Chapter 152: Cut off the city in half (two-in-one)
The officials who initially participated in the Royal Bank have basically become important officials in power in the DPRK and China over the years, and they have all benefited from the Royal Bank.
Therefore, now the right minister Gong Shangwei's proposal to close the Royal Bank has obviously aroused public outrage.
Zhu Houzhao also saw this in his eyes. This was the first time that he saw most of the important officials in the court obeying his own wishes and demanding that officials who affected his own interests be punished.
Moreover, Zhu Houzhao had to admit that these civil servants were not much softer than himself when dealing with civil servants who were unfavorable to him.
Zhu Houzhao knew that from now on, the atmosphere in the Ming court began to change.
The civil service group has begun to divide under the temptation of its own interests.
Zhu Houzhao also pretended to be very kind in order to show most of the courtiers that he, the emperor, was not that hateful. What was really more hateful were the officials who did not support you.
Therefore, when Zhu Houzhao saw that these courtiers asked him to kill Gong Shangwei, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, he still pretended to hesitate and said: "But Gong Shangxin is the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and an important minister of the court. Isn't it inappropriate to kill him rashly?"
"Your Majesty! Gong Shangwei betrayed his master, colluded with the courtiers, secretly formed a clique for personal gain, disrupted the imperial court, and even attempted to dominate your majesty. His crime is the same as deceiving the emperor. He must be killed. Failure to kill will not be enough to correct the imperial court!"
Liu Yu, who had succeeded Dai Shan as the censor of Zuodu, stood up and said.
"Yes, Your Majesty! Gong Shangwei provokes the relationship between the cabinet and the assistant, and has the intention of causing harm to our country, the Ming Dynasty. If he is not punished, it will not be enough to correct people's hearts!"
"Your Majesty! Gong Shangwei's betrayal of his master is really unfilial! Secondly, his words are extremely disrespectful to His Majesty, which is really unfaithful! How can we uphold human ethics if we don't kill such an unfaithful and unfilial person!"
……
All the important ministers in the DPRK were filled with indignation and indignation. Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao was not so angry. Instead, he felt good about it and only looked at Gong Shangwei:
"Gong Shangwei, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, what do you have to say?"
Gong Shangwei is in a very complicated mood right now. He is both angry and scared. What is angry is that these courtiers would sit back and watch the Royal Bank seize the people without caring about the interests of the people, and even try to kill him directly for their own selfish purposes. What is scary is that he did not expect that there are so many courtiers. Against him, one can't help but wonder how many benefits the Royal Bank has given these courtiers.
But now, Gong Shangwei found that his only life-saving straw turned out to be His Majesty the Emperor, whom he had always opposed. He looked at Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty! I am just, I am just..."
Gong Shangwei no longer knows how to defend himself.
Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao said: "In that case, I will follow the advice of all my dear friends and send Gong Shangwei to prison for trial by the three law divisions!"
"Your Majesty is wise!"
All the courtiers present responded in unison.
So, two royal guards came in and dragged Gong Shangwei out. Gong Shangwei cursed anxiously:
"You, you shameless people! Jiao Fang! I got to know you in vain! I never thought that you would deal with me like this! You will not die well! You all will not die well! Your Majesty! Spare your life! I just, Just for the people!”
Next, Zhu Houzhao did not interfere at all with the execution of Gong Shangwei, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and directly left it to the civil officials to handle it in accordance with the formal procedures of the court.
Zhu Houzhao believes that the civil servants currently in power will not be too polite to Gong Shangwei.
As expected by Zhu Houzhao, the Sanfa Department quickly reached an agreement on the verdict of Gong Shangwei, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the verdict was to immediately cut off the city in half!
He didn't even give Gong Shangwei a chance.
Moreover, the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies approved it quickly, and no one raised any objections.
Zhu Houzhao knew that this was a way for the courtiers who had profited from the Royal Bank to express their attitude to the officials who wanted to take away their interests. At the same time, he warned the officials that if they wanted to shut down the Royal Bank, just look at Gong Shangwei's fate. Even if So what if you are the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, those who deserve to be cut in half will still be cut in half.
Zhu Houzhao is very satisfied with the emergence of such a phenomenon. Now it is not his turn to personally deal with the opponents who block his reforms. This makes him feel much more relaxed, which also allows Zhu Houzhao to focus more on reform and the development of new technologies.
Of course, the gentry and powerful people also discovered that they had to deal with not only the emperor alone, but also a group of courtiers.
Needless to say, the emperor held the title of monarch and minister and could not openly object. The other officials who opposed him were not to be underestimated. They all held the power of the court, and the family power behind them was enough to make most civil servants Don't dare to offend easily.
Even if they want to assassinate now, they don't just want to assassinate Emperor Zhu Houzhao alone, they also have to kill all the officials who follow Zhu Houzhao for profit.
At this time, Jiao Fang and other officials who had the same interests as Zhu Houzhao also knew that they were completely in the same boat with His Majesty while enjoying the huge benefits distributed by the emperor. Therefore, if they wanted to take power, they had to continue to let the Royal Bank To exist and benefit from it, they had to find a way to ensure that Zhu Houzhao lived longer.
Now, both Liu Jin and others in the inner court and Ma Wensheng and Jiao Fang in the outer court are extremely concerned about Zhu Houzhao's health. Liu Jin and others will personally check on Zhu Houzhao's daily food and clothing, and Ma Wensheng and others will often ask whether Zhu Houzhao has a dragon body. Good health.
But Zhu Houzhao did not completely relax his vigilance towards others because of this. He knew that as the helmsman of the Ming Dynasty, as long as he wanted the ship of the Ming Empire to continue to move forward, he, the emperor, would not be able to live comfortably. He would also let more people People choose to support themselves.
Most of the officials who received the dividends deposited the money back into the Royal Bank. They had no choice but to spend it directly according to the contract, or they could only deposit it in the Royal Bank, not to mention that there was still interest to be earned by depositing it in the Royal Bank. First of all, not much gold and silver from the Royal Bank was flowing out.
Moreover, when Gong Shangwei, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, was halved and abandoned because of his request to suspend the Royal Bank, the people also began to know that the existence of the Royal Bank was irreversible. Whether they accepted it actively or passively, they began to consciously invest their own money. If you put the silver into the Royal Bank, you can still earn interest.
But Royal Bank cannot keep saving money and not lending money, otherwise it will lose money.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had to find a way to get the Royal Bank to release money, so that the Ming Empire and his people could spend the Royal Bank's money, so as to activate the economic life of the entire Ming Dynasty. The courtiers who participated in the shares also realized this.
Because of this, Xu Jinshangshu, Minister of the Ministry of War, requested to allocate three million taels of silver to repair the border walls of the border town and organize border preparations. The cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies approved it directly.
The Ministry of Accounts provided one million taels of silver and loaned two million taels from the Royal Bank to the Ministry of Accounts, so that after the second year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, there was almost no shortage of silver in the border town.
Of course, the wool comes from the sheep. Zhu Houzhao knew that the Royal Bank's money did not come from the rising ground, but was collected from the gentry and the common people. The total wealth of the Ming Dynasty did not increase.
The common people still get no benefits. The only meaning now is to cultivate a few big capitalists.
Zhu Houzhao had to take the lead in external expansion and plunder to earn wealth, but external expansion naturally had to be achieved through war. To conduct war, a strong army was needed to ensure the strength of the army.
To this end, Zhu Houzhao decided to establish the General Staff Headquarters of the Guards, the General Political Department, the General Armament Department, the General Logistics Department, the General Military Law Office and the Military Court.
Originally, Zhu Houzhao wanted to directly transform the Ministry of War and reorganize several departments of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, he knew that such a transformation would still have great resistance and be troublesome. It would be better to directly establish a leadership organization in the Guards. From now on, the Guards will not belong to the Ministry of War, but will only belong to themselves, and the departments they established are responsible for the Guards' military command, personnel organization, weapons storage and manufacturing, and logistics supply.
After all, according to Zhu Houzhao's vision, the Guards will be mainly responsible for foreign wars in the future. Therefore, it is most urgent to separate the command, personnel and logistics equipment supply power of the Guards from the Ministry of War.
It is not difficult to set up an agency. On the surface, Zhu Houzhao can make the decision himself, but the problem is the appointment of officials after the establishment of the agency and the political changes that may occur during the appointment.
In the current Ming Dynasty, civilians are mainly responsible for command, military attachés are responsible for execution, and ministers are responsible for supervising the army. Basically, they emphasize civil servants and suppress military forces, focusing on checks and balances rather than efficiency. Zhu Houzhao decided to change this form in the Guards and improve the status of generals. However, This does not mean that civilian officials are excluded from entering the military system.
After all, according to the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, many civil servants also have experience in leading troops after leading troops in border towns for many years.
Zhu Houzhao wanted to eliminate the distinction between civil and military personnel in the Guards. Originally, in later generations, there was no distinction between civil and military divisions, only military and political divisions. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao decided to select officials with military knowledge from the entire Ming dynasty bureaucracy to enter the leadership system of the Guards, regardless of civil and military divisions. , meritocracy.
In the end, Ma Wensheng concurrently served as the minister of the General Staff Department, Xu Jin concurrently served as the minister of the General Political Department, while the minister of the General Logistics Department was concurrently served by Wang Qiong, the left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the minister of the General Armament Department was concurrently served by the Minister of Works, Zeng Jian.
It seems that from the beginning, the leading members of the entire central body of the Guards were still civilian officials.
But there was nothing that could be done about it. The phenomenon of emphasizing civility and suppressing military force has existed for so many years, so that the military talents who really know how to fight in the Ming Dynasty are almost all civil servants. For a while, even if Zhu Houzhao wanted to use power to change the phenomenon of civilians taking command, it would be impossible, and he could only slow down Take your time.
In the future, when there are special military schools, perhaps professional military talents will be able to take charge of military war activities, and the distinction between civil and military forces will disappear completely.
In fact, the courtiers did not quite understand why His Majesty the Emperor changed the Imperial Guards and the Beijing Camp troops into the Guards, and also established a special leadership organization. Only Zhu Houzhao himself knew that he wanted to change the military system of the Ming Dynasty and let the Ming Dynasty have A powerful army capable of external expansion.
The establishment of the leadership organization of the Guards means that the establishment of the Guards' institutions from top to bottom is basically complete. Next, the five leading organizations will start to carry out their own work.
Among them, the General Staff Headquarters is responsible for determining the combat missions of the Guards.
The courtiers didn't understand why it was necessary to formulate combat missions now that it was not a war period and the Guards was a Gyeonggi army.
But Zhu Houzhao meant that the Guards should have combat missions and expand externally. In the end, the first combat mission established by Zhu Houzhao, Ma Wensheng and others was to regain the Hetao.
According to the previous rules of the Ming Dynasty, resolutions on government affairs of a military nature naturally required cabinet votes and the emperor's decision. But now Zhu Houzhao has changed this method. Instead, the General Staff of the Guards will formulate a combat plan and submit it to him, the emperor. The approval did not even go through the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies!
But because now the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies only follow Zhu Houzhao’s orders, they have no objections and do not stop Zhu Houzhao’s behavior. Zhu Houzhao knows that many political systems in the Ming Dynasty do not have written regulations. From a formal point of view, The emperor decides everything, and the emperor himself makes the decision no matter what.
When the emperor favors the eunuch, all power naturally belongs to the eunuch, including military power.
When the emperor trusts the cabinet, all power is vested in the cabinet, including military power.
So this led to the fact that in the Ming Dynasty, sometimes eunuchs had exclusive power and sometimes civilian officials had exclusive power.
But Zhu Houzhao now decided to establish the political system of the Ming Dynasty in the form of express laws, so as to prevent future generations of monarchs and ministers from transferring the imperial power at will, sometimes allowing eunuchs to have exclusive power, sometimes civilian officials to have exclusive power, and in the end the emperor could not even guarantee his imperial power.
To this end, when he asked the General Staff of the Guards to formulate a battle plan to recapture the Hetao, he also convened a court meeting with senior civil and military officials above the fourth rank in Beijing, as well as officials from various ministries and imperial censors, and decided to formulate an "imperial constitution" "Outline", which mainly stipulates the power of the king and the rights and obligations of his subjects in the form of law.
Because Zhu Houzhao did not want Ming Dynasty to become a constitutional country, in order to protect his imperial power, the constitution he requested was still different from the constitutions of later generations. At least it did not restrict the monarch's power. Of course, he did not blindly emphasize and explain the divine right of monarchs. It only clearly stipulates the power and distribution of power possessed by the emperor and the rights and obligations of his subjects.
For example, the emperor had the highest military command power and the highest personnel appointment power in the Ming Empire, as well as the powers and powers of the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, as well as the powers and obligations of the guards and border troops under the jurisdiction of the Guards and the Ministry of War, and the initiation of military wars. Programs etc.
Many courtiers found this very new, and at the same time found it very meaningful. They also felt that it was necessary to clearly define the power of the emperor and the rights and obligations of his subjects. They were also familiar with the word constitution. After all, in "Guoyu" There is a sentence: "Rewards and punishments are the constitution of the country." Everyone knows the meaning of the constitution.
But there are also many officials who are quite critical of this.
Some officials found that once the "Outline of the Imperial Constitution" was released, it would only protect the imperial power and would not be of any benefit to officials and gentry like themselves!
Because once everyone in the empire follows the "Outline of the Imperial Constitution" to perform their duties, then they can no longer use the ancestral system and the words of saints and Yao and Shun to advise and ancestral emperors.
After all, the "Outline of the Imperial Constitution" clearly stipulates that the emperor has the decision-making power on all major military and political affairs of the Ming Dynasty, which means that as long as the emperor decides, no one can stop it.
But in fact, according to the existing practice in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's decrees can sometimes be refuted. As long as the officials decide that the emperor's decrees are wrong, although they may pay the price with their lives, at least no one will say that the officials did this. It's wrong and against the law.
But now, once Zhu Houzhao wants to formulate and promulgate the "Outline of the Imperial Constitution", it means that no one can stop any decision of the emperor, otherwise it will violate the constitution.
Therefore, during the court discussion on the formulation of the "Outline of the Imperial Constitution", an official, Ai Sheng, directly objected: "Your Majesty! In the Ming Dynasty, everyone governed the world with filial piety! Now it would be inconsistent to establish a constitution to govern the world. In human relations! ”
"How does assuming the constitution go against human ethics? Please explain in detail!" Zhu Houzhao asked.
Ai Sheng was at a loss for words for a moment. As a civil servant, he always just talks. Why bother to ask the root cause? If it is contradictory, it is contradictory. Why should he explain it in detail?
But Zhu Houzhao asked this, and Ai Sheng had no choice but to answer. He only said: "It stands to reason that to govern the world with filial piety, the father should be the guideline for the son, and the king should be the guideline for the ministers."
"The purpose of the Constitution is to specifically explain and stipulate this. I am the king, and the king is the guide for his ministers. Therefore, the constitution stipulates that the king has the highest decision-making power. Is this a contradiction? For example, the father is the guide for the son, which is also stipulated in the constitution. Children should follow the advice of their parents. Doesn’t this all adhere to the concept of governing the world with filial piety? ”
When Zhu Houzhao asked, Ai Sheng didn't know how to answer, and he couldn't deny the contradiction between what was stipulated in the constitution and what he said.
"I am stupid, please forgive me!"
Ai Sheng had no choice but to retreat. He didn't know what to say for a while, but he knew it. In fact, he wanted to say that Your Majesty, you will rule the world with the gentry. As the emperor, you must respect the opinions of the gentry, but these are all unwritten. As for the rules, no code in the Ming Dynasty said that the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats should rule the world together. Even some of Mencius's words related to monarchy were deleted by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
But at this time, some officials still used some of Mencius's remarks to criticize Zhu Houzhao's constitution. Du Long, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, said: "Your Majesty! The sage said that the king is the most important, the people are the most important, and the country is the second most important! The constitution should put the people first. ! Put the interests of the people of the world first! ”
Zhu Houzhao did not expect that Du Long would also put forward the viewpoint of "civil rights". He thought that just by his words, he would become a Rousseau-level figure, so he said:
"Du Qing is right. The people should be the most important thing. I have no objection. If this is the case, then add it to the constitution. From now on, no matter the princes, ministers or traffickers, they are not allowed to take away the people's wealth and their lives. The people of the Ming Dynasty have life." property rights, place Officials who are close to the people are not allowed to kill people at will. If they kill people, they must pay compensation! The crimes of the people in the world are only determined by the Ming Dynasty Law and the Imperial Court."
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Zhu Houzhao knew that the purpose of these officials was to limit the monarch's power and proposed civil rights. Zhu Houzhao didn't mind this. You can ask the emperor to respect civil rights. After all, this is also a kind of progress. But you gentry cannot just ask me, the emperor, to respect civil rights. You don't respect civil rights.
"What do you think, Du Qing? As long as you and the courtiers present feel that the officials, gentry and even the princes and nobles of the world can respect the rights of the people, I can respect it too!"
When Zhu Houzhao said this, Du Long was speechless on the spot. Naturally, he could not make all officials in the world respect the rights and interests of the people, and even he himself could not do it.
"I am a scholar and have made your Majesty laugh. Your Majesty, please forgive me!" Du Long retreated with a blushing face.
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(End of chapter)