Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 398 "Prince Huangming's Domain Chronicles"

"Zheng He, in what year was the Chronicle of the Domain of Prince Huangming written by you?"

After General Zhu Gaoxu handed the report to Prince Zhu Zhanyu, he looked at Zheng He, who was in his seventies, and asked warmly.

"Back to Your Majesty, the "Chronicles of the Domain" compiled by me was only compiled in the first half of last year. I have not yet collected all the events that happened in the princely and vassal states in the second half of last year. At present, I still lack information on the Liao and Gu vassals."

Zheng He bowed and said respectfully.

It turned out that Zheng He compiled "The Records of the Prince Huangming and the Vassal Kingdom" just out of interest. After learning about this, Zhu Gaoxu felt that this was not a bad thing. After all, Zheng He was the famous eunuch of the Three Treasures. He made a good start as a eunuch compiling books. It is at least better for eunuchs to imitate him and compile books than to fight for power.

Compilation is based on the arrangement of existing written materials, which is different from monographs and compilations.

Seventy percent of the textual materials required for Zheng He's compilation of "Prince Huangming's Domain Chronicles" came from the Ming Dynasty Academy of History, [-]% from the Ming Dynasty Royal History Museum, and only [-]% from other sources.

These other channels include overseas anecdotes, hearsay, etc., which can only be regarded as supplements to the official materials and are leftovers.

As for the Academy of National History and the Imperial History Museum, they are of course historians’ institutions established during the period when Zhu Gaoxu implemented the Qianxi New Deal.

"Prince Huangmei's Domain Chronicle" is somewhat similar to the local county chronicles, but not exactly the same.

County chronicles are special books that record the history, geography, customs, characters, culture, education, and products of a county.

County annals are a type of local annals, and local annals are "the complete history of a place". They detail the physical geography, political economy, and cultural figures of a region. They are a comprehensive record of the history and current situation of a place. "Three major functions.

Therefore, there is an ancient saying that "those who govern the world should take history as a mirror, and those who govern prefectures and countries should take their ambitions as a mirror" and "help the emperor to see clearly and have wisdom to support the unified governance." Therefore, the chronicle is a book that assists the government.

The vassal chronicles compiled by Zheng He are, strictly speaking, a type of local chronicle. After all, the status of the vassal state is equivalent to that of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty prohibited private history writing, so the vassal chronicles originally compiled by Zheng He were just geography books introducing the origins of each vassal state, as well as local customs, culture, education, products, etc.

Later, Zhu Gaoxu decided to compile the history of each princely vassal state in an official name and according to the standards of local chronicles, so he ordered Prime Minister Zheng He to do this.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, although the historiography project of the Song Dynasty was modeled on, some historical compilation institutions and corresponding historians were set up, but they were not fully followed. For example, the living official position was not a permanent official position, but was set up and abolished from time to time.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, Wei Guan, Song Lian and others were appointed as living officials, but were later dismissed.

During the Yongle period, Zhu Di ordered You Shunzi of Youchunfang to concurrently serve as a living official and restore the living annotation, but it was abolished soon after.

Many ministers complained about this and wrote letters one after another about it, but Zhu Di didn't take it seriously.

Historically, the Ming Dynasty History Museum was a permanent rather than permanent history compilation institution affiliated with the Hanlin Academy and decided by the cabinet.

From the early Ming Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, the task of compiling history was the responsibility of the Hanlin Academy. The History Museum under the Hanlin Academy was the main organization responsible for compiling historical books, so the Hanlin Academy was also called the "Historical Museum" and "Historical Bureau".

In view of this, when Zhu Gaoxu was implementing the Qianxi New Deal, he set up special historical institutions, such as the Academy of National History, the Royal History Museum, and the Living Institute.

"I asked Wang Zhen to be your deputy in editing the book. Can he wait outside the palace at this time?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked.

"Back to Your Majesty, it was Mr. Wang who came here with his ministers just now."

Zheng He replied.

"Wang Zhen?"

Zhu Gaoxu shouted loudly outside the hall.

Then, a eunuch who was nearly fifty years old bowed and walked into Wuying Hall.

"The servant pays homage to His Majesty."

Wang Zhen knelt down and saluted.Zhu Gaoxu ordered: "Wang Zhen, Sanbao Eunuch is old and has difficulty moving. Please go there in person and get me the original copy of "Prince Huang Ming's Domain Chronicles" compiled by him."

After Zheng He led his fleet to complete a circumnavigation of the earth and brought back various overseas crops, in order to commend Zheng He for his contribution, Zhu Di specially awarded him the title of "Three Treasures Eunuch", with a rank and salary equivalent to a first-class marquis.

In other words, the title of "Three Treasures Eunuch" is equivalent to a kind of lifelong title for eunuchs.

Zhu Gaoxu used "Three Treasures Eunuch" to call Zheng He, which is equivalent to calling Zhang Fu "Guo Gong", which is an honorific title.

"The servants lead the order."

Wang Zhen took the order.

After Wang Zhen left, Zheng He bowed to Zhu Gaoxu and saluted: "Old minister, thank you for your consideration."

"It has been more than seventy years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The only ones who have received the title of 'Three Treasures Eunuch' and are honored as 'Great Eunuch' by all civil and military officials are you, Zheng He, Wang Jinghong and Qingyao. You are the Ming Dynasty's Meritorious minister, I naturally have to be more considerate of you."

After Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking these heartfelt words, he changed the subject and said: "The Western navy rushed eight hundred miles away to report that the King of Liao and the King of Gu on the Peacock Peninsula fought over the territory. You just said that the materials from the second half of last year are still there. This is the reason why we dispatched Liao and Gu vassals."

Zheng He and Zhu Zhanyu were both stupid. After hearing what Zhu Gaoxu said, they immediately understood what was going on.

Last year, the imperial court deployed a large number of troops against Funan. Most of the Western Navy was deployed as reserve forces and had no time to take care of the Peacock Peninsula. This allowed the Liao and Gu vassals to take advantage of the cracks.

They firmly believe that the imperial court cannot destroy the Li clan's Yue Kingdom in a short period of time, and naturally have no time to take care of other things, so they will turn a blind eye to their fight.

But the two kings of Liao and Gu underestimated Zhu Gaoxu, and they even underestimated the Ming court.

Not to mention the all-pervasive Jinyiwei spies, Gu Wang Zhu Su's neighbor Xiang Wang Zhu Bai has been sending people to keep an eye on the movements of the Gu Kingdom.

Since Zhu Gaoxu agreed to Zhu Bai's request to change the king's title, the lineage of King Wenxiang later refers to Zhu Bai's lineage.

Who is Zhu Gaoxu? Can he see the meaning behind Zhu Bai's secret letter to him?
Even if Zhu Bai didn't say it directly in the letter, having Prince Wang deliver the letter is enough to explain the problem.

The same is true.

When Zhu Jiuluo, the eldest son of King Xiang, was led to Wuying Hall by Kang Ping, he revealed the whole story of the fight between King Liao and King Gu.

It turns out that the Gu Kingdom occupies the fertile land in the southern part of the Peacock Peninsula, and is more than six or seven hundred miles away from the Liao Kingdom. Theoretically, there will be no disputes between the two sides for three to fifty years. After all, each has a large area of ​​land that needs to be developed.

But 15 years ago, when the Valley Kingdom expanded northward into the interior of the Peacock Peninsula, it discovered a valley with fertile land.

After receiving the news, the King of Liao believed that the valley was closer to his capital and should be considered the territory of his Liao Kingdom, so he sent people to the Valley Kingdom to negotiate.

The King of the Valley refused to give in and insisted that the valley belonged to him.

At that time, the King of Liao did not dare to use force, so he had to give up temporarily.

The following year, when the King of Gu sent people to farm in that valley and had a great harvest, the King of Liao could not sit still and decided to spend money to buy the land from the King of Gu.

Because the price could never be reached, the valley was still in the hands of the King of the Valley until ten years ago, before the death of King Zhu Zhi of the Liao Dynasty in the eighth year of Qianxi.

After the death of Zhu Zhixuan, the first king of Liao, Zhu Guixuan, the eldest son of King Liao, succeeded to the throne.

Zhu Guiyi also never forgot about that valley, and he kept thinking about taking that valley away.

The king of the valley, Zhu Su, believed that Zhu Zhi was not his opponent, and he looked down upon Zhu Guixuan.

In this way, both sides of Liao and Gu were busy with their troops, trying to find opportunities to make the other party suffer and show off their force.

In recent years, the imperial court used troops against Funan, which gave the two kings of Liao and Gu an opportunity to make small moves, so they started to fight.

(End of this chapter)