Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Ideal and Reality

I passed out from the pain, and when Youyouhuhu opened her eyes, her senses were numb, as if the pain had gone away; but just as the eyelids opened, and the corners of the eyes slightly moved, the bone-piercing pain came back again. All returned to consciousness, and gradually aggravated as sanity gradually recovered... Not half of the skin on his body is intact. It took less than half a day to be arrested and tortured in the county. All the tortures in the rumors were used less than one percent. He wailed, fainted several times, and had no other thoughts in his mind other than seeking a quick death.

Zhang Jingxiu fell on the ground like a paralyzed ooze, his body was covered with congealed dirty blood, his ribs and leg bones were broken, his whole body was torn apart, his breath was like a thread, only his mind was gradually waking up; he didn't even dare to move his eyeballs I am deeply afraid that if I stretch my muscles, the pain will intensify; I was born in a scholarly family and a family of officials, and my life stages from childhood to adulthood are studying, taking exams, and being an official, that's all, the biggest suffering I have suffered is just the midnight lights Wu Gengji's "studying hard" has been written, and even his fingers have never been cut by a knife. How can he withstand such torture?

"One hundred and one useless is a scholar!" A faint voice rose in my heart, but the next thought came up immediately: "No, it's not that the scholar is useless, it's me who is useless..." He had heard that when some Jiangyang thieves were tortured by Ling Chi, they could talk and laugh freely until they died of breath; Afterwards, he calmly sacrificed himself without changing his integrity; compared with them, he was really far behind, and he couldn't stand the torture for a long time, so he actually falsely surrendered——Thinking of this, a burst of shame surged in his heart , The feeling of pain seeps into the soul from the body.

He clearly remembered that after he woke up from the pain for the second time, he couldn't stand it any longer, so he had to confess that his father left 300,000 gold in his disciples Zeng Xingwu, Wang Zhuan, Fu Zuozhou, etc. people at... "This is going to hurt them..." These few people have already been dismissed because they are "Zhang Juzheng students", and now these charges are added inexplicably, and I don't know what kind of disaster they will suffer; it's all because they can't bear the pain and hurt others—— He was ashamed that he was not Fang Xiaoru's kind of tough man with awe-inspiring integrity. He couldn't maintain the dignity, principles and integrity of a scholar after being tortured. In contrast, he was not only a coward, not worthy of being a scholar, but even unworthy of being himself. Father's son!

Thinking of his father, Zhang Jingxiu's heart, which was already in pain, became even more bitter; as the eldest son, he spent more time with his father than his younger brothers - when he was born, his father had not yet been awarded a Jinshi, and as an adult, he spent more time with his father. At that time, my father had not yet entered the cabinet, so he had more leisure time, and even had time to consider his articles in person; because I was older, I spent more time with my father, and knew more about my father than others. some... Father has been in the officialdom for decades, first caught in the power struggle between Yan Song and Xu Jie, and then in the struggle between Xu Jie and Gao Gong. He was once dismissed from office and went home to study. After his comeback, he made some corrections. The method of being an official is so that it is always disadvantageous, and finally gathers the power of the world in the palm of the hand; the whole process often makes the commentators judge with "power" and "conspiracy", and make friends with the great eunuch Feng Bao and flatter the two queen mothers in order to act The smooth way of being an official also made the Qing discussers add the word "shu". The attitude towards the little emperor is more likely to be associated with Duke Zhou, Wang Mang, and Cao Cao, and the content of governance is compared to Wang Anshi; however, Only a few people understand the true spiritual level of my father-father is an idealist who pursues perfection in his bones, and all his life's hard work is actually just pursuing an ideal country in his mind that does not actually exist.

"Reading the books of sages, what do you learn?" This is a sentence that my father often hangs on his lips. He knows that what his father, who read the sage books, yearns for the governance of the world in ancient times, the era of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu; The Ming Dynasty governed the world no less than ancient times, and created a "Government of Wanli" that will last forever in history. Of course, after entering the officialdom, my father immediately clearly understood the gap between ideals and reality; since the system of selecting scholars with eight-legged essays in this dynasty has been in conflict with the political concepts explained in the classics by ancient sages and sages, Paradoxically, the bureaucratic system formed by the civil service system that has been in use for two hundred years is not the ideal of "the people are the most important, the community is second, and the emperor is the least"; , Only in the ideology of the emperor and scholar-officials will encounter many difficulties.

However, my father is not a person who will stop moving forward or change his ideals when encountering difficulties; he is a firm-willed and even stubborn person. In the face of difficulties, he will only change the method of doing things, but not the goal of doing things, so , he used all kinds of tricks and tricks as a superficial lubricant to carry out his mission of governing the Ming Dynasty... Sure enough, he succeeded; after ten years as the chief minister of the cabinet, he has made the country the most prosperous and happy since the founding of the Ming Dynasty; except that the land surveying work in the whole country has not yet been completed, he can smile at Jiuquan!

No matter the emperor's attitude towards him changes, the courtiers attack him, destroy his reputation, or even pursue his official position and ransack his family after his death, it can't change the fact that his father's achievements during his ten years in power-his name will be Will go down in political history and be highly regarded! "However, I have humiliated him--only to be falsely subdued because I can't stand the torture--I am not worthy to be his son!" Thinking of this, Zhang Jingxiu suddenly opened his eyes wide, and his ability to endure pain seemed to have increased a bit, so he gritted his teeth and supported his limbs with the palm of his hand, and slowly turned over and sat up; As soon as he came, he only relied on constantly thinking about his father's various careers, so that he could gain the strength to support his spirit; after sitting down, he turned his head and looked around. There is an oil lamp like a bean on a table, and a Jin Yiwei fell asleep on the table; he is the only person locked up in the prison, a frail scholar who has been beaten to pieces, don't need to be too wary of him escaping !

However, this is a good opportunity for him... "I will no longer be a burden to others—at least hold on to the last ounce of human dignity, so that I won't be too shameless to see my father!" After thinking about it, he untied his trouser belt, fastened one end to the iron bars of the cell, put a slipknot in the middle, put his head in, and then tightened the other end, strangling himself to death .

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