Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, speech has been relatively free, objectively speaking, due to the existence of Hong Kong, the Ming Dynasty can not block all free public opinion, can not achieve the same strict press control as Japan, subjectively speaking, Zhu Jinglun believes that the guidance and criticism of public opinion will help the people to enlighten modernity and release the pressure of social contradictions. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

It's better for you to let people talk than for not to let people talk.

Moreover, over the years, Zhu Jinglun has always kept the government in a neutral position through clever maneuvers, and has not become the focus of public opinion criticism.

The public opinion of the Ming Dynasty is actually very interesting, the first to start the newspaper is a group of new school figures, they have more than ten years of media discourse, and later the traditional scholars also began to intervene in the establishment of newspapers, especially during the education reform, after the new school carried out intensive cultural monopoly criticism of the rural scholars, the scholar class began to take the initiative to run the newspaper, and the new school had a big debate for more than ten years.

They engaged in a long debate on a large number of ideological and ideological issues, mainly focused on Westernization and change.

A group of new-school newspapers had begun to advocate full-scale Westernization, while old-school newspapers emphasized the superiority of China's moral culture.

Neither of the two factions can say anything about the other, and the more eclectic attitude is still the set of the Manchu Westernists.

That is, the core of traditional thinking cannot be touched, and technology can be introduced.

As Shen Baozhen said: "It is okay to understand foreign skills with Chinese minds; It is not permissible to change China's temperament with foreign habits. ”

Shi Dafu strongly opposes changing the thinking of the Chinese, you even the temperament of the Chinese has changed, is the Chinese still Chinese, and is China still China.

In the midst of these great debates, the government has remained silent, isolating itself from the maelstrom of public opinion.

This is very different from Japan, where the press is very tightly controlled, but all kinds of private flyers are very popular.

Moreover, there has been a **** voice among the Japanese people from the very beginning, and there are figures like Fukuzawa Yukichi advocating among the people, and there are ministers like Shigenobu Okuma promoting the official government, and various reformers in the people have asked to imitate Britain for constitution-making and parliament-making figures who speak everywhere, which is very popular with Japanese students.

On the one hand, the reason why there have been voices calling for Westernization in Japan since the founding of the country is that the Japanese despise traditional culture and are relatively lightly bound by tradition. On the other hand, it is because at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, a group of high-level elites were hit, and then the political struggle purged a group of political figures. After these people entered the civil society, they naturally became the backbone of the opposition, and westernization was only a means for them to fight for political rights, not an end.

Before Zhu Jinglun came to power, the power in the Guangdong officialdom was held by a group of civil officials from other places, and these people did not form intricate local forces in the local area and could not be twisted into a rope, although the rural scholar class was conservative, but lacked a high-level elite as the backbone, so the opposition forces were always scattered and could not pose a threat to the government.

Before the village scholars formed an opposition force, the Ming Dynasty had already cultivated a large number of vested interests, and together with the new faction, they began to check and balance the opposition among the people.

Moreover, to a considerable extent, the Ming government actually relied on the checks and balances of traditional forces against new forces, so that it was able to firmly control power and implement various necessary reforms.

Because if the constitution and parliament were really enacted early, this mode of decentralization of power and internal political overturning would make the reform protracted and even repetitive.

With the help of the antagonism between the old and the new, they were allowed to argue with each other in the newspapers, to release social pressure, to enlighten the intellectuals, and to let them judge for themselves, the government carried out a large number of administrative, judicial, military and educational reforms in a neutral manner, without encountering strong obstacles.

But this time the government is really in trouble.

Because the old and new factions have a surprisingly unanimous attitude toward the war against the United States, that is, they oppose the war.

It's not that they love peace, but they think that this is an unnecessary war, and that the United States has violated the rights and interests of the Chinese, and that the Ming Dynasty should also check and balance it in a common way, rather than directly launching a war.

This is mainly because a few years ago just fought a war that could not see the actual benefits in the short term, expelling France from Vietnam, the common people did not see the benefits of half a dime, and did not expect a penny of reparations, but bought French colonies and paid a sum of money, for the Vietnamese casualties hundreds of thousands of Ming soldiers, although they won moral glory, but they have become more and more unable to satisfy the appetite of the people who value practical profits.

This war against the United States was unpopular from the very beginning, and soon the Ming Dynasty returned Madagascar to France even the only result of the war against France, which was even more dissatisfying.

In fact, the reason why public opinion is so dissatisfied, the most important thing is that the government has always ignored the voice of public opinion on the issue of war, and public opinion on the issue of war, but surprisingly unanimous unity, whether it is the old school or the new school, has always believed that the first direction of the Ming War is the Northern Expedition.

The new school believes that the unification of the nation is the most important figure in the Ming Dynasty, and the old school believes that unifying the country is the greatest fate for changing the dynasty.

As a result, the Northern Expedition of the Ming government was far away, and it never formulated a timetable for the Northern Expedition.

On the contrary, Zhu Jinglun put forward the desire to unify the country through peaceful negotiations, and was criticized by some bold newspapers as the emperor's wishful thinking and the kindness of women.

They cite the example of the reunification of Germany and Italy to illustrate that national reunification cannot be achieved by peaceful means, and that in modern society, only war can force those dead and rotten regimes to surrender power.

The old school is also far away, throughout the ages, except for the ethereal three generations, I have never heard of a precedent of peace and Zen, even if there is, it is just a political game of individual careerists, Han Tianzi Zen let Cao Wei, not the Cao family to threaten the army How can it succeed, Zhao Kuangyin forced the Chai family orphans and widows to let Chan, but I don't know the conjunction, the Ming Emperor wants to let the Manchurian Zen let, not the Northern Expedition, how is it possible?

They all wanted the Northern Expedition, but Zhu Jinglun was worried about the occurrence of a huge crisis of land and political collapse, and was always waiting for an opportunity with a huge buffer, that is, waiting for a world war, but the intellectuals did not know, and they did not want to know, and they were infected with nationalism, so they decided that the first task of the government was to unify a nation into one country, rather than fighting everywhere, grabbing colonies or using troops for commercial interests.

In this case, although the Ming Dynasty carried out a lot of nominalism guidance on the war with the United States, and everyone generally did not have a good impression of the United States before the war, it was okay for the people to boycott American goods, and it was okay for the people to smash the foreign banks of American businessmen, and it was okay for the people to support the war against the United States.

As the war progressed, the stronger the anti-war public opinion became, and the Ming newspapers, who had become accustomed to daring to speak, dared to say anything, and they even believed that this war that did not conform to the people's will was because power was too concentrated in the government, and the new faction vigorously called for the establishment of a parliamentary system, widely solicited public opinion, and let the parliament supervise the government's actions.

This democratic voice of the Constituent Assembly finally formed a climate in the Ming Dynasty, and for the first time, the old school did not stand up against it, and maintained a collective silence, so that the government could no longer be isolated from the whirlpool of public opinion, and must face the pressure of public opinion.

In addition to this voice, public opinion also demanded that the government immediately end the war, set a timetable for the reunification of the country, and even if it was to negotiate reunification, it should negotiate with the Qing government, instead of repeatedly delaying it.

Due to the opposition of public opinion, it is difficult for the government to recruit soldiers, because too few people have signed up to join the army. In a whole year, less than 200,000 soldiers were recruited, which was obviously a failure for the huge population base of the Ming Dynasty.

If the reform of the conscription system is promoted at this time and the conscription is forced, not only Zhu Jinglun is worried, but the entire civilian government is worried that it will cause social unrest.

And Zhu Jinglun also found that after launching this war, his always good prestige was also affected, and a small number of newspapers that dared to criticize the imperial power were not collectively encircled and suppressed by the old school for the first time, which made him personally feel lost At the same time, he also began to worry about the balancing effect of the imperial power on the country, once the imperial power could not become a heavy commitment to maintain balance in the period of change, it was possible to cause a total collapse of society, such as the fate of the Russian Empire, Zhu Jinglun was not worried about his personal fate, He worries that the chaos of the whole country will deprive the country of the opportunity to change the world pattern of a world war.

But this war must be carried on, weakening the United States in order to seek greater interests in the upcoming world war, this is the biggest and only potential competitor, not to say that he is not yet full of wings to strangle him, and when he grows up completely, the Ming Dynasty will not be able to stop it.

But the inability to recruit soldiers in China gave Zhu Jinglun a headache for a long time.

"Go to the north to recruit troops. We are a nation and will be a nation in the future, so why can't we form an army? ”

Zhu Jinglun suddenly opened his mind and put forward such a suggestion.

Go to the north to recruit troops, go to the Manchu ruling areas to recruit troops, what political consequences this will cause, the government can not predict, if the Manchus and the Ming Dynasty are at war because of this, the government is not afraid, just take the opportunity to destroy the Manchus, in fact, the public opinion of the people, but also the voice of government officials, the unification of the world, the impact on civil officials, stronger than the folk scholars, the people are just emotional problems, for them is a real merit.

Even from a selfish point of view, after the unification of the world, military generals will receive meritorious deeds, civilian officials will get official positions, and in a unified China, there will obviously be more senior positions than now.

"It is necessary not only to go to the north to recruit troops, but also to recruit troops from the colonies, from the South Seas, from the Americas. The purpose of this war is to protect the interests of overseas foreigners, and I believe that overseas foreigners will be more supportive and should be more supportive. ”

Zhu Jinglun continued to suggest.

It's just that some people are a little worried: "Your Majesty, is Alaska also going to recruit troops?" ”

Fang Shan, who has rarely expressed a direct attitude towards politics, asked worriedly, the reason why he is so worried is because he knows some inside information that others don't know, once the turmoil in Alaska is too great, it is very likely to collapse somewhere, because there is a careerist who has been entrenched for many years, Zhu Jinglun's father-in-law Zhang Qianshan.