Chapter 324 Decay

At the end of the Song Dynasty, the Tatars nominally occupied the Central Plains, but they did not become the actual rulers of China for a hundred years.

Perhaps for the Tatars, as long as they can plunder China's wealth and enjoy China's women, nothing else matters. Generally speaking, Shenzhou is similar to the Tatar Khanate, such as the Golden Horde or something like that. The Tatar nobles only enjoy and plunder, and nothing else matters.

Over the past hundred years, the Tatars have caused huge trauma to China, but it was all on a material level. On a cultural or spiritual level, China is still China. In the past hundred years, there has never been a year without rebels, and there has never been a year without rebels.

In comparison, the Manchu Qing Dynasty in original history was truly cruel - the Jurchens completed their actual rule and almost truly broke the backbone of a nation. This is the scariest thing.

But to break the backbone of a nation and destroy its spirit, it is absolutely impossible for those individuals from the Manchu Qing Dynasty to do it. They have accomplices - scholars who have gradually lost their moral integrity since the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin and the scholar-bureaucrats jointly governed the world, thus creating a prosperous humanistic era in the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty inherited from the Tang Dynasty, so the Northern Song Dynasty still had martial arts names. After the scholars had mastered everything, the fact that the Southern Song Dynasty was weaker than the Northern Song Dynasty proved this point.

But after all, quite a few of the literati at that time still had moral integrity and bottom lines. Behind Yashan, 100,000 people crossed the sea to die. How tragic and heroic?

After the late Song Dynasty, the Tatars invaded China, causing chaos for a hundred years. Zhu Hongwu started at the end of his life, and he fought against Zhang and expelled the Tartars to restore China.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the national situation was difficult. Where is the difficulty? The difficulty lies in governing the country. Ruling a country requires literati, but at the end of the Song Dynasty, all those with bones crossed the sea, and most of the remaining ones were people like "the water is too cold". After experiencing the oppression and killing of the Tatars, a large number of those who were left with bones died. The scholars had long been servile and corrupted.

People say that Zhu Hongwu was very murderous. He killed countless officials and scholars when he was in power. Perhaps this killing was to correct the deep slavishness and corrupt moral integrity?

Thinking about the rise of a big red country hundreds of years later and becoming the second largest country in the world, with so many literati slaves, and so many big Vs licking dogs, we can deduce the dilemma Zhu Hongwu faced in the early Ming Dynasty.

However, Hong Wu was born in a grassroots family and could not tolerate any sand in his eyes. It's understandable that there would be violent killings.

Of course, the licking dogs hundreds of years later licked the outside. What Zhu Hongwu faced were literati who had no moral integrity, whose bottom line was like an abyss, and whose temperament was closer to that of the Tatars.

It is not without reason that he is so harsh to peel off the skin and stuff it into straw for ten taels of silver. A new dynasty has just been established, but the literati who govern the people are all rats. They imitate their former masters and squeeze and exploit the people. Can Zhu Hongwu tolerate it? !

Whether it is the harsh criminal laws in the early Ming Dynasty or the establishment of the violent institution Jinyiwei, they all have their historical background.

Zhu Hongwu was eager to kill, and as expected, the atmosphere improved greatly. But looking at it now, Zhu Hongwu failed after all.

Since the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, something that has gradually taken root in the hearts of some scholars has not been eradicated. As the emperor gradually became unable to be strong, and as the literati gradually grasped the general trend, they gradually became unscrupulous, and everything began to be exposed.

By this time, it has reached its peak.

Of course, not all readers are like this. For example, in the late Song Dynasty, they were divided in half, and the half with bones was basically dead, and the rest were mostly boneless. Their traditions were successfully passed down to those who were alive. And those with bones, stumbling and stumbling, their orthodoxy can still be accepted by others after all, and some of them are passed down, and then they resist, and then resist again. But the Ming Dynasty also gradually deteriorated - in the original history, after the Jiashen National Disaster, many scholars around the world still died for their country. These people may not always be good people and have done many evil deeds, but they can still maintain a certain bottom line.

However, there are too few such people.

If it can still be evenly split at the end of the Song Dynasty, it would probably be 95% to 50% at the end of the Ming Dynasty, maybe even less.

Even literary leaders like Qian Qianyi are too cold, so you can easily imagine the ugliness inside. Literary leaders are shameless, let alone others?

Why did the sages emphasize virtue? In fact, it was to give scholars a face and enable them to keep this face.

Therefore, scholars in the late Ming Dynasty were no longer the disciples and descendants of the sages. They can't even meet the most basic requirements of the sages for successors, so how can they be considered successors?

Qian Qianyi is a typical example. For him, the teachings of the sages are just for mounting. When necessary, they can be torn apart and discarded at any time. As long as it is beneficial, he dares to do it. What is virtue? What is an old face? What is moral integrity? What is the country? If possible, he could sell it for money.

And he pretends to be very good. Before everything is revealed, in the eyes of ordinary people, even in the eyes of the people next to him, he will always be a leader in the literary world.

Perhaps only those who really know him, such as his political opponents, know what a disgusting face is hidden under the bark of this old tree.

The storm blowing from the north soon swept across the entire Jiangnan. Most of the old ministers were busy making preparations to resist Ying Yi while also busy finding a way out for themselves. Only a very small number of 'pedantic' people, such as Shi Kefa, are running sincerely.

After leaving Yan Ermei, there is still no shortage of praise paintings around Shi Kefa. Some people suggested that Shi Kefa should perhaps find his orthodoxy first.

"In the opinion of the students, Yingtian has lost its orthodoxy. Chongzhen, with the dignity of the emperor, issued an edict to abdicate and declared the Ming Dynasty to be destroyed. Yingtian Jiangnan has become a rootless Ping. The rebels are so powerful that they cannot be compared with them. Only by finding the orthodoxy can we make a difference."

After hearing this, Shi Kefa couldn't help but said: "How to find orthodoxy?"

He said: "Emperor Chongzhen is orthodox. As long as he can explain to the world that he was forced by traitors, there will be room for redemption."

Shi Kefa couldn't help but ponder, and after a moment he said: "Rescue Emperor Chongzhen?!"

"Of course."

Shi Kefa frowned: "Emperor Chongzhen is in the capital, thousands of miles away. How can he make it under the nose of the traitor?"

Said: "The rebels are tyrannical, and the capital must also be heavily guarded. Ordinary people can't do anything, but... the cabinet department may be able to borrow the hands of capable people, and it may not be impossible to succeed."

Shi Kefa was startled, his mind cleared the clouds and he suddenly became enlightened. He stood up suddenly, walked back and forth excitedly, stroking his palms and said: "What you say makes sense, what you say makes sense!"

Standing still, Shi Kefa said: "There are many capable people in the world, among whom Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain is the most powerful. I will go to visit Tianshi immediately and ask him to take action!"

After saying that, he hurried out and said: "With the power of the Heavenly Master, it is not impossible to rescue Emperor Chongzhen. Maybe we can go one step further..."

Zan Hua caught up from behind and said hurriedly after hearing the words: "The cabinet cannot create extraneous problems - the students know the cabinet's intentions, maybe they can ask Zhang Tianshi to take action to kill the rebels. However, the rebels are surrounded by a large army, and they themselves are very human. If you can't If he succeeds, even Emperor Chongzhen can’t save him, that would be bad.”