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"Zhu Yuanzhang, the peasant emperor who conquered the country as a poor man, told us that the last word is to truly hold power in one's own hands."

"Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang implemented an unprecedented policy, that is to dismiss the prime minister and make the imperial power monopoly."

Looking at history, we can know that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, especially the emperors in the middle and late stages, were generally evaluated as lazy.

Some hide in the palace all their lives and rarely go to court, and their hobbies are extremely wide.

It's like people who sit in the office all day but don't work. There are several people who play tricks in their hobbies.

For example, those who can fight on horseback (Ming Wuzong).

Those who can make alchemy and practice Taoism (Ming Shizong).

Those who can appraise jewelry (Ming Muzong).

Able to do carpentry work (Ming Xizong).

So much so that many later historians are heartbroken when they say this, which shows that some emperors of the dynasty did have the wrong birth, and if they change industries, they will definitely be a model.

It is hard to say whether to be a pacesetter in another industry.

It is true that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty knew how to play, but there were also many who played for a lifetime but could still ensure the stability of the country.

More importantly, even if these emperors played with cramps, they still held onto the power firmly.

Just for this point, these fun-loving guys will actually become emperors.

However, when it comes to laziness, if Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang knew about it, I don’t know what he would think.

In fact, several emperors in the early Ming Dynasty were always busy.

This is because Zhu Yuanzhang designed an unprecedented autocratic monarchy system for the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he first abolished the thousand-year-old prime minister system.

And he asked the six departments to be directly responsible to the emperor himself.According to Zhu Yuanzhang's own words, the emperor should not only sit in the court, but also manage the government.

According to the experience and lessons of the previous dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang's group of eunuchs who were in charge of the wind and rain in the Han and Tang dynasties also suffered a sharp decline in the Ming Dynasty.

We know that the eunuch organization in the Ming Dynasty was very complex, and the departments constrained each other. At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang still erected iron plaques at the palace gates, strictly prohibiting eunuchs from intervening in politics.

The hidden dangers of the separatist rule of local feudal towns during the Tang and Song Dynasties were also cut off by Zhu Yuanzhang.

He divided the local administrative power into three.

There are political envoys to handle civil affairs, inspectors to deal with justice, and command envoys to deal with military warfare. This is the local "three divisions" system with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.

The three divisions do not belong to each other and are directly responsible to the emperor himself.

And the issue of military power, which is most likely to directly cause rebellion, was sharply reduced by Zhu Yuanzhang's clever head.

We know that the army of the Ming Dynasty implemented the guard system.

That is to say, the state allocates land to the army to farm, and the army grows the land to support themselves. It does not cost the state money and food, and the state can firmly control the soldiers' jobs by controlling the land.

At the same time, in terms of the command of soldiers, the Ministry of War has the power to appoint officers and mobilize the army, but it does not have direct jurisdiction over the army.

However, the military authority of the Ming Dynasty, the Dudufu of the Five Armies, had jurisdiction over the army, but it did not have the power of personnel and dispatch.

In this way, the two sides restrain each other, and no one can independently control the army, but can only be honestly responsible to the emperor.

With the cancellation of the prime minister system, it is impossible for the former prime minister to bully the emperor.

With the establishment of the three-division system, it is impossible for the previous dynasty to separate the regime or even separate from the central government.

It is also impossible for eunuchs to intervene in politics, and it is also impossible for eunuchs in the previous dynasty to monopolize power or even manipulate the emperor to abolish the establishment.

And dismembered the army.It made it even more impossible for the powerful ministers of the former dynasty to rebel against the central government.

In this way, all possible real power departments and powers were dismantled by Zhu Yuanzhang again and again, and the entire bureaucratic system constrained each other.

No one can dominate, all officials with real power can only be honestly responsible to the emperor, no one can go beyond the emperor to act on their own, and no one can threaten the old Zhu's family.

But only after becoming an emperor will he realize that the life of monopolizing power is actually not easy.

The previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty, especially Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, and Zhu Di, the Yongle emperor, were all workaholics.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's own words in "Ming Shilu", he would get up before dawn every day, and would not return to the palace until the sun was westward.

And even when he was sleeping, he often suffered from insomnia.

When I often think about state affairs, I wake up suddenly, put on my clothes and get up, write down the state affairs that need to be dealt with during the day, and implement them one by one after work.

Even when I was eating, I suddenly remembered something, and I found a note to write it down, and then stuck it on my clothes.

Quite often, when Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the ministers, the ministers would be surprised to find that his clothes were covered with various notes, all of which were state affairs.

"Ming Shilu" once made such statistics: Zhu Yuanzhang once handled [-] various memorials in eight consecutive days.

He carefully reviewed each memorial, and also summarized the main content.

From the [-] memorials, a total of [-] things were extracted and summarized.

The format of the memorials of the Ming Dynasty, if a memorial is to be a separate chapter, it must have at least a thousand words.

In other words, in eight days, Zhu Yuanzhang read at least 160 million words in total, and on average, he said less than 20 words a day.

This is a serious scrutiny word by word, and come up with a solution to the problem. The intensity of the work is like a college entrance examination today.

Every day, you have to do reading comprehension questions with a total length of up to 20 words, and you must ensure that there are no mistakes in each question, and all answer sheets must be 100% correct.

What's more, if the examinee did the wrong question, the most serious consequence would be to deduct a few points. If Zhu Yuanzhang made a mistake in the memorial, the consequences would be even more serious.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's own words, a single thought could delay the lives of thousands of dawn people, so he must carefully check every word in the words of officials.

The working method of Emperor Yongle Zhu Di has a clear timetable.

Get up at four o'clock every morning, after breakfast, before going to court, hurry up and go through the state affairs that are going to be dealt with that day in advance in your mind.

According to the records in the "Da Ming Hui Dian", the start time of the early Ming Dynasty is equivalent to five o'clock in the morning today.

Zhu Di, who got up early in the morning, had to deal with state affairs and review various memorials after the morning court was over. He reviewed the memorials every day, often until late at night, and often did not go to bed until early morning.

In this way, his sleep time per day is less than six hours.

Moreover, Zhu Di stipulated that once there is an urgent military matter, even if he is sleeping, he must be woken up immediately.

Such tossing also made Zhu Di feel the pain.

When Zhu Di went north to the Mongolian grassland for the last time, he hosted a banquet to entertain his ministers on the way. During the meeting, he said with emotion: Since I ascended the throne, I have been working hard every day, and I dare not slack off in the slightest.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang, the number one workaholic in the Ming Dynasty, actually had a deep understanding of this hard work.

An interesting story about Zhu Yuanzhang, who has many records in various historical materials, is that a minister named Ru Taisu gave him a memorial. The memorial wrote ten thousand characters, and he didn't get to the point until the fifth thousand characters.

The angry Zhu Yuanzhang ordered him to be beaten violently.Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang comforted Ru Taisu, and complained to him: You think I am willing to beat you. You can say things clearly in five hundred words, but if you have to write tens of thousands of words, is it easy for me to be the emperor?How can I bear to watch memorials like yours all day long!
When even Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't bear it, other emperors needless to say.

When Zhu Di was in power, "Wenyuan Pavilion" was established to assist the emperor in handling state affairs. The officials in Wenyuan Pavilion were five-rank bachelors. After that, the status of this new institution, which was originally established as the emperor's secretary, skyrocketed day by day. He became the actual "Prime Minister" of the Ming Dynasty.

With the establishment of the cabinet system in the Ming Dynasty, in order to strengthen the imperial power, starting from Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji of the Ming Dynasty, the power of the eunuchs was gradually strengthened, which created the phenomenon of "eunuch monopoly" in the Ming Dynasty that later generations talked about.

Since then, the cabinet power of civil servants, the power of eunuchs, and the imperial power above the two have become the iron triangle of the supreme emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

The autocratic system established by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early days also had new effects.

With the increasing maturity of the cabinet system and the supervisory system, the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty, which was originally decentralized, has since been better integrated.

This system, which could not be played without the imperial power, can be operated in an orderly manner under the control of the dual-track system of the chief inspector and the cabinet.

In this way, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was relieved. To come up with opinions on major national affairs, he no longer had to get up before dawn to approve memorials as in Zhu Yuanzhang's era. He only needed to instruct the cabinet to draft opinions.

To agree to the handling opinions, as long as the supervisor of ceremonies stamps the seal, that is, the so-called redemption.

As an emperor, you only need to listen to the report and nod, and the country can continue to operate normally.

Historical materials always talk about how many years a certain emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not go to the court, but the indisputable fact is that even an emperor who has not been to the court for decades can still effectively control the officials and achieve the goal of the court. Normal operation, its institutional root lies in this.