My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 279 The unsolvable conspiracy

"After distinguishing who are friends, who are enemies, and who are the middle-of-the-roaders, what we need to do becomes much simpler. To sum it up in one sentence, it is to make more friends and fewer enemies, isolate the most stubborn enemies, and let them be frogs in the well.

Then let's discuss how to use newspapers as a means of public opinion to divide the literary world, completely take the right to speak away from them, and make science an indispensable part of Ming education, so as to promote industry to a higher level."

When the letter started to get to the point, Zhu Yuanzhang held his breath and became nervous.

“First, the problem of education reform caused by the lack of workers is a problem for the court, but it is also a problem for the entire society. Therefore, it should not be borne by the court, let alone by you, Mr. Zhu.

So what we need to do is to throw this issue to the public and to society. The first step is to let Fang Xiaoru and others publish articles in newspapers to attract everyone to discuss it.

The specific content of the article mainly includes: first, the importance of industry to the people of Ming Dynasty and even the entire country; second, the serious impact that the lack of workers will have on industry and even on people's livelihood.

The focus of the article is on the serious impact. Lao Zhu, you must remember that as the saying goes, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. This is a common problem for everyone, that is, bad news will definitely spread faster and wider than good news.

As the saying goes, "A good deed may go unnoticed for three years, but a bad deed may be known within a day." Old Zhu, you have been to the countryside, so you must know that in the village, not many people will discuss what good deeds someone has done. But if a woman has an affair with another man, the news will surely spread throughout the village within a day.

It’s not because people like bad news, but because bad news is more likely to be discussed.

The fundamental reason is that bad news can naturally arouse a sense of crisis in people's hearts, and it is an exciting experience to participate in without any harm.

Then we will use this to arouse widespread interest among the people and create a hot topic of public opinion throughout the Ming Dynasty as quickly as possible.

This is the first step, creating a social hotspot. The key is to plant a concept in the minds of all the people and even the literati of the Ming Dynasty, that industry is the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty. If industrialization is hindered, it will bring terrible consequences. This also lays the groundwork for our subsequent steps. "

Tsk tsk, Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and couldn't help laughing. Such vulgar words as "whose wife is cheating on her man" coming from the mouth of a free and easy person like Lao Li, is really... hard to describe.

It's really down-to-earth. It feels like the Buddha enshrined in the temple suddenly eats the offerings secretly.

However, Lao Li's example explains in a very simple and profound way why negative news should be deliberately created in newspapers to attract public attention.

So after laying the groundwork, what should be done next? Zhu Yuanzhang's curiosity had been thoroughly piqued.

“After the public’s attention is drawn to this issue, further articles will be published pointing out that the problem of worker shortage is caused by the lack of education and skills. At this point, it is not just a hot topic, but will arouse widespread discussion in society.

Once people start discussing, opinions will be formed. Naturally, there will be similar opinions as well as opposing opinions, which will be further divided into factions. In this way, we can preliminarily distinguish who in the literary world supports education reform and who opposes it.

At this stage, newspapers can be used to widely solicit submissions from people in the literary world, so that we can distinguish who supports education reform, who supports industrialization but opposes education reform, and who opposes industrialization.

As for those fence-sitters who have no opinions of their own and will not publish their opinions in newspapers, then you, Mr. Zhu, do not need to put too much energy on them.

This move is called "luring someone into a trap". Of course, you can also call it "confessing without fighting". This is not only to distinguish the factions within the literary world, but also to better divide and alienate them. When writers see opinions that are different from their own, they naturally have to refute them. Submitting articles to express their opinions is a mission and a natural thing. No writer will refuse. This is an open conspiracy, an open conspiracy with no solution!"

After reading this, Zhu Yuanzhang finally felt the murderous intent contained in the letter. Step by step, the literati who opposed the education reform willingly walked into the big net woven for them.

"Then the next step is the crucial third step, which is the alienation mentioned above. Of course, I prefer to call it 'provoking war', or in other words, to provoke opposition between different factions of scholars and let them split themselves from within.

It is to provoke a fight between the scholars, and let the scholars defeat the scholars!"

Lao Li, your true intentions are finally revealed!

Zhu Yuanzhang felt his scalp beginning to go numb. Old Li was simply killing people by destroying their hearts without shedding any blood!

Although the sharp blades with which they stabbed each other were provided by the Ming Dynasty, they were taken by themselves on their own initiative.

"In fact, what you have to do is very simple. You just need to select the ones with the most sharply opposing views from the numerous contributions of writers, and then print them in newspapers for distribution. This is called provoking conflict. Of course, you can also insert comments from the official newspapers on these articles.

These comments are naturally meant to stand on the side of our friends, but they must be done without leaving any trace and be subtle and silent. I believe that with Fang Xiaoru's writing style, he can certainly achieve this.

Then, given the nature of scholars' love for debate, they would naturally organize various debate conferences on their own. At the debates, everyone would find people who supported their position and further form gangs and factions.

And in this process, what you have to do, Mr. Zhu, is to deepen the confrontation while winning over those who support education reform and industry to your side.

As the king of a country, you should know better than me how to do it, so there is no need for me to elaborate.

During this period, you can also publish some stories regularly in newspapers, just like the story I wrote to you during the academic conference. The underlying logic is still that poor people change their destiny by learning technology.

However, the twists and turns in the story are no longer about the wicked woman breaking off the engagement, or the wicked father-in-law beating up the star-crossed couple, but about placing both parties of the conflict on the literati and the protagonist.

For example, the protagonist has been looked down upon by scholars since he was a child, but through learning technology, he finally achieves more than the scholars who looked down on him.

Of course, a story like this would be better if it were based on real people and events.

Finally, at the right time, which I think is when the voices of those who support reform and the people have reached a climax, Lao Zhu, you should find a few great scholars of the time, publish articles in newspapers, and put an end to this matter once and for all. The matter will be settled once and for all, and those who oppose it will have no power to turn the tide!
I believe there must be great scholars who support the court. Even if there aren't, with your ability, you will definitely find a few. After all, not all scholars are as strong-willed as Fang Xiaoru, right?"

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was already in a cold sweat. Lao Li's plan was almost taking the methods of sowing discord, killing with a borrowed knife, and using someone else's force to defeat someone else to the extreme!
He put himself in the shoes of this conspiracy and found that he was powerless to stop it, because this plan, step by step, was tailored to the minds of literati and even everyone. It is the nature of literati to express their opinions, and it involves the vital interests of the people. The people cannot stay out of it and will definitely participate in it.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized that this was more of a campaign to create momentum for the Ming Dynasty to embark on the path of industrialization than to win over the literati!

(End of this chapter)