Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 463 The Prince's Letter
The most harshly worded imperial edict since the Taichang Dynasty has been issued. At the same time, the biggest case since the Taichang Dynasty has also occurred. This shocking case has begun to be handled jointly by the Procuratorate, the Public Security Court, and the Privy Council. The three ministers left Beijing and rushed to Shandong.

Also delivered that night was a letter from the prince.

In Kunning Palace, candlelight flickered between the glass covers, and Guo Lanzhi had woken up.

Zhu Changluo held her hand and said, "Without going through hardships, he cannot grow. Look, this letter says it very well. Ruoyu, read it to the queen."

"Yes……"

Liu Ruoyu stood aside with a heavy heart.

"I, your son, wish you the best of luck to your father and mother. I was reckless and insisted on going into Daji incognito, which gave the rebels a good opportunity. Although I was a loyal and brave guard, the case has already been committed, which has caused my parents to worry and the people in the court to be in fear. This is my fault."

Zhu Changluo saw that there was not much trust in Guo Lanzhi's eyes when she looked at Liu Ruoyu, and he sighed silently in his heart.

Because Liu Ruoyu is Wang Wei's sworn brother, and Wang Wei is very favored. Although the title of the crown prince has never been shaken, who knows what will happen in the future?
What’s more, how great was Liu Ruoyu’s power among the eunuchs?
Liu Ruoyu continued to read: "Since I left the capital, what I have seen, heard, thought and worried about is very different from what I learned before. Father always taught me to understand the real situation of the common people. Wherever I go with the entourage, I often only see the surface and not the inner heart. There are those who are respectful and flattering, and there are also those who are ambitious. There are all kinds of people, and I have broadened my eyes and ears."

"Thanks to my father's words and deeds, I can hear more hidden meanings. My father has been on the throne for 19 years, and his civil and military achievements are far superior to those of previous dynasties. This is well known to the court and the public. My father taught me that everything should be based on power and wealth first, and then on people and responsibilities. This time, I was assassinated, and I tried to analyze it a little."

The letter was very long. After the prince had calmed down after being assassinated, he wrote this letter immediately. Naturally, it was not just to report his safety or to express his feelings, but also to solve some problems.

He knew the sensitivity of the matter and what was most critical.

Therefore, the "momentum" he is talking about now is of a higher level.

"…This is not the trend of a sage ruler reviving the Ming Dynasty, but the trend of a new system to re-establish the foundation of China's eternal rule, and the trend of the ruler and his subjects working together to achieve great harmony. This is a trend that I, your son, dare to say cannot be achieved by a sage ruler and his subjects. The trend of the new policy is like this, but the trend of the government and the people, especially the people, is not the same. From what I have seen and heard, there is no lack of hope that there will be a different pattern when I take power in the future."

"It happened that the Caohe River was frozen, so I stayed in Shandong first. I naturally wanted to go deep into the people and understand their hearts and feelings. The people's hearts and feelings cannot be understood by just listening to what the officials and gentry said in front of my guard of honor. So the guard of honor stayed in Jinan, saying that it would spend the winter, and I only led a few people, disguised as scholars from wealthy families, and went to Teng County in plain clothes. It happened that there were many people running for the market in Teng County, and the people were resentful, so there was a shortage of staff at the market..."

Then, Zhu Youjian described his experiences during the incognito journey in his letters.

Liu Ruoyu's voice gradually became choked.

"Father, please understand, mother, please understand: Although I have been taught strictly since I was young and I am aware of my frugality, I have never known the hardships of the people until I went there in plain clothes. When the weather was cold and the autumn grain was collected, there were still many people who were left without clothes! I have always believed that the Ming Dynasty had a sage monarch and wise ministers in the court, and everyone said that it was a prosperous era. With the love for the people under the new policy and the painstaking efforts of the emperor, the people's lives would never be like this."

"Especially this year, the summer grain tax has been exempted, which should be praised by all the people! However, when I visited the farmlands, I realized how the local authorities have been making up excuses to squeeze people out of their homes and keep them rich..."

Zhu Youjian did not mind the long words in describing the local practices that he already knew.

To Zhu Changluo, these were certainly not new.

The new policy initially only implemented preferential exemptions and commercial taxes, and then gradually increased them, but the "quotas" and "taxes in kind" remained unchanged.

There is no way, because of the existence of silver, copper coins and treasure notes, and because there are too many ways for local governments to exploit the "exchange rate difference" between the price of silver, the price of minted coins, the price of private coins and even the price of treasure notes in the process of implementing monetary taxes to reap the benefits of the common people, so these two things have not been touched for the time being.

In the early years, the establishment of officials was expanded, the proportion of local retention was increased, and the treatment of officials was improved. After the reform of the princedom and vassal system and the reform of local garrisons under the Privy Council system, there was no need to have such a heavy burden of payments from the princes and garrisons. Naturally, these money became the interest link of each place.

At the same time, the imperial court attached great importance to people's livelihood and infrastructure construction. Water conservancy, roads and bridges, disaster preparedness and relief, medical care and pensions... To put it bluntly, since there are more things to do at the local level, there will be more items.

Although corvée procurement has begun to be implemented nowadays, there always needs to be a "contractor" taking the lead in organizing it locally.

Who else could these contractors be? Of course, they could only be local tycoons who have the time and resources to organize.

After just a few years or even decades, although they "lost" some capital in the process of "strictly enforcing preferential exemptions" and "strictly enforcing commercial taxes", the smart gentry and wealthy families who had survived the sensitive period in the early years of the Taichang Dynasty accumulated more capital from these new profit opportunities.

Even with the participation of some central vertical forces such as Zongminghao and Changminghao, the majority of local official fields and official properties were still mainly owned by local clans.

With money and connections, there are many ways to increase the value of assets without causing major conflicts. For example, the trend of land annexation has only slowed down but has not changed. For example, some gentry have more pure employees.

For example, relying on the "exchange rate difference" between various currencies, ordinary people have been exploited in their daily lives for so many years.

Of course, living conditions have improved, after all, Zhu Changluo has been diligent and attentive for so many years.

But faced with special circumstances like this year, the poor people are naturally more vulnerable to some inevitable "man-made disasters".

In addition, they themselves had little knowledge and were easily coerced or bribed, so Zhu Youjian was greatly shocked after he actually traveled incognito and went deep into the people.

As he said, although Zhu Changluo was very strict in his education, he always believed that he lived a frugal life. He knew that the living standards of ordinary people were certainly far worse than his. But where the balance was, only he himself knew.

Especially in Beijing, inside and outside the Forbidden City, he always believed that this was a prosperous era.

Being naked is a direct visual shock, and the anxious impulse facing the future is a psychological shock.

"…For example, many members of the Kong family secretly collected private money. I heard that Duke Yansheng strictly ordered the family to obey the imperial decrees, and many members of the Kong family knew that the imperial court would never let the people suffer huge losses by exchanging their private money for new money, so they were not afraid of having too much private money in their hands. However, rumors spread everywhere, and the common people were panicked. They closed their shops and went out of business. There were many brokers who claimed to have connections in secret, and the common people used their private money to buy what they needed, but the price they paid was not much better than the treasure banknotes."

"The local autumn and winter fairs are busy during the autumn grain collection period, and many people try to stop it intentionally or unintentionally, resulting in a shortage of manpower. In addition, large households run a rush to the autumn and winter fairs for cash, selling and buying, colluding with both insiders and outsiders. It is clearly a good policy that benefits the common people, but the common people have to trek dozens of miles and be exposed to the wild in the severe winter, and often encounter difficulties in turnover at the fairs, with silver and money running out and general supplies running out. In anger, my son, I volunteered to help at the Teng County Fair, and even revealed my identity to intimidate the clerks and runners. Only then was the chaos at the Teng County Fair slightly alleviated. Unexpectedly..." The following is the detailed account of the assassination.

Zhu Youjian is a young man.

Under Zhu Changluo's education, he began to understand the heavy responsibility he shouldered from an early age and naturally had a sense of mission for the future.

In order to curb the chaos in the autumn and winter fair in Teng County, he only revealed his identity in the official system of Teng County. In order to ensure that the common people who traveled a long way to the fair with their own surplus grain or other goods and private money could sell their goods and buy them at a fair price, he even went to the counter in person.

Such a "cheap market" has become the best place for many ordinary people to buy enough daily necessities and celebrate the New Year. With the current manpower and organizational capabilities, it is already very difficult for a county to set up such a place. With so many people coming from far away, the order on the scene must be maintained, for example, there must be queues.

Zhu Youjian was worried that many gentry and wealthy families would organize their manpower to line up in front, leaving the truly poor people to sleep in the wild, and it would take several days to achieve their wish.

Wanting better order and better identification will actually reduce efficiency.

In addition, some people were secretly instigating, and one day later, many people who had been there for a long time but still had not been able to get a seat in line became very angry.

There was a jam, a rush, and even the intention to loot. In this chaos, the assassination took place.

It was the officials from Yanzhou Prefecture and Teng County who arrived at the scene with new forces from the Public Security Bureau and the Public Security Department, shouting that the prince had been assassinated. This stabilized the situation, and everyone knew that something big was going to happen.

After that, of course, the first thing to do was to control the scene. Zhu Youjian's Tianshu Camp, who also entered the market to help and protect, was caught off guard at the beginning and one of them died and one was injured. Later, several criminals were caught on the spot and the interrogation began.

When the news reached Qufu, which was not too far away, Duke Yansheng Kong Shangxian hanged himself that night after hearing the news, which shows that this assassination attempt on the crown prince was not organized tightly.

There are even some "suicide squads" whose purpose is to make things bigger.

"From this matter to money, I have realized that this is a struggle between public and private interests. From people to responsibilities, there are officials who are public-spirited and officials who seek private interests, officials and gentry, and common people. Although many laws, regulations, and strategies for the autumn and winter fairs are intended to make responsibilities clear, when it comes to implementation, they vary from place to place and from person to person. Some places are strict and well-organized; some places are lax and chaotic."

"I now understand what my father said about the difficulty of having the same mind and comrades. My son's assassination is a small matter, but the great plan for the ages is a big matter! I have realized that these traitors want to disrupt my father's great government. They are unwilling to accept that the new policy puts the common people first, and they are obviously not satisfied with the greater benefits. They saw that I care about the common people, so they stopped instigating me to disrupt the court with this matter."

"I beg you, father, to allow me to tour the south on your behalf. I am not afraid of danger, and I want to stay in Teng County first. The magistrate of Teng County and the officials of the government are all responsible for this matter. There are countless fields in Teng County owned by the side branches and relatives of the Kong family. Although the people of Teng County have been agitated, they have been resentful for many years."

"I believe that I can handle the affairs of Teng County. I also believe that these things are just people taking risks, and have nothing to do with the struggle for the throne. The traitors only hope to cut off the power of the great government. I will follow the teachings of my father and will definitely implement these new policies that benefit the country and the people in the future!"

"This kind of trick shows that they are at their wit's end and are trying to fish in troubled waters. When the thunderbolt arrives, the villains will have nowhere to hide. Don't worry, mother, don't worry, father, I already know how the people's livelihood is, and I should take better care of myself. The bank of Caohe River in Teng County, a prosperous place, is like this, how about a remote county? I don't need to look at it anymore, I only know that the task is heavy and the road is long, and it is difficult to employ people to do things."

"Enter the Inspector."

Liu Ruoyu read the whole letter and then handed it to the queen's maid, asking her to show it to the queen.

Zhu Changluo put a little more force on his hands, smiled and said softly: "Look, the chief prosecutor has made a lot of progress. Even if there is someone to advise him, it is well said that he should use someone with a clear mind."

After a pause, looking at Guo Lanzhi who was reading the letter with tears in her eyes, he said earnestly: "The most important thing is to know who the enemy is. This child knows that some people in the government and the opposition want to ignite the fire for the sake of the new policy, not for fighting for the throne."

Liu Ruoyu stood aside without saying anything.

Having said that, we must investigate what needs to be investigated.

This matter must be handled beautifully, and we must not allow suspicion between the palaces from now on.

That would cause endless harm.

The emperor was obviously pleased with the prince's timely letter. It made no difference whether it was his own idea or the idea of ​​someone close to him.

The emperor naturally hoped that the prince would understand his painstaking efforts and let him know that there was an heir he could trust.

Having followed Zhu Changluo for so long, Liu Ruoyu knew the emperor's mind.

Guo Lanzhi quickly finished reading the letter, but she was still worried: "These people are so bold. Since they are willing to take such a risk this time, who knows..."

Zhu Changluo's eyes flashed with coldness: "You Jian said it well. Shandong has the advantage of the Caohe River, and it's still like this. What about other places? He already knows the hardship of the people's livelihood and will not take risks again. Since there is a major case of assassinating the crown prince, I would like to see who else wants to be executed. They are not gathering a large army. The Tianshu Camp is on guard, and Yuan Shumi and others will arrive soon. You don't need to worry too much."

Liu Ruoyu also said: "Your Majesty, the Queen is wise. The Crown Prince is on His Majesty's southern tour. This is not only an assassination of the crown prince, but also an assassination of the emperor."

This is what Guo Lanzhi is worried about. She feels that some people have become reckless. If they dare to risk their lives like this, what else can they not dare to do?
But his son requested to continue the southern tour and stay in Teng County where a major case had occurred.

"He was stabbed on my behalf." Zhu Changluo also nodded, "He has already rebelled. It should be said that I let Youjian take the risk. If there is such a rebellious minister, what else can I say? Don't worry, when the power of heaven comes, the thunder will quickly sweep away the haze! Ruoyu?"

Liu Ruoyu immediately bent down and said, "Duke Jingguo has assembled his troops."

"Pass on my order, leave Beijing tomorrow and go to Shandong to protect the emperor!"

(End of this chapter)