I was pulling trees in Daming, and Lao Zhu begged me to come out of retirement

Chapter 88 You are talking about Liu Ji, right?

"Liu what Wen?"

"Liu Bowen!"

"What Bowen?"

"Liu...! Forget it."

Zhu Yuanzhang ended this conversation with a villager with a "MMP" on his face as his guards tried to hold back their laughter and trembled.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had resolved his worries, rode to Chuzhou at full speed.

Even with the help of a BMW, it still took him half a month to get from Gwangju (Yongchuan, Henan) to Chuzhou (Zhejiang).

This means that Zhu Yuanzhang did not need to carry too much luggage, an MC wooden box would be enough. Otherwise, the trip would take at least a month.

It is said that "the ancients traveled very slowly, and only had time to love one person in their lifetime".
Zhu Yuanzhang tells you from his own experience,
It's really fucking slow.
You send a text message and it takes a month for someone to reply. You don’t have the mood to date more people and just wait to be called on a blind date.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know why these "hermits" always liked to run into the mountains and forests.

I don't even know why these 'hermits' have hidden themselves so far away and yet are so famous everywhere.

Now he just wanted these damn 'hermits' to live somewhere where people could walk more easily. He was so tired that he decided to crack down on these damn hermits' habit of always running into the mountains and forests.

As for the word hermit,
It has existed since the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Jiang Ziya was a talented man who was never recognized throughout his life. He was still a hermit fishing by the Wei River when he was over 70 years old. His hermit life only ended when King Jichang of the Western Zhou Dynasty found him.

However, there are only a few recorded hermits in the 2000 years from ancient times to the Western Han Dynasty.

Because from a political perspective, hermits generally hate officialdom and tend not to cooperate with actual rulers.

It is precisely because this group of hermits is small in number and cannot make a big difference that rulers of all dynasties have basically left them to fend for themselves.

It was not until the end of the Western Han Dynasty that the time traveler's predecessor, Wang Mang, usurped the Han Dynasty, causing dissatisfaction among many bureaucrats and scholars. Many people left officialdom to become hermits, which became a social problem at the time.

Therefore, after Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han regime, he naturally started the work of "recruiting the remnants of the nation".

Recruiting opponents of the previous dynasty to serve you can not only gain practical benefits but also gain a good reputation.

This also made the "hermit" a starting point for entering the court.

The late Han Dynasty entered the golden age of "hermits".

At this time, the term "hermit" was not only popular among the literati and scholars in opposition, but even government bureaucrats liked to label themselves as such.

They are in office but do not care about the affairs of the country. In a word, they are "sitting in office but doing nothing".
However, for quite a long time since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, this kind of behavior would not only not be condemned, but would be considered "noble".

Those who work hard for national affairs will be considered "vulgar".

The idea that small seclusion means hiding in the woods, medium seclusion means hiding in the city, and great seclusion means hiding in the court also came into being during that period.

The number of "hermits" increased dramatically, the standards for hermits were greatly lowered, and the number of fake hermits who filled in the gaps increased day by day.

Because at this time, hermits have become a trend. They hide for the sake of hiding, and they think hiding is noble.
In addition, due to the extremely large growth of the hermit group, the ruling class had to adopt new ways of treating hermits.

That is, regardless of whether they are true or false, in the opposition or in the court, as long as they are hermits, they will be praised and given preferential treatment.

Because in this way, this group of noble people who "don't want to be officials and don't compete for fame and fortune" can be used to remind those ambitious people in the court to be more honest and see how sensible these hermits are.

This is also the reason why most official histories of all dynasties contain "Biographies of Hermits".

Because the imperial court hopes that those important officials can learn the mentality of the hermits and not have so many small thoughts.

This can not only "suppress competition, inspire the world and encourage customs, and inspire a fresh breeze in the coming years", but also allow the ruler to gain a reputation of "promoting the recluses, recruiting hermits, and honoring the wise".

The most important thing is that this policy of supporting "hermits" can cultivate a group of pro-court factions among the people, some obvious and some obvious.

Not only did these favored hermits no longer oppose the imperial court, but they also sang praises to the imperial court.
They play a non-bureaucratic bureaucratic role and a non-ruling ruling role from all walks of life and all corners of society.

This was clearly demonstrated in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, Tao Hongjing, the prime minister in the mountains during the Southern Dynasties, was numerous during the Tang and Song dynasties.

So over time,
More and more people have discovered that as long as they become a "hermit", they will have the opportunity to enter the eyes of the rulers and take this opportunity to soar to the sky.

Some people who wanted to enter the officialdom were unable to do so because the path to the imperial examination was too difficult and slow.

So they thought that if they became famous as hermits, wouldn't it be much faster and less troublesome to directly accept the emperor's summons?

Therefore, this type of people became the advanced version of "hiding for the sake of hiding" and "hiding for the sake of being an official".

This kind of thing was prevalent in the sugar factory.
The reason why Zhong Nanshan is famous is that there are a large number of "hermits" gathered there. Many people who want to be officials go to Zhong Nanshan to gild themselves and become hermits.

In the Tang Dynasty, this almost became an open way to enter officialdom.

It's a pity that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't buy it.
If he hadn't seen the information about Liu Bowen in the "Book of Heaven", he would never have wanted to come to this desolate place in the mountains to look for some crappy hermit.

For such hypocritical people,

In history, Zhu Yuanzhang issued a decree targeting this group of so-called hermits.

That is:
"All the scholars and officials in the world who do not serve the emperor will be punished by being executed..."

This is the same as when Liu Bowen was invited to serve but he refused to do so and threatened him with a sword.

If you dare not come and pledge allegiance to me, I will chop you to death. Otherwise, don't let me find you. If I find you, just come and be an official honestly.

Why do you think officials during Zhu Yuanzhang's reign had low pay and high risks? Even after half of the court was killed in the four major cases of Hongwu, why were there still people willing to serve?

It’s not because they have a high level of awareness, but because if they don’t become officials they will die.

Better to live than to die.

One day is a day to live.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had made up his mind this time that no matter whether Liu Bowen agreed or not, he would regard it as his agreement.

If such an awesome player cannot be a teammate, then he cannot be an opponent either.

Now Zhu Yuanzhang had been searching in Chuzhou for more than half a month and finally found Liu Bowen’s hometown Qingtian County.

Now, as soon as I entered the village, I asked an old man who was enjoying the cool air, and he became very angry.

The old man looked at the furious Zhu Yuanzhang and shook his head and asked:

"You are talking about Liu Ji, right? There is no one named Liu Bowen in our village."

Zhu Yuanzhang subconsciously recalled a sentence that the Earth Lord had said before:

"Let's talk about chickens instead of civilization..."

He suddenly shuddered.
wrong,

It seems that Liu Bowen’s real name was Liu Ji!

He excitedly held the old man's hands and said:

"Yes, yes, yes! It must be Liu Ji, Liu Ji, right? Where is he?"

The old man shook off Zhu Yuanzhang's hand and said angrily:

"Why are you swearing!"

Zhu Yuanzhang: "..."

(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻!
(End of this chapter)