Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 45 Insects! All insects!
[Yangzhou's first unlimited fighting competition officially begins! ]

[Faced with the various riots caused by the collusion of local forces, you, the newly elected leader, must deliver a satisfactory response to the Divine Emperor and the people of the world. Only in this way can you consolidate the authority of your makeshift team.]

[The Divine Emperor is watching from above, and the people are expecting you from below, so you must deal with these riots swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly. Yangzhou is a prime example of a place you will be responsible for handling!]

Back then, the wealthy merchants of Yangzhou were the daring pioneers of tax resistance, so much so that the Divine Emperor, in a fit of rage, whitewashed them. Now, less than sixty years later, this new group of vested interests in Yangzhou dare to cause chaos. They simply don't take you, the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty, seriously.

They're clearly trying to make you look bad, and to test your resolve for the new policy. If you compromise, it means you're weak and can be bullied, and that this new policy is nothing but a game of grandeur and little action.

[This way, they can continue to maintain their former interest groups and wield power over the local area... And you, due to your poor handling of the situation, will be disappointed by the people of the world, who will think you are just a boaster. From then on, the acceptance of your new policies will be greatly reduced, and even the Divine Emperor will be disappointed in you...]

So, you didn't dare hesitate at all. After the news of the Yangzhou rebellion reached the capital, you immediately launched a fierce attack!

[The newly appointed Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, a heavyweight figure, will lead 6,000 troops from the Beijing camp to Yangzhou to suppress the rebellion immediately!]

In your military orders, you clearly told Gao Yiming: Although you consider that the Yangzhou rebels are mostly ignorant civilians who have been instigated, so large-scale use of weapons and weapons is not allowed in this operation, you must not show any mercy when facing the unruly people of Yangzhou!

“Remember: suppressing rebellion requires warmth, swinging the baton requires force, lifting the foot requires accuracy, raising the hand requires height, swinging the fist requires angle, and each baton requires attitude…”

"Six sticks per second is only the upper limit for ordinary people. As elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Garrison, if you throw less than ten sticks per second, you are failing His Majesty's kindness!"

"One stick to repay a favor, one stick to obey orders, and the remaining eight sticks represent your unwavering loyalty to His Majesty!"

[Beijing Camp, move out!]

[Watching the excited Gao Yiming lead 6,000 soldiers from the Imperial Camp on their expedition to Yangzhou, you can't help but sigh...]

[Fuck, how did the Ming Dynasty become like this? The world is full of unruly people!]

“Although I don’t want to imitate Quan Kaka and mingle with the people, I can only suppress them for now…”

[After a sigh, you suddenly find yourself somewhat amused: you clearly wanted to destroy the Ming Dynasty during the imperial examinations, but suddenly you have risen to the top and become the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty. You immediately sit on the throne of the Ming Dynasty and strike hard at all the rebellious forces that might overthrow the Ming Dynasty...]

【The butt really determines the head! 】

You laughed at yourself.

[But then again, your current situation can hardly be described as restoring the Ming Dynasty. Rather, they are the ones who are restoring the Ming Dynasty and resisting you, the traitor who usurped power...]

If we want to understand who the real rebels are, we must first understand one question: What is the "Ming Dynasty"?

[Answer: The Ming Dynasty was a centralized, unified feudal imperial regime with the Zhu royal family at its core, local officials, nobles, and landlords as its ruling class, the two capitals and thirteen provinces as its ruling areas, the people within those areas as its ruled class, and soldiers under the garrison system as its primary armed force!]

What are the rebels in various places now?

[Answer: They were officials, they were landlords and gentry, they were princes, generals, and wealthy merchants... They were the main ruling class of the Ming Dynasty. In other words, they were the very concept of the "Ming Dynasty" itself!]

What are you? What are your political views?

[Answer: You are a "usurper" who has seized all central powers of the Ming Dynasty, including the emperor, the six ministries, and the cabinet, and are about to launch a purge and attack on the former Ming ruling class... In a sense, the "Gengchen Coup" was an anti-Ming coup that overthrew the supreme ruling power of the Ming Dynasty.]

[Since the coup, the "Ming Dynasty" has been brain-dead. It has been taken over by your "Zhou Family Prime Minister's Government"!]

Next, you, the possessor, only need to eliminate most of the original Ming Dynasty's ruling class, expand your power throughout the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and support a new ruling class loyal to you. Then, you will have effectively destroyed the "Ming Dynasty."

[You are initiating a dynastic change without changing the country's name...]

[But... this is exactly the strange thing. Although you are an enemy of the Ming Dynasty's ruling class, you were able to take power by order of the Divine Emperor. The Divine Emperor is the supreme ruler of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, your "change of dynasty" is legal...]

[That is to say, at this strange point, there are two divergent definitions of "Da Ming."]

[One is the original ruling class of the Ming Dynasty. They think they are the "Great Ming" itself, so anyone who dares to oppose them is a traitor who usurps the throne!]

[One is the supreme ruler of the Ming Dynasty, the Divine Emperor himself. He believes that he is the "Great Ming" and that I am the country! Therefore, your new policy is merely an internal reform carried out under his orders, not a change of dynasty!]

[Both sides believe they are right. This is the core point of this conflict...]

You are of course fully aware of the above contradictions, but you do not intend to dwell on this question, which is destined to have no standard answer, because it is meaningless to you.

Compared to the meaningless "Ming Dynasty orthodoxy," you care more about the people who actually live on this ancient land. They are struggling to survive in this dire straits. They have waited for too long, and just want to find that ray of light that symbolizes hope from the endless darkness... You are like the "fire thief" in Western mythology, your body in heaven, but your heart in the human world, determined to bring the warm fire of heaven to the hungry and cold human world, to save those billions of people...

“Oh! Your Excellency, the Great Archon of the Eastern World! You are simply Prometheus in Greek mythology. The admiration of our ministers for you is as endless as a surging river…”

You stare at the beaming Western missionary in front of you with an awkward expression, listening to his unspoken Chinese translation. You reach out and ask him to stop.

"From what I know, Prometheus was later imprisoned on a cliff by the gods for stealing fire. Every day, vultures came to eat his flesh and internal organs... This doesn't seem like an auspicious metaphor."

[Ah? Anyone know anything about this?]

The blond missionary, who was praising you endlessly, was stunned upon hearing this, then looked embarrassed: "This... Your Excellency the Archon is truly knowledgeable..."

You ask him again with great interest, "And I've heard that your sect doesn't seem to tolerate pagan knowledge, and ancient Greek mythology falls squarely within that range... Are you really not committing literary inquisition by talking about these things?"

【ah? ! 】

[When this matter was mentioned, the missionary was shocked...]

Seeing this, you can't help but feel a little curious about the distant Western land: "Okay, let's not talk about this anymore... Let me ask you, where are your Western colonies? What do you think of the Ming Dynasty? Do you want to trade with us or invade us..."

【ah? ! 】

After a series of questions, this missionary, whom you had specifically summoned to inquire about Western affairs, turned pale with fear. He kowtowed repeatedly to apologize, and tremblingly said, "I'm just a little Karami. I really don't understand what you're asking, Your Excellency the Governor..."

However, he still provided you with some information about the world: the colonial era had already begun, and the American colonies had been established for many years. Silver from the Americas was continuously transported to the Ming Dynasty via trade routes, used to purchase Ming specialties such as tea, silk, and porcelain...

[The information is very similar to what was described in your past life's history textbook.]

However, regarding their attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, the missionary stated that while he wasn't very familiar with national affairs, he believed that Western nations held absolutely no hostility towards the Ming Dynasty.

[It's simply because the Divine Emperor, the true God, has arrived on earth, and everyone is eager to lick his boots, so how could they dare to be hostile? To further curry favor with the Divine Emperor, the Western Church even considered revising its own canon, altering it to tie the Divine Emperor and the true God together, creating a "four-in-one" system!]

Even though the Togu Reform ultimately failed due to the Divine Emperor's active refusal, the various nations and the Vatican still sent envoys to celebrate the Divine Emperor's birthday, with shiploads of gifts filled with rare treasures. There was a strange feeling of "testing the resources of the West to win the favor of the Divine Emperor"...

"So, I don't have to worry about the Western invasion..."

After sending off the terrified missionary, you gradually relaxed. Previously, your biggest fear was that the West would take advantage of the situation before the internal upheaval was over. Now, after a brief consultation with the missionary and confirmation that the world situation was stable, you finally felt relieved.

"If the West sends troops to take advantage of the situation, while the Ming officials and elite soldiers may have divine powers to protect them, the millions of garrison troops who have long been out of combat are completely mortal, and there are also nearly 100 million civilians. If a fight breaks out, the still weakened Ming Dynasty is likely to suffer heavy losses..."

[Thinking of this, you can't help but feel distressed: the current Ming Dynasty is a mediocre monster. You call it the "Mythical Ming Dynasty," but in fact, the Ming Dynasty has only one true god, a few thousand officials, and over ten thousand elite soldiers who can be called extraordinary fighting forces.]

The remaining hundreds of thousands of low-ranking officials and ordinary elite soldiers possessed only a modicum of divine power, making them at best a bit stronger than ordinary people. A single bullet could still kill them... and the remaining millions of garrison soldiers and hundreds of millions of civilians were truly mere mortals!

[And to call it a "Technological Ming Dynasty" is even more disgraceful. After sixty years of the Dark Ages, Ming's military equipment not only did not develop, but actually regressed...]

The already rotten garrison troops have become even worse. Millions of them have been drained of their blood and become useless. They have no military training at all. They are more like serfs than soldiers...

[Firearms and cannons? I already have divine power, why would I still want to develop these things? Besides, there hasn't been a large-scale war in the thirteen provinces for nearly sixty years, so why would I still need to maintain an army? The only way to get rich is to be as greedy as possible!]

[In the entire Ming Dynasty, perhaps only the Emperor's personal army, the Jinyiwei, and some of the elite troops of the Beijing Camp still have some combat effectiveness... This is also why you didn't mobilize troops from nearby Yangzhou to suppress the rebellion, but instead mobilized troops from the Beijing Camp thousands of miles away...]

[The current Ming Dynasty's military equipment is basically an empty shell. Everything you do feels empty, so it is urgent to reorganize the military equipment!]

[As for the military preparations, you'll need some transition time. After all, you've just taken office and there's a lot going on... I just hope this round of Yangzhou rebellion suppression will be a quick victory. You can use this opportunity to train a combat-ready army, and then comprehensively reorganize the army to restore the Ming army's proper combat effectiveness.]

[But you never expected that Gao Yiming, who led the troops to suppress the rebellion, would soon bring you back some shocking news...]

"Prime Minister... our army has been defeated!"

【you:……】

……

(End of this chapter)