Chapter 23: The people should be your food, clothing, and parents!
Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Xia Zhibai fiercely, his face was extremely cold, and he shouted sternly: "What did you say?!"
Xia Zhibai looked directly at Zhu Yuanzhang, not retreating in the slightest, calm and neither arrogant nor arrogant. He said: "I said, you! Will! Die!"
"Presumptuous!" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were full of frost, and his copper bell-like eyes seemed to eat Xia Zhibai alive on the spot.
The word "death" completely touched Zhu Yuanzhang's sensitive nerves. He is now extremely taboo and fearful of the word "death".
He is also afraid of death.
There is also a great fear of death.
Since Empress Ma died of illness, few people inside and outside the court dared to mention this word. Now Xia Zhibai's answer made Zhu Yuanzhang angry and scared.
What he was angry about was Xia Zhibai, who dared to mention the word death in front of him, but what he was afraid of was another thing, something that made it increasingly difficult for him to sleep.
He was worried that everything he planned for the Ming Dynasty would become a matter of people surviving and government failing.
So he was extremely filial.
The purpose is to prevent future generations from disobeying the rules he set, so that all officials must follow the imperial edict, and urge future emperors to do as he requires.
This is the meaning of Da Gao kosen.
This is also what he is most worried about and afraid of. The reason why he has been committed to promoting the "Da Gao" over the years and making it known to almost everyone is because he wants to make it a golden code. .
No one can disobey.
To ensure that the Ming Dynasty can be preserved forever.
Just with the word 'death' from Xia Zhibai, the long-term uneasiness and worry in his heart were completely revealed.
Zhu Yuanzhang panicked.
It was as if someone had pricked me to the point of pain.
He stared at Xia Zhibai, trying to discern some clues from Xia Zhibai's face, in order to strengthen his will, this would never happen.
His Ming Dynasty would never become like that, and his descendants of Zhu would never disobey the iron laws he set. Xia Zhibai was deliberately irritating himself in order to achieve his ulterior motives.
Yes.
That must be the case.
Xia Zhibai watched Zhu Yuanzhang's face changing, and sighed secretly in his heart. He looked up at the dragon chair with a huge mouth not far away, and chuckled:
"Birth, old age, sickness and death. It is the inevitable law of all things, no one can escape it, and you will not be an exception.”
"You will die!"
"And the reason why you reacted so violently is not because you are really afraid of death itself. As an emperor who came down from the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood, you have seen too many deaths. You have long since You have developed a heart of stone."
"Perhaps death will really strike you, which will make you a little shocked and angry, but what you are more worried and afraid of now is what you have worked so hard for. Everything will cease with your death."
"And the eternal glory and wealth you planned for the Ming Dynasty and your Zhu family will be abandoned by those unworthy descendants."
“The Ming Dynasty finally fell!”
"Shut up!" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were already ignited with flames, like a wounded lion, safeguarding his final sovereignty and dignity.
His murderous intention towards Xia Zhibai reached its peak at this moment.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he has rarely been so angry and rarely wanted to kill someone. Even Hu Weiyong's murderous intention is not as strong as it is today.
"Are you afraid?" Xia Zhibai stood with his hands behind his hands and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with a mocking expression.
"Afraid? Are we afraid? What a joke!" Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, his eyes still cold, and his mouth still refused to let go.
"What do we have to be afraid of?"
"We are the emperor."
"We are the masters of this world."
"Others have always been afraid of us, not others. We are afraid of others. "
"You think these words can anger us? We have never encountered anything in our life, and we have been put to the neck several times, so we will be afraid?"< br>
"We know that our children and grandchildren are all filial children. They dare not disobey the rules we set for them."
"We are not sure about other families, but we still have some rules for our family. This confidence."
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, he is a descendant of the Zhu family, and he has always attached great importance to education and the cultivation of filial piety. He believed that no one would dare to disobey.
And he also specially distributed the "Da Gao" to the world for this purpose, just to let officials supervise it in the future so that they would not dare to act rashly.
Xia Zhibai laughed loudly.
"Why are you laughing?" Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly.
Xia Zhibai said: "I laugh at you because you have lied to yourself for too long, or you have listened to too many lies, and you really took the officials' compliments seriously."
"You are from the Zhu family. Are you really obedient?”
“Do you believe this?”
"You are still alive now, and the vassal kings who have been entrusted to various places turn a deaf ear to your words and ignore you. When you are not alive, who will really take care of that pile of waste paper?"
"The living will not be restricted by the dead."
"Even if you are an emperor."
"As for your other method of restraint, it is to publish the "Great Edict" to the world. Let the officials and the people learn, and when future emperors make mistakes, let these officials and the people hold up the "Great Edict" to ask for orders. "
"Don't you think it is too naive?"
"Can a book written by you, Emperor Hongwu, have the same effect as Shang Fang's sword? And His Majesty seems to have forgotten that this sword belongs to the royal family."
"Master Devourer, aren't you afraid?"
"Besides, do you really give officials these rights? You yourself are not even willing to listen to the censor's advice, and you don't treat the officials as human beings. How can the officials be so unreasonable that they would risk their lives to give advice? "
"What's more, your ideal officials are just stewards who manage the world for you. These people are the servants of the Zhu family. How can they have such spine and courage?"
" As for the people, it’s even more of a joke.”
"When you announce the imperial edict, the expected scenario is that when these common people are oppressed, they can bear the imperial edict and directly seize the oppressed nobles and go to Beijing to complain. The various yamen along the way will send people to protect them."
“But for so many years, local rebellions have been happening one after another, and you have arrested corrupt officials one after another, but have any common people come to complain against them despite the imperial edict?”
“They have accused corrupt officials one after another. The officials have no way to sue the emperor. Don't you think these ideas are unrealistic? "
Zhu Yuanzhang looked gloomy.
Xia Zhibai shook his head and said solemnly: "Everything you have done to the world is actually a lesson learned from the demise of the Yuan Dynasty."
"You once said that the Yuan Dynasty lost the world because it was too broad. In the past, the Qin Dynasty lost due to violence, and the Han Dynasty prospered with tolerance, and used tolerance to help the fierce. This is to gain."
"Today the Yuan Dynasty has lost the world." When it comes to generosity, you should use generosity and generosity as appropriate.”
“The generosity and benevolence of the Yuan Dynasty is not what is called lenient, but it is different from other dynasty systems in the Central Plains. "
"You think the failure of the Yuan Dynasty is that it did not follow the tradition, centralize power and powerfully rule the world. Loose and limited chaotic management will only lead to chaos in the world, and eventually lead to the collapse of the Yuan Empire. ”
“And you learned your lesson”
"The Yuan Dynasty was lenient in words, so culture and education were not prosperous; the Yuan Dynasty was lenient in punishments, so the punishments were not accurate; the Yuan Dynasty was lenient in power, but the monarchy was weak."
"After you founded the country, you crazily seized power. ."
"It's just that the best centralization in your mind is not like that of previous dynasties."
"It is to become a landlord! In my impression, landlords are the most stable, long-lasting, and most effective centralized method of local management.”
"That's why you can so confidently treat officials as long-term workers, beating, scolding, and killing at will, and treating the people as slaves, trampling and squeezing them at will."
"You think that you have given the people a way to survive and allowed them to dominate the world. To survive, you also think that they should be grateful to you and dedicate everything to you, even their lives."
"What you call caring for the people is just the landlord taking care of his tools and livestock, and you. The strict surveillance of local areas is just to prevent the next Zhu Yuanzhang from appearing in the world."
"It's just that you are wrong."
"It's not that you gave the people at the bottom a chance to survive. What is the king and father of the people? On the contrary, it is the people who support the empire you have built.”
"The people are your food, clothing and parents!"
(End of this chapter)