Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

The next day, ten miles north of Chengtian Prefecture.

"Your Highness, this is enough. Going any further would be against the rules."

Yang Bingzhong whispered behind Lu Chen,

"It's getting late. This old servant has already arranged lunch at the West Third Palace."

"Yang Ban, you can make the arrangements."

Lu Chen glanced again at the departing procession returning to the capital, then turned and boarded the elephant carriage.

This elephant carriage originally belonged to the King of Ru. The King of Ying was newly enfeoffed and had hardly had time to prepare anything.

After being officially enfeoffed as the Prince of Ying yesterday, the Imperial Household Department added more personnel to the Prince of Ying's residence, including more than ten eunuchs and more than ten palace maids.

Yang Bingzhong was a eunuch assigned to the Prince of Ying's residence by the Directorate of Palace Attendants. He was originally a sixth-rank official in the Directorate of Palace Attendants, but was now transferred to the Prince of Ying's residence as a deputy official.

Even though Lu Chen was not clear about the procedures for the investiture of princes in the Ming Dynasty, he could clearly sense that his investiture this time was actually very rushed.

From rescuing the emperor in the early morning of February 28th to being given the name Zhu Houyu and the title of Prince of Ying on March 22nd, it was less than a month.

The day after bestowing this title upon himself, the Jiajing Emperor set off with his southern tour entourage to return to Beijing.

He himself, the Prince of Ying, had only met the Jiajing Emperor twice from beginning to end!

The first time was when he and Lu Bing rescued the emperor from the fire at the Weihui Imperial Palace, and the second time was at the investiture ceremony.

Although he had no actual connection with the Ming Dynasty imperial family, since the emperor had acknowledged him as the only younger brother of the Jiajing Emperor, he was now considered to be the only younger brother of the Jiajing Emperor.

Lu Chen originally thought that he would first return to the capital with Emperor Jiajing, stay in the capital for a period of time, and then be granted the title of Prince and go to a wealthy prefecture to take up his fief.

Lu Chen even secretly planned to find an opportunity to meet the princes of the Jiajing Emperor during his stay in the capital.

It didn't really matter whether it was Crown Prince Zhu Zai Rui or Prince Jing Zhu Zai Zhen; what Lu Chen really wanted to see was the third prince, Prince Yu Zhu Zai Ji!

That is, the Longqing Emperor in another dimension of history.

Although concubines gave birth to children one after another after the twelfth year of the Jiajing reign, Lu Chen knew very well that only Prince Yu, Zhu Zaiji, and Prince Jing, Zhu Zaizhen, were able to grow up to adulthood.

The Jiajing Emperor was only thirty-one years old, which can be described as the prime of his life. In the years to come, there will indeed be more princes born.

At that time, no one could have imagined that in the decades to come, none of the newborn princes would live to their first birthday.

The current Crown Prince Zhu Zaiyi will die at the age of twelve, and although Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen lived to the age of twenty-nine, he did not leave any offspring.

In the later years of the Jiajing Emperor's reign, just like the Hongzhi Emperor, only Prince Yu, Zhu Zaiji, remained as his sole heir.

At this time, Crown Prince Zhu Zaiyi was still alive, and Prince Yu Zhu Zaiji was not highly regarded. Lu Chen felt that as long as he had the opportunity to meet Prince Yu up close, he could secure the future throne of the Ming Dynasty in advance.

Of course, it would be inappropriate for a young prince to die after only meeting his uncle, and Lu Chen had no intention of doing so.

All it takes is a close look at the young Prince Yu, and then using telekinesis to perform a minor surgery on him—it's not even minimally invasive.

Even if a child feels a little pain, they'll just cry for a bit, and it'll be over quickly.

Unfortunately, Lu Chen had no idea that this Daoist Emperor would act so unpredictably.

In just over ten days of staying in Chengtian Prefecture, he actually got the matter of being conferred the title of Prince directly.

Now he is the Prince of Ying, with his fief in Yunyang Prefecture. Although he has been ordered to oversee the expansion project of Xianling Mausoleum, he has been granted a privilege that no other prince has: he can travel between Chengtian Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture, and he can also stay in Chengtian Prefecture.

However, his activities were now limited to these two prefectures, with the addition of Xiangyang Prefecture, which he would pass through on his way there and back.

Lu Chen knew very well that this southern tour was the only time the Jiajing Emperor would return to his hometown of Chengtian Prefecture, and he would never come back again.

It was almost impossible for him to have any contact with any of the princes of the Jiajing Emperor.

Forget it, I'll just leave the throne to fate. Being a carefree vassal king isn't so bad either.

At yesterday's investiture ceremony, the Jiajing Emperor treated his "younger brother" quite well, perhaps including the credit for saving him at the Weihui Palace.

Yunyang Prefecture was indeed poor, but the imperial edict clearly emphasized that the annual stipend of 10,000 shi of grain would be granted, half of the original amount, and this would be a permanent system.

In other words, his own Prince Ying's mansion would receive a substantial annual stipend of 5,000 shi of rice.

Starting from the Hongwu reign, the annual salary of a prince was 10,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), but in reality, as the number of members of the imperial clan increased, the reduction in their salaries became more and more serious.

In order to alleviate financial pressure, the Jiajing Emperor generally implemented the policy of "using both principal and interest to pay off debts".

According to the established practice at that time, the original color was 30%, and the discounted color was 70%.

In other words, only 30% of them received rice or silver as stipends, while the remaining 70% received Ming Dynasty paper money.

Due to the unrestrained over-issuance of these paper notes, their devaluation rate was almost comparable to that of the legal tender during the Republic of China era in another dimension.

In the past few months, Lu Chen had indeed seen the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes and people using them to buy things.

The official price of a 1000-yuan note was one tael of silver, but now it could only buy a bundle of firewood or a sesame seed cake, with a purchasing power of about one or two copper coins.

That 70% discount is practically equivalent to waste paper, and this is only the first layer of discount.

At this time, the number of members of the imperial clan in each fiefdom had swelled dramatically. There were about thirty princes in the whole country, but nearly three hundred dukes, and more than ten thousand members of the imperial clan of lower ranks.

Although their salaries were much lower than those of princes, there were simply too many of them.

Even the lowest-ranking lieutenant of Fengguo received an annual salary of 200 shi (a unit of grain), while a third-rank official received 60 shi.

In provinces like Shanxi and Henan, where members of the imperial clan are concentrated, the stored grain was simply insufficient to pay the stipends, often resulting in delays of several years.

Many members of the imperial clan were not allowed to receive their stipends for years, and most lower-ranking members actually received less than 30% of the discounted amount.

When Lu Chen was reading Ming Dynasty history books, he always felt that the Ming Dynasty's system of tributary states had huge flaws from the very beginning.

The princes' stipends were not too high; even if each prince received 10,000 shi of grain, the treasury could still afford it.

The real problem is that the salaries of princes and their grandchildren still have to be borne by the national treasury; the more children they have, the more they receive!

For example, the Prince of Qingcheng of Jin, Zhu Zhongyi, the third Prince of Qingcheng, had forty-four sons and forty-seven daughters!

The fourth Prince Qingcheng, Zhu Qizhen, surpassed his father by fathering seventy sons and thirty-odd daughters, setting a record of "one hundred sons".

The last official data found in later generations was compiled in the 23rd year of the Wanli reign, at which time the number of members of the imperial clan nationwide had reached a staggering 157,000.

By the late Ming Dynasty, the number of members of the Ming imperial family had swelled to an astonishing figure. The exact number is debated, but it is estimated to be at least several hundred thousand.

As long as one is a member of the royal family, even if one is starving, one is not allowed to fend for oneself.

With so many people not engaged in production and relying on government funding, how could the country possibly afford it?

Lu Chen has always believed that the problems within the imperial clan were also a major reason for the downfall of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty was indeed wise and powerful, and made great achievements, but the system of vassal states that he designed for the Ming Dynasty was not sustainable from the beginning.

No matter how bad the Ming Dynasty's system was, Lu Chen didn't care at all.

But times have changed, and now he is one of the thirty princes with fiefdoms during the Jiajing reign.

Those in positions of authority should fulfill their responsibilities!

From that moment on, the fate of the Ming Dynasty was no longer irrelevant to him!