Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 271 The First Step of Suzerainty Reform

Hearing this, Shu Liang continued to speak.

"According to King Guangtong, the reason why this thing disappeared at the beginning was actually because the old King Min was afraid that he would be implicated in this matter, so he secretly sent someone to intervene."

"He first sealed the mouths of those who attended the banquet that day with silver, and then sent someone to steal the poems. After the court officials arrived, he resorted to some tricks to confuse this matter."

Zhu Qiyu's heart moved, as if thinking of something, he said thoughtfully.

"This poem is so important, Zhu Huijuan must be watching it very closely, and even carried it close to his body. This matter also involves the safety of the Min Palace, and the news must not be leaked."

"Thus, those who do it must first be reliable and not leak secrets, and second, they must have a certain status in the Min Palace, at least they must be able to approach Zhu Huijuan at any time."

Shu Liang nodded and said.

"Your Highness is wise, the person who stole the poem was none other than the Su family who was in charge of the affairs of the backyard of Prince Min's Mansion at that time, and also the biological mother of King Guangtong."

So that's the case, after talking about this, Zhu Qiyu completely understood what happened back then.

The old King Min was worried that his two sons would be involved in their fight, so he had to stop him, so he asked Su to steal the key evidence and poems.

And Su's may be aiming to kill two birds with one stone, or he may simply want to keep this thing to threaten Zhu Huixun.

In short, after she stole it, she didn't give the real poems to the old King Min, but secretly hid them herself.

This can also explain why Zhu Huixun has been targeting his concubine, and even forced her to death in the end.

I'm afraid it was Zhu Huixun who discovered something.

Or, the Su family wanted to get some benefits from him, but instead they were preempted.

And this thing, after Su's death, naturally fell into the hands of King Guangtong.

However, with the lessons learned from Zhu Huijuan, they didn't dare to take this thing out rashly.

Now that Zhu Qiyu summoned the clan to the capital, King Guangtong felt that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and planned to use this to pull Zhennan King off his horse and avenge his mother.

This twists and turns and bizarre plot, I am afraid that folk opera scripts can't make it up.

After thinking this through, Zhu Qiyu couldn't help but sneered and said.

"Sure enough, it's a great show! The imperial court provides such a large amount of salary every year to support this gang of clans, but they do these messy things every day!"

Seeing that the Son of Heaven was not in a good mood, Shu Liang was a little more cautious and asked.

"My lord, since the matter has been investigated clearly, the two kings of Guangtong are going to make trouble tomorrow. Do you want to do something to stop them?"

Hearing Shu Liang's question, Zhu Qiyu pondered for a moment, shook his head, and said lightly.

"No, you don't have to do anything. If they want to make trouble, let them make trouble, and let the King of Zhennan know that it is not so easy to borrow my knife."

These brothers in Min Wang's mansion each have a dark heart.

King Guangtong and King Yangzong conspired to overthrow King Zhennan because of their biological mother's hatred.

King Jiang Chuan seemed cowardly and incompetent, and stayed out of the matter, but if King Zhennan fell, the third son of the prince would eventually belong to him, the concubine.

As for the King of Zhennan, who holds the power of King Min's Mansion, he wants to take advantage of Dongchang to clean up King Guangtong and King Yangzong.

Everyone had a good plan, and they almost regarded this capital city as a dojo for them to fight, and didn't take him, the emperor, at all.

That being the case, let them suffer!

Aren't you going to make trouble?Then make a fuss, the bigger the fuss, the better.

This time the clan entered Beijing, the ministers of the outer dynasty felt that it was Zhu Qiyu who wanted to establish his orthodox position among the clan.

But only Zhu Qiyu knew that this was not his main purpose, his real plan was to open a way out for the stubborn clans who were restricted by various imperial decrees of several generations of former emperors.

A large part of the reason why the Ming Dynasty was dragged down in the end was that Zonglu occupied a considerable part of the national tax revenue.

Taizu's positioning of the clan was originally to entrust and guard the country and protect the country. Therefore, the clan was given great power and high treatment.

But after Jing Nan, Emperor Taizong himself was a vassal king who raised troops, so he naturally wanted to prevent other clans from repeating their old tricks.

Therefore, he cut off the military power and political power of the various clans, and even went out to hunt in the city, all of which were strictly restricted.

In this way, the power of the clan was reduced to the minimum, and the obligations to be fulfilled were also reduced to the minimum, leaving only a high salary, which became a huge drag on the country.

In other words, it is not that no courtiers have seen the harm to the country's finances, but it is very troublesome to solve it.

Emperor Taizong, Renzong, and Xuanzong had strict restrictions on the clan.

The so-called not to prejudge the careers of the four peoples, officials will never be cut off, and farmers and businessmen will not be able to communicate.

To put it clearly, it is not allowed to do business, not to take imperial examinations, not to work, not to cultivate land,

All in all, in one sentence, most of the ways that can support oneself are not allowed to engage in.

Well, since the imperial court doesn't allow them to do anything, they must spend money to support them, so the descendants of the Zhu family can't starve to death.

You know, from the perspective of the country, the Son of Heaven is the king.

But from the perspective of the clan, the Son of Heaven is the patriarch of the Zhu family, and he is responsible for the Zhu family members.

So this is actually a dilemma!

To solve the problem of the clan, one has to learn what Emperor Taizu did to the founding fathers, one word, cut!

This is also the method used by Emperor Jianwen. To find a crime and send a group of clans to the high wall of Fengyang, it is simple and quick.

But the result...

In addition, if you want to solve the problem of the clan, you must first loosen the shackles around their necks.

Let them have a way to make a living by themselves, and then mention the matter of reducing the clan's salary, otherwise, simply restricting the clan's salary will only follow the old path of Emperor Jianwen.

So in fact, this time Zhu Qiyu summoned the clan to Beijing, it can be called out of good intentions, he intends to loosen the shackles on the clan, especially the low-rank clan.

This is also the reason why he summoned so many low-level clans into the capital together.

But it should be noted that any reform that wants to be implemented is not that simple.

To break this shackle, apart from the disputes in the court council, the biggest resistance is actually the feudal lords from all over the world!
In fact, it would be hard for Zhu Qiyu to believe it if he hadn't seen the reform measures for feudal kings in the late Ming Dynasty.

Those who most opposed the opening of the clan to engage in other industries, or even to participate in the imperial examination, were actually none other than the princes of the clan.

There is no shortage of smart people in this world.

For these princes and county kings, it doesn't matter whether they can engage in other industries.

You know, although Emperor Taizong imposed various restrictions on the clan, they still have privileges.

In addition to the super high salary, the clan also has extremely high privileges above the prison.

First of all, the Ming Law does not apply to the clan.

This point was clearly written in Huang Ming's ancestor's instructions.

For clan crimes, local officials have no right to interrogate, arrest, or punish them. They can only report to the imperial court, who summons the clan to Beijing for trial by the three divisions.

If it is found guilty, the third division has no right to judge and punish, but can only give opinions, and the emperor will personally judge.

Not only that, the Ming Dynasty had a system of "Eight Discussions", in which the "discussion of relatives" refers to the relatives of the emperor.

Therefore, the clans are basically rampant in the usual things of oppressing the people and doing evil things.

The only things that can really do anything to the clan are the so-called unforgivable "ten evils" and things that seriously violate ethics.

With high imperial salaries and extremely high immunity from criminal laws, many high-ranking clans actually live a very happy life in the local area.

Especially the princes and county kings from all over the world, when they go out, they greet each other, and when they come in, they are beautiful wives and beautiful concubines. They have no intention of revising the clan policy at all.

Those who really need a way to make a living are those low-level clans with a large number but no right to speak.

This point, in fact, at this time, has already begun to see clues.

The King of Jin, King of Chu, King of Zhou, King of Lu, etc. who were granted by Taizu at the beginning, have now stretched to the sixth or even seventh generation, and the number is very large.

The salaries of clan clans in various places are not allocated by the imperial court, but directly supplied by local tax revenue.

The local government must not only guarantee the tax revenue for the imperial court, but also provide the clan's salary, which is bound to be stretched.

As a result, with the acquiescence of the imperial court, the localities began to quietly reduce the supply to the clan by themselves.

They dare not offend high-level clans such as princes, county kings, and at most they would use other things to make money, but for low-level clans, they are blatant and "owed" first.

As a result, low-level clans were restricted by the imperial court and could not make a living by themselves. At the same time, they could not get the salary they deserved, and their lives were quite poor.

So they are the most urgent. They want the court to let go of the restrictions on the clan, but unfortunately, they have no right to speak in the court.

As for those high-level clans that have the right to speak, not only do not want to let go of this restriction, but are doing their best to maintain it.

Because they knew clearly that once the imperial court opened up the way for the clan to make a living by themselves, the next thing that would follow would inevitably be a reduction in Zonglu.

Therefore, they would rather maintain the local government and secretly discount their salaries, and when they are forced to be cruel, they will go to the court to sue the local officials, rather than cooperate with the court's reforms.

Regarding the reform of the imperial family, the sooner the better, because the longer it is delayed, the more vassal kings will be.

More importantly, the further the dynasty developed, the more severely the emperor was restricted by the ancestral precepts.

So Zhu Qiyu actually has his own plan for the clan's problem.

First of all, don't be in a hurry. If you cut the clan's salary and cancel the few remaining privileges of the clan, it will definitely attract fierce opposition.

These clans don't know anything else, but they are good at making trouble.

Not to mention, Zhu Qiyu's seat is actually not that stable now.

There is a holy empress dowager in the palace, a supreme emperor in Yibei, and a nephew who is waiting to succeed to the throne.

So this thing has to be done step by step.

Zhu Qiyu actually planned to do two things when calling the clan to Beijing this time.

The first thing is to let go of the restrictions on low-level clans taking the imperial examinations. This is a small tear.

Then, gradually loosen restrictions on their participation in other industries.

In this way, it is possible to find a way to make a living for these low-level clans who do not receive any salary.

The other thing is to set up a special sect school for high-level clans.

If the liberalization of imperial examination restrictions was copied by Zhu Qiyu according to the reforms of the late Ming Dynasty, then Zongxue is a new measure that he further developed and tried based on the reforms of the late Ming Dynasty.

During the Jiajing period, there was a major reform of the clan, and the establishment of Zongxue was one of the measures.

But this sect seems to be too conservative, just because the clans are too domineering, which has seriously affected the local security.

Therefore, it was established in order to teach the clansmen to be loyal to the emperor and patriotism, and to set themselves apart.

In Zhu Qiyu's view, Zongxue can definitely play a greater role.

His plan is to set up Zongxue in the capital.

The enrolled personnel are divided into two categories, one is the legitimate sons and concubine sons of the prince's mansion and the prince's son of the county prince's mansion.

In the future, these people will also have the title of county king for the sake of the stability of the place.

From the age of ten to the age of 15, they must receive at least five years of education in Zongxue. The content is to instill the concept of serving the country and the people, and being loyal to the monarch and the country, so that they can accept the next reforms as much as possible.

At the same time, put them in the capital for a period of time to cultivate their character and lay the foundation for the stability of the place in the future.

This is also the original function of religion.

However, with the lessons of the Jiajing Dynasty, Zhu Qiyu decided this time to link Zongxue with the court's bestowal on them.

To put it simply, when Zongxue graduates, their performance and academic performance during their stay in Beijing will be comprehensively evaluated.

If they are not qualified, the imperial court will not cancel their conferment, but will let them continue to study in Zongxue until they are qualified.

On the other hand, Zongxue also accepts the children of Fuzhong who are above the general of Fuguo to enroll.

That's the big game.

The purpose of these people's enrollment is more importantly to cultivate their talents. After graduation, if there are outstanding talents among them, they can be allowed to enter the court as officials.

Of course, once they enter the court as officials, they will lose their clan status and can only be paid according to the officials' salaries.

Clans below the county king and above the Fuguo general can only be regarded as middle-level clans.

Although their salaries are not low, they are often discounted by magistrates. When they cannot engage in other industries, most of the time, they need to look at the magistrate's face.

Therefore, if there is such a step of promotion, one can get rid of this heavy shackles, even if the salary is not as much as before.

Some of them would also be willing to give up their clan status.

Such a two-pronged approach is the first step in being able to let go of the clan and become an official, and only then can there be follow-up restrictive measures on the clan.

Otherwise, there will be no policy implementation, and it will only become empty talk in the end.

But even this first step is not so easy to implement.

The reason why Zhu Qiyu attaches so much importance to King Min is because, among all the existing clans, he is the leader of all the kings.

Although it is said that he did a lot of ridiculous things in his early years, his life is capital now.

At least in the current Zhu family, there is no one older than him.

If you want to promote the reform of the clan, with his help, it will definitely go much smoother.

However, to put it bluntly, this matter is actually against most of the vassal kings, especially the assessment of Zongxue.

Although it didn't touch their real interests, it can be regarded as adding a heavy condition to the subsequent seal.

Therefore, the old King Min may not be willing to come forward to do this.

Zhu Qiyu's original grasp was actually based on Huang Mingzu's precepts.

As we all know, this old Min King is a stubborn guy who wants to save face. Emperor Taizong was more peaceful when he was around. After Emperor Taizong passed away, he often talked about things with Huang Mingzu's instructions and took away a lot of privileges from the court. .

However, in Huangming's ancestral training, it is actually stated that clans below the general of Zhen Guo can enter the court as officials.

It's just that this standard is very vague, and it is simply said "those with outstanding talents".

It was Emperor Taizong who really forbade the royal family from entering the court and serving as officials.

But this, there is a turning point.

However, based on this alone, the confidence is not too great. Zhu Qiyu originally prepared other means, but now it seems that it is unnecessary.

Thinking like this, Xing'an came in to report.

"My lord, the Luanjia is ready. Eunuch Cheng has just sent the news that the elders have already arrived outside the palace, and they can enter the palace with half a cup of tea at most."

So Zhu Qiyu restrained his thoughts and ordered.

"Show me, Hall of Martial Arts!"

　Two chapters in one, I've been busy these two days, so I can only combine two chapters into one, bow~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)