The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 370 Zhu Jianxuan's Emperor's Mentality

The Persian monarch Fatah listened to Ma Weiguo's reminder. Although he felt a little regretful and unwilling, he now had no way out and no choice.

The Russian Tsar and the Ottoman Sultan had both been captured and surrendered, and the two ancient enemies of Persia, Russia and the Ottoman Empire, no longer existed.

The Shun Kingdom, which had been eyeing Persia covetously, has now become a real turtle in a jar, and its death is only a matter of time.

The Ming Emperor has become the true ruler of the world, and the result of refusing to surrender is losing everything.

After Fatah fully realized the reality, he quickly bowed to Ma Weiguo and thanked him:
"Thank you for your reminder, sir. I will arrange for an envoy to go to Shuntian Prefecture..."

Ma Weiguo immediately waved his hand to interrupt him:
"Don't bother arranging an envoy. Go there yourself, as a vassal, to meet the monarch and receive his direct instructions and conferment.

"You don't have to worry about safety. Now, vassal monarchs like you who have taken the initiative to surrender are safer in the Ming mainland than in your own vassal states.

"If the Ming Dynasty wanted to annex Persia, they would not resort to any schemes against you personally, but would definitely send out their heavenly troops to attack directly."

Fatah was stunned for a moment, and immediately realized that what Ma Weiguo said was true.

The significance of the existence of a vassal monarch like myself is to prove the Ming Emperor's conquest and rule over the world.

Fatah bowed again with a trembling voice:

"Thank you, sir. I will prepare it right away. Please help me apply for the treasure from the Honglu Temple of the Daming Dynasty and contact us in advance to arrange the itinerary."

Ma Weiguo bowed slightly this time:
"Don't worry, my king. This is all part of our job."

The Persian King Fatah decided to surrender completely, and the Ming Dynasty's world hegemony was added to its map.

The scope of the new world order led by the Ming Dynasty has expanded further.

The main forces of the Ming Dynasty in Russia and the Ottoman Empire, with the cooperation of vassal forces composed of various vassal states and tribes, occupied and took over the remaining local institutions of the two countries.

The lives of these two countries have truly entered the countdown stage.

…………

In mainland China, at the Beiyuan New Palace in Shuntian Prefecture in the capital, the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianxuan received a report sent back from the front line.

Yang Yuchun did not hide what he had done, so naturally, it was soon exposed to Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan was a little angry after reading it, not because of the fact that Yang Yuchun beat the Russian Tsar and stole his wife.

It was because Yang Yuchun's motives and purposes for doing these things were what Zhu Jianxuan did not want to see.

Zhu Jianxuan himself actually wanted to give Russian Tsar Alexander a beating.

In Zhu Jianxuan's opinion, Alexander was really as Yang Yuchun said to his face, incompetent and arrogant, cruel and stupid, and at the same time timid and cowardly.

After angering the Ming Dynasty, he knew how to escape, running all the way from St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg.

If the Ming Dynasty did not have an army in the East, and had simply relied on Napoleon and the European army to chase him from the west, he might have run all the way to the Pacific Ocean or even America.

Zhu Jianxuan just wanted to suggest that this guy should just change his name to Alexander Paopao.

It was not a big deal that Yang Yuchun slept with the Tsar’s wife. Europeans didn’t care much about such things. Russia was a European country, not a traditional dynasty of China.

This incident is different from the incident in which Lan Yu robbed the empress of the Yuan Dynasty.

But Yang Yuchun did these things openly without any concealment. According to the traditional experience of the Shenzhou officialdom, he was engaging in the so-called "self-pollution."

He did not want his own official position and title to rise to the top immediately, and wanted to keep them at the second-highest level.

This is to prevent the emperor from worrying about not having enough titles to be given, so he simply stopped him from continuing to participate in combat missions.

He was also worried that as his reputation and achievements increased, his prestige in the military system would become too high, causing the emperor to suspect that he would control the army and threaten the imperial power.

Therefore, self-debasement is also a deliberate way to destroy one's own reputation and prevent middle and lower-level officers and soldiers from admiring oneself too much.

Emperors of traditional feudal dynasties might be happy to see this kind of thing.

In ancient times, many powerful generals would often deliberately commit crimes of varying degrees of severity after having made outstanding contributions in battle.

The emperor would usually be very tacit and would only give a public reprimand on the surface, reduce some of the official ranks and rewards, but would not actually punish him.

This unspoken rule has existed for a long time during the Song and Ming dynasties.

But Zhu Jianxuan, the emperor of the new era, was disgusted by such unspoken rules from the bottom of his heart.

In Zhu Jianxuan's view, the generals' self-desecration was not for the emperor's sake at all, but rather showed that they were not absolutely obedient to the emperor.

Zhu Jianxuan arranged a way out for the generals. After they reached the highest level of titles and positions, they would directly enter the Privy Council to serve as Privy Councilors.

The Privy Councilor is the most noble identity label in the military system, responsible for assisting the emperor in formulating military development plans and strategic assessments for the Ming Dynasty and even the world.

The supreme commander of the Ming Dynasty’s army must be the emperor, and the Privy Councilor is the emperor’s staff officer, and is also responsible for issuing and confirming military orders.

However, unless the emperor personally leads the army, they will no longer have direct military achievements in the future, and naturally they will not be promoted again.

The key point is that unless the emperor makes special arrangements, the Privy Councilors will no longer have the opportunity to directly command operations.

Yang Yuchun is now defaming himself, as if he was openly telling the emperor that he still wanted to continue commanding battles and did not want to go directly into the Privy Council to retire.

At the same time, the army was having affairs with the wives of the monarchs of the occupied territories openly and without any concealment.

If this spreads from top to bottom, military discipline will begin to weaken.

How could Zhu Jianxuan be happy?
The emperors of previous dynasties were able to cooperate with those corrupt generals not because they did not understand this logic, but because they did not have enough control over the army.

It can only make the meritorious generals lower their own prestige.

In order to maintain control over the army, they are willing to do so at the expense of reducing military discipline and organization.

On the other hand, if the emperor's prestige in the army was infinitely high, then the generals would not need to deliberately defile themselves.

If a general dared to "defile himself", the emperor would punish him for his lack of obedience to the emperor in the name of his public crime.

The Ming Dynasty's current military management system, as well as the army's technology and equipment systems, were all built by Zhu Jianxuan himself.

Officers in important military-related institutions were all promoted and trained by Zhu Jianxuan, and officers at the middle and grassroots levels grew up listening to the stories and legends of Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan personally led the Northern Expedition to destroy the Qing Dynasty and organized and arranged a series of wars of conquest around the world.

In terms of military achievements alone, he far surpassed all the kings in history.

But Zhu Jianxuan was not a typical "emperor on horseback", he was a true living "sage king" at a higher level.

Zhu Jianxuan not only had a high authority in the military system, but also had an unparalleled prestige in the world. A simple ordinary general, even if he was supported by middle and lower-level officers and soldiers, could not make officers and soldiers follow him to oppose Emperor Tiangong.

Therefore, Zhu Jianxuan had no particular concerns about how he dealt with Yang Yuchun.

After reading the causes and consequences of the report, Zhu Jianxuan directly drafted an order to the Privy Council and the Military Law Department.

Let the Privy Council and the Military Court send people to Yekaterinburg to directly remove Yang Yuchun from his post as Governor-General of the Central Asian Theater and arrange for another general to take over.

At the same time, investigate Yang Yuchun's crimes. If they are only those mentioned in the report, he will be punished on the spot and transferred back to his home country.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, if Alexander's wife and Yang Yuchun were willing, it would be adultery.

Adultery between two people who fall in love with each other is also called "hejian".

According to the Ming Dynasty law, men and women were to be caned 80 times each. If the woman was married, both parties were to be caned 90 times each.

If a man uses various means to coax and induce a woman to commit adultery with him, it is called "cunning adultery" and both parties will be beaten with 100 sticks.

The specific method is to take off the pants and spank the person in public.

If the executioner was given special arrangements, the most basic eighty strokes of the cane were usually enough to kill someone directly.

Zhu Jianxuan would not specifically arrange for someone to beat Yang Yuchun to death, but this punishment was not too severe for him, and it might be exactly the result he wanted.

The crime of adultery resulted in public spanking, which affected one's reputation and at the same time, one might not be promoted and might not be allowed to enter the Privy Council.

If Zhu Jianxuan was simply dealt with as an adulterer, perhaps other generals would take this as a reference and learn from him.

Zhu Jianxuan's goal is to prevent similar behavior from happening again.

So after the beating, Yang Yuchun was transferred back and thrown directly into the Privy Council to retire.

You don't want to join the Privy Council, don't you want to continue commanding the battle at the front? Then I will force you to join.

See if other people dare to do similar things in the future.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's order, the personnel arranged by the Privy Council and the Military Law Department had to first take a train to the central region of the Kazakh Khanate, and then go to Yekaterinburg by land.

Or you can take a train to Tannu Uriankhai, then take a boat along the Ob River to get close to the Ural Mountains, and then take a land route to Yekaterinburg.

No matter which road you take, it will take at least a month.

Before that, Yang Yuchun would continue to perform the duties of governor, and other matters would continue to be communicated via telegram.

By the time they finish dealing with Yang Yuchun and return to Shuntian Prefecture, it might be winter.

So after Zhu Jianxuan arranged Yang Yuchun's affairs, he put them aside for the time being and continued to deal with daily government affairs.

At present, the most important thing for the Ming Dynasty is still the reports related to the war. Zhu Jianxuan once specifically asked the Ministry of Public Administration to put the reports related to the war at the forefront.

Zhu Jianxuan looked at the reports from all sides and knew that the outcome of the war was decided.

Even the remaining officials and intellectuals of Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Shun Kingdom suddenly came to their senses.

Following the only correct direction, we began to transform modern political officers, establish truly modern grassroots military organizations, and develop tactics of national resistance.

It was too late in terms of time, as the literacy rates of these three countries were not enough to accomplish this task.

These three countries are about to disappear from this world.

The Ottoman Empire will not survive this year, the situation in Russia will end next year at the latest, and the Shun Kingdom may survive for another three years, but India's slowness is actually a good thing.

The fewer Indians are ultimately accepted, the simpler the subsequent management will be.

The whole world is crawling at his feet, and an unprecedented new Eastern order and new system is about to be thoroughly established across the entire earth.

Every time Zhu Jianxuan thought of these things, a strong feeling of pride would surge in his heart.

Zhu Jianxuan's mentality gradually changed uncontrollably, and the mentality and consciousness of the ministers around Zhu Jianxuan were also changing.

Especially in the past two years, since the war between Ming Dynasty and Russia, Shun State and Ottoman Empire started in full swing.

The offensive on the front was unstoppable, and both the Ottomans and Russians were defeated.

In the minds of the world's intellectuals and officials, the last group of potential forces that had the opportunity to fight against the Ming Dynasty were proven to be no match for the Ming Dynasty.

The morning court session held on the first day of every ten days, which was equivalent to a regular meeting, and the irregular special meetings held before the emperor to discuss specific matters.

When discussing issues involving war and foreign affairs, ministers often couldn't help but express their feelings and compliment Zhu Jianxuan.

It is said that the current emperor’s achievements far surpass those of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor, far surpass those of all the holy emperors and wise rulers of all dynasties in China, and far surpass those of all the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past, there were some ministers who were more reserved, or more conservative and steady, and were unwilling to brag too early.

But when the news of the capture and surrender of the Russian Tsar was made public, almost all court ministers believed that the world would soon be unified.

At the first morning court session after the news was made public, the Minister of Rites stood up and suggested that the emperor should be given a higher title.

It may even be necessary to upgrade and create a new title that is more supreme than the emperor.

Just like Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms and surpassed the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in achievements, so he was renamed the Emperor, Zhu Jianxuan should also be given a more honorable title that surpasses the Emperor.

Zhu Jianxuan rationally judged that he should not encourage such arrogance and emotions.

Be humble and calm, and don't be proud or complacent.

But at the same time, I also feel that my achievements have indeed far surpassed those of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor, so why can't I change the framework and system?
The flattery from the courtiers was basically sincere, rather than empty flattery of the traditional emperor, and they themselves were also in this unprecedented era of reform.

For a moment, Zhu Jianxuan actually began to consider what kind of title he should change to.

But once you start thinking in this way, you will soon discover that most of the potentially noble and lofty titles have actually been used by monarchs of all generations.

Li Zhi and Wu Zetian came up with honorific titles and the titles of Emperor and Empress, and the Japanese also learned from them.

Later, the posthumous titles of emperors became longer and longer, with all kinds of good words forced into a long string, resulting in data overflow and losing their meaning.

For later generations, those posthumous titles of more than ten or even twenty characters have become something that is "too long to read".

Some emperors who had special preferences, such as Song Huizong and Jiajing, also had some honorific titles and addresses with personal characteristics.

Maybe they like it very much, but in the eyes of other people and future generations, those things are just weird.

Zhu Jianxuan really couldn't think of any unique, unconventional and noble words at the moment.

(End of this chapter)