Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 800 I also want to get rid of officials

[Compared with the prelude to the Hu Weiyong case and the tyranny of Comrade Hu after he seized power, the end of this nominally last prime minister in feudal history was rather hasty.

According to scholars' research, because Wang Guangyang died with his concubine Chen, Chen's identity as a confiscated woman came to light when the identity of the deceased was being verified. As a result, Hu Weiyong was prosecuted for exceeding his authority and exceeding the rules. In addition to the Champa tribute envoy case and the private killing of the groom case, he was finally imprisoned at the end of September in the twelfth year of Hongwu.

It was during the time when Hu Weiyong was in prison that Tu Jie, who was originally Hu Weiyong's confidant, defected and became a tainted witness on the second day of the first lunar month of the 13th year. Just six days later, before the Spring Festival legal holiday was over, Hu Weiyong, Tu Jie and Chen Ning were convicted and executed together.

Five days later, at the grand court meeting, Zhu Yuanzhang revealed his true intentions and announced impatiently:

I plan to abolish the Secretariat and the prime minister system. Who is in favor and who is against?
At this time, Hu Weiyong's seventh day after death had not yet passed, so who would dare to object?

This decision, which went against the ancestors, was obviously the real cause of Hu Weiyong's death.

As for the signs recorded in the "History of Ming Dynasty" such as stone spikes coming out of the well in Hu Weiyong's hometown and flames shooting up into the sky from his ancestral tomb at night, they are obviously nonsense.

And then it was said that Hu Weiyong planned to make a new Ming Dynasty, collecting soldiers and recruiting desperate criminals, etc. I'm afraid he really thought Zhu Yuanzhang was a fool.

Later, the Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Yingtai wrote another story called Yunqi's Rebellion, saying that there was a loyal eunuch named Yunqi who lived next door to Hu Weiyong's house. When he heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was invited by Hu Weiyong to his house to watch the sweet spring in the well, he risked his life to stop it. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang climbed up the city gate tower and saw that Hu Weiyong's house was full of soldiers. So he quickly dispatched his troops to fight for three hundred rounds and captured the rebels. It was obviously more like a novel.

In modern times, we can see very clearly from the perspective of an outsider that the power of the monarch and the power of the prime minister under the feudal system represent two different forces within the ruling class.

They complemented each other and worked together to bring local areas under governance and thus rule the empire; but they also frequently experienced conflicts and contradictions and fought each other.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Prime Minister Tian Fen would sit for most of the day whenever he came to see the emperor, and the emperor could only listen obediently. Seeing that Tian Fen could easily promote a reclusive person to the position of 2,000-stone official, the emperor felt very clearly that his authority was being offended, so he uttered the somewhat sarcastic words, "Have you removed all the officials? I also want to remove officials."

"Have you appointed all the officials you want to appoint? I still want to appoint a few more officials."

To put it bluntly, the central government's power pie is only so big. If some people eat more, others will inevitably eat less. Emperor Wu was never a patient person, so he eventually raised the banner of strengthening the imperial autocracy.

After the development of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, the emperor had more and more cards in his hand, and naturally it became increasingly difficult for him to tolerate sharing power with the prime minister.

This can be seen from the experiences of prime ministers throughout the dynasties. In the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, the prime ministers were either sidelined or their power was decentralized. Even if the old prime ministers were to be replaced, they had to pull some together and beat some others, and operate slowly.

What about Hu Weiyong? Among the four prime ministers before and after the Hongwu Dynasty, Hu Weiyong was the most tyrannical one. He was the sole prime minister, had absolute power, and had to review all internal and external affairs first. Meritorious officials and military men rushed to his door. It was not an exaggeration to say that such a prime minister had power over the government and the country.

But such a prime minister was easily shattered by Zhu Yuanzhang. From his imprisonment to execution and abolition of the prime minister system, it took less than three and a half months.

If we count from the time when Hu Weiyong was formally punished, it took only eleven days, less than half a month, but not only were his followers uprooted, but the grave of the prime minister system was also dug up. This kind of operation would have been unimaginable in the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

As it was natural, the Zhu family added another rule to their ancestral precepts: "The successor monarch shall not discuss the appointment of a prime minister. Any minister who dares to make such a request will be severely punished."

Since the prime minister system was abolished, he might as well do things one by one. Zhu Yuanzhang also announced that the Grand Marshal's Office, which controlled all military affairs at home and abroad, would also be changed, and it would be directly split into five, namely, front, back, left, right and center.

Therefore, rather than saying that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the power of the prime minister was too great and finally abolished the prime minister system that had lasted for nearly 2,000 years, it is better to say that Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the power of the emperor was not great enough, so the events of the 13th year of Hongwu took place, and finally achieved the true monopoly of power.

However, the cost was of course huge. In addition to the necessary daily court meetings, he had to review more than 140 memorials and more than 400 affairs of all sizes every day. Basically, he really achieved "getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs." But even so, it was difficult to achieve satisfactory handling of government affairs.

This 996 style of monopolizing power might be very enjoyable for Zhu Yuanzhang, who had an outrageous physical fitness, but Zhu Biao, who was exhausted to death, probably didn't think it was very enjoyable. 】

Zhu Yuanzhang and his eldest son looked at each other, and then they turned their eyes away in tacit understanding.

There was not much rift between father and son. It was more like Empress Ma was mediating between them. Zhu Biao knew how much effort his father had devoted to him, and Zhu Yuanzhang also knew how hard his eldest son had worked to gain his approval.

Occasionally, Zhu Yuanzhang would imagine how he could hand over the Ming Dynasty to his son, and how his carefully trained son could rule the Ming Dynasty to its peak. In the future, if he and his son could be compared with wise emperors like Wen and Jing in history books, he could be regarded as a wise emperor without regrets.

But now such imagination can only end with Biaoer's early death.

A crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, whose health was ruined by government affairs, who was attacked by a carbuncle on his back, and who eventually died before he could ascend the throne and realize his ambitions.

The father and son had different feelings and both remained silent.

Zhu Chong and Zhu Gang, who were present for the first time, were a little curious, but they only dared to talk in a low voice.

Earlier, when Zhu Chong heard that his father had suddenly told them that they would be leaving Beijing for an indefinite period of time, he felt a little headache:

"Dad, when will you finish writing these ancestral precepts?"

Zhu Gang nodded in agreement: "Why ask, but I'm afraid you should write down everything you learn..."

Seeing that his father's head tilted slightly to this side, Zhu Gang also hurriedly patched it up: "But Dad, this is also a good intention. What you wrote is all about governing the world, hoping that big brother's descendants in the future will not be biased and become wise rulers."

As soon as he said this, Zhu Gang felt a little sad.

Everyone could see that their father had a different attitude towards the eldest brother and his brothers. In addition, their father was very strict in educating his children and the eldest brother was able to convince the other brothers, so the brothers had never had any improper thoughts and were very straightforward in their decision to become vassals.

But now, his father's previous scolding and the fact that his eldest brother's death was now clearly mentioned by future generations made Zhu Gang have some guesses about the succession of the throne.

But these speculations cannot be regarded as unreasonable wishes. Instead, they are filled with endless fear, and the reasons are very simple.

Now that Daddy is in good health and is sharpening his sword, there is still a long time before the end of Hongwu. If anyone among the brothers really did something beastly.

How to face the father's rage?

(End of this chapter)