Emperor Zhu Youjian frowned as he read the memorial from Shandong Governor Wang Yongji.? ?
At the end of last month, Li Zhi sent a memorial to the capital, saying that Shandong's "Three Kings Daily" had slandered him. Zhu Youjian knew that this was indeed true.
"Three Kings Daily" was the second newspaper of the Ming Dynasty, and it was jointly published by the three princes. Zhu Youjian had some expectations and asked someone to bring a copy to read. If the three vassal princes could cheer up and start a useful newspaper,
A high-quality newspaper can also improve the reputation of the Zhu Ming royal family and make the country more stable.
As a result, Zhu Youjian was very disappointed with the content of the "Three Kings Daily". The news was all copied from the Di newspaper. Not only was it late and backward, it was also full of slanderous words against Li Zhi. It is not fair to say that the words were malicious.
Isn't it too much? Three vassal princes and Shandong scholars joined forces to publish a newspaper, and they just produced such a thing?
After Zhu Youjian received Li Zhi's memorial, he immediately issued an imperial edict to rebuke the three vassal kings and asked them to correct the newspapers and stop spreading rumors and slander against Li Zhi.
Of course, Zhu Youjian also knew that his imperial edict was of no use. Zhu Youjian's imperial edict would probably keep the "Three Kings Daily" honest for more than ten days. Otherwise, the newspaper would be back to its old ways in less than half a month. The Ming Dynasty did not blame people with words, these
Literary men are used to rumors and slander. Just think about how the eunuchs were scolded after the fall of Wei Zhongxian. Li Zhi was incompatible with the world's gentry. Since these literati had newspapers as a public opinion channel, how could they let Li Zhi go?
However, Li Zhi's counterattack made Zhu Youjian a little annoyed. Li Zhi once again led his troops to attack Jinan City. The defenders on the city wall almost collapsed at the first touch. All 146 "Three Kings Daily" newspaper staff were killed.
Li Zhi was captured and executed in the execution ground.
Not only that, after Li Zhi's five thousand soldiers of the Huben Division entered Jinan City, they refused to leave. The soldiers of the Huben Division took control of the walls and roads of Jinan City in the name of maintaining the situation, and became the masters of this provincial capital.
.Zhu Youjian twice ordered Li Zhi to withdraw his troops, but Li Zhi held off both times.
Zhu Youjian threw Wang Yongji's memorial on the imperial case and was stunned for a while. He stood up, walked to the window of the study, looked at the majestic palaces outside the window and was silent.
After a long time, he sighed.
When Wang Chengen saw the emperor sighing, he stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, Duke Jin's disregard of human life this time is indeed disappointing."
Zhu Youjian stared at the scenery outside the window for a long time and then said: "I am not disappointed with Li Zhi. I am disappointed with these scholars who do not know the country and do not know how to advance or retreat."
"The people of our Majesty, the Ming Dynasty, are splendid with their culture. On weekdays, they talk about the saints with eloquent words, and there are tons of books and comments. But at the critical moment, these literati were selected to fight against Li Zhi, and they turned out to be such a group of clowns.
.”
"Running a newspaper is a good thing for a prosperous culture. From a big perspective, it can make the people understand loyalty and justice, and know the righteousness of the country. It can also improve the reputation of the Shandong gentry. Running a newspaper well can be said to be of great benefit.
And no harm done.”
"Li Zhi ran my first newspaper in the Ming Dynasty. The organization style and layout format were already prepared. The literati of "Three Kings Daily" only had to copy it. In this way, they could not do anything well. Neither
No matter how hard I try to collect the latest news from various places, I still can’t write an unbiased review article.”
"In addition to clichés to defend their power to evade taxes, there are also rumors slandering Li Zhi. In the end, a good newspaper turned into a tool for spreading rumors and slander. Is this what Shandong scholars chanted for the poor everywhere? Than
"Shandong Daily", which upholds fairness and justice in every aspect to correct the social order, and inspires people's loyalty based on the survival of the family and country, what kind of thing is this scholar's Three Kings Daily?"
"Afraid that Li Zhi would kill someone, they enlisted the vassal king to join them, hoping to use Li Zhi's loyalty to the royal family to do dirty tricks. However, there is a bottom line in everything. They attacked Li Zhi indiscriminately, not only giving Li Zhi an excuse to take action, but also
What effect can it have?"
When Wang Chengen heard the emperor's words, he sighed and said: "Compared with Tianjin, where the culture of Jin Guogong is at its peak, the literati in Shandong are indeed inferior."
Zhu Youjian snorted coldly and said: "These literati have read so many books, why don't they understand the truth? They talk about morality but do dirty things. In the final analysis, they are full of selfishness and have no idea of the responsibility of the family and the country!"
"Li Zhi promoted public moral education in Tianjin, distinguishing right from wrong everywhere, and always talking about public interests in advance, which I deeply agree with. It is precisely because of this culture that Li Zhi's Tianjin becomes more and more prosperous, and Li Zhi's tiger warriors are so tough and good at fighting.
.In turn, it is precisely because Li Zhi’s power is so prosperous that it has the momentum of continuous expansion.”
"If the officials of our Ming Dynasty had half the public morality of Li Zhi, and if the civil servants and military attachés in the world had half the sense of responsibility of Li Zhi, how strong would our Ming Dynasty be? How dare Li Zhi challenge the order of my Ming Dynasty? Kill people everywhere?"
"What I sigh about is not that the Duke of Jin is too arrogant and too strong. What I sigh about is that the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty are too shameless and too weak."
When Wang Chengen heard the emperor's words, he suddenly didn't know what to say. He lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, Sheng Ming!"
Zhu Youjian turned around and looked at Wang Chengen. He felt that Wang Chengen did not understand what he said after all, and sighed again.
Zhu Youjian patted the window sill gently with his palm and said: "Wang Cheng'en, what do you say that I will also follow the example of the Duke of Jin and promote public morality among the officials and gentry in the world, and promote cruel officials and severely punish those who are dishonest?"
Wang Chengen bowed and said: "Your Majesty, Shengming, all the Confucian scholars in the world have read Confucian classics and are full of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. According to Jin Guogong, these are private virtues. Talking about public morality and public benefit to Confucian scholars is afraid.
It has had little effect.”
Zhu Youjian thought for a while and then said: "Tianjin Daily is right, only public morality can strengthen the country. Wang Chengen, what do you think will happen if I use cruel officials to clean up the officialdom and promote some officials with public morality and right and wrong?"
Wang Chengen took a breath, looked around, and said: "Your Majesty, today's civil servants in the officialdom pay attention to masters and disciples, the same year and the same period, and seniority and age. In normal times, the emperor recommends important positions.
Before there is a candidate, these officials have already discussed it in private. What's the benefit? Those civil servants have divided the positions according to their personal status in private. It can be said that they advance together and retreat together."
"These civil servants have all formed cliques, and everything must be done with a set of unspoken rules. Advances and retreats are subject to the rules of the entire party. Civil servants who are not clique-y are rare, and they often have to be isolated because they are rejected by the party members. Once the emperor uses them, these
The formerly isolated civil servants also formed cliques and pursued selfish interests. Where can you find lonely ministers who are not in groups or cliques, but who are selfless?"
How could Zhu Youjian not understand what Wang Chengen said? It was only because Zhu Youjian was a little anxious when he saw Li Zhi getting stronger and stronger that he said such an unrealistic statement.
Sighing, Zhu Youjian said: "Now that the Jian slaves have not been completely wiped out, the intruders and fourteen families of bandits are making trouble in Shaanxi again. Sichuan and Henan are also not peaceful. There are hundreds of thousands of border troops dispatched by the imperial court to put out the fire.
I think I have too few soldiers. Do I just watch Li Zhi become stronger and stronger, while our Ming Dynasty becomes weaker and weaker?" 8
