Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 1025

With the end of the Wenhua Palace performance, the vassal kings barely have a friendship of fighting side by side, greatly shortening the distance that was relatively unfamiliar.

The reason why the kings came to Beijing this time was to discuss the matter of rectifying the military settlements. Now that the matter has been settled, they naturally have nothing to do.

However, after they were free, they realized that they really had nothing to do.

There was a commotion in the palace last time, although it was said that it was aimed at Yu Qian, but the emperor must not be happy, and it is obvious that he will go into the palace because he is uncomfortable.

However, if they don't enter the palace, they have no place to go. This is the capital, under the foot of the emperor, although it is prosperous, but it is meaningless to stroll around for a few days.

The ministers in the court have never dared to make friends with the vassal king, so most of the time, they just hand over a greeting card as a courtesy, and the people they know and have fun are not there on weekdays, so it is really boring.

To say that among these vassal kings, King Yi and King Xiang are in charge of Zongxue, after all, they still have some things to do. King Zhou and King Lu are old and senior, and they are not comfortable staying in front of them. Therefore, King Qin, King Zheng, King Ning Wang, these vassal kings of similar age, usually gather together for banquets, chatting and pastime, and pass the time when they have nothing to do.

In the Ten Princes' Mansion, the sound of silk and bamboo bursts, and the dancing posture of the woman below is graceful, like a butterfly fluttering around.

Seeing King Qin and King Ning's concentration, King Zheng Zhu Zhanxi couldn't help joking.

"You two, it's good to watch this song and dance. The capital is no better than that in the fiefdom. These dancers are all members of the Jiaofang Secretary. They are registered in the Ministry of Rites. If they want to redeem them, they must ask His Majesty's will." .”

These words made the two people on the opposite side burst into laughter, King Qin Zhu Zhi was considered the youngest among them, after hearing this, he really thought for a moment, said.

"That's a pity. The people of the Jiaofang Division are indeed different from the common people. They are elegant and graceful. No wonder the Emperor likes them."

As he spoke, a mysterious smile appeared on the corner of Zhu Zhi's mouth, and said.

"Speaking of which, I heard that when the Supreme Emperor returned to the court, he assigned a lot of women from the Jiaofang Division to serve. Now several empresses in Nangong are all from the Jiaofang Division. It can be seen that the women of the Jiaofang Division are not only singing and dancing Outstanding..."

After all, he and Ning Wang looked at each other, and the smile on their faces was tacit.

On the other hand, Zheng Wang Zhu Zhanyu's face darkened, and said.

"What empress, she's just a servant girl who is seduced by sex. It's fine to hang around the emperor's banquet all day long. It's fine to indulge in wine and sex. It is said that a few days ago, there were a few who even dared to contradict the queen Duanjing. There was no rule at all. .”

"That is to say, Empress Duanjing is aloof from the world and doesn't care about them. Otherwise, they should have been killed long ago."

This topic is a bit sensitive, Zhu Zhanxi is the uncle of the emperor, so he has no scruples about it, but the other two don't want to get involved in this matter.

Looking at each other tacitly, King Ning glanced at the dancing girls underground, and said.

"Speaking of which, I'm afraid these women are really superior. Why don't you let them stay and serve today, and your Majesty, just report back later, it's okay."

Normally speaking, the Jiaofang Division is pure and clean, but in fact, except for a few women who are extremely skilled and in charge of performing arts for the court, since the others have entered the Jiaofang Division, it is basically necessary for them to maintain their innocence. impossible.

Even for ordinary officials, sometimes the women of the Jiaofang Division will be invited to accompany them at banquets, not to mention their vassal status.

Not to mention keeping attendants, even if they took a few away without saying hello, the court would just reprimand them mildly.

This kind of thing, for the kings, is a trivial matter that is commonplace, but it is just used to change the subject. Zhu Zhanxi also knew that he had said something wrong, coughed twice, and stopped mentioning Nangong. And said.

"Speaking of which, several days have passed, and there has been a lot of discussion during this period of time in the court, but there is no movement on Yu Qian's side. He won't want to go back on his word, will he?"

Ah this...

King Ning and King Qin looked at each other, then King Ning frowned and said.

"Impossible, Your Majesty's golden words, although there is no decree, but we have so many vassal kings, and there are ministers present to listen, so does Yu Qian dare to disobey the holy order?"

Afterwards, King Qin also answered.

"If that's the case, then that's good. It just so happens that several uncles are still in the capital. Let's go back to the palace again and complain about his refusal to obey the edict. This reason, even if we make a fuss in the court, we can't argue with it!"

Among the people present, if anyone wanted to bring down Yu Qian the most, it should be King Qin.

For King Zheng, King Ning and the others, although they had feuded with Yu Qian, after all, everything was a foregone conclusion.

To put it bluntly, it is impossible for them to take back the land that the imperial court has already confiscated. At most, this time, they will give Yu Qian and others a warning, so that the local officials will be frightened and dare not intervene in the affairs of the suzerain vassal. Then they can Continue to merge again.

But even so, you can't go too far, otherwise, if the court intervenes again, it will be troublesome. Therefore, it will take a long time to restore the amount of land currently occupied by the palace.

From this point of view, of course they hate Yu Qian, who is about to snatch the land from them abruptly, but it is enough to vent the hatred, and it is enough for Yu Qian to lose his official position or come to the door to apologize. Saying that there is not much difference, anyway, it is all about intimidating local officials, and just venting their anger by the way.

However, King Qin is different. Now the rectification of the army is basically over. The so-called basic means that there are still some places that are not over.

Specifically, it is Shaanxi, Shanxi's Jin Fan, Qin Fan, Shen Fan, Su Fan, and Zhou Fan and Lu Fan who were recalled to Beijing before Yu Qian had time to go.

In fact, this is also the reason why Zhou Wang and Lu Wang worked so hard on this matter. The other vassal kings were out to vent their anger, and they were to protect their own interests.

Once Yu Qian fell, naturally there would not be enough important ministers to continue to carry out this great policy.

Everyone knew the reason behind this, so seeing King Qin's righteous indignation, King Zheng couldn't help laughing.

"It seems that Governor Du puts a lot of pressure on you, doesn't he?"

"Well, let's not talk about Dai Wang. Shen Wang's side should have been cleaned up, and I also heard that Su Wang's side has almost let go?"

In Shanxi and Shaanxi, there are five vassal kings in total, King Qin, King Jin, King Shen, King Su, and King Dai.

Dai Wang took the initiative to compromise with the court early on, needless to say, the remaining Jin Fan and Shen Fan, the emperor sent his confidant Da Dang Chengjing to go there in person.

This father-in-law Cheng was implicated in the Jin Dynasty's chaos in the early years, so he was sentenced to the palace sentence. Now he has become the most trusted eunuch of the emperor. When he comes to Shanxi again, new and old grudges come together, and the methods are naturally cruel.

Moreover, he is an eunuch, so compared to the ministers, he has much less scruples in doing things. During this period of time, the life of the Jin Fan was very sad. What's more terrible is that since Cheng Jing went there, it means that they arrived If the capital came to make trouble with the emperor, it might not be of much use.

Coincidentally, Qin Fan and Su Fan's life was not easy. Du Ning, Minister of Dali Temple, was transferred to be the governor of Shaanxi with meritorious service. He did not have the means like Cheng Jing, but he also had his own advantage, that is, he had a wide network of contacts.

Before people arrived in Shaanxi, a group of lobbyists had already arrived. These vassal kings controlled the military settlements. To put it bluntly, they relied to a large extent on the local gentry. After all, the manpower of the palace was limited.

And the local gentry are inextricably linked with the imperial court. Du Ning was born as a Jinshi in Qingliu, and with the support of a teacher like Chen Xun, the whole Qingliu basically wanted to sell him face.

The gentry in these places, whether they are officials in the court or have already retired, can always find relationships and favors that they cannot shirk.

In this way, it is like cutting flesh with a blunt knife. Although the speed is not fast, it is safe and difficult to deal with.

When this matter was mentioned, King Qin's face was also a little unhappy, he sighed and said.

"Su Wang's mansion has shallow eyelids. Du Ning just agreed to ask the imperial court to increase his age and salary by two thousand stones, but he couldn't bear it anymore."

The words were full of resentment, as if two thousand stones were some small amount.

However, King Ning on the side couldn't help complaining.

"Master Qin, you speak lightly. You have a yearly income of ten thousand shi in the mansion of King Qin, and you have countless fertile fields under your name. Naturally, you don't care about the mere two thousand shi. However, the annual salary of Su Wang's mansion is only one thousand shi. If the court is willing to add two thousand shi Even if the salary of a thousand stone years has been tripled, how could King Su not be tempted?"

Several people present are all vassal kings, so they naturally know the situation of each family very well.

It is good that Daming treats the vassal princes generously, but the ones who really count as being generous are actually only those few families.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu founded the country and divided up the princes, and the prince's annual salary reached a terrifying 28 shi, but soon, as the number of heirs multiplied and the number of vassal states increased, Emperor Taizu also realized that this would not work, so, in In the [-]th year of Hongwu, the annual salary of the clan was re-established, the prince's salary was [-] shi, and the county king's salary was [-] shi.

However, this was only a regulation on the surface. Soon, the Emperor Taizu made a decree, and made supplements in the specific process of granting salary according to the size of the fiefs and the behavior of each vassal.

Among them, the five prefectures of Jin, Yan, Chu, Shu, and Xiang received [-] shi according to the system, the Qin government supported [-] shi, and the rest of the prefectures ranged from [-] to [-] shi.

Among these vassal princes, Dai, Su, Qing, and Liao were the worst. Because they were far away from the border, it was difficult to transport them, and the people were less rich, so they only gave Lumi five hundred shi per year.

Of course, the reason for this setting is that the original idea was to consider that the larger the fiefdom, the heavier the general affairs that need to be managed, so the more the salary. this situation.

Later, during the Yongle period, the specific annual salaries of each government were revised again, but they were all based on increases. Gallo.

It was at this time that Qin Mansion, Ning Mansion, Shen Mansion, Qing Mansion and other vassal states restored the highest standard, which was based on [-] shi. However, apart from these, the amount added by other mansions was very limited. .

Especially in Su Wang's Mansion, Emperor Renzong generously ordered that the Su Mansion's annual salary be doubled.

But the problem is that the original annual salary of King Su's Mansion was only five hundred shi, doubled to only one thousand shi, which is not even one-tenth of the [-] shi of the Qin Mansion.

For this matter, Su Kings of all dynasties had asked for a salary, but they were all rejected by the court. It can be said that among so many vassal kings, only Su Wang had the most difficult life.

Your Prince Qin's Mansion has a lot of money, so you don't pay attention to the random two or three thousand stones, but for the King Su's Mansion, this is a huge amount of wealth.

Although it is said that a lot of money can be obtained by occupying the military settlements, it is risky. Besides, Sufan itself has a small fiefdom, and there is not much oil and water to squeeze.

Now, if Du Ning can really get the court to agree to Jialu, it will be an aboveboard and stable long-term income for Su Fan.

In fact, there is no need to think about how to choose between stealthy and invading military settlements, and being scolded behind the scenes.

"This……"

After hearing this, King Qin couldn't help feeling a little guilty, and said.

"Who says two thousand shi? What do you get, in fact, the annual salary of the Qin family is only five thousand stones, how can there be so much."

"It's Prince Zheng. Although the rectification of the army has suffered heavy losses this time, every year's annual income and ten thousand stones are drawn in their own way, which is really enviable..."

In addition to the different amounts of the vassal kings’ salaries, the methods of withdrawal are also different. Similar to the Qin, Ning, and Dai mansions that increased their salaries later, most of them were drawn in the form of half and half rice bills. .

With the purchasing power of today's treasure banknotes, it is basically equivalent to no, and even better, it is a part of the original color and a part of each color.

The so-called true color is to give food directly, and if it is discounted, it is to use some local specialties to pay at a discount. This method is better than giving treasure money, at least you can get some things, but there is a lot of room for maneuvering.

Often in the actual operation, what the vassal king gets is some worthless junk, but the price is very high.

The most enviable thing is that people like Zheng Wang draw all their money in their true colors. No matter when the food is put in, it is hard currency.

However, such vassal kings are very limited. Today, apart from the four prefectures of Jin, Chu, Shu, and Hunan that were clearly ordered by Taizu, the rest are the few vassal kings conferred by Emperor Renzong. The king of Han and the king of Zhao who were sealed, but they committed suicide, the king of Han was removed, and the king of Zhao also ended up with half and half of the rice bills.

So now among these few people, the one with the highest salary is Zheng Wang Zhu Zhanxuan.

"This……"

Seeing that the topic turned to himself for some reason, Zhu Zhanxi gave a wry smile and said.

"Aren't we talking about Yu Qian? Why did Sui Lu suddenly get involved?"

I don't know if he felt the embarrassment of King Zheng, but at this moment, a young servant came to report and said.

"My lord, Yu Shaobao asked for an audience outside, claiming that he was ordered by the Holy Spirit, and came to apologize to the lord."

(End of this chapter)