Linzhou is a small island located in the center of Xuanwu Lake. It is far away from Cuizhou in the north and south. It is surrounded by a lake. A little further away are the towering Zhongshan Mountain and the tall and majestic Nanjing City Wall. The ancient city with lakes and mountains can be seen at a glance on Linzhou Island. However, such beautiful lakes and mountains have become a forbidden area because of Huangceku on Liangzhou Island in the lake. For more than 200 years, it has been prohibited for tourists to visit the lake.
But today, on Xuanwu Lake, there are dozens of ships, large and small, shuttling between Taipingmen Pier and Linzhou Island, which is close to Taipingmen in the inner city of Nanjing. After a while, the hundreds of Confucian scholars and scholars gathered outside Taipingmen were all sent to Linzhou Island.
At this time, a curtain had been set up on Linzhou Island, enclosing a large area of open space that had been leveled. Banquets were laid out one by one in the open space, and futons were also placed on the banquets for people to sit on. The Confucian scholars who got off the boat were invited into the curtains by another group of young people in Confucian uniforms who had been waiting on the island for a long time. They sat down on these futons, some were kneeling upright, and some were sitting cross-legged.
In about a quarter of the area to the north of the curtain, a low wooden platform was set up. Dozens of tables and chairs were placed on the platform. The layout was the same as the podium used for conferences in later generations.
The "Podium" was now empty, with only a few tall Confucian scholars wearing swords standing there, looking with burning eyes at the cluttered "Donglin Representatives" below.
This is the scene of the first Donglin Conference! Donglin's successors from provinces such as South Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, etc. that have not yet fallen or have not completely fallen, a total of four to five hundred candidates - all The vanguard of the landlord class is all gathered together now, waiting for the moment when the conference begins.
However, after waiting for a long time, Mr. Donglin, who was supposed to sit on the podium and speak, did not appear.
I don’t know what these Shilin leaders are doing right now? Are you sad and troubled by the severe situation facing the feudal Ming Dynasty?
That's right, the situation is getting serious again!
Just at the Taipingmen Pier, all the scholar representatives who participated in the first Donglin Conference received a copy of the "Revelation of the Emperor and the Expulsion of the Barbarians". The "Revelation" clearly informed that the Tartars were deployed on the border of Shandong and Henan for ten years. Wan, he also threatened to massacre Shandong, dig up Konglin, cut off the Confucian inheritance, and kill the Yansheng clan!
Shandong is in crisis! Qufu is in danger! Famous teachers are in danger! China is in danger!
The situation is so critical. Of course, the Donglin people in the world should put aside their past grievances, unite as one, and gather around the Ming Dynasty court led by Prince Zhu Cixang... This is also what most of the Donglin officials attending the meeting today are thinking. ah!
Well, that's not what I thought. Zhu Cixiang would not let them come to the meeting... Those who can come, except for the Hunan and Jiangxi people named Zhu, are the "talents" from Shandong, and those who are in Enke Donglin Juzi answered the exam questions carefully and supported tax increases.
Those who hand in blank papers, those who make trouble, haha...are all scumbags! The candidates may have all been bought, so how can they be worthy of being Donglin?
Of course, not all the "Da Donglin" sitting on the rostrum are easy to talk to - since it is the Donglin Conference, there must be some Donglin Party members who can decorate the appearance, right? For example, Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun, Shi Kecheng (representing Shi Kefa), Zuo Guangxian (the seventh younger brother of Zuo Guangdou), Wei Zaode, Zhu Zhiyu, Huang Daozhou, Liu Zongzhou, Fang Yizhi, Hou Fangyu, Mao Pijiang, Chen Zhenhui, Huang Zongxi, Luo Dagong, Ji Kun, Zhang Huangyan, Xia Yunyi, Chen Zilong, Xu Fuyuan and others are now gathered in the Qilin Pavilion on Linzhou Island, speaking freely and expressing their opinions in front of Zhu Cixiang, the prince of Fujun.
Prince Zhu, on the other hand, smiled and nodded frequently, as if he was humbly accepting advice.
"...Officials and gentry helping businessmen avoid taxes has been a bad rule of this dynasty for many years. Although the court has lost some tax revenue, it is not without benefits. Today's literary style is flourishing in the southeast because of the benefits of officials and gentry sheltering businessmen. If not With the money provided by businessmen, I don’t know how many scholars and scholars will be reduced to poverty.
The practice of giving and deceiving people has been popular in the Southeast for a long time. It has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that learning well will lead to wealth, and learning well will lead to wealth. High and low, high and low, poor and low, rich and noble, are mostly determined by fame. If we suddenly implement the unified taxation of officials and gentry and pay off Tianqingtun, I am afraid that it will cause chaos and ruin human relations... It will also greatly weaken the human and financial resources of the scholar-bureaucrats in the countryside. I am afraid that chaos in the southeast is imminent! "
The old man who was stroking his white beard like Santa Claus, frowning and talking eloquently was Zuo Guangxian, the seventh brother of Zuo Guangdou, one of the three kings of Donglin in the past.
His eight-part essay was not as good as that of his brother Zuo Guangdou. He studied hard until he was in his forties and was admitted to the imperial examination. He probably lost confidence in the imperial examination. After passing the imperial examination, Zuo Guangxian no longer continued to work hard to pass the imperial examination, but instead became the magistrate of Jianning County. In the next twenty years, he mainly served as a local official, and he was also a very ruthless local official who made great achievements in arresting theft and suppressing bandits.
However, during his long-term local service, Zuo Guangxian also deeply felt the sharp contradictions existing in society in the late Ming Dynasty.
According to Zuo Guangxian, who has been in contact with the grassroots for a long time, the source of social conflicts in the late Ming Dynasty did not lie in the imperial court. The imperial court only collects 20 million shi of grain and more than 2 million taels of silver a year. How corrupt can it be?
The root of social conflicts in the late Ming Dynasty lay precisely in the corruption and disintegration of the grassroots!
The rise of the Jianyi Jurchens was due to the disintegration of the grassroots of the Liaodong frontier army. Liaodong was originally a military center with a total of twenty-five provinces and two states. If the grassroots level of the Liao army is not bad, these 25 guards alone can pull out hundreds of thousands of soldiers at any time! Is it possible for the Jurchens to rise in Jianzhou?
The chaos in the northwest is the result of the collapse of the grassroots of the northwest frontier army! Like Liaodong, the northwest has always been an important military and military town. Guard stations were set up everywhere and military households were widely distributed. The backbone of the bandit army is precisely the soldiers of the Northwest Frontier Army who have no food or clothing!
But it was not just the grassroots military households that collapsed. After Zuo Guangxian had served as a local official for many years, he had clearly felt that the grassroots level of civilian households dominated by scholar-bureaucrats was on the verge of collapse.
The frequent slave rebellions in the Southeast are likely to be a precursor to the disintegration and collapse of the Southeast people!
Zuo Guangxian looked worried, and he continued: "Your Highness, the slaves in the Southeast have changed frequently in the past few years. Although it has not caused a major disaster, it has already become a storm. Last year's chaos in Xudu, Zhejiang, A large number of slaves and poor people participated, which almost caused a huge disaster, and it has not been completely pacified until now. If the court continues to use officials and gentry to pay taxes and clear fields and clear villages to weaken the scholar-bureaucrats, I am afraid that after the scholar-bureaucrats become weak, great chaos in the southeast will follow. Here we go..."
