Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 209 Jianwen New Deal
"Dang...dang...dang..."

At [-] o'clock in the morning, when all the people in Nanjing had gone to the streets to do things, something unexpected happened.

Taoist temples and bell towers inside and outside the capital rang bells one after another, endlessly.

Many people didn't know what happened. Only the officials and gentry knew that the man in the palace... died.

At this moment, some people are happy and some are sad, and among them there are also people who are both happy and sad.

In the Palace of Qianqing, after Zhu Yunwen, with the help of Qi Tai, Li Jinglong, and Yu Xin, arranged all the matters after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, he returned to the East Palace alone, sat in the Chunhe Hall, and did not return to his senses for a long time. Come.

He still can't believe that his grandfather has left him and will never come back.

At this time, a figure walked in, and this person was Zhu Yunwen's mother, the current Crown Princess and the future Empress Dowager Lu.

"Mother……"

Zhu Yunwen stood up and saluted. While in a daze, he helped Mr. Lu sit down in his seat.

"Yunwen, you have to cheer up. You will be the emperor in the future. You can't hide alone like this."

Lu's voice was a little cold, but Zhu Yunwen's mind was already entangled in the news of Zhu Yuanzhang's death, and he could not get out for the time being.

However, Mrs. Lu ignored his situation and just said to herself: "There are many concubines in the inner court. How do you think they should be dealt with?"

Zhu Yunwen looked at his mother in confusion, but Mrs. Lu said: "This is a good opportunity. You can use Emperor Daxing's order to clean up the inner court."

"This..." Zhu Yunwen didn't expect that his mother would say such words.

However, no matter what Zhu Yunwen's attitude was, Mrs. Lu said to herself: "Of course, those who have done something wrong must be kept, but they cannot be left alone. They can be imprisoned in a palace for easy monitoring."

"What...are you going to do?"

Zhu Yunwen spoke with difficulty. He could not imagine what his mother would do, but Mrs. Lu said calmly: "Didn't Emperor Daxing once let Princess Qin be buried? Then let those concubines who have nothing to do are also buried."

"But Princess Qin wrote to Grandpa herself to be buried!" Zhu Yunwen spoke excitedly, telling something that others didn't know.

The Guanyin slave Wang family was not forced to be buried by Zhu Yuanzhang's order, but Wang family requested to be buried.

When this happened, Zhu Yunwen was standing by. Not only him, but also Zhu Yuanzhang himself was stunned for a while.

None of them thought that the Wang family would be willing to die for the sake of Zhu Ping, who was not in a good relationship, and even wanted to persuade the Wang family.

However, after Zhu Yuanzhang determined Wang's thoughts afterwards, he still decreed that Wang be buried as a martyr.

This matter is not a secret, because after learning that the Wang family requested to be buried, Zhu Chun, the king of Shu, wrote a memorial article "Sacrifice to Brother Qin Min, Sister-in-law to Princess Minlie", which mentioned: "Sister-in-law is also Kong Xian. , fought hard to die together, and when my father heard his obituary, he felt sad and sad."

Of course, Wang's choice to be buried was not out of love for King Qin.

As a victim of political marriage and united front work, her married life was very depressed, and she was even abused by Zhu Xi and Concubine Deng. She must have seen that everything in the world is empty.

Both of her parents were dead, her brother Wang Baobao had also passed away long ago, and she had no heirs, so the value of the united front disappeared.

Although Deng was sentenced to death by Zhu Yuanzhang because of her relationship with King Qin, it was Deng's biological son Zhu Shangbing who succeeded to the throne.

Zhu Shangbing would obviously not look down upon her as the person who killed his mother, and her future life would naturally not be easy, so she might as well die.

Precisely because of the sacrificial texts written by Shu King Zhu Chun and others, Zhu Yunwen felt that it was far-fetched to use sacrifice and burial to solve the problem of concubines who had nothing to do in the inner court.

However, Lu did not care about his thoughts: "Although Emperor Daxing did not leave any edicts or rules for burial, you are about to be the emperor. As long as you speak, they will be buried."

"I..." Zhu Yunwen wanted to retort, but couldn't say anything.

After a long time, he could only nod: "Rong, please think about it again..."

"Yes." Seeing Zhu Yunwen agree, Lu did not continue to press him, but just reminded: "Although you are the emperor, if you don't ascend the throne soon, I'm afraid there will be trouble, especially with your fourth uncle."

"I understand." Zhu Yunwen turned sideways and stopped looking at Lu.

Seeing him like this, Mrs. Lu also turned and left Chunhe Hall, leaving Zhu Yunwen alone.

Standing there, Zhu Yunwen listened to the footsteps disappear, and then slowly raised his head.

Just when he raised his head, he immediately saw the "On Cutting Down the Domain" hanging on the wall. The three words "Zhu Gaoxu" on it were very dazzling at this moment.

Zhu Yunwen stepped forward, took down the "On Cutting Down the Domain", and walked slowly to the incense burner.

He opened the incense burner with pliers and read the article "On Cutting Down the Domain". His mind was filled with what his mother had just said.

Yes, he should have ascended the throne earlier rather than being indecisive here.

Grandpa died, and he could finally ascend to the throne and do what he wanted to do.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yunwen murmured softly: "Grandpa, this article does not apply to my grandson..."

After he finished speaking, he threw the "On Cutting Down the Domain" that Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to frame into the incense burner and watched it burn and turn into ashes.

He turned and left the incense burner until there was nothing left.

At the same time, with the sound of ten thousand pestles at the bell tower of the Jingdao Temple, the news of the death of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty also began to be rushed through Tangqi and sent to the three provinces and royal palaces of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, the first to receive news of the emperor's death were Qi King Zhu Shu and Zhou King Zhu Ji, who were in Qingzhou.

Although King Zhu Shu of Qi was very cruel in his military strategy, even for such a cruel person, after learning that Zhu Yuanzhang had passed away, he ordered the three guards of the Qi vassal to wear sackcloth and wear mourning for three years to serve Emperor Daxing with filial piety and loyalty.

He originally wanted to go to Nanjing to see his father for the last time, but he was ordered not to go to the capital by the court officials who arrived in Qingzhou shortly afterwards.

Since it was Zhu Yuanzhang's last edict, Zhu Yu had no way to refute it and could only bow his head and acknowledge it.

But compared to him, Zhu Rui, who also received the news of his death, was nervous.

Zhu Tong immediately ordered the whole family and three bodyguards to wear sackcloth and mourn. At the same time, he found his eldest son Zhu Youdun with the imperial decree ordering the vassals not to go to the capital to mourn.

The two of them were sitting in Zhu Youdou's Prince's Mansion, their expressions very solemn.

"What should we do now? Your grandfather has passed away. Zhu Yunwen doesn't know how to settle old scores."

"The only thing we can do is be careful." Zhu Youdou frowned and said, "Father should not leave the palace in the near future, and it would be best to recall all three guards to Kaifeng."

"Okay, as you do, is there anything else I should pay attention to?" Zhu Zhu asked nervously, but Zhu Youdou pondered for a moment before continuing:
"Right now, the fourth uncle, the seventeenth uncle, the fifteenth uncle, and Gao Xu are all patrolling the border in the north of Mobei. The three capitals are empty and not to mention. The northwest still needs to be prepared for Timur to move eastward and cannot be used. There is also a chieftain's knife in the southwest. Qianmeng rebelled and contained the troops of the three southwest capitals."

"My eldest brother's top priority should be to calm down all the wars one by one, and then mobilize the troops and horses to ensure the stability of the Central Plains before reducing the vassal state."

"As for reducing the feudal lordship, grandpa has told my eldest brother many times that Gao Xu's "The Theory of Eliminating the feudal lord" is very applicable. If Gao Xu's theory of reducing the feudal lordship is used, there should be no problem. The wealth of the Zhou family can be preserved, so father does not have to worry."

Zhu Youdou used common sense to judge Zhu Yunwen, and Zhu Tong didn't think there was anything wrong. After nodding, he followed Zhu Youdou's instructions and transferred the guards who were still grazing in Hetao back to Kaifeng.

It can be said that his method was the safest method for many vassal kings after learning about Zhu Yuanzhang's death. Therefore, many vassal kings close to Zhou Fan followed suit.

It's just that for the vassals, they didn't think what their eldest nephew would do to them. Therefore, after learning that Zhu Yuanzhang died, many people still did some transgressive things.

These things were recorded by Jin Yiwei and sent to the capital.

Zhu Yunwen had people record this news one after another, and he himself followed his mother's advice and announced the burial of Emperor Daxing on May 31, the [-]st year of Hongwu, which was the seventh day after Zhu Yuanzhang's death.

This approach is against etiquette. After all, in ancient times, the time for the emperor to remain inactive after his death was often not too short. No matter how fast it was, it could only last for 27 days, especially for the founding emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, this kind of thing happens in reality.

On May [-]th, the Daxing Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was buried in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Purple Mountain. The shocking thing was that during the burial, more than [-] concubines who had nothing to do with him were buried.

Even though there were only about [-] people, such an act of burial still made people feel numb.

When the tomb door of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum was closed, Li Jinglong, Yu Xin, Qi Tai and others standing at the tomb door all lowered their heads, unable to believe that such a thing as burial would appear in Zhu Yuanzhang's will.

They are very familiar with the Daxing Emperor. He is a person who likes to institutionalize everything and write down any system. The most typical example is to write edicts to his sons and ministers and the "Huang Mingzu" Training".

"The Ancestral Instructions of the Emperor Ming Dynasty" is detailed and detailed, and it can even be said that it is painstaking.

But such a big thing as burial did not appear in the "Huang Ming Ancestor Instructions", and it did not set the specifications for the burial after the death of the prince, and what were the specifications for the burial after the death of the prince?
Before the death of Emperor Daxing, all the five government ministers, six ministries and the great scholars were present, but no one heard his intention to bury his concubines.

As for Emperor Daxing, he did not take the initiative to bury his concubines during his lifetime. The burial of Princess Qin was at his own request, so this was the only case in the 31 years of Hongwu.

Others, whether they were Zhu Xiongying, Empress Xiaocigao, King Zhutan of Luhuang, Crown Prince Yiwen, or Prince Gong of Jin Dynasty Zhu Fan, none of them had any intention to bury palace servants after their deaths.

Therefore, everyone has a title in mind regarding the matter of being buried before them.

It's just that this matter concerns the inner court, and no one wants to cause trouble.

The officials left Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in an orderly manner. The reason why they stayed here for such a short time was mainly because this day was not only the day when Emperor Daxing was buried, but also the day when the new emperor ascended the throne.

The civil and military officials hurriedly returned to the inner city from Purple Mountain, and walked along the Daming Gate, which had not been opened for several years, to Fengtian Gate.

Here, preparations have already been made for the upcoming enthronement ceremony.

Zhu Yunwen, who was wearing a royal robe and carrying Yu Gui, slowly walked up to the Fengtian Gate. Here he faced all the officials and announced his accession edict.

"Heaven sends down his people to be kings."

"Our Emperor, Taizu Emperor Gao, was ordered by the heaven to govern all nations, provide food and clothing, promote prosperity and play for the people, do everything that benefits the world, and do everything with his heart. Politics and religion are not bright, and the scale is grand."

"I have solemnly compiled and inherited the great unification, respectfully obeyed the imperial edict, and ascended the throne as emperor on the 31th day of the fifth month in the [-]st year of Hongwu." "I have been fearful all night long, thinking about the reason why I restrain the prime minister, and I will not disobey the emperor's great destiny, and I will always be the emperor." It is appropriate to be tolerant and fierce in order to launch a reform policy."

"He regards next year as the first year of Jianwen and offers a general amnesty to the whole world."

"In drama! Virtue lies in good governance, and governance lies in supporting the people. We should abide by the words of the sages and hope that Yongxi will prosper."

"A noble scholar, Bai Bi, is in my heart."

Although it is a formal document with many polite words, it still conveys Zhu Yunwen's ideas and program on how to govern the world.

He used "Jianwen" as his reign title, which was in sharp contrast to Zhu Yuanzhang's "Hongwu".

The era name often reveals an emperor's intention to govern the country, and Zhu Yunwen's "Jianwen" means that he wants to end the political style of founding a country that emphasized military force and establish a civilized rule like the prosperity of Yao and Yongxi of Tang Dynasty.

His edict made many military attachés in the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion frown, but civil servants such as Huang Zicheng and Bao Zhao were overjoyed.

Qi Tai and Yu Xin were the clear leaders among the ministers. They both believed that Zhu Yunwen's edict was inappropriate. Yu Xin even looked at Qi Tai and asked with his eyes whether he drafted the edict, but they No response was received from Qitai.

The enthronement ceremony ended with dissatisfaction among the military attaches and great joy among the civil servants. As the emperor, Zhu Yunwen also summoned the officials to the Fengtian Palace Square for a grand meeting.

Thousands of officials in the capital all entered the Fengtian Gate. Important officials from the five government departments and six ministries, as well as the great scholars in front of the palace and the Imperial Procuratorate, all stepped onto the high platform and stood in front of the Fengtian Palace.

"Your Majesty, may you be blessed, long live long live, long live long live..."

Amidst the singing and singing of thousands of people pushing the golden mountain and toppling the jade pillar, Zhu Yunwen wore a royal robe and sat on the golden dragon chair where Zhu Yuanzhang once sat.

Under the Huang Luogai umbrella, his eyes were not on the thousands of officials in the square, but on the dozens of important ministers who could walk in front of the Fengtian Palace.

"Sir, it's time to start."

Zhu Yunwen kept his eyes straight, while Huang Zicheng came out, took the imperial edict and began to read out what Zhu Yunwen thought was the new policy.

"Edict: Since the 31th day of the intercalary month of the [-]st year of Hongwu, the following crimes will be punished..."

"Already aware or not aware of it, corrected or not corrected, always forgive those who are wronged, and then forgive them."

"I dare you to forgive me for my past mistakes and accuse me of my crimes."

"All matters are listed below."

"The chief secretaries, prefectures, prefectures, and counties all over the world have defaulted on money and food since the 31st year of Hongwu. They can do whatever they can to avoid it!"

"The Department of Salt Transportation and the Department of Salt Class Promotion have defaulted on the salt class since the 31st year of Hongwu. They can do whatever they can to avoid it!"

"The soldiers and civilians of the world raise and breed animals... Therefore, this is an edict. I hope you will know it."

Zhu Yunwen asked Huang Zicheng to promulgate the contents of the New Deal that he had studied for the past seven days. These contents were relatively normal at the beginning, but became more and more confusing as they went on.

From the initial reduction of sentences and prison sentences, to the exemption of land taxes, and finally to the adjustment of the imperial bureaucracy.

These things sound like they are aimed at civil servants, especially the article "provinces merge with prefectures and counties, and redundant officials and redundant personnel are eliminated", which is undoubtedly a reduction in the number of civil servants.

But if you listen carefully, it turns out that he not only wants to abolish state and county civil servants, but also to abolish some guard posts. This makes many military attachés in the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion feel uncomfortable.

It's just that today is the day when his new emperor ascends the throne. The military attachés have kept their thoughts in their hearts and did not break out on the spot. They just want to unite everyone to retreat after the dynasty is over.

"Dismiss the dynasty!!"

When the singing ceremony sounded again, Zhu Yunwen's hasty enthronement ceremony was finally over. Civil servants and military officers hurriedly left the palace. Zhu Yunwen summoned Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai, Bao Zhao and others to go to Wuying Palace.

"Yu Shangshu!"

On the way to the end of the court, Li Jinglong found Yu Xin, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Yu Xin seemed to know that Li Jinglong would look for him, so he deliberately slowed down.

The two of them walked to the side of the palace road, away from their colleagues in Sanchao.

"Has Your Majesty discussed the new policy with Yu Shangshu?"

Li Jinglong got straight to the point, but Yu Xin shook his head: "Your Majesty never summoned me, nor did he mention the New Deal."

"That's it, I understand." Li Jinglong's face was not very good, and after a brief bow, he returned to the palace.

As for Yu Xin, he looked at Li Jinglong's leaving figure and looked up at the dazzling sunny sky.

He is [-] years old this year, and he is still in his prime among the six films.

But judging from today's situation, his career may have come to an end.

"It's okay..." He sighed: "Go home and rest early, and you can also recuperate."

While he sighed, Zhu Yunwen also summoned Qi Tai and the others.

Sitting in the Wuying Palace where his grandfather once occupied, Zhu Yunwen had changed back into the emperor's regular clothes.

Zhu Gaochi is no longer here, because after Zhu Yuanzhang died, Zhu Yunwen returned Zhu Gaochi to Prince Yan's Mansion in Jingyan on the pretext of letting him rest.

It has to be said that the matter of being buried did allow Zhu Yunwen to grasp the situation in the inner court, thus ensuring his personal safety.

At the moment, what he should do may be the New Deal he has planned.

"Your Majesty, Qi Shangshu and others are summoned."

Li Quan, the eunuch in charge of the East Palace at that time, came to the side hall of Wuying Hall, and now he was wearing the clothes of the eunuch who was in charge of the ceremony.

"Send them in."

Zhu Yun nodded and signaled. Li Quan also turned around and left after returning the gift. Not long after, he came to the hall with Qi Tai and three others in plain clothes.

Seeing the arrival of the three people, Zhu Yunwen also stood up slowly and expressed his goodwill to the three of them: "I have promoted all three of you to one rank. In addition, I am also preparing to promote the six ministers from the second rank to the first rank on the basis of the New Deal. , the chief envoys from various places have also been promoted to the second rank, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" Bao Zhao was the first to speak, and then Huang Zicheng also began to bow and sing, shouting "Sheng Ming".

The actions of the two of them greatly benefited Zhu Yunwen. He set his sights on Qi Tai, but Qi Tai frowned.

Feeling Zhu Yunwen's gaze, he bowed in return and said: "Your Majesty's move is a wise move, but I see that the military attachés at the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army and other military attachés do not seem to know about this."

Qitai's worries are not unreasonable. There are five governors' offices in the five armies, and each mansion has two left and right governors. These ten people are all first-grade.

Further down, there are also the first-rank governor Tongzhi and the second-rank governor Qianshi.

In terms of rank alone, the six ministers of the Hongwu Dynasty were naturally inferior to the Governor of the Fifth Army. Even the Ministry of War, one of the six ministers, was only responsible for the logistical support of the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army and was unable to mobilize troops at all.

Now that the six ministers want to improve their ranks, the interests of the Five Army Governor's Mansion will inevitably be violated.

Such a matter requires at least one Li Jinglong to mediate.

"I haven't told Duke Cao Guo about this yet, but I think he won't object."

Zhu Yunwen spoke confidently, which made Qi Tai worried.

At least half of the Ming Dynasty's military power has not yet been taken back to the central government. To act like this is somewhat of a coward.

"As far as I can see today, there is no objection to the new deal that I discussed with you before, so I am ready to go further."

Zhu Yunwen did not give Qi Tai time to think, and continued to express his thoughts: "When Emperor Daxing was in power, there were many corrupt people in the court, and they were killed repeatedly. In the final analysis, it was all because of the inability to test the character of the people through the imperial examination. That’s why I want to introduce the law of recommendation.”

Recommendation, to put it simply, recommendation, has existed in all dynasties, but Qitai and the others did not know what Zhu Yunwen was going to do.

"Today we have decided on the recommendation method. From this day forward, civil servants and county magistrates of the fifth rank and above at home and abroad are ordered to recommend talents. Don't ask about the common people below. Only the talents will be promoted."

"If you are not a human being, I will sit down with you!"

Zhu Yunwen set his own recommendation method, which made Huang Zicheng and Bao Zhao shine, but Qi Tai's face turned ugly.

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

Huang Zicheng and Bao Zhao sang the salute, but Qi Tai once again disappointed and said: "Your Majesty, is there a quota for this recommendation?"

"Why do we need a quota for recommending talents?" Zhu Yunwen asked Qi Tai with a smile, but Qi Tai shook his head and said: "If there is no quota, what if the new policy solves the problem of redundant staff in the court, and the latter's recommendation continues to lead to redundant staff?"

"Just be careful and push them forward." Zhu Yunwen thinks of things very simply. He believes that people of the same species flock together and things are divided into groups. Therefore, gentlemen will naturally work with gentlemen, and villains will naturally work with villains.

If a gentleman recommends a person, there must be no problem. If there is a problem, it means that the person who recommended him is not a gentleman and should be punished.

"With all due respect, the recommendation law has not yet been determined."

After all, Qi Tai was chosen by Zhu Yuanzhang to assist Zhu Yunwen, so he naturally had two brushes in his hands. He knew very well that recommending Dharma would lead to the formation of cliques in the temple, so it must be curbed.

"I have issued a decree on this matter. It will be implemented first and then we will decide whether to cancel based on the effect."

Zhu Yunwen's way of managing politics by cutting off first and then telling the story made Qi Tai very uncomfortable. Before he could speak again, Zhu Yunwen continued:
"Today I summoned all the ministers here not only to support the law and the new policy, but also, more importantly, to talk with you gentlemen."

Zhu Yunwen turned around and looked at a map placed in Wuying Hall. It was the map outside the Pass that Zhu Gaoxu presented to Zhu Yuanzhang, covering the hydrology, geography and topography of the entire Northeast and Modong.

"I called you gentlemen here not to ask whether we should reduce the vassal status, but to ask you when the imperial court should reduce the vassal status and who should start with the reduction of vassal status."

(End of this chapter)