Chongzhen Chat Group

"I am the sacrificial wine of the Ming Dynasty's high-level military preparation hall. What Shen Qing means is that it is not appropriate for me to control the high-level military preparation hall of the Ming Dynasty, or should it be controlled by your Ministry of War? Your Ministry of War already has the right to mobilize troops, and you want to control the troops. The power..." After Emperor Chongzhen said this, he leaned forward slightly and asked with a bit of dignity, "What is your intention?"

In fact, in the past, the Ministry of War had the power to mobilize troops, and the final assessment and appointment power of military generals were also wrested from the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, making the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion a vassal of the Ministry of War. But from the beginning to the end, there was no time when a powerful minister appeared in the Ministry of War, let alone an example of rebellion. But this matter cannot be brought to the surface. No matter who it is, no matter how reasonable it is, they cannot hold the power to command and deploy troops in their hands.

Only the emperor can. After all, the world belongs to the emperor. Whether it is the Governor's Office of the Five Armies or the Ministry of War, they are all the emperor's subordinates and work for the emperor. The power they possess is given by the emperor.

If the minister of the Ming Dynasty's high-ranking armed forces was someone else, such as the Governor's Palace of the Five Armies or the emperor's relatives and nobles, maybe the Minister of War could still argue with reason, but now it is the emperor himself. If he wants to fight for this, he has to fight with the emperor himself. Okay, from this, how does Shen Yongmao answer the question of Emperor Chongzhen?

Shen Yongmao immediately knew that he had made a mistake. He could not bear the insult thrown by the emperor. Whether he was a rebel or a powerful official, he could not bear it. Therefore, he knelt down and apologized quickly, and tried to explain: "I didn't mean this, old minister." , I just think that warriors are vulgar and do not know the teachings of saints. They have delusions when they have power. I just follow the practices of past dynasties and want to prevent warriors from having this opportunity. For the sake of the long-term peace and stability of our Ming Dynasty..."

"Haha!" After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen looked at Shen Yongmao who was already kneeling there, and sneered: "So, our Ming Dynasty is full of wars, and tens of thousands of barbarians in Liaodong can even attack the capital city. , even I, the emperor, have to go to the city to defend against the enemy invaders. The chieftains in the southwest have been in rebellion for years, and the thieves at sea are raging along the coast. Tell me, where is my elite army? Don’t think that I don’t know that your Ministry of War has mastered the actual situation. After gaining the power to command the army, where did the Ming Dynasty’s elite troops go?”

This is actually a bit too much. Even if the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army still has the power to command the army, hundreds of years later, the army will still be corrupt as it should be. This responsibility should not be entirely borne by the Ministry of War.

But at this time, since you Shen Yongmao came to oppose the Ming Dynasty's senior military preparation hall, Emperor Chongzhen naturally started talking and made the matter more serious. Seeing Shen Yongmao sweating on his forehead, he continued: "I The results of reforming the military system and organizing and training the new army are there. The continuous defeat of the Jianlu captives is proof that my approach is effective. Therefore, in addition to the junior military preparation hall, I also established the Ming Dynasty advanced military preparation hall. He even spared no time to personally serve as a sacrificial wine, just because he wants our Ming army to become strong again, to overwhelm the barbarians, and to prevent our Ming people from suffering military disasters. Do you have any other opinions on this matter?"

Even when Su Qin and Zhang Yi were still alive, he couldn't say anything more in front of the fact that the New Army had already proven its combat power. However, Shen Yongmao is not a fool. He naturally knows that the prerequisite for the Ming Dynasty to win consecutive battles is not only the reform of the military system and the use of new training methods, but also the solution of food and salary, the ability of the people who command the troops, etc. This will only happen if you get better. For example, in the suppression of the chieftain rebellion in the northwest, the New Army did not participate. Zhu Xieyuan led the army to suppress it.

But it's useless even if Shen Yongmao understands this. His identity is here, and the emperor's words are reasonable. The power to command the army should not belong to the Ministry of War in the first place. If he continues to argue with the emperor and defend one by one, then what the emperor asked before will be punished. If you say it from your heart, there is a real possibility that it will be suppressed.

Therefore, Shen Yongmao had no choice but to bow his head: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Originally, he wanted to say again that the way for scholars to become scholars was not directly taught by the emperor. It was just a matter of the palace examination, so he thought he was the emperor's disciple and put money on his face. But now the warriors are the real disciples of the emperor. Such a comparison makes the scholars feel extremely embarrassed. Aren't the tails of those warriors raised to the sky?

But these words can no longer be said. It is not precisely because of the importance of the power to command troops, as Shen Yongmao worried, that the emperor personally served as the wine sacrificer. This power was tantamount to being in the hands of the emperor himself. When it comes to military affairs, the emperor should be on guard against warriors in this way. Isn't this something that literati in the past dynasties have emphasized and pursued? We cannot say publicly that the reason why this power is emphasized is actually to be in the hands of civil servants, not your emperor! No matter who it is, the emperor himself goes into battle shirtless, who can fight with the emperor?

Thus, the matter of the Ming Dynasty's senior armed forces was settled. This is also due to the fact that the people in the cabinet were all recommended by Wen Tiren and were able to stand with Emperor Chongzhen wholeheartedly. Moreover, the Metropolitan Procuratorate was undergoing reforms, and all the imperial censors were concerned about where they would be assigned, how many subordinates they would have, etc. , not many people can have extra thoughts and think about trouble with the emperor. If the emperor is unhappy, then this unprecedented reform of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will probably result in him being eliminated.

But even so, there was still a memorial. Shen Yongmao couldn't refute it from this angle, so he added to the confusion from another angle, saying that people like Li Zicheng were not worthy of being disciples of the emperor. Look at their origins and what they have. No matter how meritorious it is, if you want to enter the Ming Dynasty's high-level military training hall, it's not the turn of people like them, right?

Emperor Chongzhen did not bother to refute these memorials and kept them all in reserve. When they accumulated to a certain extent, he held a court meeting and reiterated what he had told Li Zicheng and others about the importance of Siberia.

As a result, almost everyone no longer paid attention to what happened to Siberia. They all cared about the artifact that the emperor mentioned. What was it? Confucius said, "Not talking about strangeness, strength, chaos, and spirit." Your Majesty, there is something wrong with you!

The emperor's authority was naturally not as important in the eyes of civilian officials as it was in the hearts of military generals. To put it bluntly, these civil servants are all educated hooligans. What they pursue all their lives is to overthrow the emperor's authority. Taking the emperor's imperial staff as an honor is an example. Therefore, what Li Zicheng and others believed immediately was questioned by the civil servants.

Emperor Chongzhen was not angry about this either. Isn't the most important job with civil servants just wrangling! The only thing a civil servant has is his mouth. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the civil and military forces of the dynasty, turned a little serious, and said seriously: "This artifact I am talking about has a name, it is called technology!"

Upon hearing this, all the officials, no matter whether they were cunning, cunning, mature or otherwise, were surprised. What kind of technology? What is this?

As the confidant of Emperor Chongzhen, Wen Tiren, the first assistant, was the person who understood Emperor Chongzhen best. As soon as he heard this, he had a keen sense that the emperor might have something new to say. In this case, he stepped out to cooperate and asked: "Your Majesty, what is this technology?"

After hearing the chief assistant's question, everyone else kept quiet. They all wanted to hear what this technology was?

"Science and technology is actually the collective name of science and technology!" Emperor Chongzhen's answer to Wen Tiren's question was actually a lesson to all his ministers, "Discover the relationship between the conclusive facts and phenomena in all things in the world, and establish theories to The connection between facts and phenomena is science. And the application of scientific results to practical problems is technology."

Seeing that the ministers below were all confused, Emperor Chongzhen explained with another example: "For example, you all know about thermal expansion and contraction, right? After getting this conclusion, you can further analyze how hot will increase and how cold will increase. Will shrink and other further details, this is science. Let's take another simple example, such as the Kongming Lantern, which is actually related to thermal expansion and contraction. The heated gas floats upward, driving the Kongming Lantern to fly into the sky, making this Kongming Lantern Come on, it’s technology. The artifact I’m talking about is science and technology, or technology for short!”

When Emperor Chongzhen originally gave this example of thermal expansion and contraction, he wanted to refer to a steam engine. But he thought about it. Many officials present did not know about steam engines, so he changed his mind temporarily and used the Kongming Lantern, which everyone knew, as an example.

Unexpectedly, as soon as this example was cited, a courtier immediately came out, with a serious look on his face, and loudly said: "Your Majesty, apart from floating in the sky to look better, what is the use of such things as the Kongming Lantern? Such strange and ingenious techniques, It's a waste of manpower and material resources. Your Majesty wants to say that these things are magical tools that benefit the country and the people, but I really don't agree!"

Since the beginning of recorded history, many people have tried their best to please the king and obtain official positions. For example, without the demands of the market economy, things that can only be used for palace entertainment are presented to the king. If the king looks happy, he will naturally be rewarded, and maybe he can get an official position for it. This is how Kongming lanterns, bamboo dragonflies, firecrackers and other objects came to be.

For this reason, when Emperor Chongzhen mentioned the Kongming Lantern, some civil servants jumped out and talked about it. Not only that, another minister came out and loudly said: "I heard that your Majesty has accepted a craftsman as an apprentice in the south of the Yangtze River, and he just made this Kongming Lantern. I think that your Majesty's thoughts are wrong! It is for the Ming Dynasty and the ancestors' plan for the country. , I sincerely request your Majesty to bring order to the chaos..."

Before he could finish speaking, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but burst out laughing, interrupting the minister's words.

He thought that the emperor would be angry, or be beaten with a stick, or even be punished, but he never thought that the emperor was laughing as if he had heard something very funny, laughing at his... ignorance?

I don't know when, the first assistant Wen Tiren had already returned to the queue. When I saw this scene, I knew in my heart that the emperor was going to get angry and say something unheard of.

Sure enough, after Emperor Chongzhen smiled for a while, he suddenly stopped talking and looked at this minister. He had a vague impression that this minister was from the south of the Yangtze River. That's why he knew about Carpenter Xu!

Hear Emperor Chongzhen say loudly: "It is true that the ignorant are so fearless that they can say such uninformed words. There is nothing better than this frog in the well! Did you know that in the army at night, Kongming lanterns hanging in the air are used to convey military orders? This is One..."

Obviously, the two courtiers who rushed out to admonish him came from the wealthy Jiangnan. Most of their life experiences were in Wenwen Village. They knew the purpose of Kongming Lanterns, which they usually used for fun, but they did not know that Kongming Lanterns had been used in many aspects.

When Emperor Chongzhen said this in public, these two ministers immediately turned red and wanted to argue, but the emperor was still speaking and he had no right to interrupt him, so he had to hold it in for now.

"Secondly, the technology of thermal expansion and contraction that I mentioned is just an example when it is embodied in the Kongming Lantern. Let me ask you, if the sky made of this Kongming Lantern is extremely huge, its buoyancy in the air must be very great. When it reaches a certain size, Can it take people to the sky? If the current sky lantern is not suitable, if it is improved according to the scientific and technological principles of thermal expansion and contraction, will it be able to take people to the sky? The current sky lantern can only float in the sky, what if Coupled with other devices, can we control it to rise and fall in the air, move forward and backward according to human wishes..."

Emperor Chongzhen's series of rhetorical questions based on thermal expansion and contraction were simply shocking to people of this era. For a moment, the scene became very quiet, except for the gushing voice of Emperor Chongzhen.

Human beings have always longed to fly in the sky like birds, but at the same time, humans know that it is impossible for them to fly in the sky like birds. But when the civil and military officials present heard the description of Emperor Chongzhen, their eyes seemed to be opened. According to the method described by the emperor, it seemed that it was really possible to fly in the sky!

Think about the impossible, is it possible to achieve it? How does that person feel when he is flying in the sky and looking down at the earth?

"...I did accept an apprentice. I saw in Jiangnan that he was determined to make a tool that could allow people to fly in the sky. Therefore, I asked him to study the Kongming Lantern and let him understand the scientific and technological principles contained in the Kongming Lantern. Because I know However, without knowing why, it is impossible to make it. I can tell you clearly that something that can take people to heaven will definitely appear within the next two years. "

It was another shocking statement, and for a while, the ministers were a little unable to accept it. Subconsciously, they are thinking that something that can take people to heaven must be a magical weapon, right?

At this time, the two civil servants who came out to oppose stood there a little at a loss. Because the emperor's series of words seemed to prove that they were frogs in the well! This conclusion really made the two of them a little embarrassed to stand in the middle, so they wanted to hide among the crowd, somewhere where no one could see them.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the expressions of his ministers, and was still very happy. Today, he will open a hole for science and technology in the Ming Dynasty, so that the concept of science and technology can take root in the Ming Dynasty!

Thanks anniexie for the tip!