The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 200 Send the Prince Down to Rest
After Emperor Zhu Zhonglin of the Ming Dynasty returned to the Qianqing Palace, he immediately summoned Fei Chun, the secretary of the Wu Kingdom's Secretariat, who was the messenger left by the King of Wu.

In the old emperor's opinion, if these ministers honestly accepted their fate, he might not do anything to them.

Even if the King of Wu really succeeds to the throne in the future, it may not be necessary to deal with them. After all, Chongzhen also had the Nanjing Garrison Office before.

From being an official of the central court to an official of the Nanjing Garrison Yamen, his actual power was bound to decline.

However, there is no need for the new emperor to worry about their reputation and welfare. Normally, they will be supported until retirement according to their existing treatment.

But now I haven't expressed any intention to change the reserves, but they have already begun to collectively oppose me. I must give them a severe punishment.

They are just like the workers in the countryside, marching in unison and taking breaks. They are trying to compete with me, their boss.

It may be that the power of civil servants expanded after Yongle and the stability that lasted for more than a hundred years after Chongzhen allowed these people to form complex relationships in the court.

I am taking the emperor's attitude less and less seriously!
The emperor dismissed everyone around him, and then told Fei Chun with a very serious expression:

"You must return to Shuntian Prefecture immediately and have the King of Wu lead his troops south to defend the king. These officials in Yingtian Prefecture are disobeying orders and are planning a rebellion!"

The emperor personally wrote an imperial edict to invite Prince Wu to come to the capital to serve the emperor, and asked Fei Chun to send it to Shuntian Prefecture immediately.

Fei Chun was also shocked when he heard the old emperor's order. He had originally planned to find an opportunity to talk to the prince and then proceed with the next plan.

Now the old emperor wants to overturn the table unilaterally. There is no way for me to talk to the prince now, right?
Fei Chun said in a panic:

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the King of Wu does not want to have a direct conflict with the court..."

The old emperor waved his hand to stop Fei Chun before he finished speaking, and then immediately rebuked him:
"Scholar's opinion! You must leave the city immediately without delay. If you wait a few more days, you may not be able to leave!

"The King of Wu is right. If he cannot bring his army to Yingtianfu, then you should not come into the city again!"

Fei Chun did not realize how serious the matter was, but the old emperor was very sensitive to the tendencies of power and court affairs.

Those ministers were not just trying to get a court cane or simply resist some of the emperor's decisions, but they were really showing signs of going crazy.

This is often the case. In order to avoid certain things that they don’t want to see, many people instinctively resist and confront them very sensitively, which may cause those things to happen faster.

Although the old emperor had long had the idea of ​​changing the crown prince, he had never made an immediate decision.

Even after the King of Wu won a great victory in the Northern Expedition, the old emperor was still worried about how the Crown Prince and the King of Wu would get along in the future if he decided to change the crown prince.

But the recent reactions of court officials have finally made the old emperor make a decision. He can no longer hesitate.

We must not allow these people to fully react, and we must not allow them to eventually form a united force.

They might induce the prince to cooperate with them against them.

At that time, he and the crown prince, and the crown prince and the King of Wu, would truly stand on opposite sides.

In that case, direct conflict within the royal family would become truly unavoidable.

In order not to provoke them, the old emperor had not been too impulsive in the court before, and did not forcibly order the detention of those officials who disobeyed orders and caused trouble.

Choose to take a short break and make overall preparations before taking action.

The first thing is to notify the King of Wu to be prepared.

Fei Chun is the representative of the King of Wu. If these people want to target Fei Chun, Fei Chun might really be in danger.

It’s just the right time to send him back and call someone.

Although Fei Chun did not have a deep understanding of the situation, he still believed in the old emperor's judgment.

At the same time, they did not dare to argue with the old emperor. If the old emperor told them to leave, they would leave immediately.

Fei Chun didn't even bother packing his things. He took the imperial edict given by the old emperor and left the city under the escort of the old emperor's guards.

The other companions of Fei Chun who had traveled with him were also escorted by the old emperor to live at the Jinyiwei headquarters.

The old emperor even worried whether the current leaders of the Jinyiwei, the East Factory, and the West Factory, and even the commanders of the garrison in Yingtianfu City, were still absolutely reliable.

The rapid success of King Wu's Northern Expedition quickly changed many things.

There were all kinds of officials in the Wu court, and the King of Wu also had his own royal guards, his own main division and servant army.

Between the old court personnel and the officials of Wu, the King of Wu certainly trusted the old people of Wu more.

Even if the State of Wu did not have a corresponding agency, the King of Wu would definitely replace the person in charge after taking over, and the original person in charge of the corresponding agency might quickly lose power.

I don’t know how many people have realized this now, but I’m sure more and more people will realize it.

Even if the staff were originally completely obedient to you, they may become less reliable after their leader realizes these situations.

A coup d'état only needs to get most people to stand by and watch, and then use a small amount of key forces to directly control key opponents and key institutions of the court, and it will basically be successful.

On the other hand, if he wanted to prevent the situation from getting out of control, he had to mobilize ordinary people who were unaware of the truth to accept his orders.

All irrelevant ordinary people and low-level soldiers would naturally obey the orders of the emperor, but it was difficult for them to get orders at critical moments.

So I arranged my orders in advance.

After Fei Chun left the Qianqing Palace, the old emperor quickly issued a series of orders.

He arranged for his personal guards to go out and summon the main leaders of the Jinyiwei, the East Factory, and the West Factory, the commander-in-chief and senior military officers of the garrison in Yingtianfu City, and the governors of the Five Military Governor's Office to come to the palace one by one.

At the same time, he wrote a few simple orders, selecting the company commanders and platoon leaders of the guards who had been following him recently and were very familiar to him, and promoted their ranks to the sixth rank of battalion commanders or pacification commanders.

Let them summon the guards and Jinyiwei who were on rotation and rest, give all those who were temporarily summoned the treatment of squad leaders and small flags, and control the garrisons of relevant yamen.

No information or people other than his own imperial edicts and guards were allowed to enter or leave.

They are authorized to execute first and report later, and anyone who forcibly disobeys can be killed directly.

Anyone who should not be in these government offices must be detained on the spot and not allowed to leave.

The matter of changing the storage mainly involves high-level officials and has almost nothing to do with officials below the fifth rank.

After the matter is done, the low-level officers who are particularly valued by me and play a key role can be transferred by me to the King of Wu for continued use. This will not affect the power changes at the top level and can also give these low-level officers a good future.

So the old emperor transferred the senior personnel of all violent agencies and arranged reliable low-level military officers to control the headquarters of their yamen.

Let his orders be directly conveyed to these government offices at any time.

This allowed the middle and lower-level officials in these yamen to bypass their top superiors and obey the emperor's orders directly.

After arranging these matters, the emperor sent someone to invite the prince to see him.

When the prince was discussing the situation with Qi Xu and others and was hesitant about what to do in the future, he received a message from the imperial guards that the emperor summoned him. When Qi Xu learned that the emperor summoned him, he subconsciously advised the prince:

"Your Highness... Under the current circumstances, it's best if you don't go directly..."

The prince asked subconsciously:

"Why not go? My father has summoned me directly, why shouldn't I go?"

Qi Xu was stunned for a moment:
"Well... Your Highness is not feeling well. He may have caught a cold. I'm worried that it will affect His Majesty..."

The prince sighed:
"I just saw him this morning. Even if I caught a cold, it won't be too serious in these few hours.

"And now we have garlic medicine, which can basically cure colds. Besides, my father has summoned me, so I have to go even if I am sick.

"Even if the emperor has some ideas, he won't do anything to me directly. If I don't go, it will make him suspicious."

Qi Xu had no way to dissuade him.

Unless the planned event is launched right now, the prince really has to go now.

Now the officials have only had that tendency but have not made any formal preparations at all. The key is that they have not organized reliable armed personnel.

So Qi Xu and others could only watch as the prince sighed, got up, and took a carriage to the Qianqing Palace to meet the emperor.

In the emperor's bedroom, the prince respectfully bowed and greeted his father.

The old emperor looked his eldest son up and down and asked a question slowly:
"Can'er, what do you think of the reactions of the civil and military officials at this morning's court? How do you think these officials should be dealt with?"

The prince felt overwhelmed when he heard this question, and he thought that trying to answer it should be the right direction:
"I think that the impeachment of Brother Xuan by the ministers is groundless and may alienate the royal family. Brother Xuan's Northern Expedition has made great contributions to the country..."

The old emperor stood up after hearing these words, came to the prince and sighed:
"I hope you really mean it.

"Have the officials around you ever tempted you to do something rebellious?

"You should understand that you are my own flesh and blood, the eldest brother of the King of Wu, and the eldest son of the Ming royal family.

"If you are coerced by those ministers and stand against our royal family, you will be a real traitor and you will die without a burial place.

“Even if you succeed, you will have no authority and will be controlled by those who encourage you.

"That would damage the stability of our country and would not be successful."

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The prince felt himself sweating profusely when he heard these words.

The emperor here directly warned himself about what Qi Xu had just hinted at.

This shows that my father had already been prepared for those things and would definitely have made arrangements in advance.

The possibility of that thing succeeding is infinitely close to zero.

What's more, what my father asked does make sense. If I cooperate with those ministers to do those things, I will definitely be controlled by them in the end.

The authority of the future Ming emperor will be greatly reduced.

The prince finally bowed obediently and said:
"My son understands, thank you father for your teaching."

The old emperor nodded gently, sighed deeply again, and then talked about the subsequent arrangements:
"Your brother has indeed made great contributions to the country and has contributed to rebuilding it.

"If he had only the same inventions as before, if he had only pleased me more, as a father I would not have been really shaken.

"But now I have the opportunity to reunite the Ming Dynasty.

"There is also the risk of reunification and the potential risk of you all killing each other.

"I can no longer ignore it..."

After hearing these words, the prince understood his father's intention. Now he was really interested in changing the position of the crown prince.

It was either because of the great achievement of the Northern Expedition or because of the opportunity for reunification.

It's impossible to really ignore it.

The prince understands this mentality, but it is difficult for him to accept this reality, and he doesn't know what his future will be like.
Since my father has already made preparations, it is too late for me to do anything now.

He just said that he was the eldest son of the royal family and the elder brother of the King of Wu, and reminded himself not to cooperate with the ministers.

But now you have made it clear that you want to remove me from my position as crown prince.

The prince was disheartened and had given up hope. He asked with a sense of grievance and anger:
"But father... since I am your eldest son and the heir according to the clan law, how can Brother Xuan accommodate me in the future?"

The old emperor was actually a little worried, but now he could only say directly:

"He is ten years younger than your son. When he is forty, you will be seventy. How can he not tolerate you?

“On the other hand, can you tolerate him?
"I will make him swear to give you the best vassal state outside of his homeland and let you be the ruler of a country overseas.

"If you had not betrayed the court, and he still could not tolerate you, then he would have a stain that could not be erased no matter what."

The prince let it go anyway, and continued to ask his father:

"Are you saying that I should put my life and property on the line in the hope that my Sixteenth Brother is truly a man of high virtue?"

The old emperor was no longer holding back and spoke directly:
"If I just let go, you two will definitely fight to the death in the future.

"Being forced to fight to the death by the ministers around you two, one of you will die without a burial place, and the ministers around you will also have the merit of following the dragon.

“I’ll make arrangements for you two now, so there’s a slight chance that you two will get along in peace.

"Someone, send the prince down to rest."

The old emperor stopped arguing with his son and simply placed him under house arrest in the Qianqing Palace.

The old emperor's plan was gradually implemented in the afternoon of the same day, and a large group of governors and commanders were summoned to the palace individually.

Before they could understand what was happening, they were taken control by the guards arranged by the old emperor and placed under house arrest in a side hall of the Wuying Palace.

When the old emperor saw that all these important military officers had arrived, he once again ordered the arrest of the ministers and vice ministers of various departments.

All the civil servants who were able to attend the morning court this morning and who dissented from him were arrested.

(End of this chapter)