Chapter 161: Granting Chen Guorui the surname Zhu
Most of the civil and military officials in the court did not know Chen Guorui's true identity.
Those who knew Chen Guorui's true identity were Zhu Yuanzhang's old friends, most of whom were still fighting outside.
For those who don’t know Chen Guorui’s true identity, hearing the three words “Chen Guorui” feels unexpected but reasonable.
They had quarreled over the Chen family's affairs before, which shows how great the Chen family's contribution was to the Ming Dynasty.
Chang Yuchun established military farms to stabilize the rear, Li Shanchang was in the middle to coordinate, and the Chen family was indispensable in both military farms and coordination.
"Emperor Zhu in public, Chen Guorui in secret." Although they all knew that this song was about someone trying to persecute the Chen family, to be honest, this song was actually not too wrong.
Now even the firearms battalion, shipyard, weapons workshop, etc. are in the hands of the Chen family. If the Chen family is not the "emperor" in secret, what is it?
Of course, this does not prove that Chen Guorui had any rebellious intentions, but rather that Chen Guorui was too loyal to Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang trusted Chen Guorui too much.
If Chen Guorui were standing in the court now, they would definitely not dare to criticize the Chen family in this way.
But the Ming Dynasty had been established and Zhu Yuanzhang had become emperor, but Chen Guorui was still hiding behind the scenes and had not even obtained an official position. This made some people start to test him.
Now, Zhu Yuanzhang slapped them hard.
Chen Guorui was the first of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty. He was given the surname of the country and was named King of Yan. He was the only hero to be named king.
Zhu Yuanzhang also said that because Chen Guorui declined, the title of King of Yan was inherited by Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son Zhu Wenzhen.
As for Chen Biao...
"Zhu Guorui said that with Biao'er's ability, it would be easy for him to earn himself a title of king." Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly, "From now on, the Chen family is the Zhu family, and the matter of taking away the Chen family's property must not be mentioned again."
All the civil and military officials in the court shouted "Long live the emperor!", and those who had impeached Chen Guorui broke out in a cold sweat.
Those who don't know Chen Guorui... those who are now called Zhu Guorui, all think that Zhu Guorui is worthy of the title of the first meritorious official of the Ming Dynasty. Those who know Zhu Guorui's identity...
Zhu Yuanzhang, whose courtesy name was Guorui, was originally named Chongba.
Your Majesty! My Lord! Do you have any shame?!
Yeah, you personally got involved in grabbing the credit from your subordinates, doesn't your conscience hurt?!
What do you want us to say? The Ming Emperor has the first merit in founding the Ming Dynasty. Is there a problem with that? Who dares to say there is a problem?
Xu Da felt numb all over and really wanted to perform a show for Zhu Yuanzhang, where he would roll his eyes and kick his legs, and faint from anger on the spot.
But he didn't dare to faint.
He had to keep a straight face and agree with Zhu Yuanzhang, saying, "Zhu Guorui is worthy of the title and is definitely the greatest meritorious official."
What else? Let people outside spread the rumor that I, Xu Da, am unhappy with only being ranked fourth and that I am at odds with Zhu Guorui?
I……
The more Xu Da thought about it, the angrier he became, and he couldn't hold back the smile on his face.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Xu Da's expression and was very happy.
He just liked to see Xu Da so angry that he was jumping up and down, and there was nothing he could do about it.
After Zhu Yuanzhang finalized the list of meritorious officials, he deliberately left Li Shanchang and Xu Da to discuss the subsequent distribution of titles.
Zhu Yuanzhang himself decided the titles of the first few meritorious officials, and the titles of the subsequent series of meritorious officials had to be discussed by the left prime minister and the right prime minister.
As soon as Xu Da followed Zhu Yuanzhang into the imperial study, he started cursing: "Boss! Are you deliberately trying to piss me off?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously, "I said I only want to solve the Chen family's problem once and for all. Do you believe me?"
Xu Da said, "Since you call yourself 'I', I know you are guilty."
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed so hard that his teeth were exposed.
Xu Da was so angry that he clenched his fists.
Zhu Yuanzhang said happily: "I am the emperor now, and you still dare to attack me? Come on, let's go to the training ground and practice!"
Li Shanchang was trying to break up the fight with a headache: "Alright, alright, you two can fight again later. Your Majesty, why did you suddenly want to give Chen Guorui the surname of the emperor?"
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "I'm just worried that Biao'er's official position is too low now, and someone might show off in front of him. Liu'er is five years old this year, and he should start his education next year and appear in public. Now that Biao'er has been given the imperial surname, regardless of his true identity, he is still his elder brother, so he still has to pay his respects to Biao'er."
The sixth son mentioned by Zhu Yuanzhang was his only illegitimate son, born in the 24th year of Zhizheng (1364).
According to history, when the sixth prince Zhu Zhen, born to Concubine Hu Chong, was born, Zhu Yuanzhang's army had just conquered Wuchang. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that Zhu Zhen was a blessed man and directly granted him the land of Chu.
In this time and space, when Zhu Zhen, who has yet to be named, was born, Wuchang had already been captured by Zhu Yuanzhang. So he was just an ordinary bastard.
Zhu Yuanzhang always considered Chen Biao's actions, and when his concubines' sons were taught, they would definitely regard Chen Biao as their teacher. Even if they didn't know that Chen Biao was the crown prince, they had to treat Chen Biao with the same respect as their teachers.
But even so, Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried that if some ruffians were deceived by the people around them and insisted on putting on airs in front of Chen Biao, given his son Biao's cautious nature, he might just go along with it.
How can this be possible?!
"It just so happens that I agreed to confer the title of King of Yan on Wen Zheng. The identity of an adopted son is not enough to qualify him. In addition, I will give Zhu Guorui the surname of the emperor and regard Zhu Guorui's family as members of the royal family of my Zhu family. Then he will be qualified." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.
Zhu Yuanzhang was truly kind to his only nephew. Even though Zhu Wenzheng was always poking at his feelings, he still remembered to confer the title of king on Zhu Wenzheng in advance.
In short, naming Chen Guorui the title of Koxinga and ranking him first among the meritorious officials achieved multiple goals at one stroke.
Zhu Yuanzhang emphasized, "But I came up with this idea originally just to prevent Xu Da, a shameless man, from being among the top three heroes. But after I came up with this idea and thought about it carefully, hey, this will achieve multiple goals at once! Prince Chong, you must record this in the official records."
Because Ye Chen was begged by Hu Dahai to be his partner, Wang Xi, who not only had to serve as an official in the Secretariat but also as a historian of the daily records, clenched his brush and said helplessly, "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that future generations will laugh at you?"
Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "It would be nice to leave some jokes for future generations, so that they won't have to wonder who I am every day."
Wang Xi nearly broke his brush. Hmmmm, who was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty? I'm so erudite and talented, I can't even think of a way to describe him!
Let future generations judge...
Although Xu Da was very angry, he was not particularly angry after he calmed down.
Zhu Yuanzhang made "Chen Guorui" the first meritorious official just because he was joking with him, and left this joke in the history books, which proved that Zhu Yuanzhang was still the same "Chen Guorui", and he could continue to get along with Zhu Yuanzhang as before.
The trust and closeness that Zhu Yuanzhang conveyed through this joke was much more powerful than any of the top three meritorious officials.
Xu Da scratched his head and said, "Your Majesty, in future operas, I think we'll both play clowns."
Zhu Yuanzhang was delighted and said, "If they can even use us in operas, then the Ming Dynasty will probably be gone. Let them do whatever they want."
Li Shanchang coughed hard, signaling the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty not to say nonsense about the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Under Li Shanchang's dying gaze, Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Da, the two unruly monarchs and ministers, finally stopped joking and seriously discussed with Li Shanchang the matter of conferring titles on the meritorious officials.
…
When Chen Biao, who was far away in Beiping, received the order from Emperor Hongwu that he would soon visit Beiping and turn Beiping into Beijing, he also received the news that his name would be changed from Chen Biao to Zhu Biao.
Chen Biao’s first reaction was that the name Zhu Biao was not nice.
This must be because the surname "Zhu" is not easy to come up with a name.
His second reaction was, "My brother Zheng has become the Prince of Yan. So what will Emperor Yongle be in the future?! Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, is gone?!"
As for Chen Guorui being the first meritorious official and being granted the surname of the emperor, the Chen family's property remained the same from then on, except that the surname was directly changed from "Chen Family" to become the property of the royal family and clan. Chen Biao was surprised but felt it was natural.
My Chen family has devoted all their efforts to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, earning every penny to cover the military expenses and infrastructure costs of the Ming Dynasty. Even if Uncle Li and Uncle Xu were in front of me, I would dare to say with confidence that my Chen family deserves to be the number one hero!
At most, whether the first meritorious person is my father Chen Guorui or me, Chen Biao, needs further consideration.
But Chen Biao also knew that he was still young and the credit would have to be swallowed up by his shameless father.
As for his father not wanting to be crowned king and giving the title to Brother Zheng, Chen Biao was relieved that his father was smart for once.
The Chen family is a big family that attracts attention. Although their achievements are not so great that they surpass their master (whose achievements can compare with those of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty?!), it is better for them to keep a low profile.
This title of king must be obtained. Only by obtaining it can we shut up those who are eyeing the Chen family.
Transferring the title of king to Zhengge not only avoided the embarrassment of Emperor Hongwu conferring titles on two members of the Chen family, but also made it more legitimate for Zhengge, the adopted son of Emperor Hongwu, to become a vassal king.
Chen Biao sighed: "Old ginger is still spicy, Dad's trick is really amazing!"
Zhu Wenzhen: "Oh, okay." If Biao'er hadn't been here, his eyes would have been hurt by rolling his eyes.
Emperor Fourth Uncle, are you sick?!
Li Wenzhong was excited: "At least I have the title of Duke, right?"
Chen Ying sighed. He had done the least, so he had to work harder.
Chen Biao said, "I'm still a little worried. You all have titles. Doesn't my Chen family have too many people with titles?"
Li Wenzhong laughed and said, "First of all, my last name is Li. How can I attribute the title to the Chen family? Also, Aying is both the Chen family's adopted son and the emperor's adopted son, so his status is also exceptional. Strictly speaking, the Chen family hasn't gotten anything yet. Look, neither you nor your uncle have any titles."
Chen Ying said, "We are no longer the Chen family, but the Zhu family. It is normal for us to have more titles. I think godfather declined the title of king from adoptive father, so adoptive father should compensate you with a higher title."
Li Wenzhong asked, "Can our Biao'er also become a Duke?"
Chen Ying said: "Duke is too high , it may be Earl."
Chen Biao nodded and said with satisfaction: "That's not bad, at least I don't need to greet most people."
Zhu Wenzheng held Chen Biao's shoulders, pressing him so hard that Chen Biao kept glaring at him. "Biao'er, why are you so calm? I thought you would cry and scream that the Chen family's achievements were too great and they were doomed, and that you were going to flee to sea for your lives."
Li Wenzhong couldn't help laughing: "Yeah, Biao'er, why aren't you crying?"
Chen Ying punched the two brothers and said, "Shut up, Biao'er, don't listen to their nonsense."
Chen Biao glanced at the two of them and said, "I've come to defend Peking. Can this contribution be erased just like that? Besides, with the Emperor's achievements, who can surpass him? But Dad used to say that as long as Uncle Li and Uncle Xu weren't beheaded, my Chen family would be fine. Now Uncle Li and Uncle Xu have to wait and see if our Chen family will be beheaded, and then find a way out."
Chen Biao touched his neck and said sadly: "Oh, now I am not Chen Biao, I am Zhu Biao."
I feel so uncomfortable after suddenly changing my surname.
The surname Zhu really doesn't sound very nice.
Chen Biao said again: "The name Zhu Biao always feels weird and unpleasant."
Zhu Wenzheng: "Indeed. You should change your name to Zhu Wenbiao."
Chen Biao was moved.
During the Battle of Hongdu, he had already discovered that the Chen family's contributions were a bit scary, so he wanted to be Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son and change his name to Zhu Wenbiao.
Zhu Wenbiao's name is indeed better than Zhu Biao.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't mess around." Li Wenzhong laughed so hard that he fell forward and backward. "I don't mind, but be careful or your uncle will beat you to death."
Chen Ying held his forehead with his hand. "Wen Zheng, can you please stop being so suicidal? Are you feeling uncomfortable if you don't get whipped for a day? How about I whip you right now?"
Zhu Wenzheng snorted coldly: "It was Biaoer himself who said that Zhu Biao's name was not nice."
After playing and fighting, the brothers had a good meal to celebrate in advance that Zhu Wenzhen had become the "King of Yan".
Chang Yuchun rushed back from his farming village to attend the celebration.
Later, Zhu Wenzhen became the first vassal king to guard the border of the Ming Dynasty. Chang Yuchun was a smooth-talking person, so naturally he would have a good relationship with Zhu Wenzhen.
However, the main reason why Chang Yuchun came back was to celebrate the Chen family being given the national surname, and Chen Biao changed his name to Zhu Biao.
He thought that when the emperor called Biao'er "Zhu Biao" in the future, he would definitely want to cry.
He wants to cry now.
Chang Yuchun really counted the time when he reached the rank of the crown by counting on his fingers.
He really can't stand his lord anymore.
Chang Yuchun believed that even if he had made achievements in military farming, he should not be ranked higher than Xu Da in the list of meritorious officials.
Xu Da was not just a marshal. Every time he conquered a place, he was able to appease the local people. He was very good at both fighting and pacifying the people.
Xu Da also standardized the military discipline of the Ming Dynasty and was almost the backbone of the Ming army.
Li Shanchang ranked before Xu Da. In addition to the fact that Li Shanchang had higher qualifications than Xu Da, he also had the function of appeasing the civil officials.
After all, there are too few civil officials among the founding heroes, and even the achievements of a few literati in eastern Zhejiang cannot even be ranked as dukes.
But I really shouldn't be ranked before Xu Da! How can I get along with the emperor's fellow countrymen who implicitly named Xu Da the chief general of Haozhou?
What made Chang Yuchun even more
Zhu Yuanzhang also said frankly that in terms of achievements, Chang Yuchun and Xu Da were equally matched; but in terms of seniority, Xu Da should be before Chang Yuchun.
But he didn't want Xu Da to be in the top three, so he resorted to this bad idea to let Chang Yuchun not worry. Xu Da himself knew about this and would not hold a grudge.
When Chang Yuchun received the letter, he was completely confused.
He covered his chest and asked himself again, why did he defect to Zhu Yuanzhang in the first place?
Is there something wrong with this lord, this emperor?
I really hope Biaoer can become the crown prince or emperor soon.
Chang Yuchun was very worried that before Biao'er could kick Zhu Yuanzhang off the throne, he would be angered to death by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Whether it is recorded in history books as "died of depression" or "died suddenly for no reason", it is not a good ending.
Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang issued another decree to include "Zhu Guorui" in the royal family genealogy and make him a branch of the royal family.
Chen Biao and Chen family's adopted son Chen Ying both officially changed their surnames.
(Hereinafter, they will also be referred to as Zhu Biao and Zhu Ying.)
Zhu Biao changed his surname, so Chen Chong, Chen Tan, Chen Gou'er and Chen Mao'er naturally followed suit.
As it happened, Gou'er and Mao'er were now nine years old, eight years old, and it was time for them to start school. They didn't have any official names yet, so Zhu Biao gave them some courtesy names.
Since Gou'er and Mao'er had already been given names, Zhu Biao could not favor his second and third brothers over the others, so he simply gave his own name as well.
Zhu Biao himself was also a bit of a name snob. His brothers all had characters with the character "木" (wood) on the side, and since water gives birth to wood, they all chose the character "泽" (water). According to their order of birth, Zhu Biao's courtesy name was Boze, Zhu Chong's was Zhongze, Zhu Gang's was Shuze, Gou'er's was Jize, and Mao'er's was Youze.
The five brothers, Bo, Zhong, Shu, Ji and You, are all brothers no matter their names or their characters.
After Zhu Biao was given a name, his younger brothers did not think that their eldest brother's name was inappropriate at all. They were so happy that they couldn't sleep because they had the same "name" as their eldest brother.
Especially the dog and cat, their bastard dad can't come up with a good name, so Big Brother is better! They don't want to go to school with the names of dog and cat!
Zhu Wenzheng laughed and said, "What's the big deal? Wenzhong was called Baoer until he was fifteen, and he didn't seem embarrassed at all... Ouch? Li Wenzhong! How dare you kick me!"
Li Wenzhong asked, "Why not?"
Zhu Wenzheng proudly put his hands on his hips and said, "I am the King of Yan now! How dare you kick your own king's ass! You are a traitor!"
Li Wenzhong sneered, "My king? My king only has one adoptive father. How dare you act like a prince in front of me, even though we're both adopted sons?"
Zhu Wenzheng was very proud: "How dare you! I am the Prince of Yan! Kneel down before His Majesty the Prince of Yan!"
Li Wenzhong rolled up his sleeves and started beating him.
Zhu Biao was too lazy to pay attention to his silly cousin who had been saying "I am the King of Yan" every day and jumping around in front of Zhongge and Yingge since he became the King of Yan.
Beiping was about to become Beijing, and his work had added a task to supervise the renovation of the Dadu Palace into the Daming Palace. He had no time to accompany Zheng Ge.
Zhu Wenzhen now wants to go to the grassland to have fun every few days. Zhu Biao calculates the cost of going to the grassland and ties Zhu Wenzhen tightly in Beiping City, not allowing him to go out.
Zhu Wenzhen listened to Zhu Biao's words very much and never went out. However, he didn't want to waste his extra energy dealing with troublesome official business, so he found various ways to harass Li Wenzhong and Chen Ying.
Zhu Biao shed tears and felt very sorry for his brothers Zhong and Ying.
In order to prevent his stupid cousin from harassing him, he had no choice but to sacrifice Brother Zhong and Brother Ying.
When the emperor comes, Zhu Biao will ask the emperor for more support, or let Zhengge go to the grassland to have fun.
Zhu Wenzheng was a majestic wolf king when he went to the grasslands, but he turned into a disgusting sledding fool when he returned to Peking. Zhu Biao couldn't understand why Zhu Wenzheng, who was obviously his cousin, had such a big difference in personality.
Zhu Chong complained: "Brother, don't you think my cousin looks a lot like my father?"
Zhu Biao: “…”
He clutched his head and groaned, "Ah, I don't want to think about this! What do you think Dad is thinking? He doesn't even want to serve as an official in the court, but insists on continuing to be the leader of the Shadow Guards. What kind of Shadow Guards are we still needing now? Is he sick? He's not serving as an official in the court, and we're guarding outside. We don't have any information from the court, and there's no one to speak for us!"
Officials outside the capital must have an "inside" in the court, otherwise they will easily be betrayed in the future.
This is something that there are countless examples of in history books!
Zhu Biao's biological father Zhu Guorui actually said that he was impatient to stay in Yingtian, so he became a "shadow guard" and "censor" to help the emperor tour the world as an imperial envoy for private visits.
Zhu Biao almost couldn't breathe.
Zhu Chong snorted coldly: "He just can't sit still and wants to run around."
Zhu Biao held his head and turned it around. "I'm so angry! I'm so angry! If I didn't have to take care of my brothers, I would run away too!"
Zhu Chong also knew that the biggest reason why his eldest brother stayed in Peking to serve as an official, besides being responsible for the people of Peking, was that he had to take care of his younger brothers.
So Zhu Chong disliked his father even more.
However, Zhu Chong would not show too much hostility towards his biological father in front of Zhu Biao, because he knew that his elder brother really loved his father.
Sure enough, after Zhu Biao complained, he made excuses for Comrade Chen Guorui, who had changed his name to Zhu Guorui, saying that it didn't matter if he was not in the court, as this would make him less conspicuous and make the emperor trust him more.
Zhu Biao said, "Forget it. I'm here. Dad and Mom, while they're still healthy, can go out for walks as much as they want. Don't be lonely, my dear. Dad and Mom said they'll be able to spend at least three or four months a year with us in Peking."
Zhu Chong: “Yeah.”
I'm lonely as hell.
It's good that Mom is back, but Dad shouldn't come back. If he comes back, he will just check my homework and martial arts every day, and then use all kinds of bullshit to beat me up.
