Transmigrated to the Great Ming Dynasty, I became Emperor Zhu Youxiao, the Carpenter Emperor. Well then, I'll hide behind the scenes; I'll take the blame, and you all go die.
After all, the family has descendants, and being granted a title is always better than having nothing.
According to the current rules of the Ming Dynasty, many children in a family are granted imperial favors, and the positions of generals who have made military achievements are usually hereditary. This is directly related to the system of the Ming Dynasty.
This is what Zhu Youxiao wanted to change. If he abolished it directly, it would make people dissatisfied and even cause a big backlash in the military. This is not what Zhu Youxiao wanted to see.
Although Zhu Youxiao's reforms have not yet reached the deep water zone and have not touched the fundamental interests, they are not shallow either.
Stability is very important and we cannot cause too much turmoil.
According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, soldiers with military merits were usually hereditary Jinyiwei, or even hereditary local commanders. This was not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty, and even Qi Jiguang's family was a hereditary military household.
For the lower-level military households, such a system is not good. It makes their lives very difficult and oppressive.
For military officers, however, this hereditary system guaranteed them real wealth and prosperity. Although Ming Dynasty soldiers were outclassed by civilian officials, their lives were still much better than those of the Song Dynasty, and even better than those of ordinary civilians.
These people naturally won't give up the interests they hold easily. If you want to affect their interests, you have to compensate them in other ways. There is no other way.
If you want people to work, you have to give them some benefits. The title is the treasure that Zhu Youxiao took out.
Hereditary official positions also come with salaries and real power, which is definitely not what Zhu Youxiao wants to see.
On the contrary, the empty title was more attractive to the military officers, and for Zhu Youxiao it was just a salary.
What Zhu Youxiao had to do was to separate the real positions from the honorary titles.
It is not possible for your family to inherit an official position just because you have made contributions. This is absolutely not allowed and it is definitely not good for the country.
Rewarding you with a nominal title would make things much easier. If you want to revoke it, there are many ways to do it.
The Han Dynasty's system of conferring titles based on military merit was later ruined by Emperor Wu of Han. Titles in the Han Dynasty were worthless and were everywhere. Disposal of a few titles wouldn't be a problem, let alone a dozen.
"Don't be silent." Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhang Weixian and the others and said with a smile, "I called you here today to discuss politics. The so-called discussion of politics means consultation. Since it is a consultation, then you must speak. I just want to hear your opinions. Otherwise, why would I discuss with you?"
Zhu Youxiao's tone was very gentle and his attitude was very calm, which made people feel that he was very sincere at first glance.
In fact, Zhu Youxiao always maintained a good reputation in this regard. That is, when discussing matters, if the ministers said something too much, Zhu Youxiao would not get angry or pursue it. This was the consensus reached by the ministers in the court.
However, the emperor also had his strong moments. Once he made a decision, he would never allow anyone to disobey it.
Before His Majesty made a decision, everyone could speak freely. Therefore, Zhang Weixian and others still believed what Zhu Youxiao said.
So Zhang Weixian said first: "Your Majesty, I think this is a good thing."
"Then tell me." Zhu Youxiao said with a smile.
"Everyone in the army knows that whether they are soldiers or generals, they all yearn for the title of nobility."
"However, our Ming Dynasty has always had very strict restrictions on titles of nobility. It is not easy to obtain a title. There are many reasons for this, the most important of which is that the titles of nobility in the Ming Dynasty are relatively high."
"It starts from the Earl level. Many people can't even achieve that level of achievement, so they don't have the ambition to do so and just muddle through their days."
"But if we have viscounts and barons, it will be different. It will make the people below more dedicated and more determined. It can be said to be a rare good idea to improve the combat effectiveness of the army."
As soon as Zhang Weixian finished speaking, Duke Chengguo on the side also spoke.
He said with a smile on his face: "Your Majesty, I think what the Duke of England said is right. This is definitely an idea that has only benefits and no harm."
Yuan Keli looked at Zhang Weixian and the other person, then glanced at Zhu Youxiao, feeling a little helpless.
As a civilian in the General Staff Office, Yuan Keli certainly understood the significance of this matter and knew why these two people agreed to it so desperately.
Is there any harm in this?
Of course there are. The more titles there are, the more nobles there are, and the more powerful these people are. This is a good thing for the nobles, but not so good for the civil servants.
Of course, this is from the perspective of a civil servant.
If done out of public interest, such rewards would cause the court to incur a lot of additional expenses.
However, as an officer of the General Staff, Yuan Keli had a different idea.
From the perspective of the General Staff, this was a great opportunity to gain power. Once the General Staff took control of the matter of reopening the titles, it would mean that the General Staff had the ability to control the generals.
Although this is only a small step, the next step may be the approval of military merit. This is obvious.
This time, the cabinet still approved Liaodong's military achievements, but the titles were decided by the General Staff. However, next time, even the approval of military achievements will likely be handed over to the General Staff. This is definitely a huge power.
If you want to gain power, there are only two things: people and money.
First, "people" refers to the power to appoint personnel. To put it simply, it refers to the promotion of officials. In the military, the approval of military merit is directly linked to the promotion of officials.
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