I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 138 Inviting All the Kings
As soon as they arrived in Qizhou, they immediately advised Zhu Houzhao. Even though they were dissatisfied with Zhu Houzhao, he was the emperor after all, so they could only advise him patiently.

They originally thought that they would have to spend a lot of time talking, but to their surprise, Zhu Houzhao readily agreed to return to Beijing. This made the people from Beijing feel like they had punched the air.

"In this case, Your Majesty, please return to the capital as soon as possible!" Grand Secretary Liang Chu requested immediately after calming down.

"I have the same intention, but I want to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum before returning to Beijing."

"Of course, since we have come to Jiangnan, we must pay homage to Taizu." Liang Chu readily agreed. There was no way to refuse this request. "Why don't we set off today, go downstream to pay homage to Xiaoling Mausoleum, and then return to Beijing via the Grand Canal. What do you think, Your Majesty?"

Zhu Houzhao looked embarrassed. "Today is already the third day of October. There are only 23 days left until my birthday. At this speed, I won't be able to get back to the capital before my birthday. Doesn't that mean I have to spend my birthday on the road this year?"

You know you're going to celebrate your birthday! Why are you still running around? Liang Chu complained in his heart.

He knew that Zhu Houzhao was going to do something strange again, and he wanted to say that state affairs were more important, and for the sake of state affairs, he should celebrate the birthday on the road.
But what Zhu Houzhao said made sense. It was indeed inappropriate for an emperor to celebrate his birthday on the road. This might very well become a mistake in his itinerary arrangements in the end.

So Liang Chu struggled in his heart for a while, and finally asked: "I don't know what your majesty means, please give me your instructions."

"I think it would be better to celebrate the Wanshou Festival in Qizhou, then go to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum, and then return to the capital. What do you think, Lord Liang?" Zhu Houzhao said immediately.

As soon as these words came out, Liang Chu immediately looked at Zhu Houxuan who was standing beside him. He knew that this matter must be related to Zhu Houxuan, but Zhu Houxuan was observing the pillar beside him intently and did not even look at him.

"Qizhou City is small, why not go back to Nanjing to celebrate the Emperor's birthday? The imperial palace in Nanjing is still well-repaired and maintained." Liang Chu suggested.

"But I have other plans, so it would be more appropriate to celebrate the Emperor's birthday in Nanjing," Zhu Houzhao said with embarrassment.

Liang Chu was troubled by this, but since it had come to this, he could only bite the bullet and ask, "What other arrangements does Your Majesty have?"

"I had the pleasure of meeting my uncle, Prince Xiang, a few days ago. I felt very cordial." Zhu Houzhao said as he nodded to Prince Xiang Zhu Youqi who was sitting in Chengyun Hall.

Prince Xiang Zhu Youqi did not expect Zhu Houzhao to call on him, and he returned the greeting to Zhu Houzhao in panic.

"There are many vassal states in Huguang and Jiangxi, many of whom I have never met. Many of them are my elders, especially my father's brothers who are also in Huguang. My father often mentioned them in front of me. Now that I have come to Qizhou, I would feel very sorry if I don't meet these elders. Why not take advantage of my birthday to gather all the kings in Qizhou to meet and talk about the royal family's feelings? Wouldn't it be wonderful?" Zhu Houzhao expressed his thoughts with a smile.

Liang Chu was stunned. He knew that Zhu Houzhao was going to do something weird, but he didn't expect that he would do something like this. He looked at Zhu Houxun again with a bad face, but Zhu Houxun had already turned around and only showed him his back.

Liang Chu also understood why Nanjing was not suitable, because Nanjing was too far away. After receiving the news, the other princes of Huguang would not be able to arrive in Nanjing before the Wanshou Festival. Qizhou was at the junction of Huguang and Jiangxi, so it was convenient for the princes to rush over and save a lot of trouble.

Liang Chu wanted to oppose Zhu Houzhao's idea, but he could not find any reason to oppose it. He could not find any reason to oppose it based on the clan system; nor could he find any reason to oppose it based on human relations.

It is indeed not right for a younger generation to come to Huguang without meeting his relatives in Huguang. Moreover, there are many elders here. This is also a kind of filial piety, which is a behavior advocated by feudal etiquette, so it is even more impossible to oppose it.

Liang Chu thought about it and finally agreed reluctantly, "I have no objection to this matter. Your Majesty's move will surely become a good story." Zhu Houzhao showed a victorious smile on his face. He looked at Zhu Houxun, and Zhu Houxun also showed the same smile.

This suggestion was indeed made by Zhu Houxun to Zhu Houzhao in advance.

Zhu Houzhao was very interested in Zhu Houxun's suggestion at the time, but he was also very curious about why Zhu Houxun made this suggestion.

In fact, Zhu Houxun’s purpose was very simple, it was just for one word - money!

Even though Qizhou is now prosperous and bustling, with factories making a lot of money every year, there are too many places where money is spent!
Workers' welfare, education investment, scientific and technological research and development investment, etc. are all invincible holes.

Zhu Houzhao didn't have much money. He had a lot of expenses for the palace every year and couldn't come up with much money. All he could provide to Zhu Houxuan was the tiger skin of imperial power.

Developing and building factories in the north also requires a large sum of money, but this money has not yet been found. If this problem is not solved, the speed of building factories in the north will definitely be greatly slowed down, so Zhu Houxuan set his sights on the various princes' palaces.

Now the problem of clan salary in the Ming Dynasty has begun to emerge. Various provinces are running out of money to pay clan salary. However, only the lower-level clan members are affected by this, while the top-level clan members are not affected at all.

The princely palaces in various places did not rely on clan salary to make a living. The clan salary of 5000 shi of rice per year was only 3500 taels of silver, and after a % discount, it was only taels a year. If such a large princely palace relied on this amount of silver to make a living, it would have been unable to make ends meet long ago.

Princes from all over the country have various industries, and some have accumulated wealth for hundreds of years. They can be said to be the richest group of high-net-worth individuals in the Ming Dynasty.

So Zhu Houxuan set his sights on the palaces of various princes. He also believed that the princes would be happy to come. They had been stuck in the palaces for half their lives, and this opportunity to come out and play was a once-in-a-century opportunity!

After they arrive in Qizhou, he will take this group of princes to visit the various factories in Qizhou and demonstrate the potential of each factory.

He wants to use this opportunity to attract investment.

Although it is impossible to sell the shares of Ming Royal Group to them, there will be various subsidiaries under Ming Royal Group in the future, and they can subscribe for the shares of these subsidiaries.

Even if they were hesitant and unwilling to subscribe to the shares of these subsidiaries, Zhu Houxuan could use these factories as collateral to borrow money from the princes.
Anyway, all he had to do was to use various means to get money from these richest people in the Ming Dynasty. No matter how he got it, it was better than having it squandered by the princes or left to rot in the cellar.

One by one, the envoys left Qizhou and rushed to the various princely palaces around Qizhou along the Ming Dynasty's post road at an accelerated speed of 800 miles.
The King of Chu, who was closest to the city, was the first to receive the news. He was extremely excited and agreed to it immediately, saying that he would arrive in Qizhou soon.
Huguang, Anlu, Xingwang Palace.

The sound of reading aloud came from a room. A boy of six or seven years old was reading seriously.

A middle-aged man in a dragon robe suddenly pushed open the door with a scroll of imperial edict and said excitedly: "Chong'er, let's go to Qizhou!"

(End of this chapter)