Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"Ma He, did your master send you here? Submit it quickly!"

When Zhu Di heard this, his spirit suddenly shook, and he immediately said hello.

The person who came was not someone else, but an eunuch who was an internal official, also known as the Sanbao eunuch Zheng He in later generations, but he had not changed his surname at this time.

As a close disciple of Master Daoyan, Ma He is a disciple of the Bodhisattva ordination. His dharma name is Fu Jixiang. He is often responsible for communicating top-secret information between Daoyan and Zhu Di.

Zhu Di reached out and took the memorial written by Dao Yan.

"Your Majesty, I have thought about it for a long time. If we want to restrict the vassals so as not to cause harm to the country, there are only two strategies."

Zhu Di read the contents of the memorial. At first, the gloom on his face became thicker and thicker, but then gradually disappeared, and he showed a relieved smile.

"Okay, I understand."

Ma He lowered his head respectfully. After hearing Zhu Di's words, he raised his eyelids and glanced at Zhu Di's expression, and then quickly lowered his head.

"You should step back first." Zhu Di waved his hand.

Ma He bowed and exited the hall, closing the door behind him.

Dao Yan's so-called two strategies tend to be more damaging, but they are indeed a good way to solve the problem of the future financial collapse of the Ming Dynasty by the clan.

The first policy is to change the restrictions on the activities of the feudal king.

Dao Yan suggested that Zhu Di partially change the restrictions on the activities of the vassal kings during the Zhu Yuanzhang period. During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, the vassal kings were not allowed to leave the feudal country without an edict. Therefore, if no special events occurred, the vassals and the emperor were likely to see each other for a long time. Not even once.

Dao Yan pointed out that Zhu Di could declare that it was precisely because the Tian family could not see each other and had weak feelings that Emperor Jianwen was easily bewitched by the treacherous ministers Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng and killed his own flesh and blood relatives.

After learning this lesson, the emperor planned to change the system.

These empty-headed vassal kings who have been deprived of their guards are still not allowed to leave the feudal country without an edict, but the emperor should take turns summoning a certain number, such as one-third or one-fourth, of the vassal princes and their descendants to the capital every year to make peace with the Tian family. .

——Of course, this is just a superficial statement.

Dao Yan's true purpose is somewhat sinister and cannot be put on the table.

First, it prevents the vassal king from staying in the fiefdom for a long time. If the vassal king does not operate in the fiefdom, of course there will be no possibility of rebellion. This fundamentally eliminates the possibility that some vassal kings will not be able to survive until they become big.

If there is any vassal king who is really bold and wants to have a king's wedding, then the emperor only needs to wait for him to enter the capital and find a reason for him to die unexpectedly, such as falling into the water after drinking, losing control of his carriage, or soliciting prostitution. .The only way is imaginable, but there is no way that is impossible.

It would be better if the vassal king who wanted to rebel did not come to the capital, and the court could justifiably attack and eliminate him.

Secondly, as long as the vassal king comes to the capital, there will always be people who behave irregularly and do illegal things. Even if the vassal king can control himself, can he control the heirs and servants he brings?

There will always be feudal princes and heirs who are jealous of others when they go to spend money on the Qinhuai River, and there will always be evil servants of the palace who use the power of others to move their fiefdoms to Nanjing.

Since then, the decision all depends on the emperor's mood and needs. Cutting off the vassal and reducing the salary is a matter of one thought, so the vassals are naturally trembling.

As for Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, the censor must not hear about the vassal king's faults, otherwise he will be punished by alienating the family ties of the Tian family. Dao Yan's meaning is that there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. If you demote the censor and then promote him later, you only need to do it once and everyone will know what is going on.

"The vassals have no soldiers and only enter the capital with their heirs and servants. If the total number of people is limited, as long as it is controlled to a few dozen people, even if the vassals unite, they will not be able to launch any rebellion in the capital."

Zhu Di continued to read.

The second strategy is to no longer set a minimum clan level, and at the same time only add a small amount of salary to the vassal king in exchange for military power.

Originally, the reason why clan support would overwhelm the Ming Dynasty's finances after the ninth generation was because the clan multiplied to the ninth generation, and the population base was multiplied by the minimum salary of Fengguo Lieutenant, 200 shi, and the final result would be an astronomical figure. .

And Daoyan simply took the approach of removing the firepower from under the cauldron.

The imperial family hierarchy in the Ming Dynasty was divided into eight levels: prince, county king, general of Zhenguo, general of auxiliary state, general of Fengguo, lieutenant of Zhenguo, lieutenant of auxiliary state, and lieutenant of Fengguo.

Since the eighth-level Lieutenant Feng Guo has a guaranteed salary of 200 stones. This guaranteed salary combined with the massive clan population cannot be afforded by the Ming Dynasty, so just cancel the lowest clan level. By the ninth generation, it will directly become an idle clan, and the court will not Then be responsible for providing.

In this way, the pressure on the imperial court to ensure basic support for the clan will be greatly reduced, and this big burden will be thrown away directly.

Dao Yan even suggested that Zhu Di could reduce the total level of the clan, for example to level six or level seven.

Anyway, the Ming Dynasty clan has only been passed down to the sons of the first generation Zhu Yuanzhang and a few grandsons of the second generation Zhu Yuanzhang. For the eighth and ninth generations of the Zhu family in the future, it will still be almost two hundred years later.

Presumably, the vassals would not have any objection to something like this that does not harm their actual interests at all. As for the minister, if there is any stubborn person who puts out the "Emperor Ming Ancestor Instructions", Zhu Di can give him a "chessboard rice placement" and give him a little mathematical shock.

At that time, the civil servants of the imperial court would automatically shut up.

The salaries of the vassal princes should not increase too much, otherwise it will also put pressure on the Ming Dynasty's finances in the next few decades.

"Master Daoyan's brilliant plan!"

Zhu Di Zhu Di couldn't help but praise.

"Well~ As expected of Master Daoyan who has been advising me for many years. With these two strategies, I think we can completely solve the financial bankruptcy caused by the pressure of supporting the clan in the Ming Dynasty two hundred years later!"

Zhu Di touched his beard, pondered for a moment, and felt that the two strategies proposed by Dao Yan were indeed feasible, but the only one of them was to only add a small amount of salary to the vassal king, which might not be easy to handle.

After all, the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty was different from that of the Western Han and Jin Dynasties. The vassal kings had actual troops but no actual country.

In name, the vassal states of the vassal kings are actually managed by court officials. The real core interests of the vassal kings are the Three Guards!

And if Zhu Di wants to peacefully deprive the feudal king of the power of the three bodyguards by simply increasing his salary by a small amount, I am afraid it will still arouse dissatisfaction.

However, even if there are some shortcomings, Zhu Di believes that Dao Yan's two strategies are already very good solutions.

Zhu Di felt that the solution Jiang Xinghuo could give was probably one of these two ideas, or some variation of them, and it was unlikely that there would be anything else.

After all, there were irreconcilable conflicts between the vassals and the emperor regarding the reduction of their military power.

Just like Jiang Xinghuo said, if you want to solve the problem, you have to add money.

How could it be possible in the world that the vassals could surrender their military power without any extra money or weapons?

Can Jiang Xinghuo do it?

impossible!

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Zhu Di was in a happy mood, and even rarely laughed loudly in the empty palace.

Zhu Di was very convinced.

——If you go to the class this time, you will definitely not be hit by dimensionality reduction!