"Those who win the hearts and minds of the people win the world", in a literal sense, we can understand that if you win the hearts and minds of the people and gain the support of the people, your country will be able to rule stably without causing trouble.

If you interpret this sentence to mean that winning the hearts and minds of the people can unify the country and establish a solid political power, then there is a lack of historical basis.

The birth of any dynasty in ancient China was not chosen by the common people out of tenderness, but was fought with fists, armies, swords, guns, swords and halberds.

The establishment of any dynasty was not full of bloodshed, and which "world" was not deterred by a powerful army.

Without corpses scattered across the fields and rivers of blood flowing, there would be no establishment of a new political power. This is the cold but real fact. If Liu Bang, Cao Cao, Kublai Khan, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Huang Taiji were asked to answer this question, they would definitely say in unison: There is no shortcut to winning the world, only hard power.

In fact, the Mongolian and Yuan armies and the Qing army did represent backward productivity at that time. The vast majority of the people in the Central Plains were afraid of them and did not recognize them at all, so they could never really win the hearts of the people, but In the end, he won the world.

This illustrates a truth. The establishment of a foreign dynasty has nothing to do with the people's hearts. It is nothing more than conquest and massacre.

But do people’s hearts really have nothing to do with the political power? Of course it's relevant. Not only that, the rise and fall of a regime is inextricably linked to the people's hearts and minds.

"Shangshu" records that Dayu in the early years of the Xia Dynasty once said: "The people are the foundation of the country, and the foundation is the foundation of the country." ?Putting people first? This saying will never go out of style.

The great thinker Confucius said: "The king is like a boat; the common people are like water. Water carries the boat, and water overturns the boat. If the king thinks of danger, will the danger never come?" "?"Xunzi? Duke Ai". This statement is always borrowed by generations of rulers.

Confucius’ beloved disciple Zixia said: "A fish will die if it is deprived of water; a fish will remain water if it is deprived of water." The general idea is that people can still live happily without a country. The emperor Without the common people, it is nothing.

"The Chunqiu Guliang Biography" says that "the people are the foundation of the king." That's right, the foundation of war.

"Mencius" pointedly pointed out: "The people are the most valuable, the country is second, and the king is the least." This statement was selectively ignored by many rulers of the past dynasties, and Zhu Yuanzhang was even more angry. The tablets were driven out of the Confucian Temple.

There is a passage in "Han Shu? Biography of Li Sheng and Lu Jia": "The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven." The second half of the sentence was transformed into a slogan.

Wei Zheng once said: "There is no big reason to complain, but to be afraid of others. If you are carrying a boat and overturning it, you should be very cautious." Countless peasant uprisings in successive feudal dynasties have been profoundly verifying this wise saying of Lao Wei.

So many big guys say that people’s hearts are important, are they all telling lies?

Apparently not.

It is true that when political power comes under swords and guns, the country does not recognize human feelings, only fists, but in the era of cold weapons, the threshold for rebellion is very low, and everyone can fight against the government and the army with a hoe.

And there are not many complicated procedures for making weapons. Even if you prohibit people from holding knives and guns, even if you allow several families to have a kitchen knife. But you can't hide all the iron in the treasury, and you can't lock the mines with a lock. Therefore, ordinary people can still obtain iron tools, and a blacksmith shop can make many swords in one night.

If an emperor loves great achievements, builds large-scale construction projects, engages in military warfare, wastes money and people, and imposes exorbitant taxes, corruption will be prevalent. The emperor does not care about the sufferings of the people and only knows about exploitation. Then the people will not be able to make a living, the people will be resentful, and everyone will have no way to survive, and they will rise up.

People from the lower class are "rabble", and it is difficult to shake the rule of the feudal dynasty. On the surface, every turmoil and dynasty change in history is operated by warlords. However, loss of popular support and excessive public dissatisfaction are also important reasons for the collapse of the regime.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, if it weren't for Zhang Jiao's Yellow Turban uprising, would Dong Zhuo have a chance to make trouble? Does Cao Cao have a chance to realize his ambition? Liu Bei was even more unknown and wanted to be a hawker for the rest of his life.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, if there had not been an uprising by the Red Turban Army, Zhu Yuanzhang would still be his own monk and would not even have the chance to be a sidekick on the historical stage, let alone establish the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. Qingshi left his name.

In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, if there had not been the Taiping Rebellion that swept across the country, the military power of the Qing Dynasty would not have been controlled by the Han people, and Han bureaucrats such as Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang would not have had the opportunity to stand out, and the Qing rule would not have It will not be ended by Yuan Shikai joining forces with the people's army.

Of course, in ancient China, the people were helpless. They could only accept humiliation, swallow their anger, and be silent and obedient people. Not only are they ignorant and powerless, they are always absolutely weak. Their destiny is not in their hands and they can only be at the mercy of others.

But if the people are dissatisfied with the emperor, when the court is in trouble, they can at least choose to passively resist, choose to stand by, or even choose to lead the way and transport the invaders for a little money and food.

Common people acting as soldiers can aimlessly raise the muzzle of their guns. When the war breaks out, they can either grease their soles and become deserters, or turn their guns around and become traitors. No matter how much the emperor preaches about being loyal to the emperor and loving the court, they will remain indifferent, will not share the same hatred with the enemy, and will not resist to the death. In this way, a regime will surely perish faster.