Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

【Compared to the prelude of the Hu Weiyong case and the tyranny of Comrade Hu after he came to power, the nominal last prime minister in feudal history ended quite hastily.

According to scholars' research, because Wang Guangyang died with his concubine Chen, Chen's identity as a confiscated woman surfaced when verifying the identity of the deceased, so Hu Weiyong was investigated for exceeding his authority and exceeding the rules, and was also involved in the Champa tribute envoy case and the private killing of the groom case, and was finally imprisoned at the end of September in the twelfth year of Hongwu.

That is, during the period when Hu Weiyong was imprisoned, Tu Jie, who was originally Hu Weiyong's confidant, defected and became a tainted witness on the second day of the first month of the thirteenth year. Only six days later, before the Spring Festival statutory holiday was over, Hu Weiyong, Tu Jie, and Chen Ning were convicted and executed together.

And five days later, at the grand court meeting, Zhu Yuanzhang showed his true colors and could not wait to announce:

I plan to abolish the Secretariat and the prime minister system. Who is in favor and who is against?

At this time, Hu Weiyong's first seven days of mourning had not yet passed, so who would dare to object?

And this decision that went against the ancestors was obviously the real cause of Hu Weiyong's death.

As for the signs recorded in the "History of Ming Dynasty" such as stalagmites emerging from the well in Hu Weiyong's hometown and flames rising to the sky at night from the ancestral tomb, they are obviously nonsense.

And the subsequent statement that Hu Weiyong planned to change the Ming Dynasty, gathering soldiers and recruiting desperate criminals, etc., I'm afraid he really regarded Zhu Yuanzhang as a fool.

Later, the Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Yingtai also wrote a Yunqi Rebellion, saying that a loyal eunuch named Yunqi lived next door to Hu Weiyong's house. When he heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was invited by Hu Weiyong to his house to watch the sweet spring coming out of the well, he risked his life to stop it. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang climbed the city gate tower and saw that Hu Weiyong's house was full of soldiers, so he quickly mobilized troops to fight for 300 rounds and captured the rebels, which is obviously more like a novel creation.

From the perspective of an outsider, we can see clearly that the power of the monarch and the power of the prime minister under the feudal system represent two different forces within the ruling class.

They complement each other and work together to bring the local areas under governance, thereby ruling the empire; they also frequently break out contradictions and conflicts, and fight.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Prime Minister Tian Fen would sit for most of the day every time he met with him, and Emperor Wu could only listen obediently. Seeing that Tian Fen could easily promote a person who lived in idleness to a rank of 2,000-stone official, Emperor Wu felt that his power was offended quite clearly, so he said, "Have you finished removing officials? I also want to remove officials." This is a bit of a yin and yang saying.

"Have you appointed all the officials you want to appoint? I still want to appoint a few officials."

To put it bluntly, the power cake of the central government is only this big. If someone eats more, someone is destined to eat less, and Emperor Wu has never been a patient person, so he finally raised the banner of strengthening the imperial autocracy.

After the development of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, the emperor had more and more cards in his hand, and naturally it became more and more difficult to tolerate sharing power with the prime minister.

This can be seen from the experiences of prime ministers in the past dynasties. In the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, the prime ministers were either emptied or divided. Even if they wanted to fight the old prime ministers, they needed to pull a group and beat a group, and operate slowly.

What about Hu Weiyong? Among the four prime ministers before and after the Hongwu Dynasty, Hu Weiyong was the most domineering one. He was the only prime minister, monopolized power, and had to read the internal and external reports first. Meritorious officials and warriors competed for his door. It was not an exaggeration to say that such a prime minister had power over the court and the country.

But such a prime minister was shattered by Zhu Yuanzhang. From imprisonment to death and abolition of the prime minister system, it took less than three and a half months.

If we count from the official punishment of Hu Weiyong, it took only eleven days, less than half a month. Not only did he uproot his party members, but he also dug up the graves of the prime minister system. This operation was unimaginable in the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

As a matter of course, the Zhu family added another ancestral precept: "The successor monarch shall not discuss the appointment of a prime minister. If the minister dares to ask for this, he will be severely punished."

Since the prime minister system has been abolished, let's just do what needs to be done. Zhu Yuanzhang also announced that the Grand Commandery, which controls the military forces at home and abroad, would also be changed, and it would be directly split into five, becoming five commanderies in front, back, left, and center.

Therefore, it is not so much that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the power of the prime minister was too great, and finally abolished the prime minister system that had lasted for nearly two thousand years.

It is better to say that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the power of the emperor was not great enough, so the events of the thirteenth year of Hongwu took place, and finally achieved the real monopoly of power.

However, this price is of course huge. In addition to the necessary court meetings every day, more than 140 memorials need to be reviewed every day, and more than 400 affairs of all sizes need to be reviewed. Basically, it really achieved "getting up earlier than chickens and sleeping later than dogs", but even so, it is difficult to achieve satisfaction in the handling of government affairs.

This 996 style of monopolizing power may be very enjoyable for Zhu Yuanzhang, who has an outrageous physical fitness, but Zhu Biao, who is exhausted, may not feel that it is very enjoyable. 】

Zhu Yuanzhang and his eldest son looked at each other, and then the two of them looked away with a little tacit understanding.

There was not much rift between father and son. It was better to say that Empress Ma mediated. Zhu Biao knew how much effort his father had devoted to him, and Zhu Yuanzhang also knew how hard his eldest son worked to seek his approval.

Occasionally, Zhu Yuanzhang would imagine how he could hand over the Ming Dynasty to his son, and how Biao, who was carefully cultivated, could govern the Ming Dynasty to its peak. In the future, if they could be compared with wise emperors like Wenjing in history books, they could be called regretless.

But now this kind of imagination can only stop at Biao'er's early death.

A Ming crown prince who was exhausted by government affairs, took advantage of the opportunity to get a carbuncle on his back, and finally had to send off his young son before he could ascend the throne to realize his ambitions.

The father and son had different feelings and both remained silent.

Zhu Chong and Zhu Yu, who were present for the first time, were a little curious, but they dared only to discuss it in a low voice.

Previously, when Zhu Chong heard that his father suddenly ordered them to leave Beijing for a long time, he had a headache:

"When will Daddy finish writing this ancestral precept?"

Zhu Yu nodded in agreement: "That's not necessary to ask, but I'm afraid I have to write down everything I have learned..."

Seeing that his father's head tilted slightly to this side, Zhu Yu also hurriedly patched it up: "But Daddy also has good intentions. What he wrote is all about governing the world, hoping that the descendants of the eldest brother can be fair and wise rulers in the future."

As soon as he said this, Zhu Yu sighed a little.

Everyone can see that his father has a different attitude towards his eldest brother and his brothers. In addition, his father is very strict in educating his children and his eldest brother can convince the brothers, so the brothers have never had any unreasonable thoughts, and they are very straightforward to become vassals.

But now, Daddy's previous scolding, and the fact that the future generations could not understand the death of his eldest brother, made Zhu Yu have some guesses about the succession of the throne.

But these guesses were not unreasonable, but rather endless fears, and the reason was very simple.

Now Daddy is in good health and sharpening his sword, and there is still a long time before the end of Hongwu. If one of the brothers really did a beastly act.

Then how should he face his father's rage?