On May 25th, in Datong, Shanxi, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was visiting.

It is already midnight, and the lights are still on when walking in the South Study. Emperor Kangxi is holding a cup of hot tea, sitting cross-legged on the kang, staring at the dark night sky outside the window in a daze... This summer seems to be better than in previous years.

It is getting warmer, and there is a little more precipitation in the north. Even Datong, which has always been dry, has had several heavy rains since May. At this time, the sky is still densely covered with dark clouds, giving people a feeling of dark clouds overwhelming the city.

The feeling of destruction.

There are piles of documents on the imperial case, including battle reports and memorials from local officials. Kangxi was famous for his diligence, especially when he was an energetic young and middle-aged man, he liked to do everything by himself. He even made guns.

He personally took care of matters such as cannon casting, and set up the Yangxin Hall Manufacturing Office to take care of this matter, and was directly responsible to him. He never slacked off in the military and civil affairs of various places, even if he went on an expedition.

Outside the country, he tried his best to let the courtiers follow him. Even if it was inconvenient for the courtiers to follow him, he would have memorials from various places sent to the army for personal review.

However, this self-proclaimed diligent and wise king now feels a deep sense of powerlessness. This sense of powerlessness does not mainly come from military affairs, but from civil affairs.

A few years ago, in order to draw financial and material resources from the people as quickly as possible to support his military reforms, he had to use the method of "inducing poison to quench thirst", delegating power to the grassroots "village sages" and letting them serve as tax collectors for the Qing court.

Looting the people's wealth and anointing... Although this method of "paying taxes to rural sages" had an immediate effect and brought in a lot of money and food for the court in a short period of time, the negative effects were also significant.

One is that local powerful people are showing signs of militarization and weaponization, and they are also starting to act like monsters!

The powerful people do not have guns and knife handles and cannot be tax collectors, but when they have guns and knife handles in their hands, once they have more knife handles, they will no longer be willing to help the court to plunder. The money and grain they collect will be put in their own pockets.

Isn’t it fragrant?

Moreover, people's hearts are always dissatisfied. After becoming a wise man in a village, it is inevitable to think about the position of being the head of a county or even the head of a mansion.

A while ago, because of Wu Yingxiong's "Five-pronged Expedition of the Qing Dynasty", although the Qing Dynasty was not harmed at all, the two unlucky guys Wu Yingqi and Burney were coaxed to the front line and killed. However, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and

The "wise men of the same village" within the territory began to act like monsters one after another.

Some of the more honest rural sages began to cry about poverty, saying that they suffered a loss in the tax coverage last year, and they need to reduce it a little this year, or else they won’t be covered at all!

There were also some dark-hearted villagers who simply rebelled and raised troops to respond to Wu Yingxiong. County towns in Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other places were captured by this group of villagers!

Kangxi's main force was either on the opposing Ming army or fighting Burni and Wu Yingqi, so he could only let the green battalion soldiers controlled by governors from various places cope with it. And the combat effectiveness of those green battalion soldiers was relatively poor and their motivation was insufficient, so there are still seven or eight

County towns have not been recovered...and the tax package in Kangxi's eighteenth year seems to have been reduced somewhat!

What made Kangxi even more troubled was the fact that the local sages - Confucians - and the courtiers (mainly Han ministers and the New Eight Banners Han Army) began to form cliques!

It is almost like the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, except that the Donglin Party only has words, while the rural sages have guns and swords, and Confucianism has anti-Confucianism, and the organization is more rigorous. The combination of the two gave Emperor Kangxi a very headache

, there is already an idea to suppress Confucianism.

But... without Confucianism, Confucianism will take advantage of the situation!

Kangxi originally thought that Confucianism and Confucianism were two completely different sects of Confucianism. Confucianism was the rebellious original Confucianism, while Confucianism was the obedient slave. However, when "Fijing" became one of the "Four Books and Six Classics", Confucianism

It has become more and more similar to Confucianism.

One is a Confucian who kills people with a sharp sword, and the other is a Confucian who beats people with a stick... And they both depict the Holy Master as a tall Confucian who is nine feet tall, powerful, and has unparalleled martial arts! And!

They all hold "Anti-Jing" in their hands and know how to be cunning.

It doesn’t look like there’s really any difference!

Therefore, Kangxi was very worried that if he suppressed the top Confucian leaders, the rural sages below would join the Confucian sect...

Thinking of these troublesome things, Emperor Kangxi stood up anxiously and shouted outside: "Xiao Guizi."

"My servant is here." In response, Xiao Guizi, the most trusted eunuch of Emperor Kangxi, walked in from the door. He saw a smile on his face, appearing modest and submissive, as if he would always be the great Emperor Kangxi until his death.

Unswerving.

What made Kangxi even more satisfied was that this little father-in-law Guizi never seemed tired. He seemed to keep his ears open when sleeping. As long as Kangxi called out, he would always follow the sound.

Kangxi, who was familiar with history books and well aware of the disasters caused by eunuchs, now understood those kings who reused eunuchs...

Kangxi sighed and asked Xiao Guizi: "Have Tuhai, Suo'etu, Mingzhu, Tong Guogang and others arrived?"

"If I get back to the master, they have already arrived and are waiting outside."

"Tell them to come in."

Outside, Tuhai, Suo'etu, Mingzhu, and Tong Guogang heard Kangxi's words and hurriedly walked into the south study room, threw down their horseshoe sleeves and bowed in salute.

Kangxi looked at several people who seemed to be wet, and said with a smile: "Everyone is flat...Is it raining outside? Are you not wet?"

Tu Haisurong replied: "It's just a little drizzle."

"That's good," Kangxi nodded, "I asked you to come here in the rain at night because something big happened in Huguang. Zhu Heji took action, and he captured Wuchang City as soon as he took action! As soon as I saw the news, I

I feel uneasy, so I will summon you before dawn to discuss whether we should send troops to help Wu Yingxiong fight?"

"Long live my lord," Tu Hai frowned, "are you talking about Wuchang Fuchang City or Wuchang County City?"

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "It's Wuchang City!" Kangxi said, "The Confucian rebels in Wuchang gathered thousands of people and caused chaos in Wuchang City... Zhou Guo

Fang Guangchen, the governor of Hubei Province, led his soldiers to suppress it. Unexpectedly, his soldiers were also bewitched by Confucian monsters and defected before the battle, resulting in the fall of Wuchang! In addition, the pseudo-Ming army also launched an attack on Wuchang County, but it is unclear how the battle will go.

Know."

Tuhai, Suo'etu, Mingzhu, and Tong Guogang all remained silent, seeming to have reservations about sending troops to aid Zhou.

Kangxi understood what the four of them were thinking, and said with a wry smile: "You must think that it will take two or three years for Zhu Heji to defeat President Wu. We can take advantage of this time to recuperate, rectify the internal affairs, continue to strengthen, and we will definitely have a one-on-one fight with Zhu Heji."

Solo training, right?”

Several people said together: "Your Majesty, the Holy Ming."

Kangxi shook his head and said, "But this won't work!"

"Long live Lord, why not?" Tu Hai asked.

Kangxi smiled bitterly: "Isn't this obvious? My ability to govern the world is not as good as Zhu Heji's!"

"Your Majesty, please don't say that!"

"Your Majesty, Zhu Ni's ability to govern the country is not as good as yours!"

"Your Majesty, please don't emulate others' ambitions."

"Your Majesty, our Qing Dynasty is prospering now!"

After listening to the words of several slaves, Kangxi just sighed and said: "The basis of Zhu Heji's governance is the equalization of land, and the basis of my governance is the system of rural meritocracy... The equalization of land is not easy to achieve, but once it is achieved,

, the stamina is huge. Because the land equalization system can evenly spread the land, taxes, and military service. In this way, the burden on each household is not heavy, but the court gains a lot. The rural meritocracy system can see

Money comes fast, but troubles abound.

Because the system of rural meritocracy is actually feudal...one township, one meritorious person, each side is powerful. When it is small, it can still be controlled, but once it becomes big, it will be difficult to deal with. So this battle between me and Zhu Heji

, It is better to fight late than to fight early! Since we want to fight early, we must fight before Wu Yingxiong is destroyed. Because once he is destroyed, Zhu Heji's strength will increase a lot, and we will not become stronger if we delay it.
Chapter completed!