Zhu Di sat back down among his brothers with a blank expression.
What greeted him were the varied expressions of his elder and younger brothers. Even Zhu Zhen now had a trace of concern in his eyes.
His second brother, Zhu Shuang, squeezed his eyes and patted his shoulder.
Third Brother Zhu Gang offered a few words of comfort, but the upturned corner of his mouth was even more noticeable.
Fifth Brother Zhu Su, as reliable as always, briefly explained what had just happened on the light screen. Since Father had already spoken so openly, there was clearly no reason to keep the matter from Fourth Brother.
Once the matter was explained simply, Zhu Di's face filled with embarrassment. He felt it difficult even to open his mouth toward Zhu Biao.
Instead, Zhu Biao took the initiative and patted his fourth brother's shoulder just as Zhu Shuang had done.
"I once heard it said that when a worthy man lives in the world, he is like an awl placed in a sack. Its tip will inevitably show. My brother is no different."
"As for the matter mentioned just now, it lies nearly twenty years in the future. Such… things have not yet occurred. As you yourself said, how could one punish before instruction has been given? And as Father said, simply remain in the capital for now."
Hearing his elder brother repeat the very words he had spoken earlier, Zhu Di suddenly wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground.
No wonder his elder brother had worn that expression. No wonder Father had never once mentioned Lan Yu's name from beginning to end.
If he had truly suggested executing someone in advance to eliminate future trouble while still thinking the matter concerned Lan Yu, then Father might have…
Better not even think about it.
Wiping the faint sweat from his forehead, Zhu Di sat upright and stared straight ahead.
From now on, he would be a good younger brother to his elder brother, and a good imperial son to Father.
…
In Ye City, those gathered had originally come together to celebrate the New Year and their recent victory.
Yet for a time, the mood became somewhat dull.
In the end Liu Bei sighed softly.
"This Hongwu Emperor truly possesses formidable methods."
That brief sentence expressed what everyone was thinking.
Even if the end of the Yuan had been chaotic, and even if there had indeed been the problem of Hu customs influencing Han officials, the sheer number of executions, reaching into the tens of thousands, and the simultaneous destruction of both old and new meritorious nobles, made one shudder merely calculating how many people might have been implicated.
From the perspective of a subject, Zhang Fei even felt a moment of indignation.
"Corrupt or not corrupt, those who worked and those who didn't, those who fought battles and those who governed the people, none of them could escape."
"This Hongwu Emperor seems afraid that later generations won't be worked to death."
"As if anyone actually covets this miserable throne."
The moment Zhang Fei finished speaking, he saw Liu Xie turn his head toward him. He hurriedly waved his hands in correction.
"Your Majesty, just pretend you didn't hear that. Old Zhang didn't mean it that way…"
Liu Xie glanced at him silently before turning his head away.
This General Zhang Fei was known for speaking bluntly. That was nothing new.
Besides, from his own experience, he actually agreed somewhat with those words. Sitting upon the imperial throne was not necessarily a pleasant thing.
But such words were certainly not appropriate to say aloud.
So he changed the subject.
"The Hongwu Emperor of Ming perhaps had his own difficulties. The matter of Han and Hu living together has always been difficult to resolve."
"I hope that Imperial Uncle and Master Zhuge may devise a strategy for governing the northern steppe, so that the Han people of Hebei may be freed from this barrier."
After enduring many years of turmoil in troubled times, Liu Xie had naturally formed his own reflections.
One such reflection was the policy of indirect rule.
After all, if one calculated carefully, the bandits who destroyed the Han had themselves benefited from policies meant to control the Hu peoples.
This was not meant to assign blame to any one side. It was simply that during the long years when he lived dependent upon others, he had observed more and more clearly the conflicts that arose between forcibly relocated Hu peoples and the common population.
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang exchanged a glance.
Then they both bowed in acceptance.
After all, this was already one of the intentions and plans they themselves held.
---
[Lightscreen]
[As we mentioned earlier, the Hu and Lan cases ran through the entire Hongwu reign.
Although they are known by different names such as the Hu Weiyong case, the Lan Yu case, the Japanese-collusion case, and the Li Shanchang case, in reality these can all be grouped together under one category, which may be called the cases of the meritorious nobility.
Beginning with the restructuring of the Secretariat in the third year of Hongwu, and ending with Old Zhu's death, the change in Old Zhu's attitude toward the founding meritorious officials can be seen very clearly.
At first there was favor and trust, then suspicion and doubt, then restriction and constraint, and finally complete eradication.
This was essentially the rhythm of the fate of the meritorious nobles during the Hongwu era.
If we analyze the matter from the perspective of the cases of the meritorious nobles, this great case that lasted more than twenty years actually turns out to be unexpectedly simple.
To put it plainly, imperial power had been strengthened generation after generation. The supreme authority of the ruler had already become very obvious.
The ruler was exalted and the ministers humble. Ministers could only await commands and act accordingly. Not to mention resisting. Even their life and death, honor and disgrace, were entirely held in the emperor's hands.
This had already been established as a fact from the founding of the Ming dynasty.
Yet in this matter, aside from a very small number, most of the meritorious nobles of the early Ming lacked sufficient sensitivity to such changes.
There is no need for modern analysis on this point. As early as the late Ming, Tan Qian already explained it clearly in his work Guoque:
"The old meritorious men who crossed the river were companions who had once worn fish-skin garments together. Before ruler and minister had been firmly defined, they regarded one another as equals. When they saw the military authority concentrated in one hand, they could hardly avoid acting as they pleased."
The "old meritorious men who crossed the river" were essentially the Huai-xi faction.
For them, what they recognized more was not Zhu Yuanzhang's identity as emperor, but his earlier identity as the leader of the Huai-xi group during the founding struggle.
But with the establishment of the Ming state, Zhu Yuanzhang transformed from the leader of a regional faction into the supreme ruler of a national regime.
That position required him to consider long-term stability and to establish a stable ruling order.
This responsibility was best expressed in the dialogue between Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Sanwu, where he said:
"The emperor must treat all with equal regard. How could there be distinctions between this side and that?"
It clearly recognized that the emperor could not possess regional affiliations.
After all, the historical records make it clear. Local and central authorities had struggled against each other for many years. Their interests failing to align was the norm.
Facing this problem, Old Zhu's early policy of granting iron certificates of merit was clearly somewhat wishful thinking.
He hoped that through such generous treatment he could erase the regional identity of the meritorious nobles and have them serve generation after generation alongside the Zhu family for the sake of the Ming state.
But in truth this approach was simply pressing a warm face against a cold backside.
After all, asking the landlord class not to annex land was not much different from demanding their lives.
Thus in the end the two sides clashed violently, and it concluded with the collective destruction of the meritorious nobility.
Compared with this combined case of the meritorious nobles, two of the other Four Great Cases feel somewhat misnamed.
A typical example is the Blank Seal Case.
In the Veritable Records of Taizu of Ming, the incident is not even recorded at all.
One speculation is that this was because Fang Xiaoru's father had been convicted and died because of the case, and Fang Xiaoru later participated in compiling the Veritable Records.
Fortunately the case itself is not complicated.
Simply put, a group of officials brought blank account books already stamped with official seals to the capital to report taxes, intending to negotiate with the Ministry of Revenue on how to fill in the year's accounts.
If such a thing happened in modern times, anyone with nine years of compulsory education would find it completely absurd.
Later the officials involved argued that grain taxes suffered losses during transportation. If the numbers did not match exactly, the documents would be rejected and they would have to travel back and forth for verification, which was difficult due to the distance.
Yet if one examines the actual officials involved, this explanation is hardly convincing.
Zheng Shiyuan was Vice Surveillance Commissioner of Huguang.
Fang Kexin, the father of Fang Xiaoru, was Prefect of Jining.
Neither of these places could be considered particularly far from the capital.
The greatest effect of the Blank Seal Case was probably that it provided a reason to criticize Zhu Yuanzhang.
Fang Xiaoru said that hundreds were imprisoned, while the History of Ming states that those responsible for the seals were executed and accomplices exiled.
But by modern times the story somehow became that tens of thousands were executed by implication in the Blank Seal Case.
The origin of this claim probably comes from the phrase in a certain biography of Zhu Yuanzhang stating that "those executed by implication in the Blank Seal Case and the Guo Huan Case reached seventy to eighty thousand."
Such a method resembles shooting the arrow first and drawing the target afterward, providing evidence for the biography's conclusion that Zhu Yuanzhang was "cruel, fond of killing, and severe in punishing corruption."]