Autumn rain continues, the west wind blows, the Forbidden City in Nanjing, the main hall of Qianqing Palace.
The hunky-backed Emperor was like an eagle returning to its nest to feed. He squatted on the dragon chair and looked at his only son with kind eyes.
Emperor Guangde was wearing a dark black dragon robe with twelve chapters, and the whale oil lamp illuminated the black robe. The young emperor's fair and resolute face looked particularly dazzling.
"Father, who is this Huang Duanbo? He entered the palace and attempted an assassination. Should he be killed?"
Yesterday morning, Emperor Guangde was observing the government in Qianqing Palace as usual. The Supreme Emperor was still in the military camp. The ministers had finished reporting to the young emperor. When Liu Kan heard that another group of old men from the previous dynasty had come to surrender, he made an exception and summoned them.
Among them was a demoted official named Huang Duanbo, who was said to have been the head of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites before. He just exchanged a few pleasantries and then made an excuse to offer auspicious blessings to the young emperor. Liu Kan ignored the dissuasion of the bodyguard Lin Yu and asked Huang to step forward.
Only five steps away from the dragon chair, Huang was subdued by Lin Yu before he could pull out his dagger.
This incident shocked both the government and the public. This was the first assassination attempt that took place after the Emperor of Qi took control of Nanjing, although it failed.
Huang Duanbo was taken to Nanjing Zhenfusi Prison. Li Zicheng personally interrogated this person to thoroughly investigate whether the assassin had any accomplices.
Hearing that the assassin was still alive, the Supreme Emperor was silent for a long time and said:
"He was a loyal minister who would sacrifice his wealth and die for his king. He did it. In the huge city of Nanjing, he was the only one who had the courage to take five steps with blood. Who said there was no one in the Southern Dynasties, and who said there were no brave people in Jinling."
"Father, do you want to keep this person?"
The Supreme Emperor looked at the little emperor's slightly immature face and suppressed his smile.
Emperor Guangde asked again: "Since you are a loyal minister, why don't you stay?"
Liu Zhaosun did not answer the question immediately. He stood up and walked down the hall, facing the gate of Qianqing Palace. Outside the hall, two rows of guards stood motionless in the rain holding sharp swords.
"Kan'er, do you know how many people there are in Daqi now?"
Liu Kan gestured with his fingers: "Back to my father, I heard from Xie Yang that there should be 60 million people in the northern and southern provinces, including North Korea."
The Supreme Emperor smiled and said: "I don't know how many people there are now. There are too many people. We need a force to gather them together, otherwise there will be chaos."
Liu Kanruo looked confused, wondering what his father said had to do with Huang Duanbo.
"In order to win people's hearts, some emperors will use Confucianism, and some emperors will use magic. Da Qi used to use the "Qi Dynasty Land Acquisition System", you should know that, right?"
Liu Kan received the best royal education since he was a child. In the three-day economic banquet class, in addition to the Imperial Academy's most talented Hanlin bachelors, there were also chief officers from the front line of the workshop battlefield (discipline officers, soldiers representatives, etc.) ).
In addition to the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, he also has to learn various military books, the Red Mao Yi language, livestock breeding, arithmetic, navigation technology...
There was a dedicated person responsible for introducing the imperial political system to the little emperor, such as the advanced nature of polarism, helping the poor first and helping the poor later, using war to promote peace (war is peace), policies of obscuring the people, etc.
"Father, are you saying that Huang Duanbo sacrificed his life for justice, so he cannot be killed?"
Liu Zhaosun didn't show off, and said everything he was thinking:
"Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deposed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, all dynasties have used Confucianism to govern the world. Of course, many emperors just borrowed Confucius's tactics as a fig leaf. In fact, they sold dog meat on sheep's heads. They talked about Confucius and Mencius but acted like animals... ·····However, there are also some scholars who absorb the essence of Confucianism. Huang Duanbo is one of them. This person's belief in Confucianism is pure and has no utilitarianism. He is not trying to save Nanming, nor is he trying to gain fame in exchange for Wealthy - otherwise he would have surrendered to Da Qi - such a person can transcend history and go back to Ji Kang in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and go back to Yu Qian and Shaobao in the previous dynasties. With Ji Kang's wisdom and Yu Qian's talent, don't you know that the building will be like this? Qing, if you change the door in time, can you have a better future?"
Liu Zhaosun raised his head and looked at the "upright and bright" plaque on the main hall.
"They know it, but they still have to use their lives to light up the path under their feet. They are walking the right path and are upright."
Liu Kan happened to be reading "Book of Jin" recently. The young emperor was very interested in Ji Shuye. When his father said this, he seemed to suddenly understand something and felt a little hazy.
"Father, I heard from Our Lady of Mercy that Xiong Tingbi, who was in charge of Liaodong in the former Ming Dynasty, once compared my father to Ji Kang and Ji Shuye. I wonder if this is the case?"
Liu Zhaosun smiled awkwardly and recalled a long time ago:
"In the second year of the Qi Dynasty tomorrow, your mother and I met by the Daming Lake in Wendeng. At that time, I was not as tall and strong as I am now. Perhaps at that time, I looked most like Uncle Ji."
When Liu Kan heard his father mention Zhang Yan, his fair face suddenly turned ashen.
The Supreme Emperor turned his back to Liu Kan, unaware of the change in the little emperor's expression. He sighed and said leisurely:
"I'm not as good as Ji Kang. For Daqi, I gave up a lot, a lot of people, a lot of things, a lot of obsessions."
Liu Kan said in his heart: "For example, my mother, you killed her."
The miserable wind and bitter rain splashed along the eaves and fell on the door of Qianqing Palace, making a heavy ticking sound.
A burst of cold autumn air swept across the entire Forbidden City and slapped on the corridor of the main hall.
The Supreme Emperor suddenly turned around, his sharp eyes falling on the black dragon robe on his son.
"It is said that the Wei and Jin Dynasties were romantic, and the Wei and Jin Dynasties were romantic. Do you know what is romantic?"
Liu Kan blurted out: "Being wild and unrestrained, not adhering to famous religions, drinking water and having fun in time, this is the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties!"
Liu Zhaosun grinned: "Kan'er, when I was your age, I served in my adoptive father's army. We fought from Annan to Guizhou, and from Guizhou to Liaodong. We fought and killed, and licked blood every day. , if it had not been for meeting the Empress Dowager Cisheng in Saerhu and learning to read and write from her, I would not have been able to read a few big characters in my life, and I would have been confused and died in the chaos. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos. People like me..."
"Cao Mengde has a poem that says: White bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles. One of the hundreds of people left behind, the thought of it will break people's hearts."
Liu Zhaosun suddenly stopped and fell into deep thought. He said that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of the population had been reduced. Just as the first sentence of "Book of Jin" said, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many famous people in the world, but few famous people were complete.
"The so-called Wei and Jin Dynasties originated from this."
Liu Kan asked in surprise: "What does the chaos in the world have to do with romance? Are you saying that because of the chaos in the world, the scholars gave up their faith and started to enjoy themselves in time?"
Liu Zhaosun shook his head.
"From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the world was in turmoil and wars were frequent. The emperors at that time were like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. They were replaced frequently. Cao Wei replaced Han, Sima replaced Cao, and then the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, each time the emperor changed. , all blood flowed like rivers, and the scholars and the common people were not spared. This is the so-called Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the world is full of troubles."
The Supreme Emperor touched his palms and sighed: "The famous people at that time, such as Ji Kang, refused to cooperate with the Sima family and were eventually killed. This is the romance of the Wei and Jin Dynasties that my father wants to tell you. The world has read a few articles and thought Romance in the Wei and Jin Dynasties consisted of eating Wu Shi Powder, running around naked and drinking heavily, having fun in the moment, not following etiquette and law, and doing all kinds of cynical and ugly behaviors, which would make people laugh."
Liu Kan sat upright. He had never heard of his father's remarks about the affairs of the Wei and Jin Dynasties before. Even the academicians from the Hanlin Academy sneered at the historical chapters of the Wei and Jin Dynasties when they talked about them. Considered as a sad message in troubled times.
Liu Zhaosun felt relieved when he saw that his son listened carefully.
"Who is Ji Kang? He was favored by Cao Wei. When he was about to die, he entrusted his son Ji Shao to his friend Shan Tao and asked Shan Tao to raise him. When Ji Shao grew up, he became an official in the Jin Dynasty. Later, this man risked his life to protect Jin Hui. Emperor, if you block the arrow with your body, this is to eat the emperor's wealth and die for the emperor."
Liu Kan nodded and said: "This servant Ji is bleeding, don't do it!"
"What is loyalty? Doing one's best and knowing one's destiny is loyalty. Being in one's position and planning one's government is loyalty."
Liu Zhaosun concluded: "Ji Kang and Ji Shao are both loyal ministers."
"During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, true Confucian scholars insisted on loyalty and could not cope with "leopard changes", let alone those in power who manipulated morality. For example, Cao Mengde killed many celebrities in the name of being unfaithful and unfilial."
"Kong Rong, Mi Heng, Bian Rang, Xun Yu, Cui Yan, Yang Xiu, Lou Gui, Xu You... the number of famous people who were massacred is far less than this, so it is said that there are few famous people who are complete, Ji Kang One of the charges for being killed was "not Tang Wu but Bo Zhou Kong." However, when Sima Zhao had the final say about who Tang Wu and Zhou Kong were, how could he, Ji Shuye, be neither wrong nor Bo? ? Another example is Kong Rong. Cao Cao’s crime of killing him was that Kong Rong “challenged customs” and was “a member of the flashy society.” If we say he was a disgrace to customs, Cao Mengde was the one who disobeyed customs.”
Liu Zhaosun patted his son on the shoulder:
"Ji Kang was like this, and so were Kong Rong, Mi Heng, and Bian Rang! Knowing that they must die, but insisting on inner morality and ignoring death, this is the real celebrity, this is the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties!"
"Do you know why the Jin Dynasty did not last long?"
Liu Kan thought for a while: "Is it because the emperor's orders are not enough and the Eight Kings Rebellion?"
The Supreme Emperor said earnestly: "Kan'er, if we kill all the celebrities, only sycophants like Zhong Hui and Jia Chong will be left in the Qi Dynasty! Symptoms are not without merit, but if the entire government and the public are treacherous people, everyone will be praised. Loyal and righteous, he behaves like an animal. When he sees that the limelight is not right, he immediately changes his family, just like the people you have seen demoted in the Southern Ming Dynasty in the past few days. How can Da Qi be undefeated!"
Liu Kan nodded thoughtfully.
"So, my son, now, do you know how to deal with Huang Duanbo?"
Liu Kan said respectfully: "My son, please ask my father for advice."
"Kill him, fulfill his loyal name, pardon him, and win the hearts of the people of the world. You can kill him or not, but you can't let the people think that he was slaughtered because he offended the Emperor of Da Qi and you."
Liu Kan nodded silently: "My son thought that he could be sent to Ganghua Island in North Korea. It was called a banishment. In fact, it was to reunite him with Zhu Changhui. This would fulfill his loyalty without letting him die."
Liu Zhaosun smiled and said: "This is a very good idea."
"So, what about those traitors and sycophants that "gentlemen" call them? Do you need these people? There is also a ban on foot binding."
This time Emperor Guangde answered simply: "Use, all talents must be used by our Daqi. Emperors should not use or discard people based on personal likes and dislikes. This is what my father once taught me."
When it came to the ban on foot binding, Liu Kan asked cautiously: "Father, when you implemented this order earlier, was it actually to find a reason to wipe out the enemy?"
Liu Zhaosun nodded: "Exactly."
Liu Kan continued: "The bad habit of foot binding must be eradicated. There is no doubt that Jiangnan will be the same as Jiangxi."
The Supreme Emperor smiled and said: "Didn't I just say that the Wei and Jin Dynasties were romantic? How should you deal with those "famous people" who refuse to accept this order and stubbornly bind their feet?"
Liu Kan said solemnly: "How can such people who are immutable from the past be called celebrities? What celebrities uphold can last for thousands of years. In the past, was there such a thing as foot-binding? The ban on foot-binding is effective now and will benefit the future! It must be implemented consistently, and those who dare to obstruct it must be severely punished!"
Liu Zhaosun looked at this high-spirited young man with eyes filled with joy.
"Kan'er, you have grown up."
Lewen
