Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 922: Change Reality into Illusion
Zhu Youjian's crazy behavior was really incredible, and it was his distinctive character that aroused Zhu Shenzui's keen interest.

Isn't this an outlier among the clan members what Zhu Shenzhui wants now? Although the clan house now has Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minyu and Zhu Qiuqi to help, in addition to the support of the King of Qin and the King of Jin, this is still not enough.

Needless to say, the King of Qin and the King of Jin, although they supported Zhu Shenzhui, they could not actually help much. At best, they only supported him in attitude.

As for Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minqi and Zhu Qiuqi, there was no problem with their loyalty and their abilities were not bad either, but the problem was that they did not have enough influence within the clan. You must know that they were originally low-level clan members, and later because of Zhu Shencui, they stepped into the ranks of high-level clan members and assisted in the management of the clan house.

But such an origin is simply unable to intimidate the huge group of royal family members. It is okay for the middle and low-level royal family members, but it has little effect on the high-level royal family members. Even if they have Zhu Shenzhu's support behind them, there is a limit to what they can do.

But Zhu Youjian was different. He was the former Tang King, one of the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty. In terms of title, he was already the top one in the royal family, and his influence was not weak. In addition, Zhu Youjian's previous crazy actions of killing his two uncles and mobilizing his guards to go north to defend the king made everyone understand that this prince was different from ordinary people. Everyone could understand what such a madman did, and naturally their attitude towards him was different.

The reason for releasing Zhu Youjian this time was, on the one hand, because the emperor admired his previous efforts to serve the king and his concern for the country and the people, and on the other hand, he did not want to see a rare clear-headed person in the royal family who wanted to do something great be ruined.

On the other hand, Zhu Shenzhui now needs a powerful figure in the royal family who has influence and deterrence and can do what Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minqi and Zhu Qiuqi cannot do. From all aspects, Zhu Youjian is the most suitable person.

With Zhu Youjian in the clan house, plus his personality and status, many things would be much easier to do. When the time comes, they will use the charges of treason and conspiracy to rebel as well as deceiving the emperor to arrest Prince Fu and Prince Lu, and even other princes. I think Zhu Youjian will definitely do it in a big way without any interference.

After dealing with these princes, Zhu Shenzhu will start to adjust the status quo of the princes of the Ming Dynasty. According to the imperial clan system of the Ming Dynasty, even if Prince Fu and Prince Lu were directly involved in such a case, they would definitely be imprisoned even if they were not killed, and they would definitely not be able to continue to be princes. Although depriving them of their titles is a good idea, it will inevitably cause strong opposition from other princes of the imperial clan. It should be noted that from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present, except for the deprivation of titles for the lack of heirs, there has never been a case of deprivation of titles for crimes.

After all, these are royal family members, not nobles. They are all members of the Zhu family. If one person breaks the law, it will not implicate others. Just like Zhu Youjian, although he violated the royal family rules set by Zhu Di and led his troops north to defend the king, the crime was not a small one. If it were a noble or an official, not only would his head be chopped off, but even his clansmen would be implicated.

But even so, Emperor Chongzhen only demoted Zhu Youjian to a commoner and imprisoned him, and his lineage's title of King of Tang was not removed, but passed on to his younger brother. This was because Zhu Youjian had no son. If he had a son, the title of King of Tang would definitely be inherited by his son instead of his younger brother. This was the Ming Dynasty's usual practice for dealing with royal family members.

Once this convention is broken, everyone will be in danger. No matter how strong Zhu Shenzhu's control is, he can't do this, because doing so is equivalent to pushing all the royal family members to the opposite side. So even if he deals with the current Prince Fu and Prince Lu, the titles of Prince Fu and Prince Lu will continue to be retained and their sons or brothers will inherit the titles.

However, doing so did not mean that Zhu Shencui would let these princes go. The title of prince could be retained, but the actual fiefdom would be changed to remote dominion. In other words, Zhu Shencui would take this opportunity to directly break the fiefdom system of princes that had existed since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. He would turn the actual fiefdoms of the princes into ordinary princes and dukes, and nationalize the fiefdoms. In the future, the continuation of the title of prince would no longer be combined with the fiefdom, and the Ming Dynasty's title of prince would abolish the actual fiefdom. This change was what Zhu Shencui really wanted.

In the past dynasties, there were many cases where the fiefs of the kings were remotely controlled, especially in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, whether it was the princes or the ministers who were granted the title of king, the titles they held were nominal, and their territories were only nominally remote. The salaries were calculated according to the virtual titles and paid by the court, which changed the existence of the real fiefs of the vassal kings.

This approach was well implemented during the Northern and Southern Dynasties during the Song Dynasty. During the four hundred years or so of the Song Dynasty, the royal family never rebelled or harmed the imperial power. This method also enabled the royal family to be well controlled, while also avoiding the result of turning them into waste.

The conferring of titles during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang was a step backward in history. Of course, this was due to the special circumstances of the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang. The conferring of titles at that time did help stabilize the local areas and strengthen the control of the dynasty.

But as time went by, subsequent drawbacks continued to emerge. Even if Zhu Di had not appeared, given that the princes of the Ming Dynasty controlled the real power at that time, a civil war between the princes and the imperial power would have broken out sooner or later. It is unknown what the outcome would be at that time.

In history, the Qing Dynasty also adopted a system similar to that of the Song Dynasty after it entered the Central Plains, completely abolishing Zhu Yuanzhang's system of enfeoffment of vassal kings and replacing it with a fictitious title. During the Ming Dynasty, both princes and county kings were given titles in the name of their country, such as the King of Qin, the King of Jin, the King of Yan, the King of Liao, etc. These titles were given in the name of their country, and their actual fiefdoms were also in their country.

The King of Qin was enfeoffed in Qin, the King of Jin was naturally enfeoffed in the Three Jins, the King of Yan Zhu Di was enfeoffed in Yanyun, the King of Liao was enfeoffed in Liaodong, and so on and so forth are very obvious.

Before Zhu Shenzhui was crowned as Prince of Jiaocheng, a title his ancestors held, so his fief was naturally in Jiaocheng. Later, he was promoted to Prince of Wu, so his fief was supposed to be in Wu. Of course, Zhu Shenzhui's title was different from other princes, as it was more of a symbol of meaning. For someone who wanted to be an emperor, it didn't matter where he was fiefed, as he only wanted a title.

But the situation was different during the Qing Dynasty in history. Because the Qing Dynasty implemented the Song Dynasty's system of nominal royal titles, there was no longer a need for actual titles, and the situation of actual titles being used to confer titles on the country was deliberately avoided.

Therefore, most of the royal titles in the Qing Dynasty were not names of countries, but other characters were used to replace them. For example, Prince Li, Prince Lian, Prince Yong, Prince Yi, Prince Bao, Prince Gong, Prince Yongyi, Prince Chengshun, etc. These were not names of countries.

Zhu Shenzhui named Zhu Youjian as the King of An today. Although the word "An" comes from the Spring and Autumn Period, An State was one of the vassal states in the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was just a small country and could not be compared with a big country like Tang. Therefore, there is no problem in naming him the King of An from a legal point of view. At the same time, the name of the country An has another meaning, that is, Zhu Shenzhui hopes that Zhu Youjian, the King of An, can stay in the capital with peace of mind, work for the court steadily, and not have other ideas.

The appearance of the title of Prince An was a test by Zhu Shenzhui at the moment, and it was also the beginning of changing the real title into a virtual title by taking advantage of Prince An's long-term residence in the capital.

Since Prince An, all the royal titles of the Ming Dynasty will gradually change from real titles to nominal titles, and the next ones to be taken will be Prince Fu and Prince Lu. Currently, there are 31 people with the title of prince in the Ming Dynasty, not counting the newly-crowned Prince An and the second prince Prince Song Zhu Mincheng, born to the Queen.

Among these 31 people, Prince Fu and Prince Lu will be changed to nominal titles after being dealt with, and then a group of princes from Prince Fu and Prince Lu will be dealt with, thus opening up the situation. In the future, this situation will continue until all the princes are changed to nominal titles, and by then, more than half of the problems of local princes in the Ming Dynasty will be solved. As for the remaining ordinary clan members, it will be much easier. The clan regulations will be gradually relaxed, and ordinary clan members will not need to abide by the mandatory regulations that they cannot leave their fiefdoms in the future. As for some restrictions on clan members regarding farming, business, and even studying, they will also be gradually lifted. In this way, the clan problem will no longer be a burden on the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian returned to his residence from the palace. Before he had time to discuss with Zeng the details of his visit to the palace to meet the emperor, the eunuch who was delivering the imperial decree arrived.

Zhu Youjian and Zeng hurriedly set up the incense table to receive the imperial edict. After the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict spoke a lot of words, he finally read out the key point. The imperial edict said that Zhu Youjian's status as a commoner of the clan would be pardoned and he would be allowed to return to the clan canon. At the same time, he was encouraged for his actions for the country. Although he violated the clan system by serving the king privately without the emperor's order, the current emperor would not punish him for his loyalty.

Because the title of King of Tang had already been inherited, Zhu Youjian was given the title of King of An while still being a prince. At the same time, although this title was hereditary and belonged to the Prince of Ming, he was no longer actually granted the title. His fiefdom was remotely controlled and paid regularly according to the prince's salary.

The emperor granted a house in the capital, called the Prince An's Mansion, and allowed Prince An to live in Beijing. As for Zeng, she was originally the Princess of Tang, but now she was changed to the Princess of An, and all her treatment remained the same. In addition, the emperor and the empress also granted a lot of property, servants, etc., and ordered Prince An to settle down at home first in the next few days, and then report to the Zongrenfu for his post.

After the imperial edict was announced, the eunuch who came to announce the decree congratulated Zhu Youjian with a smile on his face. At this time, Zeng was stunned by what she had heard. She even forgot how she stood up, how she thanked the emperor, and even how she returned to the room.

After waiting for a long time, Zeng finally came to her senses and couldn't wait to ask her husband if the imperial edict was true. Was Zhu Youjian's princely title restored? She became a princess again. Was this not a dream?
Until Zhu Youjian told her for sure that everything was true. The emperor told him about this when he went to the palace to talk to him. It was just that he did not expect the imperial edict to come so quickly after he came back, and he had not had time to tell his wife in detail. Moreover, the imperial edict was at hand, and it was written very clearly, so there was no way it could be faked.

After taking the imperial edict and reading it carefully, and confirming that everything in it was true, Zeng was extremely happy, but soon she burst into tears and could not help but hugging her husband and crying. Seeing his wife crying with joy, Zhu Youjian felt extremely sad in his heart. He put his arms around his wife and let her cry her heart out in his arms.

(End of this chapter)