Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 197: Royal Family Like Pigs
At the school in the Eastern Palace today, Jiao Fang reviewed the homework that he assigned to Zhu Houzhao last night.

Jiao Fang's intention was very simple. He knew Zhu Houzhao's temper too well. According to Zhu Houzhao's character, he would definitely support the war in the southwest.

He even wanted to go to the southwest to command the war himself.

What surprised Jiao Fang was that Zhu Houzhao behaved extremely abnormally today.

Zhu Houzhao actually felt that provoking a war in the southwest was not necessary. After provoking a war, the southwestern chieftains would unite to fight against the Ming Dynasty, making it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to win.

Although Jiao Fang repeatedly recommended Qian Yue, the censor who inspected Guizhou, Zhu Houzhao just talked about it without any evidence.

Jiao Fang was filled with rage, thinking that something must be wrong!
Jiao Fang was a very jealous person. He had been holding a grudge against Li Dongyang because of their political disagreements. However, Li Dongyang was in a high position and had great power, so Jiao Fang naturally did not have the courage to compete with Li Dongyang. But because Li Dongyang was from Yuyao, a southerner, Jiao Fang hated Li Dongyang and so he disliked all southerners!

How should I put it? This is the typical narrow-minded and old-fashioned scholar-official.

The Crown Prince had previously been extremely enthusiastic about the Southwest War, so Jiao Fang planned to take advantage of the Crown Prince's psychology and have him personally talk to Emperor Hongzhi about starting the Southwest War.

In this way, once Qian Yue takes command and wins, it will naturally be a great joy for Jiao Fang, after all, Qian Yue is his student.

Even if he lost, Qian Yue would not be in big trouble with the recommendation of the Crown Prince.

Everything seemed to be under Jiao Fang's control, but just one night later, the Crown Prince's sudden change in attitude caught Jiao Fang off guard!
Obviously, someone is directing the Crown Prince behind the scenes!

Jiao Fang suppressed his anger and said to Zhu Houzhao, "Your Highness, the Tusi in the southwest are causing chaos and have repeatedly refused to obey the discipline of the Ming Dynasty. If we allow the Tusi in the southwest to continue to develop, where will the prestige of the Ming Dynasty be?"

"Imperial Censor Qian has made complete preparations for war. If he takes action, he will surely be able to quell the chaos in the entire southwest. It will be a hundred benefits with no harm. Your Highness, please understand!"

Zhu Houzhao tilted his head and looked at Jiao Fang, and asked, "Teacher Jiao, since you admire Censor Qian so much, why don't you write a letter to the emperor?"

"I am the crown prince, and I cannot decide on the appointment of court personnel, let alone local military affairs. It is useless for you to tell me."

amount.

Jiao Fang was left speechless by Zhu Houzhao's words.

What I mean is that you should write a letter to your father!

Didn't you say last night in indignation that you must go to the Emperor to discuss attacking the chieftains in the southwest?
Who on earth is the idiot who slandered the Crown Prince? !
Jiao Fang said no more, and after the class was over, Zhu Houzhao left.

Jiao Fang found Yang Tinghe and said to him with a smile, "Jie Fu."

Yang Tinghe still respected this veteran of three dynasties, and bowed and said, "Master Jiao."

"Don't be like this, you and I are colleagues, sit down and talk."

"What does Jiefu think of the current unrest in the southwest?"

Yang Tinghe was somewhat puzzled. He smiled bitterly and said, "Master, Jiefu is still young and inexperienced. How can he be qualified to criticize the government?"

Jiao Fang glanced at Yang Tinghe nonchalantly, and seeing that he didn't seem to be lying, she understood. It wasn't Yang Tinghe who was interfering.

He followed the same method and tested all the teachers in the Eastern Palace who had contact with Zhu Houzhao, and confirmed that it was not the teachers in the Eastern Palace who were teaching the prince.

Someone else analyzed the situation in the southwest to the prince!

Wait, wait until I find you!
I want to see who you are! How dare you talk nonsense in front of the prince!

……

Chen Ce sat quietly in the courtyard and watched the hereditary succession of princes in the Ming Dynasty. By now, the population of the royal family had begun to increase gradually. If it was not resolved now, one day the huge population of the royal family would completely destroy the Ming Dynasty.

Previously, Zhu Houzhao asked Chen Ce whether to start a war in the southwest. If the growth of the clan population was not taken into consideration, Chen Ce certainly did not recommend starting a war in the southwest.

The most appropriate approach for the Ming Dynasty to deal with the problems in the southwest was to boil the frog in warm water, using the policy of reforming the chieftains into officials during the Yongzheng period to assimilate the southwestern chieftains bit by bit.

But we cannot look at the pros and cons of everything alone.

If a war really breaks out in the southwest, the reform of the vassal kings' problem can be directed in this direction.

Chen Ce knew that he didn't have much time left. More than half of this year had already passed. In other words, he had less than five years to live.

In more than five years, he needs to generally solve all the major problems that exist in the Ming Dynasty.

He had to speed up the process. As for what would happen in the future, Chen Ce didn't know. He could only do what he could now.

To get back to the point, since the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang has appointed a total of 25 princes, and each prince was required to have an annual salary of 10,000 dan. Although it was a lot, the country only needed to provide 250,000 dan of grain to cover its expenses.

However, as time went on, these princes continued to give birth to heirs, and the number of their descendants became larger and larger. At that time, the food expenses that the court needed to bear were not just hundreds of thousands of shi of grain!

The Ming Dynasty divided the royal family into eight levels, the highest being the Prince and the lowest being the Lieutenant of Fengguo. The eldest son of each royal family member could inherit the title, while the second son would have his title reduced by one level. But when it came to the lowest level of Lieutenant of Fengguo, all sons could inherit the title.

Although previous rulers had realized the salary pressure that the surge in the number of vassal kings brought to the imperial court.

However, due to the pressure of ancestral teachings, no one dared to arbitrarily reduce the salaries of the princes, and they could only continue to provide them.

These princes ignore production and are exempt from land taxes. They are greedy in the local areas, but the court still has to pay them salaries. If we could still count on them to defend against enemies in the early Ming Dynasty, now they are just raising pigs!
Chen Ce flipped through the historical materials and saw an explosive growth in the population of the Ming Dynasty royal family!
According to the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty", in the 1595rd year of Wanli (), the population of the royal family had grown to . According to the "Compilation and Research of the Accounting Records of the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty", the national fiscal expenditure in the early years of the Wanli period was more than million taels of silver, of which the salary expenditure for the royal family and vassal states was as high as more than million taels, accounting for nearly %.

Not only were they simply provided with salaries, but these princes also annexed land on a large scale in the local areas. The fertile farmland in Shanxi was basically annexed by the royal family, and half of the land in Henan belonged to the princes. The land of each prince reached tens of thousands of acres.

This also led to a sharp drop in the country's fiscal revenue. According to the "Huang Ming Jingshi Wenbian", "the grain of the two provinces is still not enough to provide half of the royal family's rice salary." The tax revenue of Shanxi and Henan provinces did not even reach half of the royal family's rice salary.

Just this shocking data alone is enough to make people shudder.

The further things develop, the more uncontrollable they become. Take the current population of Hongzhi's royal family for example, it has almost reached 100,000!
Since the end of the Chenghua period, the imperial court had actually begun to intentionally delay the salaries of the princes, otherwise these princes would not have met in private and conspired to work together to demand salaries from the imperial court!
According to the analysis of the intelligence sent by Liu Hong, Chen Ce estimated that it would not be long before the princes would submit memorials to the court.

(End of this chapter)