Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 180 Standing at the Turning Point of History
It is now April, and Jinling City, which is full of flowers, is still as gorgeous as a variety of purples and reds.

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, who had taken off his winter clothes and changed into spring clothes, woke up in a crowded couch with a pile of memorials.

Suddenly, I saw mottled tree shadows on the wall, and suddenly I heard the sound of birds outside the window.

Remnant red stained the green windows, rich men added new moss.

The spring breeze and the south bank of the Green River, although it is the time when the climate of the Little Glacier is raging, but in this sunny spring, you can also feel the rejuvenation of the earth and the lush greenery.

A bunch of fringed skirts drifted into the hall like a spring breeze.

Walking in the front is Jiao'e Chen Yuanyuan, who has accompanied Zhu Youjian since moving to the south.

These days, Chen Yuanyuan didn't know how many nights His Majesty Zhu Youjian, the emperor, stayed up alone in the Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace to deal with government affairs and then took a nap here.

Even with her, he had to stay here, and as soon as he saw Zhu Youjian woke up, he immediately took Zhu Youjian, the palace maid and servant, to wash and change clothes.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Zhu Youjian couldn't help stretching.

Looking at the beauty in the spring outside the hall, he thought of not only the Qing army going south, but also the emperor's pleasure.

Whether the country can survive at present is still unknown.

According to the original historical development, half of the country that he owns will be gradually occupied by the Qing army in the next two or three months, and immediately after the ten days of Yangzhou, the three slaughters of Jiading, the fall of Nanjing, and the fall of Hangzhou.

Millions of people in vain became the piles of bones buried before the heyday, and the red flowers and green jade in the south of the Yangtze River became the hell of Shura. Even the feather fans and scarves, the graceful talents and beautiful women can only stain peach blossoms with blood, and watch the tall buildings collapse. , or thrown into a well, or hide in the mountains to be a savage, or remove the black hair on the head, and add a penny of rat tail to become a obedient citizen of the new dynasty.

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, as he may still be just a doomed emperor.

There are only two choices before him:

One is to take the opportunity to get drunk and dream, sleep with as many beauties as you can, eat as much delicious food as you can, collect as much property as you can, and then find a way to escape all the way west.

One choice is naturally to do your best, think of all ways, unite all forces, be more diligent and work harder than before, and use all the manpower, material and financial resources under your control to fight the Qing army in a decisive battle.

Zhu Youjian chose the latter. From the very beginning, he chose not to back down and just muddle along.

His only confidence is that he knows the historical process, and as a latecomer, he knows some remedial measures that are unknown in this era.

But Zhu Youjian didn't know whether he could successfully change history, he had never had the experience of changing the world situation, at least in later generations, he never showed any extraordinary political talent.

But now, he can only do his best to play the role of an emperor, and fulfill his own responsibility for the Han family and the Han Dynasty.

Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo, Donglin Party, Zuo Liangyu, and Chuangjun are not the most powerful enemies of this era. Like their own Ming Empire, they will be ruthlessly abandoned in the original history.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian has a certain degree of confidence in defeating or subduing them.

But Zhu Youjian knew that the Qing army was the most powerful enemy he had to face in this era.

Whether he can defeat the Qing army, the darling of history, Zhu Youjian actually has no idea in his heart, although he has shown full confidence in courtiers and Guanghua Daily.

Today's so-called Manchu Empire is not just a Manchu military aristocratic regime, it is already a combination of Han bureaucrats and warlords and Manchu tribal aristocrats.

This group includes all the forces in the north, such as the Eight Banners soldiers, the tribes of Mongolia, the military aristocrats of Liaodong, and the military aristocrats and Shanxi merchants of the nine frontier towns. Northern Group.

And if there is no accident on my side, I will reach a superficial cooperation with the southern pirate group on the basis of integrating the southern gentry who are both merchants and landlords and the army, and form a southern group symbolized by the Ming Empire.

Although this group has a commodity economy that symbolizes economic and social progress, various academic ideas representing the latest ideological civilization of the Han nationality, and an army composed of common people and gentry, it also mixes various imperial legacy. The various corruption factors that have come down are basically the same group of old Confucianism bureaucrats who rank in the court and control local government affairs.

In a way.

Zhu Youjian is now standing on the cusp of a historical juncture.

The dispute between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty at this time was not a simple change of dynasty.

It is about whether the regional local society of Eastern civilization, that is, the Eastern society, can end the long era of small-scale peasant economy at the end of the seventeenth century, no longer interpret history with the change of dynasties, but completely reborn the small-scale peasant economy, deriving industrial civilization and The supporting era of elite governance.

Like the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was no longer a purely small-scale peasant economic empire after hundreds of years of development.

Especially now, when the small peasant economy is beginning to collapse due to land annexation, the commodity economy is getting more and more developed.

At this time, if there are no external forces, such an empire will be nirvana by itself.

Within the empire, the emerging class forces will completely defeat the stubborn old forces, thus allowing the empire to complete a transformation.

In this process of transformation, there may still be emperors, even powerful emperors, or there may be no emperors, but in any case, he is an inevitable change when the human production mode changes from family production to workshop and factory production.

It is impossible for the Ming Empire to withstand such a torrent.

After all, a large number of handicraftsmen or workers and merchants who do not rely on land have emerged in many wealthy areas of the empire.

Of course, there is another situation, that is, after the intervention of external forces, especially after the intervention of external backward forces, tribal regimes such as the Manchu Qing, as a serf regime, entered the era of self-cultivating peasants, which is already a huge progress. It is impossible for him to further open up the mind, the economy, and even the system.

Once such a serf regime takes control of the world, the best thing to do is to solve the contradiction between man and land through massacres in the early stage; then persuade farmers to restrain business, let the empire continue to restore the peak of the small peasant economy, and recreate a peace that was tired of being played by the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties The prosperous age finally entered the era of the collapse of the small peasant economy, the development of the commodity economy, the era of physical corruption, and the cycle of incompatible old-fashioned and new forces.

Of course, the development of the original history was when the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the small peasant economy and the empire was about to be reborn. Western forces intervened, which destroyed the national confidence and wealth accumulated in China for thousands of years. In the end, it was only internal. The new forces brought a new life to this society.

(End of this chapter)