As the only cabinet bachelor next to Jian Guo, Shen Chenquan acted as the great steward around Jian Guo. During the Northern Expedition, countless affairs were integrated into one body. Fortunately, he was relatively young, full of enthusiasm and energy for national salvation and rejuvenation. Complete.
But looking at the letter he had just written today, the young Dongge bachelor still couldn't help frowning and feeling worried.
The signature of this peace notice is to supervise the country. It is written that the emperor ordered the admiral to supervise the local military affairs of Jiangnan provinces and also be in charge of food and wages. Zhu Wu, the chief soldier of the flagbearer battalion.
Seeing this title, he couldn't help but think of Zhu Houzhao, the Ming Emperor Wuzong's self-proclaimed Governor-General of Military Affairs, Mighty General, Chief Military Officer, and Duke of Zhenguo Zhu Shou.
"Your Highness must have a deep intention behind this."
Another minister in the line, Yu Dayu, also felt a toothache.
Well, I don’t need the name of His Royal Highness, Supervisor of the Ming Dynasty. If I have to use the name Zhu Wu, just use Zhu Wu. I’ll give myself another promotion, from the former Chief Soldier of the Banner Battalion to the Chief Military Officer of the Banner Battalion. , and now the admiral is in charge of local military affairs in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and the official titles he has given himself are getting bigger and bigger.
Although Shen Chenquan is relatively young, he is very knowledgeable and knows much about the history of this dynasty.
There are always many legends about the fun-loving Ming Wuzong who had no children, and many speculations from the lower class people, such as the story of a dragon and two phoenixes, excessive speculations about the leopard room, etc.
Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, seemed to be an emperor who only knew how to play, like King Zhou of the wine pond and meat forest, or Yang Guang who traveled south of the Yangtze River on a dragon boat.
However, Shen Chenquan is not an ordinary scholar, how could he be so shallow? Moreover, he is now a bachelor of the cabinet, so he has a deeper understanding of the power of the government.
Let’s talk about the fun-loving Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty and his leopard room. On the surface, they may seem bohemian and absurd, but anyone who knows the history of that period of government knows that the leopard room is not only a plaything, but also the second means for Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty to fight for power. Court.
In essence, Baofang is another ceremonial supervisor.
The Ming Dynasty's cabinet voted to control the power of the outer dynasty, so the emperor formed a new central court, the inner dynasty, through the approval of the ceremonial supervisors and eunuchs, balancing internal and external affairs and controlling the balance of power.
Zhu Houzhao was an emperor who was very skillful in power struggle. His Leopard Room was actually the inner dynasty within the inner dynasty, and it was just a means by which the emperor took the opportunity to seize power.
Later, Zhu Houzhao even stayed in Datong at the border for a long time, and even gave himself the title of Governor-General, Military Affairs, Mighty General, Chief Military Officer, and Duke of the State. This may seem absurd, but it also contains powerful means of power struggle.
In essence, this is the emperor bypassing the court, especially the Ministry of War, and directly using this title to issue orders to the soldiers in the border towns of the Ming Dynasty. It seems strange that the emperor can just use the emperor's name to issue orders directly, so why bother with another title? Make a name?
This actually involves the nature of power. Although the emperor is the supreme and supreme, the emperor's power must be exercised through layers of transmission, and this all has a set of systems, such as the ceremonial supervisor, the cabinet Here are the internal and external dynasties, such as the Sixth Ministries and the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.
There must be such a complete process so that the emperor's will can be passed on normally. Although the Ming Dynasty was a centralized monarchy, the emperor's will was still likely to be rejected by the cabinet or even the Sixth Section.
Zhu Houzhao stayed in Datong and claimed to be the governor-general of military affairs, the mighty general and the commander-in-chief of the army. In fact, it was equivalent to opening a government office and setting up a new court center, establishing a second power center and directly leaving the Beijing court aside.
His initial Leopard Room was at most the center of the new inner court, the second inner court, but the governor-general, the mighty military affairs general, and the chief military officer, were superior to the internal and external war departments, and his orders were not the same. It is no longer necessary to follow the original traditional procedures.
You can directly give orders to border army generals and local officials.
What is this? This is the emperor’s dimensionality-reducing power struggle attack.
Zhu Houzhao later used this method to mobilize the border troops and fight against the little Mongolian prince under this name. This not only simplified the process but also reduced the time. More importantly, he avoided being constrained by ministers.
Now His Highness Lu Jianguo is also playing this trick, and his intention seems to be obvious.
"Your Highness wants to establish a vassal, a town, and a mansion in the south of the Yangtze River?" Yu Dafu asked uncertainly.
Shen Chenquan nodded, this was already very obvious.
"Your Highness, do you not trust Taizhou Xingzai or Shaoxing's Governor Xingyuan?" Yu Dafu asked worriedly.
"I think His Highness still has great trust in the two cabinet supervisors Zhang Guowei and Zhu Dadian. In addition, he also has great trust in Liu Gong, Fang Gong and Song Gong. Otherwise, there would be no need to delegate power like this." Shen Chenquan sighed, " But when we follow His Highness, we can still see something. His Highness seems to be very dissatisfied with the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty."
Jian Guo's behavior during this period also proves Shen Chenquan's words. This young Jian Guo has his own ideas and is even incompatible with the Ming Dynasty's system.
Whether it was because he wanted to go north, or because he had approached local gentry in Ningbo to borrow money or persuade them to donate money, or he had killed Xie Sanbin and others, after he came to western Zhejiang, he acted even more recklessly.
Various tax reductions and exemptions, but also the establishment of a new tax bureau, and after entering Kanpu, the new ideas of the prison country are more important in dealing with the powerful people in these places.
If this prisoner's surname was not Zhu and he was a descendant of Emperor Taizu Gao, it would be difficult to imagine that this was the prisoner of the Ming Dynasty.
After the death of Emperor Lie, King Fu of the Ming Dynasty established his throne in Nanjing, and King Lu briefly supervised the country in Hangzhou. However, these two basically did not follow the rules in their actions. Although one escaped and the other surrendered, they were still acting like normal emperors.
But this one is completely different.
Ever since he beheaded the Northern Envoy and raised his troops in Taizhou, he hasn't stayed anywhere for a few days. He has been on the run. Under his ZTE banner, more and more people have gathered to join him, including civil servants, military generals, and old cabinet ministers. There are also gentry and peasants, but no one can make the prison country stop.
But what they have to admit is that Jianguo's non-stop actions are indeed like a snowball, allowing the Jianguo court to continuously expand its territory and strength, and its influence is also constantly increasing.
He is obviously a prisoner of the country, but he still has to run around all the time.
He was obviously supervising the country, but he had to lead the army himself.
These styles are incompatible with those people.
Even though Chongzhen was diligent in his administration, he never left Beijing, let alone led his troops to fight.
Now look at this newly added title, but it is full of martial arts style.
In fact, later generations of the Ming Dynasty had mixed praise and praise for Wu Zong's actions, and even criticized him more than praised him. But they also have to admire that this emperor controlled power very well.
The emperors of the old Zhu family of the Ming Dynasty basically had a way of playing power and were very capable. Even Zhu Qizhen, the Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty who was captured in the battle of Tumubao, was not a fool. He was defeated and captured and placed under house arrest outside the wall. , after returning to Beijing and being imprisoned, he was still able to seize the door and reset.
"I always feel that His Highness wants to conduct experiments in Jiangnan, western Zhejiang, and train troops here. The title of Admiral of Jiangnan, flag-bearer in chief, and general of the country is more convenient for him to do things."
"Does Mr. Shen think this is a good thing or a bad thing?"
Shen Chenquan gritted his teeth, "The situation of the country is like this. Maybe if we work hard, we can really find some hope. It's better than just sitting back and waiting for death, right?"
The Ming Dynasty was in ruins from top to bottom. Even if the Tatars outside the Liaodong Pass did not invade, the Ming Dynasty would definitely not be able to survive.
Even now, under the banner of expelling the Tartars and reviving the Ming Dynasty, there will be no future if the old problems that plague the Ming Dynasty are not solved.
Regardless of whether the business in Taizhou or the governor's office in Shaoxing is just patching things up to maintain the situation, they can't even solve the basic financial problem of food and salary, so what else can they talk about?
Jian Guo refused to stay in the rear and insisted on leading troops on the front line. Shen Chenquan, the person who had been following him, had a hint of Jian Guo's thoughts, that is, the front was more suitable for tossing. After all, it was an enemy-occupied area and a war zone. Without changing the old rule of giving free money and food to the gentry, we can easily exempt the common people from taxes, and then set up a tax bureau to encourage donations. In fact, it is taxing all walks of life. This is a reformulation of the tax system, but it does not directly abolish the old tax system. The tax law still maintains the preferential and exemption privileges of the bureaucratic gentry class.
This is a very contradictory approach, but under the banner of national salvation and restoration, the gentry and bureaucrats cannot refute it. And this temporary nature of the Lijin Bureau inevitably makes the gentry and bureaucrats think that the ancestral system has not changed. , the privileges have not been changed and will still return to normal in the future.
The Lijin Bureau is an important adjustment of the tax and finance of the Supervisory State, and the Supervisory State is personally on the front line, and insists on serving as the commander-in-chief and even now the commander-in-chief, so it is obvious that he wants to attack the army.
From Taizhou to Ningbo, Ningbo to Jiaxing, along the way, we recruited troops and reorganized troops, including the Yongwei Camp, the Flag Bearer Camp, the Shenji Camp, and then the Shizhong Camp. More than a dozen battalion heads were organized successively, and they were appointed by officers and generals. When it comes to the military pay and camp system, it is fundamentally different from the original one. These are all decided directly by the Supervisory State. In fact, the cabinet, the Supervisor of Ceremonies, the Sixth Ministries, etc. that are currently being formed have not been able to exert their true powers at all. In this matter They didn't even get to participate.
This was something that Emperor Hongguang had never done before.
Shen Chenquan also felt like laughing at his conclusion, which he found very absurd.
It is already a supervisory state supported by the civilized warrior gentry in eastern Zhejiang, but now it wants to become a vassal town?
But that seems to be the case.
But Shen Chenquan also saw that His Royal Highness, the Supervisor of the Kingdom, seemed to be taking a completely different path to supervising the Kingdom from Prince Fu and Prince Lu, and even a different path from that of the Lieutenant Chongzhen. What's ahead on this road? , Shen Chenquan doesn’t know either.
But looking back on this journey, in less than a month, he had achieved so many victories and opened up such a good situation, and he couldn't help but feel excited.
"Following His Highness Jianguo, we have won one game after another. Although they are only small victories, we have been winning, right?"
Yu Dafu nodded, "Yes, we have been winning."
"That's enough." Shen Chenquan looked at the long list of titles on the Anmin notice in front of him, and suddenly felt that this seemed good.