The changes in the times and the changes in the situation are all nodes that test human nature. Zhao Bing now understands that the Mongols and Yuan dynasties invaded Jiangnan and the Song Dynasty was defeated by the enemy for ten years, which is undoubtedly a big test for scholars.

Some scholars resisted in anger and did not hesitate to take the road of resisting the Yuan Dynasty and restoring the country; some people fell into this, lived away from the world, and lived in other places; some people kept their faith in their dreams of their homeland, but had to surrender to the situation and live in the world; some people rebelled against the way, defected to the enemy, and embarked on the road of betraying the country and nation; more people chose to follow the trend and obediently became obedient people in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, and the previous dynasty had become a dream of remembering.

Therefore, the scholar class of the Song Dynasty has been torn apart in the past ten years. This is different from academic debates and the common people in the court to fight against differences. It is a test of human nature, morality and original heart. It is like rivers rushing, mud and sand falling down, turbid flowing and clear flowing. In the continuous flow and turbid flowing, some return to the clear flow, some people stay in the rivers and lakes, and some flow into the cessation pit.

But no matter what, the paradox of history is that as long as the dynasties change, some scholars in Jiangnan will be "liquidated". Thinking of this result, Zhao Bing felt it was very interesting. It was a cycle of heaven and the retribution was a bit far-fetched, but this happened in history. The reasons are even more different, especially Zhu Laoba's suppression of scholars in Jiangnan was more representative, and the reasons were even more bizarre.

Speaking of the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in history, scholars in Jiangnan also faced a choice. On the one hand, the private salt dealer Zhang Shicheng's regime, who was transformed by them, was still nominally loyal to the Yuan Dynasty; on the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a beggar, was cleaning up his relationship with the Red Turban Army in order to seize the world. People all think that cruel national oppression was common in the Yuan Dynasty, but the fact is that the gentry of Jiangnan was quite comfortable.

Private salt dealer Zhang Shicheng came from Jiangbei and occupied most of the Jiangnan area with Suzhou and Hangzhou as the core. He started a cooperative rule with local gentry and landlords, "Kaifu Pingjiang, and scholar Xiangzhen". Due to the large number of scholars in Jiangnan, Zhang Shicheng's regime quickly became humanized. Unlike the heroes who competed for the world, the three Jiangnan civil officials Wang Jingfu, Ye Dexin and Cai Yanwen became the core of the decision-making of Zhang Shicheng's regime.

The gentry in Jiangnan was attached to the peaceful scene under the Yuan Dynasty. Under their influence, Zhang Shicheng was also satisfied with protecting the country and ensuring the people and did not conduct large-scale military operations. For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang were fighting fiercely, Zhang Shicheng did not use it, but instead built a large-scale water conservancy project Baima Port in Wu. At that time, there were songs that showed Zhang Shicheng's rule: the Prime Minister (referring to Zhang Shicheng) did his career, and he used the king, Cai, and Ye. Once the west wind (referring to Zhu Yuanzhang) rose and shriveled.

However, peace in troubled times was just a hasty moment. After Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated Chen Youliang, a fellow White Lotus Sect in the west, he marched eastward. Zhu Yuanzhang's group was full of confidence, thinking that the people in Jiangnan were weak and Zhang Shicheng was surrounded by pedantic scholars, and the soldiers would inevitably surrender. However, the fact was far beyond Zhu Yuanzhang's expectations.

When Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Zhang Shicheng eastward, he had already gained a clear advantage at this time. Most of the gentry in Jiangnan were devoted to the Zhang Shicheng regime. Most of the Wu people defended and resisted stubbornly. The battle was extremely fierce and lasted for nearly a year. In the end, Zhang Shicheng was trapped in Suzhou City, with ammunition and food exhaustion and unbearable to do things to eat each other, so he had to open the city to surrender.

Although there were Liu Ji, Song Lian and other scholars in Jiangnan who had surrendered before, more people still had an opposite side of him. Now he has an overwhelming advantage, but the gentry and landlords in Jiangnan are still loyal to Zhang Shicheng. Zhang Shicheng, who became a defeated bandit, is still described as a benevolent ruler who cannot bear the sacrifice of his people.

Many years later, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had firmly held the throne in Nanjing, was still worried that he could not get the same love. In the notes of the unofficial history in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang met the Wu people everywhere, and the Wu people were grateful to King Zhang: Emperor Gao once walked to Sanshan Street and saw an old woman sitting on a bed. When he pretended to sit and move, he asked the old woman why he was a man? The old woman asked: What is Zhang Shicheng in Su? The old woman said: When the Emperor of Ming Dynasty started, King Zhang knew that he was not the true emperor and surrendered to the whole city. The Su people did not suffer from the suffering of war and are still grateful.

The most angered by Zhu Laoba was the people of Wu who moved from southern Jiangsu to the capital. They still called Zhang Shicheng the king, just called him the old man. Taizu once walked in the capital slightly and heard an old woman secretly calling him the old man, and was furious... and said: Zhang Shicheng stole Jiangdong a little, and the people of Wu have called him the king of Zhang. I am the emperor. This country called him the old man. Why? He ordered that he had a lot of people.

These can really reflect the public opinion at that time. After the Ming Dynasty established the Central Plains, the landlords in Jiangnan still reacted indifferently to the Zhu Ming regime and became survivors of the previous dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a beggar from Huaixi. He suffered enough of the landlord officials in his early years. He was treated coldly in Jiangnan for years and was always unhappy with the people of Jiangnan. Now he is sitting firmly on the dragon throne, so he is not worthy of his return.

In addition to land tax, there were two types of grain taxes in the Ming Dynasty, namely grain for border guards and white grain for the powerful palaces in the capital. These burdens were mainly on the people of Jiangnan. In addition to regular taxes and levies, various surcharges were indispensable, and the levies were often several times more than regular grain. Some people also thought that the high grain output in Jiangnan was enough to bear such taxes.

But if Su Song's heavy taxation was also considered to be due to the consideration of regional agricultural development, the forced population migration was obviously punishing. The population migration led by Zhu Yuanzhang was called "Hongwu Dispersion", which drove hundreds of thousands or even millions of Jiangnan people to leave their hometowns. The tragic flood at the end of the Yuan Dynasty swept over half of China, causing large-scale population deaths. The population loss in Jiangnan controlled by Zhang Shicheng was not large, so it was naturally regarded as the first choice for foreign immigrants.

After the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the population of Fengyang Prefecture, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, was particularly extinct, and as Zhongdu was too desolate. In order to enrich the land of his ancestors, Zhu Yuanzhang moved the rich people of Suzhou to Shihaozhou when he captured Suzhou. In the third year of Hongwu, he moved more than four people from Jiangnan to fill Fengyang. Four years later, he moved 140,000 people from Jiangnan to Shizhongdu. These immigrants suffered a lot in the process of building Zhongdu.

After the strict control in the early Ming Dynasty was a little relaxed, Jiangnan fled back to his hometown in various ways, and begging and selling arts was also a way out. The so-called "Since the emergence of Emperor Zhu, there has been nine years of famine in ten years" in the lyrics of Fengyang Huagu, which is a saying that Jiangnan immigrants accused Zhu Yuanzhang of "atrocities" and bullying Jiangnan people.

The capital Nanjing also needs to enrich its population. During the Hongwu period, there were more than 45,000 wealthy households in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, who were forced to move to Nanjing by Zhu Yuanzhang. The wealth they brought was naturally used to prosper the capital. After Yunnan was pacified, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to immigrate from the mainland to Yunnan to enrich the border. Many Jiangnan people who were originally moved to Nanjing had to follow the army to guard the border. The story of Shen Wansan repairing the city walls angering Zhu Yuanzhang and finally being exiled to Yunnan was born in this context.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the new policy of Jianwen once brought hope to the scholars in Jiangnan. Many scholars in Jiangnan gathered around the young emperor. Unexpectedly, Zhu Di, the King of Yan from Peking, succeeded in Jingnan and suppressed them again. Zhu Di not only brought a large number of heroes in Jingnan and occupied officials of all sizes, but also moved the capital directly to Peking. The Southern Scholar Group was once again purged.

After the Ming Dynasty entered the Qing Dynasty, the scholars in Jiangnan were retaliated by the Qing Dynasty. The imperial court, which suffered a lot, was punished by the three cases of the cries of the temple, the Zhuang family's historical prison, and the literary inquisitions that affected the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Gan dynasties, all declared the emperor's desire for revenge. This was almost an open secret at that time. The Qing people commented that this was the court's intention to make things difficult for those with powerful families, and that the people in Jiangnan were also robbed...

Zhao Bing felt that being a scholar in Jiangnan was really unlucky. Anyone who came to power would be cut off. When he returned to Jiangnan, he killed a group of people under the banner of suppressing rebellion under the name of cracking down on treason and betraying the king. In fact, it can be understood as an act of revenge. After all, these people deviated from the Song Dynasty in the face of national crisis and betrayed the king. There was no burden to kill him. The reason was justified, so it did not cause any major turmoil.

Later, when the election was over, Zhao Bing took action in the name of preventing the autocratic power of foreign relatives, suppressing the families of officials in Jiangnan, forbidding their children from participating in the imperial examinations for several years, and cutting off their ways to enter the officialdom. He knew the real purpose, because Chen Yizhong colluded with officials in the court to decree the matter. Therefore, Zhao Bing prevented the old ministers from rising again in the officialdom, maintaining the government affairs, controlling national policies, and then threatening the foundation of the new regime.

The suppression was still a bit dirty, but the Jiangnan family did not fail to gain benefits from it. The daughters of several major families married into the palace and became the emperor's concubines and royal relatives. Giving a dragon son may also become the next generation of emperors. In this way, at least two generations of peace and wealth can be maintained. In the eyes of outsiders, the emperor still respects scholars very much, and he thus stabilized the traditional scholar-official class and gained the support of the top scholars to a certain extent.

Therefore, the scholars who made trouble this time seemed very lively and had a lot of momentum, but few traditional families and famous scholars participated in it. The so-called clear stream that was highly regarded by themselves but could not be used. Their purpose was nothing more than to seek profit from chaos and gain fame and fortune from it. The mainstream of causing trouble was gentry, who wanted to protect their vested interests and thus opposed innovation.

However, this time the students of the Imperial College were in the forum, and scholars from all over the country who went to Beijing to take the exam. In Zhao Bing's view, these scholars were blinded young people. They were passionate but lacked the ability to distinguish things. Just like myself back then, it seemed that the truth was in my hands. I was the embodiment of justice, acted impulsively and ignored the consequences, and later became the scapegoat for others, and it was too late to regret it.
Chapter completed!