Zhu Yijun is very pleased that the restructuring has reached this stage. In particular, abandoned babies and foot-binding were finally banned, which undoubtedly meant that the civilization of the Ming Dynasty had made a lot of progress.
After all, the direct victims of abandoned babies and footbinding are two of the most vulnerable groups in the empire. And these two groups have begun to be protected, which naturally shows that the Ming Dynasty's characteristics of being ruthless at heart and charming at the outside are slowly changing.
The ice of conservative conservatism is really breaking. actually. Zhu Yijun had long had the idea of banning abandoned babies and foot binding.
But he knew that the root cause of abandoned babies and foot binding was not that the common people were ignorant, cruel and disrespectful, but that the ruling class of this society still needed such phenomena to exist to meet their own needs for rule, so they did so.
The biggest root cause is the idea of weakening and obscuring the people. The ruler likes the ruled to be ruled by him in a cheaper and more easily manipulated way.
As a result, it is natural that Han people are worthless and even newborn Han babies can be discarded and bought and sold at will.
At the same time, the entire society has developed a morbid aesthetic that likes footbinding and skinny horses. After all, footbinding and skinny horses are easier to control.
The essence of this idea of weakening the people and obscuring them is that after the agricultural civilization has developed to its extreme, if it does not expand externally, it can only maintain its rule by weakening the people.
After all, it is too slow to make the cake bigger just by increasing productivity. Therefore, if there is no external expansion, the cake cannot grow rapidly and cannot meet the needs of rapid population growth and rapid increase in people's desires. Then it must make it easier for the people to be controlled and continuously weakened.
After all, in order for everyone in the country to live a dignified life, and considering that the rulers will become increasingly greedy, the cake must grow faster than the population growth.
It’s just that the population of Ming Dynasty is too large! External expansion requires a large share of profits to satisfy everyone's appetite.
Otherwise, if it is just a small fight, it will be the same as the nomads sending hundreds of rangers into the pass to plunder and sending tens of thousands of troops to rob a few cattle and sheep.
For Ming Dynasty, this kind of expansion was not worth the gain. Therefore, if a huge empire like the Ming Dynasty wants to turn its external expansion into good governance that will benefit the future, instead of being militaristic and harmful to the people and the country, it needs the ruling class not to be lazy, and it needs to be coordinated and scientific in its external expansion. The ruling class has higher requirements in terms of capabilities.
But everyone is lazy. For the ruling class, it is easier than suppressing the needs of the domestic people, or even suppressing their own needs.
What's more, history has proven that it is easy to break your front teeth at the first bite of a foreign war, or even break your muscles and bones, prompting the emergence of civil strife and the overthrow of the country.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun did not dare to rashly let the Ming Dynasty accelerate progress, including the idea of banning foot binding and abandoning babies.
He only first informed this idea to Yu Youding, who went south to inspect customs, etiquette and schools, and asked Yu Youding to visit the people and then discuss it with the ministers before putting it forward.
In this case. Even if the imperial court really wants to ban footbinding and abandoned infants, it is not the intention of the emperor alone, but the intention of the reformists in the bureaucracy.
Zhu Yijun does not have to worry that the bureaucracy cannot keep up with him, and even the reformists will eventually oppose him.
Nowadays, the remaining snow gradually melted away the coldness in the spring breeze. Zhu Yijun looked at the flowers and bags on the mountain without saying anything, but he only had a lot of expectations in his heart that Daming might really be better protected by him.
…
"The restructuring has come to this point!" A cold spring had just frozen the river. Li Sancai, Fan Yingqi, Yang Youren and other civil servants and gentry came here to sit in the Yifengyue upstairs outside Chongwen Gate, discuss politics and listen to music to spend the cold spring.
After the song was finished, Li Sancai took a sip of hot tea and sighed. Fan Yingqi, the imperial wine minister at the Imperial Academy, also said: "Foot binding and infant abandonment are banned for this reason. This is certainly what a benevolent government should be like, but changing customs cannot be changed in one day. It must be done step by step, right?" Yang Youren was indifferent. Yixiao said: "Just wait, the reform will not last long. Things that ancestors and ancients have chosen to follow naturally have their own reasons for not being abolished, and they will not be eliminated so easily! Even Queen Gao of this dynasty is a natural , but what if it is said that God's will also advocates Heaven's fullness? How can the will of the world really come from Heaven?" After hearing this, Li Sancai nodded and put the tea cup on the table: "That's exactly what he said! But a three-inch golden lotus can be full of beauty. It was originally more elegant and interesting, but now that it has been changed, it is really a waste of elegance and conforms to vulgarity, which is annoying, and I don’t know when the elegance will be restored again.”
"Soon!"
"Big things will happen this year." Yang Youren said suddenly. Fan Yingqi hurriedly asked: "What big event is it?" Yang Youren said: "It's not appropriate to talk about this matter openly. You can just wait and see."...
"What big thing are they talking about?" The ceremonial supervisor, Bingbi eunuch, Zhang Jing, was in the duty room. Zhang Jing looked at Bai Yiqing and asked in a low voice.
Bai Yiqing replied: "Yang Yushi didn't explain this clearly, so it's not good to ask questions without permission, so as not to scare others."
"Then keep watching." Zhang Jing said and left the Supervisor of Ceremonies and walked towards the Qianqing Palace. But when he reached the palace gate, he happened to see the eunuch Sun Bin leading someone to sign up to enter the palace. The evil boy spoke.
Sun Bin was asking a person: "What is your name?" The person replied: "Back to my father-in-law, the younger one calls me Gu Fengxuan." After hearing this, Sun Bin asked: "How can such an elegant name be so prestigious?" Gu Fengxuan replied: " Some were originally children."
"Then I can't have it!"
"The inner court has rules and cannot require scholars who can read and write." Sun Bin said. After Shen Shixing reminded Zhang Hongyan to guard against literati sneaking into the inner court, Zhang Hong actually informed Zhu Yijun of this suggestion, and Zhu Yijun therefore requested that no intellectuals be allowed to enter the palace.
After hearing this, Gu Fengxuan's face suddenly showed a look of disappointment, and he knelt down and cried: "Father-in-law, please give me a chance to be loyal! Although I am a scholar, I really want to join the palace and serve my country! What's more, Xiaomin I have already made up my mind to be loyal to my father for the rest of my life, wow!" Gu Fengxuan said as he stood up and lifted up his pants: "Father, if you don't believe me, you can watch."
"Then it's even more unacceptable!"
"According to the decree, those who castrate themselves will not only be unable to enter the inner court, but they will even be imprisoned to await conviction!" Sun Bin said.
Gu Fengxuan immediately froze on the spot. Suddenly, Gu Fengxuan stood up, took out a short knife from his sleeve, and rushed towards Sun Bin: "You traitors, I'm going to kill you!"
"There is an assassin!" At this time, Zhang Jing, who had already arrived, shouted hurriedly. The Jin Yiwei from the outer duty room and the Jin Yiwei from the inner duty room both rushed over at this moment.
At this moment, Sun Bin himself and a young eunuch named Tian Yi grabbed Gu Fengxuan's knife-holding hand: "You are so brave that you dare to enter the palace to kill people. Who asked you to bring a sharp blade in?" From the palace?!" But Gu Fengxuan still struggled, and sneered, and at the same time glanced towards the north of the Forbidden City.
Zhang Jing also followed his gaze at this time, and then saw thick smoke rising in the direction of the central palace.
"Oops!"
"The middle palace has been compromised! The middle palace where the young master and the empress are!" Bai Yiqing said at this time. Zhang Jing immediately collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely, and looked at Gu Fengxuan, saying in a deep voice: "Take him to the prison first, go there yourself, don't let him die!"
