My father is Jiajing

Chapter 290 Attacking Zi’s Shield with Zi’s Spear
After coming out of Prince Yu's Mansion, Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang were full of energy and looked very happy. They did not show any displeasure or annoyance at being bullied by Zhu Zaigui.

The two men walked on the cold streets of the capital, looked at each other, and then suddenly burst into laughter, appearing to be extremely happy.

"Congratulations, Editor-in-Chief Zhao."

"Congratulations, Editor-in-Chief Li."

Zhao Zhenji and Li Chunfang bowed to each other in good mood.

The older Zhao Zhenji stood on the street outside Prince Yu's mansion, looking at the prosperous scene in front of him, and said with emotion: "Zishi, I never thought that Prince Yu would have such a brilliant idea, and he could turn the seemingly useless Hongwenguan into an important and popular government office."

"Whether you and I can take advantage of this favorable situation and rise to the top depends on how much we understand Prince Yu's profound meaning."

"To be honest, it is true that heroes emerge from youth. It is a great honor for us and the Ming Dynasty to be able to live in the same era as Prince Yu!"

Zhao Zhenji was full of energy and fighting spirit at this moment. He wanted to immediately devote himself to the initial construction work of Hongwenguan and turn the blueprints that Zhu Zaigui had just mentioned in the palace into reality as soon as possible.

Li Chunfang listened to Zhao Zhenji's laughter, and he also said sincerely: "Brother Meng Jing is right. This is really a great honor for us! Fortunately, His Majesty has been so kind to us, otherwise you and I might not have had this opportunity to follow Prince Yu Yu."

"Next, we must work hard to realize the prince's blueprint as soon as possible, contribute to the cultural cause of the Ming Dynasty, and create greater glory!"

After Zhao Zhenji and the other man finished saying these words, they smiled at each other again.

Obviously after this meeting and conversation, the two are even more optimistic about the future.

If at the beginning when the two came to Prince Yu's Mansion to pay a visit they were thinking about their future prospects, then now what they are thinking about is the hope for the future.

Prince Yu is the eldest son of the current emperor and the destined future ruler of the Ming Dynasty.

He is now so intelligent that he can come up with such a wonderful way to establish a new literary style for the Ming Dynasty.

From this we can see that if the day comes when Prince Yu reaches the pinnacle in the future, who knows how prosperous the Ming Dynasty will be.

Compared with the prosperous Han and Tang dynasties recorded in history books, it should be no less than that, right?
This is the good thing about scholars. Once they become idealistic, the beauty they imagine will always be much better than that of a realist like Zhu Zaigui.

Zhu Zaigui always thought about problems from a reality-oriented perspective, and never thought too much about comparing himself with the Han and Tang dynasties.

All he had to do was to use the existing rules and power within a limited space to create and imitate more successful examples for future generations in order to achieve his goal of changing the future destiny of the Ming Dynasty.

As for dreams of a prosperous age, Zhu Zaigui also had them, but he was thinking more about what a prosperous age is.

If we only consider that there is no war and the people can have a good meal, then the current Ming Dynasty can be considered a prosperous era.

After all, even if a war broke out in the Ming Dynasty, it was only limited to the nine borders and the sporadic Japanese pirates causing trouble on the southeast coast. The Ming Dynasty did not have the years of fierce battles that really made people displaced, insecure, and with corpses everywhere.

Moreover, even when those gentry and landlords were greedy and engaged in annexation, they were at least willing to provide the tenants with food to eat and did not force these poor tenants and peasants to sell their children.

But can such low requirements be considered a prosperous age?
After all, these people living at the bottom of society, although numb and ignorant, are also living people.

If the imperial court and the world do not care about their lives and deaths and treat them as cattle and horses, then this era should not be praised.

Because if we put ourselves in other people's shoes and look back a few hundred years, who among us is not an ox or horse in the prosperous times? So, if we want to stop being an ox or horse, we want to be a human being.

Then we should fight for our rights as human beings instead of just being a beast of burden and thinking that everything will be fine once we have enough food to eat.

Because if some major and irresistible accident happens one day, those raised cattle and horses will become delicious meals on their masters' plates, and they will be at the mercy of their masters without any ability to resist.

Zhu Zaigui does not have any big ambitions now. He just wants more people to realize that they are human beings, and while realizing that they are human beings, they can also realize the dignity and responsibilities of being human beings.

If one only talks about dignity but ignores responsibility, then such people are not actually human beings. They are just a group of hungry wolves in human skins.

Therefore, what Zhu Zaigui has to do now is to make some people who have not had the opportunity to become hungry wolves re-examine their abilities, and let them, while discovering their abilities, also contribute responsibilities within their abilities.

And this is what Zhu Zaigui was going to do in Hongwenguan.

The Hongwenguan can manage and review any collection of articles in the world, but it must also provide certain living guarantees for those who can write articles and collections.

For example, once the articles and collections they wrote were approved by Daming Bookstore or other booksellers and book publishers recognized by Hongwenguan, and photocopied and published, they could receive corresponding remuneration.

It is not like before, whether writing books or articles, it is an act of love that empties the family's savings. And this is the dignity that Zhu Zaigui said is to protect the poor scholars in the world and make them happy.

Zhu Zaigui wanted to show a new trend: it is not shameful to talk about money, and it is even less shameful to make money by relying on one's own ability.

After all, gentlemen also need to eat.

Of course, in order to eat this bowl of rice, you also have to make corresponding contributions. You have to understand that this bowl of rice is given by the court, so if you are lucky enough to receive royalties from your articles and collections, you have to pay at least 20% tax.

Let them truly realize the importance of paying taxes to the country and the security guarantees after paying taxes.

After all, they can make money with their articles and collections, and it is Hongwenguan who is contributing money and effort. If they don’t give back to the platform, then let Hongwenguan generate electricity for love?

This obviously does not conform to Zhu Zaigui's interests and cognition.

Therefore, royalties must be collected, and they must be collected openly and with justification, so that those who pay the taxes can also feel the honor of being a taxpayer!
At the same time, we must also let them despise those gentry landlords who only know how to take advantage of the court and annex the people's land without paying taxes. Then use them as blades to fire at those gentry lands that do not pay taxes or grain!
Let those traditional scholars also experience the power of public opinion weapons. After all, public opinion weapons have been their exclusive property for thousands of years.

Now that Zhu Zaigui is planning to make new moves in the future, he must first remove the opponent’s propaganda weapons before he can promote the new moves openly.

It reversed the irrationality of Ming Dynasty's finance and taxation in one fell swoop and extended the life of Ming Dynasty.

Instead of just relying on the tough policies promoted by Zhang Juzheng to make money, which did make money, it also caused people to become divided and conflicts to increase, leading to constant party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty and the country's demise.

Therefore, what Zhu Zaigui wanted to do was to start from a point and lead to the whole, in a subtle way, to play a trick of subverting the system, to split the original group of scholars who controlled the weapon of public opinion into two, and let them use their own spears to attack their own shields.

Then he could just sit back and relax, and implement reforms that were in the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

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There is another chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)