246, The struggle between the emperor and the civil servants 2
"In his later years, Chengzu had the same problem as Taizu in establishing a crown prince. He didn't like the fact that the prince was fat, especially because the prince was supported by civilian officials, and he didn't like it even more. And the king of Han was supported by the army. In the end, he chose to give the emperor's grandson to
People from the army came to train him to appease the power of the army. After all, he owed the army the favor of the Jingnan Campaign."
Yang Fan said: "I read the history books and it was said that Chengzu died suddenly when he was returning from the fifth northern expedition to Mongolia. The civil servants who accompanied him at that time did not announce the funeral, and did not announce the funeral until he arrived in Beijing three months later. Is there any problem with Chengzu's death?
"
Lin Yueru shook her head and said: "I checked Dongchang's secret files privately, and the information related to the situation at that time has mysteriously disappeared. This matter may never be clarified. Taizu and Chengzu both died suddenly.
, there was no sign at all. Taizu was encased on the same day and buried in seven days. The prince's children were strictly prohibited from attending the funeral. No one was allowed to pay homage to the remains. All the eunuchs and maids in Taizu's palace at that time were missing. Emperor Jianwen acted quickly
It seems that only people like Emperor Jianwen knew about his enthronement."
Yang Fan sighed and said: "Emperor Chengzu was a hero, but he didn't expect that the civil servants would mourn him as secretly as Zhao Gao did to Qin Shihuang. Later, the descendants trained by civil servants succeeded him, which makes people doubt that both Taizu and Chengzu died.
There’s an inside story.”
"After Emperor Hongxi succeeded to the throne, he complied with all the requests of civil servants, but there was one thing he did not agree to. That was to move the capital back to Nanjing." Lin Yueru said.
Seeing Yang Fan frowning, Lin Yueru waited for a while to let Yang Fan figure out the twists and turns here.
"Actually, Taizu had already realized at that time that Nanjing was the headquarters of civil servants. They were too powerful and a great threat to the emperor. The best solution was to move the capital. At that time, Taizu wanted to return to Chang'an, the old capital of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
.At that time, he even sent Prince Zhu Biao to Xi’an for inspection.”
This was the first time Yang Fan heard about this secret. He couldn't help but ask: "Why did Taizu give up later?"
Lin Yueru sighed and said: "It's not Taizu who gave up on his own, but something big happened."
Yang Fan asked: "What can be more important than moving the capital? What can affect the moving of the capital?"
Lin Yueru said word by word: "Prince Zhu Biao returned to Nanjing from Xi'an and died suddenly. He died suddenly without any warning."
Yang Fan took a breath of air. These civil servants have no bottom line. They are simply scum. If the country is left to them, sooner or later they will cause harm to Huang.
Yang Fan nodded, "I somewhat understand why Chengzu moved the capital to Peking."
Lin Yueru continued: "After the fifteenth year of Hongwu (1382 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, eldest grandson, second son, and third son died one after another. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Queen Ma died. Shortly after the death of Queen Ma, only five or six years old
Zhu Xiongying also died young. Zhu Xiongying was the eldest son of Prince Zhu Biao. The cause of death of these people is unknown. How dare Chengzu stay in Nanjing?"
Yang Fan asked: "So, as soon as Chengzu died, the civil servants began to force Emperor Hongxi to move the capital back to Nanjing."
Lin Yueru said: "This is another historical mystery. Emperor Hongxi had a fierce conflict with a civil servant late at night. I don't know what they talked about. The only record I can see is that he ordered the warriors in front of the palace to beat the civil servant, almost to death.
Then he was thrown into the imperial edict. Later, people from the civil service group bribed Jin Yiwei to send a doctor in, so he could save his life. Then only one day later, Emperor Hongxi urgently summoned Prince Zhu Zhanji, who had gone to Nanjing to worship his ancestors, back to Beijing that night. That night he was there
He died violently in the palace."
Yang Fan was silent, this was probably another good thing done by civil servants, but he didn't know what they were talking about.
Lin Yueru said with some sadness: "Emperor Hongxi is very kind. He is a good man. Although he is very fat, he has a very good temper and is gentle and polite to others. His father does not like him and his younger brother runs against him. He is very tolerant and always kind to others.
No one was ever treated unfairly by him. After he came to the throne, the civil servants wanted to abolish the Western voyages. He listened and burned the ships and charts and files, and dismissed all the craftsmen and officials. The civil servants wanted to disarm the army and make things easier.
The leader of the army arranged for his own people to control the army, and he accepted it. The civil servants wanted to rehabilitate Jianwen and his gang. Not only did he rehabilitate, he also brought back all the exiled family members and returned the confiscated property. I don’t know where he ended up.
If you can't satisfy these greedy civil servants at all, then, alas!"
Lin Yueru's eyes were red and she really couldn't speak anymore.
Yang Fan cursed, "These bastards, it's really impossible to work with them. They are simply not human beings. Yang Liuqing, I did it lightly."
Lin Yueru wiped her tears and continued: "Emperor Hongxi is gone. Prince Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne, and he is Emperor Xuande. He was trained by Emperor Shizu and the military. Emperor Xuande is not easy to deal with. He led the army three times
He patrolled the north, launched a war against Annan, and firmly took control of the military. Then he made new preparations for his voyage to the West, sent Wang Jinghong to the old port to build ships, and recruited sailors to regain the power of trade."
Yang Fan stopped listening and said, "When did Emperor Xuande pass away suddenly?"
Lin Yueru said: "Same as Chengzu, six months later, we sent people to the old port to prepare for going to sea."
Yang Fan sighed and said: "After Xuande, the orthodox reign began. Yingzong was defeated and captured in the Tumubao Incident, and all the noble generals were buried there. Up to this point, the leaders of the army were completely lost by civilian officials.
The civil servants began to dominate the family."
"Yes, since then, successive emperors have come to power with the support of civilian officials, but they all have a bloody spirit. Once they gain a firm foothold, they try to take back military, financial, and personnel rights from civilian officials. But some of them have achieved some
Some of the results were complete failures. In short, until now, although successive emperors have never given up their efforts, they have always been suppressed by civil servants."
"When was the Supervisor of Ceremonies established, and when was the internal and external dynasty structure formed?" Yang Fan asked another key question.
"Established by Emperor Xuande, Chengzu's solution to dealing with civil servants was to establish Dongchang, giving Dongchang the privileges of investigation, arrest, torture, and execution. It is above the law and is only responsible to the emperor." Lin Yueru smoothed her hair and said.
: "Emperor Xuande went a step further and established a Supervisor of Ceremonies in the cabinet. The memorials of the cabinet must be approved by the Supervisor of Ceremonies before they are valid. The imperial edicts are written by the Supervisor of Ceremonies, but they must be issued by deputy ministers of the cabinet. In fact, they are supporting the eunuchs to resist
Civil servants. Later, even relatives were used in emergencies. In many cases, the army was even handed over to the Prince Consort to supervise him in emergencies."
Yang Fan nodded and asked: "How did the eunuch army come from?"
"During the reign of Emperor Hongxi, Yang Shiqi was the chief minister of the cabinet. They asked the emperor to reduce the army in order to rectify the disobedient military leaders. The cabinet sent out civilian officials as supervisors to control the army. Under Emperor Xuande, eunuchs were sent to replace civilian officials as supervisors.
, and then it was preserved as a system, but it was actually the result of the struggle between the emperor and civil servants for control of the army."
"Most of the eunuchs are illiterate, so how can they serve as military supervisors? Moreover, they don't understand military affairs either."
Lin Yueru said: "Yingzong set up an inner study in the palace and asked Wang Zhen to be responsible for selecting smart young eunuchs to study. From then on, the power of the eunuchs began to expand. Up to now, there are no less than 80,000 eunuchs in the capital, and they have become a very big force.
power."
Isn't it? Yang Fan smiled bitterly. Later, even the eunuchs were armed and internally manipulated. This shows how insecure the emperor was about himself.