The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 562: Suppressing Qingliu and Playing with Qingliu

There were many absurd things in the Ming Dynasty.

One of them was that the Qing people would rush in and oppose the emperor.

These guys like to play the tactic of not blaming the majority.

Ever since the rise of the Qingliu movement, almost all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have been fooled by this tactic.

When did the clear stream emerge?

It was probably during the Jiajing period, or even earlier.

If Qingliu plays this trick, how should we respond?
Emperor Jiajing's choice was to first kill the upright Prime Minister Xia Yan, and then suppress him with corrupt officials!

This is actually two moves, not one.

The move of chopping Xia Yan earlier was simple and brutal.

Later, using corrupt officials to suppress the upright is another move, and this one seems a bit inexplicable.

If the Prime Minister Xia Yan can be killed, then the other upright officials can also be killed. If they are all killed at once, wouldn’t that be a permanent solution?

In fact, Emperor Jiajing did not use corrupt officials to suppress the upright officials for no apparent reason.

Because the clear stream can never be cut off. Even if you cut off one batch, another batch will emerge. After it emerges, they will play the same trick again!
Emperor Jiajing wanted to solve the problem once and for all, so he chose to cultivate another force to suppress the upright officials, so that the upright officials would not cause trouble with the emperor.

There is actually nothing wrong with this move. The Qingliu does need to be suppressed. As long as another force can suppress the Qingliu, the emperor will not be annoyed by the Qingliu.

The problem is that Emperor Jiajing chose the wrong forces. He shouldn't have chosen corrupt officials to suppress the upright.

The problem of the Qingliu cannot be solved by simply suppressing it.

So, how do we solve the problem of clear stream?

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then patiently taught: "The problem of Qingliu is really difficult to deal with.

Because most of those who claim to be cleaners are not corrupt officials, especially those young and inexperienced ones, nine out of ten are not, and most of those who are easily instigated are not either.

They neither commit corruption nor commit crimes, so it is almost impossible to deal with them using the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

What is more crucial is that those who were instigated, including the young and inexperienced ones, are just pawns of others, and most of them have been used.

The problem is that these guys like to play the game without taking responsibility for the rest of the group, which makes them easy to be taken advantage of.

Most of them even think that doing so is for the country and the people. They think that we, the emperors, are wrong and they are right!

These guys are really a headache.

Originally, it was a good thing for an official to be honest and incorruptible, but it was no longer a good thing when an honest official became a member of the clean stream.

The honest officials only take care of their own affairs, but the upright officials want to take care of everything even the emperor wants!

This is also the fundamental reason why they like to play the game of not holding everyone responsible. They just want us, the emperors, to listen to them.

As for what to do when they play games with us without being responsible for the majority, we actually have to address this from the source.

We must cultivate forces loyal to ourselves to suppress the clean stream. Once we suppress it, the clean stream will not be able to bother us.

My father cultivated the imperial party not only to govern the country, but also to deal with corrupt officials. Suppressing the upright officials was also one of the purposes.

The problem is that the number of imperialists we have cultivated is far less than the number of clean officials, and they are unable to suppress the clean officials."

Uh, it seems that what you said is not what I asked.

Little Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully and couldn't help asking, "Father, what should we do then?"

This problem seems to have returned to the starting point.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then patiently taught: "If the imperial party can't suppress the clean stream, then we have no choice but to take the field ourselves.

In fact, this group of upright officials were also afraid of the emperor's ruthless actions. Under normal circumstances, we could catch them and give them a good beating, killing them, framing them, dismissing them from their posts, removing them from office, and even beheading them in public.

If they keep making trouble, we will keep making trouble too. We will punish whoever starts the trouble until they are scared.

The problem is that we are now cleaning up corrupt officials, and it is not appropriate to use such simple and crude methods to deal harshly with the clean officials.

In this situation, Father can only play tricks on them."

tease?
Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, what does this prank mean?"

How do you say this?

Wanli thought for a moment, then patiently explained, "Playing around means having fun with them. As for how to play specifically, that depends on what they say in their memorial."

Have fun?

I'm good at this, it's my favorite thing to play.

Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun actually asked with great interest, "Father, will they really go crazy and submit petitions?"

That's certainly true.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Nine out of ten times, they will, because they also know that this is the best time to play the game without blaming the crowd."

Sure enough, at about noon the next morning, the chief minister of the cabinet, Shen Li, came running over in his arms with a pile of memorials.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, he bowed and presented the memorial, saying worriedly, "Your Majesty, the Qingliu seem to be trying to cause trouble. They really know how to pick the right time to cause trouble."

This opportunity was chosen for them by Han Yu and Li Sancai.

However, these guys have probably been wanting to make some trouble for a while now.

If not now, when?

Wanli took the memorial and opened it, and couldn't help but sneer.

These guys really started to talk to him about the rules.

Xin Zixiu is well-known for his integrity and outstanding political achievements. It is against the rules to force him to step down for no reason.

Chen Shengben was also honest and upright, and this time he was plotted against by the Zhejiang Party, so it was not right to kill him together. Li Tingji and Jiao Hong were promoted to the cabinet to assist in government affairs without sufficient qualifications, which was not right.

What's more, Li Hualong and Yuan Keli were not qualified enough, and it was against the rules to promote them to the six ministers.

It is against the rules for Wang Zhiyuan, who is not a Hanlin, to be promoted to the cabinet to assist in government affairs.

There is no order without rules. Even the emperor has to abide by the rules.

You guys are telling me the rules, right?
Let me tell you about the rules.

He roughly flipped through the memorials of advice, then picked up his pen and wrote in red: Who asked you to submit the memorial? What were you doing before? Why did you choose to submit the memorial together at this time?
This sentence is somewhat confusing.

It seemed that this was the first time that he personally approved such a memorial.

Naturally, it was impossible for him to personally approve all these memorials of advice and remonstration.

He approved one copy and then said in a loud voice, "Pass it on to Tian Yi, Sun Hai, and Ke Yong."

These three guys were also reviewing memorials, but right now they were all reviewing them in the Imperial Household Department.

They arrived quite quickly.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli took the memorial he had just approved and gave detailed instructions, saying, "Copy this comment on the memorials of advice and remonstration.

Also, take note of all the officials who submitted memorials of admonition, and copy this red comment on the first memorials submitted by the next officials."

There are so many memorials, and I still have to copy such a long sentence for approval!
Tian Yi, Sun Hai and Ke Yong couldn't help but look miserable when they heard this.

This is simply a punishment.

However, they still obediently took the pile of memorials back and copied them.

Seeing this, little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, how do you play this? Is there any mystery in this sentence?"

You don’t know how to play this yet.

Wanli patiently taught: "This is called digging a pit. Once they jump into the pit, father will teach you how to play it."

Digging?

After hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully and couldn't help asking, "Will they jump into the pit?"

of course.

Wanli nodded slightly, and then patiently taught: "They will jump into the pit, these Qingliu people are sometimes stubborn.

You also have to remember this point. When Qingliu plays the game without blaming others, it means it is stubborn and will not give up until it achieves its goal.

They are now trying to talk to me about the rules, but my approval seems to have nothing to do with the rules they are talking about. They will definitely ignore it and will continue to talk to me about the rules. "

When a person plays the Qingliu game without blaming others, he is just being stubborn.

The dispute over the foundation of the country in history is a clear proof of this. No matter how Wanli explained or acted at that time, they just wanted to fight for the foundation of the country and force Wanli at that time to make Zhu Changluo the crown prince.

Sure enough, it was the same this time.

These guys submitted another memorial the next day, and there were even more memorials of "advice" the next day.

Wanli glanced through the memorial and couldn't help but sneer.

These guys just ignored him and kept talking to him about the rules.

He picked up his pen and wrote in red on a memorial:
I am asking you questions, why don't you answer my questions?

You are still talking to me about rules, do you understand the rules?
I will teach you what the rules are.

I asked you a question and you dared not answer it. This is deceiving the emperor. Such blatant deception of the emperor should be punished according to the law by execution of the entire family!
If you talk to me about rules, I will talk to you about rules.

Anyone who dares not to answer me and talks nonsense to me will be punished according to the rules and his entire family will be executed!

When little Zhu Changxun saw this batch of red, he understood.

These guys really jumped into the pit.

Who dares not to answer and risk having his entire family executed?

If it involves huge interests or major issues of right and wrong, I guess someone would really dare to do it.

The question is, it’s just a reply, who would take the risk?
For no other reason than to execute the whole family for not replying?
There's something wrong with your brain!
It was naturally impossible for Wanli to copy such a long passage into every memorial himself.

He then ordered Tian Yi, Sun Hai, and Ke Yong to come over and explain in detail, "Those of you who submitted a memorial of remonstration yesterday submitted another one today. You should copy this comment.

Those who submit memorials of remonstration for the first time should copy yesterday's comments, and those who submit memorials of remonstration for the second time should copy this comment. Remember the names of the officials and don't get them mixed up."

When Tian Yi, Sun Hai and Ke Yong saw such a long paragraph, their faces turned red as bitter gourds.

How long will it take to copy this?
They were only upset by this red-letter comment, but those upright officials who submitted memorials to advise the emperor had their faces changed drastically after seeing this red-letter comment.

The current emperor has clearly set a trap for them!
They dared not to answer the question.

If they dare not reply, the current emperor will really execute their entire family!
No need to think about this.

The emperor has killed so many people today, and these few families are not the only ones left.

It turns out that the emperor had to find some crime to execute the entire family of those who submitted memorials to advise the emperor.

There's no need to find any charges this time. This is blatant deception of the emperor, and according to the law, the entire family should be executed!
Moreover, the evidence is irrefutable. The evidence is the memorials they submitted and the approval from above. This evidence is as ironclad as it can be.

This made the upright people who submitted memorials to advise and persuade the emperor helpless. They could only rack their brains to think of how to respond.

Who asked you to submit the petition? What were you doing before? Why did you choose to submit the petition together at this time?
How do you respond to this?

If they tell the truth, that definitely won't work. Telling the truth would mean they have ulterior motives.

So many people have discussed and submitted a petition together, hoping to make the current emperor surrender. Isn't this a conspiracy?
If you have any evil intentions, your entire clan will be exterminated!
The problem is, if they don't tell the truth, it would be deceiving the emperor and their entire family would be executed!

This time they were so upset that they didn't know how to climb out of the pit.

(End of this chapter)