245, The struggle between the emperor and the civil servants
Yang Fan frowned. If this was really the situation Lin Yueru said, he really couldn't just walk away.
No matter where you are, if you want to survive, the first thing you have to do is to understand the rules of the game and the participants in the game. Being able to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy is great wisdom.
There are too many people in this world who never understand what the rules of the game are.
He was constantly beaten by society in a state of confusion.
I can only blame everyone and lament my miserable life.
Many of the remaining people have become losers and been eliminated before they fully understand the rules of the game. Yang Fan doesn't want to continue without knowing who has the final say and who is the most powerful in this Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Lin Yueru made up his mind that as long as Lin Yueru spoke, he would not be able to leave and he would definitely continue to listen. Because no one would say this to Yang Fan.
"The reason why the emperor of the Song Dynasty could not change the weak situation was because the emperor of the Song Dynasty married civil servants. The emperor's harem was so penetrated by civil servants that the emperor could hardly guarantee his personal safety. The emperor could deal with individual civil servants, or through different civil servants
The group fought hard and punished some people, but the emperor would never dare to oppose the collective will of the civil servants, otherwise, he might lose himself." Lin Yueru said quietly.
Yang Fan thought about it and it made sense.
These women all represent a force behind them. In fact, the life, death, honor, disgrace, promotion and demotion of the concubines in the harem are closely related to the struggles of various forces in the previous dynasty.
If someone around him poisons the emperor, it is impossible to prevent him.
The emperor also has to eat and drink. How to prevent it? There is no way to prevent it, except to prevent the ministers from murderous intentions.
"So, after the establishment of our dynasty, Emperor Taizu was well aware of the shortcomings of the Southern Song Dynasty, so the children of the royal family always only married military generals and nobles. If they were not worried about the nobles, they would even look for marriage partners among ordinary people. He would rather choose the children of businessmen as consorts.
and concubines, and did not give civil servants the opportunity to infiltrate the harem."
Yang Fan thought about it and realized that it was indeed true. The queens of Tianqi and Chongzhen that he knew were all from common people.
"Why Taizu launched the Kongyin case, the Hu Weiyong case, the Guo Heng case, and the Lan Yu case were all against the civil servant group. At that time, the new dynasty had just been established, and the civil servants quickly became corrupt. Guo Heng, the Minister of Household Affairs, colluded
The officials of the six ministries collectively tried to collect money, and the amount reached 7 million taels. Now my annual income in the Ming Dynasty is only 4 million taels. It is simply crazy and appalling. If Taizu did not suppress it with an iron fist, the Ming Dynasty would probably be ruined soon.
"
This is the first time Yang Fan has heard about this. They were so crazy right after the founding of the country. Are all the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty reincarnated as gluttons? Their huge appetites are scary. Zhu Yuanzhang is still alive, yet he dares to do this, and looks so ugly when he eats.
If one day he kicks his legs, he will not go to heaven.
"Do you know where all the officials from the Ming Dynasty have come from since the Taizu Dynasty?" Lin Yueru asked.
Yang Fan shook his head, he really didn't know.
"At the founding of the People's Republic of China, most generals came from Huaixi, and most civil servants came from Zhejiang. When Hu Weiyong killed Liu Bowen, it was the leader of the Huaixi Group who killed the leader of the Zhejiang Group. It was the Huaixi Group who destroyed the Zhejiang Group. Then Taizu killed Li Shanchang
He and Hu Weiyong were implicated in killing tens of thousands of people, and basically killed the Huaixi Group. As a result, the world finally became peaceful, and the founding of the Ming Dynasty led to a relatively stable situation."
"In the next two hundred years, Southern Zhili and Fujian accounted for about half. Southern Zhili is the four provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi. This area has always been the territory of the largest civilian force, and it is also the territory of today's Donglin Party
territory."
Yang Fan nodded, Zhu Yuanzhang did the right thing, otherwise these two groups would be bad guys and engage in party fights all day long without doing anything serious. Sooner or later, the country would be destroyed.
"Emperor Taizu was born in extreme poverty, and he cared most about the people. He distributed the land to the people fairly and revised laws to protect the people. According to the "Da Ming Code", even if the people rebelled, their family members would not be implicated, but they would only be punished by death. This shows his tolerance for the people.
Provide legal education to the people, promulgate the edict, and let the people have a copy to protect their legitimate interests."
"Taizu had an iron fist against the money-grabbing of civil servants and did not allow them to harm the people. These were things that local forces and civil servants could not tolerate. Seeing that the civil servants could not defeat Taizu, they cultivated an emperor grandson Zhu Yunwen who was in line with his own values. Taizu later viewed
It didn't work like this. The Taisun was completely brainwashed by the civil servants. If the Taisun ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty would probably be over soon. I wanted to replace him with the ancestor to succeed him, but the result was that the emperor suddenly collapsed before he could implement his idea.
.”
Yang Fan understood clearly that the focus of the struggle between Taizu and the civil officials was the unreasonable interests of the civil servants, and even the greed of the civil servants to control the country's finances. The most important powers of an emperor are three points: military power, financial power, and personnel power.
The civil servants of the Hongwu Dynasty wanted to take over the financial power, but Zhu Yuanzhang frantically attacked and killed them.
Guo Huan persuaded so many officials to collect money collectively in order to create a fait accompli and force Zhu Yuanzhang to admit the fact that civilians controlled the country's finances.
"The key to the success of Cheng Zu's arrest was the support of the army." Lin Yueru took a sip of water and continued.
"After Jianwen succeeded to the throne, Huang Zicheng and other literati were overheated and a little forgetful. Not content with taking away the financial power, they also extended their hands to the military and personnel power. They even restored the official recommendation system and attempted to secretly abolish the imperial examination
, they will monopolize the way to become an official in the future. Common people and children from poor families will be excluded from the scope of candidates for becoming an official. In one fell swoop, financial power, military power, and personnel power will be returned to the civilian officials. Then all the interests of the world will be owned by the civil official group."
"At that time, the national army was under the command of the Fifth Army Governor's Office. The Fifth Army Governor's Office was in the hands of the founding princes. The Ministry of War was only responsible for logistics supply, weapons repair and other matters. The power of military mobilization and command, and the power to lead troops, rested with the Fifth Army Governor
Mansion."
"Tie Xuan, Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru and others dared to put the command of the army under the Ministry of War, and let civilians lead the troops. They emptied the Fifth Army Commander's Office. They were too impatient. They couldn't wait to seize the military power immediately."
"This angered all the generals. Many of the founding generals were still alive at that time. Chengzu's Jingnan Campaign was actually a counterattack and crusade against civilian officials from all over the country for snatching their power. In the end, Chengzu regained the throne and immediately restored the policies of Taizu's period.
.”
"Up to this time, the Ming Dynasty's power was still growing. But the undercurrent has begun to surge. The civil servants are not willing to fail. They would rather harm the country to maximize their own interests."
"Chengzu did two things in his life, one was the five conquests of Mongolia, and the other was the seven expeditions to the Western Seas." Lin Yueru took a sip of water and continued: "The five conquests of Mongolia gathered about 500,000 people each time. This was achieved by mobilizing
During the war, the emperor personally led the army and controlled the army closely to prevent civilian forces from controlling the army and silencing the emperor."
When Yang Fan heard this, he interjected: "Needless to say, the seven voyages to the West were for overseas trade. In the past, the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River made this by themselves. Porcelain was produced in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, and Longquan kiln in Fujian. Silk was even more important.
Weaving in the south of the Yangtze River. The main port is Quanzhou. These areas were originally the base camps of civil servants. When Chengzu sent Zheng He to the West, the country monopolized foreign trade. This was a competition with the civil servants for financial power. After the Jingnan Campaign, the civil servants supported Jianwen.
The three great powers obtained were all returned to the emperor's hands by Chengzu."
Lin Yueru glanced at Yang Fan approvingly, admiring Yang Fan's ability to draw inferences from one instance to another.
"Yes, in this second game, the emperor defeated the civil servants."