Zhu Jinsong let out a cold laugh and retorted, "If someone constantly told you that barbarians entering China would lead to the ruin of China, would you think such nonsense was correct?"
"In other words, if people were constantly in your ear spouting nonsense about Qianlong the dog being meritorious to the Central Plains halls, would you also think such nonsense was correct?"
Speaking of this, Zhu Jinsong's expression couldn't help but turn somewhat grim. "Our generation is still better off, after all, we lived through the Qing Dynasty's rule, we know what kind of a mess the Qing Dynasty truly was, and we know all the idiotic things Qianlong the dog did."
"But what about the next generation? And the generation after that?"
"If this continues, there might be some brainless fools who will believe this nonsense. They will believe Qianlong the dog was meritorious to our Central Plains halls, they will believe the territory of our Great Ming was established by his Qing Dynasty, they will believe the few Manchu chieftains of the Qing Dynasty were all enlightened and sage rulers. Men will be proud to be slaves, and women will be honored to marry these Jianyi."
Zhu Sanshun paused for a moment and asked, "That shouldn't be the case, should it? After all, our Great Ming's textbooks are very clear about this. Anyone with a bit of sense shouldn't believe this nonsense. Is Your Majesty thinking too much?"
Zhu Jinsong, however, shook his head and said, "Then you tell me, what are these pamphlets and newspapers and other such things?"
"I have to admit, although our Great Ming has popularized the village schools and county schools, and most of the common people are literate, they still prefer to believe what is said in newspapers and books."
"More importantly, people only believe what they want to believe, and only read what they want to read."
"If it benefits some people to portray Qianlong the dog as an enlightened and sage ruler, then those people will be willing to believe that Qianlong the dog was an enlightened and sage ruler, just as they prefer to read those gossip tabloids rather than the Great Ming newspapers."
This was not Zhu Jinsong thinking too much, but rather an unavoidable situation.
For example, even with nine years of compulsory education, anyone who has attended history classes diligently should know that the Qing Dynasty practiced strict ethnic segregation, with Manchus and Han forbidden to marry. Yet, people still enjoyed reading those speculative accounts and guides. Over time, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty naturally became wise and divine, while the emperors of the Great Ming naturally became incompetent and foolish.
In reality?
In reality, Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen of the Great Ming, who was a disgrace to all Han emperors in Chinese history, was still superior to the ceiling of the Qing Dynasty emperors, the Kang-Yong-Qian era, in terms of his potential.
Because whenever some servants bring up the Qing Dynasty, they invariably talk about the prosperity of the Kang-Qian era (Yongzheng feels he needs to be included), but when they mention the Great Ming, these servants will talk about how Zhu Qizhen was, and how the people in the Chongzhen era were suffering from poverty.
As for why there were agricultural and scientific books like "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration," "Western Water Laws," and "Tiangong Kaiwu" during years when people couldn't survive, those servants would certainly not mention them.
Even the sweet potatoes that created the so-called "prosperous Qianlong era" had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. "A Memorial on the Cultivation of Sweet Potatoes" was written by Xu Guangqi. Sweet potatoes were introduced to the Great Ming and started to be cultivated as early as the first year of Wanli. Old Xu had also been pondering how to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes.
Unfortunately, the Great Ming collapsed, and the promotion of sweet potatoes actually became the reputation of Qianlong the dog. So, why did the sweet potatoes, which were introduced and cultivated during the Wanli era, become the achievement of Qianlong the dog? Why didn't his father and grandfather promote them?
Answer: Qianlong the dog's grandfather was busy having sex with 300 rabbits a day, Qianlong the dog's father was constantly busy having fun with Zhen Huan, Consort Hua, and a host of other young ladies in the harem, and Qianlong himself was also busy traveling south of the Yangtze River. Promoting sweet potatoes was a spontaneous act by the common people, and it truly had nothing to do with Qianlong the dog.
Of course, the servants would definitely not admit this. Not only would they not admit it, but they would also drag down all the emperors of the Great Ming.
For example, some educated servants would use the agricultural expert Xu Zhenming as an example – in the twelfth year of Wanli, Xu Zhenming finally cultivated rice that could be planted in Beijing. Later, it was test-planted in nearly 40,000 mu in Yongping Prefecture, and it yielded a great harvest. Subsequently, the news of Beijing's ability to grow rice spread throughout Beijing, and the common people rejoiced. However, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty made a big fuss about this, distorted the facts, and engaged in factional struggles, ultimately leading Emperor Wanli to order the prohibition of its promotion.
See? Isn't that a scam? Isn't the Ming imperial court corrupt enough, and doesn't it care about the lives of the common people? Does it deserve to be destroyed?
Then let's look at what the servants say about the Qing Dynasty:
After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains and faced the mess left by the Ming Dynasty, they implemented measures such as tax reduction and exemption, attracting refugees, encouraging land reclamation, and renaming fields (confiscating the land of Ming princes). This eased the social contradictions left by the Ming Dynasty and allowed the economy to begin to recover. In the ninth year of Shunzhi, the national population of the Qing Dynasty was about 60 million, but by the first year of Kangxi, it had recovered to 100 million.
To solve the problem of rapid population growth in the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi stipulated that newly developed land could be exempted from taxes for six years, encouraging people to reclaim land in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. At the same time, they tried in every way to increase the yield per mu and promote high-yield crops.
Then, Emperor Kangxi discovered that in the imperial gardens, there was a stalk of rice that "stood out among the crows," ripening two months earlier than other rice. Subsequently, continuous trial planting and scaling up began. Moreover, because this rice was discovered and cultivated by Emperor Kangxi, it was also called "Imperial Rice Seed."
After Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng, who was busy having fun with Zhen Huan and other young ladies, immediately established the Bureau of Farming and Water Conservancy, and planted rice on a large scale. After Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne, he continued Emperor Yongzheng's work, draining marshes near Beijing and opening up paddy fields. Finally, the Qing Dynasty cultivated a new type of rice, known as "Imperial Paddy," and the rice yield per mu rose from the original 240 jin to 940 jin.
See? Aren't your Ming emperors incompetent?
Not to mention your Ming emperors, even some great druids would have to step aside.
"The most 'agricultural' emperor in history, better than Yuan Longping, invented 'Imperial Rice' which is still in use today." "As everyone knows, Yuan Longping is a Chinese hybrid rice breeding expert and the pioneer of China's research and development of hybrid rice, known as the 'Father of World Hybrid Rice.' Little do they know that in history, there was also an emperor known as the 'Father of Hybrid Rice.'"
As for Xu Zhenming wanting to promote rice cultivation and paddy field development in the north, and the people and court of the Great Ming at that time being unwilling to accept paddy field development in the north for various reasons, and Xu Zhenming not actually inventing some kind of high-yield rice...
Do the servants need to know this?
No, they only need to know that they can smear the emperors of the Great Ming by comparing the different attitudes of the Ming and Qing dynasties towards rice cultivation. Therefore, Xu Zhenming must have invented rice.
Normally, it's the servants' business how they want to spin their yarns or how they want to flatter the entire Qianlong the dog family. It has nothing to do with others.
However, what is truly infuriating is that many people have been fooled by these servants. Some even believe that Qianlong the dog is of the Haining Chen family bloodline, believe that Qianlong the dog will therefore favor the Nikan, and believe that Qianlong the dog was so wise and divine.
Qianlong the dog was born either in Yuanmingyuan in the capital or in the Summer Palace in Chengde. He had absolutely no connection to Haining.
If the fact that Qianlong the dog's family was being whitewashed so aggressively is not enough to prove anything, then look at how the Yicilester people conducted their aggressive whitewashing.
During the two Opium Wars, the biggest opium dealers were not the British East India Company or the British, but a large group of Jewish families led by the Sassoon family.
The fundamental reason why a certain art student desperately wanted to eliminate those Yicilester people should be considered in the context of a loaf of bread costing 500,000. Any claim that only talks about how miserable the Yicilester people are, divorced from reality, is simply bullshit.
The infamous "Fugu Project" also has inseparable ties to these Yicilester people.
By the way, let me also remind you that the founder of HSBC Bank was Jewish, and HSBC's first pot of gold was obtained from the Yicilester people selling opium in the Great Qing.
Even when Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming, had just unified the Central Plains, those Yicilester people were still unwilling to register as Han Chinese, and they clamored to enjoy all the welfare benefits that the common people of the Great Ming could enjoy except for military service, such as land allocation, housing allocation, free education for their children in social schools, the same tax rates as Great Ming merchants, and the same qualifications for official positions. Moreover, they were unwilling to leave Tiaojin Hutong, citing it as their "ancestral land." If the Great Ming insisted on them leaving, then Zhu Jinsong or the Great Ming court would have to arrange ships to send them back to their true ancestral land.
Therefore, if one flips through the entire history of the Yicilester people, one can basically only see the words "deserves to be killed."
But they were able to successfully whitewash themselves because they controlled the narrative. Now, there is sympathy for the Yicilester people all over the world. Anyone who says anything slightly negative about them will be branded as an associate of the art students.
It is precisely because Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming, knew the true nature of Qianlong the dog's family and the troubles caused by these Yicilester people that he became so sensitive to these tabloids and pamphlets.
Just thinking about the nature of those Yicilester people, Zhu Jinsong couldn't help but frown again and looked at Liu Hemming and Zhu Erdan, asking, "Have all those Yicilester people in Tiaojin Hutong been dealt with properly?"
Liu Hemming bowed and replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, the incident in Tiaojin Hutong was personally arranged by me. I guarantee it has been thoroughly cleared."
Zhu Jinsong grunted, then tapped the table with his fingers, and instructed Ke Zhiming, "Later, check if there are any fish that slipped through the net who have gotten involved. See if there's any involvement from the barbarians outside."
After Ke Zhiming bowed in acknowledgment, Zhu Jinsong turned to Zeng Cheng, Zhu Erdan, and other important figures and said, "Since someone wants to whitewash Qianlong the dog's family, then we will fight them properly. I want to see, in this world, are there more people who support me, or more people who support Qianlong the dog!"
Zeng Cheng thought to himself, "Isn't this nonsense? Among the four hundred million people of the Great Ming, nearly four hundred million support Your Majesty. The occasional few who want to support Qianlong the dog can only do so in secret by publishing a few articles. And you want to fight?"
What do you want them to fight with? Their heads against the muskets and cannons of the army under Your Majesty?
After thinking about it, Zeng Cheng simply bowed and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will properly rectify the situation when I return. This matter of whitewashing Qianlong the dog's family will absolutely not happen again."
However, Zhu Jinsong smiled and shook his head, saying, "Absolutely not happen again? That's impossible."
"This is a war without smoke, and words are the weapons. As long as one side is not completely exterminated, this war will never stop."
"It's a pity that the other side participating in this war will never be completely exterminated."
"This is not like fighting a real war with swords and spears on the battlefield."
"On the battlefield, I believe our Great Ming army is invincible, capable of killing all enemies and suppressing all dissent."
"But this war without smoke is different. As the saying goes, wealth moves people's hearts. Therefore, as long as there are profits, these people will exist, just like weeds by the roadside. You can't get rid of them, you can't burn them clean, they will always reappear."
Hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, Zeng Cheng's expression couldn't help but turn grim. Meng Fanzhi, the head of the Ministry of Rites, looked even more displeased, as if he had eaten rat droppings.
As Zhu Jinsong said, the difficulty of eradicating these people was much greater than having the executioners of the Five Military Commissions annihilate some barbarian country.
The latter only required recruiting people as laborers or completely eliminating them, both of which were definitive solutions.
The former, however, exists because of the existence of profit. As long as there is profit in this world, these people will appear in waves. At most, they can be suppressed when the imperial court is strong.
Of course, the Ministry of Rites could completely ban all newspapers. However, just as there were cases of newspapers being disguised as books before, even if the government continuously banned them with various decrees, those people would still find ways to circumvent them.
Therefore, this is indeed a difficult battle to fight, despite the absence of smoke.
Just as Zeng Cheng and Meng Fanzhi were pondering how to break the deadlock, Zhu Jinsong continued, "This time, I will personally enter the fray and fight them properly."