Hatred is easily instigated. Xiao Letian has always been on high alert for the entire bureaucracy of the Qing Dynasty. He knows very well who those officials who are linked together are, and what they do for their own benefit is simply unfair. There is no limit.
Corruption, bribery, and plunder are considered good officials. In serious cases, they may be framed, destroyed, and their eyes will fall into the pile of white money, but they will never be able to fish it out again.
The exploitation of the people by the bureaucracy is actually far more severe than that of the imperial power, because the desire of the bureaucracy to realize its power is much greater than that of the emperor.
Xiao Letian knows that many people are not convinced by this truth. They will cite many crazy actions of the subjugated kings. Emperors Jie, Zhou, Sui and Yang are examples that often appear in their mouths.
But in the thousands of years of imperial history, are all emperors like this? When public opinion is controlled by Confucian scholars, and when the power of propaganda to lower-class people is suppressed by bureaucrats, who should those illiterate people believe?
Is it the emperor who is high and far away, or the talented scholar who lives in the same village and is just around the corner? The answer is obvious.
"Master, I kind of understand what you mean. What you want to say is that the imperial power has been coerced by the bureaucrats and has become a shield for them to do bad things." Emperor Tongzhi and King Shangtai have now become good friends, and the two of them sat down Together they listened to Xiao Letian teach them some emperor's mental skills that were difficult to learn.
The speech during the day was a great success. Xiao Letian's heart-breaking remarks about the bureaucracy made Lin Yuanmiao faint immediately. He knew that this hat was too big, and the Lin family would probably always be the target of public criticism.
The bureaucracy ruined industry and commerce and even hindered the development of industrialization. Xiao Letian was blamed for this big crime. The crime of corruption has escalated to an ideological dispute. The Lin family is a Confucian official who knows this all too well.
The Prime Minister did not kill him, but he charged himself with a crime that would be difficult to wash away for a thousand years. From now on, the Lin family has no future.
It would be better to die. After Lin Yuanmiao was carried home, this was the first thing he said when he woke up. He pulled Lin Zhen and shed tears in pain: "Son, my father has harmed you, oh oh oh... from now on." From now on, you should give up the civil service career, and be careful and low-key to pursue a military career. Only there can you make achievements..."
"The Prime Minister is not a person who holds grudges. Back then, he could even tolerate the rioting Japanese and did not massacre the city in revenge, let alone you. As long as you make contributions, the Prime Minister will still reward you..."
"Remember, remember forever, our Lin family has no chance to be a civil servant..." After saying this, Lin Yuanmiao's eyes darkened and he fell into bed.
Lin Yuanmiao was ill for a year, and then passed away quietly. Lin Zhen followed his father's orders and quietly established himself in the army. He spent a lot of time performing overseas missions, and later he actually got his own share. Career, that’s all a thing later.
Xiao Letian's speech today was printed into a pamphlet by students from ten Ryukyu universities and began to be widely distributed. A great ideological reflection on the bureaucracy began.
The enthusiastic students seem to have found clues to the cause of the troubled times, and various ancient historical materials have begun to have different interpretations. What is even more gratifying is that this action of the students has been fully funded by the entire Ryukyu business circle. If you have money, you must have things. For thousands of years, the prime minister has been the only one to say good things to businessmen. How can they not be grateful?
King Shangtai and Emperor Tongzhi couldn't let go of this excellent opportunity to study, and came to pester Xiao Letian early after dinner.
Being studious is never a fault, Xiao Letian stroked Zai Chun's head, "You finally understand. I'm so relieved that you can think of this... Yes, this truth is actually very simple. There is one sentence to describe it..."
"He who has perseverance has perseverance, you must have heard."
"Okay, let me give you a simple example. The two mountain forests are full of lush, straight trees. These timbers are hot commodities on the market... One of the mountain forests has been owned by the Wang family for generations, and it has been passed down from father to son forever... "
"The other mountain forest belongs to the government and has been kept by the Li family for ten years. So the question is, what will be the outcome of these two mountains and forests ten years from now."
Emperor Tongzhi blinked and suddenly raised his hands and shouted, "I know, in ten years the Li family's forest will definitely be cut down and all the wood will be sold out, but the Wang family's forest will definitely still be lush..."
"Good boy, you are right. Here is your answer, King Shangtai."
King Shangtai's reaction was slower than that of Zai Chun, but at this time he also figured out, "The Li family only has ten years to make money, so he has to turn all the wood into money within ten years, but the Wang family won't. They have to consider whether their sons, grandsons, and great-grandchildren will have food to eat, so they will cut down one tree and plant two trees, and their family will find a way to make this mountain forest continue to produce benefits for thousands of years..."
"That's right, this is the core of all problems. What are bureaucrats? They are all scholars who came out of the common people. After serving as officials for more than ten or twenty years, they will return to the common people... Rights do not matter to them. It is said to be very short-lived, of course they will cash out their rights..."
"But the emperor is different. Unless he is a fool, as long as the emperor has a normal thinking, he will consider the jobs of his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, so they dare not overly squeeze the people. Think about the fall of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there were only a few hundred thousand taels of silver in the treasury of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Beijing, and there was not much floating wealth in the palace..."
"But as soon as Li Zicheng was tortured, he took away 60 to 70 million taels of wealth from the hands of powerful ministers. Think about the truth behind this."
"There was also Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, who had an imperial edict to never increase taxes. On the surface, the officials shouted long live, but in their hearts they had long scolded the emperor to death... and the Yongzheng Emperor's officials and gentry were all paid as one, which offended everyone. The landlord class, that’s why there are so many legends about Yongzheng among the people..."
Zai Chun's fists were clenched in anger, his eyes were red and his chest was heaving violently, "Liar, those people are all liars, they acted so well in front of me, damn..."
Xiao Letian shook his head and sighed, "You can't be angry. You must understand a truth. Where do bureaucracies come from? How do bureaucratic ideas originate? If you don't understand this truth, just rest and defeat them..."
"Please teach me, Master." An emperor and a king actually knelt on the ground and saluted Xiao Letian at this moment. This was knowledge that no one had ever taught them. Kings of all ages relied on their own understanding and could not explain it in words.
Xiao Letian accepted the emperor's kneeling calmly. He knew that this knowledge was worth the kneeling.
"Get up. Since you have the desire to learn, I will naturally not hide anything...I can tell you now that bureaucracy comes from the people and will eventually return to the people. Every kind of thought has its origin. A natural person comes from From birth to death at an old age, the thoughts and values followed in the mind throughout life are all instilled by the environment..."
"The book has its own beauty like jade, and the book has its own golden house. Everything is inferior but reading is good... Even the old peasants who cannot read Chinese characters can recite a few sentences of these poems and proverbs. Almost the entire Chinese people's childhood has been influenced by this kind of thinking. Brainwashed.”
"Don't underestimate the songs by the cradle, let alone the stories told by the grandfather holding his grandson, and don't ignore the gold medal titles and homecoming dramas sung on countless stages... These are all brainwashing for every natural person."
"The idea of officialdom has been instilled in the cradle. If you want Yan Ruyu, you also want a golden house. If you want to be a master, what do you rely on? Isn't it just studying and becoming an official? But what really waits for him to become an official? Finally, the reality will make him speechless..."
"Is the official salary high? It is definitely higher than that of farmers and craftsmen, but no matter how high it is, it cannot be as high as Yan Ruyu on the left hand and a golden house on the right hand. On the contrary, those giant businessmen have this condition... The huge psychological gap makes these officials very unhappy Comfortable."
"What's more, the principle that one person can ascend to heaven through chickens and dogs is also highly praised by all Chinese people. When you become an official, you will not be able to take care of your neighbors and seven aunts and eight aunts. If your uncle who loved you the most back then comes to ask you to open the back door, you will not open it. When you were the poorest, you didn't help the neighbor who gave you some money to help him out."
"Look, many corrupt officials have been dragged down in this way, and everyone's behavior is actually influenced by their own values, which are thousands of years of bureaucratic thinking..."
"If you have the right to use it, it will become invalid after it expires. Who wants to be a fool, so they want to realize their rights and cut down all the wood in the mountain forest..."
"Of course, there will naturally be some upright officials in the past dynasties. It is normal for a few outliers to appear among a population of hundreds of millions, but they cannot change the general trend. The bureaucracy is an extremely huge monster. It cannot be improved by just one or two cells. fixed……"
Xiao Letian tapped the coffee table with his fingers, his eyes wandered a little and he said faintly, "Sometimes the emperor's will is good, but the officials below always want to sing the scriptures wrongly. Why is this? He is not the emperor yet." Their will harmed their interests..."
"Not only that, don't forget that officials only serve in one place for a few years, but it takes two to three hundred years for a dynasty to rise. At the beginning, people encountered unfairness and would scold corrupt officials. But this time A group of corrupt officials rotate too quickly, and it is difficult to focus the responsibility on one person for the hardships of the people..."
"As time goes by, generation after generation, the resentment and hostility accumulated by the people will be forced towards the imperial power... because all the people with grievances need a channel to pour out..."
Xiao Letian's voice was as faint as a ghost: "The bureaucracy has been around for thousands of years. They have many ways to divert the people's anger. The slippery old loach is talking about them...Ten years, fifty years, a hundred years, gradually... The common people began to curse the emperor, they began to curse the court..."
"What will come next? The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept over half of the country, and the Nian Army swept across the Central Plains, killing corpses everywhere. Hundreds of years of grievances have been accumulated. Once it breaks out, it will be a change of dynasty..."
There was a sudden silence in the study, and it took a long time for Zai Chun to ask, "Is this a reason for the change of dynasties? Didn't the master mention the factors of land annexation and backward productivity before? What does these have to do with the bureaucrats?"
Note: It’s the end of the month, brothers, please subscribe to the main website, please.
Book friends who enjoy reading it can join the group and chat together. There are many powerful people in the group 116253076. The topics we chat about are very high-level. I am completely convinced. Many people have studied history and military affairs much more deeply than I do. .
Join the group, Xinjing and many like-minded book friends are in it.
Finally, let me announce that Xinjing has created a WeChat public platform account called "Studying and Reading History. I am Xinjing." The WeChat number is: woshixinjing
Please pay attention, I will write some behind-the-scenes footage and short articles for everyone to read, and there will also be some wonderful articles.
