Fengtian Hall is the largest building in the entire imperial city, also known as Jinluan Hall. It is the place where the emperor holds major ceremonies and receives congratulations from civil and military officials. After the Fengtian Hall are the Huagai and Jinshen Halls, forming three main halls. There are Wenhua Hall and Wenlou on the east side of the three main halls, and Wuying Hall and Wulou on the west side.
The left side of Fengtian Hall is the middle left gate, and the right side is the middle right gate. In front of the hall is Guangting, Wen Tower in the east and Wu Tower in the west. The front door of the main hall is Fengtian Gate, the left is Zuohongmen (later renamed Dongjiaomen), and the right is Youhongmen (later renamed Westjiaomen). There are left-wing gate and right-wing gate on the two verandas outside the gate, and the inner Wulong Bridge is in the south.
Within the imperial city, Zhu Biao had an unimpeded journey, and he went straight to the outside of Fengtian Hall without being informed.
In Fengtian Hall, the hard-working Comrade Zhu was still writing and reviewing memorials. Speaking of Comrade Lao Zhu's attitude towards the job of emperor, it was really a model for five thousand years. If Lao Zhu had the chance to come to modern times, even if he was poor, he would become rich sooner or later.
Why? Just because of Lao Zhu’s work attitude.
What 996, what 007, Lao Zhu said these are all just basic skills.
Zhu Yuanzhang reigned for thirty-one years and hardly took a day off.
Yes, you read that right. He hasn’t had a day off in thirty-one years. This is simply a perverted workaholic.
The key is that it doesn’t matter that Lao Zhu is a workaholic himself, he also wants others to be workaholics with him. He wanted all officials to have a year-round holiday with him, but was opposed by all officials. After bargaining, Lao Zhu agreed that the officials would have three days off a year.
Which three days are they? These three days are the winter solstice, the Chinese New Year, and October 21st (this day is Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang's birthday). This is really life-threatening.
Although the officials desperately want some rest time, the emperor is the emperor. If Comrade Lao Zhu is forced to panic, he may not even be able to get these three days.
Therefore, the civil and military ministers had to grit their teeth and agreed to Lao Zhu's practice of taking three days off a year.
When the eunuch standing by saw Zhu Biao coming to the door of the hall, he took two steps forward and walked to Zhu Yuanzhang and said softly: "Your Majesty, the prince is here."
"Oh, the prince is here? Come on, let him in." Zhu Yuanzhang casually ordered, his eyes not leaving the memorial in his hand as he spoke. He didn't raise his head until he finished reviewing the memorial and put it down.
"Why did you think of coming to see me? Speaking of which, I haven't seen you for several days and I'm starting to miss you. You just happened to be here. Let's have a good chat in a while." Lao Zhu chuckled.
The Ming Dynasty was different from the Qing Dynasty. There was no such thing as the Qing Dynasty where sons had to go to greet the emperor and empress every day.
As for his prince, only Zhu Biao is loved by Lao Zhu and can make him miss him after not seeing him for a few days. The other princes were all driven by him to stay in the mansions outside the imperial city. Without Lao Zhu's summons, they would not see Lao Zhu at all.
"My son, I came here because I have something to report to my father." Zhu Biao stood under His Majesty Dan and reported to Lao Zhu.
"Stop standing there. I feel tired just looking at you. Sit down and say." Lao Zhu waved his hand to Zhu Biao to sit down. He took a sip of the ginseng tea and felt a little relieved.
Zhu Fan didn't like to stand because he was fat, so he sat aside.
"What's the matter? Tell me."
"Father, do you still remember Han De, the Minister of Household Affairs?" Zhu Biao did not take out the blood letter directly, but started chatting with Zhu Yuanzhang.
Mentioning Han De, Lao Zhu's eyes turned cold and said: "The one who wrote to me to abolish the treasure banknotes? He is just a short-sighted person, and death is not a pity." After speaking, he looked at Zhu Biao suspiciously and said : "You're not here to plead with him, are you?"
There are two reasons why Lao Zhu printed treasure banknotes. The first was because of the lack of copper in the Ming Dynasty. Not only was the Ming Dynasty short of copper, China had been short of copper since ancient times, which is strange to say. Logically speaking, a country as vast as China should be short of everything, but it just lacks copper.
However, transactions between common people are almost always done with common money, and high-value money such as silver is rarely used.
Moreover, after Lao Zhu's recuperation policy, the Ming Dynasty had a large population, which further highlighted the lack of money.
What should I do if I don’t have enough currency to meet private transactions? Zhu Yuanzhang felt extremely smart as he just used treasure money to solve an urgent need. Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are divided into five denominations: Yiguan, 500 Wen, 300 Wen, 200 Wen, and 100 Wen. A single note is equivalent to one thousand Wen copper coins or one tael of silver.
The second reason is that Lao Zhu is short of money. Even though Lao Zhu was an emperor, he also plundered a large amount of wealth from his enemies when he swept across the world. However, on the one hand, these wealth must be used to reward the meritorious officials. On the other hand, due to the frivolous corvee and low taxation for the people's recuperation, the Ming Dynasty's finances simply cannot make ends meet. Basically, I need to spend some money every year to fill the hole in Tiantian's finances. As a result, his wealth has long been exhausted.
Bei Yuan is still watching with eagerness and wants to go south to regain the world at any time, and Lao Zhu also wants the Northern Expedition to completely wipe out Bei Yuan at all times. From the first year of Hongwu to the present, Lao Zhu launched three Northern Expeditions. When a cannon goes off, gold is worth ten thousand taels. If you don’t have money, why do you want to fight a war?
If you want to fight, you have to have money. What will you do if you don’t have money? Print treasure banknotes, this is Lao Zhu’s answer.
It was for these reasons that Lao Zhu was so angry when Han De wrote a letter to abolish the treasure banknotes.
In Lao Zhu's view, Hande was short-sighted and could not see the importance of treasure money at all. If that's the case, why keep him? Do you want to keep him so that you can earn your own salary?
"Yes, and no." Zhu Biao answered speciously, and continued: "My son is indeed here to plead for mercy, but not for Minister Han, but for his son Han Du."
After hearing this, Lao Zhu raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh? How do you say that?"
Lao Zhu believed that since the prince said this, he must have his reasons. Lao Zhu was extremely satisfied with himself as the prince. Not only was the prince himself kind and intelligent, but under his careful cultivation, the prince's current foresight and political skills were all superb.
"Han Du, the eldest son of Han Shilang, wrote a letter in blood and passed it into the hands of my son. It was all about treasure banknotes, and his reasoning was quite precise. I dare to say that if Han Shilang wrote this letter, If you write a letter in blood instead of asking your father to abolish the treasure banknotes in the morning, not only will your father not punish Han Shilang, but you will reward him."
Zhu Biao handed the blood book in his hand to Lao Zhu.
Lao Zhu held the blood book in his hand, laughed, and disagreed, "You mean that Han Du's talent and knowledge are better than his father? If that is the case, then he is really the son of a tiger and the father of a dog."
Lao Zhu obviously didn't believe what the prince said. In his opinion, although Hande, the minister, was short-sighted, he was not inferior to his own son. Otherwise, as a father, how could he teach his son?
Zhu Biao was confident and said with a smile: "Father, you will know it as soon as you see it."
Lao Zhu was always quick and resolute in doing things, and he didn't delay. He opened his clothes and took a look. At first, I laughed like Zhu Biao, thinking that Han Du was exaggerating, but as I continued to read, I felt more and more that this bloody letter was meaningful and reasonable.
After reading it, there was a long silence. Lao Zhu held the blood book and looked at it silently. Zhu Biao was not anxious at all, he sat quietly and waited quietly. He was giving Lao Zhu enough time to think.
After a while, Lao Zhu came back to his senses and softly uttered a few words, "Yes, this petition can indeed be called a clear distinction between interests and disadvantages. This Han Du is better than his father."
Suddenly Lao Zhu's tone changed and he snorted coldly: "But he is also a cunning person. What does his last sentence mean? He said he knew what the treasure banknotes were paying for, but he didn't write it out. Okay. How courageous is he? Is he threatening me? If I want to behead him, will he not tell me? "
Lao Zhu was furious and pointed to the last line of small words in the blood book for Zhu Biao to read.
The smile on Zhu Biao's face suddenly turned to embarrassment. How could Zhu Biao not understand Han Du's obvious intention? He understood what Han Du meant when he saw this line of text.
Han Du's meaning was very simple, "If you save my life, I will explain it clearly to you. If you die, then I'm sorry, no one will be able to explain it to you."
This sentence happened to be very important. Zhu Biao thought about it when he saw it, but to no avail. According to Han Du, since treasure money can buy something, it must pay for something.
Where has Lao Zhu ever been threatened by others in his life? Everyone who had threatened Lao Zhu had gone to bed underground, without exception.
Zhu Biao was afraid that Lao Zhu would kill Han Du in anger, so he quickly answered: "Father, Han Du is not threatening my father. Rather, my father, please see, this shirt is only so big, and the characters are so big." It's so big, maybe Han Du couldn't write anymore, so he didn't write it down. The last line of words was obviously much smaller than the others. Han Du still wanted his father to forgive his sins, but he absolutely couldn't You have the courage to blackmail your father."
Hearing this, Lao Zhu still had an angry look on his face, "Has no courage? Isn't his father very courageous? In front of the court, in full view of everyone, he asked me to abolish the treasure banknotes, and even said that he would die to remonstrate. Okay, isn't it easy to die? ? Not only do I want him to die, but I also want his whole family to accompany him to death."
As he spoke, Lao Zhu suddenly slapped his palm on the long case, making Zhu Biao's eyelids jump in fright.
He said hurriedly: "Father, Emperor Mingjian, Minister Han did have the suspicion of disrespecting the emperor at that time, but Han Du did have great talents. My sons and ministers also often go to and from the market, and the treasure money has indeed become less and less valuable over the years. Now, The treasure banknotes can only be used for 80% of the eight years of Hongwu. In the past, the children were puzzled, but Han Du solved most of the children's doubts. The father has always been thirsty for talents, and it is related to the treasure banknotes. For such an urgent matter, why not summon Han Du first and listen to what he has to say?"
Zhu Biao's gentle voice carried a calm and convincing power.
Lao Zhu nodded frequently when he heard this, and then ordered the eunuch beside him, "Go to the Punishment Department and summon Han Du to me."
