Chapter 73 Section 26 "We Are Gentle"

Because he has studied for several years, Zhang Xianzhong sometimes regarded himself as a scholar, and sometimes showed a good impression of these classmates in a broad sense. "Baofeng County Chronicles" records that on May 13th in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (AD 1642), Zhang Xianzhong conquered Baofeng, Henan, and gathered all the students in the Dragon King Temple outside the city. Yun: "We are gentle and gentle, but I have not succeeded in learning." After talking for a long time, they sent everyone into the city, and then pulled out the camp. In the past, "learning without success", today he has become the "king" who controls the fate of the people. Therefore, since Zhang Xianzhong's uprising, he has always been interested in opening courses to obtain scholars.Every time he captured a big city, when he had a rest time, he would hold an open-subject examination and force all scholars to participate.Personally set the questions and mark the papers, judge the competition, and decide the ranking.But if you pass the exam, you are usually only rewarded with a few taels of silver, and given a vain job, and not really appointed. It seems that happiness only lies in the process of testing others.

Zhang Xianzhong's attitude towards scholars has always been very contradictory: he wants to take advantage of them, but he is also very defensive. As mentioned above, Zhang Xianzhong is very intelligent, deep and cunning, and unpredictable. "Zhang Xianzhong's Fall in Luzhou" records that Yu Ruizi and Zhang Xianzhong spent several days together, "the eight 'thieves' (Zhang Xianzhong) shared food and chat all day long. As for the use of troops, I didn't mention it at all. Refutation, and stepping to see where the camp is, it is always issued at night, and people don't know it, even the "thieves" don't know it."

Zhang Xianzhong marched and fought, and he was very good at using tactics. He was much better than Li Zicheng in this regard.He has fought many classic battles in the history of Chinese warfare, and is known in history as "Zhang Xianzhong is the most cunning in using troops."For example, in the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635 A.D.) during the Lantern Festival, Fengyang should be chosen skillfully with 300 people as the inner limit.In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (AD), he pretended to be the banner of the Ming army to earn money from Biyang.In the following year, he pretended to be the examiner and went to the examinees to defeat the "Iron Luzhou" that the Ming army boasted at that time.

Zhang Xianzhong, like Zhu Yuanzhang and later Hong Xiuquan, a hero of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was very good at playing tricks.Zhu Yuanzhang claimed to be able to observe the sky, Hong Xiuquan claimed to be able to communicate directly with God, and according to records: (Zhang) At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he confuses the crowd with false rumors, saying that he saw the sky with his own eyes, and saw bows, arrows, knives, spears and other things.He also said that by the order of heaven, he will not only be the emperor of China, but also the emperor of the whole world.Then all the officials were ordered to look up at the sky, but they saw nothing.Xianzhong said that the sky is not clear today, so you can't see it, and there is also God's will in it.The strangeness of the sky is only seen by today's son, so that it can be done on behalf of the sky in the future.

However, no matter how cunning, Zhang's wisdom is after all the wisdom of chickens and dogs, and it comes from the strategy culture of the Communist Party of China.It is said in history that Zhang Xianzhong "made people talk about the books "Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" every day, and all ambushes and attacks were effective." Fundamentally speaking, he is not a man of great talent and generality, and he has failed to break through the green forest barriers of bravery and ruthlessness in his life.His vision and vision are too far from those of Liu Bang, Li Zicheng and others, and he lacks basic governance strategies, ability to employ people, learning ability and management level.This gravedigger of the Ming Dynasty is strikingly similar to the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, in terms of background, experience, and preferences, especially cruelty, barbarism, and selfishness.However, in terms of learning, employing people, and strategic vision, the two are really different.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also illiterate, but he was able to study on his own uninterruptedly between marches and battles. Later, he not only familiarized himself with classics and history, but even wrote quite beautiful articles.However, Zhang Xianzhong started as illiterate and ended up illiterate. He didn't recognize a few big characters until his death. When Zhu Yuanzhang started his army, he embraced the ambition of the world. Whenever he went to a place, he must first recruit talents and unite a large number of insightful scholars around him, which greatly improved the knowledge and strategic level of his team.But Zhang Xianzhong always felt uncomfortable in front of scholars.The only member of his team, Wang Zhaoling, is a rogue scholar who only seeks to understand Zhang's thoughts. Later, he only knows how to follow Zhang's favor, and keeps persuading Zhang Xianzhong to kill, and finally loses his support.

Zhang Xianzhong never blinked his eyes in front of swords and guns, but he could never understand the profound things in the minds of scholars.In front of them, he has been unable to overcome his inferiority complex.This makes his attitude towards scholars very contradictory.He won the champion Zhang Dashou.Zhang Xianzhong was "delighted at first sight" of this man, and he rewarded him and gave him a banquet for a day of fun.The ministers also praised Zhang Xianzhong for winning the talent, and in the future he would "assist Shengming, the prosperity of this country, and the image of Pixiu for thousands of years".Zhang Xianzhong was very happy, "Blessed ten beauties, the first district of A, and twenty family members."

The next day, Zhang Dashou went to the court to thank him, and the applicants reported their names. Zhang Xianzhong heard this, and suddenly frowned and said: "This donkey breeder, I love him very much, but when I see him, I can't fall in love with him. I'm a little afraid of seeing him, so hurry up and clean up with me, don't let him come to see me again." The minister took orders, went to the gate of the palace, tied up Zhang Dashou and killed him. He couldn't get close to these gentle people.He knows that the knife in his hand is what scholars are most afraid of.But they were only afraid of him because of it.These scholars who abide by the "three cardinal guides and five constant principles" are not only disgusted with him, but also hate him.Whenever possible, they would take the lead in rebelling against him.Therefore, in Daxi Kingdom, he was most worried about scholars.

For him, the more important purpose of taking the imperial examination in Sichuan is to control these scholars and prevent them from "creating chaos" in the local area.Therefore, after passing the exam, the vast majority of people will not be appointed. They are only ordered to wait beside the Eight Great Kings and write official documents.And after the exam, no matter whether you pass or fail, you are not allowed to go home. "Mr. Wuma Chronicles" contains: This time is different from the previous ones. In the previous exams, the sixth-class students were allowed to be removed. Those who were not selected as children were not allowed to dodge. Ten people get married, one family has something to do, and nine families sit in a row. Although the father and son, and the couple live in private, they dare not speak lightly.

As a result, many scholars burned their books, took off their Confucian uniforms, and dared not call themselves scholars anymore. The father of Fu Diji, the author of "Mr. Five Horses Chronicles", saw that reading was easy to cause trouble, so he ordered Diji to abandon the book and go into business. "In view of this, the master of the family was afraid of taking the name of reading and causing unexpected disasters, so he ordered the abolition of business and trade, so as to avoid people's real facts."