Although he always felt that something was wrong, before the emperor put on a firm posture, Qian Qianyi finally accepted the emperor's order. Even if he doesn't pick it up, Wen Tiren next to him will definitely take it. Although Qian Qianyi felt that those Shanxi gentry were a little pitiful, he was even more reluctant to become the shepherd who was thrown out by the emperor.

Although the sheepfold theory described by the emperor is too straightforward, it depicts the situation in front of the Ming Dynasty very well. Qian Qianyi, like Wen Tiren, understood it almost immediately, but he still couldn't bear it in his heart, so he just let Wen Tiren take the lead.

However, when the matter became a foregone conclusion, Qian Qianyi could only choose to follow in the footsteps of the emperor. In this damn world, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have died, and they can't solve the overall disaster relief situation faced by the imperial court. However, if the target is replaced by those gentry and large families, dozens or hundreds of commoners can often survive in one family, which is conducive to solving the crisis faced by the imperial court.

Since these people are unwilling to take the initiative to respond to the call of the imperial court and hand over the money and grain to the state, then it is no wonder that the imperial court uses coercive means. In the current situation, even Qian Qianyi can't take care of the gentry in other places, so he can only keep his relatives and friends in his hometown first.

After Qian Qianyi and Wen Tiren went down, Zhu Youzhen saw Xia Yunyi's expression standing on the side quite unbearable, and he couldn't help but say to him: "What, do you think my handling method is too harsh?" ”

Xia Yunyi shook his head and replied: "Your Majesty's quick knife to cut through the mess, if it can make the gentry of the world wake up because of this, then going to the Kang clan can live most of the gentry, this is the meaning of governance like fire, and the minister does not think it is harsh."

The minister only felt a little pity for the Jiang family being affected by this matter, and his family had guarded the frontier for several generations, which was not false to say that he was loyal to his father. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and mocked: "For a courtier who bargains with me with loyalty and patriotism, I am afraid that the loyalty and patriotism in his mouth are still mostly business."

Under the banner of loyalty and patriotism, you can deduct military salaries and enslave sergeants? Can he hang a gold medal for himself to avoid death, and ignore the laws of the imperial court?

Can the exploits of his family be greater than that of Yinggong Youde and Lianggong Lanyu? These people, if they don't move their interests, they shout the slogan of loyalty and patriotism every day. As soon as their interests were moved, they began to complain that the slogans of the past were shouted in vain.

It can be seen that if you want to make them loyal and patriotic, you have to let them cut the land and become the king. Otherwise, they will shout a few words with resentment: They love the country, but does the country love them?

But is this country the private property of one man? Are the people of this world my slaves? What is the value of such a dynasty in exchanging the wealth of the country and the suffering of the people for the loyalty of such shameless people? Serving one person in the world is not what I want. ”

Xia Yunyi was suddenly greatly moved, forgetting the sheepfold theory that the emperor had just talked about, and couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty has lofty ambitions, and the ministers are willing to drive for Your Majesty to achieve the Ming in Your Majesty's mind." ”

Zhu Youzhen's face finally showed a little smile, he stepped forward and patted Xia Yunyi's shoulder and praised: "Okay, I know that Gong Yu is different from those people outside." They only have themselves and their families in their hearts, and they can no longer hold anyone else in their hearts. You are different, you still have the people in your heart, as long as there are more and more people like you in the country, Daming will not go back to the past..."

Although Xia Yunyi was greatly excited to be praised by the emperor, it was even more exciting to hear the description of the future Ming from the emperor's mouth. Only the Ming described by the emperor is worthy of him desperately following the emperor to pursue such an ideal country.

However, after a period of excitement at the beginning, he quickly calmed down and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty is unwilling to compromise with these selfish villains, of course, it is for the sake of the interests of the people of the world. However, the minister was worried that such a disposition would not be too tough, and if these gentry took risks, it might not be a blessing for the country. ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled contemptuously and said: "Since ancient times, there is only Liu Xiu who can successfully rebel with his status as a local tyrant. Do you know why? ”

Xia Yunyi lowered his head and thought for a while, and finally shook his head and said, "The minister is dull, please ask Your Majesty for some advice." ”

Zhu Youzhen waved his hand and said, "I can't talk about pointing, but I have a little idea, and I can discuss it with you."

I think that the reason why there are very few successful rebellions by local tyrants is that the burden is too heavy; The second is the lack of a sense of the overall situation.

The so-called strong people are naturally people who have land and industry in the local area. It seems that the big families in such places can naturally pull out a group of people in their hometowns. But once you are far away from home, you are no different from being a homeless.

Therefore, at the end of the dynasty, although there are many heroes who rebel under the banner, they can't lose their land and property, and they can't let their huge relatives wander around with them.

Family, land, and mansions are the greatest burden on them, so it is difficult for them to move around and fight like the dispossessed people, so as to constantly absorb the living forces and eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled, and finally build a strong force.

And these strong local concepts are too heavy, so naturally they can't look at the situation outside correctly, and they only focus on their hometowns, and at some point they lose the opportunity to strengthen their own strength.

The gentry of the Ming Dynasty are also this kind of household dogs, even if they want to rebel against the imperial court, at most they will only toss in their hometown. If you want them to scatter their wealth and follow the homeless people to make trouble everywhere, then what do they do when they raise troops against the laws of the imperial court?

As long as there is no erosion in the place, like such a rebel who guards in one place, it is not difficult for the imperial court to mobilize troops all the way to quell the past. What the court was worried about was that the displaced people would continue to move and eat up the food in one place, and then coerce the people of another place to continue to grab the next place.

This kind of snowballing thieves is too destructive to the local area, and even if the official army defeats them, it will be difficult to settle these people. As soon as the situation changed slightly, the army of displaced people rose again, and finally there was no possibility of disaster relief for the local government, and the resources in the hands of the imperial court became less and less.

Therefore, in the last years of the dynasty, there are few successful local powerful rebels, but the leaders of the displaced people and the generals of their relatives can have the last laugh.

Whether it is the gentry in Shanxi or the gentry in other places, if they don't take action, it's fine, if they do, in fact, it will be more beneficial to the imperial court. To quell the rebellion of the displaced people, the imperial court will not get any resources except the population, but to quell the local rebellion, the imperial court can at least recover the land to divide the people, which is not bad. ”

Xia Yunyi was not completely convinced by the emperor's explanation, he frowned and thought for a long time before continuing to ask: "If the local rebellion of the displaced people and the rebellion of the gentry are united, the imperial court may not be able to deal with it so easily, right?" ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a long time before replying: "Yes, this situation is naturally the worst. But we have no other choice now, and this is like controlling the water, blindly trying to stop the flood, and the dam will eventually burst. Therefore, we must first sort out the water, and then intercept it.

The resources in the hands of the imperial court are like the earth and stones used to build a dam, but the further back you go, the fewer resources the imperial court has, because most of the resources have to be consumed in disaster relief operations.

And the people's grievance is the flood, no matter how hard we try, we can't let all the people affected by the disaster survive. The more people who died, the greater the resentment of the population.

The people do not look at the problem from the perspective of the imperial court, they will only look at the matter of the imperial court disaster relief from their own perspective. No matter how many resources the court expends, those who watch their loved ones die around them will only think that the court is incompetent and corrupt.

Therefore, the most dangerous time is not when the disaster is at its worst, but when the disaster has just begun and is about to pass.

When a disaster strikes, people take risks in order to keep their families alive. When the disaster is about to pass, the living people have survived, but they have lost everything. At this moment, as long as someone instigates it, the anger of the people will be vented towards a certain goal.

Therefore, the best solution to the crisis is not to postpone the crisis to a moment where it cannot be resolved. Instead, we take advantage of the fact that we still have sufficient resources to break down a large crisis into countless smaller ones, so that even if we can't solve all the troubles, we can at least reduce the destructive power of the crisis when it erupts.

Now is such a moment, the rebellion of a few gentry, first, can divert the resentment of the victims, and they are now a rebellion launched to obstruct the relief of the imperial court; The second is to break out the local instability factors in advance, and eliminate these local instability factors, so that there will not be so many backbones in the next popular rebellion..."

The Shanxi gentry and Jiang brothers, who originally thought that under the pressure of everyone, the imperial court would always have some concessions, ushered in an unprecedented severe accusation from the imperial court, and linked the Kang case with the Zhangjiakou ultimatum case in the past, believing that the Kang family was the fish that slipped through the net in the past, and it was the spies planted by the Manchus in the Ming Dynasty who were ready to launch a rebellion at such a time to respond to the southward movement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In the face of such a murderous court announcement, the Shanxi gentry, who were still holding grievances for the Kang family, suddenly panicked. After all, the imperial court announcement pointed out that the Kang clan still had the remaining party to continue its activities, and it is said that the General Staff called Jiang Xuan to Beijing to take up his post, and Jiang Xuan was directly taken away by someone from the capital and did not know his whereabouts.

(. = )