Chapter 179: The Three Veins of Honor and Qi

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 After determining what the emperor wanted to know, Li Xian's thoughts became much smoother.

After sorting out his words for a moment, he spoke.

"Your Majesty, among the relatives in the capital today, it seems that the relationships are huge and complicated, but in fact, tracing back to the roots, they should be attributed to the three lines."

Zhu Qiyu was a little surprised.

He really didn't expect that Li Xian could really sort out the intricate relationship between his relatives in a short time.

I suddenly became interested and continued to ask.

"Which three meridians?"

Li Xian pondered for a moment, seemed a little unsure, and then said.

"I'm just summarizing it briefly. If my words are inappropriate, please forgive me."

Zhu Qiyu's curiosity became even more intense now, and he waved his hand.

"Just say it, it doesn't matter!"

So Li Xian cupped his hands and said.

"Your Majesty should know that most of the relatives granted by Taizu have stayed in Nanzhili and have not come to the capital. Therefore, there are more than 40 relatives in the capital. Most of them were granted by Jingnan, and a few were granted by Renzong, Xuanzong and the Supreme Emperor.

seal up."

Zhu Qiyu nodded, this is no secret.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there were two great heroes, one was Taizu and the other was Taizong.

However, these two kinships did not merge together in the end, but separated from each other.

Because of Taizong's move of the capital, the relatives of Taizu's era, except for a few, were completely excluded from the political center.

In addition to these honorary relatives of Taizu, plus Yang Hong, Guo Deng, Fan Guang, and Tao Jin who were just awarded honors, there are now a total of forty-seven honorary relatives in the capital.

Among them, including Li Xian, who had just been promoted to the Jin Dynasty, there were four dukes, eighteen marquises, and twenty-five earls.

Among these forty-seven honorary families, fully thirty-three were granted the title of Emperor Taizong.

Among the remaining fourteen families, three were granted the title by Renzong and Xuanzong, eight were granted the title by the Supreme Emperor, and the last four were granted the title just now.

Zhu Qiyu remembers these data more clearly than Li Xian.

But knowing this is useless. In so many families, in-laws have known each other for several generations. It is extremely difficult to figure out the connections between them.

So Li Xian continued.

"In the imperial court, the line of honorary relatives was mostly divided into Taizong's honorary relatives and newly promoted honorary relatives according to the time of ennomination, but this is not the case."

this……

Zhu Qiyu frowned. He really didn't expect that as soon as Li Xian opened his mouth, he overturned the default understanding in the court.

Seemingly seeing the Emperor's confused expression, Li Xian continued to explain.

"Your Majesty, please think about it carefully. Even among civil servants, if they want to take scientific examinations and enter official positions step by step, they must also worship the so-called room master and seat master in order to have a smooth official career. Why is this not the case for honorary relatives?"

"Since Taizong, the line of honors in the capital has been established. Although the new honors are awarded titles based on military merit, they all come from low-level honors."

"These people went to war in various places and obeyed the orders of the general military officer. Only then did they receive military merits and promotions. After being awarded titles, many of them married old relatives."

"Therefore, since Taizong, no matter when the honorary relatives were granted, they are all in the same line as Taizong's honorary relatives, rather than forming a separate lineage."

Zhu Qiyu understood what Li Xian meant.

Just like civil servants taking the imperial examination, any new scholar who enters the official career will not have no background.

From the time they are children, they will have various relationships with fellow villagers, classmates, classmates, etc.

The same goes for relatives.

No one can achieve great luck and become a knight by working alone.

However, those who are knighted must have done so one step at a time, relying on countless military exploits.

But how did they obtain these military exploits?

Naturally, it is not possible to lead an army by yourself from the very beginning and gain success in battles. Instead, one starts from low-level military positions such as commander, general and so on, and accumulates military exploits step by step.

Then during this process, they will unnaturally and gradually integrate into the group of senior honorary relatives.

This is actually very easy to understand. From the very beginning of their campaign, they obeyed the orders of their coach, and those who could be the coach were themselves descendants of Taizong.

They follow the coach and get credit, and they will naturally be included in the coach's network.

After they were knighted, the relationship was further strengthened through marriage, and naturally, they were integrated into the old kinship forces.

After understanding this, Zhu Qiyu suddenly felt enlightened.

In his previous life, because of the civil war, he actually developed a strong sense of distrust towards the remaining relatives in the capital.

Therefore, he did not understand the situation of his relatives in such detail, but chose to trust the civil servants on the one hand, and on the other hand, he supported the new relatives.

But he never thought that the relatives he supported would receive the final title through his grace.

But before that, during their long time in the military, they had already developed various connections with their old comrades.

Moreover, as the senior officials in the capital already control the power of the military generals, these newly promoted senior officials will inevitably have to integrate into the old system in order to gain a firm foothold.

After all, they were single and weak. Facing the alliance of more than thirty Taizong relatives, they had no other choice but to compromise.

So Zhu Qiyu asked.

"So what you are saying is that in order to clarify the power lines of the Xun Qi, we need to start from the very beginning, when Taizong granted the title to the power division?"

Since the honorary relatives granted later will inevitably be integrated into the old relationship network.

So if you want to understand the context, you can only trace it back to the source.

Although the first batch of honorary kinships in the Ming Dynasty were conferred by Taizu, due to the relocation of the capital, the origins of the kinships now in power are undoubtedly the thirty or so conferred by Taizong.

Li Xian nodded and said.

"Your Majesty is wise. In the imperial court, most of Taizong's relatives are regarded as one. However, in fact, these relatives are divided into three branches."

"The old minister is not talented, so he divided these three branches into the Yanwangfu branch, the Jingnan branch, and the Beizheng branch."

Zhu Qiyu chewed these three words carefully, but his curiosity became more and more intense. He did not expect that Taizong's descendants, who were usually regarded as one by the court, could be divided in such detail.

But he didn't speak, but waited for Li Xian to continue explaining.

"The so-called lineage of the Prince of Yan's Palace refers to the old officials of the Prince of Yan's Palace who were granted titles due to their efforts in appeasing Emperor Taizong's residence."

"The Jingnan lineage refers to the generals from various places who joined the army after Emperor Taizong raised his army. Although they both received titles due to Jingnan's contribution, they are not from the same lineage as the old officials of Prince Yan's palace."

"And the last lineage is the relatives who did not participate in the Jingnan, or did not perform well during the Jingnan, but followed Emperor Taizong in the Northern Expedition and were awarded titles."

"These three lines of Xunqi are basically the original layout of the Xunqi in Beijing today."

At this point, Zhu Qiyu couldn't help but ask.

"Li Qing, according to what you said, aren't these three lines also divided according to the order of titles?"

Li Xian naturally knew the doubts in the emperor's heart and said.

"What your Majesty said is true, but the reason why these three generations of kinship members are divided is because they are different from the newly promoted kinship members."

"These three lineages have different origins, but they are contemporaries. In terms of the time when they were enthroned, naturally the lineage of Prince Yan is earlier than the lineage of Jingnan, and the lineage of Jingnan is earlier than the lineage of Beizheng."

"But in terms of age, those from the Northern Zhengxun family are not necessarily younger than those from the Prince of Yan family, and may even be older."

"Therefore, the three lineage kinships each had their own backgrounds and were not convinced by each other. They fought with each other for many years during the Taizong era, which ultimately established the current kinship pattern."

"As for the later relatives, they all joined after the pattern was established, so naturally they can only integrate into one lineage."

I see……

Zhu Qiyu asked curiously.

"Then Li Qing, which lineage do you belong to?"


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