Start with Baihuguan

Chapter 529
According to the plan of Taizu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the clan of the Ming royal family has been passed down from generation to generation, and when they reach the level of Fengguo Lieutenant, they can get a salary of [-] shi every year.

At first glance, this amount is not too exaggerated, it is equivalent to the output of a hundred acres of fertile land, but it can't hold back the Ming Dynasty's royal family is too prolific, and the population of the Ming Dynasty's family has skyrocketed from generation to generation. A hundred years later, let's say that at present, the number of clans alone in the Ming Dynasty was tens of thousands.

If calculated in this way, the salary of Lieutenant Fengguo, which accounted for almost [-]% of the salary, would require the court to spend millions of shi in money and food every year.

It’s just because the clan of the Ming Dynasty is not engaged in production, business and imperial examinations, so it can be said that there is no way out at all. Apart from the salary issued by the court, there is almost no means of making a living. For the Ming Dynasty, it is completely a burden.

This time, according to the emperor's plan, he will move the vast majority of these people from the Daming clan with the title of lieutenant of Fengguo to the land of Nanyang.

Of course, it is not to confer land to these people, but to distribute a hundred acres of fertile land to each person, so that these clans can support themselves. On the one hand, it can be regarded as giving these clans the capital to make a living, and on the other hand, it can also reduce the burden on the court.

In the huge hall, apart from a group of vassal kings and a few county kings, the rest of the Ming clan is not qualified to come here at all, so these clans will have to wait for a while before they know the court's arrangements for them.

But no matter what, generally speaking, the imperial court's arrangements for these clans are quite good.

Headed by King Jin, King Qin, King Chu, King Zhou and other princes of the Ming Dynasty, the family members of the vassal kings left the imperial city with joy on their faces.

At this time, all the vassal kings already know where their fief is, and what they think in their hearts is naturally how to develop and expand their fief, so that they can enjoy the glory and wealth in the fief, and experience for themselves the kind of power in their hands. The feeling is not it.

Although the imperial court imposed a restriction on these vassal kings, that is, each vassal king should not support more than [-] soldiers, and there are rules that can limit the ambitions of these vassal kings to a certain extent.

Of course, even if these vassal kings were ambitious and wanted to use force, they might not be able to attract many soldiers with just one island.

In any case, at least now the imperial court gave them a fief, and allowed them to feud and build a country in the fief, and also allowed them to have the power of soldiers and horses. This is a world of difference compared to the previous situation.

So it is understandable that these vassal kings are extremely excited one by one.

In front of the palace gate, King Qin cupped his hands and smiled at the other vassals with a smile on his face: "Everyone, this king is going back to the fief and preparing to move the people to the fief. Let's say goodbye today, and see you some other day!" "

Everyone knows that after today, it is impossible for these people to meet again. After all, although their fiefdoms are said to be in the land of Nanyang, they are quite far apart. It can be said that they were sealed by the imperial court. Even if they want to unite against the imperial court, they can't do it.

Of course, this kind of situation is actually expected, let alone in the land of Nanyang, even if they are in the Central Plains now, if it is not for the emperor summoning them this time, they may not be able to meet each other once in their lifetime.

After all, the imperial court has always been very wary of the vassal kings from all over the world. Let alone meeting these vassal kings, even leaving the fiefdom is a serious crime.

King Jin, King Chu and others also smiled at King Qin and said, "Let's compare and see whose vassal state is more prosperous in the future!"

All of a sudden, these vassal kings became somewhat heroic.

In the imperial city, on top of a tall building, the emperor in ordinary clothes stood on a tall attic and looked towards the direction of the imperial city from a distance. He said slowly, "Did all the feudal lords leave?"

Standing beside the emperor was none other than Wang Yangming, the chief minister of the cabinet who had allocated fiefdoms to the clans of the vassals not long ago.

Hearing the Son of Heaven's question at this time, Wang Yangming immediately bowed to the Son of Heaven and said, "Return to Your Majesty, the princes have already left."

Turning around slightly, Zhu Houzhao let out a long breath and said: "Today, I finally solved the hidden danger of my Daming vassal, Aiqing has contributed a lot."

Wang Yangming hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is absurdly praised. This strategy was originally proposed by the Duke of Qin. I just implemented it according to Your Majesty's wishes. How can I give credit for it?"

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said, "You!"

As he said that, Zhu Houzhao looked straight and said: "Although the distribution of the vassal kings has been decided, the actual implementation is the most important thing. The court must find a way to cooperate with all the vassal kings, so that the vassal kings can go there early. fief, and then return their fief in the Central Plains to the imperial court."

Wang Yangming immediately assured the Son of Heaven: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely keep an eye on this matter, and will definitely send you princes to the land of Nanyang in the shortest possible time."

The nineteenth day of the first lunar month in the tenth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty

Shanxi Taiyuan Prefecture

As the fiefdom of King Jin of the Ming Dynasty, although Taiyuan City is not considered prosperous, it is also an extremely important city in the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. Because it is close to the Mongolian grassland, Taiyuan City does have a bit of prosperity.

It's just that because of being a fiefdom of the King of Jin, the people of Taiyuan City are not living very well. After all, King Jin's lineage has been rooted in Taiyuan City for hundreds of years, and the kings of Jin in all dynasties have devoted their minds to how to expand the money of the Prince Jin's mansion. Come on, so most of the fertile land in Taiyuan Mansion is almost all under the name of Prince Jin Mansion, and even the shops in Taiyuan City, Prince Jin Mansion also controls dozens or even hundreds of them.

It can be said that regardless of the military and political influence, the King Jin Mansion would be shocked by the presence of three shocks if it stamped its feet in Taiyuan City.

A few days after the Lantern Festival, the city of Taiyuan became lively all of a sudden, all because of a notice from Prince Jin's Mansion.

Just a few days ago, Prince Jin's Mansion posted a notice, in which it announced to the people of Taiyuan Mansion that King Jin's lineage will move to Nanyang to crack the soil and become king, and establish a state. But for those who are willing to go to Nanyang with the Prince Jin Mansion, the Prince Jin Mansion will reward one person with a hundred acres of fertile land in the fief, and one person will give five taels of silver.

As soon as this news came out, it is conceivable that the entire Taiyuan Mansion was shaken.

Originally, Taiyuan City was a bitterly cold place in northern Xinjiang, and it was not as prosperous as the Central Plains or Jiangnan. It was good for the people to make ends meet. Now that the notice from the Prince Jin's Mansion was released, countless people naturally turned their attention to it.

In Prince Jin's mansion, King Jin, who was dressed in python, looked at Su Chang, the chief official of the prince's residence, with a look of anticipation on his face, and said, "Chairman Su, how is everything going? How many people are there to sign up now?" ?”

It can be said that after returning from the capital, King Jin focused all his energy on how to plan the future fiefdom. According to the imperial court, except for a very small number of native barbarians, all the population in the fiefdom had to be settled by themselves.

No matter how confused King Jin is, he is clear that the essence of a vassal state is the population. If the population is sparse, his vassal state has no meaning at all. If the population is large, let alone other things, At least the manpower for farming is sufficient.

Therefore, the King of Jin was thinking about how to recruit the people to go to the fief with him. After the King of Jin summoned all the officials of the palace, after some discussions, the first thing that came to mind was the tenants under the palace. It can be said that the few tenants have been farming for the palace for several generations, and they are completely dependent on the palace.

For these tenants who can almost be regarded as affiliated to the palace, they are naturally the preferred objects. At the same time, these people are also the most loyal to the palace. According to the statistics of the officials of the palace, there are almost ten thousand such tenants. Dingkou There are about 6 to [-] people, and young and middle-aged laborers account for more than a quarter of them.

These tenants attached to the palace accounted for almost one-tenth of the total population of Taiyuan Prefecture, and the household registration of these tenants was not in the official yellow book, which was equivalent to the existence of hidden households.

The number of tens of thousands of people is already quite a lot, but for Jinwang Mansion, which wants to establish a state on a large island with millions of mu of fertile land, this population is too small.

Su Chang took a deep breath, looked at King Jin and said, "Go back to your lord, nearly ten thousand people have come to sign up now, and the subordinate officials have already ordered people to register the information of these people."

King Jin couldn't help frowning and said: "It's been several days, how can we recruit such a small number of people, even if the tenants of the palace are included, there are only 7 to [-] people, what is this small number of people enough for?" , continue to recruit people, taking advantage of the imperial court's permission, this king will move at least [-] people to Nanyang when he goes to the fief."

Su Chang heard the words and said hurriedly: "Don't worry, my lord, the officials have ordered people to post notices everywhere. I believe that with the conditions set by the lord, it will definitely not be difficult to recruit 10 people."

King Jin nodded slightly. The Northland was poor. Given the good conditions he offered, it would not be difficult to recruit a group of people to go to the fiefdom with him.

However, there is another point that Prince Jin has to consider, that is how he will take away so much property owned by Prince Jin's mansion.

In other words, after arriving in the fief, how he will build the fief and how to feed the people who follow him to the fief is the most important thing.

There are a lot of gold, silver and jewels in Prince Jin's mansion, but even if these things are brought to Nanyang, they can't be used as cattle and horses, but can be eaten as food.

When it comes to people's livelihood, it can be said that there are too many aspects. Fortunately, there are various officials in charge of various affairs in the palace.

These officials usually manage all aspects of the palace, but now they have become the best helpers of King Jin. Under the advice and reminders of these officials, King Jin sent a large number of people from the palace to start buying a lot of Cloth, ironware, medicinal materials and other materials.

A large amount of money accumulated by the Wangfu over the years flowed out like flowing water, but in exchange for a large amount of supplies, they entered the warehouse of the Wangfu, and then loaded them into carts and transported them to the port for shipment.

Listening to Su Chang's report on the progress of various matters, the King of Jin coughed lightly and said, "Mr. Su, how is the search for ships going?"

The matter of ships is naturally not a trivial matter. If there are not enough ships, it is obvious that the people he recruited and the large amount of materials he purchased cannot be transferred to Nanyang. It is impossible for King Jin not to care about its progress.

Su Chang couldn't help frowning when he heard the words and said: "My lord, now it's not only our Jin Palace that is collecting ships, but other palaces have also sent a large number of people to say that they are searching for ships, and the price of ships on the market has completely doubled. More than doubled, even so, there is still a price but no market, the officials have exhausted their efforts, and according to the prince's instructions, contacted several maritime merchants, and promised him the conditions for granting titles and rewards in the prince's fiefdom. Only then did I persuade a few of them, and these people are willing to donate a hundred ships and a lot of gold and silver to the prince."

Speaking of this, Su Chang took a deep breath and said: "In addition to the ships collected by the Wangfu, there are almost three hundred ships, which can transfer tens of thousands of people and a large amount of supplies at one time."

"it is good!"

After hearing Su Chang's reply, King Jin couldn't help clapping his hands and applauding: "Very good, I didn't expect those sea merchants to have such courage."

You must know that with the opening of the sea, everyone knows that as long as there is a boat, it means having a lot of wealth.

Even if you don't do sea trade, just pick up the court to transfer the people to Nanyang, and then bring back a large amount of food produced in Nanyang, and cooperate with the court, that is a stable income.

It is also because of this that the price of sea-going ships remains high, and there has always been a situation where there is a price but no market.

Nowadays, various palaces need a large number of ships to transfer people and materials, which naturally pushes up the price of sea ships, and some sea merchants naturally seem to have rare goods to live in.

It seems very normal for Jin Wang to trade the titles of the fiefs in exchange for the support of some maritime merchants.

Although the titles in the fiefdoms of the kings are not recognized by the Ming court, they are real titles in the fiefdoms of the vassal kings.

For merchants with low status and no wealth, they have the opportunity to exchange money for status. Even if this status has great restrictions, there are still a large number of merchants who are willing.

Stroking his beard, the King of Jin looked at Su Chang and said, "Continue to send people to contact those sea merchants, and say that this king will come up with ten more earls. As long as they are willing to help this king, in the future, this king will enshrine the state and establish a country." , will never treat them badly."

In order to recruit the people who went to sea with him, the vassal princes and relatives used all kinds of tricks, and naturally they also recruited many poor people.

As long as the imperial court's actions towards the vassal kings are not too unruly, the imperial court will just turn a blind eye. After all, these vassal kings are still somewhat scrupulous in their actions considering the future establishment of the state, at least compared to the past. What he did in the fief is already much better.

Tianjin Wei Port

On this day, the flowers were in full bloom and the spring breeze was blowing. A large number of ships were densely packed in the huge port, and a banner of Jinwang Mansion above the ships was loudly resounding.

It was a slightly old treasure ship, but it was the flagship of the Jinwangfu's fleet, and it cost Jinwangfu 2 taels of silver to buy it from the imperial court.

With this treasure ship as the core, it is surrounded by densely packed ships of all sizes. It is a fleet full of people and supplies heading to Nanyang King Jin's fiefdom.

【Ask for a monthly ticket】

(End of this chapter)