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

Chapter 149: Convincing the Kings
Looking at the innocent Zhu Houcong, Zhu Houcong felt a sense of guilt for some reason.
He quickly stepped forward and rubbed Zhu Houcong's head hard several times to cover up the inexplicable embarrassment in his heart.

You know what, Zhu Houcong's head feels quite nice to touch.

"My cousin Houcong is so wise and filial. He will ensure that there will be successors to our vassal state!" Zhu Houcong praised.

"Yeah!" Prince Xing Zhu Youlu raised his head with some pride.

The matter had been settled. Zhu Houxuan exchanged pleasantries with them for a while before sending someone to send Prince Xing Zhu Youjun and his son back to their residence.

He stood upstairs and watched the carriage carrying Prince Xing Zhu Youlang and his son disappear in the wind and snow, then took out a stack of papers with information about each prince written on it.

To be honest, today's gains exceeded expectations. He didn't expect it to be so smooth. He could borrow all the floating wealth of Prince Xing's Mansion so easily. Moreover, Prince Xing Zhu Youlang also agreed to cooperate with his next actions, which would make his subsequent actions easier.

More than 300,000 taels of silver were definitely all the floating wealth accumulated by the Prince Xing's Mansion. Zhu Houxuan was well aware of this. After all, the Xing clan had only a 19-year history, and it was already a lot to have accumulated so much gold and silver.

Among the royal families of the Ming Dynasty, the treatment of the princes was absolutely unique. After all, they were the face of all the royal families in the world.

Those below the rank of Prince of a County, and even Prince of a County, still needed to rely on clan salary issued by the court to make a living, but when it came to the rank of Prince, they basically no longer needed to rely on clan salary to live.

They have a lot of industries to support their lavish lifestyle.

Before becoming a vassal, the emperor would reward him with land, and after becoming a vassal, he could still petition the emperor for property.

There are some very common routines. For example, there was a flood near Anlu Prefecture, and the local residents ran away to escape the famine. Prince Xing took the opportunity to report: A piece of wasteland was found somewhere outside the city of Wuchang. It was a pity that no one had cultivated it for a long time, so he reported this wasteland. In fact, these wastelands belonged to the people who fled the famine. When the people came back from fleeing the famine, they found that their land had become the property of Prince Xing's palace.

In fact, the emperor was well aware of this, but on one side were his own brothers, and on the other side were strangers, so the final result was generally "the people will suffer even more."

Sometimes you don't even need to use this routine, you can just go and petition directly.

Moreover, the amount of land requested by a prince could be as little as tens of hectares or as much as thousands of hectares. In comparison, the amount of land requested by a county king was much smaller.

In addition, the princes could privately obtain more land through purchase, seizure, reclamation and cultivation, and donation.

Therefore, it is normal for a prince's palace to have several thousand hectares of land. For example, the Prince of Jing's Palace only had 1,500 hectares of land before. It was simply because of its bad reputation that it was not favored by the emperor. The amount of land granted was small, and in order to maintain its reputation, it did not dare to occupy more land.

In addition, the princes can also occupy various minerals and natural resources, such as rivers, lakes, mountains, etc.

Finally, the princes could use their power to engage in business and gain commercial benefits.

Therefore, at the level of the prince's palace, the older the palace, the more it has accumulated and the richer it is.

Moreover, the Prince's Mansion had no obligation to support the royal family of its own branch. It only had to take care of its main branch. At most, it would help the lower-level royal family when they were in financial difficulty. Because supporting the royal family was the obligation of the court.

For example, Zhu Houxun had two illegitimate brothers, who would be conferred the title of princes in the future. He only needed to give them some of the property of the Prince of Jing Mansion when they were conferred the title and moved out of the Prince of Jing Mansion, such as dozens of hectares of land. Even if he did not give them any, no one would say anything, because they were supported by the country anyway.

Such a system would allow the prince's palace to amass more wealth and distance itself from other levels of royal families.

In fact, this is also a historical problem. After the Jingnan Campaign, Zhu Di wanted to reduce the power of the princes and take back the political and military rights of the princes in various places. In order to compensate the damaged princes, Zhu Di gave them judicial privileges and economic compensation.

This was the price the Ming Dynasty paid for such strict vassal prohibitions. After all, the Ming Dynasty still respected Confucian values ​​and could not adopt the law of kinslaying like the Ottomans. Therefore, the princes of the Ming Dynasty were definitely the richest people in the Ming Dynasty, and it was no wonder that Zhu Houxuan would set his sights on them.

Zhu Houxuan looked at the intelligence in his hands and realized that there were still twelve princes that he needed to convince one by one.

The task is heavy, but the opportunity is rare, Zhu Houxuan sighed in his heart.

He must make good use of this opportunity. After all, there is a fundamental difference between sending others to persuade and going to persuade in person.

Zhu Houxuan's persuasion plan went smoothly, and the princes were simply unable to resist Zhu Houxuan's offensive of reasoning and emotional appeal.

It has to be said that Zhu Houxuan knew these princes too well.

These princes have been living a life of luxury since childhood. They have eaten everything, seen everything, and played everything.

There are very few things that can arouse their interest and impress them, and Zhu Houxuan just happens to hold the key to obtaining such things.

free!

This is what the princes desire most, even if it is limited freedom.

After all, if you are confined to a city, no matter how powerful you are or how good your life is, you will feel bored after a long time and start to yearn for the outside world.

They have made many efforts to this end, but the high walls of the border still ruthlessly blocked the sunshine of freedom.

Zhu Houxuan gave them hope of opening the high walls of the feudal system.
As soon as Zhu Houxuan came to power, he invited all the kings to Qizhou, allowing them to taste the long-lost freedom and realize Zhu Houxuan's abilities.

Freedom is like poison to the princes, extremely toxic but they can't stop.

With the temptation of freedom, coupled with Zhu Houxuan's targeted persuasion based on the intelligence he collected.

No vassal king could resist such an attack.

They all agreed to lend money.

Some people may ask, are these princes really not afraid that their capital will be swallowed up directly?
The answer is fear, but still can't resist the temptation.

With the current medical conditions in the Ming Dynasty, even a prince would most likely die in his thirties or forties.

What is the saddest thing for a person? To die with many regrets.

The royal palace's accumulated wealth may not be spent completely during their lifetime, so it is better to lend it out to pursue a dream of freedom. What if this dream comes true?
Even if all this wealth was lost, as long as the palace's various industries were still there, his descendants would still be able to live a luxurious life.

The most important thing is that Zhu Houxuan is also a prince, so his persuasiveness is maximized when he comes in person to persuade.

If the people who came to persuade him were civil officials, nobles or eunuchs, the effect would not be so good.

(End of this chapter)