Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 383 The royal family began to be grateful to Jiajing and were all impressed by him!
Han Zaiting fell silent after he said this.

In recent years, the Ming Dynasty officialdom has been reshuffled frequently.

Therefore, he, a young Jinshi who passed the special examination in the first year of Jiajing, became the Zuo Jishizhong after only six years in official career.

But because he was young and had only recently entered officialdom, his understanding of royal family issues was not deep enough.

When he saw with his own eyes the problems existing in this group of royal family members, he was greatly shocked.

The son of a general who assisted the country was still unmarried at the age of forty because of the corruption in the civil service system.

Although Han Zaiting only saw the tip of the iceberg, he was smart enough to guess that the royal family members from all over the country would definitely feel the same way. He could also guess how much the royal family members now hated the civil servants, the court, and even how much they complained about the emperor himself.

What's more, in front of him, apart from Zhu Anjiang, the son of the general who assisted the country, there were many other members of the royal family who looked pale and thin, and dressed in tattered clothes.

This made Han Zaiting realize that the rebellion of Prince Anhua and Prince Ning were able to gain momentum not only because of the ambitions of these two princes, but also perhaps because most of the royal family members in the palace also had grievances against the court.

"record on file!"

Han Zaiting gave an order to the scholar who came with him to assist him.

Then, Han Zaiting asked about the situation of other members of the royal family.

Prince of Nanling Zhu Muliang answered all the questions one by one, and also called all the members of the royal family of King Zhou who were not listed in the imperial book and had not been granted marriage.

Han Zaiting asked the accompanying Jinshi to record everything.

During the recording process, Han Zaiting gradually developed another sense of surprise.

That is, there are too many royal family members in the Zhou Palace!

This made him sigh that there might be many royal families in other places.

"Your Majesty is indeed a wise ruler! I can't wait to see your profound thoughts and considerations!"

At this moment, he completely understood why the emperor wanted to reform the royal family, why he wanted to relax the ban on the royal family, and why he had to work hard to enrich the country before that.

Before this, when he had not witnessed the current situation of these royal families with his own eyes, he only heard from others that the royal family problems did exist and caused great pressure on the finances, but he had no personal experience.

Sometimes he didn't understand why the emperor was so dedicated to governing the country and had no intention of slacking off or being complacent.

It was not until now, when he saw with his own eyes many living members of the royal family standing before him like beggars and starving people, that he truly felt that under this peaceful and prosperous era, the crisis of chaos had long been lurking.

He felt that the current emperor, who had come to Beijing from the outer vassal state, might not only have seen 200,000 refugees, but had also long seen many serious problems of the royal family.

So, Han Zaiting couldn't help but sigh at this time.

After an in-depth investigation on the front line, he began to feel from the bottom of his heart that the current emperor was truly far-sighted and could see farther than people like him.

But also because of this...

Han Zaiting couldn't help but worry about another problem for the emperor. That is, after the emperor asked them to verify the true situation of the royal family, exposed all the injustices encountered by the royal family members, and increased the number of royal family members in the court to the actual number, how should the court deal with the huge financial expenditure brought about by all this?
Is it to survey the land to clarify the land taxes and capitation fees?

Or continue to develop mines and trade markets overseas?

Han Zaiting felt that as a secretary, he had the function of making national policy recommendations to the court, so he needed to think about this issue.

But now he has no mood to think about it.

Many royal family members were waiting for him to re-record and re-examine. The previous bureaucratic system, from the Ministry of Rites to the Provincial Administration, and then to the prefectures, states and counties, had a backlog of too many false reports that needed him to verify.

So these days, he was extremely busy, and even in his dreams he was checking the situation of the royal family.

But Han Zaiting's busyness is meaningful.

Although he only came on behalf of the emperor to check the situation of the royal family of Zhou Mansion in Kaifeng Prefecture, the royal family of Zhou Mansion had already felt the warmth brought by the current emperor and were all very excited.

When Zhu Anhe, a member of the Zhou royal family, saw Han Zaiting carefully checking the situation of the royal family, he said to his eleven-year-old son Zhu Mu with tears in his eyes:

"Son, this time you can finally be included in the imperial edict, so that everyone in the world will have to acknowledge that you are from the royal family."

After hearing this, Zhu Mu was also quite excited and asked: "So, I am no longer a wild child that the royal family doesn't want?"

When Zhu Mu was studying in the private school opened by the Zhou Palace, he was often ridiculed and mocked by the naughty peers of the royal family as a wild child who was not wanted by the royal family because he was not listed in the imperial book.

Therefore, Zhu Mu also cared about this very much.

After all, the chain of contempt is everywhere, and, oftentimes, the inaction of those in power and the corruption of bureaucrats will lead to such things happening, that is, those who should be the victims of such incidents are often the ones who are despised, ridiculed and bullied by outsiders because of them.

"You were never a wild child!"

Zhu Anhe said something to Zhu Mu and then touched his head.

After hearing this, Zhu Mu couldn't help but wipe the corners of his eyes with the pudding-stained collar and sleeves of his shirt.

Zhu Anjiang was also very happy and said to his brother Zhu Anhe: "Brother, does this mean that I can finally have my own wife?"

Zhu Anhe smiled and nodded.

When Zhou Wang Zhu Mu saw many clan members weeping and Han Zaiting and a group of scholars coming in and out of the wooden doors of the clan members' houses, he could not help but sigh to Nanling Wang Zhu Muliang with a smile:

"As expected, only an emperor from a foreign vassal state would understand the difficulties faced by us, the royal family! He is determined to solve our problems at all costs."

"This is the true benevolent emperor and saintly ruler. He is much better than the benevolent emperor and saintly ruler praised by the scholars!"

"Only with a monarch like this can the Ming Dynasty truly be revived!"

Zhu Mu couldn't help but say one more word.

Zhu Muliang hurriedly advised: "My brother, please be careful with your words! Although what you said is true, it concerns the virtues of the previous emperors. You should just be grateful for the grace of the current emperor!"

"Thank you for your advice, my brother. I am being rude again."

Zhu Mu laughed awkwardly.

At this time, Zhang Yongzhen, a gentleman who had served as a Hanlin editor in Kaifeng Prefecture, suddenly came to see Zhu Mu and took the initiative to beg, "Your Highness, please appeal to the Fuyuan on behalf of the people of Kaifeng, asking the court to withdraw the troops and lift the ban. Now Kaifeng Prefecture is blocked by troops, and trade is blocked. The living cannot visit their relatives, and the dead cannot be buried. Everyone is in a panic. This is really not the way to care for the people!"

"Although the royal family has the responsibility to reflect the country's civil affairs, the original cause of this incident was the murder of the imperial envoy, which is actually caused by rebellion. It is not easy for me to intervene. Moreover, this rebellion is caused by you officials and gentry who do not want us royal family to have an easy life. I have no obligation to intercede for you. What the new governor Yan Song wants to do has nothing to do with me!"

Zhu Mu laughed and didn't give Zhang Yongzhen this face. He just said: "We clans should just cooperate with the court."

"So, not only will we not petition for you, we will also take the initiative to strictly discipline our children. We will pay money and grain in advance to set up clan schools according to the imperial decree, and confine our children in the clan schools to cooperate with the court in reforming the clan families, so that they will not be ordered by you to cause trouble to the government."

Zhu Mu then answered with a smile.

(End of this chapter)