At the same time as the large-scale awarding of knighthoods to meritorious heroes, the empire also further improved the relevant systems such as noble succession, stipulating the primogeniture inheritance system, and the younger brother inherited by the younger brother, but the emperor's approval was required for both the eldest son and the brother's succession.

If the emperor felt that the original heir was not qualified to inherit the title, he decreed that the heir should be chosen from among the other heirs.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the emperor will not interfere in the internal affairs of other families, and only the original heir will be too stubborn to intervene directly.

These are some of the succession systems for the titles of foreign ministers, and later there are detailed regulations on the titles of members of the imperial family, stipulating that the prince can be crowned prince or prince of the county, and reiterating the rule that 'no prince can be crowned king'.

The prince's son-in-law can inherit the title of marquis, and then reduce the hereditary rank according to the ordinary title, and remove the title after the hereditary rank is reduced to the baron.

The prince's other sons who have no right of inheritance may be made viscounts or barons after examination, and the descendants of the men who are named viscounts will be reduced to hereditary barons, and the barons will be removed directly after the barons.

The son-in-law of the king of the county can inherit the title of earl, and the subsequent hereditary title will be reduced according to the ordinary title, and the baron will be removed after the reduction.

The other sons of the county king who have no right to inherit, that is, the emperor's grandson, can be named a baron after passing the examination, and his descendants will be directly removed from the title.

Among them, the sons of princes and county kings who do not have the right to inherit do not mean that they can all obtain the title of viscount or baron, but must pass the examination, and if they are really stubborn and fail to pass the examination, they will not be able to obtain the title.

At the same time, it is stipulated that members of the imperial family after four generations after the emperor, regardless of whether they have a title or not, are not allowed to continue to be entered into the register of the inner chamber of the clan, that is, the royal family membership is stripped of their status. Reinstated as a commoner, but still entitled to the throne. This is just in case, in case of an accident that the royal family is served in a pot. At least the heir to the throne can be found from the remote side branches.

These title systems for members of the royal family were far more stringent than those of the Ming and Qing dynasties, so as to avoid the emergence of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of clans in later generations.

The reduction of the hereditary rank and the direct removal of the baron after the baron are all effective measures to effectively control the royal family and nobles, which are ordinary courtiers and nobles.

Of course, if a member of a family is really capable, then it is still possible to continue to maintain glory and wealth, even if it is reduced to the hereditary baron, in case this baron is really a talent, and there is a big explosion of talent. Maybe he can live a higher title like his ancestors

At the same time, this system of reducing the hereditary rank and removing the knight is also to encourage the descendants of the nobles not to get drunk and dream of death, if you want to maintain the glory and wealth of the family, then you must continue to work hard and work hard.

But in any case, these nobles who are currently sealed out by the empire can at least guarantee the wealth of the family for a hundred years or more, and these are things that these founding heroes have been pursuing for many years.

After the large-scale knighthood, Lin Zhe also quietly gave his eldest son Lin Xuan (Qing fourth tone) and second son Lin Lu (he fourth tone) the lowest baron.

In the imperial title system, although it is said that a non-prince cannot be crowned a king. But it doesn't mean that the prince will be able to be crowned king, and other titles can also be crowned

In the past few years, the attention to the heir to the throne within the empire has not diminished, but it is due to Lin Zhe's hardline attitude. In the early years, the courtiers who had the courage to suggest that Lin Zheli be the prince were all demoted or dismissed without exception.

Therefore, even after Concubine An Zhuang, one of the nine concubines, gave birth to a second prince for Lin Zhe in 1860, no minister dared to ask for the above to become a prince.

However, not making the above reserves public does not mean that they do not pay attention. For an imperial state, the heir is the foundation of the state. It is for the country.

Since Lin Zhe ascended the throne as emperor, there has been no clear designation of the succession system. There is no prince or anything like that. Up to now, whether it is the courtiers outside or the Empress Dowager Lin or the Empress Chen Jing and others in the palace, they don't know what method Lin Zhe will use to determine the heir in the future, whether it is according to the ancient traditional primogeniture inheritance system, or whether it is to use a secret prince or other methods.

Outsiders don't know this, in fact, Lin Zhe himself also feels a little headache about choosing an heir, if the empire he established is a constitutional monarchy, and the monarch's power is greatly limited, then the heir is actually not very important, anyway, it is just a puppet, and the primogeniture inheritance system is the simplest and most convenient.

But the crux of the matter is that the Chinese Empire established by Lin Zhe was not a constitutional monarchy, but an imperial autocracy with almost unlimited power over the emperor, and the requirements for the heirs of such a state were actually quite high.

Considering that in the next few decades, it is estimated that it will be the twentieth century by the time the heir ascends to the throne, when World War I and World War II were the era of the greatest changes in the world pattern, and at the same time, various currents of thought will continue to pour in, and it is foreseeable that in the next few decades there will definitely be various revolutions, people, elections, freedoms, constitutions, and other arguments.

The requirements for the heir of these things are actually quite high, and if one does not do it well, he may turn himself into Nicholas II or Wilhelm II.

Worries about the future made Lin Zhe unable to determine the candidate for the heir, but one thing that is very certain is that Lin Zhe must choose the model of Lixian, that is, whoever among his sons has the ability to be the emperor, then he will choose whom, and whether to use the secret to establish the prince or directly and publicly become the prince will be said later.

And to make sure that the prince has this talent, it is definitely impossible to see it now, now among his two sons, the eldest son Lin Xuan is only a few years old, and he is still a little kid who plays all day long, and the second son Lin Xuan is still being held and nursed every day.

However, Lin Zhe has never told outsiders about these thoughts, and others naturally do not know that Lin Zhe has begun to consider the world situation and changes after 1900 and even World War II.

But it's good not to know this, at least for now, all forces feel that there is hope that the prince they support will be sent to the throne of the emperor.

For example, Empress Dowager Lin, her favorite is naturally the eldest son of the emperor Lin Zhan who grew up in person, she thinks that this eldest son of the emperor is as good as he is, and she has already hinted at Lin Zhe several times that Lin Xuan is so good, and even suggested that Queen Chen Jing take Lin Xuan to her side to raise, so that Lin Xuan's identity will change from the eldest son of the emperor to the eldest son.

However, although Chen Jing has no children for the time being, she and Lin Zhe are still young, and they have been actively recuperating in the past two years, preparing to give birth to the third generation, who said that she can't give birth to a son, so Chen Jing is now not interested in raising the sons of other concubines.

In addition, many people in the cabinet support Lin Zhe's second son, Lin Luan, and the reason why the ministers in the cabinet support Lin Lu is naturally because of the background of Lin Luan's mother, An Zhuang Concubine.

Concubine An Zhuang is the daughter of An Nuping, the existing Guangdong Huichao Jiadao member, and this An Nuping is a very typical new-style bureaucrat in the imperial officialdom.

In his early years, he worked as a comprador in a foreign firm, joined the Yamen of the then business zone in 1854, served as the magistrate of a county in Zhejiang in 1856, and served as the prefect of Ningbo Prefecture in Zhejiang in 1857.

However, this did not bring him any official Hengtong, because in the traditional Chinese concept, the so-called foreign relatives are extremely strict in guarding against forces.

Except for the fact that An Nuping received the lowest baronial title in 1860 because An Zhuang Concubine gave birth to a second prince, he actually did not gain any benefits from An Zhuang Concubine.

The reason why he was promoted to Guangdong Huichao Jiadao was that he worked hard for four years in the prefect of Ningbo, and developed Ningbo from a small port into an industrial and foreign trade port city in the south of the Yangtze River second only to Shanghai, and the prefect of Ningbo allowed him to triple the gross national output value of Ningbo Prefecture, and its industrial output value exceeded that of Hangzhou Prefecture and other prefectures and counties in Zhejiang such as Huzhou.

Won the evaluation of the organization department's four words of 'good at industry and commerce', and then promoted to Guangdong Huichao Jiadao and became a deputy provincial official.

And this person has a good reputation, and at the same time has good political achievements, he is one of the more outstanding members of the maiden family of many concubines in the harem, and he is not a traditional bureaucrat, but a new bureaucrat.

This is noteworthy for many high-ranking civil officials in the empire, and the son born to his daughter An Zhuang Concubine is also worth paying attention to.

However, when the civilian officials have secretly said many times that they will support the second prince or other princes with the background of the civilian faction, the military has always been very conservative about the issue of heirs.

All the high-ranking military officials, whether in public or in private, have always said that they support the eldest son of the emperor Lin Xuan or the second prince Lin Xuan, which is also a unified statement, and the issue of the crown prince is related to the foundation of the empire, and it is necessary to be cautious and cautious.

This so-called prudence actually means that the issue of the crown prince will be discussed later, at least until Empress Chen Jing has the eldest son.

These military generals are actually more conservative than the civilian officials in the cabinet, and as the people who control the army, they are more afraid of division or even civil war because of the heir issue, so in their opinion, the primogeniture is the best, so everyone should not fight.

In addition, this is also related to Bi Yutong, who is Bi Yutong? He is the maternal uncle of Queen Chen Jing!

And Bi Yutong is not only the prime minister of the cabinet, but also the general office of the battalion in Yu Sheng's army in his early years, and in his early years, he personally went to the battlefield to fight with a group of generals in the military, and although the current civil and military disputes in the empire have been relatively fierce, but Bi Yutong's relationship with several core bosses in the military is still good, in the early years, he drank and bragged with Shi Langyi, Shi Qingxuan, Xu Yanqing, Lin Chengfei and others.

Lin Zhe's many concubines, there are no daughters of military generals, when Lin Zhe was selected as a concubine, the cabinet, especially the Minister of Education Jiang Daoquan, desperately resisted the selection of any woman with a military background to enter the palace, and even put on a posture that if any woman with a military background entered the palace as a concubine, then he would immediately hit the pillar and die. (To be continued.) )