Chapter 387 Knighthood

Although the titles of Duke and Earl in Yang Wu's canonization are hereditary, this hereditary title needs to be lowered by one level for each generation. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

For example, Yuan Xi and Tai Meng are both posthumously crowned princes, so their descendants can only inherit the title of county duke; And Liu Jin posthumously awarded the title of county duke, and his son Liu Rengui could only inherit the marquis, and his grandchildren could only inherit the earl.

In addition, if you want to inherit the title, you must also pass a certain assessment, although the difficulty is not too high, but it is not too simple, the main purpose of this is to prevent the person who inherits the title from being too incompetent.

In addition to these titles that need to be downgraded and inherited, Yang Wu also stipulates that some titles that have been granted preferential treatment can be hereditary, that is, there is no need to downgrade in the process of inheritance.

In addition, there are some hereditary titles that need to be downgraded to inheritance, and in the process of succession from generation to generation, when the title is reduced to a marquis or earl, it will not continue to be lowered, but will be converted into a hereditary marquis or earl.

Both of these titles are truly permanent, and are naturally much more valuable than other titles that need to be constantly downgraded.

Of course, this kind of title that can be inherited permanently, Yang Wu will not be easily canonized, and it is generally only for a few people at the level of the national prince, and the others generally cannot enjoy this kind of preferential treatment, and can only eventually become commoners in the inheritance from generation to generation.

In this way, although it is also a national duke, there will be different levels among the national dukes, and the better ones can be directly hereditary and can not be demoted; The worse ones are those whose titles are lowered to marquis and do not continue to decline; What's worse is that the title is no longer lowered after being passed on to the earl; As for the worst, of course, it is lowered, like other titles, until it finally loses its title.

For example, among the five canonized princes and the two posthumously crowned princes, only Li Shenfu can be hereditary and does not need to be demoted; The titles of Liu Wei, Tao Ya, and Zhang Xun were passed down to the marquis and then turned hereditary; The titles of Yuan Xi, Gao Xun and Tai Meng were passed down to the earl and then turned hereditary.

In addition, among the many heroes who have won the title, there are several special people, these are Zhong Yangui, Zhong Kuangshi's brothers, and Qian Chuanhui, the son of Qian Biao.

The Zhong brothers promised to make them hereditary earls at the beginning, but now they are naturally not good at breaking their promises; As a descendant of Qian Di, Qian Chuanhui previously obtained the title of county duke, and now Yang Wu has changed his title to marquis, but he needs to be lowered to inherit until he finally loses his title.

For Yang Wu, although there are not many people in Wu who can obtain the title at present, he also needs to consider for future generations, if all titles can be hereditary, then in a few hundred years, won't there be a flood of titles?

However, if all titles were to be lowered to one level of succession, that would seem to be a bit too harsh; Moreover, it also makes the title no longer honorable, which is not conducive to attracting heroes.

In this era, the countries established by other feudal towns were generally very generous with the canonization of titles, and there were not a few people who were crowned princes, and there were even many who were crowned kings.

At this point, since the title of Wu is not so "generous", it needs to be compensated elsewhere, and it is a good choice to use this kind of title that can be hereditary to envelop the heroes.

In short, the current method of knighthood can allow some people to be hereditary in order to win over heroes; Second, the number of nobles can be reduced by gradually decreasing the number of nobles to prevent the proliferation of titles.

Maybe this method still treats the symptoms but not the root cause, and after a certain period of time, the number of hereditary nobles will still reach a certain number, but Yang Wu feels that it would be good if Wu Guozhen could continue until that time came.

In addition, one difference from the title system practiced in many countries in this era is that the titles canonized by the Wu State only have titles and food, but no fiefs.

In addition, Yang Wu also set the food rate of each knight relatively low to minimize the burden on the state.

For those who have been knighted, they also value the glory brought by this title more than the benefits brought by Shilu, so they have no opinion on the lower Shilu stipulated by Yang Wu.

As for the so-called death-free iron coupon, Yang Wu originally planned to give it, but then he thought that if there were really meritorious heroes who committed major crimes, then the so-called death-free iron coupons would also avoid their crimes.

On the contrary, giving iron coupons may encourage some of them to behave recklessly, and when the time comes, it will make Yang Wu embarrassed, so it is better not to give it in the first place.

On the fifteenth day of the first month of the first year of Wuyi, the hundreds of officials and generals in the court have been divided, and other grand ceremonies have been completed, and the preparations for the knighthood have also been completed.

Early in the morning, the ministers, dressed in official robes and arranged in the order of civil officials on the left and military attaches on the right, gathered outside the palace to wait for the official knighthood ceremony.

Soon after, the officials saw a group of people dressed in crowned robes, all of whom were honored and honored today.

Seeing these people, other civil and military officials who failed to obtain knighthoods couldn't help but feel envious.

Today's Wu State is in a prosperous state, with Yang Wu, the commander of the Ming monarch, Gao Mian, Li Shenfu and other capable ministers and famous generals, and 200,000 elite soldiers guarding, the future of Wu is bright, and the corresponding various titles naturally show their dignity.

At the end of the day, with the arrival of the time of the last dynasty, the drum music was suddenly played, the bell was clear, and the three palace doors were opened in turn.

Under the leadership of Gao Miao and Li Shenfu, the two heads of civil and military affairs, the officials slowly entered the main hall and lined up to wait.

After a while, Yang Wu took his wife Zhou Mengjie, eldest son Yang Jiong, and younger brother Yang Longyan, surrounded by guards, and slowly walked into the hall and sat down gently at the top of the house.

Today is not only the time to canonize these meritorious ministers, but also the time to canonize the clan and several ladies, so Zhou Mengjie, Yang Jiong, and Yang Longyan will also come together.

Yang Jiong, as Yang Wu's eldest son, although he is still young, canonizing him as the crown prince as soon as possible can also determine the difference between monarchs and ministers as soon as possible, so as to calm people's hearts and reduce disputes.

Although the so-called secret storage system of the later Manchu Qing Dynasty had many advantages and could reduce disputes, that system was somewhat difficult to play in today's Wu State.

This is because the imperial power of the Qing Dynasty is so strict, and even except for the emperor, everyone else is just the emperor's minions, plus a group of Han officials who can't even be slaves, so the emperor can decide who to appoint as the prince alone; But if Yang Wu dared to come like that, the civil and military officials were afraid that they would all jump up and oppose it.

In fact, even the secret establishment and storage system of the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not last long, like the later Empress Dowager Cixi directly held the power, and the abolition of the emperor was decided by her, and the so-called secret establishment and storage system had long been reduced to empty talk.

Therefore, if you want to establish a system and then solve the problem of establishing a prince in one fell swoop, it is just an ideal.

Yang Wu can only follow the method of passing on the throne to his father Yang Xingmi when he was alive, and in the future, he will also pass on the power to a favorite heir before his death, to see if he can open up another method of succession for future generations.

As for Yang Longyan, he is the only one among Yang Wu's many younger brothers who has reached the age of ten, so Yang Wu is only ready to canonize him for the time being, and the other younger brothers are still young, so there is no need to canonize the knighthood so quickly.

In Yang Wu's opinion, the other systems of the Ming Dynasty are not bad, but the canonization of the title of the clan is a big mistake.

Since ancient times, the princes and kings have been canonized, whether they are vassal kings with the same surname or vassal kings with different surnames, and in the end, there are almost no troubles, such as the rebellion of the seven kingdoms of the Han Dynasty, the rebellion of the eight kings of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the battle of Jingyan in the Ming Dynasty, which are typical examples.

Therefore, after Yang Wu founded the country, he did not plan to canonize the vassal kings in a big way, let alone raise the clan too much, lest the clan not only fail to become the help of Wu in the future, but would become a heavy burden on the country like the Ming Dynasty.

However, in today's troubled times, people's hearts are unpredictable.

Today's Wu State has Yang Wu, and with his authority, he can basically ensure that people with foreign surnames will not cause trouble; But who can say for sure what the future holds?

Even, although Yang Wu is a descendant, he can't guarantee how long he can live, maybe he will suddenly die of illness a few years later? Therefore, to ensure the continuation of the Wu Kingdom, you can't hope for how long he can live, but you need to really cultivate the strength of the clan to compete with the foreign surname.

If it is to prevent the clan from rebelling, so as to suppress the clan on a large scale, it may give the foreign surname a chance to take advantage of it, and it is overkill.

In short, whether it is blindly suppressing the power of the clan or wantonly canonizing the clan, these two methods are inappropriate, and it is best to find a balance between them.

The last method that Yang Wu was going to adopt was to use a method similar to that of the later Qing Dynasty to crown a few hereditary county kings, and use their power to balance the power of foreign ministers.

In addition, these few county kings who can be hereditary can only stay in Jinling, and they are not allowed to leave Beijing without Yang Wu's order, let alone interfere in local affairs, and their strength is much smaller than those vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty.

Except for these few county kings who can be hereditary, the titles of other clans can only be gradually downgraded and inherited, from the current highest county king, to the next Zhenguo Duke, Auxiliary Guogong, Zhenguo General, Auxiliary General, Fengguo General, to the last rank of Feng'en General, and then only idle clans without titles.

In addition, a child of a clan, except for those who are hereditary county kings, must also pass a certain assessment before obtaining a knighthood, and then be given a certain title according to their origin and the results of the assessment; It is the sons of those hereditary county kings, and they also have to pass the assessment to obtain the status of the prince.