Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 191 Starting Point
Luo Guanzhong's worries are well-founded.

Because in the early years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, a major case occurred against Luo Guanzhong, an old friend of Zhang Shicheng.

Gao Qi, who is much more famous than Luo Guanzhong, is talented, knowledgeable, literary, and especially good at poetry. Together with Liu Ji and Song Lian, he is known as one of the "Three Masters of Poetry and Prose in the Early Ming Dynasty", and together with Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, Xu Ben was known as the "Four Heroes of Wuzhong", and commentators at that time compared them to the "Four Heroes of the Early Ming Dynasty".He is also known as the "Ten Friends of Beiguo" with Wang Xing.

Such an outstanding scholar was convicted and executed because Wei Guan, the prefect of Suzhou, renovated the government at the site of Zhang Shicheng's palace.Gao Qi once wrote "The Liang Dynasty on County Governance", which contained the four characters "dragon, pan, and tiger roosting". He was suspected of praising Zhang Shicheng and had him beheaded.

Poor Gao Qi, who was so talented and in his prime, died just before he could create his own era of poetry.

Everyone thought that Zhu Yuanzhang attacked these intellectuals who had served Zhang Shicheng, but they never thought about whether Gao Qi himself had a way to kill himself.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, someone recommended Gao Qi to participate in the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". Zhu Yuanzhang appointed him as the editor of the history of the Hanlin Academy, and was ordered to teach the kings and promote him to be the right minister of the household department.This salary is not too high.

what's the result?

Gao Qi refused!
Then Zhu Yuanzhang had an idea. You are so talented, you are as famous as so many famous literati, and you have many contacts. In other words, you are a gangster.I worked for you as a high-ranking official and valued you, but in the end I refused to accept it and wrote a poem praising my enemy Zhang Shicheng. What is your intention?

So, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care how well you wrote your poems, he just came to kill the chicken and scare the monkey!
Zhang Yifan didn't know these inside stories, but he knew one thing. As long as it didn't hinder Zhu Yuanzhang's plan to stabilize the Zhu family dynasty, nothing would happen.

Therefore, after hearing Luo Guanzhong's reminder, he smiled nonchalantly and said: "So what? Now, you and I are both from the Ming Dynasty, both Han people. If you don't rebel, who cares which princes you served before?" ?”

Having said this, he said to Luo Guanzhong in a sincere tone: "You are good at writing books, and you will definitely leave a name in the literary world in the future. Just write with peace of mind, and don't worry about political matters. For the sake of our descendants, , it would be better to keep more literary masterpieces!”

Zhang Yifan's sincere advice and exaggerated compliments, at least to Luo Guanzhong's ears, were definitely exaggerated compliments. Luo Guanzhong was both moved and ashamed to say that he would leave a name in the literary world and write a literary masterpiece.

So, he hurriedly replied: "The prince-in-law is right, but ordinary people are so virtuous and capable. There is nothing to repay for receiving such kindness from the prince-in-law!"

After Zhang Yifan heard this, he immediately laughed and said: "We, the couple..."

At this point, he glanced at Zhu Jingjing, then turned back and continued: "...We all like to read stories. If Mr. Luo can write wonderful stories, it is the best reward. If Mr. Luo really still minds, I wonder if Mr. Luo can give me the manuscripts of your stories for my collection?"

Having said this, he paused and then said: "To be honest with Mr. Luo, I am planning to build a separate courtyard in Liujia Village outside the capital city, which is my hometown. There is a library design, and I want to collect all the masterpieces of famous people there. of."

Luo Guanzhong felt ashamed when he heard that the prince-in-law praised his work too highly. He quickly said: "As long as the prince-in-law wants it, after the book is published, the manuscript will be given to him!"

Having said this, he added: "In addition to these two sets of books, I also have several sets of books in the inn. By the way, this "Water Margin" was compiled by me into a volume. It is the original manuscript of my master, and I also have it. Keep it, I wonder if the Prince Consort needs it?"

Zhang Yifan was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly replied: "Yes, yes, of course I want it!"

If Shi Naian's manuscript can be passed down, it will be a treasure!

Luo Guanzhong originally had some objections to the Zhu family's Ming Dynasty, but after communicating with Zhang Yifan's consort, they disappeared.

Then, he pointed to the book "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" and began to seriously ask for advice on how to write it.

As far as Luo Guanzhong is concerned, he prefers historical genres, especially those involving war strategies, while "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" is more martial arts-oriented, which he has never seen before, so it is very novel.

As far as writing theory is concerned, Zhang Yifan is naturally good at talking, but he is afraid that if he talks too much, Luo Guanzhong will be influenced by him later, so he writes some pretentious and slap-in-the-face novels, similar to the one in later generations about going to Jiangnan. Then the literary value will come down.

However, although he just let it slip, Luo Guanzhong immediately grasped the meaning and felt the new direction of popular novels.

Zhu Jingjing is also interested in this topic.She saw that her husband admired Luo Guanzhong very much, so she put aside her prejudices and began to discuss her thoughts on the novels she had read.

Her advantage lies in the love between men and women. For example, "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Zhu Xian" have a great influence on her, and she prefers this type of fantasy.

In Xiangshan County, there were many houses where Yuan Dian Shi Ma Ruhai's house was confiscated.Especially the main house, which has always been empty.

Zhang Yifan immediately decided to designate this house as the starting point of popular literature in Xiangshan County, and use it for the creation of popular literature.

The authors of the Popular Literature Starting Point Club lived in the house in the backyard for free. The county government paid for it and hired cooks to cook for the authors. The front yard was a place for discussions among the authors.

Luo Guanzhong, on the other hand, became the first author to enter this popular literature starting point.

As the name suggests, the authors here are mainly engaged in the creation of popular literature. They require positive energy and can criticize the darkness of society, but they cannot be novels with negative energy.

According to Zhang Yifan, this is to promote social atmosphere from another perspective and encourage people to become more literate, which has lofty social and cultural value.

At the same time as the listing was out, Zhang Yifan also asked Luo Guanzhong to write a letter to his friend, saying that as long as he was talented and had good works, he could live in this starting point of popular literature in Xiangshan County.

As long as the works written by the authors of Qidian.com can pass the test of Zhang Yifan or Zhu Jingjing, they can be published for free, and the sales revenue, not profit, will be divided [-]-[-] with the author.

Several sets of printed works will be placed in the library reading room for people to borrow, and others will be sold in local bookstores.If the borrowings in the reading room are popular, they will be sent to other places for sale.

Luo Guanzhong was overjoyed by the establishment of the Xiangshan County Popular Literature Starting Point Club and the release of the rules, and he quickly wrote letters and began to call for friends.

Zhu Jingjing also likes this. In addition to studying food, he has another hobby: reading and trying to write books.

However, she complained to Zhang Yifan that there were still too few books to read.

In this regard, Zhang Yifan developed the idea of ​​​​preserving historical masterpieces, and began to dictate again, recalling the two novels "Journey to the West" and "A Dream of Red Mansions", which can be regarded as preserving two sets of literary masterpieces for this plane.

While he was busy with this, it was already December of the [-]th year of Hongwu.At this time, the officers and soldiers of Wu Bei Tang had also arrived at the capital.

At this time, Nanjing is already very cold. Temperatures around zero degrees are very common. If you are not careful, it may snow.

This made the soldiers in Xiangshan County freeze into dogs.Fortunately, Zhang Yifan thought about it and allocated winter clothes to them from Lan Yu.

Of course, although the weather was very cold, their hearts were all burning, waiting for the emperor's review.And while they were waiting, they were not idle. They continued to train under the leadership of Zhu Liangzu and were ready to hold back a lot.

Fortunately, they didn't wait too long. After all, they were from Xiangshan County. No one dared to delay, and they quickly reported to the imperial court.

History has indeed changed under Zhang Yifan's butterfly effect.

The Duke of Wei, Deng Yu, had originally died of illness in November on the way to his class teacher, but in this plane, at the beginning of December, he safely returned to the capital and took up the post of Prime Minister.

No one knew about this, only Zhang Yifan who heard the news knew that he changed Deng Yu's fate.

After Zhu Yuanzhang received the news, he sent a message to the Governor's Office to accompany him to inspect the soldiers of Xiangshan County Armed Forces Hall.

In addition, Deng Yu, the Duke of Wei, was naturally taken by him, and there was another person, King Yan Zhu Di, the chief military officer of the Japanese suppression.

Needless to say, after Zhu Di received the news delivered by Zhang Yifan, he immediately asked his father to review it together.

The reason is that he heard that the sergeants of Xiangshan County Armed Forces are good at artillery, and naval warfare is inseparable from artillery.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally agreed to this.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month in the tenth year of Hongwu, a special area was set aside outside Nanjing for this review.

The reason why they were not at the school grounds in Beijing was because the most important thing about this review was the use of artillery.This bombardment artillery is so powerful that there is not that much space in the city.

The design drawing of the barbarian cannon given by Zhang Yifan is of course the mature type of later generations, that is, the type with cannon wheels that can be pulled by horses.

Cement roads have been built inside and outside Nanjing.Although the bombardment cannon is very heavy, there is no problem.Just when they left the official road and headed to the training ground, because it had snowed some time ago, the road was muddy and uneven, and the movement of these artillery was put to the test.

Both Deng Yu and Zhu Yuanzhang were accustomed to fighting, and they immediately saw the shortcomings of this kind of artillery during the march.

However, Zhu Di, who was following Zhu Yuanzhang, didn't take it seriously, and said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Father, as long as the artillery is powerful enough, even with this weight, it doesn't matter if it is used in the navy."

This bombardment cannon was ultimately only built by the capital.Although Zhu Di also has the right to build, the craftsmen in Jiangyin are still weaker.

Therefore, Zhu Di had never seen how powerful this bombardment artillery was.

But even though I have never seen it, I can estimate just by looking at its appearance that it must be very big.

After all, the firearms at this time were not distinguishable from guns and cannons. In other words, if the musket was larger, it would be used as an artillery, not a real artillery at all.

Deng Yu has a calm personality. Although he saw such a large artillery, he never spoke.

After arriving at the training ground, Zhu Liangzu had already gathered here with fifty of his men.

Zhu Yuanzhang led Duke Wei, Duke Cao and other important military officials over, making them all hold their breath and want to show off.

Especially Zhu Liangzu, he stood in front of a group of old acquaintances again after he was convicted, and he was holding back his energy.

The cold wind howled, icy cold.

However, no matter whether it was the soldiers of the Wu Beitang, or the guards of the emperor, or the emperor and generals of the Ming Dynasty, no one was timid.It seemed that all of them were immune to God's cruelty.

The people here are the elites of the Ming Dynasty, and they show the Ming Dynasty's peak military force, which is far from comparable to the Ming army in other times.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't talk nonsense. After arriving, he ordered the martial arts performance to begin.

Therefore, Zhu Liangzu took the soldiers of Wu Beitang and showed all the methods he trained in front of the emperor and famous generals.

In the howling north wind, the shouts and roars of the martial arts warriors were heard from time to time, breaking the blockage of the sharp cold wind, and the sound shook the whole world!
None of the people in the stands spoke. After watching the second half, almost to the end, Zhu Yuanzhang turned to Deng Yu and asked, "How is it?"

At this time, Deng Yu was considered the most popular general today.After all, he had just expanded thousands of miles of territory for the Ming Dynasty and returned victoriously.

At this time, he was taciturn. After hearing the emperor's question, he immediately responded respectfully: "These soldiers have only been training for a little more than a year. To be able to perform like this, they must have worked hard."

From the perspective of a veteran and famous general like him, these Armed Forces soldiers were incomparable to the elite men under his command.Although morale was high, no blood was seen.If you want him to immediately praise how awesome he is after watching this martial arts performance, that would definitely be against his will and he wouldn't be able to say it.

Not to mention, Emperor Hongwu himself knew how to fight. How could he not know what these sergeants from Xiangshan County were like?
The soldiers Zhu Di trained for the competition were all selected from the emperor's guards. They were all elites, and they were much better than these soldiers who were just ordinary people.

After hearing this, Cao Guogong nodded and said: "The prince consort said that the advantage of these soldiers is that they have learned more theoretical knowledge and will be smarter than ordinary soldiers. What other advantages are battlefield toughness and understanding of military orders? These advantages are also going to the battlefield. Only when you go up can you really see if this is really the case!”

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang had told them this before Cao Guogong could make these remarks.

As for what they were practicing in front of them, in their eyes, it was really just average.

It can even be said that the level of their coach, the original Marquis of Yongjia Zhu Liangzu, was not amazing in the eyes of them.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang praised him and said: "Zhu Liangzu is indeed thoughtful. It can be seen that he has no reservations in his ability. He is teaching it to these sergeants of the Armed Forces Hall, not bad!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately knew that the emperor was setting the tone.

But when they were thinking about it, they heard Zhu Yuanzhang say: "But what happens in the end? Let's see their artillery demonstration first!"

　Ask for support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)