Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Are there any good places around Daming?"

Prince Lu Zhu Changxun asked.

At this moment, he had been persuaded by Zhang Pu and began to consider moving his fiefdom.

This is to prevent the places close to the Ming Dynasty from being occupied by other vassal kings, and he would be granted a fiefdom farther away in the future.

After Zhang Pu advised the King of Han to establish a vassal state, he paid close attention to this issue. He even published a report on overseas affairs at intervals in his Ming Pao newspaper, in accordance with the emperor's request.

Facing Prince Lu's question, he smiled confidently and said:

"Don't you know, Your Highness, that after the establishment of the Nanyang Governor-General's Office, the Zheng family has been busy developing Borneo?"

"This island has an area of ​​about three million square miles, which can be used to enfeoff three vassal kings."

"Your Majesty's intention is to let the Zheng family, who have established a fiefdom, choose first and confer a few titles on them."

"Then the rest of the country will be divided into two kingdoms, and two princes will be moved there."

"Your Highness, if you submit a petition now, you will probably be able to obtain this place."

"Then you won't have to work hard to get the vassal state."

When these words were spoken, not only Prince Lu was moved, but others were also shocked by the emperor's generosity.

Although they knew that the emperor valued pirates like Zheng Zhilong, they had never thought that he would value them to this extent.

Some people felt that this was really outrageous and instinctively wanted to oppose it.

Another scholar whose family was engaged in maritime trade said sourly:
"Instead of studying hard, I might as well go boating on the sea!"

"The Zheng family of Nan'an is about to prosper."

Prince Lu looked unhappy because he thought the same as the emperor, thinking that it was no big deal to confer a title on Zheng.

On the contrary, he was quite attracted by the fact that Zheng could help him establish a vassal state.

After all, establishing a fiefdom overseas was too hard for him, so how could he not be happy if someone was willing to help?

As for the title and fiefdom he paid for, they were not his anyway, so there was no need for him to worry about them.

Zhang Pu saw Prince Lu's color change, and he quickly laughed and said to the scholar who spoke:

"If you want the title, you must seize the opportunity."

"The Zheng family was granted the title not only because they had ships on the sea, but also because they paid the money."

"Because of the drought in Shaanxi, Your Majesty has opened up the donation for the title of Chengtian. With only 150,000 shi, one can be granted the hereditary title of knight, build an ancestral temple overseas, and obtain a fief of 20 li square."

"Fifteen thousand stones!" Everyone gasped when they heard this.

Considering that one dan of grain currently costs about seven coins of silver, this would be more than 100,000 taels of silver.

Even people with millions of assets may not be willing to give them out.

However, obtaining a fief of 20 li overseas and building a ancestral temple did make some people excited.

Chen Zilong asked curiously:
"Can a knight also have a fiefdom and build his own ancestral temple?"

Seeing that most of them didn't know, Zhang Pu slapped his head with some self-blame and said:
"This is known to everyone in the inner court, and it has also been published in the palace bulletin. I think it should have spread throughout the capital."

"I didn't expect that so many brothers didn't know about this. It seems I will have to talk about it in the newspaper the next day."

Then he said to Chen Zilong and others:

"Hereditary knights come from hereditary centurions."

"Those with hereditary centurion titles can be converted to hereditary knights if they move overseas, and at least be granted a fief of ten li."

"If you make contributions, you can get more, but the maximum is no more than thirty miles."

"Further up, there are hereditary barons who are hereditary thousand households and hereditary deputy thousand households. They can obtain a fiefdom of up to 100 square miles."

"One hundred li square is equivalent to 10,000 well fields, 3.75 million mu. At the price of one dan per mu, 3.75 million dan of grain must be donated. Payment is allowed in ten years."

"Both are landed nobles. As long as they do not violate the imperial decrees, they have all the powers of a vassal monarch, including building ancestral temples and worshipping their ancestors."

This is something that is often discussed among the eunuchs in the inner court.

These rootless people only want to obtain a title so that their brothers and nephews can inherit it and they can be worshipped as ancestors.

In this way, they will have descendants and people to worship them.

As a talented person recognized by the emperor, Zhang Pu co-founded a newspaper with the inner court and was considered one of the emperor's own eunuchs.

So I am often invited to explain these and discuss how to choose a fiefdom.

Zhang Pu learned about the Zheng family's development of Borneo when he communicated with them.

Many eunuchs even wanted to reap the benefits and then join in choosing fiefdoms.

Even Prince Lu was very interested in these secrets of the palace. He knew that it was a great opportunity for him to ask Zhang Pu for advice today.

This made him decide to give Zhang Pu a more generous gift, and he even asked Zhang Pu:
"I heard that the prince can be conferred the title of Viscount."

"I wonder if you are willing to come to the Prince Lu's Mansion and submit to me?"

"This king is waiting for you!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's envy of Zhang Pu could hardly be concealed.

Even Zhang Pu was somewhat tempted, because this meant handing over the entire Lu clan to him.

He could do whatever he wanted in this newly opened vassal state and display his talents.

However, thinking of the emperor's kindness to him and the difficulty of returning to the court after becoming a minister of Lu Fan, Zhang Pu reluctantly refused:
"Thank you for your appreciation, Your Highness!"

"I have received great favor from Your Majesty, and there is absolutely no reason for me to leave Your Majesty during this time of internal and external troubles."

"When the seas are clear and the rivers are calm, and the world is at peace, I will repay your kindness!"

Using the emperor's position as a pretext, he refused Prince Lu's invitation.

Prince Lu felt a little sorry when he heard this, because he really didn't want to be in charge, he just wanted to send a capable person to be responsible for the establishment of the Lu vassal state -

Anyway, with the Ming Dynasty behind him, he doesn't have to worry about the ruler being weak and the ministers being strong, or his future generations being controlled by others.

After Zhang Pu refused, he really didn't know where to find such a talented person.

Fortunately, Zhang Pu was quite sensible and wanted to leave a way out for Prince Lu. He recommended several scholars from Jiangnan and his own clansmen to Prince Lu.

He wanted to send those of his clan who had previously mocked him to Lu vassalage, forcing them to rely on his relationship with Prince Lu.

Moreover, the process of establishing a feudal system must have been very difficult. If these people died accidentally, that would be their fate.

It can be said that this is the highest realm of revenge. If he succeeds, he will be valued more by Prince Lu, and if he fails, he can only blame their bad luck.

Prince Lu's depression was slightly relieved by Zhang Pu's recommendation.

However, he valued Zhang Pu more in his heart because this person had connections with many literati in Jiangnan.

If he wanted to establish a vassal state, he had to recruit people from Zhang Pu.

The other scholars who attended the banquet, after seeing Prince Lu and Zhang Pu decide on several official positions and future titles during their conversation, were so respectful and envious of Zhang Pu that they almost overflowed.

At this moment, no one said anything strange anymore, thinking that it was inappropriate for the emperor to confer overseas titles.

They all realized that this was an opportunity for all students in the Ming Dynasty.

There were dozens of official positions in a vassal state, and tens of thousands in hundreds of vassal states.

As long as they were willing to go overseas, many students had the opportunity to become officials. Even the scholar whose family had a maritime trade business immediately proposed to Prince Lu that he was willing to use his own ships to send people from Prince Lu's mansion to open a fiefdom.

This made Prince Lu even more delighted, and he asked him to come to his house another day to discuss the details.
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The group of people talked about their future and wealth, and then talked about love and romance.

Because Prince Lu went to the Royal Orchestra to discuss the music festival awards with Li Yu.

So the topic of conversation quickly turned to the music festival.

Zhu Changxun, Prince of Lu, said:

"Your Majesty attaches great importance to this music festival and has appointed Mr. Liu as the chairman of the jury."

"This prince, Captain Li, Editor-in-Chief Feng, and Editor-in-Chief Ling are the judges, and Censor Qi is supervising and notarizing."

“What we need to do is to set an example for future generations and establish the rules for awarding the prize.”

"Outstanding works will be included in the Yuefu, edited by the Hanlin Academy Literature and Art Museum."

Some of these names may not be familiar to some people.

Li Yu explained to them that they were all people from the Yuefu.

Needless to say, Captain Li is the captain of the Royal Orchestra.

Editor-in-chief Feng is Feng Menglong, who is now the editor-in-chief of "The Internal Reference of the Tongzhengsi of the Great Ming Dynasty". Li Yu had previously created a play "The Ouyang Kui" based on his "The Oil Seller Owns the Ouyang Kui".

The editor-in-chief is Ling Mengchu, who is now the editor-in-chief of the Ming Tongzhengsi Monthly. He has made extraordinary achievements in drama and was praised by Tang Xianzu.

Censor Qi was Qi Biaojia, who was also a famous opera artist. He passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the second year of the Tianqi reign. Before that, he served as a magistrate in Xinghua Prefecture, Fujian.

When the Kedao officials who were former county magistrates were purged last year, he was appointed as an imperial censor and was recommended as a member of the Music Bureau.

However, he was more famous in the capital as the son-in-law of Shang Zhouzuo, the Left Vice Minister of Works.

His wife was Shang Jinglan, a talented woman who was good at calligraphy and painting. The two of them lived in harmony and were known as the golden boy and jade girl.

There are also rumors that Shang Zhouzuo may go one step further and become one of the Nine Ministers in the official selection in August this year.

Qi Biaojia's status also rose rapidly, and he was even ready to recuse himself and transfer from the position of Censor to another position.

Letting him serve as a supervisor on the jury this time is an opportunity for him to make meritorious contributions.

After introducing these, Li Yu said:
"When Li first came to the capital, he stayed at Mr. Liu's house."

"For this music festival selection, Mr. Liu meant that he only cares about matters of etiquette and law, and requires that the selected works conform to the Four Virtues and Eight Virtues."

"The rest of the specific matters will be handled by us."

Everyone nodded when they heard this, and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

Liu Zongzhou is in charge of remaking the rituals and music, and is now extremely busy.

The trivial matters of the music festival were certainly not worth bothering him with.

Even in the hearts of many people, they do not attach much importance to music festivals and do not think that the status of music can be compared with that of etiquette.

After giving a general idea, Li Yu said to Prince Lu:

“The Emperor also gave instructions for the music festival, saying that it should include all music projects in a broad sense.”

“So the music festival should have music awards, such as the Best Music Award, Excellent Music Award, Lyrics Award, Composition Award, Arrangement Award, Singing Award, Performance Award, Best Orchestra, Best Conductor, etc.”

"Your Highness will be responsible for the music awards, and you can invite fellow judges to judge."

Upon hearing this, Prince Lu nodded and showed great interest in it.

He really loves music, and wants to leave a good name for himself through it.

The role of Zhu Zaiyu as a role model has already begun to show.

If the status of music rises in the future, they will all leave their mark in history.

Then Li Yu said:

"Music and dance are inseparable. The court also has musicians and dancers, and they need to select talented musicians and dancers."

"So the music festival also has dance awards, which will be judged by me, the Jiaofangsi, and the Shenleguan."

This is an important reason for retaining musicians, so that they can serve in various sacrificial ceremonies.

Finally, it was drama, and Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu were responsible for the drama selection.

But there is a difference between the two. Feng Menglong, who is good at storybooks, is mainly responsible for drama, while Ling Mengchu is responsible for the rest.

After explaining the division of labor, Li Yu said to everyone:
“For these awards to be selected, nominations must be received first.”

“You are all well-known people and can participate as professionals.”

"After the nominations are finalized, in addition to the votes of professional judges, we will also refer to the public vote and select the most popular award among the audience."

"The tentative plan is to cooperate with the Beijing Literature and Art Newspaper. They will print the shortlist in the newspaper and readers can vote by clipping the newspaper."

This aroused Zhang Pu's interest, and he said:
"The circulation of the Beijing Literature and Art Newspaper shouldn't be that high, right?"

"Ming Pao is one of the four major newspapers. Brother Li, have you ever considered cooperating with Ming Pao?"

Li Yu was a little surprised and said:
"Will Brother Zhang's Ming Pao also be willing to participate in this matter?"

“When I talked to the Beijing News, they were only willing to let the Beijing Literature and Art Newspaper participate.”

As a newspaper group that incorporated the Beijing newspaper copying business, the Beijing News Group not only has the flagship "Beijing News", but also professional newspapers such as "Xinwen News" and "Wenyi News", all of which were co-run with the original newspaper personnel.

Even Datong Daily, one of the four major newspapers, was co-organized with the Beijing News Group, but it was led by Qian Qianyi and the relationship was more distant.

Li Yu's initial idea was to cooperate with the Beijing News and widely distribute votes.

But the Beijing News considered itself a national newspaper, and votes were cast in other places, so the music festival was over.

So he rejected the idea and was only willing to cooperate with the Beijing Literature and Art Newspaper.

Li Yu was very depressed, but he also felt that it made sense, so he did not look for other newspapers and only cooperated with the Literature and Art Newspaper.

Unexpectedly, at this banquet, Zhang Pu took the initiative to propose cooperation and could print ballots in Ming Pao.

This made him very happy, but he told Zhang Pu about his concerns.

Zhang Pu, however, thought it was a trivial matter and could just be included in the package.

This way readers don’t have to pay and naturally won’t complain.

As for the increased costs, Zhang Pu believed that they could be recovered by printing advertisements on the back of the ballots.

It can be said that after one year of running a newspaper, he had become familiar with the operation of the newspaper.

Otherwise, Ming Pao would not have become one of the four major newspapers, second only to Dibao and Jingbao.

Li Yu was very happy when he heard Zhang Pu's proposal.

I even thought about whether I could advertise at the music festival to recoup the costs.

However, after thinking that this was the first time the music festival was held and the most important thing was to establish its reputation, he gave up the idea and decided to play it safe first.

Prince Lu had no such idea at all. He was just happy for Zhang Pu's help and raised his glass to acknowledge him.

Zhang Pu was also very happy to get this cooperation opportunity, because he keenly realized the potential of this selection method from the ballot mentioned by Li Yu.

Maybe in the future some legislator will place an advertisement in the newspaper, calling on citizens with the right to vote to vote for him as a legislator.

So he thought he should give it a try in Ming Pao to see how effective this selection process would be and come up with rules and regulations. (End of this chapter)