Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 87 Who allowed him to enter the inner court? Get him out!
At noon, Lao Zhu and Xiao Zhu had lunch together and took a short rest.

Zhu Yuanzhang went to take a nap.

Zhu Yunfeng had taken a nap on the railing outside before. Now that he was not sleepy, he simply lay on the sofa and played a single-player game for a while.

At three quarters after dark, which is two o'clock in the afternoon, the afternoon court session begins again.

It was hard to be a high-ranking official in Hongwu.

I get up at four o'clock every morning to go to work, work on matters of various departments in the morning, and then go to the Qianqing Palace for meetings.

After the meeting, I continued to work in my department, and had another meeting in the afternoon.

If you haven't finished your department's work after the afternoon meeting, you will have to work overtime and won't be able to go home until 7-8 pm.

Then I have to go to work without sleeping for a few hours.

That’s the key point.

If you are not careful, your boss will force you to resign or even die at the speed of light.

The six ministers of the Hongwu Dynasty were just a passing visit.

This was particularly evident in the case of the Minister of Personnel, who had 31 ministers in 35 years. In the fourth, fifth, and thirteenth years of the Hongwu reign, four ministers were replaced in one year.

Except for a man named Zhan Hui who served for seven years, the average term of office of the rest did not exceed seven months.

And the probability of being killed is very high.

Even though Zhan Hui worked carefully for seven years, he still couldn't escape the fate of being killed in the end.

This shows how miserable the fate of being a high-ranking official was during the Hongwu Dynasty.

But the current six ministers obviously do not know how cruel the reality they will face in the future will be.

At this time, Hu Weiyong's followers had just been purged.

A large number of former Yuan officials with practical political achievements and officials from eastern Zhejiang who were part of the prince's party stepped onto the historical stage with high spirits.

The remaining remnants of the Huaixi army were trembling in fear.

After losing Hu Weiyong as their backer, they were forced to huddle together for warmth.

For a time, there were three forces in the court, and with the support of the crown prince, the officials of the Zhejiang East Group were secretly in the lead.

After the afternoon meeting, everyone was arranged according to shifts.

Surprisingly, in addition to His Majesty sitting on the dragon throne, there was also a chair at the bottom of the steps of the hall, where a young man was sitting, dozing off with his head propped up out of boredom.

"See Your Majesty."

"See His Highness King Wu."

The officials first saluted Zhu Yuanzhang and then Zhu Yunfeng.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Stand up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"I have already approved the expenditures of various ministries this morning. Let's talk about the affairs of the north and south."

"Your Majesty, although there is indeed some rift between the north and the south, I think it is exaggerated. Your Majesty governs the four directions and governs the world with kindness. Over time, the rift will naturally disappear."

Minister of Rites Wu Bozong replied.

They are discussing this issue here, so of course someone has written a letter to reflect this issue.

But they couldn't come up with any good solutions, so they could only make excuses.

Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily, "Nonsense! The north and south are about to become enemies. Now the southerners come to the north and laugh at the northerners for being poor and hungry and ignorant of education. The northerners come to the south and say that the southerners are lowly and like slaves. If this continues, the Ming Dynasty will no longer be a country!"

"Your Majesty, calm down!"

Qian Tang, the Minister of Finance, said hurriedly: "The current hostility between the north and the south is all because the south is rich and has many scholars, so they look down on the northerners. I request that more Confucian schools be opened in Henan, Hebei and other places to educate the people."

This is a sensible suggestion. Simply put, it is to balance the educational resources in the north.

This is also what Zhu Yuanzhang did in history.

Later, it even reduced the study and exam pressure on students in the north.

"On the third month, a general amnesty was declared. On the 11th month, the Five Classics and the Four Books were distributed to schools in the north."

This means that the imperial court allowed scholars in the north to take the imperial examinations by only studying the nine books of the Four Books and Five Classics.

What’s more, the exam content is easy as it only tests these nine books and the questions drawn are very simple.

In contrast, candidates in the south not only have to take the traditional Thirteen Classics, but also have to learn more classics. The "Zuo Zhuan" has 20 words, and the "Book of Rites" has 9 words, so the total number of words they have to learn is over one million.

The exam is also very difficult.

Compared with the examination content in the north, the examination content in the south is no different from the college entrance examination and the primary school examination.

This caused great resentment among students in the south, and was suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

But this is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution.

It is too difficult to bridge the gap between the north and the south through education alone.

So Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his anger and said, "King Wu, do you have any solution?"

"Well"

Zhu Yunfeng pondered for a long time.

He suddenly realized a very serious problem.

That is, if you want to shape nationalism, you must establish an enemy.

The Mongols were indeed an enemy, and so were the Jin people.

The correct approach would be to have Zhu Yuanzhang issue an edict denouncing the brutality of the Mongols and the Jin people, and to offer more sacrifices to the rulers and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Then they widely promoted the Hu-Han theory and destroyed the Mongols and Jurchens.

simply put.

That is to transfer the current internal contradiction of the Han nationality in the Ming Dynasty, which is the confrontation between the north and the south, into an external contradiction.

This was typical during the Republic of China period.

There are warlords everywhere, the bald leaders are still determined to destroy our party, and the internal contradictions are very sharp.

When the Japanese invaders arrived, the whole country quickly began to point its guns at the enemy. After fourteen years of war of resistance, the entire nation finally achieved its awakening.

By the time the Japanese invaders were driven out, the nation's ideology was highly unified, and 400 million compatriots were in the same boat with high enthusiasm.

It was precisely because of this that the bald man's insistence on starting a civil war was unpopular, and he was eventually driven back to Taiwan in disgrace.

So diverting conflict is very useful.

Especially a movement of the level of national liberation.

This is what the Japanese invaders did.

To put it bluntly, Lao Zhu's deeds are also about national liberation.

But wouldn’t this be too extreme?
Although the Mongols were originally enemies, the two sides were conducting "friendly" physical exchanges on the Ming border.

However, Lao Zhu had not carried out any publicity activities in this regard before.

It's just military hostility.

Politically, they even recognized the Yuan Dynasty as orthodox.

If this is really the case, it seems a bit inappropriate.

Ugh.

I am obviously a conservative.

"King Wu, I called you, didn't you hear me?"

Zhu Yuanzhang saw him standing there in a daze and shouted a little angrily.

"Oh."

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a moment and said, "I think the division between the north and the south was caused by the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty and the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty enslaving the Han people, especially the northern Han people."

"They differentiated between the northern and southern Han people, promoted some traitors, and widely publicized that the southern Han people were lowly slaves."

"During the Yuan Dynasty, southerners were classified as four classes of people, deliberately distinguishing northern Han people from southern Han people. Their intentions were so sinister and malicious that it was outrageous."

"Moreover, when the Mongols attacked the Jin and Song dynasties, they slaughtered millions of Han people. When they massacred Sichuan, there were 140 million skeletons in Chengdu. Originally, there were 1300 million people in Sichuan, but after the massacre, only 60 were left."

"In addition, in the battle of Southern Shaanxi, all soldiers and civilians were massacred. In the battle of Xuzhou, all soldiers and civilians were massacred. In the battle of Hangzhou, all soldiers and civilians were massacred. In the battle of Runan, all soldiers and civilians were massacred. In the battle of Changzhou, all soldiers and civilians were massacred."

"These are all histories of blood and tears, and history must not be forgotten."

"Your Majesty should offer sacrifices to the emperor and his ministers of the Great Song Dynasty, and then have the county magistrates of various places organize the people to take to the streets to wave flags and shout slogans, denouncing the evil deeds of the Mongols and the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty, and telling the people that it was Your Majesty who saved them from the water and fire."

"Then your majesty will announce the Northern Expedition to the Mongols. This will surely boost the morale of the nation. Then we can win a few great battles and kill some Mongols."

As he spoke, he made a hand gesture, slashing down with his right hand like a knife, and said: "This will distinguish between Han and Hu, tell the Han people in the world who our enemies are, and arouse the Han people to share the same hatred of the enemy, and the gap between the north and the south will naturally collapse."

People in later generations often see the brutality of the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese invaders, but few people mention how many Han people of the Southern Song Dynasty were massacred when the Mongols conquered the Southern Song Dynasty.

According to statistics, if the Han people under the rule of the Jin Dynasty in the north are not counted, the Mongol-Song War massacred millions of people. If the Han people under the rule of the Jin Dynasty in the north are counted, the number is about 20 million.

So why is it rarely mentioned?
Because the hatred between the Mongols and the Han people was settled.

Married by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.

Zhu Yuanzhang launched nine northern expeditions and Zhu Di launched five expeditions to the northern desert, killing the Mongols so much that their corpses were scattered all over the ground. The Mongols fled in panic, and their royal court was destroyed. They were forced to flee westward, where they could only survive.

So in essence, the grudge between the two sides has been resolved.

However, there was a lack of a proper settlement between the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese invaders and the Han people, which led to later generations paying more attention to the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese invaders.

But it hasn’t been settled yet.

Before the two major battles of Jinshan and Buyuerhai that dealt a heavy blow to the Mongols, the remnants of the Mongols were still very powerful and had repeatedly harassed the Ming border.

Even in the Battle of Helin and the Battle of Chenghai, Wang Baobao used the strategy of luring the enemy deep into his territory and defeated Xu Da, Lan Yu and Li Wenzhong, making it difficult for Ming soldiers to go beyond the border.

Therefore, the hostility between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongols is very serious at present, and there are countless military battles between the two sides. It is not a bad thing to transfer the internal contradictions of the ethnic confrontation between the north and the south into external contradictions against the Mongols in propaganda.

Yet even so, it was shocking.

At the cabinet meeting, the Minister of Personnel, Qie Si, was stunned.

I am a Mongolian.

You want to make the Mongols your enemies, can you do it in front of me?
Although the Ming Dynasty itself regarded the Mongols as enemies.

But at least it's not that obvious.

At least give yourself some face.

It's not just him.

The other ministers and university scholars also looked at Zhu Yunfeng as if he were a monster.

His Royal Highness the King of Wu seems to be a bit too radical.

"What do you think?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Wu Bozong said quickly: "Your Majesty, no!"

"Why?"

"There are many Yuan people in the Ming Dynasty now, and Yunnan has not yet surrendered. This move may cause panic among the Yuan people, leading to rebellion."

"good."

Liu Song, the Minister of War, also said: "Your Majesty has finally pacified the country and brought peace to the country. If there is another dispute and collusion with the Yuan people in the north and Yunnan, I am afraid the country will be in turmoil." "What about you?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at everyone again.

Some people remained silent, some opposed, and there were very few people in favor.

Some people also said: "The Han people are open-minded and tolerant, and the Yuan people are not incapable of being the subjects of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, with Minister Qie by my side, this may be a little inappropriate."

"That's a bad word."

Zhu Yunfeng immediately said, "Confucius said, 'The descendants do not plot against the Chinese, and the barbarians do not disturb the Chinese.' Your Majesty also said that when the Hu Yuan invaded China, the barbarians were foul and polluted the Chinese, schools were abandoned, and human ethics were destroyed."

"What do the barbarians here refer to? They refer to the barbarians who have no moral code or legal system."

"They only know how to burn, kill, rob and commit all kinds of evil, just like beasts."

"The Five Barbarians invaded China like this, the Jin invaded the south like this, and the Mongols invaded the south like this."

"These people are barbarians!"

“If a Hu person learns Chinese civilization, is he still a Hu person?”

"In my opinion, the so-called "Hua Yi Great Defense" is to prevent the Chinese from changing into the barbarians, not the barbarians from changing into the Chinese."

"Although Minister Xie is a descendant of the Mongols, he has already entered the Xia Dynasty. So now he has only one identity - a citizen of the Ming Dynasty. This is enough."

At the end of his speech, Zhu Yunfeng wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Later generations of traitors and collaborators often defended themselves by saying, "If the Di people enter China, they become Chinese; if the Chinese people enter the barbarians, they become barbarians."

The Han group is identified based on cultural identity, rather than bloodline, ethnicity, etc.

This can express one meaning, that is: as long as a foreigner "believes in Chinese culture", then it is legitimate for him to be the emperor of China!
Therefore, during the period when the Japanese invaders were rampant, these traitors and traitors often boasted in this way, but in the end they even deceived themselves.

But this is a distortion of Confucius and Han Yu and is taking things out of context.

Confucius and Han Yu were not actually against the barbarians invading China; what they were against was the Chinese invading the barbarians.

He also did not agree that as long as foreigners believed in Chinese culture, they could become emperors, but rather that "the descendants should not plot against the Chinese, and the barbarians should not disturb the Chinese."

This sentence has clearly told everyone that people outside the Chinese nation are not allowed to plot against the Central Plains, which means that barbarians are not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Chinese nation in the Central Plains.

Therefore, Qie Si’s problem is easy to understand. He came to China, respected Chinese etiquette and laws, and did not cause chaos in China. He was naturally a citizen of his own country.

"Minister Qie, what do you think?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Qie Si.

Qie Si had remained silent until now, and now he hurriedly said: "I think what His Royal Highness King Wu said is correct. I have been in China for a long time, and I have long been a native of Yingtian Prefecture, and now I am also a citizen of the Ming Dynasty."

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, looked at everyone and said, "What else do you have to say?"

Everyone looked at each other.

Qie Si smiled bitterly and said, "In fact, my colleagues do not care about the theory of Hua Yi. They understand the truth of His Royal Highness the King of Wu. However, once the war breaks out, the national treasury will be difficult to maintain."

The Minister of Finance Qian Tang could only stand up and said bitterly: "Your Majesty, it is indeed the case. We have a deep blood feud with the Yuan people, so we will naturally not oppose this matter, whether it is sending troops or propaganda. However, it is really inconvenient for us to speak up now."

"That's it."

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head.

At first he thought that these ministers were going to cause trouble.

Then he realized it was because of the problem of lack of money, but it was not easy to tell Zhu Yuanzhang directly, so he could only go around in circles to stop it.

Think about it carefully.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's slogan was to expel the barbarians and restore China.

There were serious military and cultural conflicts between the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Apart from the gentry who used to be lackeys of the Yuan Dynasty, there were serious ethnic conflicts among the people towards the Mongols themselves. How could they oppose the publicity of the Mongols' bad deeds and oppose sending troops to attack them?

After all, it’s still the same old problem - economic problem.

really.

There are always two words that trouble the Ming Dynasty: no money.

"Oh?"

Qian Tang looked at Zhu Yunfeng and said, "Your Highness, King Wu, is it not a big deal that the treasury has no money?"

"That certainly doesn't count."

Zhu Yunfeng took out a few silver coins from his pocket and said, "These are silver coins, made of silver, and are worth one guan. I can give the court more than one million guan a month, which is 1300 million guan a year. When you pay your salary in the future, you will exchange the treasure notes for these. Do you think it is enough now?"

He had previously told Zhu Biao that 900 million silver dollars would be produced a year, but that meant that one silver coin was 37.25 grams. If the silver content was 70%, the 30% saved could produce about 300 million more silver dollars.

However, Zhu Yunfeng later found that the 37.25-gram silver dollar he issued was a bit heavy, so he decided to make it according to Yuan Datou's 26 grams.

The result was that after processing, the original 240 tons of silver, converted to 640 million taels, became 26 grams of silver coins after a fierce operation. The degree of deduction reached 50%, which was enough to make 1300 million silver coins.

But the common people can't see it.

Isn’t such advanced alloy and manufacturing technology worth 50% of the price?
"Hey, it's actually made of silver."

"This thing is so smooth, much finer than the usual rough silver."

"Your Highness, can this be melted into silver?"

Everyone came forward and asked for one each, and they were all amazed.

Zhu Yunfeng said calmly, "This is a currency specially made by the imperial court. It is impossible for anyone to copy it. You can melt it, but it is not one tael of pure silver. It is less than seven cents. After melting it, it cannot be valued at one tael. So try not to melt it."

"I see."

Qian Tang pondered for a while and said, "If this is the case, the national treasury can earn 1300 million strings of cash every year, so it should be fine even if a war breaks out."

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied.

What the Ming Dynasty really lacks now is a reckoning with the Mongols.

Taking this opportunity to eliminate and heal the North-South divide is also a good choice.

really.

It was right to ask Yunfeng for help.

This kid has a lot of clever ideas.

It's amazing that we can find a way to have the best of both worlds all of a sudden.

I should consult him more often in the future.

"Do you guys have any questions?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked again.

"Nothing."

"Your Majesty, I think you can do as His Royal Highness the King of Wu does."

"I second the proposal."

"I also second my opinion."

Everyone said one after another.

Zhu Yunfeng nodded with satisfaction: "If that's the case, do you think the Han people in the north and south are one family?"

"nature."

Once you have money, no one will have any objections.

"Do you think that the Mongols slaughtered the Han people wantonly? Should we fight back? We should avenge our grievances and revenge our enemies!"

Zhu Yunfeng smiled evilly and continued to incite with his eloquent tongue.

"Yes."

"Then shouldn't the Han people stop fighting among themselves and fight against foreign enemies together?"

"That's right!"

“So what’s our slogan?”

"slogan?"

Everyone was confused.

What is this?

Zhu Yunfeng raised his arm and shouted, "Of course, we will destroy the Northern Yuan! Come on, those who want to use this silver dollar as salary, shout with me, destroy the Northern Yuan! I will raise his salary by one silver dollar for every time you shout it!"

"Destroy Bei Yuan!"

Everyone looked at each other first. Due to their status, they were not allowed to speak loudly.

However, His Royal Highness the King of Wu had a higher status and was going to give them silver dollars, so he could only respond vaguely.

Zhu Yunfeng shouted, "Didn't you eat? You want to destroy the Mongols by speaking so quietly? Speak louder, destroy the Mongols!"

"Destroy the Mongols!"

Everyone looked up at Zhu Yuanzhang, and seeing that he had no objection, they plucked up their courage and raised their voices.

Zhu Yunfeng shouted again: "North and South are one family!"

“North and South are one family!”

This time the officials were even louder.

"Officials and the people are one family!"

"Officials and the people are one family!"

"Han people will never fight among themselves, we will fight against foreign enemies together!"

"Han people will never fight among themselves, we will fight against foreign enemies together!"

"Come, let us hold hands, connect hearts, and unite the Ming officials. Let us work together for the Ming Dynasty and fight against the Mongols together!"

"Your Majesty, King Wu, commands."

Everyone began to hold hands. The court officials had never seen such a scene before.

For a moment, my emotions were aroused by his speech and I followed his rhythm in a daze.

On the stage, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Yunfeng with a puzzled look.

What on earth is this kid doing?
It wasn't until the voices of the officials below grew louder that he realized something was wrong.

At first, everyone was a little shy and spoke in low voices.

But as Zhu Yunfeng shouted passionately, more than a dozen officials were infected by him.

Everyone was in high spirits, even the old men's faces flushed, and they raised their arms and shouted.

In the end, they even held hands, and Zhu Yunfeng sang: "Unity is strength, this strength is iron, this strength is"

The dark lines on Zhu Yuanzhang's face and the expression on the old man's cell phone on the subway could no longer be concealed.

He finally understood what was going on.

I blanch.

Who let this kid into the inner court?

Get out!
Must be driven out!
(End of this chapter)