Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 85 The Poor Royal Family
There is no way around it. The Zongzheng Temple was planning to embarrass Zhao Qian'an from the beginning, so how could they prepare a public office seat for him in advance?
Who could have expected that the "evil star" would actually become the "lucky star"?
The clerk was originally planning to bring a spring stool to Zhao Qian'an to deal with him first, but was stopped by Ji Liyuan.

Didn’t you hear what Zhao Qi’an’s close follower said just now?

The chair in his family is not made of rosewood. If you sit on it, you will get a rash!
But where can I find a rosewood chair in such a short time? Should I go to the Imperial City to borrow one from His Majesty?

Ji Liyuan gritted his teeth and simply gave up his seat, letting Zhao Qi'an sit down first.

Although my chair is not made of rosewood, it is made of yellow sandalwood. I will just give it to this young master for now.

Fortunately, Zhao Qi'an himself was not as picky as his close follower, and he had no complaints about sitting on the rosewood chair.

Just at this moment, the hot water on the stove boiled, making a "beep" sound.

An official came over, poured a cup of hot water into it, and prepared to send it to Zhao Qian'an.

Ji Liyuan walked over, put his hand on the tray, and said, "You go down, I will come."

The clerk was shocked: "My Lord, this... this is against the rules, right?"

"Go down."

"This is."

After the clerk left, Ji Liyuan took out the tiny tea bag from his sleeve, put his finger into the tea bag, twisted it, and put the tea leaves into the teacup.

There were just three tea leaves floating on the surface of the water in the cup, not more, not less.

He looked at the teacup, thought about it, and with a painful look on his face, he took out some more tea from the tea bag and poured it into the teacup.

At this moment, there were more than a dozen tea leaves on the surface of the water in the teacup.

Ji Liyuan felt very distressed. This bag of good tea was a reward from His Majesty on his 80th birthday two years ago. In the past two years, he only dared to put three tea leaves in each bag and drink only one cup a day.

In order to entertain Zhao Qian'an, he spent a lot of money.

Ji Liyuan composed himself, picked up the tea tray, and walked towards Zhao Qian'an.

"Zhao Sicheng, please have a cup of tea."

"How dare I trouble the Duke?"

"Oh, it's okay."

Zhao Qi'an stood up, took the tea, said thank you, then took a sip of the tea.

When he put down the teacup, he saw Duke of Ying, Ji Liyuan, looking at him eagerly. He was stunned: "Duke, what's wrong?"

"What do you think of this tea, Zhao Sicheng?"

Zhao Qi'an glanced down at the teacup on the table and said casually, "This tea is a little old."

Ji Liyuan waited for a long time, but there was no further news.

This is His Majesty's imperial tea!

Does this guy have no idea of ​​the quality of tea? Or does he usually drink better tea than the royal tribute?
Ji Liyuan was a little unsure.

He moved a stool over and sat down, then asked, "Zhao Sicheng, these people of yours...it's been two hours, why don't you go and ask about them?"

Zhao Qi'an said calmly, "Deacon Gou is one of the eight deacons of the company. He has been in charge of the company for many years and is best at accounting matters. I can rest assured to leave it to him."

Ji Liyuan glanced at Gou Xiangxi who was standing at the door of the book library as a supervisor, and he already understood something.

He gradually figured out what was going on. Since Zhao Qian'an came to the Zongzheng Temple, he actually just sat there and didn't take care of anything.

All matters were handled by his close attendant.

Now that he heard Zhao Qi'an personally admit that his close follower was one of the eight stewards of the Zhao Trading Company in the capital, Ji Liyuan's original guess was immediately confirmed.

He had got the priorities wrong.

Although on the surface this Zhao Sicheng is the master, then the deacon Gou is the servant.

But in fact, the person who was really responsible for doing things was Deacon Gou.

It seems that the rumors in the capital are not wrong. This prince consort of the Zhao family from Donghai may really not have any ability.

His Majesty suddenly wanted to give him an official position, and put him in the Zongzheng Temple to attract the attention of the Zhao family. They were afraid that he would make mistakes or embarrass himself and lose face for the Zhao family, so they sent one of the eight stewards to him to work for Zhao Qi'an and seek a safe solution. Once Ji Liyuan was sure of this idea, he felt at ease.

No matter what, it is true that the Zhao family is going to donate to the Zongzheng Temple, which is a great thing for the Zongzheng Temple and all the royal children.

Everything else doesn't matter.

The silver Zhao Qian brought today alone is more than the total amount of silver that can be exchanged for in a year from all the imperial farms, fields, and households bestowed by His Majesty.

When Ji Liyuan thought of this, the old wrinkles on his face broke into a smile and he became even more attentive to Zhao Qian'an.

……

Zhao Qian'an saw Ji Liyuan's courtesy but showed no expression.

But in my heart, I have a more intuitive understanding of the current situation of the royal family.

It is really sad that a Duke, the cousin of the current emperor, has to be so attentive to a younger generation.

Zhao Qi'an himself has a title, which is Viscount Haiqing.

In other departments of the court, it is rare for a sixth-rank official to have the title of viscount.

But in this Zongzheng Temple, it’s really not good enough.

Not to mention that the Temple Minister is a Duke, even Ji Hengyi, who is also the Temple Secretary, has the title of Earl.

Most of the officials in the ministry hold titles, and many of them have a higher rank than Zhao Qi'an, who is a viscount.

Before the Tianwu calendar, noble titles were still very important.

But now the noble title is just a "honor" and does not represent any real power.

Why?

No fiefdom!

In the 20th year of the Tianwu calendar, the emperor reduced the power of the feudal lords and issued two consecutive edicts, saying that "if a noble inherits the throne, his rank will be reduced by one generation" and "those who are not princes cannot have fiefs."

The former seems to be okay, and it has been like this in all dynasties. The decree of Emperor Tianwu is nothing more than to remove the power of some privileged nobles who have been granted "hereditary succession" by previous emperors.

But only these "hereditary nobility" are the wealthy families that are really difficult to mess with.

But the latter... caused even more chaos.

This means that a prince can have a fiefdom, but his next heir must hand it over, and the royal family's collateral descendants are not allowed to continue to stay in the original fiefdom.

There were no kings of different surnames in the Daqian Dynasty, which meant that all the vassal states that were originally granted were abolished and the territories returned to the central government.

This is purely targeting the royal family.

If these two things were done in another dynasty, it would be difficult to do them.

But there is a reason why Emperor Tianwu used "Tianwu" as his name.

Even though the current emperor ignores state affairs and devotes himself to seeking immortality, he was a cavalry emperor with numerous military achievements in his past and held the military power firmly in his hands.

In addition, there is another crucial reason - the Daqian Dynasty has had few descendants for several generations, and there are not many people who have been granted the title of king.

Emperor Taizu of Chengping had only four sons, only one of whom was a prince.

The late Emperor Shengde had many children, but only four princes. The eldest prince died young and had not yet been granted a fiefdom and become a king when he died.

The second prince, Prince Guangqing, the father of Duke Yingguo, had passed away many years ago in the 20th year of Tianwu.

Only the young prince, Prince Yong'an, Ji Hongde, was able to keep his fiefdom.

So Emperor Tianwu's policy, after killing off a few clans and attacking a few vassal states...

It went on surprisingly smoothly.

It's just a pity for these royal relatives. They have lost the territory they depend on for survival, but they can't let go of their noble status to make a living. In the end, they can only rely on the royal treasury for support.

But the current emperor is still an extravagant person. How much money can the royal treasury spare for these unwelcome royal relatives? How many people have noble status but can't even fill their stomachs?

(End of this chapter)