After realizing the threat posed by the local princes to the imperial court, Zhu Yuanzhang, after careful consideration, decided to ask Zhu Yunwen to come up with a solution.
After all, the power of the vassal kings is indeed too great. If they are given such great power, and since they are also members of the royal family, it would be easy for them to gain popular support if they wanted to rebel.
They can even whitewash their image after succeeding.
For example, he had previously read in historical records that after Zhu Yuanzhang died, Emperor Jianwen, Zhu Yunwen, ascended the throne, and was later rebelled by Zhu Di.
He didn't want that to actually happen, so he even considered cutting the stakes.
Zhu Yunwen's failure to reduce the power of the princes as emperor is almost understandable, given his excessive eagerness for quick success and his numerous questionable actions.
However, if it were Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Yunwen, it would not be difficult at all to reduce the power of the princes.
So Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking, should the idea of making his descendants into vassal kings be eliminated?
Even from now on, we will embark on the path of weakening the local vassal kings, stripping them of their military power and all other rights.
So after Zhu Yuanzhang told Zhu Yunwen about this idea, Zhu Yunwen smiled and said to Zhu Yuanzhang:
"Grandpa Emperor's intention is to reduce the power of the regional lords, but has Grandpa Emperor considered that if the power of the regional lords is reduced, will it make the local officials too powerful? They will also become a threat."
Perhaps they wouldn't dare do anything during our reigns as emperors. But who can guarantee that such a system will continue?
"When our descendants become emperors, will some of the local officials rebel because they have become too powerful?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly and said:
"That's the point we're struggling with. When we were still around, these local officials and regional princes didn't dare to do anything, but what about later?"
The future of the Ming Dynasty is still long, and our descendants will face these threats when they become emperors.
Therefore, we must pave the way, which means that the problem of the vassal kings must be solved no matter what.
The issue of local officials' power also needs to be addressed. However, throughout the many years of history, this problem seems to have remained unresolved.
Zhu Yunwen was silent for a moment, then said:
"I do have an idea."
Zhu Yuanzhang immediately became interested and asked:
"Oh? Tell me quickly."
Zhu Yunwen smiled slightly and then said:
"My method is very simple. These vassal kings are still vassal kings, but we reduce the power in their hands."
Or, to put it another way, some of the things they control should be distributed among them, so that they and local officials can reach a balance and supervise each other.
In this way, as long as this balance is not broken, they each retain their own strength.
Furthermore, if everything is under the supervision of the imperial court, then they will have no ideas or ambitions.
Zhu Yuanzhang immediately asked:
"Tell me exactly how to do it."
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to directly reduce the power of the princes, because that would not be a good idea.
As recorded in historical books, Emperor Zhu Yunwen implemented a forced reduction of the power of the princes, directly bringing them down from their lofty positions as princes.
This naturally provoked resistance from the vassal kings, and Zhu Yunwen then spoke up, saying:
“My method is very simple. Right now, local governments are composed of three main things: military, government, administration, and judiciary, right?”
However, the power of the vassal kings surpasses these three things, so let's redistribute these powers and reduce the power of the vassal kings.
This resulted in the power of the feudal lords being roughly equal to that of local officials, or even subtly, the feudal lords being overshadowed by the local powers.
In this way, if he wanted to rebel, the local forces would easily discover it.
However, once local power grows too strong, even the regional princes will try to suppress it. So my point is that military power should still be handed over to local officials.
The feudal lords also possessed certain rights, including the power to supervise local armies. They did not have the authority to mobilize or manage these troops, but they did have the power to oversee them.
Zhu Yuanzhang also said:
"What about the executive and judicial branches?"
Zhu Yunwen said: "Administrative and judicial powers are still the responsibility of local officials. Similarly, the princes only have the power to supervise these powers, but not the power to implement or participate in them."
After a moment of silence, Zhu Yuanzhang said to Zhu Yunwen:
"I understand. In local areas, politics is still mainly controlled by the Provincial Administration Commissioner, who also holds the highest position. In military affairs, the Commander-in-Chief holds the highest position, and all power is in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief. In judicial matters, the Provincial Judicial Commissioner is in charge."
These three most important powers were all distributed among these three individuals, who were inherently mutually restraining and checking each other. Above them, there was a vassal king who oversaw them.
However, the vassal kings had no power to mobilize or manage the army, no power to participate in or manage the judiciary, and no power to participate in or manage politics.
However, the vassal kings could supervise them, and if any problems arose, they could report to the imperial court, thus creating a check on them.
Zhu Yunwen nodded and said:
"That's right. On the surface, the vassal kings still have a higher status, but in reality, they have no real power. They can only play the role of monitoring the local areas and become the eyes and ears of the court in the local areas."
If any problems arise in the local areas, they will report them to the imperial court immediately. After all, these vassal kings only have the right to supervise, not real power. Everything they do depends on the imperial court, so they are naturally afraid of problems arising in the imperial court.
If local officials cause trouble and want to rebel, it will threaten the status of these vassal kings. After all, if these local officials succeed in their rebellion, these kings will no longer be kings.
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