Zhu Youzhen, the Son of Heaven, looked at the performance of Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, and frowned. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

At the end of last month, Li Zhi sent a letter to the capital, saying that Shandong's "Sanwang Daily" had slandered him, and Zhu Youzhen knew that this was indeed true.

"Sanwang Daily" is the second newspaper of the Ming Dynasty, and it is jointly issued by the three princes. If the three feudal kings can cheer up and run a high-level newspaper, it can also improve the reputation of the Zhu Ming royal family and make the country more stable.

As a result, the content of the "Three Kings Daily" made Zhu Youzhen very disappointed, the news was all copied from the Di newspaper, not to mention the lag, it was still full of slanderous words against Li Zhi, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was vicious under the words. The three vassal kings and the scholars of Shandong joined forces to run a newspaper, so they came up with such a thing?

Immediately after receiving Li Zhi's recital, Zhu Youzhen issued a holy decree to rebuke the three vassal kings and ask them to correct the newspaper. Stop spreading rumors and slander against Li Zhi.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen also knew that his holy decree was useless. Zhu Youzhen's holy decree can probably make the "Three Kings Daily" honest for more than ten days, or the newspaper will revert to its old state in less than half a month. The Ming Dynasty did not scold people with words, and these literati were accustomed to rumors and slander. Just think about what the eunuchs were scolded after the fall of Wei Zhongxian. Li Zhi and the gentry of the world are incompatible, since these literati have the public opinion channel of the newspaper, how can they let Li Zhi go?

However, Li Zhi's counterattack made Zhu Youzhen a little annoyed. Li Zhi once again led his troops into the city of Jinan, and the defenders on the city wall were almost immediately defeated, and all 146 newspaper operators of the "Three Kings Daily" were captured by Li Zhi and beheaded at the execution ground.

Not only that, after Li Zhi's 5,000 Tiger Division soldiers entered Jinan City, they didn't leave. In the name of maintaining the situation, the soldiers of the Tiger Division controlled the walls and roads of Jinan City, as if they had become the masters of this provincial city. Zhu Youzhen issued two orders for Li Zhi to withdraw his troops, but Li Zhi dragged them all.

Zhu Youzhen threw Wang Yongji's recital on the imperial case, and was in a daze for a while. He stood up, walked to the window of the study, and looked out at the majestic palaces and groaned.

After a long time, he sighed.

Wang Chengen saw the Son of Heaven sighing, leaned up and said, "Holy Lord, the disregard for human life by the Duke of Jin Guo this time is indeed disappointing. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the scenery outside the window in a daze, and said for a long time: "I am disappointed, it is not Li Zhi. What I am disappointed is these scholars who do not know the country and do not know how to advance or retreat. ”

"My emperor and the people of the Ming Dynasty have a brilliant culture, and on weekdays, when it comes to the sage's subtle words, they have a lotus tongue, and all kinds of books and remarks are full of sweat. But at the critical moment, among these literati, the one selected to oppose Li Zhi was such a group of clowns who jumped off the beam. ”

"Running a newspaper is a good thing for a prosperous culture. In general, it can make the people understand loyalty, righteousness, and reason, and know the general righteousness of the country. In a small way, it can also improve the prestige and reputation of the Shandong gentry. It can be said that running a newspaper well will do no harm. ”

"Li Zhi ran my first newspaper in the Ming Dynasty, and the organizational style and layout format have been completed, and the literati of "Sanwang Daily" only need to copy it. That's it, they can't do things well. I didn't make the effort to gather the latest news from all over the world, and I couldn't write fair opinion pieces. ”

"In addition to the cliché of asserting his right to evade taxes, it is a rumor that slanders Li Zhi. In the end, a good newspaper becomes a tool for spreading rumors and slander. Shandong scholars chant for the poor everywhere, is this such a thing? Compared with the "Shandong Daily", which corrects the social order with fairness and justice everywhere, and inspires the people to be loyal to the family and country everywhere, what is the Three Kings Daily of this scholar? ”

"Afraid that Li Zhi would kill people, he pulled the vassal king into the gang, and wanted to rely on Li Zhi's loyalty to the royal family to carry out dirty methods. However, there is a bottom line in everything, they attack Li Zhi indiscriminately like this, in addition to giving Li Zhi the truth, what other use can they do? ”

Wang Chengen heard the words of the Son of Heaven, sighed, and said: "Compared with Tianjin, where the culture of the Duke of Tianjin is at its peak, the literati in Shandong are indeed inferior. ”

Zhu Youzhen snorted coldly and said, "These literati have read so many books, what reason don't they understand? is full of morality but does dirty things, in the final analysis, it is full of selfishness, and he doesn't know the responsibility of his family and country! ”

"Li Zhi implemented public ethics education in Tianjin, distinguishing right from wrong everywhere, and I deeply believe that when talking about public interests in advance. It is precisely with this culture that Li Zhi's Tianjin has become more and more prosperous, and Li Zhi's tiger master is so fierce and good at fighting. In turn, it is precisely because Li Zhi's power is so thriving that it has the momentum of continuous expansion. ”

"If my Ming officials have half of Li Zhi's public morality, and if the heavenly officials and military attachés have half of Li Zhi's sense of responsibility, how strong will my Ming be? Li Zhi still dares to challenge my Ming order? Killing people everywhere? ”

"What I sigh about is not that the Duke of Jin Guo is too arrogant and too strong, but what I sigh is that the officials and gentry of my Ming Dynasty are too shameless and too weak."

When Wang Chengen heard the words of the Son of Heaven, he didn't know what to say for a moment, so he lowered his head and said, "Emperor Shengming!" ”

Zhu Youzhen turned to look at Wang Chengen, feeling that Wang Chengen did not comprehend his words after all, and sighed again.

Zhu Youzhen gently patted the windowsill with his palm and said, "Wang Chengen, you said that I also follow the example of the Duke of Jinguo, advocate public morality among the officials and gentry in the world, and promote cool officials to severely punish the small, how about it?" ”

Wang Chengen bowed down and said: "Emperor Shengming, all Confucian scholars in the world read Confucian classics, full of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, according to the statement of the Duke of Jinguo, these are private virtues. Talking to Confucian scholars about public morality and public interest is afraid that it will have little effect. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then said: "Tianjin Daily is right, only public morality can make the country strong. Wang Chengen, what do you say would happen if I used cool officials to clean up the officialdom and promote some officials with public morality and right and wrong? ”

Wang Chengen took a breath, looked left and right, and whispered: "Shengshang, the civil officials in the officialdom now pay attention to the disciples of the master, pay attention to the same period of the same year, and pay attention to the seniority. On weekdays, the court pushes important positions, and the Son of Heaven has not yet been selected, and these officials have already discussed it privately. What's the benefit, those civil officials are privately divided according to their personal status, and they can be said to advance and retreat together. ”

"These civil officials have all formed a party, and everything must have a set of unspoken rules, and the rules of the whole party are determined by advancing and retreating. There are very few civil servants who do not form a party, and they often have to be isolated because they are ostracized by the party. The saint is reused, and these previously isolated ministers are also in a faction. Where can I find lonely ministers who are not group and selfless? ”

Wang Chengen said the truth, how Zhu Youzhen didn't understand. It was only when he saw that Li Zhi was getting stronger and stronger, and Zhu Youzhen was a little anxious, so he said this unrealistic statement.

Sighing, Zhu Youzhen said: "Now that Jiannu has not been completely annihilated, the thieves and fourteen thieves are making trouble in Shaanxi again, and Sichuan and Henan are not peaceful. I also listened to the hundreds of thousands of border troops dispatched by the imperial court to fight fires everywhere, and there were still few soldiers. Could it be that I just watched Li Zhi get stronger and stronger, and my Ming became weaker and weaker? ”