In a year of great drought, there may not be a major locust plague. Even if it is suitable for locust breeding, you can kill the locust eggs buried in the soil by plowing the ground and turning it over.

However, at this time in the Ming Dynasty, the great drought would cause the people to starve to death because they could not survive, or become thieves, so that no one took these precautions, so that locusts were infested. In the last years of Chongzhen, locust plagues appeared almost every year, which made the food situation worse.

This truth has been clarified by the time Emperor Chongzhen arrived in Xi'an Mansion. Therefore, he felt that the rebellion of the thieves must be quelled as soon as possible, otherwise the situation will only get worse and worse under the vicious circle.

The original history shows that there were many accidental factors in the fall of the dynasty. But Emperor Chongzhen has deeply realized through this period of time, especially after walking out of Beijing, what he saw and heard on the road that the Ming Dynasty actually couldn't hold on. Even if it wasn't Chongzhen's seventeenth year of destruction, it was estimated that it would be a matter of Chongzhen's eighteen or nineteenth years.

The army rested in Xi'an for two days before heading south again. During this period, Emperor Chongzhen personally went to the vassal king's mansion and met with Zhu Cunshu, the king of Qin who was sealed in Xi'an.

At this meeting, Zhu Cunshu can be said to be trembling.

The affairs of King Rui, they all know in their hearts. If you want to say that King Rui relies on himself to be a vassal king, there are also people who are unreasonable to the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty, and his own land rent has been robbed, and there are people who want to make trouble. However, it is basically impossible to say that King Rui colluded with the thieves and wanted to rebel.

However, the fact now is that the court charged King Rui with colluding with thieves and plotting rebellion. Not only did King Rui's family have no glory and wealth to speak of, but King Rui himself "hanged" himself.

In this regard, King Qin knew very well that the fundamental reason was that King Rui didn't want to take out money and food. And this time, the emperor personally came to summon him to meet him, and he also knew in his heart, I am afraid that it was still for money and food.

Sure enough, after Emperor Chongzhen saw him, he first talked to him about the time when Taizu rose from the end of the micro and went through a lot of hardships to win the world and lay the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. In the end, Emperor Chongzhen sighed: "This Ming Dynasty is not easy to come by!" ”

When King Qin heard this, he couldn't help but slander in his heart, the Ming Dynasty was not easy to come by, but it was not his own family that sat in the world! On the surface, though, he certainly agreed.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw this, he said to King Qin: "Now that the Ming Dynasty is worried about internal and external troubles, you are in Qindi, the civil uprisings in these years should be more familiar than me, and they will not be extinguished. ”

"It's a fart, that's your business, okay?" King Qin thought in his heart, but on the surface, he was only promised, and he didn't say much.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at him, not knowing what he was thinking in his heart, and suddenly sneered: "It's a pity that some vassal kings can't recognize this, and they don't want to think about it. Did you say I was wrong? ”

Hearing this, King Qin was finally stunned. To be honest, he hadn't really thought about it. After listening to it at this time, I finally realized that the safety of the Ming Dynasty was indeed related to them, the vassal kings!

"Yes, Your Majesty is right!" This time, King Qin finally looked into Emperor Chongzhen's eyes and quickly replied.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he smiled again and said, "I know that many vassal kings are suspicious of the Ming Imperial Bank. I feel that I am actually robbing money by exchanging the silver stamps and food stamps issued by the Ming Royal Bank for money and grain. It's not right to have this idea, what kind of person am I, the dignified Emperor Ming, how could I do such a thing, don't you say? ”

"......" King Qin was speechless when he heard this, thinking in his heart, is the emperor talking about himself? He hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, there is no such thing!" ”

"Actually, those who are not in Beijing have doubts about the Daming Royal Bank, and I understand." Emperor Chongzhen listened, but shook his head and said, "But since I am passing by here, I can nag and nag with you, the silver stamps and grain stamps issued by the Ming Imperial Bank can definitely be exchanged for silver and grain, and I can guarantee this." However, it will take time for branches to be set up in various places. When the time comes, you'll be able to see that what I'm saying is not a lie! ”

Seeing that King Qin still wanted to speak, Emperor Chongzhen stopped him with a wave of his hand, and then continued: "Some people may think that even so, the imperial court can exchange the grain of the harvest year for the grain of the current disaster year, which is not cost-effective for the vassal kings everywhere. In this regard, I will definitely be very angry with someone who has such a calculating matter. If you really want to mind this like this, I feel that he is not worthy of being a descendant of the Zhu family, and there is no need to enjoy the glory and wealth brought by the stable Ming Dynasty. ”

When King Qin heard this, he nodded hurriedly, this point, the emperor had already made it very clear before. It is reasonable, if the emperor really wants to do this, and deal with a few more Rui kings, it is estimated that no one will dare to say anything.

Seeing him like this, Emperor Chongzhen explained to him: "There are some things, from my point of view, some people may have a rebellious mentality, thinking that I am too stingy and treat my relatives badly. Therefore, I am telling you this in the hope that you can help me explain this truth and make the last transcript public. I believe that in this way, the other vassal kings will easily accept it. I don't want the clan to end up having an unpleasant quarrel. Of course, if someone wants to make me unhappy, I certainly won't make him feel better. After all, this is for the sake of the society passed down from the ancestors, I am ruthless and infamy, then I also admit it! ”

"......" King Qin was speechless again, your emperor's words, with coercion and temptation, and spoke bitterly, what else can I say as a mere vassal king? Don't you just want me to be the first bird to bear the infamy of the vassal kings for you! Straight to the point!

Although he thought so, when he really responded, King Qin still said "sincerely": "Your Majesty's words are true! ”

Emperor Chongzhen listened and nodded with satisfaction. This King of Qin, when he heard that he was the more timid kind, came over by the way to talk to him, and it seemed that he still had a harvest.

The reason why he wanted to talk to this King of Qin while he was in Xi'an, and he took the lead in explaining this matter again, was because he was about to lead his troops into Henan. And on the Henan side, many clans have also been sealed. One of the most famous is King Fu, who is also his imperial uncle.

The weight of this imperial uncle is not comparable to the imperial uncle of King Rui. Back then, this Fu Wang almost became the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It was the crown prince that Emperor Wanli had always wanted to set up three times and twice, and the ministers opposed it, and after many years of struggle, it was finally Emperor Chongzhen and his father who took over the throne.

Therefore, in order to compensate the blessed king, Wanli rewarded 40,000 hectares of farmland at one time. It can be said that at least the grain fields near Luoyang are basically Fu Wang's. On the Henan side, even the vassal king's grain fields were not enough, so he could only row the grain fields of neighboring provinces.

Emperor Chongzhen's entry into Henan this time was to ask King Fu and others to make a good fortune. However, for King Fu, he can't deal with it simply and rudely like King Rui.

The main reason is that King Rui first committed his own death, giving Emperor Chongzhen an excuse to dispose of it. For the other vassal kings in the back, it's hard to find an excuse like this.

On the other hand, nominally speaking, King Fu has already given up the throne, but as a result, your family will force him, and in terms of human ethics, Emperor Chongzhen will suffer.

This kind of thing, although Emperor Chongzhen has already mastered the military power, and he comes horizontally, King Fu can't help it. But if the reputation is bad, the invisible loss will still be great. A simple example, if this kind of thing happened, it would definitely be attacked by all potential enemies, such as Li Zicheng or the Manchus, as well as those scholars who had been punished by Emperor Chongzhen. Most of the common people are blindly obedient, knowing that the emperor is a tyrant, even their own relatives are so unsparing, if they have other choices, this will be a factor that will change their decision.

Nominal justice has been valued by the Chinese people since ancient times. The so-called famous teacher refers to this truth. The kind that does things shamelessly will not end well.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen felt that by doing something by the way, he could solve these potential factors, and he didn't mind doing something.

After saying this, he may also be interested, and continued to talk to King Qin about family life, asking him how many children, grandchildren or something, how is he doing?

Hearing this, King Qin's heart moved, and he hurriedly began to complain, saying that his younger sons, the imperial court has not yet entered the "Tianhuang Jade", which is not recorded in the "Tianhuang Jade", there is no name, and there is no knighthood, so he cannot receive the Yulu. He, the Qin King lineage, has other branches, and there are even more that have not been recorded in "Tianhuang Jade".

Speaking of which, he even hurriedly asked people to call his little sons over to see the driver, and they recognized their familiar faces. At least in his opinion, this opportunity is rare, and maybe he can be recorded in "Tianhuang Jade" because of this, so as to have a lot of thoughts.

In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen kept smiling, and also met several of his sons, and after praising polite words such as they would have a future in the future, he let them go down.

When only King Qin was left in the main hall, in the expectant eyes of King Qin, Emperor Chongzhen didn't seem to think of the matter of entering them into the "Tianhuang Jade", just chattering, as if he mentioned it casually: "In fact, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the system of the clan has been determined, and after nearly three hundred years, I think it is a little inapplicable!" ”

Hearing this, King Qin was stunned again, in the Jiajing Dynasty, in fact, there was already an innovation of the clan system, and the "Sect and Domain Regulations" were introduced, which could be regarded as restricting the interests of many clans. Listening to the emperor at this time, why does it seem that a new round of feudal restrictions is about to begin?

Thinking so, he didn't answer for a moment, just listened silently.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't care about him, and continued to take care of himself: "You see, the emperor's sons must be crowned vassal kings except for the crown prince, and in addition to the hereditary princes of the vassal kings, they must be crowned county kings, and in addition to the hereditary sons of the county kings, they must be named the generals of Zhenguo...... If it goes on like this, at the beginning of the founding of the country, it was actually nothing, but now that so many years have passed, the number of clans has increased by more than 600,000 times compared with the beginning of the founding of the country. The annual income of the imperial treasury is really not enough to cover the vassal clans in various places. But if I don't pay according to the arrears over the years, I feel sorry for my relatives. Therefore, I thought, starting from me, the system of suzerainty must be fundamentally changed! ”

Hearing this, King Qin finally looked at Emperor Chongzhen again in surprise, he didn't know, how did the emperor change?

"Can you help me take a look?" Emperor Chongzhen seemed to be reassuring and said, "Starting from my son, I will no longer attack the feud, after the vassal king, my grandson can only be the king of the county, and the son of my grandson is the general of Zhenguo, and so on." I knew that by doing so, I would probably displease my sons. But this is about the Ming Dynasty, they are just dissatisfied, and I have decided to do it. How are you doing? ”

"......" King Qin was dumbfounded, feeling that the young emperor in front of him was ruthless to the vassal king and his son! If he had said so, wouldn't his own son have done the same?

Of course he didn't want to. However, he also knows that the emperor in front of him is "ruthless", if he is not as good as the emperor wants, believe it or not, will he follow in the footsteps of Queen Rui? Besides, the emperor is moving out of the ancestral society, and his own son is going to do the same, can he still say no?

After thinking about it, King Qin still said cautiously: "Your Majesty, this ...... Will this make Your Majesty criticized by the clan, and Your Majesty has paid too much for the society left by your ancestors? ”

Emperor Chongzhen must have a layer of estrangement with those sons, to be honest, even if it is fused with the soul of the original Emperor Chongzhen, there will be some after all. But this is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the clan has indeed become a very big burden on the imperial court, and it must be dealt with.

Therefore, hearing King Qin's words, Emperor Chongzhen sighed and said: "This is also something that can't be helped, you see that even your vassal palace, there are so many that have not been recorded in the "Tianhuang Jade", why?" It's just that the court really has no money and food, and it can't afford to record it! And I've also heard that there are some clans with low titles, and even some of them are starving to death. Therefore, it is really impossible not to reform the feudal system. ”

Speaking of this, he paused and then said: "Of course, I have also thought about it, in the future, those clans with low titles will let go of the restrictions of Chengzu, and it will come down to the people's nationality, those who have the ability can be officials, those who have no ability can also become farmers, and they can do some small business, after all, they can support themselves, right?" ”

In the original history, it was also on July 12, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, that Emperor Chongzhen opened this opening, and awarded the sect Zhu Mouchao to be a scholar, and Di Ju was the governor. Minba, Moubao, Huatongju, Changqian, Dingjing, and Changhun are all counties.