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

Chapter 22 Hou Sen's Past
Zhu Houxun's words made Yu Liu almost vomit blood, but since Zhu Houxun didn't ask him, he didn't dare to interrupt. He just looked at Hou Sen with pleading eyes.

Hou Sen ignored Yu Liu and said with a strange expression, "This should be the newly bought boy in the mansion. Take good care of him in the mansion for a few months. In the fall, when his body is strong, he will be castrated and the one who survives will be taken into the mansion."

"As for the mistake Yu Liu made, according to the procedure, these boys should be raised outside the palace for a while and learn some etiquette before entering the palace. Now they are sent directly in."

"There is such a thing!" Zhu Houxuan said in surprise. He really didn't expect that the future of these children would be like this.

"Your Highness, please spare my life. This is my first time too. It really is the first time!" Yu Liu kowtowed repeatedly, with blood already on his forehead.

Seeing Yu Liu crying, Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but sigh again about the harsh feudal hierarchy.

Zhu Houxuan could not be without judicial power over the officials in the palace and could not punish them, but the prerequisite was that the person had to be an official! There were only a dozen people with official status in the palace, and he could really decide the life and death of the rest with just a word.

In fact, he also figured out why Yu Liu wanted to send the children to the mansion in advance. If he sent them to the mansion in advance, he could save the money for the children's food and expenses outside the mansion, and the money would go into his pocket.

Many people would have turned a blind eye to this matter, but I was so unlucky that I ran into him directly. My psychological quality was not strong enough, so I confessed it without being asked.

Zhu Houxuan, who had figured all this out, did not feel any anger in his heart. The Prince of Jing's Mansion had existed for a hundred years, and there must be many rats in the mansion, so this one would not make a difference. Moreover, this rat also gave him new ideas.

However, what he was most curious about now was the palace's system for selecting eunuchs, so he pulled Hou Sen aside and asked him about it in detail.

Only then did I know that the Ming court actually prohibited princes from privately employing eunuchs, especially those who had eunuchs themselves. The reason was that there were many treacherous people among these eunuchs, and they were afraid that they would bring trouble to the royal family.

When the various royal palaces were short of eunuchs, they were generally granted by the imperial court.

However, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, this ban had been violated. The eunuchs allocated by the court were not adequate or were insufficient in number, so the practice of each royal palace secretly employing eunuchs continued despite repeated prohibitions.

Things like buying young children, castrating them and using them as eunuchs is a way to circumvent the ban. The ban is for employing people who have castrated themselves, but these children are not castrated themselves, and they are so old, it is impossible for there to be traitors among them!
For example, the Prince of Jing’s Palace would take in some young children every few years.

After hearing this, Zhu Houxuan's eyes flashed with pity. He didn't expect that these children would have to suffer such things at such a young age.

"Do they all know what they are going to face?" Zhu Houxuan said softly, his eyes full of pity as he looked at the group of children.

"I know!" Hou Sen said with some sadness, "Your Highness was born in a wealthy family. He has been clothed in fine clothes and fed with delicious food since he was a child. Naturally, he does not understand the sufferings of the world. The pain of being castrated and having a mutilated body is actually nothing compared to the sufferings of the world."

"Don't underestimate those children. They have experienced a lot of hardships and understand this truth."

Zhu Houxuan looked at Hou Sen deeply. It was the first time he heard Hou Sen speak so many heartfelt words.

"How do you know so much about this?" Zhu Houxuan suddenly asked.

"That's because I entered the palace like this 10 years ago!" Hou Sen said with a smile, "In fact, I have always been grateful to the palace for taking me in. If it hadn't been for the palace taking me in, I would probably have become a pile of dirt."

Zhu Houxuan opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He didn't expect that he, a eunuch who accompanied the emperor in studying, would have such an experience. For a moment, he had complicated feelings about the royal palace using castrated boys to supplement the eunuchs.

It was really inhumane for the palace to do this, but it didn't seem to be completely useless. However, now was not the time to be stunned. Yu Liu was about to pass out.

"Stand up! I can forgive you, but the prerequisite is that you have to help me do something! If you do it well, not only will you be exempt from fault, but you will also be rewarded!" Zhu Houxuan walked in front of Yu Liu.

"Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you, Your Highness! Please let me know if you have anything to say and I will definitely see to it!" Yu Liu was ecstatic.

"These children will stay here for now, but the palace needs more people recently, so we need to bring in more servants. Can you buy all the children you can find on the market?"

"It can be done! I will definitely do it. Recently a group of refugees came to Qizhou city. Some of them started selling their children in order to survive. The prices have dropped," Yu Liu said with a flattering face.

"Hmm." Yu Liu's words made Zhu Houxuan feel uncomfortable. He couldn't talk about the rise and fall of the price of population transactions so lightly.

At this time, a child in the group took advantage of the guards' inattention and rushed towards Zhu Houxuan, shouting, "Prince, buy my sister, my sister."

He was kicked over by a guard and pinned to the ground halfway through his words. However, the little boy's thin body was still struggling. He was halfway through saying "Save my sister" when his mouth was covered.

Zhu Houxuan separated the guards blocking him and said gloomily, "Let him go. He is just a child."

The guard who controlled the little boy picked him up from the ground.

"Your Highness, please forgive me! It was my fault for not watching the child carefully enough and letting him disturb Your Highness!" Zhu Houxuan's guard captain knelt on one knee.

"Let him speak!" Zhu Houxuan ignored the captain of the guard.

The hand covering the little boy's mouth dropped away.

"Prince, please buy my sister! Otherwise they will sell her to a brothel! Please, Prince, I will definitely repay you in the future." The little boy cried.

"Who are they?" Zhu Houxuan's expression eased slightly.

"They are the human traffickers who bought me and my sister. They said girls are hard to sell, and if they can't sell her today, they will sell my sister to a brothel and not keep her to eat." The little boy said with tears in his eyes.

Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but look up to the child. It was not easy for a teenager in ancient times to have the courage to rush out and speak these words with clear logic under such great pressure.

"Then how do you know that it will be better if your sister comes here?" Zhu Houxuan asked deliberately.

"When they sold me, they told me: You will enjoy a good life in the future. Prince Jing's Mansion is a good place, and the owner there is always kind to his servants." The little boy's answer was still very logical.

Zhu Houxuan sneered when he heard this. This really seemed like something that the Jing Palace could do. After all, the late king and the queen dowager had the idea of ​​maintaining the reputation of the Jing Palace.

"Let him go!" Zhu Houxuan ordered.

(End of this chapter)