Daming: I am the Crown Prince

Chapter 135: The Great Ming Wise King Part (Part )

Zhu Yunwen was not a proper vassal king after all, but he still had to go through some procedures.

For example, after returning to Yingtian Prefecture, the first thing he had to do was to go to Fengxian Hall. And there, he also saw the person he least wanted to see.

Zhu Yunhuan was wearing a crown and holding a jade sceptre. The attitude of the crown prince made Zhu Yunwen even more upset, but he could only perform the salute in a proper manner.

Theoretically, when the princes returned to Beijing, they would first worship the ancestral temple and then meet the emperor. However, Zhu Yunwen had gotten used to it in the past two years. After returning to Beijing, he would only go to the Fengxian Hall to worship. The only person he could see was Zhu Yunhuan, the crown prince, but he could not see the emperor.

Arriving at the side hall, Zhu Yunwen, as the elder brother, was able to return to the city. However, he had just knelt and saluted, while Zhu Yunhuan was just standing and bowing. Thinking of this, Zhu Yunwen felt even more uncomfortable.

"The fourth brother returned home two days ago, so it's time to prepare." Regardless of what Zhu Yunwen thought, Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said, "My younger brother will also be crowned king, but he is young now, so I don't plan to let him become a vassal immediately."

Zhu Yunwen hurriedly said respectfully, "Your Highness is merciful."

"It's not a matter of mercy, he is my brother after all." Zhu Yunhuan said with a smile, "It's unreasonable to let him go to the vassal state when he just turns ten. Let's wait a few years, there will be no harm."

Zhu Yunwen also knew that he had no choice in the matter of being a vassal, because he and Zhu Yunhuan had competed for the position of crown prince, and it would be difficult for the loser to stay in Yingtian Prefecture. Now it was considered a good thing, at least he was not demoted to a commoner or imprisoned in Fengyang.

Sometimes he also thought that if his royal grandfather was gone, Zhu Yunhuan would definitely change his attitude.

As for his two younger brothers, they should not be purged. The emperor also needs to save face. It would not be good to eliminate all his brothers. That would be too embarrassing.

Zhu Yunwen was quite pleased to see his gentle and elegant temperament. "It is said that there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. There is some truth to this. What places have you visited in Hangzhou in the past two years?"

"The palace is right by the West Lake. When the weather is good, I like to go boating on the lake." Zhu Yunwen said with a smile, "I have seen many scenes in the past two days. I plan to compile ten scenes of West Lake. There was a temple in the center of the lake during the Song and Yuan dynasties, but it collapsed later. Now I am thinking of building a pavilion in the center of the lake."

Zhu Yunhuan was stunned for a moment. The Ten Scenic Spots of West Lake are very famous, but they have not yet been completed.

It is said that the names of the Ten Scenes of West Lake originated from landscape paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, during the Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi's southern tour to Hangzhou, he wrote poems about the Ten Scenes of West Lake one by one. Local officials carved the words written by Emperor Kangxi into a stone tablet and built a pavilion to protect it. The stone tablet of the Ten Scenes of West Lake thus became a landmark of the scenic spot. Later, when Emperor Qianlong visited Hangzhou in the south, he wrote a poem for each of the ten scenes and engraved it on the back of the stone tablet.

Nowadays, there are really no ten scenic spots to speak of, at least there are no obvious signs.

Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "Well, if the ten scenes are finished, I will go and see them when I have time in a few years."

Zhu Yunwen continued, "Another reason is that he is now devoted to practicing Buddhism. In the third year of Hongwu, my royal grandfather summoned the abbot of Lingyin Temple, Jianxin, to come back to Beijing to preach. It was a sensation at the time. My royal grandfather named him one of the ten great monks and gave him a golden cassock. But now Lingyin Temple has caught fire, and the abbot Huiming has rebuilt the Juehuang Hall, but he is short of funds."

Zhu Yunhuan immediately played deaf and dumb. When did his second brother become so shameless that he actually asked for money in a roundabout way.

Lingyin Temple is very famous, and it was unprecedentedly prosperous before the Yuan Dynasty. However, it was destroyed by war during the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty advocates Buddhism, Zhu Yuanzhang has taken various restrictive measures on various temples in the name of rectification.

For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang was reorganizing Lingyin Temple, he took the initiative to return 13,000 mu of temple land in Hangzhou and Jiaxing to the imperial court to avoid a catastrophe. The monks of Lingyin Temple were very impressed by this practice, so he gave some of the land back to Lingyin Temple.

This is 13,000 acres!
So it’s no wonder that Zhu has many restrictions on religion now. It’s okay that some temples don’t produce anything, but the key is that they have too many assets.

Not only is there a lot of land, but there are also various hidden populations and hired tenants. If there are no restrictions, these religions and so on will become a huge burden on the court.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said to Zhu Yunwen, "You just came back, go see your mother. Let's get together as brothers tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

Zhu Yunwen naturally left obediently. He used to look down on Zhu Yunhuan, but now he was becoming more and more afraid of his younger brother.

Even if he was afraid, some things had to be faced. Zhu Yunwen had no right to bargain now. Not only him, but also his mother, brother, life, and status all depended on the arrangement of the grandson.

After Zhu Yunwen left, Zhu Yunhuan arrived at the Wenhua Palace, "Xia Yuanji, has His Majesty summoned you these days?"

If other people asked about the emperor's movements, Xia Yuanji and his people would never dare to say anything.

But it was different under special circumstances. When the Crown Prince asked the Emperor about his movements, he had to tell him everything. If he concealed anything, the Crown Prince would be unhappy, and the Emperor would also be angry.

If the emperor asked about the Crown Prince's movements, it must not be out of suspicion, but he had to make it very clear. Otherwise, the emperor might not get angry, but the Crown Prince would get angry first.

The emperor and the current crown prince, including the former crown prince, seemed to have never been wary of each other.

Xia Yuanji replied politely, "Your Highness, the emperor has summoned Minister Yu and Minister Yan in the past few days, as well as officials from the Baochao Department and me." Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said, "I'm sure they've been scolded a lot. How much Baochao has been issued? You still don't know the number?"

Xia Yuanji also had a lot of troubles. It was a 20-year-old account, and it was not easy to check it all at once. Moreover, the rules were not perfect before, and many people did not expect such a thing to happen now, so there was no clue at all.

The result is that the emperor is now urging and scolding, and the crown prince is not very satisfied either.

To the extent that Yu Xin and others are now afraid, fearing that they might accidentally trigger a new major case.

Whether it was the Guo Huan case or the empty seal case, there was no doubt that Emperor Hongwu was determined to clean up the bureaucracy. Once he suspected that an official was corrupt, many things would not be so simple.

Zhu Yunhuan could see the depression and worry of Xia Yuanji and others, and said, "Just do your job well. You can't be blamed for the treasure notes. But you can't be careless about this matter. Now think carefully about how to turn it around."

Xia Yuanji naturally obeyed the order. In fact, he did not expect that the situation of Baochao would have reached such a bad state.

Zhu Yunhuan continued, "Go with Minister Yu to the Imperial Clan House and calculate the annual expenditure of the Imperial Clan since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and calculate the increase in these years. Calculate carefully how much it will increase in the next few years."

Xia Yuanji glanced at Zhu Yunhuan and immediately understood.

Zhu Yuanzhang has already made efforts to reduce the royal family's expenditure, and some reductions were made last year. However, it seems that the crown prince is still not satisfied with this and wants to continue to reduce it.

But then I thought about it again, since King Wulin had returned to Beijing, it was not surprising. No matter whose idea it was, King Wulin was only concerned about the country, so he would definitely be honest and speak his mind.

Led by eunuchs and maids, Zhu Yunwen arrived at the harem with a heavy heart.

In fact, Crown Princess Lu was not banished to the cold palace, but compared to the liveliness and flattery she enjoyed in the Eastern Palace before, she is now much more neglected.

Seeing that his mother seemed to have aged a lot in just two years, Zhu Yunwen was also very sad. In the end, it was his fault that he did not get the position of crown prince, otherwise his mother would not have to endure in this deserted palace.

Mrs. Lu looked at Zhu Yunwen and was quite pleased. "Is my son doing well in Hangzhou?"

Zhu Yunwen immediately smiled and replied, "Of course everything is fine. I don't have to worry about food, clothing and daily expenses. I can also travel with Master Huang. A few days ago, I went to famous mountains and ancient temples and talked and laughed with some great scholars and scholars."

Mrs. Lu's expression changed, "How can my son associate with those scholars?"

Looking at his cautious mother, and then at the maids and eunuchs standing beside him with cold faces, Zhu Yunwen felt even more sad.

When my father was still alive, even before he moved out of the Eastern Palace, the maids and eunuchs in front of him were all cautious and fawning. At that time, the maids and eunuchs obeyed the orders of the Crown Princess, but now, there is not a single familiar maid or eunuch, and even when I come here, I am still watched by the Crown Prince's people.

Zhu Yunwen could only calm down and said, "Don't worry, mother. I have also told the Crown Prince that he will not forbid me to associate with great scholars and scholars. We can only talk about romance and not politics, and naturally everything is fine."

Lu was relieved. The past two years of struggle also made her face the reality. Maybe she was still a little dissatisfied when Zhu Yunhuan was appointed as the crown prince, but now she dared not be unhappy at all.

Putting aside the fact that her own Yunwen was no match for that man, just the reputation that man had gained in the court over the past two years, even though she had lived in the palace for a long time, Lu had heard some about it. The more she thought about it, the more scared and worried she became.

"I heard that His Majesty has arranged a marriage for the Crown Prince, and my son will go and ask for mercy." Mrs. Lu said quickly, "My son is old enough, and it's time for him to get married."

Zhu Yunwen nodded immediately. His younger brother Zhu Yunhuan's marriage was already settled, but he, as the elder brother, had not made any moves yet. This was not good.

But he also knew that it was the mourning period, and secondly, his marriage had to be decided by the emperor or the crown prince.

Even when they were in Hangzhou, they didn't dare let their maids get pregnant, otherwise they would be punished.

Without the position of crown prince, Zhu Yunwen can only depend on others for support. Even though he is a free and easy prince that others envy, he cannot change some realities.

What's more, Zhu Yunwen knew even more clearly that his scheming younger brother would definitely cause a lot of trouble.

This time when he returns to the capital, he might be forced to do something again. All the things that offend people will be done by him, the King of Wulin who doesn't care about the affairs of the court!

(End of this chapter)