Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 237 Entering Beijing
Before Hong Chengchou went home to visit relatives, Zhu Youjian rewarded him with the house of Liu Yuliang, the former Dongge University scholar and Chongzhen who returned home after serving as an official for seven years. When he returned to Beijing this time, Hong Chengchou moved his family together from his hometown in Quanzhou. The capital.

Because Hong Chengchou was afraid that his mother was not used to sea boats, he did not take a boat from Quanzhou to Tianjinwei on this trip, but went straight to Hangzhou by land, and then took the official boat of Hangzhou Prefecture to go all the way north along the canal.

After arriving at the wharf in Tongzhou, Hong Chengchou sent his personal accompaniment to the capital to inform the housekeeper who would stay in the capital to take care of chores, and then hired more than [-] carriages, loaded with various sundries brought from his hometown, and went straight to the capital.

After the Wucheng soldiers and horsemen on duty outside Chongwenmen cleared the passage, Hong Fu, the housekeeper waiting at the city gate, led the way. Hong Chengchou rode into the capital under the guard of his own soldiers, followed by a long motorcade.

The road hardening project in the capital city is still in progress, and the city is full of construction scenes in full swing. Hong Fu led the convoy around the capital city for half an hour, and arrived at the new house in the west city around You.

At the corner door opened on the east side of the mansion, Hong Chengchou jumped off his horse, and several carriages carrying the female family members of the Hong Mansion drove into the courtyard; He was placed in the front house, and then followed Hong Chengchou to Jiliao.

Hong Chengchou stepped into the courtyard from the corner gate, walked quickly to the front carriage and bowed to salute: "My lord, the journey is tiring, are you okay?"

As the door opened, two ten-year-old maids came down first, and then helped Fu, who was wearing a light-colored skirt and silver hair with a jade hairpin, get out of the carriage. Hong Chengchou's wife, Hong Lin, got in the third carriage. Also hurried over.

"Asheng, since you have arrived in Beijing, have you ever come to the capital to ask for an interview? Your Majesty has treated me with great kindness to the Hong family. Not only did you be promoted to a high position, but even I, an old lady, was given a salary. Since then, my Hong family Honored to be among the famous families; my son must do his best to repay this kind of holy grace, and he must not slack off in his heart!"

After standing still, Mrs. Fu, who was over [-] years old, called Hong Chengchou's baby name and said in a solemn voice.

The Fu family came from a wealthy family, who studied etiquette since childhood, and had strict control over the three brothers Hong Chengchou; after the early death of Hong's father, it was under Fu's strict control and nurturing that the Hong family produced such an important court official as Hong Chengchou. This made Quanzhou Hong's clan become the top wealthy family in Ming Dynasty.

"Mother, don't worry, my son has sent someone to pay a visit, and I expect to see Tianyan in a few days; it's just that my son will soon say goodbye to his mother, and he will feel deeply guilty for not being able to fulfill his filial piety at the knee of the adult!"

Hong Chengchou had not seen his old mother for more than ten years, and this time he had only been home for more than a month to visit his relatives, and he had to return to the north; under his repeated pleading, Fu, who was unwilling to leave his hometown, followed him to the capital; the third son Hong Chenggan's family stayed in their hometown, taking care of the old house and Hong's father's tomb.

"My son, let's get busy. Since ancient times, there are many people who can't have both loyalty and filial piety. My son is a man who stands up to the sky. Why bother to act like a little son! I only need my daughter-in-law to accompany me!"

Fu looked at the elder son bowing in front of him with loving eyes, full of pride and pride in his heart.

Two stout wives came over carrying an exquisite soft sedan chair. After the maid helped Mrs. Fu into the sedan chair, the soft sedan chair trembled and went straight to the back house. Hong Lin hurriedly took several maidservants and rough envoys His son followed, and Hong Chengchou respectfully sent his mother away.

"Master, the soup bucket is ready, and the old slave will lead the way. The kitchen is preparing meals. Please, master, take a bath and change clothes before eating. The old slave will greet you and unload the car!"

The steward Hong Fu, who was over fifty years old, stepped forward to salute.

He is the son of the Hong family. He grew up in Hong's family since he was a child. He has followed Hong Chengchou since he became an official in the mid-term examination, taking care of Hong Chengchou's daily food and living. , Hire various servants and other chores, but did not follow back home.

"Is the old lady in the inner house settled properly? Are the hired people reliable? I haven't been to Beijing for many years, and the changes in the capital are so great! It's just that they are building houses everywhere?"

Hong Chengchou asked while looking at the scenery in the courtyard.

"Please don't worry, my lord, the old lady's place has been settled properly, and all the people hired by the mansion are from clean and good families! As for the construction, the old slave heard that the emperor ordered it, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry ordered it to supervise the construction. What is the use of the old slave?" unknown!"

Then Hong Fu greeted, and not far away, two beautiful maidservants aged sixteen or seventeen stepped forward to salute and then led the way. Hong Chengchou walked towards the Moon Gate on one side with his hands behind his back.

The news of Hong Chengchou's entry into Beijing was delivered to the palace immediately, Zhu Youjian did not summon him immediately considering the fatigue of the journey, he had to let him rest and settle down first, and it would not be too late to summon him after visiting relatives and friends.

The problem in Liaodong has existed for a long time, and there is no rush at this moment. It is doubtful whether Hong Chengchou can properly solve such a difficult problem.

As for the houses being built in the capital, it is another plan that Zhu Youjian is preparing to implement: after the Liaodong issue is resolved, the Six Ministries of Nanjing, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Department of General Administration, the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and the Imperial Academy will be taken advantage of the situation. , Guozijian and other institutions merged with various ministries and departments in the capital, and moved these officials from Nanjing to the capital. The houses under construction on a large scale are prepared for officials who will move north in the future.

Of course, these houses are not for rewards, but for sale or rent.

In line with the principle of not going out for cheap, the construction project was undertaken by several foreign relatives, including Zhang Guoji, the father of Empress Yi'an, Zhou Kui, the father of Empress Zhou, Tian Hongyu, the father of Concubine Tian, ​​and Yuan Yerang, the father of Concubine Yuan Gui.

Each of these relatives contributed a certain amount of money to set up a commercial firm, and then hired people to build the houses, and then just sell the houses and collect the cash.

This move will not only make the foreign relatives make a lot of money, but also be more conducive to the stability of the people in the harem.

With extra property, they can have more rewards to the people around them after the week. This is the most effective way to increase the loyalty of the people around them.

The construction of the houses was planned by the Ministry of Industry and started construction. They were built according to the templates of the existing official houses at all levels in the capital, and the sizes were different, and the prices would be completely different.

The Nanjing small imperial court has existed so far, making the imperial court's government orders not smooth, which is actually Zhu Di's fault.

In the 19th year of Yongle, Cheng Zu ordered "six ministries to move to the north", officially taking Beijing as the capital.After Chengzu decreed to move the capital to Beijing, due to various reasons, he still retained the status of Nanjing as the capital and retained a set of central institutions.

This is standard taking off your pants and farting --- it's superfluous, since you've turned over your eldest nephew, why are you afraid of those Jiangnan literati?Do you think that if you do this, people won't scold you behind your back?
Like Beijing, Nanjing has six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Department of General Administration, the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the Imperial Academy, and the Imperial Academy, and the levels of officials are the same as those in Beijing.The location of Beijing is Shuntianfu, and the location of Nanjing is Yingtianfu, collectively known as Erjingfu.

Although the power of Nanjing No. [-] is far inferior to that of Beijing No. [-], Nanjing No. [-] also has certain powers.The main reason is that the South Zhili area where Nanjing is located has jurisdiction over fifteen prefectures and three Zhili prefectures, which is equivalent to the land of Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai in later generations, but there are no chief secretary, inspection department, and capital command department. It turned out that the functions and powers performed by the three divisions were in the charge of the Nanjing Six Departments, among which the Nanjing Household Department and the Nanjing Military Department had the heaviest power.

When the current situation in the territory is stable and stable, there is no need for the small imperial court in Nanjing. It is necessary to take over the power and bring the areas under Nanjing's jurisdiction to the imperial court, so that future reforms will not encounter greater resistance.

The power of several ministries in Nanjing is too great, and it has actually been out of the control of the emperor and the court.

The Nanjing Household Department is responsible for the collection of taxes and grains in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang provinces. The taxes and grains paid by these four places accounted for almost half of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the Nanjing household department is also responsible for water transportation and the collection and management of the national yellow book. Therefore, the minister of the Nanjing household department often concurrently serves as the prime minister's grain storage.

The Nanjing Ministry of War is responsible for the defense of the Nanjing area. The 49 guards in the Nanjing area are all under the command of the Nanjing Ministry of War.The Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing generally bears the title of "Counselor and Mechanical Affairs", and manages all the affairs of Nanjing together with the guarding eunuch and Nanjing's garrison officials.

The Ministry of Officials in Nanjing is responsible for the six-year Beijing inspection and examination of officials in the Nanjing area, and the Ministry of Officials in the capital city is not allowed to interfere.

As a result, the presence of the emperor and the imperial court in Nanzhili was very weak, and many government orders of the imperial court were difficult to implement and implement in Nanzhili.

These interest groups in Nanjing are the root of the Donglin Party. If you want to deal with these interest groups, the only way is to draw fire from the bottom of the pot.

　Let me ask, if Lu Xiangsheng is killed in battle next year, will everyone hate me?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)