Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 135: The people are unsatisfied and the government troops are attacking the mountain?

"Mr. Li, aren't you going over?" a man from the mountain village asked Li Yan.

"You go ahead, I'll wait for a while."

Li Yan looked at the fireworks and firecrackers in the sky, stood outside the room with his arms folded, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's done. I can finally put this matter aside."

As a juren, he had a wife and children at home, and on the one hand he did not want to see them being slaughtered; another reason was that Li Yan could not escape the constraints of this era.

Hongniang was too strong-willed. Even if he married her, it would be impossible for her to follow his lead.

Being controlled by a woman is enough to make one feel worse than death.

Now if he pushed the blame on Zhu Yonggan who was abducted to the mountain stronghold, he could escape from it, and he would have more freedom in facing the current chaos.

He was not optimistic about Hongniangzi, or rather, he looked down on the Hongniangzi team.

Li Yan's target was King Chuang and Zhang Xianzhong, who had such a large army. Since he had no way to retreat, it was impossible for him to be restricted by a small mountain stronghold.

After a long while, he finally turned around meaningfully and went back to his room.

……

The excitement was still going on, but at this moment the last rays of sunset were obliterated by the darkness, and the sky began to darken completely.

Zhu Changgan looked at the noisy scene in front of him. There were people performing acrobatics, some breaking rocks with their chests, some taking off their clothes and wrestling, and some waving matches. It felt like he was visiting a temple fair during the New Year.

Before he could react, he was pushed and shoved to worship heaven and earth.

Then I bowed to my parents.

There was no sign of joy on King Xiang's face, and under the light of the torches, he looked extremely unnatural.

After the couple bowed to each other, the bride was sent back to the bridal chamber, while the groom was left behind and given a few glasses of wine before being squeezed into a room.

Two children born in the Year of the Pig, who seemed to be students in the school before Chongzhen, also squeezed in, rolled on the bed, asked for some food, and then ran away.

There weren't so many rules in the mountain village, and everyone knew that Mr. Zhu was a scholar.

So no one dared to force him to drink.

If he gets drunk and messes up the boss's business, they will also be in trouble.

Inside the room, two big red candles dyed the entire room red. A woman in a red veil, red clothes, and red embroidered shoes sat upright on the edge of the bed.

This is completely different from the previous heroic and fierce Lady Hong in military uniform.

His hands were clenched and crossed, his knuckles turning white.

She is more like a quiet, gentle and somewhat shy girl next door.

Zhu Changgan gently lifted up the red veil with a weighing rod... Their eyes met, and suddenly the scene became strangely quiet.

I originally wanted to relax a little. Not only was the other person beautiful, but she was also skilled in martial arts. Later in life, I even thought of finding someone who could do the splits, but unfortunately I never got my wish.

Now is such a good opportunity...but the moment I met his eyes, I suddenly realized that it was not the case at all.

This is not a matter of trying to be a tough guy (to prevent 404) and also building a saintly figure.

In the palace, whether it was Concubine Chen or Chen Yuanyuan, what they valued more was the status of imperial concubine, or they wanted an offspring, affection and love were secondary.

But the woman in front of him was different. Her eyes showed a determination and hope for love, just like the surging resolve before.

This made Zhu Changgan a little dazed for a moment.

It's easy to have a haircut.
But what happens after that?

Meanwhile, Matchmaker was also silent. She was hesitating about how to get along with the other party and whether she should speak out her thoughts.

The atmosphere was a little weird for a while.

Finally, it was Lady Hong who spoke first, "You must be very hot, you can take off the groom's clothes. It's June, there's no need to wear such thick clothes."

"Oh, fortunately, the mountain breeze is cool at night, it's not that hot."

Lady Hong was silent for a moment, "You... please sit down!"

But the village had just been built, and there wasn't even a chair in the house. The two kids had just made a mess of the clothes, which were covered with red dates, peanuts, longans, lotus seeds, silver coins, grains and other things. They could only try to push these things together in the middle.

"Don't clean them up, hey, don't let them fall..." Zhu Changgan's mouth twitched a few times, but he didn't say anything in the end.

Because just when the red dates, peanuts and lotus seeds were about to fall, Matchmaker reached out and grabbed them and stuffed them into her mouth.

At this time, the candles illuminated the rosy face, and it was obvious that the other party knew the meaning of "have a baby soon".

Her mouth was full, and after a long while she said, "It's not easy for people in the village to get these things, so let's not waste them."

In this era, even a fried soybean is so precious.

You can imagine how difficult it is to collect these things.

Hongniang stuffed a handful of red dates and something into Zhu Changgan's hand, then picked up the wine on the table, took a few sips, and then sat down.

The two fell into silence again.

"Well...if you don't want to, we can just leave it like this."

"How about it?" Red Lady pulled out a wooden board from under the bed. "I mean I can sleep on the floor."

"..." These words made Zhu Changgan scratch his head involuntarily, feeling a little embarrassed.

Hong Niangzi lowered her head. After drinking, her complexion became even more rosy. She continued to drink by herself. As she drank, she turned her head and looked at Zhu Changgan. "Last time, you said that even if the King of Rebellion took over the world, the common people would still not be able to survive. Have you figured out the truth of the lower classes?"

“I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I’m almost there.”

"Oh," Hong Niangzi's eyes flashed with disappointment, "You scholars always say that whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world, but why is it that no matter who is in power, the common people have no way to survive in the end?"

Zhu Changgan was silent for a moment, then sighed, "This sentence was never said to the working people. The so-called people's will in this sentence is not the lower-class people in the mountain stronghold at all."

"It refers to the civil officials, the gentry, the landlords, the nobles in the court, the civil and military ministers, and their descendants."

"The famous official Wen Yanbo of the Northern Song Dynasty once said a very famous thing: The emperor and the scholars and officials rule the world, not the people."

"The background at that time was that during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, Wang Anshi's reforms touched the interests of too many bureaucrats and gentry, causing widespread resentment and opposition from the entire court. Wen Yanbo's words to the emperor were almost threatening."

"As we have seen, the reform ended in failure."

Lady Hong stared at Zhu Changgan with a sharp gaze, "What about us ordinary people? Are we worthless?"

Zhu Changgan smiled and said, "It's not that the common people are worthless. They are cattle and horses in prosperous times and cannon fodder in troubled times. In peacetime, they are just production tools that can only appear in the population register."

"No emperor would offend the entire bureaucratic gentry group for these people, because he had to rely on these people to manage the entire huge dynasty for him."

"That's why Wang Anshi's reforms failed, and so did Zhang Juzheng. These reforms can only be implemented for a short time before they are overturned."

"It's not that the emperors didn't care about the people's feelings, it's just that these emperors were too 'smart' and were too good at distinguishing the priorities. The people's feelings were not important at all. What was important was the loyalty of the nobles, bureaucrats, gentry and Confucian intellectuals."

"Because these people are literate and sensible, they can help the emperor manage the country, and the country will be able to maintain long-term peace and stability."

"The people are ignorant and confused. As long as they don't starve to death, they are just a pile of loose sand."

Lady Hong asked in return: "Don't many officials and scholars come from the people? Why don't they have the support of the people?"

"That's only a small number. How many scholars were born in cattle and horse families? To study, you need money and food to support yourself." Zhu Changgan shook his head and said:
"Take me for example. My maternal uncle's family is rich. It was because of his help that I was able to pass the imperial examination and become the first in the provincial examination."

"If you don't believe me, think about it yourself. In your county, how many people who passed the imperial examinations were from poor peasants or tenant farmers? Aren't most of them from the families of landlords, gentry, and officials?"

Hong Niangzi fell silent for a moment. She had traveled far and wide following her master in performing acrobatics, so she naturally knew that what the other party said was true.

Poor peasants and tenant farmers could not even get enough food to eat, and they had to rush around all day trying to fill their stomachs. How could they have the time to dream of studying to change their fate?
Even if you want to read, pens, ink, paper and inkstone are much more expensive than food.

Not to mention that the books are all in the homes of rich and powerful people. Even if they lend them to you, without annotations, would you be able to understand them?

As for inviting a gentleman, that is even more impossible.

Lady Hong's eyes were red, and she suddenly poured a glass of wine into her mouth. She cursed angrily with her cherry lips: "No wonder my master always told me that gentlemen work with their minds, while villains work with their hands. The so-called people's will is nothing but a lie that the dog court uses when it needs it!"

Zhu Changgan remained silent. Even Mencius said that those who work with their minds rule others, and those who work with their hands are ruled by others.

Thousands of years ago, ancient sages have already seen this very clearly.

"Have you ever told this to anyone before?"

"No." Zhu Changgan shook his head, "How could I possibly say such a thing to others?"

"That makes sense. Have you discovered that you are actually very suitable to be a rebel? You write manifestos so well and understand so many principles..."

After drinking the wine, Lady Hong's face turned red like a grape, with a fine layer of sweat on her forehead. She took off her outer red dress, kicked off her shoes, and then lay on the wooden board. "What do you think, can King Chuang and his men succeed?"

"Shouldn't it be possible?"

"Why? There are so many of them. Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang could do it, so why can't they do it?"

"Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang don't have to deal with foreign enemies. Now the Jian Nu are so powerful and strong, can they handle it?"

"Humph!"

Lady Hong snorted coldly, expressing her disagreement, "I think it will definitely succeed!"

"When the time comes, we will overthrow this shabby dynasty and establish a truly harmonious world where whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world, so that the people will have food to eat and clothes to wear..."

As she was speaking, her voice became weaker. Zhu Changgan turned his head and saw that her chest was slightly rising and falling. She had actually fallen asleep.

Looking at the opponent's size, I can't help but wonder...C or D?

Looking at the spear beside her, he decided to give up, just in case she shot him through in an emergency.

……

In the middle of the night, Zhu Changgan heard a loud noise and woke up suddenly.

"what happened?"

Hongniangzi had already woken up and changed back into her military uniform, fully dressed in armor and holding a spear. "The government troops are attacking the mountain, you should hide quickly."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Changgan nodded quickly, and just as he was about to leave, he was stopped again.

"And... take good care of Dad!"

　Push a book, there will be a chapter later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)