In the original history, when Gaohuai rebelled against Liao Dynasty, there was a long list of various impeachments recorded in "Records of Shenzong". It took such a long time to finally force the emperor to recall this guy - note, it was just a recall, so it needs to be dealt with. How hard it is for him.
However, Gao Pragmatic said at this time, "Excluding Gao Huai is like slaughtering a dog." Isn't this a bit exaggerated? It's really not bloated. If Gao Pragmatic wants to get rid of Gao Huai, it's really "like slaughtering a dog."
This is about the changes in the power of all parties under the political system of Yumei Dynasty. However, this issue has been explained before, so there is no need to repeat it here. I will only talk about the current power structure and the legal basis behind it.
In general, the history of the Ming Dynasty for nearly three hundred years can almost be seen as a history of the struggle between imperial power and prime ministerial power. The emperor and his civil servants were constantly tug-of-war and searching for a balance between themselves and their ministers for the true right to rule the country. From the initial strong imperial power of Zhu Yuanzhang to the peak of Zhang Juzheng's "I am not the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister", all truly reflect the changes in this struggle.
So, what about eunuchs? The role of eunuchs in this process was a very important part. The changes in the power of eunuchs witnessed the changes in strength between the imperial power and the prime minister's power.
Because of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty was influenced by strong imperial power in the early days of its founding. The country's politics were clear and its military was strong. However, during the reign of Emperor Zhu Di, due to the disparity in the emperor's own strength, he began to seek assistance from civil servants. In order to prevent the increase in the power of the ministers represented by civil servants from affecting the imperial power, the noble class and eunuch forces were used to assist the imperial power at the same time.
Originally, from the perspective of power checks and balances, there was no big problem in doing so. However, after the Tumubao Incident, the collective decline of nobles and nobles resulted in the dominance of the civil servant family, which in turn formed a political structure in the Ming Dynasty that valued civility over military affairs. The state had problems in controlling local areas, and its finances were increasingly in embarrassment.
In order to fight against the power of the prime minister, successive Ming emperors began to continuously increase the power of eunuchs to check and balance civil servants. However, they may not have thought at the time that by the time of Emperor Chongzhen, this method was out of control by the holy emperor Chongzhen.
This holy king acted decisively and uprooted the eunuchs who maintained the imperial power. It was equivalent to cutting himself into a useless person first, and then running to ask the civil officials, "Now you are loyal to me, right?" - After the disintegration of the red fur bear The shock therapy expert said that he was really shocked.
However, even though the bear is in shock, he still has thousands of nuclear bombs. It's okay for others to steal it quietly, but it's still scary to go directly and grab it openly. If the bear doesn't do anything and both die together, the scene will be ugly. However, your Ming Dynasty does not have nuclear bombs. After the shock is over, people will naturally come and touch the corpses.
Looking at it this way, the situation is actually like this: eunuchs were useless in the early days, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not need to use them at all; later, Zhu Di was worse than Zhu Yuanzhang, but as long as he relied on Xungui, he still did not need eunuchs; after Zhu Di, due to civil engineering changes, The noble honor existed in name only, so the eunuch had to be found and promoted.
Therefore, although the struggle between imperial power and prime minister power was the root cause, its manifestation was the struggle between eunuchs and civil servants. Xungui was very important at first, but later due to his own decline, he gradually retreated to the second line.
So, is Xungui really useless? That's not necessarily the case. As mentioned before, there was a hidden relationship between the nobles, civil servants, and eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty: the nobles were afraid of civil servants, the civil servants were afraid of eunuchs, and the eunuchs were afraid of nobles.
This is not absolute restraint like playing chess, but it has been shown in most periods of time. For example, when Wei Zhongxian was said to be nine thousand years old, he was completely powerful in the world, but there was nothing he could do about Duke Dingguo not giving him any face. This means there must be a reason.
Why do these top nobles dare not look down on them even if they are nine thousand years old? At first glance, it seems that because the nobles are hereditary and are an extension of the monarchy itself, they must also rely on and support the monarchy. Therefore, the emperor and them are essentially allies. Although the power of the eunuchs is also an extension of the monarch's power, they cannot be regarded as allies with the emperor. They are just servants of the emperor. This is a master-servant relationship.
Servants can be changed whenever they want. Anyway, there are more people who are willing to be servants, and the emperor has a lot of room for selection. However, nobles cannot be changed whenever they want. No matter how much the emperor wants to change, there are too few qualified people in his family. The options are too narrow.
This is where the real status gap lies—the difference in fungibility.
But there is another question here, that is why the nobles cannot suppress the civil servants because of a civil war, but the eunuchs can suppress the civil servants? There must be a power difference.
In the past, Xungui was able to suppress civil servants by mastering force. However, due to the civil war, the force controlled by Xungui was almost wiped out, and the prestige established by military exploits no longer existed, so he naturally became weaker.
Of course, eunuchs were able to suppress civilian officials not by force, but by supervisory power that was not restricted by civilian officials - factory guards. The supervisory power of the factory guards was relatively intact until Chongzhen committed suicide.
Even if a large number of civil servants' children entered the Jinyi Guard, the eunuchs did not lose this power, because Dongchang could supervise the Jinyiwei, and the civil servants' children would not be enyin to enter the Dongchang and become the leader - nonsense, the Dongchang admiral could only I am a minister, Enyin, you will be a eunuch, can you agree to this?
But in any case, even if the nobles lose their military power - or even because of this, they will become simpler in the emperor's mind, at least they will definitely not rebel. Under such a premise, and they had a political status (ancestral system) that could not be changed in name, the emperor would naturally show them the greatest tolerance.
Therefore, they were invincible in the eyes of the eunuchs: they had their own loyalty BUFF, and the most powerful supervisory power in the hands of the eunuchs was directly invalidated; their status was respected, they were hereditary, and they retired with the country, while the eunuchs were just slaves of the emperor. If someone really gets angry, what if they just hit you with a whip?
It's really not that bad. If you smoke it, you will smoke it. Therefore, Jiu Qiansui did not go to meet the Duke of Guo at all, lest he would not be able to step down.
Speaking of reality, what is Gao Wuchen’s current status? The Marquis of Nanning maintained his civilian status.
Civil servants are not to be feared. A good eunuch can control them. Nobles are not to be feared either. A good eunuch can control them. However, it is terrible to be a civil servant and a distinguished person. What does this identity mean under the Ming Dynasty’s political system? It means that he is a BUG. He has no natural enemies except the emperor himself!
If you, a civil servant, want to touch him, he is the leader of the most powerful political group at present, the Practical School. He has so many achievements and strength that you cannot touch him; if you, a eunuch, want to touch him, he is a noble, and his status is hereditary and irreplaceable. Your honor and dignity are with the country, and they are much more important than you in front of the emperor. If you, your honor, want to touch him... huh? He is the leader of your alliance. Are you crazy? You want to touch him and you don’t want any money?
Therefore, Gao Pangshi did not have the troubles that those in history had when they could not deal with Gao Huai. For him, it was very easy to move Gao Huai - not to mention that the current Gao Huai was far from the emperor's mind when he suppressed Liao. The importance.
"Then what are you going to do?" Liu Xin said curiously: "He shouldn't be an important person now, so it stands to reason that he probably won't have any serious faults."
Gao pragmatically said: "Although I studied law before, it stands to reason that fishing for law enforcement is definitely wrong and one should not preset a position. But the situation is different now. I know that Gao Huai will do bad things, so..."
"So you want to fish for law enforcement?" Liu Xin couldn't help but laugh: "How to fish for it? Do you think he took a bribe from you?"
"Am I that stupid?" Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes and said, "Just let him supervise the mausoleum workers. There are few supervising mausoleum workers who don't make a fortune from it. Wait for him to supervise the work for a while, and then send Just ask someone to check it, I dare say it will be accurate."
"Good guy, you really understand this trick." Liu Xin gave a thumbs up: "I think this method will work. It is just above board and impeccable."
"That's right, although this routine is old, it is definitely easy to use." Gao Pingshi snorted, paused, and then said: "But this suggestion cannot be made by me, I have to find someone who has nothing to do with me to arrange it. .”
"So you want to find Chen Ju?" Liu Xin asked.
"Of course not. If Chen Ju mentions this, then I am harming him. I need to find someone who will not be affected even if he is killed." Gao Pragmatic smiled and said, "For example, Li Wenjin or Zheng Guifei, they are all fine."
Liu Xin said with emotion: "I remember watching a TV series before. I forgot what the name was, but there was a saying in it that said a loyal minister is more treacherous than a traitorous minister - it seems so reasonable now."
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes at her: "Are you praising me or hurting me?"
"Oh, of course I am complimenting you, my Lord Marquis." Liu Xin replied with a smile, then suddenly her smile faded, and she said seriously: "By the way, while you were away, I discussed with Ji Fei Ji, and some It’s up to you to make a decision.”
Since Kaiji is involved, it must be a Japanese affair. Gao pragmatically asked: "Is there any uncertainty about Japan's arrangements?"
"Of course." Liu Xin said: "There are two main aspects: First, although you judge that Tokugawa Ieyasu is not willing to fight with us, I think this situation cannot be ruled out. Especially since Toyotomi Hideyoshi may have lost his mind now. Without knowing it clearly, who knows whether he will force Tokugawa Ieyasu to fight with us, or even send troops to fight in person if Tokugawa Ieyasu is not active enough?"
Gao Pragmatic pondered, but did not express his position immediately. In fact, Liu Xin's words have already touched him, because Toyotomi Hideyoshi's performance is indeed very problematic now, or his performance during this period in original history was also very problematic. For a person whose mental state is difficult to judge, it is impossible to predict what abnormal behavior he will have, so it is indeed right to prepare for the worst first.
However, Liu Xin did not intend to wait and think about it slowly, but directly talked about the second point: "Secondly, we only talked about the Kanto issue before, and we haven't talked about Sakai Town yet."
She waved her hand in front of Gao Pingshi, asking him to listen to her first: "There used to be many big Japanese businessmen in that place, but later because Toyotomi Hideyoshi moved them all to Osaka, they were vacated. The Battle of Odawara At that time, Toyotomi Hidenaga went to Misaki Castle to negotiate with Luo Yuan, and the final negotiated condition was that the Maritime Trade Alliance go to Sakai Town to build a new crystal building that is no less than that of Qingshui Castle, do you remember this?"
"Of course I remember." Gao Pragmatic stretched out his hand to take away her hand that was shaking in front of him, and said, "The building should have been repaired, right? I later led the troops to fight north, and didn't pay attention to the subsequent developments - what's going on in Sakai Town now? Are you ready?"
"Of course the Crystal Building has been repaired, and the Maritime Trade Alliance does regard it as our headquarters in Kinki and the central region of Japan. However, the garrison rights that Luo Yuan fought for at that time have not yet been used."
This matter was discussed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Luo Yuan at the time. At first, Toyotomi Hideyoshi requested that the Maritime Trade Alliance must establish a Japanese headquarters in Osaka so that the names of the Kyushu Crystal Tower and the Kanto (Misaki Castle) Crystal Tower can be combined. Press it down. Due to the high pragmatic authorization, Luo Yuan agreed to this condition, but he said that the Sea Trade Alliance had its own rules. The Sea Trade Alliance must be responsible for the defense of the location of the Crystal Tower, so he requested to garrison troops.
Since troops were to be stationed, it was obvious that the Japanese headquarters of the Maritime Trade Alliance could not be located in Osaka Castle, so Toyotomi Hidenaga proposed to locate it in Sakai Town, which is very close to Osaka Castle. Although the merchants in Sakai Town have moved, the population loss is not very big. With the strength of the Maritime Trade Alliance, once they settle in Sakai Town, the local prosperity is just around the corner, so Luo Yuan also agreed to this.
But then the two sides argued over the issue of garrisoning troops for a period of time. At first Luo Yuan said that he would control the garrison to "less than ten thousand", but Toyotomi Hidenaga was shocked and immediately refused. He thought that ten thousand was too much. After all, this place is so close to Osaka Castle, and an army of nearly ten thousand is not at all Toyotomi Hideyoshi could accept it, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi believed that the maximum could not exceed 3,000 people.
Luo Yuan said at the time that it would be difficult to arrange 3,000 people based on the Sea Trade Alliance's land division. The land division of the Maritime Trade Alliance generally uses towns as its basic unit, with a town having 12,512 people. He said that the previous promise to control the number of troops to less than 10,000 was actually very difficult, because only two infantry corps could be stationed, and the town's horse emblems and artillery emblems could not be brought.
As a result, the two sides bickered, and the final agreement was mainly based on the compromise proposal proposed by Toyotomi Hidenaga, that is, the Maritime Trade Alliance's garrison in Sakai Town would not exceed 5,000, and only one infantry alliance would be stationed.
He also said "very considerately" that 4,038 of the 5,000 people were planned to be a standard infantry corps of the Sea Trade Alliance, and the remaining about 1,000 people could be the family members and servants of the officers of this confederation. wait.
Although the conditions have been met, it has not been actually deployed until now. Firstly, the Sea Trade Alliance itself does not have that many land divisions (Jinghua’s domestic land divisions mainly belong to Jinghua Trading Company and major industries and mines, and are not under the direct jurisdiction of the Sea Trade Alliance). Secondly, Gao Pragmatic has been busy with the war against Mongolia since then. No decision has been made on where to allocate manpower.
Therefore, until now, although the Maritime Trade Alliance has built the so-called Japanese headquarters in Sakai Town, the defense force is not a regular land division, but some musketeers put together by Kyoka and various companies in the fleet. The number of these people is not fixed. Sometimes there are thousands of people, and sometimes there are only six or seven hundred.
"Do you think we can defend Sakai Town if there is a war with Toyotomi Hideyoshi?" Gao pragmatically shook his head and said: "I was hesitant to send troops to garrison Sakai Town at first. A big reason was that I was worried that we wouldn't be able to defend Sakai Town after the war started. Live there.”
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