I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 511 High-risk Occupation

Zhu Houxuan could naturally see what the ministers could see.

He was only five years younger than Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao was in better physical condition than the other two. Although Zhu Houxuan thought that his living habits were healthier, it was hard to say who of the two would live longer.

After all, it is already the 21st year of Zhengde, and history has undergone tremendous changes. Zhu Houzhao will not die early due to an accident as in history. It is hard to say how long he can live in this life. After all, Zhu Houzhao is a man who can patrol the border for thousands of miles in the wind and snow in winter. Moreover, after achieving a series of military victories, Zhu Houzhao is in a very good mood. It does not seem like he will die young.
Therefore, Zhu Houxuan's position was rather awkward. Although becoming the King of Wu gave him an advantage in the fight for the throne, it also made him a target of public criticism. However, the most important thing now was that he could not go any further. If he did, he would be in even greater danger.

He certainly wanted to become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in a legitimate way. To this end, he could accept being adopted by Zhu Youtang and becoming Zhu Youtang's son in terms of clan law and Zhu Houzhao's younger brother in terms of clan law.

But although the position of Crown Prince looks very good, it is actually a high-risk job with huge risks.

The danger comes from the uncertainty of Zhu Houzhao's life span. If Zhu Houzhao dies in a few years, then there will be no problem for him as the crown prince. But if Zhu Houzhao lives a particularly long life, then it will be a big problem for him.
Before traveling through time, Zhu Houxuan saw a statistic that in Chinese history, the proportion of princes who died, were deposed, or were dismissed was as high as 45%.

Even among those princes who succeeded in succeeding to the throne, many of them did so through force.

It can be said that at least half of the princes will end up fighting a life-and-death battle with the emperor.

As the crown prince, you are the next emperor, and all the civil and military officials in the court must curry favor with you, otherwise they are afraid that you will make things difficult for him after you take the throne.
Over time, the Prince's Party formed around the Prince, including both civil and military officials.

These people can't wait for the prince to take the throne as soon as possible so that their investment will pay off.

If they retire at an old age and the prince has not yet become emperor, they will not be able to enjoy the benefits of their investment...

So many times, the prince has no choice at all. Even if he doesn't want to make progress, the people behind him will push him to make progress.

At this time, the prince had become a thorn in the emperor's side.

There is an interesting saying about imperial power:
No matter whether you have the heart to rebel or not, as long as you have the ability to rebel, your life is over.

Zhu Houxuan also often used a sentence to warn himself, and actually did so.

Zhu Houxuan carefully hid himself so that in the eyes of everyone he could never threaten Zhu Houzhao's imperial power.

Although he participated in the establishment of the Imperial Guards, he was only responsible for logistics and equipment matters. All military pay and supplies were issued in the name of Zhu Houzhao. This made the Imperial Guards only recognize Zhu Houzhao, and Zhu Houzhao was able to firmly control the Imperial Guards.

Everyone knows that Jiang Jiangong, the chief of staff of the General Staff, and Zhu Houxuan have a special relationship, but Jiang Jiangong is only the chief of the general staff and has only the power to make suggestions and decisions, but he has never actually led troops and does not control specific troops.

Although Zhu Houxuan had the power of regent and managed a huge royal group, he actually did not have any armed forces.

Perhaps the newly built police stations were the armed forces that Zhu Houzhao could control. The backbones of these police stations were all veterans who had retired from the Imperial Guards, and Zhu Houzhao had a huge influence on them.

It can be said that Zhu Houxuan has achieved the utmost in this regard, always making himself harmless to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houxuan, who had no legal status and was a distant relative of the imperial family, could not get the support of the ministers according to etiquette and law; and he had no military power. Therefore, he could only rely on Zhu Houzhao, and they would rise and fall together.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Houxuan's position is so stable.

Maybe Zhu Houzhao did not realize that Zhu Houxuan had already achieved the ultimate in these aspects, but such a Zhu Houxuan could undoubtedly give him a great sense of security.

But after Zhu Houxuan became the crown prince, this situation would be broken.
He has the legitimacy and status to ascend to the throne, and civil and military officials will rush to join him. Some people say that it is possible to refuse to accept the support of these civil and military officials, especially those from the military.

This is too young. It is not important whether Zhu Houxuan accepts it or not, but the act of "contact" is what matters.

By then, in the eyes of the emperor, Zhu Houxuan would have the ability to threaten him.
When the prince becomes fully grown in the eyes of the emperor, the emperor will be on pins and needles. At this time, he will inevitably choose to suppress the prince.

More importantly, the threat posed by the crown prince to the emperor is far greater than that posed by powerful ministers in the general sense because he has the legitimacy to succeed to the throne.

Even if Dong Zhuo and Zhao Gao killed the emperor, they could only control the court behind the scenes and had no way of becoming emperor themselves.

Cao Cao conquered cities one by one, but he was never able to legally usurp the throne. He could only become prime minister, marry his daughter to be queen, call himself king, and receive the Nine Gifts, preparing for the usurpation of power step by step.

But it is not the case with the crown prince, he has the legitimacy to ascend to the throne.

A powerful prince can announce at any time that his father has suffered a stroke and then take over.

The throne was something that other powerful officials could only dream of but could not reach, but the crown prince was truly within reach.
Like Li Shimin, after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, he was nominally the crown prince, but in fact he had directly sidelined the emperor and took charge of the government in the name of the crown prince and acted as the emperor.

It can be said that in any feudal dynasty, the crown prince is the biggest threat to imperial power.

At this time, the emperor will continue to criticize the prince, and over time the resentment will grow deeper, until they finally become enemies.

There is another very important point: everyone will grow old.

The king, who was wise and powerful in his youth, became self-willed, suspicious, tyrannical, and extremely insecure in his later years.

This is the nature in human DNA and cannot be changed. People's temperaments will inevitably change drastically as they get older.

Ordinary old people can only curse on the streets and cannot beat young people in a fight.

But an emperor who holds the power of life and death and he is old...this is a very scary thing.

We can look at those famous major cases, such as the Hongwu case and the witchcraft disaster. They killed many people in the court and the public. Which one was not launched in the later years of the emperor?
The above are all analyses of the normal relationship between an emperor and a prince. The situations of Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Houxun are more complicated, and their relationship and feelings would certainly not be like this, but the above analysis reveals human nature everywhere.

Zhu Houxuan never wanted to test human nature, because human nature cannot stand the test
Zhu Houxuan did not dare to test him, because he was no longer an individual, but was responsible for the interests of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.
(End of this chapter)