high official

Chapter 551: Thorn King
Zhu Di felt guilty because he broke his promise and couldn't make Zhu Gaoxu the crown prince. He didn't know how to deal with this son who had made great achievements in the Jingnan battle.It stands to reason that after the establishment of the crown prince, the rest of the princes will be crowned princes and go to various places to become vassals. At that time, Zhu Di knew well that he would weaken and restrict the vassals in various places even more than his nephew Jianwen .At that time, the so-called vassals are nothing more than the most noble prisoners in the world.Although Zhu Di could be cruel to his brothers and nephews, the emperor really couldn't bear to do so to his second son who had been rescued and promised to be his heir several times.

After some deep thought, Zhu Di made the decision to seal Zhu Gaochi in Yunnan, which was actually a kind of compensation.Because although Yunnan is a province of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the mountains are high and the waters are far away, and the imperial court can only send the trusted generals to guard it with full authority, in order to subdue those rebellious ethnic minorities.So in fact, going out of the town of Yunnan is to seal off the frontiers and establish your own country within a country.

In the Hongwu Dynasty, this errand belonged to Mu Ying, Zhu Yuanzhang’s adoptive son. Although Mu Ying was extremely filial, but his surname was not Zhu after all, Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried about handing over Yunnan to him and his descendants. It's just a marquis, who was not posthumously crowned a prince until he died of illness.

In the Yongle Dynasty, Mu Ying had passed away for many years, so Zhu Di wanted to entrust Yunnan to Zhu Gaoxu. In fact, he gave the land south of the colorful clouds to the King of Han and his descendants permanently. King!Of course, with the brave and unparalleled second son going out of Yunnan, the imperial court no longer has to worry about the unrest in the border areas. In the eyes of the emperor, it is a good thing to have the best of both worlds.

However, Zhu Gaoxu would not want to go to Yunnan, because he only had the throne in his eyes, and any other way out would be a failure.Moreover, Yunnan is indeed a barbaric place in the eyes of the people of the Celestial Dynasty. In Zhu Gaoxu's view, letting himself go there is simply a blessing.So he kept complaining to his father, did he make any mistakes?Why should they be sent to Yunnan?In short, he just insisted on not leaving. Zhu Di loved this son more, and he always felt guilty towards Zhu Gaoxu, so he was so entangled by him that he had no choice but to withdraw his life and let him live in the capital first.

As a result, I lived here for ten years...

In the eyes of ordinary ministers, the emperor allowed the king of Han to live in the capital permanently, but an old fox like Hu Guang vaguely remembered it, and it seemed that this was not the case.In order to verify his memory, he took advantage of his position to look through the emperor's daily life note, and he found that the emperor only allowed the king of Han to live in the capital temporarily, and then asked people to look up the imperial edicts of the king of Han over the years, and there was no king of Han who could not agree to it. Fan, the Ming decree to live in the capital forever.

Now Hu Guangke found Qicun of the King of Han, and immediately asked his disciples to report to the emperor that it was not a blessing for the country that the vassal king lived in the capital for a long time. Give him a remote fief, so that the King of Han can be satisfied, and no one will say that he is stranded in the capital, peeping at the artifact.At the end of the memorial, it is also proposed that Qingzhou is one of the ancient Kyushu states, with fertile land and dense population, and it is located in an important city in Shandong Province, so it is definitely not remote, and it just happens to be the fiefdom of His Highness the King of Han.If His Highness the King of Han still shirks, the Emperor will have to consider his intentions...

Jiang is still old and hot, and this memorial concocted by Hu Guang behind the scenes is hitting the seven inches of His Highness the King of Han, which also makes Zhu Di have to think about it seriously.Because although he didn't say it clearly, Zhu Di has been weakening the power of the vassal king in a low-key manner, which is an indisputable fact among the ruling and opposition parties.

Before Yongle, the vassal kings ruled the people and divided the vassals and lands.The chief envoys, commanding envoys and subordinates of the vassal king's fief must visit the prince's mansion on the first and fifteenth day of every month. In addition, the prince can summon them at any time.Except for the long history, guard commanders, and guard commanders, the officials of the royal palace are all appointed by the vassal king himself. Domestically, vassal kings have absolute military power.

On the court side, the prince can send envoys directly to the imperial court, and anyone who dares to obstruct him will be punished as a traitor.Feng Xianguan judged the prince's minor faults or heard that the prince's major faults were reported, and he was executed for the crime of alienating relatives.Even if the vassal king really committed a serious crime, he could not be punished further. He could only be summoned to the capital to be punished by the emperor.

In this way, the detached status of the vassal king was guaranteed, and the vassal king had the tyrannical strength enough to threaten the imperial power. In the late Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang had realized this problem, worried that his grandson's throne would be threatened, and imposed many restrictions on the prince.But the palms and backs of his hands were full of flesh, and he couldn't be cruel to his own son, so the effect was not great, and the result was still too big to lose power, so that Zhu Di had the strength to launch a battle for the throne.

After Zhu Di seized the throne of his nephew, he naturally wanted to prevent the feudal lords from imitating him. He also came out like this, so he attached great importance to the control of the vassal kings. Subordinate officials, guards, cancel their power to command the garrison, and abolish the clan's ability to be officials, and order civil and military officials to only have official titles and not ministers to the prince.It is stipulated that after the prince has reached a certain age after enfeoffing the country, he must go out to the enfeoffment country, and he will not be allowed to enter Beijing unless he obeys the imperial edict, etc.!

The rest of the regulations are put aside first, and the single "prince who has reached a certain age after enfeoffing the kingdom must go out of the enfeoffment kingdom, and is not allowed to enter the capital unless he is ordered to do so" is enough to eat the King of Han to death, and nothing has been mentioned before. , now someone said that Zhu Di can't slap himself in the face, he must give an explanation...

Therefore, although the memorial was not issued, the emperor did not punish the officials who wrote the letter, which encouraged Hu Guangda. These days, more than a dozen officials wrote letters in line, urging the emperor to express his opinion!
Wang Xian naturally thought about this. Although he didn't believe that the King of Han would leave the capital because of this, he had to admit that this situation was very difficult to solve, because no matter what, the King of Han had been enslaved for ten years, and if he still wanted to stay in the capital, It doesn't make sense anywhere.And Zhu Di always had to solve this problem, otherwise future generations would follow this precedent, and his efforts to weaken the vassal king would be completely ruined.

However, he and the prince must not mix this matter, otherwise it will backfire and help the king of Han, so Wang Xian watched the progress of this matter with a cold eye.It is said that although the emperor did not summon the King of Han to bring up the matter, he had already discussed it secretly with his confidants such as Yao Shaoshi and the British Duke Zhang Fu. Although the result is unknown, it will definitely give the King of Han a headache.

.

The two talked for a while, the carriage arrived in front of the Yamen of the Ministry of War, and the chai cart got off.

"My lord, where are we going?" Zhou Yong asked softly when Chai Langzhong entered the Yamen.

Wang Xian couldn't help feeling guilty when he thought that he hadn't returned home for several days, and said, "Go home."

The carriage drove towards the East Palace, but as soon as he saw the door of the house, he heard a rush of horseshoes approaching from far away, Wang Xian was so depressed... the knight on the horse probably came towards him, because in this In the imperial city, those who dare to gallop on horses, except for a few grandsons of the emperor, messengers who are entrusted by the emperor, are the people around him...

"My lord!" Sure enough, a low call completely wiped out Wang Xian's luck. After a while, Zhou Yong knocked on the car window and reported to Wang Xian in a low voice: "My lord, the King of Han has been assassinated!"

"What?" Wang Xian was startled and said, "Where is it?"

"It is said that a secret letter came from Xiaoling Mausoleum yesterday, saying that all the ginkgo trees in front of Xiaoling Mausoleum died overnight. The emperor was very angry when he heard that, and ordered His Highness King Han to go to Xiaoling Mausoleum to plead guilty to Taizu and investigate the situation on the ground. His Royal Highness the King of Han set off this morning, but unexpectedly encountered an ambush on the way, seriously injured and unconscious!" The officer of the five divisions who reported the letter hurriedly said: "His Royal Highness has almost been sent back to the capital at this moment, Your Majesty I ordered him to be sent directly to Beiyuan, and I should call my lord to meet him soon."

Wang Xian nodded, and was digesting this shocking news, when he heard a rush of horseshoes, followed by a slightly shrill voice: "The front is Wang Zhenfu from Beizhen Fusi?"

"It's my lord." Zhou Yong asked again in a deep voice, "Who is your father-in-law?"

"Our family has been ordered by the emperor to pass the oral order to Wang Zhenfu!" The eunuch reined in the horse and said in a deep voice: "The emperor ordered Wang Zhenfu to enter the palace as quickly as possible, there must be no mistakes!"

Wang Xian also hurriedly got down from the carriage, and seeing that it was indeed an eunuch named Li Zhong beside the emperor, he quickly knelt down and said, "I would like to obey the holy edict!"

"Let's talk about the specific situation on the road, my lord, let me see you first." Li Zhong nodded towards Wang Xian, Wang Xian didn't talk nonsense, took the reins from his subordinates, got on his horse swiftly, and galloped to Beiyuan with Li Zhong go.

Li Zhong flashed a gold medal and traveled unimpeded all the way, the two of them didn't get off their horses until outside the gate of Beiyuan. On the way to Yitian Hall, Li Zhong briefly introduced what happened to Wang Xian, which was not far from what he knew.The only new news is that important figures such as the crown prince and the Duke of England have also been summoned to Beiyuan by the emperor.

After waiting outside the Hall of Yitian for a while, Wang Xian saw the British Duke Zhang Fu rushing over. The first soldier of the Ming Dynasty was in his forties. He was thin and handsome, with three strands of long beard on his chest. , a pair of red phoenixes under the eyebrows, it looks like there are more scribes than military officials, but Wang Xian never dared to underestimate this Duke, so he hastened to salute deeply.

Zhang Fu and Wang Xian also met face to face, but they had never spoken to each other. They nodded at this moment and said softly, "Lord Wang is here early."

"The next official has just arrived." Wang Xian said hurriedly.

"The emperor ordered me to meet you directly, so excuse me first." Zhang Fu greeted Wang Xian politely, and went straight into Yitian Hall after speaking.

"My lord, please leave." Wang Xian bowed slightly, watching Zhang Fu enter the hall.

(End of this chapter)