Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 395
The matter of suzerains and vassals is a persistent disease of Ming Dynasty, and it cannot be abolished at once. Otherwise, these suzerains and vassals will be dissatisfied with the court, and if they collude with some people with ulterior motives, they will definitely bring troubles to the court.

In the Ming Dynasty, since Taizu entrusted more than 20 sons as kings, each new emperor has crowned his sons and brothers as kings. However, these vassals have not yet descended, and they have been passed down from generation to generation. As the emperor, the feudal vassals surpassed the most in history.

As far as Henan is concerned, there are many vassal mansions. Those belonging to the great vassals include King Zhou of Kaifeng, King Tang of Nanyang, King Fu of Luoyang, King Weihuilu, King Zhao of Anyang, King Zheng of Huaiqing, King Chong of Runing, and King Hui of Yuzhou. Wang and others, Xiaofan two-word county kings, there were more than [-] in the Longqing period, and there were countless generals who ruled the country.

In the Ming Dynasty, Henan had nine prefectures, one prefecture, and more than a hundred counties. Almost every county could be assigned a prince. However, in the Ming Dynasty, the royal family’s salary was extremely generous. Excluding silk, tea and other things, just talking about lumi, The prince's yearly salary is ten thousand stones, the county king's yearly salary is two thousand stones, the town general's yearly salary is thousand stones, and the auxiliary country's generals are paid eight hundred stones.

Compared with the imperial clan, the imperial court’s official first-rank officials received only 87 shi of Lumi per month, or about 61 shi per year, and second-rank senior officials received 700 shi of Lumi per month, or more than [-] shi per year.

According to the records of Wang Shizhen, a minister of the Ming Dynasty, there were as many as 99 sons of a prince. Except for the eldest son who was hereditary to the throne, the remaining [-] were named generals of the country, which means that his family had more than ten children. There are six imperial courts.

At present, the number of clan vassals in the Ming Dynasty has reached more than 20 during the Chongzhen period. They were killed by the Qing court in large numbers, but there are still a large number of clan clans. As the court fled south, this group of people became a heavy burden for the court.

Although the imperial court has long been unable to pay the full amount of the vassal's salary, the basic livelihood of tens of thousands of vassals must be maintained, and most of the vassals are pampered people, so they must not be treated like refugees. At least ten soldiers can be raised.

Because of his own blood, Emperor Longwu did not dare to offend the vassals too much, and he was still relatively wooing the vassals, and this kind of wooing became a huge cancer in the Ming Dynasty's finances.

The law of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty is greater than the sky, but it is not impossible to change. The Taizu's legacy said, "The descendants of the descendants will be killed if they reply to the words to establish a prime minister." , It is strictly forbidden for eunuchs to read and write." As a result, Xuanzong began to encourage eunuchs to read and write, and eunuchs came out in large numbers in the Ming Dynasty.

There are good and bad changes in these changes, but the Central Plains Dynasty has never been a regime that completely imprisoned the mind. The method of reforming the vassal vassals proposed by Wang Yan is not a quick-acting method, not an immediate policy, but more like boiling frogs in warm water , more like the Tweet Order of the Han Dynasty, it will take decades to see results.

In fact, Wang Yan only proposed a preliminary reform of the suzerain vassal. He still had more strategies to get rid of the cancer of the court, but even if it was the strategy of demotion proposed now, Emperor Longwu did not dare to implement it lightly.

When it was getting dark in the evening, Wang Yan came out of the palace, and under the guard of the guards, he passed through the streets in the city, and the streets on both sides were still very lively.

The curfew in the Ming Dynasty, now it is getting dark, pedestrians on the street should go home, the market should be closed, but now it is not.

Poverty changes. At present, the imperial court is trying to find ways to obtain money. The curfew in Guangzhou was also suggested by Su Guansheng, which has promoted the prosperity of the city.

At this time, there were more than a thousand people on both sides of the street. They bought cloth and rice grains in the shops, watched the mountain products, mutton, and pork brought by the people outside the city, laughed, shouted, yelled, and bargained. Both sides of the market are extremely lively.

Wang Yan likes scenes full of life. Only when the people under his rule live and work in peace and contentment, it makes sense for him to lead the army to fight against the Qing soldiers.

At this time, there was a noise from the side of the market, and a rude man roared angrily, "Why are you still not satisfied when I give you a tael of silver? Isn't the imperial court collecting money? I give you silver, and I save you Go to the bank to exchange silver and pay taxes, I only have silver today, anyway, I will settle for your black goat." The people like to be lively, and many people heard the shouts and walked towards the noisy place, Wang Yan saw it from a distance, and frowned , He got off his horse and walked over.In a corner of the market, an old farmer was sitting on the ground, clinging tightly to a black sheep. A thick-faced, rough-looking man, while cursing the old farmer, pulled the rope on his body and pulled the goat. I got baa-baa.

That old farmer is no match for a strong man, holding the sheep tightly, he said to the crowd: "Fellow folks, my goat weighs more than a hundred catties, and it only costs [-] Wen, which is very cheap. This strong man It’s okay to lower the price, and I only give you a tael of silver. If I don’t sell him, I’ll buy it by force. Please judge me~”

The people around talked a lot, accusing the strong man of being too unkind and bullying the honest man, the man was accused by everyone, his face flushed, and he became angry with embarrassment: "Well, I will give you another hundred coins! If you want to sell it, I'm going to hit someone!"

Everyone booed after hearing the words, at this time a scholar couldn't help but came out and accused: "You guys, you are so unreasonable. Now money is expensive and silver is cheap, and one tael of silver can only be exchanged for seven hundred Wen, but you To be an envoy of one thousand Wen, isn't it necessary to send three hundred Wen to Baikeng?"

Seeing that there was a scholar in his early years, everyone suddenly became bolder, pointing at the strong man and hurling insults. "Bullying the elderly is shameless." "Bullying kindness, being discovered by others and not repenting, but forced to buy and sell, really embarrassing the ancestors."

"Isn't this just plain robbery?" Facing the condemnation of the people around him, the burly man's expression changed, and finally he became angry from embarrassment. He stared at the crowd viciously, and finally set his eyes on the scholar who stood up.

He saw that although the scholar was dressed as a literati, he was obviously rather downcast, and he felt courageous, and he threatened viciously: "Sour scholar, read your book well, don't meddle in your own business, don't think that if you have fame, I will be afraid." You, let me tell you, my sister is the magistrate's concubine, she offended me, and I beat you too."

Wang Yan stood outside and listened for a long time, and he basically understood. He was puzzled for a while, why did he meet Zhen Guanxi? He didn't want this farce to continue, so he winked at the soldiers, who immediately separated everyone, "Give way, let the government make a decision!" Only then did the people in the circle realize that Wang Yan had arrived behind them at some point, and they all ran away in fright. Some people who knew Wang Yan saw this, and immediately took the opportunity to shout: "That arrogant man, the Duke of Chu is here, do you still dare to play tricks?"

(Thanks to sowhatooo, gdrthg, little bookworm cc fan, manager, Zang Yibin, Xin's wild monthly pass, thanks to the descendants of Ziye Saburo, come to give me a smile, the reward of Yuedong Woxin, thank you Yuedong Woxin for the gift. )
(End of this chapter)