I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 616 Reform of the Lord System
"Well, it will be fine after everything is arranged. The opportunity has been given to Yue Tuo. It depends on whether he can seize it."

After saying this, Zhu Youxiao didn't want to say anything anymore, and immediately asked Luo Sigong to continue to watch and report any changes and progress to him at any time.

This was an idle move made by Zhu Youxiao. No matter what choice Yue Tuo made, it would only speed up or delay the process of Ming Dynasty's control of North Korea.It has no big impact on the overall situation, so Zhu Youxiao doesn't care about him.

However, although Yue Tuo's matter did not matter, Zhu Youxiao must pay attention to Huang Taiji's matter.

"Your Majesty, in addition to the news about Yue Tuan, there is also news about Huang Taiji. According to the news sent by the Jin Yiwei in Liaodong, it was discovered that Zaisang, Manggusi and other Taijis in the Horqin tribe who were close to the Jianlu were united with Huang Taiji and the Bahrain tribe. , clashed with people who wanted to fight with me, Da Mingqiu and Ming An Taiji.
Now Ming'an and others have been defeated and arrested, and the entire Horqin is controlled by Manggusi, Zaisang and others.Looking at this, Horqin is afraid that he will not seek peace with Ming Dynasty, and will be determined to go against Ming Dynasty in the future. "

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youxiao's face tightened, and he immediately took the other question book handed over by Luo Sigong and asked repeatedly:

"When did this happen? Why didn't Xiong Tingbi report it to me?"

"Your Majesty, it happened at the beginning of July. I believe that the title book of Liaodong Dusi will come soon. But having said that, this Huang Taiji is really a figure. He can actually encourage Zaisang and others to fight with Ming Dynasty under the current circumstances. Keep fighting."

When Luo Sigong said this, Zhu Youxiao also nodded slowly.Secretly, Huang Taiji is really a character. Regardless of whether he did this or not, the timing of the selection was indeed very good.The Ming Dynasty's entire military force is now in Sarhu, preparing to finally destroy Hetuala, so naturally it cannot send troops to intervene.

However, Zhu Youxiao was just surprised by Huang Taiji's quick tactics and didn't care about this matter.

What Huang Taiji did was just what he wanted.Now Horqin is determined to be instigated by Huang Taiji to go against the Ming Dynasty, and now he has eliminated the "instability factors" in it, and his power may be greatly increased. I am afraid he will be more confident in defeating Lin Dan Khan in the future, and he will also send troops to Mongolia for the Ming Dynasty. Reasons provided.

It's just that Ming must pay attention to him at all times and must not let tigers cause trouble.Thinking of this, he looked at Luo Sigong and slowly told him:

"Huang Taiji's matter is related to the imperial court's plans. Are there any Jin Yiwei spies next to him or in Horqin's tribe?"

Luo Sigong thought for a while after hearing this, and then said hesitantly:
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. Now Horqin and Huang Taiji are extremely wary of the Han people. This information was also learned from the Wengji Tribe and the remnants of the Ming'an tribe who fled to the Ming Dynasty for refuge. Afterwards, we must inquire about the information as soon as possible to understand Huang Taiji’s details.”

"Huang Taiji must pay close attention to this person. He is thoughtful, bold and careful. He must find a way to place spies into Horqin's tribe. In addition, spies from Chahar Lindan Khan's tribe must also be placed. We can't delay it any longer."

Luo Sigong nodded immediately after hearing this. He had been planning this matter.However, the war in Liaodong was tense during this period, and his energy was also affected.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely work hard to handle this matter."

When Zhu Youxiao saw this, he said nothing more and immediately asked Luo Sigong to take action.

After Luo Sigong left, Zhu Youxiao took the title book of the Southeast Asian News and took a good look at it.But after a while, Zhang Chang came to report again that the British Duke Zhang Weixian had arrived.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Youxiao quickly asked him to come in to speak. Zhang Weixian was specially summoned by him.

"Your Majesty, Zhang Weixian, pays homage to your Majesty!"

"I love you! Zhang Chang, watch your seat."

Zhang Weixian bowed and sat down, but he was still confused in his heart as to what the emperor wanted him to come here for.

Zhu Youxiao put down the question book in his hand, sat on the couch and looked at Zhang Weixian, and asked nonchalantly:
"My dear, I asked you to prepare a reward list for the great victory of Saarhu a few days ago. I wonder how you and Mr. Ye Ge have prepared it."

"Your Majesty, I have just prepared a list based on the battle merit list drawn up by Xiong Tingbi, and I would like to ask Your Majesty to take a look."

Seeing this, Zhang Weixian quickly took out a question book from his sleeve, bowed and handed it to Zhang Chang who was standing aside.Zhu Youxiao took the title book and took a closer look and found that Chen Liangbi, Xiong Tingbi, He Shixian, Tan Mian and others were among them.

However, as far as the content was concerned, Zhu Youxiao was not very satisfied and secretly wondered why this piece of Weixian didn't understand what he meant at that time.

In this list, Xiong Tingbi was named an earl for his outstanding achievements in Liaodong, while Chen Liangbi, as the commander of the Ming army in the great victory of Saarhu, was promoted to a duke.As for the rest of the people, civil servants such as Yang Lian and others were either dismissed from official positions, while military attachés were also rewarded with official positions, silver, etc., which made Zhu Youxiao feel that the rewards were too light.

"British Lord, the great victory at Saarhu wiped out the Jianlu in one fell swoop and reversed our situation in Liaodong. I don't know how much money will be saved. I have no objection to the rewards given to Xiong Tingbi, Chen Liangbi and others.

However, generals such as He Shixian and Tan Mian were only promoted to official positions and were rewarded with silver taels and that was it. Wouldn't this chill the hearts of the soldiers? "

When Zhang Weixian heard this, he seemed to understand what Zhu Youxiao meant, and he seemed to want to knight these two people as well.Zhang Weixian shook his head secretly when he thought of this. "Your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty has very few titles and a very high status, only the third level. After the founding of our dynasty, except for the Taizu and Chengzu periods where there were more martial arts and many people were given titles, military generals in other periods can be given titles. Very few. Therefore, there is a saying that those who have made great achievements will not be knighted.

Therefore, both Xiong Tingbi and Chen Liangbi contributed a lot to the annihilation of the Jianlu captives this time. After discussing with the cabinet, I thought they could be knighted.In addition, there is He Shixian, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, who has also made outstanding achievements. He recruited A Ming to surrender and recovered Kaiyuan and Tieling. The minister and the cabinet are still undecided. If His Majesty thinks he is feasible, this person can also be named uncle. "

What Zhang Weixian said is indeed true.

But Zhu Youxiao shook his head repeatedly when he heard this, still not satisfied with the result.

The Lordship system of the Ming Dynasty is actually relatively simple, with only three levels: Duke, Marquis and Bo, but each level of title is divided into three levels.

The first level is the founding of the country, which means that this title was obtained by following Zhu Yuanzhang in conquering the world;
The second level is Fengtian Jingnan Hero, which you get after following Emperor Chengzu to Fengtian Jingnan successfully;

The last class is the heroes of Fengtian Yiyun, among whom the military ministers are called "Xuanli meritorious officials" and the civil servants are called "Shouzheng civil servants".

The system of these three levels of lords is more concise and clear than the previous system of Duke Bozinan.

However, precisely because the Ming Dynasty's nobility system only had three levels, the Ming Dynasty's nobility system was more principled.

Internal canonization of kings and titles can only be granted to clan members, and ministers with different surnames cannot be crowned kings during their lifetime.The dukes, marquises, and earls requested that "non-communist military merits should not be awarded", the purpose was to prevent the indiscriminate use of titles.

However, this principle caused the canonization of lords in the Ming Dynasty to move from one extreme to the other. That is, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there was often a phenomenon of few or even no titles.

Because of this, most of the honors of the Ming Dynasty were inherited from the Taizu and Chengzu dynasties, and there has been no metabolism. Now they live in two capitals, with a small number of people. The quality and ability of their honors are also obvious.

Therefore, whether it was for the purpose of wooing military generals or competing with civilian officials, Zhu Youxiao wanted to strengthen the Xungui Group again.

However, due to the Ming Dynasty's principle of "non-communist military merit shall not be awarded", he has never found a good opportunity.

Last year's suppression of the She'an Rebellion was actually a good opportunity. However, at that time, the party struggle within the imperial court was still relatively fierce. In addition, the Liaodong Jianlu had not yet been quelled, and his prestige was not that high. If he rashly proposed it, it would definitely cause a civil war. Scale objects.

But now that Southwest and Jianlu have been pacified and the world is peaceful, his prestige is so high that all potential opponents in the court have been kicked out by him.Therefore, now is the best time to re-expand your honors.

Thinking of this, he immediately said to He Shixian:

"He Shixian has merit, but Chen Ce, Qin Bangping, Qi Jin, Zhang Mingshi, He Shun, etc. don't have merit? If only three people are canonized as honorary officials, it would not be unfair to the Sichuan Army, Zhejiang Army and other generals who have also been in Liaodong for several years."

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Weixian was dumbfounded.He thought about many possibilities, but he didn't expect that the emperor wanted to confer lordships on so many people. This must be too ridiculous.

Thinking of this, he immediately stood up and knelt down to Zhu Youxiao and said:

"Your Majesty, lords value rareness. If they are granted excessive titles, they will not be honored. Besides, although Chen Ce and others have made many military exploits, they have not been able to achieve the title of earl at all. Your Majesty, please think again."

Zhang Weixian's words were sincere, and he was now afraid that the emperor would cause chaos.Although as the head of the nobles, he naturally hopes that there will be more nobles, but if there are too many, the nobles will be worthless.This was a phenomenon he absolutely did not want to see.

When Zhu Youxiao heard this, he was speechless.He secretly thought that Zhang Weixian was really stubborn and didn't know how to adapt.So he slowly waved his hand and said:

"Get up and speak. I can't bear the conferment of so many counts. But there are still ways to work around it."

After hearing the first half of the emperor's words, Zhang Weixian was immediately relieved.But after hearing the second half of the sentence, Zhang Weixian immediately became confused and asked cautiously:
"Your Majesty, I don't know how to work around it?"

"It's very simple. Our lords originally only had three levels of Duke, Marquis and Uncle. Now there are a lot of wars. I thought that in order to sympathize with the soldiers' sacrifice, I could change the original three-level titles to six levels, namely Gong, Marquis, Uncle, Zi, Male, Lieutenant, etc.

In this way, no matter who has made meritorious service to the court, no matter whether the merit is high or low, he can be knighted.It can not only commend the soldiers for their service, but also win people's hearts. "

After Zhu Youxiao finished talking about this plan, he looked at Zhang Weixian and asked:
"What do you think of my suggestion?"

(End of this chapter)