Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

There is no room for regret for what has been done.

However, thinking about the red book and iron certificate carefully kept in the mansion, Li Shanchang was not too panicked.

But adhering to the principle of caution, he still secretly made up his mind:

Let alone Lan Yu, he will never wear a blue shirt in the future!

But in addition to this, Li Shanchang was also very clear about his current advantage-His Majesty was right in front of him.

So when Xu Da and Li Wenzhong were still thinking, Li Shanchang had already taken the initiative to stand up:

"Your Majesty has eliminated the customs of the Hu Yuan barbarians to rectify the law and discipline, and has shed tears to cut off the hands and feet of those who have forgotten their roots. You should be a model of a wise monarch. Such criticisms are also determined to be the slander of Hu Qing to tarnish our Ming Dynasty. Your Majesty should not worry about this."

Li Shanchang said this sincerely. As a person who was praised by Zhu Yuanzhang as "my Xiao He", he could also detect the effect of this light curtain.

Quite bluntly, as long as it is used properly, the evaluation of "one of the best emperors in the ages" by later generations may really be true.

If this is true, Li Shanchang's reputation in the future will surely rise, which is hard not to imagine.

Zhu Yuanzhang came back to his senses after hearing these words. He did not praise or criticize them, but just shook his head and said:

"It is too early to say these things now, let's see how future generations will evaluate them."

He was not worried about the case of the empty seal, but he went to the Taimiao to explain himself when the prime minister was abolished by Hu Weiyong, so he was quite curious about how future generations would evaluate him.

[As mentioned before, any problem should be analyzed and viewed in combination with the times at that time, and we should not use the sword of this dynasty to kill the officials of the previous dynasty.

If we only look at the evaluation of the early Ming Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty, it is easy to get the impression that Zhu Yuanzhang regarded meritorious officials as enemies and thorns, and he must cut them off to be cruel and ungrateful.

This is also the reason why the evaluation of Zhao Yi, a historian in the Qing Dynasty, was too one-sided. In fact, it is easy to know that if Zhu was really cruel and ungrateful, he would never stand out in the competition among the heroes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

In fact, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's preferential treatment of meritorious officials could be called generous. Although the iron certificate of exemption from death is often used as a joke by us now, it was definitely the highest honor and favor at that time.

Judging from the handed down materials, Zhu Yuanzhang was very serious when issuing the iron certificate of exemption from death. From the form to the function, to the family rules, and the scope of exemption from death, etc., they were all carefully designed.

For those who hold the iron certificate, the king's law will not come to their heads, the criminals will not enter the door, and they will inherit the title after death. It clearly tells you that you can rest with the royal relatives, which can be regarded as the highest honor and preferential treatment that the emperor can grant.

In addition to the greatest privilege of exemption from death, these founding nobles enjoy various privileges if nothing unexpected happens.

For example, various economic gifts that can be corroborated by various materials: in the third year of Hongwu, the nobles were given farmland, with as many as 100 hectares; in the fourth year, Tang He was given 10,000 acres of land, and the founding nobles were ordered to share 658 hectares of Linhao Mountain; in the seventh year, the nobles were given an additional 1,000 stones of public land, etc.

In addition, from the ceremonial households to a large number of slaves, adopted sons, followers, and slave troops, etc., almost everything can be said to be available.

In politics, the nobles not only have high positions and noble titles, but also have power and military power, which can be said to be the real ministers of the highest position.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also actively promoted the marriage between the royal family and the children of the nobles. For example, he took Guo Ying's sister and Hu Mei's eldest daughter as concubines, and ordered the princes to marry the daughters of Chang Yuchun, Xu Da, Feng Sheng and other nobles. In addition, the sons of Li Shanchang, Fu Youde, Zhang Long and other nobles married princesses, etc.

From the above, it is not difficult to see that Zhu Yuanzhang actually hopes to reach a solid alliance of interests with the founding nobles, and use political and economic privileges and promised eternal wealth to exchange for the nobles' wholehearted support for the royal family, so as to achieve the purpose of consolidating the imperial power and Zhu Yuanzhang's ultimate "family rule".

However, whether it was the powerful people in the Han Dynasty, the noble families in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the vassal states in the Tang Dynasty, the landlords in the Song Dynasty, or the nobles in the Yuan Dynasty, they all showed that human desires are endless, and each dynasty has its own blood-sucking worms.

And the Ming Dynasty did not wait for the vassal kings to exert their strength, and the nobles had successfully touched Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line in less than two years.

After all, the iron certificate of exemption from death clearly stated: treason will not be protected, and all other death sentences can be exempted once.

And the common punishments other than the serious punishments clearly stated that "officials shall not impose additional punishments." In short, no matter how many times a person has committed crimes such as bullying, dominating the land, robbing women, and riding horses to injure people, they can be written off with the iron certificate.

The result of this was that "military officials relied on their merits and were arrogant, and offended more and more people."

So just two years later, Zhu had to quickly patch the iron certificate and specially issued an iron list with nine laws and regulations engraved on it to restrain meritorious officials and nobles.

But even the Iron List has a greater deterrent effect than a practical effect, and is more like a "three cups of wine penalty" in the form of the Ming Dynasty.

The Iron List stipulates that nobles who abuse their power, seize property, and rely on their followers are all subject to death penalty, but the first and second offenses only need to be recorded in the Iron Certificate, and only the third offense can be exchanged for a "real" death penalty, but even this hard-won real death penalty can be exempted with the Iron Certificate.

In summary, Zhu Yuanzhang treated the founding nobles generously. If Zhu was really a brave and murderous person, there would be no need to play the game of three death sentences in exchange for one, and there might not be such a thing as an Iron Certificate at all.

On the contrary, contrary to this conclusion, the Hu Lan case was exactly the result of Zhu Yuanzhang's repeated lenient treatment of the founding nobles, which aroused the fearlessness of the nobles, which ultimately caused the nobles to behave in the opposite direction from what Zhu Yuanzhang expected, and finally turned the two sides into enemies. Fight. 】

In Guangzheng Hall, even Zhao Pu couldn't help but feel a little excited when he heard the efficacy of this iron coupon.

However, Zhao Kuangyin was more direct. He turned to look at Qian Chu seriously and said:

"There is no precedent for iron coupons in the Song Dynasty, and the iron coupons in the Tang Dynasty are not the iron coupons of the Ming Dynasty, so they cannot be used in this way."

There was no need for officials to emphasize it, Qian Chu quickly assured:

"I will definitely not think so! The Qian family's iron coupons were obtained by our ancestors through their merits, and they are used as tributes for future generations. Wouldn't it be a pity if they were used to punish our descendants? How can these descendants meet the Qian family? Ancestor?"

These words were reasonable and well-founded. Zhao Kuangyin nodded slightly, then shook his head and felt that Emperor Hongwu's behavior was too rough:

"Good looks lead to arbitrariness, while tolerance leads to dissatisfaction. Even those who are in the most popular position will strive to advance. Isn't this the source of disaster?"

These words actually made the hall fall silent, because it was difficult for the ministers to judge for a moment whether the official was talking about Master Kongjiong or the official himself.

But Zhao Kuangyin didn't think too much, and just said with a little pity:

"After hearing that Cao You, whom I had seen before, was the glory of the country, he also needed to work hard to advance."

"Since the Han, Tang and Song dynasties were used as references during the Ming Dynasty, why did Emperor Hongwu do such an unusual thing?"