Hu Weiyong braved the wind and snow, walked out of the towering and forbidding Forbidden City of Yingtian Mansion step by step in the snow, under the watchful eyes of many palace gate guards on the city wall.
The cold wind carried snowflakes and scratched his beard and penetrated into his clothes.
But the coldness in his body could not suppress the fire in his heart. He wanted to run and scream to vent his emotions for the rest of his life.
He, the leader of hundreds of officials, the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty Hu Weiyong, is back again!
"Prime Minister Hu, Prime Minister Hu, wait a moment!"
Faintly hearing someone calling him, Hu Weiyong looked back and saw two palace eunuchs running towards him.
Hu Weiyong hurriedly greeted him. After seeing who it was, he smiled and greeted: "Eunuch Jin, are you...?"
"His Royal Highness, there is a reward!"
Jin Liyuan paused for breath and spoke to him.
Hu Weiyong knelt down in a hurry.
Jin Liyuan stood in front of him and read from His Highness the Crown Prince: "Prime Minister Hu has worked hard and made great achievements. He has been imprisoned in recent days. I will give Prime Minister Hu a fresh lychee as a special reward."
Fresh lychees? !
What is this Goryeo eunuch talking about? !
Where do you get fresh lychees in the cold winter? !
Hu Weiyong, who had been imprisoned for nearly a month, was full of doubts. He looked up and saw a bright red lychee clearly placed on a plate with a blue and white cloud and dragon pattern.
Someone once came to him to ask for help, and the gift was lychees shipped from Lingnan, so he recognized him.
But the shells of those lychees have turned black. The lychees he saw now were bright red, and even the leaves on the branches were still green.
"I thank His Highness the Crown Prince for the reward!"
Hu Weiyong took the lychee with respectful hands.
Jin Liyuan helped him up and said with a smile: "The Prime Minister still has a long way to go home. The Za family called a carriage for the Prime Minister to travel on his behalf."
"Thank you, father-in-law!"
Hu Weiyong felt comfortable both physically and mentally. If he were not the prime minister, how could the young eunuchs in the palace fawn over him?
It's a pity that he doesn't have half a penny on him, so he can't give any silver to Young Supervisor Jin.
Not long after, the carriage arrived. Hu Weiyong and Jin Liyuan said goodbye and got on the carriage.
Still holding the cold lychee in his right hand, his heart was filled with ups and downs and doubts abounded.
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, please sit tight," the coachman reminded.
"Let me ask you something."
Hu Weiyong couldn't help but ask him: "Do you know the lychees that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince gave me...?"
It's only half the story.
The coachman laughed, "Who doesn't know that the Queen now rewards the ladies in the palaces with lychees and bayberry every now and then?"
"Every three to five?! And bayberry?!"
"No, ladies and gentlemen, you are all looking forward to rewards every day. Even the princes and princesses will get one or two. The palace is filled with joy, even happier than during the Chinese New Year."
"this……"
Hu Weiyong became more and more shocked and couldn't help but ask: "Why are there lychees in the winter?"
"How could it be possible?" The coachman laughed and said matter-of-factly: "Apart from Your Majesty who got it from Master Chu, who else in Yingtian Mansion can eat fresh fruit now?"
"..."
Master Chu!
Hu Weiyong remembered that it was Master Chu who told His Majesty the three strategies for governing the country, and he escaped the disaster just now.
A quarter of an hour later, Hu Weiyong returned home.
The soldiers surrounding the Prime Minister's Mansion had not yet received the order to evacuate, but after seeing the lychee in his hand, their attitude immediately changed and they allowed him to enter the house to rest first. They waited for the order to come before evacuating.
Hu Weiyong did not dare to show off his official authority as Prime Minister, and saluted politely before entering the palace.
His wives, concubines, children, housekeepers and servants all cried bitterly after seeing him.
"Why are you crying? Master, I am not dead yet, and I have been rewarded by His Highness the Crown Prince!"
Hu Weiyong put on the fox fur sent by his servant, and in front of his wife, concubines, children and servants, he pushed aside the lychees given by Zhu Biao, ate them, and closed his eyes to feel the sweet and cold lychee meat.
After a while, he spit out the core and ordered the butler to bring the peel and core together.
"Report, report, sir!"
A servant ran in to report that the family of Dr. Liang Zhong of the Ministry of Etiquette was kneeling outside the house, their feet were wrapped in cloth and bleeding, and they were crying and begging the Prime Minister for help.
"What's the deal with the bandages on your feet?"
Hu Weiyong was irritated and shouted: "Why don't you go and ask what's going on?!"
The servant ran out in a hurry.
Not long after, he hurried back again.
"Forbidden to bind feet?"
Hu Weiyong was wrapped in a fox fur coat. He probably knew what was going on and ordered: "Let the people at the door clean the horse pen, and also take off the foot bindings on your feet. Anyone in the family who dares to have their feet bound in the future will be beaten." die!"
"go back!"
Hu Weiyong waved his hand to dismiss everyone, and sat alone on the Grand Master's chair with his eyes closed and deep in thought.
It is forbidden to bind feet, and three measures are taken to spread out the cubage into the acres, with fresh lychees.
Although he had never met the real Master Chu, he knew that the world in the Ming Dynasty had changed.
…
The next day, Mao hour.
Hu Weiyong, wearing court uniform, stood in front of the palace gate and waited.
Six departments, Yushitai, Dali Temple, Taichangsi, Yingtian Mansion Chief and Assistant Officer, Hanlin Academy Bachelor, Taiyuan Hospital...
Many officials, whether they relied on Hu Weiyong or not, came forward to congratulate him.
The few officials who disdain to interact with Hu Weiyong have serious expressions on their faces. Hu Weiyong, the Prime Minister of Zhongshu Province and the leader of hundreds of officials, actually gives him a comeback!
Officials from the previous court arrived one after another, the palace door slowly opened, and Hu Weiyong was the first to walk in.
In the Huagai Hall, the court meeting begins.
Hu Weiyong was the first to stand up again, holding a wat tablet and bowing in salute: "Your Majesty, Hu Weiyong, I have something to report!"
"explain."
Zhu Yuanzhang was waiting for his words.
Hu Weiyong's face did not change and he began to talk about the matter: "I studied history books in prison and realized that the decline of the dynasty was due to the officials, gentry and landlords oppressing the people, amassing money wantonly, hiding their fields and evading taxes. I thought about it again and again, and I sincerely request your majesty to issue an order to take it back. The rights of scholar-bureaucrats to be exempted from corvee service.”
One stone caused a shocking wave.
All the officials in the Huagai Hall were in an uproar, so much so that the imperial master of ceremonies had to rebuke loudly and order the officials to be quiet.
"His Majesty!"
Zheng Jiucheng, the Minister of Rites, stood up and objected: "The family of a wealthy family is on the same level as the common people. Now that the family is reinstated, there is no distinction between a gentleman and a barbarian. This is not the way to encourage scholars to treat the virtuous! What the Prime Minister said is ridiculous!"
The two ministers of the Ministry of Rites also objected.
Immediately afterwards, Hong Yi, the Minister of the Ministry of official affairs, the Ministry of punishment, the Ministry of industry, and the governor of Yingtianfu all stood up to oppose.
Hu Weiyong's proposal to withdraw officials' rights to be exempted from corvee and exemption is simply standing opposite to all the scholar-bureaucrats in the world. Even officials from Hu Weiyong's party, no one stood up to respond to him at the moment.
Why?
What Prime Minister Hu said was no less than slashing his own leg with a knife.
Before the Ming Dynasty, why did all the scholars in the world become rich overnight if they won the imperial examination?
This is all because Juren's relatives, clansmen, and fellow villagers will donate land to Juren in order to avoid the reduction of taxes and servitude.
Now Hu Weiyong proposes that all of them must be exempted. Wouldn't it be a loss of jobs for scholars all over the world?
On the Dragon Throne.
Zhu Yuanzhang was as excited as he looked at these officials as if their homes were being ransacked, and listened to what they said, such as "there are not many free grains" and "it is unprecedented for scholar-bureaucrats to serve in corvee".
I can't help but wonder in my heart, if the government and gentry are integrated to serve as errands and pay food, can this strategy really succeed?
Just when he was wavering, he remembered what Chu Zhen said again.
“In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, if the scholar-bureaucrats were given one acre of land exempted from corvee, they would have a way to exempt a thousand acres of land from corvée.”
"Cabinet minister, the six ministers have a lot of land under their names, and the tax collectors dare not ask..."
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand, and the eunuch who presided over the ceremony immediately stopped the officials.
"We will discuss this later."
Zhu Yuanzhang ordered: "Hu Weiyong, you go and write detailed regulations to take back the corvee exemptions for scholar-bureaucrats. They need to be made up from the salary, so as not to chill the hearts of scholars all over the world. I also feel guilty."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
After Hu Weiyong accepted the order, he retreated and stopped playing.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not in a hurry. After asking several other things, he withdrew from the court and left.
All the officials looked at each other.
To take back the privileges and exemptions from corvee service for the scholar-bureaucrats in the world, was Hu Weiyong busy trying to please His Majesty after he came out from prison, and made random comments, or was it His Majesty's intention?
