Soon, except for the two sons who were too young to study their homework, the emperor had already compared the homework of the crown prince and the sons of the four kings, and on the whole it was quite satisfactory. Although his sons showed different learning interests and attitudes, but basically began to learn, even the most disliked prince Zhao Hu, at least showed a strong ambition to join the army, without that kind of procrastination atmosphere, which has made the emperor very pleased - he does not expect each of his princes to be able to become the dragon and phoenix among the people, but he can't tolerate mediocrity, just want to enjoy the glory and wealth of his sons, he can give his sons a lifetime of wealth, But at least hopefully they can do something meaningful with their own interests.

After finishing the homework and letting the princes leave the study, the prince was left alone.

"What do you think of your younger brothers, prince?" As soon as they left, the emperor asked the prince with a smile.

"The younger brothers have their own ambitions, and they are alive and well...... Erchen was very happy. The prince hurriedly replied, "As long as the younger brothers can become successful, and when they grow up and support my family's social affairs with their sons, the country of the Han Dynasty will definitely be as unshakable as iron and copper!" ”

"That's good, that's good......" The emperor smiled, and then suddenly sighed, "Don't be jealous of your brothers, son, they are all your helpers!" ”

"Father......" The prince was a little confused by his father's sudden words, and then seemed to understand something, "Father, don't worry, son...... Erchen will never have any suspicion of his brothers, and will definitely treat them with sincerity! ”

He understood the meaning of his father's words, which he feared that he would dislike his younger brothers because they were all talented.

Inspired by a series of lessons from the previous Ming Dynasty, the emperor re-created a new system of clans and vassals after the establishment of the new dynasty to encourage the clans to work hard.

In the former Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang originally implemented the feudalization, and he sent his sons to the critical places one by one, so as to defend the central government as a screen domain. In Zhu Yuanzhang's era, the vassal kings had their own private armies, and many of them were also generals, and it was precisely because of this that Zhu Di had the opportunity to accumulate his military experience and prestige in the process of leading troops to fight, and launched the Battle of Jingjing, and seized the throne of Emperor Jianwen, the crown prince.

Since becoming an ancestor, because of the lessons of absorbing the lessons of Chengzu Jingnan who led to a change of branch line, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were very careless in the education of the princes who were not heirs, and they were very protective of the clan vassal kings, not to mention leading the troops to fight, and even the dealings with the courtiers were very jealous.

Moreover, under the high pressure of the imperial court, the feudal clans in various places could not easily leave the fiefdoms, and the slightest misdeeds would be severely punished - as for bullying men and women, disturbing the local area, and expropriating tyranny, the imperial court did not take much care of it, but allowed them to inherit their titles and property from generation to generation. Moreover, the vassal kings were hereditary, and even the sons of each generation of vassal kings who did not inherit the throne could become county kings and continue to receive an extra portion.

In the reproduction of generations, each palace of the Ming Dynasty has bred a very large number of people, a large part of these people have high-level titles, and their consumption of Yulu is a huge amount, which has become a heavy burden on the Ming court, which has objectively increased the exploitation of the people by the Ming court and intensified the social contradictions.

It is also under the influence of this clan policy that most of the vassal clans of the former Ming Dynasty did not produce or do business, and they fed all day long with the lords passed down from generation to generation, and some even ran rampant in various places, doing a lot of illegal things, causing public resentment to boil everywhere.

In the process of starting out, the Xuzhou forces also clashed with these vassal forces, and in these conflicts, they saw clearly the greed and cruelty of these clans of the Ming Dynasty and their inwardness, so the emperor was extremely disdainful of these clans, and even looked down on this pro-vassal system at all.

When formulating the pro-vassal policy, the emperor first abolished the pre-Ming Dynasty's "all vassal kings are hereditary replacement", he said that the sons of each generation of emperors can become vassal kings, if these vassal kings are all hereditary replacement, then in a few hundred years, how many vassal kings should there be in the world? How much wealth should they take from the people of the world?

Therefore, in line with the principle of "the fifth generation of the gentleman is beheaded", the emperor referred to the system of the former Han and other dynasties, and formulated the rule that the title of each vassal king will be reduced until the title is cancelled after a few generations. Of course, in order to encourage the feudal kings to contribute to the country, he also made a special provision that if any of the feudal kings was awarded a special honor by the state, he could be appointed as a hereditary prince - that is, it became a special case among the clans, and the eldest son of each generation could inherit the title of prince.

Zhao Hu, the king of Qi, wants to join the army and fight for the country so much, in addition to the kind of hero worship unique to young people, I have to say that he also wants to make great contributions to the country and then earn the honor of hereditary prince.

King Qi's mind is not particularly well understood, but he likes this brother who was born with the same mother very much. Although this younger brother doesn't like to read, he is very straightforward and has a lot of respect for his brother, so he has never had any thoughts about his younger brother, and now that the emperor says this, to be honest, the prince still has some grievances in his heart.

"I don't want you to wronged yourself, let your younger brothers do everything," the emperor shook his head, "You are the crown prince and their eldest brother, they should obey your orders of course, as long as you can treat them with fairness and sincerity." ”

"Erchen...... Erchen understood. Although the prince was a little unsure, he still bowed his head and agreed, "Erchen will definitely treat his younger brothers well." ”

"I've finished their exams, and you're almost done well in your studies, so now I'll test you for something else." The emperor suddenly changed the subject, "Although you have begun to understand the affairs of Japan now, why don't I ask you a few questions today to see how well you understand." ”

The sudden change in the topic made the prince unable to react for a while. "Huh? Belch...... Please show me to my father. ”

Although his father had not said that he was going to take the test before, so that the prince was not prepared, but his father was the emperor, so naturally he had the final say, even if he suddenly felt wronged, he could only be helpless.

"Now you naturally know that Japan is governed by the shogunate and the imperial court is a puppet, right? Then I ask you, who was the founder of the shogunate, and who is the current ruler? "The emperor's first question, which was decent, did not surprise the prince.

"Erchen has read a lot of introductions about the shogunate before, and now Erchen knows that the name of the Edo shogunate is Tokugawa Ieyasu, he was a warlord in Japan before, and he rose in more than a hundred years of chaos and unified Japan." The crown prince regained his composure, and then talked eloquently, "The current shogun is Tokugawa Iemitsu, he is the eldest grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, that is, the eldest son of the second general Tokugawa Hidetada, Tokugawa Hidetada passed the position of general to him more than ten years ago, and he became the Taishang Shogun, sharing power with Tokugawa Iemitsu." Now, Tokugawa Hidetada has died, so Japan is the exclusive power of Tokugawa Iemitsu...... He was arrogant and arrogant, and he acted decisively and ruthlessly, so he suppressed the Japanese court and made it miserable......"

"Okay, it seems that you know a little bit about it, and you can talk about it in generalities." The emperor nodded, as if he approved of his reply, "Okay, let me ask you again, apart from these Tokugawa generals, who else do you know from the Tokugawa family?" ”

This question was unexpected by the prince, so the prince was stunned again, and finally could only bow his head stupidly, "Father forgives the sin, son...... Erchen hasn't learned that yet. ”

"The most important thing in fighting a war is to know oneself and the other, if you only know a general idea, then it will not work." The emperor reproached, but said not harshly, "However, you are only this age, and you have only just come into contact with this matter, so it is understandable that you don't know much." Well, let me tell you now, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Hidetada both had a lot of children, Tokugawa Ieyasu had eleven sons, but some of them died young, or some of them passed on to other families, so he passed on the throne to his third son, Tokugawa Hidetada; Tokugawa Hidetada had four sons, but because the eldest son died young, the second son, Tokugawa Ieyasu, succeeded him as a shogun. ”

"Erchen knows."

"I'm not done yet, don't worry." The father just smiled, "Tokugawa Hidetada originally didn't really want Tokugawa Iemitsu as the heir, and he and his wife both liked the third son, Tokugawa Tadanaga. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu who forced Hidetada to take Iemitsu as his heir based on the principle of standing up. So Jiaguang and his younger brother have a knot...... When Xiuzhong was the general of Taishang, Jiaguang, the general, had already turned his face with his younger brother Zhongchang, and found excuses to severely punish Zhongchang several times, and now that Xiuzhong is dead, Jiaguang immediately can't wait to deal with this younger brother, but I am afraid that he will be forced to death as soon as possible. ”

Fighting for the throne, brothers cannibalism...... The prince's heart suddenly became nervous, and while his father was talking about him and his younger brother, he suddenly jumped on the Tokugawa brothers again, could it be that he was implying something?

For a moment, he felt a little aggrieved - how could he have ever done the slightest harm to his brothers in his heart?

"The shogunate was unstable, and the retainers thought it was a good thing, and the more Tokugawa Iemitsu persecuted Tokugawa Tadanaga, the more we could take advantage of the shogunate's internal contradictions. Tokugawa Tadanaga is definitely not willing to be forced to death by his brother because of this, and he will definitely find a way to fight back, possibly ...... If you can, you will ask us for help. The prince deliberately avoided what he feared the most, and answered from another aspect. If we can hold Tadashi in our hands, it will inevitably make the shogunate even more anxious. Maybe...... Maybe after the war, Tadashi could be used as a puppet ...... shogunate? ”