Since the Liao and Jin Dynasties, the Yuyuantan area in the western suburbs of Beijing has been a good place for the princes and nobles in the Youyan area to cultivate their moral character. By the Ming Dynasty, there were many manors and villas. After the Qing Dynasty took control of Beijing, the Zhuangzi and villas in the Yuyuantan area changed owners and were all owned by the powerful people of the new dynasty. Almost all the famous people in Beijing have a garden in Yuyuantan, and Kong Sizhen, Shang Zhixin, and Geng Jingzhong are no exception.
After receiving Wang Fuchen's invitation, the three of them immediately left Beijing under the pretext of staying out of the city for a short stay. They first lived in their own village in Yuyuantan, then put on their casual clothes and walked out the back door, sneaking into Wang Fuchen's garden.
When Wang Fuchen, Wang Zhongxiao and his son arrived at their Yuyuantan Manor, the three of them had been waiting in the back garden for a long time.
Speaking of Wang Fuchen's Zhuangzi in Yuyuantan, it is much more spacious than the big house in Dafu Lane, and the area is at least ten times that of the latter! There are more than 20 acres of garden, with three courtyards, four entrances and four exits, and a ridiculously large garden. In the garden, a pond has been dug, a rockery has been built, and a pavilion with a view has been built. The pavilion is three stories high, and you can still see the Yuyuantan lake in the distance.
Wang Fuchen asked the servants in the garden (they all came with the garden. The previous master was exiled to Ninggu Pagoda because he was too close to Obai, so the servants changed their masters) to prepare a banquet and put it in the back. In the garden pavilion, Wang An and Wang Quan were asked to watch under the pavilion, and then they took their sons Wang Zhongxiao, Kong Sizhen, Shang Zhixin, and Geng Jingzhong to drink wine together.
"Aunt Zhen, my father-in-law, and my consort Heshuo, the general situation in the world is already full of storms!
King Pingxi accepted Obai, strengthened his troops in Yunnan, and contacted many green camp generals in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. There were even people in Guangdong, Fujian, Shaanxi-Gansu, and Huguang who secretly communicated with King Pingxi. And the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in various places and the Zheng family pirates at sea are not stopping either.
This year alone, there have been eight reported arrests and killings of the Third Prince Zhu from various places. The pirates along the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong are also getting more and more violent. Once King Pingxi raises troops in Yunnan, not to mention half of the southern half of the country will be in chaos, the three-thirds of the world in the southwest will definitely be in chaos.
Fortunately, the emperor is still wise, and has now begun to deploy plans to encircle and suppress King Ping Xi! And the four of us are responsible for one side in the emperor's three-way encirclement and suppression strategy. We have a heavy responsibility and cannot afford to make any mistakes! In order to protect the southwest of the Qing Dynasty for the emperor, the four of us must come to the southwest to protect each other and advance and retreat together! "
After three rounds of wine and five delicious dishes, Wang Zhongxiao, the real soul of the Qing Dynasty's "Southwestern Mutual Protection" Alliance, began to speak.
"Yes, yes, Shikai is right. The situation in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian is complicated, and people's hearts are unstable. There are remnants of the Ming Dynasty and the old troops of King Ping Xi everywhere everywhere. In other words, we are extremely loyal to the Qing Dynasty!"
The first one to echo Wang Zhongxiao was of course the "fine and loyal" Geng Jingzhong. He just gave Wang Zhongxiao another thirty thousand taels of silver - Geng Jingzhong has now got his wish, and will soon be escorted by Jieshu to Fujian to take over. Of course, he must fulfill his previous promise.
When Wang Zhongxiao helped him package himself as a loyal minister, he agreed that the price would be 20,000 yuan first, and then another 20,000 yuan when the job was completed (Geng Jingzhong went to Fujian to take power). Now Geng Jingzhong gave him an extra 10,000 yuan, just as a friend.
Of course, Geng Jingzhong also supports the "Southwest Mutual Protection". After all, he has been a hostage in Beijing these years and does not have much foundation in Fujian. If Wang Fuchen, Kong Sizhen, and Shang Zhixin could be recruited as allies, it would be easier to control Fujian.
"This Southwest Mutual Guarantee is really good. There are too many traitors in Guangdong. If we, the loyal people, don't stick together, sooner or later we will be taken advantage of by the traitors! Brother Wang, Sister Kong, Nephew Geng Xian, I am the only one who has become Pingnan King, I will definitely join forces with you!"
Shang Zhixin also immediately announced his intention to join Southwest Mutual Insurance. He had more troubles than Geng Jingzhong. Geng Jingzhong's father, Geng Jimao, was not in good health and did not give birth to many good brothers for Geng Jingzhong.
And Shang Kexi is a "stallion". He has been giving birth to babies in Guangzhou these years. Shang Zhixin, who has so many younger brothers and sisters, has lost count of them. If not a hundred, I'm afraid there are eighty!
It doesn't matter if there are more girls, the worst thing is to accompany a dowry. But if you have more brothers, the family property will be divided! The few assistants Shang Kexi had were simply not enough to share with so many sons.
What's even more hateful is that there are several older brothers who are also seeking the position of Prince Pingnan. These "disrespectful brothers" surround Shang Kexi's unfilial father all day long and flatter him, and they keep talking about Shang Zhixin. Bad words about my brother.
And Shang Zhixin is indeed not very filial. For a while, he did not treat Shang Kexi as his father!
At that time, Emperor Shunzhi was still there, and Shang Zhixin was "An Da Gong", and his slaves were higher than his father. Of course, he could not regard Shang Kexi as my father - "An Da" means brother, and Shunzhi regarded Shang Zhixin as his brother. !
Shang Kexi is just Shunzhi's slave, and Shang Zhixin is Shunzhi's brother. I don't understand who is higher and who is lower? If he regards Shang Kexi as his father, he will be breaking his "slave" and being disloyal!
Unexpectedly, Emperor Shunzhi died at a young age. And the young Emperor Kangxi did not recognize him as "Uncle Shang". Although everyone still called Shang Zhixin "An Da Gong", the value of this "An Da Gong" was straight. Falling!
Now he no longer has Shunzhi, a good brother, and his father has been led astray by a group of bad brothers. Kangxi does not recognize him as "Uncle Shang". The throne of the crown prince is shaky. He wants to succeed to the throne early and then sit in Pingnan. For the throne of the king, we can only join forces with Wang Fuchen, Kong Sizhen, and Geng Jingzhong.
"My father-in-law, don't worry. When my new army is trained, I will escort you south with Sizhen. Then I will bring 10,000 new troops and Sizhen's Dingfan to support you!" Of course Wang Fuchen also I was willing to join forces with Shang Zhixin, and immediately smiled and patted my chest.
The gratifying King of Pingnan has been in office for too long, and he is particularly good at giving birth to children. The sons and daughters he gave birth to will marry the military leaders and powerful men in Guangdong, and it is now a bit complicated.
If Wang Fuchen, the cross-river dragon, wants to eat and occupy more in Guangdong, he must replace Shang Kexi with Shang Zhixin - although Shang Zhixin's surname is Shang, he is actually an outsider, and those Cantonese people point their noses at him and scold him. I can’t even understand it!
Therefore, if Shang Zhixin becomes King of Pingnan, he will most likely join forces with Wang Fuchen!
Kong Sizhen saw that Shang Zhixin and Geng Jingzhong had joined the group, and he smiled with a tense face: "Now, our mutual guarantee in the southwest has been completed. The emperor no longer has to worry about the southwest. Maybe in the future we will The four families can also send troops to Huguang together to help the emperor block Wu Sangui's eastward advance."
Hearing this, Wang Fuchen frowned again, "Gege, don't be too optimistic. Even if the four of us join forces, we can hardly protect the southwest. We are still a little unable to send troops to support Huguang! Unless..."
"Unless what?" Kong Sizhen asked.
Wang Zhongxiao took the question and replied: "Unless we can really take root in the soil of Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, if we just float on it, relying on tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, and relying on a few trusted officials, we will not be able to control it. It covers an area as big as Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian."
"Take root? How to take root?" Geng Jingzhong asked.
"We can set up a society!" Wang Zhongxiao said, "Let's set up a society to study Confucianism!"
"Confucianism?" Geng Jingzhong almost amused Wang Zhongxiao.
"Shikai, do you still understand Confucianism?" Kong Sizhen also looked in disbelief.
Shang Zhixin looked at Wang Fuchen for a while and Wang Zhongxiao for a while. That's right, they were carved from the same mold!
"It doesn't matter whether I understand or not," Wang Zhongxiao waved his hand, "I can go to Jiangnan and invite a great Confucian to give lectures. I can use the name of a great Confucian from Jiangnan to support our Southwest Confucian Society and let the gentry from Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian join in and listen. The great Confucian lectures are for our use."
"It seems interesting," Kong Sizhen seemed to be convinced, "Shikai, what are you going to call this society?"
"It's called the Reform Society!" Wang Zhongxiao said seriously, "It's about New Confucianism!"
"What is New Confucianism?" Kong Sizhen was confused by Wang Zhongxiao's explanation.
Wang Zhongxiao just smiled and said: "The Confucianism that can be used to end the Qing Dynasty is New Confucianism!"
"Second Young Master, what is New Confucianism? Why haven't I heard of it?"
"Second Young Master, do you really understand Confucianism? Are you deceiving others?"
"That's right, Second Young Master, I am your book boy. I remember you haven't even read The Analects of Confucius seriously. Do you really understand it?"
"Hey, why do you want to know that? As long as we have money and soldiers, we will be able to separate ourselves in the future and enjoy the hot food!"
"Yes, yes, yes, that's the truth!"
"What are you talking about? Can you talk? The boss is my brother. Although he doesn't study very hard, he has become enlightened in the past year or two. He is a bit erudite and has a photographic memory! Maybe he really understands New Confucianism."
In the study room belonging to Wang Zhongxiao in Yuyuantan Village, a whole room of people came here early this morning. There is Master Yu, Wang Jizhen, and the brothers "Ren, Yi, Xian, An, and Quan".
These people were summoned by Wang Zhongxiao. The purpose of calling them here was of course to show them off - I don’t pretend anymore, I am knowledgeable and I understand New Confucianism!
Of course, these guys who can be regarded as "real people" still lack understanding of Wang Zhongxiao, who has now been reborn and changed his soul. They don't know how big his "aperture" is, and they think he is just an ordinary person. There is a common "hereditary" traitor!
In fact, what Wang Zhongxiao wants to do is not rebellion at all, but revolution!
Revolutionize the Qing Dynasty! We must also revolutionize Confucianism!
In Wang Zhongxiao's opinion, these two things are the same thing. The fall of the Ming Dynasty and the ensuing fall of China were actually caused by the decline of Confucianism and the corruption and incompetence of the scholar-bureaucrats.
As a prominent school in China, Confucianism has been responsible for providing the world with talents for political affairs and military affairs since its dominance in Han Dynasty. If Confucianism had not declined excessively and could continue to provide the world with capable ministers and famous military generals, then China would not be in danger of destroying the world.
However, starting from the Song Dynasty, Confucianism could no longer provide a sufficient number of capable ministers and generals due to various reasons. Hence the great crisis in the late Southern Song Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty.
And at the end of the Ming Dynasty, those who worked hard to support China's decline to the end were not the scholar-bureaucrats who were supposed to be the backbone of the nation, but "pirates", "invading thieves" and "thieves offering sacrifices".
In fact, such a situation had already occurred in the battle for the revival of China at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Those who were responsible for the revival of China at that time were not the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats left over from the Song Dynasty.
Han Shantong, Liu Futong, Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, etc., none of them were Confucian scholar-bureaucrats, and those who served as generals for them and helped them conquer the world were mostly from rough backgrounds.
In the original history, whether it was the San Francisco Uprising, the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, or the subsequent anti-Qing revolution, the positive role played by Confucian scholar-officials was quite limited.
However, this seemingly broken Confucianism still showed some glimmer of light in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and two figures who could be called great Confucians emerged. One of them was the author of "Records of Visits to the Ming Yi" 》Huang Zongxi. And the other one is of course Wang Zhongxiao who knows "Ming Yi Waiting for Visits" better than Huang Zongxi.
Rather than starting from scratch, it is undoubtedly the most realistic to launch a Confucian revolution.
Seeing that everyone in front of him was questioning his knowledge, Wang Zhongxiao coughed, and then asked Wang Zhongyi, who pulled up a chair and sat at the door of the study: "Cannon, is there no one outside?"
"There was no one, they were all blown away." Wang Zhongyi, nicknamed "Wang Dapao", replied.
When he heard that there was no one outside, Wang Zhongxiao picked up his brush and started writing big characters. He had been practicing calligraphy during this period, and now he could write a pretty good regular script.
I only saw that he first wrote the four words "Reformation Society" on a piece of rice paper, and then wrote the three words "Tiandihui" under these four words, and finally wrote "The world is for the Lord and the Lord" under the Tiandihui. "Guest" and "Reverse the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty to equalize the land".
"Heaven and Earth Society?"
"The world is for the master and the guest? What do you mean?"
"You still want to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. Oh, Second Young Master, what are you doing? Why do you look a bit like a trespasser?"
"You don't understand. Only by learning from intruders can we inspire people!"
Several people in Wang Zhongxiao's study are literate and have some knowledge. However, they still don't quite understand the principle of "the world is for the ruler and the guest".
This passage comes from "The Record of Ming Yi Waiting for Visits. Yuan Jun". The original text is: In ancient times, the world was the main subject, and the king was the guest. The reason why every king manages the world for the rest of his life is for the world. The general idea is that the people are the masters of the world, and the monarch serves the people!
But they all know what "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming" means and what "equalizing land" means!
After all, it has only been more than 20 years since the end of the Ming Dynasty. They still know what "subjugating the world" and "equalizing land and eliminating taxes" mean.
Moreover, these people were all a small group of Han warlords headed by Wang Fuchen and Wang Zhongxiao. Before the San Francisco Rebellion, these small Han warlords were generally dissatisfied with the Manchu rule. That's why so many people responded to Wu Sangui when he rebelled.
For these small warlords who still have some armed forces in their hands and have long been dissatisfied with the Manchurians' popular food and drink, rebellion is politically correct!
So this group of people still knows something about "anti-learning".
According to Wang Zhongxiao, the main reasons for the failure of the San Francisco Uprising were two. First, Wu Sangui was too cowardly; second, the main force in the San Francisco Uprising, that is, the Han military leaders, were only familiar with rebellion and were unable to propose a doctrine that could unite intellectuals and mobilize the masses.
Therefore, the San Francisco Uprising was actually an uprising that was separated from the masses and even from the scholar-bureaucrats.
In a sense, it was a struggle for power between Han warriors and Manchu warriors.
The majority of Han officials, officials and people were just passively involved or watching from the sidelines.
But what Wu Sangui doesn't have, Wang Zhongxiao has. He served the people for many years in his previous life and understands everything!
"The 'Heaven' in the union of heaven and earth means that the world is the master and the king is the guest!" Wang Zhongxiao began to explain, "It means that in ancient times, the world was the master and the king was the guest; the reason why every king manages his life is for the sake of the world.
This is the theory that the world is for the public, and it is the great road of Confucianism! It is for readers all over the world to read, and it is also the reason why the Reform Society wants to explain it.
So this Reform Society is actually the Tiandi Society for scholars and scholar-bureaucrats!
We can tell the scholars all over the world through the Reform Society that the reason why it is so difficult for them to get officials now is because the Manchu king who was a guest only had banner people in mind, and there were no Han scholars like them, so there were too few officials for the Han people!
If Han scholars want to become officials easily, they can only follow the route of treating the world as the master and the guest as the guest, and let the people of the world rule the world, not the king of Manchuria. "
When he said this, he paused for a moment and glanced at the expressions of the people in front of him. Everyone was stunned. They didn't know whether they understood or were confused.
But it doesn’t matter, because they must understand the following truth!
"And the equalization of land during the anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty is the 'land' of the Tiandihui!" Wang Zhongxiao said, "This is for the poor people who are suffering in the world. We can tell them that the benefit of the anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty is the equalization of land, and they can be divided into land!
Now they have no land, or too little land, because the Eight Banners nobles and Eight Banners lackeys have occupied too much land. On the coastal side, a coastal border transfer has enclosed tens of millions of acres! The Eight Banners enclosed at least 20 million acres in the Gyeonggi area. The wicker wall on the Liaodong side was erected, and everyone was surrounded. Sichuan, a good land of abundance, is now sparsely populated by them, and there are wastelands everywhere that they would rather leave uncultivated than share.
In addition, the banner camps stationed in various places and corrupt officials loyal to the Manchus also occupied large areas of land, leaving the Han people without land and reduced to tenants.
If the Han people wanted to get land, they had to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. When the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty is successful, those who have contributed more will be given more shares and good land will be allocated! Those who contribute less will be given less points, and the land will be divided badly! Is this truth particularly true? "
This is whether the landlord has a full meal or the tenant is hungry. Can the working people not understand?
As long as they understand and believe it, the Qing Dynasty will be over!
(End of chapter)
