Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 514: On the Yuan and Ming Revolutions

In July, a petition requesting Su Ze to be promoted to king was sent to Dingzhou. Faced with the densely packed names, Su Ze knew that this was the common wish of all his subjects.

At this time, Su Ze could only shout "My ministers have misled me!" and then accept the ministers' request.

However, this title of king must also comply with the Basic Law.

First, Su Ze had to decline the offer three times. This was easy, it was just a formality.

He called the clerk around him and asked him to write a resignation letter in four-six parallel prose. Su Ze copied it personally and sent someone to deliver it to Yongle City.

This is just a formality. I guess the Government Affairs Hall has already helped the emperor prepare the next edict to confer the title of king.

In terms of etiquette, the sacrificial rituals of a prince are different from those of a duke, and a ancestral temple must also be established. Su Ze handed this over to Su Tong.

In terms of the official structure, the original shogunate of the county mansion was changed to the shogunate of the royal mansion. The Government Affairs Hall itself was a tool for Su Ze to manipulate the government, and neither the foundation nor the inside needed to be changed.

So the two most important things are the royal title and the palace.

This royal title is actually equivalent to the name of the country.

For example, Cao Cao was called the King of Wei in the past, and later after Cao Pi usurped the throne, he changed the country's name to Wei.

Huan Xuan was called the King of Chu in those days. After he destroyed the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the country was named Chu. Historians called it Huan Chu because Chu was easily confused with the Chu State in the pre-Qin period.

Zhou, Qi?
Su Ze shook his head. Both of them sounded unlucky.

Don?
However, the Tang Dynasty took the Bingzhou area as its country name because its fiefdom was the ancient Tang Kingdom.

Bingzhou is where Erzhu Rong made his fortune, and there is always something strange about it.

In fact, the ministers’ suggestions were quite consistent, and that was Qin.

The reason is very simple. Su Ze's base is Guanzhong, which is the territory of the ancient Qin State. It is only natural to use Qin as the country's name.

But the name Qin is too unlucky.

The Qin Empire perished in the second generation. During the period of the Five Barbarians Invasion, there was a Former Qin and a Later Qin. The Former Qin was the one ruled by Fu Jian, which lasted for 44 years.

The Later Qin Dynasty was established by Yao Chang after the collapse of the Former Qin Dynasty and lasted for thirty-four years.

If we count the demise of Qin II and not the Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the three Qin dynasties combined lasted less than a hundred years.

Too bad.

This is also the reason why almost no regime used Qin as its country name in the future.

The ministers had another opinion, which was "Han".

But this guy is also awkward.

To this day, many people still miss the Han Dynasty, which also shows the influence of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Gui's ancestor, Emperor Zhao Han Liu Yuan, was clearly a Hun, but he called himself the Han Dynasty, which is enough to show the importance of Han in the hearts of the people.

But those who call themselves Han are basically those with the surname Liu. It would seem a bit weird if you, a person with the surname Su, call yourself Han.

Su Ze still couldn't make up his mind, so he asked the clerk who accompanied him to draft another letter and give it to Cao of the Ministry of Rites for discussion.

The last question is the palace of the newly established kingdom.

As for proclaiming himself king and establishing a system, Su Ze had actually already established it when he founded his government.

But the significance of building a palace is still different.

A palace is not just a royal residence.

This also includes a series of institutions belonging to the kingdom, which can run parallel to the imperial court.

Once these institutions were established, Su Ze could appoint officials through the royal palace without the need for the emperor's approval.

This would further weaken the emperor's authority.

This is what Cao Cao did back then. He increased the fiefdom of Wei State step by step, and eventually turned his family into a country, swallowing up a whale and an elephant, and accomplished his goal of changing the dynasty.

Su Ze’s fiefdom must be Guanzhong. From then on, the Government Affairs Hall only needed to approve Su Ze’s edict to appoint local civil and military officials.

Officials who still have the Great Wei in their hearts and are unwilling to tear off the fig leaf can be arranged to serve in marginal places that do not belong to Su Ze's fiefdom.

Officials who are willing to tear this last bit of window paper and want to get promoted can serve in Su Ze's fiefdom.

This is also the benefit of being a king.

As for the fact that Su Ze can offer sacrifices to heaven and earth and to his ancestors with cold pork in the future, these are all matters of etiquette.

Also because Guanzhong was originally pacified by Su Ze, this process will only be very smooth.

Su Ze's foundation is much stronger than that of Yuwen Tai in history.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Yuwen Tai fled to Guanzhong after Erzhu Rong's defeat. The original leader of the Wuchuan faction in Guanzhong was Heba Yue, but Heba Yue was killed by Houmochen Yue. Later, the Wuchuan faction supported Yuwen Tai.

Yuwen Tai was supported by the heroes of Wuchuan, so politically he was just the leader of a group.

Therefore, in the military system established by Yuwen Tai, the Shangzhuguo he set up were almost equivalent to the princes with fiefdoms and possessed enormous power.

In several battles with Gao Huan's group, Yuwen Tai also had to be cautious and balance the power within his own faction.

In addition, Yuwen Tai also had to balance the local forces in Guanzhong and the ministers loyal to the Northern Wei regime.

It was also thanks to Yuwen Tai's superb political skills that the power of the Eight Pillars was gradually weakened.

However, these Shangzhuguo still left a huge force. In the end, the Sui and Tang dynasties replaced the Zhou Dynasty, which was actually the will of the Guanlong noble group. For Su Ze, these were not a problem.

The Guanzhong Group was established by Su Ze, and all the tough battles were fought by Su Ze. The foundation of the palace soldiers was the good families in Guanzhong, plus the survivors of the Six Garrisons who were taken in by Su Ze.

However, these survivors of the Six Garrisons were first Su Ze's palace soldiers and only then the survivors of the Six Garrisons. In the process of further assimilation, they have even lost their identity as the survivors of the Six Garrisons.

We were refugees who had no means of survival. It was Duke Su who took us in and granted us land. We are people from Guanzhong, not from the Six Garrisons.

These soldiers have their land and families in Guanzhong; they are not the private soldiers of any general. If someone wants to lead them in a rebellion, they will definitely tie that person up and take him to the government office first.

The same is true for middle and high-level military officers. First of all, they are Su Ze's old subordinates, and they suppress everyone else in terms of seniority.

These are the benefits of conquering the world on your own.

For Su Ze, becoming a king was a natural thing, just like Cao Cao becoming a king in his later years.

Finally, it is a question of legality.

In fact, in history, there was a solution to the revolution of Tang and Wu.

That is the theory of "Yuan-Ming Revolution" proposed by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Most people's impression of Zhu is that he was an emperor of humble origins who started with a bowl.

But Lao Zhu is indeed a political genius.

The legal problems faced by Old Zhu are no less serious than Su Ze’s current predicament.

During the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty was not yet a Sinicized country, but a backward and barbaric regime that implemented the four-class system.

But Zhu Yuanzhang still had to accept the Yuan Dynasty with a pinch of his nose, because at that time there were still many Han landlords and literati who were loyal to the Yuan Dynasty.

In order to reduce the cost of ruling, recognizing the previous dynasty is an inevitable choice.

Even the name of the Ming Dynasty was taken from the Book of Changes.

The Book of Changes says: "Great is Qian Yuan, the source of all things, governing the heavens. Clouds move and rain falls, and all things flow and take shape. Great Ming begins and ends, the six positions are formed at times, and sometimes they ride on six dragons to control the heavens."

The Yuan Dynasty was taken from the first sentence of this paragraph, "Great is the Qian Yuan", and the Ming Dynasty was taken from the following sentence, "The beginning and the end of the Great Ming", which means that the Great Ming came after the Great Yuan.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang faced another dilemma. Since the Yuan Dynasty was a good country, why not be a good citizen instead of rebelling?
If this problem cannot be solved, future generations can rebel against the Zhu family at any time.

Lao Zhu proposed a solution that was like a logical genius.

What he said was that it was not the Ming Dynasty that overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, but the Red Turban Army and various rebel forces. It was the Ming Dynasty that recovered the country from the various rebel forces, but by that time, your Yuan Dynasty had already fled to the northern desert.

This set of statements can be applied to any change of dynasty.

For example, you, Liu Bang, were overthrown the tyranny of the King of Qin by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the righteous army of the six kingdoms and Xiang Yu. What does it have to do with me, Liu Bang?

It was you, the winners, who lost the mandate of heaven, that led to the rise of various rebel armies, and it was not me, Liu Bang, who led the rebellion.

When the empire is stable, you of the Ying family will no longer be able to rule the country, so you will abdicate and hand it over to us, the Han Dynasty.

There is no problem in applying it today.

The destiny of your Great Wei was destroyed by rebels like Po Liu, Han Baling and Erzhu Rong. I, Su Ze, am a meritorious official who has helped support the country. I have always been a loyal official of the Great Wei.

Later, it was natural that Emperor Yuanxu realized that the Yuan family had committed a crime against heaven and had lost the Mandate of Heaven, and he wanted to transfer the throne to the Su family.

Silky!

Su Ze sighed, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed a genius in politics. Although this theory of the Yuan-Ming Revolution also had some bugs, it could be regarded as a patch for the "Tang-Wu Revolution."

This theory naturally has its drawbacks.

First of all, we cannot kill the royal family of the Yuan Wei Dynasty indiscriminately, at least the blood cannot be splashed on ourselves.

Secondly, the country must be acquired legitimately, it must be conquered by the founding monarch, only then can this narrative have room. Otherwise, like the Sui Dynasty which usurped the Zhou Dynasty, the legality will never be clearly debated in this lifetime.

As for how to do it specifically and how to get Confucian scholars to promote it, Su Ze sent this plan to Su Tong, and it would be handed over to the Ministry of Rites to handle it.

But these things are things you only need to worry about after you have conquered the world.

Su Ze's current attention is focused on the Jingxing Pass in front of him.

Heba Yue was a fierce general, otherwise he would not have been the leader of the Wuchuan Group.

This is also the reason why Erzhu Rong trusted him to guard Jingxingkou.

After Erzhu Rong suffered two consecutive defeats at Yubi City and Yanmen Pass, he began to pay attention to defending the city.

After Heba Yue arrived at Jingxingkou, he also ordered the renovation of the city pass and added a lot of city defense facilities.

That's what war is like, and that's where technology advances fastest.

You can't expect the enemy to always fight you with the most backward weapons, right?

Even the most weak Song Dynasty developed sophisticated armor and heavy crossbow technology in its battles with nomadic peoples.

Erzhu Rong was a famous general of his time. After suffering a series of defeats, he naturally paid attention to city defense technology.

Even the siege equipment that Su Ze used at Yanmen Pass, Erzhu Rong began to have his craftsmen imitate it.

To capture Jingxing, it seems that we need to exert efforts elsewhere.

(End of this chapter)