Chapter 77 Section 1 "Carrots and Sticks"

As mentioned earlier, in the process of conquering the world, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the role of intellectuals.Being good at appointing scholars is one of the main reasons for his success.Before the founding of the country, he was very respectful and enthusiastic towards intellectuals. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards intellectuals changed a lot. In the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he still attached great importance to the work of talents. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all kinds of wastes were waiting for prosperity, and talents were urgently needed on all fronts.Zhu Yuanzhang set off a climax of visiting intellectuals to enrich his bureaucratic team.

He continued the old method of fighting the world, ordering people to carry a lot of money to go to various places to find talents.He still insisted on "giving enough face" to the intellectuals, and asked the envoys to "seek talents, and indecent manners are not acceptable... Yousi will make inquiries with all his heart, and must seek real materials, and send them with courtesy."In the first year of Hongwu Xu Da's Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered him to pay attention to recruiting talents while fighting.After all, Xu Da is a warrior. As long as he is a scholar, no matter whether he wants to or not, he will force them to go to Beijing and use force without moving.When Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he immediately issued an announcement to appease him, saying: "If any of the talents recruited is unwilling to do so, the company will not force them to do so, and let them do as they please."

However, at this time the intellectual policy has changed from one hand to two hands.When the world is uncertain, he will not force scholars to leave the mountain.Because of the urgency, these people may run to his opponent.He could only put on a magnanimous look and ignore it.Now that the world has the surname Zhu, the situation is irreversible, and scholars have nowhere to escape. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang often unconsciously loses patience and shows his fangs to those intellectuals who don't give him face too much. Uncle and nephew Xia Boqi in Guixi County, Jiangxi Province wanted to be a Yuan adherent, but he did not want to be an official, so he cut off his left thumb.Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he heard about it, Xia Boqi's uncle and nephew were shown to the public, and the whole family was wiped out.Like Xia Boqi's uncle and nephew, Zhu Yuanzhang also killed Suzhou literati Yao Run and Wang Mo.

"A Brief History of the Ming Dynasty" further records: Since the emperor won the world, he viciously conquered the stubborn people of the country and fled into Ziliu. He gathered dozens of people, dug a mud pit, exposed its top, and chopped it with a big axe.A few heads are cut off, and it is called "shoveling head meeting". Zhu Yuanzhang hated those survivors who entrusted themselves to the temple, buried them in the ground, only their heads were exposed, and chopped off with a big axe, which was called "shovel head meeting". Before Zhu Yuanzhang, although the monarchy was serious, the scholar-bureaucrat class still enjoyed a certain degree of personality independence. "Hermitage in the mountains and forests" is not only tolerated, but even respected. This is the last space for people to breathe freely in traditional society.Zhu Yuanzhang blocked this space without hesitation. He believed that those who refused to cooperate with his regime must have looked down on him, a former beggar.He issued an order: "Leading the shore of the land, could it be the king's ministers. The scholar-bureaucrats in Huanzhong are not used by the emperor, they are those who teach from outside. It is not an exaggeration to punish them without having a family." This is the so-called "Huanzhong It is a crime that a gentleman does not serve the king."

The world is his Zhu Yuanzhang's world, and all scholars live by the sun and rain of his Zhu family, not serving his Zhu family, this is a heinous crime.Later, he also wrote a special article "Yan Guang Lun" to continue to expound his theory that "it is a crime not to use it for the king".Yan Guang is the deceased of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty. After Liu Xiu ascended the throne, he kept his name incognito and refused to go out of the mountain. Liu Xiu had to let him go fishing in the Fuchun River for leisure. Three hundred years later, he was severely criticized by Zhu Yuanzhang.Zhu Yuanzhang said, if it was a time when Chimei, Wang Lang, Liu Penzi and others were in chaos, where would Yan Guang go fishing?The reason why he has a place to fish now is because the emperor has pacified the world.Since he received the emperor's favor, he should go out to serve.

The effect of the carrot and stick policy is very obvious.Intellectuals all over the world no longer dared to hide in Tibet, and all came out honestly to serve the new regime.Due to the joining of a large number of intellectuals, the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty was quickly established, and the state machinery began to operate effectively as planned.