People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 466: What Moved the Civil Officials Was the Close Relationship Between the Military and the People

When Yao Guangxiao asked this, an official looked up and said, "It seems that he had a younger brother who was under intensive investigation by the Taxation Inspection Bureau. He was so nervous that he had a stroke and his mouth and eyes were crooked.

The family's property was also exposed during this investigation. The taxes paid reached more than 100,000 taels, which emptied the family's wealth in an instant.

Even so, they did not plug the hole.

The Tax Inspection Department asked them to plug the hole within a year, otherwise their property would be confiscated and sold.

Therefore, the Minister of Rites has always been upset about this.

He felt that he came from a family of scholars and officials, but because of a few tax issues, his family was in a very embarrassing situation and even became a laughing stock in the local area.

Their family claimed to be a family of poetry and literature and a prestigious family, but because of the Duke's reforms, they ended up like this, so he has always been resentful.

So much so that now, even if he is involved in investigating fraud in the military, he can still link it to reform.

At the beginning, we also felt that reforms and changes did not bring much benefit.

But when we saw that so many soldiers died less because of the weapons upgrades caused by the reforms, we saw the benefits of the reforms.

The reform and change have indeed allowed us to see more options of the Ming Dynasty.

We can also see from these people of yours who use weapons their reliance on reform.

It's because we haven't come to our senses yet that we keep thinking that reform and change are blocking the way for all of us.

Now we see this, especially the benefits that firearms bring to our Ming soldiers on the battlefield.

Perhaps these civil servants were actually like many people at the beginning, and were very disgusted with reforms.

They even always think that reform and change are a disaster and will never succeed.

Because there have been too many examples of failed reforms in the past, everyone has seen that reforms have never been successful.

Even Shang Yang's reforms two thousand years ago were successful?

It seemed to be successful, but why did the Qin Dynasty only last for a short fifteen years?

So everyone thinks that the reason why the Qin Dynasty was so short-lived was because Shang Yang's reforms made Qin officials use any means necessary to gain military merit.

They did not attach much importance to benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness, which led to the short life of their Qin Dynasty.

So much so that everyone regarded Shang Yang's reforms as a failure.

Therefore, throughout all dynasties, there has been no good impression of reform and innovation.

Now that Chen Han wants to reform, he will of course encounter layers of resistance.

Even if no one dares to say it openly.

But there are many people who oppose it behind the scenes.

Just like these officials.

They were very opposed to the subsequent reforms at the beginning.

But now they saw the weapons in the soldiers' hands, and the cannons and muskets rumbled in front of them.

When they saw the target several hundred meters away being shot down.

They saw that the red cannon could fire for several miles.

And it can also have enormous power.

They understood that Chen Han's reforms were successful and had permeated into all aspects.

Not only did it allow the Ming Dynasty's most basic treasure notes to operate smoothly, but it also restored the treasure notes to their value when they were first issued.

It also makes people's pockets fatter.

With the changes in reform, food has also begun to become more and more circulated.

It is no longer like before when the price level of grain in one place was always fluctuating and was unacceptable.

Once a severe famine occurs, grain merchants will start to raise prices.

The reason why this situation does not occur now is that a large number of granaries have been built after Chen Han’s reform.

The imperial court dispatched special management personnel to manage grain, which greatly increased local grain reserves.

Once a famine occurred, grain would be immediately allocated from the imperial granary to stabilize local grain prices.

These officials in Beiping Prefecture truly felt the benefits of the reforms to the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, reform is no longer seen as a disaster.

To a certain extent, I even feel more and more impressed by Chen Han's reforms.

When Chen Han wanted to reform, countless people expressed their opposition.

However, Chen Han was able to withstand these opposing voices and carry out the reforms to the end.

It is precisely because of Chen Han’s persistence and the support of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince that the current reform has been successful.

They even heard that when the reform was just started, many assassins tried to assassinate Chen Han and others.

But even in the face of assassination, Chen Han and his men did not retreat.

Although at that time Chen Han was forced to retreat to Japan to command the war and colonization there.

However, we have still achieved quite fruitful results in Japan.

The reason why Ming Dynasty now has an endless supply of silver is because it has won the battle against Japan, which has made it possible for the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes to appreciate in value.

All this is because Chen Han and his men were not afraid of hardships, and were not afraid of slander or assassinations.

They should ask themselves, if they encountered such obstacles, would they have the determination to persevere?

The answer was no.

These people have too deep a grudge.

At the same time, there are too many conflicts of interest behind it.

It is impossible to do it as thoroughly as Chen Han did.

Reform needs to be achieved amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

And along the way, Chen Han had indeed seen countless corpses and countless amounts of blood.

Even he himself almost died on the road of reform.

In fact, Chen Han himself is quite strange.

Even though the reforms have reached such a deep stage now, there will still be people standing up to oppose them.

The reason for standing up to oppose is that they are afraid that Chen Han will completely exclude Confucianism in the process of reform.

Some people are even afraid that Chen Han's reforms will cause scholars to lose their dignity.

Because during Chen Han's reform process, the Kong family, whom they regarded as a spiritual monument, was wiped out.

Although the Kong family is indeed not as great as Confucius, they are the bloodline of Confucius after all.

On this point, they felt that the rulers should forgive the Kong family no matter what mistakes they made.

But unexpectedly, Chen Han did not forgive him.

They even wiped out the entire Kong family, including the living ones, and dug up the graves of the dead.

This incident had a huge impact on Confucianists.

It is impossible for them to forgive this.

Even though they all knew that Chen Han had the support of the emperor and the prince, and even though they knew that going against Chen Han would not end well.

But there are still people who are working tirelessly on this behind the scenes.

Even though Chen Han felt bored, those scholars did not.

This may be the only spirit they learned from Confucius.

Because when Confucius traveled around the countries, he encountered many obstacles.

But Confucius did not give up. With his unremitting spirit, he inspired generations of scholars.

So they have always been proud of Confucius.

They have always been proud of Confucius's travels around the world. Although they can't do it, they still regard this as a spiritual monument and make themselves orgasm.

So after the civil servants spoke these heartfelt words, Yao Guangxiao and others realized that this was actually an ideological illness that was deeply rooted in the minds of the literati and could never be eliminated.

Even if many people see the benefits of reform, they think it is nothing unless they experience it personally.

Because those who hold official positions have achieved their current success through studying and passing the imperial examinations.

But Chen Han completely skipped the imperial examination and established a so-called engineering college, giving many peasants the opportunity to study and gain knowledge.

How could these people let it go?

After these civil officials finished saying this, Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao, Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng all understood.

Why is the Minister of Rites so diligent in discrediting the reform?

After Zhu Di listened to the officials' apologies and the purpose of their departure from the capital, he waved his hand and said, "Get up!"

Several civil servants stood up and waited tremblingly for Zhu Di's final judgment on them.

Zhu Di looked at these officials and said, "To be honest with you, I was disgusted when I first saw you.

But we are still willing to let you visit and feel for yourself how much the reform will improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

I just want to tell you that if you can't see it, you don't know how important the reform of firearms is to the improvement of the military.

You have opposed reforms again and again, simply because they have an impact on your Confucianism. This is really disgusting.

But now seeing that you have come to your senses, I think it was not in vain that I sent you to the army.

After you return, you can tell the civil servants everything you saw.

As long as what you say is true, I will not take today's incident to heart, and I even admire your determination to stop before it is too late."

The civil officials did not expect that Zhu Di would let them go so easily.

In fact, Zhu Di never really wanted to do anything with these civil servants.

I even find these civil servants ridiculous.

He has no insight, but is stubborn in his opinion.

I always think that what I know is the truth.

Therefore, they are wary of anything beyond their understanding.

To the point that they simply cannot see the benefits of real reforms.

Even if they hadn't really come to the military camp and chatted with the real soldiers in the He army.

Truly know what the soldiers know, think and feel.

I guess they find it hard to believe.

A single shot from a few miles away can wipe out the enemy.

One shot from several hundred meters away can knock down the enemy.

Without these as a foundation, Zhu Di believed that these civil servants would not wake up so easily.

It's just like the saying that has been circulating before, the way to make the enemy shut up is to hurt them.

Although the civil servants are not enemies on the battlefield, they are dozens of times more dangerous than the enemies on the battlefield.

Being able to defeat them in this battle was another great victory for Zhu Di and his men.

The civil servants were actually quite surprised after receiving Zhu Di's pardon.

They felt that Zhu Di must be very angry this time.

No matter what, it can be seen that we and others have ulterior motives for coming here this time.

He never thought about reconciliation with Zhu Di and others.

He just wanted to put Zhu Di and others to death.

However, they did not expect that Zhu Di and his men not only did not do anything to them, but instead pardoned all their crimes.

And he also said some wise words.

Indeed, if they could convey to the world what they know, feel, think and see in Beiping Prefecture.

Then everyone could see that not only the Ming army in Beiping Prefecture had high morale.

Even the common people were very supportive of the soldiers going to the expedition.

They heard so many touching stories about this expedition.

For example, many people spontaneously formed transport teams to transport food to the front line.

Many people also spontaneously donated money and supplies.

The morale of the soldiers was also very high.

Even though many civilians personally delivered the things to their camps, the soldiers refused to accept them.

I feel that a lot of food and supplies have already been delivered to the front line, so there is no need to let the people spend money.

But the people still insisted on transporting all the things to the military camp.

Even many ordinary people told them personally.

There were so many things like this at the time that we couldn't get food and supplies to the barracks, but we just dropped our things and ran.

The common people were filled with pride when they said these words.

The pride came from the fact that they were finally able to help the soldiers.

This pride comes from the fact that they can also provide more food supplies to the soldiers.

This pride lies in the close relationship between the military and the people.

The soldiers were unwilling to let the people spend money.

But the people insisted on having the food delivered to them.

I just want the soldiers on the front line to have enough food, warm clothes and a better life.

Even many civil servants were investigating ordinary people.

The people said very sincerely:
The soldiers are all very young, and we are not very happy about them going to the battlefield to sacrifice their lives.

They are all good young guys, they are the future of Ming Dynasty.

But most of us are already old and don't need to live that long.

It is the honor of our lifetime to be able to see the high morale of the Ming Dynasty soldiers in our lifetime.

They fought hard for us, shed blood and tears, and all we could do was help them transport food and supplies to the front line.

Because we don't want people like these to fight with the foreign Tartars on an empty stomach.

We hope they all come back.

This time we only lost about a hundred people, but we won the battle and captured more than 100,000 foreign Tartars. This was the greatest victory for us.

We even hope that all the soldiers can return safely.

They are flesh and blood people, not puppets.

When the civil servant heard this, he was very moved.

In any era, soldiers are no different from bandits to ordinary people.

Soldiers and bandits are one family, referring to these individuals.

These people kill innocent people to claim credit, and these people rob the people.

But the soldiers in Beiping Prefecture did not.

They even didn't want to accept the food and fodder delivered by the common people of Beiping Prefecture, because they didn't want to let the common people spend money.

Where can we find such harmonious feelings between the military and the people?

(End of this chapter)