I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 143 Your Dad is a Thing
Zhu Yuanzhang's words left Empress Ma speechless and Zhu Biao had no reason to refute.

"Dad, what you said makes sense, but, but..."

Zhu Biao was there for a long time, but he could only come up with some unspoken rules that everyone knew:

"But now the court needs them to do things. It's okay for others, but Hu Weiyong is the prime minister. He controls the Secretariat and most of the civil servants in the Ming Dynasty. If you take action against him easily, wouldn't you offend the public? Scholars will think that even the prime minister who is second only to the emperor can be so easily confiscated and exterminated, so what will happen to ordinary scholars like us?"

"I don't think you're wrong in punishing corrupt officials, but we can just do it slowly. Why do we have to kill so many people in one go?"

"When we were in the first class at the tutoring class, Song Shen gave us some advice, saying that we should not be too cruel... This must be what he meant."

Yes, since ancient times, few emperors dared to go to war with all the civil service forces in the court.

Even founding emperors like Ying Zheng and Li Shimin were relatively kind to their officials.

Everyone said that Ying Zheng was tyrannical, but during his reign, he never killed innocent officials indiscriminately. If there were any problems, he would deal with them according to Qin law. If you want to say he was tyrannical, it can only be said that Qin law was strict. And Li Shimin was even more so. Wei Zheng, an old minister of the hidden prince, could point at him and scold him. If he was angry, he could only hold it in and complain to Empress Changsun when he returned to the harem.

It's not because they are afraid of offending someone, but as emperors, their ministers are their base. If they arouse public anger, let alone things like collective strikes, if everyone secretly cheats and doesn't work, can you, the emperor, see it?

And behavior like Zhu Yuanzhang's is even more terrifying.

He didn't just want to attack one person, he wanted to catch all the Huaixi nobles headed by Hu Weiyong. Even though the murder case hasn't been opened yet, judging from Song Shen's attitude and the network of relationships currently uncovered by the Yiluansi, this is destined to be a bloody case!

is it necessary?

By then, all the scholars and officials in the world will be in a panic. If this case really involves tens of thousands of people as Song Shen said, who can guarantee that there are no innocent souls among these tens of thousands of people!
"Zhongba, you are too radical."

Queen Ma sighed:
"Why go to this? If you really go too far, you should be beheaded, and those who follow you should be punished with exile. Those who know about it but don't report it should be punished with hard labor. That's enough. Do you have to be so ruthless as to punish your entire clan?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his wife expressionlessly, then at his son.

He knew that his wife and son were different from him.

Empress Ma was born in the military, and had seen swordplay and fighting in the harem, but she had never seen the verbal battles and conspiracies that were not seen in the previous dynasty. He tried not to tell her about those things, not because he was afraid that the harem would interfere in politics, but just to avoid her worrying. He would only tell her about his grievances when he was really frustrated.

Although his son had been a stable prince since the founding of the country, and had also begun to handle government affairs for him in recent years, Zhu Biao was indeed a good candidate for the emperor, but Zhu Biao also had a big problem, he was too kind. Perhaps compared to ordinary people, Zhu Biao could be considered ruthless and fair, but the standards and requirements for being an emperor were naturally higher.

In this respect, Zhu Biao's younger brothers were better than him, but too good - with the Yiluansi in place, Zhu Yuanzhang certainly knew that some of his sons showed some signs of cruelty towards the palace maids in private.

The founder of a country must be ruthless and heartless, so as to clear the way for his successors.

The second-generation emperor must also be ruthless, but he must do so without showing it. He must appear to be a benevolent monarch, so as to heal the huge psychological shadow left on all officials by the previous "tyrant".

Still need to cultivate...

"Biao'er, go find Song Shen."

Zhu Yuanzhang said no more, just waved his hand at Zhu Biao and said:

"Since you have doubts about this matter, then you can go to him in the identity of Chen Biao and ask him in a different way whether we have done anything wrong."

"We also want to know, if we put aside the historical reasons why he was inexplicably implicated in this case, what would be his opinion on this matter."

Zhu Biao was dumbfounded:

"what?"

Zhu Yuanzhang:
"Just do this and that later... understand?"

Facing his father's fierce gaze and the slap in the face behind him that seemed to be about to fall on the back of his head if he said something wrong, Zhu Biao did not dare to shake his head, regardless of whether he understood it or not.

"I understand, I understand!"

I know!
…………

Yingtian Prefecture, Zhang family.

Zhang Wei was humming a little tune while happily pruning flower branches at home.

This certainly would not be a job for this master, as there were special servants at home to prune branches, water plants and arrange flowers. However, he had recently resigned from the post of Censor, and there was no trouble with Song Shen. The potato issue was handled by Mao Xiang and a group of young men from the Yiluansi, so in the end he got the benefit, and he had a rare chance of leisure.

As an official appointed by the imperial court, resigning without doing any work but still receiving salary as usual would be a fate worse than death for an ambitious person, but it is a great thing for someone like Zhang Wei.

Although the current emperor has not made any big noise so far, everyone knows that there is a huge contrast between his harshness towards officials and his compassion towards the people. With the "Great Edict", the people can go to the capital to file a complaint and directly bring it before the emperor for judgment; officials who embezzled dozens of taels of silver will be beheaded, and those who occupied the toilet without taking a shit, and those who were officials but did not do their job, will also be beheaded for dereliction of duty.

According to this logic, although Zhang Wei lost power after resigning from office, he also perfectly avoided the huge risks of being an official.

Besides, he wasn’t dismissed from office permanently!
When Song Shen has made some achievements, for example, if the potatoes given to Mao Xiang are harvested and the yield is as high as the Emperor said before, in order to avoid Song Shen's suspicion, the credit must be claimed by Song Shen and Zhang Wei together, and Mao Xiang, the commander of the Yiluansi, must not be allowed to take all the credit.

Although Zhang Wei knew that Commander Mao had indeed done a lot of things and should have the credit, His Majesty had told that one lie in the first place, and he had to keep making up for it with countless lies.

When the credit is given, this official will be more than just a mere censor, right?

Hugging Song Shen's thighs really gives you meat to eat and soup to drink!

Just as Zhang Wei was leisurely cultivating his sentiments, the housekeeper suddenly ran up behind him.

Zhang Wei was somewhat dissatisfied:
"What are you in such a hurry for? Why are you so impatient?"

The housekeeper almost cried out loud, but was afraid that his voice would be too loud and others would hear him, so he could only whisper with a trembling voice:
"No... Master, there is someone at the door who wants to see you. I wanted to invite you into the living room, but he said no, and told you to go out directly."

There was a click.

Zhang Wei's hand trembled, and he cut off a beautiful flower that was about to bloom in two days.

But he didn't care about the pain -

Of course the butler was polite and well-mannered. If someone came to his house, it was to ask for a meeting. If it was someone he had specifically asked to recognize his face, he would not talk nonsense. It was a blessing for him, Zhang Wei, that someone came to his house to see him.

Obviously, the person outside now is either Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Biao.

He can’t afford to offend any of them!!!
"Why did you come here suddenly..."

"Oh, hurry up, I'll be there soon!"

Zhang Weiyi cursed in his heart while starting to race walk on the spot, wishing the soles of his feet would catch fire.

The butler called from behind:

"Master, aren't you going to change your clothes?"

Zhang Wei didn't even turn his head:

"More shit!"

Not long after.

As expected, he saw Zhu Biao dressed as a rich young man at the gatehouse of his home.

Before Zhang Wei could greet him, Zhu Biao waved his hand to stop him:
"No need to be so polite. I need to go next door and I need to take you with me so we can talk." Oh, he wanted to see Song Shen again.

Zhang Wei did not feel disappointed, but instead breathed a sigh of relief.

He was also afraid that Zhu Biao wanted to find him for something!

The emperor and the prince are truly close father and son. Once they come to him with something, the matter will either be extremely difficult to handle or make him worry for several days.

"Okay, okay, just follow me."

Zhang Wei left his housekeeper and doorman behind him and took Zhu Biao to Song Shen's house next door and knocked on the door.

study.

Song Shen, who was still shocked by Zhu Yuanzhang's answer, had to collect his thoughts when he heard that Zhang Wei and Chen Biao were coming outside. He ordered someone to take them both into the study.

"It's not a festival, and there's nothing going on. Why did you suddenly come here?"

Song Shen made a joke to try to liven up the atmosphere.

But he wasn't actually very good at telling jokes, especially since the two people in front of him didn't seem to be in the mood for jokes.

Zhu Biao laughed awkwardly twice and signaled Zhang Wei with his eyes to get down to business. The latter immediately understood and moved closer to Song Shen.

"Ziwei, we have said before that Chen Biao really wants to be your disciple, but since you don't want to, we won't force you."

"Today, Chen Biao has a question and wants to ask you. When I asked him, he refused to tell me. He also said that I am ten years older than him and I cannot talk to him as well as you! Look at this kid!"

Zhang Wei’s acting was so realistic.

Even though Zhu Biao gave him a thumbs up in admiration, Zhang Wei was still sweating profusely. After all, he was teaching the crown prince a lesson as an elder. If people knew about this in the future...

Alas, things have come to this and there is no point in saying more.

He acted out the whole thing, how could Song Shen not believe it? Moreover, this matter was easy to understand, it was nothing more than a generation gap or something like that. Chen Biao and I were only about five years apart in age, so he was indeed a good person to ask.

The most important thing is that Song Shen thought that his image in front of this young man was still very reliable. It was normal that with such a mature and reliable image of an elder brother, he would attract younger brothers like Xu Yungong and Chen Biao.

"Oh, sure. I'm feeling bored right now, so it's nice to chat with you."

Song Shen was very straightforward and asked Lan Yun outside to serve tea and snacks. Apart from the fact that he could not make tea himself, his etiquette was quite satisfactory.

However, Zhu Biao didn't really care about these things. His mind was on the question he was about to ask.

And there is another problem...

Can Zhang Wei listen to this?

Before Zhu Biao left, he originally wanted to ask his father, but Zhu Yuanzhang was so scary at that time that even he was a little scared, so he was unable to ask clearly about the details of the specific operation.

After thinking it over, Zhu Biao gave Zhang Wei a warning look and calmly put his hand on his shoulder, warning Zhang Wei that he could only listen and not speak, while also preventing him from being frightened and running away.

"Here's the thing. A good friend of mine from school has been in a lot of trouble lately... Uh, Brother Ziwei, what's with that expression on your face?"

Zhu Biao spoke carefully, but after just two sentences he noticed that Song Shen's expression looked a little strange.

Song Shen really didn't expect that he would encounter the "I Have a Friend" series in the Ming Dynasty. But he was keen to eat every wild melon, no matter whether the owner was a celebrity or not!
He pretended to be surprised:
"Oh, really? I'm blind. You know, blind people usually can't see their own expressions for a long time, which causes their faces to twitch frequently. It might look a little weird. It's okay, you know."

Zhu Biao always felt that there was something strange besides this statement.

But he didn't care about that and continued talking.

"Well, it's like this. My classmate has been very distressed recently because his family's business has some problems..."

In his words, this is a story about a foolish son of a wealthy landlord whose worldview was shattered by his ruthless and treacherous father. The specific manifestations include but are not limited to:

Watching helplessly that his father was about to drive a group of brothers who had started from scratch with him into ruin, the stupid son and the landlord's wife tried to persuade him but it was of no avail. The old landlord felt that these people could have suffered together with him when they were young, but when they got old, they actually began to form an alliance secretly to seize his family's property.

Especially since there are many people in the family who are disloyal and cannot tell who is the real master and who is the outsider. In short, he must settle accounts with this group of former brothers and current subordinates!

As he listened, Song Shen's expression gradually turned from wanting to laugh to being unhappy.

Not because he saw anything wrong with the story.

It really is... so familiar!
He always felt that the four major cases of Hongwu that Zhu Yuanzhang had created were inexplicable. It was not that these people should not be killed, but Zhu Yuanzhang was obviously too extreme, and those who should be killed and those who should not be killed, all had to die in his bloodlust. Why?

Now Song Shen understood.

In the final analysis, even though Zhu Yuanzhang became an emperor, he was still a peasant in his essence and thought. No matter how capable he was, how lucky he was, or how gifted he was, the influence a person receives in his childhood is enough to last a lifetime.

Everything he experienced in his life told him that human life was as precious as grass. Of course he didn't mind killing people. No matter how many people he killed, could it be as many as when he was conquering the world?
What did that sentence say?

Things that are unavailable when young will eventually haunt you for the rest of your life!

"Brother Ziwei, Brother Ziwei?"

Zhu Biao shouted twice before he came back to his senses.

Song Shen nodded and scratched his eyebrows:

"Why, what do you want to ask me? Do you want to ask me what I think of this father, or what about you...your classmate?"

Zhu Biao did not hesitate at all:
"Of course it's this dad."

Song Shen slapped his thigh:
"Your father...ah no, his father is really a piece of shit!"

Zhu Biao, Zhang Wei: ? ? !

No, you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t say whatever you want!

"Think about it, you two. If we give enough, will those old guys become greedy?"

Song Shen asked them both.

Zhang Wei hesitated and said:
"It's hard to say. People are greedy by nature, not to mention that these are businessmen."

Song Shen waved his hand:

"Nonsense, this has to do with human nature. Aren't scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans all human? Who is born bad?"

"Since they are old friends, he should just give enough benefits to those who are willing to accept his benefits, and those who are unwilling should be kicked out as soon as possible and kicked far away. How can he still be a hindrance?"

"How can you be so murderous if you want to force a family to be torn apart and killed!"

(End of this chapter)