Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"What did my son say?"

Zhang Zhiji thought he had heard wrongly. After all, no one knew better than him, his father, what kind of person his son was.

He was not surprised by anything, even an old sow he could accept it, but this ambition almost made him unable to hold back.

"Dad, I want to make progress. Our ancestors fought for the late emperor and made great achievements.

How can you indulge in romantic pleasures every day and do such things that disgrace your ancestors?"

Every word Zhang Shikang answered was sonorous, as if he was afraid that his father would not believe him.

Zhang Zhiji was stunned for a moment, and the tea bowl in his hand fell to the ground with a bang. He looked at Sun with wide eyes, as if he had seen a ghost.

Sun nodded with red eyes, and Zhang Zhiji burst into tears.

"Son!"

She looked like a bereaved mother, relieved yet unable to believe it, and she started laughing while crying.

Zhang Zhiji wiped away his tears, walked up to Zhang Shikang and patted him on the shoulder.

"As long as my son has this heart, the spirits of our ancestors in heaven will be comforted.

but……"

"Dad, I really want to make progress. I'm not kidding."

Hearing the tone, Zhang Shikang guessed that his father was going to slander someone again, so he quickly interrupted him.

He knew that it would be difficult for this family to believe him. After all, what he had been doing since he was a child was not closely related to advancement, but had nothing to do with it.

If he took too big a step, he might easily break his balls, but he didn't have time to explain everything to his family, and even if he did, they wouldn't believe him.

"Now the imperial treasury is empty, and there are powerful enemies both inside and outside. There are wars everywhere. As the son of a noble family, shouldn't I be armed and take up arms to help the imperial court and Your Majesty?"

The Ming Dynasty today was facing internal and external troubles. The Jiannu outside the Great Wall would invade the border from time to time, and would sneak in from the corners of the Great Wall from time to time and plunder the interior.

The situation outside the Great Wall was getting worse day by day. In the Battle of Sarhu, Kaiyuan and Tieling were lost, and in the Battle of Hunhe, Shenyang and Liaoyang were lost.

After that, a series of defeats, including the Battle of Dalingh River, left the Ming Dynasty with only the Guanningjin line of defense outside the Great Wall.

The peasant army rebellion inside the Great Wall intensified. Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng were defeated again and again, and then regained their strength again and again.

Just as Nietzsche's old saying goes, what doesn't defeat you makes you stronger. Today's peasant army is getting more and more courageous.

From the beginning when a few thousand government troops were chasing tens of thousands of peasant soldiers, to now when the forces are equal, they are often defeated.

In addition, the entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty was hit by constant natural disasters, such as drought, locust plague, and plague, which made the Ming Dynasty, a leaky ship, shabby and on the verge of collapse.

There is not much time left for him.

Seeing that Zhang Shikang was not joking, Zhang Zhiji was moved and asked Sun and other servants to leave. Suddenly, only the three of them, father and son, were left in the room.

"It's rare that my son cares about the state of the country. It's just as you said. The court is now in such a predicament that it can no longer continue.

However, the imperial court may not be what you think. Even when attending court for your father, you often have to walk on thin ice and avoid speaking if possible.

Alas, the water here is deep, and you can't accomplish anything just by being enthusiastic."

Zhang Zhiji sighed, a worried expression showing on his face. It was precisely because of his position that he felt powerless towards the current court.

In particular, the mutual attacks between officials are different from the party struggles in earlier years.

Although the Donglin Party is now the only powerful party, no one in it is willing to submit to anyone else. In order to bring down their opponents, they are willing to delay the war.

As noble leaders, whether it was Zhang Zhiji or Duke Chengguo or Duke Dingguo, they all kept their distance from civil officials. They would try to avoid attacks among officials whenever possible, and pretend to be ignorant if they could not avoid it.

Since the Battle of Tumu, the Ming Dynasty has been one-sidedly emphasizing culture over military affairs. Today, the situation has become even more serious, and the Ming Dynasty has no choice but to protect itself.

Zhang Zhiji was pleased with his son's sudden change, but he did not want Zhang Shikang to rashly rush into the chaos of the imperial court.

Passion is worth encouraging, but there were so many passionate officials in the court. How many of them are still there now?

Zhang Zhiji knew very well that his son had never even worn armor, but he just couldn't bear to hit him too hard.

Zhang Shize poured another bowl of tea for Zhang Zhiji and said:

"Dad, are you still worried about the three additional taxes? Let me tell you, since His Majesty trusts those officials in the cabinet, it's none of your business."

Zhang Zhiji did not take the tea bowl, but slammed the table with his right hand, seeming to be very indignant about this matter.

"What do you know? Drinking poison to quench thirst, this is drinking poison to quench thirst!"

"Your Majesty, doesn't you know?" Zhang Shize frowned.

"Of course I know. Your Majesty is also hesitating, but it is probably the only way. Alas."

After Zhang Zhiji finished speaking, he seemed like a deflated ball. Family affairs, national affairs, and world affairs all affect the entire body, and none of them are easy.

What if I disagree? If the army doesn't get paid, everything will be over.

In comparison, it seems that... this is the only way we can do to make the people suffer.

Zhang Shikang knew what was going on as soon as he heard it.

The so-called three taxes are the Liao tax set up by the imperial court to deal with the Jiannu outside the Great Wall and the suppression tax set up to suppress bandits.

By now, there were powerful enemies both inside and outside, and more soldiers needed to be trained to deal with them, so they had to make the people suffer again and increase the training pay.

"Dad, this training salary must not be increased."

The increase in training wages was almost the last straw that broke the camel's back for the lower-class people.

It is also for this reason that Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits, no matter how great their defeats, even Li Zicheng's army of tens of thousands was reduced to only eighteen people by the government troops.

As long as the person is still alive, once he raises the flag and raises his arms, he will soon become a big bandit with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The Chinese people are really the easiest to get along with. As long as they have food to eat, almost no one will cause trouble, let alone rebel.

The problem is that in the two thousand years of bloody history, it was normal for ordinary people to not have enough food to eat. As long as people did not starve to death, it could be called a prosperous age.

Today, the people of the Ming Dynasty no longer have the problem of not having enough food.

There is great hunger in old age, and people eat each other.

The words in history books are refined to the extreme. Six words cannot describe the suffering of the people.

Zhang Zhiji smiled bitterly and said:

“As a father, I naturally know the consequences of doing this, but the treasury is empty and the military pay cannot be delayed.

If we don’t do this, the country will fall. Who will take this responsibility? Who can bear it?”

The court officials were certainly not stupid. To be able to pass the imperial examination and climb to a central position, they must be shrewd.

But the problem lies here, they are too smart and just treat the people as fools.

"Even if we add more, we can't add it to the people," Zhang Shikang insisted.

Zhang Shize felt that this brother was indeed different today, but his thoughts were still naive. He shook his head and smiled:

"If it's not imposed on the people, then who will it be imposed on? Will it be imposed on me?"

He also couldn't bear to dampen his brother's enthusiasm, but this was indeed the situation.

If the court was truly harmonious and issued orders, it wouldn't have come to this situation today.

However, his brother's words made Zhang Shikang's eyes light up and gave him an idea he had never thought of before.

Zhang Shikang sat down next to his father, picked up the tea bowl with both hands and handed it to Zhang Zhiji with a smile:

"Dad, how much extra money do we have now?"

……