Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Marquis Yangwu is truly loyal to his country!"

Zhu Youjian praised expressionlessly.

Although he didn't know the details, it was certain that Marquis Yangwu was involved with the rebels.

If he had not used the nobles to check and balance the civil officials, it would have been impossible for Yangwu Hou to be simply driven overseas to establish a fiefdom, and he might even have stripped him of his title.

However, these nobles are really useless and their tracks will be exposed when they do such things.

Zhu Youjian didn't believe that Yang Wuhou would dare to rebel. He specifically mentioned Yang Wuhou's name in the court to see if more people knew about this and would take the initiative to speak out in the court.

He hopes to use this incident to lure out the people hiding behind the scenes.

However, the officials in the court were all shrewd people, and no one jumped out.

Even those who didn't know the inside story could see that there was something fishy about this matter. No one commented on Yang Wuhou's initiative to apply for an overseas fiefdom.

Zhu Youjian's attempt to alert the enemy did not work, so he had to give up the idea. After a feint, he asked Yuan Keli:

“Have the losses been tallied?”

"What aspects were damaged this time?"

Yuan Keli vaguely sensed something strange about Marquis Yangwu's decision to establish a fiefdom, but he didn't know how to express his opinion.

Seeing that the emperor had ignored the matter, he quickly responded:
"There was some damage to the periphery of Tsinghua University, and some buildings in the royal palaces and university town were damaged."

"There were also some casualties, the most serious of which was the Prince of Qin."

"He was frightened when the rebels attacked the Qin Palace, and now he is bedridden."

When Zhu Youjian heard this, his heart sank and he asked with great concern:

"How is the health of the Prince of Qin?"

"Is there anything serious?"

Yuan Keli was not sure about this answer. Hou Gongchen, the Minister of Zongzheng Temple who was in charge of the affairs of the imperial clan, said:
"When I went to visit him, the prince of Qin was still bedridden."

"As far as I know, the prince of Qin has always been in poor health and has been a bit playful in the capital."

"I'm afraid this time it won't be good. We should let the Qin Palace prepare early."

When Zhu Youjian heard this, he knew that the Prince of Qin probably could not be saved.

Even he had heard of this man's bad reputation. Now he was nearly 40 years old, but he didn't even have a child, which made people doubt whether he was still fertile.

If he died at this time, the Qin Palace would have no grandson. His brothers might fight for the position of the crown prince.

This is the aftereffect of Zhu Youjian's promotion of the competition for titles. Some people who were originally not qualified to inherit the title are now ready to move.

If people thought that the death of the Prince of Qin was related to the policy of competing for titles implemented by the court, it would probably cause great controversy.

Zhu Youjian couldn't help but feel a headache when he thought about this troublesome matter.

The Qin vassal was forced to relocate, which had already caused some criticism among the royal family.

Now with the incident of the Prince of Qin, the controversy would be even greater.

Some people even thought that the emperor took action against Qin Fan and killed the Prince of Qin.

Zhu Youjian, who did not want to bear these rumors, immediately ordered:
"Let the Imperial Hospital... and all the famous doctors in the capital consult and do their best to save the Qin Prince."

"Send a pigeon to Xi'an and ask the Qin Palace to send someone over."

"The Marquis will go to visit on my behalf. We must try our best to meet any requests of the Prince of Qin."

Zhu Youjian believed that after taking all these measures, he would be able to resolve some of the criticism. But there was no way to completely resolve it.

Perhaps some people who are dissatisfied with the court's policies will deliberately spread rumors to ruin their own reputation.

Thinking of this consequence, Zhu Youjian hated the rebels even more and ordered fiercely:

"All the thieves who attacked the Qin Palace must be captured."

"Those who should be sentenced will be sentenced, and those involved will be sent to serve as military households for the Qin vassal guards."

"In short, no one can escape, and Qin Fan must be satisfied!"

The meaning of this decree was tantamount to allowing Qin Fan to implicate others. If Qin Fan dared to kill them, he could capture the thieves and the people involved and make them military households.

Some civil servants in the court could not bear it and advised the emperor to be merciful.

However, Zhu Youjian was furious and ignored their advice. He used the rule that imperial decrees could be issued directly during martial law to force the decree to be issued.

This made the officials realize the emperor's anger, and they also knew that the emperor was extremely angry about the rebellion.

Many decrees were issued in succession to capture thieves and stabilize the local area, and the efficiency of the court operations was greatly improved.

However, officials were generally not used to it, because the emperor had almost no intention of consulting with them, and the court was completely dominated by one man with the final say.

So much so that after the court meeting, many officials shook their heads and sighed. They really didn't feel involved in this court meeting, even worse than the previous equal recommendation.

When it comes to matters like recommending equal numbers of people to the imperial court, the emperor at least has to put on some pretense.

Today's emperor doesn't even pretend, he just issues his decree directly.

Xie Xuelong, the Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple, was reinstated at the end of March this year and only came to the capital to take up his post in August.

When he took office, a set of order had already been established in the court according to the will of the current emperor.

Although he was a little uncomfortable at first, he quickly adapted.

I feel that the current emperor respects the opinions of his ministers and also respects court discussions and recommendations very much.

Who would have thought that the current emperor had this trick and directly used the imperial edict after issuing the martial law order.

This made him say indignantly after the court meeting:
"What was Lord Yuan thinking at the beginning, he actually passed the martial law order in the court!"

"Now that His Majesty has issued direct edicts, who else can restrain him?"

It's a pity that Yuan Keli, who once resisted the imperial edict, has become like this.

He also found some officials he knew before and submitted a petition to oppose the martial law order.

However, the officials in the Ministry of Personnel were purged in the first half of the year, and those who remained were either mature and steady or recognized by the emperor.

Xie Xuelong's proposal was not generally accepted by them, which made him angry. He found Yuan Keli's disciple Ni Yuanlu, criticized the martial law order, and asked him to join in the petition.

But as a disciple of Yuan Keli, how could Ni Yuanlu openly oppose his teacher?
What's more, Yuan Keli and his disciples had discussed the martial law order in detail, and Ni Yuanlu personally agreed with this system, which was at least better than the previous emperors' random issuance of imperial decrees.

So he advised Xuelong:
"Brother Jie, if there is no martial law order, what if His Majesty issues an imperial decree at will?"

"Do we expect every official to dare to defy the emperor's order?"

Xie Xuelong was startled when he heard this, and then said firmly:

"The officials who accept the imperial edict are not our kind."

"Does Brother Ni want to consider those officials?"

Ni Yuanlu had the same idea before, but after being taught by Yuan Keli, he gradually understood why his teacher stayed in the court for a while when the eunuch party was in power.

He tried his best to persuade Xie Xuelong:

"Brother Jie, don't think about those officials, but you should think about yourself." "If it is really so easy to prohibit an imperial decree, why do eunuchs appear in the court?"

"Your Majesty has already made a concession by promising not to use the imperial edict in exchange for martial law."

"Does Your Majesty have to give in again and not use the imperial edict at all?"

Xie Xuelong really thought so and said:
"The imperial court has its own system, why do we need imperial decrees?"

Ni Yuanlu also got a little angry and responded:

"Martial law is also a court system. Your Majesty is using the imperial edict according to the system."

"If you are dissatisfied with the martial law system, then work with Mr. Liu to change it."

"What good will it do to the court if you just turn over the table without caring about anything?"

The two argued for a while and finally parted on bad terms.

After returning, Xie Xuelong wrote a memorial requesting the abolition of the martial law system and the use of imperial edicts.

This memorial had a great influence among the civil servants, but was completely ignored by the emperor.

Zhu Youjian adhered to the attitude of not arguing and carried out the imperial edict in accordance with the provisions of the martial law system.

He wants to use this period of time to take the opportunity to implement policies that were previously inconvenient to implement.

In particular, the collection of property tax must be thoroughly determined.

The wealthy families in the west of Beijing suffered badly because of this. Because they might have been involved with the rebels, the emperor ordered a strict investigation.

The property of all wealthy households was checked and they were required to pay property tax according to regulations.

The same was true for the temples and monasteries in the capital, because the main force behind the rebellion this time was mainly the remnants of illegal religions.

Zhu Youjian suspected that this rebellion might have been driven by religions such as Buddhism and Taoism.

This made him very angry, and he ordered a strict investigation of all religious personnel to determine their ordination certificates and temple property.

They even encourage the public to expose and expose evil monks and evil people.

Combined with the publicity in newspapers, the reputation of some temples and monasteries among the people suddenly became bad. Some were even banned by the imperial court or had their estates confiscated.

The land owned by each temple was also limited to 100 to 1,000 mu according to its level. Except for some temples specially approved by the court, no one could own more than 1,000 mu of land.

The collection of religious taxes was also strictly enforced. Taifu Temple and Neifujian sent personnel to various temples to monitor their property.

Only the tax of 11% is levied on property below 10,000 taels, while an additional tax of 10,000 taels is levied based on the asset tax, which limits the temple property.

All these measures are difficult to implement under normal circumstances, and will inevitably involve wrangling with major temples and monasteries, and may even cause chaos.

However, under martial law, these policies were implemented quickly, and the patrol camp even stopped outside the temples.

The monks and Taoists gathered in the capital were silent for a moment. They even felt that if something went wrong, the emperor might destroy Buddhism and Taoism.

This brought together a group of monks and Taoists, who began to actively seek change.

As the Zhengyi Zhenren, in charge of the world's Taoist affairs, and the president of the Taoist Association appointed by the court, Zhang Jiugong said to the Taoists gathered in the capital:
"Your Majesty asked the Religious Association to sort out the system of gods and immortals, and clearly stated that the Emperor of Heaven and the Empress of Earth are the highest, and other gods and immortals are inferior to them."

"What do you think? Do you want to follow His Majesty's instructions and revise the genealogy of gods and immortals?"

This is a point that both Buddhism and Taoism have always resisted.

They all have their own supreme god and do not want to worship Heaven and Earth as the supreme.

Even some gods in Buddhism and Taoism ascended to higher status by stepping on the heaven and earth.

If we worship Heaven and Earth as the supreme gods as requested by the emperor, what will happen to the status of these gods?
What shocked Taoism in particular was the City God Office established by the imperial court, which brought all the city gods, land gods, mountain gods, and river gods under the command of Hou Tu, forming the so-called earth god system.

This led to many Taoist gods being recruited by the City God's Office.

Even based on the earth god system, there is also a heaven god system that believes in the Emperor of Heaven.

Without these two parts, the Taoist system of gods and immortals will have major omissions, and it may even be impossible to explain the heavens, the underworld, and the gods related to heaven and earth.

This is the reason why Taoism, which has always had a good relationship with the imperial court, has been softly resisting the so-called system of defining gods and immortals.

They did not want the emperor to dig up the roots of Taoism and promote the heaven-earth pantheon.

But now it seems that the emperor has lost his patience and wants to impose religious taxes to ban all religions.

If they still don't obey, religious taxes will probably increase. All the major religious sects will just have to wait for death, without the energy to spread their faith.

The main Taoist sect in the north is Quanzhen Taoism, and the current leader of Quanzhen Taoism is Wang Changyue, the successor of the Longmen School.

This person is also very famous in history and is known as the founder of the Longmen School. Taoist priests in the Qing Dynasty no longer had to shave their heads, thanks to him.

Although the Longmen Sect is not prosperous now, no one can ignore the Baiyun Temple, the ancestral temple. After Wang Changyue came to Beijing, he quickly took charge of the Baiyun Temple and became one of the vice presidents of the Taoist Association.

Facing the imperial court's relentless pressure, Wang Changyue said:

"A gentleman is poor in the Way, and is enlightened in the Way."

"Since His Majesty has made such a request, why should we be so rigid?"

"What's more, His Majesty is a true God who can communicate between heaven and earth."

"The immortal system he proposed is always more perfect than ours."

This sentence touched the hearts of many Taoists. The reason they did not dare to openly oppose the current emperor's establishment of a system of gods and immortals was that the emperor had proved that he could communicate between heaven and earth.

The so-called dream-telling theory of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Chengzu has been firmly believed by many people after the drought in Shaanxi was confirmed.

Taoism, as a religion that cultivates immortals, has no resistance to such true gods.

Every time Taoism flourishes, there are Taoist masters who can be called immortals.

Every time an attempt to cultivate immortality failed, Taoism would suffer a great blow and even fall into decline.

For example, the current decline of Taoism is related to the failure of Emperor Jiajing to become an immortal.

Emperor Jiajing practiced Taoism so devoutly but was unable to achieve immortality, which led to the Taoist theory being falsified and unbelievable.

The Empress Dowager Li and Emperor Wanli, who came to power later, believed in Buddhism even more, allowing Buddhism to gradually flourish.

The current emperor was confirmed to be a true god, and according to convention, Taoism should have flourished. Therefore, many Taoists joined the court and helped the City God Department to incorporate temples from all over the country.

It can be said that those who are still resisting are the more stubborn Taoists who cling to the classics passed down by their ancestors and are unwilling to change.

But it was obvious that they could no longer resist. If they continued to resist, it was hard to say whether the emperor would send troops to arrest them. The temple's property would definitely be restricted, and their future would be difficult, and they might even gradually decline.

The workaround proposed by Wang Changyue touched the hearts of many people.

Most Taoists believe that change is necessary now.

But there must be a rule for how to change it. They absolutely cannot accept the court's proposal to remove the heaven and earth gods from the Taoist gods.

If there are no gods in heaven or on earth, the gods they proposed, such as the Three Pure Ones and the Four Imperial Gods, will be questioned.

Taoism would completely collapse and would not even be able to exist as an independent religion.

The Taoists discussed this issue but could not find a feasible solution.

Because the court's attitude was certain, the emperor regarded the heaven and earth as supreme, and those ministers who came from Confucianism wanted to take the opportunity to dig out the heaven and earth gods. (End of this chapter)