Chapter 668: Zhu Yuanzhang knew that officials would commit corruption, and he condoned them Zhu Biao felt a little suffocated when he thought that he had nothing now and might not even have the same advantages as his father in the future. Sometimes I really don’t know what I should do to make the world a better place, and I don’t even know how to adapt myself. All he knows now is that he should treat the people of the world as his own children. Perhaps the only thing that makes me better than my father is that I did not suffer the same childhood trauma as his. Therefore, people will instinctively treat officials better, and perhaps this will reduce the confrontation between officials and imperial power. Only when there is less confrontation can the results of reform be consolidated. So sometimes Zhu Biao himself didn't know how he should do better, he didn't know how he should face the people of the world, and he didn't know whether the people of the world would remember his contributions after Chen Han. Because sometimes he really felt that he did as much as Chen Han, and sometimes he even did much more than Chen Han. Although Chen Han had indeed encountered a lot of suspicion and danger while charging into the front, he had the support of the crown prince behind him. After all, there were so many officials who always opposed Chen Han's reforms at the beginning, always feeling that Chen Han's reforms had taken away their jobs, and even sent many assassins to assassinate Chen Han.

As for himself, he not only had to deal with important court affairs, but also had to face the lack of support from so many officials towards Chen Han. He then had to help Chen Han explain, and even coordinate all the forces of the entire Ming Dynasty to cooperate with Chen Han. So he always felt that he did no less than Chen Han. But sometimes, even if you have done so much, most people don't understand, and even think that you, as a prince, have not done as much as a minister. After all, this Chengzi is still your son-in-law. Then you deserve the title of the prince. It is precisely because of so many factors that sometimes I always feel that I am quite aggrieved. Why do everyone only remember the contributions of my son-in-law, while no one remembers my contributions to the support behind him? Even when everyone sees today's happy life, they think it is all Chen Han's credit, so what about themselves? Although Zhu Biao has always been a very gentle and kind prince, he has always played a very gentle and honest image in the entire court or in the entire history. But in fact, Zhu Biao has always been very majestic. He has always wanted to be an emperor who has both kindness and power, and the officials in the court can actually feel it. Because many times when handling cases, many officials have seen that many major cases have passed through Zhu Biao's hands. We can also see that Zhu Biao was not merciful at all when dealing with those officials who committed heinous crimes, and was even as ruthless as his father Zhu Yuanzhang. But why do some people still think that this prince has always been known for his gentleness? It’s because he and his father have done a lot of cooperation. Many times, Zhu Yuanzhang was the bad guy in front, and he was the good guy in the back. This is actually not about hurting hypocrisy, but because of a tacit understanding between the father and son. Someone must play the good guy in front and the bad guy in the back to be more effective. Only by following such a tacit understanding can more officials be afraid. This tacit understanding has always enabled the father and son to cooperate very well, and also let the court officials know that the majesty of the Crown Prince and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was so powerful. The cooperation between the two people once forced all officials in the world to work diligently and not dare to resist. But now when I think about my father getting old and soon not having a very strong backer, I feel confused. This is also because he is worried that his father is about to grow old and he will have to take over such a huge empire. Zhu Biao spent a lot of time thinking about this problem, and no matter how much he thought about it, he still couldn't handle it very well. That's because he once thought that his abilities were not as good as his father's. He once thought that his abilities were lacking in many situations and he needed someone to help him. His father had always been supporting him and helping him solve difficult problems, just like smoothing out the thorns on all the thorns in the world. Zhu Yuanzhang always said that the reason why he made the situation in the whole world so rigid was not because he wanted to do so, but because he felt that he had to do so. He had to let all the officials in the world know that officials of the Ming Dynasty must be obedient. Zhu Yuanzhang always felt that he was clearing away all the thorns for his prince.

However, they did not know that because of his actions, all officials in the world began to fear the imperial power, and sometimes they even stopped doing anything in order to avoid making mistakes. This is the evil consequence of being too harsh: the common people and officials have always been in fear of His Majesty the Emperor. It is precisely because of this that now, whether it is the implementation of reforms or other changes, there are so many officials collectively opposing it. What were they against? Was it just Chen Han's reforms? In fact, this is not the case, because those officials have felt a collective trauma. They are afraid that Chen Han’s reforms will lead to major cases and give His Majesty the Emperor an excuse to purge officials all over the world. That is why they will collectively resist and strangle this so-called reform in the cradle. It is precisely because of this that Chen Han’s reforms are now encountering so many difficulties and obstacles. In fact, a large part of these difficulties and obstacles are caused by the fact that his old father treated officials badly when he was governing the country. Many times the old man did not know that his harsh laws did not bring much change to the world, but instead caused collective trauma to all officials. Of course, what the old man did was actually a good thing. He certainly wanted to make the world a better place. He certainly wanted the world to no longer be plagued by natural and man-made disasters like it was at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. After experiencing all those natural and man-made disasters, he realized that if the people were put in that situation again, they would imitate him and follow his example of how he had successfully rebelled in the past. Because of this, he must nip these things in the bud, and he must let the people of the world see a good life. But as Chen Han said, the old man himself actually doesn't know how to make the people of the world live better. Maybe he thinks that things like Fa Baochao's can solve the poverty problem all over the world. Maybe he thought that as long as he got rid of all the corrupt officials, the people would be grateful to him. Sometimes, in order to achieve this goal, he even deliberately condoned corrupt officials to exploit the people, and then he would crack down on those corrupt officials in the early stages, thereby gaining a very good reputation from the people. Although this may seem like talking bad about someone behind his back, Chen Han always believed that the old man knew that the salary he set was so low that corruption would inevitably occur. You have to know that Zhu Yuanzhang was not a political novice, nor was he like those emperors who were raised in the deep palace and had no grassroots experience. He had rich grassroots experience, even surpassing most emperors. In history, he has always been compared with Liu Bang. It is believed that Liu Bang was also born a commoner, but achieved great achievements through several years of war and became the first commoner emperor. But to be honest, Liu Bang's background was much higher than Zhu Yuanzhang's. First of all, Liu Bang's family conditions were relatively good. He had land to farm and he was not a tenant of other people's families. Because Liu Bang's family had always had farmland after he was born, they were able to support him even though he was lazy and gluttonous. Liu Bang himself even thought about going to Xinling Jun, one of the four gentlemen of the Warring States Period. At that time, he wanted to be a knight, he wanted to conquer the world, and he wanted to gain recognition from others. First of all, he learned that Xinling Jun was in Wei State at that time, so there was a very important issue that needed to be considered: he was in Pei County of Chu State. According to the current geographical environment, Chu State is not far from Wei State, but the Warring States Period was a chaotic time. How could he go north to find Xinling Jun? This was a huge problem. Another point is that he actually knew such a person in other countries, which means that he must have friends in this field, and it is even possible that his sources of information are very wide. His insight was already very high, which in this respect was many times better than that of Zhu Yuanzhang at that time. Then, when Liu Bang was in his forties, he was already a local village chief. In other words, Liu Bang actually had a certain social status at that time. He had a group of younger brothers following him, and he himself was also a well-known gangster boss in the local area. It was precisely because of these social status, family resources and his personal network that he was able to achieve success in his career later on.

In contrast, let's look at Zhu Yuanzhang's situation at that time. He had no connections, no resources, and his family didn't even have land. His parents had to work as tenants for the village landlord in exchange for a very meager income. This meager income had to be used to pay taxes, which were very high at that time. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang himself had to herd cattle for the landlords in exchange for some food to supplement his family income. Therefore, how could Zhu Yuanzhang, who grew up in such an environment, not have grassroots experience? How could he not know that those officials would inevitably engage in corruption and bribery once they were placed at a low level? It can be explained that in the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to set very low salaries for officials when the Ming Dynasty was just established and the treasury was empty. However, when the country had enjoyed peace for a long time, and after several years of restored production, the treasury began to be filled, he still did not think of increasing the salaries of officials. Instead, the punishment for corruption was increased, and a great edict was issued to let the people know that the government was punishing corruption. It can be seen at this point that the old man himself actually knew that this situation was happening, but he did not change. Instead, he condoned officials to engage in corruption and then struck back heavily. This was Zhu Yuanzhang's means of ruling. It can also be seen that in that era, Zhu Yuanzhang did many things with his own means in order to consolidate the world and consolidate the imperial power. That is why officials were so afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang. Were all those officials fools? Couldn't they see that these were actually contradictions deliberately created by the emperor himself? In fact, they all knew it, and precisely because they knew it, they had opinions and even hatred towards Zhu Yuanzhang. So when Chen Han came into this environment and wanted to carry out reforms, they would of course all stand up to obstruct him, because if they did not, Zhu Yuanzhang might take advantage of this loophole and start slaughtering officials on a large scale. Zhu Biao knew about these problems, which was why he was so conflicted now. He was a little caught off guard when he saw that his grandfather was old and the business he had left behind was not very good. Even now that Chen Han has come to the Ming Dynasty and started vigorous reforms, he wants to make life better for all the people in the world. They even began to make some compromises with those officials, increasing their salaries and providing them with a more relaxed environment. However, this kind of trauma is still very difficult to heal. It must take a long time to slowly repair before those officials can know that they are not... I don't want to be such an emperor. I want them to believe that the emperor is a normal person who will not kill innocent people. This is also the reason why when Zhu Biao heard Chen Han say that he wanted to increase the salaries of officials all over the world, he was very supportive. The old man even had a quarrel with him about this matter. Zhu Biao actually understood very well that the old man had always known that if the salaries of officials were too low, it would inevitably cause a lot of trouble. The common people would also have some unnecessary resistance to the court because of the officials' repeated corruption. Although at the beginning the common people did not know that the reason for the emergence of corrupt officials was that there was something wrong with the system, they just thought that there was something wrong with those officials. However, as more and more people become educated, ordinary people may gradually realize that it is actually His Majesty the Emperor who is using these things. Sometimes, His Majesty the Emperor also intentionally used himself and others to create a huge advantage in public opinion to monitor and even control those officials... (End of this chapter)