Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 70 Major Events Gathering
The news of Lin Dan Khan's tribute was quickly rushed to the capital.

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed when he learned that the Qian Yuan Yuxi was on its way to the capital.

In his opinion, this is a major event that can be recorded in history. He can use it to sacrifice to the Ancestral Temple and let his ancestors know that 260 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the descendants of the former Yuan Dynasty finally surrendered completely.

But one problem is that although the canonization of Lin Dan Khan was discussed by the court, the canonization of other nobles was decided by Zhu Youjian privately. The court may not recognize this matter.

If the imperial court cannot pass it, these Shuntian titles will only be conferred by Zhu Youjian privately, and the accompanying titles and salaries will also need to be borne by Zhu Youjian's internal treasury. Although he is confident that he can afford it. However, the name is unfair and the words are not correct, and there are still many inconveniences.

For example, regarding trade quotas, mutual market officials need to cooperate. Zhu Youjian hoped that the court would recognize the title of Shuntian and establish their status.

"A prince, a duke, ten earls, fifteen viscounts, ten barons, and one hundred and sixty-three knights. 』

"In my opinion, it's not much. It depends on what the officials in the court think of it." 』

Because Kong Zhenyun raised the standard for titles, except for Lin Danhan who received the title of king and Gui Yingcha who received the title of duke, none of the other leaders received the title of marquis. After all, the Chahan tribe is the Khan's court of Lin Dan Khan, and there is no big leader who threatens Lin Dan Khan.

The reason why the ten earl edicts were used up was because Kong Zhenyun privately lowered his standards and made promises to other leaders, hoping to use these more powerful leaders to contain Lin Dan Khan. Otherwise, with the Chahan tribe’s household registration, it would be impossible to create ten earls.

The number of viscounts is also not large. Most of them are generals who have been canonized by higher levels, such as Tie Sheng, Konot and Shi Sumu. There are very few leaders who can reach the level of thousands of households and can be canonized as viscounts.

There are even fewer barons, because the requirement of 500 households and the salary of 300 taels makes the prairie people feel that it is not cost-effective compared with the knights. Most of them divided their household registration into hundreds of households and sought hereditary knighthood with a salary of one hundred taels.

Lin Danhan and others also deliberately suppressed the title levels of their subordinates, merged and split the sumu under their subordinates into hundreds of households, and the person in charge became a knight.

Therefore, the number of barons was the smallest, and the ten edicts could be used up because the remaining quota was used by Hou Baoshan to win over Lin Danhan's Fujin and give them titles to the tribal managers under their command.

The number of knights increased suddenly, reaching one hundred and sixty-three, most of whom were subordinates of King Shunli and the ten earls. They were assigned by Lindan Khan and ten earls to hundreds of households and attached themselves to these big lords.

In total, there are a total of 200 Shuntian nobles, most of whom are knights, and the total amount of titles required is 50,800 taels.

In addition to the 5,000 taels given to Sharba Hutuktu and the 12,200 taels given to Lin Dan Khan Fujin, his children, sister and other relatives, the total annual Juelu is 68,000 taels, and the trade quota is Juelu Ten times, totaling 680,000 taels.

Compared with the million-dollar city reward that was given to Lin Dan Khan in the second year of Tianqi, this amount is not much. But at that time, the million-dollar city reward was a one-time reward. After that, "if you advance troops, you will be rewarded, if you don't, you will be rewarded."

Nowadays, after being ennobled, titles and salaries have to be paid out every year, and the trade quota may be used up by the Chahan tribe every year. This puts too much pressure on the court.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian planned to use Huangdian and Shuntian Bank to bear the trade quota, and leave the issue of Juelu to the court.

"Trade can make me money, and the royal family will be borne by the court. This is perfect!" 』

"I just don't know if this plan can be passed in court?" 』

Letting the imperial court do trade may result in losses on the books, but if the eunuchs arranged by Zhu Youjian do trade, there is a high probability of making money. After all, the eunuchs were corrupt and Zhu You could deal with them if they were found out. The emperor Zhu Youjian might not even be able to find out the corruption of officials in the court, and even after he was found out, he might not be able to deal with it.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian proposed this plan, intending to let the court only bear 68,000 taels of title and salary, and leave the rest to himself.

According to the precedent of Anda Khan's tribute, Zhu Youjian handed over the matter to the ministers' court for discussion. It has been a tradition since the Qin and Han Dynasties that major events must be discussed together. This tradition was carried forward in the Ming Dynasty and developed into forms such as court meetings, court meetings, cabinet meetings, and ministry meetings.

Chao Yi, also known as Chao Yi, is the convening of a court meeting. Zhu Youjian's divisions of Shuowang Chao, Chang Chao and Chang Shen all belong to Chao Yi.

The main purpose of the cabinet meeting is for the emperor to convene cabinet bachelors and relevant officials to discuss matters. When the emperor does not attend, the cabinet meeting is presided over by the chief minister, who drafts votes and makes a decision to the emperor.

Now Zhu Youjian has used standing meetings to make daily decisions, largely replacing cabinet meetings.

The scope of the court meeting is larger than that of the cabinet meeting. The number of people participating in the court meeting ranges from a dozen to dozens, and sometimes even as many as a hundred people. It was originally held in the East Pavilion of Quezuomen on the left side of Duanmen. Starting from the late Wanli period, it was changed to the Zhongjun Dudu Mansion in front of Chengtian Gate. The emperor usually did not attend.

Because their authority was too great, and in order to prevent them from interfering too much with the results of the court deliberations, cabinet academicians were not allowed to participate in court deliberations from the Tianshun reign. Therefore, the people who participated in the court meeting mainly included the six ministers, ministers and other important officials of the court, as well as important nobles, officials of science and education, etc.

Before the court meeting, the department in charge of the content of the court meeting must first write down the matters and time to be discussed and notify relevant personnel participating in the court meeting. On the day of the court meeting, the minister of the ministry presides over the meeting. The minister announces the contents of the meeting and listens to the speeches of the participants. After the deliberation is completed, the minister will draft a draft, copy it, sign it with the discussants, and then submit it to the emperor.

The emperor usually does not veto the results of court deliberations. Even if he is not satisfied with the results, he usually just leaves the matter unanswered and will not veto it easily.

Zhu Youjian respects this tradition very much and feels that the assembly implies the core of democratic centralism and can become the direction of his own restructuring. If this system is implemented locally in the future, I won’t have to worry about someone ruling the local government and acting arbitrarily when serving as an official.

It was determined that Lin Danhan's tribute payment would be handed over to the ministers' court, and Zhu Youjian made slight changes in the council members. Except for the cabinet bachelors who were still not allowed to participate, other ministers with the title of Fourth Assistant Minister were all asked by Zhu Youjian to participate in the court meeting. He wants to combine titles with gatherings and change the tradition bit by bit.

The members of the court council were not very fixed, and in addition to the officials who were qualified to participate in the court council, most of the officials who were qualified to participate in the court council had the title of fourth auxiliary minister, so this did not cause any waves. It's just that the title of the Fourth Auxiliary Minister inevitably attracted more attention, making many court officials want to obtain this title.

The matter of Lin Dan Khan's tribute was a matter of the Ministry of War, and the presiding officer of the court meeting should be Cui Chengxiu, the Minister of War. But Cui Chengxiu is now asking to abide by the system, and has been impeached by many officials, so he cannot participate in the court meetings at all. The two ministers of war were not famous enough to chair such a meeting.

In addition, Zhou Yingqiu, the official minister with the highest status among the six ministers, was also impeached. Guo Yunhou, the minister of household affairs, may have opposed this matter due to financial constraints. Finally, on the recommendation of Yang Jingchen, Zhu Youjian chose Fang Guangwei, the censor of Zuodu and the oldest minister of political affairs, to preside over the court discussion on the grounds of being mature and prudent.

Like many civil servants in the Ming Dynasty, Fang Zhuanghui was not very interested in things outside the Central Plains. But the emperor insisted on this matter, and since the capital might indeed be threatened by Hou Jin, he agreed to it under Yang Jingchen's persuasion.

With this supporter presiding over the court discussions, the emperor Zhu Youjian and the factory official Wei Zhongxian strongly recommending it, plus the fact that Lin Dan Khan's tribute had the precedent of Anda Khan's tribute, there were not many people who opposed it. Many people think that it is a good thing for the imperial court to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver every year to bribe Lin Dan Khan's tribe.

Except for Guo Yunhou, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, who was unwilling to bear the title due to financial constraints, and the British Duke Cheng Guo Gong Ding Guo Gong and other nobles who did not want the Shuntian nobles to appear, others had some criticisms about Lin Dan Khan's tribute and did not stand up publicly. be opposed to.

In the end, because there were only a few people who clearly opposed it and almost half of those who agreed with Lin Dan Khan's tribute, the matter was approved and reported to the emperor.

After Zhu Youjian learned the result, he was immediately overjoyed and knew that the matter of Lin Danhan's tribute was finally settled.

Now, he only needs to wait for Lin Dan Khan's envoy to present the jade seal, so that he can offer sacrifices to the Ancestral Temple at the beginning of his ascension and leave his own achievements in the history of history.

　"History of Ming Dynasty":
　　Major affairs are discussed in the court, ministers recommend, and prisons are punished.

　　(These are the three major powers of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)