Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 193
The vast and large-scale King Zhou Mansion occupies almost half of the urban area of ​​Kaifeng City.This huge building built on the ruins of the Song and Jin Palaces started construction in the 12th year of Hongwu and was basically completed in the 14th year of Hongwu.

The whole palace is composed of two city walls inside and outside.Xiaoqiang is "about two feet high, pressed by centipede wood, and covered with glazed tiles", with a circumference of nine miles and thirty steps, "to the south is the Meridian Gate, to the east is Donghua Gate, to the west is Xihua Gate, and to the north is Houzai Gate".

The inner city is the Forbidden City (the name is Baqi). Ximen is called Zunyi Gate".

There are Chengyun hall, front, middle, and back halls, family temple, Sheji mountain and river altar, book hall, palace gate, front and rear palaces, slurry room, clean room, slaughtering pavilion, ceremonial warehouse, retreat hall, Shizi mansion, Dianshan Office, warehouse, stables, Chengfeng Department and Xiefang, Sixth Bureau, Lumi warehouse, grain collection hall, etc.

The size of Kaifeng City has not changed much from the Tang and Five Dynasties to today's Daming, and it is still the largest city in Henan.The circumference of Kaifeng City is 190 miles and [-] steps, while the circumference of the Xiao Wall of Zhou Wangfu is close to ten miles.Calculated, the Xiao Qiang of Zhou Wangfu accounted for about half of the city wall of Kaifeng, which shows the prominent position of Zhou Wangfu in Kaifeng Mansion in Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the palace, there are many county palaces, generals' palaces, and lieutenant's palaces in Kaifeng City. The construction of these mansions also occupies a large amount of land in the city. The entire Kaifeng city is full of streets and alleys, and there are countless relatives and servants of the prince's family.

In the Yin’an Hall of King Zhou’s Mansion, the King of Zhou, Zhu Gongyan, who is nearly fifty years old, is sitting on a dragon chair, wearing a black gauze winged crown, a red four-ball dragon round-neck uniform, and soap leather boots, sitting on a dragon chair. It was Lu Jun, the prefect of Kaifeng who came to pay a visit, and Shi Sun Sansheng, the head of the palace.

Ever since he received the emperor's secret order to try to abolish the feudal ban, Lu Jun couldn't help applauding Zhu Youjian's plan.

In the two years since he took office as the magistrate of Kaifeng, Lu Junping was also overwhelmed by the thousands of descendants of the Zhu family who ruled him during the day.

There are countless other county kings and generals other than King Zhou who have committed a lot of evil deeds.

Incidents such as forcibly occupying houses, seizing land and shops, robbing people's wives and daughters, and killing people for no reason emerged one after another.However, since he is a son of a dragon and a grandson of a phoenix, the crimes committed can only be dealt with by the clan mansion in the capital, and the local government has no right to imprison and detain him, and in the end they all let it go.

In the past two years, Lu Jun has been accused and abused by Kaifeng officials, gentry and people, but he can't defend himself at all.

Lu Jun's impression of Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyun was not bad.Although the two only met on specific occasions, King Zhou did not make things difficult for him, the local official.Compared with other descendants of the Zhu family, His Royal Highness King Zhou is a more self-disciplined one. Apart from being a little greedy for money, there are very few evil deeds that bully men and women and kill people.

He knew that the reason why the emperor chose the king of Zhou as the target of the test was because he had heard of the reputation of the king of Zhou for his understanding of affairs, so he wanted to open a hole here.

But he is not familiar with King Zhou. If he wants to persuade King Zhou to act according to the emperor's wishes, it may be difficult to do so, because it involves giving up huge benefits. Who would be willing to do it?

After thinking about it, Lu Juan thought of a person, as long as this person can help, then the possibility of success in this matter is still very high.As long as he can successfully help the emperor complete such a major event, his future will be bright.

A few days ago, Zhu Gongyou received the news that the prefect of Kaifeng had invited him to see him.Since his only son and eldest son, Zhu Shaobo, had passed away long ago, and his two grandsons were underage, he could only discuss with the palace chief, Shi Sun Sansheng, in case of trouble.

Sun Sanxing was a Jinshi in Tianqi for four years. After serving as a county magistrate, he returned to the capital and became a censor in the Inspectorate.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the rebel general Li Jiucheng and others were trapped in Dengzhou and Sun Yuanhua was imprisoned. A group of censors went to the court to impeach the chief assistant Zhou Yanru for wronging the country.However, Zhou Yanru held a grudge against this, and soon after, he was upright and outspoken, and his conduct was good, and he should be selected for his strengths in the name of Ren Zhi, and he was promoted several levels in a row, and sent to the Zhou Palace to serve as the chief historian.

Wangfu Changshi is nominally a high-ranking official of the fifth rank, but in fact, once selected, it means lifelong imprisonment, just like being abandoned by the court, and his career path is almost cut off.

Since Sun Sansheng had no backer in the court, even though Zhou Yanru was driven out of the capital by Wen Tiren later, he had been selectively forgotten by everyone.

In the five years since he came to the palace, Sun Sansheng gradually came out of the initial resentment and frustration, and Zhu Gongyun treated him with courtesy, so he slowly accepted this reality.

Out of a habit developed by working as a censor for several years, Sun Sansheng often advised Zhu Gongyou on some behaviors, and the gentle Zhu Gongyou also accepted most of his advice, so the friendship between the two gradually deepened.Zhu Gongyou would often bring Sun Sansheng over for a drink, and after drinking, he talked about the current situation and the current situation the two of them were in, but in the end they were all dejected and helpless.

Due to the imperial court's restrictions on the vassal kings, the current situation of the two is actually no different from being in prison. If there is no accident, they will never want to leave Kaifeng City in this life.

Sun Sansheng likes to drink, if the King of Zhou doesn't invite him to have a drink, he will go to a restaurant in the city to order a pot of wine and two small dishes, and drink alone to relieve his worries.

When it was getting dark that day, Sun Sansheng saw that the king of Zhou did not call, so he leisurely left the palace and went straight to the usual restaurant.

He went up to the second floor and sat down in his usual seat. After a while, the waiter came to the table with a glass of wine in one hand and two dishes he was used to eating in the other.

Sun Sansheng poured wine, picked up the wine glass and sipped slowly, and had just drank two glasses, suddenly a middle-aged man in a Confucian robe came to his table, bowed his hands and said in a low voice: "But Mr. Face to face with Shi? Bi Dongweng invited Sun Changshi to have a few drinks, and asked Changshi to show his face!"

Sun Sansheng was stunned for a moment, seeing that the other party seemed familiar, but he forgot where he met him.Seeing that he was wearing a Confucian robe, the Dong Weng he was talking about should be a member of the officialdom; but his status is really special, and the officialdom in Kaifeng City doesn't bother to associate with him at all, so who is the other party?
Sun Sansheng saw that the other party was acting very cautiously, so he knew that inviting him for a drink was just an excuse, and he must have something to discuss with him.

Anyway, I have no use for it, so I just have to see who the other party is.

Thinking of this, Sun Sansheng stood up and said, "Lead the way!"

After saluting, the middle-aged man turned around and walked to the side room, Sun Sansheng Shi Shiran followed behind.Coming to the door of a room in the middle, he raised the curtain with one hand, and then made a gesture of invitation, Sun Sansheng bowed his head and stepped in.

There was only one person in the room, and when he saw Sun Sansheng coming in, he slowly got up with a smile and cupped his hands slightly: "Brother Cunzhi is so free and easy! Hehe!"

After receiving the news that Lu Jun was coming to visit, Zhu Gongyou hurriedly recruited Sun Sansheng to speculate on the other party's purpose.

Since the imperial court expressly forbids the vassal princes to make friends with officials, so although they are in the same city, they have no contact with each other except for a courtesy visit on the lunar New Year's day.

Kaifeng Mansion, as a famous big mansion in Ming Dynasty, has always been promoted and reused after the magistrate expires.Therefore, for princes like King Zhou, people always avoided them, for fear that someone with a heart would use this as a reason to attack him, so why would they suddenly come to visit?

Of course, Sun Sansheng knew why Lu Jun came here.

The one he saw in the restaurant that day was Lu Jun.

After a few pleasantries, Lu Jun went straight to the point, and showed the emperor's secret decree to Sun Sansheng, and said that if he could persuade King Zhou to take the lead in lifting the feudal ban, he would give the emperor's memorial after it was done. In this book, Sun Sansheng's contributions are explained in detail. As long as Sun Sansheng's name reaches Shengting, the day when he leaves the palace and returns to the imperial court is not far away.

Those who can win Jinshi are all human beings, and Sun Sansheng knew after a little thought that this matter is beneficial to him and not harmful, once he succeeds, he will escape from despair and return to the world.

The two quickly reached a consensus: the inside should cooperate with the outside, understand it with emotion and move it with reason, and try their best to persuade the king of Zhou to accomplish such a major event that benefits the country, the people and himself.

After the two guessed for a long time, Sun Sansheng said bluntly that Lu Juan's coming here should not be a bad thing.So Zhu Gongyun sent someone to reply: The king of Japan will be free in the future, so please come to your house at a suitable time.

Zhu Gongyun looked at Lu Jun, and asked: "Your mansion's term of office is about to expire, right? I often hear about your mansion's virtuous name in the city, and I am very happy that my Zhu family can have such a good official! Your manor's visit this time Did you come here to say goodbye?"

In the past, people in the officialdom would not cut straight to the point when they spoke. They usually started with a start, and then expressed their meaning in a tactful manner.

King Zhou was actually asking, what are you doing here?
Lu Jun cupped his hands and said, "Thanks to His Royal Highness King Zhou's concern, this minister will expire in August of the tenth year of Chongzhen, so this time is not a farewell, but an order to discuss something with His Highness!"

Zhu Gongyou knew that the Shangming mentioned by Lu Jun did not refer to the imperial court, because the imperial court had no right to discuss matters with the vassal kings, and this Shangming could only be the emperor.

He glanced at Sun Sansheng, coughed and said: "Your family has something to say, please say it clearly, although this king is of the blood of the Taizu, he is also a minister of the Ming Dynasty, so how can we discuss it?"

If you have something to say, I'll see what's going on after you say it, and I'll agree to the good things, and forget about the rest.After all, I am also a descendant of Taizu, so you can't do anything to me.

Lu Jun cupped his hands and said with a smile: "His Royal Highness King Zhou is known for being sensible, and when I talk about things one by one, His Highness should be able to make a choice!"

Zhu Gongyun said with a smile: "It's good for your family to speak directly. This king is indeed not a foolish person, and he can clearly distinguish things when he encounters problems!"

Lu Juan nodded and said: "Your Highness, forgive me for taking the liberty, I would like to ask, is Your Highness satisfied with the situation of the Daming feudal lord?"

(End of this chapter)