Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 281 Two Decisions
The elders soon understood that they were too naive.

His Majesty Dan, Cheng Jing paused for a moment, then continued reading.

"...From now on, the ranks of the harem system will be reset. Under the empress, there will be one imperial concubine, two imperial concubines, four concubines, and nine concubines. There is no limit to talent, and their ranks are regarded as crown princes, princes, and princes. The concubine and the princess of the county..."

"...restart the draft, select women from good families from all over the country for eight years, enrich the harem, and extend the emperor's heirs. Except for the big wedding draft, the rest of the draft will select five to ten people according to the situation. Those who are not selected will have rewards. Restoring his nationality and allowing him to marry, the emperor is over forty, if any heirs grow up, the election will be stopped..."

If the abolition and burial just now made the elders feel a little surprised, there was no special reaction.

Then this new harem system can be regarded as a blow-up.

It turns out that the emperor didn't want to limit the number of the harem at all, he wanted to expand it? !

Even at the court meeting, there was still a small amount of discussion among the civil and military officials, which caused a group of censors who corrected the etiquette to scold in a low voice and kept order back and forth.

Of course, the Great Court Meeting is a ceremony, not an occasion to discuss government affairs, and there is no ritual schedule for performances.

Therefore, even if these ministers have opinions, it is impossible to raise them at this time.

But there is no doubt that the bosses will never tolerate this kind of money-wasting, greedy and lustful behavior.

Many censors have already started to think about how to write the memorial to persuade the emperor after the court meeting after hearing it...

Sitting on the high throne, Zhu Qiyu looked at the reaction below, but was not too surprised.

In fact, Zhu Qiyu knew that some ministers would object to this matter.

These civil servants have always been more lenient than self-discipline and stricter than others.

It doesn't matter how many concubines they take by themselves, but the emperor must be pure-hearted and ascetic, focus on the court situation, and not be greedy for beauty.

Therefore, except for Wu, he didn't discuss this matter with anyone else, he only called that old guy Hu Wei to discuss it.

Old Shangshu Hu is a smart man, so he would not act as a young bird to confront the emperor. On the contrary, he also proposed some feasible amendments to the emperor.

For example, the interval between drafts has been lengthened and the number of drafts has been reduced to make it more acceptable to the ministers.

After Zhu Qiyu thought about it, he agreed, and thus the present system came into being.

Calculated according to this, starting from the emperor's 15-year-old wedding draft, there will be an election every eight years, and the election will stop at forty, that is, a total of four elections.

Choose five to eight people each time, so the number of concubines will be controlled at about 30 to [-].

Strictly speaking, this number is slightly more than normal among the emperors of Ming Dynasty, but overall, it is not too much.

Although Daming has many dedicated emperors.

But in fact, except for the unlucky father and son Zhu Youtang and Zhu Houzhao, and the unlucky brothers Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao, the number of empresses and concubines of the Son of Heaven is basically maintained at around fifteen to twenty.

Even Zhu Qiyu's eldest nephew, who favored the Wan family, and Emperor Wanli, who favored the Zheng family and caused a dispute about going abroad, each had eighteen or nineteen people in their harem.

As for the emperor with the most concubines, he was undoubtedly the Emperor Jiajing who "concentrated on cultivating Taoism".

He has more than 80 concubines in total!

At that time, Zhu Qiyu was speechless. There are so many concubines, no wonder they want to drink pills to keep fit...

Usually when there is no draft, most of these concubines come from the offerings of eunuchs and Jiaofangsi, and then the emperor's court ladies.

So in fact, the concubine of a woman from a good family appointed by Taizu is just a decoration.

Because Daming only had one draft when the emperor got married, so only that one would work.

And more often than not, it is up and down.

To put it bluntly, this rule is usually used to limit the background of concubines from being too high.

But the elders don't care how low it is.

Whether you are a criminal official woman, a commoner, or a prostitute, as long as the emperor likes it, he will accept it.

So even if it wasn't for the purpose of enriching the harem, Zhu Qiyu felt that it was necessary to raise the standards for the selection of concubines.

At the very least, even if the women who came out of the draft were not from the families of high-ranking officials and lords, they were all innocent, healthy, good-looking, well-educated and well-educated, and their quality was far better than that of ordinary court ladies.

However, how many people there are in the harem is one thing, and it is another matter for the ministers to really show it to the public through a formal draft.

The former they have nothing to do.

After all, there are so many maids in the palace, and the emperor is lucky enough to be lucky, so they can't even give them a seat. The established fact has been done, and they can't stop it.

But the latter, their ability to stand on the moral high ground, can be used...

However, after all, it is now the Zhengdan Dynasty, and even a slight misbehavior may be punished, not to mention admonishing in public, disrupting the regulations of the Dachaohui, which is a serious crime.

Therefore, no matter how dissatisfied these bosses are, they have to hold it in their hearts and wait until the seal is opened later.

However, it's not over yet. After reading this article, Cheng Jing paused for a while, and continued to read after the Yushi Jiaoyi tidied up the team and restored order.

"From now on, the clan's mansion is ordered to open a school of Buddhism in the capital. All the relatives and princes, the heirs of the county king, who have reached the age of ten must enroll in the sect to study the scriptures of Yizu. , after passing the test, he can return to the fiefdom and canonize the throne."

"Below the king of Fanjun, the concubine son of the clan above the general of Fengguo, who has reached the age of [-], is also admitted to Zongxue. There is an examination every three years, and the period of nine years.

"All clans below the general of Fengguo are also allowed to participate in the scientific examination and enter the court as officials."

"Where the clan enters the court as an official, Linmin officials, Zhengyin officials, and supervisors are not allowed to serve as officials, and they cannot be appointed within five hundred miles of the father's and ancestors' fiefs. The rest are selected by the Ministry of Officials."

This is another bombshell.

The problem of the clan has a long history, but from the early Ming Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, the problems faced were actually different.

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was more about curbing the political and military power of the clan, and it was only in the late Ming Dynasty that the excessive treatment and legal immunity of the clan began to be curbed.

It should be said that since Jianwen's ascension to the present, the main theme of the imperial court's treatment of vassal kings has been to cut power.

However, this edict of the emperor completely ran counter to the policies upheld by generations of previous emperors, and opened up the power of the clan to enter the court.

You know, back then Emperor Taizong had to spend a lot of effort to eliminate all possibility of the clan's meddling in the government.

Now that the emperor has been enthroned for less than a year, he is about to change his course, and it is a change in the direction of the entire clan policy, which has shocked a group of ministers.

There are still quite a few ministers in the court who have always advocated further strengthening the control of the clan and resolutely prohibited the clan from participating in the court affairs in any form.

This edict directly touched their most sensitive nerves.

Although no one said it directly due to the fact that they were at the court meeting, it was obvious that the faces of many ministers became ugly.

At the same time, Zhang Fu, who represented the British government and stood among the military officials, also saw this scene, and his heart was moved immediately, and he let out a long breath.

The long edict has finally come to an end.

As Cheng Jing closed the imperial decree in his hand, the officials had different thoughts, and under the guidance of the ceremonial officer, they bowed down again and shouted long live.

The Great Dynasty will come to an end here, but from now on, a turbulent undercurrent is already brewing...

(End of this chapter)