Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"The Ming Dynasty was destroyed by the rebel army led by Li Zicheng, but fundamentally speaking, it was not destroyed by the rebel army."

There was a rare look of sadness in Zhu Di's majestic eyes.

A hero for a lifetime, but unable to protect Ming Dynasty from the erosion of the long years, towards the final ending.

Even just hearing about that possible ending makes me feel sad involuntarily.

Zhu Di said softly: "Mr. Jiang, please tell me."

Jiang Xinghuo's hands covered his knees, and before he knew it, he had grasped them so tightly that his veins were exposed.

Jiang Xinghuo slowly told this distant but extremely true story in a tone that Zhu Di had never heard before.

“When the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, the Little Ice Age had reached its peak.”

"In the first year of Chongzhen, there was a severe drought in Shaanxi."

"A father abandons his son, and a husband slays his wife, in exchange for a mouthful of food."

"However, as food gradually ran out, people had no choice but to dig up grass roots and collect hay from the mountains for food."

"Unfortunately, not long after, the bark and grass roots were all gone, so they started to pick white rocks from the mountains to satisfy their hunger."

Hearing this, even someone as hard-hearted as Zhu Di couldn't help but subconsciously rub the corners of his eyes and listen again.

There was sadness that could not be hidden in Jiang Xinghuo's plain words.

"The people were unwilling to eat stones and died, so they began to gather together and become bandits. So the people who had a little savings robbed them. Seeing that the government could not stop it, the robberies began to expand wildly."

"The government, in response to orders from superiors, sent troops to capture the bandits, and the bandits coerced the hungry people into rogue bandits."

"In the following more than ten years, rogue bandits roamed across Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan. The officers and soldiers were inexhaustible, and more and more rogues were suppressed. As a result, the world was corrupted, and many rogue bandits grew. Li Zicheng was the most powerful one among them. .”

Zhu Di frowned and asked, "Why can't we reduce taxes and provide relief to the victims?"

"Ah."

Jiang Xinghuo let out a sneer of unknown meaning.

"With the reduction of taxes, who will get the Liao wages? Without Liao wages, what will happen to the Jurchens outside the customs? Oh, by the way, it's not just Liao wages. In order to wipe out the bandits, additional wages must be sent to the Ming peasants. The salary is useless, we still need to train the troops, right? We need to send another training salary."

"absurd!"

Zhu Di suddenly changed his color and slapped the armrest of the chair so hard that sawdust flew everywhere.

"It's just a Jurchen, how can I use my salary?"

On the contrary, Jiang Xinghuo said seriously: "The Jurchens entered the customs and committed numerous atrocities, too numerous to mention. Jiang hated them deeply, but as the saying goes, the people who know you best are often your enemies. The Jurchens' regent has a saying that is unparalleled. Fake."

"snort."

Zhu Di brought great power to the country. In his eyes, the Jurchens were just like ants and could be easily erased. He did not bother to take the initiative to listen to what the later regents of the Jurchens had to say.

"The worst thing to do to the people is to increase the payment of Liao's wages, causing the people to become poor and robbers, and then to increase the payment, and then to train for each side, and then to increase the payment. However, these three rates are several times the regular payment, which is a hardship for the little people. People, if you peel off the fat and scrape the marrow, it will take more than twenty years for those who are far away, and more than ten years for those who are close.

Zhu Di said nothing, just put his fists deeply in his sleeves and asked in a muffled voice.

"Then how did the Jurchen become so powerful?"

Jiang Xinghuo did not answer Zhu Di's question directly. Instead, he raised his chin slightly, signaling Zhu Di to look back at the secret room behind him.

Zhu Di glanced at it.

Jiang Xinghuo asked: "Since when did you attend classes here?"

Zhu Di was not embarrassed and simply replied: "Cutting down the feudal clan."

"Then you should understand how imbalanced the civil and military forces would be if the Ming Dynasty did not change."

"Needless to say, the military ministers at the upper level are nobles. No matter how bad the Duke is, he can still work in the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army. But what about the border guard officers at the middle level? What about the soldiers at the bottom?"

Without Zhu Di's imagination, Jiang Xinghuo gave the answer directly.

"The soldiers at the lower-level guard stations have been working as farmers for generations and have no fighting ability. They have long become tenant farmers of officers at all levels in the border guard stations."

"Officers at the Border Guard Station are cutting down the number of soldiers to earn money and raising elite servants as the main force of the fighting force to consolidate their power."

Zhu Di's face was solemn, as if he was about to drip water.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit dies and a lackey cooks it, and a good bird hides its bow. Facing a court dominated by civilian officials, in order to continuously obtain a steady stream of military exploits and salary, the generals of the border army must embark on the path of self-respect for the bandits. the way."

"The Jurchens were actually a dog kept by the general of Liaodong Military Town from the beginning to help Liaodong Military Town fight against the Koreans and even the Japanese."

"It's like a servant raising a vicious dog, but unfortunately it ran away. The vicious dog got full of meat and started to bite the servant. The servant couldn't resist it, so he had to ask the master for help. The master wanted to prevent the vicious dog from biting him and made him weak and bloated. He had no choice but to tighten his pants and bring money to the servant in the hope that he would protect him. Unfortunately, in the end, the servant who took so much money became the slave of the vicious dog, leading the vicious dog into the door and biting his master to death."

Zhu Di frowned when he heard this, but he still remained rational and did not lose his composure.

After all, what Jiang Xinghuo said about the situation of the Ming Dynasty's border troops in the future was actually related to Zhu Di's current knowledge of the situation of the guardsmen.

During the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Di clearly realized that after two generations, the guardsmen were no longer useful enough.

"But even so, there are still some explanations that don't make sense, so the court just doesn't care?"

Although Zhu Di trusted Jiang Xinghuo's words, he still suspected that there might be other hidden secrets.

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said: "It's very simple. The generals of the border army are also subordinates of the big guys from the central and central factions. And the spokespersons of these gentry groups are the culprits behind the self-respect of the bandits raised by the border guards."

"Do you still remember Zhang Juzheng I mentioned just now?"

"I am not a prime minister, but a photographer!" Zhu Di squeezed out a cold word from between his teeth.

"Could it be that Zhang Juzheng is the one who started it?"

If this was not a person born hundreds of years in the future, Jiang Xinghuo would most likely not have told him the specific information. Zhu Di would have liked to kill all the suspected ancestors of Zhang Juzheng who met the requirements.

After all, for Zhu Di, it doesn't matter how capable a future minister is, even if this person promulgates the examination law.

The important thing is, is this man so crazy that he says that he is not the prime minister, but the regent?

Who gave you the courage?

Have you asked about the knife in my hand?

In the Ming Dynasty, whose surname is Zhu or Zhang?

Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "Yes and no."

"Although this model of civil and military coexistence is very obvious in Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang, the effect it had at that time was by no means a negative effect. On the contrary, Zhang Juzheng reused the famous anti-Japanese general Qi Jiguang to preside over the defense of the North, which made Jizhen no war for ten years, and the people To live and work in peace and contentment, it is said that those who are good at fighting have no great achievements, that is the case."

"It's a pity that the later big shots in the DPRK and China were able to annex land, unite the party and attack the different parties, and their ability to pursue the country was not one-tenth as good as Zhang Juzheng's; the border army generals even lacked Qi Jiguang's outstanding military qualities and humble character, and only cared about their own fame and fortune. , so the situation is getting worse and worse.”

"The root of the problem does not lie with any one person, but with the civil service system and the guard system."

Hearing this, all the unknown anger in Zhu Di's heart was redirected.

Zhu Di knew very well that Jiang Xinghuo was right. If there was a problem in Ming Dynasty, the problem could not be entirely attributed to one person.

Civil service system!

Health system!

Zhu Di noted these two questions in his mind. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh that the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty was really unlucky.

Forget about the Little Ice Age, I also encountered the border army and the army suppressed the bandits. They respected themselves and raised a Jurchen to grow up.

That's all. If the imperial court can work together, it's possible to overcome the difficulties.

However, all the Dukes in the DPRK were engaged in land annexation in their hometowns and those in the DPRK who were in favor of the same party and opposed those who were different.

No wonder, in the last emperor's edict, he said that the ministers misunderstood me.

Probably guessing Zhu Di's heart, Jiang Xinghuo made a quick stab.

"Although Chongzhen was diligent and frugal and had good moral character, he was headstrong, eager for success, and suspicious of his ministers."

"In his seventeen years in power, he changed nineteen cabinet ministers and killed seven ministers of the Ministry of War."

"etc!"

Zhu Di probably knew that the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty would also take the blame for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but at this time, his attention shifted to another topic.

When Jiang Xinghuo mentioned Zhang Juzheng before, he only said "chief minister". Zhu Di subconsciously thought that this was a later emperor of the Ming Dynasty who re-established the prime minister, but changed the term.

Zhang Juzheng's sentence "I am not a prime minister, but a photographer" also aggravated Zhu Di's wrong impression.

But now it sounds like Jiang Xinghuo is talking about "chief minister of the cabinet", which makes Zhu Di suspicious.

In fact, the name "chief assistant" was never explicitly stipulated in the Ming Dynasty's canons. It was customary to refer to the chief academician of the cabinet as the chief assistant, and he had relatively special powers and status. The system of "chief assistant" came into being in the mid-Ming Dynasty. In political practice, it roughly appeared during the Tianshun reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty and began with Li Xian.

So it was normal for Zhu Di not to react for a while.

"Chief Minister, Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Mr. Jiang, is saying that the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty in the future will be the most powerful bachelor in the cabinet?" Zhu Di asked in surprise.

"Yes, civil servants from the gentry class generally enter the cabinet through qualifications and become cabinet ministers. They are also respectfully called 'Pavilion Elders'. The first in order is the chief assistant; the second in order is , it’s Cisuke.”

"Civil officials determined all government affairs of the Ming Dynasty through cabinet votes."

"What is a vote plan?" Zhu Di asked.

"The drafts are memorials from various places in the Ming Dynasty. Before they are sent to the emperor for approval, the cabinet uses small notes to write in ink. That is, the review suggestions are written on paper and pasted on the opposite side of each memorial for submission. The right to draft the drafts is controlled by the cabinet. In the hands of the chief minister of the cabinet, he actually prepared the manuscript of the 'imperial approval' for the emperor to adopt."

Jiang Xinghuo's gentle words made Zhu Di's heart pound.

"And the initiator is actually you who doesn't have the ability to handle government affairs like Emperor Hongwu."