Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 198 Zhu Yuanzhang slammed the table and angrily rebuked the scholar-bureaucrats

Next.

Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang's statement that he was willing to be a cursed emperor, the governors continued to discuss.

Among the officials, Guo Tianxu looked at Zhang Cheng first: "What do you think, Mr. Zhang?"

Zhang Cheng smiled and said: "I support the Prime Minister to be the emperor."

"Since Mr. Zhang said so, I have nothing to say. I can accept an emperor like the Prime Minister."

Guo Tianxu expressed his views.

In fact, as long as Zhang Cheng and Guo Tianxu have no objections, Zhang Tianyou, Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, and Shao Rong will not have any objections either.

"As for the change of the imperial system, what I mean is to make social power greater than imperial power and to recognize the absolute rule of the Datong Society over the world."

Zhang Cheng put forward his own opinion at this time.

Zhang Cheng said: "The Datong Society represents the interests of the people all over the world. It forms a party for justice, not for personal gain. It is a party of gentlemen, not a party of villains. Therefore, the Datong Society is the ruling party. It is better for a single man to rule the world."

Everyone, except Zhu Yuanzhang, was stunned.

"After all, the emperor is also a human being. He is afraid of swords, guns, swords and halberds within three feet, as well as poison, water and fire."

"I understand. What you, Mr. Zhang, mean is that the rule of men should become the rule of the party. In other words, the emperor and the world's bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats must first be loyal to the Datong Society and join the Datong Society before they can control the world?"

Zhang Cheng concluded as he spoke: "This is what I mean. If the world wants to have long-term peace and stability, social rule must replace human rule. Otherwise, China will never stand up. Everyone will still only think about being a slave, even temporarily." You can’t sit still and worry about being a slave!”

Feng Guoyong asked at this time.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Feng Guoyong as he spoke.

"Aren't you literati and officials good at forming literary societies? Why are you so hesitant about forming a Datong Society now?"

Zhang Cheng smiled and said, "If necessary, of course you can!"

"We deeply believe what Mr. Zhang means. Even if we are the emperor, we are not afraid of a group of gentlemen coming to control us. We are even more afraid of a group of villains who will always use our name to harm others, deceive us, and even He wants to harm us so that he can climb up and abuse the people of the world. "

Zhang Cheng nodded: "That's right! To put it bluntly, since ancient times, in the land of China, although the world has been divided into monarchs and ministers, how can the emperor rule completely alone? The emperor has always had to consider the feelings of the entire aristocracy, bureaucrats, and scholar-bureaucrats. You even need to do something that conforms to their views in order to secure the throne. Otherwise, the emperor will either be overtly deposed or secretly killed."

"But among the nobles, bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats in the world, they sometimes hold different opinions. Some are committed to creating peace for all generations, while others are full of men and thieves and prostitutes. There are even some who are more ambitious than the emperor and are single husbands. Often, this kind of view is the most divisive. At that time, internal and external troubles were at their most serious, so there was a conflict between the parties.”

"For this reason, it is better to form a society of gentlemen and unite some gentlemen from the beginning in the name of the world being a common people. Even if the emperor himself is stupid and violent, he cannot deny this party. Then this society should be the true master of the world! "

Feng Guoyong smiled and said: "It's not me who hesitates to get the upper hand. It's actually this system that has never existed before, so people are a little afraid to try it."

"What are you afraid of!"

"Because the goal we want to achieve is to have military power controlled by the Datong Society, so it is natural for the Datong Society to depose the emperor."

"But Datong Society is not one person, it is a group. Letting a group decide the world, isn't this just openly forming cliques to bring chaos to the world?"

Feng Guoyong continued to ask.

Feng Guoyong opened his mouth at this time and asked a sharp question.

"Don't say that the common people will never be rich and noble. Even you and I, no matter how noble or powerful, will still be afraid that one day our homes will be confiscated and our families will be exterminated."

"The social power of the Datong Society is greater than the imperial power, and it has absolute rule over the world. Does that mean that the Datong Society can depose the emperor?"

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately slapped the table and stood up: "Since Yao and Shun, there have been endless attempts to test the world with new systems. The Western Zhou Dynasty enfeoffed and Shihuang prefectures and counties were divided. There were kings and horses who ruled the world together. Zhao and Song Dynasty ruled the world together with scholar-bureaucrats. If true, No, the worst case scenario is to return to the Yuan system!”

“China will not be destroyed by trying new systems, but it will be destroyed by sticking to the old ways!”

Zhang Cheng couldn't help but smile. He had to admit that compared to Feng Guoyong and other literati from the landlord class, Zhu Yuanzhang was actually more open-minded and more daring to reform the system.

Therefore, in history, Zhu Yuanzhang would boldly let the feudal states go hand in hand with prefectures and counties, and boldly give the people the power to manage officials. Regardless of whether these systems were correct or not, few emperors and scholar-bureaucrats dared to do this. of.

Feng Guoyong actually still had some nostalgia for the Yuan Dynasty, so he hesitated when Zhang Cheng proposed that social power should be based on imperial power.

He doesn't mind limiting imperial power, but he does mind limiting military power!

In other words, he still hopes that in essence, those above oneself can be restrained, while below oneself, power is definitely better.

After all, the Yuan system really amplified the power of scholars, and many scholar-bureaucrats really liked it.

Strengthening social power and allowing social power to override imperial power would also mean that social power should override civil power, because in essence, imperial power is a derivative of civil power.

If the scholar-quan wants to be a local emperor who can speak one thing and be the emperor in the local area, he must allow the emperor to be the emperor who can speak the truth in the court. Same thing the other way around.

It's just that in history, it often happened that the scholar-officials allowed themselves to speak for themselves locally, but they did not allow the emperor to speak for themselves at the central level. This led to frequent struggles between the emperor and the bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats.

But also because both scholarly power and imperial power were products of the landlord economy, neither could defeat the other.

Even because of the contradictory demands of the scholar-bureaucrats themselves, that is, they hope that the emperor will not say the same thing, but they also hope that they can say the same thing locally, which makes the scholar-bureaucrat often unable to compete with the imperial power.

For example, in Jiajing in history, even a young emperor selected by the chief minister of the cabinet Yang Tinghe and other scholar-bureaucrats could suppress the entire scholar-bureaucrat after becoming the emperor.

At present, institutionalizing and legalizing the emperor's responsibility to benefit the people all over the world is tantamount to forcing bureaucrats and scholar-officials to institutionalize and legalize their responsibility to benefit the people all over the world.

Don't look at the bureaucrats who keep saying that they want to create peace for all generations and establish lives for the people, but most of them just want to talk about it. If they are really forced by the system and the law, they must benefit the people in this way and put a tight spell on them. , then it will be difficult for them to accept it.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not a fool. He had experienced so much oppression from the tyrants and gentry since he was a child. He also knew how good the Yuan system was to bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats. Naturally, he also understood why Feng Guoyong hesitated.

That's why Zhu Yuanzhang slammed the table angrily.

In his opinion, in order to follow reality and objective truth, he himself was willing to limit his imperial power and curb his selfish desires, but these scholar-bureaucrats were coy about restricting their power.

Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang was actually more idealistic than most rulers.

Therefore, after he captured Chuzhou, he did not declare himself king, but honestly handed over the military power to Guo Zixing.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, he listened to the advice of Confucian scholars and tried to preserve the Yuan system and only focused on the construction of traditional etiquette. He also delegated power to Zhongshu Sheng and only emphasized the distinction between high and low.

result,

He found that in doing so he only limited the power of himself as the emperor, but did not limit the power of the aristocrats and bureaucrats.

So, he overturned the table and simply did not restrict the emperor's power. He also boldly introduced enfeoffments and coexistence of counties and counties. He simply transformed the family world into a family world and let his Zhu family manage everything. Others Just be a tool without thoughts.

Now, he is willing to curb his desire for power for his own ideals, but others may not be willing.

However, precisely because bureaucrats and scholar-officials have always been contradictory, Feng Guoyong cannot clearly say now that he is not against restrictions on imperial power, but only against restrictions on the power of scholars like himself in front of the people. He can only grit his teeth and admit:

"The superior said it doesn't hurt to give it a try."

Shao Rong took the initiative to ask Zhang Cheng: "I wonder how to make social power greater than imperial power?"

"After discussing with the Prime Minister, I believe that, first of all, in principle, only people from the Datong Society can be officials!"

"Of course, because you are holding special official positions under special circumstances, you need to apply to join the Datong Society after becoming consuls and accept the philosophy of the Datong Society."

"Secondly, Datong Society will establish a court consultation system and a court recommendation system in the future, and set up a court conference bureau!"

"The Tingyi Bureau is responsible for making major decisions, such as declaration of war, restructuring, legislation and other matters. The members of the Tingyi Bureau are composed of the emperor and senior officials. Both the emperor and senior officials are decided by the Tingyi Bureau. It's just that In order to prevent the imperial council from being controlled by traitors and easily deposing the emperor and destabilizing the world, the emperor has a veto power."

"Moreover, establish the Cabinet, Privy Council, Yushitai, and Dali Temple!"

"The cabinet is responsible for internal affairs, and the highest official in the cabinet is the chief assistant. The chief assistant has the power to recommend officials from ministries and departments under the cabinet."

"The Privy Council is responsible for military affairs, and the highest official is the Privy Councilor."

"The Yushitai is responsible for supervision, and the highest official is the Yushidaofu."

"Dali Temple is responsible for hearing and deciding criminal cases, and the highest official is the Minister of Dali Temple."

"The chief minister of the cabinet, the privy envoys, the imperial censors, and the ministers of Dali Temple are all nominated by the emperor, decided by the court, and finally appointed by the emperor."

"Finally, the senior political officer, the chief minister of the cabinet, the privy envoy, the imperial censor, and the Dali Temple are all Zhengyipin. The Zhengyipin officials all have minimum and maximum term limits."

"The purpose of setting a minimum term is to prevent someone from being dismissed by an emperor or an official with evil intentions before he or she has done anything."

"The purpose of setting the maximum term is to prevent powerful ministers from turning an official office into their own private domain, so the minimum term is five years and the maximum term is ten years."

"If the term of office is exceeded and the emperor does not want to remove him, he must obtain the consent of the court council and the emperor may not issue an edict."

"Whenever there is a system that requires the imperial court to discuss and approve the decree, but the emperor issues it without the approval of the imperial court, the minister may not listen to it. If the minister is forced to do so by the person who declares the decree, the minister may arrest and kill the person who declared the decree. !”

"If the emperor still insists on forcibly using this kind of edict and does not hesitate to kill people for it, the senior officials of the Tingyi Bureau have the responsibility to call on the commune members and the people to punish him!"

"If all the senior officials intend to indulge the emperor, then the members of the society have the responsibility to protect the society and attack the emperor and senior officials."

"If all members of the Datong Society condone it, then the people of the world have the responsibility to attack the Datong Society and establish a new society that represents the demands of the people of the world."

(End of this chapter)