The Resurrection of the South Seas of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 730 The relationship between monarchy and subject power (5k chapters)

The morning sun shines on the golden roof of Fengtian Temple, and the smooth golden roof reflects the dazzling light!

Zhu Hongyu was dressed in dragon gown, sitting on the dragon chair outside Fengtian Hall, receiving the congratulations from the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"..."

The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty bowed down together, and their movements were uniform.

At this time, it is also the time when the authority of the emperor can be best reflected.

This feeling of countless people congratulating you, as long as you are a man, you can't refuse.

The taste of power is really fascinating!
The reason why Zhu Hongyu was able to persist in the morning court every ten days even though he knew that the morning court was of no practical significance was also related to his obsession with the civil and military congratulations of the Manchu dynasty.

After all the courtiers below had finished their pilgrimage, Zhu Hongyu spoke.

"Be flat!"

His voice was not too loud, but through the loudspeakers installed on the dragon chair and the speakers installed on the lampposts around the square, Zhu Hongyu's voice spread throughout Fengtian Temple Square.

After Zhu Hongyu's words fell, a large group of people got up from the ground one after another, and stood still in their positions according to their past habits.

Zhu Hongyu scanned the square of Fengtian Temple for a week, and said.

"In the past period of time, I instructed Yu Jinyiwei and the Ministry of Justice to jointly carry out the anti-corruption scavenger operation!"

"The effect is remarkable!"

Zhu Hongyu's words made the expressions of the officials in the square change.

It's more than a remarkable effect? !
More than 3000 officials, large and small, were arrested in one breath. Those who didn't know it thought they were still living in the Hongwu Dynasty!

It's just so fucking badass!

Zhu Hongyu looked at Yan Wei'an, Minister of Justice, and said.

"Minister Yan, stand up and report on the specific results of this anti-corruption operation!"

Yan Wei'an took the order and walked out of the courtroom with a thick stack of documents in his arms.

Then he began to open the document and read aloud.

"So far, the Ministry of Justice has filed a total of 210 cases."

"Among them, two cases involved local political envoys, 57 cases involved local state-level chief officials, and two cases involved local county-level chief officials."

"All the perpetrators have been arrested and brought to justice!"

"How to deal with it, please show Your Majesty!"

Yan Wei'an asked for orders.

He knew that since this scavenger operation, the label of "cruel official" on him must not be torn off.

In order to ensure his own power and safety, Yan Wei'an can only follow the emperor all the way to the dark, and play his role as a cruel official with peace of mind.

Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly, then asked.

"Have the results of the interrogation of the officials involved come out?"

Zhou Tianxu, the commander of Jinyiwei, stood up and said after hearing the words.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Jinyiwei has completed the interrogation of the officials involved in the case, and all the files have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice for filing."

All the civil and military people in the court were panicked, and this was too soon, and the case had already been filed. If it were said that the emperor hadn't planned this matter for a long time, no dog would believe it!

However, no one dared to stand up and say something!
Zhu Hongyu nodded slightly.

"Submit the dossier!"

Yan Wei'an took the order and gave instructions to the officials of the Ministry of Justice behind him.

After receiving the order, the official from the Ministry of Justice turned and left. After a short while, he came back with a large stack of files and handed them over to Zhu Hongyu's desk.

Zhu Hongyu flipped through the dossier casually, and the descriptions in the dossier were relatively concise.

Probably name, position, crime committed, trial result, etc.!

No more!
The purpose is to facilitate the emperor's review.

Zhu Hongyu kept flipping through the files, nodding his head slightly from time to time, as if to express his approval.

After a long time, Zhu Hongyu stopped reading and said.

"Let's deal with it according to the trial results of the Ministry of Justice!"

According to the results of the trial given by the Ministry of Justice, although there were only more than 3000 officials involved in the mass cleansing, the family members of the officials involved, merchants and wealthy gentry who were implicated were able to add a zero after the number.

For these criminals, the Ministry of Justice has given different punishments!

However, not many people were actually executed like Su Wenze, only about one-fifth of the total number of people involved in the case.

Of course, this does not include those who went too far with the facts and were thrown by Zhu Hongyu to the Imperial Hospital as experimental materials.

However, most of them were sentenced to life-long reform through labor and exile of their families.

This result made the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty of Ming Dynasty breathe a sigh of relief.

Everyone felt fortunate that Zhu Hongyu was not as murderous as Zhu Yuanzhang, who executed tens of thousands of people at every turn.

However, how could they know that lifelong labor reform and family exile are better than death!
Lifelong labor reform is really using people like animals to die.

Most of the family members were exiled to Nanyang!
And, don't think about where these exiles will be resettled, basically just throw them into the undeveloped barren mountains and let them open up wasteland.

In this process, most people will not survive!
The acclimatization and disease alone can take away the lives of most people.

This is the difference between Zhu Hongyu and Zhu Yuanzhang.

It's cool for Lao Zhu to kill people directly, but his methods are a bit rough, which is easy to be criticized by others.

Moreover, so much labor was wasted, thanks!

But Zhu Hongyu is more sinister, he doesn't like to kill people on the spot, but likes to make dirty tricks.

Regardless of this scavenger operation, only a few hundred people were killed in the end.

However, among the tens of thousands of people involved in the case, few survived in the end.

Needless to say, labor reform is to extract the surplus value of these people.

At most three to five years, people must be exhausted!

And exile, thrown into the barren mountains, most people will not survive in the end.

In this way, not only can the frontiers be opened up for the imperial court, but also don't need to get blood on your hands, how good is that?

Zhu Hongyu cleared his throat, and then spoke.

"I am very satisfied with the results of this anti-corruption campaign, but also very sad!"

"I am satisfied that Jin Yiwei and the Ministry of Justice failed to disappoint me. So many moths were found in my Daming's body."

"What disappoints me is that such moths are all officials of the Ming Dynasty whom I have given great respect to!"

Zhu Hongyu said in a heavy tone, his eyes swept across the square, and the cold eyes stared at the backs of many people.

"What happened in the past is fine. If I say let it go, then I won't pursue it!"

"But how long has it been since the restoration of the Ming Dynasty? Why doesn't this person have a long memory?"

"Is it because I don't give you enough salaries? Is it because Daming doesn't give you enough treatment? Why do you have to go to corruption!"

"It's nothing more than corruption, why do you want to touch the relief food allocated by the imperial court?!"

"Don't these people know that these relief food are life-saving food for many people?"

"Do they know how many people will starve to death when they are greedy for the money and food?!"

"If I don't deal with these corrupt officials, how can I see my ancestors? How can I see the people of the world?!"

Zhu Hongyu can be regarded as having learned the lesson that officials were given too low salaries in the previous Ming Dynasty, so that corruption was rampant.

The salary he gave to officials has never been considered low. Although it is not as good as the high salary in the Song Dynasty, it is also a big increase compared to the official salary in the previous Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the reason for increasing official salaries step by step is not to give officials one step at a time.

It's not that the court has no money!

It was Zhu Hongyu who deliberately controlled it. He knew the truth of Sheng Mi's favor and Mi's hatred. Shi En can only be done step by step, and it must not be completed in one step.

"These people are forcing me and Emperor Taizu to learn!"

"Why, do I have to be like Emperor Taizu, give you a corrupt 60 taels of skinned grass, and a shackle to go to court so that you can all be clean?!"

Zhu Hongyu glanced around like cold electricity.

The cold light in his eyes seemed to remind everyone that he was not joking.

no sooner said than done!

All the civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty were silent, and Zhu Hongyu was also cold and silent.

It was not until Zheng Chenggong, who was in the court class, stood up and spoke, that Zhu Hongyu was given a step.

"Report to Your Majesty, the old minister has something to say!"

Zhu Hongyu's complexion improved slightly, and he nodded slightly and said.

"speak!"

Zheng Chenggong said.

"Most of my courtiers in the Ming Dynasty are loyal to the emperor and patriotic, diligent in government and loving the people, those black sheep are only a minority after all, please trust me and your courtiers, Your Majesty!"

"I and my subjects will never disappoint His Majesty!"

Facing the steps that Zheng Chenggong offered to hand over, Zhu Hongyu followed them down.

"Ok!"

"Since King Yanping said so, then I will give King Yanping a face for the time being, and let this matter go for now!"

"I hope everyone will not disappoint me!"

Facing the rampant corruption in the court, he, the emperor, needs to express his dissatisfaction.

However, you can't put yourself on the opposite side of the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty!

The relationship between the emperor and his courtiers should not be hostile to each other.

There may be disputes between the power of the monarch and the power of the ministers, which cannot be avoided.

But generally speaking, monarchy and ministerial power are still interdependent.

The king needs to extend his power to all levels of society through his ministers to help him rule the huge country.

The courtiers also need to obtain power from the king, and use power to benefit themselves.

In other words, if courtiers want power, they must maintain the sanctity of the monarchy. Only in this way can they get enough power from the monarchy.

The power of the monarch and the power of the ministers are inseparable. To some extent, they are one.

It's just that the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides will alternate, but it is impossible for the monarchy to completely replace the ministerial power.

For, without officials, it is impossible for the king to rule the whole country by himself.

Therefore, Zhu Hongyu will leave a certain amount of face for the subordinates!

So, after having the steps, Zhu Hongyu walked down the steps.

When the anti-corruption matter was settled, Zhu Hongyu glanced around and started the next topic of the grand court meeting.

First of all, after the army regained Guanzhong, the imperial court's measures to restore the people's livelihood and political situation in Guanzhong!
Then there is the matter of the army going to Liaodong!
Without exception, these two matters have already been finalized in a small meeting.

Now it's just taken out to do a work report, that's all!

As for North Korea's request for help, although the Ming court received it, no one brought it to the court.

Because the emperor hasn't made a decision yet, what's the difference between bringing the matter to the early court now and forcing the palace?
Seeing that thousands of people were all taken down in one breath, beheaded beheaded, labor reformed labor reform officials, no one dared to stroke the emperor's beard!
In case the emperor is shaved, and there is another anti-corruption operation, who the hell can bear it?
How many officials are really clean?
……

Zheng Chenggong's mansion!

With the anti-corruption of the imperial court during this period, Zheng Chenggong basically never opened the door of Zheng's mansion in order not to get himself into any trouble.

No matter who came to visit, Zheng Chenggong's response was that the prince was sick and no one was there.

However, when it was time to go to court, Zheng Chenggong was never absent, and he was still in high spirits in court.

Although Zheng Chenggong made it clear that he was rejecting customers, no one dared to say anything!
After all, this is the Yanping King of Ming Dynasty!
Don't look at this one who has retired, but he is still a giant in the court.

Zheng Chenggong finished the early court and returned to his mansion. As soon as he entered the gate, he asked someone to take off the crown robe embroidered with dragon patterns bestowed by the emperor on his body.

Put on a fresh and cool casual clothes.

This royal-given mianfu is indeed majestic and beautiful, but it is also really stuffy.

With the cold air of anti-corruption disappearing, the midsummer in Nanjing is as difficult as ever.

Zheng Chenggong strode towards his study, followed by several servants.

After a while, he entered the study.

After ordering people to serve tea, Zheng Chenggong began to sip the tea and read a book.

This is an outline of the British Navy's construction plan that Ming bought from Western businessmen.

This includes the tactics of water warfare, the various ship shapes of the fleet, the personnel quota of the ships, etc...

This thing is precious, but it is quite precious, after all, the elite of the British Royal Navy is in it.

But if you want to say how precious it is, it's not always true, Daming can buy it with money!

Zheng Chenggong is quite concerned about this "British Navy's Construction Plan Outline", and he reads it whenever he has something to do.

Then I also like to make a summary while flipping through the book, and send Zhu Hongyu a proposal for the reform of the Ming Dynasty Navy from time to time.

Zhu Hongyu generally agreed, and asked the navy to carry out corresponding reforms.

Although he doesn't want to admit it, the strongest navy in the world is indeed Niu Niu's navy.

It's not terrible to be behind, what's really terrible is that you don't realize that you are behind, and you don't learn!
Although Daming has been doing its best to build ships and make dumplings these years, there is still a big gap between the number of warships of Daming and Britain.

That is to say, the king dominates the east of Malacca, and the west of Malacca is rarely set foot except for merchant ships.

what is the reason?Is it because Daming's navy doesn't want to go?

of course not!

The real reason is that in the west of Malacca, Ming Dynasty can't handle the fleets of the Netherlands, Britain, Spain, Portugal and other countries!

Although these Europeans were almost out of their minds in Europe, they reached a tacit consensus near Malacca to prevent the Ming fleet from passing through Malacca.

Due to the lack of strength on Ming's side, and the fact that they have to focus on the domestic unification war in the past few years, they also acquiesced to the status quo in the direction of Malacca.

Now that he reads books and makes comments from time to time, this can be regarded as the adjustment Zheng Chenggong found for his retirement life.

Just as Zheng Chenggong was flipping through the book, a steward came in outside and spoke in his ear.

"My lord, the son of the Joseon Dynasty, Li Xuan, is seeking to see him outside!"

After Zheng Chenggong heard the words, he frowned subconsciously, feeling very embarrassed.

He probably knows the reason for Li Xuan's visit!
It was nothing more than to beg him to come forward, to ask the emperor to send troops to rescue North Korea.

However, it was precisely because of this that Zheng Chenggong felt embarrassed.

Because, now the emperor's attitude is unclear!
The emperor's attitude is unclear, and Zheng Chenggong is unwilling to express his position.

After thinking for a while, Zheng Chenggong said.

"Forget it, bring people in!"

After all, the outsider is the son of the Joseon Dynasty, so it's not that kind of thing to leave people alone!

It is necessary to meet and see, at worst, after meeting someone, it is enough to pretend to be confused.

……

Just when Zheng Chenggong was preparing to meet the son of the Joseon Dynasty, Zhu Hongyu also summoned the relevant staff of the Fifth Army Commander's Office to discuss the North Korea issue.

North Korea matters, at least for now!

Because, the invasion of North Korea by the Manchu Qing Dynasty broke Zhu Hongyu's plan for North Korea.

Originally, Zhu Hongyu's plan was to absorb North Korea's social resources and intensify social conflicts within North Korea through trade with North Korea.

Now the trade between Ming Dynasty and North Korea is mainly trade in population, and most of them are women.

In the short term, the population of North Korea has decreased, and Ming Dynasty imported a lot of high-quality and cheap commodities to North Korea, which eased the social conflicts in North Korea and allowed more people to have enough to eat.

However, once the timeline is extended and the ratio of men to women is unbalanced in North Korea, it is unknown to what extent social conflicts will accumulate!
What you need to know is that a man without a wife and children is the biggest factor of instability in the whole society!
Once there is no family as a concern and anchor, a man who feeds the whole family and is not hungry will not honestly be a cow and horse for a lifetime!
What else can a large group of social idlers who can't marry a wife do without being cattle and horses?
It's nothing more than rebellion!

Anyway, they will be poor all their lives, and they have no one to implicate, so why not give it a try?

If he succeeds, he will be a nobleman of the new dynasty, and if he dies, he will be nothing but a miserable life!
And then, Daming wants to make North Korea reform by cultivating reformists inside North Korea!
Once North Korea starts to reform, the counterattack of vested interest groups and social conflicts will lead to the fall of North Korea.

At that time, it will be the time for Daming to take over North Korea in its entirety!
However, the invasion of the Qing Dynasty disrupted Zhu Hongyu's plan.

It seems that North Korea is about to perish in the hands of Man Qing!
Now facing North Korea's request for help, Zhu Hongyu is temporarily undecided.

Should Ming Dynasty send troops to rescue North Korea?
In other words, how should Ming annex North Korea?
(End of this chapter)