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

Chapter 83: Trip to the Leopard House
Zhu Houzhao understood the reason after a little thought. He had pulled many people onto his imperial carriage. Some of them shouted that it was against the rules and dared not get on the carriage. Some got on the carriage trembling with fear under pressure. Some seemed very calm but were actually very panicked inside.

Only today, this cousin really seemed not to care about these things. He was not restrained at all. When facing him, he did what he was supposed to do without any panic, and everything he did was very much to his liking.

"Go, bring a horse for Prince Jing, and bring one for me. Prince Jing and I will ride to the Leopard House together." Zhu Houzhao instructed a palace servant who was accompanying him.

Soon, the eunuchs came over with two horses. Zhu Houzhao jumped on the horses with great agility and said to Zhu Houxun, "My brother, I will allow you to ride horses in the palace!"

Zhu Houxuan looked at the imperial horse in front of him, which was much better than the horses at the post station. He also jumped on the horse, holding the reins and bowed, saying, "Thank you, my brother!"

Then he knocked the horse's belly, shouted "Go!" and rushed out.
The word "jia" reminded Zhu Houzhao of the pun that Zhu Houxuan had told him today. His legs in the stirrups suddenly went limp and he almost fell off the horse.

Zhu Houxuan didn't walk far. He just wanted to get familiar with the horse under him, so he ran for a while and then turned back.

Zhu Houzhao quickly made three rules with him, agreeing that he was not allowed to shout "Gee!" while riding a horse today.

Then the two of them rode their horses towards the West Garden.

The Western Garden is located to the west of the Forbidden City and includes the North, Central and South Seas. It was where Emperor Zhengde enjoyed himself, slept and handled government affairs.

The famous Leopard House was built at the northern end of Xiyuan, which is the west side of the later Beihai Park.

From the second year of Zhengde to the present, more than 200 houses have been built in the Leopard House, but they are not buildings or palaces. The construction cost is less than half of Zhu Houzhao's wedding expenses. A total of more than 200,000 taels of silver were spent, and the area covers 400 acres, or four hectares.

Zhu Houxuan stared at the Leopard House in front of him in a trance. This was one of Zhu Houzhao's biggest black spots. To be honest, he really didn't see how luxurious the Leopard House was. It just looked ordinary.

To be honest, he couldn't understand why Zhu Houzhao was so badly slandered because of the Leopard House in later generations.

It's not that you can't criticize others. The establishment of the Leopard House should be criticized, but it shouldn't be criticized to that extent.

In a horizontal comparison, Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty also built many buildings outside the imperial palace for their enjoyment. How do they compare with the Leopard House?
In terms of area alone, the total area of ​​the Old Summer Palace is 350 hectares, which is nearly 5 times the size of the Forbidden City and nearly 90 times the size of the Leopard House. As for the cost, it is an astronomical figure that is difficult to estimate.

Considering that the construction of the Summer Palace by the Qing Dynasty cost as much as 20 million taels of silver, it is probably not an exaggeration to calculate that it cost more than million taels of silver, which is far more luxurious than the Old Summer Palace. In short, there is no doubt that the taels of silver spent on the Leopard House is not worth mentioning compared with that.

Another famous one is the Chengde Mountain Resort. "The Mountain Resort covers an area of ​​564 million square meters, and the winding and undulating palace walls surrounding the resort are 564 meters long", that is, 1703 hectares, nearly eight times the area of ​​the Forbidden City and 90 times the area of ​​the Leopard House. "It was built in and was completed by three emperors of the Qing Dynasty: Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong, and it took about years to complete."

How much did it cost? In the Chronicle of the Qing Dynasty, it is mentioned that "72 summer resorts were built along the way, with dozens of miles of land enclosed, and seasonal flowers were planted, and imperial pavilions were set up. The cost was about hundreds of millions." The cost of hundreds of millions is just an approximate number, but it is enough to imagine the staggering extent of the cost.

Moreover, the so-called enclosure of land of dozens of miles should have been inhabited by ordinary people. It is beyond doubt that the Qing emperors plundered a large amount of people's land, houses and property in order to build their own pleasure places.

Even if silver depreciated in the Qing Dynasty, it didn't depreciate by a thousand times.

Now when people mention the Leopard House, they think of Zhu Houzhao’s extravagance, but what do people think of if they mention the Old Summer Palace, the Summer Palace and the Chengde Mountain Resort?
It is said that Zhu Houzhao built the Leopard House for his own pleasure, but didn't the Qing emperors build these gardens for their own pleasure? Forget it, the feudal rulers are all the same.

For the same kind of behavior, Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty committed ten or even a hundred times more acts than Zhu Houzhao.

However, needless to say, Zhu Houzhao was criticized as being licentious, stupid, and even perverted because of these behaviors.

The actions of the Qing emperors became a good story, and were even described as contributions to garden art by people like Yan Chongnian. It's not that we can't discredit Zhu Houzhao, but we can't have double standards for the same thing.

Why was Zhu Houzhao slandered so badly? It was because the people who slandered him were still alive and well and could even write books and spread these remarks.

In the Qing Dynasty, anyone who dared to speak out about the Qing emperors' behavior of building gardens, even if they spoke very objectively, would be played a game of elimination with them by the Qing emperors. Naturally, there was nothing negative to say about them, and there was only praise for them.

The textbooks all mention literary inquisitions during the Ming and Qing dynasties, but were there as many literary inquisitions during the Ming dynasty as there were during the Qing dynasty? The emperors of the Qing dynasty were all very sensitive.

Back to the topic, Zhu Houzhao took Zhu Houxuan into the Leopard House and pointed to a street and proudly introduced it: "I designed and built this street. Isn't it prosperous?"

The eunuchs had already notified the emperor in advance before he arrived.

At this moment, countless palace maids and eunuchs dressed up as shopkeepers, vendors, pedestrians, and customers, coming and going in the same way as in ordinary streets, except that the materials of their clothes were a little better.

Zhu Houzhao changed into a set of folk warrior clothes and deliberately let his hair down, making him look a little shabby. He carried the Bloodthirsty Sword on his shoulder in one hand and held up a sign in the other that read "Sword Dealer".

Soon a group of passers-by gathered around, and Zhu Houxuan also went over to watch the fun.

Zhu Houzhao introduced himself solemnly: "My name is Zhu Shou. I am passing through your precious place. I have run out of money and can only sell my family heirloom sword to buy money. Please come and have a look!"

As he spoke, he drew out the Bloodthirsty Sword in his hand and said, "This is the sword forged by the King of Jing of the Ming Dynasty. There is only one in the world and it is worth millions. Anyone who can pay 10,000 taels of silver can take it away now."

The crowd exclaimed in unison, while Zhu Houxuan felt a slight headache.

Then there is the plot where two villains try to seize the sword, but are beaten by Zhu Houzhao.
Zhu Houzhao changed his clothes reluctantly and rode on his horse. "I'm tired of this plot. My brother, you are a master of playwrights. Please write me an interesting plot next time!"

Zhu Houxuan had no choice but to nod and agree.

Then Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Houxun to catch up quickly, and after running for a while, they came to an open area.

"Let me meet you my adopted sons. They are all heroes!" Zhu Houzhao said and ordered people to beat drums.

Not long after, a group of men dressed in various costumes suddenly appeared and soon lined up in three rows in front of Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao pointed at Zhu Houxun and introduced him: "This is the King of Jing. You guys come and pay him a visit. You should call him." Zhu Houzhao suddenly got stuck.

Among the adopted sons, Zhu Shan had already recognized Zhu Houxuan. He quickly reviewed the opera he had heard before in his mind, and then shouted: "You should call him Emperor Uncle! Haven't you heard of Liu Huangshu?"

The more than one hundred adopted sons seemed to have found their backbone and responded sporadically.
Some people shouted "Meet the Emperor's Uncle."

But more people were shouting "Meet Uncle Liu!"

When Zhu Houxuan heard this, he felt a black screen before his eyes.
(End of this chapter)