After Zhu Yingsui heard this, his face immediately turned into the color of pig liver.
He really didn't expect that King Shen would ask for overseas vassalship before him.
But in front of Wang Shizhen, Zhu Yingsui couldn't get angry easily, so he could only force out a smile: "That's it!"
It wasn't until after leaving the palace that Zhu Yingsui couldn't help but gnashed his teeth and cursed in a low voice:
"Shameless, really shameless. How can his words and deeds be inconsistent? Are we all still a family?!"
"Why are they doing one thing openly and secretly? No wonder His Majesty dares to seal them overseas. What kind of situation can such things become? They are obviously far worse than those vassal kings in the early days of the country!"
Zhu Yingsui could only see the shamelessness of others but not his own, so he only scolded King Shen along the way.
"I, the ancestors of Shen Fan, and my unfilial descendants, Zhu Peijiao, would like to inform you here."
"Although the sage said that parents should not travel far when they are alive, the sage also said that there must be a way to travel, and the unfilial son Zhu Peiji led his children to go to sea to join the vassal this time, and he also had a way."
"Everything is for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, for the foundation of my Zhu family's ancestral temple, and for the sake of loyalty. I don't really want to abandon our ancestors!"
"What's more, the ancestors must also understand that Shen Fan has now lost his fiefdom. Salt, cloth, iron, etc. are all because the court wants to enrich and benefit the people and will not allow us to use them to exploit the people. The income of the motherland has been greatly reduced, but we Fan Shen also has too many people, so if he really wants to stay in the middle-earth country with only his salary and some property, I'm afraid that not only will the living people not be able to have enough food and clothing, but there will also be people to call upon, and I'm afraid you won't have much sacrifice under Jiuquan. You can accept it, but you will laugh at other vassals, and you will not be able to enjoy wealth and honor below."
"Moreover, the situation of Yin and Mao's food shortage has become more and more serious. In order to avoid the increase of expenses too fast, we, Shen Fan, no longer dare to add children at will. Even I have to sleep in a separate room with my wife and concubines, all because we are afraid that the number of children will increase again. But you can’t raise it!”
"Woo!"
Here, after King Shen received the imperial edict, he hurriedly asked for the edict without waiting for others to know that he wanted to join the vassal overseas. He first took his children back to the place where his ancestors were buried, and offered sacrifices to their ancestors. After worshiping the ancestors, he officially went to sea to join the feudal clan.
Just in front of the ancestral grave, King Shen choked up when he talked about the original reason why he wanted to go to sea to join the feudal clan, and when he said that Shen Fan had to take birth control in order to avoid the rapid increase in expenses.
Then, King Shen said: "The sage also said that there are three types of unfilial piety, and the greatest is not having heirs. Therefore, the unfilial son Zhu Peiyi had to take his children out. Only by going out can the country's income increase significantly, and the children can continue to work for you." With more incense, you can continue to have dozens or hundreds of heirs."
"So please forgive me, my ancestors!"
King Shen said this and started to kowtow to the ancestral grave.
Shen Fan's disciples also kowtowed.
Then, King Shen Zhu Jueyao and a group of Shen Fan's clan disciples, except those who were still working or studying in the country and could not leave immediately, all followed him overseas.
at the same time.
Zhu Yingsui, the king of Dong'an, was angry, but he still took a group of his disciples to go to the covered bridge city that originally belonged to the Japanese covered bridge to become a vassal.
After all, the covered bridge is not that bad.
What's more, he himself handed over the memorial and got the imperial approval, which meant that he couldn't regret it. If he didn't go, he would undoubtedly be deceiving the emperor.
No coincidence.
Although many sects and vassals told Zhu Yingsui and Zhu Peiyi that they would not abandon their ancestors and would rather the whole family live on salary, even if they were so poor that they had to beg for food, in fact, most of them, like Zhu Yingsui and Zhu Peiyi, could not resist it. King Wei was attracted by the temptation brought about by the rapid growth of the vassal's wealth.
As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.
The sects and vassals of the Ming Dynasty were all accustomed to a life of fine clothing and fine food. After they saw King Wei going to sea to become rich, they were naturally willing to take risks and go for it, rather than stay in China and live frugally. .
Even if some individuals in a vassal are willing to do this, most others are not willing and they are still actively promoting the vassal and they still have to choose to go overseas to become a vassal.
As a large number of vassals went to sea to become vassals, and many criminals who were caught for private mining were also exiled overseas in large numbers, so for a time, the entire Ming Dynasty and North Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, Luzon, Manlajia In the sea areas between the Ming Dynasty and Mubang, ship traffic has become more frequent and intensive, making these sea areas almost the Ming Dynasty inland sea.
Of course, because many Ming ships traveled in these areas, shipwrecks occurred less and less, and most sects went to sea smoothly.
By midsummer of the 30th year of Wanli, many vassals had moved overseas, greatly reducing the number of vassals in the entire pass.
At the same time, throughout the pass, the number of giant rural eunuchs was also greatly reduced.
This directly led to a sharp increase in the amount of land tax and commercial tax in places such as Henan, Shanxi, and Huguang.
Because these places used to be the areas where vassal kings concentrated, and they were also areas where many rural officials and giants concentrated.
But now, a large number of feudal kings and rural eunuchs have been transferred away, which has given up a lot of profit space to the common people.
A large number of common people quickly grew into new wealthy merchants or large landowners because they did not have the power of feudal kings and rural eunuchs to bully property, nor did they have the crushing capital competitiveness they brought.
No matter how clear and clear the government officials are, in terms of tax collection, it is always more difficult for the bureaucracy to collect taxes from feudal princes and local officials than from common people, and it is usually many times more difficult.
Therefore, the relocation of a large number of vassal kings and rural eunuchs indeed made it easier for the bureaucracy to collect taxes, and thus collected more tax money.
"According to historical experience, the disappearance of a large number of vassal kings and rural eunuchs usually occurs only after a large-scale civil uprising occurs, a massive invasion by foreign invaders, and a bloody massacre."
"Basically, it's all after the change of government."
"But now, my father has actually used another method to cause this situation to occur in the pass, instead of using physical means to eliminate it, so that the etiquette will not be disturbed but the benevolence will still exist."
"It can be seen that my father is indeed better at governing the world than the previous emperors. This also made me discover that in fact, if we want to solve the problems of internal and external troubles, the country will be more prosperous. It has nothing to do with local bureaucracy, but all depends on the emperor. If the emperor is good at governing, the world will naturally be in great order; if the emperor is not good at governing, the world will naturally be in chaos!"
"In addition, I found that if I were to become king in the future, if I really wanted to be successful and even surpass my father's achievements in governing the country, there is the simplest way. That is, whenever there is a crisis, just torment the powerful and powerful people, or put it aside. Either drive them out or eliminate them, anyway, just don't bother the people."
"After all, for the emperor who is no one else, there is no force that needs to be cured and cannot be offended. The powerful and wealthy families in the world are all equivalent to middle-class families. As long as they are willing to support some as their confidants and attack others, they can accomplish things. This is different from governing a county. The county magistrate has many forces that can control him, but the emperor does not."
When the prince was promoted to be the governor of Shandong, Qi Baoguo was promoted to the right chief envoy of Huguang. For this reason, the two met again in Nandu.
After the prince met Qi Baoguo, he talked about his current political sentiments. Since he and Qi Baoguo had a good relationship and trusted each other, he spoke out what was in his heart without reservation.
Qi Baoguo smiled slightly at this and said: "Judging from the current situation, your Highness does not seem to have to work so hard in the future. It is only because of your majesty's great talents and hard work that he has eradicated a lot of thorns for your majesty. In the future, during the Ming Dynasty, China will be like a dynasty." At the beginning of the founding of the country, there were not many powerful local officials, so the government orders could be made more accessible."
The prince nodded after hearing this.
Qi Baoguo then added: "It's just that the world your Highness may face in the future will not only be the Middle Earth and the surrounding barbarians, but the entire universe. In other words, it will also have to be ruled outside the four seas. This was the case in previous dynasties. If it has not appeared before, there is no reference for the rule of the saintly monarch and benevolent lord. And even if we do not talk about the vastness of the current governance area, the key point is that the new industries we are facing need to be explored by your highness yourself! It is difficult to follow the diagram. For example, with regard to new machines such as steam engines and new firearms such as repeating muskets, whether His Highness needs to continue to expand in the future or focus on adjusting the weight of various industries is something that requires caution but cannot be ignored."
"You're right."
"Since the emergence of the new rites, the emperor of the country will not be facing an old world, but a new world."
"And when it comes to how to govern this new world, we can no longer rely solely on the ancients. We have to rely on today's people to understand it."
"However, this is no longer my responsibility alone. You should also learn more about it."
"People throughout China can no longer just rely on ancient sages to teach them."
The prince then followed.
Qi Baoguo said yes.
Then, as the red sun set in the west and the pale moon climbed over the wall, the prince said to Qi Baoguo:
"It's getting late. It's not advisable to stay for a long time. Let's say goodbye here. But after you go to Huguang, you should go and see the tomb of the late Grand Master for me. For my father to be able to have such illustrious sainthood today, he has done a lot of great work. He makes it possible for me, the prince, to not have to face centuries of abuses in the future."
Qi Baoguo nodded: "Don't worry."
Afterwards, the prince really abandoned the ship and headed north, while Qi Baoguo took a boat and headed west.
Not long after the prince arrived in Shandong, he did feel that since a large number of local officials were exiled overseas as "criminals", the entire Shandong area had become much better governed.
As a prince, he could go directly to the Jiagetreasury to check the household registers of money and grain without considering the feelings of the local officials. He could even directly release money to encourage people to do business without worrying about the power of the local officials monopolizing local commerce. This makes people afraid to do business, so that even if the government provides low-interest loans to stimulate business development, it cannot stimulate it.
Even the subordinate officials have become much more honest, because they can no longer rely on local rural officials to fight against their superiors.
"Everything is exactly as Qi Baoguo said. Now is the time for the government orders to be understood, and it feels a bit official."
Therefore, the prince smiled and said this to Zhang Yunsheng on this day. (End of chapter)
