Daming: I am the Crown Prince

Chapter 253: A Year's Plan Begins with Spring
The imperial examination in the 30th year of Hongwu was held as scheduled. It seemed that there was no difference. Many things were still proceeding in an orderly manner. We just had to follow the procedures and there would definitely not be any major problems.

Sometimes it is just like this, there is no need to consider other issues at all, as long as you take it seriously, there will be no mistakes.

Zhu Yunhuan didn't think it was a big problem. It seemed that he was worrying too much and didn't have so many conspiracy theories.

Even if some people are dissatisfied, just thinking about the pressure brought by Emperor Hongwu and the good-looking but evil-hearted Crown Prince, most people dare not make any small moves and are all very honest.

After all, the reality is that the emperor has a high degree of centralized power. The so-called local nobles and so on seem to be powerful, but that is only in the local area. It is still difficult for them to truly establish their own regimes and influence the court.

Zhu Yunhuan was in a very good mood, and all the civil and military officials were also in a good mood because they saw the emperor again.

When the emperor was ploughing the fields, he did not find any excuses not to show up. When the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty emphasized agriculture, it was not just a casual remark, but it could be reflected in all aspects.

However, what more officials were looking at was the swaddled baby in Concubine Guo Ning's arms, a fat child who would make a fuss from time to time.

Xu Miaojin was not allowed to hold the child because the emperor was plowing the field while the grandson was leading the cow. The grandson's wife had to sow the seeds, which was also part of her duties.

After finishing his ploughing, Old Zhu held Zhu Wenyao and began to lecture him, "Farming is the foundation of our Ming Dynasty. Do you understand, my dear ministers?"

Xu Miaojing next to her lowered her head and tried to suppress her excitement. Although she knew that with Zhu Wenyao's status, he would be the future crown prince if nothing unexpected happened, there were still some possibilities.

Now the founding emperor is holding his great-grandson, which is directly clarifying the future choice of the country's foundation.

Zhu Yunhuan stepped forward and said solemnly, "Grandfather, I am wise. Although I have done some absurd things from time to time, I have never dared to shake the foundation of the country. I have also always been diligent in farming."

There is nothing wrong with what he said. Zhu Yunhuan did have many practices that seemed a little "heretical", but he never had any objections to this, and all the officials saw it.

This Crown Prince really cared about farming, and he spent a lot of effort to arrange reclamation, military farming, etc., and he also spent a lot of effort to develop water conservancy.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Zhu family attached great importance to farming. The founding emperor knew the hardships of people's livelihood and attached great importance to farming.

Although the Crown Prince was born into wealth, he did not forget his roots and attached great importance to farming. This was what the Ming Dynasty admired.

Old Zhu was very satisfied with Zhu Yunhuan's answer and said, "If that's the case, then I'm relieved. Wen Yao is going to sleep, I'll go back to the palace first."

The Hongwu Emperor has changed. In the past, he would do the farming himself and would not give up halfway through the work and hand it over to others. But now, farming himself is not as important as his great-grandson.

Old Zhu can go back, but Zhu Yunhuan certainly cannot return to the palace. It is up to him to complete the remaining tasks of the personal farming ceremony, and he absolutely cannot be lazy at this time.

Even in the eyes of some officials, this is an obvious inheritance. The words and actions of the emperor are clearly conveying certain meanings.

However, those things were not something that the officials needed to consider for the time being. It was enough for them to understand what was going on. With the change of imperial power, it was not the officials' turn to express more opinions for the time being.

The court has already established some rules, but what is more important is whether the emperor has power.

After returning to the palace after finishing his farm work, Zhu Yunhuan asked, "Do you think there are any talented scholars in this examination?"

The court seems to be full of talented people, but for the rulers, they certainly will not mind having too many talented people. The more talented people there are, the better.

Even though some talents may be buried sometimes, it is far better than not having enough people to use. This is also the idea of ​​the rulers.

Chen Di replied, "Your Highness, I have reviewed some papers before and found some that look pretty good. Your Majesty has founded the country for 30 years and has educated the world and promoted literary style."

"So there are no such people with extraordinary talents?" Zhu Yunhuan laughed and said, "Well, it's not easy to have such extraordinary talents."

The actual situation is indeed like this. Not every imperial examination will bring some extraordinary talents. In many cases, the top scorer in the imperial examination may not necessarily be able to hold a high position in the government.

So there is nothing to be particularly disappointed about. There are not many geniuses in this subject. Just wait and see in the next subject. Maybe there will be some surprises.

Besides, even if this subject does not seem to have many talented people now, one of the advantages of the imperial examination is that it covers the lower limit, and those who pass the list can be considered to have some talent and ability.

With more experience, maybe one or two people will be able to gain a foothold in the court. If they are sent to the local areas, they will have a chance to maintain peace in the area.

So there is really no reason to give up now. Just proceed with the selection process for this subject as normal, and don't think too much about the other things.

Looking at Chen Di, Zhu Yunhuan continued, "After the examination, we will still give the champion a memorial archway as usual. We must continue to promote education. Go and discuss with the Ministry of Personnel and divide the officials according to the regions when assigning them."

Serving as an official in a different place, or a southerner serving as an official in the north, is a practice that the court is now advocating. It can also be said to be a rigid requirement, and it is a strategy that must be implemented well.

"Yao Guangxiao, you come with me." Zhu Yunhuan continued, "Some officials left over from the pre-Yuan period should be eliminated, and those who are old enough should be allowed to retire."

Daoyan and others did not find it strange at all. The Crown Prince made such arrangements now because the time was ripe.

When the imperial court first gained control of the country, it was faced with a serious shortage of officials. Therefore, many local officials were officials from the Yuan Dynasty, who changed their official uniforms and became officials of the Ming Dynasty.

However, now that the Ming Dynasty has caught up with its talent pool, it is time for those officials left over from the Yuan Dynasty to step down and make way for others.

This is not Zhu Yunhuan's attempt to get rid of the donkey after it has done its job, nor does it mean that those Yuan Dynasty officials can cause any trouble. It is simply that the time is ripe, and it would be better to replace them with officials trained by the Ming Dynasty.

There is no need to think too much about other things. Things are really not that complicated. This is something that must be done.

Zhu Yunhuan really didn't seem to need to worry too much about the imperial examination, as things were going very smoothly.

As long as we continue to implement it steadily and as long as there are no major mistakes suddenly, the North-South division of the list will definitely be carried out smoothly and orderly, which will be a good start for the upcoming imperial examinations.

This is what Zhu Yunxun wants to see, and this is what most people want to see. As for the fact that some people may be dissatisfied with this, or that it violates the interests of those people, there is actually no need to care too much.

Xia Yuanji brought an official document and said, "Your Highness, preparations for spring plowing have been made, and local government offices have stored enough grain seeds." After so many years of recuperation, the court's grain supply is definitely sufficient for the time being, which is definitely a good thing that makes people feel at ease.

However, it still cannot be ruled out that some people have no surplus food at home, and some farmers lack some grain seeds. In this case, it is natural to borrow grain seeds from landlords or government offices.

Zhu Yunhuan looked at the document carefully, and then said, "Let the people from the Metropolitan Prosecution and the Northern Pacification Office keep an eye on it. If there are corrupt officials who pass off inferior products as good ones and delay the spring ploughing, they will be severely punished. If there are officials who dare to protect the offenders, send them directly to me!"

Zhu Yunhuan knew that corruption was difficult to eradicate. The court had many measures to ensure spring ploughing, hoping to help the people get through the difficult times.

However, some corrupt officials and landlords will not miss some good opportunities now.

If they lend grain seeds to some people now, they will naturally charge extremely high interest, and they may even plan to take advantage of this period to annex land.

So if he encountered certain situations, Zhu Yunhuan would definitely not tolerate them, and would basically kill them the moment they showed up.

Spring ploughing, autumn harvest, etc., these are all major events, which are truly related to the foundation of the country. Old Zhu and Zhu Yunhuan will take them very seriously, and they will also require officials to take these matters seriously.

Zhu Yunhuan continued to say to Xia Yuanji, "It seems that the court will have more gold and silver this year, so we have to deal with the treasure notes. The treasure notes can be used to offset taxes, so you should arrange these things now."

Xia Yuanji said quickly, "I obey your order."

For Xia Yuanji, although he was only a Grand Secretary, in the eyes of many people, he was the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He and Yu Xin cooperated very well and had been supervising and following up on the matters of the treasure notes.

In recent years, the imperial court has been continuously promoting Baochao, but unlike previous years, it did not just issue the notes without collecting them, which caused the credibility and circulation of Baochao among the people to continue to decline.

The efforts of the past two years have finally produced some results, although there are still some people who do not recognize Baochao.

However, in the south of the Yangtze River, or some relatively wealthy places, Baochao has now begun to replace some of the functions of gold and silver, and it has truly played the role of legal tender.

It is indeed not an easy task to accomplish this, but now that it has achieved results, it is the best affirmation of everyone's efforts.

This was true for Xia Yuanji and Zhu Yunhuan. They spent a lot of energy for the treasure notes.

We cannot say that we have achieved our goal in one fell swoop, but when it comes to collecting taxes, we can use Baochao completely.

This will have a decisive effect on the subsequent normalization of Baochao, and it will really be "normalized" in the future.

We will need to continue to work hard in the future, and there won't be too many wars in the next few years. So we can save a little on military spending and continue to make full use of treasure notes.

The food reserves in various places are basically sufficient. If we do not promote the normalization of treasure notes at this time, we will miss a good opportunity.

What's more, Zhu is still in power. If we do something in his name now, the effect will naturally be much better.

When Zhu Yunhuan took over, it was just a continuation of a series of policies rather than changing the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang.

With this in mind, Zhu Yunhuan was also waiting for the fleet to return. If everything went well, the fleet should be back to Ming Dynasty soon.

When that time really comes, lifting some of the maritime bans, starting more foreign trade, etc. will become more reasonable and will encounter much less resistance.

Hopefully, hope that some things can go more smoothly. Zhu Yunhuan still hopes that things can be done more simply rather than with so many twists and turns. That kind of hassle is not a good thing.

As soon as he arrived at the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Yunhuan heard Old Zhu laughing, and the little guy Zhu Yunhuan could also laugh out loud in a baby voice.

The four-month-old baby already has this ability, which makes it more fun for Lao Zhu to take care of the child, because most of the time, the child can make some simple reactions.

"Come here." Old Zhu turned his head to look at Zhu Yunhuan and warned, "Stay away. Wen Yao just doesn't like you. He cries when he sees you."

Zhu Yunhuan sat on the stool with a depressed heart, and asked in surprise, "My queen, it shouldn't be like this. How can such a young child start to be shy at this time?"

Concubine Guo Ning smiled and said to Zhu Yunxun, "It's time to admit it. Wen Yao rarely sees Your Highness, and if he suddenly sees him, he will definitely make a fuss. Just tease him, Wen Yao is very well behaved!"

Zhu Yunxun couldn't help but complain, "Grandfather didn't allow me to get close to Wen Yao, so it was hard for me to tease him. Haven't I come here often enough? He complained that I couldn't hold a baby, and that Wen Yao cried when he saw me, and he almost chased me away."

Old Zhu was still teasing his fat great-grandson with a clear conscience. As for his grandson's series of complaints, he just filtered them out and pretended he didn't hear them.

"Grandfather, I can't be the one presiding over the imperial examination." After taking a sip of tea, Zhu Yunhuan said, "If I really preside over the imperial examination, it would be a bit inappropriate and I don't think it's good."

Old Zhu was even more disgusted. "You talked about government affairs right away, and didn't even mention your son! You can go to the imperial examination, there's no need for us to go."

Zhu Yunhuan now feels the depression of being treated as a double standard. He used to enjoy the benefits of double standards. But now, even though some things are very normal, they are treated as double standards by him.

It's really hard to express my pain, and I can only silently endure these seemingly unfair treatments.

As for the imperial examination, it is not necessary for Zhu Yuanzhang to show up.

Normally it would be best for Zhu Yuanzhang to preside over the imperial examination, but when the emperor presided over the imperial examination, most of the time it was just a formal meeting and he would not do things like marking the papers.

Let it be a court examination, Zhu Yunhuan didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

When the court asked questions, even the test questions were provided by scholars who were well-read in poetry and literature, so all you had to do was step forward.

I just have to feel sorry for the scholars this time. They don't live up to the title of being the emperor's disciples!

(End of this chapter)