Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 1046 just dug a small hole

Inside the palace gate, a group of feudal lords walked out of the Wenhua Palace, but their expressions were somewhat complicated.

Walking and walking, Yi Wang finally couldn't hold back, stopped and asked.

"Everyone, do you feel that His Majesty's last words seem to contain a mystery?"

Regarding the matter of Huangzhuang, no matter whether it is half-pushed and half-finished, or it is done in accordance with the trend.

But in the end, following King Zhou's statement, other vassal kings also followed suit. As long as the imperial court can pass the court meeting and make a decree, these vassal kings will cooperate to take the lead, and then spread all over the country. , shouldn't be too difficult.

In fact, many vassal kings would still be happy to see the success of this, if one ignores the fact that it might arouse the fear of the court.

Being able to get back some money is one reason, but more importantly, they don't want to spend all day eating, drinking and having fun in the mansion. Although, according to the final regulations, they can't get involved in the management of Huangzhuang, but what can they do? Things are always good.

This is especially true for some relatively young vassal kings. Hearing King Yi's question, Ning Wang said.

"Uncle Yi Wang, don't you think too much? The establishment of the Huangzhuang has no precedent, and everything needs to be explored. Your Majesty has always cared about all people. We are about to leave Beijing. It is natural that we should entrust him with some entrustment."

Afterwards, King Zheng also spoke.

"I think that His Majesty is worried that I will take too much profit from it and disregard the tenants' livelihood, so I warned you in advance, but this is also due."

"After all, the Huangdian controls the exchange market, and there must be no shortage of money in the internal treasury. His Majesty's establishment of the Huangzhuang must be to appease the refugees. As for the others, they are just incidental."

"However, to put it bluntly, His Majesty's worries are really superfluous. We don't have a few Zhuangzi under our command, and we can't use our water to catch fish, can we still not understand?"

After the words fell, King Qin followed suit.

"That's true. If these tenants are all forced to death, we can't go to the fields to plow the fields by ourselves. We are not the gang of magistrates who work in the local area for a few years to make a fortune and leave the land. It is our own, so we should take good care of it and not treat the common people too harshly."

"Uncle Yi Wang, what do you think?"

These words were quite teasing, which made Yi Wang annoyed for a while.

The implication of King Qin's words is that the emperor said these words to warn him, King Yi, and the others are just passing by.

How can this make him angry?

However, if he was annoyed, he really had nothing to say, because he was the most absurd of these vassal kings.

In the past, he was the biggest in the fief, and no one dared to discuss it in front of him, so that's all.

But when he arrived in the capital, he faced all the vassal princes with the same identity, and he basically didn't have too much scruples when speaking, which often made him feel shameless, but it was hard to refute, really annoying!
King Yi kept a dark face and did not answer, but the other princes laughed. Seeing this situation, King Zhou coughed lightly and said.

"Although there were twists and turns in this matter, it was finally resolved satisfactorily. With the matter of Huangzhuang, His Majesty will never bring up the matter of the reform of the suzerain vassal. Speaking of this matter, I should also thank King Yi. If he hadn't entered the palace today Chen please, I think His Majesty may not be willing to give this opportunity."

"We and the vassal king are united, and now His Majesty is willing to rely on us again. We should work together to share the worries of the country and do our business well. What His Majesty said just now should not be underestimated. You must keep it in mind. Don't wait until the end. Because of petty profits, we made jokes, and for no reason made the ministers in the court look down on us."

These words can be regarded as a step down for King Yi, although King Ning and others are a little bit suspicious of the statement that King Yi entered the palace to invite them to have Huangzhuang's proposal, but after all, it seems that the fact is indeed the case.

Moreover, when King Zhou spoke, these juniors naturally did not dare to neglect, and all of them bowed their hands.

"It's natural."

So, someone quickly changed the topic, King Xiang at the side remembered something, looked back at the palace gate, and said.

"Working for His Majesty, I will wait with all my heart. Don't worry about this Uncle Wang. However, His Majesty asked me to wait out of the palace, but left Min Wang and Dai Wang alone, but I don't know what they are talking about?"

Hearing this, King Yi became interested, said.

"My king heard that during this period of time he came to Beijing on behalf of the king, and has always wanted to move the domain to the mainland. His Majesty has never let go of this matter, and now he is staying alone, maybe it is because of this matter?"

"Transfer?"

All the feudal lords present blinked their eyes. They were a little surprised at first, but soon felt that it was reasonable.

Zhu Shixiu, the new acting king who has just been in office for three or four years, has always disliked Datong City.

There are many reasons. On the one hand, because the old king Zhu Gui spoiled his concubines and killed his wives, he treated Zhu Shiyao very harshly. When Zhu Gui was alive, Zhu Shiyao, as the grandson of the vassal, had no servants to serve him. He planned by himself, went to the fields to cultivate, and was still illiterate when he was fourteen years old, so he was quite bullied by the people in the palace.

Therefore, Datong City is not a place with good memories for Zhu Shixiu.

On the other hand, the new acting prince has a cowardly character, and other feudal princes know more or less about the affairs of the vassal. However, because Zhu Gui was still there before, it was not easy for them to intervene.

Logically speaking, after Zhu Gui died, it was Zhu Shixiu who took the place of the king's mansion, and he must take revenge for all the bullying he had suffered before.

However, the fact is exactly the opposite. Zhu Shixiu not only did not take revenge on Zhu Gui’s concubine Xu who bullied and made things difficult for Zhu Shixue several times because of Zhu Gui’s favor, and even nearly killed him, but also asked the imperial court for the order of a side concubine. .

In addition, Zhu Shixiu was very polite to the civil servants and generals in Datong City, as if he was not a vassal king, but an ordinary clan.

This kind of temperament made the other feudal lords criticize him all the time, thinking that he had lost the face of the feudal lord.

However, it is still the same sentence, each feudal clan is not allowed to make friends in private, and it is even more impossible to interfere with the affairs of other feudal clans. Therefore, they just look down on the Dai Wang, and it is impossible to do anything else.

It is no secret that Zhu Shixiu has always wanted to move his vassal to the mainland because of his miserable childhood and the fact that Datong City was close to the border and often fought wars.

But the problem is that Qing Fan has taken the lead in rectifying the military settlements this time, and the emperor has also approved the relocation, so it will be much more difficult for Dai Fan to move inward.

According to the rules of the imperial court, apart from the throne, the feudal land is hereditary, so the fiefdom will not be changed easily.

Qing Fan's situation is special. Both generations of King Qing hated the fief to the extreme. It has not been a year or two since they clamored to move the feudal domain.

Moreover, King Qing had always been unwilling to be a feudal clan. His own feudal land, Qingyang City, didn't even want to build a palace. , the foundation of Qingfan has long since ceased to be in Qingyang.

Therefore, this approval is just a process, nothing serious.

But Dai Fan is different. You must know that Dai Fan originally existed as the king of Sai.

Furthermore, Dai Fan has taken root in Datong City from the very beginning. Even if you don’t mention the management of these years, if you want to move the domain, together with Zhu Gui’s sons, the seven or eight counties of Dai Fan now The king will also follow suit.

None of these people were good at dealing with trouble, and if there was a quarrel, they would be no less than those of King Guangtong, so it was simply not something that Zhu Shixiu could decide by himself.

Of course, if the Dai Wang has the ability to make the emperor directly issue an order to force the Dai vassal to transfer the title, then no matter how powerful these county kings are, they can only bow their heads obediently.

But the question is, Dai Wang...does he have the ability?
"Whether it can be done or not, we will know in a few days?"

King Xiang was interested in this matter, but the other vassal kings were not interested.

It doesn't matter whether the Dai Fan can transfer the title or not, it has nothing to do with them, and they will never touch their fief anyway.

On the contrary, it would be a good choice to have such a bully vassal as Dai Wang in the nearby fiefdom.

After chatting and laughing, they each got into the carriage and headed towards the ten princes' mansion one after another.

However, only King Zhou and King Lu slowed down their pace when they were about to leave the palace, and finally stopped in front of the palace gate.

After all the kings took their leave and left, the two old princes turned around and looked in the direction of Miyagi, thoughtfully, and paused for a moment, King Lu said.

"What do you see?"

Zhou Wang pondered, still nodded slightly, said.

"King Yi is right. Your Majesty's last words are indeed a bit strange. Come to think of it, Brother Lu also felt it, right?"

"Your Majesty is still young, a little impatient..."

King Lu sighed and lowered his voice.

"Originally, His Majesty repeatedly persuaded me, and I had already let go of my guard, but the last words reminded me of the problem at the beginning..."

After saying this, King Lu turned to look at King Zhou and said.

"Today's incident started from King Yi. Without this incident, the suzerainty reform would probably be unstoppable. Therefore, the Huangzhuang system is supposed to be used to replace the suzerainty reform."

"However, the reform of the suzerain and vassal is to restrain the clan and vassal king for the sake of restraint, but Huangzhuang..."

"Huangzhuang wants me to wait to make a profit. There must be something that I didn't expect. What you said to the junior just now, have you figured it out?"

After the words fell, Zhou Wang was a little silent.

However, the silence at this time can actually explain the problem.

In the end, King Lu couldn't get an answer either, so King Zhou looked up at King Lu and said.

"To be honest, Brother Wang, I do have some guesses, but just guesses are not accurate, besides, His Majesty's attitude has been made clear now, whether you want to or not, we all need to cooperate."

"If you can make the best use of the situation, it may be an opportunity to change the current situation of the feudal lord, but..."

"Just what?"

King Lu frowned and asked.

However, King Zhou didn't continue talking, just said.

"Brother Wang will know in the future, but now, if I speak out and cause trouble, I will be punished by His Majesty, so please forgive me, Brother Wang."

"However, if Brother Wang believes in me, he will do his best to cooperate with the imperial court after returning home. If possible, several nearby vassal kings will also send letters to persuade them. After all, Your Majesty is my relative, let alone the move of Huangzhuang. It is also beneficial to the country.”

"Your Majesty is right, the country belongs to the Zhu family, so naturally our Zhu family has to protect it..."

The nonsense of what he said made King Lu unhappy for a while.

But there was no way, after King Zhou finished speaking, he cupped his hands, turned around and got into the carriage, and left, leaving King Lu alone at the gate of the palace, wondering what he was thinking...

At the same time, in Qianqing Palace, while changing clothes, Zhu Qiyu thought about the temporary changes he had made to Huangzhuang.

King Yi's entry into the palace this time was indeed unexpected. If King Yi hadn't made this trip, in fact, he was planning to let Hu Wei send these vassal kings away from Beijing first, and then carry out the reform of the vassal kings.

But Zhu Yi didn't talk to King Yi, and some small mistakes occurred in the original plan. In addition, Zhu Qiyu had a new understanding of the vassal king, so he changed his original plan.

Just like Zhou Wang Lu Wang and others felt, this Huangzhuang system seems to be good for the vassal kings, but there is actually a pit hidden in it.

This pit is not big or small, and you have to get through it to enjoy the benefits.

The Huangzhuang system, to put it bluntly, is actually to gather scattered farmland, and then provide high-quality cattle, grain, and farm tools, supplemented by the means of reducing land rent every year, so that tenants can work hard to increase production.

Under this mode of operation, the imperial court provides the land, the vassal king contributes money, and the tenants contribute their strength. The three parties work together. After the harvest, the imperial court collects taxes, and the vassal king draws from it. The tenants can also save part of the grain and accumulate it. Everyone is happy. ,mutual benefit.

However, this is only an ideal situation. In the actual operation process, problems will definitely occur.

Because of this, Zhu Qiyu let the eunuchs take charge of Huangzhuang, forming a system of checks and balances among the vassal kings, eunuchs, and local officials to ensure that no one would cheat for personal gain.

However, there was one of the most critical issues, which was deliberately hidden by Zhu Qiyu, or in other words, the vassal kings were all led astray by him.

That is, everything Zhu Qiyu said is based on the premise of a good harvest.

With the account books of Huangzhuang in the past two years, coupled with the specific and feasible regulations and methods, it is easy to make people think that this premise is naturally established.

However, the problem is that whether the harvest is good or not is not only related to whether the tenants are working hard, and whether the grain, farm tools, and cattle used are ready, the most important thing is whether God is willing to give face.

The only disadvantage of Huangzhuang is that a lot of money needs to be invested in the early stage to purchase cattle, farm tools and grain, and then through the land rent, the capital will be recovered slowly, and then make money.

During this process, if a natural disaster causes a bad harvest, at least the rent for that year will definitely not be collected.

Of course, the imperial court will suffer losses, but once there is a natural disaster, exempting local taxes is the right thing to do, and the tenants don’t care. To eat and plow the official land, just continue to do it next year.

The worst thing is that these vassal kings have invested so much money, but if the harvest fails, let alone all the money will be paid, at least it will delay the return cycle for several years.

Of course, natural disasters happen frequently, and it is not a rare thing. Natural disasters in a year or two, at most, are less rent, which is not a big problem. Some people who originally owned land will lose their land, and some refugees will appear. .

This is a good thing for Huangzhuang.

But the problem is that Zhu Qiyu is very clear that this coming natural disaster is not one year or two years, nor is it two places in one place, but various disasters that last at least five years...

(End of this chapter)