A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 75: The reduction of vassalage begins

"I suggest that we first cut down the kings of Zhou and Xiang, wait until all the vassals have been cut down, and then cut down the king of Yan!"

Huang Zicheng has his own reasons for saying this.

He believed that the King of Zhou was the younger brother of the King of Yan. Once the King of Yan raised an army, the King of Zhou would rebel.

Although the rest of the vassal kings are not as close to the King of Yan as the King of Zhou, the elimination of the vassal is a threat to their foundation. Once the Yan vassal raises troops, it may cause a chain reaction, so the kings should be eliminated first, It is equivalent to cutting off King Yan's wings.

The King of Yan was afraid of the name of the court's righteousness, so he would not dare to raise troops. When all the vassals were reduced, even if the King of Yan wanted to rebel, at this time, the court's millions of troops were pressing down on the country, and he alone would be unable to save the day.

But Yan Ji immediately expressed his opposition.

He believed that the great power of King Yan was the thorn in the side of the court. If he killed other kings first, King Yan would be on guard. This would undoubtedly give him time to prepare.The king of Yan should be captured first with lightning speed, so that the kings are leaderless, and then the vassal can be successfully eliminated.

His close advisors had different opinions, and young Zhu Yunwen was a little undecided.

So he asked other cabinet ministers for their opinions.

Fang Xiaoru chose Huang Zicheng.

Everyone's eyes turned to Wu Bozong at the end.

Wu Bozong glanced at Yan Ji and smiled.

"I believe that we should first defeat the kings and then try to control the Yan vassal."

Three to one, Zhu Yunwen had an idea.

First depose the kings, and then cut down the king of Yan.

Then the matter of reducing the vassal state has been discussed, and Emperor Jianwen will order the ministers to return.

At this time, Fang Xiaoru seemed to have remembered something again, and he proposed to move the capital.

Fang Xiaoru is an upright person and has a strong interest in tradition.He highly admired the ancient system and hoped to restore ancient official positions. He even said personally that he hoped to restore the well-field system.

Restoring the capital to Chang'an had a great attraction for him, and this was well-founded. Didn't Taizong and Xingzong both want to move the capital?
However, as soon as he put forward this suggestion, he was immediately blocked by Yan Ji, and several other cabinet ministers also expressed opposition one after another.

Without him, the nine most powerful kings among the feudal lords were all on the border.

If you move the capital now, wouldn't it mean that you are going to the other party's lair?

So it was decided to still use Nanjing as the capital, and then move the capital after the vassal reduction was completed.

However, Zhu Yunwen still named Xi'an as Xijing, standing alongside Nanjing Yingtian, Beijing Kaifeng, and Zhongdu Fengyang.
-
In March of the first year of Jianwen, the reduction of vassal status officially began.

Zhu Yunwen combined the opinions of cabinet ministers and first chose a persimmon that was neither soft nor hard.

He sent Qitai north to take over the military power in Shanxi.

The new King of Jin did not have the prestige and means of the old King of Jin. He could not control the more than [-] troops in Shanxi. At this time, his military power had gradually begun to decline, and only the three Taiyuan guards belonging to the King of Jin could be mobilized.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qi Tai arrived in Shanxi. He was appointed by Zhu Yunwen as the commander of Shanxi Dusi and Shanxi Xingdusi. With this level of tiger skin in the court, the generals quickly obeyed Qi Tai's dispatch, and Shanxi's military power changed hands instantly. .

Zhu Yunwen, after learning that Qi Tai had taken control of Shanxi, immediately showed his ferocious face.

In May of the first year of Jianwen, Qi Tai arrived in Taiyuan. With lightning speed, he mobilized the Taiyuan garrison that had already obeyed his orders. Before the three guards of the King of Jin could react, he broke into the palace and captured the King of Jin. At the same time, he immediately sent troops to surround him. Jin Wang's three guards seized their command.

Since the prince of Jin himself had no bad deeds, Zhu Yunwen detailed his father's evil deeds and told them to the world.

Jin King Zhu Fan was a cruel man, second only to Qin King, so there was naturally a lot of black material to be found.

So Emperor Jianwen immediately ordered that the King of Jin be deposed as a commoner and imprisoned in Fengyang.Poor King Jin was fine in the original history, but because of his father's early death, he became the most bullied among the kings of Sai, and was used as a sacrificial flag by Zhu Yunwen.

The King of Jin was deposed, which marked the beginning of Jianwen and the reduction of vassal states.

The second person to suffer was the King of Zhou.

The king of Zhou was actually a wise king.

He was studious, capable of writing poems and poems, and had written hundreds of chapters of "Yangong Ci"; he had been to the people and understood the sufferings of the people, so he used his power as a vassal king to organize doctors and painters to compile "Baosheng Yulu" and "Pocket Prescriptions"; He also set aside an area in the palace for planting and researching plants that could save famine, comparable to Li Shizhen.

But Jianwen doesn't care about this. He only knows that King Zhou is the brother of King Yan and a close relative by blood. Once King Yan raises an army, King Zhou will most likely rise up.

So Zhu Youhuang, the second son of King Zhou Zhu, reported to the court that his father was planning to recruit troops privately, and often said treasonous words in the room.

The day after Zhu Youxuan's memorial was sent out, Li Jinglong led his army to raid Kaifeng and captured the old doctor who was writing books in the capital.

Zhu Yunwen was not polite at all and demoted his uncle to a commoner and sent him to Yunnan to guard the border.

The kings seemed to be in rebellion. At the same time that King Zhou was deposed, someone accused King Zhu Bai of Xiang of forging treasures and plotting rebellion. Zhu Yunwen sent people to arrest him again.

The King of Xiang was unyielding, and his horse died in the fire. He left the country without a son, and his posthumous title was "Rou".

For a time, all the sect kings in the world felt chilled.

Within May and January, three kings were killed in a row.

Yan Ji persuaded Zhu Yunwen to slow down a little, but Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng believed that the battle should be fought quickly. If it was delayed for a long time, it would give the vassal king time to prepare, that is, before they could react, they would immediately attack the threat. All the vassals of the imperial power were taken down.

Zhu Yunwen was relieved after he sent people to find out what was going on in Peiping and learned that King Yan had done nothing unusual.

He felt that King Yan was stabilized by him.

So not only did he not stop cutting down the feudal lords, he also intensified his efforts and continued to cut down the feudal lords vigorously.

And Zhu Di also took advantage of this opportunity to quietly accumulate his own strength.

He saw that the kings were increasingly dissatisfied with Zhu Yunwen.Originally, he was not a serious and canonized grandson of the emperor, but now he was wielding a butcher's knife against his uncles.

Dissatisfaction is growing.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's death anniversary arrived.

But Jianwen had just gone on a killing spree, and even the other vassal kings, let alone Zhu Di, did not dare to go!I'm afraid I'll never come back.So one by one reported illness, some sent a few bastards there, and some even imitated Zhu Di and didn't even send a son.

So Fang Xiaoru took the opportunity to report and impeach the vassal kings for their unfilial piety, which gave Zhu Yunwen another excuse.

In June, the King of Qi was deposed and sent to Liaodong to guard the border.

This is not unfair, King Qi can be called the most cruel one after King Qin and King Jin.

But in the eyes of many clan members, they are like a rabbit and a fox.

The eyes of all the vassals were focused on King Yan.

However, what everyone did not expect was that the first person to raise an army was not King Yan.

He is the acting king.

(End of this chapter)