eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 558 The Gini Coefficient Between the Feudal King and the Feudal King

When it comes to the issue of feudal king Lumi and local finances, there is really something to say.

The vassal king Lumi can basically be considered to have troubled the court since the time of Zhu Yuanzhang.

In the ninth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang gave the prince 5 shi and [-] banknotes. In addition, there were brocade, cotton, winter and summer cloth, salt and tea.

During this period, the prince's responsibilities and powers were far greater than those after Yongle.Because Zhu Di rebelled, it is absolutely impossible to imagine the Hongwu period with the situation of the vassal king after Yongle.

In fact, being a prince in the Ming Dynasty, different historical periods and different people in the same period were really different.

During the Hongwu period, there were nine kings of Sai, because Zhu Yuanzhang entrusted each of his sons to border towns and guarded the center.

Among the nine kings of Sai, the most powerful ones are the second king Qin (Xi'an), the third king Jin (Taiyuan), the fourth Zhu Di (Peking), the thirteenth king (Datong), and the rebellious King Anhua recently. Ancestor, old King Sixteen Qing (Ningxia).

Because Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor of the country, the first generation had few people, and he could control the gang of sons and grandsons.So he dared to give more responsibilities to the vassal kings, let them take on some affairs, make contributions to the court, get more money for doing things, and understand.

On the other hand, there are few people, and 5 shi per person is not a problem for the court.

However, this seemingly passable policy at the time quickly turned into a burden.

A burden that started from the time of Zhu Yuanzhang.

First of all, I want to give a general concept: Zhu Yuanzhang has been in the world for 31 years. At first, there were 24 princes and 1 county king. By the time of his death, there were 58 clan members of various titles.

So before he was alive, he already felt that something was wrong with this growth.

In September of the 20th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: The prince's mansion will give [-] shi of rice every year, and the tea, salt, cloth, wadding and other things should not be given.

In the ninth month of the 28th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that "children and grandchildren are prosperous" now, and military and civilian expenditures in the world have doubled compared with previous years, so he decreed: reduce the annual income of the kings to fund the military and the country.

Specifically, the original prince's [-] shi Lumi was reduced to [-] shi, the county king was reduced from [-] shi to [-] shi, the general of the town was reduced to [-] shi, and the general of the auxiliary country was [-] shi... Wait, what is it like? Lieutenant Fengguo, logically speaking, he is also Zhu Yuanzhang's descendant, but he can't control it anymore, two hundred stones a year, and get rid of the trouble.

There is also a special rule for this "salary reduction", that is, the eldest son of the county king, who inherits the county king's "year-old gift is half the salary of the first-feng county king", that is to say, if you are not the original county king, then you only have one thousand. stone.

Seems pretty good if that's all.

Hey, it's so easy.

Hongwu's 'salary cut' in 28 years is a decree, so let's give it?
At that time, the Minister of the Household Department was named Yu Xin, and he played to the emperor, saying: "Since the prince has made a decision, please order Yousi to give it as much as possible."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it, some places are still poor, and they cannot be given as much!

Therefore, the kings of Jin, Yan, Chu, Shu, and Xiang were ordered to give in full.The people of Daiwang, Suwang, Liaowang, and Qingwang's prefectures paid less and less, and gave five hundred stones at the age of one.There was only one heir, the King of Qin, and because he was too young to be hungry, he ordered 'You Si Yue Jin'.

You see, no matter how cruel the old Emperor Zhu was, he was still kind to the common people. He knew that the situation in different places was different.

Therefore, some people think that the vassals of the Ming Dynasty did not consume a lot of Lumi. You see, the decree was written to be [-] shi, but they were not paid at all.

But this kind of logic itself has problems-if it is really not expensive, why not give it all?
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang took the lead in "arrears of wages", which made Lumi of all dynasties and vassals after him more serious in arrears.

From Xuande to Hongzhi, who was relatively defensive, to Jiajing, who was born in the vassal clan, they all owed the vassal Lumi to the vassal.

The reason is very simple, I can't afford it.

In the Hongwu period, there were 58 members of the clan, which increased to 127 in the Yongle period, and 80 years later, the number of clan members in the Zhengde period was 2980.

Why can it be accurate to single digits, because these 2980 people are all recorded.

In the late Jiajing period, the number of clan members increased to 3. In the Wanli period, the "Ming Shenzong Shilu" records that in the 33rd year of Wanli, there were more than 15 members of the Jade Emperor clan.

It sounds amazing, but you can understand it just by looking at a specific example. In the fifth year of Hongzhi, Yang Cheng, the governor of Shaanxi, reported that the king of Qingcheng County in Shanxi had given birth to 8 children as of August this year.

During the reign of Zhengde, King Qingcheng himself didn't know how many people had been born, and he even asked the court to conduct a census of his family.

How could it be possible to get a full amount of Lumi with this amount?

However, this arrears of payment caused a very serious problem of clan crimes.

Therefore, in the official history, when looking at the records of suzerains and vassals, it is often to go to Beijing to beg for alms, even if the emperor's ancestral precepts have clearly stipulated that the palace is not allowed to directly report to the court.

Another thing is to tamper with the original account and blackmail the tenants.Because Lumi is three points of true color and seven points of color.The imperial court strictly forbids the royal palaces to change the exchange ratio of the original color and color without authorization, but the royal palace doesn't care about these. They either lie about the poor quality of rice and take the opportunity to exploit the people, or they don't follow the official price conversion, and often the price is three or four times higher than the market price. times.

What's more, some palaces don't want the real color, but prefer to get the color (that is, silver), so they force the people to exchange the real color for silver.After all, silver is more convenient, and can be used as "fee for food, wine, food and travel" and "fund for gambling and lust".

This is actually a kind of robbery, so where there is a palace, the people are often miserable.

And not only the common people, but the arrears of the clan Lumi also directly intensified the conflict between the vassal king and the local government.Some vassals began to storm the local yamen, bullied the officials, and even rushed into the yamen to rob collectively.

In the ninth year of Zhengde, Zhu Xunli and Zhu Xunli, the generals of Shenfu Fuguo, once "led the crowd into the warehouse to attack the officials".

In the 37th year of Jiajing, the Daifu Guangning and other royal clans besieged the Yamen of the Buzhengshi and injured the Zuobuzhengshi because of Suo Lumi's failure.

In the 41st year of Jiajing, all the clans of the Han family also beat the prefect of Pingliang because of Suo Lumi's failure.This incident caused a great disturbance. Emperor Jiajing ordered the punishment of the chief culprit, asking the king of Han to arrest the perpetrators of the crime. As a result, many members of the Han family refused to accept it, openly drove the escorts, and then attacked the Pingliang government office.

These historical facts can show that
The vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty basically did all kinds of evil in the local area. They gathered in the government, insulted local officials, robbed the people, caused the people to panic, and even attacked the government office.

The root of all this is that the vassal has become a slave to wealth. Since Xuande, most of the problems of the vassal have been caused by money.

However, there have indeed been good vassal kings. For example, Hongzhi treated his brothers very well, and he was often rewarded with [-] salt and [-] hectares of land.

Generally speaking, the closer the relationship with the emperor and the more favored by the emperor, the vassal king will live a good life. The wealth that Emperor Wanli rewarded King Fu is also an astronomical figure.

Therefore, the gap between the rich and the poor between the vassal kings and the vassal kings is very huge. This is a basic fact.

Closer to home, Hu Guangcheng announced the political commissioner, whose scope is roughly equivalent to today's Hubei and Hunan areas.

In other provinces, one or two vassal kings are already a big disaster, and Huguang vassal kings are especially concentrated, which is the province with the most feudal feudalization and vassal establishment in the Ming Dynasty.

In the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang's fifth son, King Zhu Zhen of Chu, was the first vassal king of Huguang;

After that, Zhu Zhi, king of Liao Dynasty, granted Jingzhou;
King Zhu Miao of Min granted Wugang prefecture;

Xiang Wang Zhu Zhanqian first granted Changsha, then moved to Xiangyang;

King Zhu Zhanyu of Jing was granted the title of Jianchang, Jiangxi at the beginning, and moved to Qizhou, Huguang for ten years;
Ji Wang Zhu Jianjun granted Changsha County, Changsha Prefecture;

King Xing Zhu Youzhao enfeoffed Anlu, Hubei;

The king of longevity, Zhu Youxi, was in Fan De'an;
Yongwang Zhu Youxuan became a fan of Hengzhou in the 12th year of Hongzhi. This guy moved mountains and earth to build the Yongwang Mansion, forming a bustling street. Fortunately, he died in the second year of Zhengde and had no heirs. Zhu Houzhao directly got rid of the fan.

The above are only princes, but there are actually some county kings, such as Huayang County King, he is the second son of the first Shu king, according to the rules of demotion, he became the county king in Lizhou.

Going down, there is really no way to count the generals of the country.

Therefore, the proportion of official land occupied by Huguang Wangfu and the government is extremely high. During the Chenghua period, there was an uprising by refugees from Jingxiang.

One of the factors is that the Ming Dynasty's handling of the vassal issue was just scratching the surface.

In Yang Yiqing's view, since the emperor had the idea of ​​"restricting the wealth of the vassal princes" last time, it is possible for this dynasty to greatly ease the financial pressure brought by the vassal princes to the court.

Because the emperor of this dynasty has no biological brothers, it will be different if the relationship is far away.

But he only dared to use words like 'relief'.

The princes and brothers of the vassals are all relatives of the clan and the emperor, and even the emperor would not kill people and get rid of the vassals easily.In the third year of Hongzhi, the emperor ordered the clan not to steal the name of the other clan and impersonate Zhilumi. The punishment measure was to remove two tenths of the Zhilumi.

What kind of punishment is this called?
It's better not to come out, but he can be charged flexibly if he doesn't come out.

Now, Emperor Zhengde has not discussed with him in detail how to limit the wealth of the vassal princes.

But this 'Sacred Heart', many people know about it, and many people are trying to catch it.

The vassal king insulted local officials and oppressed the people. Many civil servants have long been dissatisfied with him, but because of the emperor, he had to swallow his anger. Now the emperor's attitude has changed.

This incident naturally became a "great thing" that can cater to the holy will, vent one's anger on oneself, and benefit the people and leave a clear name.

Minister of the Ministry of War Qi Chengsui never mentioned anything about Huguang in the past, but today he dared to say that "Huguang can't always be like this" because of this background.

Yang Yiqing is the head of the cabinet, so naturally he will not easily hand over this beautiful matter to others.

"Do you think Huguang should be used as an opportunity?" His own, he asked straightforwardly.

Qi Chengsui didn't hide his thoughts, "Huguang has the most vassal kings, and Mr. Yu Qiao is the governor. As long as you make a fuss about Mr. Qiao's memorials, it won't be a big deal."

"The old man also has this intention."

These few memorials of Xie Qian's request for food did have a feeling of being dozed off and handing over a pillow.

According to the emperor's temperament, as long as the local officials can explain the reason, they will allow the request for grain adjustment. The household department also has money specially used for disaster relief. If there is no grain, you can still buy it. This is not a problem.

But the imperial court can adjust the grain, and the imperial court can also investigate matters such as Huguang.

Huguang is cooked and the world is full. Such a land of fish and rice is always short of food. Why can't the court investigate the actual situation in the name of being upright?
As long as the results are found out, this matter will naturally become a big deal.

"If there is an old man in the cabinet, the lower officials will know it well. When they turn around, the lower officials will personally write up the memorandum, asking the imperial court to investigate the matter of borrowing grain in Huguang just like cleaning up the army."

"The method is possible, but if the time is delayed, His Majesty has already delivered an oral order. Ningxia is currently cleaning up the military settlements, and there are rebellious incidents such as security and rebellion. This matter should not be a major case."

This……

Qi Chengsui was a little anxious.

"Master Ge, if we don't go up, others will go up."

Yang Yiqing put his hands behind his back and said: "You are already a minister, and you are still so impatient. No matter how you take the lead in this matter, there will be someone who will be ahead of you. The key is who the Sacred Heart belongs to. And the Sacred Heart's preference depends on the person. Character, the second is the method used, so this matter is not about speed, the key is to point to the acupuncture points.

Your Majesty's actions cannot be judged by common sense. In the past, the affairs of vassal kings were rarely investigated, and most of them were anticlimactic.But will His Majesty do the same?No one can be sure.Your method is too light, you won’t be able to touch the acupoints, and too heavy, it’s not suitable, so it’s better to come from behind and see what other people have mentioned, and where is His Majesty’s holy will. "

After listening to Qi Chengsui, he suddenly realized something, "What the old man said, the lower officials should be taught."

In fact, Yang Yiqing had a direction in his mind. The emperor wanted to postpone this matter. In fact, this in itself showed that this time the attack would not be light. Otherwise, why bother to clean up the farming?
But that is really a big deal, and he is not very sure.

"But it's strange to say." Qi Chengsui muttered.

"what?"

"How important it is to clean up the military settlements. It involves a large number of people, and they are all generals in the army. If there is a conclusion, how can it be done after only a few months of delay?"

Yang Yiqing said: "It's not entirely true. Yang Xing, the chief soldier of the Xuan Mansion, Yang Shangyi, the chief soldier of Jizhou, Shi Feng, the chief soldier of Datong, and the chief soldier of Gansu are all close friends of His Majesty. Once the imperial edict arrives, who would dare to disobey it?"

"Oh!" Qi Chengsui suddenly figured it out, "If the commander-in-chief is all right! It must be that the guarding eunuchs are obstructing, so His Majesty suddenly took Liu Jin down!"

Yang Yiqing frowned. If the commander-in-chief and the eunuchs representing the palace could resolutely carry out the imperial decree, it would be very difficult for anyone to stop it.

Otherwise, as Qi Chengsui said, if the guarding eunuchs interfered, the commander in chief would still have some scruples.

To put it bluntly, these eunuchs don't know how to contact the palace. If they cooperate with Qingtun on the surface, but secretly slander and sue secretly, when the rebellion of the vassal king in Ningxia occurs and the emperor's suspicions increase, who will they be? Do you know if something bad will happen?
If this is the case, Yang Yiqing admires it too much, the emperor is so shrewd.

……

……

In fact, the supervisor of ceremonies at this time.

Youzhi has already begun to take power.

He is also a smart person, so he put Liu Jin and Ma Yongcheng aside from interrogation for the time being, and set up a chair to watch the people under him write the urgent delivery, which was for the guard eunuchs in various places.

This is the first thing he does.

"It is the order of the Holy One that Liu Jin served the emperor dishonestly, and he is now in prison. I, the eunuch You Zhi, the former supervisor of rites and eunuch Bingbi, will take the seal from today...

The supervisor of ceremonies is the supervisor of the emperor, no matter who holds the seal, the emperor is the first.At present, Ningxia's rebellion against the king has calmed down in the blink of an eye. There is great progress in cleaning up the military settlements. Of……"

"Eunuch You, what do you think?"

Youzhi took all the urgent deliveries and looked at them one by one, and pointed out the inappropriate language in them, and said while correcting: "We eunuchs are different from officials. Officials can protect each other and report to the regiment for warmth. When it spreads all over the world, it is not easy for the emperor to deal with it casually, but it is different when you are a eunuch. Your words and sentences are still too light, and you seem to be afraid of offending them? What is punishment? How to punish? Is it a fine of money or exile? beheading?"

"That……"

"Write more seriously! Today our family will teach you another trick. The way of survival in the palace is rooted in the emperor. Liu Jin is arrogant and powerful, right? Whoever he wants to use and where to use it, our family does not interfere at all. I can't get started. Moreover, he is still an old man in the mansion, but so what? A word from the Holy Majesty is instantly reduced to nothing. Can you see which official complained about it?
Going back a little bit, when the Xiaomiao Temple was there, Li Guang was very beautiful, but only in a flash, he disappeared.

So remember, it doesn't matter to offend those people outside, as long as the emperor is satisfied, what can they do? "

And it is they who should be feared now.

Liu Jin left suddenly, and some people may not even be able to sleep.

"By the way, let me add one more sentence. It is said that our family is ordered to investigate Liu Jin and let them report the crimes of Liu Jin that they know about truthfully. In the future, our family can also go to His Majesty to ask for credit for them."

This trick is also a must.

On the one hand, stand up and tell them that Liu Jin's case is still under investigation, and whoever of you has an old relationship with him, you'd better be honest, if you don't obey, it's nothing more than an extra head beheaded.

On the other hand, it also made them break with Liu Jin. After all, who can control so much about losing their heads.In this way, he, the new eunuch in charge of ceremonies, can quickly clear away the influence of his predecessor.

He remembered those names clearly, Gansu garrison eunuch Li Ning, Datong garrison eunuch Wang Sheng, Xuanfu garrison eunuch Zhao Cong...

"After it's finished, I'll order someone to send it there as soon as it breaks." You Zhi stretched his waist. He hasn't slept much this night and is very tired, but now is not the time. "Our family is going to meet Liu now." Eunuch."

Liu Jin is not dead yet, the emperor spared his life, and it is being locked up. Even out of the mentality of 'turning over the serf and singing', You Zhi still wants to go.

"Eunuch You, there is one more thing." You Xi reminded him.

"what's up?"

"It's the Zuixian Tower. The people in the Zuixian Tower belonged to Liu Jin before, so those people were all arrested, but what should we say about this place now?"

"How did you come up with this question?"

"The city that never sleeps is expensive, and it was established by His Majesty. Could it be sealed there?"

You Zhi's eyes lit up, he was a little satisfied, "I see, you did a good job."

"Thank you, father-in-law, for your compliment."

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Today, I can only update a [-]-word chapter.Tomorrow is very tight, I will save a little more now...

(End of this chapter)