Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 377 The spring breeze of reform blew to the royal family, and Jiajing expanded his base!
After Xu Jie said this, Xu Shouyu immediately clenched his teeth, widened his eyes, and became extremely flustered.

immediately.

Xu Shouyu imitated the behavior of other scholars present, looked around, and pretended to be wondering who had done such a thing.

Xu Jie saw that they all had expressions of fear and confusion in their eyes, and for a moment he could not guess who was trying to murder the two uncles-in-law.

"First, keep them all in custody and prepare to hand them over to the Royal Guards."

Xu Jie gave this order at this time.

Although he couldn't guess who it was specifically, he knew clearly that the people who knew the exact location where he was going to meet Zhang Heling, apart from the Jinyiwei and his own people whom he had secretly informed long ago, were the scholars who were preparing to go to Japan with him.

Therefore, Xu Jie could only hand over all these scholars to the Jinyiwei.

He was not worried that after he handed these people over, no more scholars would come to him.

Although most people were afraid of going to Japan, the Ming Dynasty had a huge base of scholars, so there were also many scholars who dared to take risks to seek wealth and honor.

Naturally, Xu Jie had no shortage of scholars who wanted to go to Japan with him to try their luck.

"Please show some mercy, Mr. Justice! The student really didn't do this!"

Upon seeing this, Xu Shouyu hurriedly knelt down along with the other soldiers.

After all, everyone is afraid of being interrogated by the Jinyiwei.

As for Xu Shouyu, he hoped that he could use his brother's relationship to ask Xu Jie to show leniency to him and not hand him over to the Jinyiwei.

Therefore, Xu Shouyu also chose to kneel down and beg Xu Jie.

"Who are you to plot against the emperor's uncle and Xu Qianxian? Why don't you just confess? Why do you have to implicate us?"

At the same time, Xu Shouyu cried thief and loudly questioned the scholars behind him to prove that he was really innocent.

Xu Jie narrowed his eyes and looked at Xu Shouyu, who was acting a bit too much, and said:
"Whether it exists or not, it's not up to me to say, and it doesn't count either if you say so. It has to be decided by the Jinyiwei."

Finished.

Xu Jie turned and left.

Xu Shouyu couldn't help but have a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

He was really disappointed.

He was disappointed that Zhang Heling was not dead.

I was also disappointed that Xu Jie was not so easy to fool.

After the Jinyiwei who was pierced by thousands of arrows was carried in front of Zhu Wu by the people around Zhang Heling, he was breathing out more than breathing in, and his mouth was wide open.

Zhu Wu, who was in charge of the Zhejiang Jinyiwei affairs, looked terribly gloomy when he saw this, and his eyes showed sadness.

After all, the Jinyiwei who can carry out such secret missions are all his core backbone, and are also the most loyal old people in the palace to the emperor.

Because these people were carefully selected from the orphans adopted by Zhu Houcong in the past.

Zhu Wu was in Zhejiang and had been closely monitoring the movements of Xu Jie and Zhang Heling. He also learned from Xu Jie that Xu Jie was going to meet Zhang Heling in Hangzhou.

Zhu Wu knew that all the gentry in the world were keeping an eye on Zhang Heling, so he had to be cautious to prevent any gentry from taking advantage of this opportunity to attack Zhang Heling.

Therefore, he contacted Zhang Heling in advance and asked Zhang Heling to agree that the Jinyiwei people would pretend to be him and come to Hangzhou to meet Xu Jie.

But Zhu Wu did not expect that these people actually took action, and acted very quickly.

"Report this matter to His Majesty!"

Zhu Wu gave this order and then reached out to close the eyes of the Jinyiwei who had already died.

"Yes!"

The southern gentry, unwilling to see their interests damaged, wanted to murder Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling and then implicate Xu Jie in order to prevent the emperor from seizing the interests of the southern gentry. Although their conspiracy failed, this was because the Jinyiwei had been keeping a close eye on the south.

But in this world, there is only a thief who can steal for a thousand days, but there is no such thing as being on guard against thieves for a thousand days.

As long as the gentry's evil intentions were not dead, the Jinyiwei had to be vigilant. But over time, there would always be a time for slackness, and even if there was no slackness, there would be some price to pay for being vigilant.

These costs may be human or material.

Zhu Houcong had a limited number of old people, so continuing to lose them was naturally not a long-term solution.

Therefore, it remains an unknown whether Zhu Houcong can continue to expand his base and completely eliminate the evil intentions of the gentry before losing all his old people and greatly reducing his control.

But right now, Zhu Houcong is working hard to expand his base.

For example, he and his ruling ministers are promoting the reform of the royal family.

On the first day of February in the sixth year of Jiajing.

After the Cabinet, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue had agreed to support the reform of the royal family.

Li Shi, the chief secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, formally submitted a memorial in response to the emperor's will, saying: "The national tax revenue provides 4 million dan of rice to the capital every year, while the salaries of the princes reach 8 million dan every year. Shanxi and Henan retain 2 million dan of rice, while the salary of the royal family is 5 million dan. Even if there is no disaster or exemption, the annual tax revenue is less than half of the salary. Year after year, the population is increasing, and the situation is extremely poor. How can we support ourselves? Therefore, I request that the policy of the royal family and the local governments be changed to relieve the financial difficulties of the royal family and the local governments."

The Cabinet therefore voted to ask the Ministry of Rites to review the matter.

Zhu Houcong naturally approved the cabinet's proposal.

The Ministry of Rites replied, "Please refer this matter to the kings for discussion."

Zhu Houcong then allowed the cabinet to issue an edict to the kings to submit their opinions on matters concerning the royal family.

then.

Not long after, Zhu Muliang, the Prince of Nanling of the Zhou Palace, was called in by his brother, Zhu Mu, the Prince of Zhou, and asked, "The court suddenly issued an order to reform the royal family and asked us kings to submit a report to make suggestions. Do you think the court really wants to solve the difficulties of our royal family, or is it just pretending and not really intending to let the spring breeze of benevolent governance blow to our royal family?"

The King of Zhou had to be cautious.

Because the emperor has always been more suspicious of his vassal states than trusting them.

This is mainly because the Zhu family had experienced several rebellions by vassal kings.

But because the current emperor did indeed show great diligence and hard work, the King of Zhou still specifically asked about his wise brother.

After thinking for a while, Prince Nanling said, "It's hard to say whether this is true or not. After all, the current emperor is really keen on innovation."

"But there's no need to take care of our clan members first when making reforms, right? Are you taking this opportunity to punish us?"

King Zhou asked.

Prince Nanling thought about it again and nodded: "It's possible! Although the court's annual income has increased greatly, it is hard to say whether it will really take care of us royal family members first. Maybe His Majesty is just talking, and he doesn't really want to bestow benevolent rule on us royal family members first."

then.

Prince Nanling said again: "How about this, I will try to raise some questions about the royal family first! Let's see your Majesty's attitude."

King Zhou nodded: "Very good."

Prince of Nanling Zhu Muliang actually submitted a report and listed the problems of the royal family into seven items for discussion.

"Please establish a school to promote morality and education;"

"Establishing subject selection to encourage talents;"

"Strict security inspection to prevent fraud;"

"Abolish redundant posts and eliminate vegetarian meals;"

"Avoid rushing and competing to stop greed;"

"The system of worship and sweeping is used to spread filial piety;"

"Establish a system of worry to save salary and expenses."

When Zhu Houcong saw the memorial submitted by Zhu Muliang, he could not help but read it, and then instructed Yang Yiqing and others:
"Very good. Submit this report to the court for review and give King Nanling another 5,000 silver dollars to commend him for being the first to propose the reform of the vassal state and to encourage the kings who will follow him!"

Zhu Houcong was indeed happy because he discovered that there were indeed talented people among the royal family. For example, the Prince of Nanling actually came up with a very organized royal family reform plan that was in line with what he had in mind.

(End of this chapter)