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

Chapter 60 "Ming Dynasty: Chongzhen asked me to rebel!"

[In the 90th year of Chongzhen's reign, the sea was at peace and the river was clear!]

[In the 91st year of Chongzhen's reign, Nanyang presented a Qilin as a tribute!]

[In the 92nd year of Chongzhen's reign, the Luo River dried up, and a stone dragon horse appeared, carrying the Luoshu!]

In the ninety-third year of the Chongzhen reign, the Great Immortal (Tianshi) of the Zhengyi Dao of Mount Longhu observed the number of prime ministers from afar and saw that the five-colored auras were all dragons and tigers, which were invaluable!

In the 94th year of the Chongzhen reign, Duke Yansheng of Qufu excavated an old house and stumbled upon an ancient bamboo scroll inscribed with tadpole script. After personal interpretation, he discovered it to be a passage from the Book of Songs, Da Ya, by King Wen. However, for unknown reasons, the rest of the text was poorly preserved. Only the line "Although Zhou is an old state, its mission is to renew itself" remained clearly visible. At night, the characters appeared to glow with golden light.

In the ninety-fifth year of the Chongzhen reign, a fox in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, cried out, "The Great Zhou Dynasty will rise! King Zhou Liang!" Another person fishing in the Wei River found a message in the fish's belly: "The Great Zhou Dynasty will rise! King Zhou Liang!"

In the ninety-sixth year of Chongzhen's reign, someone else said, "Shaanxi is the land of the former Zhou Dynasty, and it has the aura of an emperor. Now that the dragon aura of Fengyang in the Ming Dynasty has waned, it is time to return power to the emperor of Zhou!"

"Ming is the virtue of fire, while Zhou is the virtue of earth. Among the Five Elements, fire generates earth. Therefore, Ming rose in the Zhou Dynasty, and Ming succeeded Zhou. This is the mutual generation of the Five Virtues, which is the will of Heaven!"

As time went on, the rumors grew more and more bizarre. If the above ones still had some logic, then the following ones were a bit impolite...

"The Blue Heaven has died, and the Yellow Heaven shall rise! In the year of Guimao, great good fortune will befall the world!"

["The Ming Dynasty has lost its virtue, and both heaven and man despise it! The Emperor's star is dim, and it is time to abdicate!"]

"Speaking of Fengyang, Fengyang! Fengyang used to be a good place, but ever since Emperor Zhu came to power, nine out of ten years have been barren... Old scoundrel Zhu! Do you know why Fengyang is barren? It's because your Zhu family named your country Ming! Ming means the sun. If there's a sun hanging out there every day, how could Fengyang not be barren?"

"Furthermore, the Zhu family's rise to power was illegitimate. They rose to power by betraying the peasants who revolted throughout the country. Zhu Yuanzhang constantly claimed to be working for the people, but after ascending the throne, he began to slander the Red Turban heroes as bandits, while he himself was an upright gentleman who had accidentally strayed into the banditry..."

[“Yes! And how did Little Ming Wang die? Easily soluble in water?”]

[“And Yongle was also a murderous maniac! The holy grandson Xuande abandoned the land thousands of miles away! Zhu Qizhen killed the Grand Protector! The old Taoist priests’ houses were all clean! Wanli neglected his duties, owed wages, and killed soldiers…”]

"The laws of nature are in disarray, and disasters are rampant on earth. This is all due to your family's immorality! Get off the throne immediately!"

"That's right! Without Prime Minister Zifang, you're just a piece of shit on the side of the road! Get off! Get off!"

[God Emperor:...]

[No... I only asked you to create an auspicious sign to expose that brat's true colors. What are you doing to me?!]

The increasingly aged Divine Emperor was so enraged by the complaints from the world that he trembled all over, frightening the eunuchs who kowtowed and cried, "No... Your Majesty, we only performed some routine auspicious acts to encourage the throne. The subsequent insults were definitely not our fault!!!"

[These are all the nonsense being shouted by the 100 million unruly people across the country! There are bad people among the people!]

[Yes! This entire country is full of unruly people! They are all unruly people who have accepted money from foreigners! They even dare to scold His Majesty. These are no longer ordinary unruly people! We must strike hard!]

[Your Majesty! Use your invincible divine power to send all the unruly people in the country to heaven one by one!]

The loyal eunuchs wiped their tears and pleaded, wishing to kill every unruly person in the world who dared to insult their master!

But to the eunuchs' surprise, the Divine Emperor did nothing in response to their cries and requests. He simply took a deep breath and cast his furious, red gaze towards the distant Prime Minister's residence, as if waiting for something...

【…】

【Don't harm me! 】

[At the same time, you in the Prime Minister's Mansion were truly terrified: There are bad people among the people!]

[Actually, those auspicious signs mentioned above are fine. I've already decided to be a loyal subject and a Zhuge Liang emulator, so what if they happen? I can just ignore them.]

[But the subsequent string of people's shouting and cursing really makes you unable to hold back... No, if you haven't eaten purple eggs, have you not eaten the original purple eggs? ]

[Wang La?! Those wronged souls that were sent to heaven one after another by the Divine Emperor hanging from the crooked tree on Coal Hill are still staring at you every day!]

[In short, you're afraid that the Divine Emperor will be so overwhelmed by the people's sharp insults that he'll stop acting and attack you and the people directly...]

[Yes, you actually saw that He was acting a long time ago. Although you didn't know why He was acting this way, His intention was still too obvious. He clearly wanted you to actively harbor rebellious thoughts!] [However, the way He acted, which exposed even the skin of His own ancestors, was really hard for you to understand: Isn't this a bit too much...]

[But no matter what the Divine Emperor's plan is, you must respond firmly to this matter!]

So you quickly had the Prime Minister's court writers draft numerous "rumor-refuting notices" to appease the people: Children, I truly only made a small contribution! The world is now better thanks to your majesty's grace!

[Anyway, remember this: "Don't say anything that's detrimental to unity!"]

After this appeasement, the people more or less remembered the God-Emperor's fierce power. So after satisfying their desire to talk, everyone tactfully shut up, lest they overdo the rectification and get killed by the tower...

[Always remember to take Mi Sheng as a role model. Something as ethereal as "Tower Studies" is beyond the grasp of mortals...]

[However, although everyone regained their sanity under the threat of Yuan Zidan, they were still dissatisfied with you due to the limitations of the times.]

"Prime Minister, everything else is easy to explain, but how do you explain those auspicious signs? The peaceful seas and clear rivers, the Qilin, the dragon and horse carrying the map, the dragon and tiger's multicolored aura, the bamboo scroll of the Book of Songs... These auspicious signs are clearly sent down by the heavens in recognition of your benevolence!"

You smiled helplessly and could only reluctantly explain the science to them.

"Peace and tranquility are natural laws. The Yellow River also became clear during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song. Was Emperor Huizong a wise and enlightened ruler?"

"As for the Qilin... that one isn't called a Qilin, but a common animal with a unique appearance from thousands of miles away. It should be called a giraffe instead... If it truly is the auspicious Qilin, then the land where it was born wouldn't be a celestial realm where immortals roam freely."

"The dragon horse carrying the picture... I've seen that dragon horse. It's just a recently carved stone statue. It's obviously created by foreign forces to disrupt the Ming Dynasty!"

[Foreign forces... The eunuch hiding in the distance couldn't help but blush...]

"And the five-colored dragon and tiger qi and the Kong family's bamboo scrolls of poetry... they're just tactics used by Taoist and Confucian philistines to deceive the people! The Longhu Mountain Marshal's Mansion and the Kong family's Yansheng Duke must not be left. They're all feudal superstitions. Only Your Majesty is the only true god left alive!"

【ah? ! 】

[A Taoist priest and a scholar hidden in the crowd were horrified and hurried back to report...]

[In short, please explain all of the above auspicious signs as scientifically as possible. Although they may not be entirely scientific, there's a high probability that some invisible, transcendental hand is manipulating everything behind the scenes...]

[Everyone seemed to understand what he said.]

However, some people still disagreed: "Prime Minister! I understand everything you're saying, but there's one thing I can't understand: why has the Emperor Star in the sky become dim? In the past few years, the Emperor Star has truly become dim and unstable. Isn't this a sign of a monarch's lack of virtue?"

【this……】

You're speechless for a moment, because you don't quite understand: No matter how powerful the Divine Emperor is, he's only at the surface level. Changing the waters of the Yellow River and suppressing the waves of the East China Sea are exaggerated, but they're understandable... But what about the Emperor Star? That star is light-years away. Even if the Divine Emperor is so powerful that he can move stars and change constellations, a star that far away wouldn't even have enough time to transmit light, right?!

[Besides, the Divine Emperor is clearly weakening. He couldn't do this before, and it's even more impossible now... Unless he's been acting the whole time, it's impossible! No... even if he's acting, it's impossible!]

You've been thinking about it for a long time, but you still can't figure out how the Divine Emperor did it. After much hesitation, you decide to bite the bullet and force an explanation.

"Well... this is also a natural phenomenon in astronomy... Xunzi was right, the laws of nature are constant, they don't exist for the sake of Yao or die for the sake of Jie! There's no mutual connection between celestial phenomena and humans. This is all a rumor made up by Dong Zhongshu to confuse the emperor!"

[After much persuasion, the crowd reluctantly retreated. As for whether they actually believed it or not, no one knows...]

After finishing all of this, you finally breathed a sigh of relief and slowly turned your head, gazing towards the Forbidden City.

Although you cannot see His gaze, you know He is definitely looking at you...

You said nothing, but bowed calmly towards the distance.

【…】

In the ninety-sixth year of Chongzhen's reign, the fifty-three-year-old Prime Minister Zhou Liang requested to retire and return home!

……

(End of this chapter)