Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 788: Eternal Foundation
Don’t say that Xu Da felt regretful, Zhu Yuanzhang also felt regretful.

Although I don't remember writing such a letter to the third brother, there is nothing wrong with the description in it.

Since the first year of Hongwu, he crossed the Yangtze River and the Huai River to pacify Qi and Lu, swept Henan into Tongguan, expelled Yuan Jun and settled You and Ji, successively recovered Jin and Ji and quickly won Hexi, and then Guanzhong regained its loyalty and pacified the world.

The whole process took only two and a half years, which was rare in ancient times.

And if he could really wipe out the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty in one fell swoop in the fifth year of Hongwu, he would have the confidence to brag about his martial arts even when meeting Emperor Taizong of Tang.

It was a pity that despite the high spirits at the time of the oath, they were ultimately no match for the northern wind and snow. The series of victories that began in the first year of Hongwu ended in failure at Helin, ending their undefeated legacy.

The loss of both good horses and brave soldiers put an end to the situation that could have solved the problem once and for all.

Compared with Li Wenzhong's angry sigh and Xu Da's unwillingness, Zhu Yuanzhang's emotional fluctuations were not that great.

"I think the name Tula River is very good. Thousands of years later, our descendants will also go to this river to pay tribute to the heroes of the Ming Dynasty who killed the enemy with blood and bravery on the riverside."

As he spoke, Emperor Ming turned his head and looked at Xu Da:

"Even if it is just to ensure that the river does not change its name, Xu Da and his brother should restore the original state to achieve complete success."

At this moment, Xu Da thought of many things, including his brothers who died young and whose reputation was passed down to later generations, his brave soldiers who fought to the death despite being defeated, the brave soldiers who died on the way back to the capital, and the young child in mourning who pulled him in the city of Beiping to ask whether his father was a hero.

So finally he stood up and said word by word:

"If the remnant Yuan is not destroyed, Xu Da will not return."

The atmosphere in the Huagai Palace became a little more solemn. The meaning of the emperor and the general was very clear: the Ming Dynasty was determined to wipe out the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty.

Seeing this, the Crown Prince poked his head in and asked:

"Since Father has such a lofty ambition, there is no need to add to the Ancestor's Instructions, right?"

This sentence instantly made Zhu Yuanzhang's expression of harmony between the emperor and his subjects disappear, and he said almost instantly:
"Absolutely impossible!"

Zhu Biao suddenly became anxious:
"The land of Mobei has insufficient resources to supply and the people are not obedient enough to obey orders. How can we conquer it?"

Zhu Yuanzhang then realized that his eldest son was waiting for him here.

When discussing polo in the past and future, it was said that the words in "Ancestor's Instructions" "The land we get is not enough to provide for our needs, and the people we get are not enough to command" prevented the Ming Dynasty from expanding abroad, and after the external threats were eliminated, the Ming Dynasty lost its martial spirit.

At the beginning of the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered clearly that this sentence was not included in the "Record of Ancestors' Instructions" compiled by him personally.

Therefore, the Crown Prince's intention was very simple, which was a bit like using the enemy's spear to attack the enemy's shield.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had figured out the key points, was dismissive:
"How can we lump the Hu Yuan and the vassal states' subjects together?"

Before Zhu Biao could figure out what was going on, he heard his fourth brother beside him say:
"Conquer all 400 states of the Ming Dynasty..." Then he saw his father's face change instantly, and he raised his hand as if he wanted to say something.

But the fourth brother was straightforward and hid behind his mother, so his father's raised hand smoothly turned in another direction and pointed at him, Zhu Biao.

But perhaps he couldn't bear to blame his eldest son, so he put his raised hand down again and slapped the table beside him:
"We have fought all over the world, traveled to all corners of the country, and all we have seen are talented people. Finally, we founded the Ming Dynasty. How could we not know how to benefit the Ming Dynasty?"

"The Japanese incident was just a moment of ignorance. Once we hear about it, we will correct our mistakes. Aren't all these words for the sake of the Ming Dynasty's eternal foundation?"

However, as soon as he said this, he saw Haodaer's face as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. Emperor Ming suddenly remembered that the Ming Dynasty's national destiny was no secret, and that number had nothing to do with Qianqiu no matter how he calculated it.

But it was neither appropriate nor realistic to criticize Zhu Biao verbally, so Zhu Yuanzhang turned his finger:
"Why are you laughing, old man?"

At this time, Jin Wang Zhu Gang, who had been concentrating on recalling his father's letter, looked up blankly:
"what?"

[After the defeat in Lingbei, Zhu Yuanzhang brought back the recommendation system. His intention was very clear, which was to take small steps and concentrate strength so as to recuperate and govern the country quickly.

But objectively speaking, this decision also led to the rise of Hu Weiyong, and resulted in the chef Xiao Hu having to be killed.

Some people believe that Zhu Yuanzhang's disdain for the imperial examination in the early Ming Dynasty was precisely the result of his inadequate understanding of officials.

Since the birth of the centralized system, the officials sent by the emperor to local areas did not actually need to be able to govern the local areas. They were more like representatives of imperial power, ensuring local obedience and thus achieving the ultimate goal: collecting taxes.

To put it bluntly, officials in the feudal era were more of a game of deterrence between the central and local governments:
I may not be able to accomplish something, but I can definitely make something fail.

Just like after the birth of the three provinces and six ministries system, the three provinces were tossed around but the six ministries that were in charge of doing things remained unmoved, under the feudal imperial power, it was the officials who truly supported local governance, and successive dynasties have always paid close attention to this, resulting in "rectifying the administration of officials" becoming a familiar term.

In this context, officials are more like spokespersons for local governments. The struggle between imperial power and local governments is essentially an effort to gain officials’ personnel power, thereby making local officials the absolute representatives of imperial power.

From the entry of meritorious officials into officialdom in the early Han Dynasty to Emperor Wu of Han's use of the recommendation system to consolidate power, and then to the later Nine-Rank System, the relationship between local power and imperial power has always been a dynamic game. It was not until the birth and maturity of the imperial examination system that local personnel appointments and dismissals could truly be said to be in the hands of the emperor.

There are also opinions that the imperial examination system is not easy to pass, so the Jinshi scholars are not grateful to the imperial power and only think that they have won the title based on their own abilities, which may not be beneficial to the central government.

But the emperor who implemented the imperial examination system should not care about this. After all, as long as the scholars do not thank the nobles, relatives, eunuchs, military generals, etc., as the person in power, he would rather these scholars not thank anyone, and never thank anyone.

This is also the basis of the Yuan Dynasty's downfall that we talked about in previous issues. Mongolian nobles could appoint officials at will using the official promotion system. The appointed officials would naturally think that the nobles in front of them were their benefactors, which resulted in the Yuan Dynasty's political orders being difficult to issue from the central government.

Judging from the abolition of the imperial examination system in the sixth year of Hongwu, alienating nobles like Li Shanchang and employing newcomers like Hu Weiyong can be seen as a prevention of the recommendation system to prevent the center of power from shifting to nobles. However, the revival of such an ancient system in a new empire had an impact far beyond Zhu Yuanzhang's estimation.

The data here are directly borrowed from the "Study on the Recommendation of Former Yuan Dynasty Officials during the Hongwu Period in the Early Ming Dynasty".

During the Hongwu period, there were a total of 422 officials of the third rank and above, of whom 197 were recommended by the government, accounting for 46.9%.

Among the six ministers, 48.67% were recommended for official positions. If we look at them in more detail, the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue had the lowest percentage of recommended officials, both less than 30%; the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites were about the same, both around 50%; the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Works both had as high as 75%.

(End of this chapter)