The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 310 Reconstruction of the Five Prefectures!

In the early years of Hongwu, there was a Grand Military Governor's Office that was in charge of all military affairs in the country.

The Grand Marshal's Office also has the power to mobilize troops and manage local garrisons.

In order to strengthen the power in his hands, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was unwilling to see his power divided, especially the Secretariat and the Grand Council. He took advantage of the Hu Weiyong case to abolish the Secretariat and Prime Minister system, and divided the Grand Council into five parts, becoming the Five Military Councils.

The Fifth Army Governor's Office lost the power of discussion held by the Great Governor's Office and began to have to obey the emperor's orders.

However, at this time, the status of the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army was still higher than that of the Ministry of War.

Because the management of military households in local garrisons, the training and management of garrisons in various provinces, and the promotion of generals in various places were all under the control of the Five Military Commanderies.

During the Hongwu period, the Ministry of War, one of the Six Ministries, merely had the power to mobilize troops stationed in various places.

The Five Military Commanderies had the power to command troops, while the Ministry of War had the power to mobilize troops. Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang designed this naturally to check and balance each other.

Therefore, the relationship between the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army and the Ministry of War is not harmonious, and there has been constant overt and covert fighting.

On the surface, this is a power struggle between two institutions, but in fact, it is a game between the military generals and nobles and the civil officials and gentry, a power dispute for the right to speak in the court.

Although there were still conflicts in the court at that time, they were generally under control and were healthy and positive, ensuring that no one force would dominate the court and pose a threat to the emperor.

Until the Tumubao Incident, when Emperor Jingtai came to power, the civil servants and gentry headed by Yu Qian and others took advantage of the great loss of power of the military generals group and the heavy damage to the Fifth Army Governor's Palace to unceremoniously seize all the support from the Fifth Army Governor's Palace. All power was gathered in the Ministry of War and returned to the hands of Yu Qian, the Minister of War.

Taking advantage of this civil engineering disaster, the Ministry of War began to gradually interfere in the appointment and removal of military generals, the training and management of local garrisons, and kept these powers firmly in its hands, cutting off all the flesh of the Five Military Governor's Office piece by piece!
It was also from that time that the Five Military Commanderies gradually began to move towards their demise.

What is the meaning of a military organization that has lost all its power?

Not to mention whether the five governors could hold on to their current positions, even their titles had been stripped away by the civil officials and gentry.

During the reign of Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen, the management rights of military households and military farms were also transferred to the Ministry of War, so Emperor Chenghua began to resist. He wanted to take back his power!
How did the Western Factory come about?

It is to deal with these increasingly domineering civil officials and gentry!
The first thing the Western Factory did after its establishment was to target the descendants of the Three Yang Prime Ministers in a very short period of time, thus establishing its notorious reputation that made people shudder with fear.

"In the first month of the thirteenth year of Chenghua, the emperor established the Western Factory, which was led by the powerful eunuch Wang Zhi. The number of imperially appointed lieutenants was more than twice that of the Eastern Factory!"

"In February of the 13th year of Chenghua, Yang Hua, the great-grandson of the late Shao Bao Yang Rong and the commander of Jianning Guard in Fujian, and his father Yang Tai were violent and murderous. They were reported by their enemies, so they went to Beijing to bribe. They were discovered by Wang Zhi, imprisoned in the West Factory Prison and tortured, and many ministers were implicated. For a time, the West Factory was "powerful and favored, and everyone in the capital looked at it with awe"!"

Wang Zhi did a great job as soon as he stepped onto the political stage as the commander of the Western Factory. He directly targeted Yang Rong's descendants and successfully made all the gentry in the court see Emperor Chenghua's determination!
However, the reaction of the civil officials and gentry was also very intense. After the father and son of the Yang family were imprisoned in the Western Factory, the civil officials began to fight back, impeaching and reporting the Western Factory many times. The reasons were quite interesting. They said that the Western Factory was too strict and made it "miserable for officials to make a living."

Shang Lu, the chief minister of the cabinet who had won three top honors in a row, joined forces with all the gentry in the court to submit a memorial, saying that the Western Factory "had too many surveillances, too urgent laws, and too dense criminal network", and joined forces with the six ministries and nine officials to request the abolition of the Western Factory.

When Emperor Chenghua saw that his goal had been achieved, the civil officials and gentry did restrain themselves somewhat, and under the pressure of the situation, they had to agree to dismiss the Western Factory.

Compared with Emperor Taizu, Emperor Chenghua was still a little indecisive. After all, Emperor Taizu would never complain that the punishment was too severe, but rather too lenient. During his Hongwu era, that was the real "officials were unable to make a living."

The Western Factory was forced to close. In order to suppress civil officials and gentry and regain imperial power, Emperor Chenghua not only set up a new secret agency, the Western Factory, to check and balance them from the outside, but also tried to divide and disintegrate the civil servants from within and cultivate his own civil servant spokesperson power. This is the so-called "Chuanfengguan" system.

As the ruler of a country, it is basic for the emperor to confer official titles and make wishes. However, after the Tang and Song dynasties, if the emperor wanted to bypass the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel and directly grant official titles without going through the imperial examination or layers of selection, he would be despised by the entire literati community because it was against the rules and was out of the control of civil officials and gentry.

But one thing is one thing, no matter how despicable it is, Emperor Chenghua liked to do this anyway. As an emperor, he often used the authority of "Zhongzhi" to promote people he liked to be officials and ministers. These officials and ministers were actually another representative of his imperial power. They had the emperor's trust and were also the emperor's eyes and ears. This made other civil servants very dissatisfied, but they could do nothing about it.

It is worth noting that most of these officials are not disciples of Confucianism or children of famous religions!
In February of the eighth year of Tianshun, the newly enthroned Emperor Chenghua ordered the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department to convey the imperial edict, promoting craftsman Yao Wang to the position of deputy envoy of the Wensiyuan. This position was deputy envoy, and according to the official system of the Ming Dynasty, it was only the ninth rank, so the civil servants did not care much about it at first.

But in August of the first year of Chenghua, the situation began to become unusual. Eunuch Fu Gongchuan, in accordance with the imperial decree, promoted three deputy envoys of Wensiyuan, Li Jinghua, Chen Xiao and Ren Jie, to the position of Zhongshu Sheren - this is the most noble rank of Zhongshu Sheren, a seventh-rank rank. Even the Hanlin scholars were vying for this humble position, but it was actually given to a bunch of street craftsmen. It is no problem to say that it is "insulting to the civilized world".

This completely angered the civil officials who controlled the government.

The civil officials and gentry were no pushovers and they fought back quickly. Similar to their opposition to the Western Factory, these civil officials and gentry had been opposing Emperor Chenghua with a high-sounding reason. They said that if the emperor gave out official positions in such a random manner, it would lead to chaos in the world and would be a betrayal to the people. Most importantly, it would bring disaster. Anyway, if the emperor did not listen to them, the disaster in the world would start from then on.

Emperor Chenghua ignored it at first, but the methods of the civil officials far exceeded his expectations. These guys fabricated so-called natural disasters and man-made disasters, such as the death of a palace musician during the spring festival, and the evil spirits who spied on the forbidden palace. In particular, in the twelfth year of Chenghua, "red light illuminated the sky", in the twentieth year, "a big star fell to the ground", and in the twenty-first year, "a red star traveled westward with a sound like thunder"...

Although these natural phenomena are uncommon but normal in Tang Hao's eyes, they are life-threatening in the Ming Dynasty.

Because the strange phenomenon from heaven was naturally meant to warn the emperor, this was the Confucian idea of ​​"the interaction between heaven and man" that had been deeply rooted in people's minds under its long-standing rule.

So Emperor Chenghua panicked and ordered officials from the five ministries, six departments, the Censorate, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Public Security, and the six departments and thirteen departments to submit memorials to the emperor, saying that the emperor would adopt all the bad policies and things that would benefit the country and the people in order to change the will of heaven.

The civil officials and gentry had been waiting for him to say this, and they were as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood. They wrote letters to the emperor one after another to express their opinion that this was retribution and a warning from heaven. So Emperor Chenghua surrendered, whipped and dismissed a large number of officials, and was too lazy to fight with the civil officials and gentry anymore.

Whether it was the Western Factory or the Chuanfengguan, they were actually measures taken by Emperor Chenghua to suppress civil officials and gentry and take back the imperial power. The literati had pens in their hands, and they wanted to demote Emperor Chenghua to a tyrant like his father Zhu Qizhen, so this Ming emperor was also the one who was repeatedly slandered in unofficial history novels for a long time in history.

However, in Tang Hao's opinion, Emperor Chenghua's personal ability is enough to rank third among the sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty. As for who are the top two, everyone knows.

After Chenghua, the Five Military Commanderies became a completely nominal military institution, mainly providing an opportunity for the children of military generals and nobles to embezzle salaries and draw empty pay, and from then on it was completely away from the core circle of power.

At first, Tang Hao even had some doubts as to whether this was a ridiculous agreement reached between military generals and nobles and civil officials!

The civil officials and gentry demanded the power to command the troops from the Five Military Commission, while the meritorious military officials demanded benefits from them and allowed their own sons and nephews to enter the Five Military Commission, the "Kyoto Underworld", to collect salaries and eat empty wages!

Anyway, both parties are happy, and the only people who are worried may be the emperors of the Ming Dynasty!

But the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not worried either. Look at how happy Emperor Hongzhi was. He would spend his time coaxing his wife and two brothers-in-law, or spending money on superstitious fasting rituals, building large-scale projects and supporting his hobbies. As for the power of the court falling into the hands of civil officials, he didn't care!
He had a great time all his life, and in the end, he was given the reputation of "the Lord of the Restoration"? !
Emperor Hongzhi was just like the former monarch of the Song Dynasty. He did not choose to take back the imperial power and fight with the civil officials and gentry like his father Emperor Chenghua did. Instead, he chose "the emperor and the literati and officials rule the world together" and chose to live happily with these civil officials and gentry!

So Emperor Chenghua was a tyrant, while Emperor Hongzhi was a wise ruler!

When Emperor Chenghua was in power, no one praised his civil and military achievements.

When the great victory took place in Helan Mountain, all the gentry in the court wanted to praise Emperor Hongzhi to the sky and kneel on the ground to lick his boots.

What a ridiculous leader of the Restoration!
After Hongzhi, the Ministry of War had completely marginalized the Five Military Governors' Office, and the civil officials and gentry group completely marginalized the military generals and nobles group.

For example, during the Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli periods, the governors and governors of various places in the Ming Dynasty, as ministers of the Ministry of War or ministers of the Ministry of War, controlled the generals in various places. The promotion, appointment and dismissal of local military generals were all a matter of a word from these governors. .

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, a model of civil officials controlling military generals had basically emerged. For example, the imperial generals, governors-general, and provincial governors-general in various places were all civil officials. Even if military generals had made military achievements and wanted to get promoted, they had to serve these governors-general like dogs, flattering and bribing them!

Therefore, during the Zhengde Dynasty, it was the time when civil officials and gentry began to exert their strength and firmly control the military power in their hands.

What Tang Hao has to do now is to rebuild the Five Military Governor's Office and take back the authority of the Five Military Governor's Office!
When facing the questioning of Tianguan Ma Wensheng, Tang Hao was still a newbie at that time, so he didn’t dare to respond and chose to remain silent.

However, the current Marquis of Zhongshan is the head of the Ming Dynasty's military honors, the admiral of the Beijing Army who is in charge of the military power of the Beijing Army, and the number one noble who is in charge of the navy!
Not to mention that there are talents like Qiu Yue, Tang Mu, An Guo, Chang Kuohai, etc., which are more than enough to support a Five Military Commandery!

"how?"

"The ancestral law of Emperor Taizu Gao?"

"Do you really dare to deny it?"

Tang Hao looked at the officials in the court who had livid faces and shouted again.

This time, no one dared to look him in the eye. Yang Yiqing turned his head away, Wang Ao remained silent, Fei Hong lowered his head, and Wang Jianzhi, Li Shan and others remained silent.

It seemed that at this moment, the person they were facing was not the arrogant and domineering Marquis Zhongshan, but the Emperor Taizu Gao who lashed out at the world!

Do you accept or not accept the laws established by our ancestors?
Do you accept or not the rules set by me, Zhu Yuanzhang?
If you don't acknowledge it, then the so-called benevolence, filial piety, loyalty and righteousness will become a joke.

If you admit it, half of the power of the Ministry of War will be divided away, and after the five ministries are rebuilt, the rise of military generals and nobles will be unstoppable!

Under such circumstances, no civil officials or gentry came forward to respond.

As the leader of the gentry, Yang Tinghe had already reached an exchange of interests with Tang Hao, so he chose to remain silent.

Just as the hall fell into deathly silence, someone finally spoke.

Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao sneered and sarcastically said: "Ha, it's really interesting!"

"You civil officials and gentry have been shouting about the laws established by our ancestors all day long. Now that the Marquis of Zhongshan has clearly pointed out the laws established by our ancestors, you are refusing to acknowledge them!"

"Could it be that the ancestral laws in your eyes are really the rules set by the Three Yang ancestors?"

Facing the angry gazes of the court officials, Zhu Chenhao stepped forward and suddenly shouted: "I would like to ask you, who is the ruler of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Is it the world of my Zhu family, or the world of you gentry?"

"I think the people who really want to rebel and usurp the divine weapon are you!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole court was in an uproar.

Civil officials and gentry would never commit treason or rebellion.

But they did usurp the power of the divine weapon, and they have been doing it all the time!
In the end, Yang Tinghe couldn't help but speak.

"Times have changed, and sticking to the old ways is no longer an option."

"The Ministry of War did not steal the power of the Five Governments in the past. It was because of the Tumu disaster that all the military heroes died. Meanwhile, the Oirat Grand Master Yesen was leading a large army to attack the Ming Dynasty and was approaching the capital!"

"Under this premise, the Minister of War Yu Qian was ordered to take full responsibility for planning the defense of the capital in order to protect the country. The Ministry of War and the Five Government Offices had unclear powers, but the overall situation was important. Yu Shaobao reorganized the Beijing Camp and brought it under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. It seemed like an act of usurpation, but the facts proved that he was right!"

"Because Yu Shaobao won the battle to defend the capital, Yu Shaobao saved the country and people of our Ming Dynasty. This is an achievement that no one can erase!"

Without Yu Qian, the Ming Dynasty would have chosen to flee south to a corner when Yesen broke into the Great Wall!

The meaning of Yang Tinghe's words was, firstly, to show his loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor that the civil officials and gentry would never have the intention of treason and rebellion, which was inconsistent with the Confucianism they had learned throughout their lives; secondly, to tell the people of the world that the civil officials and gentry might have the suspicion of usurping the power of the emperor, but that was for the greater good, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would have perished long ago!
What's the point of talking about ancestral laws? If it wasn't for Yu Shaobao's prompt decision to gather all the troops and change the Beijing Camp into the Twelve Regiments Camp, successfully winning the battle to defend the capital, there would be no telling whether the Ming Dynasty would still exist!

"Yu Shaobao's achievements should naturally be remembered!"

Tang Hao took over the conversation and said, "But the times are different now, and the ancestral system of our great ancestor cannot be forgotten just like that."

"The one who arbitrarily changed the laws of our ancestors was not Yu Shaobao, but the civil officials and gentry after Yu Shaobao. Once they took control of the power, they were reluctant to give it up, and even used the power in their hands to suppress military generals and nobles to ensure the stability of their position!"

"The facts have proven that the consequence of your actions is that the military and civilians of the world are impoverished and the people are destitute and penniless. The Ming Dynasty is becoming increasingly corrupt and decadent, and there are signs that it will soon be over!"

If anyone else dared to speak these outrageous words openly, they would probably be exterminated along with their entire clan.

But Tang Hao dared to say this because he knew he was telling the truth, and the Emperor had already understood this.

So even though all the ministers looked unhappy, no one dared to refute.

The military and civilians all over the world are suffering, and the people are poor and penniless. This is the fact, and it was also said by Li Dongyang and Liu Daxia.

Knowing that this is the fact and that the Ming Dynasty is not far from its demise, what should we do?

Are we just going to watch this?
His Majesty the Emperor on the dragon throne finally spoke.

"The Ministry of War can mobilize troops but cannot command them, and the five prefectures can command them but do not have the power to mobilize them!"

"The Ministry of War has no right to interfere in the affairs of the Five Military Commandery. According to the ancestral rule, outsiders are not allowed to know about the Five Military Commandery!"

"Rules are rules. Since they are the rules set by our great ancestors, we must abide by them!"

Zhu Houzhao looked around at his ministers coldly and said in a cold voice: "In the past, when you used these ancestral laws to persuade me, I at least gave you some face. I listened to what you should listen to, and I also listened to what you shouldn't listen to."

"Now, I also hope that you can be more sensible and keep some respect for each other, otherwise I will learn from Emperor Taizu Gao and lash out at the world!"

Be more sensible!
Show some respect to each other!
These threatening words from His Majesty the Emperor made the civil officials feel cold in their hearts.

As expected, he still stood firmly on the side of Marquis Zhongshan, and as expected, he still wanted to support military generals and nobles and suppress civil officials and gentry!
Introducing the power of the royal family is not enough, he also wants to support military generals and nobles. Isn't he afraid that the scholars of the world will be discouraged?

The civil officials and gentry looked at each other, each with a look of grief and indignation on their faces.

But Zhu Houzhao ignored all this and issued an order directly.

"Issue an imperial decree, ordering the Marquis of Zhongshan to preside over the reconstruction of the five prefectures. He may mobilize all the generals and military officers, and the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War shall not interfere. Those who disobey the order... will be exterminated!"

clan!
The whole clan will be destroyed!
At this moment, the civil officials and gentry finally saw the emperor's determination!

Tang Hao knelt slowly and received the order loudly.

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

"Your subject obeys my command!"

When the civil and military officials in the court saw this situation, their expressions were completely different.

Zhang Mao, Zhu Hui and others were so excited that they cried with joy.

Wang Ao, Yang Yiqing and others were distraught and sad.

Zhu Chenhao had a blank expression on his face, but he could vaguely see satisfaction on his face, because the deal between him and Marquis Zhongshan was completely reached.

Only Yang Tinghe remained expressionless, watching these people's performance with cold eyes.

When his eyes fell on Zhu Chenhao, Yang Tinghe smiled contemptuously.

Military generals and nobles have risen.

But it also sounds the death knell for you, a fool!
(End of this chapter)