The daily life of the science master's book-wearing group

Chapter 304 Carrots First, Pitfalls

It has been four months since the new emperor ascended the throne.

From the promotion of the dragon's heroes, the promotion of the promotion, the addition of the title.

Even civil servants have special medals.

What about the princes?

Where is the prince? !

I heard that recently the emperor's meeting basically only seeks His Highness, and often keeps His Highness to have dinner together in the palace.

Finally, a minister couldn't sit still. I don't know if it was to please Li Zhao in advance or something. He directly named the eldest son Li Zhao. He made a lot of achievements in military affairs and made great achievements. The best candidate, please the emperor decree canonize the eldest prince as the prince.

Five days later, the emperor took this memorial and read it out in public at the court meeting, and asked, "What do you think?"

There was a buzzing sound of discussion in the hall.

All the princes over ten years old are here today.

The sixth prince, Li Shi, is fourteen years old, his mother's family is incomparable to those of his older brothers, he doesn't care about this at all, he just yawns because of sleepiness.

The fifth prince, Li Yan, is sixteen this year, but his biological mother has died of illness, and his father did not arrange for a foster mother, and he has no intention of competing for the throne, but he has the intention to hug his thigh.

But now what does the emperor mean by bringing this matter up for discussion?
Isn't the father planning to pass the throne to the elder brother?

Then whose thigh will he hold in the future?

As for the fourth and third children, no one could tell what was going on in their hearts, and there was no expression on their faces.

The most excited is the second child, Li Yi.

He looked at his father with scorching eyes, as if he was eager to try and show his strength.

Li Zhao was wearing a cloud brocade robe with a four-clawed python pattern and stood aside with his hands down. He also couldn't see his thoughts, as if he was dozing off.

The emperor was not in a hurry, he sat quietly on the dragon chair and smiled.

As the emperor's confidant and counselor, thinking about what His Majesty thinks and urging His Majesty's urgency is the top priority. Song Jianming came out holding a jade wat and said: "Your Majesty, I think it is inappropriate!"

The emperor stroked his beard, smiled inscrutablely, raised his eyebrows and said, "Song Aiqing agreed to say that?"

"I think that the position of the crown prince should be the first to establish a virtuous person. Selecting scholars to select talents, selecting officials to select talents, how can a prince who is related to the country not care whether he is virtuous or not, and only see whether he is the eldest? If the eldest prince is not virtuous, then he will be selected Those who deserve it."

"Master Song's words are ridiculous!"

Immediately, the elder censor Zhu came out to refute, and the officials looked at the gray-bearded elder and felt that this old man had lost his mind. Why is your majesty discussing who to find as the crown prince?

This is to establish the legitimacy of His Majesty's succession to the throne!

Didn't you see that Song Ge's son-in-law didn't even care about His Majesty?
But after thinking about it, maybe they said this to His Highness?

Tsk tsk, this is not easy!
Everyone glanced at Ning Hansong, the uncle of the country who was silent.

Lord Ning just bowed his head and remained silent.

Support the eldest son's succession, what about the current emperor?
His first daughter is the side concubine of His Royal Highness, what about his grandson in the future?
Support the succession of the eldest son, and offend the great prince Li Zhao who has made great contributions.

Dilemma, how to say is wrong.

Ning Yuan, the current Commander of Jinyiwei, lowered his eyes and remained silent, as if they hadn't heard the lively discussion between the court and China.

However, the old censor surnamed Zhu didn't care about these things, he just opened his mouth and said in a cadence: "The rules established by my dynasty since the Taizu, the establishment of a son is not based on virtue, and the establishment of sons is based on honor and not growth, thinking that the country is stable and continuous! But you can't do it at will! Change, cause civil turmoil!"

The emperor raised his eyebrows slightly: "My lord, are you accusing me of instigating civil strife?"

Song Jianming immediately said loudly: "My lord, if the ruler is unvirtuous, the country can be stable? If the ruler is cruel and unkind, the country can be stable? If the ruler betrays the country and the people, and only wants to enjoy himself, the country can be stable ?”

"Song Jianming! Don't say such things that harm the country and the people just to please His Majesty! Then the princes fight each other, and the cliques attack each other, will the country be stable?"

"I wish you a good speech!"

Another Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Mr. Wang, who regarded himself as a clean stream, came out and said loudly.

The emperor sat on the top and looked, ah, the father of Jiang Yuanchao's original wife, and his other father-in-law, Lao Taishan.

Ha ha!There is a good show to watch.

More and more courtiers joined the debate.

At this time, a minister suddenly came out and said loudly: "His Royal Highness led [-] troops, besieged the city for more than half a month, and did not commit any crimes against the capital area. He has virtue, and is the eldest prince, how can he not be the crown prince?"

All the ministers were taken aback for a moment, and they all turned their heads to see who the person who said this was.

However, the person in the middle of the main hall is none other than Qi Shibin, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry!

Why did the old man suddenly jump out?

Isn't this a good old man who has always been wise and safe?

Why did you suddenly express your position so clearly?

Now that His Highness the Great Prince has been established, what about His Majesty who is a concubine?
But when I think carefully about Master Qi's words just now, I feel a little subtle!

All the ministers suddenly returned to their senses.

That's right, why don't we just discuss His Majesty's matter directly?

Why bother about whether to establish the eldest son or establish the virtuous?

His Majesty, he not only holds the title of heir apparent, but also is virtuous enough, isn't it enough?

In fact, there is no need to discuss which system is more reasonable: "Establishing a descendant and establishing a head" or "Establishing a virtuous and moral system", because no matter which one is reasonable, as far as the new emperor's own situation is concerned, the rule of "Establishing a descendant and establishing a head" is obviously not acceptable. no more.

And the emperor brought this matter to the court meeting today because the carrot of His Highness the First Prince is already here, and all the ministers need to build a suitable pit for His Highness the First Prince.

Even if the "eldest son" is not used, Li Zhao is qualified to be a prince, so it makes sense?

Just when the officials made up their minds to start patting Li Zhao's horses, the second prince Li Yi suddenly spoke up.

"Father!"

Everyone looked at the Second Highness in unison.

"Father, my son has something to say!"

The emperor laughed, raised his hand, and said, "What's Yi'er thinking? Say it."

Li Yi raised his head and said: "Although the rule set by Grandpa Taizu is to set up the heir and establish the elder, but what Master Song said just now, I think it is not unreasonable."

"Really? Then you think, your elder brother is not wise enough?" The emperor asked with a smile again.

Li Zhao glanced at Li Yi with a half-smile, and saw that the hairs on Li Yi's body were standing on end. He didn't know whether it was because of nervousness or something, but his fair face was flushed, but he still stuck his neck and said, "That's right. My son thinks that although elder brother has made some achievements in martial arts, how good martial arts is, it still needs to be investigated!"

There was another burst of buzzing discussions in the court.

The emperor silently waited for the discussion to subside, looked at Li Zhao, and asked, "Does Zhaoer have something to say?"

Li Zhao came out and said respectfully: "I think Master Song and the second brother are right. Whether the son is worthy of being the heir apparent is still to be investigated. I also ask the emperor to give the son a chance to prove himself!"

Li Yi followed up unwillingly: "Father, my son also wants a chance to prove himself!"

"Oh, okay, hahaha, it's a good thing to be self-motivated." The emperor looked at the third and fourth children again, "You guys, don't you have any ideas?"

The third child Li Bin blinked his eyes twice, shook his head with a little hesitation and said, "My son, I just... want to be a leisurely prince."

"Bastard!" The emperor immediately scolded with a straight face, which shocked everyone in the hall.

What's the meaning of this, Your Majesty?

Are you going to deliberately provoke a fight between the princes?

The emperor said: "Idle? Why are you idle? The treasury spends money to support you, so that you can eat and die?!"

Well, the phrase "eating and waiting to die" was learned from Li Zhao.

The emperor thought it was wonderful.

The third prince, Li Bin, quickly knelt down and admitted his mistake: "Royal father, I was wrong! But I really don't want to be big! But if the emperor has any errands that I need to do, I will definitely do my best, and I will not hesitate to die." !"

Only then did the emperor hum with satisfaction, then looked at the fourth child, Li Min, and said, "You're almost twenty this year, and you're going to be a bastard waiting to die?"

"My son is willing to do things to share his father's worries!" Li Min knelt on one knee and said loudly.

The emperor laughed with satisfaction: "Okay! None of my descendants are allowed to squat at home to eat rice! Enjoying the support from the treasury, you must be worthy of this money! In this way, what kind of errands do the princes take? If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to submit an excerpt. This matter is settled. In addition, in addition to the prince and the county king, I plan to set up the titles of county king and bei king. County king Juelu is half of the county king. Wang Juelu again."

When the princes heard this, they couldn't hold back the expressions on their faces, especially the fifth and sixth sons who planned to dawdle.

Grandpa Huang is already stingy enough, the prince didn't even seal a few.

Unexpectedly, the father was even more stingy, he didn't even give it to the county king, and even set up a special county king and bei king?
Why didn't Dad just let them become county magistrates and village chiefs?
What the hell is that?

Juelu is half and half, how will they live in the future? !

No matter what the princes thought, the matter of the crown prince's establishment of a heir and an elder was completely ignored by King Su.

The emperor doesn't discuss that anymore, but directly discusses with you whether Li Zhao is virtuous and qualified to be a prince. What else do you have to say?
Looking at His Highness the First Prince, he looked like an old monk in samadhi, as if he had already known about this matter.

The father and son had probably discussed it a long time ago, and the ministers who knew the current affairs all shut up.

There are only a few immortal censors and officials of the Ministry of Rites, who are not afraid of death and continue to write to the emperor, persuading the emperor to establish a heir and an elder, which cannot be abolished, otherwise there may be chaos in the future.

As for the emperor, it's not that he didn't think about it. Abolishing the rule of "establishing a son and establishing an elder" will cause turmoil.

But based on his own experience, even with this rule, wouldn't there be chaos?
Even if an eldest son who is unworthy of virtue takes the position of prince, he still cannot sit firmly.

Will the other capable princes stop fighting for the throne because of this rule?
The reason for "thinking about the stability of the country" is really just wishful thinking.

Of course, Li Da did not explicitly propose to abolish this rule, but at least in this dynasty, this rule will not be emphasized.

As for the rest of the princes, how can they care about coveting the position of the East Palace?

They are all worried about their titles and pocket money!

On September [-]th, the emperor finally began to confer titles on the princes.

The first imperial decree was for Li Yi, the next prince. Li Yi was granted the title of King of Baojun, and no fiefdom was set up for the time being. Li Yi was also given an errand to patrol the Liaodong branch, responsible for supervising the surrounding areas of Dengzhou Prefecture and Laizhou Prefecture. Several guards.

This sub-road did not directly control the real power of the army, but after discovering a problem, he could directly sue the emperor, and it also gave him the freedom to come and go between the capital and Shandong.

The second edict was for the youngest Li Bin.

The third prince, Li Wei, was named the king of Lian County, but he did not set up a fief.

The position given to the third child was lower than that of the second child, and he was only given the job of a censor, who had the power to listen to the wind and supervise the officials.Of course, among the hundreds of officials, including the censors of the Inspectorate.

After that, three imperial edicts were issued in succession, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth children were made King Bei, and all of them were given the errands of the censor.

The seventh and eighth princes are still young, and they are still gnawing their fingers in the arms of their respective mothers and concubines, so they will not be knighted for the time being.

As for the decree of the eldest son Li Zhao to be a knight, it has not come down for a long time.

All the ministers in the court talked about it, and more people sent gifts to the Song family and wanted to inquire about the news.

What the hell does the emperor mean?
There are not a few kings who guard against sons with outstanding military exploits.

There are more emperors who can't understand the eldest son.

In fact, the emperor's eldest son is a high-risk status in history.

Is it possible that the current new king is also like this?

Coupled with the fact that the eldest son of the Song family was sent to a very remote small county in Guizhou to serve as the county magistrate a few days ago, more people speculated that this is a signal that His Majesty the Emperor wants to suppress the eldest son Li Zhao?
Just when everyone was in doubt, Li Zhao's decree for knighting finally came.

As everyone expected, Li Zhao was indeed not named the prince, but was named the Prince of Jin, and he was given the fief, Taiyuan, Shanxi!

If Li Zhao went to Shanxi and became a vassal, even the palace was ready-made, and he would use the palace of King Yong, who was deposed during the reign of the late emperor.

On the second day after the decree was issued, Li Zhao did not go to the court. For a while, people in the court were panicked, thinking that His Highness was having a temper with the emperor because he was not a prince.

In fact, Li Zhao had discussed this matter with the emperor in advance.

With such a magic weapon as the steam engine, the imperial court needed to hold the coal mine in its hands, but the emperor didn't want civil servants to get involved in this matter.Otherwise, the money will not go into the treasury, but all into their pockets.

In the future, Li Zhao would go to Shanxi to engage in coal mines. The courtiers should not be aware that he was specially sent to Shanxi by the emperor, but people should think that he was demoted from the capital.

In this way, it will be easier for him to move after he goes to Shanxi.

~

Just when the court was full of excitement because of the fact that His Royal Highness was not crowned prince, an organization called "Mathematics Society" quietly appeared in the capital.

It was established by the young scholar in the green blouse who satirized Mr. Meng and the others as idiots in Liuquan.

The young scholar's surname was Wang, and he was the son of a wealthy peasant family in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province. His name was Wang Chenglin.

Although he is the son of a landlord's family, this scholar surnamed Wang is not stupid, not only not stupid, but also extremely smart.

He won the election at a young age. This time the emperor imposed economic sanctions on the Jiangnan area. He was the first group of people who proposed to move north collectively at home.

At that time, the elders of the family disagreed, and they all felt that the emperor Zeng Bing Lunan was a trap, and he would not seriously fight. You must know that His Highness the First Prince landed from Tianjin with an army of [-] and went straight to the capital, but he did not fight. The emperor has no reason to really destroy such a good place in the south of the Yangtze River.

That's what he said, but this Zhao Shusheng said that although His Majesty is unlikely to hit Jiangnan, he has a premonition that the emperor wants to rectify the rich households in Jiangnan.

Quzhou, Zhejiang is the seat of the Southern Sect of Confucianism, which is the descendant of the sage Confucius.

In addition to the Kong family, there are seven other families in Quzhou, namely the Xu family, the Zheng family, the Wang family, the Zhou family, the Wu family, the Chen family and the Mao family.

There are three to 400 people with a small population, and the Wang family with the largest population has more than 2000 people including all the side branches.

And Wang Chenglin is just a descendant of the Wang family, belonging to the last class. If he hadn't passed the Juren examination, the family might not even be able to share the land.

Although there are poor people like Wang Chenglin in the eight major families, these eight families are entrenched in Quzhou, and the sacrifice fields of just a few families amount to more than 3000 hectares.

There is no tax paid on the land sacrificed by the family, and the remaining relatively fertile land basically belongs to these eight families, and they are all put under the names of their children with fame.

There are no self-cultivated farmers in Quzhou Prefecture for a long time, let alone taxation.

There is no tax at all.

Not only can they not collect taxes, but they have to ask the court for money every year under various pretexts, such as building embankments, water conservancy, and road construction.

The governor of Zhejiang is the Chen family, and there are descendants of the sage Confucius in Quzhou. If Quzhou wants to ask for money to build an embankment and a road, the governor of Zhejiang will approve it.

But now the Chen family has completely collapsed.

The Fifth and Ninth Princes were all dead, and even the family members of Prince Xin’s Mansion and Prince Yu’s Mansion were all demoted to common people. Some of the men were thrown to the Northeast for reclamation, and some were thrown to Xiaoliuqiu. The female family members were all given poisoned wine to preserve their reputation as the so-called royal female family members, and the remaining maids and women were sent to the military households on the border as wives.

The big families in the south of the Yangtze River who used to rely on the Chen family have completely lost their support.

Wang Chenglin was very keenly aware of the disaster the family was about to face.

But no one in the family would listen to him.

Everyone felt that there was a Confucian family in Quzhou, and no matter how much the emperor wanted to rectify Jiangnan's government affairs, he would not do anything to the Confucian family.

No matter which family or surname the emperor is, the status of the Kong family is transcendent!
But Wang Chenglin felt that His Majesty is not a rigid person today, and if he really calls and the army crosses the border, who cares whether you are the Kong family or which one?

Besides, the Quzhou Confucian family is only the southern sect of the Confucian family, and there is also a northern sect in Qufu. If the emperor does not recognize the southern sect, what can you do?

Seeing that Wang Chenglin couldn't persuade the patriarch of the family, he could only take the next best thing and save his own family first.

In the name of the Enke exam that will be held next year, he left Quzhou for the capital, and took his wife and children with him to the capital.

His parents didn't want to go with him, so he could only take a long-term view, determined to establish a firm foothold in the capital first, and then bring his parents and a few brothers to the capital.

(End of this chapter)