Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Mr. Jiang."

Zhu Di was silent for a moment: "You'd better be talking about Huang Wulang."

"I'm talking about Huang Wulang."

Jiang Xinghuo glanced at Captain Yan and replied calmly.

But Zhu Di's heart at this time could no longer calm down, and his emotions were rolling like angry waves in the sea.

This is because, as the largest military leader in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di was very aware of the virtues of the violent organization of the Ming Dynasty official army.

If it really comes to the end of the rule of the feudal country of the Ming Dynasty, based on the "law of blood reward" summarized by Jiang Xinghuo, the officers and soldiers responsible for defense on the border of the Ming Dynasty will almost certainly become a violent organization that supports the self-respect of the bandits.

The reason couldn't be simpler. Just like in Jiang Xinghuo's short story "Duck City Storm", Huang Wulang, the inquisitor of Duck City, wanted to wipe out the bandits, but he had to kill people and make no money, and he also had to worry about losing his strength and being beaten by other people. Government and military factions seized territory.

If it comes to the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di is very sure that according to the Ming Dynasty's system, it may be difficult to have completely segregated border army warlords like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. But Zhu Di is also convinced that by that time, I am afraid that most of the Ming Dynasty frontier armies will have combat motivations. , all for interests rather than other factors such as the country.

Therefore, the frontier army will definitely play the trick of raising the bandit's self-respect. At the same time, in order to appease the court and the emperor, they will also support a 'fake bandit' who is easy to fight but does not need to kill anyone. It is best that one frontier army can fight a hundred. That kind of military exploits looked good, and allowed the court to continuously collect "money" from the people to supply to the border troops.

Zhu Di couldn't help but feel a headache at the thought.

This is how to do?

It is definitely not possible to give the border troops greater autonomy, as that will breed An Lushan.

If the Ming Dynasty could raise millions of redundant soldiers like Taizu of the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty might not be able to bear it.

Zhu Di really couldn't think of a way, so he had to turn his attention to Jiang Xinghuo.

"and after?"

"Later, Huang Wulang, the Yacheng recruiter, sent an invitation to Wang Mazi, the leader of the bandits, and wanted to cooperate with Wang Mazi to let the bandits come to hang around Yacheng every now and then. He would symbolically pursue them, but he would never be able to exterminate them. In this way, we can cooperate to earn money from the people of Yacheng."

"But Wang Mazi doesn't want to!"

Jiang Xinghuo said: "Wang Mazi was not only unwilling to cooperate with Huang Wulang, but also took up the banner of 'doing justice for heaven'. He called himself Yacheng Timely Rain and began to win over the hearts and minds of the people around him. If you don’t want the people to kneel down and thank you, you have to say that you want to give them justice.”

Zhu Gaoxu gave a thumbs up: "He is a good man!"

"Huang Wulang was determined to be a traitor. He just felt that the bargaining chips he gave were not enough, so the two parties arranged a Hongmen banquet. Huang Wulang's officers and soldiers pretended to be bandits and kidnapped two young men from wealthy families in Yacheng. Huang Wulang said to Wang Mazi, As long as Wang Mazi kills a few bandits as surrender certificates, not only can the young masters of wealthy families be handed over to him for ransom, but Wang Mazi can also be declared dead, and he will be allowed to take his brothers and serve as an official in the army."

"Did Wang Mazi agree?" Zhu Gaoxu asked curiously.

"I didn't agree. Then I was assassinated once by Huang Wulang. I didn't agree. Instead, I tried to assassinate Huang Wulang. Of course, I only killed Huang Wulang's stand-in."

"What happens next?"

Jiang Xinghuo said: "In this way, the two sides were in the same situation, but they were completely at odds. Wang Mazi ordered his gangsters to spread rumors around Yacheng, detailing Huang Wulang's crimes. Huang Wulang had been Yacheng's recruiter for many years. , instead of thinking about protecting the environment and the people, they resorted to plundering, which naturally did not win the hearts of the people. For a time, the people of Yacheng were like water, and everything was agitated. "

"Wang Mazi thought that the time had come, so he led others to encourage the people of Echeng to kill Huang Wulang with him. However, the people did not dare to follow a group of bandits to make trouble after Huang Wulang had been famous for many years. It happened that at this time, Yacheng recruited The deputy envoy, however, handed over the news that he was willing to cooperate with Wang Mazi inside and outside."

"The two sides negotiated for a long time, and after confirming that it was not a trap, Wang Mazi led the bandits into Yacheng. Yacheng summoned the deputy envoy and indeed captured Huang Wulang. Both parties escorted Huang Wulang through the streets, and on the high platform of Yacheng Caishikou, Yacheng The city's deputy envoy announced Huang Wulang's crime, and Wang Mazi personally drew his sword and beheaded Huang Wulang, giving justice to the people of Yacheng."

"Gone?"

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned. This somewhat dreamy and perfect ending made him feel a little uncomfortable for a moment.

Jiang Xinghuo nodded.

Of course he can say: If you think it's gone, then it's gone. If you think it's there, you can also go on to say that Huang Wulang escaped from his shell, went to Jiannan Road to bring reinforcements and came back to counterattack the bandits, or Yacheng recruited the deputy envoy. He became the new Huang Wulang, or Wang Mazi was betrayed by his subordinates, and so on.

But Jiang Xinghuo didn't want to talk.

Because this is the ending he gave this story.

"The situation in Duck City is such a story. I believe you all know what this story is about. The law of blood reward is an eternal rule that violent organizations cannot break."

"Actually, the question I want to ask is," Jiang Xinghuo said slowly, "It's not about the resolution of this story, but it's about whether it's gangsters or the army, they can clearly destroy the people's bones, why do they still act like Wang Mazi needs to kill a few Mazi bandits who break the rules, and Yacheng recruits the deputy envoy to read out Huang Wulang's charges?"

"Did Wang Mazi and Yacheng recruit deputy envoys cleanly? They did not receive their share from the previous two violent organizations, the gangs and the government army. It may even be a large share. Blood reward?"

"We need to calm down the boiling public sentiment in Yacheng."

Zhu Di suddenly said.

"Yes."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled inexplicably at Colonel Yan in front of him.

Jiang Xinghuo concluded: "The story just mentioned is the first question in the first part of "State Management", that is, what is feudal state management?"

"Here is a definition." Jiang Xinghuo said, "Feudal state management, that is, the state is established by violent organizations based on the law of blood reward, and in order to pursue the long-term maximization of blood reward returns. The characteristic is that violent organizations will gradually become more effective. We should fish from the lake in an orderly and sustainable manner, rather than pumping out water to catch fry, without considering what to do in the future.”

Jiang Xinghuo paused and continued.

"And what I want to talk about next is the second question in the first part, who is the person who manages the feudal country?"

Zhu Gaoxu replied: "Of course they are civil servants and minor officials."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said, "Actually, many of the principles are applicable to the border troops who respect themselves as bandits just mentioned, and they are equally applicable to the officials in the fish and meat township."

"That is, violent organizations pursue blood rewards, and there is a blood reward law. Civil servants and petty officials, especially petty officials, you should know that hundreds of thousands of petty officials are the ones who manage this country What do you think the petty officials are pursuing as the real dominant force?"

Hearing this question, Zhu Di fell silent.

Because Zhu Di suddenly felt that this seemed to be another hole dug for him by his father, Zhu Yuanzhang.

Just like the vassal system and the Ming Dynasty Baochao system.

Zhu Di sighed in his heart: "Dad, when you were formulating the ancestral system for the Ming Dynasty, did you miss something in every system that you didn't expect?"

——————

In the secret room, several people were also lost in thought.

"What are the junior officials pursuing?" Zhu Gaochi murmured.

"wealth!"

On the contrary, Xia Yuanji answered extremely quickly and simply.

"For ordinary people, their dreams are just to have a full belly, wear warm clothes, marry a wife, and have children. But petty officials have many demands. They pursue wealth, beauty, fame, status, and honor. What they pursue is more than ordinary people.”

"When officials climb up, they will try their best to cling to high branches in the hope of promotion; while when junior officials climb up, they will only crazily grab more benefits and seek wealth."

Xia Yuanji pondered for a moment and said, "Because the Ming Dynasty did not provide many opportunities for promotion to junior officials."

What I want to say here is that Jiang Xinghuo learned from the information recorded in the "Huidian" of the Ming Dynasty in his previous life that the petty official class in the Ming Dynasty did not have any channels for advancement, but the highest level was to be able to reach the seventh rank. The premise is that they previously served in a first-grade yamen. If they served in a second-grade, yamen or third-grade yamen, the highest official they can do is only the eighth or ninth grade.

But, but, this is for the petty officials in the yamen of the capital.

For the yamen of local prefectures and counties, petty officials will remain petty officials for the rest of their lives!

Of course, although petty officials are at the bottom of the official contempt chain, from the perspective of ordinary people, petty officials are still a superior "official."

Although the official salary on the surface is not very high, ahem, thanks to Zhu Yuanzhang's picky search, or simply put, he basically loses money to go to work.

But "officials" themselves have a lot of trouble when working. This has been true since ancient times. Popular novels also reflect this phenomenon very well. Or how did a small official in Songjiang and Songyaosi in Water Margin do that? How about timely rain? Rely on salary? Obviously not.

Zhu Gaochi has fully realized the seriousness of the problem.

That is, the Ming Dynasty did not leave many promotion channels for petty officials. Perhaps in the yamen of the capital, petty officials could change from "officials" to "officials", but in the local area, it is impossible for petty officials to become "officials". Since There is no hope of promotion, so naturally there is only one pursuit left for the junior officials.

——Get rich!

As for the petty officials' behavior of amassing money by seeking rent from the government power of the yamen, as long as they take the first step, it means that in the end they will completely exceed their original intentions.

Moreover, local officials in the Ming Dynasty began to lose control as early as the middle and late Hongwu Dynasty. They were really uncontrollable and could not even kill people.

Therefore, the petty officials who have lived in such an environment for a long time are often a hundred times more terrifying than "officials" when it comes to the ordinary people at the bottom.

Dao Yan sighed quietly at this time, but said something very reasonable.

"The so-called desire is the ugliest and dirtiest thing within human beings, but it is also the foundation on which human beings rely for survival and even eternity."

"What are the desires pursued by petty officials? They long for wealth. They use all means to gain power in order to gain wealth."

"So, is this what Jiang Sheng plans to talk about in "National Management"? In feudal countries, whether they are violent organizations or administrative organizations, they will gradually degenerate due to the pursuit of wealth rewards such as blood rewards or money."

Zhu Gaochi couldn't help but ask: "But how to stop this kind of degeneration? You must know that even if Emperor Taizu Gao killed no one to serve as an official, he could not control whether the subordinate officials should be greedy or greedy, and the management of a feudal country , obviously can’t do without them.”