Please ask me to be the emperor

Zhang Shun used a small skill to make a big impact, and the princes were caught off guard.

After rough statistics on site, it was found that, except for the Tang Palace, every county prince's palace and princess's palace had successively produced dozens or even hundreds of acres of fertile land.

As for the Tang Palace, the situation was even worse. The Prince of Tang had disappeared long ago, and the Princess of Tang was also occupied by others. Naturally, all the property of the Prince of Tang's Mansion was taken to Lao Zhang's family as Princess Tang's "dowry".

Zeng Yurou didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and couldn't help laughing and scolding: "You are just bullying me! The rebels only want to take away some valuables, but you can't take away those houses, houses, and houses, so what are you doing with them in your hands?"

"Who said I was leaving?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but laugh, "It's rare to catch a bunch of 'fat pigs'. If you don't kill them, why don't you keep them for the New Year?"

"Ah?" Zeng Yurou only said that he was a thief from Luoyang. She had already planned to escape to Luoyang with him, but she didn't expect that he would not leave after he arrived!

At this time, those princes who used to be arrogant saw that the "thief" was more "reasonable" and couldn't help but start making trouble again, reluctant to leave their own fields.

In fact, I don’t blame them for wanting their fields rather than their lives. As the saying goes: "There are small difficulties in small things, and big difficulties in big things."

In name, the palace has a royal salary and industry supplies, so he should have no worries about food and drink.

In fact, this is not the case. Since the "Jingnan", Zhu Di has been worried that his brothers will follow suit.

He successively seized their military power and political participation, and then used wealth to support them. He could be called the Ming Dynasty's "cup of wine to release military power."

It was okay at the beginning. The Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was acceptable. In addition, Zheng He earned a lot of wealth from his voyages to the West and could still support it.

When Prince Ming can no longer play in the army or politics, he can only play with women. That was a litter of babies, and the Ming Dynasty's finances couldn't bear it.

If you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, the later Emperor Ming couldn't stand the prince's way of living.

It is simply stipulated across the board that a prince must apply to the court for approval before marrying a concubine, and even limiting the number of concubines.

For example, when Princess Chong beside Zhang Shun was selected by King Chong, Emperor Wanli passed away. Prince Zhu Changluo died less than a month after he succeeded to the throne. A series of events in Tianqi's succession lasted until June of the third year of Tianqi. , was able to be canonized by the imperial court.

The royal family's salary was repeatedly delayed by the court and distributed at a discount. The whole family is waiting for the rice to be cooked. Who can afford it?

During the Wanli period, this man became even more ruthless and directly ordered the vassal prince's salary to be "customized forever" and not to be increased. Then he gave his son King Fu and his younger brother King Lu 20,000 qing of land and 40,000 qing of fertile land respectively.

When the other kings heard this, they couldn't help but have something to say about Ma Maipi!

It is better to seek help from others than to ask for yourself. Other princes have begun to think about purchasing properties.

How to buy property? The easiest way is to ask the emperor for a reward.

However, Nanyang City, the fiefdom of the Tang Dynasty King, was the smallest among the vassals in Henan, and its royal palace was also the smallest among the vassals. This shows that it was not favored by Zhu Yuanzhang.

So the first generation of Tang kings watched eagerly as Zhu Yuanzhang's father rewarded the king of Zhou and the king of Zhao; he rewarded the king of Zhao and rewarded the king of Ru. Hey, you don't even remember that Nanyang Gada has a son.

There was no way, the old Tang king died one term after another, and his relationship with the royal family became more and more distant, and he looked desperate.

As a result, one of the vassal kings suddenly lost his heir, and it was a pie in the sky. The Tang Palace inherited hundreds of acres of land, and everyone was so happy that they couldn't close their mouths from ear to ear.

It's just that this thing is something that can only happen but cannot be sought. After waiting for more than two hundred years, it just happened.

If the whole family of the Tang Dynasty had followed this, they would have starved to death, and even the fertile land they had just acquired would have to be inherited by other vassals.

There is no way, my father won’t kiss me, my mother won’t love me, so I can only buy it and open up wasteland!

The Prince of Tang had no choice but to squeeze some money through his teeth to "break the frosty road and cut off the thorns to build a sizeable land."

As a result, I turned around and saw that the princes of other families were always writing to ask for "more than 500 slopes of wasteland in Hexi" and "320 slopes of tidal flats in the north of the mountain".

The Prince of Tang took a look and asked, "Where did you get so many people to clear up wasteland?"

After asking carefully, hehe, good fellow, they are all cultivated mature fields. Have you learned?

The Tang Palace quickly applied to the court for "Barren Mountains" and "Wild Ridges" in varying degrees.

Other counties and princes also followed suit, and soon they covered the "wasteland" around Nanyang, and then set their sights on nearby Xinye, Tangxian, Dengzhou and other places.

This is one of the reasons why after Zhang Juzheng cleared all the land in the country, the area of ​​cultivated land increased greatly, but taxes did not increase significantly.

Firstly, the land was unevenly distributed and forced taxation would cause farmers with little land to go bankrupt; secondly, a large amount of land was distributed under the names of feudal princes and wealthy gentry families, and the court could not collect taxes.

The amount of taxes the imperial court could collect during the Hongwu period was enough to support the "Three Major Wanli Expeditions" and the luxurious life of Emperor Wanli.

Of course, Zhang Shun didn't know that the princes of the Zhu family were also in such difficulty.

After listening to the complaints of the princes, he smiled slightly, reached out to grab the fish scale book, pulled out the sword from his waist and said, "Do you want to reason with me, or do you want to play tricks with me?"

When he said "reasoning", he shook the fish scale book in his hand; when he said "cheating", he shook his waist knife.

The princes were immediately excited and couldn't help but laugh and said: "We are all educated people and we are absolutely reasonable and will not mess with you!"

"You said it is, it is, and we admit it! It's just that our big family doesn't have enough food and drink. Please ask King Shun to think about it carefully!"

"It's okay!" Zhang Shun smiled and said, "I just don't have enough food. I'm good at this!"

"There are young and beautiful ladies, maids, princesses and aunts in the family who you can't afford to take care of. I will take care of them!"

"What other royal guards, civil servants, military generals, and internal officials are there? I will not refuse anyone who comes. I will raise them for you. What else do you have to say?"

When the princes saw Zhang Shun's betrayal, they were so frightened that they trembled with fear and quickly begged for mercy: "Grandpa, forgive me, we don't dare to do it anymore."

"These things are actually done by the officials of the palace, and we really don't know!"

"These officials are nominally in charge of the royal palace, but in fact they are the eyes and ears of the imperial court. They have always been responsible for the royal palace's property, collecting grain, and buying and selling land."

"Don't look at us as princes and descendants of the Zhu family. We are often bullied by him. Even when it comes to marrying our daughter, we have to bribe him before we can report it according to the rules."

"If not, he will create difficulties in every possible way, control the palace, and bully him wantonly. How can I be a prince? This palace is clearly owned by his family!"

When Zhang Shun heard this, he couldn't help but said with great joy: "Princes, please be patient, I am a great master of Qingtian!"

"Everyone is equal before the law. Since the common people can sue you, you can also sue me against the officials in the government?"

"I want to take care of things that the court can handle, and I have to take care of things that the court dare not take care of. As long as it is true, I will punish them in accordance with the law!"