Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Chengtian Prefecture.

It was already early June.

On April 15, the southern tour group successfully arrived in the capital.

After resting for a couple of days, the Jiajing Emperor began to arrange various matters concerning the Prince of Ying's residence.

The Ministry of Works was ordered to send people to Yunyang Prefecture to conduct on-site investigations in order to select a site for the construction of the Prince of Ying's Palace. The Ministry of Personnel and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs were ordered to select officials for the Prince of Ying's Palace, and the Ministry of War was ordered to establish the Prince of Ying's Palace Ceremonial Guard.

In addition, the Jiajing Emperor personally selected a large number of imperial artifacts and sent them to Chengtian Prefecture, covering all aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

During this time, Lu Chen experienced the life of a Ming Dynasty prince in Chengtian Prefecture, which was to do nothing.

Under the pretext of inspecting the expansion project of Xianling, Lu Chen would take people to various places in the suburbs of Chengtian Prefecture every few days, but they could not go too far. They never left Zhongxiang County, where Chengtian Prefecture is located.

I also visited nearby Longshan and Chundeshan, and took a boat trip in Gongtang a few times.

Compared to ordinary princes, Lu Chen is already much freer.

According to the Ming Dynasty's policy on pig farming for princes in various regions, even leaving the prince's residence required prior approval, and leaving the city required prior approval from the imperial court.

To avoid trouble, many princes rarely even went to the city where their palaces were located, and were confined to their palaces for their entire lives.

Not only princes, but also dukes and lower-ranking members of the imperial family were not allowed to leave the city without a reason. Even the lowest-ranking lieutenant of the fiefdom was not allowed to leave his fiefdom.

Only then did Lu Chen understand why, despite most of the Ming emperors having few children, the royal families of the various princely mansions were able to expand rapidly.

These people are not allowed to engage in any profession, and they are not even allowed to leave their city.

Moreover, once you're born, you can see the end of your life; whether you try hard or not, it won't make any difference.

What else can they do besides stay at home and have lots of babies?

Having more children means more salary.

After Qin Fang left, Yang Bingzhong did not receive the imperial wine sent by Biyang County, and the thing that Lu Chen had been vaguely worried about did not happen.

In mid-May, Qin Fang sent his men from Linqing to Chengtian Prefecture to report to Lu Chen that Li Wei's family had been found and taken to Linqing for resettlement.

To Lu Chen's surprise, Li Wei already had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Li Wenquan, was ten years old, his second son, Li Wengui, was eight years old, and his third daughter, Li Caifeng, had just turned five years old this year.

Li Wei's wife, Wang, is pregnant, and it's estimated that their fourth child will be born soon.

So her name really is "Li Caifeng"? She's five years old this year, which means she's three years older than Prince Yu, Zhu Zaiji.

The saying "A woman three years older than her husband is like holding a gold brick" certainly holds some truth.

Before Qin Fang's men set off, the Ministry of War's transfer order had just arrived at the Linqing Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office, and Gao Mingqian was already making arrangements for the transfer.

As per the previous agreement with Xu Dong and the Xie family of Yuyao, a second batch of 2,000 pieces of crystal glassware was to be sent to Shuangyu in June, and 500 pieces were to be sent to the Xie family of Yuyao.

For this transfer, Shen Zhui, Tang Zhe, and Miao Feng will bring their subordinates, along with Li Wei's family, to Chengtian Prefecture first.

Qin Fang would first take his men to Ningbo to trade the goods, and then take the silver by waterway, along the Yangtze and Han Rivers, directly to Chengtian Prefecture.

Lu Chen instructed Gao Ruopu that the mirrored flat glass had also been made, but it was still not large enough.

To achieve an almost perfectly flat surface, we can currently only make it to a size of one foot square; any larger and it won't be flat enough.

Shen Zhui and his group will bring a batch of samples to Chengtian Prefecture.

After Qin Fang told Sun Dexiu about Lu Chen being granted the title of Prince of Ying, the other party readily accepted the invitation. Lu Chen's request for transfer was also submitted, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Sun Dexiu was originally a seventh-rank eunuch in the Eastern Depot. The Prince's Mansion had five sixth-rank eunuchs and five sixth-rank eunuchs, so a slight promotion would have been enough.

. . .

Xingwang Mansion, West Third Palace.

"Your Highness, this is an official document that has just arrived from the capital."

Yang Bingzhong came to Lu Chen with several official documents in his hands.

"Yang Ban, please say it for me."

The sixth month of the lunar calendar is the hottest period of summer, extremely humid and hot. These official documents from the imperial court wouldn't contain any confidential or important matters, so Lu Chen was too lazy to read them himself.

"Your Highness, the envoy sent by the Ministry of Works to conduct an on-site investigation of Yunyang Prefecture has reported back that the city of Yunyang is too small, with a city wall of only about 800 zhang. Moreover, the city has already encroached upon the Yunyang Governor's Office, the Yunyang Prefectural Government Office, the Yunyang Garrison, as well as the Prefectural School, warehouses, and so on."

After reviewing an official document, Yang Bingzhong reported to Lu Chen.

"According to regulations, a prince's mansion should occupy three hectares, which is absolutely impossible for Yunyang Prefecture to accommodate given its size."

"I had no idea that Yunyang Prefecture was so small."

Lu Chen didn't care about this matter. Yunyang Prefecture was located in the mountainous area of ​​the upper reaches of the Han River, and its scale was naturally much smaller than that of Chengtian Prefecture, which was located on the Jianghan Plain.

"How did the Ministry of Works report this matter?"

"Your Highness, another proposal put forward by the Ministry of Works is to simply build the Prince of Ying's residence outside the city. They even conducted some surveys outside the city and selected two suitable locations for building the prince's residence."

Yang Bingzhong continued,

"One is on the south bank of the Han River, facing the city of Yunyang on the north bank across the river, while the other is Huanglongtan, located on the upper reaches of the Du River, more than 30 li away from the city."

The area around Yunyang Prefecture is mountainous, and there are very few large flat areas that can accommodate the entire palace.

Building a government office on the south bank of the Han River required manually connecting several smaller flat areas, a project with a large workload and a long construction period.

Although Huanglongtan is far from the city, it has thousands of acres of flat land, making construction much easier.

Furthermore, Huanglongtan is adjacent to the Duhe River, the largest tributary of the Han River, and the waterway from there to Yunyang Prefecture is gentle, making travel by boat very convenient.

"I recall that the residences of the Ming Dynasty's imperial family were all built inside the city. Is it feasible to build them outside the city?"

Lu Chen was surprised to hear that the Ministry of Works had submitted a memorial proposing to build his Prince Ying's Mansion outside the city of Yunyang, but this was followed by a surge of joy.

In Chengtian Prefecture, he could freely leave the city under the guise of supervising the Xianling Mausoleum project, but in Yunyang Prefecture, he wouldn't have such a good excuse.

If the prince's residence were built outside the city, then there would be no need to report to the court before leaving the city.

"In the eighth year of the Hongzhi reign, the imperial court issued an edict stating that 'if the city is narrow and the population is dense, it is not necessary to limit the perimeter of the Prince's Palace to a few feet.'"

The princely residences of the Jin princes, such as the Prince of Qingcheng and the Prince of Yonghe, were also not located within Taiyuan city.

Yang Bingzhong quickly replied,

"Your Highness is the son of Emperor Ruizong Xian and the younger brother of the current emperor. If I may be so bold as to say this, establishing your fiefdom in the remote and impoverished Yunyang Prefecture is truly a mistreatment of Your Highness."

Fortunately, the estates His Majesty bestowed upon Prince Ying were located in Chengtian Prefecture and De'an Prefecture; otherwise, even Yunyang Prefecture might not have been able to gather 3,500 hectares of estates.

This old servant has also inquired and found that Yunyang Prefecture is only the size of a county town, and it is simply not large enough to accommodate a prince's mansion.

If the prince's residence is not located outside the city, what other options are there?

This official document was sent by His Majesty. Whether the Prince's residence should be located on the south bank of the prefectural city or at Huanglongtan is left to His Highness to decide.