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

Chapter 255 Chen Ce, You Will Die Hard

By now, Emperor Hongzhi's true intentions were finally revealed!

So that’s how it is, it’s actually like this!
The emperor is so courageous that he uses such means to solve the hidden danger of the Ming Dynasty!

Regarding the problem of bloated finances of the royal family and vassal states, officials have been helpless for decades and could only allow them to continue to accumulate. However, it is foreseeable that as time goes by, the court will gradually be unable to support these royal family and vassal states.

If this problem is not solved, it will bring great disaster to the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The officials were not unaware of these hidden dangers. They knew them better than anyone else. If the ancestral system had not yet been finalized during the Hongwu period, it might have been reversed.

But as time went by, in order to solve the remaining problems of royal family salaries, it was necessary to break the ancestral laws, and no emperor dared to go against the ancestral system.

Therefore, no matter whether it is the emperor or the officials, no one dares to bear the name of disloyalty and unfilial piety. Once someone brings it up, he will immediately become the target of public criticism. Tens of thousands of princes and vassals in the world will regard him as a thorn in their eyes and a thorn in their flesh, and kill him as soon as possible.

Until now, no one dared to speak carelessly on the issue of royal family salaries, for fear of bringing disaster upon themselves!
But now, Emperor Hongzhi solved it in this way!
You, the vassal states, write letters day and night to complain about your poverty, saying that you cannot afford to eat and asking the court to pay you salaries. You hypocritically say that the income from your land cannot support your expenses.

Good! The court has no money to pay your salaries, but he, the Hongzhi Emperor, will never abandon you.

He took the initiative to give up a large area of ​​land in the southwest, and gave it to you. You migrated to the southwest to develop it. These lands are valuable, right? Even if they are all wasteland, they are still valuable. Is it enough to pay your salary?
The income brought in the future can also make you rest assured.

Although the court has no money to pay your salaries, do you want to be compensated in this way or not?

If you want, you have to rebuild and develop the southwest for the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the southwest is close to the chieftains and is full of dangers, especially since Qian Yue suffered a defeat in the southwest not long ago.

Based on this premise, who among those princes and royal family members who are just sitting there waiting to die would dare to take over the southwestern land?

Moreover, when you take over the southwestern land, you will have to move your entire family there, and then the hidden lands in your original fiefdom will immediately be exposed to the world.

If you do not accept the suggestions made by the court, I'm sorry, the court has already said that the Ministry of Revenue will not be able to pay the salaries of the princes and vassals in the next few decades. You are members of the Zhu family and you should consider the Ming Dynasty.

It’s not that Emperor Hongzhi didn’t give you compensation. Even if he did, and you didn’t want it, you can’t blame the court.

This is a naked conspiracy! A conspiracy against the vassal states of the world!

I'm afraid that since Emperor Hongzhi started measuring the land last year, he has been preparing for this day... No, could it be that Emperor Hongzhi already had this idea since Qian Yue attacked the southwest?
If this is true, how terrible it is! How deep is this conspiracy?

Just now Emperor Hongzhi said that these suggestions were made by the East Palace. The Crown Prince? No one would believe that these suggestions were made by the Crown Prince.

Jiao Fang!

Previously, the issues of salt permits and the Kaizhong system were all raised by Jiao Fang, and he did not deny them. Now that Emperor Hongzhi said that the suggestions came from the Eastern Palace, it must have been proposed by Jiao Fang.

Whether it is true or not, it’s Jiao Fang now!
The three elders of the cabinet and high-ranking officials of the six ministries were all shocked beyond words at this moment. This scheme was so clever and so vicious!

If this matter were heard by the royal family and vassal states, wouldn't they hate Jiao Fang to death?

The key is that they are still unable to speak out their bitterness. What will they choose in the end? They have no choice but to give up and go to the southwest, guarding the existing fiefdoms. Although they say it is difficult, over the past hundred years, they have owned a large amount of land that has not been seen by the public. Is this land really not enough for their expenses?

Apparently it was enough, after all they were just greedy.

Even if they did not receive salaries from the court, the income from their own fiefdoms would be enough to cover their expenses.

So clever!

Who was giving advice to Emperor Hongzhi?

Jiao Fang?

The three elders of the cabinet looked towards Jiao Fang, only to find that Jiao Fang's face was as pale as paper. It was obvious that Jiao Fang now understood the crisis facing him!

As soon as the emperor said this, he immediately became the target of public criticism. Tens of thousands of royal family members and vassal kings would regard him as an enemy!

Thinking of this, Jiao Fang shuddered. The emperor wanted to kill him!
He never imagined that he had taken all that Chen Ce had done under his own name in order to gain credit, but now it would become his own death warrant!
Even if he wanted to refute it now and said that this was not his idea, who would believe him?
Moreover, the emperor did not mention Jiao Fang by name. Just a vague sentence was enough to make others believe that it was Jiao Fang who made the suggestion.

After all, Jiao Fang had offended some powerful people because of the salt permit issue. If they could still consider themselves unlucky that time, what about this time?

So many vassal states in the world are staring at him... Jiao Fang's heart is trembling violently.

For some reason, the conversation between him and Chen Ce on the bank of Tongji Canal suddenly emerged in his mind.

Chen Ce was confident that Jiao Fang would die first, and that all previous solutions, including the Kaizhong system and the salt-introduction policy, were from Chen Ce's handiwork.

What about this time?

Could it also be from Chen Ce?
He was the one making the plans behind the scenes, and he took all the risks himself?
Thinking of this, Jiao Fang was silent! If all the speculations were true, then how vicious was this kid's mind, and how far-sighted was he? !

Did he start planning long ago? He had formed a tacit understanding with Emperor Hongzhi long ago, or in other words, since the land survey last year, Chen Ce had actually passed all his plans to Emperor Hongzhi through Zhu Houzhao.

In other words, at that time they needed to find someone to take the blame for Emperor Hongzhi, and who to find to take the blame was entirely up to Chen Ce.

So Chen Ce’s words in Tongji Canal are easy to explain!
He was plotting against himself. Only now did Jiao Fang realize that Chen Ce was plotting against himself!
This monster has been planning carefully since last year. Qian Yue attacked the southwest, Qian Yue failed, he measured the land, planned the salaries of the royal family and princes, and put the blame on me... scene after scene, one after another, kept appearing in Jiao Fang's mind like a movie.

Until now, Jiao Fang connected all of this together... It took him more than half a year to set up such a big plan, and it took him so long, but it has only now been fully discovered.

How terrifying is this! He schemed against the entire imperial court, against all the vassal states, and in the end...he was able to get away with it safely, no one would suspect him, and in the end, all the hatred was transferred to me, and I became his scapegoat?

Chen Ce...you little beast! You will die a miserable death!

(End of this chapter)