Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 232: Show justice to the vassal kings and replace them if they don’t obey!
"Those who oppose it should do as we agreed before."

Zhu Houcong instructed Mao Ji.

Mao Ji nodded in agreement.

then.

Zhu Houcong also instructed: "It is very important for the former Yuan to govern the country with harmony and harmony among the people. I deeply agree with this."

Mao Ji felt very relieved.

"So, after the initial warning, the court can be lenient. As long as the gentry pay 80% of the arrears, their titles will not be revoked."

"Isn't this too much?"

Zhu Houcong asked Mao Ji as he spoke.

Mao Ji said: "Your Majesty, this is not excessive, but the gentry of the world may misunderstand the intention of the court and think that the court does not dare to really abolish their reputation, so they give in."

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong asked, "What do you think we should do?"

Mao Ji said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I am a mediocre person. I only have the heart to try my best, but I don't have the talent to change the world!"

Zhu Houcong said: "Then don't say anything more, just do as ordered!"

"Yes!"

then.

Mao Ji then said, "Your Majesty, the three judicial departments have closed the case of Zhu Zhige, and I request that he be punished according to law! The Liao king's fiefdom should be abolished, and the Liao king's guards should be restored to the Jingzhou vanguard, and the Liao king's vassal land should be restored to the people's land."

Zhu Houcong said without hesitation: "Yes!"

Mao Ji couldn't help but be surprised.

"Yes!"

But Mao Ji did not ask any further questions and just approved the requests of the three judicial officials as ordered.

Zhu Zhige, who had been imprisoned in the imperial prison, was very surprised when he heard about his fate from the official of the Three Laws Department, because he did not expect that the emperor would kill him.

"Zhu Houcong, how can you be so mean!"

Zhu Zhige couldn't help but roar in anger.

"It's not that Your Majesty is mean, it's that you are too ignorant. You think that since Your Majesty is a foreign vassal who has succeeded to the throne, you should be lenient with you to stabilize the people's hearts."

"But in fact, the people's hearts and minds are no longer determined by you vassal states."

At this time, Zhang Cong, the Minister of the Dali Temple, took the initiative to say this, hoping that this sentence could be spread and let the confused royal family members among the princes and vassals in the world hear it, so that they would not have the illusion that there could be another Jingnan Rebellion, but should take the lessons of Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Zongxuan and Zhu Chenhao as a warning.

Zhu Zhige clenched his fists and said, "Can you please tell the emperor to spare my life? Considering we are from the same clan?"

"The red seal has been issued!"

"How can it be changed!"

Zhang Cong said in a deep voice.

The Minister of Justice Zhao Huang followed up and said, "That's right! Since you have the intention to destroy Emperor Xingxian's tomb, you should know that this will be your fate!"

"Then give me Wuxiang again!"

"Can you please let me have a bite of Wuxiang before I die?"

Zhu Zhige said.

Zhang Cong and the other three judicial officials ignored it.

"Give me Wuxiang!"

Zhu Zhige yelled because his addiction had completely broken out.

The Sanfasi official only ordered the soldiers to drag Zhu Zhige away.

"Give me the black incense!"

Zhu Zhige was so anxious that he wanted to cry.

At last.

Zhu Zhige even started to cry: "Please, give me some black incense, ask the emperor to give me some black incense, and tell him that I know I was wrong, I shouldn't have ignored him, I shouldn't have insulted his teacher, I shouldn't have thought about destroying his father's grave, he wants to kill me, I admit it, just please give me some black incense!"

Zhu Zhige stopped crying and shouting only after he was executed.

And because of this incident with Zhu Zhige, Zhu Houcong issued an edict strictly prohibiting the use of anything containing black incense.

The decree also clearly required that if Chinese and foreign government offices found anyone selling black incense, they would be punished for conspiracy and treason.

Anyone who secretly keeps black incense will be punished as if he were secretly keeping evil books or stolen goods.

Anyone who eats black incense will be dismissed from office, stripped of his official title, and common people will not be allowed to take part in the imperial examinations. They will also be detained by the government to force them to quit the habit.

Let’s talk.

After Mao Ji returned to the cabinet, in addition to following Zhu Houcong's imperial edict and approving the three judicial departments to deal with Zhu Zhige's crime, he also dismissed Sheng Yingqi and other governors who opposed threatening to strip the gentry of their honors and titles for failing to pay the autumn grain.

at the same time.

Mao Ji also informed Yang Yiqing of the emperor's order for the cabinet to issue a decree stating that as long as the gentry paid 80% of their arrears in taxes, their official titles would not be revoked.

As Zhang Cong said, in the current Ming Dynasty, it is no longer the royal family that determines the hearts of the people.

The people who can truly decide the will of the people of the world have become the gentry.

Historically, the reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to successfully rule the Central Plains was that in the early days it promised to recognize all the land ownership of the gentry, all the official titles and honors, and even the same officials in the Ming Dynasty would remain the same officials in the Qing Dynasty. As a result, almost all the gentry stood on the side of the Qing Dynasty and worked together to deal with the peasant army.

Of course. After the Manchus succeeded in taking control of the Central Plains, they naturally began to change their promises to the gentry one by one or not strictly honor them for the sake of their own interests.

But no matter what, it is the gentry class that can decide whether the Ming Dynasty is stable, that is, whether the government is in good order and the people are harmonious.

After all, bureaucrats are selected from the gentry, and the vast majority of the population and land, as well as gold, silver and advanced technology, are in the hands of the gentry.

Therefore, if Zhu Houcong wanted the Ming Dynasty to have a stable political system and harmonious people, to be able to concentrate its forces to face external enemies together, to punish external forces, and to expand external resources, he needed the entire gentry class to be willing to recognize the Ming Dynasty regime and to recognize that the emperor and the current rulers were not incompetent tyrants or treacherous ministers.

However, because the gentry class was the landlord class, their biggest demand of the court was that the court must support them in exploiting the people, only then would they support the court.

They have no interest in external exploitation.

Those who are interested in foreign exploitation are the capitalists.

But those who have capital in the Ming Dynasty are all big landlords, so they are more inclined to exploit their own people by annexing land.

Even if they made money in industry and commerce, their greater motivation was not to use the money to expand production, but to seize power and annex land, and then further exploit the people.

In short.

Their greatest motivation is to exploit their own people, and they are unable to control themselves and push them into desperate situations.

Even if there are people among them who know how to learn from history and preach benevolence with all their heart, it cannot curb their motivation to exploit the people. They may even turn around and blame and resent the sober people in their own class.

This is also the reason why Zhu Houcong, knowing full well that offending the gentry would be detrimental to the stability of his rule and the harmony of the government and the people, still dealt with them severely again and again.

If he is not strict with this class, they will force more refugees to rebel, which will also lead to a crisis in his rule.

But if the court is too strict with them, they will blame it.

Although they did not dare to rebel openly, they dared to deliberately create obstacles and refuse to cooperate with the court, or even fan the flames and stir up trouble after becoming dissatisfied with the court.

This would require the imperial court to spend a great deal of energy just on maintaining stability, and naturally it would be unable to expand outward.

As the saying goes, being lenient can be a mistake, being strict can be a mistake, both leniency and strictness are wrong.

Cabinet ministers Mao Ji and Yang Yiqing had already understood Zhu Houcong's response to this. They knew that the emperor wanted to cultivate a privileged class above the gentry class.

This privileged class was the military aristocracy.

The military aristocracy has greater privileges in the distribution of economic benefits, but has to undertake more military tasks.

In other words, the imperial court did not require them to pay money taxes, but they had to pay blood taxes, while the gentry did not need to pay blood taxes, but had to pay money taxes.

In this way, in order to consolidate their own more privileged status, the military aristocracy would naturally support the emperor in curbing the excessive exploitation of the common people by the gentry.

In order to prevent the military aristocracy from excessively monopolizing power resources, the gentry would also win over the emperor and the common people to curb the expansion of the military aristocracy's economic interests.

The emperor, nobles, and gentry can achieve political stability and social harmony under the premise that the people are not exploited too much because of mutual restraint.

otherwise.

Under the current situation, when the emperor does not have the support of a powerful aristocratic group and cannot restrain the excessive exploitation of the common people by the gentry, the only way to achieve political stability and social harmony is for the emperor and the gentry to excessively exploit the people in the country. In this way, a lot of energy will be spent just to deal with domestic rebellions, and there will be no talk of external development.

However, it is easier said than done to cultivate a military aristocracy to check and balance the gentry class.

First of all, the gentry class will not voluntarily transfer power resources to the nobles.

Secondly, the nobles would rather cooperate with the gentry to force the emperor to make neither the nobles nor the gentry pay any taxes, and just exploit the people together.

Therefore, Mao Ji told the emperor that the gentry would not compromise just because he made a small concession.

But because he knew the emperor's intention, he could not persuade the emperor to give in directly. It would be better to revoke the decree that would strip the gentry of their official titles if they failed to pay the autumn grain, so that the gentry could fully feel the emperor's great grace.

However, after Mao Ji relayed Zhu Houcong's imperial edict to Yang Yiqing, in order to achieve political stability and harmony as soon as possible, he said to Yang Yiqing:
"You and I should call the nine ministers to the cabinet and have everyone try their best to persuade the gentry. Since His Majesty has given in, don't go against the court. For the sake of political stability and people's harmony, the emperor cannot give in while the people below do not."

"It should be so."

Yang Yiqing nodded, but then sighed and said, "But it's hard to have a big effect! After all, the gentry always complain when the tax is strict, and become bold when the tax is lenient. Those who care about the court have already paid their taxes, needless to say. Those who dare to keep owing taxes will not cry until they see the coffin."

Mao Ji said: "As long as it can be of some use!"

……

……

Except for the cabinet, court officials were already resentful of Zhu Houcong's imperial decree that would strip the gentry of their titles if they failed to pay the autumn grain on time.

After all, many of them came from wealthy families.

The memorials submitted by Shandong Governor Zhou Jifeng, Jiangxi Governor Sheng Yingqi, Sichuan Governor Su Tingguang, and Shaanxi Inspector Yu Maojian naturally received secret applause and praise from many court officials.

But because of this, when the imperial edicts were issued to dismiss these local governors and order them to retire, many court officials were naturally indignant.

Many censors submitted memorials to the emperor for this reason, saying that these ministers were loyal and upright, and that they spoke frankly in order to serve the country, and that there was no reason to dismiss them for this reason.

Naturally, the cabinet only voted on three words in accordance with the emperor's will.

"understood!"

When Zhu Houcong saw the contents of the memorials, although he was pleased that the cabinet was cooperating with him and did not follow the court officials in forcing him to make concessions, he could not help feeling a little annoyed after learning from the memorials that the bureaucracy was expressing an overwhelming emotion about this.

He asked someone to open the palace door and strolled in the moonlight on the Qianqing Palace Square.

Most bureaucrats would be like the gentry and would not want him, the emperor, to treat them harshly. Zhu Houcong had anticipated this.

But this does not prevent him from hoping that a political situation will emerge soon in which the entire ruling class will work together and face foreign enemies in a unified manner.

In order to achieve this goal, Zhu Houcong believed that the tactless governor should be replaced with an obedient one.

"Pass on Wang Yangming!"

After taking a walk and thinking for a while, Zhu Houcong decided to summon Wang Yangming, the Minister of Personnel, overnight to deal with these overwhelming official voices.

(End of this chapter)