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

Chapter 39
Others thought the founding emperor was so majestic, but only Zhu Yuanzhang himself knew how difficult his situation was!

This difficulty does not mean that he cannot hold the position of emperor, but that what he wants is not just for him to be emperor, but also for his descendants to be emperors stably, not to mention for thousands of generations, at least for several generations. !
He did not want the Ming Dynasty he founded to end up like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, or like the Wei and Jin Dynasties.Even if it is like the former Song Dynasty, it is not what he likes.

However, the situation in the past few years since the founding of the country did not satisfy him.

First of all, before the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed, he always thought about the Central Plains.

In addition, the Japanese pirates along the coast were also a major scourge. In the past few years, even the envoys he sent to the Japanese country were killed by five of the Japanese princes.Although the generals demanded to conquer the Japanese country, he took into account the example of the former Yuan Dynasty, so he tolerated it.

That's it, actually it's not the most important thing.

For him, the most important thing is the lack of loyal, reliable and talented people.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but turn over again.

The talent issue has really been bothering him for too long.

Before conquering the world, as long as they have talents, regardless of whether they are civil or military, they will be accepted.

In the former Yuan Dynasty, there were ten levels: officials, officials, monks, Taoists, doctors, workers, craftsmen, prostitutes, Confucians, and beggars. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted all the Confucians in the second and lower grades.Of course, this has nothing to do with his background as a beggar.

He was thirsty for talents, so he was recommended by famous people and recommended by people around him.But this alone is not enough talent.

Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang also found that under the recommendation system, the disadvantages of nepotism and profit-seeking were becoming more and more serious.For this reason, he finally chose the imperial examination system of the previous Central Plains dynasty to select talents.

As a result, due to the early recommendation system, most of the talented people among the people were recommended to become officials in the imperial court; most of those who participated in the imperial examination were young boys, and basically few of them could do anything.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the three-tiered approach of old, middle and young people, that is, using the old to lead newcomers, in an attempt to solve the shortcomings of the imperial examination system that made it difficult to use talents, unexpectedly, the original problems were not solved, and new ones were discovered. The problem.

The imperial examination system in the early years of Hongwu lacked all fair rules and regulations, which made the imperial examination a place for fraud. Failure in the imperial examination only had to do with money and connections, and had little to do with real learning.

Disappointed, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to announce the suspension of the imperial examination system and reinstate the recommendation system.If the original historical development was followed, he would have launched a relatively fair and mature imperial examination system in one fell swoop after ten years of consideration.

Under the restoration of the recommendation system, even though Zhu Yuanzhang had just told Song Lian how good the recommendation system was, and even took Zhang Liang and Xiao He as examples, he was very worried.

Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong had a very good relationship and were still in-laws. They held high positions in the Ming Dynasty, and the talents recommended by them also surrounded them, forming a huge force.

When local officials come to Beijing, they will visit them.

Local matters were reported to them first, and then they decided whether to report them to him as the emperor.

Although for the moment, those things that were not reported to him were not considered major events.But Zhu Yuanzhang saw that this sign was very bad.

When he was in power, he could suppress these ministers, but what if he is no longer there?
In addition, the officials in the court today, either served as officials in Qianyuan, or were scholars who grew up in Qianyuan, are all contaminated with the customs and habits of Qianyuan, and corruption is just a daily routine!
For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang was cruel and announced that anyone who dared to be greedy would have his skin stolen and used as grass if he had more than 60 taels of silver.This is not just talk, it has actually been done.

He had to be on guard because he had personally experienced how corrupt officials forced the people to rebel.If the Ming Dynasty wants long-term peace and stability, it must not tolerate the rampant corruption of corrupt officials.If possible, Zhu Yuanzhang really did not want to use these officials who were deeply influenced by the former Yuan Dynasty.But what about the talent to replace them?Where is the talent?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but turn over again.

Empress Ma, who was sleeping next to him, felt Zhu Yuanzhang frying pancakes, and asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the star change has already happened, and it is useless to think about it again. Only by having a good rest can you handle the government affairs well, right?"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he turned around, looked at his married wife, and replied: "If it only takes two days, can you tell Jing Jing so that she can prepare?"

His plan to marry Zhu Jingjing to Li Shan's eldest son had already been mentioned to Queen Ma.I hope that after doing this, Li Shanchang will be grateful and think more about him and the court.

Queen Ma didn't expect him to say this. After waiting for a while, she said: "Jing Jing is a sensible child, so there should be no problem! I will talk to her after this period of time."

Li Shanchang's eldest son Li Qi is much older than Zhu Jingjing, and he is still married for the second time. Speaking of which, Zhu Jingjing is a bit wronged.However, since the father has already decided, this is the only way.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened and said nothing. Li Shanchang's face appeared in his mind.

I have to say that Li Shanchang is indeed a talent, and he used to be his right-hand man.If you assist him wholeheartedly, have no selfish motives, recommend useful talents, and are truly used by the court, then you will still be his loyal minister.

However, Li Shanchang's performance in the past few years has not satisfied him at all, and he has even gotten so close to Hu Weiyong. What are the goals of a group of civil servants?I hope he will recognize his identity and not get too close to other civil and military officials after marrying him.When necessary, it is better to beat him!
If in the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang first married his daughter to the Li family, and then asked people to impeach Li Shanchang, saying that he did not respect the emperor and punished Li Shanchang, reducing his salary, but in the final development of things, even after he beat him , and it didn’t go as he intended.

........................

Zhu Jingjing did not come to Liujiacun, Zhang Yifan discovered it immediately.But he didn't pay much attention at first because he was busy.After waiting for a few days, Zhu Jingjing still didn't show up, which made him feel a little strange.

Thinking about what would happen in the ninth year of Hongwu, Zhang Yifan remembered that he seemed to have time to print the case, but this had nothing to do with Xungui, and it should have nothing to do with Jingjing.

But no matter what, Zhang Yifan was still a little worried, so he asked someone about the situation, and then he realized what had happened.

In this regard, he was naturally quite speechless. Isn't it just a normal astronomical phenomenon? This is true for the ancients!

It seems possible that Xungui may be affected.

Thinking like this, Zhang Yifan didn't worry too much and continued to work on things in Liujiacun.

With the labor support from several surrounding villages, it took about a month for Liujia Village to finally almost complete the major changes.

When the renovation of Liujiacun entered the final stage, Zhang Yifan began to miss Zhu Jingjing. After so long, he thought, should he take the initiative to visit Zheng Guogong's mansion?

Thinking of doing it, Zhang Yifan packed up early the next morning, put on new clothes, and set off in an ox cart, accompanied by Daniel and Erniu.

(End of this chapter)