Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 793: The Law of Eternity

[Naturally, many people could not stand Hu Weiyong's behavior.

A highly respected person like Xu Da bluntly told his elder brother that Hu Weiyong was not worthy of the position of prime minister.

Those who are not afraid of death, such as the Censor Han Yike, ran to Zhu Yuanzhang with the memorial in his arms to file a complaint.

Even though he was repeatedly framed by Hu Weiyong, scholar Wu Bozong, who was an upright man, still insisted on sending private messages to Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that this guy would rebel sooner or later.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to turn a blind eye to these opinions. For example, he neither agreed nor disagreed with Xu Da's frank remarks, and just laughed it off.

Censor Han Yike was thrown into prison because of this incident, but he was pulled out by Zhu before he could even get comfortable.

Wu Bozong was an exception. Not only was he not blamed, but he was returned to the capital to take up his post.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was certainly not stupid. After all, the emperor was naturally extremely sensitive to power.

When reading history, the teacher once left a comment in a blank space in the book, saying that since ancient times, no one could match Li Shimin in military ability, and the second best was Zhu Yuanzhang.

But according to Wen Mang, no emperor in ancient times had a stronger desire for control than Zhu Yuanzhang.

It is generally believed that Hu Weiyong's tyranny during this period was Zhu Yuanzhang's deliberate indulgence.

As an emperor who fought his way out of the chaotic world at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and came from the lower class, Zhu Yuanzhang was probably the emperor in history who had the strongest sense of crisis and believed most in striking first and eradicating the grass at its roots. It can be seen from his life experience that during his tenure as emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang had been striving for the "eternal law" that did not exist at all.

Similarly, he, whose power was threatened by the power of the prime minister, was also looking for an opportunity, or a method, to wipe out the roots of the problem.

According to historical records, Emperor Wu of Han used punishment to deal with the prime minister's faction and monopolization of power.

Emperor Wu of Han reigned for fifty-four years and had thirteen prime ministers. Seven of them were dismissed from office and stripped of their titles, five were killed and their families were exterminated, and one was entrusted with the care of an orphan.

The method adopted by Emperor Guangwu of Han was to undermine the position of prime minister. He chose to reuse the Secretariat to undermine the position of prime minister. But over time, although the Secretary of State did not have the title of prime minister, he actually acted as the prime minister.

From Zhu Yuanzhang's perspective, both methods were only temporary solutions. Instead of making things so troublesome, why not just let the emperor serve as prime minister? If he wanted to break away from the ancient system, he would naturally need an opportunity, but fortunately, this opportunity came soon.

For Hu Weiyong, while enjoying the sweetness of power, he also needed to find ways to defend this power.

If he wanted to make his position as prime minister as stable as a rock, it was not enough to just conquer Zhu Yuanzhang's stomach. He also needed to insure his life.

According to historical records, since Wang Guangyang was kicked out of the Secretariat in the sixth year of Hongwu, Hu Weiyong began to spare no effort to curry favor with the founding heroes. In addition to arranging for his niece to marry Li Shanchang's nephew to further improve his relationship with his teacher, he also set his sights on other founding heroes, and his favorite was the great general Xu Da.

Unfortunately, he fell in love with Xu Da, but Xu Da looked down on him. In this case, he could only settle for the next best thing. In addition to the six dukes, there were twenty-eight marquises, so he could choose from them.

As mentioned before, the fact that the Iron List was issued two years after the Iron Certificate was issued was enough to show the average quality of the nobles in the early Ming Dynasty. Under such circumstances, Hu Weiyong, who had treasure in his left hand and beauty in his right hand, naturally had no resistance. Soon Fei Zhong and Lu Zhongheng surrounded Hu Weiyong.

As a result, under the leadership of the Executive Vice Emperor Hu Weiyong, a new network of interests was woven, but little did people know that Zhu Yuanzhang had been waiting for a long time with the butcher knife in his hand.

It's not hard to guess what Hu Weiyong meant by trying to win over the nobles. Rather than saying he was attracted to the nobles, it's better to say he was attracted to their red-lettered iron certificates. After all, these were real resurrection coins. Even if we really committed a crime, we could just blame the nobles, and the nobles would then blame the iron certificates, right? You, Zhu Yuanzhang, can't deny your own red-lettered certificates, right?

This idea seems a bit naive now. After all, we have known a very simple truth since childhood:
The final right of interpretation belongs to the organizer. Zhu Biao could tell that according to Guangmu's statement, people in later generations would know that the incident of Hu Weiyong was a deliberate plot set up by his father in order to abolish the position of prime minister.

But for those who were living at the beginning of the 14th year of Hongwu... Zhu Biao looked around and easily saw the same idea in his brothers' eyes, but this idea was somewhat disrespectful and it was not easy to express it out loud.

But even so, Zhu Biao, like his other brothers, could not help but look at the emperor with a new perspective:
Dad is so sinister... so calculating... so premeditated... Ugh, bah, bah, he is so good at planning!
However, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was being watched, was unaware of it for the time being.

He was aware of the comments about him after his death, but this was the first time he was compared with the Ancient Wise Emperor.

After carefully identifying the comments about himself from the annotations beside the book, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but sigh in his heart like Li Wenzhong did before:

It would be great if Lingbei could win.

In this way, perhaps he can really be compared with Emperor Taizong of Tang in the use of military force and be crowned the best emperor.

If Lingbei wins, the remnant Yuan will be wiped out in one battle, and the warriors won't have to freeze to death in Mobei in vain, and the good horses won't be damaged. With the military strength of the Ming Dynasty, it may be possible to sort out the affairs of Korea and Japan again, and perhaps future generations won't have to worry about it. Perhaps the Ming Dynasty can continue for hundreds of years, or perhaps...

A pair of hands covered his temples and rubbed them slowly twice. The palms were a little rough, but they always made him calm down quickly.

"Eighty-eight is actually asking for eternal life in everything? How hard it is! Why is it so?"

There was undisguised tenderness in Empress Ma's voice, and this kind of unpretentious concern was something he always enjoyed. Well, it would be better if he didn't call her that...

Zhu Yuanzhang pulled his thoughts back a little after drifting a little further away, and then whispered:

"If you take the best, you will get the middle; if you take the middle, you will get the worst. If the Ming Dynasty wants to restore China's glory for a thousand years, then it should take the eternal law."

The queen persuaded him with the words from the light curtain, and he responded in the same way, showing a bit of unwillingness to admit defeat.

But being told this by later generations actually made me a little confused. I said that I was seeking the Dharma for eternity, but now it has been refuted in such a disjointed manner by later generations. It seems that the "Record of Ancestors' Instructions" only wanted to seek the Dharma for a thousand years, but only obtained a hundred years of fortune.

Perhaps he didn't want to think about it anymore, so Zhu Yuanzhang started a new topic:
"But what this young man said is right. Han Yike has never been afraid of his own life. He is a blessing to the Ming Dynasty."

Queen Ma just smiled and didn't comment much.

Last year, when Hu Weiyong was punished, the whole court was trembling with fear. Han Yike wrote a letter to the emperor, saying that the law was inhumane and that his refusal to accept it was a slap in the face of the emperor. However, Han Yike was soon pardoned by the emperor. Although Han Yike resigned and returned home, the whole court knew that since he was in the emperor's heart, it was only a matter of time before he was reinstated. Now it seems that the light curtain has made Han Yike even more busy.

After saying these words, Zhu Yuanzhang turned around and found that his sons were looking at him with strange eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

Of course, he didn't dare to say anything disrespectful, but fortunately Zhu Di said quickly:

"My son and my brothers all admire Daddy's ambition to establish a law that will last forever! Daddy has worked so hard for the Ming Dynasty."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his chin and smiled reservedly, then glanced at the fourth son a little more.

(End of this chapter)