Dominate the Country

[It’s the Qixi Festival. I wish everyone that those who are single will find their partners soon, and those who are married, whether they are married or not, will be happy and harmonious]

June 24, the 142nd year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty.

The streets and alleys of Lushan were all under martial law, and countless soldiers with live ammunition appeared in the streets and alleys. At noon in the morning, the sound of trumpets came from the city. First, a large group of soldiers from the Guards Brigade wearing iron armor led the way, followed by a selected 100-horse cavalry, and then the second Lugong Relying on Chen Ming after returning to Lushan.

The command flag and the road-clearing flag led the way, and one by one, the Guards Brigade officers and soldiers holding crossbows, swords and shields, bows and arrows, crimson guides..., as well as Wuzhang, Yidao, standing melons, lying melons, bone flowers, gold round umbrellas, red round umbrellas, green round fans, red round fans and other utensils passed by in a solemn manner in the crowds of people. Although Chen Ming looked at this ceremonial procession, he felt that it was a bit funny. This kind of thing is really not compatible with modern people's thinking.

Chen Han followed the Ming system, and Chen Ming's style was that of a prince. The first time he displayed the Lu Gong ceremonial guard was when Chen Hui became king. This time, he displayed the ceremonial guard not for other things, but to inspect the battlefield.

Chen Ming was going to go around the north and east lines. He was not inspecting as the "commander-in-chief of the world's troops and horses". This identity had to be relegated to the second place at this moment. The first place was Lu Gong. Chen Ming went to the battlefield to comfort the soldiers as Lu Gong, and his queen Li Xiaomei was also with him. Little Chen Ding was sent to Gao's care for a few days.

This ceremonial guard mobilized hundreds of people, with people in front and behind. Chen Ming rode in an elephant carriage. In the Ming system, the prince rode in the same carriage as the prince, but Chen Hui made a prince's golden carriage for himself. The prince's golden carriage is 12 feet 2 inches high and 8 feet 9 inches wide. The shaft is 19 feet 5 inches long. The carriage seat is 3 feet 2 inches high. The height of the Prince's Elephant Chariot is six inches shorter than the Golden Chariot, and one foot shorter. The shaft is one foot shorter than the Large Chariot. The chariot seat is more than three feet high, and the rest of the decoration is the same as the Golden Chariot.

Chen Ming was actually riding a large four-wheeled carriage, pulled by four horses, with doors in the front and on the left and right. Except for the windows covered by gauze, they were covered with movable steel plates, that is, the glass windows can be covered with opaque gauze first, and then the steel plates pushed on the windows can be lowered inside. There are also buckles underneath, but in general, the sturdiness is slightly weaker, not as good as the three doors. In other places, the wood is sandwiched with a "composite combination" of iron sheets + cotton armor.

In the 18th century, such a carriage can be said to be the most defensive carriage in the world.

In Lushan City, Chen Ming couldn't close all the windows, otherwise he and Li Xiaomei would wear crowns and formal clothes, sit solemnly, and throw their seductive eyes to whom?

Although they came out in such a circle, it did not delay the Fu Han Army from being scolded as a makeshift team, especially after Chen Hui became king, it caused "the whole world" to scold, and even Confucius's photoshopped picture was suppressed for a while. This "widespread criticism" could not end just because Chen Ming appeared. But if he didn't show up when he should, that wouldn't work.

Chen Ming was not very interested in this, but you have to adapt to it when you are in this environment, when you are still powerless to change it. Just like some common plots in urban online novels in the past life, the protagonist went to a western restaurant wearing shorts, a vest and big slippers, and then slapped people in the face, slapped in the face, and slapped in the face again, that's because he is the protagonist, he can slap people in the face, he is very awesome. He changed the "rules" awesomely. But what if he hadn't made it yet? What if he was still a pure **? Can he slap people in the face and force the supporting role to find chopsticks for him in the western restaurant?

In the final analysis, this is still a question of strength.

When you can't change the environment, you have to try to adapt to it. As long as you remember the original belief in your heart, don't be completely saturated by the environment you adapt to.

Chen Ming's ceremonial procession didn't have many auxiliary vehicles. Such an elephant carriage was useless except for cannons. In this big elephant carriage, Chen Ming was holding Li Xiaomei and rolling around.

The ceremonial procession went out of the north gate of Lushan. A row of ceremonial processions with trombones stood on the city wall, and the trombones were tied with big red silk flowers. The guards who had been waiting outside the city immediately joined the ceremonial procession. There were no cannons in the team, six full old camps, all musketeers, a guard brigade, 200 personal guards, 300 cavalry, plus the guards brigade soldiers and accompanying servants, the whole team could have as many as 5,000 people.

Ten miles out of the county town, Chen Ming changed his crown and clothes. He was sweating profusely, and everything in his clothes was soaked with sweat.

Too many people gathered in and outside the city, and each person was like a stove. The weather was still very hot. The ice basin in the car could only be turned into ice water.

Li Xiaomei also changed her dress, and she looked a little more lively. Chen Ming could see that she was a little absent-minded. Of course, he understood that it was because she left her son. He took a thick stack of books from the drawer of Duobao Pavilion and said, "Read this when you are bored." This tour will last at least half a month, and at most a month. Today is only the first day.

"The Golden House Hidden Beauty", "The Substitute Prince", "The Ballad of Mulan", "The Butterfly Lovers", "The Hairpin", "The Legend of the White Snake", "The Mother-in-law Embroidered the Word", "Qin Liangyu"..."

Li Xiaomei saw that the cover of the top book in the stack was printed with "The Ballad of Mulan". She spread out the thick stack of books and asked in surprise, "Are these all opera books?" After picking them up, Li Xiaomei asked in surprise. Chen Ming has so many things to deal with every day, does he still have time to read the music book?

No matter how thick or thin these books are, they are not newly printed. Some notes on them are obviously left by Chen Ming.

"You can't always perform pigtail dramas and propaganda dramas every day. You have to mix in other things to change the taste." Chen Ming's eyes stayed on "Golden House Hidden Beauty" and "Civet Cat Substituted Prince". These two operas were carefully compiled by him. "Golden House Hidden Beauty" is based on historical facts and then evolved. It does not vilify Emperor Wu of Han at all. It vilifies Princess Guantao and the ambitious Wang Zhi who abandoned her husband and daughter to run to the palace. This must have had a great impact on the people in the Qing Dynasty. What Chen Ming wants to highlight is that Emperor Jing of Han in the opera does not care about the fact that his concubine is not a virgin, so as to subtly stimulate the concept of "widows keeping chastity" that has been deeply rooted in modern China.

The same is true for "Civet Cat Substituted Prince". Liu E was also married. Although the opera tells a folk legend, it also highlights the "stain" of Empress Dowager Liu.

These are all Chen Ming's little thoughts. During his sweep of Jiangnan, he saw so-called chastity arches in too many places, and heard more than one "story": a man and a woman were engaged, and then the fiancé died, and then the girl who didn't get married held the tablet and married to the dead fiancé's family, and from then on she was a widow in her husband's family and supported her dead fiancé's parents.

But Chen Ming asked people to find out the details of those families. Almost every family had more than one son. The parents of that family were not short of people to support them. It was just for the sake of reputation that they ruined a woman's life.

This kind of thing makes people feel bad.

Chen Ming from the 21st century has a big conflict with the customs of this time and space on this point. There was a saying in the previous life that virgins should be found in kindergartens. Although this is obviously exaggerated and distorted. But if he doesn't do something about it, he will feel uncomfortable.

Chen Ming didn't say anything on the surface, and didn't say a word of praise or criticism, even though he absolutely didn't like to see this kind of thing in his heart. However, things would not change just because he said a word. It was Jiangnan, a place where literary style flourished, and naturally it was also a place where cynicism, patriarchal ethics and ethics were rampant.

Chen Ming later talked about this with Wang Huizu, and Wang Huizu told him a story that happened in Jiangnan.

It was when the Qing Dynasty was pacifying the Three Feudatories. Not far from their home in Xiaoshan, a town was taken by the Qing army passing through Fujian. Many men never returned, and the town was full of widows and divorced women. There were few people at that time, and the local government encouraged those women to get married, but many young widows who had not given birth to children and women whose fiancés had died committed suicide in order not to get married.

Chen Ming found it unbelievable. Could these women's "consciousness" be so high? As a result, Wang Huizu told him that many of those who died were secretly killed by their parents and clansmen, and then reported it and committed suicide.

For those who died, their families and clans were all happy; for those who got married, their parents and clansmen would never recognize them again.

There are ghosts who died unjustly in the ponds and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River. If she can marry with a tablet in her arms, at least the woman is still alive. It also adds glory to both families. If she can endure it, she will most likely have a good ending.

So, in this era, there are too many things that Chen Ming can't adapt to, both tangible and intangible, and the latter is more troublesome and difficult to deal with than the former. It's so troublesome that Chen Ming doesn't dare to touch those things easily, and can only make some minor mistakes.

Wang Huizu's words made Chen Ming's head at that time have a lot of old memories. He remembered that he had read somewhere that "heroic women" and "chaste women" have existed since ancient times, but there were less than 100 in the Tang Dynasty, less than 300 in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, and nearly 40,000 in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 2,000 people in a county in Anhui alone, he forgot the name.

Think about it, the numbers here are only recorded by the government, the real numbers among the people are much more than the official numbers. If there are three, five, or ten times more women who have not been recorded, how amazing this number is.

"Go..."

Chen Ming got out of the elephant carriage, climbed on the horse's back, rode for three or five miles, and let out a long breath of depression, and his mood improved. There are too many things in this 18th century China that are not what he wants. In the future, Chen Ming's overthrow of the Qing Dynasty is only one battlefield, and sweeping away those invisible frameworks and breaking those invisible constraints is his second battlefield.

In the 21st century, countless people are heartbroken that China's social customs are declining, morality has fallen, and everything is about money. They take it for granted that the ancient Chinese people's "simple" and "high morality", but they don't see that the ancient "ancient style" is accompanied by the rules and regulations.

If you just want to be a dandy who eats, drinks and has fun, it is of course easy, but if you want to be a great man who accomplishes great things, you will inevitably touch all aspects of society. When faced with this decision, the time traveler will have thousands of different choices. A kind-hearted person like Chen Ming will involuntarily put himself in the shoes of a subverter and destroy this "ancient" "family law". But now he still has a clear mind and knows that he has to endure many things for the time being...