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

Chapter 54: The Mausoleum
Zhu Houxuan didn't react to what was happening for a moment. He thought Shi Changshi was up to something again.

But seeing that the others all looked as if it was a matter of course, I knew that he might be overthinking it.

He suddenly remembered that he had read before that the first thing an ancient emperor did after ascending the throne was to renovate his mausoleum. Because the construction period of a mausoleum is relatively long, some may take decades to build, and may not be completed by the time the emperor passes away.

He is a prince of the Ming Dynasty. Judging from the specifications of the palace, the specifications of the mausoleum must be not low, so there is no problem in starting construction now.

Moreover, there were many members of the Ming royal family who died in their twenties or thirties, so it was a very normal thing to build a mausoleum at this time, so that the mausoleum would not be unfinished when they died.

Zhu Houxun was not interested in building a mausoleum at all, and he had already planned the remaining money in the Prince of Jing's Mansion, so he didn't want to waste any money on building a mausoleum.

However, after searching through the original owner's memory, he was surprised to find that the construction of the mausoleum did not cost the palace any money, but was entirely the responsibility of the local government.

If we were to ask which two provinces in the Ming Dynasty had the most miserable people, Henan and Huguang would definitely be at the top of the list.

Because these two provinces had the most princes, take Huguang, where the Prince of Jing's Palace was located, for example. During the Ming Dynasty, there were twenty princes who were enfeoffed in Huguang.

Some of these princes only passed the throne for a few generations or even one generation before their kingdoms were abolished due to lack of an heir, but more princes took root and multiplied in Huguang.

This brought severe disaster to the local people.

Don't think that Huguang only supplies the various clans with royal salaries. The princes receive 10,000 dan of salary each year, and the county kings receive 2,000 dan of salary.
All aspects of the royal family's vassalage need to be managed by the local government.

The food, lodging, birth, aging, sickness and death, weddings, funerals, festivals and sacrifices of local clan members were mainly provided by local government.

There were specific regulations for the palaces and various supplies of the imperial clan, and they varied according to their rank. A large part of the imperial clan mansions built in Huguang were sent from the province, and additional levies on the local area for labor, materials, and transportation vehicles and boats were inevitable.

The grand and luxurious ones are mainly the prince's palaces. Most of the royal family members are in the middle and lower levels such as generals, lieutenants, and county lords. The population of each palace is more or less, and they all live in one palace. Even so, the huge number of people is also a heavy burden.

Moreover, the mansions of the princes and generals were grand and each enfeoffment required the relocation of thousands of households, costing thousands of taels of government silver. The increasing number of enfeoffments among the royal family members caused the people to suffer beyond words.

The construction of the palace was not yet complete, and the local government was still responsible for its subsequent repairs. For example, the Prince Xiang's Palace had been under repair for more than half a century.

This is true for palaces and tombs alike.

Don't think that's the end of it. For various reasons, royal family members were quite fond of Buddhism and Taoism, so they built many temples and monasteries, and the local government was responsible for this. As long as the royal family obtained the emperor's consent, they didn't have to pay a penny.

The local government will definitely pass the material costs of building these things on to the people. This is just the material cost. Building these things also requires a lot of manpower.

Therefore, the corvée labor of the people in Huguang was particularly heavy, which not only made them tired but also seriously affected the normal agricultural production in the area.

In the eighth year of the Hongzhi reign, Ma Wensheng reported that "the construction of the four royal palaces in Ji, Xing, Qi, and Yong in Huguang required no less than 500,000 laborers."

For example, the Xianling Mausoleum is the most outstanding among all mausoleums. Jiajing spared no effort in building the mausoleum for his father. "There are no less than fifty counties and prefectures under the jurisdiction of Wu, Han, Huang, De, Jing, Yue, etc. Each prefecture sent a thousand workers, some five or six hundred, and some together, the total number was more than 30,000."

The labor service was mainly assigned to various prefectures and counties in Huguang, and the huge number and wide range of them were unmatched by other royal tombs.

It took 20 years and 480,000 taels of silver to rebuild Xianling from the beginning to the completion. Everyone knows about corvée labor. Not only is there no pay, but you also have to bring your own dry food, pay for your own food and drink, and be exploited by petty officials. The mortality rate is also very high, and countless families have been broken up because of it.

In addition to the land annexation by royal family members and gentry, there was no shortage of refugees in Huguang.

Zhu Houxuan was also aware of this, because many of the orphans he adopted had lost their families due to corvee labor.

"I wonder what the rules are for building a mausoleum?" Zhu Houxuan hesitated for a while and decided to find out the situation first.

"Yesterday, Magistrate Yu invited me to discuss this matter. The site for the prince's mausoleum was selected a year ago. Magistrate Yu meant to recruit a thousand laborers in our state this year to build the prince's mausoleum." said Shi Changshi.

"A thousand men?" Zhu Houxuan said in surprise.

"Your Majesty, do you think it's too little? Prefect Yu said that in the first year of Zhengde, Prince Shou was enfeoffed in De'an Prefecture, and in the third year of Zhengde, Prince Rong was enfeoffed in Changde Prefecture. The Huguang Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office recruited many laborers to build the prince's palace, and Qizhou also recruited many laborers to build it. Therefore, Qizhou's people are exhausted this year, and it is not appropriate to recruit more."

"If Your Majesty thinks one thousand is too few, then I will go to discuss with Prefect Yu and try to increase the number to two thousand first." Shi Changshi said with some surprise.

Only then did Zhu Houxun find the information of the mausoleum he had selected in his mind. It covered a large area, more than 2000 hectares, which is acres. What evil feudalism!
"One thousand people is not a small number!" Zhu Houxuan said quickly after he woke up.

"Then I will inform Magistrate Yu of the prince's intention."

"Wait!" Zhu Houxuan began to feel conflicted again.

These one thousand laborers may not seem like a large number, but a laborer usually only performed labor service for a few months a year, and then other laborers were recruited to make up the number. By this calculation, the construction of the mausoleum would affect three or four thousand families.

I don’t know how many families were broken up in the process of building his mausoleum.

Moreover, it was obviously impossible to complete the construction of the mausoleum in one year, so the additional labor service might have to continue for many years.

In Zhu Houxun's opinion, building a mausoleum was nonsense. So many people died for the sake of one person's afterlife. Moreover, it was still unknown whether he could use the built mausoleum in the future. Even if he could use it, he would not feel at ease living in it with so many innocent souls who died in vain.

To be precise, the moral sense of Zhu Houxun's modern soul broke out. He could not ignore the fact that so many people sacrificed their lives for a useless thing, and this useless thing had a lot to do with him.

"What is the prince's order? Please let me know!" Shi Changshi looked at the dazed Zhu Houxuan in confusion.

"Let's not repair it for now. I am still in my prime." Zhu Houxun decided to put it off for the time being.

"Your Highness, the clan law has its own rules. Please think twice." Shi Changshi said relentlessly.

The other three people in the hall also spoke out to advise.

"That's enough!" Zhu Houxuan stood up suddenly. "It's settled. I don't like such a large mausoleum. Tell Yu Zhong not to recruit servants to build my mausoleum."

After saying that, he left Chengyun Hall directly, leaving the four of them looking at each other in bewilderment.

(End of this chapter)