King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Chapter 190 Lao Zhu’s fox tail is exposed!
Zhu Tan was shocked when he heard what Lao Zhu said!
what happened?

Lao Zhu actually wants to create an auxiliary prince?

Good guy!
Are you too kind to the successor emperor?
What does auxiliary prince mean?
To put it bluntly, he is not much different from the regent!
In order to monopolize power, you can't even tolerate the Prime Minister, so you just deposed the Prime Minister and worked from dawn to dusk to review the memorials!

It will be miserable for the next emperor.

Externally, there were vassal kings who held heavy troops, while internally there were auxiliary princes who restrained and decentralized power.
This emperor was deceived, it’s so boring!
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Tan and said calmly: "Old Shi, I won't hide it from you. Since we abolished the position of prime minister, we have taken back the power of the prime minister in our own hands, and distributed part of the power to the six ministries! In order to prevent the six ministries from Sitting high, we have set up six more subjects to control the big ones, with the imperial power as the final arbiter! This way we can achieve checks and balances!

To be honest, since we acted like this, the power of the prime minister and the emperor has been controlled by one of us!
In the entire Ming Dynasty, we are indeed the ones who make the most arbitrary decisions!

But the disadvantages are also obvious!
That is too bitter!

I work from dawn to dusk every day, but there are still endless memorials to review and endless government affairs to deal with!
You also know that we come from a poor family and can bear this hardship!

But we also know in our hearts, would it be okay if we changed the emperor?
Maybe Brother You is okay!
He has a good body! "

Zhu Tan laughed dryly.

Stop pretending to be a prophet
You will know how your elder brother is in health in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued: "In a few generations, our Ming Dynasty will be raised in the deep palace and be better than the hands of women!
By that time, will the successor still have the decisive courage and hard-working spirit like me?

To be honest, we don’t believe it!

Just looking at the virtues of you brothers who are afraid of hardship and suffering, you know what your successor will be like.

Although we have written clearly in the ancestral precepts of the Emperor Ming Dynasty that we will never reinstate a prime minister, but if the successor cannot handle political affairs like us, the power in his hands will still have to flow to outsiders!
Maybe that position will no longer be called prime minister, but why not? Shangshu Ling? Bachelor? Or some other Sikong Situ Sima or something like that!

In short, if these powers are not in the hands of the emperor himself, they must be delegated!
Of course, another result may occur, that is, the emperor is in power but does not want to handle government affairs and is unwilling to hand over power to others. Then the world will be even more chaotic!
Or, the emperor simply handed over his power to the eunuchs like during the Han and Tang Dynasties! When the time comes, the eunuchs will bring disaster to the country and the people, and the Ming Dynasty will be equally in danger! "

Hear Zhu Yuanzhang's words.

Zhu Tan couldn't help but rub his ears.

This old Zhu
Wouldn't he be a time traveler?

If we say that the previous predictions about Zhu Biao's body were pure poisonous milk.

Then his subsequent understanding of imperial power and prime ministerial power was sober for the world!
To be honest, on the surface, the more power, the better.

But in fact, the power in his hands is too much and too great to be controlled at all.

In other words, even if you can control it, you still have to pay too much, which is even unbearable for normal people!
That's why Zhu Yuanzhang turned the throne, coveted by everyone in the world, into the hardest job in the world.

As for what Zhu Yuanzhang said later, the prime minister power will still exist in the end, but the name will be changed.

Doesn’t that predict the establishment of the cabinet bachelor system?

Starting from the time of Emperor Yongle Zhu Di, cabinet bachelors began to contact and assist in handling tasks.

By the time Emperor Hongxi Zhu Gaochi awarded him the position of first-class bachelor in the cabinet, he even began to command the six ministries.

From this point on, the prime minister's power was officially reborn, but in the name of the cabinet.

Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang demanded that the power of the chancellor should not be established, in just a few decades, the power of the chancellor has been revived.

The power is even greater than before!

At least, the previous prime minister could not refute the emperor's opinions, but the cabinet has the power to refute and can push back the emperor's will!

As for later, when the emperor became disheartened and no longer wanted to take care of things, we have to talk about the later Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun.

After decades of absence from the court, the country's political affairs have reached an extreme state of dereliction, and there are countless vacancies for officials in the world. However, the emperor does not go to court, officials cannot be appointed or removed, and the whole country is in chaos.

There are also the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao and the Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youxiao who reused eunuchs.
In short, all the predictions made by Zhu Yuanzhang seem to have been fulfilled in later generations!
Zhu Yuanzhang saw Zhu Tan thinking deeply and thought that what he said was too profound, so Zhu Tan was still digesting and understanding.

He smiled and said, "We know that you may not fully understand what I'm talking about!

Even if your elder brother has been taught by my words and deeds for so many years, I'm afraid he may not be able to fully understand what I mean by these words!
However, we just want to tell you that this imperial power must also be reformed!
In our lifetime, we may be able to control the imperial power and the power of the prime minister, so that the Ming Dynasty can prosper day by day!
But if we are gone, there will be no more generations of emperors, and no one will be able to control this imperial power!
When the time comes, disaster will inevitably arise!
However, if another prime minister is established to divide our imperial power, to be honest, we won’t be worried!
Since ancient times, there have been too many such rebellious officials and traitors!

Hu Weiyong is not the only one!
Even today's South Korean Gong Li Shanchang has secretly become the leader of civil servants in private!

Our Jinyiwei has heard more than once that he is secretly colluding with the ministers to manipulate the government!
This South Korean prince has been serving as an official for more than ten years, but he can still secretly have such great appeal to civil servants!
If we weren't still strong, we wouldn't be able to keep him at all!

We can't leave an old Sima thief to future generations, right? "

Hearing this, Zhu Tan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Sima Yi really harmed too many people!

At that time, when Li Jing was seventy-four years old, he received an order from Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to go on an expedition. The old man could not bear the pain of the expedition, so he wrote a letter to Li Shimin to refuse.

Unexpectedly, Li Shimin issued a decree and told Li Jing that Sima Yi could still go to Liaodong in his 70s. Can't you, Li Jing, learn from him?
The old man was so frightened that he got up all night, mounted his horse, and led his troops to fight.

To put it bluntly, since Sima Yi was able to launch the Gaoping Ling Revolution when he was in his 70s and finally usurped the power of Cao Wei, no one in the subsequent emperors would be wary of those aging veterans.

Even they are the ones who worry the most!
To be too old to die is to be a thief!

And now Li Shanchang ends up like this in the end.

Lao Zhu later discovered that his health was deteriorating day by day, while Li Shanchang was still in his seventies, so he had no choice but to take him away.
After Zhu Yuanzhang said so much, he looked at Zhu Tan and said: "As for the affairs of Mr. Han, they can come out of my mouth and into your ears, but they are not allowed to be told to the outside world anymore! In any case, he is still the founder of the Ming Dynasty in name." The number one hero, we still want to leave an example of the relationship between the king and his ministers through the ages! If he can die before us, that would be great! Both we and he can leave a name for us."

Zhu Tan gave a dry laugh and said, "I obey your order!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "So, Lao Shi, we have been thinking, since we can't trust outsiders, and the power of the prime minister cannot be transferred to him anyway, then who can we trust? After thinking about it, There are only clan members!

We think that if you become the auxiliary prince, you can help us share the government affairs now. When your eldest brother succeeds to the throne, you can also help your eldest brother no matter what you do!
In this way, our empire in the Ming Dynasty will be as stable as Mount Tai, and it will always belong to our old Zhu family! "

Good guy!
After hearing this, Zhu Tan finally understood Lao Zhu's thoughts.

The royal cabinet!
In this way, although the power of the prime minister was separated from the imperial power, the royal family still held the power.

In this way, if the emperor can't do it well, let the auxiliary prince do it.

And the auxiliary prince has an ancestral system, so he can never be the emperor. At the same time, there are so many vassal kings with armies in various parts of the world, and there are so many civil and military officials in the court who are loyal to the imperial power. It is not that easy for the auxiliary prince to seek rebellion and replace the emperor.

What is most likely is a relative balance.

Everyone performs their duties, and there may still be some struggles and confrontations between the imperial power and the auxiliary prince's power, but it will never get out of control.

And in this way, Lao Zhu's worries were solved.

Zhu Tan couldn't help but sigh when he thought of this.

Lao Zhu is still a small farmer at heart, and he cannot escape from this limitation.

At any time, his first thought was to maintain the dominance of the old Zhu family in the Ming Dynasty, rather than to truly benefit the people, enrich the country and strengthen the army.

of course.

Emperors from ancient times to the present have not been able to break this ideological shackles.
I can't ask too much of Lao Zhu.

As for being an auxiliary prince.
Zhu Tan knew that this position was indeed suitable for him!

In this way, he can command the six ministries and lead the civil and military officials to push the Ming Dynasty forward!

At the same time, it would not completely break with the landlord class, leading to a nationwide rebellion.

After all, the emperor is the biggest spokesman for these landlords. The emperor still checks and balances Zhu Tan on the throne. If you landlords make trouble again, you will lose your justice and have no excuse.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Tan and asked: "Old Shi, for this reason, do you know that we have high hopes for you!
So, let me ask you now, are you willing to take over this auxiliary prince? Do you dare to take over? "

Hearing this, Zhu Tan nodded and said, "Return to my father, I am willing!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "That's good! Old Shi, I will give you the lofty ambitions in your heart to display! Although you can't be the emperor, you won't be like your elder brothers guarding the border, or simply giving up on yourself and living happily. !”

Zhu Tan nodded.

This auxiliary prince system is indeed a very good arrangement for Zhu Yuanzhang's son.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "We even plan to select a few more outstanding children in the future, whether sons or grandsons, to be the assistant prince!"

Zhu Tan sighed.

Lao Zhu has eight hundred thoughts in his mouth!

It is nothing more than establishing a few more auxiliary princes. This can allow them to check and balance each other to prevent only one auxiliary prince from monopolizing power and becoming ambitious.
After talking to Zhu Tan to this point, the knot in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was gone.

He no longer worried that Zhu Tan would start a rebellion. After all, this boy had no ambition to be an emperor at all.

On the contrary, his ambition is greater than being an emperor. What he wants to deal with is the landlord class and local powerful people all over the world!
This matter has only advantages and no disadvantages for the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang is naturally happy to see it happen, and is even willing to support him secretly.

What's more, he has promised to set up the position of auxiliary prince for him. This position is enough for him to display his ambitions.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang still did something that made Zhu Tan very unhappy.

He said to Zhu Tan: "Old Shi, although this King Lu's guard is already the elite in the world, there are only five thousand people after all. The position of commander should not be given to Marquis Wu Ding. In this Northern Expedition, we plan to appoint him as the deputy commander of the army! If Being trapped among King Lu’s guards is probably overkill.”

Zhu Tan looked at Zhu Yuanzhang.

coming!

As expected, he still attacked Lu Wangwei.

Zhu Tan knew that Lao Zhu would never trust himself to control such a powerful army!
Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Lu Wangwei was able to defeat Lan Yu's personal guards under such difficult circumstances this time. It is really amazing! We have ordered the Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Commander's Office to seriously study Lu Wangwei's training methods. Law!

But just learning isn’t enough, someone has to guide you!

Therefore, I will let you, Zhao Quan, the original commander of King Lu Wei, be appointed as the deputy general of the Chinese Army Commander's Office, the second rank, and be in charge of military training matters across the country!

As for King Lu Wei, we also want to send a general over to learn from him! What do you think? "

Zhu Tan smiled.

What Lao Zhu said was really gentle. He probably made so many excuses because he was his son.

All said and done, his arrangements had only one purpose, which was to make the Lu throne no longer belong only to him.

Both Guo Ying and Zhao Quan are his absolute confidants. With them, he can completely control the throne of Lu.

But now, Guo Ying and Zhao Quan have been transferred away, and a general from the imperial court has been replaced instead. Then there is a high probability that the Lu Wangwei will be in the future, and he cannot have the final say!

When Zhu Tan thought of this, he became a little angry.

Lao Zhu went too far!

He can guard even five thousand people, even his own son. He is really a power animal through and through.

Although Zhu Tan actually didn't care about the 5,000-strong King Lu Guards, even with all their equipment, it was impossible for them to defeat him in the future.

After all, more powerful rifles and even the prototype of Maxim are gradually appearing in Wanhu.

As for other artillery, they are not the strongest, only stronger.

Zhu Tan is sure that in the future he will have weapons that are a generation ahead of the present!

He just felt very uncomfortable.

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have noticed Zhu Tan's bad mood. He smiled bitterly and said: "Old Shi, sometimes you have to understand us! What's more, in the future, when you become the auxiliary prince, what will you do with such powerful force in your hands?
If this King Lu's guard is just an ordinary guard, we won't care even if you bring 30,000 or 50,000!

But the bad thing is that Lu Wangwei is so good!
Your five thousand soldiers are more than just five thousand soldiers?

In our opinion, their quality can turn into 5,000 officers at any time!

And these five thousand officers can easily expand the number of the army ten times or twenty times!
If such an army is not in the hands of the state, then we can rest assured of you. How can the civil and military forces of the entire dynasty be rest assured? You also know that being an emperor seems to be arbitrary on the surface, but there are many things you cannot control yourself! We can't set this precedent for you. Such an army must be commanded by a general from the imperial court! "

(End of this chapter)