Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

Throughout the entire operation, Zhu Di was simply a tool.

His temple name was changed not because his achievements needed to be re-evaluated, but because Jiajing needed to make room for him.

Changing the temple name had serious consequences for Zhu Di.

First, it directly weakened the legitimacy of the succession represented by "Taizong," making later generations pay more attention to his role in seizing the throne through the Jingnan Campaign. Second, it created the awkward situation of "two emperors standing side by side" in the Ming Dynasty, causing his historical evaluation to be affected by Jiajing's political maneuvering.

Zhu Di was furious when he saw this. He thought he had secured his position as Emperor Taizong after so many years, but he never expected that at the very end, his foolish descendants would change his title from "Taizong" to "Taizu" and use the rebellion to repeatedly humiliate him.

He told himself: My son is a god! My son can fly! My son is a god! My son can fly! I'm not angry! I'm not angry!

I took deep breaths for a long time, trying to suppress the urge to kill someone, but I found that I couldn't suppress it at all, and instead became more and more annoyed.

"Damn it! ...Fourth Prince! When can you go to the Jiajing court? I'm getting a little angry..." Zhu Di's face was full of anger, but when he turned to Zhu Gaoxi, his expression calmed down instantly, though it was still a bit ugly.

"If you're going, take my second brother with you," Zhu Gaoxu said hurriedly.

Meanwhile, in another time and space.

"Practice until your body resembles a crane, and you can read two volumes of scriptures beneath a thousand pine trees."

"I came to ask the question, but there was nothing more to say; the clouds are in the blue sky, and the water is in the bottle."

A middle-aged man dressed in a plain-colored Taoist robe with cloud patterns and a jade Taoist crown lingered in the Renshou Palace in the West Garden for a while. As if he had thought of something, he happily recited a poem, then touched his beard, sat down, picked up a carving knife, and carved a few words on a plaque.

At first glance, the two large characters "Chengzu" are engraved on the memorial tablet.

"I am truly a political genius. I hope Emperor Taizong, if he knew this in the afterlife, would not blame me." This was none other than the Jiajing Emperor. Obsessed with alchemy and immortality, he wore a Taoist robe all day long and was currently basking in the glory of his idea to change Zhu Di's temple name.

As for the negative consequences, he didn't care. After all, Zhu Di was already dead; could he possibly come back to life?

Back in Annam, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi saw that Tianqi favored Wei Zhongxian, who held absolute power and had ruined the entire court of loyal officials. Zhu Di almost threw the book away.

By this point, Zhu Di was truly speechless. His descendants were a bunch of oddballs, having every whim they liked.

People who like cricket fighting, people who like palace maids much older than themselves, people who don't attend court, people who like cultivating immortality and refining elixirs, people who like indulging in lust, people who like carpentry—I'm truly amazed.

"Father, this book is making me so angry! How could our Zhu family have produced so many unfilial descendants! If it were up to my temper, I would drag these bastards out of the book and chop them up!" Zhu Gaoxu's face was flushed, his hands were trembling, and even the fierce tiger king under his hind legs was shaking its head uneasily.

Zhu Di ignored him and stared at a certain page for a long time, so long that Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but lean over.

That page records that in the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, Li Zicheng captured Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on Coal Hill, and the Ming Dynasty perished.

It's truly a case of starting with a bowl and ending with a rope.

Zhu Di's finger pressed on the two characters "自缢" (suicide by hanging), slowly tracing their meaning.

"My Great Ming Dynasty... is gone just like that." His voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost inaudible.

He took a deep breath and began to examine the Chongzhen era from the beginning. This was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and he wanted to see carefully how this empire had fallen.

First, let's talk about natural disasters. There's no doubt about it; the Ming Dynasty is truly suffering from a series of natural calamities, as if divine retribution. This coincides with the worst of the Little Ice Age. The north has been experiencing years of severe drought, leaving the land parched and barren. Locust plagues have blotted out the sun, and epidemics are rampant. Extreme drought breeds locusts; when they pass through, not a blade of grass grows.

In Shaanxi and Henan, millions of people suffered from famine. Such a natural disaster was beyond human control, so this was to be expected.

But natural disasters are one thing, and man-made disasters are another.

Emperor Chongzhen was a man of integrity, and he ultimately hanged himself on Coal Hill, sacrificing his life for his country. Zhu Di acknowledged this.

Seeing Chongzhen's tireless efforts in governing and reviewing memorials day and night, Zhu Di sighed again. In terms of diligence, Chongzhen was indeed diligent, hardly taking a few days off, and had no bad habits. He was a hardworking emperor.

The mess at the end of the Ming Dynasty can't be entirely blamed on him. As long as he wasn't a tyrannical ruler who brought about the downfall of the country, it's alright. Overall, it was much better than the previous few unworthy descendants, especially that Zhu Qizhen—damn it, he lost 500,000 elite troops of the Ming Dynasty! He almost drove Emperor Zhu to his death!

But despite the recognition, Emperor Chongzhen did commit quite a few foolish acts. His main weakness was his lack of experience in imperial strategy; in this respect, he was even inferior to the old Taoist Emperor Jiajing.

First, he was extremely suspicious, employing people but not trusting them. During his seventeen-year reign, he changed nineteen Grand Secretaries, averaging more than one per year. What is a Grand Secretary? They are the central figure in the court, the first person to share the burden of government affairs with the emperor. How could there be continuity in governance if they changed every year?

Even more outrageous was the attitude towards the frontline generals, sometimes trusting them and sometimes suspecting them. One moment they would bestow upon them an imperial sword, and the next they would send a supervisor to restrain them.

How did Yuan Chonghuan die? He was executed by slow slicing for "treason" by Emperor Chongzhen! He was the most capable commander guarding Liaodong, and he was killed just like that. You might say Yuan Chonghuan was completely right, right? He killed Mao Wenlong without authorization! But you are an emperor, and this is not the time to kill someone!

"When the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning rabbit is dead, the hunting dog is cooked!" Now the Later Jin are eyeing us covetously, and we still need Yuan Chonghuan for defense. You have absolutely no sense of timing! You just do whatever comes to mind!

Second, they are indecisive and waver on important matters.

In Liaodong, outside the Great Wall, the government sometimes orders a decisive battle, and other times plans to shrink its defenses. It is unwilling to give up the Liaodong territory, but also unwilling to continue to invest huge amounts of military funds and drain the national treasury in the long term.

The policy towards peasant armies within the Great Wall was inconsistent, sometimes focusing on suppression and sometimes issuing edicts to pacify them.

After being pacified, the government failed to provide the necessary funds and provisions to resettle the displaced people. With nowhere else to go, the people rose up again, and the rebellion grew larger and larger with each suppression.

Zhu Di grew angrier the more he looked at it, after all, war is a matter of national importance, a matter of life and death.

Either fight or make peace; the worst thing is to be indecisive.

Third, they lack understanding of balance and checks and balances.

After purging the eunuch faction, the Donglin Party was allowed to dominate, and factional strife intensified.

Instead of thinking about how to defend against enemies and bring peace to the people, the officials in the court attacked each other every day. You called me a treacherous minister, and I called you a national traitor.

Not only was Emperor Chongzhen unable to control the court, but he also lacked any independent judgment. He listened to one person today and another tomorrow, and the court gradually rotted away amidst this internal strife.

After reading this, Zhu Di let out a long sigh and closed the book.

He suddenly felt very tired, truly exhausted, more tired than a relay race in the harem.

It's truly remarkable that the Ming Dynasty was handed over to these descendants!

Zhu Gaoxu, who was standing beside him, also finished reading and was speechless: "Dad, this book... you should read less of it in the future. It makes one feel suffocated."

After reading it, Zhu Gaoxu felt that he could do it too, and he was definitely better than these ugly and deformed people. At least he didn't have so many bad habits. He just liked to brag, hunt, and raise some wild beasts... Compared with those who were obsessed with cricket fighting, alchemy, or carpentry, he was cultivating his character.