Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"What on earth is the Donglin Party? Can it actually destroy the Ming Dynasty?"

The cold wind blew by, and the golden five-clawed golden dragon embroidered on Zhu Di's dragon robe floated, as if looking coldly at the enemy hidden in the future.

As an emperor, Zhu Di could tolerate the demise of the Ming Dynasty at the hands of the so-called Li Zicheng rogue rebel army. After all, this was a fate that almost all dynasties could not escape. They would either die in an uprising, usurp the throne, or be invaded by foreign enemies. Most of them died. These are all three results.

Even judging from Zhu Di's character, dying in the uprising is better than being orphaned and widowed by someone usurping the throne.

Being usurped by others and living with a humiliating title, it would be better to die standing upright.

The Donglin Party, according to Zhu Di's understanding, seems to be an organization that usurped the Ming Dynasty internally.

But in a sense, Zhu Di didn't understand it wrong, and Jiang Xinghuo immediately confirmed his point of view.

"The Donglin Party was a bureaucratic political group mainly formed by Jiangnan gentry more than two hundred years later. Its name comes from the Donglin Academy where Yang Shi lectured in the Song Dynasty. The Jiangnan gentry initiated the Donglin Conference and formulated the "Donglin Convention" , it is stipulated that general meetings should be held once or twice a year and small meetings once a month, closely linking reading, lectures and discussing the situation in the temple." Jiang Xinghuo said slowly.

When Zhu Di heard that it was not an organization usurping the Ming Dynasty, instead of breathing a sigh of relief, Zhu Di frowned even more.

Because this so-called "Donglin Party" did not usurp the Ming Dynasty on the surface, but Zhu Di was fully aware of the dangers of this kind of gentry group forming a group.

This is equivalent to having another small court in Jiangnan that is not a small court!

"How dare you blatantly form a group for personal gain in the name of reading and teaching?"

Zhu Di asked dissatisfiedly: "Does the local government not care?"

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "I don't care, and they will provide strong support, because the local government is also from the Donglin faction, and their interests are the same."

"A bird of a feather!"

Zhu Di's eyes were gloomy.

In the Ming Dynasty, scholars were selected through the imperial examination.

This is doomed, the matter of private lectures is extremely sensitive.

It can be said, but it must not be expanded to the point of forming large-scale academies like the Southern Song Dynasty.

Otherwise, the dean who lectures will cultivate batches of court officials and become prime ministers behind the scenes.

And even if we don’t talk about the academy’s senior management, just talking about the academy itself, there will still be problems.

After all, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

What is Jianghu?

The rivers and lakes here certainly do not refer to the warriors who fight and kill, but what Fan Zhongyan said: "If you live high in the temple, you worry about its people; if you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you worry about your king."

If a group of scholars from all over the world were gathered together, it would be strange if they didn't discuss something about the Ming Dynasty temple.

And if this kind of academy becomes large-scale, it can guide the public opinion of scholars and then influence the temples of Ming Dynasty. For the Ming Dynasty, it will only increase more conflicts and internal friction, and repeat the mistakes of the Tang Dynasty's Niu and Li party struggles. Good thing.

Zhu Di realized this very clearly. Combined with the consistent virtues of the Jiangnan gentry, he only had to slightly imagine what the Donglin Party would do, and he couldn't help but frown.

"Then what are the Donglin Party's propositions?"

Jiang Xinghuo was silent for a few breaths.

Zhu Di vaguely felt something bad.

Sure enough, Jiang Xinghuo's answer did not disappoint him.

"First, the Donglin Party advocates liberalizing speech."

"That is to say, political affairs are attributed to the six departments, and public opinions are given to the officials, so that the world can enjoy order."

Zhu Di's face darkened.

"Article 2: Oppose the emperor's mining tax."

"I believe that the emperor sending mining supervisors and tax envoys to various places to collect mining taxes is a bad policy that competes with the people."

Zhu Di's face darkened.

"Article 3: Oppose eunuchs to interfere in politics."

"We believe that the harm caused by eunuchs is extraordinary, and the ancestral system must be restored. Eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in politics."

Zhu Di's face turned dark, and he couldn't hold back at all.

"absurd!"

"——Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng don't even dare to do this!"

Every proposition of this so-called "Donglin Party" sounds so upright and upright for the country and the people.

But Zhu Di knew very well that if the Ming Dynasty continued to do this at the end of its dynasty, its collapse would be inevitable.

Take the last one for example.

At the end of the dynasty, the emperor grew up in the palace and was raised in the hands of women, and the noble military officials had long since died. If he wanted to reinvigorate the imperial court, if he didn't rely on the eunuchs who were of the same mind as him, who could he rely on?

Zhu Yuanzhang banned eunuchs from participating in politics because Lao Zhu was too powerful and did not need eunuchs at all.

And Zhu Di was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty who pioneered the use of eunuchs in large numbers.

This is certainly due to the fact that Zhu Di cultivated a large number of eunuchs who were capable of both literary and military skills in the palace during the period of King Yan. Zhu Di not only allowed these eunuchs to lead troops in wars, such as Zheng He and others, but also asked them to represent him on diplomatic missions to foreign countries.

But more importantly, as the emperor, Zhu Di clearly realized that eunuchs were an important auxiliary to the imperial power, and their use was much less expensive than using relatives.

So this last one, just like the cabinet, is a slap in Zhu Di's face.

It's just that Jiang Xinghuo slapped him in the face just now, and now it's the "Donglin Party" that doesn't exist yet.

The other two, letting go of speech will inevitably lead to ideological disunity between the Ming Dynasty and the people; and against the emperor's mining tax collection, Zhu Di knew without even thinking that there was a lot of trouble involved!

Why did the gentry group oppose the emperor's mining tax collection? Are you really asking for life for the people? impossible!

The fundamental reason must be that the mining tax has affected the interests of the gentry group.

The absence of mineral tax, salt tax, tea tax and other taxes will make the source of fiscal revenue in the late Ming Dynasty more single. The court's tax sources basically rely entirely on the land tax of ordinary farmers, which will directly lead to the financial constraints of the Ming Dynasty!

When Zhu Di recalled the drought in the first year of Chongzhen mentioned by Jiang Xinghuo just now, he understood that once various natural disasters continued and caused a large number of homesteaders to go bankrupt, the Ming Dynasty's tax base based on land tax would collapse.

In order to survive, rogues formed by bandits who coerced refugees would move to the areas of other chief ministers, which in turn led to more peasants actively or passively joining the rogues due to war.

The Ming Dynasty's tax base has completely collapsed.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo's statement that the Ming Dynasty died at the hands of the Donglin Party was not unfair at all.

The Donglin Party is like a group of warehouse administrators who, in the name of doing good for the owner of the warehouse, move everything in the warehouse to their own homes.

Not only did he advise the warehouse owner not to send people to investigate and just be patient, but he also said it was for your own good.

If the character is an ordinary neighbor next to the warehouse with a dirty mind, he would be happy to see the big boss like the warehouse owner being poached, and would even ask the administrators for a share of the pie.

But the problem now is that Zhu Di is the owner of the warehouse!

Zhu Di was equivalent to seeing the family property he had saved for his descendants being moved away in a fair and just manner by a group of administrators. Is there any reason to be unhappy in his heart?

"I will ban all academies, lectures, and expressions!"

Instead, Jiang Xinghuo said with a smile, "What a coincidence."

"What a coincidence?" Zhu Di asked with a frown.

"Zhang Juzheng thinks so too." Jiang Xinghuo stopped smiling.

"Zhang Juzheng banned speech, destroyed academies all over the world, gathered people to give lectures, and sent people to jail for crimes."

"In just ten years, the government died and people died. Decades later, Donglin rose."

"Of course, if Zhang Juzheng, who was 'working for the country but poor for his own life,' had not turned the tide and accumulated national strength through ten years of reform, I am afraid that in the future I predict, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to survive that time."

Zhu Di's eyelids twitched for no reason.

He did not expect that the future chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, a civil servant who dared to claim that "I am not the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister", would be so cruel.

This is completely disregarding his own wealth and life and using his own efforts to promote the reform of Ming Dynasty.

He gave Daming another breath of life!

Thinking of this, Zhu Di actually admired this future person who was similar to Wang Anshi, or even worse.

"So, it is better to block things like Shilin's speech than to loosen it. It is easier to hold it in your own hands than to sew the mouths of Jiangnan gentry."

Jiang Xinghuo said something intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhu Di asked thoughtfully: "So since academies, lectures, and speech are prohibited, what does Mr. Jiang mean?"

Seeing that Zhu Di understood his intention, Jiang Xinghuo said seriously.

"Establish a science academy with six natural sciences as the main subject and more than ten social sciences as the supplement. It will replace Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism with the combination of science and improved Xunxue."

“What is science, you ask?”

"What Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism can explain, my science can explain."

"What Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism cannot explain, my science can also explain."

"Astronomy, geography, physics, chemistry, economic management, all aspects needed for the Ming Dynasty can be found in it."

"Based on the content of my previous lectures, I believe Your Majesty understands that what Jiang said is true."

If it were anyone else, Zhu Di would not believe it.

But when Jiang Xinghuo said this, he still said it with "Your Majesty", and Zhu Di began to consider trusting him.

However, Zhu Di still has to continue to think about using science to fight Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism before making a decision.

After all, the content of "Eight Strategies for Reform" did not include this part. Zhu Di also subconsciously thought that if he supported a new theory, wouldn't it become another Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism?

If it is combined with the new handicraft class, it is probably not impossible to have the same effect as the combination of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and the Jiangnan gentry class, which will also threaten the imperial rule.

Jiang Xinghuo could naturally guess Zhu Di's thoughts.

But Jiang Xinghuo was not in a hurry to convince Zhu Di.

The reason is also very simple. Promoting science to fight against the old Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is actually inevitable after the reform enters a certain stage.

There is no need to elaborate on the truth here, you can understand it after just a little thought.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo doesn't care whether Zhu Di is unwilling to agree to large-scale promotion of science out of considerations of consolidating imperial power.

When Zhu Di is shown the power of science and technology and helps Zhu Di solve some problems that Cheng Zhu Di cannot solve at all, Zhu Di will be "really fragrant".

Jiang Xinghuo just laid some groundwork and deepened the concept of "science" previously implanted in Zhu Di's mind.

Immediately, Zhu Di also intentionally skipped this topic and asked.

"Then what will happen to the Donglin Party in the future predicted by Mr. Jiang?"

Upon hearing this question, Jiang Xinghuo slowly tapped the armrests of the chair with his fingers and recited a poem.

"Qianyi comes from a good mind, and is famous all over the world for his talent in mountain fighting. After the country is defeated, he will face the North Palace anew, and his official position will remain the same as in the old Donglin."

After reciting the poem, Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and sighed: "Unfortunately, the water is still too cold and the scalp is too itchy."

The water is too cold?

Scalp too itchy?

Zhu Di was quite confused.