Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The reason why Zhu Youjian was in a hurry to have a second child with the queen was that according to the previously agreed inheritance etiquette, after the crown prince was enthroned, the top five heirs needed to be announced every year.

Now that he already has four sons, he cannot take up the five quotas. Therefore, the fifth heir needs to be Prince Fu Zhu Changxun.

However, because of the dispute over the national foundation that year, the ministers were very resistant to Prince Fu and were unwilling to put his name in the order of succession.

Prince Fu himself did not want to be drawn into this vortex and kept submitting letters of refusal, not wanting to be included in the line of succession.

The Ming Dynasty Succession Etiquette was also difficult to produce because of this.

The ministers hoped that the emperor would announce this etiquette and determine the top five heirs after he gave birth to his fifth son.

As Zhu Changluo's son, Zhu Youjian certainly could not compete with the ministers on this matter. He stated that he must include Zhu Changxun, who was competing with his father for the throne, in the list.

So he acquiesced to this matter and asked his ministers to continue to revise the "Ming Dynasty Succession Ceremony" and wait until his fifth son was born before announcing the ceremony and succession order.

For the stability of the harem, he hoped that the fifth child would be the legitimate son born to the queen, who would be ranked only behind the crown prince in the order of succession, so as to help the queen consolidate her position.

Therefore, during this period, he favored the queen exclusively. The other concubines were only favored during the safe period.

This incident made the concubines in the harem, who already knew about the safe period and the period of fertility, quite jealous of the queen.

At the same time, she also realized that the emperor's favor for the queen remained the same as always, and no one else could challenge her position.

The harem was therefore stable, but the outer court was in turmoil and caused waves of unrest.

The emperor's comment that "a piece of rotten mud cannot be supported on a wall" made the ministers realize how much the current emperor disliked Zhou Kui.

It can even be said that as long as the emperor does not retract this evaluation, Zhou Kui is nothing but a pool of mud in the eyes of court officials and nobles.

The Zhou family can forget about gaining political influence, as no one will take them seriously.

The Zhou family was struck by this comment. Except for Zhou Kui, who was heartless, the other Zhou family members who wanted to make a difference were all depressed.

The censors swarmed in and tried to show their own character by criticizing Zhou Kui, the foreign relative.

Even the Prime Minister Han Yu submitted a memorial to the emperor, advising him to restrain his external relatives.

However, due to the relationship with the crown prince, Han Yu's memorial was not very serious. It only asked the emperor to restrain the Zhou family and had no intention of being a bad guy.

Zhu Youjian looked at the memorial and shook his head, feeling that Han Yu's habit of keeping a low profile was hopeless. He could still maintain the court situation, but there was no hope of promoting reform.

There was nothing new in the memorials submitted by Shi Fenglai and Li Guopu.

However, Yang Jingchen's memorial made his eyes light up and he felt it was very much to his liking.

Yang Jingchen, who aspired to become the second Zhang Fujing, had studied the Jiajing Reform led by Zhang Fujing. In his memorial, he mentioned the old events of the Jiajing Dynasty and proposed to implement the conclusion of the court discussion in the eighth year of Jiajing and abolish the hereditary title of foreign relatives:
The title conferred on relatives by marriage ends only for themselves and their descendants are not allowed to inherit it.

This would naturally dampen Zhou Kui's arrogance and prevent him from acting recklessly again.

Zhu Youjian was quite impressed with this memorial and ordered it to be published as an internal reference for discussion by court officials.

The foreign relatives and nobles were quite frightened when they learned about this, because they did not expect that Zhou Kui's bad deeds would implicate them.

These people all blamed Zhou Kui in their hearts, but they did not dare to take this matter lightly. They mobilized all kinds of connections and went to the emperor to plead for mercy.

Obviously they knew that the key to this matter was the emperor. As long as the emperor changed his mind, their titles would be inherited.

However, what makes them despair is that although there are many foreign relatives and nobles at present, most of them have no influence.

The Marquis of Wuqing, who had the greatest influence, had long been stripped of his title by the emperor for treason and banished to Quanzhou. The remaining Marquis of Yongnian, Marquis of Yongning, Marquis of Boping, and Marquis of Xincheng had basically no influence on the emperor because they had no one in the palace.

Taikangbo was able to influence the emperor because Empress Zhang was still alive. But after the current emperor ascended the throne, Empress Zhang basically said nothing about state affairs.

After experiencing the turmoil during the Tianqi period, Zhang Guoji was unwilling to get involved in court affairs. Even if this matter was related to whether his title could be inherited, he did not want to take the lead.

As for the current emperor's in-laws, Xinlebo, they wholeheartedly support the emperor.

After all these people thought about it, they could only hold their noses and go to Zhou's house. They asked Zhou's family to send someone to the palace to ask the queen to persuade the emperor.

However, the people of Zhou family did not dare to cause trouble for the queen at this time and kept shirking their responsibilities.

Zhou Kui was not afraid of affecting his daughter, but other nobles did not dare to trouble him.

This person, who has been described by the emperor as "mud", obviously cannot have any influence in front of the emperor.

Finally, these people had no other choice but to go to Xinlebo and ask the current emperor's grandmother, Xu, to come forward and persuade the current emperor.

Perhaps unable to resist the requests of so many foreign relatives, Xu entered the palace to meet the emperor. Then she came out happily and said to all the foreign relatives:
"The emperor is still easy to talk to. He thinks of us relatives."

"As long as you are willing to establish a fiefdom, you can do so, and the title will be inherited from generation to generation."

"Go back and prepare well, and go with my Liu family to open a fiefdom."

These words made the relatives who heard them look at each other in bewilderment.

It is true that they want to pass on the title, but that does not mean they want to establish a fiefdom overseas.

Didn’t you see that King Han Zhu Danshen fell ill and is now seriously ill on Beihai Island.

They want to live a few more years, so of course they don't want to risk their lives.

Some people even thought that no matter whether the emperor abolished the hereditary titles of relatives outside the emperor's family, they would not have to worry about their generation's titles being abolished. Whether their descendants wanted to establish vassal states and inherit titles was up to them.

Therefore, these people left one by one with excuses, and none of them responded to the Liu family's proposal to establish a fiefdom.

After these people left, Xu spat at them and said happily to her children and grandchildren:

"The Emperor really cares about our relatives and promised to confer several baronial titles in addition to an earldom."

"As long as you have the ability, go and open a fiefdom."

"How long the Liu family can prosper depends on you from now on."

For the Liu family, who were originally planning to establish a fiefdom, the emperor's promise was a great grace.

In particular, the territories of these sons and daughters are not included in the earl's territory. The actual area of ​​territory that the Liu family can open up is not inferior to that of dukes and marquises.

Of course, what made Xu even happier was that the emperor planned to posthumously confer the title of Duke of Ying on her husband and confer the title of Lady Taifu of Ying on her.

He also asked her to dictate her daughter's appearance and draw the portrait of Empress Dowager Xiaochun.

This made her feel that the emperor really cared about his relatives and was not just pretending.

It was just right that those short-sighted relatives did not go to establish fiefdoms. She was also worried that these people would compete with the Liu family for places and good fiefdoms. (End of this chapter)