Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 875 The Royal Family
Zhu Yihai stood on the tower of Baiyun County by the Qinghai Lake, watching the third son, King Han, go to the fiefdom.

A team of royal guards wore cotton armor and rode iron horses, carrying guns on their backs to guard the third prince when he went south, from Huangyuan to Guinan, a journey of five hundred miles.

The King of Han's team was not that large, a group of royal guards, and a barracks of imperial guards, all of which were escorted to the fief and then returned.A group of guards recruited by the King of Han were mostly children of the Ming army stationed in the Hehuang area, and some noble children were recruited by the King of Han.

Zhu Hongxu offered them good conditions, not only good salaries, but also granting them land and pasture, each with [-] mu of arable land and [-] mu of pasture. One or two hundred acres of land and three or five hundred acres of grassland.

This condition attracted many people, and even the emperor gave the King of Han a special decree, allowing him to recruit no more than one battalion of guards and mercenaries, that is, 500 people.These people gave the name of guards and regiment training to the palace, and they could purchase corresponding regiment training camp weapons and equipment from the imperial court.

Zhu Yihai also conferred the ranks of warriors and knights on these palace guard officers. They did not belong to the regular army of the Ming Dynasty, but they were included in the reserves. Their ranks were not official positions or military ranks, but the ranks of warriors were based on the status of lieutenants, and knights were based on the status of school officers.

They are the family generals of the vassal king and also the reserve personnel of the court. The vassal king grants them land. They need to serve as guards for the vassal king, but they don’t need to provide their own equipment. The vassal king pays money to buy from the court, even their land Taxes do not need to be paid to the court, but the vassal kings pay the court on their behalf.

This is not just an employment relationship, as a knight warrior, you can also have other benefits, such as the school built by the vassal king in the territory, their children can go to elementary school for free, and they can be recommended by the vassal king if they are talented and have good grades. High schools, or recommended to enter the military academy, etc.

"Your Majesty is so stingy, give the Third Prince such a little territory." Anu looked at the leaving team with her swollen belly. Many people outside the city gate saw the Prince off, and even many businessmen went south to the new fiefdom together. There are craftsmen sent by the imperial court to build Guinan County and Hanwang Mansion.

Anu, who was born in Oirat, his father is the Khan of Heshuote, and his ancestors have always been the leader of Oirat. According to the tradition of Oirat and even Mongolia, not only the property will be distributed to his sons, but also the entire tribe, territory, and grassland. Among the sons, the number of points is not counted, it all depends on the father's love for his son.

Da Tianzi owns all over the world and rules more than [-] million subjects. In the end, only one county was assigned to the third prince, and it was a newly established county, which was half-forcibly taken from Qinghai Khan and Yildu Qi Nuoyan.

This was not the actual control territory of Daming before.

"Isn't it too hard to handle?"

Zhu Yihai watched his son, who seemed a little young, leave. His newlywed wife, Princess Han, Shen Shi, was still in Beijing. It was a bit sudden that he was summoned to come here this time, and then he was granted the feudal title of Guinan.

"Compared to the traditions on the grasslands, we are different in the Central Plains. I am not dividing the family, but entrusting the princes. I love the King of Han very much, just like the prince and other sons. But I am not only the father of the King of Han, but also the king of Han. Emperor Ming."

After several years of repeated thinking, Zhu Yihai finally did not adopt Zhu Yuanzhang's big enfeoffment system, but he did not continue the harsh treatment of the clan when he became emperor.

The great enfeoffment of the Han and Jin Dynasties all caused civil strife among the feudal lords, weakened the imperial court, and threatened the empire.After Zhu Di, the Great Enfeoffment of the Ming Dynasty was changed to raising pigs. Countless sons of the vassals did not contribute to the court. It is not advisable to purely raise pigs, which harms both the clan and the court.

And like the Tang and Song Dynasties and even the later Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is not feasible to keep the clan in the capital and not let it go.

Zhu Yihai not only hoped that the suzerains and vassals could contribute to the country and screen the vassal court, but also did not want them to endanger the central government. After much deliberation, Zhu Yihai finally decided to implement the system of enfeoffment for the high-ranking clan. , and then the kingdom of vassals.

However, in order to prevent the vassal separatism or even rebellion, Zhu Yihai finally decided that the prince would only give one county a direct fiefdom, and all of them should be fiefdoms outside the traditional thirteen provinces of the Han Dynasty.

To seal frontier land, give a county land a direct fiefdom, and give the supervisory power of a prefecture where the fiefdom is located.

The prince's guards of up to 500 people, and the regimental militia of no more than 3000 people in the fief.Moreover, the closure of the county only gave him land and other ownership rights, and he was not given the right to govern the people, civil administration, tax collection and judicial power. He only had the right to supervise, and the right to command a strictly regulated number of guards and militia.

However, to mobilize guards and militia, approval from the imperial court is required, otherwise the guards and militia are prohibited from leaving the county.

After the prince took over the vassal, he also had to enter the capital regularly, and was subject to the supervision of the central and local officials, and even all fiefdoms still had to pay land tax and industrial and commercial taxes.

This enfeoffment, in fact, does not give much power. It can intervene in the affairs of the local prefecture and county. It has the right to supervise and has no direct governance power.

Compared with the previous kind of pig raising, it is better, and it can be regarded as a local backup of the Ming court.

The son of the prince, the eldest son will be crowned as the son, and in the future he will be descended to the first class to be the heir king, and the other sons will be descended to the third class, and will be the prince of the country.The rest of the concubines will be lowered to the fifth class to be marquises, and the land will be ten miles, and the earl will be granted a manor.

Prince's title, although descended to the first rank in the world, will no longer descend to Marquis, and will be Marquis for generations to come.

Take the King of Han as an example. He is the first son of the prince to be the King of Han. If he has no meritorious decree, he will be descended to the first rank in the world. It's the Marquis.

And his other legitimate sons and concubine sons have been descended from generation to generation. After being demoted to baron, they will be demoted to common people and royal relatives, and there will be no hereditary titles reserved.

The grandchildren of the King of Han will be more complicated. The eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son will be reduced to the first rank as the county king, the other descendants will be reduced to the third rank as the county prince, and the rest of the concubines will be descended to the fifth rank as the earl. The great-grandson is the magistrate, and the other great-grandsons are viscounts.

As for the great-great-grandchildren, the great-great-great-grandson of the great-great-grandson is the county duke, the other great-great-great-grandsons are the county lords, and the great-great-great-grandson of the concubine is the baron.

By the fifth generation's grandchildren, the concubine has already descended to the bottom, and will no longer be awarded a title, but will become the red-belt royal children of the fifth generation.

The sixth-generation grandson of the King of Han, Zongsun, also descended to be a marquis, and he will not descend from then on.

This design is actually because the ancient times paid attention to the five clothes, and in the sixth generation, they actually had five clothes with the current emperor, which is not considered close.

From the prince to the marquis, there are exactly six generations, and there are exactly five clothes.

Before that, Zhu Yihai retained some titles of county princes, but in fact, they were all out of five uniforms with him. Some of them were inherited by the sons of the great Ming Taizu like Tang Wang Zhu Yujian, and some were originally from counties like Lu Fan. king.

There are still [-] of these county kings up to now. Nanyang Wang Zhu Yujian, as the emperor's uncle, is also Da Zongzheng. Zhu Yihai made an exception and promoted him to be Tang Wang, which is the only one who is not a prince.

The descendants of Zhu Yujian's eldest line can also be passed on to the Marquis, and the hereditary will not descend.

The other eighteen county kings now include the two sons of Chongzhen, and their descendants can be passed on to the earl, and they will not be hereditary.

As for the titles of other clans, they must be descended to the next level, until they are the royal relatives without titles.

Of course, if the nobles of these clans have made meritorious service, they can still be promoted to the title, or they or their sons will not be degraded. It depends on the ability.

Correspondingly, the imperial court cannot pay homage to the princes and dukes of the clan, enter the cabinet, command the troops, and cannot participate in the imperial examination.Earl Marquis can participate in the imperial examination, and can also reach the third rank of civil and military officials.Those below the earl are not limited to take the imperial examination, are not limited to serve in the army, and are not even limited to the four industries of industry and commerce.

This restriction is mainly to prevent the princes and grandchildren from fighting for power. The princes and grandchildren have a higher status and greater influence, so they should be restricted.As for the princes and below, the distance is farther away, and there is no such a big threat. Appropriate relaxation allows them to enter the court as officials and even command troops.

Although a title can be passed down from generation to generation, and both the descendants and concubines can be conferred titles, the rest of the descendants and concubines must descend to the third and fifth ranks, and only the descendants of the descendants of the descendants will not be reduced to hereditary when they reach the sixth generation. To have been reduced to nothing.

Heroes with different surnames who are not members of the clan can only inherit the title of the eldest son, and the rest of the sons cannot be divided. If you go down one level, you will become a commoner, and you will no longer have a title.

This is the brilliance of a gentleman, beheaded for five generations.

Only princes can be crowned princes.

Different surnames cannot be named kings.

Under this system of titles, high-level titles will not be flooded, let alone increase fissionally.

The highest title of the foreign clan is the county king. The Khan and the king of the foreign clan can inherit the county prince. The children are also downgraded to attack the noble.

The princes and princes of the foreign domain, except for the eldest son, are even awarded the lowest fifth-class auspiciousness first, and then gradually promoted according to their merits. Even if they are the second son of King Khan, they will not be awarded directly. For the titles of county magistrate and Huntai Jijue, they start with the fifth-class Jiji and baron. For some concubines, they may only be awarded the fifth-class Jiji in their lifetime, and the baron may not necessarily be given.

Civil servants who are not military exploits are generally not awarded titles. If they can achieve local governors, governors, court ministers, nine ministers, or even join the cabinet, three divisions and three princes, etc., they will be awarded lifelong titles, starting from barons, promoted to official positions or increased in seniority After that, the life title will be promoted accordingly.

It's just that this lifelong title is not hereditary, and there are no actual privileges. At most, there will be some allowances, and the name will be nicer.And military merits are conferring world titles, among which there are real titles and virtual titles of food towns, which mainly affect the number of lands granted and the amount of money converted from food towns. World titles are hereditary titles. Corresponding Yongyetian, Xuntian, Juetian, etc., and according to the title, you can seal your wife and son, posthumously present to your ancestors, select your children to enter the Imperial College, send them to the lecture hall, and enter the Xunwei as errands, etc., which can be regarded as more direct for children and grandchildren. The road to officialdom.

Compared with a clan prince who can confer a county, a county king who can confer a town, a duke who can confer a township, and an earl who can confer a manor, meritorious officials with different surnames do not have the treatment of real land.

Directly granting land, [-] mu of land for the duke and [-] mu for the baron, both of which are border areas, but without guards and regiment training.

"It's too stingy. Your Majesty is not afraid that the King of Han will be unhappy. He is young and ignorant now. When he grows up, he will be dissatisfied."

If Zhu Yihai didn't know Anu's character well, his words would have made him suspect that she was slandering and framing the King of Han, knowing that she didn't mean it, he didn't take it to heart.

"The enfeoffment of Mongolia is a way to create chaos, and it is absolutely unfeasible."

"But the prince only has a salary of several hundred silver dollars and hundreds of stones a year, and the wild frontier is divided into such a wasteland with no people. Isn't this the same as exile? Your Majesty is rich all over the world, so you can't be so harsh on the princes?" Anu is also pregnant with a child, and she does not want her child to be treated like this in the future.

They can't all be born of the emperor. As a result, all the country, wealth and population in the world belong to the prince, but the others have nothing.

"The land of a county is not small. Is the land entrusted by the King of Han small? Tens of thousands of hectares of arable land, one hundred thousand hectares of pastures, do you know how much potential there is here? There are few people now, but we must slowly manage it. Which princes, nobles, famous families, powerful and powerful, Is it possible to distribute such a large property to his son? Only the emperor has this ability, and the princes should be content."

He smiled and stroked Anu's swollen belly, "It's actually very good for a prince and prince to have a county fiefdom. If you give him a mansion and a province, do you think it's good for him? It's harming him, Zhen One province can be given to one province, but will his prince brother be happy when he becomes the emperor? In the future, when his nephew becomes the emperor, he will be even more dissatisfied. Sooner or later there will be troubles, and the bigger the territory, the more ambitious he will be. Big, they are all harmful things."

These words seem crooked, but they are not rough, just like someone said about those businessmen. When you have a net worth of over [-] million, you may be very handsome, but if you have a net worth of tens of billions, then this The money may not necessarily be yours.

When pigs are fattened, it is time to slaughter them for meat, and it is impossible to keep them forever.

When you get fat, it's time to use the knife.

Resources must be empowered to be safe.

Whether it was the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms in the Han Dynasty, the Rebellion of the Eight Kings in the Jin Dynasty, or even the Battle of Jingnan in the Ming Dynasty, the essence is actually the same. Fan, the result will inevitably lead to rebellion.

There is nothing wrong with Zhu Yuanzhang wanting to entrust his sons to the Pingfan court to guard the frontier.

But when his grandson Jianwen became the emperor, it was difficult to feel at ease seeing those uncles holding heavy soldiers and guarding one side. King Ning held the three guards of Duoyan and claimed to have [-] Mongolian cavalry.Zhu Di, King of Yan, guards Beiping and has rich experience in commanding troops.

There are also other Uncles of the King of Sai, all of whom hold soldiers and horses, who can bear it, the cutting of the feudal clan is inevitable, and civil strife is also inevitable.

If Zhu Yihai thinks from the perspective of the emperor and his father, he should give the princes more fiefdoms, and it is better to confer them in a place that is richer, but if he wants to think from the perspective of the court and the world, he must not do that .

Set up a county in the border area and let the sons guard it, away from the capital and politics. In fact, it is to protect them and maintain the stability of the court.

If Zhu Yihai entrusted his sons to Chang'an, Luoyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jiujiang, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Liaodong, Taiyuan, Hanzhong, etc., it is estimated that after his death, his bones are not cold, and the new emperor's dragon chair has not yet sat firmly. There is going to be a rebellion.

So let's be pragmatic.

The small fiefdom is a bit small, and it is a bit out of the way, but at least it is safer, let's develop slowly.

(End of this chapter)