"Relatives of the emperor and the nation deserve to enjoy glory and wealth."
Chu Zhen was not aggressive and continued: "They can not only stabilize the country, but also unite with nobles and nobles to fight against the civil servants of the court, so as not to let one family dominate.
According to history books, it was because Zhu Di had seized military power from the clan and could not serve as an official. After the Tumubao Incident, the noble children were unable to recover. As a result, the Ming Emperor could only use eunuchs to check and balance the civil servants. "
Zhu Yuanzhang heard the names of Tumubao, Emperor of Heaven, and God of War of Ming Dynasty many times, but he endured it every time.
If you ask, you will definitely get angry, so it’s better not to ask!
"Civil officials actually need clans and nobles to compete?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised when he heard this.
He had never heard of these things, and the Hanlin bachelor who taught him the history never mentioned them. Now that Chu Zhen said it frankly, he was shocked.
Li Qingzhao naturally thought of the Song Dynasty, where eunuchs were also responsible for supervising the army.
Chu Zhen said: "To conquer the world, we need military generals, and to govern the world, we need civil servants. This has been the case since ancient times. Therefore, all dynasties have to prevent civil servants from forming parties, such as the Niu Li Party in the Tang Dynasty, the Old and New Party in the Song Dynasty, and the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty.
Party formation is actually not terrible. What is terrible is party struggle, such as the Song Dynasty——"
Chu Zhen looked at the talented woman Li, "When the new party gained power, the old party all fled to Lingnan. When the old party gained power, the new party also fled to Lingnan. In the fierce party struggle, there is no right or wrong at all, and the military and political affairs of the court are naturally in a mess."
Li Qingzhao didn't know what expression to make, so he could only say weakly: "Actually, not all of them went to Lingnan... Su Weng was indeed still in Lingnan, and it was precisely because of party disputes that he was demoted."
Chu Zhen wrote down this incident and wrote it into the History of Time and Space later.
According to the history books he had read, when Li Qingzhao was the same age, around 1100, Su Shi had returned from Lingnan and was about to die of illness.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought of Hu Weiyong, "How to prevent officials from forming cliques for personal gain?"
"I don't know about that. After all, I'm not an emperor, and I've never been an official."
Chu Zhen smiled and said, "The only way I can think of is to make the imperial examination fair."
"The imperial examination is fair?!"
Li Qingzhao and Zhu Yuanzhang looked together.
Lin Daiyu, who was sitting on the sofa, pursed her lips and smiled. She probably knew what fair imperial examinations meant.
"To put it simply, the imperial examinations are divided into north and south according to region, which is called the North and South Ranking."
Chu Zhen smiled at Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "This also happened in the 30th year of Hongwu. It was the plan you came up with. At that time, the Ming Dynasty restored the imperial examination system."
"Can I live that long?"
Zhu Yuanzhang had a look of surprise on his face and interrupted him.
"The yuan will be changed in the third year."
"In the third year... just tell me that I, Hongwu, will die in the thirty-first year!"
Zhu Yuanzhang said unhappily.
All three laughed.
Chu Zhen said: "If you put aside political affairs and take good care of your body, there will be no problem in using the Hongwu reign for fifty years."
It's not that Chu Zhen is talking nonsense, but Zhu Yuanzhang's physical fitness is incredible.
When he was a child, he didn't have enough to eat and worked as a beggar. When he was young, he started to fight as a soldier. When he conquered the world, he started to deal with political affairs.
At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang's harem is still full of good news, including twenty-six sons.
Compared with Li Shimin, who died of illness at the age of fifty-two, we know how powerful Emperor Hongwu was.
"Hahaha! Fifty years of Hongwu? Isn't the prince impatient? That's right, I can be the emperor like Li Yuan."
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.
Chu Zhen smiled and drank tea, while Li Yuan was shot while lying down.
Lin Daiyu's eyebrows were curved and she said with a smile: "There was also a Supreme Emperor in the Dashun Dynasty."
"How did he become the Supreme Emperor?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked casually.
"The old sage's decree only said that he should return to power and retire from leisure, and the rest was not mentioned."
"Old Saint?"
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted lightly and did not express any further opinions.
Chu Zhen continued: "The origin of the North-South List is unknown. Some people say that it was southern scholars who tested Emperor Hongwu with the intention of suppressing northern scholars."
"Test me?"
Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, maybe because he thought there were too many heads on his neck?
"Some say it's purely due to the wealth in the south, and the north just can't pass the exam."
Chu Zhen said: "The final result was that the number one scholar and the examiner were killed to appease the anger of the northern scholars, and the northern scholars were admitted again that year."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I saw that the people admitted by the imperial examination were not useful, so I ordered the suspension of the examination for ten years. Looking back now, it is not unreasonable to open the imperial examination in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. There is really no better way to select officials than the imperial examination."
"You just became emperor ten years ago and your demands are high and normal."
Chu Zhen smiled and said: "It just so happens that now, with the grace of restoring the imperial examination, we can directly change the imperial examination and admit Jinshi according to the three regions of south, north and central, or allocate the number of Jinshi according to the population, tax payment and corvee in each province."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him in shock.
It's okay to divide it into three regions in the front, but in the back, based on the population of each province?
It seems a bit too harsh. The Jiangnan scholars must work hard to take the exam?
After all, no matter how many talents the southern gentry have, they can only admit so many.
Chu Zhen said again: "For example, Guangxi and Guangdong have a small population and low taxes, so they will give fewer Jinshi places, but they have to give them because they also pay taxes.
The population in the north is not large, but the north has to defend the border and bear heavier corvee duties, so they need to be given more quotas.
Another example is Yungui, which will be conquered in the future. Although the chieftains cannot read the Four Books and Five Classics, even if they are illiterate, they still have to be allocated Jinshi quotas to win people's hearts. "
Chu Zhen looked at him: "The Han people in the north were greatly influenced by the Hu people. Zhang Hongfan, the minister of the Yuan Dynasty who destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, although he was a Han, he no longer had any Han heart and was loyal to the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty bridged the north and south and incorporated Yunnan and Guizhou into the Chinese territory. This is a great contribution that cannot be erased! "
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed, but soon his expression froze again: "The King of Yunnan wants to start a quarrel?"
The King of Yunnan was canonized by the Meng Yuan Dynasty. He was the grandson of Kublai Khan. He had a long name and was titled King of Liang.
"I checked, it was in September of the 13th year of Hongwu."
"snort!"
Zhu Yuanzhang scolded: "If he follows his duty and defends his area of the land, I will not conquer him. But if he does not keep his duty, I will send troops to pacify him!"
Then he said to Chu Zhen: "You buy more things for me. I will order someone to monitor him first and see if I can find an opportunity to fight him first."
"Although bows, arrows and armor are good, they are not as good as cannons."
Chu Zhen smiled and said, "I will find some time to collect some cannons suitable for Ming Dynasty manufacturing and compile them into a book for you to see if Ming craftsmen can make them."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up and he patted the sofa and praised it very much.
"Cannon?" Li Qingzhao thought about it carefully. The artillery and thunder cannons of the Song Dynasty were different from what Chu Langjun said.
"As for reforming the content of the imperial examination..."
“We’ll talk about this later!”
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand to stop, "I know what you are going to say, reduce Confucianism and add arithmetic... I will show it to you after I order Song Lian to write the memorial for the reopening of the imperial examination."
"Song Lian?"
Chu Zhen smiled and said, "Have you created all the people who will take the blame?"
Hu Weiyong carried his father into his family, and Song Lian carried him to reform the imperial examination. Both of them were ministers who had committed crimes at the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang.
If they change well, they will make up for their sins with merit.
If the correction is not good, it is also to atone for the sin and eliminate public anger.
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and asked, "Can the things written by Hu Weiyong be used?"
"No, because you need to stabilize prices and let people convert their money and grain into silver. However, your Ming Dynasty treasure banknote policy is a mess. You issue a large amount of it every year, making the treasure banknotes in the hands of the people cheap."
"I'm...poor."
Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and said this sentence, "You can only print treasure banknotes and give them to officials as salary money."
Chu Zhen laughed. Being able to force Emperor Hongwu to say he was poor was enough to show that he was really poor.
"But you can't be too poor to pay too much. A whip requires a lot of silver... If you want to implement the method of apportioning people into acres now, you can only choose to stabilize the value of banknotes. Or measure the fields first, let the people pay grain for corvee, and then change the payment later silver."
"Stabilizing the value of treasure banknotes...the central bank you are talking about?"
"Yes. The central bank issues corresponding laws, and the underlying banks can be controlled by the Ming Dynasty, or they can involve wealthy businessmen from Jiangnan, such as Shen Wansan."
"Do you still know Shen Xiu?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was surprised, "He happens to be at the border of Yunnan now."
"Shen Wansan is not dead?!"
Chu Zhen was surprised.
This one is also a famous person!
Known as the richest man in the world.
"He is over seventy years old. When he was assisting Zhang Shicheng in defending Suzhou, I wanted to kill him. The Queen begged for mercy, so he was exiled to Yunnan instead, leaving the descendants of the Shen family in their place of origin."
Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes, "Well, since you mentioned it, I will pardon him and let him respond to Tianfu to see me!"
Chu Zhen only smiled, but Li Qingzhao beside him couldn't help but feel envious.
Su Weng and others are still in Lingnan. Who can make the officials pardon Su Weng with just one sentence?
