Chapter 123 Brother Zheng, Don’t Lead the State
Zhu Yuanzhang ran to the Imperial Garden with great interest to look around, but then his interest waned and he said, "This Imperial Garden is not beautiful. It's not even as beautiful as our garden at home. What's so beautiful about these sparse grasses?"
Chen Biao served Zhu Yuanzhang a plate of shaved mutton noodles, with more mutton slices than noodles, and added a large spoonful of bean sprouts to top the mutton. He said, "The imperial garden must not have tall or dense vegetation, rivers, or deep or large ponds to prevent assassination."
Zhu Yuanzhang held the big bowl, frowned and ate all the bean sprouts, then said, "That makes sense."
Chen Biao laughed. "What's the point? The palace is mostly bare stone slabs. Apart from a few sparse gardens, there's almost no greenery. But emperors of all dynasties spent most of the year away from the palace, living in temporary palaces and other courtyards."
Chen Biao explained to Zhu Yuanzhang how emperors could soak in hot springs in winter and escape the heat in summer. Even in the capital, many royal gardens were built besides the imperial palace.
The royal garden is lush and verdant with trees, and has fresh water flowing into lakes, creating a beautiful and magnificent scenery.
So the rule that prohibits planting large trees in the palace to prevent assassination is actually meaningless. When the emperor lives in other places, planting trees and digging lakes will not worry about assassination?
Chen Biao helped Zhu Wenzhen, who had not yet arrived, put the noodles into ice water to cool them down to prevent them from becoming greasy and clumping together.
When Zhu Wenzhen arrives, scoop up the noodles, pour hot soup over them and eat.
As he divided the mutton among Zhu Wenzheng, so that his father and brothers wouldn't eat it all and leave nothing for his brother, he said, "Nowadays, there can't be too many tall trees in the palace. This is just a rule for the sake of following the rules of past emperors. It has no practical significance."
Zhu Yuanzhang muttered, "What a hassle."
Chen Biao sighed, "After becoming emperor, my lord, you will encounter many rules like these that don't make any sense, but previous emperors all did so, so you have to do the same. Given my lord's personality, you will probably have some arguments with the ministers. Dad, this is the first confrontation between the emperor and his ministers in the court, so you must not get involved. You will get into trouble no matter which side you choose."
Zhu Yuanzhang picked up a piece of mutton and put it in his mouth. As he ate, he said, "I know."
Zhu Wenzhen hurried over and saw that Chen Biao had already reserved mutton for him. He hugged Chen Biao's head and rubbed it, but was pushed away by Chen Biao in disgust.
After he ate his fill, he slumped down in his chair and asked, "Fourth Uncle, how long are you going to stay here?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Biao'er was sent by the lord to worship his ancestors. After returning, he will be appointed as the prefect of Beiping. I will wait for the lord to arrive before leaving."
"Ancestor worship?" Zhu Wenzheng reluctantly sat up. "Yes, it's time to worship our ancestors. Hahahaha, my lord will definitely make me a king this time!"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "Of course."
Zhu Wenzhen glanced at his two brothers proudly.
He knew that he was the only one who could be crowned king as a member of the royal family and found a kingdom. Even if these two could be crowned kings, they would have to wait until Biao'er succeeded to the throne.
However, given the caution of these two people, they are unlikely to agree to be crowned kings.
"I don't know where my fiefdom is." Zhu Wenzhen rubbed his chin.
Chen Biao said with a stern face, "If the lord asks you to guard a region, then go. If he wants to give you a fiefdom, you must refuse!"
Zhu Wenzheng said: "Biao'er, don't worry, the lord will not be suspicious of me."
Chen Biao shook his head: "This is not a question of suspicion. After becoming emperor, the lord treated the country as his own family and re-established the feudal system. But his willfulness will only lead to his descendants..."
Chen Biao did not say the words "killing each other".
He sighed, "My Lord, you've read so many history books, and you only see the feudal system. Didn't you see that emperors who had feudal systems all reduced the power of their vassals? This country isn't a small family; how can it be divided up just because it can? The Han Dynasty implemented the feudal system because it had no experience in how to rule a unified dynasty, so it was crossing the river by feeling the stones."
Zhu Yuanzhang put down his hand that was patting his stomach and frowned, saying, "Biao'er, tell me in detail."
Chen Biao was puzzled: "I haven't told you before, Dad?"
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "No."
Chen Biao scratched his head and said, "That's right. The affairs of the princes have nothing to do with us. They are the emperor's business. I will skip the history books I told Dad."
Zhu Yuanzhang was helpless: "Biao'er, how could you skip... just keep talking."
Chen Biao nodded.
Before Qin Shi Huang, the world implemented a feudal system and there was no unified dynasty.
After the death of Qin II, the ministers had a heated discussion at the founding of the Han Dynasty on whether to implement the county system or the feudal system.
The end result was that the emperor ruled the core areas and divided the remote areas into fiefdoms.
They first granted fiefs to kings of different surnames, and then to princes . After the area was "governed well", they reduced the power of the feudal lords and brought the civilized people and areas under central management, gradually exploring the governance methods of a unified dynasty.
Later dynasties also adopted this approach, treating "vassal states" in the same way as the former vassal kings.
In this era, there was no convenient means of transportation and communication, making it very difficult for the central government to manage the local areas. For places that were difficult to manage, it was better to send people to serve as de facto "vassal kings". This would not only protect the central government, but also make it difficult to subvert the emperor's rule in places with inconvenient conditions.
But Zhu Yuanzhang foolishly sealed off the entire Central Plains.
Chen Biao frowned. "I don't understand why the Lord would come up with this idea. Didn't the people around him try to dissuade him?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said awkwardly, "I did advise you, but I didn't explain it so clearly. They can't tell you, my lord, that your son will rebel against the crown prince. Even if your son doesn't rebel, your grandsons and great-grandsons will kill each other sooner or later."
Chen Biao relaxed his brows and said, "That's true. I won't tell my lord either. I might lose my head."
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, "In the past, your subordinates would speak freely. Now that your position is getting higher and higher, their suggestions have become more and more obscure, and you may not even understand them."
Chen Biao shrugged. "That can't be helped. Serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. No one wants to die, and then drag their entire family down with them. Anyway, the matter of the vassal king can always be resolved. We can just deal with it when problems arise."
Zhu Yuanzhang said with a dark face: "Yes, yes, it can be solved anyway. The ones who kill each other are not their descendants anyway."
Chen Biao shrugged and spread his hands again, which made Zhu Yuanzhang so angry that he grabbed Chen Biao and continued to tickle him.
Zhu Wenzheng immediately snatched Chen Biao from Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, protected him behind him and said, "Fourth Uncle, why are you and Biaoer so angry? Isn't what Biaoer said right? The lord is stupid and doesn't understand other people's advice. Are you blaming Biaoer?"
Zhu Yuanzhang puffed his beard and glared: "What's your attitude! He is the lord, your adoptive father!"
Zhu Wenzheng spread his arms to protect our Biaoer: "So what!"
So what... So what... So what...
Not to mention Li Wenzhong and Chen Ying, even Ma Xiuying showed an expression that she couldn't bear to watch.
This straightforward guy is probably going to get beaten again today.
As expected, Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he pulled out the whip from his waist and was about to hit Zhu Wenzhen.
Chen Biao bent down and slipped out from under Zhu Wenzheng's arm. He hugged his arm, raised his chin, and said with an unhappy look, "Dad, what are you doing? Why, Brother Zheng is protecting me, and you still want to beat him up? Even if you are loyal to the lord, Brother Zheng just told the truth. How did he offend you? Fine, beat me up too."
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hands high, frozen in mid-air.
Zhu Wenzheng said sarcastically, "That's right. Do you still want Biao'er to persuade the Lord not to divide the fiefs, or be careful of your descendants killing each other? If that happens, the Lord will probably exile our entire family."
Chen Ying covered the lower half of her face with one hand to hide the twitching corner of her mouth, then turned her face to the side, not daring to look any further.
Wen Zheng, do you really enjoy being beaten? Even if Biao'er can protect you now, he will soon leave Dadu and return to Haozhou to worship his ancestors.
Li Wenzhong quickly grabbed Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "Uncle, uncle, don't be angry. Wenzheng is just that kind of person. Why are you angry?"
He leaned close to Zhu Yuanzhang's ear and whispered, "I'll deal with him later."
Zhu Yuanzhang put away the whip, glared at Zhu Wenzhen fiercely, and told Zhu Wenzhen with his eyes, you wait for it, kid!
Zhu Wenzhen smiled and put his arm around Chen Biao's shoulders, giving Zhu Yuanzhang a smug look.
He knew he would get beaten, but so what? He just couldn't stand the fact that Fourth Uncle was bullying Biao'er when it was clearly his own problem.
Ma Xiuying smiled at Zhu Wenzhen, and used her expression to tell Zhu Wenzhen not to be afraid, Biaoer is still there, and she will protect him!
"Hmph, the Lord only said to confer the title of King, but didn't say where. It might be in a remote place." Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, "Then we can issue the Enfeoffment Order in advance, right? Isn't that enough?"
Chen Biao said, "The lord's sons probably won't manage the vassal state properly, but will take advantage of their large territory to make money and indulge in pleasure."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Teach it well, there will be no problem."
Chen Biao gave his father a look that said "you idiot" and said, "If you teach them well, there will be no problem. Then there will be no tyrant rulers."
Zhu Yuanzhang: “…”
He started to have a headache.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "What do you think we should do, Biao'er?"
Chen Biao said, "I say? I say don't get involved, just let the lord do whatever he wants."
Zhu Yuanzhang said anxiously, "We can't do this. We can't just watch our lord fall into a trap. What if the world falls into chaos again?"
Chen Biao sighed, "I don't want to either. But this is how family rule works. There's no perfect solution."
He told his father several ways to place the prince.
Is it too much power to let the prince become a vassal? The prince and the future emperor will kill each other, causing the people to suffer and even destroying the country directly;
Letting the princes go to the feudal lords without giving them much power is like raising a bunch of useless people, making the people suffer, dragging down the national treasury, and it is a slow death;
Keep the prince in the capital and arrange a position? Even if a prince is appointed, it will be like raising a poisonous insect, causing the court to fight over the prince;
Leaving the prince in the capital? It would also be a bunch of useless people. If something happened to the prince, there would be no qualified successor.
In fact, the third point was the least damaging to the country. It allowed the princes to be put to work, and if something happened to the crown prince, an heir could be found immediately. Fights were confined to the court, under the emperor's control.
Well, the third point is that even if Chen Biao does not pay attention to history, he has heard of the "Nine Dragons Fighting for the Throne in the Kangxi Dynasty" countless times.
Therefore, later historians often praised the Qing Dynasty's method of raising princes, which indeed caused the least harm to the country and the people.
As for the princes who were voluntarily or forced to get involved in the fight for the throne, and who all had serious mental illnesses because of their father the emperor, they could only become victims of this "best method".
Nothing is perfect.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were dull and his head was buzzing. He suffered a great blow.
