In the original history, Emperor Chongzhen would confer Zhu Cizhen, the son of Concubine Tian, as the eternal king in March of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.
However, Zhang Mingwei traveled through time on the first day of March, and the butterfly wings were big enough, so Emperor Chongzhen was busy with political affairs and was delayed.
With the recovery of Concubine Tian, Emperor Chongzhen was already considering the matter of naming Zhu Cizhen as the eternal king.
However, when he heard Zhang Mingwei's words, he made a calculation in his mind.
As many sons as you have, you will have several vassal kings. Of course, it is absolutely necessary for one's own son to become the vassal king. However, after my own generation, if the next generation of emperors is able to give birth, there will be many vassal kings...
To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen's fertility was relatively strong. By the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, there were three living princes. If nothing else happens, there will definitely be a prince in the future.
Emperor Chongzhen thought about it for a moment, using himself as a reference. Suddenly, he was a little dumbfounded.
If this continues, even if there are not as many tricks as the gentleman said, there are so many vassals in the world. By then, the grain fields of the Ming Dynasty will not be enough to give to these vassals. As for the feudal prince's grain fields, as usual, there is no need to pay taxes. In this case, where did the money and food used by the court come from?
As an emperor, he absolutely takes this issue seriously! Because he could not collect taxes, he could wake up from the dilemma of the court having no money, and knew that the end would be the destruction of the country.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen thought about the consequences and said with great headache, "This matter of the vassal clan has always been one of the most troublesome things for the court. However, to this day, there is no good way to solve it once and for all. Let’s resolve this matter! I wonder if you have any regulations, sir?”
As for the local gentry using the name of the vassal king to annex land, these are actually minor problems. As long as the issue of the feudal prince and clan can be solved, then these matters that depend on the feudal prince and clan will naturally become rootless duckweeds and will be easily solved.
Emperor Chongzhen thought very clearly about this. In addition, it was Zhang Mingwei who took the initiative to raise the issue of the vassal clan, so he estimated that Zhang Mingwei had a solution, so he directly asked Zhang Mingwei what the regulations were.
After hearing this, Zhang Mingwei smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, in fact, this matter is not difficult to solve. Just cancel the hereditary system!"
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was obviously a little hesitant, so he asked again, "Is there any other way?"
Feudal dynasties since ancient times have had a very important foundation, which is actually the hereditary system.
When the emperor dies, the emperor's son continues to be emperor. If we talk about abolishing the hereditary system, what about letting the family rule the world? Although it can be said that the royal family is special, but the feudal king does not just come from the royal family!
If the treatment of the prince and other princes is too different, it will inevitably trigger a series of reactions. The struggle for power in the palace will become more intense! And they are all sons of the emperor. In their opinion, what's wrong with letting their son become a hereditary prince?
In addition, for people with foreign surnames, the highest reward is also a hereditary title.
Therefore, it can be said that hereditary system is a very important foundation of feudal dynasty. If the hereditary system is abolished, it will inevitably be attacked by huge vested interest groups. Not to mention Zhang Mingwei, even the emperor's throne may be unstable!
These things may not be taken seriously by future generations. However, for people in this era, this is the same as whether "it is okay to eat noodles but not rice" in the future. It is theoretically possible, but in fact everyone knows that this is not possible.
This was also the case, so Emperor Chongzhen asked if there was any other way.
This is equivalent to if eating rice will really kill people in the future, then eating noodles all the time is not unacceptable.
Zhang Mingwei listened, nodded and said, "There is another way, which is to imitate the strategy of enfeoffing princes during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to enfeoff vassal kings..."
"What?" Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately said a little unhappy, "Sir, you and I are discussing national affairs, this is not a joke!"
"I'm not kidding!" Zhang Mingwei couldn't help but smile when he heard this and said, "What I said about enfeoffing vassal kings is not to entrust them to the Ming Dynasty, but to enfeoff them overseas..."
Emperor Chongzhen was really unhappy when he heard that he was not joking. Anyone knows how Chengzu became emperor back then, right?
But before he had time to express his dissatisfaction, he heard Zhang Mingwei's next words and was a little stunned. Feng Feng Overseas?
To be honest, this idea had never occurred to him, and it could even be said that he had never heard of it.
"How much territory was there during the Shang and Zhou dynasties?" Zhang Mingwei pretended not to see Emperor Chongzhen's surprise and continued, "Separating the feudal lords and unifying them after many years of management will have the basis of our Han territory today. If the vassal kings were enfeoffed to When we go overseas and wait for future generations, the Ming Dynasty at that time will be far more than this land!"
All feudal emperors don't like to expand their territory. Emperor Chongzhen naturally liked it after hearing this, but he still shook his head and said, "But sir, overseas is a land of barbarians. If the feudal king goes there, doesn't it mean exile?"
"Those places that His Majesty regarded as barbarian lands are now almost the property of others!" Zhang Mingwei said seriously, "Today's era, later generations will call it the Age of Discovery, is an era of setting sail and carving up the world. "
Seeing Emperor Chongzhen's somewhat puzzled look, he gave an example and said, "Among other things, there are Folangji people in Haojing'ao of the Ming Dynasty, Spanish people in Luzon, and Hongyi people, etc. Your Majesty must be all of them." You know that, right?"
Emperor Chongzhen nodded, but still didn't understand what Zhang Mingwei meant.
Zhang Mingwei obviously saw it, so he continued, "They are an example of the Western Yi sailing out to sea and occupying territory everywhere. Don't think they are all barbaric places. You must know that even barbaric places have their own specialties. I will only cite one. The simplest example is that the Middle East is full of deserts and there is countless amounts of oil in the ground. This is a good thing that will be as good as gold in future generations. If we don't grab these things and wait until they are all gone, then there will still be ours. A portion?"
At this point, perhaps he was excited. Without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to speak, he rushed to say, "They plundered resources from all over the world to make their mother country richer and more powerful! And if we don't keep up with the times, If we advance, they will eventually attack us as they become stronger. As your Majesty saw in the documentary, falling behind means being beaten!"
Emperor Chongzhen did not expect that his husband would lead to such appalling results from the issue of the vassal clan. For a moment, he really couldn't understand it. Of course, this is also because there are some words in Zhang Mingwei's words that he has never heard before, which increases the difficulty of understanding.
Zhang Mingwei pointed at the melon seeds on his head and said loudly to Emperor Chongzhen, "In those barbaric lands that your Majesty thought, there were very large gold mines, iron mines, silver mines, etc., many of which could be used for tens of millions of dollars." Counting tens of thousands of catties, Your Majesty, you don’t want all this wealth?”
Hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen was a little unimaginable. How many tens of thousands of kilograms were there? Or gold, silver, iron and the like!
Just thinking about it, his eyes suddenly turned red.
After not speaking for so long, he immediately said, "Sir, there is no need to say anything else. The vassal king is not feudal. I will send the troops myself!"
"..." Zhang Mingwei was stunned when he heard this.
He thought that after saying these words, Emperor Chongzhen would agree. Unexpectedly, Emperor Chongzhen wanted it himself.
But think about it, it would be strange for Emperor Chongzhen, who was afraid of poverty, to give such huge wealth to others!
He was in a daze, but Emperor Chongzhen was a little anxious. He grabbed his hand and asked impatiently, "Sir, how about you tell me about a nearby place and I will dispatch troops right away?"
"..." Zhang Mingwei continued to be speechless!
After Emperor Chongzhen spoke again, he came back to his senses and said with a wry smile, "Your Majesty, that is a barbaric land!"
"What are you afraid of in the wilderness!" Emperor Chongzhen replied without hesitation upon hearing this.
"People everywhere are uncivilized, the kind that drink hair and blood!"
"What are you afraid of? I'm not going to chant poems against them, I'm going to mine!"
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he imagined Emperor Chongzhen and the natives reciting poems against each other. He couldn't help but shudder. He didn't dare to think about it anymore, so he refused directly and said, "Your Majesty, wake up, your base is here! Now you are still here." There is chaos, let’s first bring peace and order to the Ming Dynasty, and then revive the Ming Dynasty, okay?”
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen, whose eyes were shining, finally regained some of his consciousness, but he still said a little unwillingly, "Doesn't it cost a lot of money to revive the Ming Dynasty?"
"Then does your Majesty have a navy that you can trust? Does he have a sufficient fleet for a long voyage?"
Upon hearing Zhang Mingwei's words, Emperor Chongzhen was a little dumbfounded.
Shocked by this reality, he finally regained consciousness, but he still said regretfully, "Wouldn't it be a pity? What if those Westerners poached me first?"
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he said without hesitation, "As long as the Ming Dynasty is strong enough, what if Xiyi digs it out first? Just take it back!"
"Yes, sir, you are right!" Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen nodded immediately without any reservation.
Zhang Mingwei felt a little headache, so he said directly to him, "If the Ming Dynasty is to be strong, it must quell civil strife and solve the problem of land annexation, which means solving the problem of vassal kings and clans..."
At this point, he already knew Emperor Chongzhen's thinking, and immediately added, "Let some places that are not particularly critical be enfeoffed to the vassal clans, so that they can manage the land in a mature way and solve all domestic problems." It’s settled. Of course, I will keep all the good places for Your Majesty. What does Your Majesty think of this arrangement?"
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