"I heard that in the capital, the news of His Majesty summoning His Highness into the capital and reducing the number of soldiers by 100,000 has long been known." If this matter was true, it would be telling the world that His Majesty had no intention of cutting the vassals. At least, he would not cut the vassals at the moment.”
Zhu Di looked at Dao Yan and asked in a deep voice,""Master, what evidence do you have?"
Dao Yan said seriously," If Your Majesty uses the vassal kings to come to the capital to attend the funeral, forcibly detain them, and destroy the vassals, it will definitely make the people of the world tremble in fear. It will also make the generals of the frontier fortress worry. If you are not careful, it may cause a mutiny."”
"His Majesty dismissing the capital army is clearly not a sign of cutting off the vassals. If he wanted to cut down the vassal states, the core of it was to strengthen the backbone and weaken the branches. His Majesty has not yet weakened his branch, but he has weakened his branch first. It can be seen that he is aiming at the people's livelihood and not preparing to cut off his vassal state.”
"There has been no accurate news from the capital regarding the removal of the vassal. Although Qi Shangli and Huang Shi had repeatedly suggested, His Majesty was unmoved. It could be seen that His Majesty had yet to make up his mind.”
"Most importantly, there has been no warning from His Highness 'old subordinates in the capital, nor has there been any sign of the capital's army being mobilized.”
Dao Yan analyzed carefully.
Zhu Di nodded repeatedly, but he still asked worriedly,""If Your Majesty dares to defy the world and forcefully cut off the vassals, what should we do?”
The corner of Dao Yan's mouth twitched slightly as he said,""Your Highness, if you go to the capital to do something, you won't have to worry.”
"Oh? What's the matter?"
Zhu Di asked.
"Make a big fuss and advertise to the citizens and armies.”
Zhu Di was silent.
Daoyan's method was to bring the hearts of the people and the army to the capital. Once Zhu Di was trapped in the capital, it would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the people and the army of Beiping. At that time, Beiping would be completely chaotic.
This result was not something Zhu Yunwen could bear.
"If that's the case, this king will make a trip to the capital.”
Zhu Di made up his mind.
"Don't worry, Your Highness. If we enter the capital, it might be an opportunity." There were many people close to His Highness in the Five Armies Governor's Office. If he could make a few moves, he might be able to…make more preparations in the future.”
Zhu Di nodded calmly. After leaving Daoyan for lunch, he arranged for someone to escort Daoyan back to Qingshou Temple.
Zhu Di, who was walking in the King Yan's residence, looked at Ma He who was standing guard and said,""Make your preparations. In two days, follow this prince into the capital.”
"Yes, sir."
Ma He solemnly agreed.
The capital, Wuying Hall.
Zhu Yunwen summoned Wang Chui, who was waiting to be made by the Imperial Academy, and said,"The Imperial College is an important place for the talents of the Imperial Court. However, looking back at the time of Taizu, the Imperial College produced very few talents. I hope you can enter the Imperial College and serve as a doctor. From the students in the Imperial College, you can select those who are eloquent, sharp and knowledgeable to fill the court.”
"I will not fail you," replied Wang Gongchui.”
The Imperial College's Chancellor Cheng Huai and the Secretary Zhang Zhi welcomed Wang Gongchui's arrival. After settling down, they went about their own business.
Wang Gongchui was not a pedantic person. He knew clearly that the talents that His Majesty wanted were those who were eloquent, sharp, and knowledgeable. They were not just people with knowledge but no ability.
However, how could it be easy to find people who were smart, sharp, and knowledgeable?
Wang Gongchui thought about it for a while and finally made the arrangements. He went to Dianbao Hall to find a list of Imperial College students and investigated their past performance and assessments.
After the students of the Imperial College dropped out of school, they could be directly awarded official positions by the court. However, the life of the students was not easy.
According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial College students would take two days off every month. The rest of the time, they would either attend classes or study by themselves.
If he didn't know how to speak, he would recite and repeat.
In the two months, he spent about ten days memorizing, eight days repeating, and the rest of the time was self-study, checking his studies, participating in activities, and so on.
Compared to the quality education of later generations that did not require rote-memorization (after the exam-oriented reform), the directorate could be said to have brought rote-memorization to the extreme.
Every supervisor had to memorize the words and be familiar with the argumentation. Every few days, there would be a check-up. Every check-up, they had to recite 100 words of the Great Gao, 100 words of the scriptures, 100 words of the four books...
If he couldn't, he would be beaten ten times.
Don't get me wrong, these ten slaps weren't on the palm, but on the butt…
He couldn't even slack off.
For the directorate of the early Ming Dynasty, the students were still considered attentive.
However, many of the supervisors were orthodox Confucians.
Bookworm. Zhu Yunwen didn't want to care about how Wang Gongchui selected and verified talents in the Imperial College.
Since the establishment of the cabinet, Zhu Yunwen had finally been able to get away from countless memorials. Occasionally, he would discuss some things with the cabinet ministers and the six departments, but it seemed relaxed.
However, as Zhu Yunwen's understanding of the Ming Empire deepened, he felt uneasy.
The seemingly prosperous Ming Dynasty was actually an active volcano, and the root of the problem lay in land occupation and taxes.
Zhu Yuanzhang was cruel to his officials, but he treated his family and relatives very well.
Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that the descendants of the vassal kings should be provided for by the imperial court. In other words, these vassal kings and their descendants did not have to work. They just had to eat imperial food at home.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was a good person with good intentions. However, this rule of his was truly stupid. Other things were hard to say, but one thing was certain. Zhu Yuanzhang would definitely fail in Mathematics and Arithmetic.
Anyone who had come into contact with the " index " would not give such an order.
During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, there were only a few people and a few mouths to feed. Have you ever thought that after two hundred years, the descendants of your old Zhu family would have a population of two hundred thousand? Just raising these people would cost the imperial court millions of silver a year.
They even stipulated that their descendants didn't have to pay taxes. Fine, you didn't have to pay taxes, but at least you didn't have to occupy land. One by one, the princes occupied land like crazy. If they occupied land and didn't pay taxes on all the production, how would the country survive?
Zhu Yunwen remembered some statistics from later generations. The land of the princes in Henan during the Ming Dynasty directly occupied a fraction of the total cultivated land in Henan.
Well, it felt like a portion of the land was not the emperor's.
Let Zhu Yunwen say that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was closely related to the root of the disaster that Zhu Yuanzhang had buried.
He had to change everything!
He could only change during his own time and face less resistance.
But was it really small?
Zhu Yunwen could imagine that those uncles were likely to attack her on the grounds of " disrespecting the ancestral system ". These vassal kings would definitely counterattack for their own interests. Now, they were not fat pig princes, but wolves with heavy troops.
If he didn't cut off his vassals and take back his military power, he wouldn't be able to touch them even if he wanted to!
Zhu Yunwen sighed.
The emperor did not decide the world with a single word.
Zhu Yunwen put down the memorial and said to Jiang An,"Summon Xie Jin."
Not long after, Xie Jin entered the Hall of Martial Valor.
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