Zhao Yi rushed over in a panic, his face flushed and excited.
Seeing him like this, Zhu Yihai put down the teacup and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Give birth. Concubine Chen has given birth to a prince. He weighs six pounds and eight taels. Mother and son are safe."
Zhu Yihai was stunned for a moment.
Then he stood up and moved too quickly, knocking over the teacup in front of him. He didn't expect how he could be so happy, but he did have a racing impulse in his heart.
Brothers Zhu Chenggong and Zhu Shengli also stood up abruptly and congratulated the emperor.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty, on your birth of a unicorn."
"Hahaha!" Zhu Yihai laughed and walked out, "Let's take a look."
Last year, seven of Zhu Yihai's concubines were pregnant, giving birth to one son and five daughters. As a result, the prince died in infancy. This incident caused a very bad atmosphere in the palace. Zhu Yihai thought it was nothing. After all, he was still young, but there were still some voices in the government and opposition parties.
I feel that Ming Dynasty has no heirs.
In particular, the Lu vassal had a small population. Several Lu kings were passed down from a single seedling. Zhu Guanding, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, was the posthumous son born after his father died. He was also a rare great-grandson of the Lu family. His grandfather and father were both
He died before his great-grandfather. Zhu Guanding had four concubine brothers, all of whom also died young.
Zhu Guanding, who is recorded as a little devil in history, is said to have done all kinds of evil. He would kill each other with an ax if he disagreed with him. He often held unobstructed meetings. He ruled for twenty-two years and was extravagant. He was even more powerful than Zhu Tan, the first king of Luhuang.
He died at the age of thirty, was given the posthumous title Duan, and was even almost deprived of his royal title.
After his death, he left only one son, Zhu Yitan, King of Baoqing, who was granted the title of King of Lu. Because he was extremely kind and filial, he donated his official residence to Zhongtian Lake to help the poor. He resigned from his daily salary and provided for the poor clan. Jiajing issued decrees to commend him seven times.
, perhaps because of his virtue, he gave birth to nine sons.
This wise king reigned for a long time. When he died, his first five sons were all dead, and the crown prince had no sons, so he finally passed the throne to his sixth son.
But Zhu Yihai's sixth uncle died after only four years in office and had no children, so the throne was passed to Zhu Yihai's seventh uncle. The seventh uncle reigned for thirty-five years and still had no children when he died. At this time, the eighth uncle also died.
, so he passed it on to his father, Lao Jiu.
Zhu Yihai's father gave birth to six sons, which was not too few.
But the prince died young and had no sons. When he died, the second son also died, so the throne was passed to Zhu Yihai's third brother Yipai. Yipai died when the Qing army destroyed Yanzhou, and several of his sons also died or
After that, Zhu Yihai's fourth and fifth brothers were also killed by the Tatars. Finally, the throne of Lu vassal was passed to Zhu Yihai, the sixth son of the concubine.
Zhu Yihai had three sons before he went south, but one died and two disappeared. Finally, he gave birth to another son in Jiangnan, but he also died in infancy.
Now that a prince has finally been born, this is great news for everyone in the Ming Dynasty.
Zhao Yi came to congratulate the emperor without even reporting it to Liu Chao according to the rules.
Penglai Palace is not big, so Zhu Yihai quickly arrived at Concubine Chen's place.
"His Majesty."
When Concubine Chen saw Zhu Yihai coming, she quickly wanted to get up. Zhu Yihai hurriedly took a few steps forward and said, "Lie down quickly and don't move around."
The midwife was called to deliver the baby. After questioning, she found out that the birth was not going well and the fetus was in the wrong position. Fortunately, the midwife was also very experienced. She used her hands directly on the belly to help the fetus into position and the birth was successful. If not for her experience, she would have been born naturally.
The technology is great, but I'm afraid it might be difficult to give birth, or even one or two lives.
"One hundred silvers for the dragon reward."
"are you OK?"
"My concubine drank some ginseng soup, and now she is in good spirits."
Zhu Yihai held Concubine Chen's hand and chatted with her for a while before going to see the little guy. He had already drank some milk and fell asleep. He was quite fair and fair, but his head was a bit flattened when he was born.
"He looks a lot like Your Majesty, especially his eyes." Concubine Chen looked at the child, filled with joy.
"I think Xiao Wu, who is full of heaven, must be blessed with a long life." The six-pound child seemed so light in his hands that he could not feel its weight.
"I will give you the name Hongbin, and your nickname will be Xiaowu."
The little guy opened his eyes, looked at Zhu Yihai curiously, opened his mouth, and made a humming sound.
"The fifth prince is here to express his gratitude to the emperor," said Liu Chao, who came over.
Zhu Yihai laughed. He knew that newborn babies are actually short-sighted and everything they see is blurry, not to mention that they cannot understand adults at all.
"Since you are so smart, I will simply crown you as King of Qin today.
He is of the first rank of Jue Zheng and is under the Three Dukes. He has ten thousand households in the city, 800 households have a real title, and 800 acres of permanent land."
"Concubine Chen is promoted to a noble concubine!"
·······
As soon as Zhu Yihai was happy, he directly conferred the title of Prince of Qin on the newborn Xiao Wu, and gave Concubine Chen the title of Noble Concubine.
The emperor is happy to have a dragon son, and the government and the public are rejoicing.
However, Chen Hanhui, a scholar of Dongge University, immediately went to the palace to face the saint and remonstrated face to face that the reward was inappropriate.
The prince should be ten years old before being canonized, and it is not appropriate for Concubine Chen to be concubine.
"You are Xiaowu's maternal ancestor and Concubine Chen's father. There is no need to be like this."
Chen Hanhui is Concubine Chen's father. He is almost sixty years old, loves poetry and wine, is good at cursive calligraphy, loyal and co-conspirator of the first righteousness, Yuan Cong, a meritorious official. He used to write cursive essays, generous Conglong, and has always been Zhu Yihai's confidant.
As an important figure among the founders of eastern Zhejiang, Zhu Yihai married his youngest daughter as his concubine, which was also a great affirmation of him.
"I originally wanted to call you here. After the imperial court reforms its titles, the queen, the imperial concubine, and the concubine's father will also be granted the title of life-long earl as a rule. The cabinet bachelors and ministers of the Prime Minister's Office will also be granted the title of life-long marquis."
"You are my most important collaborator. Today I will confer upon you the title of Marquis of Linhai, granting permission to your descendants to inherit your title. You will be ranked first in the world."
Chen Hanhui did not want to accept it and resigned.
Zhu Yihai refused.
"This is the imperial system, thank you."
After several adjustments to the title system, the titles of clan clans are now divided into ten levels, while the titles of different surnames are divided into seven levels.
The sons of Bohou and Bozi in Guogong County and Gong County are divided into hereditary and lifelong. Hereditary is the first rank.
For hereditary titles, except for Duke, the word Kaiguo is added. For lifetime titles, Kaiguo is not added. The highest lifetime title is marquis.
From the original three levels of Dukes, Lords and Bos to the current two and seven levels, there has actually been a big change. In the past, people were the same as the country, hereditary, and had great power.
But now the title represents more honor, and the actual power is greatly reduced.
Lifelong titles do not have actual fiefs, while hereditary titles have real fiefdoms, but they are only about one-fourth of the virtual fiefdoms. Moreover, the number of households with fiefdoms only means that each household can deduct 25 wen per month. The Song Dynasty
The way.
In addition, a Yongye field of corresponding acres will be awarded according to the number of food seals. The top-level real seal is only one or two thousand acres.
Generally speaking, this new style of title can not only reward meritorious officials and soldiers, but will not have a long-term impact on the country.
General military merits were awarded real titles, and the central prime ministers and relatives were awarded lifelong titles.
As long as you can enter the cabinet and become a cabinet bachelor, you will be granted a life-long earl. If you can enter the prime minister's office, you can be promoted to a life-long marquis, queen, imperial concubine, and the concubine's father will be granted a life-long earl. These titles are not hereditary.
There is not even the slightest salary, food and land, it is just a reputation.
Of course, with a title, you can also enjoy some corresponding standard benefits, such as the size of the house, the size of the gate, the size of the carriage and horse, the size of clothing, and the size of the entourage, which can all be increased accordingly.
He even granted him the title of wife and son.
In general, the new title has changed a lot, and even the grade is not high. The prince is only the first grade, and the baron is only the fifth grade.
"It's not appropriate to confer the title of prince upon the fifth prince's birth. He is still too young."
Zhu Yihai said, "This kid is fat and white, and he looks like he has good fortune and longevity. I like him, so it doesn't matter if he canonize him in advance."
In the Tang Dynasty, it was customary to grant titles at the age of three. In the Song Dynasty, titles were first granted to the Duke and then to higher ranks. Zhu Yihai directly granted the title of King of Qin to his newborn son, also because of the issue of heir.
And there are no sects in the fifth server.
This is the first clan title awarded after the clan reform.
He has already thought about it. His fifth son will be granted the title of King of Qin. If he has another son in the future, he will be granted the title of King of Han, King of Tang, King of Song, then King of Zhou, King of Jin, King of Wei, King of Qi, and then Zhao, Han, Chu, Yan, and Wu Yue.
Zhu Yihai believes that he will definitely have many sons in the future. After all, a time traveler can kill countless people in one ovulation period. Even though he has only thirteen people in his harem now, he is less than thirty, and a concubine can give him birth.
Three or five can give birth to thirty or forty.
He is not worried about having too many children and becoming a burden to the country. Anyway, he will be demoted to one level. Xiao Wu is now the King of Qin. His eldest son will only be the King of Qin in the future, and his eldest grandson will only be the king of the county in the future. Xiao Wu's other sons will have to be demoted to the fourth level.
He became the Duke of the county. Xiaowu's other grandsons became viscounts directly.
This method of title inheritance does not worry about the number of people. Anyway, the eldest son can be passed down to seven generations at most, and all other branches will become common people after five generations.
If any of these descendants are promising, they will naturally be able to make meritorious deeds and be awarded titles. Those who are incompetent can be just fine as common people.
Like Zhu Yuanzhang, there is no replacement of hereditary descendants and fission and enfeoffment from generation to generation. No matter how powerful the dynasty is, it cannot bear this kind of burden.
"Your Majesty, haven't the two princes been found yet?" Chen Hanhui asked.
"Well, I found some clues and confirmed that what Song Mingwu said before was indeed true. They were taken outside the customs, but I don't know where they are now. I only know that they are no longer in the hands of the original Tatars.
It has been resold several times and is still being investigated.”
Zhu Yihai could only try his best to find these two bastards who had no impression of them.
Although some people are worried that the two princes were kidnapped when they were young and were enslaved by the Tatars. They may have died young. Even if they survived, they might end up like Song Mingwu. How would such princes be brought back and settled?
Zhu Yihai didn't think about this. As long as the person was still there, he had to find a way to get him back.
Even if they are really destroyed and become like Song Mingwu, he will support them for the rest of their lives. As long as they are not established as princes and princes, they will have no impact on the country.
There are three other concubines in the harem who are pregnant again.
The queen also gave the princess to a wet nurse to feed her. She was young and could become pregnant soon. Although Xiaowu was established as the king of Qin, he was only a concubine and had no chance to become a heir.
However, Chen Hanhui was not as ambitious as Huang Binqing. He hoped that his grandson could be the heir. He also attached great importance to the patriarchal system. The Ming Dynasty focused on the patriarchal inheritance system, which not only established the eldest son, but also the eldest son.
This system has been used from the time when the emperor established a heir apparent to the vassal kings when they established heir apparents. The eldest son was established as the crown prince. If the prince died, the eldest grandson was appointed.
Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, there were emperor grandsons, descendants, and even great-grandchildren.
If there is no direct eldest grandson, then a concubine eldest grandson must be established. Unless there is no one in the eldest family lineage, it will never be the turn of the second, third, and other families to inherit.
For example, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a system of direct descendants. When the direct descendants disappeared, direct descendants were established, and grandchildren were generally not established.
Zhu Yihai has no intention of changing this ancestral system. The system of direct descendants is not a merit-based system, but it is the most reliable inheritance system. Once a worthy person is established, a battle to seize the direct descendants may begin.
The later secret system of establishing a prince by the Tatars was actually a disguised system of establishing a virtuous man. This was also related to the old tradition of the Tatars. After all, it only took a few years for the Tatars to go from being a barbarian tribe to taking control of the Central Plains. In the Nurhaci era, it was all
Baylor discussed military affairs together, and the princes of the Eight Banners also made decisions during the period of Huang Taiji.
But it is definitely not possible for the Ming Dynasty to do this, it is the way to create chaos.