In a year of severe drought, there may not necessarily be a major locust plague. Even if it is suitable for locust breeding, the locust eggs buried in the soil can be killed by plowing the ground once and turning it over.
However, during the severe drought at this time in the late Ming Dynasty, people would starve to death because they could not survive, or become bandits. As a result, no one took these preventive measures, and locusts became a plague. In the last years of Chongzhen, there were locust plagues almost every year, which made the food situation worse.
This truth was already understood by Emperor Chongzhen when he arrived at Xi'an Mansion. Therefore, it made him feel that the rebellion of thieves must be put down as soon as possible, otherwise the situation will only get worse in a vicious cycle.
The original history shows that there were many accidental factors in the demise of the dynasty. But through traveling through this period of time, especially after leaving the capital, and what he saw and heard on the road, Emperor Chongzhen had a profound understanding that the Ming Dynasty could not survive. Even if it wasn't the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign, it was probably just a matter of the 18th or 19th year of Chongzhen's reign.
The army rested in Xi'an Mansion for two days before heading south again. During this period, Emperor Chongzhen personally went to the vassal palace and met with Zhu Cunshu, the King of Qin who was granted a title in Xi'an.
During this meeting, Zhu Cunshu could be said to be very nervous.
The sects and sects knew everything about King Rui. It can be said that King Rui was a little unreasonable to the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty because he was the vassal king. It was also true that he wanted to make a fuss when his land rent was robbed. However, it is basically impossible to say that King Rui colluded with the bandits and wanted to rebel.
However, the fact today is that the crime that the court placed on King Rui was colluding with the bandits and conspiring against him. Not only did King Rui's family no longer have any splendor and wealth, King Rui himself "hanged himself" to death.
King Qin was very clear about this. The fundamental reason was that King Rui didn't want to spend money and food. But this time the emperor came in person and wanted to summon him to see him. He also knew that it was probably about money and food.
Sure enough, after meeting him, Emperor Chongzhen first talked to him about how Taizu rose from a young age and went through untold hardships to conquer the world and laid the foundation for the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the sentence, Emperor Chongzhen sighed: "This Ming Dynasty was hard-won!"
After hearing this, King Qin couldn't help but slander in his heart. The Ming Dynasty was hard-won, but it was not his own lineage that dominated the world! But on the surface, he certainly agreed.
Seeing this, Emperor Chongzhen said to the King of Qin: "Now the Ming Dynasty is suffering from internal and external troubles. You are in Qin. You should be familiar with the civil uprisings in these years than I am. They will last for a long time. In the long run, the country of Ming Dynasty will be worried. We are here." As the descendants of Taizu, we all have the responsibility to maintain the inheritance left by our ancestors, right?"
"It's bullshit, that's your business, okay?" King Qin thought in his heart, but on the surface he was obedient and didn't say much.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at him and didn't know what he was thinking. He suddenly sneered and said: "It's a pity that some vassal kings can't recognize this. They don't even think about it. If the Ming Dynasty's country and the country are not protected, how can their vassal state be affected?" If they can still hold the position of king, can they continue to enjoy the glory and wealth without any worries? Do you think I was wrong?"
After hearing this, King Qin was finally stunned. To be honest, he really hasn't thought about this. After listening to this, I finally realized that the safety of the Ming Dynasty was indeed related to these vassal kings!
"Yes, your Majesty is right!" This time, King Qin finally looked into Emperor Chongzhen's eyes and replied quickly.
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said: "I know that many vassal kings have doubts about the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty. They feel that I am robbing money by exchanging silver notes and food stamps issued by the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty for money and food. It’s wrong to have this idea. Who am I, the mighty Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, how can I do such a thing, don’t you think so?”
"..." King Qin was speechless and thought to himself, is the emperor talking about himself? He quickly replied, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely not the case!"
"Actually, I understand that those who are not in the capital have doubts about the Ming Royal Bank." After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen shook his head and said, "But since I passed by here, I can chat with you about the Ming Royal Bank. The bank notes and food stamps issued by the bank can definitely be exchanged for money and food. I can guarantee this. However, it will take time to prepare and establish branches in various places. When they are established, you will be able to see , what I said is definitely not false!”
Seeing that King Qin still wanted to speak, Emperor Chongzhen stopped him with a wave of his hand, and then continued: "Some people may think that even so, the imperial court exchanged the food of the good years for the food of the current disaster years. It is not cost-effective for the vassal king. Regarding this, I will definitely be very angry with people who care about this. If he really cares about this, I feel that he is not worthy of becoming a descendant of the Zhu family, who is a stable person. There is no need to enjoy the glory and wealth brought by the Ming Dynasty."
When King Qin heard this, he nodded quickly. The emperor had already made this very clear before. Due to emotions and reasons, if the emperor really wanted to do this, no one would dare to say anything if he dealt with several Rui kings.
Seeing him like this, Emperor Chongzhen told him: "There are some things that, from my perspective, some people may have a rebellious mentality and think that I am too stingy and treat my relatives badly. Therefore, I am telling you this because I hope you can Please help me explain this truth clearly and publish a memorial. I believe that in this way, other vassal kings will be able to accept it easily. I don’t want the clan to end up being unhappy. Of course, if someone wants to make me unhappy, , of course I won’t let him have an easy time. After all, this is for the sake of the country passed down from our ancestors, so if I’m cruel and bear the infamy, I’ll accept it!”
"..." King Qin was speechless again. Your emperor's words were coercive and tempting, but he also spoke earnestly. What can I, a mere vassal king, say? Don't you just want me to be the one who takes the lead and bear the infamy of the feudal kings for you? That’s it!
Although he thought so, when he actually responded, King Qin still said "sincerely": "Everything your Majesty said makes sense!"
Emperor Chongzhen listened and nodded with satisfaction. This King of Qin, I heard, was a timid type, so I stopped by to have a casual chat with him, and it seemed that something was gained.
The reason why I wanted to talk to the King of Qin while I was in Xi'an and let him take the lead in explaining this matter was because he was about to lead his troops into Henan. On the Henan side, many clans have also been sealed off. The most famous one among them is King Fu, who is also his imperial uncle.
The weight of this imperial uncle is not comparable to that of Prince Rui. Back then, Prince Fu almost became the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It was Emperor Wanli who had wanted to establish the crown prince over and over again, but the ministers opposed it. After many years of struggle, Emperor Chongzhen and his father finally took over the throne.
Therefore, in order to compensate King Fu, Wanli rewarded 40,000 hectares of farmland at one time that year. It can be said that at least the grain fields near Luoyang are basically owned by King Fu. On the Henan side, even the vassal king did not have enough grain fields, so he had to transfer the grain fields from neighboring provinces.
Emperor Chongzhen entered Henan this time just to ask King Fu and others to make a fortune. But for King Fu, he couldn't deal with him as simply and roughly as King Rui.
The main reason is that King Rui first committed suicide and gave Emperor Chongzhen an excuse to deal with it. It would be difficult for other vassal kings to find excuses like this.
On the other hand, in name only, King Fu has already given up the throne, but if you still force him to do so, Emperor Chongzhen will suffer in terms of human ethics.
Even though Emperor Chongzhen had already taken control of the military, King Fu couldn't do anything about this kind of thing. But if the reputation is bad, the hidden losses will still be huge. A simple example, if this happened, he would definitely be attacked by all potential enemies such as Li Zicheng or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as well as those scholars who were punished by Emperor Chongzhen. Most of the people were blindly obedient, knowing that the emperor was a tyrant and would not spare even his own relatives. If they had other choices, this would be a factor that would change their decision.
Nominal justice has been valued by Chinese people since ancient times. The so-called teacher has a good reputation refers to this principle. Those who act shamelessly will not end well in the end.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen felt that these potential factors could be solved by doing something by the way, and he didn't mind doing it.
After talking about this matter, he may have become interested, and continued to talk to King Qin about his family life, asking him how many children and grandchildren he had and how he was doing?
Hearing this, King Qin's heart was moved, and he quickly began to complain, saying that the court still had not included his younger sons in the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate". If they were not included in the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate", they would have no status and no If you are ennobled, you cannot receive salary. His lineage of King Qin also had other branches, and even more of them were not included in the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate".
Having said this, he even hurriedly asked his young sons to come over to meet him and make them recognize their faces. At least in his opinion, this opportunity was rare, and he might be able to record it in the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate", which would help him a lot.
In response to this, Emperor Chongzhen kept smiling and met with several of his sons. After boasting some polite words about how promising they would be in the future, he let them go.
When King Qin was the only one left in the hall, with the expectant eyes of King Qin, Emperor Chongzhen seemed not to have thought of entering them into the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate". He was just chatting about family matters and mentioned it casually: " In fact, after nearly three hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, I have established the vassal system, and I think it is no longer applicable!"
Hearing this, King Qin was startled again. During the Jiajing Dynasty, there had actually been an innovation to the vassal system, and the "Regulations of the vassal" were introduced, which restricted the interests of many vassals. Listening to the emperor's words at this time, why does it seem that a new round of vassal restrictions is about to begin?
Thinking this, he didn't answer for a while, but just listened silently.
Emperor Chongzhen ignored him and continued: "You see, the emperor's sons, except for the prince, must be granted the title of vassal king. In addition to the hereditary sons of vassal princes, they must also be granted the title of county princes. And they all have to ban the generals of the country... If things continue like this, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was actually nothing. But now, after so many years, the number of clan members has increased by more than 600,000 times compared to the beginning of the People's Republic of China. The imperial treasury A year's income, to be honest, is not enough to cover the expenses of the vassal kings and clans in various places. But if I don't pay according to the arrears over the years, I feel that I will be sorry for my relatives. So, I thought, starting from me, the vassal vassal The system needs to be fundamentally changed!”
After hearing this, King Qin finally looked at Emperor Chongzhen again in surprise. He didn't know how the emperor was going to change.
"Please help me see if this is possible?" Emperor Chongzhen seemed to say sincerely, "Starting from my son, there will no longer be titles. After the vassal king, my grandson can only be the county king. The son of my grandson I am the general who governs the country, so let’s go on like this. I know that if I do this, my sons will probably be dissatisfied. But this is related to the country of the Ming Dynasty. Even if they are dissatisfied, I have decided to do it. How are you doing? "
"..." King Qin was speechless. He felt that the young emperor in front of him was cruel to the vassal king and also to his own son! If that's what he said, wouldn't his own son have to do the same thing?
Of course he was unwilling to do this. However, he also knew that the emperor in front of him was "cruel and ruthless". If he didn't do what the emperor wanted, would he believe he would follow in the footsteps of King Rui? Furthermore, the emperor's top priority was to move away from his ancestral country, and his own son wanted to do the same. How could he still say no?
After much deliberation, King Qin still said cautiously: "Your Majesty, this... will this cause Your Majesty to be criticized by the clan? Has Your Majesty paid too much for the country left by his ancestors?"
To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen must have had some estrangement from those sons, even if they were fused with the souls of the original Emperor Chongzhen, there would still be some. But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the clan had indeed become a very big burden on the court and had to be dealt with.
Therefore, after hearing what King Qin said, Emperor Chongzhen sighed and said: "There is nothing we can do about it. You see, even in your vassal palace, there are so many things that have not been recorded in the "Tianhuang Jade Certificate". Why? Isn't it because the court is really honest? We can’t afford to recruit without money and food! And I’ve heard that some clans with lower titles even starved to death. Therefore, it’s really impossible not to reform the clan and vassal system.”
At this point, he paused and then said: "Of course, I have also considered that in the future, those clans with lower titles will loosen the restrictions set by Emperor Chengzu, and they will be based on their nationality. Those who are capable can be officials. You can farm without any skills, you can do some small business, you can support yourself after all, right?"
In the original history, it was also on July 12, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, that Emperor Chongzhen opened this door and granted the imperial clan member Zhu Mouchao Zhongshu Sheren the title of magistrate of the state. Minba, Moubao, Huatongpan, Changqian, Dingjing and Changhun were all magistrates.
