bookbashuk Page 231
Page 231
Jiu Nan was taken aback, then nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Recalling the past, his expression still betrayed his deep sorrow.
When Li Zicheng led his troops into Beijing, his father, Emperor Chongzhen, forced the empress, concubines, and princesses to commit suicide in order to prevent his wife and daughters from being humiliated. He himself also hanged himself on Coal Hill, preserving the last bit of dignity for the Southern Ming royal family.
It was Li Zicheng's attack on Beijing that forced their entire family to their deaths; this is an undeniable fact.
Chen Yan smiled.
There was no rebuttal.
To be honest, as a time traveler, he also had a certain fondness for the Southern Ming Dynasty, and in some ways, he was what people commonly call a 'Ming fan'.
....... ..... .......
But while feelings of affection are one thing, nothing is absolute.
The Southern Ming Dynasty had its good aspects, but it was also corrupt and decadent.
Thinking about this, Chen Yan pondered for a moment and then slowly spoke.
"Li Zicheng, whose original name was Hongji, also known as Huanglaier and Zaoer, lived in Lijiqian Village, Mizhi County, Yulin, Shaanxi Province. His family was poor from a young age. In his childhood, he herded sheep for landlords to fill his stomach. He lost his mother when he was a teenager, and his father died soon after.
At the age of 21, in order to make a living, he became a post station worker in Yinchuan.
Later, when your father, Emperor Chongzhen, ascended the throne, in order to save on national treasury expenditures, he dismissed hundreds of thousands of strong and able-bodied post station workers, including Li Zicheng.
After being dismissed, Li Zicheng was pursued for debts by scholars from his hometown. In order to make an example of him, they bribed the local magistrate and ordered Li Zicheng to be paraded through the streets until he died.
With the help of his friends, Li Zicheng successfully escaped from prison and killed the scholar.
Upon returning home, he discovered that his wife was having an affair with a local bully, so he killed her.
Having committed two murders in succession, he had no choice but to begin a life on the run. He went to Ganzhou to join the army, and because of his outstanding abilities, he was promoted to captain in the army a few months later.
That same winter.
When the Later Jin army attacked the capital, Li Zicheng's troops received orders to go to the capital to provide relief.
However, the military commanders colluded with local officials to embezzle their pay, forcing them to go to the front lines hungry. This caused an uproar among the troops, leading to a mutiny. They killed the commanders and the local magistrate, and rose in rebellion…
Chen Yan paused here, then looked at Master Jiunan: "I haven't embellished any of Li Zicheng's experiences. In your opinion, were Li Zicheng more right or wrong in this process?"
Nine difficulties remain silent.
Although she was in the palace, she had heard some of the stories about the corruption in the officialdom of the last Southern Ming dynasty.
After thinking for a while, she finally spoke: "He killed two people, so he can't be considered a good person."
However, he had his reasons for killing the two men, so he can't be considered an utterly wicked villain.
However, the fact that he instigated a mutiny, killed his superiors and local officials, and even started a rebellion was too heinous a crime, a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of his family.
He had been wronged and could have appealed to the imperial court instead of resorting to violent means like rebellion…
Hear this.
Chen Yan laughed again.
And then he uttered a sentence that shocked Master Jiunan: "There are many reasons for the fall of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but if we're talking about the culprit, it has to be your Southern Ming royal family, the Zhu family..."
Chapter 176 A Shocking Secret: The Truth Behind the Demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty!
"There are many reasons for the fall of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but if we're talking about the culprit, it has to be your Southern Ming imperial family, the Zhu family..."
Chen Yan casually uttered these words, leaving Abbess Jiunan stunned in disbelief.
The onlookers were also puzzled, not understanding the meaning behind Chen Yan's words.
How can the fall of the Southern Ming Dynasty be blamed on the Zhu family, the royal family of the Southern Ming?
Chen Yan took a sip of tea and explained unhurriedly: "The first person to blame for the fall of the Southern Ming is your great-grandfather, the Wanli Emperor. During his reign, he had the help of Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng in the early period, which gave the Southern Ming a chance to revive."
After Zhang Juzheng's death, your great-grandfather, Wanli, engaged in a struggle with the civil service group over the succession to the throne. He failed and then completely abandoned his post, not only refusing to attend court but also refusing to review memorials.
Even more outrageous is that when some officials grew old and died, your great-grandfather, the Wanli Emperor, did not appoint new officials to fill the vacancies, even towards the end of his reign.
Of the more than thirty high-ranking officials in the Southern Ming court, only seven remained; of the six ministries, only the Minister of Justice remained; and most of the official positions throughout the country were vacant, leaving the entire court in a state of semi-paralysis…
With your great-grandfather, the Wanli Emperor, acting so capriciously, how could the Southern Ming court not decline...?
Chen Yan said this.
The people around the "757" all fell silent, secretly cursing the Wanli Emperor's willful and reckless behavior.
The emperor should be the busiest and most important person on this continent, but the Wanli Emperor treated it like a game. To call it willful and reckless is too lenient; it would be more appropriate to call him a foolish and incompetent ruler.
You're quite comfortable refusing to attend court as you please.
With so many officials missing, the government's administrative capacity is paralyzed, and in the end, it is only the common people who suffer.
Because vacancies in official positions can lead to power vacuums.
These power vacuums will ultimately fall into the hands of local powerful families.
Local tyrants are like hungry wolves; once they have power, it's incredibly easy for them to run rampant in the countryside, bully men and women, seize land, and plunder by force.
With a pack of powerful and ambitious local wolves gaining power, one can only imagine how miserable the lives of the people in the Southern Ming region must have been, and how much of the Southern Ming's foundation was destroyed at that time...
Chen Yan glanced at Jiu Nan, whose face was pale, and then said, "Your grandfather, the Tianqi Emperor, was also an oddball. He didn't like being an emperor; he preferred being a carpenter."
They cultivated a eunuch faction like Wei Zhongxian, who sold official positions and exploited the common people, causing widespread suffering and misery...
This made the already fragmented Southern Ming court even worse off, like a broken ship tossed about in a storm, ready to capsize at any moment.
after that.
Your father, Emperor Chongzhen, ascended the throne.
Although he was much more diligent and ambitious than the Wanli and Tianqi Emperors, he was also suspicious, stubborn, and self-willed by nature.
The cabinet has changed more than fifty times in seventeen years, and the two longest-serving chief ministers, Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru, were selfish and petty people.
He might be suitable as a ruler who maintains the status quo.
But to expect him to be the one to turn the tide and restore the dynasty would be giving him too much credit…
Upon hearing Chen Yan's evaluation of his grandfather and father, Master Jiunan fell silent once more.
As the granddaughter of the Tianqi Emperor and the daughter of the Chongzhen Emperor, she was naturally familiar with the situations of the Tianqi and Chongzhen Emperors.
Although I was extremely unwilling to admit it, I couldn't utter a single word of rebuttal.
The person was deeply saddened, in pain, and even on the verge of collapse, which provided 1,000 collapse points.
Finally, after a long silence, she looked at Chen Yan and said, "Even if, as you say, my great-grandfather and grandfather were incompetent and incompetent rulers who did not fulfill their duties, and my father was a stubborn and self-willed ruler who maintained the status quo, that is not enough to make my Zhu family the culprit for the destruction of the Southern Ming Dynasty."
Chen Yan nodded.
"Yes, your Southern Ming has a solid foundation; it can still afford to have two or three spendthrift sons."
However, the Southern Ming Dynasty had one of the most unreliable, even the most vicious, national policies: every member of the Zhu family's imperial clan could unconditionally enjoy imperial stipends, receive fiefdoms, and not have to pay any taxes, and local officials had no right to interfere...
This is very scary!
The princes and dukes who were enfeoffed in various places didn't have to do anything all day long; their only task was to have children.
Because having more members of the royal bloodline means having more income.
In the later stages, your Zhu family's population reached an astonishing several hundred thousand!
At first glance, hundreds of thousands of people may not seem like much, but these are the pampered royal family members who keep slaves and maids. Just to serve these hundreds of thousands of people, how many people would be needed?
Millions?
Millions?
How many people did your Southern Ming Dynasty have in total?
This was like a huge mountain pressing down on every citizen of the Southern Ming Dynasty, making it impossible for them to breathe, causing them to feel resentment and anger, and incurring the wrath of both heaven and man...
If it were a peaceful and bountiful year, then it would be fine.
However, in the late Southern Ming period, natural disasters, man-made calamities, and plagues continued. It was not uncommon for the people of the Southern Ming to go hungry and eat grass roots, tree bark, and even clay. There were also many people who exchanged their own children to eat.
Ordinary people didn't even dare to leave their homes, fearing they would be captured and eaten...
Even in such dire circumstances, the people of the Southern Ming Dynasty still had to support those bloodsucking, greedy, and stingy insects on their heads.
How much pain, hatred, and despair must the people of the Southern Ming Dynasty have felt at that time?
Why did the Southern Ming Dynasty, with such a regime, not perish?
Even if they hadn't perished at the hands of Li Zicheng, there would have been Zhang Zicheng, Wang Zicheng, or Ma Zicheng who would have led the overthrow of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which was enraged by both heaven and man!
The reasons for the demise of the Southern Ming Dynasty may include natural disasters or foreign enemies, but the most important reason is that the Zhu family of the Southern Ming Dynasty brought it upon themselves by exploiting the people too much!
It only brought immense suffering to the innocent people of the Southern Ming Dynasty, who suffered alongside you…
Chen Yan finished speaking.
Master Jiunan's expression changed drastically, and she was shocked, involuntarily taking two steps back!
As the last princess of the Southern Ming Dynasty, she witnessed the suffering of ordinary people after she was forced to wander the world.
Ruins and rubble, corpses scattered everywhere along the roadside.
I just didn't think about it too deeply.