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Chapter 115 Jiuqing forced the palace 2
"... Your Majesty's move is inappropriate, and I would like to hear the details!" Wen Chun, the censor of Zuodu, was more restrained. He left his seat and knelt down in front of the censor's desk to ask for an explanation.

"Well, I will talk to you dear friends. If it sounds unreasonable, the palace examination questions will be asked separately and will be reviewed by the cabinet bachelor first. If it sounds reasonable..."

As long as Hong Tao has the capital to flip the table, it's time to start a bet with these ministers.The emperor failed the imperial examination and took it again. The emperor won the imperial examination. Pack up your bedroll and get out of the house. Stop occupying the latrine and not shitting.Even if you don't have this ability, you still have to gamble in disguise, but the stakes shouldn't be too high, it's better than nothing.

"I will comply with your Majesty's wishes. The next imperial examination will be conducted accordingly!" Wen Chun was also unambiguous and took the bet seriously.

"Okay, you have nothing to say... take my map of the Great Ming Dynasty! Everyone, step aside, clear the middle, and listen to what I have to say!"

Seeing that someone had fallen into the trap, Hong Tao immediately rushed out from behind the desk as if he had been beaten to death. While shouting at Wang Chengen to work, he chased people around, just like the street buskers of later generations. .

This map was drawn by a court painter using fine brocade according to the draft given by Hong Tao. The material is the same as the imperial edict. The front is made of meticulous diagonal lines, and the back has a pattern of auspicious clouds and auspicious cranes. It is six feet wide and one foot long. It is larger than Yangxin Hall. The carpet in the east side hall is even bigger.

In addition to being magnificent and exquisite, the mountains, rivers, forests, plateaus, villages, and cities above are all represented by various icons, which are more intuitive and clearer.Although there is still a big gap between the accuracy of the coordinate points and later maps, it is more accurate than any map of this era.

At present, we can only achieve this level. Without skilled surveying and mapping personnel and massive coordinate point information, it is useless to master the mapping technology, and we still cannot draw a map that can be traced based on the map.

"You see, this is the Great Wall of Qin, and this is the Great Wall of Ming. Qin is farther north, and the two are hundreds to thousands of miles apart. So the first question is, why is the Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty farther north, while the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty retreats to the south? Several hundred miles?”

But in the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, this picture was already very detailed and credible, and all the ministers surrounding it were amazed.Hong Tao simply walked to the middle of the map, held up a small bamboo stick, and acted as a geography teacher. He not only taught, but also asked questions.

"I think it was because of the power of the Northern Yuan Dynasty that we invaded from the south!" Sun Wei, the Minister of War, was the first to give the answer, putting the responsibility on the Song Dynasty and the Mongols.

"Our dynasty, from King Xu Da of Zhongshan to the late emperor, spent nearly 200 years building the Great Wall through the north from east to west. At this time, the Northern Yuan Dynasty was weak, so why not push it to the front line of the Qin Great Wall?"

It sounds reasonable. In the late Song Dynasty, except for a short section of wall in the northwest, the Great Wall was never built on a large scale, and it was always suppressed by the north.

But if you think about it carefully, there is a logical error.The Song Dynasty was unable to move northward, so it resorted to planting trees, digging ponds, and building forts for defense out of cost.But when the Ming Dynasty was established, the northern territory had already exceeded the current location of the Great Wall. Why not build the Great Wall farther north?
"Following the trend of the mountains can get twice the result with half the effort. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack!" Li Tingji added. Even though he was an official of the Ministry of Rites, he knew a little bit about everything.

In fact, the officials of various ministries in the Ming Dynasty, including the Ministry of War, were all civilian officials. Apart from meetings all day long, they only exchanged official documents. They did not need to understand much military theory, nor did they need a military background.The officials of the Ministry of Rites and the officials of the Ministry of War have about the same understanding of military issues. If not, one day the Minister of Rites will be transferred to the Ministry of War as the top leader.

This is also a big weakness in the Ming Dynasty system. Professional things are not done by professionals. It is always laymen who lead the experts.History books say that in the Song Dynasty, the soldiers did not know the generals and the generals did not know the soldiers. In fact, it was even worse in the Ming Dynasty.On weekdays, training and assessment are in charge of the Fifth Army Governor's Office, and when troops are sent out to fight, the Ministry of War arranges and deploys them.

Why were frontier generals such as Qi Jiguang, Ma Gui, and Li Chengliang able to achieve good results in foreign operations?In addition to military literacy, they all have their own private armies.Using this as the backbone to command the troops sent by the imperial court, the combat effectiveness will rise to a higher level and there will be fewer constraints.

"Not entirely. Look clearly. There are mountains stretching further north, and there is also a natural chasm of the Yellow River. Why not build by the river?" Unfortunately, there are too many loopholes in this rhetoric. It is obvious just by looking at the map.

"The northern land is desolate and unsuitable for farming. It cannot provide food and grass for the frontier army. It would be a pity to abandon it if it is useless." Seeing that the answers of the two ministers were rejected by the emperor with good reason, the situation was not good. Wen Chun, the censor of Zuodu, came forward to answer again. .

"Well, what Yushi Wen said makes some sense, but it is still superficial and does not go deep into it. Put it in a tea shop and restaurant, gather three or five relatives and friends to chat, such words show that you are knowledgeable. However, you are important ministers of our court, and you only know that How should we strategize if we don't know the first and second?" Ever since someone raised the topic that the palace examination questions were too biased and hoped to improve them, Hong Tao had a feeling that Li Tingji, the Minister of Rites, had the most inspiring words and the most determined attitude, like a leader.

But the one who played the biggest role was Wen Chun, the censor of Zuodu, who could always come to the rescue at critical moments. Without his support, Li Tingji, Li Dai, Xiao Daheng and others would have been unable to hold on long ago.

"I would like to hear His Majesty's opinion!"

He was a Jinshi in the Jiajing year, served as minister of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Personnel, and was governor of several places. He was one of the nine ministers. He was actually called uneducated in public by a guy who had never read a collection of classics and history and had only attended a classics banquet for more than a year. He has only a little knowledge of the art, and is a person who only eats nothing.

No matter how good-tempered and elegant Wen Chun was, he couldn't stand it anymore. He immediately put away his gentlemanly attitude and insisted on asking for an explanation, even if the other party was the emperor.

"..." At this time, Hong Tao behaved more like a gentleman. He looked around unhurriedly and asked with his eyes if anyone else wanted to answer.

"Then I'll give you a brief explanation first. If you have any objections, I'll let you guys add to it. It's time to throw some light on it! Let's see, are there any obvious differences between the north and south of the Great Wall?" When no one said anything, he nodded and waved his small bamboo stick. Pointed to the map.

"... There should be many differences, such as customs, climate, etc. The combined result is different production methods. North of the Great Wall, farming has decreased and nomadic herding has increased, while south of the Great Wall, most people make a living by farming, and there is very little large-scale grazing.

Yushi Wen just said that the northern land is desolate and not suitable for farming.That's right, the farther north you go beyond the Great Wall, the more barren the land becomes. In some places, even grass doesn't grow, turning it into the Gobi Desert.But why is the Great Wall used as the boundary? Can a city wall change the land?

In fact, this is not the case. It is not that the Great Wall has magical power, but that over thousands of years the ancients have gradually concluded a rule. The dividing line of rainfall is roughly along the Great Wall.

If you want to farm, you must have one of the most basic conditions, and that is water.From this line to the north, rainfall is getting less and less, and no matter how hard you work, you can't get enough.As the next best option, local people can only rely on pastures and livestock raising for a living.

This is also the most fundamental reason why the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Khitan or Mongolia have tried their best to invade the south for thousands of years.The nomadic life is unstable all year round. If there is a natural disaster, you will go hungry.In order to have enough food and live a good life, they had no choice but to go south.

The Han people south of the Great Wall were also unable to move north, not because they didn't want to but because they couldn't.It has been tried many times for thousands of years. Qin Kai, Meng Tian, ​​Wei Qing, Li Guang, Huo Qubing, Gao Xianzhi, etc. are all famous generals who fought against the Hu people.

But no matter how brave and skilled they are, no one can stand for a long time outside the Great Wall, and in the end they will be short-lived.The problem is not with these generals, nor with the previous emperor and ministers. They are all stuck on one key issue, precipitation.

Without water, you cannot cultivate the land, and if you cannot cultivate the land, you will starve.The Han people could reclaim barren mountains into fertile fields, but it was difficult for them to adapt to nomadic life on a large scale.In the end, it was not the barbarians from the North who defeated them, but God. "

Let Hong Tao seize the initiative and be prepared, but it will take a long time to talk about it. Each problem must be divided into several small problems and analyzed one by one, and finally the various conclusions are brought together to prove that it is not just nonsense.

But once you let him talk, you can't stop listening, because the point of view is indeed novel and the content is rich enough. Regardless of whether you oppose or support it, you must listen to it first and listen carefully, so that you have the opportunity to catch omissions and refute.

(End of this chapter)