Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 1045 Carrots and Sticks
The Son of Heaven was asking King Zhou and King Lu, so naturally there was no room for other vassal kings to intervene.

However, in the eyes of King Ning, King Zheng and others, what he just said is already a very mature regulation.

The specific method is not important, what is important is that since such a charter can be produced, it shows that the emperor has indeed considered this matter long ago.

Again, if these fields really returned to his own hands, it would be a long-term stable money, and he would not have to worry about accidents.

For the vassal kings who have been hit hard by the rectification of the military settlements, it is hard not to be moved.

Therefore, after hearing what the emperor said, they looked at the king and king of Zhou with a little eagerness.

The emperor's attitude has been made clear, and now, as long as the two oldest feudal lords let go, the rest of the people can naturally agree to come down.

However, what surprised them was that Zhou and Wang looked at each other, but they still hesitated and did not answer.

Standing in the position of King Zhou, feeling the gazes of several vassals next to him, he certainly knew what these people were thinking.

However, even among feudal lords, they are different after all.

Compared with King Zheng, King Ning, and King Yi who suffered heavy losses in the rectification of the army, Zhou Fan and Lu Fan also suffered losses, but because Yu Qian had not had time to go there in person, he was taken back by the emperor. The capital, therefore, the loss is limited.

Because of this, they are also calmer. In addition, the other vassal kings, except King Yi, even the King Min, who is old enough, are actually not too old.

As a result, many of these people do not have enough experience.

I have never experienced the precariousness of the Jianwen period, walking on thin ice, and I have not experienced all kinds of praises and slanders during the Yongle period.

Therefore, they naturally did not understand how much the court feared and guarded against the vassal king.

Although the emperor's attitude is very sincere and seems to be very considerate, but for King Zhou and others, they still feel that, to be on the safe side, don't do these things, which will easily lead to taboo things.

Therefore, after pondering for a long time, King Zhou finally spoke.

"What your Majesty said is indeed feasible, but the ministers and others have little talent and virtue, so why dare to take on such a big job?"

"Furthermore, the ministers and others in the mansion are just guards and servants. There are no people who are proficient in civil affairs, and there is no guard to protect the safety of the farm."

"If the minister waits for his own farm, it's fine if he doesn't manage well and suffer losses, but the official land is the property of the imperial court. If something goes wrong, the minister will have no face to see His Majesty."

After the words fell, the Wenhua Palace became quiet.

It should be said that King Zhou was a little helpless in the face of the emperor's incitement again and again, especially when he could see that all the vassal kings under him were already tempted. Be the one who stands in the way of everyone's interests.

That being the case, two evils are in power, so he can only risk breaking the taboo and spread the word out.

In fact, even now, the king of Zhou and others still doubt whether the actions of the emperor are testing them.

Huangzhuang is profitable, which is good, but there are many things involved, especially when it comes to official land, so how to manage tenants, appease the people, collect taxes, and even communicate with the government are all problems .

If you want to solve these problems, you must have people who are familiar with civil affairs to deal with them. In order to prevent the tenants from stealing the cattle, and at the same time prevent the villains from destroying the farm, there must be enough guards to patrol day and night.

The former of the two represents taxation and civil administration, and the latter represents the armament of the guards. If they, the feudal kings, can solve both problems, then what does it represent?

Of course, strictly speaking, the guards of the farm may not need regular officers and soldiers to be in charge, and the servants and thugs raised by the vassal king themselves are generally competent.

However, this kind of issue involving armed forces must be more careful. To put it bluntly, if they change places and consider it from the standpoint of the court, who knows whether the vassal kings will borrow the farm In the name of guards, is it actually raising private soldiers?
Even if this is not the emperor's temptation, but the existence of this hidden danger, for the feudal lord, it is a thunder that can ruin his family at any time, so it is better not to take this risk than to be greedy for this profit.

After saying this, when the first half of the sentence was said, the vassal kings below were still a little disappointed, but after the king of Zhou almost clarified the words later, they also fell silent.

Zhu Qiyu didn't speak either, and slowly frowned, as if he had just realized this problem.

After a while, Zhu Qiyu nodded slightly and said.

"Uncle's meaning, I understand."

For a while, the atmosphere in the Wenhua Palace was somewhat gloomy.

King Zheng and King Ning sighed silently in their hearts, not knowing what they were feeling for a moment.

Originally, they had accepted the reality, but the way of Huangzhuang gave them hope to get back these fields.

Although it is definitely not as good as before, but I can find some back.

In the end, the ass hadn't warmed up yet, and King Zhou's words were like pouring cold water on their heads, completely waking them up.

"Your Majesty, I also think..."

It was King Yi who spoke. He, King Zheng, and King Ning looked at each other, and they all felt that the inheritance of their own fiefdom was more important than benefits, so they were about to echo King Zhou's words. Give the emperor a step down, and get this matter out of the way, but never thought that at this time, the emperor also opened his mouth at the same time.

"Since that's the case..."

Hearing this voice, King Yi immediately stopped talking, and everyone's eyes were focused on the Son of Heaven.

The emperor frowned slightly, muttering slowly.

"It's true that I didn't think carefully about this matter. Uncle King Zhou was worried about it. However, if this matter is handled by the court, it is not appropriate."

"For one thing, the national treasury is now empty, and there is no way to spend so much silver to buy cattle and utensils. Two, officials from all over the country are inherently exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes. In the yamen, I am not at ease."

"In my opinion, we might as well make some changes. The newly-received official fields in various places are still reorganized into Huangzhuang. I will find a few eunuchs from the palace, and they will still be the mine tax supervisors. Grain, utensils, etc. are purchased by the vassal kings, and if the assistance of the local government and the army is needed, the mine tax envoy will be in the middle to coordinate, and the land rent and tax collection will also be in charge of the mine tax envoy.”

"At the same time, the kings sent royal officials to participate in it for the purpose of supervision. If the mine tax envoy and the local government oppress the people, engage in favoritism and fraud, after the investigation is clear, they can be impeached. After the harvest every year, the kings get [-]% of their income. From [-]% to [-]%, how about decreasing according to the age?"

Having said that, this is actually Zhu Qiyu's real purpose.

Zhou Wang and others were worried about being feared by the court, so why didn't Zhu Qiyu fear that the power of the vassal king would expand and threaten the court?
Therefore, Huangzhuang will continue to open, but it cannot be controlled by the vassal king. Of course, as he just said, it cannot be controlled by the Ministry of Households or the local government. If it is suppressed by the lower levels, it will only become a tyranny in the end.

After much deliberation, it is safest for the middle officials to be in charge. However, the middle officials also have a disadvantage, that is, they are basically not controlled by any yamen and forces except the emperor.

The civil servants in the court looked down on the eunuchs, but the guarding eunuchs in the localities also looked down on those local officials.

Don't look at Zhu Qiyu now has a group of capable eunuchs, who seem to be very fond of Shu Liang, Cheng Jing, Wynn and other confidantes, but in fact, no one knows the nature of eunuchs better than Zhu Qiyu.

Eunuchs like Huai En and Cheng Jing, who have studied since childhood and are upright, are nothing more than eunuchs like Shu Liang who climbed up from the bottom, so they need to be more vigilant.

Of course, Zhu Qiyu didn't doubt Shu Liang's loyalty, but he knew very well that it was precisely because Shu Liang was so loyal.

Therefore, he will change the law to do things for himself, but he doesn't care what the means are or what the consequences are.

In fact, most eunuchs act like this, but they have different guts and abilities. Shu Liang has gone to an extreme. Zhu Qiyu believes that if one day, he orders Shu Liang to go to Nangong to strangle Zhu Qi Town, he will do it without hesitation.

However, this is an advantage as well as a disadvantage.

The advantage is that it is easy to use, but the disadvantage is that it can only be kept by your side and cannot be released.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Qiyu was the only one who could suppress Shu Liang. Once he was allowed to take up an official position such as guarding eunuch in the local area, it would inevitably lead to catastrophe.

There are too few eunuchs like Huai En and Cheng Jing, so if they want to use them, they should put a layer of shackles on the eunuchs in these places.

Different from the local officials, the vassal king is distinguished, he can be regarded as a member of the royal family, like an ordinary eunuch, he must be able to hold him down.

After all, the eunuchs relied on those who belonged to the inner palace and were close to the emperor. However, the closest eunuchs were also slaves, but the vassal kings were actually relatives of the emperor, people who were closer.

In today's patriarchal society, this is the fundamental difference.

No matter how the vassal kings are discussed outside, Zhu Qiyu is very clear that, as the Zhu family's clan, they have some loyalty to the Zhu family.

With this in mind, as long as they are given a chance, I believe that most of them will take care of the Huangzhuang, and prevent these eunuchs from overly oppressing the tenants and causing too much trouble.

After all, their interests are also involved in this process. In this way, the officials of the royal family are backed by the vassal king, the eunuchs are supported by the emperor, and the local officials are backed by the court. The three parties check and balance each other, so nothing should happen.

Moreover, the biggest feature of the vassal king, apart from his respected status, is that he is rich!
What Zhu Qiyu said just now was not false. If it is said that these Huangzhuang are to be rebuilt now, the national treasury will definitely not be able to afford such a huge cost.

Even if Zhu Qiyu used the money from the internal treasury to do it, it would not be enough. Even if it was enough, it would not be worthwhile for him to empty out his family's wealth for just such a thing.

Therefore, the princes are just right!
These words were serious, and after the words fell, Zhu Qiyu glanced at the feudal kings below, but saw that their faces were a little tangled.

Therefore, his eyes finally fell on King Zhou and King Lu. Among the vassal kings present, their seniority and age were the longest.

Matters related to patriarchal affairs, in fact, have to be handled according to the patriarchal system. Within the patriarchal system, seniority and age are the greatest voice.

However, even though Zhu Qiyu had already said this, King Zhou and the others still hesitated...

Seeing this situation, Zhu Qiyu sighed and said.

"Forget it, I just have such an idea. I haven't discussed it with the officials in the court. I just think that this matter involves the vassal king, so I want to ask everyone's opinions first. If my uncle doesn't want it, it's okay to let it go. Maybe It is not certain that the ministers in the court can find a better way."

Soft ones won't work, only hard ones.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, all the vassal kings present showed a slight change in expression.

In particular, King Zhou and King Lu showed a wry smile at the same time.

How could they fail to understand that the emperor was reminding them that if they could not accept Huangzhuang's method, then the court would have to find another plan.

What can be negotiated with the court officials?

Then do you still need to ask, the memorial of the Ministry of Rites, isn't it just left there, the great uncle Hu Wei personally submitted it, if this one can't represent the opinions of the court officials, then no one else can.

Do you want to agree?
Zhou Wang glanced at Lu Wang, but saw that the other party was also a little difficult to make a decision.

Sighing, King Zhou stood up and cupped his hands.

"Your Majesty, the ministers and other clans should do their best for the country. Since your majesty has called, the ministers and others will naturally respond. If the order is down, the ministers and the others must obey it."

Seeing this situation, Zhu Qiyu squinted his eyes and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Sure enough, the older generation of princes were very cautious.

The implication of these words is that if they want them to contribute, the court must have a clear decree. The most they will do is to cooperate after there is a decree. However, if they are required to take the lead and take the risk to do it themselves, then it must not be possible. of.

That is to say, Zhu Qiyu has to solve it by himself on the court's side.

If Zhu Qiyu can solve the problems of the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites and other court ministers, and carry out this policy, it means that he is not trying to test the vassal king, but sincerely wants to facilitate this matter, then the vassal king is naturally happy to see him become.

If it can't be solved, then it's not their fault.

Ginger is still old and spicy!
However, this is enough.

Zhu Qiyu turned his gaze to the other vassal kings, and as expected, after King Zhou made his statement, the other kings arrived one after another without much hesitation.

"The ministers and others respectfully abide by the holy will."

"Um……"

Seeing this situation, Zhu Qiyu finally nodded in satisfaction and said.

"That's good. The establishment of Huangzhuang was originally to appease the refugees and send taxes to the imperial court. If the clans can benefit from it, it is naturally a good thing."

"However, I hope that you can also keep in mind that all the people in the world are the foundation of the country. If the people are in chaos and the day is in danger, then my Zhu family's world will soon be overthrown. Neither I nor the clans are immune. Therefore, everything The people should be the most important thing, don't act arbitrarily and covet the momentary profit, do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)