Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 88: Bullshit Civil and Military Achievements, the Suzerainty Issue [Seeking Follow-up Reading]

Sitting on the dragon throne, Zhu Yuanzhang also shook his head as he listened.

"According to you, what martial arts skills does Zhu Zhanji possess? He lost vast territories in both the north and south, and only managed to quell two rebellions. Fortunately, the Holy Sun and the Hexagonal Warriors... What a joke!"

"What about his civil administration? The civil officials are praising him so much, so Zhu Zhanji must have some achievements in civil administration, right?"

Wenzhi?

Liu Kuan had to search his mind again.

Not to mention, after Zhu Yuanzhang reminded him of this, he did remember more about Zhu Zhanji.

"In terms of civil administration, I only remember four things. One is to improve the cabinet and grant cabinet ministers the power to draft proposals, making the cabinet the initial decision-making body for the Ming Dynasty's national affairs."

"Secondly, he established an inner school to train eunuchs, and granted the eunuch Silijian the power to approve documents in order to control the cabinet and the six ministries."

"Third, reform the civil service, increase the authority of the censors in the Supervisory Office, and improve the system of governors and governors."

"Fourthly, it further reduced the power of the feudal lords and established the system of settling feudal lords in the Ming Dynasty..."

Having said this, Liu Kuan's expression gradually became strange and he stopped talking.

Zhu Yuanzhang noticed something was wrong with Liu Kuan and asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Liu Kuan shook his head. "It's not that I'm feeling unwell, but I suddenly feel that among the four things I just listed about Zhu Zhanji's civil administration, the one about cultivating eunuchs to interfere in government affairs and reducing the power of the feudal lords has actually been criticized by later generations. It can even be said that it planted the seeds of disaster for the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted after hearing this, "Training eunuchs to assist in government affairs is a recipe for chaos. The disasters caused by eunuchs interfering in government throughout the dynasties are clearly recorded in history books. I think Zhu Zhanji is crazy to adopt such a strategy."

"As for the reduction of the feudal lords... From what you said before, not only did Yunwen reduce the feudal lords after he ascended the throne, but he also continued to reduce the feudal lords after the fourth prince seized the throne. Later, during the reign of Zhu Zhanji, the feudal lords rebelled again."

"I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. After knowing these things, I've been reflecting on whether this policy of enfeoffment is wrong."

In fact, when Zhu Yuanzhang established the policy of enfeoffing his sons as vassal kings in his early years, many court officials used the examples of the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" in the Han Dynasty and the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the Western Jin Dynasty to advise him against it.

He doesn't listen.

In recent years, as the three great kings of Qin, Jin and Yan successively established their fiefdoms, each of them controlled three guard armies with a total number of about 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers and horses. So some civil officials advised him to "reduce their guards, limit their territory, and control their capitals."

He pretended not to listen, but on the other hand he formulated many measures to reduce the possibility of rebellion by the princes.

For example, vassal kings were not allowed to communicate privately with each other, and one king could only come to the capital after another king came, and so on.

It's considered well-intentioned.

Unexpectedly, the Jingnan Campaign took place even after his death, and the fourth brother's lineage even committed such unfilial and unkind acts as poisoning his father, plotting rebellion, and burning his uncle to death!
Zhu Yuanzhang had a stubborn temper and was very obstinate, but he was not stupid.

Since he knew that the policy of enfeoffment among his sons would bring about such unspeakable disasters, why would he still be so stubborn?
It was for this reason that he felt that it was not wrong for Zhu Zhanji to continue to reduce the power of the princes.

Liu Kuan was surprised.

He didn't expect that Lao Zhu would admit his mistake and reflect on it on the spot.

After coming to his senses, he said, "Your Majesty, in the eyes of future generations, it is indeed unacceptable to divide the country among your sons and grant them military power and even the right to control the surrounding troops as Your Majesty is doing now."

"However, the Ming Dynasty's policy of settling princes, which was ultimately formed through the successive reduction of feudal lords during the Yongle, Hongxi, and Xuande reigns, has been even more criticized by later generations. Your Majesty, do you know how future generations will evaluate it?"

Anyway, there was no one else in the hall, and since things had come to this point, Liu Kuan couldn't help but want to give Old Zhu something exciting.

Zhu Yuanzhang realized that this wasn't a good comment, but he still said with a straight face, "Go ahead."

Liu Kuan originally wanted to say bluntly, "The Ming Dynasty's vassal states are treated like pigs," but when he noticed Zhu Yuanzhang's expression, he backed down.

He changed his words and said, "The vassal policy that was finally formed by Zhu Zhanji was seen by later generations as treating the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty as waste and parasites to the country."

"First, one of the three guard armies of the vassal princes will be reduced. After Xuande, many of the vassal princes' guards only had more than a thousand people."

"And the guards are only responsible for protecting the princes and are not allowed to interfere in local military affairs." "The princes can only stay within their fiefdoms. Even if they want to leave the city, they must report to the local authorities and obtain permission. The same applies to the guards of the prince's palace."

"In addition, the marriage leave and title inheritance of the princes' children must be reported to the court and approved."

"Plus, the imperial court forbids princes and members of the royal family from directly joining the military, politics, or business. Your Majesty, what do you think the princes and members of the royal family will do under such circumstances?"

After Liu Kuan said this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the vassal kings were restricted too much, but he still couldn't guess what Liu Kuan wanted to say next.

He said impatiently: "Just tell me, don't keep me in suspense!"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "The vassal statesmen can do nothing but keep giving birth to children."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "What's wrong with having children? We don't mind having too many people in our family!"

Liu Kuan sighed: Old Zhu's knowledge was ultimately limited by the times.

Then he said, "There's nothing wrong with having children, and increasing the population is a good thing. But Your Majesty, have you forgotten that these royal family members can't do anything and still need salaries from the court to support them?"

Old Zhu was even more displeased. Considering that there were no outsiders in the palace, he simply said, "We worked so hard to build this country, so what if the court supports our descendants?"

Liu Kuan couldn't help but laugh. "Then, Your Majesty, have you ever done the math? Counting from this year, how many royal families will there be in the Ming Dynasty a hundred years from now? How many will there be in two hundred years, or three hundred years from now?"

"According to the salaries of the various vassal states set by Your Majesty, how much grain will the imperial court need to spend annually a hundred years from now to support these incapable vassal states?"

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.

As an emperor who conquered the world and commanded tens or even hundreds of thousands of troops, although he did not understand advanced arithmetic, he could still make rough estimates.

I don't know, I was surprised!
Up to this year, his concubines had given birth to twenty-one sons for him, only one of whom had died in infancy.

Even if he has no more sons, these twenty sons can have half the fertility of his sons and each of them will give him ten grandsons, and each of his grandsons will give him ten great-grandsons... After a few generations, the population of his Zhu family will reach tens of thousands!

In a hundred years, there may be more than 100,000!

In two or three hundred years, the number may exceed one million!
Even if we only consider what will happen a hundred years from now, the money and grain that the court will need to spend to support the royal family will be a considerable figure!
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's dazed expression, Liu Kuan thought that Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't figure it out, so he said, "If your Majesty can't figure it out, please have someone bring a bag of rice. I can demonstrate the population changes of the royal family from generation to generation in the hall."

"No need!" Zhu Yuanzhang came back to his senses and glared at Liu Kuan in shame and anger. "You're still calculating with rice. Do you really think I don't know how to count?"

Liu Kuan chuckled, "I just think that using rice for calculations would be more intuitive."

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment.

He felt a headache because he thought that the Zhu family might have hundreds of thousands of people to support in two hundred years.

After a while, he said, "According to what you said, Zhu Zhanji is indeed short-sighted and foolish. He couldn't even manage to reduce the power of the feudal lords properly, leaving us with such a huge problem for the Ming Dynasty."

"However, since future generations think he did something wrong, there must be someone who can suggest the right approach, right?"

At this point, the conversation has actually strayed far from the original topic.

But the king and his ministers just talked casually, so no one cared.

When Liu Kuan heard Zhu Yuanzhang ask about the suggestions of later generations on the Ming Dynasty's feudal system, he became interested.

"Your Majesty, later generations have indeed made many suggestions regarding the Ming Dynasty's feudal system, but I cannot tell which ones are right and which ones are wrong, nor can I write them all down."

"What impressed me most was the most mainstream and bold suggestion."

Zhu Yuanzhang became interested after hearing this and asked, "What's your suggestion?"

Liu Kuan said: "Establish a vassal state overseas!"

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(End of this chapter)