Chongzhen Chat Group

After the train completed another circle, Emperor Chongzhen did not let the servants get off the train and leave. Instead, he said to his courtiers in the car: "I put this train in the imperial garden for my beloved concubine." It is for our travels. However, you should all be able to see that once we build this train between cities and prosperous places in the Ming Dynasty, if the power of this steam engine is large enough, how many people can be pulled at one time? From one place to another? If it is replaced by goods, how many can go from one place to another? Think about it, how does this compare with today's transportation? "

Having said so much in one breath, it was not over yet. Looking at these civil servants in deep thought, Emperor Chongzhen continued to add: "And this train has another advantage, that is, it can travel day and night without delay. How about it?"

These senior officials of the Ming Dynasty are not fools. Emperor Chongzhen has explained the advantages of the train so clearly. They can naturally know from it how much change it will bring to the Ming Dynasty!

At this time, I heard the emperor ask how? They all replied sincerely and respectfully: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but laugh when he saw them like this. He also has a sense of accomplishment. After tinkering for so long, he has finally tinkered with something that will be hundreds of years in the future. As for the shortcomings of trains, of course there are a lot of them, but these are not important. As Wen Tiren said, if there are problems, just overcome them.

Thinking like this, he looked at Wen Tiren and said with a smile in his eyes: "Wen Qing was right what he just said on the road. As long as steam carriages continue to improve, one day they will be able to bring about earth-shaking changes to the Ming Dynasty... …”

Hearing what he said, Wen Tiren's face turned red for the first time. The emperor had indeed heard it. If he said it in public like this, would he be praising himself or harming himself?

There was no response from Isothermal Tiren, and Emperor Chongzhen continued: "In the future, the steam engine will be improved, or simply, a new power will appear that can replace the steam engine to drive the carriage forward. It does not have these shortcomings of the steam engine, and the cost is not high. , then the current horse-drawn carriages will inevitably be eliminated. At that time, the streets will be full of new horse-drawn carriages..."

When he said this, Emperor Chongzhen silently added the word "car!" in his heart.

Then, his voice rose a lot, and he no longer smiled, but said seriously: "...I said when I was in Yingtian Mansion, there is nothing impossible, only unimaginable! As long as I, Ming Dynasty, continue to promote science and technology Knowledge, I believe that the smart and talented people of Ming Dynasty will definitely make all the things we think of one day in the future!"

Taking this opportunity, Emperor Chongzhen once again instilled the importance of scientific and technological knowledge into his ministers! I have really done it. As long as I have the opportunity, I will continue to instill it. I can be regarded as a qualified salesman of scientific and technical knowledge!

"Your Majesty is wise!" Everyone responded in unison. The facts were all there, and it was impossible to say anything else.

After returning to the Wenhua Hall, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the courtiers below and said: "When I approved the road plan for the Road and Bridge Company before, I had already reserved a place for laying rail tracks. Therefore, this train matter was also assigned to the Daming Road and Bridge Company. …”

At this point, he suddenly felt that this statement seemed inappropriate, so he changed his words: "The train will be used as an asset and injected into the Daming Road and Bridge Company. Of course, this will require the issuance of additional shares. The specific matters will be left to Bi Qing and Liu Qing of the Road and Bridge Company later." After consultation, we will submit it to the Cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies for my review!"

This is all money! Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, happily went out to receive the order.

If these things are promoted by the state alone, to be honest, the cost will be very high, and it will also involve many things, such as corruption. It is better to operate under the control of the court and under your own supervision and use commercial means, which is the easiest and lowest cost promotion method.

After Bi Ziyan returned to the queue, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the ministers below and brought the topic back to the beginning, which had been somewhat forgotten by them: "The grassland cannot be independent of the pass, including Tianshan, Mobei, or Guihua City Wait, we must establish a close connection with the pass, and transportation is the top priority. The train's transportation capacity is very large, and it can become a good link between the grassland and the pass. Therefore, I decided that those of the Khalkha tribe Prisoners, after building the city on the Tianshan Mountains, they will be used to build roads! No matter how long it takes or how many generations it takes, these roads must be built!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Wen Tiren and others listened and echoed together.

At the same time, they also lamented in their hearts that the same thing invented by the Emperor is actually closely related to the current or future situation! I don’t know how many good things there are in the emperor’s mind?

At this point, this court meeting is finally over. However, although the other ministers retreated, Wen Tiren, the chief minister, and Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, were left behind.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the two of them and said: "Those clans have already arrived in the capital, and I have been waiting for them for a long time. Now that the grassland war is over, I should be able to meet them! What do you think?"

Hearing this, Wen Tiren first smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, you have been avoiding me. The door of my house is almost crowded with the vassal king's people! If you don't summon them, I will not dare to go back!"

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help laughing when he heard this. The factory guard had already reported this situation to him. Those vassal kings were so anxious that they not only sought connections with the chief minister to inquire about the situation, but even sent gifts to the eunuch, the eunuch responsible for the ceremony, to inquire about the situation. However, Cao Huachun was a good man and reported the matter to himself.

"Your Majesty, they have indeed been waiting impatiently!" Cao Huachun also said respectfully.

Emperor Chongzhen nodded when he heard this. He himself felt that the heat had come, so he ordered that in two days, a global spoils distribution conference would be held. No, it would be a global conference for the distribution of the spoils of the Ming vassal kings!

In the Ming Dynasty, there were a total of 65 actual vassal kings and 22 posthumous vassal kings. By the time of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the vassal kings were removed from the vassal due to various reasons, such as the death of the vassal heirs, or the vassal king was deposed or removed due to some affairs. There were still vassals in total. There are thirty-four kings; in addition, except for the eldest son who inherits the hereditary position of the vassal king, the sons of the vassal king will all be granted the title of county king, and this is also hereditary. There were a total of 924 princes in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, in this clan meeting, only the feudal lord is qualified to participate. Otherwise, there would probably be no room left in the Wenhua Hall.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty were entrusted to various regions and had military power. They were similar to the vassal kings from the Western Han Dynasty. They were equivalent to leading a country on their own, but they were a country within a country.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, he was not afraid of his sons' rebellion, it didn't matter. But when his grandson Emperor Jianwen ascended the throne, he became afraid. Because most of those uncles and vassals followed his grandfather to conquer the world. It is not an exaggeration to say that he has enough troops and food, but he himself only succeeded to the throne according to the legal system and could not suppress those uncles at all.

There is also the example of the Seven Feuds Rebellion in the Western Han Dynasty. Officials of the Ming Dynasty also supported the elimination of vassals, so they cut off the emperor Chengzu, but Emperor Jianwen himself lost the throne and his whereabouts are unknown;

After Zhu Di came to power, he became rude to other vassal kings. It was also for this reason that the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty was finally formed as follows: enfeoffment but not land, nobility but not the people, and food and salary but not governance. It is also commonly known as pig raising in confinement. There is no shortage of glory and wealth, but he can only stay in his own palace, and it is difficult to even go out to worship his ancestors.

In the Ming Dynasty's vassal system, during the reign of Ming Shenzong, due to the excessive proliferation of clans, the annual salary was reduced and inheritance was restricted. There have been some restrictions on titles at various levels, such as vassal kings, county princes, generals, etc., but generally speaking, the big system has remained unchanged. The clan issue is still one of the biggest problems in the Ming Dynasty!

Finally, during the Chongzhen Dynasty, the vassal system underwent fundamental changes.

At the beginning, the Tang king granted Dongwu a title, and all the Tang kings moved to the new Tang kingdom. From then on, he had military and political power and became the true feudal king again. As for the Ming Dynasty itself, from now on, the court did not have to pay the salaries of the Tang kings, and the Tang kings were responsible for their own profits and losses. Moreover, the Tang King's domestic fiefs, etc., no longer belong to the Tang King after the auction, which is equivalent to packing up all the Tang King's domestic rights and obligations and throwing them away to Dongwu.

For the Ming Dynasty vassal king, this was of course risky. First, to entrust foreign affairs to foreign countries, we must first defeat them, right? What if we run out of money and can’t win?

However, Emperor Chongzhen took care of this issue for at least the first three vassal kings, guaranteeing that they would be able to retain the vassal. If the vassal king did not have enough money, the court could subsidize it, and the vassal king's future income could be mortgaged.

Secondly, when a vassal king is granted an overseas title, it is a place where no one can poop, at least not as wealthy as the Ming Dynasty. This situation is not happy for some vassal kings.

However, judging from the examples of the previous three vassal kings, Emperor Chongzhen allowed the vassal king to take away as many people as he could from the Ming Dynasty on the premise that the people were voluntary, including civil servants and military generals. As long as they were willing to go with the vassal king, they would be allowed to go. Not only that, it would also vigorously support the construction of the vassal state, provide it with planning, mortgage loans, encourage domestic merchants to go to the vassal state to exchange supplies, and even send troops to garrison in some more dangerous places, such as places adjacent to neighboring countries or near the sea. The place is governed by the imperial court to resist risks.

Judging from the current situation, Emperor Chongzhen attaches great importance to the feudal overseas affairs of the vassal kings, is very supportive, and has shown great sincerity. It is precisely for this reason that the feudal princes who have nothing to do every day and can only stay in their own prince's palace are excited.

Even if there are some individuals who are still willing to eat and wait to die, the clan of his lineage is not willing to do so. In the Ming Dynasty clan, not only the vassal kings were imprisoned, but other county princes, generals of Zhenguo, Fuguo and Fengguo, as well as lieutenants of Zhenguo, Fuguo and Fengguo were not allowed to participate in the four people's industries (that is, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce). In this way, for the prince and the general, they might be able to live a comfortable life, but for those lieutenants, it would be miserable.

The clan has too many people, and it is not enough to use all the year's taxes to pay for the clan's salary. Therefore, the court simply finds various excuses to default on the arrears, and even refuses to register you as a Jade Butterfly or recognize you as a clan member, and they cannot participate. Scholars, farmers, industry and merchants, etc., have no source of income, so they are miserable. Some of them live worse than beggars.

Especially for Lieutenant Fengguo, according to imperial law, all sons of Lieutenant Fengguo are granted the title of Lieutenant Fengguo. That is, all the sons of Lieutenant Fengguo are hereditary Lieutenant Fengguo, regardless of the eldest son or the remaining son. This Lieutenant Fengguo is the most numerous and the most common. It’s so hard.

Although during the Jiajing period, the policies for them were somewhat relaxed, and they could participate in scholars, farmers, industry and commerce under certain conditions, their foundation was too poor and it was difficult to compete with others, so their lives were still very difficult.

So, when they heard that the imperial clan policy had undergone huge changes and that they could go to the vassal state, they naturally no longer had to live such a hard life. They could at least become minor officials, right? No matter how bad it is, you can still engage in a legitimate career, right? Therefore, they are the most supportive of the imperial court's latest feudal overseas policy.

If the vassal kings of their own lineage are not active in feudal affairs overseas, or even do not want to feudal overseas, they will go to the feudal prince's palace to make trouble, cry, make trouble, and hang themselves. There are so many people, all of whom are feudal lords. The descendants of the dynasty can fill the feudal prince's palace.

Naturally, local officials in the Ming Dynasty intentionally condoned this situation. If your vassal doesn't want to feudal overseas, your life will be difficult!

As for those feudal kings who were more active in overseas feudalism, their clans were not idle either, and naturally began to actively prepare for overseas feudalism. Manpower, material resources, financial resources, etc., all began to be planned. In places where many vassal princes' palaces are located, they spontaneously go to win over fellow villagers and seduce them to go to the vassal state together.

It was against this background that the first large-scale vassal clan meeting of the Ming Dynasty was held in the Wenhua Hall of the Forbidden City in the capital.

What everyone didn't expect was that King Tang, King Fu, and King Yi were also present.

Of these three vassal kings, King Tang has been a vassal for about two years, King Fu has just been a vassal for a few months, and King Yi has not even gone to his own fiefdom of Luzon yet; the three of them represent the vassal kings respectively. With three states and three mentality, he is a good consulting object for the other unenfessed feudal kings.

Therefore, in this vassal clan meeting, Emperor Chongzhen did not make a long speech, Wen Tiren and Cao Huachun were just spectators, and the protagonists became King Tang, King Fu and King Yi. The three of them will each talk about their experiences of overseas vassals, and then other vassal kings can ask these three vassal kings any questions they have.

It can be said that this vassal clan meeting was very lively.

At the beginning, the vassal kings from various places were still restrained, but later, the three vassal kings were surrounded by other vassal kings. Every word you said to me, one mouth had to deal with at least ten mouths, and three The feudal king was in pain and happiness.

If it wasn't for the overseas feud, how could it have been so popular!

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen had explained in advance that the three vassal kings would naturally not say anything bad about the vassal under the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen. Otherwise, Emperor Chongzhen would have many ways to make his vassal wear small shoes every minute. .