The Holy Emperor of Ming

Chapter 174 Summary of the Royal Family
"You don't have to worry too much. From ancient times to the present, apart from me, who has never made mistakes?

Taizong, Taizu, and my father are no exception."

"I want to tell the world frankly, and also tell future emperors and all Ming people.

My Ming Dynasty is upright and honest, and will not play with shameful things.

Anyone who has made contributions to the Ming Dynasty will be remembered by the Ming Dynasty.

And if you make a mistake, the Ming Dynasty will not show you any mercy and will remember it forever.

Including the Emperor."

The majestic voice, except for the sentence "Except me, who has not made mistakes?"

Although many civil and military officials in the court disagreed, they all felt a sense of grandeur.

And I couldn't help but feel excited about it.

It was as if a beam of hot light shone down, dispelling all the gloom and darkness.

“The Temple of Meritorious Officials must be built as soon as possible and it must be large enough. I will bring civil and military officials to worship every year.

Anyone is allowed to worship there on a daily basis.

Okay, that's it for now, let's adjourn."

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he didn't want to waste the officials' time.

They still have a lot of things to do.

Civil and military officials dispersed, and many were still whispering to each other.

As expected, every time Your Majesty convenes a court meeting, something big happens.

This time, the military academy was established, the nobles were demoted from generation to generation, there were five ranks of nobility, and a temple for meritorious officials was built.

One thing after another is bigger than the other.

Of course, the officials would not accept it so easily.

There are all kinds of opinions.

But it is still the same. No matter what, talk is just talk, and we still have to get busy with what we should do.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Rites were all preparing for the Temple of Meritorious Officials.

When the news came out, there was naturally another round of heated discussion.

Whether it is the military academy, the title system, or the temple for meritorious officials, they are all things that can easily arouse public opinion.

What's more, with these three things happening at the same time, the people in the capital will definitely have a lot to talk about during this period of time.

People from other places were also talking about it.

April 10th.

The military imperial examination began and was directly presided over by the Military Cabinet.

It is open to students from the entire Ming Dynasty. There is no resonance requirement, and anyone who is of appropriate age can participate.

So after three months, the number of people taking part in the military imperial examination reached more than 50,000.

The number of participants and the scale of the examination far exceeded those of the Spring Examination.

This is because the Ming Dynasty is too big and many students did not have time to reach the capital, and even more students were unwilling to develop in the army.

The Military Cabinet mobilized the army and was able to barely accommodate more than 50,000 people to take the exam at the same time.

The exam content was not difficult. It included the already popularized twenty-four military rules and regulations of the Ming army, some content on defending the country, as well as some current affairs and miscellaneous tasks.

Six days later, the assessment results came out.

Because there were too many people and the new army needed a large number of civilian staff, the originally planned 1,500 people were doubled to 3,000.

It is difficult to select 3,000 people from more than 50,000 candidates.

As soon as the three thousand people came out, they were arranged into the military camp and began a three-month recruit training.

That’s right, after Zhu Houzhao and Gu Xichao discussed it, they decided that although they would recruit civilians in the military, civilians in the military were also soldiers.

They must also be held to the same standards as soldiers.

New recruit training is essential, only in this way can these people be integrated into the army.

At the same time, during the three-month training of new recruits, they will be taught the content of civilian duties in the military.

After three months, the right person will be selected to become the instructor.

After another month of special training, these instructors can officially take up their posts.

By then, the nine new armies that the Ming Dynasty has formed or has yet to form will no longer lack instructors.

It is expected that at that time, the new army will accelerate its pace towards becoming an elite force.

Seeing that all aspects of the army were on the right track, Zhu Houzhao was delighted and would visit the First and Twelfth Armies in the capital from time to time.

By comparing the two, he discovered the advantages and disadvantages.

The First Army was established later. The first batch recruited 3,000 people and the second batch recruited 20,000 people. The First Army is not yet fully staffed.

Even the three-month training for the second batch of 20,000 recruits has just ended.

However, when it comes to some aspects of the two armies, such as military discipline, military atmosphere, and literacy rate, the First Army has a slight advantage.

The more he got to know Li Jing, the more he felt his excellence.

The new military system is there, both are the same.

Li Jing can do better. In strict comparison, Zhou Shanmin is much worse.

Zhu Houzhao saw all this, but he was not very dissatisfied with Zhou Shanmin, because he could also see that Zhou Shanmin really tried hard and did his best.

A person who works hard and tries his best will not ask for too much.

On April 26, the First Army recruited another 14,000 people to fill the remaining missing personnel and continue large-scale military training.

Zhu Houzhao was becoming more and more excited about Li Jing, but he didn't know what Li Jing could achieve in the future.
It was May 3rd.

Zhu Wusi came to the Qianqing Palace to report.

"Your Majesty, a thorough investigation of all clan disciples has been completed. This is the summary of the current situation." Zhu Wusi said with an undisguised fatigue between his brows.

"Uncle Thirteen, thank you for your hard work." Zhu Houzhao said sincerely.

He also knew how hard his uncle had worked over the past ten months.

More than 2,000 members of the royal family were thoroughly investigated, involving hundreds of thousands of people.

The interests involved are extremely huge. More importantly, they are all relatives, even brothers and sisters, and there are also many elders.

With so many eyes watching, it was really hard for Uncle Thirteen to withstand the pressure and kill a group of relatives and confiscate their property every month.

After all, Uncle Thirteen is not him. He has no scruples and thinks he is as hard as stone and doesn't recognize his relatives, but Uncle Thirteen is not like that.

"Your Majesty, your words are too serious. Serving the Ming Dynasty is my duty. The one who is really working hard is Your Majesty." Zhu Wusi said seriously.

"I'm not tired at all. It's nothing at all." Zhu Houzhao laughed and said nonchalantly.

When Zhu Wusi saw this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, and was even more impressed.

He understood Zhu Houzhao and knew that what he said was true.

I didn't feel any hardship at all.

In the past ten months since the thorough investigation of the royal family, he has felt like he was living a year in a day.

Every day I get all kinds of looks from a bunch of relatives.

He may not care about the affection between those relatives, but he cannot ignore other aspects.

He has a family and a lot to consider.

You can't even write two red characters with one stroke.

He knew very well that these relatives would be his greatest help.

Just because he was a member of the royal family and was just an executor, he felt such great pressure.

What’s more, it was Zhu Houzhao.

One big event after another came one after another.

Sometimes he wondered vaguely, if he were facing those things, would he be able to hold on?
There is no answer to this question.

Because he knew, let’s not talk about whether it can be sustained?
If he were sitting in that position, he wouldn't be so troublesome and wouldn't be able to cause so much trouble.

The Ming Dynasty may still be peaceful, with only a few minor disturbances at most.

That was why he felt admiration in his heart.

This is also one of the most important reasons that has supported him to remain impartial until now.

The two chatted from time to time while Zhu Houzhao read the summary.

As soon as he looked at it, he snorted coldly and became angry.

After an investigation, it was found that there were more than 2,000 members of the royal family who had occupied about 26 million mu of land by various means.

About 40 million taels of real gold and silver were seized.

The amount of silver was relatively small, as most of the royal family members were not beheaded, and it was certainly impossible to confiscate all of the silver.

In terms of industry, it is worth about 200 million yuan, which is relatively speaking far less than the fields.

It also shows the greed of the kings of the Ming Dynasty for land.

The King of Shu, who was directly killed by Zhu Houzhao, occupied more than 4 million acres of land with his family. It was simply insane.

In terms of real estate, it is worth about 60 million taels of silver.

In addition to these riches, thirteen people in the innate realm were captured in the confiscated palace.

For example, Prince Ning, because of a Ji Le Tower, Zhu Houzhao ordered his entire family to be searched and two people in the innate realm were captured.

In the end, more and more things were found out, such as planning a rebellion.

More than 30,000 innocent slaves were released by Zhu Houzhao, all of whom were registered as civilians and given silver or land, becoming citizens of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to these, there are the remaining people after the liquidation of the royal family.

This time, the prince was killed along with thirteen others.

Thirty-one princes were killed, and 201 members of the royal family below them were killed.

One tenth of the people were beheaded.

The royal family members who were killed were terrified for nearly a year.

The reason they have been so obedient in the past year is not only because they were unable to resist, but also because Zhu Houzhao was too cruel.

I really scared them to death.

In addition to those who were killed, more than 200 people were imprisoned.

In this situation, for the sake of safety, they no longer hid their abilities, and those who had them showed them off.

Facts have proved that the Zhu family still has many talented people.

In last year's autumn examination and the two imperial examinations that just concluded, dozens of people passed the imperial examinations and five people passed the imperial examinations.

Sixteen people passed the military examination.

In addition, there are those who are good at medicine, good at business, good at eloquence, talented in martial arts, and so on.

This was the only thing that made Zhu Houzhao feel gratified.

There are still some talented people in the Zhu family.

As for those dirty things, Zhu Houzhao got angry when he saw them.

After the investigation and demotion, there is only one prince left among the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, and that is Prince Ding Zhu Wusi.

Among the twelve princes, four were Zhu Houzhao's uncles.

They have been kings for a short time and have not done much evil.

The other eight princes were all originally princes, and were considered rare good men among the princes.

There are twenty-one generals guarding the country.

There are thirty-six generals assisting the country.

There are fifty-eight generals serving the country.

There are seventy-nine lieutenants guarding the country.

There are 336 lieutenants serving as auxiliary officials.

There are 580 lieutenants in Fengguo.

Including the commoners who had been deposed before, there were still one thousand and sixteen commoners.

These are the royal families of the Ming Dynasty in the open. Zhu Ye and others in the secret lineage are not counted. The list of royal families in the secret lineage is only in the hands of Zhu Houzhao.

(Chapter 1.)
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(End of this chapter)