Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"How are the sprouts doing?"

In the palace, Queen Xu was annoyed by Zhu Di's same questions.

"Your Majesty, why have you been paying attention to those sprouts these past two days?"

Zhu Di refused the service of the palace maid and wore Yanju's regular clothes. While putting it on, he said to Queen Xu on the couch behind him.

"Secret, I'll tell you after I succeed."

Not long after, the maid who was sent to watch the sprouts grow came back.

"Your Majesty, the two sides are almost the same. There are no changes visible to the naked eye."

Zhu Di sighed lightly when he heard this, but didn't say anything.

"Is Your Majesty going to the cabinet?" Queen Xu asked as she stood up with her hair scattered.

"I won't go to the cabinet." Zhu Di put on the rhinoceros belt and said, "Go to Datianjie Temple and I heard that the old monk's madness has stabilized recently."

Empress Xu muttered: "For such a large group of people, almost seventy years old, who are still pondering new knowledge every day, anyone else would be crazy."

"Hmph, we have been through thick and thin for more than twenty years, and the old monk has been unkind to me. How can I still be unjust to him?" As usual, Zhu Di inserted a meat-cutting dagger that had been used for many years into the blade of his cowhide boots. "I will treat him as a lunatic and bring some fruits and vegetables to express my condolences. If I don't go and see him today, I will have to wait until I return to Nanjing."

Empress Xu was silent for a moment, but she didn't say anything. She just arranged her husband's clothes, just like she did before every expedition.

But in the end I couldn't help but ask.

"Does your majesty have to personally lead the troops when you join the army?"

Zhu Di lowered his head and said seriously: "You know my habits."

“Either don’t do it or never do it.”

Datianjie Temple.

The smell of autumn has spread in this peaceful temple.

The young novice monks sweeping the autumn leaves that have begun to fall with big brooms, the old monks wrapping their clothes tighter than in previous years, and the pious expressions of the nearby farmers who came to pray for the autumn harvest all prove that autumn is really coming. .

"Tuk~"

Zhu Di, who was wearing a black robe, walked slowly to the door and knocked on the door. He personally carried a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables in his other hand, which was also decorated with a bouquet of red and white wild chrysanthemums. It was obviously the handiwork of Queen Xu.

Several passing monks bowed respectfully to His Majesty the Emperor. In the past few months since Zhu Di ascended the throne, the situation of Buddhism and Taoism that had been suppressed during the Jianwen Dynasty had obviously improved.

The most intuitive thing is that the money for incense has gradually increased.

No one opened the door, so Zhu Di pushed the door open and walked in.

Saw the Buddha statue in the room.

With a gentle smile on his face, Zhu Di saluted the Tathagata Buddha and inserted the bright bouquet in his hand into the ashes of the incense burner in front of him with his strong knuckles.

"I'm just telling you, if a grown man doesn't feel comfortable bringing this to a meeting, give it to Buddha and let him pick it up, and he will feel at ease immediately." Zhu Di thought to himself.

Looking at the clean and empty Zen room, Zhu Di raised his voice to the study.

"Old monk, are you still alive?"

"Thanks to His Majesty's concern, he is still alive."

Zhu Di pulled the sliding screen on the inside and walked in.

The study room is filled with a mountain-like pile of various books, including Buddhist scriptures, Taoist canon, and Confucius and Mencius.

But none of this seemed to be noticed by Dao Yan.

In Dao Yan's eyes, there was only a letter placed on the desk with sapphire paperweights pressing the two ends.

"Why don't you call me 'bloodsucker' today?"

Zhu Di placed the basket of fruits and vegetables on the cabinet at the door of the study and walked towards Dao Yan's position.

"Your Majesty is the True Dragon Emperor, how could he be a blood-sucking insect? Who said your Majesty is a blood-sucking insect? I will go and argue with him right away."

Daoyan looked up and smiled, looking much more normal.

Zhu Di sneered and said: "I was killed on the battlefield by myself with swords and spears. Even if it is a blood-sucking insect, it is just a joke. The old monk drank the blood of the enemy and drank the blood of the enemy. What do you want to understand?"

Dao Yan did not answer Zhu Di's questions directly, but instead talked about a few small things.

"Your Majesty should still remember that two months ago, I returned to my hometown in Changzhou County (part of Suzhou Prefecture)."

Zhu Di nodded slightly, indicating that he remembered.

"well"

Dao Yan sighed and said, "That old sister is over seventy years old."

"Is your husband still alive? But you want a royal decree?" Zhu Di didn't care. "If you want any official position or royal decree, just write it yourself and give it to me."

"is not what it means."

Dao Yan shook his head and said: "On my way home, I heard children from Suzhou Prefecture singing nursery rhymes on the roadside - Yan Nanfei, the country is in chaos, the people are suffering, who is sad."

Zhu Di sneered.

"Lao Na, that old sister, wouldn't let me enter the house. She called me a traitor and a traitor, so she scolded me back."

"I went to see my old friend Wang Bin, but he refused to see me. He only said that the monk was wrong. The monk was wrong."

The new rosary beads in Daoyan's hand kept spinning: "Your Majesty, do you know what I mean by this?"

"The gentlemen from Jiangnan cannot play with me if they are tough, so they are starting to play soft."

Zhu Di's eyes became extremely gloomy and cold, as if ice flowers were about to condense.

The gentry class in Jiangnan controlled the right to speak in most cities and vast villages. On the surface, they obeyed Zhu Di, but behind the scenes, they used nursery rhymes, storybooks and other literary and obscure ways to slander and insult Zhu Di, thereby devaluing the legitimacy of Zhu Di's rule. sex.

This is Zhu Di's most helpless situation.

Because his always invincible blade cannot solve it.

This is a battle without smoke outside the battlefield.

This is,

——The battle after the war!

The civil servants promoted by the Jiangnan gentry who Zhu Di could kill were full of heads. He could kill Fang Xiaoru and the ten tribes who had lost the seeds of reading. Zhu Di could kill whoever he wanted.

But, can Zhu Di kill all the Jiangnan scholars?

As long as the Jiangnan scholars who have cultivated and studied the family cannot be killed cleanly, Zhu Di will always face this problem.

Literary men don't use swords to kill people, but they can slander your reputation and your military exploits behind your back to nothing.

What will be written in the history books of future generations?

In the battle of Jingnan, it was not you, Zhu Di, who was the most powerful.

It's because after becoming a famous general, Li Jinglong is a waste on paper.

It's because every time you fight, there is a strong wind to help you.

It's because Hong Wu and his ministers have colluded long ago.

In short, it’s not you who is great.

Zhu Di looked up at his prime minister in black.

"Old monk, what do you think we should do?"

Dao Yan did not answer directly, but asked: "Your Majesty plans to personally lead a heavy army this time to go to the Susong, Jiahu and other prefectures to promote commune service. Do you intend to use force to suppress the opposition of the Jiangnan gentry?"

Zhu Di has no need to hide anything. As the emperor, he is the only person in this world who can be called a "friend".

Zhu Di responded affirmatively.

"Yes, whether it is cutting down the vassal state or adding slaves to the country, my ultimate goal is to eliminate the internal opposition forces, secure the throne first, and then move the capital and conquer Mobei."

"My sword will kill everyone in Susongjiahu and make rivers of blood flow!"

Dao Yan suddenly asked: "What if Su, Song, Jiahu and everyone cooperate this time?"

"That's not more." Zhu Di suddenly woke up.

"You mean that the Jiangnan gentry will cooperate on the surface and avoid my attacks. What will they do after my soldiers leave, and will they continue to use soft knives to slander me?"

Dao Yan nodded and said, "Yes, what should your Majesty do in this situation?"

"This is the question I asked you just now." Zhu Di said unhappily without hiding his emotions too much.

Dao Yan was not annoyed, he smiled and pointed to the other end of the desk. There was a towel on it. There were many neat stacks of manuscripts piled in the towel.

Zhu Di picked up the manuscript from his towel and read the first few pages.

"When I was a monk, there was a war in the Yuan Dynasty. When I was nearly thirty years old, I studied Zen from Yu'an and the monks in Jingshan. In my spare time, I read domestic and foreign classics to gain knowledge. After reading the posthumous notes of Mr. Ercheng in Henan and Hui'an in Xin'an ( Quotations from Mr. Zhu Xi."

"The three gentlemen were all born in the Zhao and Song dynasties. They passed down the knowledge that the saints had not passed on for thousands of years. They can be said to be the heroes of the world and the true Confucianism of the world. Because the three gentlemen assisted the famous religion, they only wanted to denounce the Buddha and the elders. The Tao is different. Conspiracy is common in ancient and modern times, how strange is it to ridicule!"

"Since the third gentleman is the master of the gentle sect and the teacher of later generations, even if he denounces the Buddha and the old man, he must be impartial and selfless, so that people will be convinced. Because the third gentleman does not study Buddhist books much, he does not know the background of the Buddha. People who speak evil words with private intentions are in vain and excessive, and the hearts of the people in the world are full of injustices. Are they the scholars of Kuang Zong?"

This is a manuscript called "Dao Yu Lu". Dao Yan believed that in the Neo-Confucianism system built by Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi in the Northern Song Dynasty and Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty, most of them used their own selfish ideas to denounce Buddhas and elders, so he listed two Let’s refute 28 items in Cheng’s suicide note and 21 items in Zhu Xi’s quotations one by one.

Zhu Di thoughtfully said: "So you plan to use this method to fight Neo-Confucianism from a thinking perspective?"

"I used to think so, but now I feel that this method is not practical." Dao Yan said honestly.

Zhu Di smiled and said: "Arguing with a dead person who can't talk back is really not worthy of the stage."

"But now there's this."

Following Dao Yan's gaze, Zhu Di looked at the letter pressed on the table by a sapphire paperweight.

"What is this?" Zhu Di asked curiously.

"This is what you use to argue with a living person who can talk back."

Dao Yan pushed away the sapphire paperweight, shook the letter paper, and looked extremely focused.

"Your Majesty, do you know that with this thing, I can knock down a corner of the sky-high building of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism?"

"What's written in this letter?"

Zhu Di asked in disbelief.

Dao Yan handed the letter to Zhu Di.

Zhu Di held the letter and read it carefully for a few seconds.

Then he gave it back to Daoyan.

"Your Majesty, do you understand?"

"Do you think I understand?" Zhu Di asked calmly.

Dao Yan laughed loudly and explained the meaning of this letter to Zhu Di in detail.

Zhu Di didn't pay too much attention to the specific content of Dao Yan's explanation, but he was keenly aware of the effect this letter could have.

This is an excellent weapon to suppress the Jiangnan gentry!

"Who wrote this letter?" Zhu Di asked.

"Jiang Sheng."

Hearing this answer, Zhu Di felt calm and no longer shocked.

For Jiang Xinghuo, an all-rounder who knows everything from astronomy, geography, history, temples and philosophy, just think of him as an immortal. Since he is not a mortal, it is naturally shocking for a mortal to behave like this. But if the other person is an immortal in your mind, then What else is there to be shocked about?

Zhu Di turned his attention to the effect of this letter.

"Are you saying that as long as it can be proven that the theory of human nature insisted on by Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is wrong, then Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism's theory of 'preserving natural principles and destroying human desires' can be systematically overturned? In this way, at the level of thinking, the Jiangnan gentry will be completely destroyed. This set of things will overwhelm you?"

"That's right." Daoyan smiled.

Then Dao Yan added: "Of course, academic disputes and even orthodox disputes cannot be won simply by a letter. Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has been developing for hundreds of years, and it cannot be easily shaken overnight. But this It is a beginning. As long as this beginning serves as an introduction and arouses doubts in people's thinking, it can naturally serve the purpose of attacking Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism."

"No." Zhu Di suddenly frowned and said.

"What's wrong?"

Zhu Di pondered his thoughts and said, "Why should I attack Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism?"

"The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River believe this, but now I am the emperor after all. The king is the guide for the ministers, the father is the guide for the son, and the husband is the guide for the wife. I am the father of the emperor, and I am the master of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. The biggest beneficiary.”

"No."

Dao Yan put down the letter, pressed it down with the sapphire paperweight again, turned around and said.

"Your Majesty, you have misunderstood."

"The purpose of attacking Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has never been to suppress the Jiangnan gentry. From a higher perspective, what are the Jiangnan gentry? They are nothing more than bed bugs at best. They cannot be killed completely, and their hands will be dirty if they are beaten. But if I don’t fight, I’ll hang around in front of you and disgust you.”

"The suppression of the Jiangnan gentry is just incidental. The fundamental purpose of attacking Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism is to centralize power!"

Zhu Di frowned: "Centralize power?"

"That's right." Dao Yan said loudly, "The Jiangnan gentry class in the Ming Dynasty was actually a group of Jiangnan gentry formed after the establishment of the Yannan crossing. It was a group of Jiangnan gentry that was located in a corner and integrated the economy and culture."

"In fact, after the Jin Dynasty moved to the south, the same thing was formed, that is - a powerful family!"

"Whether they are aristocrats or scholar-bureaucrats, they work together to control the right to speak and control cultural inheritance. Their purpose is to decentralize power and decentralize power from the emperor!"

Zhu Di blurted out.

"The king and the horse share the world!"

"The emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world together!"

Dao Yan nodded, and then said: "Then your Majesty, just think about it, no matter whether it is a noble family or a scholar-official, what is it that can share the power of the world equally with the emperor?"

"Is it military?"

Zhu Di shook his head.

Since Jingnan launched his army, the literati of the Jianwen Dynasty have not only made trouble with blind orders, but also acted as transportation captains according to the military calligraphy and drawings, and connected the two supply lines of the Southern Army's Jianghuai-Dezhou Camp and Henan-Zhending Camp. They formed a long snake formation and cut off the head and tail of him, which made no military contribution.

"Is it the backbone?"

There are many good ministers in Jiangnan, as has been proved from the Hou Jing Rebellion. Excluding individual cases, on the whole, the literati in Jiangnan have a backbone.

"Is that money?"

Zhu Di was too lazy to shake his head. The gentry in Jiangnan were rich, but compared with other places in the world, they did not have an absolutely overwhelming advantage. He said directly: "It's culture!"

"That's right, it's culture." Daoyan sleeve said, "It's precisely because the clans, scholar-bureaucrats, and gentry have mastered culture, which is far better than military, integrity, and money in peacetime, they have the right to speak. , they even dared to discredit the emperor, but the emperor had nothing to do with them."

Dao Yan stood up from his desk and paced in the study.

"So, if you want to attack the Jiangnan gentry's right to speak, you must get rid of the theory that holds their right to speak - Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism!"

"Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean to completely deny the overthrow of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. It just means that Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism no longer occupies a completely overwhelming advantage."

"As a result, won't the Jiangnan gentry lose their most powerful weapon?"

"Without this foundation for controlling public opinion in the world and losing their absolute right to speak, they will have no ability to threaten the imperial power."

"In this way, Your Majesty can allow various ideas to compete, confront, and debate with each other, thereby achieving the purpose of centralizing power."

"This is the same as taking the vassals and nobles into the sea with you."

Zhu Di nodded, he already understood what Dao Yan meant.

"Then when do you plan to take action?"

"Wait a minute." Dao Yan lowered his eyes and said, "Based on this letter alone, I am not sure. I still need Jiang Sheng to answer more questions for me. I only need to figure out a few key issues that affect the foundation of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. , we can launch the first attack on Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism."

"Moreover, I also need your Majesty to use the heads of Jiangnan gentry to shock people's hearts."

"If you have a knife in your hand, use it when you need to. Why should you reason with them fairly?"

Zhu Di agreed with this statement and immediately asked: "Zhang Tianshi from Longhu Mountain is in Nanjing now. If you want to stir up public opinion, do you need help from the Taoist sect?"

"Of course."

Dao Yan said seriously: "During the Jianwen Dynasty, the Taoist sect was also severely suppressed. Zhang Yuchu was even forced by Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng to have a family and not be able to return. He could only live in a house more than ten miles away from Longhu Mountain. Your Majesty thought, Doesn’t Zhang Yuchu hate these Jiangnan gentry? Or is it that as the most knowledgeable Celestial Master in the history of Taoism, he doesn’t want to elevate the status of Taoism?”

"Everyone will hate him. As for whether he can raise the status of the Taoist sect, it depends on his own ability." Zhu Di said unequivocally.

"This is the new war between the three religions. I'm afraid it will cause huge waves in the hearts of the world."

"The more chaos, the better." Zhu Di was eager to see the results. "This is completely opposite to the threats to my throne from various forces. If they have internal chaos, it will be beneficial to me."

"That's true." Dao Yan agreed.

"Then let's wait for the good news that your Majesty will clear up the Jiangnan rebels."

Zhu Di smiled and took advantage of the opportunity of promoting the work-sharing system to cleanse the forces in Jiangnan that were unwilling to surrender to him. It was indeed a good opportunity.

Moreover, if it is said that working as a slave is the first step.

Then after the harvest of this year's autumn harvest in Jiangnan is completed, the second ax will be wielded by Dao Yan.

As a result, the Jiangnan gentry class who are very hostile to themselves and have been slandering themselves since the Jingnan period will inevitably suffer a huge blow.

This is equivalent to using Jiang Xinghuo's strategy of cutting down the vassal and going overseas to take back the military power of the three guards of the vassal king and solve the threat to his throne within the clan.

Later, he used the method of working as a slave laborer to attack the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, and on the other hand, he won the hearts and minds of the people.

As the gathering place of Jianwen's remnants and the largest territory of Jianwen's die-hard loyalists, it was thoroughly purged, and Zhu Di's rule was further consolidated.

The two then communicated for a while, and Zhu Di just stood up and left. After experiencing the rebellion of King Gu, he planned to leave Nanjing City after arranging all the affairs.