"Your Majesty, these superintendents are actually similar to those overseers sent by you, Your Majesty, but I think it is necessary to limit the power of these 'superintendents', otherwise it will easily cause an imbalance of power and responsibility between the two sides. At that time, the two sides involuntarily clashed, and in the end they could only fall apart. And this will not only lead to the inability to cooperate, and then it is easy to miss the big thing. And the best way is to set up a system for the so-called supervision of the army, and the charter of this royal service group is actually an operating system. And use the system to constrain the power of those directors, so that they can operate steadily. As long as everyone can perform their own responsibilities under the charter and clarify the rights and obligations of both parties, then they will not be prone to conflict. ”

"Otherwise, if there is no charter to bind both sides, it will inevitably lead to the danger of fighting for power. The prison army you sent represents the supreme imperial power, and this is called the prison army, but it is up to them to decide whether they manage it, how to manage it, and to what extent. This is very dangerous, and if you encounter a weak overseer, you may end up being overridden by the main general. But if you encounter a strong prison army, it will definitely lead to the usurpation of the power of the main general, and then the layman leads the insider, so how can you not lose the battle? And the best way to do that is to keep them cooperative, but not to create a lack of clarity of authority and responsibility. ”

After Li Yuan heard this, he immediately became a little interested. Because Li Yuan has also sent prison troops, and they are all eunuchs as prison soldiers. Eunuchs supervising the army has also been a system since ancient times, because eunuchs have no fertility and naturally have no offspring, so they are almost very loyal to the emperor and will not betray. And let those eunuchs supervise the army, they can effectively restrain the behavior of the front-line generals on behalf of the emperor, and can supervise the front-line generals to avoid them betraying the emperor.

However, the side effects of the prison army are also very huge. Because the prison army represents the emperor's distrust, and the prison army sent is not a good person, they often use the imperial power to seize the power of the main general, causing internal strife in the army. In this way, once there is a power struggle within the armed forces and the command power is not clear, it will inevitably fall into a kind of civil strife in the end. Such civil strife can easily be seized by the enemy, and then take the opportunity to defeat himself. How to effectively restrain the relationship between the overseer and the commander-in-chief, so that they can operate normally while maintaining a certain amount of fighting, that is the best way. This not only ensures that there will be no civil strife in the army, but also allows the generals to give full play to their command skills, and the supervising army can also avoid betrayal by the generals.

But it's too hard to do that. This originated from the king's distrust of the generals, and they involuntarily sent the overseers, but the superintendents were granted the imperial power that represented the infinity, so that within the army he was also the emperor, and this was actually a power struggle between the courtiers and the emperor.

"Your Majesty, there are actually multiple reasons for the conflict between the prison army and the front-line generals. And the main reason is that the power and obligations of the two sides are unbalanced, just like winning a battle, the general and the overseer are promoted together and rewarded. However, if the battle is lost, almost all the responsibility lies with the generals, and the overseers are rarely punished. As a result, the prison guards did not care about the outcome of the war, they only cared about how much power they could gain and how much benefit they could get. Anyway, if you win, you will get the emperor's reward, and if you lose, there is no problem most of the time. In such a situation where power and responsibility are completely unequal, the prison army naturally has nothing to fear. Zhang Chao said.

Li Yuan was suddenly a little embarrassed, and what Zhang Chao said was also true, because the relationship between the supervising army and the generals has been very complicated since ancient times. However, the powers and responsibilities of both parties are different. The supervising army represents the infinite imperial power, has the supreme right to adjudicate and command the army, and represents the emperor's command. But on the other hand, they have so much power, but not many obligations. After winning the battle, he was promoted with the generals, but once he failed, most of the time the generals in charge of the command were responsible, and the supervising army interfered in the command but was not responsible, everything was carried by the generals. Therefore, this is clearly an asymmetry of power and obligations, which gives the prison army nothing to fear.

Of course, no emperor would admit that he favored the prison army. Because the prison army represents the imperial power, the imperial power cannot be wrong, so the prison army representing the imperial power naturally cannot be wrong, and the punishment of the prison army is also a slap in the face to a certain extent. However, this problem has not been solved, and how to avoid the defeat of the war caused by the prison army is also the reason that has troubled countless emperors.

"You say, how should this be solved?" Li Yuan asked.

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "Actually, the best way is to tie the two of them together." If you win, then naturally the two will be promoted together. But if the army fails, both of them must be punished together, and there can be no favoritism. This is the best way to cure the symptoms and cure the root cause. ”

"Well, do you say anything else?" Li Yuan asked.

Zhang Chao heard Li Yuan talking about him left and right, although he listened to it, but he was not able to really make up his mind to change, Zhang Chao sighed a little. Because Li Yuan still thinks of an ancient emperor after all, he still thinks that imperial power is very important and cannot be easily punished. And the supervising army that represents the emperor naturally represents the imperial power, and if they are punished, it means that there is a taste of self-slapping. Although Li Yuan understood, he didn't think about solving it, but thought about using other methods. This kind of thing that violates the strict authority of the emperor will not take the initiative to slap himself unless it is absolutely necessary. Therefore, slapping oneself for a defeat is impossible in the eyes of the vast majority of emperors.

"As for the rest, there are still ways to do it. That is to say, the division of power between the superintendent and the chief general is agreed in advance. In the past, the emperor sent a prison army, but in most cases, it would not be explained that the prison army was in charge, how to manage it, and to what extent, right? Zhang Chao asked.

And Li Yuan immediately said: "Yes! I'm all about improvising them and being able to act cheaply! ”

"Your Majesty, this power is too great, which is equivalent to completely handing over the command of the army to a eunuch to supervise the army. This almost infinite imperial power is in the supreme control of the army, and you are responsible for commanding it on your behalf. And in this case, after leaving the emperor's side, pretending to be a grandson in front of the emperor on weekdays, they have been suppressed for too long, can they not want to be an uncle after they go out? And Your Majesty, you have once again given them such a huge amount of power, they will definitely use it for their own benefit. But this is moving the power of the main general, and they will definitely have a conflict. ”

"So the best way is to limit part of the power of this prison army, so that they don't have infinite power. We have set up rules for the overseers so that they are only responsible for the final decision, not the right to make plans. All battle plans are planned by the Lord, and the Overseers do not need to be personally involved, but only need to review the final plan. They don't need to be too proficient in military affairs, they just need to know basic common sense, after all, they are mainly supervisors, not commands. The supervising army can be responsible for handling the affairs of military law, food, grass and ordnance in the army, etc., and hold power, instead of restricting the generals in the command of the army and fighting wars. As long as the army's ordnance, food, and grass are grasped, as well as military law, the problem will not be too big, and it will not interfere in the command of the army, and then cause the army to easily fail. ”

After listening to Zhang Chao's words, Li Yuan was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Then how to master this degree?" As you suggested, set up a charter so that both the overseer and the general can find a mutually acceptable outcome, and then avoid the two sides interfering too much with each other and then causing conflicts? But how do you get this level of mastery? How do you set a mutually acceptable equilibrium outcome? ”

"Your Majesty, this is to be obtained by long-term experiments. When we set up this Royal Service Group, we can actually let them gradually figure out a set of appropriate degrees. When the time comes, we can try to find a balance between the two sides so that we can prepare for the future development of a charter on the supervision of the army. Zhang Chao said.

Li Yuan was immediately surprised: "You want to test this charter on the supervision of the army in the Royal Service Group?" Aren't you afraid that something will go wrong? ”

"Your Majesty, it's better to have a problem in the Royal Service Group than in the army!" Zhang Chao said.

"You're right, if something goes wrong in the Royal Service, it's just a loss of some money. But if there is a problem in the army, the consequences will be ......" Li Yuan didn't say, but it was enough to make people very afraid.

Li Yuan was also very satisfied with Zhang Chao's words, because Li Yuan would not mind Zhang Chao testing this charter about the future supervision of the army in the Royal Service Group. Because if the contradiction between the prison army and the military generals can be resolved, and a set of regulations can be explored on an experiment, then this is very helpful for a country's army. The relationship between the supervising army and the generals has been a long-standing and difficult problem since ancient times, and if this long-standing and difficult problem can be solved, it will definitely benefit a lot.

Li Yuan began to ponder for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Zhang Chao, you said that the power of the prison army should be limited. However, the prison army represents my imperial power, do you think that the imperial power should also be limited? Shouldn't my imperial power be supreme and infinite? ”

And when Zhang Chao heard this, his face couldn't help but change, what did this Li Yuan want to do. This Li Yuan was so sensitive that he actually heard the subconscious meaning of Zhang Chao's words, that is, to limit the imperial power. However, Zhang Chao did not put forward this concept, but Li Yuan actually took the initiative to ask it, which is enough to show that Li Yuan is still very sensitive to this aspect. Zhang Chao was a little hesitant in his heart, and he didn't know how to answer, because it was very dangerous if this answer was not good.

In ancient times, imperial power was supreme, and it seemed that imperial power should be infinite, but he actually subconsciously put forward the concept of limiting imperial power, and let Li Yuan notice it. If you don't answer well, you may be treated as a flood beast by Li Yuan, and then you will clean it up fiercely. Because for the ancient emperors, proposing to limit the imperial power would inevitably make them very dissatisfied, and even very hateful. Those emperors wished that they could hold more and more power, hoping that all the power in the world could be concentrated in the hands of one person.

However, if Zhang Chao directly said that he would limit the imperial power, he would inevitably be guarded against as a flood beast. So you have to be careful about this, otherwise it will definitely be very troublesome. If the answer is not good, then maybe Li Yuan can't help but pull himself to cut him on the spot. This era is not the later generations, and the proposals of the later generations to limit power and put power in a cage have been very common, but all kinds of people advocate limiting the power of officials, and only by limiting power can it be stable. In later generations, when it was said that the power of officials was restricted, even the vast majority of officials would not dare to let go of a fart, because the times are different, and later generations have long passed the era of autocracy and centralization.

Now, if you advocate any democracy and restrict imperial power, you will lose your head if you don't play well. So Zhang Chao's mind was running rapidly, and he wanted to solve this problem in front of him. How to make Li Yuan accept his ideas, how to make Li Yuan agree with Zhang Chao's idea of reducing power, this is the most important thing.

After a while, Zhang Chao immediately thought of where to start.

"Your Majesty, in fact, the infinite imperial power may not be a good thing for the royal family!" Zhang Chao said first.

And Li Yuan immediately turned around, and then his face became serious. When the eunuchs next to him saw this situation, they were all scared into a cold sweat, obviously afraid of this. And they are all scolding Zhang Chao, they really don't want to be headed, and they actually say that the supreme imperial power is not a good thing for the royal family. This is simply looking for death, and many people are also watching whether Emperor Li Yuan will pull Zhang Chao down and cut him down on the spot. The dragon has reverse scales, and he will die when he touches it, and as an emperor, his reverse scales are also imperial power, and if the imperial power is affected, this is definitely going to be angry.

But Zhang Chao actually dared to take the initiative to greet him, and he actually dared to take the initiative to touch the emperor's scales like this, this is simply too bold, and he doesn't care about danger at all.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the power of the world is conserved, and if you have absolute power, your emperor, then the final power will definitely be lost in your successor. Would the Emperor like to hear my statement on the conservation of power? Zhang Chao said calmly.

"Speak!" Li Yuan said one word.