Why are Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong more threatening than Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying?
When Shen Shuren first heard this question, his first reaction was that he didn't really want to answer it.
As a senior scholar of political philosophy and diplomatic theory in his previous life, Shen Shuren knew very well that history is composed of macroscopic inevitability and microscopic contingency.
This is a bit like quantum mechanics: at the microscopic level, where each photon will land after passing through the double slit is truly random, and you can't predict it at all.
But no matter how random the quantum of each photon is, the final macroscopic world must be in line with the expectations of macroscopic physical laws. After hundreds of millions of photons pass through the double slit, interference fringes must be formed macroscopically.
When history reaches a certain stage, such as the late Ming Dynasty, there will definitely be a violent iteration of political power, and land annexation and various social contradictions will definitely have an earth-shaking catharsis.
Everyone knows where the outlets and opportunities are, but in the end there is still a lot of randomness in which individual emerges.
This is largely what Ma Zhe said about the inevitability and twists and turns of history, which is why historical materialism requires the prohibition of personality worship.
History is created by the people as a whole, and heroes just follow the trend and enter the fields and teams that cater to the trend. But in the end, who survives and sits in that position, and who happens to randomly land on the brightest interference stripe, at least And 90% luck.
Now that Chen Shuren has personally entered the situation and stirred up so many butterfly effects, even if Chongzhen still has to die in the end, will he definitely die at the hands of Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong?
Historically, after Li Zicheng joined forces with Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying, he suddenly launched a vicious attack and killed Luo and Ma, and annexed their troops. Is it possible that Luo and Ma will counterattack now?
Chen Shuren ate the midnight snack in front of him and thought about this question for a long time before finally giving a fair answer.
"The lower official has something to say about the family, but Aunt Fangfutai listens to it." Chen Shuren organized his thoughts and spoke eloquently,
"I think that when it comes to killing people and looting land, it is true that the four thieves are among the best. If they are fighting in battle, with swords and guns without eyesight, anyone can die at the hands of the officers and soldiers. Those who survive will naturally be killed. Will take the opportunity to annex the old troops of his comrades.
However, if you don’t look at the fighting in the battle formation, but look at winning people’s hearts, manipulating orthodoxy, and mediating to induce rebellion, then Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng have advantages that Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying do not have. Therefore, in terms of military affairs, the four are tied. In terms of winning over people, Zhang , Li wins."
Shen Shuren's tone was very confident, calm, and full of confidence.
After hearing his words, Fang Kongzheng felt a sense of trust inexplicably.
That kind of feeling, people who don't really believe that what they say is the truth will not be so confident.
"My good nephew is very confident in his high opinions. Why do you dare to be so outspoken? If we want to talk about the ability to win over people, then Luo Rucai is cunning and willing to harmoniously enjoy misfortune. He is good at forbearing when treating others hypocritically and submissively. He is no less good at winning over people. Isn't Cao Cao worse than Zhang and Li? All the scholar-bureaucrats in the world think so, so how can a wise nephew act independently?"
Fang Kongzhen's understanding is really not nonsense.
In the mainstream perception of the scholar-bureaucrats at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they all felt that among thieves, Luo Rucai was the first to be able to win over civil and military officials and unite the hearts of talented people.
Luo Rucai performed several operations, and he was almost as good as Cao Cao who "burned the letters of his subordinates having an affair with Yuan Shao without even reading them." His nickname of Cao Cao was not for nothing.
Idiots like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong simply don't have this level of strategy to win over people's hearts.
However, Shen Shuren immediately pointed out the one-sidedness of this view: "Forgive me for bluntly stating that this view is just the opinion of a scholar. Scholars speculate on military strategies and like to look at it from a scholar's perspective.
In their eyes, the hearts worth winning over are only the hearts of people with civil and military talents. As for the hearts of incompetent Guizhou leaders, the civil servants of the Manchu Dynasty did not take them seriously at all——
And Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were much better than Luo Rucai in winning over the head of Guizhou. Luo Rucai's little cleverness did not have the blessing of Cao Mang's blood status in history. One was positive and the other was negative, and only then did I have what I just said. inference."
"Oh? I'd like to hear the details!" Fang Kongzhen's expression turned solemn.
Chen Shuren discussed the matter in detail and analyzed it point by point. No matter how you look at it, you are very confident. If you are not a person who knows everything, you will never dare to speak like this.
Chen Shuren talked in depth: "Since ancient times, bandits have not been able to achieve success because they cannot fight? Of course not! As long as bandits have been tempered in the military, their combat skills and tactics are absolutely no better than those of the officers and soldiers of previous dynasties, and their morale is There is still a chance of victory. After all, in the last years of the dynasty, the morale of the officers and soldiers was often low.
But since the Qin Dynasty, for thousands and eight hundred years, no bandits have been able to establish a dynasty stably in the long run. Why? It’s because the bandits don’t know how to manage orthodoxy. Ever since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang shouted, "Princes, generals, and prime ministers would rather have their own kind." Although the time was pleasant, it also left a drawback:
The prince has no seed, and he also has no seed. So after Chen Sheng raised his army and captured Chu, he sent his generals Wu Chen to attack Zhao. The Wu Chen captured Zhao and established himself as King of Zhao. Wu Chen then sent his general Han Guang to attack Yan, and Han Guang captured Yan. And he proclaimed himself King of Yan.
Chen Sheng also sent Zhou Shi to attack Wei. Although Zhou Shi did not claim to be the King of Wei, it was not because he did not want to do so. It was just that after seeing the lessons of the military ministers and Han Guang, he finally understood that "the emperor and the general are willing to be in peace" is a matter of fact. The double-edged sword makes it easier for you to rebel against others, and it also makes it easier for your subordinates to rebel against you. Only then did he change his mind and go back to proclaim Wei Jiu, a descendant of King Wei, as king.
Was Chen Sheng's final death due to his military defeat by Zhang Han? Not necessarily! Assuming that the military ministers, Han Guang, and Zhou soldiers still obeyed Chen Sheng's orders, how sure could Zhang Han be to defeat the united rebel coalition?
Fan Zeng used this to persuade Xiang Liang, Liu Bang used this to respect Emperor Yi, and Taizu used this to respect King Xiao Ming. They all valued orthodoxy, and they were able to rise from poverty to conquer the world and draw a clear line from the bandits.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, when Green Forest and Red Eyebrows revolted again, warlords from all walks of life learned Chen Sheng's lesson. From then on, they no longer dared to call themselves emperors, generals or ministers. They only dared to find a man named Liu to be their puppet in order to maintain legitimacy. Let your subordinates not dare to rebel against you.
In the next thousand years, as long as the thieves who raised their armies based on the regular way did not remember Chen Sheng's lessons and did not seek orthodoxy, they would all be destroyed by civil strife without exception. How similar is Huang Chao at the end of the Tang Dynasty to Chen Sheng at the end of the Qin Dynasty?
Huang Chao went further militarily and captured Chang'an, but he didn't care about orthodoxy. In the end, his subordinate Zhu Wen rebelled and defected to the Tang Dynasty. Zhu Wen, who had orthodoxy and had fighting power, destroyed it.
In today's situation, everyone among the bandits does not value orthodoxy, and Luo Rucai's generation, even though they have Cao Cao's cunning, are not born with Cao Cao's birth, they are just a little bit of a fool and can't build orthodoxy, so there is nothing to be afraid of.
This is not the case with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Although they have no orthodoxy and come from humble backgrounds, they have taken a different path and followed the path of another type of thieves in history. Therefore, I think that regardless of military affairs, Li and Zhang are more powerful in terms of winning people's hearts. horrible!"
Fang Kongzheng was completely shocked when he heard this.
This Shen Shu man has a unique eye for reading and is able to analyze problems in such a broad range.
In fact, if some Qin fans of later generations of Internet articles read this passage, they would probably be shocked - there are many articles in later generations that are crazy about conspiracy theories, saying that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were the restoration of the aristocrats of the Six Kingdoms, and the old and young of the Six Kingdoms were dissatisfied with the Qin Dynasty. , not because of Qin’s tyranny...
Nonsense!
The nobles of the Six Kingdoms are basically the first wave of bloody lessons learned by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. After discovering that "the princes have no race", they will also become "raceless", and traitors like military ministers and Han Guang will appear. Then when the Zhou market begins, they will become "raceless" because of fear. His subordinates rebelled against him, so he had to invite the descendants of the Six Kingdoms out.
And in the 20th century, because modern history textbooks wanted to emphasize the progressive significance of "originally without seed", they cut out the role of the military minister Han Guang out of context, which gave the ground for the propaganda of the Six Nations conspiracy theory.
Shen Shuren is well versed in political philosophy. After returning to the Ming Dynasty, the reason why he made up his mind to "steal" rather than directly overthrow the Ming Dynasty was because of this -
If his force is strong enough and he can successfully ascend to the throne, he can ascend to the throne and others can rebel against him. What happens after he dies? Will he die as a second generation?
If he was really capable, he could win by relying on strategy and martial arts, and he would just give up.
If he needs to rely on technology to win, it will be easier for him to die - because after he unified China, the technologies he invented were available in all regions of China.
If the fence is not strong enough then, in his son's generation, some outside provinces will be able to use weapons and technology of the same era as the center controlled by his son to cause chaos. Wouldn't it be the end of the second generation?
Isn’t that how the Qin Dynasty fell? When Qin was still the Qin State, its bows and crossbows may have had technological advantages over the Six Kingdoms, and they also had advantages in the military service system, rewards, punishments, and mobilization systems.
But after the establishment of the whole country, the land of the Six Kingdoms was equal to that of Qin in terms of weapons and technology, and the institutional advantages were also equalized. The whole country used advanced systems. If the Six Kingdoms still want to rebel against you, they will be five or six times the size. Backlash.
So when Shen Shuren read novels in his previous life, he always found it ridiculous: How could a group of people who had no other political skills and relied solely on technology to win battles have the courage to completely destroy legitimacy and then build a new dynasty with empty words? (It is still debatable to engage in popular politics after destroying legitimacy. Here we will only discuss rebuilding the dynasty without orthodoxy.)
When you are unified and dead, these technologies and systems are available in all provinces in the country. By then, you have not worked hard to establish orthodoxy, and you still expect your son to be able to control it?
It's okay to die in the second generation. If the emotional intelligence of the first generation is relatively low, it is possible to die in the first lifetime.
Therefore, the Chenshu people have never worried that unlegitimized bandits can really establish a dynasty. At most, they can destroy the country, but they cannot establish it. They can destroy the previous dynasty militarily, but they cannot maintain their dynasty.
Li Shimin said, "It is difficult to start a business, but it is even harder to maintain a business." Starting a business means overthrowing the previous dynasty through military victory, while maintaining a business means establishing one's own orthodoxy and legitimacy of rule.
Let the people of the world believe that "rebellion can only be successful in special times and under special circumstances. The current emperor is the last successful person to receive the destiny, and it will end here." Li Shimin spent the rest of his life working for "the end." These few words work hard to get rid of the evil thoughts of people in the world that "I can do whatever I want".
Therefore, the reason why Shen Shuren thinks that bandits cannot succeed is because they look down on Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Unless they meet Liu Bang who has the authorization of Emperor Yi, or Zhu Yuanzhang who has the inheritance of King Xiao Ming.
Without the "Yi Emperor" and the "Xiao Ming King", Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang alone would not work!
…
Fang Kongzheng was shocked for a long time, and he roughly understood this level of Taoism, but he still didn't understand how Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were more dangerous than Luo Rucai. He had no choice but to continue to ask questions shamelessly, insisting on understanding the true essence of the Taoism inside.
Chen Shuren had no choice but to continue his analysis: "The reason why Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and their like are more threatening is because they do not belong to the thieves who have a family in the world in history. They are more like Zhang Jiao, Wu Dou Mi, Bai Lian and others."
Fang Kongzheng was stunned and immediately retorted: "Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong did not engage in any heresy!"
Shen Shuren: "They really didn't do it, so we just said 'similar', not exactly the same, but the advantages and disadvantages are the same.
Futai, please listen quietly to the official's analysis: Since Chen Sheng and Green Forest Red Eyebrow, thieves all over the world have known that without orthodoxy, they cannot conquer the world, and without orthodoxy, their subordinates will backfire and fight within themselves, so naturally some people want to improve all this.
Zhang Jiao in the late Han Dynasty was the earliest explorer of this route. Why did Zhang Jiao want to pursue the Tao of Taiping? Because with the Tao, there will be immortal masters and people who are ordered by heaven. With the blessing of heaven, orthodoxy will be With that, his subordinates can only obey his orders and organize them with ghosts and gods.
The apostles of ghosts and gods cannot betray the immortal master like the military ministers and Han Guang betrayed Chen Sheng. The internal unity of the Shinto soldiers and horses is stronger than the bandits.
And I don’t know if you, Mr. Futai, have noticed that the immortal masters who founded Shinto since ancient times, established their own religion, and gained certain political power to promote it, all have one characteristic, that is, they have no descendants and no descendants.
The Buddha of the Buddhist family had a son, but his son became a monk and followed the practice, so the Buddha has no grandchildren. The Western Red Yi people have Nestorianism, and their ancestor was also killed and martyred, and he has no heirs. Over there, the black-clothed Dashi has only a son-in-law. There is no legitimate son.
The biggest advantage of the founder of Taoism who has no heirs is that everyone is willing to contribute to their promotion cause. Everyone has a starting point and feels that I have contributed the most to this cause. In the end, the master may pass on the mantle to me. .
Even to this day, the disciples in Buddhist temples and Taoist temples show filial respect to the abbot, abbot, and temple master, even more than the family relationship between father and son. Why? Because they know that the abbot presides over the death of the temple master's children and grandchildren.
If they can serve the master the best among all the disciples, the entire temple will be able to pass on him in the future! When everyone gathers firewood, the flame will rise high, everyone will use their lives, and the foundation will prosper!
When Zhang Jiao founded the Taiping Dao, there were more than 400,000 people in thirty-six directions in the world. Everyone respected the great sage and good teacher without overtly becoming self-reliant. The reason was that once the great sage and good teacher died or became critically ill, they could receive the inheritance of the way of heaven, at least First, call him a 'divine messenger'.
And how many times did this kind of thing happen again and again in the next thousand and four hundred years? Why did all the dynasties prohibit evil ways and attack Bai Lian more harshly than the thieves? Because the imperial court also knew that this kind of thing was more dangerous than the thieves.
It's a pity that the court only saw the surface, but failed to see the inner part - the evil path is dangerous. The essence is not that the evil path itself is dangerous, but the model of 'passing on from master to disciple, cutting off descendants', which is too tempting for the people below, and everyone will risk their lives!
Nowadays, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are called outcasts, but they are actually a natural eunuch who has no heirs. Although he had a wife in his early years, he later lost his heirs due to illness. Li Zicheng's wife Xing also ran away with his general Gao Jie.
These two people also adopted many adopted sons, and all their subordinates used their lives. They all rushed to say, "If they help King Chuang and the eight kings conquer the world, they will have no children in the future, and they will not be able to inherit the inheritance. They have to choose the merit among the generals."
The one who is the tallest will share the world, or be adopted as an adopted son'?
In contrast, although Luo Rucai liked Cao Cao, he was also as lecherous as Cao Cao. He had dozens of wives and concubines and countless other overnight daughters. Such a person may imitate Cao Cao to win people's hearts, but he does not have the noble bloodline to provide him with legitimacy.
If he wants to plot against Li Zicheng in the future, Li Zicheng's people may not rebel. But if Li Zicheng wants to plot against him, it will be much easier for Luo Rucai's people to rebel. In the end, if a person with a humble status wants to succeed, he can't borrow justice.
Emperor, Xiao Ming Wang is orthodox, and the final key is to cut off his descendants! Give more thought to the people around you, and live together!"
What Chen Shuren said was not only correct until the end of the Ming Dynasty, but would also be repeated in history.
Didn’t the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Qing Dynasty also learn from the lessons of the thieves in the late Ming Dynasty? So they knew they had to prevent the problem of "they could destroy the previous dynasty, but were unable to build their own country", so they embarked on the old path of building a country based on faith.
Hong Xiuquan claimed to be the King of Heaven and established the oracle system, so no one dared to openly oppose him. However, people who claimed to be "possessed by the Heavenly Father" just like Zhang Jiao called himself "the envoy of God" were repeatedly banned.
Even in later generations, in the 2020s, before Shen Shuren traveled through time, when Shen Shuren saw Bitcoin, they felt that this thing was similar to all the existences that founded countries based on faith in history——
Cutting off children and grandchildren, in the currency system, is equivalent to "the currency-issuing unit abolishing the centralized management authority" and using technical means to remove the back door of its own banknote printing.
Let me tell you how many coins you can get from now on, it depends on how much you contribute to this system. No one can tamper with the distributed ledger that is recognized by everyone.
From a philosophical point of view, this is a logical logic: to renounce the descendants of Buddha and the founders of other sects in exchange for their disciples being assured of their filial piety.
The boss has no heirs, and all the good work belongs to you, so why don’t you inject chicken blood? Why don’t you, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo, die?
…
After hearing this analysis, Fang Kongzheng was so shocked that he couldn't believe it at all.
But his reason told him that this insight was definitely very profound. If it was really accurate, it would be enough to be regarded as insight into the origin of the way of heaven.
The man in front of me, who reached the Taoist stage at the age of 21, definitely has the talent of Wenquxing. Did he really come down from heaven to save the Ming Dynasty?
Although Shen Shuren's official position was lower than his own, he saw the problem so thoroughly that he did not dare to discuss his superiority with the other party based on his status.
Of course, all this is still worth waiting and seeing. Fang Kongzhen decided to keep it secret.
He wanted to see if after this year's bloody battle, several thieves would definitely exit. By then, if Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, and Ma Shouying would exit in the same way as Shen Shuren had deduced...
There is nothing to say! Even if Shen Shuren is junior to him, he is going to bow down and bow down! This is the deduction ability of a god, and Zhang Liang and Zhuge Liang may not be like this!
Perhaps, in a few months, we will be able to find out.
Some parts of these words are a bit rebellious, but you can also cut off the beginning and end, remove the overly sensitive parts, and remind Mr. Yang Ge of the rest.
Fang Kongzheng felt that if Shen Shuren’s insights could make some contribution to Yang Ge Lao’s work focus, differentiation and disintegration in the following months, then Yang Ge Lao should also use up all his political resources and must Find a way to push this young man with such terrifying knowledge to a high position as soon as possible!
When people who see conflicts so clearly have real power, they can become enlightened! This is for the sake of the world!
Of course, everything depends on the acceptance results and whether the war is as expected by Chen Shuren!
"The wise nephew has extraordinary knowledge. I think that by studying the Book of Changes carefully, I can see the way of heaven clearly. However, I don't expect that what I have learned in my life will be mixed and impure. Instead, I will not be as clever as the wise nephew, who can go straight to the source.
I really admire you! This time I will definitely try my best to help my nephew to defeat the thief, and we will wait and see who will collect the remaining troops after Erhe was defeated! Regarding the recent defense arrangements, I will also listen to my nephew first, so as to guard against the most terrifying thing. Zhang Xianzhong is the important one, but as for Luo Rucai, when the troops are really insufficient, I can only let him go."
Fang Kongzheng left with great shock and admiration. No one could overhear the entire conversation between him and Shen Shuren. However, the master's admiration also fell in the eyes of his family and staff.
The next day, everyone in the governor's office knew that the young subordinate who came to see the master last night, the Daotai master who was only in his early twenties, definitely had the ability to see the world and the earth, and he was extremely talented.
And Shen Shuren doesn't care what others think of him.
He was just happy to see that the escort officers sent by Fang Kongzhen to deliver the message also heard that Mr. Futai valued Shen Bingbei very much, so they must go all out for Shen Bingbei.
As for the opinions of other passers-by, they don't deserve to be cared about by Shenshu people at all.
He didn't go to bed until he was too busy last night and his energy was really low. It was half past midnight in the morning before he rode back to Xiaogan.
The people in the governor's yamen treated him respectfully, prepared food for him and his entourage on the way, and sent him out of the city.
Shen Shuren himself was treated particularly well. The female relatives of the governor's Yamen got up early in the morning and personally made him some shortbread stuffed with mutton, cooked a pot of health-refreshing medicinal soup, cooled it in advance and poured it into a string of bamboo tubes. , so that he can open a bottle every half a day on the road and throw it away after drinking.
Shen Shuren felt ashamed and politely thanked him. The maid at the governor's office only said that she admired Shen Da's talent and talent, and that she was able to impress her own master. She deserved this courtesy and had no other intention.
After traveling for more than two days, Shen Shuren finally returned to Xiaogan's army on April 22nd. He immediately called for two reinforcements and informed his generals about when they would arrive. , the military morale was greatly boosted.
——
PS: I'm sorry, I know it's not good to have a fight mixed with drama.
But there are some things that really need to be calculated and deduced before the decisive battle. After this wave of battles are completed in a few months, the answers to the mystery will be revealed, and it will be impossible to show that the protagonist is as smart as a god on the strategic level.
I apologize to readers who don’t like to read logical analysis of political philosophy.
Today I have eleven thousand words, and I have given five thousand more words. This can be considered as a way to go through the parts involving political philosophy in one go, and it can be regarded as compensation for everyone.