King Fu and King Lu are the two vassal kings closest to the emperor Zhu Youxiao, and they are also the two richest kings in the Ming Dynasty.
According to historical records, King Fu's wedding expenses amounted to 300,000 yuan, and the Luoyang mansion cost 280,000 yuan, ten times the normal amount.
When King Fu became a vassal, he granted another 20,000 hectares of farmland, so that he could not collect all the farmland in Henan and had to use fertile farmland in Shandong and Huguang to make up the amount.
But King Fu was still not satisfied with this, and later petitioned for the confiscated fields of the late scholar Zhang Juzheng, as well as miscellaneous taxes on Dizhou along the Yangtze River from Taiping, and tea and silver from Yanjing in Sichuan for his own use.
In addition, King Fu later asked for 1,300 yin of Huaiyan salt to open a shop in Luoyang.
Originally, Henan people ate Hedong salt, but because King Fu sold Huai salt, King Fu directly issued an order prohibiting the consumption of Hedong salt in Henan and requiring Henan people to only eat Huai salt. The Ming Dynasty’s military pay was linked to the salt industry. This also led to a significant reduction in border rates.
The same goes for Prince Lu. In order to prepare for Prince Lu's wedding, Wanli and Empress Dowager Li misappropriated more than 900,000 taels of military pay. Later, Prince Lu became a vassal, and the property obtained in the capital had to be transported in more than 500 ships. Even the vassal queen Forty thousand acres of farmland outside the village were forcibly looted.
However, the current King of Lu is no longer the first generation King of Lu, Zhu Yixi, but the second generation of King of Lu, Zhu Changxi.
But Zhu Changzi is not much better than Zhu Yili.
Historically, Zhu Changzi, as a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, had so much wealth, but when the invading army came, he abandoned the city and fled early, and later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, which was spineless.
In any case, Zhu Youxiao knew very well how much wealth these two vassal kings possessed in the world.
Of course, Zhu Youxiao also knew that a big reason for this was the connivance of the rulers at the time, Wanli and Empress Dowager Li, who regarded the world as private property and actively gave it to them.
But Zhu Youxiao, who came from a later generation, was not willing to continue to tolerate King Fu and King Lu occupying so much wealth, and even continued to plunder the world's wealth, which increasingly affected the court's income, and thus affected his own country.
Zhu Youxiao was not a selfish ruler like Empress Dowager Li and Wanli who did not care about the interests of the world. Therefore, he had already decided to seize all the property of King Fu and King Lu and even punish them for their crimes.
King Fu and King Lu are either taking the initiative to rebel because Zhu Youxiao is now forcing them to go to Beijing to collect the crime, or they are cowardly enough to go to Beijing to collect the crime. However, no matter what King Fu and King Lu choose, Zhu Youxiao's ultimate goal is to seize their property, Punish him for his crime.
Moreover, Zhu Youxiao now began to issue decrees to recover some of the court income occupied by King Fu and King Lu without waiting for King Fu and King Lu to make their choices.
"In addition, the decree is passed down that the wealth accumulated by King Fu and King Lu was already rich enough to rival the country, but they still accumulated wealth excessively, causing most of the people's consumption in the world to fall into their hands, and left the court and the people alone. This should not be the case, and should be confiscated. That is to say, starting from the fifth year of Tianqi, the miscellaneous taxes collected by King Fu from Jiangdu to Taiping along the Yangtze River and the tea silver from Sichuan salt wells will cease to be returned to King Lu's house tax and the Hedong salt tax. At the end of this year, these taxes and silver will be unified Ministry of Revenue, this will happen every year from now on."
"I obey the decree!"
Han Xu, Xiong Tingbi and others hurriedly replied.
Now Zhu Youxiao personally issued an order to abolish the two fiscal and tax revenues of the imperial court occupied by these two kings, which naturally made the courtiers feel happy.
Zhu Youxiao did this not only to increase the tax revenue of the imperial court and reduce excessive expenditures of the vassal kings, but also to continue to stimulate the two vassal kings.
Zhu Youxiao hoped that with his repeated stimulation, the two kings would better rebel directly, so that he could have more reason to directly confiscate their properties, and reform the vassal system on the grounds that the vassal area was not suitable for control.
…
"It's too much bullying! It's simply too much! Kill my mother and concubine, destroy my uncle's clan, and now he wants me to go to Beijing to accept the crime! What on earth does Zhu Youxiao want to do!"
Prince Fu was naturally furious after receiving Zhu Youxiao's order.
"Your Highness, please forgive me for speaking out. Isn't the tyrant's intention obvious? He just wants to get rid of you, Your Highness! Let Your Highness die without a burial place. The purpose of what he is doing now is that either Your Highness, you will rebel. Either your Highness will be deprived of your royal title, sentenced to death, and have your family property taken away after you enter the capital! Therefore, Your Highness, in my humble opinion as a student, instead of going to the capital to die, it is better to start a rebellion directly, and maybe there will be a chance of survival!"
Ye Chuchun instigated from the side.
He is an undercover agent of Dongchang. On the surface, he is a radical reactionary scholar who wants to eat Zhu You's students alive. However, his actual task is to follow Wei Zhongxian's arrangements and deliberately provoke these people to be eliminated by the emperor. However, he cannot be found at the moment. The reactionary forces with reasons created reasons for the emperor to attack these forces through major crimes such as active rebellion or collusion with rebels.
Back then, Ye Chuchun had provoked Ye Xianggao like this.
But Ye Xianggao was too cunning. No matter how Ye Chuchun made impassioned speeches and scolded the court for being immoral and Emperor Zhu Youxiao as a ruthless tyrant, Ye Xianggao, who seemed to have seen some clues, could never get out of the way and be caught by the court. This step of manipulation finally forced Zhu Youxiao to let Wei Zhongxian use extraordinary means to get rid of Ye Xianggao.
But now Ye Chuchun needs to repeat his old trick on King Fu.
After hearing Ye Chuchun's analysis, King Fu agreed deeply and nodded quickly: "What you said is very true. The tyrant wants to get rid of me first, and then talks about preserving my dignity and letting me go to Beijing to accept the crime. To put it bluntly, Just force me to rebel!"
King Fu's breathing became rapid as he spoke, and he suddenly threw the Chengyao cup in his hand to the ground: "I really did the opposite!"
But at this time, Zhu Yousong, the crown prince of Prince Fu, came out and said, "Father, please calm down. This matter needs to be discussed in the long term. Your Majesty is the orthodoxy of the world now. How can you say that you are going to rebel? Now the world is no longer the time when the country first established a temple and raised troops to calm down." , even if the temple was built in the past, it was mostly luck. What's more, now most of the best soldiers in the world are in the hands of the imperial court, and the vassal kings no longer have real military power. Therefore, when the Wumiao Temple was built, King Anhua, King Ning, etc. were unable to rebel. Now, How can we succeed? From my perspective, it’s better to think of other ways first. We can’t raise troops lightly unless it is absolutely necessary!”
Although Zhu Yousong is only nineteen years old now, he already knows the advantages and disadvantages.
Otherwise, in the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, he would not have performed better than King Lu in the struggle for the throne. He would have united with Ma Shiying and the four towns in Jiangbei to fight against the Donglin Party, and then became the first emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
At this time, in his opinion, if his father honestly went to the capital to accept the crime, at most he would be killed, and then his family property would be confiscated. However, he, the heirs of the royal family, could at least survive because they were members of the clan. But if the father really wants to rebel, then the whole family will be killed.
Therefore, he had to come over to persuade his father, Zhu Changxun, and glanced at Ye Chuchun, thinking: "To persuade my father to rebel is either stupid or bad. Maybe this person is the kid deliberately sent by the traitorous officials to instigate him. People, I wish that my father would rebel so that I could completely eliminate my Prince Fu’s Mansion! This prince cannot let you have your wish!"
Ye Chuchun also glanced meaningfully at the young prince Zhu Yousong in front of him.
At this time, Zhu Changxun also listened to his son's words and said: "What you said makes sense. He, Zhu Youxiao, now has soldiers and generals, and he hopes that the king will rebel, but the king does not do so!"
…
"Are you saying that Prince Fu's eldest son Zhu Yousong persuaded Prince Fu Zhu Changxun?"
Here at Zhu Youxiao, after learning from Wei Zhongxian the reaction of King Fu Zhu Changxun about his decree to let him go to Beijing to accept the crime, he asked Wei Zhongxian one more question in surprise.
"Back to your lord, yes, according to reports from Dongchang's informants, Prince Fu is quite independent and troublesome. He successfully prevented Prince Fu Zhu Changxun from plotting rebellion."
Wei Zhongxian replied.
"Then issue an edict to urge King Fu to come to Beijing as soon as possible to collect his crime, and give him a time limit. If he cannot come to Beijing before May of the fifth year of Tianqi, he will be punished for resisting the edict!"
Zhu Youxiao said coldly.
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