Chapter 38 Postscript Wanli, Renchen, Wenlu

There are many characters in the picture and they are as small as a colony of ants. They are densely arranged in a special pattern. There are mountains in the distance and buildings nearby. The classical style of painting is neat and delicate, and the layout is elegant. The world and the atmosphere revealed are not harmonious. Watching carefully, looking for the content of these pictures, the historical events four hundred years ago are just in front of you; this "Battle of Busan Picture" is a picture of the invasion of North Korea sent by Toyotomi Hideyoshi when they captured Busan. The current situation; this "Picture of Turtle Ships" depicts Yi Sun-shin, a famous North Korean anti-Japanese general, leading the tortoise fleet designed and trained by himself to resist the invading Japanese navy; It was Li Rusong, the chief general of the Ming Dynasty who aided the Korean War against the Japanese, and led the Ming army to assist in resisting the Japanese army in North Korea-history cannot be reproduced, I just saw the real history from the drawings.

I also saw a portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is wearing exquisite and elegant clothes. Under a black hat, the long eyes on his thin face are getting sharper and more energetic; he is not young anymore, and his wrinkles are obvious. The lines of the years are formed on the face; the thin body is sitting upright, holding a plum blossom in the hand-such an inconspicuous appearance, compared with many heroic or majestic appearances in history, has a different meaning. It is almost unbelievable that this person is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the all-powerful figure in Japanese history. However, this is absolutely true. This person is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who not only once stood proudly in Japanese history, but was also the initiator of this transnational war four hundred years ago.

In 1592 AD, in China it is the 20th year of Ming Shenzong Wanli, in Korea it is the 25th year of Sunjo, the age of Imchen, and in Japan it is the first year of Emperor Goyosei's Bunroku—— On April 13th, Nitoyotomi Hideyoshi launched a war that he had prepared for many years. He sent an army of more than 166,000 people across the sea to attack North Korea in eight groups. The next day, the landing troops launched a dawn attack and surrounded Pusan. City, and quickly captured Busan; this is called "Imjin Japanese Disaster" in Korean history, and "Wenlu Battle" in Japanese history. In seven years, a large-scale war involving China, Japan, and South Korea kicked off in Yan.

I read one by one and compared the various records collected from various parties, including text and pictures, in an attempt to explore the overall significance of this long-term transnational war; Ninety-two, Ninety-one, Ninety-one name that appeared in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Oda Nobunaga, and even Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the entire Warring States Period. After the collapse of the unified regime, the history of Japan has inevitably entered a split—just like any other history in the world—and this split has inevitably brought pain to the people of Japan; nearly two hundred years of "Warring States" "Era", wars are raging everywhere, wars are everywhere, and the people are in dire straits. It is a world where the world is inhumane and treats everything as a dog. It was not until Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi joined each other one after another and after some hard work that the situation of division gradually resumed. Change, and move towards the road of unity.

However, although the cycle of "unity for a long time must be divided, and long-term division must be combined" is the law of history, it still requires people living in history to pay a heavy price; Toyotomi Hideyoshi paid a huge price to complete the unified hegemony. He still needs to spend more effort to solve all kinds of problems that follow. From the economy, territory to the way out for soldiers who are used to fighting, they all make him troubled. When thinking hard, he thought of In order to develop overseas and invade other countries to solve domestic problems. It is clearly recorded in the historical data that the target of his invasion is the Chinese, and the route is to enter from North Korea. In 1585, seven years before the start of the war, he told the foreign missionary Spar Kairo in Osaka City When he revealed his plan to purchase warships, he had clearly stated his ambition to invade China. In the second year, he conquered Kyushu and publicly announced his intention; in June of the same year, he sent tea master Sen Rikyu As an envoy to Tsushima Island, he asked the island owner Soyoshi Tiao to send troops to help when he sent troops to North Korea——

And even though he has made it clear that he will falsely go to North Korea and invade China's ambitions, the coveted two countries are unaware of it, allowing him to calmly deploy preparations for aggression for as long as seven years, Even, until the war had started and Busan had fallen, the courts of the two countries did not know the situation. Reading such historical materials, one cannot but be filled with emotion—with such an absurd court, no wonder it was insulted! The 20th year of Wanli is the 20th year of Emperor Wanli's accession to the throne, and the 10th year of the death of the great statesman Zhang Juzheng. The trend of the Ming Dynasty's prosperity and decline has become very obvious.

In this year, the 30-year-old Emperor Wanli made the first record in "History of the Ming Dynasty Benji": "Bingxu, the first month of spring, gave Meng Yanghao a speech to build a reserve staff, and cut his membership."——He put Shangshu asked him to appoint Meng Yanghao, the official who named the crown prince, to punish the official who said something he didn't like to hear by using the "court rod" that insulted the dignity of scholar-bureaucrats the most in the dynasty. In the "first month of spring", it was still snowing in Beijing. The feather-like fine snow carried the bone-chilling cold, hitting the residents all over the city. There was a thick layer of snow on the ground. It became a piece of mud with the mud; and a speech officer who had read poetry and books since childhood and was born as a scholar in the second list was escorted to the east side of the imperial road in front of the Meridian Gate in the light snow; in front of him, on the left was Wanli The eunuch who was sent by the emperor to supervise the staff, the Jinyiwei official school on the right, and the banner school with dozens of arm sleeves and wooden sticks in charge of execution.

The eunuch in charge of ceremonies came up and read out the imperial decree in a high-pitched voice, and the concluding sentence "I appreciate this. Thank you." It is tied up below the shoulders, and the feet are tied with ropes. The person is dragged around like a livestock and falls to the ground. He lies face down in the cold and dirty slush, with his thighs completely exposed, ready to be roded. When everything was ready, the banner school members shouted like thunder at the top of their voices: "Stand stick—" Soon, a wooden stick was placed on the thigh. Then, there was another yell: "Hit——"

In an instant, a scene of horrific scenes appeared together with the sound, the shouts of the flag schools and the sound of beating wooden sticks mixed with the screams of the prisoners—as for the bloody and bloody tortured officials struggling between life and death, while the heavenly The snowflakes were still falling mercilessly, and the people watching around were no longer surprised—everyone was used to it. The punishment of "court stick" was established in the Ming Taizu era, and it was specially used to punish disobedient officials; It has been two hundred years, let alone the number of officials who have been tortured is too many to count, even the number of officials who died on the spot has been too many to count.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not respect scholars, not only Xi, but also the system and tradition—just like other unreasonable systems in the Ming Dynasty—officials were not necessarily punished because they made mistakes. Like Meng Yanghao, it was just a memorial that went against the emperor's wishes. This time, Meng Yanghao was reprimanded for requesting the appointment of the crown prince. It is actually a very wronged thing to lose his official position; because, for the appointment of the crown prince, the Wanli Emperor did not know how many times he had conflicts with the ministers. Not every minister who requested to register the crown prince in the Shangshu was punished by the court; Meng Yanghao's blame may be just "false words, and the anger of the other party"; It is not difficult for later generations of history readers to explore the overall morbidity of this era due to the multi-act record.

Originally, if Emperor Wanli, as husband and father, was just an ordinary person instead of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, then he would prefer Concubine Zheng and her third son Chang Xun, and dislike Concubine Wang Gong and her eldest son Chang Luo, the problems and conflicts will not be so big, and there are even no problems and conflicts at all; but, unfortunately, he was "born in the emperor's family", and his attitude towards his sons will affect the candidate for the next emperor However, the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty were very stubborn and stuck to the traditional concepts of ethics and patriarchal clan, insisted on the principle of "establishing the son and establishing the elders", and chattered endlessly to Emperor Wanli, which triggered a series of follow-up events. And this is only the most intense conflict on the surface. In fact, the existing problems are a thousand times, a hundred times more than the dispute over the "establishment reserve". Since Zhang Juzheng's death, the choice of the chief assistant of the cabinet is not as good as one, making politics increasingly corrupt. , wealth is increasingly insufficient, and Emperor Wanli is becoming more and more dissolute; in just ten years, the originally prosperous and happy Ming Dynasty has been riddled with diseases. Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mentality is clearly recorded in "Nippon Gaishi": There were voters from the people of the Ming Dynasty who said that Zhu Yijun, the lord of the Ming Dynasty, was out of power and had no military equipment. Hideyoshi wanted to see it. ———If Emperor Wanli hadn't lost his virtue, how could it have caused Toyotomi Hideyoshi's idea of ​​"taking advantage of it"? And the national conditions of North Korea at that time fully complied with the historical law of "born in sorrow and died in peace"—— The Korean people who were born before 1592 were lucky, because there had been no wars on this peninsula adjacent to China for nearly two hundred years; but, from another perspective, this luck was also A kind of misfortune; because long-term comfort will make people lose their sense of urgency and fighting spirit. The sequelae of "the people don't know how to fight" is that it is easy to arouse the covetousness of ambitious countries, and once a war breaks out, it is even more irresistible. There are only a few intellectuals who can be vigilant in comfort, but when these few prophets warn the whole country that troubles are coming, not many people are willing to believe them; Indulging in leisure and pleasure, the interest in wine and beauties has surpassed politics, let alone the unseen worries?However, the nobles and important ministers in the court are divided into two factions, the East and the West, fighting for power and attacking each other; When such infighting continued unceasingly, the Japanese army had already landed on the territory of North Korea honestly and unceremoniously, and captured Wangjing all the way. , while sending envoys to China for help. Since North Korea is a vassal state of China, if it asks for help, China is of course obliged to send troops to help; thus, batches of Ming Dynasty troops were sent to the Korean battlefield-this war evolved into the Three Kingdoms War. However, the Nai-Japanese army, which was so powerful and led by the famous general Li Rusong, won first and then lost-the war was delayed for seven years, until the Japanese army withdrew due to the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and this transnational war finally came to an end . It was a historical event four years ago. Both the initiators and participants of the war have long been reduced to a pile of dry bones. I can only use the preserved words and pictures as the basis for my exploration and thinking; Facts, as far as the antecedents, consequences and effects of the war, and finally the enlightenment brought by this war. Reading historical materials, I often sigh with relief after thinking over and over again; the history of mankind is full of various wars, and each of these battles, except for the time, place and names of people, has different causes. It is consistent, that is, it comes from human greed, lust for power, ignorance and ugliness. I carefully looked at the "Busan Battle Map" copied on the book. A long wall separated the two worlds. Inside the city were Korean officials stationed to defend against the enemy, and outside the city were overwhelming Japanese troops struggling to attack the city. The situation at the scene is nothing more than people killing people. Then what? Before the battle was over, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the initiator of the war, died of illness. When he left, his hands were empty, and he could neither take away the hegemony he had established in the world, let alone Take away the proceeds of aggression in this war; what's more, within a dozen years after his death, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was originally loyal to him, forced to death his son Toyotomi Hideyori, replacing his overlord. When he was sitting with a plum blossom in his hand and asked the painter to draw a portrait, did he ever think of such a behind-the-scenes event? And in 1592, what about Emperor Wanli, who ordered the officials of the court staff as the first thing in the spring?Of course, he didn't expect what would happen behind him—even, he didn't even predict the historical event that would happen in the second year, that is, Nurhachi defeated the nine coalition forces with a single blow and laid the foundation for the Jurchen Unification, the foundation of the country-but after just a few decades, the great Ming Dynasty left to him by his ancestors was passed on to his grandson, Emperor Chongzhen, and it ended. Of course, the situation in North Korea is even worse; as a battlefield, after the war, of course, it was devastated and severely damaged, and the "vulnerable" truth has been seen by others, and it will inevitably suffer from repeated aggression since then—what is even more sad is that North Korea The monarchs and ministers of the country did not wake up from their drunken dreams at all because of the invasion, and they worked hard and united to resist foreign aggression; during the seven years of the war, most of the country was already facing the fall of the country, and the country was at a critical moment of life and death. , the king is still as stupid as before, the ministers are still infighting whenever they have the opportunity, and the villain squeezes out the gentleman——reading such records, who can not be moved? Even after a war is over, the sequelae are still endless, not to mention the manpower, material resources and lives consumed on the battlefield. History is always a living lesson. I keep exploring and searching in historical materials, trying to put forward the lessons of history as enlightenment for the future; whether it is a war launched by a country with wolfish ambitions, or being insulted by foreign countries because of lack of self-improvement The combination of the invaded countries is a human world. Starting from 1592, when the flames of war were ignited, various aspects of human nature and the rise and fall of dynasties are presented in the cloud of history. Not only the war itself, or the use of Wanli, Renchen, or Wenlu to record events, 1592, no matter for China, Korea, or Japan, is a record of failure; because, through this war , what I see is the corruption within these three countries; even if there is no war, what will remain in history will be a record of failure.