Thirty-one years of Hongwu

The man who transformed from a beggar to a nine-five-year-old supreme king looked at the setting sun and uttered the last dragon cry: "Let the sun stand!" and then passed away suddenly.

The death of the Hongwu Emperor, who made all the princes in the court dare not breathe, made the wheel of history roll forward.

The first year of Chongzhen

Chongzhen was sitting on the dragon throne and was preparing to fight. He finally became the emperor of this empire, and he would definitely make Ming Dynasty famous overseas.

There was a flash of lightning in the sky and a sound of thunder. In a county jail in Qingjian County, Shaanxi Province, a figure opened his scarlet eyes.

This person is the famous bandit lamplighter Zhao Sheng. At this moment, Zhao Sheng's eyes no longer have the weakness of a scholar, only anger remains.

Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that his life had come to an end, but the next moment he found that he appeared in the prison covered with injuries.

Zhu Yuanzhang read Zhao Sheng's memory as if he were flipping through a book, and became furious. Is this still the Ming Dynasty where he and his brothers died in a sea of ​​blood?

A scholar was slandered as a rebel and thrown into death row because he used a temple to study. Is such an official still an official of the Ming Dynasty? Such an official should be killed!

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes burned with raging anger. He heard the jailer outside whisper: "I heard that His Majesty had just succeeded to the throne, and Zhang Banganmin immediately said that he wanted to rectify the officialdom."

"But taxes have increased again. I heard that people in many places are complaining, and our wages have also been reduced a lot."

"Just make do with your life. After all, this world belongs to those masters. Your Majesty is the master's master. Who cares about us people?"

"No, so what about Eunuch Wei? His Majesty the Emperor just told him to go and watch Taizu's funeral, so he has to go."

When someone on the side heard Eunuch Wei mentioned, he immediately winked and said: "Silence!".

"What are you afraid of? Eunuch Wei has already fallen."

Suddenly a voice came from outside: "What are you talking about?".

A weak scholar walked into the prison, covered his mouth and nose with disgust, and said sternly to the chattering jailer: "You don't even want to live anymore, do you? You people can discuss things in the court at will."

"Master Yu, we don't dare to do it anymore, just pretend you didn't hear," the two of them knelt down and begged for mercy.

"Okay, okay, I'm here today on business," Master Yu said and walked to Zhao Sheng's cell.

Master Yu couldn't bear to see Zhao Sheng's body covered in blood and flesh, and sighed: "The world is difficult, maybe it would be a relief if you leave early."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the words of the people outside the cell, he struggled to get up and said: "It may not be your turn to take our lives yet."

Master Yu looked at Zhao Sheng and thought he was struggling to his death. He said, "You should take care of yourself. You will be killed soon."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was immediately a little angry. Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng didn't dare to take this life from us, but today we are reduced to this, trapped in this small county government.

Zhu Yuanzhang could not find any good way to escape from prison for a while, so he could only stare at the ceiling blankly, but he was still thinking about the history of changes in his huge empire in his mind.

He left his grandson Zhu Yunwen to succeed him, but he did not expect that Zhu Yunwen would be deprived of the throne by his own uncle. Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat sad that his most proud heir died of illness, which led to all these disasters.

Zhu Yuanzhang recalled his descendants one by one, and he was a little confused whether they were from the same lineage as Lao Si.

Time passed day by day, but Zhu Yuanzhang still could not escape from the prison. However, Zhu Yuanzhang keenly discovered that something was wrong around him. The jailers were becoming more and more lazy, and the number of prisoners in the prison began to increase.

Someone originally lived in his single room. It was an old man with chapped skin. He was only skin and bones. Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear to look at the old man's appearance.

"Uncle, what have you done?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

The old man stood up tremblingly and said: "What kind of world do you think this is? The imperial court imposed massive taxes because of the Liaodong War, and there was a severe drought. I only have one bag of grain at home, but the government insists on saying that I have hidden military grain."

.

"Do you think people can still live in this world?" the old man roared with hatred.

Zhu Yuanzhang recalled the scene when he was a child, when the Yuan army robbed the only food in his home and left the whole family dead without a burial place. He was a little moved by the scene and kept asking softly: "How could this happen? How could this happen??".

The old man continued: "Later, do you think this world can change? I still have a few people in my family. It doesn't matter if I die."

"I am now thinking about my poor grandson at home. He is only eight years old. My short-lived son was killed by bandits. How will they live in the future if they are left orphaned and widowed?".

Zhu Yuanzhang asked with a glimmer of hope: "The court doesn't care about you either?".

When the old man heard about the imperial court, he sighed: "Is that still the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty?"

"There have been severe droughts in successive years. The court talks about providing disaster relief, but there is no money or food to provide relief. The court is now focused on the war in Liaodong. If it doesn't tax us more, it will be a waste of money."

"Look at these county lords. Some farmers around Emperor Tiangao have all been used to make political achievements for the county lord. Who cares about our life and death?"

Zhu Yuanzhang felt the pain in his heart as he listened to the old man complaining about his life, and cursed: "These beasts should all be killed! That bullshit emperor can't even control his own ministers and let them take bribes, how can he have the nerve to sit there?

chair".

When the old man heard this, he immediately stopped and scolded him: "You don't want your life. Old man, I don't have much life left anyway, but you are different. You are still young. You should live well. Maybe everything will get better."

"You, take a good look at it for me, an old man." After the old man finished speaking, he fell to the ground. Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his hand to sniff and found that the old man's breath was gone.

The old man died but there was a smile on his lips, as if it would be good to have someone who could listen to his last words before he died, and that was a young man.

Go! Go and see for him the troubled times that have been calmed down and the people living in peace.

Seeing the old man lying on the ground, Zhu Yuanzhang respectfully kowtowed to him three times and said: "You have been our husband for a time. If we have the opportunity, we will build a temple and erect a shrine for you to receive incense forever. I will do it."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the corpse being carried out by the jailer and looked at the cell, hoping to find a chance to leave this hellish place, but Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that the way he left would be so interesting.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the shouting of killing coming from outside the prison, he immediately became alert and hid himself in a dark place. Suddenly, a group of strong men armed with simple knives walked into the prison. The leader of the group chopped down the jailer to the ground with a knife.

The other jailers were so frightened that they immediately knelt on their knees and shouted for mercy. The man glanced at him and spat, saying: "Get out of here!".

The strong men opened the prison and said to the crowd: "Dear fellows, the imperial court is trying to deceive us of the money and food we use for disaster relief. What's wrong with the people at dawn? Now we can only rely on selling our sons and daughters to make a living. It's better to rebel against him."

!".

"Inverted!".

"Inverted!".
Chapter completed!