The miserable vassal kings

Zhu Youjian had long known that the rebels came to the capital, thinking that they would have to spend time in the capital to have fun and drink before they would ask for a meeting with the saint!

"Call!"

"Abide by the order!"

The vassal kings came to the capital more than ten days ago. At that time, the emperor took the initiative to recruit soldiers at their own expense. Now the army has been trained for a year, and he has never said what the emperor wants them to do. Later, he personally led the army to Tsarist Russia.

When they heard that the emperor was coming back, they immediately rushed to the capital. They were previously kept in a fiefdom and could not go out. Later, the emperor lifted the restrictions, allowing them to see the great mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty.

The vassal kings who thought they were very knowledgeable were completely confused when they arrived in the capital. They also had a lot of fun in the various hotels and Yichun Towers of the capital.

Especially the official prostitutes in Yichun Building, they have all kinds of races, including Japanese beauties, Annan, Burmese beauties, Indian beauties, Korean beauties, and many Nanyang beauties. They taste all kinds of positions and tastes, and as for silver, they have some.

It’s not that the vassal kings have no gentlemen. For hundreds of years, they have been living such a decayed life and can’t do anything, so they can only live a life of scattered life and wait for death.

After learning that the emperor had returned to the capital, King Zhu Yihai of Lu immediately sent someone to call back the vassal kings who were still living in Yichun Tower, and they went to Qianqing Palace to ask for a meeting.

If the vassal kings would think of rebelling after they had their own troops? To be honest, none of these vassal kings had thought about it so much, they were not stupid. The emperor asked them to recruit soldiers and horses to deal with them. As long as they dared to move, their homes would be confiscated and their clans would be exterminated.

Besides, there were only Emperor Yongle who could successfully rebel in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di not only fought outside for many years, but also had a large number of loyal soldiers under his command. Even so, if Li Jinglong had not been the inner supporter, Zhu Di would have died many times long ago.

"Summon all the vassal kings to come in!"

The little eunuch's sharp voice came, and the vassal kings immediately walked into the Qianqing Palace. Most people had only met Zhu Youjian once, and that time the vassal was reduced.

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen sitting in a serene chair, they hurried forward to salute:

"See Your Majesty."

Zhu Youjian smiled slightly:

"No gifts, flat! Give me a seat!"

The princes hurriedly thanked:

"Thank you, my emperor, thank you for your kindness, long live my emperor!"

Zhu Youjian looked at the vassal kings in front of him. They were not many, only eleven vassal kings arrived. It was obvious that other vassal kings did not want to spend money to recruit soldiers and just wanted to live a life of scattered life.

In fact, there were a lot fewer vassal kings in the late Ming Dynasty, and most of them were destroyed by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Now there are only more than 20 vassal kings left, and it is good to have eleven vassal kings arrive.

A Ming and Hei made a statistics. In the late Ming Dynasty, between the Wanli and Chongzhen periods, there were more than 1 million descendants of the Zhu family, that is, the vassal kings in various places.

In other words, the reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's national finance was that the state finance had to allocate a large part of its expenditure to support the vassal kings in various places, so it was said that the vassal kings destroyed the Ming Dynasty.

This is purely nonsense and a slander against the old Zhu family. There are many vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty, which is indeed a heavy burden to the court, but there are only more than 200,000 people. Could it be that they ate the Ming Dynasty?

Of course, it is not entirely true that the demise of the Ming Dynasty is related to the Little Ice Age, the plagues everywhere, the greedy civil servant group, the warlords from various places, and the Emperor Chongzhen. In short, many factors are superimposed together to cause the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The most important thing is the two ministers and the three ministers. If it weren't for their disloyalty to the Ming Dynasty and their lack of the integrity of the Han people, it would be absolutely impossible for the tens of thousands of cavalrymen of the Qing Dynasty to move into the Central Plains.

In fact, some vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty did not live a good life every day, as some people said, and were full of money every day. They never worry about their livelihood.

When the Ming Empire first began, as we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang sent his children to various places to serve as vassal kings. One of the purposes of this was to make the vassal kings need to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities in various places.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang granted some children to the north as vassal kings. In addition to King Yan Zhu Di, there were other vassal kings in northern China, such as King Ning who later rebelled and King Chenyang in Northeast China.

The first situation these local vassal kings have to face is that it should be a military threat from the local enemy. That is, once they arrive at the border area, they must fulfill their responsibilities and obligations to protect the borders of the Ming Dynasty.

Later, due to the reduction of the vassal states, the vassal kings lost their military power. Except for the fact that the vassal kings could not take any action when the war came, in ordinary days, if the vassal kings in some places could choose, they might not want to choose to be descendants of the vassal kings.

Although the vassal kings who were placed in various places by the emperor were the emperor's biological flesh and bloodlines and the same clan, in fact, they were just high-level prisoners.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, after the vassal kings arrived at the local area, it can be said that as long as they walked out of the vassal king's mansion, they would be recorded by local officials. Every move of the vassal kings would be recorded by local officials and then reported to the court in Beijing. In other words, as soon as the vassal kings arrived at the local area, they would be monitored for residence.

If a vassal king wants to visit a scenic spot outside the vassal king's mansion, the first thing this vassal king needs to do is to report to local officials, or ask for leave from the emperor. Only after the consent of the local officials or the emperor's agreement can the vassal king leave his home and visit the local scenic spots and historical sites.

Not only do you have to report when going out, but you have to get the consent of local officials. There is also a rule in the Ming Dynasty that can be said to be very unkind. That is, two vassal kings are not allowed to meet.

In other words, if some vassal kings are the emperor's sons, they may also meet their brothers and sisters before leaving the palace. If two children are named vassal kings, when they arrive at the place, a pair of originally friendly brothers will never meet each other until they die.

Although there are clear rules, the vassal kings cannot engage in social work, and all living expenses of the vassal kings are borne by the finances of the state government of the Ming Dynasty.

However, some generous financial support for the vassal kings was only aimed at the important vassal kings considered by the emperor at that time. For example, the son of Emperor Wanli, the beloved King Fu, could naturally obtain a lot of economic benefits.

Some vassal kings who are also vassals of the Emperor's clan are considered by the next emperor to be relatives who do not need to exist. The lives of such vassal kings can be said to be poor.

Later, he became the Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houcong. Before becoming emperor, his father died in Anluzhou, Hubei. If history had not changed, Zhu Houcong would be just a small vassal king in Hubei after his father's death.

The location of this vassal king, Anluzhou was not very rich in resources and could not support too many people. Emperor Jiajing not only lost his father when he was young, but his brothers and sisters around him died prematurely. This was due to the court's arrears of wages and treatment for the vassal king's mansion.

There was also a King of Lingqiu. Not only was this vassal king located in a poor mountain and a bad water. The treatment that the vassal king should have was shirked by the civil servants, and the court owed him the money for fifty years.

Not to mention other local vassal kings with distant blood like King Lingqiu. Some children of vassal kings really couldn't stand such a life, and they ended up starving to death and wandering to beg for food.
Chapter completed!