Chapter 669: Zhu Biao understood Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts
Zhu Biao has always been very clear about his father's way of governing the world. Although this method can play a good role in the short term and even deter officials, it is indeed a very bad habit in the long run.
Even as the crown prince, he had always been strongly opposed to this method, because the common people would always be the victims of such indulgence of officials' corruption.
In a short period of time, the people will indeed gain a certain reputation because of your strong blows as the emperor, which made those corrupt officials wail everywhere.
But it is not a good solution in the long run, and it may even undermine the emperor's majesty to a certain extent.
Zhu Biao always believed that if the emperor really wanted all officials in the world to admire him and not dare to have any idea of corruption, the best way was to use both kindness and severity.
Therefore, he never thought that his father's method was a good one, and even felt that his father's method left him with many hidden dangers.
Now he has begun to feel that these hidden dangers are beginning to erupt. For example, Chen Han's reforms could actually have received support from many people, and even those officials should have cheered. But why did those officials oppose it?
Is it just because Chen Han has always been against those Confucianists? Actually, it is not like that.
Even those Confucian scholars would be very angry and criticize Chen Han because they saw that he had destroyed the entire Confucian school.
But as long as he is a normal official, as long as he has reached a certain position in office, he will understand one thing very well, that is, the Confucian school of thought does not have much effect on being an official.
Of course, they are not disrespectful, but they feel that this saint's gate is not that important to them.
The reason why the emperor respected the saints so much was that he really valued their role? Did he really think that some blood inheritance would be of great benefit to the governance of the whole world?
In fact, they may not have thought so. They did this just to let the scholars in the world know that the imperial power has always respected their ancestors.
Only in this way will those scholars work hard to study and learn the classics of the saints.
But if you really want to be an official, why do you have to observe government affairs for a few years even if you pass the imperial examination?
The purpose is to let you stay in a real yamen for a few years and see how the main officials of the yamen handle each matter.
In this process, the Confucian classics actually have little effect other than restraining your behavior in terms of morality and ethics.
Therefore, as long as officials became officials, as long as they passed the examination, and as long as they had stayed in the government office for a few years, they understood one thing very well, that is, the Confucian classics actually had little to do with the official system and local governance.
So the officials actually seemed angry about the fact that Chen Han eliminated the Saint's Gate, but they were more afraid that the scientific way established by Chen Han after eliminating the Saint's Gate would impact their status, that's all.
Things are so simple and crude, and this is how things work. No one will really criticize the so-called saintly gate.
Even if there are, it's just that they can't stand Chen Han's current power, or even can't stand Chen Han using this power to eliminate dissidents.
The reason is that simple.
Because Zhu Biao knew these reasons, he especially understood why those officials continued to criticize Chen Han and why they were so dissatisfied with Chen Han's reforms.
Besides being afraid that Chen Han's reforms would affect their own vested interests.
The most important reason is that they are afraid that Chen Han will use reforms to create major cases like the Emperor did, and then massacre all officials in the world.
With the three major cases of Hu Weiyong, Kong Yin and Guo Huan in the past, everyone was particularly worried that Chen Han's reforms would also step on a pile of corpses.
Although reforms are meant to be carried out on a pile of corpses, this method definitely cannot allow oneself to become one of those bones.
It is precisely because of this that the reason why they all want to get rid of Chen Han now is because the three major cases that happened before have caused those officials to feel extremely fearful in their hearts. They are afraid that Chen Han’s arrival will make this fear become reality again.
Since he was afraid, what should he do? That was to make Chen Han disappear. The only way to stop being afraid was to make Chen Han no longer a threat.
So now Zhu Biao has been very worried. This is the matter. He doesn't know how to face the officials all over the world. If he is really like his father, he will use some extreme means to eliminate those officials who dare to react to him.
So how can the Ming Dynasty return to a very normal and peaceful period in the future?
His father had no choice but to do this, because there were too many traumas left over from the previous dynasty, and the inertia made those officials think that corruption and bribery were normal.
That's why my father had to strike hard and make those guys understand that corruption and bribery will result in death.
But even so, corruption will not decrease, because the salary is too low, which will force those officials to take bribes and embezzle in order to maintain the requirement of barely surviving.
The first thing he had to do was to change some of his father's decisions, which was to increase the salaries of officials.
Chen Han said that this method is definitely not the so-called high salary to maintain integrity, and it is definitely not intended to prevent those officials from engaging in corruption and bribery after they receive high salaries.
As the saying goes, any gentleman cannot guard against a villain.
What is the most terrifying thing about power? It has a double standard of destructiveness and governance.
These two properties have existed since the birth of power in ancient times.
People in the world need to be born with rights, because human beings must be restrained by others in order to overcome their greed and evil thoughts.
But those who have power are also ordinary people. They also have greed, lust, evil thoughts, etc.
Then they may use their power to seek more convenience for themselves.
How can we make these people restrain themselves? That is to assign responsibilities to individuals.
Because just as Chen Han said, even if you give a high salary, what will happen?
Officials who are supposed to embezzle will still do so, even if it is less. Even if some officials have relatively high moral character, they will be forced to embezzle because they will not embezzle if they have a high salary.
Then most of the remaining people will still engage in corruption even if they receive high salaries.
All Chen Han can do is give you a way out. If you take this way out and never commit corruption or bribery again in the future, then you are giving me face. Of course, I will not punish you.
If you don't give me this face, you will be severely punished if you are found out in the future, and the punishment will be very severe.
This was the last resort that Chen Han and Zhu Biao came up with. It was the only way to slowly and gently heal the injuries suffered by those officials one by one.
So now Zhu Biao is actually a little confused. He doesn't know what he should do to make the world a better place, and he doesn't know how to repair the many traumas left by his father.
Although these traumas were left behind by my father at some unknown time without my knowledge, they definitely exist.
At first he didn't know why these things suddenly appeared, but after Chen Han's analysis, he felt that this was indeed the case.
In fact, my father did not want to use this method to make all officials in the world afraid at the beginning. Even though his experience at the bottom made him hate those corrupt officials very much, my father was definitely not an impulsive person.
Although his father had a hard life at the bottom of society, as a very good politician, after going through so many years of baptism, it is impossible for him to be a completely rude, cruel person who makes decisions based on personal emotions.
On the contrary, his father was very calm when making decisions. He was a qualified emperor not because his father, who was an emperor, passed on the throne to him.
Instead, he founded the Ming Dynasty, he had his own ideas, and even his political wisdom surpassed many people.
When my father was the commander of the rebel army, he was able to reach some kind of agreement with the Yuan Dynasty and then develop secretly.
Even when dealing with Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng, he was able to skillfully use his abilities, as well as the dark tactics and means that a mature politician should have, to ensure that he would not be interrupted while growing stronger.
So when Zhu Biao learned from Chen Han that many people six hundred years later simply attributed their father's punishment of corrupt officials to his personal will and the influence of things he experienced when he was young, and thus made one-sided judgments about those officials, he thought it was particularly naive.
In fact, Zhu Biao never thought that modern knowledge could cultivate talents as great as Chen Han. Why couldn't he put himself in his shoes and think about it.
One who can be an emperor.
One who can fight his way through an army of thousands.
A man who can slowly grow from a beggar at the bottom of society to become the commander of an uprising army, and gradually have his own army.
Gradually, there emerged leaders who were both capable of both civil and military affairs, such as Liu Bowen, Li Shanchang, Xu Da, and Chang Yuchun.
Would he be someone who is controlled by emotions?
As someone who had always been by his father's side, Shang Hou understood very well that his father was very calm even in his later years, and many of the decisions he made were not influenced by his emotions.
One could even say that he was very, very calm.
This calmness is not due to his personal character, but after experiencing so many things, he no longer has any impulse.
At the same time, Zhu Biao actually wanted to say something to future generations.
An emperor like my father could persist in reviewing memorials for decades, even if he was exhausted. Could he be a person who was dominated by emotions?
It's natural for people's emotions to become dulled as they do things day after day, year after year.
But human emotions are like hoes, they will be worn away by age.
Anything will become boring after a while. Even a sex addict will get bored if you make him hang out in a brothel year after year for decades.
However, his father never asked him to stop once during this process until Chen Han came and analyzed the situation with him. He also asked his father to stop because he was too tired and died early.
Could such a person do something irrational because of emotional fluctuations? If he was really dominated by emotions, could his father have persisted for decades? Absolutely not.
So from this perspective, my father actually always knew, or even knew very well, that setting low salaries would inevitably lead to corruption among officials. That’s why he was able to take advantage of the corruption of officials and even use it as a bargaining chip to threaten officials all over the world.
Zhu Biao would sometimes think disrespectfully that his father had always known that if he continued in this way, officials would inevitably engage in corruption and bribery, but he did not stop them. Instead, he selectively carried out regular cleanups, thus winning a large number of popular support.
This method can only be said to be thought of by my father because he is too rational and calm. Maybe my father did not think of letting officials embezzle and accept bribes at the beginning and then reap the benefits himself.
But after this one harvest, my father must have discovered the pattern and has been using it ever since.
This trick would certainly be very effective during the Hongwu Dynasty, but if he took over the burden of the entire Ming Dynasty, he would definitely not do this.
Because once emotions accumulate, they will explode. If those officials really realize this at that time, or if the people also realize this, where will the emperor's majesty come from?
Now, even if his father was known by officials all over the world, or even if the common people knew this, no one would think it was abnormal because his father founded the Ming Dynasty.
But after I inherit the throne, if I still use this trick, what will the officials and people of the world think?
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Zhu Biao was in a daze, and then smiled slightly, "No matter what you think in your heart, we actually understand it more or less."
Zhu Biao was stunned, "Dad, what are you talking about? I don't know."
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed loudly, "You dare to fool around in front of your father now. In fact, you have been a little worried since you came in and saw that your father was getting older and older."
……
(End of this chapter)
