Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 355: A Lot of Princes
Limited by the communication technology of the time, Zhu Youdong, who had just completed the coronation ceremony, certainly did not know what was happening in Europe at the time. Even if he knew, he could only wave his hand and sigh that the inertia of history was really strong. There was nothing else he could do.
In fact, he has been busy like crazy these days.
After the coronation ceremony on the ninth day, the Ministry of Public Administration quickly followed his wishes and issued several imperial edicts.
The first one, of course, was to honor Zhu Yijun as the Grand Emperor. This title was truly the first in history. After all, the only family that had experienced a grandson ascending the throne while the grandfather was still alive was the Gao family of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and that time the family's title was the Supreme Emperor. Therefore, the title of Grand Emperor was truly the first in history.
Then, naturally, he honored the former Queen Wang Xijie of Wanli as the Grand Empress Dowager. The former Concubine Zheng was honored as the Grand Concubine Dowager. His biological mother Guo was honored as the Empress Dowager.
As for his biological father Zhu Changluo who had passed away many years ago, he was posthumously honored as Emperor Xiaozhen - of course, after all, he had never actually been an emperor, so there was only a posthumous title but no temple name.
Next, he appointed his grandson's wife, Liu, as the empress and selected his concubine, You, as the imperial concubine.
Then came his brothers and sisters. Zhu Youxiao was named King of Lai, with his fief in Denglai. Zhu You (Muxue) was named King of Jian, Zhu Youji was named King of Qi, Zhu Youmo was named King of Huai, and Zhu Youjian was named King of Xin. As for the last two sons of Zhu Changluo in this historical dimension, because Zhu Changluo in this dimension died too early, they had not yet been born.
Among Zhu Changluo's daughters, six survived in this plane. Zhu Youdong canonized all of them as princesses.
After arranging the relatives at home, there were also major changes in the personnel of the inner court.
First, Zhu Yijun moved out of the Qianqing Palace and moved to the Xiyuan with Wang Xijie, Zheng Xiuer and other concubines. Zhu Youdong's biological mother Guo moved into the Cining Palace, while Zhu Youdong moved into the Qianqing Palace. Then Zhu Youdong's brothers and sisters were all underage, but Ciqing Palace was the legal Eastern Palace after all. So Zhu Youdong asked them to move into Xinghua Palace.
In addition to the replacement of the palace masters, the twenty-four departments of the inner court also underwent minor adjustments.
Li En, the former eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, followed Zhu Yijun to the Western Garden. After repeated consideration, Zhu Youdong appointed Cao Huachun as the new eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department.
Then he removed Wei Zhongxian from the Imperial Household Department and appointed him as the Chief Secretary of the Imperial Household Department and the Supervisor of the Eastern Depot.
Wang Chengen, the eunuch guarding Nanjing, was called back to serve as the eunuch of the Internal Affairs Bureau, while Liu Shimin continued to serve as the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Bureau.
After the four most powerful departments of the inner court were arranged, some eunuchs who had followed Zhu Youdong since the Honghezhuang era were promoted to varying degrees and began to gradually take control of other supervisors, offices, and bureaus.
As for Fang Zhenghua, Zhu Youdong was very good at using him, so he just promoted his rank, but his position remained unchanged.
This is what it means when a new emperor appoints new ministers.
However, although the inner court had undergone great changes, the outer court had basically remained stable. After all, this cabinet was set up after Zhu Youdong became the regent, and it had become very easy to use. Even if adjustments were to be made, they would be made after the war against Japan and Siam was over.
Although there are many things to do, fortunately, since Zhu Yijun made it clear that he wanted to abdicate, the above personnel changes have been planned and arranged in full swing. Therefore, these are just the relevant procedures to be fulfilled after the coronation ceremony.
However, the first thing Zhu Youdong did after ascending the throne was to deal with the issue of Zhu's royal family.
On May 10, 1618, the day after his coronation ceremony, Zhu Youdong convened a meeting of all the princes of the Ming Dynasty.
According to the etiquette set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the sons of the emperor who did not inherit the throne were all princes, and the sons of the princes who did not inherit the princeship were all county princes. The princes and county princes were hereditary from generation to generation, and the titles were not reduced. Starting from the sons of the county princes (who did not inherit the county princeship), the title was gradually reduced every generation until it was reduced to the lieutenant of Fengguo, and then it would not be reduced any more - no matter how many sons the lieutenant of Fengguo had, they were all still lieutenants of Fengguo.
Zhu Yuanzhang conferred 27 princes at one time, and these 27 princes gave rise to hundreds of county princes. Starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, more than ten generations of Ming emperors conferred more than 30 princes, and these princes gave rise to more county princes...
Of course, some princes died without heirs, and some were stripped of their titles. This was even more the case with the county princes. In short, when Zhu Youdong ascended the throne, there were 28 princes in the Ming Dynasty (excluding the four newly-appointed princes such as Zhu Youxiao), and 903 county princes...
When Zhu Youdong conducted a population census a few years ago, the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was not a restricted area. Therefore, Zhu Youdong also had a data: by now, the Y chromosome that originated from Zhu had replicated 253,000 times.
So many people could not pass the imperial examination to become officials, nor could they engage in business. It can be said that at this time, except for the princes, even the county princes lived a tight life. As for generals, lieutenants, etc., they were generally poor and destitute.
If the problem of the royal family is not solved, there will be huge hidden dangers. First of all, it is politically incorrect: the Ming Dynasty also advocated filial piety. As an emperor, you can't even take care of your own relatives, so what qualifications do you have to ask the people to be filial? If you don't talk about filial piety, where does loyalty come from? Moreover, in Zhu Youdong's view, there are so many descendants of the Zhu family, who have been idle for so many years, and there are certainly many wastes. But in the plane of history, there are also outstanding descendants of the Zhu family. Such people really shouldn't be kept in captivity as parasites.
Therefore, the first thing the new emperor did when he ascended the throne was to deal with the issue of the royal family. Of course, there were too many royal families in the Ming Dynasty at the moment, and it was impossible to gather them all together. So, he just called the princes together to discuss.
The meeting was held in Xinghua Palace.
After taking over the Qianqing Palace from Wanli, Zhu Youdong spent a day carefully looking around. Afterwards, the time traveler came to the conclusion that the palace lacked meeting rooms, various meeting rooms that could accommodate different numbers of people and keep secrets.
But time is tight now, and it is too late to renovate. So, let's use Xinghua Palace first. Then, the 28 princes poured into Xinghua Palace for the first time.
These princes hardly know each other on weekdays, so it is a rare occasion for them to get together. They call each other "Your Highness" and "Your Highness" and a bunch of them greet each other, making it quite lively.
"The Emperor has arrived~"
"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you. Long live the Emperor..."
"Hahaha, no need to formalize. Today is a family gathering. We are discussing family matters, so we don't need those monarch-subject formalities. Well, counting from Taizu, I am Taizu's eleventh-generation descendant. If we really talk about seniority, almost everyone present today is my elder. So, I should greet you first."
"I dare not."
Are you kidding me? When the new emperor was the grandson of the emperor, he was very ruthless and aggressive. If you piss him off, he will really exterminate your three clans! Not to mention that at the coronation ceremony two days ago, the immortal sent a dragon to directly bestow the imperial seal and the snake-slaying sword - the emperor's prestige is now higher than that of the emperor back then!
Therefore, let's not talk about seniority. Whoever is really stupid enough to pretend to be an elder in front of the emperor. Well, please go ahead. We will not accompany you.
Unfortunately, there were really no fools among these princes. So, when Zhu Youdong deliberately lowered his posture and tried to get closer to them, no one responded to him after he made some good-natured moves.
"Ahem, elders, please take a seat. I invited you all here today mainly to talk to you about the future treatment of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty."
After these words were spoken, the kings present could no longer remain calm, and for a moment, the entire venue became a little noisy.
Fang Zhenghua, who was beside Zhu Youdong, was about to scold him, but when he saw Zhu Youdong shaking his head, he quickly sat down.
After more than 20 princes grumbled among themselves, someone finally looked up and saw Zhu Youdong with a smile on his face. Then everyone realized: "Oh , I have lost my manners in front of the king." So everyone bowed and apologized again.
After struggling for a long time, Zhu Youdong spoke again: "I know that my Zhu family has grown to hundreds of thousands of males. The national finances have long been overwhelmed, so since the Hongzhi period, Emperor Xiaozong has clearly issued an order to limit the number of princesses and concubines of the princes, in fact, to control the expansion of the royal family population. Since the Zhengde period, it has become a normal practice for the court to default on royal family salaries. Nowadays, many of the so-called lieutenants of the state live worse than beggars. Even the princes, because you have many relatives at home, your life is a bit tight."
With a long sigh, Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "After I ascend the throne, the first thing I will do is to find a long-term way for the descendants of the Zhu family to live a stable life!"
