng leaned his head closer.

"this one."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at his economic harvesting strategy and said, "Are they really that stupid?"

"That's true. This is one of the main methods used by the Mold Emperor to reap the global economy. It must be useful."

Zhu Yunfeng laughed and said, "Not only the Moldy Emperor, our ancestors also know this trick."

"Oh?"

Zhu Yuanzhang wondered, "Who?"

"Guan Zhong."

Zhu Yunfeng said, "Have you heard the story of Guan Zhong buying a large amount of Lu silk?"

"understood."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly understood and nodded, saying, "So that's it."

The story of Guan Zhong is included in many historical materials such as "Guanzi", "Records of the Grand Historian", "Guoyu", etc.

Buying Lu silk means purchasing large quantities of Lu silk fabrics, causing the price of Lu silk fabrics to skyrocket. People found it profitable, so they gave up farming and started weaving, causing food shortages in Lu and plunging it into crisis.

In addition to buying Lu silk, there is also the trick of going to the State of Chu to buy deer.

They went to the State of Chu to buy deer at high prices, so the people of Chu gave up farming and growing crops and started raising sika deer.

As a result, the State of Chu was short of food, and the State of Qi took the opportunity to invade. Eventually, the State of Chu was defeated by the State of Qi and lost a large amount of territory.

Now that Zhu Yunfeng had said it, Zhu Yuanzhang understood.

It turns out this routine is so profound.

How insidious.

Then he turned to the article on ideology.

This article is a segmented strategy.

For example, a ruling class was established, but the Ming Dynasty had to give this ruling class a name to distinguish it from ordinary Jurchens.

The Ming Dynasty supported this ruling class and allowed them to suppress ordinary Jurchens.

This caused sharp conflicts within the Jurchens.

"What's the meaning of this article?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was puzzled.

Zhu Yunfeng took a look and said, "It's simple. Find those among the Jurchens who are willing to sincerely surrender to the Ming Dynasty, and then support them to overthrow the existing Jurchen tribal leaders. The existing Jurchen tribal leaders must be highly respected and trusted in the tribe, and these rebels will inevitably be hated by the other Jurchens. In order to maintain their own ruling position, these Jurchens supported by the Ming Dynasty must cling to the Ming Dynasty and desperately exploit ordinary Jurchens for the Ming Dynasty. In this way, they will fight among themselves, and the Ming Dynasty will reap the benefits!"

"There is also the latter strategy, which I think can still be used, called sustainable exhaustion of fish."

He was so excited that he flipped a few pages of the small booklet made of A4 paper in Zhu's hand, pointed at it and said, "We can design a political system for them, so that their economy, military, and politics are all dependent on the Ming Dynasty. All the upper classes serve the Ming Dynasty, while the lower classes become miners and carpenters, digging mines and cutting wood for the Ming Dynasty, and just give them some food to keep them from starving. In this way, they will not be able to develop either economically or militarily, and they will be slaves from generation to generation, neither starving to death nor able to resist. It is equivalent to castrating them, and they will be the cattle and horses of the Ming Dynasty for their entire lives."

"This"

"hiss"

Including Empress Ma, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di, some looked at each other in confusion, while others gasped.

This strategy is too vicious.

Although they wanted to destroy the Jianzhou Jurchens to prevent them from seizing the Han people's territory in the future.

But the current strategy is not as simple as wiping out a family, but to eat them up completely and squeeze out every last bit of surplus value.

One is like beheading, cutting through the Gordian knot, giving the person a quick and painless death, while the other is like slow slicing, and will not stop until the person has been cut three thousand times.

What resentment what?
This is even more cruel than directly destroying the Jianzhou Jurchens.

"We have a saying in later generations: 'The economic base determines the superstructure, and the superstructure reacts on the economic base.'"

Seeing everyone dumbfounded, Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "A country cannot be supported by military power alone. Politics, ideology and legal system are the superstructure, and the military is an extension of politics. The economic foundation determines the stability of the above structures. Sometimes, to destroy the enemy, you don't need to send troops to fight, other methods can also be used to do it. Even without bragging, it is completely possible to turn the Jianzhou Jurchens into Han people. It depends on whether you want to destroy them, enslave them, or turn them into Han people!"

After he finished speaking, he looked around at everyone, enjoying the admiring and shocked looks from everyone except Ji He, including Zhu Yuanzhang.

Perhaps they understood Guan Zhong's tactics, but the ideology and political system made them feel unfamiliar.

After all, for thousands of years, their ideology and political system have been fixed in feudal society, and their entire thinking is rigid. They have not yet jumped to the point of setting ideology and political systems for others.

Hearing Zhu Yunfeng's words was like opening a strange door for them, which was full of novelty and strangeness, giving them an unprecedented shock.

It turns out that politics can be played this way?
(End of this chapter)