Bai Xiaowen thought to himself, Chen Rong, you are worrying too much.
Would interfering in mortal affairs cause one's Dao Heart to be covered in dust, making it difficult for one's cultivation to improve?
This was indeed the case for native cultivators, but it was not the case for evolvers like Bai Xiaowen.
The Song and Mongol wars should be the main storyline of the dynasty struggle. If one joined in, they would have a chance to trigger a large number of missions, which meant comprehending light balls.
With comprehending light balls, would one need to worry about their cultivation not improving?
Not mentioning the benefits in terms of cultivation, if Bai Xiaowen could control an empire, he would be able to obtain an endless amount of resources. He would be able to use the power of the entire plane to help the White Phoenix Territory develop.
The benefits from the above two aspects were enough for Bai Xiaowen to bring the four kings under him to join the dynasty struggle.
Of course, as a righteous youth with ideals and ambitions, Bai Xiaowen could not answer Chen Rong like that. Luckily, without the benefits, his reasons were still sufficient.
Bai Xiaowen changed the topic and said, "I am not worried about the Song Dynasty collapsing. I don't have any good feelings toward the Zhao Family. It makes no difference to me whether the world is surnamed Zhao, Li, or Wang. "
Chen Rong frowned, "Then why are you …"
Bai Xiaowen continued, "I am not worried about the Song Dynasty collapsing. I am worried about the Han Dynasty collapsing!"
Looking at Chen Rong's confused gaze, Bai Xiaowen slowly said,
"The Han Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, and Tang Dynasty collapsing was just the Imperial Court changing names. Politics, law, research, and other aspects are all the same. It can be said that they are the continuation of the Han Dynasty.
"However, the Mongols destroying the Song Dynasty is different. The Mongols are a race on horseback. After they enter the central plains, they will spread the backward grassland system to the world, causing a destructive blow to the Han Dynasty's culture! This will cause a gap in Chinese civilization. This is the 'collapsing of the world'. "
What Bai Xiaowen said was not nonsense. Instead, it was reasonable and well-founded.
In Earth's history, the Chinese civilization had always been ahead of the West. Why was it overtaken and had a history of humiliation?
This was because since the Mongols (Yuan Dynasty), the Chinese civilization had started to reverse.
First of all, the ruler's thinking had greatly declined.
The imperial censor of the Southern Song Dynasty, Fang Ting, had warned Song Gaozong, "The world belongs to China, to the ancestors, to the officials, to the people, and to the three armies. It does not belong to His Majesty." In other words, the officials of the Song Dynasty believed that the emperor was only managing the world on behalf of the people and had to constantly reflect on himself to be a good emperor.
However, the rulers of the Mongolian grasslands brought the concept of the grasslands to the Central Plains. They treated the population, land, and other wealth as their private property. They even started to implement the backward feudal system! This point was reflected even in the Ming Dynasty.
Secondly, there was the strict, rigid, and insurmountable division of social classes. The Yuan Dynasty abolished the Song Dynasty's military recruitment system and divided the people into military households, craftsmen households, salt farmers, Confucians, and so on. Their identities were passed down from generation to generation and could not be changed. This reversal of history also affected the Ming Dynasty.
There was also the degeneration of property rights. In the Yuan Dynasty, officials could "confiscate" people's property (including family members) at will, but the confiscation system was strictly limited and rarely used in the Song Dynasty.
There was also the harshness of punishment. Physical punishment, which was abolished during the Hanwen Emperor era, was revived.
The judicial system was wantonly destroyed. The Dali Temple was abolished, the Law School was abolished, and the Criminal Law Examination was canceled. Even good systems such as "Ju Yu Si" (separation of trial and punishment) and "Yan Yu Si" (when a criminal overturned his testimony, he had to be retried) were all abandoned.
What did this series of reversals lead to?
In terms of economy, there were already signs of capitalism. In terms of culture, there were signs of a "renaissance" in Hua Xia Empire, which fell into a deep sleep.
A hundred years later, the West started a renaissance. As for Chinese civilization, due to the arrival of barbaric rulers, it fell into a dark regression that lasted hundreds of years.
The scholars of the Ming and Qing Dynasties could only imagine the noble character of the previous generation from the poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
When the Mongols took over Changsha, hundreds of scholars from the Yuelu Academy all died in battle. When the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the officials first used their swords to drive their wives into the sea. Then, they carried the little emperor and jumped into the sea to commit suicide. The Song Dynasty's court and officials all jumped into the sea to die for their country.
As for the Ming Dynasty, when Chongzhen hanged himself? There was only a eunuch by his side.
The reason for this was due to the cruelty of the ruling class after the Yuan Dynasty (the Ming Dynasty was also cruel due to the influence of the barbarians). They ignored the value of life and suppressed the thoughts of others. As a result, in the face of foreign aggression, most of the Han people were numb and lost their spiritual backbone.
Bai Xiaowen couldn't say too much to Chen Rong. After all, there was no way he could talk about the historical development process after the Yuan Dynasty.
Chen Rong also found it difficult to understand. She didn't have Bai Xiaowen's broad vision.
Bai Xiaowen said, "Master Chen, you were born in a family of weavers in Jiangnan, and your cloth was sold all over the world, right?"
Chen Rong nodded. "It's all thanks to the development of the four generations of the Chen family that we can have this family business."
Bai Xiaowen said, "If one day, the governor takes a fancy to the Chen family's property and casually arranges a crime, he can sentence all of the Chen family's wealth to be lost to the government, the men to be slaves, and the women to the Musical House … Will the Chen family still have the motivation to actively develop and expand the family business?"
Chen Rong said in a daze, "That … that's impossible, right? For such a big matter, the governor can't hide the truth from the public. Even if he finds out the crime, it's not up to him to decide. If the Chen family wants to overturn the case, there's still the Supreme Court. Unless the governor and the Supreme Court are in cahoots, but will the local officials and the officials in the capital collude like this? "
Bai Xiaowen said, "You're thinking too much. If the Mongols destroy the Song Dynasty, those barbarians from the grassland will rule the Central Plains. Not to mention a governor, even a county magistrate can destroy the family. Taking a step back, the Mongols are cruel and bloodthirsty, and they love to massacre cities. It's hard to say whether the Chen family can survive until the end of the war. Maybe the Mongols won't allow the Han people to continue farming and weaving, and they want to turn all the farmland in the Central Plains into pastures. "
After a pause, Bai Xiaowen concluded, "Changing the surname of the surname is called the subjugation of the country. It's full of benevolence and righteousness, and as for leading beasts to eat humans, people will eat each other, and it's called the subjugation of the world. "(Gu Yanwu's Chronicles of the Sun)
Bai Xiaowen started with Chen Rong's family, and finally made Chen Rong realize the difference between the so-called subjugation of the country and the subjugation of the world. She also seemed to understand why Bai Xiaowen wanted to throw himself into the world of mortals and reverse the trend of the world.
For Bai Xiaowen, even if the Shao Wei dimension was not the orthodox history, it was not the same as the Earth. Changing the historical process of the Mongols destroying the Song Dynasty here was meaningless to the history of the Hua Xia on the Earth that had already happened.
But for the Shao Wei dimension, and for Bai Xiaowen, it was meaningful.
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