First Minister of Ming Dynasty

Secondly, this case is tantamount to telling everyone that it is an irresistible trend for women to come out to do things.Wei Han was sentenced to be beheaded, and there were so many people thrown into the prison together, from top to bottom, no one could escape the responsibility.

This is not just to find someone to take the blame, but to clean up thoroughly, seriously, with such a grand scale, quick and clean action, which is unprecedented.

What's more terrible is that Zhang Xiang and Li Xiang all have the same opinion, including the Ministry of Punishment, clamoring to revise the law. This huge momentum is overwhelming, and anyone who tries to resist will be smashed to pieces.

The turmoil of Yingtian, naturally, spread to the front line of Hongdu.

Zhu Yuanzhang recruited Hu Tingrui and others, and then attacked Fuzhou, wantonly expanding the territory, and fought very lively. Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Hu Dahai, these fierce generals attacked and won all battles.

It is such a time of fighting for supremacy in the world again, it stands to reason that they should be the protagonists who deserve it, but unfortunately, no matter how lively the fight outside is, it is not worth mentioning compared with Ying's earth-shaking changes every day.

But when Zhang Ximeng sent what he had written, it was not Zhu Yuanzhang who was most anxious to see, but the old man Zhu Sheng.

In fact, he already had 1 approvals for the promotion of women's status, and he also saw the power and Zhang Ximeng's good intentions.

But his arsenic, your honey.

Things in the world are like this, the position of the buttocks is different, and right and wrong are also different.

Take Han Xiuniang's case as an example, the Jiangning county government was directly involved, and at most those few elders who helped Wei Han wave the flag.

Others did not directly participate, and no one can sell so many people at once!

But before Zhang Ximeng spoke, why did the big guys take advantage of this incident to embarrass Zhang Ximeng, intentionally or unintentionally, to protect Wei Han and oppose letting women come out to do things... Isn't it because the habit of thousands of years has continued and has become The instinct of most people has been forgotten, and people have forgotten the reason for this arrangement in the first place.

Those who regarded farming cattle as sacred objects in order to protect animal power back then probably never imagined that after thousands of years, even cow urine would be clean and hygienic.

What Zhang Ximeng wrote to Zhu Yuanzhang was naturally much more detailed. After Zhu Sheng read it, he suddenly realized, like waking up from a dream.

The tradition of men farming and women weaving can even be traced back three generations.

For thousands of years, although it was still the agricultural era, it was not without progress... For example, during the Spring and Autumn Period, the well field system collapsed.

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the population of the Central Plains increased and agricultural technology advanced, and a farmer could support more and more people.

This is the most fundamental logic of productivity development and the foundation of everything.

Zhu Sheng had chatted with Zhang Ximeng a lot, and seeing these, he was no stranger, and he could quickly grasp the essence of them.

"The superiors say that the general trend of the world is that the long-term must be united and the long-term must be divided, but according to Zhang Xiang's opinion, it is tantamount to rewriting history!" Zhu Sheng praised: "During the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu advocated the three strategies of heaven and man, advocating the unification of the great, Helping Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to become an emperor through the ages. At that time, the scholars were still good, fighting with swords and horses, fighting in the battlefield, seeking fame and fame. Until the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there were also many poets, hoping to make achievements in the frontier fortress and enshrine their wives. Son, become famous all over the world."

Zhu Sheng said with a smile: "When I read history books in my early years, I felt that the Tang and Song Dynasties were only a few decades apart. How could they be so different? At that time, I still couldn't figure it out. I just thought that the Tang Dynasty favored martial arts, while Zhao and Song Dynasty cultivated literature. They just had different preferences. But reading Zhang Xiang’s article now gave me another understanding. Perhaps from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, it happened to be at a turning point. Intensive farming, Champa rice was introduced, farmers plowed the fields, and the remaining grain More and more. The Emperor of the Zhao family favored scholars. Scholar-bureaucrats don’t need to go to the battlefield to make contributions. By studying the imperial examinations, they can be a leader and enjoy the worship of the people. "

Needless to say, Zhu Yuanzhang is eager to learn, and Zhang Ximeng is also his first teacher, so even when faced with such a profound thing, Lao Zhu can understand it to a certain extent.

"Sure enough, according to Mr. Zhang, Confucianism has quietly changed between the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has become a burden and a shackle." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed softly: "And Neo Confucianism is the master, the one with the same surname as us, the disaster Not shallow!"

Zhu Sheng took a deep breath. The power of Zhang Ximeng's work is that many people scold Zhu Xi and oppose Neo-Confucianism. They are just scolding people.

But Zhang Ximeng proved that Neo Confucianism is a bastard.

In the face of agricultural progress and production development, Neo Confucianism did not conform to the general trend, but stood on the standpoint of gentry and landlords, and kept putting shackles on the common people.

Preserve the principles of nature and eliminate human desires. Let everyone stop thinking about it, close your eyes, and pretend that the world has not changed, and it is better to be quiet.

Then, they simply preached that death from starvation was a small matter, while infidelity was a major matter, confining women tightly at home, and using the sacrifice of the entire country to meet the needs of scholar-bureaucrats to continue to live comfortably.

In the end, the evil result was one defeat after another, allowing the Mongols to seize the world.

Facing the iron hooves of Mongolia, scholars who value integrity more than anything else, there are many people who bow their knees and surrender.

As long as I can guarantee that I eat delicious food and drink spicy food, who cares who is the emperor?

As for the guidelines that the literati have always regarded as the root of life, they have also changed from the norms of order to a tool in the hands of scholars. Anyway, whatever is beneficial to us, we can do it...

Zhu Sheng kept sighing, sweating through his clothes, and said helplessly: "My lord, if I hadn't read Zhang Xiang's article, I would hardly know that the evil of literati and officials has reached this point. Fortunately, Zhang Xiang sees the sun, otherwise, if I don't take this as soon as possible." I really don't know what will happen in the future! Just for this, Zhang Xiang is enough to keep pace with the ancient sages and sages. It is really a gift from heaven for the superior to be assisted by such a wise man."

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly startled, thinking that he was the one who picked up Zhang Ximeng back then and saved his life, but he didn't expect that this kid could help him so much, God really favored him!

"Mr. Fenglin, what do you think should be done? Do you want to kill all those bastards!"

"Don't! This matter needs to be carefully considered."

Zhu Sheng hurriedly stopped him. Of course he knew Zhu Yuanzhang's tricks. Zhang Ximeng showed all the hateful things about those people, even Li Shanchang. How could Zhu Yuanzhang be polite?

Didn't you see, this guy's eyeballs are all red.

In Zhang Ximeng's narration, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the shadow of his own family... The reason why a theory can be recognized is because it can find evidence in reality.

Take Zhang Ximeng as an example. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood that the landlord used the land to tie up the tenants. His father often went to the landlord’s house to help the landlord when he rented and planted the land. die.

After renting and planting the land, he almost became a servant of the landlord's family.

Lao Zhu has a deep understanding of this.

Just imagine, what would happen if the old Zhu family came together under Lao Zhu's rule now?

First of all, there is a high probability that there is no need to rent land. They will have a piece of land of their own and do not need to pay rent to the landlord.

Secondly, Zhu Yuanzhang's mother, eldest sister, and second sister are all ingenious, and they can enter the textile workshop to earn money to subsidize the family and feed the whole family.

Maybe I don't need to herd cattle, but go to school to study.

The second elder brother doesn't need to be the son-in-law, but he can live happily ever after, marry a daughter-in-law, and live comfortably...

Zhu Yuanzhang gradually narrowed his eyes, thinking about it, would there still be the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang at that time?

Probably not, maybe with his intelligence, he could still pass the exam and become a clerk in the yamen... Then, in the envy of the people, he would live his life in a normal and steady way.

When he was old, he was surrounded by children and grandchildren, and he was respected as Old Master Zhu.

It's so good!

Zhu Yuanzhang grinned suddenly and laughed out loud.

Zhu Sheng was startled, and hurriedly called out in a low voice, Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head, such an adult, why are you still having that dream!Their family is hopeless, but under his rule, more people can live a happy life and make their dreams come true!

"Mr. Fenglin, if you stop us from killing people, naturally there is a better way?"

Zhu Sheng hurriedly said: "Superior, the person who should be killed, Li Xiang will not let go, but just now I suddenly thought that Zhang Xiang's writing is so clear and so good, I am afraid that he will be able to form a family of his own. Why should we continue to use it? The outmoded rhetoric of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty? Why not use Zhang Xiang's proposition to re-interpret the rules, formulate rules, and educate the officials and the people?"

"Educate the officials and the common people? How?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked curiously.

"Naturally, these articles are listed as compulsory items." Zhu Sheng said with a smile: "Didn't the superiors teach the generals to read and write in the army? Why not simply ask schools at all levels, including the army, to learn from Zhang Xiang. Articles, and then explained according to Zhang Xiang’s annotations, as the content of the exam, so that scholars don’t have to worry about these truths! It won’t be long before Neo Confucianism will collapse! Confucianism should die, Zhang Xue should flourish !"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up, he was very interested, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "This is to replace Master Zhu with Master Zhang! Wonderful!"

2 Chapter Sixty

There are many talents in Wuzhong, and Qingqiuzi is the most popular.

This Qingqiuzi was called Gao Qi, and because he lived in seclusion in Qingqiu beside the Wusong River, he called himself Qingqiuzi.He opened a school to accept disciples, and there are many disciples, even among the great Confucian scholars and ministers, he is also well-known, and everyone knows it.

It stands to reason that such a scholarly celebrity should be tall and virtuous, with a flowing beard, elegant demeanor, and a fairy-like appearance... But in fact, Gao Qi has just passed his twenties this year, and he is in the prime of his life, with a passionate literary talent.

As early as a few years ago, when he was less than 20 years old, Zhang Shicheng invited him over as a guest.It's just that Gao Qi is a lonely and honest person, with a clean eye, coupled with his young age, he doesn't have a good reputation and status under Zhang Shicheng's subordinates, so he doesn't care. Anyway, he receives a salary every month, and he can teach at home with peace of mind. Just go to write poems and play chess, so happy.

But just a few days ago, Zhang Shicheng invited him over. .

Even though Lao Zhang was born as a salt dealer, he respected the scholars very much. Even the young Gao Qi, he was very polite. He invited you to sit down and served good tea. After exchanging greetings for a while, Zhang Shicheng sighed: "Mr. Qingqiu is invited to come here today. There is one matter. Please help me to go into details."

Gao Qi hurriedly bowed and said, "If your majesty has any orders, I will naturally try my best to do so."

Seeing Gao Qi's obedience, Zhang Shicheng was even more happy, he simply slapped the table, and sighed repeatedly, "I have been guarding Gaoyou for several months, and I have broken off a million soldiers, but I didn't expect that Zhu Chongba would take advantage of it! This bandit bald dominates Jinling, conquers all over the world, his land is getting bigger and bigger, and his power is getting stronger and stronger, he is simply my confidant's trouble!"

Zhang Shicheng yelled and cursed, full of bitterness, Gao Qi just listened and didn't say anything. Anyway, you regard Zhu Yuanzhang as a confidant, but Zhu Yuanzhang may not think so.

It took a full quarter of an hour before Zhang Shicheng stopped, and finally returned to normal.

"That...Mr. Qingqiu, one of Zhu Yuanzhang's confidants is Zhang Ximeng. He seems to be a few years younger than Mr. Qingqiu. Now he claims to redefine the rules and recreate the universe. He has written a lot of articles to teach scholars. It's really good furious!"

Gao Qi has no interest in military and state affairs, but when he heard these words, his eyes widened immediately, and he couldn't help saying: "The general rules are determined by heaven. If you are not a sage, how dare you say that you have to re-define the general rules? You have to put your own articles in the school." Here, if you teach scholars, aren’t you afraid of being laughed at? Zhu Yuanzhang reuses mad students and listens to wild words, but I’m afraid he is not a hero, so don’t worry.”

Zhang Shicheng rolled his eyelids, don't you really need to worry?

Don't look at him scolding Zhu Yuanzhang so much, but he knows how many times he has had bad luck in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands.The latest time, even Luo Guanzhong ran away, which shows that Zhu Yuanzhang still has something. It is not a good habit to underestimate the opponent too much.

Zhang Shicheng coughed lightly: "Mr. Qingqiu's words are indeed reasonable, but the art of war also says that knowing yourself and the enemy is invincible in every battle, so I naturally want to find out what Zhu Yuanzhang is doing...It is true that his method is useful, and it may not be impossible to learn from it. Learn from others' strengths! One more thing, Zhu Yuanzhang can confuse people's hearts, and this king can straighten people's hearts and calm down the rumors. I mean, I want to ask Mr. Qingqiu to come forward and refute Zhang Ximeng's nonsense, so as to set the record straight!"

Gao Qi pondered for a moment, but he was actually annoyed when he heard what Zhang Shicheng said.After all, after Confucius and Mencius, there are almost no Confucian saints.

Even Dong Zhongshu and Zhu Xi are at most semi-saints, and they dare not say to redefine the rules and regulations, they are just tinkering.

Although Gao Qi is young, he has a lot of knowledge. He has studied Confucian classics intensively, and has a rough understanding of Buddhism and Taoism. He is a high-end talent who combines the three religions.

Because of this, he knows the difficulty of this matter. It not only requires deep knowledge, but also a grand structure. At least it must be comparable to Confucius, so that he can innovate, otherwise, it will only be ridiculous.

For a person younger than himself to have such an ambition, he is either a born sage or a lunatic.And the possibility of the latter is much greater than the former.

Gao Qi only listened to it as a joke and didn't take it seriously at all.

"My lord, Zhu Yuanzhang came from a humble background, and Zhang Ximeng was young and frivolous. What they say is just to make fun of it. I think it's better to let them show their true colors, so why bother, and lose their identity for nothing!"

What Gao Qi meant was not to quarrel with them. If I ended up quarreling, wouldn't it be embarrassing to them!For such frivolous people, just ignore them.

Zhang Shicheng understood what Gao Qi meant, but he is not stupid... If it was really useless, Zhu Jiajun would not have developed so fast.

Now Zhu Yuanzhang has suppressed him in Huaidong and Suzhou and Hangzhou.Ni Wenjun, who had just defeated Tianwan, seized Hongdu and marched into Jiangxi.

If this momentum continues, I'm afraid it won't be long before the entire south of the Yangtze River is Zhu Yuanzhang's territory.

Just now, Ni Wenjun sent someone to contact him, intending to cooperate with him.

For Zhu Yuanzhang to develop so fast, he must have done something right.

If Lao Zhu is said to be worthless, then what is he who was bullied so badly by Lao Zhu?

Joke?

"Mr. Qingqiu, even if you want Zhu Yuanzhang to reveal his original form, you have to wait some time. They have sinister intentions, are very vicious and cunning, and are good at instigating people's hearts and winning over people... I have to be on guard!"

Gao Qilue pondered, and said: "Since the king said so, the minister is naturally duty-bound. But I don't know what Zhang Ximeng said. You can't just abuse and insult the gentleman!"

Zhang Shicheng took a deep breath, "It also makes sense, to be honest, the king sent someone to get a copy from Jinling, and I took a rough look at it, and it seemed to say something...Mr. Qingqiu is very knowledgeable, so naturally he can compare This king can understand."

As Zhang Shicheng said, he took out something from his sleeve and handed it to Gao Qi.

The booklet is very thin, about less than [-] words. After he opened it, he glanced at it a few times, and his face changed slightly. He turned his head to the side hastily, calmed down for a while, and then said to Zhang Shicheng: " Your Majesty, in a hurry, I may not be able to find the loopholes, I plan to invite a few friends to study together after I go back, and carefully refute the fallacies in this."

Zhang Shicheng paused, and finally nodded, "Okay, but there is one thing, you must not spread it casually."

Gao Qing nodded vigorously, and said goodbye to Zhang Shicheng casually. He hid the booklet in his arms, and almost ran back to Qingqiu Thatched Cottage by the Wusong River.

That night, Gao Qi locked himself in his study room, took a pamphlet, and read it over and over again. In the first half of the night, Gao Qi kept frowning. In the second half of the night, Gao Qi began to read his collection of books, especially some historical works. After that, compare it with what is written in the pamphlet.

After a lot of busy work, Gao Qi didn't get up until the sun was three poles, and stretched himself.

Even when eating, he held the booklet in his hand, kept reading and thinking... After a whole morning, Gao Qi simply walked out of the house to invite his friends.

Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, Xu Ben, the three great talents have been invited, and the three of them are together with Gao Qi, collectively known as the Four Masters of Wuzhong, all young talents.

"Brother Qingqiu, what kind of kindness are you showing to invite us over? Is it composing poems or drinking?" Yang Ji said with a smile.

Zhang Yu also said, "That's right! Would you like to invite some singers over to add some interest?"

Gao Qi looked at the three of them and smiled slightly, "I also want to invite the singer to come over, but I'm afraid I will insult the words of the sages!"

"Words written by sages and sages?" Yang Ji was puzzled, "Brother Qingqiu, you used the Analects of Confucius as table legs, and Master Zhu's articles as straw paper to wipe your butt, and you didn't say that!"

Gao Qi blushed and quickly waved his hands, "Don't talk about that, I have a booklet here, come and have a look!"

As Gao Qi said, he actually stood up, washed his hands with clean water, then respectfully, slowly unfolded it, and placed it in front of the big guy.

The three people were also in shock, so they could only follow Gao Qi's example, after cleaning their hands, they surrounded them.

When they read the content, they were stunned... Zhang Ximeng's booklet actually summed up his main thoughts in the past few years.

The first part is about the change of dynasties around land annexation in the past dynasties, above the destiny, is the most fundamental survival problem for the common people.

In the second chapter, Zhang Ximeng summed up the mission of the Son of Heaven, and put forward the idea of ​​equalizing the land on behalf of the sky, believing that all people who grow up between the sky and the earth should have their own land, so that they can settle down, live and multiply.

So far, these two articles still revolve around the land. Although it is deafening, it is not to the point of shocking heaven and man.

But the third article makes people appreciate the sharpness of the author.

Directly aimed at the gentry and landlords, the bureaucratic gentry.It is pointed out that they occupy the land and enjoy it, and they survive by squeezing the people.

If that's the case, it won't be earth-shattering.And the next thing is the most terrible part. The author points out that the guidelines created by scholars are, in the final analysis, to protect their own interests. Scholars maintain their detached status by forming an alliance with the imperial power.

At the end of the article, the author took the husband as the guide for the wife and did not allow women to work as an example, and explained this matter carefully... In this world, there are two kinds of laws.

One is that the gentry and landlords tried their best to promote it, in order to let the tenants stay on the land forever, and enshrine the gentry's gang of land rent.

The other is ordinary people. In order to survive, husband and wife work together, help each other, and work hard to maintain the realistic choice of the family.

These are two things that exist at the same time, but ordinary people have no say and are usually ignored.