Zuo Mengeng was determined to rebel.
The broken ship of the Zhu Ming Dynasty seemed to be sinking, and he did not want to be buried with it.
It is even more unacceptable to surrender to the Manchus, sit back and watch China return to ignorance, and miss the magnificent era.
After thinking about it, the only way to maintain life is to rebel.
But if you want to rebel and succeed, you must have your own team.
Where did his team come from?
Zuo Menggeng is not a bankrupt farmer in exile. It is nonsense to want to recruit refugees and raise a banner to rebel.
Why should ordinary people listen to you, a second-generation general?
It would be even more unrealistic to recruit big landowners and noble families for help.
In the eyes of these people, warriors are no more noble than slaves and lackeys.
Not spitting on him, but even kicking him twice is considered polite.
Unless King Zuo Menggeng has shown his dominance, otherwise don't expect big landowners and nobles from aristocratic families to come closer.
These days of debating and communicating with Xu Ruolin gave Zuo Menggeng different ideas.
He was simply overjoyed by Southeast's openness of mind.
It turns out that in the southeast, the idea of non-kings and noble people has been so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that businessmen, craftsmen, and ordinary people have never stopped their efforts to pursue their own rights.
This is clearly a surging force that can be put to good use, but it is a pity that the original history was lost in the wind and clouds.
And the Donglin Party, the representative of these forces, can definitely win over and use it for him.
Of course, not the entire Donglin Party.
Through the words of Hou Xun and Liu Zongzhou today, Zuo Mengeng has discovered that the Donglin Party is corrupting and deteriorating.
But why can't we eliminate the essentials and absorb the power of progress?
He gave suggestions and started a new business, but Hou Xun and Liu Zongzhou were frightened, thinking that he was just thinking out of the blue.
"Haha, young people are bold and have no scruples. Now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, it is the time for our generation to work hard for progress. How can we mess up our own position? What's more, how can a little dirty influence affect the overall situation?"
When Zuo Mengeng saw it, he stopped talking.
That's how people are, if they don't hit the wall, they won't look back.
At this time, the Donglin Party is full of flowers and cooking oil. No matter how much he says, he will not be recognized, but will annoy people.
Only when these people get their heads wet will they realize how valuable his opinions are.
"For the current plan, we can only wait for Qian Muzhai to arrive in a few days and see if you and I can persuade him to change his mind."
In the end, all Liu Zongzhou could come up with was this idea.
This also let Zuo Mengeng know that after Hou Xun and Liu Zongzhou arrived in Linqing, they were not in a hurry to go north. They were originally waiting for Qian Qianyi.
The three Donglin bosses are probably going to discuss in Linqing and come to a consensus. In this way, after arriving in the capital, we can advance and retreat together and influence the overall situation.
Unfortunately, Zuo Mengeng was not optimistic about their idea.
It was late at night, Hou Xun retired, and Liu Zongzhou was also a little tired.
"I'm thinking of Mr. Tai, but do you want to rest? I'm going to prepare fragrant soup and take a bath."
Liu Zongzhou waved his hand.
"Don't worry, help me put pen, ink, paper and inkstone."
Zuo Mengeng hurriedly prepared the things and personally served the ink grinder.
Liu Zongzhou washed his hands, closed his eyes and thought, his expression was quite solemn.
After a long time, I started writing on paper.
Zuo Mengeng had nothing to do and looked intently, all the contents imprinted in his eyes.
[Your Majesty worked hard to seek treatment, and it was peaceful at night. However, if the process is too hasty, it is inevitable to see small gains and quick success. Why did the Tang and Yu rule? Isn’t it that what I am so devoted to today’s short-term achievements is military affairs? Sincerely, the best policy is to garrison and guard, to simplify the soldiers and save their pay, to repair the punishment and administration, and to spread the prestige. It takes time, and there is no one who does not look forward to the wind and restrain the armor. However, Your Majesty is determined to revive the enemy and leave the fortress as soon as possible. In this autumn when everything is empty and everything is exhausted, use all the strength of the world to serve the hungry army and the army will become more arrogant. Gather all the armies of the world to win a single battle and fight without a single day. This is the wrong plan...]
There are more than a thousand words to speak eloquently.
Liu Zongzhou stopped writing and sometimes frowned. It was obvious that he had many difficulties.
Occasionally, I turned around and saw Zuo Mengeng's mood was waning, and his expression was quite disdainful.
"Boy, can you understand?"
Zuo Mengeng was actually a little sleepy. He woke up immediately after hearing this and said hurriedly: "The juniors are not very talented and have little knowledge. They know what is happening but don't know why. Please help me clarify my doubts."
In fact, he knew what Liu Zongzhou wrote.
It was Liu Zongzhou who wrote the first memorial to Chongzhen after he returned to Beijing, "The Meaning of Favor and Prediction of Accusation to Jun, Yao and Shun".
Its core is: transcendental vision, learning from Yao and Shun, and practicing the ways of Yao and Shun.
And this is what Zuo Mengeng didn't understand.
"Sir, if you practice the way of Yao and Shun and govern by doing nothing, can you really achieve peace of mind for the country and peace of the people, and great order for the world?"
The Donglin Party was criticized a lot in later generations, and this memorial by Liu Zongzhou is also one of the supporting evidences.
How long has it been, the world is in chaos, and if you don't think about trying to govern it, you can do anything to govern by doing nothing, the way of Yao and Shun, and it's not as cheating as it is.
Speaking of this, Liu Zongzhou's worries eased a lot.
"The king is bound to the world and cannot be moved lightly. If the king regards the world as his own and takes and asks for everything, then the rules will not exist and the rule of law will be destroyed. This is the way to destruction. Only the king can sit in the middle of the grindstone, and his officials will be loyal and follow their own path. That’s the right way.”
Zuo Mengeng was shocked.
"This rule of inaction is the king's inaction, not the court's inaction?"
Liu Zongzhou had black lines all over his head.
"You brat, what do you think? In this huge world, the imperial court, and the billions of people, if everyone doesn't do anything, isn't it doomed?"
Zuo Mengeng blurted out.
"Isn't this a constitutional monarchy?"
Without experiencing it at the time, I would not understand its meaning.
Regarding Liu Zongzhou's memorial, Zuo Menggeng originally thought that it was just a repeat of the same old tune.
The way of Yao and Shun, governing by doing nothing, is simply pedantic.
But now after listening to the person involved, he realized that that was not the case at all.
The bad thing is that the ancient Chinese language is simple and has a broad meaning. It can be interpreted in any way, but the result is that future generations will interpret it in a wrong way.
Think about it, no one is a fool.
How could we still be like Yao and Shun at that time, doing nothing but inaction?
The reason why officials of the Ming Dynasty liked to say this and admonish the emperor in this way had only one core purpose.
That was to take power back from the emperor.
Throughout the two hundred years of Ming history, the struggle between emperors and ministers can be said to have been constant throughout.
Is Hu Weiyong's rebellion really a rebellion?
It wasn't that the prime minister's power threatened the imperial power and made Zhu Yuanzhang sacrifice his butcher's knife.
After that, generations of famous officials such as Xie Jin, Yu Qian, Yang Tinghe, and Zhang Juzheng were defeated by the emperor in various names.
But aside from the surface, there is only one core inside.
That is the struggle between king and minister.
It is a pity that in these battles, ministers are always on the losing side.
The reason lies in the fact that officials in the Ming Dynasty were trapped in a cocoon.
When Zhu Yuanzhang designated Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism as a prominent school, these literati celebrated each other, thinking that the era of literati had arrived.
But in the years that followed, they suffered a lot.
After the set of ethics of heaven and earth, king, parent, and teacher became an unshakable rule, the emperor became invincible.
Because there are only two illusory things above the emperor's head: heaven and earth. Apart from that, the emperor is the biggest.
When the officials of the Ming Dynasty went to fight with the emperor, because they couldn't break away from the set of rules of heaven and earth, king, prince, teacher, it was like dancing in shackles. Can they win?
How to win?
The emperor would flip the table when he was in a hurry, and he had the capital to flip the table.
The ministers did not have the capital to resist.
For example, in the dispute over great etiquette, Yang Tinghe originally had the upper hand.
But so what.
Jiajing doesn't want to reason with you anymore, Zuo Shun's slap in the face outside the door set the tone for this matter.
Yang Tinghe was dismissed from office in despair, Yang Shen was exiled, and Jiajing won a great victory.
This situation resulted in the Ming Dynasty's courtiers' methods of fighting against the emperor being greatly restricted.
After thinking hard and having no choice but to escape the shackles of the times and knowledge, these officials had no choice but to make excuses and reasons from old papers.
Confucian ethics has become the emperor's talisman, so let's go back and find more wise men to make arguments.
It is true that Confucius is a god, but Confucius also learned from others.
Thinking about it again, come on, let’s not overturn what Lao Tzu and Zhou Gong did one by one. Let’s just do it in one step and use Yao and Shun as examples.
Emperor, you see, in ancient times, wise kings like Yao and Shun achieved great governance in the world by ruling by doing nothing.
You have to learn.
As long as you learn it, the world will be great tomorrow.
However, none of the emperors of the Zhu family were easy to deal with.
Hehehe smiled, did he think I was stupid?
I don’t hold good power in my hands, so I’m at your mercy?
In this way, the king and his ministers went back and forth, and each time the king won a complete victory.
Unfortunately, in the end, the ministers became desperate and began to give in, so the Zhu family emperor lost.
Lost the whole country.
In this memorial, Liu Zongzhou talks a lot about the ways of Yao and Shun, governing by doing nothing, but his real idea is to persuade Chongzhen to act as a symbol and hand over the power of government to his ministers.
Chongzhen understood, smiled, and gave his evaluation: erudite words.
It is impossible to hand over power.
Emperors are all born in the year of Pixiu, and they only eat without vomiting.
You workers actually want to share the world with your boss.
wishful thinking!
Some people in later generations did not understand and started making noises one after another, scolding the Donglin Party for being fatuous and stubborn and reversing the course of history.
What?
At the same time, a bourgeois revolution broke out in Britain and a constitutional monarchy was implemented?
That is the progress of the times and the arrival of a new era.
Zuo Mengeng couldn't understand why those who grew up in the new era would cheer for a feudal emperor.
