Daming, originally wanted to destroy it, but the system came

Chapter 310 It’s finally time to reward based on merit

This is the first time Zhu Zhen has participated in the afternoon dynasty.

The midday dynasty is different from the morning dynasty in that it is not so large in scale, and even the officials of the six ministries are not included.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system and the Zhongshu Province together, and now it is not the Yongle period in history to create the so-called cabinet system.

Therefore, there were not many people coming to attend the afternoon meeting.

As the person who convened the meeting in person, Zhu Yuanzhang could not hold it without him, so Emperor Hongwu must be there.

Then came Zhu Zhen who came with him.

Next, the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen was the first to bear the brunt, followed by Qi Tai, the minister of the Ministry of War, and Huang Guan, the minister of the Ministry of Rites.

This Huang Guan is naturally also a party to the emperor's grandson, and speaking of him, there is still a very important color.

It is said that Huang Guan built Cuiwei Bookstore when he was young. He was diligent and rigorous in his studies since childhood, paying attention to current affairs and not frivolous writing.

In the 23rd year of Hongwu, Huang Guan entered Taixue as a tribute student. In August of the same year, he took the provincial examination in the capital and passed the Yuan Dynasty.

The following year, he took the imperial examination and passed the imperial exam. In the same year, he participated in the imperial examination personally issued by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and won the first prize.

It can be said that Huang Guan was invincible all the way from a child to the number one scholar. Not only did he successfully pass six exams, but he also ranked first in all of them. This is evident from the fact that he was praised for three yuan and six poems.

Therefore, Huang Guan was deeply loved and cultivated by Zhu Yuanzhang, and he was appointed as Minister of Rites.

(As a side note, Huang Guan actually served as the Minister of Rites in the 29th year of Hongwu, which is two years earlier.)

In addition to these people, Na Zhuojing also participated in the Wu Dynasty, and there were also some generals such as Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, Guo Ying, Geng Bingwen, Ping An and others.

Although not as grand as the early morning gathering, they are still the pillars of the country.

Especially the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen. Even if Zhu Ming said that his eldest nephew could not control it, he could not deny that Zhu Yunwen was now vaguely responsible for supervising the country. Although he was not as good as the original prince Zhu Biao, he had almost ruled the country, and he had also begun to be involved in some affairs of governing the country. .

If Zhu Shiba hadn't suddenly appeared, think about it, Zhu Yunwen was indeed being trained as a template for the new successor.

But now, it's unpredictable.

"Now that everyone is here, let's start discussing the matter." Zhu Yuanzhang was not a procrastinator. He went straight to the topic as soon as he came and said to everyone: "The Dian King has made great achievements this time. The specific details still need to be worked out by you yourself." Explain it again.”

So Zhu Min was not ambiguous. He learned about the crisis in the war in Ningxia Town last year, and acted expediently to lead Xi'an King Qin Guards to rush to support. Then he learned about the discord in the grassland, decided to go to the north of Saibei to expedition to the Mobei Grassland, and fought on the road along the way. While conquering the various Tatar tribes, he recounted everything in detail, including how many trophies he had brought back, the total population of each tribe, etc.

Everyone was shocked when they heard him tell the whole process in his own words. They were even immersed in it from the beginning, as if they were unable to extricate themselves from the story.

In the end, even Zhu Yunwen was moved and said: "The bravery of my eighteenth uncle cannot be matched by my nephew."

He was really impressed.

Knowing that Ningxia Town was in danger of being breached and that the enemy had 30,000 cavalry troops, they still dared to rush to support with 15,000 men.

Once the city is defeated, this exhausted army will only fall into the tiger's mouth and be torn into pieces.

But Zhu Chu still went. Not only did he go, he also won the battle.

"In this battle, even if two generals, Tang and Xu, were to come, with such a huge disparity in strength and types of troops, they would not dare to claim victory easily," even Feng Sheng and other generals sighed sincerely at this time.

Facing the compliments from everyone, Zhu Zhen just smiled reservedly and did not express joy.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Zhu Chu in a funny way, and said: "As expected of my tiger son, this battle not only enhanced the prestige of our Ming Dynasty, but even accomplished what previous dynasties have been unable to do, completely conquering all the tribes of the Tatar steppe, allowing them to Declared allegiance to the Ming Dynasty and became a subject of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, he also dismantled the slave-ownership system in the grassland by using his own methods and took out the firepower of those leaders. From now on, as long as the Ming Dynasty does not let down the people of the grassland, the people of the grassland will also You will definitely not betray my Ming Dynasty."

"So I decided to use the trophies brought back by the Dian King from the grassland, except for the 30,000 horses and horses, which were confiscated by the court. I exchanged the 50,000 cattle and 130,000 sheep for equivalent value. The grain and grass will then be sent to the grassland and distributed to various tribes to help them survive this period safely."

Hearing this, everyone had no objection, because the Tatars had declared their allegiance, which was equivalent to being included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty. If they were reluctant to give some food and grass for the sake of greed at this time, they would starve to death.

Who will surrender?

But this is tens of thousands of cattle and hundreds of thousands of sheep, so the scale is not small.

"Your Majesty, the cattle can be used as farm cattle and distributed to various prefectures for digestion by local government officials or wealthy land gentry. As for the sheep, they can also be exchanged with wealthy gentry and merchants from various places. Or the court can directly accept most of them. "Zhuo Jing gave a suggestion in his heart.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him.

In fact, Zhuo Jing was worried that Zhu Yuanzhang would open his mouth and directly ask the court to pay for it.

Again, even if a cow is only sold for 10 taels of silver, 50,000 cows are worth 500,000 taels of silver.

Such a large amount of expenditure would be a considerable burden even for the entire imperial treasury.

What's more, if it is financed by the national treasury, if so many cattle are obtained, won't they be distributed to various prefectures and states in the end?

So, wouldn't it be better to let the local governments in various prefectures and governments pay for it, buy it, or exchange it for grain, and then give them cattle for farming? Wouldn't it be better?

Zhuo Jing is also worried that he knows that the people Zhu Yuanzhang hates most in his life, besides corrupt officials and cruel officials, are businessmen and wealthy land gentry.

After all, when Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, he gave cattle to the wealthy land gentry's family, and because he killed the cattle for meat, he was almost beaten to death.

As for merchants, since ancient times, there has been a saying that scholars, farmers, and merchants have always been the lowest class.

As the Minister of Household Affairs, Zhuo Jing had to be on guard, lest Zhu Yuanzhang would increase pressure on the court and the treasury.

After all, the Ministry of Accounts is in charge of money.

Zhu Yuanzhang said funny: "Zhuo Jing, are you too anxious? Do you really think that I am old and fatuous?"

"I don't dare," Zhuo Jing just lowered his head and bowed his hands in a salute. He was neither humble nor arrogant, and he was not afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang's momentum at all.

As expected of someone who dared to angrily confront Zhu Ming in the morning, he was so upright.

Zhu Ming laughed. He was still a little angry at first, but now that he dared to fight even Zhu Yuanzhang, his anger was gone.

"Come on, don't worry. I plan to leave those cattle and sheep to Chu'er himself. Since he has conquered all the grassland tribes, before the imperial court takes complete control of those areas, the King of Dian will take charge of them first." Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and The various Tatar tribes were placed under Zhu Xun's command.

Zhu Yunwen opened his mouth and then chose to close it.

The others looked at each other, wondering what the hell was going on?

The king of Dian, Zhu Chu, is already the king of Yunnan, and the Mongolian grassland is thousands of miles away from Yunnan, so why is it included under his banner?

But what Zhu Yuanzhang said makes sense.

Now that the grassland has just been conquered, I am afraid that the Tatar ministries only know Zhu Gong but not the court, and they rashly send officials from the Central Plains. Who will obey you?

Even if you want to send a vassal king to conquer the vassal state, the current Tatar tribe is not the Duoyan Three Guards under King Ning Zhu Quan, and they will not surrender immediately.

Really, we can only let Zhu Zhen temporarily take over the identity of the lord of the grassland.

After all, he is the Holy Khan of all Tatar ministries.

"In addition, whether it was rushing to the aid of Ningxia Town, keeping the border stable, or conquering the Tatar grassland this time, the King of Dian and this army have made great achievements. Not rewarding them is not enough to make the world recognize them," Zhu Yuanzhang As soon as the words changed, it came to the stage of discussing merit and giving rewards.

And the reason why this matter is discussed at noon, not in the morning.

It was because Zhu Yuanzhang had to discuss a general framework with these important officials in the court first, and then after confirming it, he would discuss it with officials in the morning and finally finalize it.

At this time, the ministers began to discuss.

"Commanders Niu Sheng and Peng Yue can be promoted to commanders of the capital," Qi Tai, who is the Minister of War, said first. Don’t look at it as just being promoted from commander to commander.

But in fact, the general rank of commander is no more than a third-grade official, and most of them are guard commanders, who control the strength of a guard station, which is about 5,600 people at most.

For example, Tang Jie, the commander of Ningxia Town.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Capital is an extraordinary person. He is a second-grade official. For example, Qu Neng, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Sichuan Province, suddenly led an army of fifty thousand people from Sichuan to the battlefield of Heqing County and defeated the three major forces in Beisheng Prefecture. The toast was caught off guard.

So this is the difference. The guard commander is just a general of a guard station, but the general commander is different.

Although the title of general has not yet been awarded, since the change to the guard system, this is the actual military power, which is much better than giving an empty title to a general.

This is a one-level upgrade on the spot, no, it is a leap from the third level, at least two levels.

It can be seen that Niu Sheng and Peng Yue followed Zhu Zhen and made great achievements this time.

As for Qian Shu, since he chose Mingzhe to protect himself, no one could remember him at this time. Qian Shu was even left with Tang Jie in Ningxia until now, and even became Tang Jie's assassin.

There is no way, Qian Shu's army is gone. Even if he wants to go back to Xi'an, what name and reason is there?

As a general, even the army is gone? What kind of general do you think you are?

Return to the present.

The suggestion put forward by Qitai, the Minister of War, was quickly recognized by everyone.

In fact, the generals are easy to talk to. Now that they are giving rewards to the generals group, they will naturally not be held back.

The main thing is to look at the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen. He can also represent the attitude of a large part of the civil servants and should not be underestimated.

"There is also Wang Fu. He is my king's guard commander, and he also made great achievements this time. And in the battle to pacify Silunfa in Yunnan, including the current Xiping Hou Muchun, the guard commander Zhao Kuo, and the guard commander Mu Sheng and others have also made great achievements. I hope my father and the court will not let them down." Zhu Ming was moved in his heart. Seeing that Qi Tai deliberately did not mention Wang Fu, he naturally could not forget his beloved general.

Qi Tai did it on purpose. When he heard Zhu Min speak, he said bluntly: "May I ask His Highness the King of Dian, including the commander of the guards Wang Fu and the commander of the guards Zhao Kuo, whether they have surrendered to you privately and voluntarily Become a vassal of the Prince of Dian’s palace?”

"So what?" Zhu Xi did not deny it, but admitted it.

Because Wang Fu is an honest guy, he had already voluntarily gone to the Ministry of War to make it clear as early as when he came to Beijing to report on his duties.

What's the point of making jokes at this point? Isn't Qitai the Minister of War?

Qi Tai stroked his short beard and said with a proud look on his face: "So that Your Highness will know that since they are willing to become your royal subjects, they will no longer be promoted by the imperial court. After all."

Qitai did not continue, but everyone could guess that what he wanted to say was that after all, they are already your personal ministers, and you are just a vassal king.

Zhu Zhen smiled and turned to ask Zhu Yuanzhang: "Dad, apart from being your son, has this royal title been conferred by you?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's heart moved. He already knew that Zhu Chu was going to do something bad again, but he also wanted to see what Zhu Chu wanted to do in the end, so he echoed: "Nonsense."

Who else can be crowned king besides him?

"In this case, as a vassal king, it is natural to guard the border and defend the country. Moreover, we have worked hard, and those achievements cannot be erased by others with just a few words," Zhu Zhen glanced sideways at Qi Tai.

Qi Tai's heart moved and he quickly explained: "Your Highness, I dare not deny your achievements. However."

"However, you want to erase other people's achievements with just one sentence. You dogs can easily make other people bleed and work hard and lose their achievements just by standing in the court and saying a few words. I'm afraid in your eyes, they are almost worthless. An army of 100,000 is just meager, how can you say nothing and be destroyed by ashes?" Zhu Zhen sneered.

Qitai began to sweat on his forehead and complained: "Your Highness, why did you start cursing again?"

Are you talking about them being dogs again?

"Isn't it? Since you have never been to the battlefield in person, how do you know the cruelty and danger on the battlefield? If you want to drink from the luminous cup of grape wine, you will drink the pipa immediately. Don't laugh when you are lying drunk on the battlefield. How many people have fought in ancient times. We stinky Qiu Ba are doing our best for the country. When you are working hard, you are stabbing me in the back?"

"Do you know that you can stand here and say these words so casually and relaxedly? It's not that the years are peaceful, but that someone is carrying the burden for you. Without us guarding the border and defending the country, we will keep the enemy at bay. , can you guys argue safely here?"

"I can't do anything that makes heroes bleed and shed tears. I once promised that as long as they make meritorious deeds, as long as they make meritorious deeds, I will reward them according to their merits, and judge their merits and demerits. Qi Tai Ah Qitai, once you succeed, who among our Ming army and soldiers will dare to sacrifice their lives in the future?"

"You still don't accept it? You bitch, from now on I will send you to the border of the battlefield no matter what, and let you go to the battlefield to be baptized. By then, even if you fight bloody battles and make merit, I won't give you any reward. Let me see if you accept your reward of a grain of rice."

Zhu Chu pointed at Qitai's nose and cursed angrily.

Several people have fought in ancient times, and it is clear that since ancient times, the battlefield has been a place of killing. No one can guarantee that they will come back alive. They all set foot on the battlefield with the awareness of death.

After Zhu Ming's words, he was recognized by the generals present.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang murmured: "How can there be peace in the years? Will anyone move forward with a heavy load? Let the hero bleed and shed tears? This is definitely not feasible."

Zhu Yuanzhang himself was the emperor immediately, so how could he not know the importance of military discipline and clear rewards and punishments.

You must know that Chang Yuchun, including Chang Yuchun, came to join Zhu Yuanzhang because he saw the strict discipline of the troops led by Zhu Yuanzhang and thought he was a person who could do great things.

In fact, Chang Yuchun was not Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinate at first.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang's military strength has never been the most powerful. Chen Youliang's 600,000-strong army almost overwhelmed Zhu Yuanzhang to death.

The Wu army at that time (originally Zhu Yuanzhang was called King Wu) was really the same as Soochow in the Three Kingdoms. Many people were clamoring to surrender.

But in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang still used a huge power gap to eliminate Chen Youliang in one fell swoop and completed a comeback.

It depends on Zhu Yuanzhang's personality charm and strict military discipline of the army.

So Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood that once the imperial court did something that chilled the army, who would work for you in the future?

This is by no means alarmist.

So Zhu Yuanzhang immediately said: "Qitai, don't speak anymore."

Although Qi Tai felt aggrieved in his heart, he did not dare to contradict Zhu Yuanzhang, so he had to shut his mouth, lower his head and step aside.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued: "Actually, as early as the year before last, or the year before last, my son led his Wangjia escort troops and made great achievements. You still remember that I had always had a headache with the Yunnan chieftain issue. There was even a time when we did not hesitate to use the whole country's efforts to completely eliminate the evil deeds of the remnants of the Luchuan Party. At that time, you all supported it."

"It is precisely because of the power of my son, and Mu Ying's timely dispatch of troops to help, that they completely pacified Yunnan and completely eliminated the remnant Silunfa in Luchuan without even using a single soldier or soldier from the imperial court, or even food and fodder."

"Although Chu'er used his own money to reward the entire army, the imperial court has never awarded the reward. This is a failure on my part and the imperial court. If you make contributions to the imperial court but are not recognized and rewarded, wouldn't it be a disgrace to the people of the world? Frustrated? If this continues, who will still serve us?"

In fact, it was Zhu Yuanzhang who aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion at the time. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had a counterattack attitude, and knowing Zhu Yuan's plan to buy people's hearts, he said in his heart, good boy, since you want to buy people's hearts, you will reward everyone with your own money. If you are in the army, then so be it.

You can't win people's hearts anymore, and you still want the court to pay for it, right?

So that matter has been suppressed.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang didn't mention it, others were happy to watch the fun. They didn't want a vassal king to become big.

Therefore, all the armies in Yunnan have always been owed a huge contribution and have not been rewarded.

Zhu Ming finally let go of the stagnation in his heart, looked at Qitai, and said: "I really want you to work for nothing in this life, so that you will never be able to get ahead in this life, so that you will never have any chance of success in this life." On the road to promotion, when the time comes, I want to see if you can really deal with it calmly and if you can still be happy with it. Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Why don't you take off this official robe first and don't ask for salary, but There is no shortage of things to do. Would you like to try?"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head in a funny way. This boy really hates evil and is determined to retaliate. He really doesn't know who to follow.

(you guess?)

"Okay Chu'er, aren't we already preparing to give you and your people rewards based on their merits?" Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, and specially emphasized his tone, reminding Zhu Chu that those are all your people. I really thought we wouldn't Do you know what's going on?

(End of this chapter)