Zhu Yuanzhang's sons are all princes. Currently, apart from the ninth prince Zhu Qi and the twenty-sixth prince Zhu Nan who did not grow up, and the current eighth prince Zhu Zi who committed suicide by burning himself and had no children, leading to the demise of the country, the Ming Dynasty now has twenty-two princes.
The eldest son of a prince inherits the title of prince, while the other children are all dukes. This was not good in Zhu Yunying's eyes.
Old Zhu nodded silently. He had considered this matter for a long time. "We knew you promised your brothers official positions, but I doubt you had good intentions! All the princes' sons, even those born out of wedlock, would be suitable as Generals of the State, wouldn't that be better?"
Zhu Yunying smiled and nodded, saying to Old Zhu, "We don't have any other intentions, it's just that there are too many princes and dukes in our Great Ming, and I'm afraid the court will have difficulty supporting them in the future. If there were a few more Liu Shengs, our Great Ming would have dukes all over the world."
With the rule of executing officials after six generations, the number of Fengguo Zhongwei (a high-ranking military officer) in the Ming Dynasty would no longer be everywhere. As for the prevalence of princes everywhere, that was also curbed.
After all, Zhu Yunying was not the 'Taizu' (Emperor Taizu), and there were some things that he couldn't do directly; the old Zhu (Zhu Yunying) still needed to do them personally.
Looking at his children and grandchildren, Zhu Yunying said, "You won't let our descendants live too well. You are also heartless. Your father's descendants, and your descendants in the future, will probably be commoners after a few generations."
“By then, our Ming imperial family will be all over the country.” Zhu Yunying put some food on his plate and said, “Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and grandchildren can’t take care of everyone. As long as most people are doing well, that’s enough, and our country is stable. Besides, if it really comes to the sixth generation, and we give them imperial family status but don’t allow them to do much, it will probably be even harder for them.”
Old Zhu frowned and said, "We didn't forbid him from doing anything."
“But with such high stipends these days, who has the heart to do anything?” Pointing to Zhu Yunying, who was eating and drinking heartily, Zhu Yunying said, “Look at that little rascal. Does Grandfather believe that his offspring will all be even more dissolute?”
Old Zhu was silent for a moment, then suddenly sighed, "We are all outstanding people of our generation, and your father was wise and intelligent. How come we have so many sons, none of them are easy to deal with! We are now counting on you and Yin'er. It's one thing if the second son and the illegitimate son are useless, but the eldest son must be successful, otherwise we will not be at peace when we die."
"Take that brat for example. With his life of eating, drinking, and having fun, how can he raise any decent children?" Zhu Yunying laughed, saying irritably, "Sang Shi is due to give birth in the next few days. Once the children are older, we'll have them raised by someone else. As for those two, we'd better not!"
Old Zhu chuckled. He wasn't entirely at ease with Zhu Yunwen. Although he quite liked this 'rascal' grandson, it was only because he loved him that he had him around; he thought it was nice to have a little rascal to amuse him.
Logically speaking, such a rogue prince would be of no benefit to the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yunying was in a good mood, and some things had yielded some results.
When he was less than ten years old, he had mentioned the matter of the imperial clan to Zhu Yuanzhang. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was very resistant to those matters at that time, and he was quite unhappy about reducing the privileges of the imperial clan.
Over the years, Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) has indeed gradually come to realize some things. This is not only because his elder brother Zhu Yuanzhang and younger brother Zhu Yuanzhang were putting pressure on him, but also because he realized that his momentary soft-heartedness, while indeed being very good to the imperial family, was not necessarily good for the Ming Dynasty.
This is also why Zhu Yuanzhang voluntarily reduced the privileges of the imperial clan before his abdication.
Old Zhu did care about his descendants and wanted to treat them well. However, over the years, Old Zhu also realized that his descendants also had their own lives to live, and he couldn't arrange everything perfectly for them.
So, although Old Zhu is still somewhat unhappy about doing these things, he has to do them well now. For someone as ambitious and capable as Old Zhu, he can be quite resolute when he needs to be.
Zhu Yunying was very happy and said to his father, "Grandfather, don't worry. The imperial clan is one of the foundations of our Great Ming Dynasty. We value military merit and support civil officials, but we will not forget our imperial clan. They will naturally have a way out."
Old Zhu laughed and looked at Zhu Yunying earnestly, saying, "We believe it! Our grandson wants our Ming Dynasty to last for thousands of generations, and wants our Ming Dynasty to be unparalleled in its prosperity!"
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