Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian, who was leaving the banquet, was talking with royal family members including Prince of Fu, Prince of Lu, and Prince of Qin.

He was so immersed in the fact that he easily raised millions of dollars that he apparently forgot that the court still owed money to the three vassal kings.

This money was not the salary owed by the court, but was borrowed from them.

Prince Fu and Prince Lu were reluctant to speak directly, but the King of Qin asked confidently:
"Your Majesty, the family property accumulated by the Qin Palace for hundreds of years has been confiscated by Shaanxi officials."

"There has to be an explanation for this matter in the court, right?"

Zhu Youjian's expression froze, obviously he had not expected this to happen.

It was a pleasure to collect the accumulation of the Qin Palace before. Now that the Qin Prince is asking for it back in front of the royal family, an explanation has to be given.

Especially with the death of the Crown Prince of Qin, the imperial court has lost one means to control the King of Qin, and there is a possibility that the King of Qin will use this incident to cause trouble.

This left him with no choice but to say to the King of Qin in a friendly manner:
"The Qin vassal state was opened up with the help of the Nanyang Governor's Office and the Tang King's grandson. Uncle Wang, are you still not satisfied?"

"If Uncle Qin insists on having the food, I will ask the court to urge them to return it to Uncle Qin when they have the spare capacity."

Push the matter to the court officials and let the King of Qin argue with them.

Qin Wang Zhu Yi dared to speak in front of the emperor because he knew that the emperor was reasonable. He was not so sure when facing court officials.

Those civil officials spoke nice words, but were more ruthless than one another in their actions. Even Zonglu had to urge him many times before he could get a little bit, not to mention these extra debts.

However, although the current emperor is reasonable, his methods are also ruthless. He did not dare to threaten and anger the emperor at will, and said:

"The guards recruited by the Qin Palace are also participating in the development of the Qin vassal state."

"I think there must be a fixed amount of money and grain consumed in opening a vassal state. We can't just use the savings of the Qin Palace to offset the debt."

These well-organized words made Zhu Youjian immediately look at the King of Qin with a new respect.

After thinking about it, he said to the King of Qin:
"Uncle Wang is right!"

"We need to calculate clearly how much money the Shaanxi government has to requisition and how much it will cost to establish a vassal state."

"I will ask Shaanxi and Nanyang to send the account books over here, and I will refund the excess and make up the shortfall."

This made Qin Wang Zhu Yiluo feel relieved. Knowing that the current emperor would not default on his debt, he did not have to worry about losing all his money.

The other princes and princes' sons also nodded in praise, thinking that what the emperor said made sense.

In any case, they were already very satisfied that the emperor had such an attitude.

However, after Zhu Youjian made this promise, he said to them with a serious face:

"After each fiefdom moves, it can only leave 1,000 acres of farmland to cover the cost of maintaining the mansion and mausoleum."

"The rest of the land will be exchanged for fiefdoms. You all need to understand this."

"The King of Han did a great job in this regard. He moved the fiefdoms without delay."

"If you continue to hesitate, all the good places around Ming Dynasty will be taken over by outsiders."

It has always been his policy to promote the migration of vassal kings.

After implementing this policy over the past two years, the princes, like the nobles, began to believe in the emperor's sincerity.

Not to mention that the aristocratic parliament agreed with a four-fifths majority on the princes' request to reduce the power of the fiefdoms, the fact that the emperor today openly sold weapons to the fiefdom nobles fully demonstrated that the emperor was not worried about the vassal states becoming too powerful, but was supporting them instead.

As long as the current emperor is alive, enfeoffment of vassal states is the national policy of the imperial court. When the vassal states have established themselves, they will naturally find ways to prevent the subsequent emperors from touching them.

More and more princes and heirs began to lean towards moving their fiefs. In their hearts, how could they not envy the recklessness of their ancestors at the beginning of the country?
After the Han clan was established, Prince Zhu Shao of Han hurried over.

Even Prince Qing, who had not yet successfully established a vassal state, now temporarily resided in Han Fan under the pretext of something.

Who would want to be confined to a small world when they have their own fiefdom to manage?

Even in this bustling place like the capital, they got bored after playing there for too long.

In particular, after the officials in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance got used to their existence, they began to use them to improve their reputation and establish an image of themselves as people who are not afraid of power.

Even the newspapers liked to make fun of them; any embarrassing incident involving any prince would soon be reported in the newspapers.

This made many princes and princes feel increasingly uncomfortable staying in the capital.

More and more people are planning to move their fiefdoms on their own initiative.

Prince Lu asked tentatively:

"Your Majesty, the court still owes me and Prince Fu one hundred thousand each."

"Can I ask for help in developing my fiefdom?"

This is also for disaster relief in Shaanxi. Zhu Youjian nodded and said:

"I intend to place Uncle Lu's vassal state in Borneo."

"When Zheng Zhilong wins, he will open up the vassal state."

"When the time comes, Prince Lu's Palace will directly send people to take over and appoint officials to govern."

Then he remembered something Liu Zongzhou mentioned, and said to Prince Lu:
"Mr. Liu's disciple Huang Zongxi wants to establish a parliament in the vassal state." "Uncle Lu can use him and let him work with the parliamentarians to keep an eye on the officials sent there."

Zhu Changxun smiled bitterly and said:
"I have talked to that Huang Zongxi, and he advocates that all power should be returned to the parliament."

"It is said that affairs should be handed over to the parliament for decision, just like the ancient sage kings who made all the tools for governing the world come from schools."

"I dare not employ this man, and the officials in the palace do not like him either."

This made Zhu Youjian stroke his beard and start thinking about it.

He really didn't expect that someone would propose "all power belongs to parliament" now. This is to skip enlightened despotism and dual constitutional monarchy and go directly to parliamentary constitutional monarchy!
Even Huang Zongxi may not have had a place for the monarch in his heart, and regarded the monarch as "the greatest harm to the world."

This made Zhu Youjian begin to reflect: Was he moving too quickly in establishing the parliament, leading to such radical views?

If he did nothing, Huang Zongxi, as a disciple of Liu Zongzhou, would probably influence a large number of people. Then the spearhead of the parliamentary struggle would be directed at him.

This was something he absolutely did not want to see, so after some contemplation, Zhu Youjian said to Prince Lu:

"Huang Zongxi must be used!"

"But he is a minister of the court, not the private minister of the uncle."

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

"I will reward him with a piece of land and make him a feudal lord as well."

"Uncle Wang doesn't have to worry about his parliament, which will do whatever it takes to grab power."

This was a plan he came up with, to give Huang Zongxi a hereditary noble status and make him a feudal lord as well.

Let’s see if Huang Zongxi will still think about giving all power to parliament and establishing the monarch.

As for the reason for the reward, it was also easy to find. As Huang Zongxi was the son of Huang Zunsu, it was not too much to compensate him with a hereditary centurion. This hereditary position was converted into a title, that is, a hereditary knight.

Then, in the name of a trial parliament, Huang Zongxi was granted a fief of 100 li. As long as the vassal parliament succeeded, he would be granted the hereditary title of baron.

With his future hanging in the balance, Huang Zongxi should have been more cautious and not act recklessly.

If he still intends to put his ideals into practice, then send his grandfather, clan members, and relatives over to see if he can give up his family business for his ideals.

This entire plan came into being in the mind of Zhu Youjian, who had been emperor for more than two years, in an instant, and he made arrangements with Prince Lu.

Prince Lu did not understand at first, but after hearing that Huang Zongxi would have both the identities of a feudal lord and speaker, he immediately exclaimed that it was a wonderful thing, and believed that Huang Zongxi being the speaker would help him maintain his power.

However, he was somewhat puzzled as to why the emperor insisted on using Huang Zongxi. He didn't know what was so special about this person that made the emperor treat him so carefully.

Zhu Youjian had no explanation for this. He couldn't say that it was because of Huang Zongxi's reputation in later generations that made him so cautious!
Among the three great thinkers, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi, he was most worried about Huang Zongxi, because if he had nothing to do, he would write "On Monarch" to analyze the harm of monarchs.

On the contrary, he was not too worried about Gu Yanwu and Wang Fuzhi, because the harm they caused to the monarchy was far less than that caused by Huang Zongxi.

What he is looking forward to now is whether Huang Zongxi can find a balance between parliament and monarch after becoming a feudal lord, so that people all over the world can accept him and improve the parliamentary system.

Although it seemed like he had made this decision casually, Zhu Youjian was actually quite concerned about it. He planned to arrange for Jinyiwei personnel to keep an eye on Huang Zongxi's movements.

Then he said to King Fu:

"I will also send people to open up Uncle Fu's fiefdom."

"Uncle Wang can take the initiative to propose any place he wants."

Let Prince Fu choose any fiefdom he wants from among the places around the Ming Dynasty.

This treatment made many princes envious. They thought that the emperor was really treating this uncle well and did not care at all that he and Emperor Taichang had competed for the position of crown prince.

When Prince Fu heard this, he felt relieved. He was glad that he had been quite obedient when the emperor first ascended the throne and lent him 100,000 yuan.

But he really had no intention of establishing a vassal state at this time, so he said to the emperor:

"My mother is ill, so I really have no intention of doing this."

"Your Majesty, please give us some time before allowing the Fu clan to migrate."

When Zhu Youjian heard that Concubine Zheng was ill, he hurriedly expressed his concern and asked the queen to send someone to comfort Concubine Zheng who was living in Prince Fu's mansion.

As Concubine Zheng was already over sixty years old, she might have died of illness one day. He and the Queen were so polite that no one could find fault with them.

Zhu Changxun was deeply moved when he heard this, and even felt a little grateful to the emperor.

If it weren't for the emperor's permission, he and his mother might never see each other again. Now that he can take care of his mother until her death, he is very satisfied.

As for the past when he competed with Emperor Taichang for the position of Crown Prince, he dared not even think about it now, because all the officials in the court and the public criticized him.

Last year, after the emperor formulated the succession rites and regulations to include him and his son in the top five in line for the throne, the court officials are now keeping a close eye on him and will submit impeachment petitions if they find he and his son doing anything wrong.

This made Zhu Changxun extremely uncomfortable in the capital, and he almost asked to return to his residence in Luoyang.

But he also knew that the emperor would never let him go back to Luoyang. His mother, Concubine Zheng, also wanted to see him establish a vassal state and become the ruler of a country.

If his mother had not been ill and did not want to be separated, Zhu Changxun would have taken the initiative to request to move the Fu clan overseas.

Now, he only hoped that his mother's illness would get better as soon as possible and watch him go to the fiefdom.

For this reason, Zhu Changxun has been looking for a fiefdom these days, intending to ask the emperor for it as his own property after he has decided on one. (End of this chapter)