Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 195 Hey, you surnamed Zhu, I'm up at 8 AM!

"Tsk tsk, as expected of the infamous Zhu Yuanzhang, this old man really went all out."

Magistrate Yang put the two official documents in his hand aside, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then returned to his usual lazy, indifferent state.

Emperor Zhu Chongba was known for his swift and decisive actions. Only about ten days after Wang Qiong returned to the capital from Ningyang County, official documents from the Secretariat were sent to Ningyang County. One document instructed Magistrate Yang to search for scholars in Ningyang County, select those of high reputation, and send them to the capital to be appointed to official positions. The other document contained Emperor Zhu's decree regarding the granting or cancellation of various high-ranking official positions to scholars, and instructed Magistrate Yang to act in accordance with the instructions in the document.

Then Magistrate Yang simply tossed both official documents aside.

First of all, there were no renowned scholars in Ningyang County, so even if Magistrate Yang wanted to choose, he wouldn't have any to choose from, unless he picked from the teenagers in the school at the Ningyang County Confucian Temple.

Secondly, the standards for granting or canceling high-quality status set by Emperor Zhu had already been implemented by Magistrate Yang as early as November of the first year of Hongwu's reign. In addition, Ningyang County only had one community school at the time, and the county school did not exist at all, so there was no question of following the instructions in the official documents.

However, while Magistrate Yang might not care, officials and scholars in other parts of the Ming Dynasty could not afford to be indifferent.

For local officials, regardless of whether it was reasonable for the imperial court to require the selection of renowned scholars to come to the capital for official appointments, or whether it was reasonable to forcibly bring those renowned scholars to the capital in accordance with the imperial court's requirements, the most important thing was to select renowned scholars from their own jurisdiction and then send them to the capital.

After all, this matter is related to his year-end performance review and his job.

For scholars in the Ming Dynasty, however, it was devastating news.

I definitely don't want to be an official. Emperor Zhu Chongba forbids everyone from buying and selling taxes, from indulging in pleasures, from drinking alcohol, and so on. What's the point of being an official?

Besides, what are the risks of going to serve Emperor Zhu now? What if the Yuan Dynasty's army comes back one day? Wouldn't I be implicated?

After all, they were the Mongol cavalry, who were invincible throughout the world. Even if they suffered occasional defeats and were defeated by Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, who could say what would happen in the future?

Yue Fei once defeated Jin Wuzhu!

As for the deaths of Yao Shurun, Wang E, and Xia Boqi and his nephew, they were not a big deal to scholars in the world—there were so many scholars in the world, why would it be their turn?

Therefore, no one wants to be an official; even a dog wouldn't be an official in the Zhu family.

However, faced with the choice between Emperor Zhu—either to work diligently like beasts of burden or to be stripped of their official titles and become commoners—many scholars panicked.

Taxes not exempted?

Are they not exempt from corvée labor?

Must one bow before an official?

Aside from becoming an official, even those who entered the Imperial Academy faced the risk of being expelled, and there were no preferential treatments after being expelled.

Hey, Zhu, I work from 8 AM!

However, what these scholars did next was the best example of courting death in history.

First, as expected, Emperor Zhu Chongba's reputation was ruined, and all sorts of ridiculous nursery rhymes followed.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of scholars began to submit memorials to Emperor Zhu Chongba, vehemently arguing the harm that would result from abolishing preferential treatment for scholars. Although they did not say it explicitly, their words were full of nonsense such as "not treating scholars well will lead to the downfall of the country."

Then, the students of the Imperial Academy also got involved.

First, a student surnamed Xu gathered a group of like-minded students from the Imperial Academy, and then wrote a lengthy petition of ten thousand words to Emperor Zhu Chongba, demanding the restoration of various preferential treatments for scholars.

Of course, if it were simply a matter of submitting a lengthy memorial, Emperor Zhu Chongba wouldn't necessarily do anything to Xu. At most, he would just be reprimanded or stripped of his official rank and sent home.

But to everyone's surprise, after two days of no action following the delivery of his ten-thousand-word memorial to the palace, Xu simply wrote some short essays and posted them on the walls of the capital, everywhere imaginable.

Then, many students actually began to imitate Xu's actions, writing short essays along with him and posting them all over the capital.

And then... well, there's really nothing more to it.

Xu's actions, along with those of many other students, thoroughly enraged Emperor Zhu Chongba.

Emperor Zhu paced back and forth in the Qianqing Palace twice, coldly looking at Li Shanchang and the other court officials, and said, "They think the preferential treatment we've given them isn't enough, and they want more, right? Do they think this will make us change our minds and continue to give them all sorts of privileges and preferential treatment?"

"What a pity, they misjudged him. We are not those weak emperors of the Song Dynasty. We, Old Zhu, are iron-willed men who have been through fire and water and fought on the battlefield!"

"Would we be threatened by a few bookworms?"

At this point, Emperor Zhu Chong turned to Erhu and ordered, "Pass on my orders: Xu, a student of the Imperial Academy, and others have slandered Your Majesty and plotted treason. Order the Yingtian Prefecture to lock them up and imprison them. As for those who have submitted memorials to us, have the local governments arrest them according to the list in the memorials. After they are arrested, send them directly to Ningyang County to do hard labor."

"Damn it, they don't want the opportunity to become officials, so they might as well give up being human and become laborers!"

"We'd like to see whether Zhu Chongba's backbone is tougher, or whether their pens and swords are sharper!"

After Erhu left to carry out his orders, Emperor Zhu Chongba suddenly rolled his eyes and instructed Li Shanchang and other important officials in the court: "Tell the local officials to explain to the people in their respective public notice halls that it is not that I, Zhu Chongba, am heartless and insist on arresting these scholars to do hard labor, but that these scholars are obsessed with the Yuan dynasty and do not want to pay taxes like ordinary people. Instead, they want us to give them all kinds of privileges. We have no choice but to send them to Ningyang County for hard labor reform."

Then, at the very beginning of the third month of the second year of Hongwu, Magistrate Yang received another official document from the Secretariat.

The official document was simple: it informed Magistrate Yang that over five thousand scholars would be escorted from various places to Ningyang County to do hard labor within the next one to three months. Some of them would be forced to work for ten years, while others would be forced to work for twenty years.

Considering the average lifespan and medical conditions during the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shaofeng felt that the scholars who did hard labor for ten years were alright, but those who did hard labor for twenty years basically had no hope.