Chapter 62 Section 1 The omnipresent imperial power

When he was a child, one of the games Zhu Yuanzhang played most often was being an emperor.This brought great joy to Zhu Yuanzhang's gloomy childhood.In the game, he is supreme, omnipotent, and everything is under his absolute dominion.When playing this kind of unscrupulous game, he would never have thought that he would really ascend to the throne one day. However, all kinds of fantasies about the "emperor" in the lower culture were deeply absorbed into the depths of his consciousness. The low-level people, who are extremely poor in their own rights, exaggerate the authority of the emperor to an infinite degree in their fantasy, just like thinking that the emperor eats pork and stewed vermicelli in the deep palace all day long. Restricted, high above, do whatever you want.In folklore, there are always similar stories: a lowly servant, because the emperor made a slip of the tongue after drinking, and named him a certain king or a certain marquis, he really became a prince, because the emperor had no jokes in his mouth.

When he really became the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang's tyrannical actions proved that he did perform his duties according to the understanding of the "emperor" as a cowherd boy.In fact, imperial power in history has never been unlimited, but is restricted by various factors such as decentralization, grassroots autonomy, and personal ability. In many dynasties, the emperor was only in charge of major national policies, and the daily government affairs were represented by senior officials such as prime ministers. Menxia Province in the Tang Dynasty could reject the emperor's obviously unreasonable edicts, and the Shen Zhizheng Shi in the Song Dynasty could withhold the emperor's edicts for three days without delivering them.Due to technical reasons, government power in most dynasties could only reach the county level, and rural self-government was carried out with the assistance of the gentry below the county level.Only in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang, the imperial power achieved the greatest expansion in history.Like the terrifying arms and legs of the legendary giant octopus, the tentacles of imperial power broke through all restrictions and penetrated into every corner of civil society, every hut in the world, and even the brains of every common people.