Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 40 Five years in a hurry

As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the King of Seoul who guarded the border.

At the end of April in the 26th year of Hongwu's reign, Mu Ying's coffin arrived in the capital. Zhu Yuanzhang led Zhu Di and a group of civil and military personnel to greet her, and then sent palace officials to be responsible for the burial.

Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously named Mu Ying the King of Qianning, with the posthumous title Zhaojing and the title of Youxiang Ancestral Temple. He ordered Mu Ying's eldest son, Mu Chun, to attack and grant the title of Marquis of Xiping, and to control Yunnan on his behalf.

At the beginning of June, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Ministry of Rites to hold crown ceremonies for King Han, King Shen, and King An. At the end of the month, he ordered the Ministry of Rites to hold crown ceremonies for Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaochi.

In August, Zhu Yuanzhang asked King Han, King Shen, and King An to go to the vassal states of Qin, Jin, Dai, Zhou, and Qi to visit relatives. One was to contact brothers, uncles and nephews, and the other was to learn military affairs and lay the foundation for guarding one side in the future.

At that time, not long after the Ming Dynasty pacified Liaodong, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that only King Liao and King Ning could not guard Liaodong, so he blocked King Han and King Shen there.

In April of the 27th year of Hongwu, King Han and Shen were ordered to vassal Kaiyuan and Shenyang in Liaodong, and King An was ordered to vassal Pingliang in Shaanxi.

As a result, the pattern of thirteen kings including Qin, Jin, Yan, Qi, Su, Qing, Dai, Gu, Liao, Ning, Han, Shen and An was formed.

This is Zhu Yuanzhang's specific arrangement for implementing the strategy of "the king leaves the town and guards the border to expand the territory".

Historically, 25 years after Hongwu, in order to pave the way for the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen to ascend to the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang focused his main energy on dealing with the ministers who might threaten the new emperor's rule.

As a result, the layout of "Thirteen Fortress Kings Guarding the Border" he planned has not been realized.

In this time and space, due to Zhu Gaoxu's active pursuit and secret planning, Zhu Di, who was as heroic as me, successfully became the heir to the throne.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang's way of dealing with "disloyal" ministers much gentler than in history, and many of the ministers who were killed in history survived.

After all, Zhu Di's ability to govern the country and employ people are much better than Zhu Yunwen.

Moreover, his illustrious military exploits are there. With his great majesty, he can handle many political affairs for Zhu Yuanzhang and even punish his ministers.

With Zhu Di helping to share the burden on his shoulders, Zhu Yuanzhang accomplished many things that he wanted to do but failed to do in history.

Among them, there are three things that have the greatest impact.

First, the plan of the fortress kings to guard the border and expand the territory was realized.

The second is to reach a consensus with civil and military officials to move the capital to the north.

Third, the strategic layout of regaining the Lingbei Province of the former dynasty (Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties) entered the implementation stage.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang made some subtle adjustments and repairs to various systems such as the imperial official system, title system, military service system, and guard system in recent years.

Moreover, he added some of these important regulations to his ancestral precepts and ordered future generations to strictly abide by them.

For example, a prince who was named a prince was allowed to expand territory outside the Great Wall or overseas, and the land he conquered was included in his fiefdom. The court provided him with grain, grass, ordnance and other support in the form of "loan".

Another example is that vassal kings whose fiefdoms are within the territory of the Ming Dynasty are prohibited from intervening in local government affairs, and royal officials are not allowed to concurrently hold local positions. Such vassal kings are not allowed to leave the vassal territory without an edict, otherwise they will be punished for treason.

For another example, if an honorable minister violates the law, the crime will be increased by one level. However, the emperor is benevolent and allows him to pay a knighthood or pay a fine depending on the severity of the crime.

The three additional regulations mentioned above are mostly stipulations for the royal relatives, civil and military ministers.

Therefore, King Han and King Shen had a deeper understanding of being King of Sai than in the original history.

After a while, everyone's eyes turned to the school field again.

"The man on the left wearing a blue tights is named Geng Xuan. He is the third son of Changxing Hou (Geng Bingwen). He is 29 years old. He is brave in battle and good at using a spear."

"When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took charge of the Zhili School Lieutenant, he was transferred to serve in the School Lieutenant Department. He then made many military exploits along the way and was promoted to Qianhu."

Seeing that King Han and King Shen were fascinated by the competition on the school field, Kang Ping introduced the people on the field under the guidance of Zhu Gaoxu's eyes.

"The man on the right wearing dark red tights is named Fu Rang. He is the third son of Ying Guogong (Fu Youde). He is 34 years old and is good at using a sword."

"He was demoted for his crimes. Thanks to His Majesty's grace, he was allowed to perform meritorious service for his crimes. Fortunately, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince appreciated him and promoted him to the rank of personal guard." "After that, he repeatedly performed military exploits to offset his crimes. His Majesty, thinking that he had the ambition to serve the country, decided to He was allowed to continue to stay in the army, and he was promoted to the rank of Thousand Households last year due to his meritorious service."

After listening to Kang Ping's introduction, King Shen frowned and looked at Zhu Gaoxu, and said doubtfully: "Xiao Wang remembers that in the past few years, His Majesty the Father extended a wide range of grace to ministers who violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty. Fu Rang should not need to come to the frontier. It’s only right to suffer, does the prince know the reason?”

"It's a long story."

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu's past memories began to appear in his mind one by one.

At that time, when he was concurrently serving as the captain of the school in Zhili, Jiang Yu, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, reported that individual ministers headed by Lan Yu, Duke of Liang, wanted to assassinate King Zhu Di of Yan, so as to force Zhu Yuanzhang to appoint someone else as the heir apparent.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and ordered the entire family of Lan Yu to be killed, skinned and stripped to the public. Other officials involved in the case sentenced the entire family to be executed or executed, and the family members were exiled, depending on the severity of the case.

After the Lan Yu case was over, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the situation and issued a decree.

"The second son of King Yan, Gao Xu, is talented and intelligent, and has both civil and military skills. He can be the prince's son."

Soon after, Zhu Gaoxu, who became the crown prince of King Yan, went to Peking by imperial order and started a new stage of experience.

As for Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Yuanzhang used the reason that he was "born with foot problems and was not suitable to be the heir apparent", so he decreed to confer him the title of Prince of Gaoyang County and then let him join the feudal vassal.

Zhu Gaoxu has been known as a child prodigy since he was a child. Even when he was still young, he was polite and courteous to others, like a humble gentleman. He was highly valued and appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang, and both military commanders and civil servants had a good impression of him.

On the other hand, Zhu Gaochi not only had foot problems, but was also too fat.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's move is suspected of abolishing the elder and establishing the younger, his reasons are very sufficient and it is difficult to refute.

At that time, no civil and military officials dared to object to Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangement.

After all, the arrogant and domineering Duke of Liang, Lan Yu, had just been killed. Smart people could see that Zhu Yuanzhang killed Lan Yu to pave the way for the smooth succession of Yan King Zhu Di in the future.

And Zhu Di loved and valued Zhu Gaoxu even more than Zhu Yuanzhang.

Anyone who raises objections to this will definitely offend the current emperor and future emperors.

Therefore, as long as people are not tired of living, they will not jump out to oppose it.

"Since the 27th year of Hongwu, when Lan Yu, Duke of Liang State, was killed for treason, many honorable ministers have been deposed and become common people or sentenced to death."

Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while and then said: "Among these criminal officials, some of them were convicted of extremely evil crimes and were sentenced to death, their families were exiled, and their descendants were not allowed to be officials."

King Shen asked: "Little Wang, do you remember that after some guilty ministers were sentenced to death, His Majesty the Father ordered his eldest son to inherit the title?"

"There is such a thing. As long as the crimes committed by high-ranking ministers are not heinous crimes, the emperor will tolerate them. In particular, he will allow such criminals to commit suicide and have their eldest son inherit the title."

Zhu Gaoxu continued.

"However, the inherited title must be downgraded by two levels and can no longer be hereditary. The remaining sons will be demoted to common people and will not be able to serve as officials within three generations. If these successors want to regain the iron certificate of the Alchemy Book and restore hereditary status, they will not be replaced. Lord, unless he achieves sufficient military merits."

"That's it." King Shen suddenly said.

After a pause, he asked again: "Your Majesty, do you know what happened when you were demoted to a noble rank?"

Zhu Gaoxu thought about it and said, "If I remember correctly, His Majesty the Emperor showed mercy to all the ministers who were deceived and violated the prohibition. He only deprived them of their titles, exempted them from the death penalty, and demoted them to common people."

"Their original titles will be hereditary and replaced by their descendants, but the candidates must pass the assessment before they can inherit the title and be downgraded. As for non-hereditary titles, there is no such thing as downgrading."

"Your Majesty is well-educated and knowledgeable, and Xiao Wang has learned a lesson." Prince Shen said politely.

　I can’t afford to hurt myself by staying up late coding!Begging for votes!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)