Zhu Di felt guilty for breaking his promise not to make Zhu Gaoxu the crown prince. He didn't know how to place his son who had made great achievements in the Battle of Jingnan. Logically speaking, after the crown prince was established, the other princes would have to create princes and establish vassal states in various places.
, and at that time, Zhu Di knew very well that he would weaken and restrict the vassal kings everywhere even more than his nephew Jianwen. By then, the so-called vassal kings would be nothing more than the noblest prisoners in the world. Although Zhu Di could
He was cruel to his brothers and nephews, but he really couldn't bear to treat his second son, whom he had promised to be his heir, among the many rescuers and thousands of troops, in this way.
After some deep thought, Zhu Di made the decision to seal Zhu Gaochi in Yunnan, which was actually a kind of compensation. Although Yunnan was a province of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the mountains were high and the rivers were far away, which was beyond the reach of the imperial court. He could only surrender by sending trusted generals to guard it with full power.
Those unruly and unruly ethnic minorities. So in fact, when they leave Yunnan, they are enclosing territories and establishing their own state within a state.
In the Hongwu Dynasty, this job belonged to Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son Mu Ying. Although Mu Ying was extremely filial, his surname was not Zhu after all. Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried about handing over Yunnan to him and his descendants. Therefore, after Mu Ying had been out of Yunnan for ten years, his title
He was just a marquis, and he was posthumously granted the title of king after he died of illness.
By the Yongle Dynasty, Mu Ying had been dead for many years, and Zhu Di wanted to grant Yunnan to Zhu Gaoxu. In fact, he would permanently grant the land south of Caiyun to the King of Han and his descendants. This was clearly granting the title to the princes and not to the princes.
Of course, the vassal king left Yunnan with his unrivaled second son, and the court no longer had to worry about border instability. In the emperor's opinion, it was the best of both worlds.
However, who would have expected that Zhu Gaoxu refused to go to Yunnan, because he only had the throne in his eyes, and any other way out would be failure. Moreover, Yunnan was indeed a barbarian land in the eyes of the people of the Celestial Dynasty. In Zhu Gaoxu's view, letting him go there was simply a banishment.
So he kept complaining to his father, saying, had he made any mistakes? Why should he be sent to Yunnan? In short, he just refused to leave. Zhu Di originally liked this son more, and he always felt guilty for Zhu Gaoxu, so he was
I had no choice but to withdraw Cheng's life and let him live in the capital first.
As a result, this stay lasted ten years...
In the eyes of ordinary ministers, the emperor allowed the King of Han to live permanently in the capital, but an old fox like Hu Guang vaguely remembered that it seemed that this was not the case. In order to verify his memory, he took advantage of his position to look through the emperor's daily life
Note, as expected, it was found that the emperor only allowed the King of Han to live in the capital temporarily at that time. After looking at the edicts related to the King of Han over the years, there was no explicit decree that the King of Han could not leave the vassal and live in the capital permanently.
Now Hu Guangke found the King of Han's seven inches, and immediately asked his disciples to report to the emperor that it was not a blessing for the vassal king to stay in the capital for a long time. Since the king of Han was unwilling to leave the vassal state because Yunnan was too remote, he might as well ask the emperor to change it.
Give him a remote fiefdom, so that the King of Han can be satisfied, and no one will say that he is stranded in the capital to spy on the artifact, so that both father, son, monarch and ministers can have a good ending. At the end of the memorial, it is proposed that Qingzhou is one of the nine states in ancient times.
The land is fertile, the population is densely populated, and it is located in the strategic capital of Shandong. It is definitely not remote. It is just the fiefdom of His Highness the King of Han. If His Highness the King of Han still refuses, the Emperor will have to consider his intentions.
Jiang is still old and hot. This memorial concocted by Hu Guang behind the scenes is hitting His Highness the King of Han's seven inches. It also makes Zhu Di have to seriously consider it. Because although he did not say it explicitly, Zhu Di has been quietly weakening the vassal king.
Power is an indisputable fact among the ruling and opposition parties.
Before Yongle, the vassal king ruled the people by nobles and divided the vassal and the territory. The envoys of the vassal fiefs all commanded the envoys and their subordinates. They had to go to the palace to see the marquis on the first and fifteenth day of every month. In addition, the prince could also
Summon them at any time. Except for the chief historian, garrison commanders, and escort commanders, the rest of the royal palace officials are appointed by the vassal king. Officials of the royal palace can also participate in provincial affairs, such as general commanders and envoys, and the vassal king has the power to kill them.
Power: Within the feudal kingdom, the vassal king had absolute military and political power.
At the imperial court, the prince can send envoys directly to the imperial court. Anyone who dares to stand in the way will be punished as a treacherous official. Feng Xianguan will be executed for the crime of estrangement from relatives if the prince has a minor offense or has heard of a major offense.
If there is a serious crime, the punishment cannot be increased. The person can only be summoned to the capital and punished by the emperor. In the most serious cases, he will be demoted to a commoner. At the least, he will be reprimanded in person, or he will be sent to an official to exhort him to correct his mistakes.
This ensured the transcendent status of the vassal king and gave him the tyrannical strength to threaten the imperial power. By the late Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang had realized this problem and was worried that his grandson's throne would be threatened, so he imposed many restrictions on the prince. But Palm
The back of his hand was full of flesh, and he could not be cruel to his own son, so the effect was not great. The result was that the tail was too big to lose, and Zhu Di had the strength to launch a battle to seize the throne.
After Zhu Di seized the throne from his nephew, he naturally wanted to prevent any vassal king from imitating him, so he attached great importance to the control of the vassal kings. He first cut off their titles for various crimes such as treason.
Subordinate officials and guards, canceling their power to command the garrison, and abolishing the stipulation that the clan can serve as officials, ordered all civil and military officials to treat the prince only with official titles and not as ministers. It is stipulated that after the prince reaches a certain age after the feudal kingdom, he must go out to the feudal kingdom.
From now on, you will not be allowed to enter Beijing unless you are ordered to do so, etc.
Put aside the rest of the regulations for now. When Prince Shan' reaches a certain age after the feudal kingdom, he must go out to the feudal kingdom and cannot enter the capital unless he is ordered to do so. This one rule is enough to eat the King of Han to death. It's fine if no one mentioned it before.
, now someone has said that Zhu Di cannot slap himself in the face, he must give an explanation...
Therefore, although the memorial was withheld, the emperor did not punish the officials who wrote the memorial. This encouraged Hu Guangda. In the past few days, more than ten officials have submitted letters urging the emperor to express his position.
Wang Xian naturally considered this. Although he did not believe that the King of Han would leave the capital because of this, he had to admit that this situation was very difficult to solve, because no matter what, the King of Han had been feuding for ten years and if he still wanted to stay in the capital,
This truth cannot be explained anywhere. Zhu Di must solve this problem, otherwise future generations will follow this precedent and completely ruin his efforts to weaken the vassal king.
However, he and the prince must not get involved in this matter, otherwise it will be counterproductive and help the King of Han. Therefore, Wang Xian just watched the progress of this matter with a cold eye. It is said that although the emperor did not summon the King of Han to mention the matter, he had already
I have discussed it secretly with Yao Shaoshi, British Duke Zhang Fu and other close ministers. Although the result is unknown, it will definitely give the King of Han a splitting headache.
The two talked for a while, and the carriage arrived in front of the Ministry of War Yamen, and the chariot got off.
"Sir, where are we going?" Zhou Yong asked softly when Mr. Chai entered the yamen.
Wang Xian couldn't help but feel guilty when he thought he hadn't been home for several days, and said, "Go home."
The carriage drove towards the East Palace. Unexpectedly, as soon as he saw the door of his house, he heard the sound of rapid horse hooves approaching from far away. Wang Xian suddenly felt depressed... The knight on the horse was probably coming towards him, because here
In the imperial city, the only people who dare to gallop on horseback are the people around me, except for a few emperor's grandsons and the emperor's messengers...
"Sir," as expected, a low cry completely extinguished Wang Xian's luck. After a while, Zhou Yong knocked on the car window and reported to Wang Xian in a low voice: "Sir, the King of Han has been assassinated."
"What?" Wang Xian was startled and asked, "Where is it?"
"It is said that a secret message came from the Xiaoling Mausoleum yesterday, saying that all the ginkgo trees in front of the Xiaoling Palace died overnight. The emperor was very angry when he heard that, and ordered the King of Han to go to the Xiaoling Mausoleum to plead guilty to Taizu and investigate the situation on the ground.
His Highness the King of Han set out this morning. Unexpectedly, he encountered an ambush on the way. He was seriously injured and fell into a coma." The officer from the Fifth Division who reported the news hurriedly said: "At this time, His Highness the King of Han has almost been sent back to the capital. Your Majesty ordered
Send him directly to Beiyuan, and he should be summoned to see you soon."
Wang Xian nodded, and while he was digesting this shocking news, he heard the sound of horse hooves again, followed by a slightly shrill voice: "Is this Wang Zhenfu of Beizhen Fusi in front of you?"
"He is my lord." Zhou Yong asked again in a deep voice: "Who is your father-in-law?"
"We have been ordered by the emperor to deliver an oral message to Wang Zhenfu." The eunuch reined in his horse and said in a deep voice, "The emperor ordered Wang Zhenfu to enter the palace quickly without any mistakes."
Wang Xian also hurriedly got down from the carriage. When he saw that it was the eunuch named Li Zhong who was beside the emperor, he knelt down in the tunnel and said: "I will obey the imperial edict."
"We'll talk about the specific situation on the way. Sir, please meet me first." Li Zhong nodded to Wang Xian. Wang Xian didn't waste any time. He took the reins from his subordinates, quickly got on his horse, and galloped towards Beiyuan with Li Zhong.
go
Li Zhong showed off a gold medal, and the journey went smoothly. The two of them dismounted until they were outside Beiyuan Gate. On the way to Yitian Palace, Li Zhong briefly introduced to Wang Xian what had happened, which was very different from what he knew. The only thing
The new news is that the prince, the British Duke and other important figures have also been summoned to Beiyuan by the emperor.
After waiting outside Yitian Palace for a while, Wang Xian saw the British Duke Zhang Fu rushing over. This first soldier of the Ming Dynasty was in his forties. He was thin and handsome, with three long beards on his chest.
, with a pair of red phoenixes under his eyebrows, he looked more like a scribe than a military official, but Wang Xian never dared to underestimate the Duke of the country and hurriedly bowed deeply.
Zhang Fu and Wang Xian had also met each other, but they had never spoken to each other. At this moment, they nodded and said warmly: "Master Wang has been here early."
"Xiaguan has just arrived." Wang Xian said hurriedly.
"Your Majesty ordered me to see you directly, so I'll excuse you now." Zhang Fuke politely greeted Wang Xian, and then went straight into the Yitian Palace.
"Your Majesty, please." Wang Xian bowed slightly and watched Zhang Fu enter the palace.