Chapter 39 The tragedy of the imperial power is that it is governed by men rather than by law! Chen Han said with a smile: "The northern border area that luckily escaped civilian takeover in the first year of Orthodoxy did not last long and was quickly taken over by civilian officials.
At that time, governors and governors were appointed to manage border military towns and military regions. They set up a series of new institutions and made the capital commanders their deputies or subordinates.
In fact, from then on, very few generals were appointed as commanders of the military officers in border areas are usually appointed as commanders in chief or commanders in chief.
This position is called 'general soldier', which is a completely different position from the district administrator.
When leading troops in battle, a civilian official usually takes the lead, followed by a military general.
This configuration can be fully reflected in a peasant uprising during the Zhengtong years.
It is said that in the 14th year of Orthodoxy, Huang Xiaoyang, a native of Pan Village, Chonghebao, Nanhai County, Guangzhou Prefecture, escaped from Guangzhou Prison and raised his flag to rebel against the Ming Dynasty. The rebel army numbered more than [-] attacked Guangzhou City, killed the guarding Anxiang Bo Zhang An, and claimed to be the King of Obedience, with the reign name Dongyang.
The following year, the imperial court sent Yang Xinmin, the censor of Youqiandu, and Dong Xing, the commander of the capital, to lead an army to suppress it.
At this time, the balance between civil and military affairs was completely out of balance. Tongzhi, the capital commander who was supposed to be the highest commander of the province's military, was a first-rank official, but could only be reduced to the deputy of the third-rank civilian official Qian Du Yushi.
Such adjustments greatly weakened the power of military commanders and led to an imbalance between civil and military affairs. "
After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he felt extremely angry.
How can future generations do this without encouraging the arrogance of civil servants? No wonder all the civil servants took off. It turned out that it evolved step by step like this.
Chen Han also said with emotion at this time, "We Chinese believe in the Book of Changes and the Doctrine of the Mean. The difference from the dichotomy believed by Westerners is that we never divide a thing into good and bad. .
But I think there is a gray area between good and bad.
The same is true in the power circle. The tit-for-tat confrontation between cabinet officials and eunuchs is not simply good or bad. It all depends on how the emperor coordinates in this gray area.
If the emperor is a person who does nothing, the pandering of the eunuchs and the pandering of the cabinet ministers will cause him to deviate from his original path.
If the emperor is effective and courageous, the cabinet and eunuchs must be honest.
If you don't believe it, let the eunuchs and ministers try to fool Zhu Yuanzhang, and they won't dare even if they are ten times brave enough.
The Book of Changes talks about signs, and there are many signs that warn Xuanzong.
When Emperor Xuanzong used eunuchs to check and balance the officials, the civil servants kept their tails between their legs. When the eunuchs became increasingly arrogant, they should have understood that one day when the balance was lost, one party would always come out on top.
He enjoyed the best royal education. Although his father Renzong had been emperor for less than a year, he should clearly remember the prosperity created by Ming Renzong when he assisted Emperor Yongle.
Even Emperor Xuanzong himself was brought up by Emperor Yongle himself.
He should have seen how Emperor Yongle controlled power, but when it came to him, he wanted to let the eunuchs fight with the civil servants.
On the one hand, he is slacking in politics, and on the other hand, he is deceiving himself.
He knew that the eunuch was not a normal person and would one day come back to bite him, but he just felt that he would not be the one to be attacked.
There are a lot of people like this nowadays. Some people saw the upstarts losing their fortunes before they got rich, and they said that they would never be like this. But when it was their turn to get rich, they also lost their fortunes.
Just like his grandfather doted on him, Xuanzong took Zhu Qizhen with him to attend court meetings with ministers.
Under the influence of his ears and eyes, all Zhu Qizhen learned was to use eunuchs to fight against the cabinet and reap the benefits for himself.
At that time, Xuanzong should have been alert. What if his son couldn't control a too complicated situation? If some measures were taken to remedy this, it might still be too late, but Xuanzong still didn't wake up.
God has given so many hints, but Xuanzong missed them perfectly. It can only be said that this is his own enough, not long after Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, Wang Zhen came to power. He defeated all the savings of Emperor Hongwu, Emperor Yongle, Renzong, and Xuanzong in one battle, resulting in the loss of all the generals who were accustomed to fighting.
The 75-year-old British Duke Zhang Fu, the leader of the Four Dynasties who destroyed Annan, died in Tumubao with a loser like Zhu Qizhen. A large number of Jingnan heroes died in the battle. From then on, the meritorious generals could no longer check and balance the civil servants.
Later, under the leadership of Yu Qian, from the moment the civilian-controlled Ministry of War took the power to mobilize troops from the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, there was no longer any condition to check and balance the civilian officials. "
When Chen Han said this, he was really upset.
Because the Ming Dynasty placed the last hope of the entire Han people, and the character of the Ming Dynasty was so admirable, but in the meantime so many strange and infuriating things happened.
The emperor did not do his job properly, the eunuchs messed with their power, and the civil servants were not like civil servants, they only pursued power. The few who wanted to do big things were hampered everywhere.
Most of the literati and doctors are in a sick state, and the eunuchs are even more domineering.
The people's lives in this situation were worse than death. Zhu Yuanzhang himself started a peasant uprising and destroyed the Yuan Dynasty. However, his dynasty was also destroyed because of Li Zicheng's peasant uprising. It is simply a joke, a huge joke.
After Chen Han finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
Then Chen Han said: "But compared to the Military Aircraft Department, I still agree with the cabinet.
The mechanism of the Military Aircraft Department can indeed increase the imperial power to its peak.
But that was due to the alien rule of the Qing Dynasty, and all the ministers in the Military Aircraft Department were slaves.
The Manchu emperor even used the humiliating etiquette of kneeling to receive transcripts to teach the literati.
They also used high pressure to force the Han people to become slaves of the Manchus, which greatly restricted the creativity of the people and at the same time hindered the possibility of the nation's forward development.
Judging from the historical trend, after the imperial power of the Qing Dynasty reached its peak, there was no development in cultural undertakings, let alone scientific and technological development. This can be seen from the lifelessness of the entire dynasty.
As for the civil servants and officials in the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, there were indeed those who pursued fame and fortune, but there were also those who truly served the country and the people.
Since ancient times, the ministers under the imperial power have been nothing more than these two, but generally speaking, the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty did maintain their proud and rugged character.
Even for an emperor like Zhu Yunwen, although his civil servants were pedantic, their loyalty to the emperor and patriotism were still rooted in their hearts, and many of them died for their country.
In the Chongzhen period, when the country was ruined and the family was destroyed, there were people like Shui Tailiang, Qian Qianyi, but there were also noble people like Ni Yuanlu who died for the country.
Even Chongzhen himself was not good at governing the country, but he committed suicide by covering his face with his hair, which can be regarded as a man.
In short, there is nothing wrong with the system, it is the people who are wrong. As long as people rule, people's desires will override the law.
But sadly, the rule of law was impossible in the era of imperial power.
The biggest drawback of human rule is its extreme reliance on wise masters. Once the emperor slacks off, it gives the possibility for literati, officials and eunuchs to exercise arbitrary power.
In the final analysis, it is the expansion of personal selfish desires.
Many emperors wanted to enjoy themselves but did not allow decentralization of power. They did not understand that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. "
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(End of this chapter)