Start with a bowl.
The ending is a rope.
This is the Ming Dynasty.
The emperor at the end.
As the saying goes, "The emperor guards the country's gates, and the king dies for the country."
The source of this sentence comes from this person.
Looking at the man in dragon robe in the picture, he hanged himself on the crooked tree.
Su Che thought to himself, it’s you!
The first emperor to hang himself!
Su Che's evaluation of this emperor was that he was studious, diligent in government, strict with himself, indifferent to sensual pleasures, worked hard to govern the country, got up early and went to bed late, and step by step brought the country to the point of destruction.
I can't say that he is highly respected, but at least he is disliked by everyone.
He can work sixteen hours a day, which is definitely considered diligent, but the facts prove that he is heading in the wrong direction, no matter how hard he tries.
When Su Che saw this scene, a strange idea came to his mind. Would such a heroic spirit come with a rope when summoned?
This is truly a hell of a joke.
The reason why I chose the third option instead of the second general is simple.
In fact, both the second and third options have corresponding benefits.
The second one can allow Su Che to kill to his heart's content, fight to his heart's content, and hone his more powerful fighting skills.
The third one is because of his noble birth and possesses the power of "dragon spirit".
Since the fusion of the white crystal 'Heart of the Swarm', Su Che's body has been sublimated in all aspects.
But after coming back and feeling it quietly, he found that there was a power that Su Che could not mobilize or integrate. He was very familiar with this power and had seen something similar .
It is probably equivalent to the existence of "dragon energy".
This power is the essential power that enables the Queen to control the Zerg.
It's like the power that comes from an emperor ruling over all the people.
Therefore, Su Che couldn't help but wonder, if he could contract with the spirit of an emperor, could he truly obtain and master this power?
Su Che wasn't quite sure.
But it is very likely that...
Just a guess though.
You can give it a try, even if it doesn't work, that's okay.
After comprehensive consideration, Su Che chose this emperor who had a tragic ending.
In this final scene, Su Che could clearly feel the unwillingness, helplessness, and resentment of Emperor Chongzhen, as well as his endless reflection and regret on himself.
After Chongzhen's death.
His posthumous title was Sizong Liehuang. Si means to miss and Liehuang means to die for the country. What a noble image.
This was indeed the case when he came to power. A teenager of sixteen or seventeen years old, after ascending the throne, he directly dismissed villains like Wei Zhongxian and supported a group of "upright gentlemen" in the Donglin Party. According to the Confucian ethics of the time, this was the beginning of a good emperor!
He meets almost all the Confucian descriptions of a good emperor.
He is very frugal, works very hard and is quick to learn from others' advice.
In the entire Ming Dynasty, apart from Zhu Yuanzhang, he might be the only one who worked more than eight hours a day.
He always believed that he was the greatest emperor of all time.
Some ministers praised him as the ruler of the revival of the country, likening him to Emperor Wen of Han.
As a result, Chongzhen was actually unhappy. How could Emperor Wen of Han compare with me?
Then the minister said that you are comparable to the founding emperors of the Tang and Song dynasties.
Chongzhen was still unhappy, and said that when it comes to wiping out all the heroes, I am not as good as Emperor Taizong of Tang, but he and his brothers had such a fight, what do you mean by comparing me with him?
The minister was dumbfounded. Where had he ever seen such an emperor?
Emperor Wen of Han looked down on him, and the founding emperors of Tang and Song looked down on him!
These scenes appeared before Chongzhen's eyes like a revolving lantern when he was about to die. He laughed at himself and said, "I am nothing but this, nothing but this..."
When a man is about to die, his words are good. In the last moments of his life, Chongzhen suddenly recognized himself clearly.
He slowly raised his head and looked into the distance. Su Che could feel that he seemed to be looking at him... ?
Su Che was stunned, and the scene in front of him quickly disappeared.
On the Book of Qi Ling, the characters continued to evolve, and the opening characters appeared.
[You were born into a family of great wealth and are the fifth child.]
【You are gradually growing up. 】
[Your second brother, third brother, and fourth brother died one after another.]
[After this, your sixth and seventh brothers also died young.]
When Su Che saw this scene, he couldn't help but cover his face. Even if it was an ordinary family, the infant mortality rate wouldn't be so terrible, right?
This is a precious person, and his son died too quickly!
Every time he saw such a piece of history, Su Che couldn't help but complain. Who would believe that there was no conspiracy or trickery involved?
The words in the book are still evolving.
[Your father died of illness, and your elder brother Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne, and the reign was named Tianqi.]
[In the second year of Tianqi, you, as the emperor's only younger brother, were named Prince Xin.]
[In the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, Zhu Youxiao, his wet nurse Keshi, Wei Zhongxian and others went to the Western Garden for a boat trip.]
[During the trip, a strong wind suddenly blew up and directly overturned the big boat! ]
[Your elder brother Zhu Youxiao fell into the water and nearly drowned. Although he was eventually rescued, he became ill as a result.]
[The imperial doctors treated your brother seriously and succeeded in making his health worse and worse, until he was bedridden and incurable.]
[Your elder brother felt that his time was running out, so he summoned you and passed the throne to you.]
[On August 24, you held a succession ceremony in the Huangji Palace.]
[On August 26, you issued an edict of accession to the throne and announced it to all the people.]
[The cabinet submitted four reign titles: Qiansheng, Xingfu, Xianjia, and Chongzhen.]
[You think that Qiansheng and Xingfu are unworthy of the title, and the character Xian has a meaning of war, so it is not appropriate to start a war now, so you finally choose Chongzhen.]
[You succeeded to the throne, following orders in times of crisis, and tried to turn the tide, but at this moment, the Ming Dynasty has already decayed and rotten.]
[As a prince, you inherited the throne and became emperor. This was not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty. The eunuch Wei Zhongxian did not want his power to be shaken.]
[At this moment, what Wei Zhongxian hopes most is that you become the second Zhu Youxiao, but he also knows that this is really unrealistic.]
[He treats you in the same way as Zhu Youxiao did before, trying his best to please you. As soon as you ascended the throne, he sent you four beautiful women with their own characteristics, hoping that you would accept them.]
[Faced with these four stunning beauties, your choice is...]
[One, enjoy immediately. Two, drive them all away. Three, stay for now. Four, intervene personally.]
When the option finally appeared, Su Che couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
This is an interesting beginning.
Four stunning beauties, each with her own unique characteristics.
However, Wei Zhongxian, oh Wei Zhongxian, are you using this to test the emperor?
Which emperor could not withstand such a test?
"Enjoy it now?"
It is absolutely not okay to act like a tyrant from the very beginning.
The second one is to drive them all away, which is not an option. Even if we want to deal with Wei Zhongxian, we cannot leave him no room for him.
As for the third one, leaving him here for now should be the most correct choice. First swallow your anger, and then slowly wipe out the eunuch party.
So Su Che chose the fourth one.
Intervene personally!
It was not to enjoy these four stunning beauties personally, but to do it in his own way. Su Che was not very satisfied with the first three options, so he decided to talk to Wei Zhongxian.
Su Che was different from Chongzhen. When Chongzhen saw the four stunning beauties, he hated eunuchs like Wei Zhongxian even more. He believed that people like Wei Zhongxian who held power were a scourge to the entire country and that a major purge must be carried out!
However, the question is, once the eunuch party is eliminated, are those clean people in the Donglin Party really good people?
Historically, as Emperor Tianqi was not interested in state affairs, he left all of them to Wei Zhongxian. Therefore, Wei Zhongxian made every effort to crack down on the Donglin Party. Many Donglin Party members who resisted had their homes raided. Later, the term "Donglin righteous men" came into being.
In fact, Wei Zhongxian's biggest blow to the Donglin Party was the collection of industrial and commercial taxes.
It is true that Wei Zhongxian, who was gradually corrupted by power, was not a good person.
But the Donglin Party, which always uses the people as an excuse, is even more of a disaster.
They call them "common people" all the time, but they are frantically annexing land and do not treat refugees and tenants as human beings at all.
They requested not to collect commercial taxes, not to collect mining taxes, and to prohibit the opening of the sea, but they made profits from this and enriched themselves. They are truly the biggest thieves of the country!
How can we govern a country with a group of insects like this?
Chongzhen's black-and-white thinking is too simple and is not the way an emperor should think.
But there was no way around it. After all, he was a mid-career employee and suddenly became emperor. He had not received any systematic training as an emperor, so how could he have experience in this area?
so.
The moment the options appeared, Su Che thought for a moment and chose the fourth one.
[Personal Intervention]
When he opened his eyes again, Su Che saw four stunning beauties, each with their own unique characteristics, kneeling in front of him, ready to be taken advantage of.
Not far away, the old eunuch Wei Zhongxian was crawling on the ground, waiting for the emperor's response. This moment was extremely tormenting for him.
The emperor's sudden change was a fatal blow to a eunuch in power like him. He was very afraid that the emperor would trust the Donglin Party, and then he would be killed without a burial place.
At this moment, he presented these four stunning beauties as a test, a sign of sincerity, and even more of a bribe.
Just then, the emperor spoke.
"I know what you mean. I want to have a good talk with you. Come and sit down here, Lord Wei."
Hearing the words "My dear minister", Wei Zhongxian was delighted and relieved. Did the emperor recognize him? This should be... what he meant, right?
"Your Majesty, please give your word. I will just kneel here." Wei Zhongxian said in a soft voice.
After hearing this, Su Che did not ask Wei Zhongxian to stand up. If he wanted to kneel, then he could continue kneeling.
Su Che stood up, helped those stunning beauties up, motioned for them to go to the side hall, and then dismissed the guards and attendants.
Afterwards, only Wei Zhongxian and Su Che were left in the hall.
Su Che turned around, looked at Wei Zhongxian, and said with a smile: "You are really sincere in sending these beautiful women to me. I can also see your loyalty, your fear, and your worry ."
Hearing this, Wei Zhongxian looked up in surprise, and immediately saw this boy, who was only sixteen or seventeen years old, staring at him. Those eyes seemed to be able to see through all his thoughts.
This startled Wei Zhongxian and he quickly lowered his head.
Su Che continued, "Don't worry. It's the same now as it was before."
“……?!”
Wei Zhongxian had never expected these words. In his opinion, it was basically impossible for him to maintain his current tremendous power. After all, the emperor had been replaced, and the Donglin Party had been suppressed for so long that they had already spotted this opportunity and were ready to counterattack at any time!
Now Wei Zhongxian only wants to enjoy his old age in peace and not die without a burial place, so he must curry favor with the emperor and present his sincerity.
"Your Majesty, what do you mean?" Wei Zhongxian asked stutteringly.
"That's what I mean, that's the truth. Isn't this exactly what you wish for?" Su Che asked with a smile.
This statement stunned Wei Zhongxian, because it was too beautiful, and even too magical. This was something he could not even dream of. Would this new emperor be like the Tianqi Emperor? Would he hand over power to him? ? ?
This made Wei Zhongxian a little bit unbelievable. He said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, I don't understand what you mean."
Su Che smiled and said, "The meaning is very simple. You can continue to enjoy the power you had before, but in return, you have to pay a price. All this is an exchange of interests, nothing more."
This was Su Che's purpose, to negotiate a condition with Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian suddenly understood. He was no longer so scared. He slowly raised his head and asked calmly, "What price will this servant have to pay?"
"It's very simple. There are only three things. Money, a huge amount of money; food, countless food; people, many people." Su Che slowly stated his conditions: "I need an army that is absolutely loyal to me. The number of people should be at least 10,000. I need to equip them with war horses, armor, crossbows, muskets, cannons... Therefore, I need your sponsorship, Eunuch Wei."
These words immediately silenced Wei Zhongxian.
He never dreamed that the emperor's request would be this!
"What does Your Majesty want to do?" Wei Zhongxian asked subconsciously.
"This is not the question you need to ask. I just want to know, are you willing to use these costs in exchange for your tremendous power?" Su Che asked with a smile.
Wei Zhongxian asked curiously, "Will you continue to stay out of government affairs like Emperor Tianqi did, and leave all power to your servants?"
"Yes." Su Che nodded.
"Then I will definitely meet your majesty's requirements." Wei Zhongxian kowtowed quickly.
As Wei Zhongxian retreated, Su Che showed a playful smile.
There is not much time left for him now.
In the first year of his reign, a severe famine broke out across the country, and at the same time a large-scale peasant uprising broke out in Shaanxi. This was a good opportunity for Su Che to take action!
Take advantage of natural disasters and man-made disasters to rebel!
Damn it!
Who says that the emperor cannot rebel? Who says that the emperor cannot rebel?
In the terrible situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's power was completely disconnected from the grassroots. The power of the central government could not be transmitted to the local levels at all, and it was impossible to control any of the military, politics, and finance.
Tax revenue is not collected, local troops are disobedient, and local officials are even more disobedient.
This is not something that can be solved by killing one or two officials.
The situation is so corrupt that no matter what we do, it will be useless.
When orders can only be executed at the middle and upper levels, no matter how wise and powerful the emperor is, he will be powerless to save the situation.
After all.
Rights are never top-down, but bottom-up.
It’s not that those in power can do whatever they want.
But you only have this right if the people below are willing to listen to you!
This is the essence of rights!
In this case, Su Che simply stopped playing chess on this chessboard. Instead, he overturned the chessboard, cleared the world, and killed all those blood-sucking civil servants, landlords, and big businessmen!
During the reign of Chongzhen's ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, he was able to kill hundreds of thousands of officials. It shouldn't be excessive for Su Che to kill millions of his noble families, landlords and gentry, right?
He wants to see rivers of blood!
…
Since Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he did not participate in any state affairs, but instead handed over power to the eunuch Wei Zhongxian again. This was a devastating blow to the Donglin Party.
These civil servants were furious at the time, and many upright officials were willing to commit suicide in order to make remonstrances.
Su Che didn't care about their dirty thoughts.
After he became the emperor, there were only two things he had to do: one, practice, and two, train troops.
In terms of cultivation, Su Che unexpectedly discovered that in the late Ming Dynasty, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gradually weakened and was far less strong than in the late Han Dynasty. It was also very difficult to practice, and personal power was even more limited.
But fortunately, he is the emperor, the nominal ruler of the world, and he controls the unique power of dragon energy.
With the help of this dragon energy, Su Che's practice was barely going smoothly.
As for training troops, it is the ten thousand imperial guards.
These troops also have a background.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the government was almost entirely controlled by the Donglin Party, and the emperor was restricted in every way. Therefore, Ming Xizong Zhu Youjiao spent his entire life suppressing the Donglin Party.
There is a saying that goes: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
In order to accomplish this, Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty needed a strong army, and an army that was loyal to him.
So, Wei Zhongxian stepped forward and helped Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty train eunuchs and form an army.
And now, with the death of Zhu Youxiao, this army fell into Su Che's hands.
Su Che ate and slept with them. In addition to training them, he instilled various ideas into them every day, explaining to them where the root cause of the country's weakness lay and that they were the country's only hope.
A few months later, famine broke out across the country. Su Che knew that the time was ripe, so he led the 10,000 troops out of the capital.
"Your Majesty, what are you going to do?" Wei Zhongxian, who received the news first, rushed over quickly.
"We are going to clean up the world and support the Ming Dynasty!" Su Che smiled, then waved his whip and hit the horse hard on its crotch. He led the 10,000 troops out of the city, leaving Wei Zhongxian stunned.
In the world of heroes.
A temporary palace.
This is the palace of the legendary hero Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Chongzhen, who was kneeling on the ground and trembling not far away, and asked, "How is that kid?"
Chongzhen said with a strange expression: "He...he seems to have gone to rebel."
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but burst into laughter when he heard this: "What an interesting boy! Let's see how you clean up the world! How you revive the Ming Dynasty!!"
"If you can do all this, we can give you a chance next time!"
Not far away, Zhu Youjian smiled bitterly.
He was brought here by this ancestor and was forced to extend an olive branch to Su Che. He did not dare to say a word. After all, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed in his hands, and he was too ashamed to face his ancestor.
"You, show us carefully how others do it!" Zhu Yuanzhang shouted loudly.
"Yes..." Zhu Youjian lowered his head aggrievedly.