Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Huang Daozhou's behavior caused an uproar in the capital.

Not to mention that people who were not in the know did not expect him to dare to do this, even Xie Xuelong, who had communicated with him, did not expect Huang Daozhou to enforce the law so strictly from the beginning.

When he heard about this, he hurried to Goulan Hutong, hoping that he could mediate if Huang Daozhou offended the powerful.

However, he arrived too late, because Huang Daozhou had already come into conflict with some distinguished guests, many of whom were sons of powerful people, over the issue of whipping prostitutes.

Jiang Bingxin, the illegitimate son of Dingxi Marquis Jiang Weigong, was beaten because of a lover. He rushed over with his servants and shouted:
"Who dares to hit my people?"

"All of you, come on and beat him back."

He ordered the servants to snatch the man away and then whip him back.

Huang Daozhou was so angry that his hands were shaking. He shouted:
"Whose family are you from?"

"How dare you stop me from enforcing the imperial system!"

"Tell me your father's name. I want to investigate him for not raising his son properly."

Jiang Bingxin was not afraid at all. He loudly announced the name of Jiang Weigong, Marquis of Dingxi, and explained his identity.

He thought that after hearing about his background, the minor official in front of him would at most say a few harsh words, and the rest would be a verbal lawsuit.

Unexpectedly, after Huang Daozhou knew that he was not the heir to Dingxi Marquis Mansion, he pointed at his clothes and said:
"Since you are not the son of the Marquis of Dingxi, what qualifications do you have to wear the Qilin robe?"

"All policemen, listen up! Take off his clothes and give him ten lashes!"

The patrolmen looked at each other, and no one dared to carry out his order.

This is the son of Marquis Dingxi. What will happen if he offends me to death?
Huang Daozhou became even more angry when he saw this, and he held up the imperial edict and said:

"I am following the order of your majesty to implement the imperial crown and clothing system in Huanghuafang."

"Are you going to disobey my order and be dismissed from your position as Jinyiwei?"

The patrolmen were helpless now, because their Weiwei Temple belonged to the Jinyiwei and belonged to the inner court.

The first rule for inner court officials is to be loyal to the emperor. Failure to obey the emperor's orders, no matter what the reason, will be regarded as an act of disloyalty.

After hearing this, the leading police officer could only bow to Jiang Bingxin and say:

"Mr. Jiang, I'm sorry!"

The commanding police officers rushed forward, intimidated the Dingxi Marquis's servants with the crossbows they carried, and then captured Jiang Bingxin.

Jiang Bingxin was so angry that he screamed and Huang Daozhou personally stripped him of his Qilin robe and had the police officers whip him ten times.

Although the ten whips were not heavy at all and were just like tickling, Jiang Bingxin still felt extremely humiliated. He was so angry that he almost fainted and shouted that he wanted Huang Daozhou to be punished.

This was the scene Xie Xuelong saw when he arrived.

Seeing that Huang Daozhou even beat the son of Marquis Dingxi, he felt dark before his eyes and knew that things would not end well and would definitely be brought to the court.

The people in Goulan Hutong also mostly criticized Huang Daozhou. Most people thought that he was looking for trouble and went to Goulan Hutong to show off.

There were also some literati who, looking at the beautiful girls with tears in their eyes after being whipped, felt so distressed that they scolded Huang Daozhou for not being gentle with women.

It can be said that although Huang Daozhou was implementing the court system according to regulations, he did not receive support from the people.

If all prostitutes have to wear a white crown and a white jacket as he said, then what is the fun in that?

Especially the guests, who had thought they would not be beaten before. Now that they saw that Dingxi Hou's son had been beaten, they were worried that the whip would hit them, so they criticized Huang Daozhou the loudest.

Some people also cited the example of Hangzhou:

"In Hangzhou, officials flogged prisoners who wore narrow socks and shallow shoes, and wrote the four characters 'Su Yi Prisoner' on the cangue."

"Is the capital going to do the same and punish Su Yi?"

The crowd became even noisier, and even ordinary people were worried about whether the new shoes and socks they were wearing exceeded the regulations.

Seeing the public outcry, Xie Xuelong wanted to persuade Huang Daozhou to withdraw first and then make plans, but Huang Daozhou was determined to follow the court system and shouted:
"Where's the patrolman with the approval document?"

"Tell him to bring back the order as soon as possible and put these people in shackles and put them on display in public."

He intends to use a tough attitude to suppress public opposition.

In his view, the corruption of the world was due to the change of people's hearts, and the shortage of money and grain in the court was due to the excessive extravagance of the people.

Strict systems must be used to educate the people so that they can be diligent and frugal like they were at the beginning of the country.

But ordinary people would not understand his thoughts.

When they heard that the official in front of them not only refused to admit his mistake but also intended to put him in shackles and call him "prisoner Su Yi", they surrounded the patrolman and prevented him from moving, and their cursing became louder.

Even the merchants in the Lantern Market came to watch after hearing about this. Some merchants also cursed Huang Daozhou after learning about his actions.

They sold countless items during the opening days of the fashion festival. If even novelty clothes are prohibited, how can the fashion festival be held in the future?
Seeing that some people were not only cursing but also planning to throw their shoes and socks at them, the patrolman who went to seek the approval of the city inspector finally returned here.

He was accompanied by a team of people, led by the Dongcheng District Patrol Censor.

Shi Fan, who came over on horseback, saw the merchants and commoners gathered in a rage, and he shouted:

"Disperse! Disperse now!"

"The capital is an important place, and we cannot let people gather together to cause chaos."

Order the patrol police to sound the horn and disperse the gathered people.

As a city inspector, he knew that this was still a tense time. The court issued a strict order to monitor the gathering of people.

During the fashion festival a few days ago, he had been very nervous, fearing that too many people would gather and cause trouble.

Now that the fashion festival had finally ended, someone was causing trouble in Goulan Hutong, causing him to say angrily:
"Huang Hanlin, why don't you go somewhere else to show off your power? Why do you have to come here?"

"Fortunately, this censor arrived in time and you didn't go too deep inside."

"Otherwise, if you offend the gamblers, there might be bloodshed!"

Gamblers are so obsessed with gambling that they don't care about their relatives. If Huang Daozhou's implementation of regulations affects the gambling situation, some people will really dare to show their knives.

However, Huang Daozhou was not afraid of this and said:
"What's so scary about gamblers?"

"If anyone dares to use a knife, let him come over here."

"In broad daylight, I don't believe that this Goulan Hutong doesn't belong to the Ming Dynasty!"

Then he asked Shi Fan:

"Did Censor Shi sign the document?"

"If they have already signed, put them in shackles."

"After a few days in the shackles, let's see who still won't behave!"

Shi Fan felt a headache after hearing this and pointed at the crowd next to him and said:

"You've seen all this, it's not that easy to put someone in the cangue." "Ten lashes almost caused chaos, and putting more lashes on him would just add fuel to the fire, wouldn't it?"

"I dare not sign this order. Please ask Huang Hanlin to find someone else."

Huang Daozhou looked serious, holding up the imperial edict and said:

"Does Censor Shi want to disobey the order?"

"Are you going to stop me from carrying out the imperial order?"

These words could scare the patrol police, but they could not scare the city patrol censor who was also a civil servant.

Shi Fan stared at him and said:

"Does the imperial edict say that you can do whatever you want?"

"I have the duty to supervise all officials, and I will definitely report you in the court."

The conversation became increasingly tense, and it was about to turn into a mutual criticism in the court. Xie Xuelong stepped out to smooth things over and said:

"Don't be angry! Don't be angry!"

"This is all for the sake of court business. Don't fight over personal feelings."

"Brother Huang, this matter needs to be handled step by step. Let's start with the easy ones and then the difficult ones. We should start by rectifying the beggars in the red light district and shackle those beggars wearing fancy clothes."

"Isn't it possible that Censor Shi would refuse to sign this?"

The beggars in the capital, like prostitutes and gamblers, were driven to Goulan Hutong. It could be said that this was the gathering place for the decadent people in the capital, so it was also called the Fallen Street.

When Huang Daozhou came here, he felt that everything was unsatisfactory, so he was so stubborn in wanting to put some people in shackles and expose them to the public.

Now that he heard that Xie Xuelong wanted to limit the people who could be shackled to beggars, he nodded reluctantly, thinking that beggars who wore prohibited clothing could also be shackled.

Shi Fan had no relationship with those beggars, and punishing them would not affect the business of the red-light district, so he nodded and said:
"If a beggar wears fancy clothes, there's probably something wrong with him."

"Indeed, he can be put in the shackles and even interrogated."

He signed an order on the spot, directing the patrol police to arrest the beggars in fancy clothes.

Soon, the beggars in Goulan Hutong were in trouble. A group of people who had previously lived comfortably on the tips from prostitutes and gamblers were all arrested.

After a brief interrogation, Shi Fan discovered that some of the beggars were not beggars, and that several of them had assets exceeding one hundred taels, and had never paid taxes.

Since their main income comes from gifts, they undoubtedly evaded gift tax.

This case became even more serious, and tax officials from the Taifu Temple were also summoned to jointly hear the case.

These people would undoubtedly be reduced to slavery or even exiled overseas.
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Huang Daozhou's campaign to rectify the crown and clothing was somewhat anticlimactic. In the end, only beggars were punished, allowing the city inspector and the Taifu Temple to gain credit.

And the subsequent impact did not stop there. After learning that his son was beaten, Dingxi Marquis Jiang Weigong was quite angry and submitted a memorial to impeach Huang Daozhou for abusing his power.

The owners of the brothels and casinos in Goulan Hutong also used their connections to get officials to report Huang Daozhou.

They don't want Huang Daozhou's campaign to regulate crowns and costumes to continue, as that would affect their business.

Zhu Youjian did not express his opinion at first. It was not until Huang Daozhou was stopped and a conflict almost occurred that he issued an order for all officials to discuss the matter and whether to change the system of crowns and costumes.

After learning about this farce, all the officials naturally realized that the existing system of crowns and costumes could no longer be implemented.

If there is no change, the imperial court's system of crowns and clothing will be a dead letter.

They all agreed to the reform of the crown and clothing system and hoped to end the current farce as soon as possible.

Zhu Youjian then readily followed the advice and launched the crown and clothing reform plan he had already formulated.

In this plan, he lifted most of the bans on clothing. As long as the clothes were not the same as the court uniforms, the common people were allowed to dress however they wanted.

However, the patterns used on court uniforms were not allowed to be used privately by the public. Except for theatrical costumes, they were not allowed to appear in daily life.

In terms of color, he also maintained the ban on yellow colors such as willow yellow, turmeric yellow, and bright yellow, and stipulated that the use of pure yellow is prohibited.

However, it is allowed to use yellow and other colors together, and the proportion shall not exceed 30%, in order to promote the development of related printing and dyeing technology.

It is impossible that other colors were widely used by the people and printing and dyeing technology developed, while only the yellow used by the emperor fell behind the times because of the ban.

Such relaxed regulations on crowns and clothing drew praise from the people. They no longer had to worry about being whipped for wearing novel clothing.

But officials are worried that this will encourage extravagance.
"If your majesty is frugal, the whole world will be frugal. Please follow the example of Emperor Muzong and be frugal yourself to lead the world."

"Stop the unnecessary work and save unnecessary expenses. This way, we will have enough money and food, and we won't have to worry about this anymore."

Zhu Youjian was not happy with this pedantic speech. If the affairs of the world were so simple, he would have been able to bring order to the world long ago.

So he frowned and said:
"Are you blaming me, Mr. Huang?"

"Since I ascended the throne, have I ever been extravagant? When have I ever not been frugal?"

Zhu Youjian was very confident on this point, and he could be said to be one of the most frugal emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only were dirty dragon robes carefully washed and allowed to be worn again, the empress also took the lead in needlework and weaving in the palace, and many palace maids and eunuchs were released, greatly reducing palace expenses.

The ministers also admired the emperor for this. After the emperor frowned, they all blamed Huang Daozhou, believing that he was making random accusations against the emperor for the sake of false reputation, which was not what a minister should do.

Huang Daozhou had just arrived in Beijing and did not know the emperor well enough. After hearing the criticism from the ministers, he realized that he had made a mistake. He thought that the emperor was advocating luxury by holding a fashion festival, but that was not the case at all.

Under the accusations of everyone, he could only take off his hat and apologize.

Zhu Youjian reprimanded him verbally and asked him to continue to implement the crown and clothing system in Huanghuafang and pilot the new system.

Many people were worried about this and did not want Huang Daozhou to continue staying in Huanghuafang, and many opposed it.

Especially when Dingxi Hou thought about his son being beaten but Huang Daozhou was not punished at all, he said loudly:
"Your Majesty, Huang Hanlin abused the punishment, so why won't he be punished?"

"What crime did my son commit that he was beaten with ten lashes for no reason?"

Before Zhu Youjian responded to this question, Huang Daozhou replied:

"Jiang Bingxin is not a prince, but he took the initiative to wear the Qilin robe that only dukes and princes can wear."

"Whether according to the old system or the new system, he violated the court system."

"I only gave him ten lashes, which is a light punishment. According to the rules, he should be punished severely."

This response made Marquis Dingxi even angrier. However, before he could start arguing with Huang Daozhou, the official from the Honglu Temple shouted "Silence", which made him see the expression of the emperor on the throne. He realized that after the new crown and clothing system was established, the emperor was going to take real action.

Kirin robes and Kirin patterns were not allowed in either the old or new system. His son, who was not the crown prince, wore them without permission, which was indeed a violation of the system.

After realizing this, he immediately knelt on the ground and apologized. He was afraid that the emperor would use this as an excuse to force him to establish a fiefdom.

As more and more nobles were relocated overseas by the emperor, the nobles in the capital became more and more cautious, fearing that the emperor would find a reason to force them to establish fiefdoms overseas.

Jiang Weigong was the same, he didn't want to move out so soon. Even if he really wanted to establish a fiefdom in the future, he hoped to choose a good fiefdom himself, rather than being forced to move out by the emperor. (End of this chapter)