"My brother is stupid. He can only study behind closed doors. He really doesn't know how to run errands! When I arrived in Yining, I knew that I would listen to my third brother and let him control everything... Wow, my brother is being manipulated by my third brother. Tricked!"
In the quiet Dongnuan Pavilion of Huangji Hall, one could hear Zhu Cixuan, the king of Luoshan County, crying so hard, not to mention how wronged he was. While crying, he was still blaming the blame, placing all the blame on his third brother Zhu Cijiong. Zhu Cixiang sat on the dragon chair angrily, looking at his brother who failed to live up to his expectations. Just as he was about to pretend to be angry and scold him, Emperor Chongzhen on the other side spoke in a nonchalant manner.
"Boss, you and the third child are both from the same mother. They look exactly the same and have similar temperaments, so don't blame the third child."
What are these words? What's wrong with us brothers? Zhu Cixiang snorted and thought: The Ming Dynasty relies on our two brothers to work hard! Otherwise, it would have been long gone. How could you, Chongzhen, be so happy as the Supreme Emperor? It has been hung on a crooked tree for a long time. Even Ming Huizong didn't do it properly!
Zhu Cixuan was still a little clever. Seeing his old man's gloomy face and looking like he wanted to eat people, he quickly changed the subject and took out the memorial on "cutting down and moving vassals" given to him by the Third Prince Zhu.
"Brother Imperial, this is the memorial that Third Brother gave you regarding the reduction and transfer of vassals. My younger brother also signed it."
Zhu Cixiang took the memorial and asked while flipping through it: "You also signed it... Then do you know what the third child wrote? You just signed it?"
"I know, of course I know," Zhu Cixuan said, "Don't you know if I can sign it blindly? Brother Huang, the third brother's method of cutting down and moving vassals is really clever. My younger brother admired it very much after seeing it, so he signed his name to support it. "
"Oh, really?" Zhu Cixiang asked casually, "Then tell me, what's so good about Lao San's method of cutting down and moving feudal vassals?"
Zhu Cixuan smiled: "Brother, are you taking a test on me? Although the younger brother is confused, he can still see the advantages of the third brother's method... The third brother's method is actually to turn the elimination of vassals into the transfer of vassals, and it is not to transfer vassals. The entire feudal town is moved, and only the upper level of the feudal town is moved, thereby dividing the upper level of the feudal town from the middle and lower layers. The middle and lower layers of the feudal town will not move between vassals unless there are special circumstances.
The heads of each vassal town and their retainers formed a group to govern the vassal. They took over the military administration of the vassal from the imperial court and set a time limit to manage the military and administration of the vassal within the time limit. The imperial court would regularly inspect the military and political affairs of a vassal. If he passes the inspection, he will be transferred to the feudal vassal upon expiration of the term. If the inspection fails, the domain will be withdrawn upon expiration...
If the imperial court can implement the method of the third brother, it will be difficult for the military governors who belong to the various vassals to stay in one vassal for a long time, and it will also be difficult to develop separatist forces. At the same time, the imperial court could continue to rely on their power to manage the army and the people in the border areas and suppress disobedient officials.
And the leaders of the vassals also had a way to advance and retreat, and a way to make profits. Moreover, after they were transferred, they would not be as close to the middle and lower classes of the vassals as they are now. Instead, they would have to rely on the authority of the imperial court to govern their subordinates. In the future, they would not be able to suffer the disaster of vassal towns like those of the Tang, Ji, and Five Dynasties.
Moreover, regular transfer of commanders can also achieve the effect of keeping water flowing smoothly and door hinges free of beetles... In the future, the border vassals will not be like the past commanders of the capital commander, executive commander, and military and civilian commanders. Shi Si and Wei commanded Shi Si to be in such a state of decay. "
He has actually read the memorial of Prince Zhu San - from Yining to Yingtian, it's a journey of thousands of miles! It’s so boring along the way, so just read some books... But reading too much of the traditional masterpiece "Jin Ping Mei" is boring, and Hani is not around... So I read the memorials of Prince Zhu San Just for fun.
After looking inside, Zhu Cixuan suddenly discovered that his third brother really had two brushes!
Prince Zhu has been in charge of a border town for a long time, so he certainly knows how to manage a town well. Moreover, the fatal weakness of the original military household system of the Ming Dynasty is also very clear - the biggest problem of the military household system of the Ming Dynasty is not the "serf soldiers", but that most of the officials of the Dusi Guard are hereditary and rarely move around. .
Hereditary officials are not very mobile, so they will inevitably decay over time. After the decay, the management level became worse and worse, and the combat readiness level of the Ming Dynasty's Dusi Guards also became lower and lower... The bottom class has certainly become miserable serfs, and the middle and upper classes supported by the bottom class have also become worse and worse. The battle is lost.
Otherwise, with the number of military guards in the Ming Dynasty ranging from 300 to 400, with an average of 5,600 guard households, one-twentieth of the military households (they must be the middle and upper classes) can maintain strong combat effectiveness, and there are also more than 100,000 elite soldiers. .....Tatars and bandits have long been chopped into pieces.
Regarding the decay of the feudal town (Dusi Guards Station), Zhu Cixiang has actually given his own plan, which is to basically tear down the original Dusi Guard Station and completely remove it, and then make it easy to control and have more oil and water. Direct jurisdiction over the territory. Then the oil and water scraped from these territories was used to establish a new army (mercenary army), and at the same time, an officer training system was established with the core of the noble sons of overcoming difficulties and supplemented by the elites of the Nine Borders Youth Army.
On the territory that the imperial court could not control for the time being, was not very profitable, and was not suitable for establishing a vassal state, Zhu Cixiang established some new vassal towns with a higher degree of centralization.
But he didn't think carefully about how to maintain these new feudal towns for a long time... As an emperor, he often took it one step at a time.
"Prince, Yuying, you two should also read the memorial from the acting king." Zhu Cixiang had already read the memorial from the third prince Zhu, and did not express his position immediately. Instead, he gave the memorial to the prince Zhu Hexing and the princess Ding Yuying who were present.
Zhu Hexing will be able to graduate from the martial arts hall by the end of the year, and Ding Yuying gave Zhu Cihong a granddaughter not long ago. Now he has a son and a daughter, and his status has become more stable.
Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying read the memorial one after another. Zhu Hexing read it first, so he spoke first.
"Father," Zhu Hexing replied, "Third Uncle's method is feasible... Now we have Heilongjiang, Andong, Anbei, Daning, Shuofang, Hexi, Anxi, Beiting, Western Sichuan, and Eastern Sichuan. , Guizhou, Shizhou, Xining (western Guangxi), Dongning, Jinou, Xiyang, Wusang, Duogan, Oris, a total of 19 vassal towns. The number of vassal towns is more than that of the direct provinces, and the number of households under their jurisdiction is also more There are tens of millions of people (mainly because Sichuan has a large population), and the land under its management is also extremely vast. If so many commanders are allowed to serve for a long time, or even become hereditary... there will either be trouble in the future, or it will happen again like the Dusiwei. The rotten mistakes.
But if so many vassals were to withdraw in one fell swoop, even if no chaos was caused, the border would be out of control. Among the places where these 19 vassal towns are located, those with conditions to establish direct provinces or be placed under direct provincial management are Guizhou, Shizhou, Xining, and Dongning. Other towns will have to maintain it for a long time. Uncle San's method of moving the feudal vassal is indeed applicable! "
Zhu Cixiang nodded repeatedly. This boy was a little confused about other things, but he was still very proficient in military affairs!
This is a very important ability!
If you are too lazy to take care of government affairs, just leave it to Ding Yuying. This princess is very capable. But you must take care of your own military affairs...and you must control the N generations of the army, so that the Ming Dynasty will not be destroyed in the hands of Prince Luck.
"Yuying, tell me." Zhu Cixiang asked the question to his daughter-in-law again.
"Father," Ding Yuying said with a smile, "my daughter-in-law feels that since the imperial court wants to use the feudal town and govern the feudal town, there is no need to be afraid of chaos in the feudal town! The third uncle's method is certainly effective, but it is inevitable that there will still be chaos in the feudal town. The three feudal lords in Snowland With the two vassals of Heilongjiang and Andong, I’m afraid they won’t obediently agree to move the vassal.”
Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Yuying, what do you think I should do with them?"
Ding Yuying said: "Your Majesty can use this time to bring justice to justice and launch an attack on Heilongjiang, Anton, Duoyan, Uzang, Oris and other five vassals... order Heilongjiang, Anton and Oris to The two vassals of Si and Uzang were exchanged. At the same time, Li Dingguo of Duoyan was ordered to serve as the military governor in eastern Sichuan."
Zhu Cixiang looked at Ding Yuying and said, "Yuying, do you want the prince to make contributions in pacifying the rebellion in the feudal town?"
