Since the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Mu Ying to sit in Yunnan as the chief military officer of Yunnan, the Mu family has been guarding for 280 years and has made great contributions to guarding the frontier. However, when the Mu family arrived at Mu Chaobi's generation, they lost the face of their ancestors and made the government and the opposition uneasy. After the death of Mu Chaofu, the Duke of Qianguo, the second son Mu Rong and Mu Gong were young, and Mu Chao was in Yunnan. Mu Chaobi took the opportunity to do wrong, occupying a large number of his brother's farmhouses, and competing with his sister-in-law and nephew for the title of Duke of Qianguo, Mu Gong died prematurely, and Mu Chaobi got the dukedom of Qianguo as he wished.
In addition to plotting against his sister-in-law, Mu Chaobi also hid the criminal Jiang Xu, and took advantage of the privilege of holding the fire card in his hand to send people to the Beijing division to spy on the news. These violations of the law should be arrested, but the arrest of Mu Chaobi is a very dangerous thing, Mu Chaobi has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in his hands, and if not handled properly, it is afraid of triggering a mutiny.
However, this matter was not difficult to overthrow the first assistant Zhang Juzheng, who first promoted Mu Chaobi's son Mu Changzuo and made him an heir. The Mu family was overjoyed up and down, and Mu Chaobi also relaxed his vigilance. Then Zhang Juzheng sent emissaries to Mu Mansion to convey the holy will, in fact, in addition to this, the emissary also brought a copy of the holy will to arrest Mu Chaobi. Mu Chaobi naturally did not know about this operation and happily greeted the Holy Will.
In this way, the emissary entered the unsuspecting Mu Mansion, and when he was not ready, he ordered the samurai around him to arrest Mu Chaobi, and read out the holy will in public, announcing Mu Chaobi's crimes, Mu Chaobi was frightened and stupid, and honestly followed the emissary back to Beijing. Mu Chaobi was arrested, and none of the soldiers in fuzhong dared to do anything, and they all bowed down and obeyed the orders. The task that looked very sinister in this way was easily solved by Zhang Juzheng, and it did not trigger a mutiny.
After Mu Chaobi was arrested, according to his crime, it can be said that the crime is unforgivable. However, Zhang Juzheng asked the emperor to pardon him for his capital crimes and imprison Mu Chaobi, eventually dying in the Nanjing prison. Zhang Juzheng's clever plan to secure the world has turned a crisis into invisibility.
The Mu family has been guarding Yunnan for nearly 300 years, and although the tree has deep roots, it is not the king of the clan after all, but only a rogue official. Zhang Juzheng outwitted Mu Chaobi, and the plan was indeed superior. But the reason for his success is actually inseparable from the institutional help of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan. It is precisely because of Zhu Yuanzhang's strong layout that people like Mu Chaobi, who despise the imperial power, obediently obey when they really face the prestige of the Ming Dynasty royal family, and objectively protect the safety of the Mu clan.
So what layout did Zhu Yuanzhang do? The first is strict personal control, during the mu family's main town of Yunnan, the mother,mate and children were controlled by the Ming court. For example, during Mu Ying's stay in Yunnan, his sons Mu Chun, Mu Sheng, Mu Ang, and Mu Xin all remained in Nanjing. During Mu Sheng's more than 40 years in Yunnan, his heir Mu Bin and his mother Geng Shi and his wife Cheng Shi lived in Nanjing. Through these "protons", successive generations of Mu family lords have loyally served the Ming Dynasty, who dare to joke about their relatives. In this way, the Ming dynasty royal family was assured, and the status of the Mu family was also consolidated.
Zhang Juzheng stills
In order to prevent the Mu family's power in Yunnan from expanding and being difficult to control, since the Hongwu period, the Ming court has successively set up the three divisions of Dubu and the inspectors and inspectors in Yunnan, which effectively balanced the power of the Mu family. Don't look at the Mu family's great power, some powerful inspectors are not willing to be subordinated. During the Chenghua period, Wang Shu, who was in charge of Yunnan, only served for nine months, and his prestige spread far and wide, and he obeyed government orders cautiously from mu Chun, the Duke of Qianguo.
During the Chongzhen period, the family slaves of Mu Qiyuan, the Duke of Qianguo of Zhengnan, were arrested by Yu Yu, then the governor of Yunnan, for mutilating the people. Mu Qiyuan actually sent troops to surround the Patrol Gate, and his mother, Song Shi, was deeply worried about her son's misdeeds, which may be deeply worried about the disaster caused by Mu Fu, and personally poisoned her own son. It shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's layout is very powerful, effectively balancing the expansion of the Mu family's power.
The Ming emperor liked to reuse eunuchs, and Yunnan was no exception, setting up town guards to guard eunuchs. Most of the eunuchs who have been guarding the town have been corrupt and perverted the law and committed many evils. The fierce Mu Chaobi, Mu Qiyuan and others in the Mu family were also weak compared with these eunuchs. For example, Yang Rong, the tax inspector of Yunnan, was simply a living king of Yan, who was a mighty and blessed man, and killed thousands of Dian people during his term of office.
Therefore, there are three forces of the town guard eunuch, the Mu family, and the Fuzhuansi to balance each other, the Ming Dynasty royal family can live with peace of mind, and the power of the Mu family is naturally curbed, although Yunnan has been an official for generations, with great prestige and power, in fact, it is far inferior to those clan kings.
Mu's succession to the title of Duke of Qianguo also required formal appointments from the Ming court, and such appointments were not lifelong, and the emperor could deprive and delegate them to others at any time; whenever the Mu clan members who had the throne were young or incompetent enough to control the localities, the Ming imperial family would often take back part of Mu's power and hand it over to local officials. This move also reminds the Mu clan that its power and status are entirely given by the Ming Dynasty imperial family, and do not act arbitrarily.
Although the owners of the Mu family made contributions to Yunnan, they were buried in Nanjing after death, because the ancestral tomb of the Mu family was in Nanjing. Except for Mu Tianbo, who followed the Yongli Emperor to the death of Burma in battle, most of the Dukes of Qianguo were buried in Nanjing. In this way, the fallen leaves return to their roots, and also weaken the Mu family's desire for Yunnan, which is always a foreign country for them.
It is precisely because of the various measures and means adopted by the Ming Dynasty since the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang that the Mu family has been loyal to the country in Yunnan for 280 years, and does not dare to trespass the Thunder Pond, even if there are arrogant and oppressive and good people like Mu Chaobi, when facing the Ming Dynasty's royal family's true character, they are also trembling and dare not resist, otherwise the entire family will encounter the disaster of extinction overnight, and the vested interests will be wiped out.
The power and status of the Mu clan in Yunnan depended on the Ming imperial family. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Mu's status and power in Yunnan also quickly collapsed, and the last Duke of Qianguo followed the Yongli Emperor to die in Burma, and Mu's 280 years of glory also came to an end.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Yunnan became Wu Sangui's territory, unlike the Mu clan, why did Wu Sangui only stay in Yunnan for fourteen years before he dared to rebel? Because the power is not ordinary, Wu Sangui is a real king of the clan, and the power is not the same.
Because of Wu Sangui's unscrupulous strangulation of the Ming forces, he gained the trust of the Qing emperor and gave him power. In Yunnan, Wu Sangui himself was the master of his own affairs, and the officials at all levels under his jurisdiction could "choose to do their own thing"; when recruiting soldiers, the Qing Officials and the Second Department of soldiers could not interfere, and the edicts given by the Qing court to the governors of Yun and Gui'er Provinces must be written with the words "listen to the king's moderation", and Wu Sangui connived with his subordinates to make the officials do wrong, fish and meat people, and no one dared to file a complaint. After the expansion of Wu Sangui's power, coupled with the pressure of Kangxi cutting the domain, Wu Sangui finally broke out into a rebellion, and at one point also beat the Qing army to a terrible end, if it were not for Wu Sangui's early death, Kangxi Ping Sanfan would be more difficult.
Unrestrained letting go is like setting fire, too big to control, and even setting yourself on fire. Therefore, to rectify the rule of officials, it is best to put power into the cage of the system. Historian Wu Han pointed out that Zhu Yuanzhang's reign was "the period in history when the feudal regime waged the most fierce struggle against corruption and killed the most corrupt officials and officials." ”
Zhu Yuanzhang's layout in Yunnan was indeed old and spicy, and through the mutual checks and balances between the forces of the zhenshou eunuchs, the Mu family, and the Fuzhuansi, the threat of local power to the imperial power was always under the control of the Ming court, and objectively protected the Mu family from being desperate like Wu Sangui and being exterminated.
Resources:
"Discussion on the Reasons for the Mu Family's Town To Guard Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty"
"Zhu Yuanzhang Yizi Muying Family Two Hundred Years of Rise and Fall History"
Feng Menglong , "Think Tank"