golden scales

"Preface to Sending Xue Cunyi" is a typical essay to convey Tao.Liu Zongyuan expressed his views on the relationship between "officials" and "people" in the form of a gift preface.Since ancient times, Huaxia has had the idea that the world should be the public, but Liuhe Dong is the No.

Liu Zongyuan has already put forward this point of view in "Preface to Sending Fan Mingfu's Poems to Ningguo", and it is further elaborated in "Preface to Sending Xue Cunyi".The people's payment of land tax is regarded as the employment of officials to uphold justice, and the two are compared to the employment relationship, thus drawing the conclusion that mediocre officials and corrupt officials are just like hired workers who are lazy and steal.It can be said that Liu Zongyuan no longer placed the emperor in the highest position in his political thought, but inherited the Mencius system of "the people are the most important, the society is second, and the emperor is the least".

Guochao was so guarded against this set of theories of Mencius that he still regarded it as a scourge.Emperor Taizu once scolded Mencius as a man without king and father, and even deleted and revised the book "Mencius".However, Emperor Gao couldn't be as clean and tidy as the Manchu emperor after all, and his Confucian officials still had backbones.Not only did Mencius' people-oriented thought not be imprisoned and disappeared, but it was passed down through farce and scandal as a carrier.

In the intellectual world of the Ming Dynasty, after experiencing the impact of Xinxue on Neo Confucianism, people-oriented thought became even more popular.Some people in the south of the Yangtze River even openly commented on the street: There is no need for emperors and officials in this world, and the people can manage themselves and make decisions for themselves.

Zhu Cihong learned about these "absurd" customs from courtiers.Those important ministers would hide from the emperor that they married a concubine, and they would hide how much money they had received, but they would never hide these wild and paradoxical remarks, they would only use them as a pastime for talking, and at the same time, they would stimulate the superior emperor and satisfy their own vanity Heart.

According to this situation, even if Daming survived in the hands of the Tungus or Li Chuang, it would be abandoned because of the awakening of the people.The best result is nothing more than a republic of false monarchs, as a seal with no real power.

Zhu Cihong is well aware of the direction of progress of world civilization, and does not intend to go against the trend.It is precisely because he firmly believes that he conforms to the trend of history that he has the confidence to stand up against the Manchu Qing, otherwise he would have been crushed and collapsed.In his opinion, using serfdom to counterattack Daming's enlightenedness[***] is a joke of history, and it is definitely not the mainstream.

Thinking about these big issues made Zhu Cihong even more exhausted. What is needed now is a team of honest and honest officials.He looked at Zhang Shiqi, temporarily ignoring those lofty and far-reaching subjects, waiting for the old scholar's statement.

Zhang Shiqi went through "Preface to Sending Xue Cunyi" through, and vaguely felt that something was inappropriate.If officials are long-term workers hired by ordinary people, where is the court?Where is the king?A seemingly simple short article, but there is an insurmountable gap when you look deeper.If Mao hastily stepped over, it is very likely that he would get into trouble because of his large steps.

If you don't take this step, you will be in the position of scribe and Muyou forever.

"Emperor Taizu Gao set up a stone pavilion and engraved it: 'Your salary is rich, the people are fat and the people are anointed; the people are easy to abuse, but the sky is hard to bully!'" Zhang Shiqi is worthy of being an old official for many years, and immediately pulled out Zhu Yuanzhang's tiger flag: " It is to warn my generation that we should be servants of the people and not abuse the people."

Zhu Cihong did not agree with Zhang Shiqi's original intention of inferring Zhu Yuanzhang in this way, because he knew very well that his ancestor was only a [***] person who had sympathy for the people, and absolutely had no people-oriented thought.However, Zhu Cihong is a realist and does not mind this ideological difference. As long as he can carry out his intentions, no matter what kind of people can be accepted.

Although Zhang Shiqi didn't get full marks, he still showed his position and was willing to firmly follow the prince's line.

Zhu Cilang said: "Ruyang County is only obedient, and he still refuses to go back in Ruzhou. Since he won't go back, you can go. An order will be issued tomorrow. When I pass by Ruyang next time, I hope to see you again. A new look."

"Thank you for your support, Your Highness!" Zhang Shiqi trembled with excitement, and knelt down on the ground.

Ming officials and officials are two worlds.Although the second ancestor designed the system, he hoped that a certain proportion of officials could be selected from among the officials, so that he could know the people's conditions well and treat the subordinates kindly because of his origin.However, up to now, the system of official officials taking one test every three years, and being transferred to an official after three tests has been difficult to implement, and he himself has become a servant of officials, who can be reprimanded and beaten.

"I'll give you two more words, don't ignore it even for a moment." Zhu Cihong stood up, ordered someone to spread paper and ink, after a little thought in his mind, dipped in the ink, wrote the word "public servant" in official script, and there was no seal for signature, indicating Zhang Shiqi came to collect it.

Zhang Shiqi held his breath intently, only felt that the two characters had profound connotations, and the writing was strong and well framed, so he could find someone to make a plaque and hang it high in the inner hall as a self-warrant.

"Thank you, Your Highness, for the words!" Zhang Shiqi thanked again.

Zhu Cihong looked at his handwriting but was quite surprised, since he left the palace, he hadn't practiced handwriting again.Writing with a pen is also based on cursive, only asking for the word "fast".I didn't expect that the big characters written today not only did not regress, but also had something different in them.

"Look at this word, isn't it too skinny?" Zhu Cihong asked Zhang Shiqi suddenly.

Zhang Shiqi stood up and nodded slightly: "The flesh and blood are fairly even, has your Highness heard of Suiliang's words?"

"It's just the words of Mr. Jiang." Zhu Cihong said.

Zhang Shiqi said "ah", thinking to himself that he is really old and faint!Jiang Shangshu used to be a Japanese lecturer, a teacher who gave lectures to the prince every day!Thinking of a calligrapher like him, would the students taught not write well?

"If it's not embarrassing, then frame it, just don't say I wrote it." Zhu Cihong put down the pen, stretched his waist, saw that the sky outside was still dark, without the slightest light, and said: "Mr. Zhang, sleep a little longer, I'm going to look west."

Zhang Shiqi sent Zhu Cihong down the stairs, and waited until His Royal Highness entered the war room in the west wing before returning to the room.He first poked the heater to drive out a burst of heat, then added a thick robe, and then sat down and looked at the word "public servant" on His Highness the Crown Prince.Although his eyes fell on the words, he couldn't help replaying every scene from seeing the prince to leaving the prince in his mind.

——The crown prince thinks that Ruyang County refuses to go back... How do you let a civil servant go out when the bandits are besieging the city?

Zhang Shiqi thought to himself, and then thought of his young boss, Wu Weiye, who also got an errand and refused to leave that day, and was finally trapped in Ruzhou.In this way, in fact, the prince did not urge him on the surface, but he was actually very dissatisfied in his heart.Zhang Shiqi pursed his chapped lips, and thought to himself: Since he is a servant, he should look like a servant.Isn't the siege of the army really impenetrable?So what if you take a risk once!

……

When She An led his troops to the scheduled camping site, it was almost dark.Liu Zongmin didn't let him set up camp in peace, and sent a team of horsemen to harass him.The Donggong Guards were better than the infantry. Although they repelled the bandits with spear formations, they failed to catch up and failed to achieve commendable results.

The camp had just been set up, and before the fortifications could be built, it began to rain.The rain became heavier and heavier, and it almost became a downpour in the second half of the night.Under such circumstances, not to mention firearms, even hand-to-hand combat cannot be fought.However, according to the scriptures, She An didn't dare to relax his vigilance, and still sent out horse scouts and ambushed roads, including sentry posts.

Liu Zongmin really wanted to come and make a night raid, but before he set off, he got the news that Ye Bushou, the scout and the officers and soldiers, had encountered each other many times.That being the case, Liu Zongmin was unwilling to run into trouble again, and wasted his morale in vain.

However, the real headache for him is yet to come. When tomorrow dawns, whether to fight Ruzhou or not?If it rains non-stop, how can we attack the city?If you don't fight Ruzhou, will you spend your time here?How to raise food and grass?In any case, it is now in the "enemy territory"!

Li Zicheng was also deeply worried about the same heavy rain.He has already started to retreat into the mountains and handed over Jia County to Sun Chuanting.Now that it was raining so heavily, if Sun Chuanting couldn't go back, would his troops just sleep in the open in the mountains?Whether you fight back to Jiaxian County or retreat to Xiangcheng, don't you think that pretending to be defeated is a real defeat! (To be continued.)