Chapter 19 Chapter Eighteen: The Hard Work of Emperor Longwu

Disputes over "family affairs" made Emperor Longwu feel embarrassed, but he was even more worried about "state affairs". Unlike Emperor Hongguang, he grew up in bitter waters in the first half of his life. When he became emperor, he did not come for the goal of "improving the quality of personal life". style. In terms of personal preferences: he doesn't drink, doesn't play, and doesn't make friends with women. For personal expenses: he used the original official office of the Fujian chief envoy as an "imperial palace" without any modification and decoration;

Only cheap items such as magnets, tiles, copper, and tin are allowed in the palace, and high-end items such as gold, silver, and jade are not allowed; It is not even allowed to use luxury goods such as brocade, sprinkled thread, velvet flowers, tents, curtains, bedding, etc., and only ordinary cloth is allowed, which really maintains the living standard of a well-off family. When he became emperor, he came for the purpose of "recovering rivers and mountains and achieving great fame".Therefore, while maintaining a "low standard" in life, he has "strict requirements" on himself politically.

He was very concerned about the suffering of the masses, and took "the suffering of the masses is my pain, and the wishes of the masses are my wishes" as the focus and starting point of his policies. In order to achieve this goal, he first made great efforts to rectify the civil servants and purify the officialdom environment. For this reason, he specially introduced a tough legal system that "small greed must be punished, and big greed must be killed".Shao Wutong sentenced Chen Zhumo, Tingzhou Mayor Wang Guomian, and Gutian County Grandfather Wu Shiyao to Shao Wutong, who dared to defy the law and commit crimes against the wind, and punish them severely!

Secondly, he vigorously won the hearts of the people in the enemy-occupied areas. When he heard that every time the Nanming army regained the lost land, once they found that there were people with shaved hair, they would be massacred as "rebels" regardless of indiscriminately, he urgently issued an imperial edict "those who have hair are compliant people, and those who have no hair are refugees". For the masses in the enemy-occupied areas, it is declared that regardless of whether they have hair or not, they will be protected as a whole. As soon as this imperial decree was announced, it was immediately praised by the masses in the occupied areas.

Since then, every time Emperor Longwu's army regained an occupied area, the people in that area were able to send people and food, and enthusiastically supported the front.It is in stark contrast to the previous scene of fleeing after hearing the "army". In addition, Emperor Longwu also did two major political events. First, in terms of overall political strategy, the Hongguang Dynasty's "Ping Kou Priority" (priority to suppressing peasant uprisings) was changed to "Royal Prison Priority" (priority to fighting against the Qing army's invasion).Ten days after he ascended the throne, Ma Dechang, the envoy sent by the Qing government to surrender, was killed.He also issued an edict to the world that on August 18th of this year, he will command the six divisions and march in person.

Don't underestimate this change in political strategy. After Nanming was able to unite with the Dashun and Daxi Peasant Army and persist in the struggle for sixteen years, it all benefited from this change in political strategy.This also confirms the saying - "the concept remains the same, but the concept changes and the world widens". The second is to end the party struggle. He gave full play to his writing expertise and personally wrote three "Brief Notes" on "Ji Gentlemen", "Rongzheng" and "Scholars", summarizing the fact that the Ming Dynasty died in the party struggle and created public opinion for ending the party struggle. atmosphere.

Later, he issued an edict to pardon all political prisoners, including the eunuchs, and allowed Ma Shiying, who had become a street rat, to "make meritorious deeds and atone for his crimes in order to see the effect." After completing these tasks, Emperor Longwu quietly stood aside, waiting for the "Miracle of ZTE" to appear in the Ming Dynasty! But "Heaven's movements are perpetual, not for Yao, not for Jie", the reality is so cruel and ruthless, after a hard struggle, what Emperor Longwu saw was not the dawn of victory, but the afterglow of the setting sun.

External: The Qing army is still pressing hard, launching new offensives against the Nanming regime on the three battlefields of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. "Mourning reports" of losing troops and losing ground, and repeated defeats are pouring in. Internally: Although the Longwu government has been recognized by the "remnant governments" of the southern provinces, these local governments not only do not "hand over money" to the central government, but instead keep reaching out to the central government to "demand lines". This made Emperor Longwu's financial revenue extremely tight, and he had to introduce the policy of "pre-taxation to the people".

The burden on the people of Fujian was even heavier, and soon they sang the popular song "Qing soldiers are like crabs, they come too late" to express their disappointment and dissatisfaction with the Longwu Dynasty. What made Emperor Longwu even more sad was that in Xianyou, Yong'an, Yongfu, Yongding, Shaxian, Zhao'an, Longyan and other places in Fujian, large-scale peasant anti-government incidents broke out. More than 10,000 anti-government armed forces besieged Longyan County, captured Zhao'an County, killed the magistrate, and robbed Ku Yin. Emperor Longwu seemed to have encountered a complicated equation, and tried hard to prove it, but it was hard to find the solution.

After repeated demonstrations that "the road is long and the road is long, I will search up and down", Emperor Longwu believed that the root cause of the sluggish government and the restlessness of the people lies in Zheng Zhilong, the leader of the Fujian warlord. Zheng Zhilong, from Nan'an, Fujian Province, the son of a small civil servant, "has a loose temperament, doesn't like reading, has physical strength, and is good at boxing and clubs" since he was a child. He was born with the foundation of "Liangshan hero". However, this kid was indiscreet in his private life. When he was eighteen years old, he was kicked out of the house by his father for seducing his stepmother.

Life, sometimes falls into a trough. But this is not terrible. The trough you fell into may become the starting point for climbing a new peak. The key point is how to grasp it yourself! The life of Zheng Zhilong, a little comrade, has now fallen into such a trough. Looking around, he has no relatives to rely on, no friends to rely on. But with a strong personality, he has been wandering in Macau, Japan, the Philippines and other places with his clever wisdom and extraordinary courage, learned Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, worked as a shoemaker, cook and full-time translator, and joined a Special organization - Catholicism. While working in Japan, he married a Japanese woman, Tagawa, and gave birth to a Chinese-Japanese mixed-race son Zheng Sen. After more than ten years of hard work, he has become a fearsome "pirate leader" and a slick, long-sleeved "business leader" on the seas of Southeast Asia. Unlike Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other "land bandits" who have huge political ambitions, Zheng Zhilong, a "pirate", has huge economic ambitions. In order to realize this ambition smoothly, in the early years of Chongzhen, he accepted the imperial court's recruitment. After being recruited, he gradually seized the administrative power, national defense power, and foreign trade power in most areas of Fujian by virtue of the opportunity of the chaos in the world and his good business mind, becoming the largest international trader in the southeast coastal area. He has hundreds of large merchant ships and a private guard of tens of thousands of people. Other Chinese and foreign people engaged in overseas trade have to pay him "protection money" before they dare to sail in the sea. In the "Support Tang" activity initiated by Mr. Huang Daozhou, he saw the value of Zhu Yujian's "exotic goods to live in", and he also expressed his support, and warmly welcomed Zhu Yujian's "government in exile" to stay on his territory for a long time. In doing this, his ultimate goal is to make a big change in his development method, from "running business" to "running the government"! Emperor Longwu was well aware of Zheng Zhilong's personal calculations, but he was confident that he could gradually control the Zheng family and use it for his own use through his win-win, influence, control and other means. In order to achieve this goal, he not only gave the Zheng family unparalleled official titles and privileges, but also took Zheng Zhilong's half-breed son, Zheng Sen, as his adopted son on the grounds that he had no children. He gave the surname Zhu and named him successfully. , He was also named the governor of the Imperial Forest Army, Yitong was attached to Ma Duwei, and soon he was named "Uncle Zhongxiao". But then Emperor Longwu realized that all his hard work had been wasted. Zheng Zhilong just wanted to use himself to maintain the status of the "dominant family" of the Zheng family in Fujian, and he refused to obey his orders and was perfunctory. In order to recover the lost land, Emperor Longwu issued an imperial edict announcing that he would send troops to the Northern Expedition on August 18th of this year, and that the imperial conquest would be carried out in person, but Zheng Zhilong refused on the grounds of financial difficulties and lack of military funds. Emperor Longwu wanted the Zheng family to give the country a share of his foreign trade revenue, but Zheng Zhilong responded by "pre-collecting taxes from the people", "forcing big households to donate", and "selling officials and nobles". After several confrontations, their relationship developed from "love each other" to "look at each other and hate each other", and they both lost enthusiasm and respect for each other. Zheng Zhilong once asked to be ranked first among civil and military officials in the court meeting on the grounds that he had made great contributions in the support activities.This proposal was immediately opposed by Huang Daozhou, the head of the cabinet. The reason for the objection is that according to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, generals cannot be ranked first among civil and military officials, but can only be ranked after bachelors. Emperor Longwu resolutely stood on the side of Huang Daozhou in this dispute over etiquette, which made Zheng Zhilong lose face.Every time he goes to court, he can only follow a group of old masters. At a court meeting, Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Hongkui waved their fans in front of Emperor Longwu to get rid of the summer heat. He Kai, Minister of the Household Department, immediately went to the court to impeach them and played them "the ceremony of no minister". Emperor Longwu immediately rewarded He Shangshu for beating the Zheng brothers. He was outspoken and dared to advise, and he was given the official title of Zuoqian capital censor. Now, the hornet's nest was stabbed, and Zheng Zhilong, who became angry from embarrassment, created opportunities to embarrass He Shangshu everywhere, which made He Shangshu unable to work and live normally. He had no choice but to "retire and go home". Even so, Zheng Zhilong was still reluctant to let go, and in order to demonstrate to Emperor Longwu, he sent someone to cut off one of He Shangshu's ears on the road. Emperor Longwu, who learned of this, was unable to use the emperor's power to punish the "murderer", so he could only wash his face with tears and sighed! This incident was compiled by the "Roadside Society" into a "Weibo" that "the capital can live without ears, and the emperor has a mouth but only cries", which was vividly publicized and widely reproduced. In desperation, Emperor Longwu came up with the idea of ​​finding a loyal minister and forming a "new army". Emperor Longwu's worries and Emperor Longwu's worries made one person anxious. He stood up consciously and resolutely wrote a letter, willing to form a "new army" and go out to supervise the division instead of the emperor. This person is the chief assistant of the Longwu Dynasty - Huang Daozhou. Huang Daozhou's current practice of embracing Zheng Zhilong's self-respect and coercing the court has reached the point where "it can be tolerated, but which cannot be tolerated". "Who said that literati can't organize the army?" He hoped that this time he could take a pen and join the army, relieve the king's worries, and make contributions to the country! Emperor Longwu was moved and readily agreed.Immediately worship Huang Shoufu as the supervisor of Daming, and let him form a team of his own first. The first assistant went out to supervise the teacher, there was Yang Sichang in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and there was history in the Hongguang Dynasty. When Yang Sichang went out to supervise the division, Emperor Chongzhen gave him the power to mobilize manpower, financial resources, and military forces across the country. When Shi Kefa went out to supervise the division, Emperor Hongguang also gave him the power to mobilize the troops of the five towns in Jiangbei and use the money and food in Jiangbei and Jiangbei. When Huang Daozhou went out to supervise his teachers, Emperor Longwu could only give him a few hundred blank "appointment letters". But Mr. Huang ran back to his hometown with these "appointment certificates", and in less than ten days, he raised a "people's army" of 3,000 people. This "children's army" has everyone, farmers, workers (handicraftsmen), Confucian scholars, small traders, boatmen, everyone gathered together just because of their passion for serving the country. This "children's army" has all kinds of weapons, such as broadswords, spears, blunderbusses, bows and arrows, and hoes, but most of them are shoulder poles commonly used at home, so this army is also called "shoulder pole soldiers" by everyone. He wanted to imitate the great Confucian Wang Yangming and do something for the country, but he forgot his age and strength. When Mr. Wang Yangming set foot in the military field, he was in the prime of his forties, and what he had in his hand was a decent regular army. However, when Old Master Huang set foot in the military today, he was already past his sixtieth year, and what he had in his hand was a "horse pole soldier" with no training and no combat experience. When he took this team to see Emperor Longwu, the emperor was also greatly moved. In order to make up for his emotional guilt, the emperor ordered Zheng Zhilong to "bleed" and provide the team with food and grass for a month. On July 22, 1645, Mr. Huang led three thousand "children soldiers" from Fuzhou, crossed the Xianxia Pass, and planned to go to Anhui via Jiangxi, where he joined forces with Jin Sheng and other anti-Qing rebels in Huizhou and Quzhou to open up the south. The "second battlefield" against the Qing Dynasty (the first battlefield is the eastern Zhejiang region of Lu Jianguo). This team also lacked means of transportation, with only a dozen horses, and as a result, the marching speed was extremely slow.After walking for more than a month, I arrived at Guangxin Mansion (now Shangrao), Jiangxi. Here, the old master Huang, who had no food, had to stop to "raise food and pay". Shi Lang (later changed his name to Shi Lang, who later defeated Zheng Jing and regained Taiwan) is serving as a small "company commander" in this "horse pole soldier". He joined the army at the age of seventeen. Based on his own military experience, he believed that leading such an army to fight against the regular army of the Qing Dynasty would definitely be defeated. Therefore, he boldly put forward his own "rationalization proposal" to Leader Huang—disbanding the team, taking only a small number of capable teams directly and quickly into Ganzhou from the small road, and dispatching southern Ganzhou, Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi with the brand of supervisor and chief assistant The local "regular Ming army" fought against the Qing army. But Old Master Huang believes that even with such a loose and straddling army, it can be "better than nothing." At the same time, he also feels that his students are "half the world", and the magistrates of many counties in Jiangxi and Anhui are his students. With the teacher-student relationship, he can reach wherever he goes, gather and respond, win food and enjoy the scenery. Therefore, he categorically rejected the suggestion of "Company Commander Shi". "Company Commander Shi" was very flexible, seeing that the "suggestion" was rejected, he immediately ran away, and no longer accompanied Old Master Huang to seek death. In Guangxinfu, Mr. Huang used his personal expertise to engage in patriotic education while wagging his wrists to write for others. He had only two purposes—to recruit people into the army and raise military expenses. Old Master Huang really has a "celebrity effect". In less than a month, he recruited a large number of recruits. The team quickly expanded to tens of thousands, and the food and military expenses raised were enough for three months. There are also people, money and food, and Old Master Huang is full of confidence.He divided this team into three groups, one group attacked Fuzhou to the west, and the other two groups attacked Wuyuan and Xiuning to the north. These three teams, which were ordinary people yesterday, encountered the "puppet army" commanded by Hong Chengchou and composed of the Nanming Jiangjun. Although they are "puppet soldiers", they are "professional players" after all, and because they have just joined the new boss, they are eager to get the "Military Medal". Therefore, these former remnants and defeated brigades performed particularly well in battle, and they will attack Wuyuan This "carrying pole army" of the Chinese Communist Party was in disarray. After the Wuyuan rebel army failed, the other two rebel armies in Xiuning and Fuzhou were also defeated one by one. After the victory, the "puppet army" pursued the victory, and Guangxin Mansion was also threatened. The Guangxin soldiers in the rebel army asked to return to their hometown to guard, and Old Master Huang agreed and let them go first. After the division of troops, Old Master Huang only had more than a thousand people in his hands.He led more than a thousand people to continue northward. On December 24th, this team arrived at Ming Tangli, where they were suddenly ambushed by a large group of Qing troops. After a bloody battle, most of these more than a thousand people died in battle, and Old Master Huang and his students—— Zhao Shichao, the head of the Ministry of War, and Mao Zhijie, the general judge, were captured. After being captured, Old Master Huang and his students were not subjected to personal humiliation or physical torture. On the contrary, they were "specially" protected like the national treasure giant panda, and politely sent to Jiangning (Nanjing, the former capital of Southern Ming Dynasty) . After arriving in Jiangnanning, they were treated like VIPs, and they were collectively arranged to live in a "high-end prison" with a beautiful environment and elegant style.There is no shortage of food and clothing every day, the supply is guaranteed, there is no mess of silk and bamboo, and no trouble of copying. Holding the mentality of "live one day, learn one day", Old Master Huang and his students wrote books, lectures and chanted poems in prison. He also took time out every day to receive the endless stream of visiting people, and the whole prison seemed to become a "yellow mansion". Among the people visiting the prison, some came to reminisce about the past, some came to persuade the old master to recognize the situation and return to the Qing Dynasty, and some came to ask for help and knowledge, but more people came to ask for words, because the words of Old Master Huang are so valuable. Huang Laofuzi, Ni Yunlu and Wang Duo are collectively known as the three major calligraphers in the late Ming Dynasty. Mr. Sha Menghai once praised his real books in "Calligraphy in the Nearly Three Hundred Years" like cliffs and mottled soil and flowers; At this time, the scholars in Nanjing had guessed that he would not surrender to the death, and the future would not be long, so they rushed to ask for words, and if they got them, they kept them as treasures. This "free prisoner" life lasted for a whole month, and one month later, the operator behind the scenes finally showed up. This operator is Hong Chengchou, the highest chief executive in the southeast of the Qing Dynasty and a famous traitor. Chief Hong treated Old Master Huang so "kindly" not because of the few pounds and taels of fellow villagers, but because he took a fancy to the reputation of the old master's generation of Confucian masters and his status as the chief assistant of Longwu. If the old master is hit by his own "sugar-coated cannonball" and surrenders, then for me, it can change the situation of being reviled in the "confucian circles" and make a good name for myself for "knowing talents, cherishing talents, respecting talents and loving talents". score. As far as the Qing Dynasty was concerned, to receive the heart of Old Master Huang was to receive the "scholar's heart" of all the intellectuals in the southeast, and the "official heart" of all the civil servants in the Longwu Dynasty. Based on his own experience of being "persuaded to surrender", Chief Hong understands that the most important thing for the success of persuading surrender is to make the persuaded people feel the beauty and value of life, so that they are willing to stay in this colorful world! Now, seeing Old Master Huang live so happily, he feels that the time has come to persuade him to surrender. On a sunny afternoon, Chief Hong came to the "Huang Mansion" to meet the old master. The two had made many acquaintances in the Chongzhen Dynasty before, but this time they met, neither the kindness of "a fellow countryman meets a fellow countryman", nor the joy of reuniting old friends after a long absence. Officer Hong found that in the eyes of the old master, there was no trace of gratitude or prayer, but contempt, contempt, and sarcasm... The next meeting between the two was also not speculative. Old Master Huang insisted that Hong Chengchou was dead, and the "Master Hong" in front of him was faked by a "villain", so he completely ignored it. Encountered with infinite embarrassment, Chief Hong had no choice but to retreat in embarrassment, and sadly ended the carefully prepared activity of persuading surrender. It was at this moment that he understood that in this world, there really was such a kind of person who would sacrifice his precious life to stick to his inner beliefs. He didn't want this "noble and great life" to be destroyed in his own hands, so he wrote a letter to Dorgon overnight, asking him to issue an order to pardon Old Master Huang, a "model in the intellectual world and a celebrity in the cultural world", for the long-term moral construction of the country. and cultural development to provide a "living sample". But Dorgon does not have Hong Chengchou's meticulous mind, and he does not want to worry about the invisible future. For him, the realistic need is not to allow people like Huang Daozhou to exist, because their existence will bring great harm to the current government. Endless troubles. He issued an "imperial decree" to execute Mr. Huang quickly. When the execution order came down, Mr. Huang had been on a hunger strike for 20 days in order to die. During the hunger strike, Mrs. Huang's old wife Mrs. Cai sent a letter saying: "A loyal minister has a country but no family, so don't look inside." With such a wife who understands righteousness, Old Master Huang has nothing to worry about, and only wants to die for the country quickly. On March 5, 1646, Mr. Huang was escorted out of Nanjing Donghua Gate for execution. When he passed by Zhu Yuanzhang’s Xiaoling Mausoleum, Mr. Huang did not intend to go any further, but insisted on executing his sentence here so that his future soul could stay with Hongwu forever. Grandpa's side. The prison officer had no choice but to order the torture to be carried out here, and the students who were captured together, Cai Chunluo, Lai Jijin, Zhao Shichao, and Mao Yujie bid farewell from behind: "Mr. The four were also killed on the same day, and were collectively called the "Four Gentlemen of the Yellow Gate" by later generations. Before the execution, the entourage asked the old master to leave a few last words for his family. He bit his finger, tore the fir, and wrote the last sixteen characters in his life on it with blood-"The outline is eternal, the righteousness is eternal; the world knows me, and the family has no worries." Zodiac Zhou, with pure passion, pure knowledge, and pure life, left! After the news of Huang Daozhou's death spread to Fujian, Emperor Longwu was very sorry, and he posthumously posthumously named Uncle Wenming and Zhonglie. There was Shi Kefa in the past, and Zodiac Zhou in the future. The two chief assistants of Hongguang and Longwu Dynasty ended their tragic lives in this way. Although they were not able to make great achievements, they have added a heavy spiritual wealth to our Jin nation with their words and deeds. 150 years later, Emperor Qianlong understood the choices made by the two at that time, and while "restoring honor" for them, he also ordered them to build a shrine to worship them. On the occasion of the completion of Huang Laofuzi's ancestral hall, Emperor Qianlong, who was proficient in Sinology, specially wrote a plaque of "Ancient and Modern Perfect Man" for him to express his special respect and emotion!