Qian Fu looked constipated, as if he had something to hide.
Gu Jiu frowned and made a bold guess, "Could it be that His Highness came up with such a bad idea?"
Qian Fu denied it repeatedly, "Madam, how could you think so? Of course it wasn't Your Highness's idea. Your Highness is still waiting for His Majesty to grant him the title of Prince, so how could he cut off his own retreat?"
"Who is that? How dare you give His Majesty the bad idea of stripping him of his title? Are you trying to save your life?"
Stripping a title is equivalent to cutting off the path to promotion for military generals and the path to wealth and honor for the royal family.
Cutting off someone's source of income is like killing his parents.
Stripping someone of their title is a hundred times more vicious than cutting off their financial resources.
After the military generals, nobles and royal family members learned about this, they wanted to kill those who gave advice to Emperor Wende.
Qian Fu whispered, "According to the information I received from the palace, the person who proposed this should be Minister Li. But Minister Li should also have the Sun family behind him."
Gu Jiu opened his mouth with a confused expression.
"Minister Li? The Sun family?"
Qian Fu nodded.
Gu Jiu was incredulous. "Minister Li is such a shrewd and capable person, how could he possibly come up with such a rotten idea? Moreover, Minister Li has taken away the generations of glory of the Sun family, replaced them, and written the edict of succession. How could the Sun family actually cooperate with Minister Li?"
This is so weird.
Qian Fu said seriously, "Nothing is impossible in the court. Madam, you should get used to it."
The corners of Gu Jiu's mouth twitched, and there was something wrong in the look in his eyes when he looked at Qian Fu.
"Will the stripping of titles apply to all titled individuals, or will they cast a wide net and target targeted individuals?"
Qian Fu was stunned for a moment, then understood what Gu Jiu meant. He said after careful consideration, "Of course, we will focus on arresting them."
Gu Jiu understood.
"Could it be that they made such a big fuss just to deal with the Cui family of the Zhenguo Mansion?"
Qian Fu said, "I can't explain the specific situation clearly. It's better to wait a few days and draw a conclusion after the situation becomes clear."
This is indeed a safe approach.
In the Zhou Dynasty, there were at least a hundred families with titles, if not two hundred.
These one hundred families were involved in all aspects of military, political, agricultural, and economic affairs, affecting the livelihoods and lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Stripping of title?
hehe!
It sounds easy to say, but aren't you afraid of failure?
This year is only the first year of the Wende Emperor. The Wende Emperor has not yet firmly established his throne, and his confidants have not yet truly taken control of the court.
If you get a royal flush right at the start of the game, aren’t you afraid of having no cards to play in the end?
If you end up with a pair of three in your hand, it would be fatal.
The fall of an empire is just a matter of thought.
How serious are the consequences of stripping one's title?
For example, if the difficulty of collecting taxes from aristocratic scholars is ten, then the difficulty of stripping them of their titles is one hundred, which is like sending them directly to the eighteenth level of hell.
Emperor Wende is not a stupid person who cannot distinguish the important from the unimportant.
Knowing that the consequences of demotion are serious, why do you still rush to take this step?
Gu Jiu couldn't figure it out.
I wanted to wait for Liu Zhao to come back and ask him.
As a result, Liu Zhao did not return home that night.
People rested outside the city.
When he rushed back to the capital, the city gates were already closed. He had no choice but to find a good inn in Xinmin County to stay.
The next morning, as soon as the city gates opened, they hurried to the palace.
After rushing for a while, I finally made it to the morning court.
The grand court meeting started half an hour later than usual.
Anyone in the capital who is qualified to attend court, as long as he is not dead or disabled, must attend the grand court meetings twice a month.
Many people have prepared memorials to speak out on important matters at today's grand court meeting.
The result was an unprecedented decisive defeat.
An imperial censor stepped forward and proposed to strip him of his title.
When the word "removal of title" was uttered, the court was shocked.
After the shock, they came to their senses, and the noble military generals and royal relatives immediately turned their firepower on the civil officials.
All of this must be a conspiracy by the civil servants, and the civil servants deserve to die.
As nobles, they earned their titles with their lives.
After shedding so much blood, paying the price of life, and the deaths of so many comrades, he finally got a title that could protect his descendants and the descendants of his comrades, but the civil servants wanted to take it away easily.
dream!
Whoever dares to seize the title will be fought to the death.
Even if someone doesn't let them live, they won't stand there and wait to die.
The nobles and generals, their eyes blazing with fire, were eager to rush forward and slaughter those hypocritical civil officials. Especially the censor who proposed to strip him of his title, he deserved to be cut into pieces.
Compared with the anger of the nobles and generals, the royal family members were even more panicked.
They were unable to study, could not bear the hardship of studying, and could not bear the hardship of being a soldier. It can be said that they were neither good at literature nor at martial arts.
They can live a rich and prosperous life, fighting cocks and walking birds all day long, all thanks to their titles and salaries.
Once their titles are stripped, they will no longer be able to live a wealthy and prosperous life.
As a civil servant, I am not as good as those children of officials who have a family background of education.
As a military general, he is also not as good as the sons of noble families with a profound family background.
Without the title and salary, the royal family members are nothing in the officialdom. They will soon be reduced to their original status.
Therefore, stripping one's title is absolutely unacceptable.
Your Majesty must not be stripped of his title.
In the court, everyone was excited.
The noble military generals joined forces with the royal family to attack the censors and civil officials.
In the end, the two gangs started fighting each other.
Shoes flew everywhere and official hats fell to the ground.
"Ah! Whose stinky shoes are these? They're making me suffocate."
"Take my punch and don't wash your feet for three months."
"Take this crotch kick from me."
A group of civil and military officials, when fighting, completely lost all decorum.
His hair was messy, his official uniform was messy, and his face was messy.
The Golden Throne Hall, which symbolizes supreme power, is filled with various smells.
It was so sour and smelly that it was unbearable.
Emperor Wende had no choice but to retreat.
Damn it, just a test caused such a big mess.
Emperor Wende pinched his nose and felt unwell.
"Your Majesty, the matter of stripping a title should not be initiated lightly."
Minister Li secretly left the Golden Palace and followed Emperor Wende all the way.
As soon as he returned to Xingqing Palace, Minister Li solemnly advised Emperor Wende not to lightly initiate the matter of stripping the title.
Emperor Wende frowned and felt very upset.
"Lord Li, titles and salaries have become the greatest burden on our Great Zhou, like a vampire growing on our body. How can we not get rid of it?"
Minister Li held his head high and spoke in a clear voice, "Your Majesty has seen the reactions of all the court officials today. To be honest, Your Majesty, I dared to arrange for someone to propose a reduction of your title to test the court officials' reactions, and this has already aroused public anger."
Tomorrow, I might be stopped on the road and beaten with clubs, or have feces sprayed at the gate of my mansion. My children will also be isolated, and their marriages will be affected.
Emperor Wende had a gloomy face.
Minister Li continued, "Your Majesty, the matter of stripping one's title must be done gradually and not hastily."
Emperor Wende smiled coldly.
He feels so miserable!
If there was any other way, he would not poke the hornet's nest of Xie Jue.
Our ancestors, from Taizu onwards, were all generous and lavish, handing out titles as if they were free. As a result, it was the descendants who suffered.
In this dynasty, there are six families of first-class dukes who inherit the title without interruption.
A first-class duke, with the same rank as a prince.
The annual salary of several families added up to an astronomical figure.
What does hereditary succession mean?
That is, the title is inherited without being demoted.
The title earned by the ancestors was a first-class duke, and his descendants would inherit it as a first-class duke, without having to be demoted to a second-class duke. In this way, the descendants would pass it down from generation to generation, enjoying the royal salary and wealth from generation to generation.
Fortunately, two of the first-class dukedoms, which had been hereditary and unwavering, had been extinct and their titles reclaimed by the late emperor. This at least saved the court a considerable amount of money.
Apart from the remaining four hereditary first-class dukes, the rest of the families with titles were mostly blessed by saints and were exterminated after five generations.
For example, the Marquis of Lu, his title was first-class marquis.
When his son inherited the title, he was demoted to a second-class marquis.
When his grandson inherited the title, he was demoted to a third-class marquis.
After the third-class marquis, there are various general titles such as the general guarding the country and the general assisting the country.
After five generations, the title disappeared.
Without the title, the Pei family naturally had no qualifications to continue to mix in the aristocratic circle.
If the descendants do not live up to their expectations and lose their titles, the Pei family will soon be regarded as a ruined family by others and will disappear from everyone's sight within a few years.
Not to mention the titles of the royal family members.
What prince, duke, princess, princess...
Pull it out, there is a series of people who have titles.
Anyone who has a title has a salary.
All titles and salaries are borne by the Ministry of Revenue.
Our ancestors were too generous and gave away titles without paying.
The result is that now the imperial court has to bear the burden of millions of taels of noble salaries every year, and it cannot default on the payments.
Titles and salaries have become the biggest burden for the Ministry of Revenue.
Even when fighting, you can withhold military expenses from the front, but you cannot withhold the salaries of the nobles.
In the past, when Emperor Wende was a prince, he received his salary from the Ministry of Revenue every year. At that time, he did not care whether the court had money or not. In any case, the Ministry of Revenue would never owe him money.
Even if the Ministry of Revenue went to the Shaofu to borrow money, they had to send the title and salary to him to the palace without any deduction.
Only when he became emperor did he realize that titles and salaries were a money-eating beast.
No matter how much money you have, it will be swallowed up.
The previous emperor reigned for more than 30 years, and was very stingy in granting titles. He even found excuses to deprive some people of their titles.
But even so, there were still nearly a hundred families with titles and salaries in the Zhou Dynasty.
Emperor Wende sighed, "I only regret that the previous emperor wasn't ruthless enough and didn't wipe out all those empty titles that were just for show."
Emperor Wende was so sad!
He cried out in his heart: Father, oh father, killing people is useless. If I had known this would happen, I should have warned you to kill more noble families. But, back then, you were particularly fond of military generals and nobles, so naturally you were reluctant to touch their titles. You only touched the titles of the royal family.
Thinking about it now, Emperor Wende still felt that the previous emperor's methods were too merciful and not cruel enough.
According to his idea, the titles of the royal family members should be reduced by at least half.
The number of noble and military generals must also be reduced by half.
Minister Li didn't want to be cursed by everyone. "Your Majesty, why not postpone the demotion for another three to five years? When the time is right, we can take action one by one. Although it may be a little slow, it is safer."
Emperor Wende knew how powerful Li Shizhong was, and even though he was unwilling, he had to admit that what Li Shizhong said was right.
He nodded. "We need to start by taking action against the four hereditary dukes' houses. We need to change the hereditary rule to one that ends after five generations. Why not start by testing the waters with the Cui family, the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion?"
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