When Zhu Yunjiao wanted to cut the domain, someone once mentioned to him that he wanted to carry out the Han Dynasty's "Tui En Order". Gao Wei, minister of Jianwen, once said"
Now the master's intention is not to carry out the wrong plan of cutting, but to follow the Lord's father's strategy of pushing grace. ”
The meaning is not to imitate Chao's wrong force to cut the domain, but to imitate the "push grace order" of the main father. Of course, Gao Wei's strategy of cutting the clan was only ideologically consistent with the "Tui En Order", that is, to do the cutting of the clan on the principle of not causing civil strife in the country and not causing a large-scale rebellion by the king of the clan.
Schematic diagram of the Han Dynasty Tuien Order
As we all know, the kings of the Ming Dynasty are not the same as the princes of the Western Han Dynasty, and the kings of the Ming Dynasty are
"Divide the seals but not the tin soil, the lords do not come to the people, eat the lu but do not govern"
To put it simply, the ming dynasty's clan kings did not have a fief, and the local civil affairs clan kings had no right to interfere, nor did they have the power to collect taxes and control local government affairs. That is to say, the Han Dynasty's "Tui En Order" with the purpose of dividing up the territory of the sons and heirs of the princes was obviously not suitable for the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty's vassals did not have a fief at all.
Therefore, gao Wei's strategy of cutting down the domain is not "to divide the princely states into several princely states, so that the descendants of the princes and princes will share the fiefdoms in turn, and until the land is exhausted, those who have a large number of feudal lands and few descendants will first establish the country and then divide the fiefs after their descendants are born).
"The right-handers
That is, to divide the power that originally belonged only to the son of the king of the clan equally with all the heirs of the king of the clan.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the king of the domain was divided into seals
During the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate the new Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang creatively established a set of "Ming Dynasty feudal system" that was different from any previous dynasty on the basis of drawing on the division of feudal titles from previous dynasties. Since 1370, Zhu Yuanzhang has successively enfeoffed his 24 sons and 1 subordinate grandson to the major cities on the frontier and inland, and in order to give these princes who divided the territories the strength to resist invasion and defend the royal family, Zhu Yuanzhang gave them very great power.
At that time, each clan king had an unequal number of guards, ranging from more than a thousand to tens of thousands, and also had the right to "raise troops and despotism", which could directly mobilize local troops. It can be shown that the original feudal kings, with such strength, although they did not have the power to directly manage local civil affairs, they could obviously affect the central government's control over the localities.
In other words, the fundamental purpose of gao Wei's proposed policy of cutting the domain was to weaken these powers held by the king of the domain. Therefore, Gao Wei used the core idea of the "Tui En Ling", that is, "build up the princes and reduce their strength", and divided the power of the king of the clan equally among the heirs he left behind, so as to achieve the purpose of weakening the strength of the king of the clan.
The situation of the king of Hubei in the Ming Dynasty
For example, at that time, Zhu Li, the King of Qing, who was guarding Ningxia, not only had three guards of left, right, and middle, with a strength of more than 10,000 troops, but also managed the affairs of the four guards of Qingyang, Ningxia, Yan'an, and Suide, and directly administered the four guards of horse infantry. According to normal circumstances, these powers could only be inherited by the shizi who succeeded to the throne of the clan, but now according to Gao Wei's proposed strategy of cutting the clan, these powers should be divided equally among Zhu Li's 6 sons, such as the eldest son Zhu Zhixuan, who can inherit the title of King of Ning, but the left, right, and middle three guards, Zhu Zhixuan can only get one guard battalion, and the other two guard battalions need to be divided equally with the other five sons.
It can be said that Gao Wei's strategy of cutting the domain is not different in essence from the Han Dynasty's "Tui En Order". Gao Wei also cleverly used the greedy nature of the people, he knew that once this bait was put down, the heirs of those clan kings were bound to have infighting because they wanted to divide up the power that originally belonged only to the son of the world, and when that time came, the imperial court would not need to intervene at all, and the disaster of the clan king would be self-defeating.
Even if they did not engage in infighting, but peacefully divided power, the king of the clan would not pose any threat to the central government for generations to come. You must know that the Ming Dynasty has a clear stipulation on the number of guards that the king of the clan can have, so it will be divided, and within a few generations, there will not be much soldier left in the hands of those clan kings, and without soldiers, what else will they take to fight with the imperial court?
Prince of the Ming Dynasty
It can be said that if Gao Wei's strategy of cutting the clan can really be implemented, the scourge of the clan king will certainly be fundamentally resolved after several generations. In addition, when Gao Wei made this suggestion, Zhuo Jing, the right attendant of the Household Department, added an additional point, he suggested
"In the kings of the north, the sons are sealed in the south; in the south, the sons are sealed in the north. In this way, the power of the king will be cut, and he will not cut it but cut itself. ”
That is, after the princes and heirs of the clan divided the power of the king of the clan, they also had to carry out "different divisions", that is, the heirs of the clan princes who were originally in the north were sealed in the south when they were crowned; the heirs of the clan princes who were originally in the south were sealed in the north when they were crowned.
Obviously, Zhuo Jing's proposal was to break up the interference and control of the clan king over the place. If you think about it, a king of a clan can only stay in a place for a generation at most, and then his heirs are divided into other places, so the king of the clan certainly does not have the ability and time to control the place. Even if he had the ability to control the place for the rest of his life, his descendants would not have the opportunity to continue to control the place, because he would be sealed elsewhere. That is to say, if it can be implemented, the king of the clan will never pose any threat to the central government, because he has no foundation at all.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the king of the domain divided the fiefdom
Moreover, Zhuo Jing deliberately added after putting forward this opinion
"The King of Yan is extremely intelligent, heroic, and cool to the high emperor." Beiping-shaped resort, Shima Jingqiang, Jin, Yuan Nian Youxing. Now it is advisable to move to Nanchang, in case of change, it is easy to control. ”
He said that Zhu Di, the King of Yan, was a man of great talent, very similar to Zhu Yuanzhang, and that his fiefdom of Beiping was a prosperous place with strong soldiers and strong horses. Therefore, to implement this strategy of cutting the domain, the first thing to be cut is Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and he should be renamed to Nanchang, so that once there is a change, the imperial court can have absolute certainty to control Zhu Di, and as long as Zhu Di is controlled, the other clan kings will not be a problem.
Obviously, Zhuo Jing's plan can not be described as poisonous, if it can be implemented, the Yan King Zhu Di can only become a small bird in the cage, let the imperial court slaughter, think about the later Zhu Di when Zhu Di changed the Ning King Zhu Quan to Nanchang, the once invincible King ning was not able to resist. It can be said that if Zhu Yunjiao adopts the two strategies of "power elements" and "separating from different places" proposed by Gao Wei and Zhuo Jing, the chances of Zhu Yunjiao's successful action of cutting the domain will be greatly improved, and it can even be said that "great cause can be achieved."
The fiefdom of Zhu Di, king of Yan
Unfortunately, Zhu Yunjiao did not listen to the strategy proposed by the two of them to cut the domain, and he used the force that was indeed the lowest strategy proposed by Huang Zicheng, that is, to cut the domain by force
"First kill the weak Zhou, Qi, and Dai kings, go to the wings of the Yan King, and then move the Yan King when the time is ripe."
。 Of course, at that time, there were two strategies for slashing the domain by force, one of which was the "first weak and then strong" mentioned by Huang Zicheng just now, and the other was the "first strong and then weak" mentioned by Qi Tai, that is, to kill Zhu Di, the king of Yan, first, and then move other weak and small clan kings.
From this, we can see that among the strategies proposed by these people to cut the domain, Gao Wei and Zhuo Jing's "separating the power elements and separating the seals in different places" is the top strategy, and then Qi Tai's "first strong and then weak" is the middle strategy, and Huang Zicheng's "first weak and then strong" is obviously the bottom strategy. What a pity! At that time, even if Zhu Yunjiao chose Qi Tai's middle strategy, he would not lose so badly. However, Zhu Yunzhang, who had no experience in governing the country, finally chose the strategy of "first weak and then strong" proposed by Huang Zicheng, a scholar who also had no experience in governing the country.
Huang Zicheng and Zhu Yunjiao discuss political plans
Then many people do not understand why Zhu Yunzhang, when cutting the domain, would choose the most inferior strategy proposed by Huang Zicheng, "first weak and then strong"? Personally, I think there are mainly the following reasons:
First, Huang Zicheng's sake. It can be said that Huang Zicheng, who has been reading with Zhu Yunjiao since he was a child, has a really deep influence on Zhu Yunjiao. When teaching Zhu Yunzhang to read, Huang Zicheng instilled in Zhu Yunzhao the idea that "the king of the clan is very weak, and the imperial court is very strong" all the time.
For example, when Zhu Yunxiong once asked Huang Zicheng about cutting the domain, Huang Zicheng replied, he said
"The kings only have guards, they can only defend themselves, and if there is a change, they can be imprisoned by the sixth division, who can resist?" The Seven Kingdoms of the Han Dynasty could not be described as weak, and finally perished. The strength and weakness of the size are different, and the principle of obedience and opposition is even more different! ”
That is to say, the king of the clan only has his own guards, they can only defend themselves, even if they rebel, as long as the army of the imperial court goes to suppress, what do they use to resist? During the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion of the Han Dynasty, weren't the Seven Kingdoms very strong? But in the end, wasn't it still destroyed by the imperial court?
Huang Zicheng stills
Therefore, it is precisely because Zhu Yunxiong has accepted Huang Zicheng's idea of "the enemy is weak and I am strong" since he was a child, do you think he can fully face the strength of the king of the clan? Obviously not. It is precisely because of this that when Zhu Yunjiao presided over the cutting of the domain later, his preconceived idea of "the enemy is strong and we are weak" eventually made him habitually choose to use the force of the imperial court to directly cut the domain. In addition, Huang Zicheng has always been deeply valued and trusted by Zhu Yunjiao, so his strategy will naturally be looked at differently.
Second, Zhu Yunjiao was in too much of a hurry. In fact, according to our current view, the strategy proposed by Zhuo Jing and Gao Wei to cut the domain is the most secure and effective. But to be honest, the time for this strategy to work is really too slow, and it is difficult to see the effect without going through several generations. Therefore, for Zhu Yunjiao, who has just ascended the throne and is eager to make some political achievements to prove himself, he obviously can't wait for such a long time. Coupled with the fact that the most important strategists around him, Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, also wanted to quickly make some political achievements that could "leave their names in history", that is, under the "instigation" of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, plus Zhu Yunjiao himself also had this practice, in the end, the most secure strategy of cutting the domain by "using power elements and separating from different places" was completely denied.
Stills of Zhu Yunjiao
In this way, after adopting Huang Zicheng's next strategy of "first weak and then strong", he was the first to attack the weaker King of Zhou around the Yan King, and in 1399, Zhu Yunjiao sent Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao, to raid Kaifeng and arrest Zhu Xu, the King of Ning, and soon demoted him to a Shuren and imprisoned him in Yingtian. The descendants of Wang ZhuGui, Zhu Bai the Prince of Xiang, Zhu Yu the Prince of Qi, and Zhu Yu the Prince of Min, and other four princes of the clan committed suicide one after another, or were deposed, or imprisoned. It can be said that at this time, for Zhu Yunjiao, it was the time when he was satisfied, but what Zhu Yunjiao did not know was that his actions had alarmed Zhu Di, the "cool high emperor" of yan who was lying in Beiping.
Zhu Di, King of Yan
It was at the time when many clan kings were suddenly attacked by Zhu Yunjiao, and one by one, Zhu Di, who was far away in Beiping, already knew all this, he began to take precautions, and already had the idea of rebellion. Perhaps only Zhu Yunjiao and his group of scholarly ministers thought that their plan was seamless, and they also thought in a dream that a thunderous blow from the imperial court would give Zhu Di, the King of Yan, a fatal blow. It's just a pity that their great enemy, Zhu Di, has already understood everything, and the reason why he doesn't fight back now is just waiting for an opportunity, which is the so-called "thunder strike" that the imperial court wants to give.