prosperous age

Chapter 562 561 Suzerainty Regulations
The weather has entered winter, and the capital is getting colder and colder. Wei Guangde put on the padded clothes made by his wife early, and walked between the palace and the government office step by step every day.

When Wei Guangde walked into Prince Yu's mansion that day, when he saw Yin Shizhen, he saw Yin Shizhen say to him with a happy face: "Shan Loan, just received the news that Censor Lin Run has captured Yan Shifan.

do you know?When he was arrested, he was preparing to flee to Guangdong with his belongings, but Lin Yushi was alert and sent people to ambush on all the exits around Yuanzhou Mansion in advance, otherwise he might be told to run away. "

"oh, I see."

Wei Guangde was slightly taken aback. If what Yin Shifan said was true, then he must have been wrong when he judged that Yan Shifan deliberately lured Nanguan to impeach him so that he could return to the capital in a fair manner.

But it doesn't matter anymore, King Yu hated this person so much, no matter whether he was intentional or not, Yan Shifan could not escape death in the end when he entered the capital this time.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help thinking about the matter he had mentioned with Gao Gong before, and he didn't know whether Gao Gong would take the bottom line and completely cut off Yan Shifan's chance to turn around after Jiangxi notified him.

"Soon Yushi Lin will escort Yan Shifan to Beijing. I heard that when Yushi Lin went to arrest Yan Shifan, he was shocked outside Yan's mansion. That house was built, tsk tsk."

Yin Shizhen was still talking happily, his joy was beyond words.

"Did you tell His Highness? He should be very happy to hear the news."

Wei Guangde said to Yin Shizhen with a smile.

"Li Fang has already gone to inform, but isn't this expected a long time ago? King Yu's joy should have passed."

Yin Shi's eyebrows danced brightly and he said.

"Yesterday, I received news that the Hanlin Academy asked us to return to the academy tomorrow. Brother Zhengfu, do you know why?"

Wei Guangde suddenly thought of the news that Lu Bu told him yesterday, that all Hanlin in the capital must attend the Ministry, even those who have already worked part-time in various yamen must be present.

"The "Regulations of the Suzerains and Vassals" compiled by Li Chunfang and Li Shangshu has basically been completed. The Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Academy will make the final revision first, and then it will be submitted to His Majesty for review."

Yin Shizhen really knew what Wei Guangde said.

"Is it because of the incident caused by Lumi?"

Of course Wei Guangde has the impression that in the past two years, due to the problem of the clan Lumi, the state capitals with the mansions of feudal princes have more or less caused troubles.

The reason for this is naturally because they saw that the imperial court intended to settle the outstanding Lumi, and they were afraid that they would get less. Therefore, instead of being grateful for the fact that the imperial court preferred to distribute Lumi to the middle and lower clans, they intensified the trouble.

The purpose is to hope to get the attention of the court and solve more problems for them.

"When Lin Run was still in the Metropolitan Procuratorate in the capital, he showed me the memorial to the vassal clan he wrote. At that time, I thought it was pretty good. I didn't expect that it would cause so many troubles later. It can be said that the world is impermanent."

Wei Guangde couldn't help sighing.

It can only be that the suzerain and vassal issue in the Ming Dynasty is a muddy pond, and anyone who falls into it will be covered in mud, which is really not to be messed with.

"The seven proposals written by Zhou Fan Nanling King Zhu Muliying in His Majesty's imperial edict are good, and I heard that all of them were included in this "Regulations" by Li Shangshu.

As the king of the county, the King of Nanling was able to take the initiative to make suggestions for the court and actively promote the reform of the court's clan system. This is really remarkable. "

Yin Shizhen talked about what happened half a year ago.

After Lin Run's memorials were sent to Xiyuan, Emperor Jiajing asked the clan mansion to contact the vassal princes from all over the country, and asked them to express their opinions, work together, and find a solution.

But in the beginning, the feudal palaces all over the country kept silent, after all they all understood what that meant, and naturally they were unwilling to say more if they wanted to cut the benefits of their clans.

That is to say, Zhu Muli, the king of Nanling, was the last to make a head start, and then led the other vassal princes to respond. The suggestions they put forward were good or bad, but it depended on how the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Academy screened and decided.

After all, they have the right to speak, and whether to implement it depends on the intention of the court.

"Let the vassals participate in the selection, and I don't know if His Majesty can pass in the end."

Wei Guangde knew that the seven suggestions made by Nanling King Zhu Muli felt a little exaggerated and flashy, but the one about allowing the clan to participate in the imperial examination and become an official was a bit interesting.

At least, it opened up a way of thinking, that is, members of the clan do not have to stick to the "ancestral precepts", but can be farmers, businessmen and officials, just like ordinary people.

As for what it looks like now, the clan can't do anything, but in fact it's doing everything, it's just under the name of the servant.

The seven suggestions put forward by Zhu Muli, the king of Nanling, are as follows: one is to ask for the establishment of Zongxue to respect morality;
The second is to set up subjects to select talents;
The third is to strictly protect the exploration and prevent fraud;
The fourth is to strictly protect the exploration and eliminate fraudulent activities;
The fifth is to abstain from running and racing to stop gluttony;
The six is ​​the system of bowing to broad filial piety;
The seventh is to establish a worry system to save salary expenses.

"Then take a look at Li Shangshu's collection and arrangement regulations tomorrow."

Wei Guangde didn't want to get involved in the matter of the clan and vassal for the time being, so what he said was naturally a bit perfunctory. He had thought of it before, and he didn't know whether he thought of it himself or later generations had read articles about the clan of the Ming Dynasty, so he thought of a quota method.

That is to fix the total number of Lumi for each case, and then divide the Lumi equally according to the head and title.

In this way, no matter how the clan multiplies, the total amount of Lumi that the imperial court needs to bear will not change.

However, if this strategy is really implemented, the clans might start to quarrel, and I don't know if it will cause the clans from all over the world to make troubles together again.

In any reform, there will always be people whose interests are damaged, and they must also be resistance to reform.

Facing the clans, especially the upper clans, Wei Guangde dare not wrestle with them now.

Don't look at the princes and county kings in various places who have little power and are suppressed by the local government everywhere, but that depends on something.

It's okay to say whether the government takes up the reason or not, but if they don't take it, they will directly sue the emperor. In order to maintain the harmony of the family, the emperor might have to use him as a civil servant.

After all, the emperor is actually the patriarch of the clan, so he naturally wants to speak for the clan.

These are not things that Wei Guangde can see, but things that all civil servants can see. Therefore, in the past, most of the reforms to the clan regulations were aimed at the middle and lower clan clans, such as the princes and county kings. No one dared to touch their welfare.

After all, once done, the consequences are unpredictable.

On the second day, Wei Guangde entered the Imperial Academy, and saw that senior officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Officials were all here. After all, people like Li Chunfang, Yan Na, Dong Fen, and Gao Gong were all academicians of the Imperial Academy. Will discuss with you.

In fact, Yuan Wei also has the title of a bachelor of the Imperial Academy, but he is the only bachelor in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, so it is naturally inconvenient to attend.

However, Li Chunfang's first draft had already been placed on his and Xu Jie's desks.

There are no copiers these days, everything has to be copied manually, and there are only a dozen copies of the "Regulations" copied by the clerks of the Ministry of Rites, so naturally it is impossible to make a copy for each person.

But it is roughly divided, at least the bachelors, attendants, and attendants all have a share in their hands. As for Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde, there are also attendants and attendants, and they all sit down and watch silently.

Others can only wait, or they will roughly know what is going on based on the terms to be discussed during the discussion.

It should be said that the "Regulations of Suzerain and Vassal" compiled by Li Chunfang is essentially a small modification, or patch, of "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" issued by Zhu Yuanzhang that year.

In the 28th year of Hongwu, Ming Chengzu Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun", which set a difficult law for future generations.

The enfeoffment of kings is an important part of Zhu Yuanzhang's political design. Therefore, "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" contains a lot of content about vassal kings.

The "Ancestral Instructions" formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang at the beginning, because the founding of the Ming Dynasty was too short, many existing problems did not break out, especially the clan succession and subsequent problems. To put it bluntly, Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect the clan population to come to a population in the Jiajing Dynasty. explode.

This time, the "Regulations on Suzerainty and Vassal Affairs" has changed most of the problematic items and made them more detailed, which naturally targets restrictions.

The "Regulations of Suzerainty and Vassal" compiled by Li Chunfang has a total of 67 detailed rules. Wei Guangde knew that Li Chunfang had the same concerns as himself, so there were only 4 regulations in the "Regulations" that involved the prince's title.

They are respectively: the 5th "Prince inherits the title", the 7th "Prince inherits the title", the 25th "Prince cuts the title", and the 32nd "Please seal the birth mother".

Among them, the seventh article "The Prince's Succession" involves the interests of the prince, which stipulates that the prince who should inherit the title must wait for the completion of the service and the age before he can apply for the title.

Preventing the prince from taking the title prematurely and receiving the annual salary was actually done during the Zhengde period, but it was not made public on paper. Now Li Chunfang is directly on the front stage.

And the restrictions on the first level of the county king are also extremely limited, only a few.

The remaining dozens of articles are aimed at the middle and lower clans, from generals to lieutenants.

In the Ming Dynasty, the clan was divided into Prince, County King, Zhenguo General, Fuguo General, Fengguo General, Zhenguo Lieutenant, Fuguo Lieutenant, and Fengguo Lieutenant Eight. The lieutenant is the lowest class, and also the group whose interests have been deprived the most this time.

When Wei Guangde saw Article 51, he couldn't help sitting up straight.

Article 51 "Stop payment of wages", according to the regulations, from now on, the county king, general, lieutenant, and county lord will be exempted from housing, crown clothes, and grave prices. This time, the county king was not omitted.

Thinking about it, the Prince's Mansion was already built by the imperial court, while the county king, general, and lieutenant needed to build new ones, and the local government would bear the corresponding labor costs.

However, for the county king, this expenditure can be borne in front of him, but it is difficult for the generals and lieutenants below.

In the past, after they were canonized, the government would prepare houses and crown clothes of the corresponding level. This was a lot of expenses. If this was done, some clans might be displaced.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde raised his head and looked at Li Chunfang above. At this moment, he was talking to Yan Na and Gao Gong next to him, maybe he was explaining some of the provisions.

From the looks of it, it seemed that Gao Gong and the others had seen the complete "Regulations on Suzerainty and Vassal" for the first time, but they didn't know where their questions came from.

However, according to Wei Guangde's view of everyone present, or the entire civil servant group, there is a high probability that no one will be dissatisfied with the "Regulations" that mostly target the middle and lower clans.

Born in the royal family, it's okay if it's the upper class, but it's really a bit miserable if it's the middle and lower class.

Wei Guangde didn't pay too much attention to the discussions in the Imperial Academy, so he just came here for a discussion, sat with the same year and friends in the Imperial Academy, shared the copy in his hand for them to read, and spent a day without knowing it.

When it's time for Sanya, everyone has the same attitude towards getting off work, that is, to be on time.

After all, this matter cannot be discussed in a day or two to reach a result. Many people have to go back and think about it before putting forward their own opinions.

But when Wei Guangde was about to leave the Imperial Academy, he was stopped by Gao Gong from behind.

"Shandai, take a step slowly, let's walk for a while together."

Wei Guangde really didn't want to have any contact with Gao Gong today. Without him, at noon, he heard someone spread the news intentionally or unintentionally. It is not good to ask famous doctors around for diagnosis and treatment, so I wrote to ask the capital to send an imperial doctor there.

Although the time is a bit tight, Wei Guangde still suspects that this matter may be Gao Gong's handwriting based on his intuition. He should understand that the last obstacle to King Yu's ascension to the throne still exists.

Although judging from Xiyuan's current attitude, it doesn't seem to pose a threat to King Yu, but there is such a possibility after all.

The Ministry of Rites is the link between the imperial court and the feudal vassals. It used to be through the Clan Mansion, but now the Clan Mansion has already been placed under the Ministry of Rites, and now it is under the control of Gao Gong.

"King Jing's body seems to be difficult to survive. According to the text sent by King Jing's mansion, His Royal Highness King Jing's illness is very serious this time."

In Gao Gong's sedan chair, Gao Gong whispered to Wei Guangde.

By this time, if Wei Guangde hadn't reacted, he would be really stupid.

He thought that he thought of King Jing's threat to King Yu, but he didn't see that Gao Gong had actually laid chess pieces beside King Jing early on, but he just kept holding back.

This time, I am afraid that he was also intimidated by Yan Shifan's reputation, so he had to use the hidden pawns to completely cut off his thoughts.

Is this the time to put the hat on your head in case something happens?

Wei Guangde became vigilant all of a sudden, he would not pick up this conversation casually.

"His Royal Highness King Jing is ill. His Royal Highness King Yu will be very sad to know, but has the memorial been sent to Xiyuan?"

Wei Guangde replied casually.

"Of course, the Clan's Mansion didn't dare to delay for a moment after receiving the news, and directly delivered it to the cabinet for disposal."

Gao Gong also answered casually.

"That's good. It's better to make preparations for arranging the imperial doctor. If the decree is made, we must rush to Anlu without stopping."

Wei Guangde turned his head to look at Gao Gong and said.

"Shan Loan should know that Yan Shifan has been locked up."

"Slightly heard."

"At the Ministry of Punishments, King Yu has asked you to pay more attention, you must not neglect this matter."

"Brother Suqing, I actually think that Mr. Xu Ge is the safest to deal with this matter. He and Yan Shifan have worked together for more than ten years, and the good loan is only a few years."

In the big sedan chair, Wei Guangde and Gao Gong talked about Yan Shifan, the words were very relaxed, as if the overall situation had been decided and the victory was in their hands.

(End of this chapter)