The night was already very deep, and the entire Laoshan Palace was quiet. Only Zhu Cixiang, who had worried about the country and the people all his life, was still lying awake on the big bed in the dormitory of Yanshan Palace with his eyes open. He put his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. Wu Ake beside her also woke up. She found that her elderly husband was still deep in thought. She didn't know whether he was worried about the country and the people, or he was reluctant to hand over the throne to the good luck prince?
Emperor Chongzhen's Zi Palace has been buried in the underground palace of the Wolong Mountain Emperor's Mausoleum for nearly three months... It is now February of the fifty-third year of Hongxing's reign in the Ming Dynasty!
Just a few days ago, the last major event of Zhu Cihong's reign, the "Charter of the Celestial Alliance", was signed and came into effect by the kings of each vassal state and the important ministers representing the kings in Yingtian Mansion, together with Zhu Cihong and Zhu Hexing.
Although the negotiations on organizing the "Celestial Alliance Army" have not yet begun, the major policies have been set, and organizing the heavenly soldiers is just a matter of details - the relevant negotiations may last for many years, and the agreement reached cannot be once and for all.
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang could not use this as an excuse to postpone his retirement again - before Chongzhen was buried, he told Prince Luck that he would retire after the funeral. But after burying Chongzhen, he was a little reluctant to let go... After all, after working in the same job for more than fifty years, how could he just quit? He has feelings for the throne of the Ming Emperor!
Besides, the people of Ming Dynasty couldn’t bear to let him go!
He was a generation of heroic saint kings who was truly entrusted with the task of facing a crisis and turning the tide after his downfall... After his death, his temple name would most likely be that of the Holy Ancestor - he deserved the title of the Holy Ancestor, because he He is truly a Confucian saint. The "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian" that revived Confucianism was his handwriting. After Confucius and Mencius, he is the only Confucian saint.
The sage was the king, and he revived the Ming Dynasty and pushed the country to its peak, surpassing all previous dynasties. Such civil and martial arts, even the Han, Wu and Tang sects could not compare with him. Therefore, his temple name is only Holy Ancestor!
To be able to have such a holy ancestor rule is truly a blessing that the people of the Ming Dynasty have cultivated over many generations... How could they be willing to let Emperor Zhu retreat like this?
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang, who was well aware of the public sentiment, could only reluctantly work for another two or three months, and set the date of abdication to after the signing of the "Celestial Alliance Charter"...
Wu Ake, who had been with Zhu Cixiang for more than 20 years, knew very well what her husband was thinking. She put a hand over her and smiled softly: "Long live my lord, why don't you go to bed? Are you reluctant to give up your position?" As for the sleepless nights?"
Zhu Cixiang turned his head and glared angrily at the imperial concubine who he had loved for more than 20 years, and then sighed: "Do you think I am someone who is attached to power? I'm just worried... ....I am known as the King of the Ming Dynasty and the resurgence of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact I am the founder of the foundation like Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty. And the foundation I created is more glorious and prosperous than that of previous dynasties, even that created by Genghis Khan The industry is not as good as mine. But whoever thinks that today's Ming Dynasty has nothing to worry about and can enjoy peace and happiness in peace and quiet, then it is a big mistake! Because today's world is actually undergoing changes that have not happened in two thousand years!
If there is no me in the world tomorrow, the consequences will be disastrous! But even with a Holy Lord like me, we finally regained the lost opportunity and created so many vassal territories overseas... But the changes that have not happened in the past two thousand years are not only the discovery of new continents and the opening up of New route! "
If it were just a change brought about by the Age of Discovery, Zhu Cixiang would not be worried at all.
Because the country he conquered was vast enough, and he also established a Zhuxia system - if there was only one Ming Dynasty, not only would it be difficult to manage such a large territory and so many people, but there would also be problems that would not allow for trial and error and no room for error.
In the process of development of a civilization, it will always encounter various routes forward... Which is the better way to go? This is a question of crossing the river by feeling the stones. And there are many routes across the river. No one knows where the water is deep and where it is shallow without taking a walk.
However, a unified civilization encounters the dilemma of being difficult to make mistakes and being unable to tolerate errors. In fact, unified civilization is also a development route worth trying. However, due to the insufficient samples of Chinese civilization and the dominance of one country. Therefore, it is not the country of China that is unified, but the entire civilization.
This situation caused the Chinese civilization to lose its ability to trial and error, and its fault tolerance was also very low. China is not like Europe, where there are a lot of weird and weird countries. What empire, kingdom, republic, city-state, papal state, bishopric state, grand duchy, etc. And under the same name, the routes executed may be different. Therefore, a Christian civilization has many development routes... Even if most of the routes lead to dead ends in the end, as long as a small number of routes are viable, the entire civilization will have a way to survive.
Moreover, it is easier for countries that have gone down the wrong path to carry out reforms and change their development path because they have successful countries in the same civilization to refer to.
In contrast, China, a unified civilization, must move forward with caution... If you make one wrong move, you will lose everything!
Under such circumstances, seeking stability rather than change has of course become the mainstream thought of Chinese civilization.
In Zhu Cixiang's view, this kind of development route in which one country dominates is simply putting eggs in one basket. The risk is too great!
Therefore, after he took power, he began to follow the colonial route of decentralized investment, constantly colonizing countries, and also intentionally guided each colonial country to embark on different development paths. Kingdoms, United States, Republics, Principalities, Khanates, United Kingdom, etc. appeared. etc. various countries.
Moreover, these countries are quite scattered. Under today's traffic conditions, it is simply impossible to unify them all.
Therefore, the diversity of the development routes of Chinese civilization has been guaranteed!
There is also the possibility of trial and error and the ability to tolerate mistakes... In Zhu Cixiang's view, the ability to trial and error and the possibility of error tolerance are more important to a civilization than a pre-planned "successful path" .
Because there are too many accidental factors in the long history, even if the plan made at the beginning is perfect, it may go astray due to various reasons during the development process.
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang did not change the "absolute monarchy" system of the Ming Dynasty, but created a group of fraternal states for the Ming Dynasty as a reference - if politics is science, of course experiments should be done first! The brotherly states that Zhu Cixi promoted and established were, in a sense, experimental products.
They both belong to the same cultural circle as the Ming Dynasty, have the same culture and race, and even the ruling families are similar. They know each other well, and it is of course easy to learn from each other.
But Zhu Cixiang knew that the changes faced by Chinese civilization that had not happened in two thousand years were not only the changes brought about by the Age of Discovery, but also industrialization!
A steam engine that can be used to pump water (used in the mining industry) has appeared in Britain!
In addition, the Republic of England has benefited from the large market of the Roman Empire in recent years. Domestic manual workshops have developed extremely rapidly. Due to England's insufficient population and limited labor supply, factory owners are keen to purchase and manufacture various machinery. Driven by these factory owners, England's metallurgical and machinery manufacturing industries have always been relatively developed.
In the Ming Empire, where labor was abundant, factory owners had enough laborers who were hardworking and willing to work, so the demand for machinery was relatively weak. Although Zhu Cixiang spent a lot of money to encourage craftsmen to research machinery, he also worked hard to introduce the most advanced machines from England for imitation.
But in terms of machinery manufacturing, Ming Dynasty undoubtedly still lagged behind the Republic of England.
The changes of the Industrial Revolution are coming, which is another huge challenge for Chinese civilization!
Zhu Cixiang sighed: "The industrial revolution is coming, and I am old... He Xing and Yi You still have to walk the road in the future by themselves! It doesn't matter whether I retreat or not!"
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