Chapter 387 386 Surrender?

Another big event happened in the court.

Although most officials could not express their opinions on the selection of fiefdoms for the vassal kings, and it seemed that it was none of their business, the order of Emperor Jiajing still entered the sight of all the officials in Beijing.

That night, many shopkeepers and madams of wine shops and flower shops found that the masters who used to like to come to their places for entertainment seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden.

Of course, the officials did not choose to stay away from these places because they were short of money or had a change of heart, but gathered in groups of three or two at the homes of their friends to talk about the fiefdoms of the vassal kings.

Talking about these things outside, it is inevitable that there will be a lot of gossip.

At this time, many people of all kinds came to the homes of Yan Song and Xu Jie, the cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty. They all came to get closer and find out information.

And there were also many people coming to the homes of the six ministers like Wu Shan and Yang Bo, and even the home of Gao Gong, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was full of visitors.

The reason for getting closer is that these people are the top dignitaries of the dynasty. Even their casual words and deeds may determine the future career of officials.

To get information is to know which places they plan to recommend as new fiefs of vassal kings.

Of course, they don't want to recommend their hometowns as new fiefs of vassal kings. In fact, the court can't avoid a few things whenever it confer titles on vassal kings.

First, build a standard prince's mansion in the fiefdom. The location is naturally the best location in the center of the fiefdom city. As for the original owners of these places, their house deeds will be forcibly taken away at a very low price.

The second is the prince's fiefdom. Before the prince goes to the fiefdom, he will make a request, and the emperor will directly reward a large piece of land.

The land granted by the emperor to the prince ranges from hundreds of hectares to thousands of hectares.

It should be noted that these granted lands are not the transfer of property rights, that is, the transfer of land ownership to the vassal king, but the transfer of taxes and services attached to the fields to the prince's mansion.

It turned out that the manor land granted to the palace and the nobles inside and outside the palace had a rule, that is, the government collected three cents of silver per mu. After paying the amount that the palace should have, the rest belonged to the government. The local people often used the remaining income from this land to pay other taxes and services of the government.

However, during the Hongzhi period, Emperor Hongzhi broke the previous rule and approved the palace to collect taxes on the newly granted land.

This not only reduced part of the country's income, but also greatly increased the burden on the local people.

Emperor Hongzhi ordered that this land be completely "managed" by the palace, which meant that all the income of the land should belong to the palace. The palace could arbitrarily set a very high tax amount. The local people had almost no remaining land income to pay other taxes and services, and could only sell the land at a low price.

In fact, the large-scale annexation of land by the royal family of the Ming Dynasty began at this time.

With such land, there would be no second sucker willing to buy it except selling it to the palace, and the original landlords of these lands would naturally suffer huge losses.

In the Ming Dynasty, most of the land, except for the royal farms, was actually in the hands of local gentry. Although most of the royal land was civilian land, when the number of land was not enough, their land would be included in the reward.

With the continuous rewards from the royal family, the private land became less and less, and the allocation of local taxes and labor service would gradually become a big problem. Naturally, no matter how they considered it, the local gentry did not want the vassal king to be enfeoffed here.

Therefore, they came to inquire about the news. Although they had little say in choosing the fief, they could get the information in advance, and then send their family members to send letters to their hometowns, so that the land in their hands should be sold as soon as possible to avoid losses.

In fact, in provinces where the vassal kings of the Central Plains were more densely enfeoffed, there was already a situation where there was not enough land for enfeoffment.

The civil service group of the Ming Dynasty had always wanted to reform some of the rules of the royal family, but they had no choice but to encounter opposition from the royal family, and the emperor did not give in at all.

In the feudal dynasty, land was the basis for producing wealth.

Emperor Jiajing set his sights on the silver raised by the Ministry of Revenue and planned to use the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build a palace. They really couldn't object to this.

As for granting land to the newly enthroned princes, it seemed that they couldn't object to it.

On this night, many people didn't have time to think about whether Prince Yu or Prince Jing would be enthroned, but they were already disturbed by the issue of the fiefdom and couldn't sleep at night.

However, not everyone was like this. At least Wei Guangde fell asleep peacefully.

In the next two days, the officials in Beijing had figured out the situation and knew that the Minister of Rites Wu Shan and the Minister of Revenue Gao Yao had reached an agreement on the new fiefdom of the vassal kings, which was to send it to Anlu.

Why is it where? In fact, there is a reason.

In Anlu, there are now three vacant prince's palaces. Choose one of them to renovate it and use it as a new prince's palace.

Second, there were large tracts of land in Anlu and its surrounding areas that had been designated as fiefdoms of vassal kings, and there was enough land for the emperor to reward.

Of course, the most important thing is that after several successive fiefs of vassal kings, many local gentry families have disposed of those lands in Anlu and the surrounding areas. Most of the land now belongs to the government, and "will not disturb the people."

Even when the two went to the cabinet for preliminary consultations, they had thought of the reasons, that is, the new king was enfeoffed in Anlu, and as the children of Emperor Jiajing, they could worship Ruizong Zhu Yougan, that is, Xing Wang Zhu Yougan, the father of Emperor Jiajing, on behalf of the emperor.

Let grandchildren and descendants worship from generation to generation, I think Emperor Jiajing would not disagree.

You should know that Emperor Jiajing was very filial to his employer and mother. Think about the great ceremony debate.

For Wu Shan and Gao Yao's ideas, cabinet ministers Yan Song and Xu Jie did not object.

In fact, the place of Anlu should be called Chengtian Prefecture now. After all, Emperor Jiajing came from here, but this does not mean that this is a "feng shui treasure land".

In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Dong, the 23rd son of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, was enfeoffed here, but he died in the 12th year of Yongle. Because he had no son, Ying Fan was abolished, which set a bad precedent.

Later, Zhu Zhanyi, the King of Liang, was the ninth son of Emperor Renzong Zhu Gaochi of Ming Dynasty and the grandson of Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di of Ming Dynasty. He was enfeoffed as the King of Liang in the 22nd year of Yongle.

In the fourth year of Xuande, Zhu Zhanyi went to Anlu Prefecture to be enfeoffed. It had only been 15 years since the death of the first Ying Wang Zhu Dong. The palace used by Liang Wang Zhu Zhanyi was the old palace of Ying Wang Zhu Dong. Living in the palace of a dead family, could this Liang Wang sleep peacefully?

Not peacefully.

Liang Wang Zhu Zhanyi followed the old path of Ying Wang Zhu Dong and died young in the sixth year of Zhengtong. He had no sons but two daughters.

For the same reason as Ying Wang Zhu Dong, the Liang Fan was abolished because he had no sons.

As for the third prince enfeoffed here, it was Xing Wang Zhu Youlang. The newly built palace had blood this time, leaving Emperor Jiajing.

Being enfeoffed in Anlu, it seems that as long as you don’t use the palaces used by Ying Wang and Liang Wang, you can avoid the fate of no heirs?

Of course not.

Anlu welcomed the fourth prince, Shou Wang Zhu Youyan, who was the ninth son of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, he went to Baoning Prefecture in Sichuan to be enfeoffed.

The road to Shu was difficult, as difficult as going to the sky, and it was too far away. He asked to be relocated to the interior. So after Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Houzhao came to power, he agreed to the relocation of his ninth uncle Zhu Youyan. The new fiefdom he chose was also in Anlu, but it was called De'an Prefecture.

In the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing, Shou Wang Zhu Youyan died at the age of 64. Because he had no son, Shou Fan was abolished.

According to the plan of Wu Shan and Gao Yao, that is, to borrow the site of Shou Wang Mansion and make some repairs. At worst, a new palace would be built nearby. If anything was missing, it would be directly transported from the abandoned Shou Wang Mansion, which would save a lot of expenses.

You know, the cost of enfeoffment for the princes is not cheap. In addition to the expenses of building a new palace, the expenses of the princes on the way to enfeoffment are all provided by the Ministry of Households. This expense will continue until the princes reach the palace.

The ceremonial guards and the food and lodging for the accompanying personnel during the trip were not a small amount, which was enough to give the Ministry of Revenue a headache. Naturally, they would save as much as possible.

Of course, the most important thing is the rewarded land. As long as it does not affect the surrounding gentry and big families, there will be less resistance in the local area, and the relevant work will be implemented quickly.

During this period, as long as King Jing can be sent out of the capital as soon as possible, it is still worth it in the eyes of Wu Shan, Gao Yao and others.

Two days later, Wei Guangde heard that Huang Guangsheng, the governor of Hu, Guizhou and Sichuan, proposed to transfer Yu Dayou to the position of the lieutenant general of Guizhou West Road in the selection of generals by the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War did not object immediately, but only stated that it would write to Emperor Jiajing and wait for the emperor's opinion.

In fact, on the night he met Huang Guangsheng, he received a note sent by Huang's mansion, knowing that Huang Guangsheng had agreed to his request, but Wei Guangde did not immediately send someone to Datong to send a letter to Yu Dayou.

After all, the key to this matter is not Huang Guangsheng, but the emperor's attitude. Even if Yan Song obstructs, as long as the emperor is determined to use Yu Dayou, Yan Song will have no way to do it.

In the past, perhaps officials were still worried about the pressure from Yan Song and were afraid of retaliation afterwards, but in the current situation, they are undoubtedly much bolder.

How long can the suppression last?

In the short term, Yan Song will retaliate and suppress him. When Prince Yu comes to power in a few years, this experience will become a stepping stone for his promotion.

Although it is not known whether Yu Dayou has a relationship with Prince Yu's Mansion, Yan Song and Prince Yu's Mansion are enemies. The enemy of the enemy is a friend. If you are an enemy of Yan Song, you are naturally a friend of Prince Yu's Mansion.

The official document of the Ministry of War was sent to the cabinet, and Wei Guangde waited for the news from the cabinet.

Soon, Wei Guangde got the news from the cabinet.

It was a little different from what he thought. This time, Yan Song did not object in an unusual way. He made a draft the next day after receiving the memorial from the Ministry of War. He did not reject the documents of the Ministry of War for merit as he did when Datong was commended.

The memorials sent to the Western Garden together with the cabinet, together with the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue, proposed that the new palace be located in De'an Prefecture, Huguang.

Chengtian Prefecture must no longer be the place where the new king is enfeoffed, and De'an Prefecture within its territory has become the best location for the prince's palace.

Everything seems to be going smoothly. Yan Song and the Jing Wang family seem to have given up resistance and did not choose to interfere and obstruct related work.

Although Wei Guangde was a little curious about this, he also had some guesses.

He would not think more like Gao Gong and others after knowing the news because the Yan family had surrendered.

However, no matter how he thought about it, he did not expect that Yan Shifan would think of Anlu Prefecture at this time, and the Feng Shui seemed to have some problems.

After more than half a year, Jing Wang and Yan Shifan had already known that the chess pieces they had arranged had been secretly executed by the East Factory.

In other words, everything they did at the beginning had actually been discovered by Emperor Jiajing, but they were not implicated.

After half a month of fear, King Jing finally recovered from his fear. He believed Yan Shifan's words. After all, he was his own son. What else could he do?

Now, knowing that Emperor Jiajing began to consider enfeoffment, King Jing was also very nervous.

In fact, when Yan Shifan got the news, his situation was not much better than King Jing's.

Obstruction, of course, is not possible. At this time, the authority of Emperor Jiajing is not something that anyone can touch.

If he makes some small moves in private and does not threaten the emperor's authority, Emperor Jiajing will not do anything to King Jing for the sake of his own son, but the Yan family cannot do that, even if his father has some face with the emperor.

Moreover, up to now, Yan Shifan still has a little ambition in his heart, that is, Xiyuan has not heard who Emperor Jiajing wants to leave Beijing to become a vassal.

After knowing that Wu Shan and others chose Anlu, Yan Shifan even communicated with Yan Song.

Yan Song is now old and has little energy, and he needs his son's advice on many things.

Yan Shifan's idea was to oppose Wu Shan and others' plan, but not to forcefully stop it.

Therefore, in the cabinet's memorial, it only expressed that Yan Song felt that the new king's enfeoffment in Anlu "seemed inappropriate", which formed a sharp contrast with the strong support of Xu Jie, Wu Shan, Gao Yao and others.

Wei Guangde noticed this point. He thought that the Yan family's idea was to pretend to be pitiful in front of Emperor Jiajing. Now Yan Song, as the chief minister of the cabinet, had been forced by Xu Jie, the second assistant, together with Wu Shan, the Minister of Rites, and Gao Yao, the Minister of Revenue, and had to agree with their proposal.

"Dad, your majesty knows Feng Shui."

That night, Yan Shifan explained the reason to Yan Song in detail. The most important thing was that the place chosen by Wu Shan, Gao Yao and others was definitely not a Feng Shui treasure land, but a dead land.

Emperor Jiajing had been resting in Taoism for many years, and it was impossible for him not to know this.

In fact, Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youtang had no good intentions when he enfeoffed his brother in Anlu.

Zhu Youtang's childhood experience made it impossible to say that he had no resentment towards the people in the palace, but after he ascended the throne, he still had no way to deal with Concubine Wan's family, at least he could not retaliate publicly.

That is to say, Prince Xing Zhu Youtang was indifferent to fame and fortune and devoted to Taoism, so he did not follow the footsteps of Ying and Liang.

Even a tiger will not eat its own cubs.

In Yan Shifan's opinion, Emperor Jiajing should reject this memorial, no matter what, Prince Jing is his own son.

As for Huang Guangsheng's selection of Yu Dayou, Yan Shifan didn't care much, after all, at this time, the throne was the most important.

Sent to the palace together, Emperor Jiajing saw something and might reject them all in anger.