Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 46 The difference between military generals and civil officials!

Prince Wu's Mansion.

When Zhu Yunhuan led the Jinyiwei back to the palace, it was already dark.

The moon is bright tonight, so there is no need to light too many torches.

"Thank you for your hard work, we will leave today."

Zhu Yunhuan gave instructions to the Jinyiwei who were accompanying him.

Jiang Li stepped forward and asked, "Your Highness, do you want the Jinyiwei to leave some troops behind to help guard the place?"

Zhu Yunhuan shook his head and said, "There are enough guards in the palace, so the brothers of Jinyiwei don't need to worry about it."

Jiang Li heard this and said, "I obey your command."

Afterwards, he left with a group of Jinyiwei.

Zhu Yunhuan brought Lan Yu and Fu Ye into the room. After the servants left, he untied Lan Yu and said, "Uncle, I'm sorry!"

Lan Yu smiled calmly, then knelt down and said, "Your Highness, I will never forget your life-saving grace today. If I have the chance in the future, I will repay you with my life broken into pieces."

Beside him, Fu Ye suddenly opened his eyes wide.

He witnessed today's dispute with his own eyes and couldn't understand why the two of them suddenly became like this.

Zhu Yunxun helped Lan Yu up and said, "I will be relieved if my uncle doesn't blame me for beating you, scolding you, and embarrassing you in front of so many people!"

When he beat and scolded Lan Yu, he was always worried that Lan Yu would react violently.

But it had to be done.

Lan Yu shook her head slightly and said, "I am not a fool, how could I be so ignorant?"

"Ever since I was slapped and scolded by His Highness in the court that day, I have known my current situation."

"I just thought that it might be inconvenient to meet with His Highness privately, so I haven't come to visit yet."

"Your Highness led the Jinyiwei here today, and I understand everything now."

"Your Highness is saving me and my entire family!"

Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "Saving my uncle is saving myself. You and I are one, and we advance and retreat together."

Lan Yu bowed and said, "When your father was still alive, I always obeyed him."

"At that time, I thought that His Highness was still young and might not be able to take on the responsibility."

"Now it seems that since your father passed away, your Highness has grown up overnight."

"Yeah!"

"From now on, I will follow your orders, Your Highness."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

Fu Ye was stunned watching from the side, and suddenly said: "So His Royal Highness the King of Wu and the general had already discussed it and have been acting all along?"

"It's not acting!" Zhu Yunhuan corrected, "We have never discussed it privately. Everything is just letting things take their course. There will be a real tough battle in the court tomorrow."

“Whether we can pass it smoothly is still unknown!”

Fu Ye felt completely confused.

Lan Yu explained: "Your Highness the King of Wu came to arrest me to protect me."

"If the one who arrested me today was not His Royal Highness the King of Wu, but someone else, then it would be the end of me, Lan Yu."

"But whether he can be found not guilty and pass this test is not something that His Royal Highness the King of Wu can decide alone. It will also depend on the public opinion in the court tomorrow."

After hearing this, no matter how stupid Fu Ye was, he understood a little bit.

The two of them just did what they were supposed to do tacitly.

He looked at Lan Yu and then turned to Zhu Yunhuan. He looked a little embarrassed and said, "It turns out that His Royal Highness the King of Wu had good intentions, but I, Fu Ye, was blind and wrongly accused His Royal Highness the King of Wu. I hope His Royal Highness the King of Wu will forgive me."

Zhu Yunhuan glanced at him and said, "I know you are loyal to the general at first sight, but you don't have me in your heart at all. You are committing treason. I will still punish you."

"As for the punishment, we will discuss it after the court tomorrow."

"If you can't pass this test tomorrow, your head and body will be separated, and I won't have to punish you."

People of this era actually have two different understandings of loyalty to the emperor.

For literati, loyalty is to the emperor, not to their superiors.

But for military generals and grassroots soldiers, loyalty to the emperor is more of an extension and expansion of brotherhood.

They should be loyal to their brothers, and their boss is the eldest among them, so they are loyal to him.

The emperor and the like were too far away from them, and they didn't care about them.

They don’t understand what the relationship between ruler and subject is.

Even if the general leading them said one day: "Let's follow me to rebel and kill the emperor", they would join without hesitation.

Because they value loyalty, simple and plain loyalty.

As brothers, we must share life and death!
Just close your eyes and follow the boss.

The boss said go east, so they went east.

The boss said go west, so they went west.

If the boss is loyal to the emperor, then they will be loyal to the emperor too.

The boss was disloyal to the king, so they followed suit!
But it is different for educated people, because they have received professional training in "loyalty to the emperor".

Lord, Lord, Minister, Father, Father, Son!
Scholars have their own cognitive standards and will distinguish right from wrong based on these standards.

The object of a scholar's loyalty is not his superior.

Scholars will not blindly emphasize loyalty like the soldiers and crude generals.

If a civil servant's superior says he wants to rebel, and if the subordinate civil servants do not have sufficient interests tied to him and are not forced to do so, then the subordinate civil servants will not listen to their superior's orders at all, let alone join him in rebellion.

On the contrary, they will most likely be the first to jump out and kill their boss first.

On the one hand, this is the domestication of Confucianism.

On the other hand, it is also due to interests.

Civil servants must rely on the operation of the national system to grasp power and gain benefits.

If the state's order no longer exists and the state's dignity is lost, then the civil servants are nothing and cannot command anyone.

Bai Wuyi is a scholar!

Based on this, scholars had to maintain the national system and had to be loyal to the emperor!
After the collapse of national order, military generals can still rely on their brothers to carve out land and become kings!
This is also the fundamental reason why the imperial courts in every dynasty have always liked to control the military with civil power.

Civil servants may become systematically corrupt and degenerate within the system, only caring about maintaining the common interests of the civil service group, seriously undermining national interests.

But no matter how corrupt they are, they must rely on the operation of the state system to exist.

Out of the system, they lose the source of their power.

In history, the only way for civil servants to "rebel" was to gradually seize power in the system, become the most powerful official, and gradually replace the old system.

To put it bluntly, he still has to rely on the system to exist.

He can't destroy the system!

Military generals, on the other hand, have their own "private soldiers", which is equivalent to an independent system in themselves.

He can break away from the national system at any time and build a new system.

The power of a military general does not necessarily need to come from the authority of the country, it can also come from the brothers who support him!
With these brothers around, even if the country no longer exists, the generals can continue to possess "power"!
"Power" comes from violence!
It is also because of this that no matter how loyal a military general is, he will always be questionable.

This is determined by the general's innate attributes!

Fu Ye was Lan Yu's "private soldier". He would do whatever Lan Yu asked him to do.

If asked to kill the emperor, he would not hesitate.

Lan Yu has not just one such person under his command, but at least hundreds.

They were widely distributed in the Ming army.

They are in the army, and they have their own subordinates and brothers.

Each of them can gather a group of people of their own.

These people together form a huge network of relationships.

This gave Lan Yu a significant influence in the Ming army.

This is exactly why Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about Lan Yu.

What Zhu Yunhuan wanted was not simply to punish Fu Ye or to weaken Lan Yu's power.

But how to solve this problem fundamentally.

This was not directed at Lan Yu, but was intended to solve the long-standing problems in the army of feudal society.

Without eliminating this point, the emperor will never be able to truly trust his military generals.

It would be the same even if he became emperor.

(End of this chapter)