After Yongle, in order to prevent the feudal king from rebelling, while giving him a generous amount of rice to maintain the righteousness of the heavenly family, various restrictions on the clan also successively [went out] of the stage, such as the prince reached a certain age after the feudal kingdom, he must go out to the feudal country, and he was not allowed to enter Beijing unless he was edicted in the future.

The vassal kings also had many restrictions on the fiefdom, such as the two kings were not allowed to see each other, and they were not allowed to leave the fiefdom without reason, even if they went out of the city and provincial tombs, they had to apply in advance, and they could only do so after getting permission. Except for his birthday, the vassal king is not allowed to drink alcohol with the priest and is not allowed to make friends with the priest;

If that's all, what is even more outrageous is that the clan is not allowed to participate in politics, serve as officials, and engage in the business of the four people, such as scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants. It can be said that the eunuch will never be, the farmer and the merchant are not allowed to enter Beijing without a purpose, and those who go out of the city to cross the pass to the Beijing division will be asked to reform the people first, and then send them to the Fengyang high wall to encircle them, and the people who go with them will be sent to the border guards to fill the army;

The ban was strict for a while, until the Jiajing period developed to its peak, such as the children of the clan are not allowed to leave the country without permission, there are people who live in the countryside, although a hundred miles away, they must go to the house three times in ten days, if the first period is not reached, that is, the detention place, the next trial center, conviction and punishment; From the county king to the guest of honor, it is forbidden to associate with civil and military officials and banquets during the year; Asking for a name, asking for marriage is also very strict, without permission, you can only get married.

It was not until after Wanli that the ban was loosened, allowing the clan without a title to engage in the business of the four people, and the imperial court also because of the emptiness of the treasury, so that the distribution of rice by the clan with a title was becoming increasingly insufficient, and most of the time they secretly engaged in agriculture, industry, and commerce to make money to subsidize the family's illegal behavior, most of the time they also turned a blind eye, but there are lords and clans to participate in politics, take charge of the army and befriend the government, these are still strictly prohibited, once found, they will be severely reprimanded, and the high wall of Fengyang Mansion will be banned.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the great Confucian Gu Yanwu talked about the clan, he once said: "Most of the people who are clans and vassals in the dynasty are indulged in wealth and nobility, arrogant and arrogant, and do not know etiquette." Its poorest people are chasing for food, and they don't do anything, and they are called heavenly branches, but they are actually discarded. ”

This point-to-the-point argument vividly depicts the embarrassing situation of the Ming Dynasty's clans.

Since Li Zicheng's uprising, to now the Ming Dynasty has fallen in the north and south, only a corner of the south is left, the feudal clan in the north or Huguang in the south, Jiangxi and other places of the vassal clan either fled or was killed, hundreds of thousands of local clans were almost killed, the power of the clan was not strong, since then the number has decreased sharply, and the economic and political power is unprecedentedly weakened.

Yan Qiheng thought of the idea of chasing and rewarding, which made Zhu Youlang rao, three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, more than 300 vassal kings, and now almost all of them were killed, and they fled to Zhaoqing, the capital of Xingdu, and the dozen or twenty relatives who were not killed, and the county kings also lost their vassal states, were poor and destitute, and they all relied on the court to help them live.

There are only three vassal kings who really still retain their domains and have huge wealth: King Min of Wugang, Hunan, King Jingjiang of Guilin, Guangxi, and King Huai of Shaozhou, Guangdong.

They are all inherited from the period of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, inherited hundreds of years of old qualifications, each rich and rival the country, millions of taels of family assets, hoarding hundreds of thousands of stones of grain, if it were not for Zhu Youlang leading the troops to resist the Qing army to keep these territories in Lingnan, their property would be cheaper than the Qing army, and they were swept away.

If the family assets of these three vassal kings are recovered, it is conservatively estimated that they can get five or six million taels of goods and hundreds of thousands of stone coarse grain, and the center of the Ming Dynasty will not have to worry about the lack of military expenses and food for at least two years.

But those feudal kings did not make any big mistakes, and the rash pursuit may cause civil discussions, Zhu Youlang expressed his worries, but Yan Qiheng insisted that millions of taels of silver could be chased to solve the urgent need.

In addition to a large amount of military spending, the provinces reorganized and reorganized the local guard soldiers or town soldiers, rebuilt the battalions, eliminated the old and weak, trained the new army, eliminated redundant officials, reformed the military system, the official system, etc., all required a large amount of money turnover, and it was urgent, and even the first assistant Qu Shiyun also supported the imperial court to pursue the indiscriminate rewards of the clan.

"If you take it without guilt, it's hard to block the mouth of Youyou!" Although Zhu Youlang agreed very much in his heart, he had long wanted to exterminate those parasites of the empire, and on the surface he had to pretend to be very embarrassed, obviously wanting to benefit without damaging his reputation and offending those royal clansmen.

Qu Shiyun also didn't have a good impression of those clan vassal kings, and when he was in charge of the region, he hated those sects' rampant vassal states, domineering, and extravagant behavior.

In particular, the Taizu Yuan branch of King Jingjiang and King Min, when the fortunes of the Ming Dynasty were declining, they did not want to donate family resources to serve the country, but hid their ambitions, took advantage of the chaotic situation, wantonly recruited wolf soldiers, won over the Tusi tribe, bought local civil and military, and cultivated power.

When the southern capital fell, Hongguang was martyred, and the emperor was left without an owner, the king of Jingjiang was even more ambitious, taking the opportunity to rebel, raiding the prefectures and counties, ruining the situation, and engaging in a big fight.

After being captured by King Jingjiang, at the critical moment, if Jiao Lian hadn't helped him escape from the cage in time, he might have been killed by King Jingjiang.

If the situation was difficult before, the people were in turmoil, and the court was busy resisting the Qing army, and did not have the energy to deal with them, now Huguang and Jiangxi are tug-of-war, and the defensive position has been initially completed, and the time is obviously ripe.

Qu Shiyun has made up his mind, and his mentality is already very stable, he said indifferently: "If you want to add sin, why bother? The matter can be handed over to the old minister, and the order to pursue the indiscriminate reward will be issued in the name of the cabinet! "So I plan to be this infamous villain for the emperor.

Looking at Qu Shiyun's calm and firm eyes, Zhu Youlang couldn't help nodding secretly, he felt that his original judgment was right, this Qu Shiyun's position in dealing with certain things was certainly a little narrow and paranoid, and there were some selfishness.

As a person, living in a floating world, who would not have a little selfishness? As long as there is no loss in the big festival and the interests of the country can always be put first.

What Zhu Youlang values most about Qu Shiyun is that he dares to take responsibility, has the courage to do things, is meticulous in his work, does not push and shove, and is conscientious, even if his ability is limited, at least he will not discount it at will, and there is an essential difference between him and other politicians and bureaucrats who are superficial and only know that they compete for power and profit, and form parties for personal gain.

Zhu Youlang thought about it again and again, and finally acquiesced in the proposal of the ministers to pursue the rotten reward of the sect.