Not long after, in the summer of the 35th year of Jiajing, the cabinet issued an imperial decree in accordance with the imperial edict, summoning the princes of various prefectures to Beijing.

Although the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty had increased significantly, it was no longer difficult to support the royal family.

However, the problem of increasing royal family expenses caused by the continuous increase in the number of royal family members and the problem of continuous annexation of land by royal relatives are still becoming more and more serious.

Therefore, relocating the vassal kings and transferring the burden abroad was something Zhu Houcong had to do after strengthening his power.

Some clever princes had already guessed why Jiajing asked them to come to Beijing.

“This time they are definitely going to make us relocate!”

“Your Majesty still thinks we are not productive and are wasting too much of the people’s money.”

When Zheng Wang Zhu Houwan met Tang Wang Zhu Yuwen on his way to Beijing, he told Zhu Yuwen about it.

Zhu Yuwen nodded and said, “We can’t be considered as completely unproductive now, right? Aren’t we being asked to do some work?”

“But most of them are lazy and only want to have fun, and are unwilling to work hard to study and make instruments.”

Zhu Houwan replied.

Zhu Yuwen nodded after hearing this: “It’s good to go outside. First, it can indeed make the people in Henan, Shandong, Huguang and other places live better. Millions of acres of tax-free royal estates can also bring more regular taxes to the court. Secondly, it is said that outside, the rich can live more freely and accumulate wealth more easily. Even students can have a group of servants after going out.”

“Yes, I just hope it’s not too remote, and the customs and habits are similar to those in Middle-earth.”

Zhu Houwan followed up.

at the same time.

Zhu Xian, the Prince of Liao, also mentioned this matter when he met Zhu Zaizhen, the Prince of Hui, when he came to Beijing.

“Going overseas?”

“Go to hell!”

“No matter how good they say the outside world is, it can’t compare to our ancestral land in the slightest!”

“If it’s better outside, why don’t the people of Xingfu move their capital outside?”

“Even if there are good fields and good feng shui outside, are the people there any better than the Han people? They are either dark and short, or have a strong odor and are extremely wild!”

Zhu Zaizhen complained about this.

Zhu Xian agreed with this very much: “You are right. Now the court is willing to do anything to ensure that the people can live a good life! I really don’t know whose court this is!”

After these princes arrived in Beijing one after another, Zhu Houcong summoned them all to the palace for a banquet and entertained them, and also proposed the issue of relocating the princes.

“Your Majesty, I would like to ask, are the places we relocated to, such as Wadi, Luzon, Jiaozhi, etc., really the same as China as others say?”

The young King of Chu, Zhu Ying, first asked about Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong smiled and said, “Of course! If the education is not thorough enough, then it is the local envoys who failed to do their job. When you arrive, if you really find that they failed to do their job and did not educate the local people thoroughly, you can impeach them!”

Zhu Ying nodded after hearing this.

The other princes began to think deeply about this again.

Going abroad is still a matter full of worries and uneasiness for them.

“Your Majesty, what if I don’t want to go?”

Zhu Zaizhen even took the initiative to ask this question at this time.

Many princes looked at him in surprise.

King Zhu Xian of Liao even cast an approving look at Zhu Zaizhen and also observed Zhu Houcong’s expression.

In recent years, Zhu Houcong surveyed the land all over the country, and many hidden fields of the princes were also surveyed out. Naturally, many hidden fields of Zhu Xian, the King of Liao, were not spared.

In addition, a series of good policies such as the equalization of land tax and the joint payment of taxes and duties by officials and businessmen greatly improved the lives of the people, resulting in fewer and fewer donors.

The new hidden fields and hidden population in his palace were not increasing as fast as before.

This resulted in many of the fields that the Liao Palace thought it had annexed being taken away, and the growth rate of newly annexed fields was not as fast as before.

Therefore, King Liao Zhu Xian was very dissatisfied with Zhu Houcong.

The same goes for Zhu Zaizhen.

His 300,000 mu of fertile land in Xuzhou had to be returned to the people after being surveyed because it was hidden land that was not exempt from regular taxes.

When he thought of this, he hated the current emperor so much that his teeth itched.

Zhu Houcong’s face also turned gloomy.

Zhu Zaizhen took the initiative to provoke him, which made him very unhappy.

“If you don’t want to go, you’d better follow the rules, don’t break the law, and take good care of the people in the mansion!”

“Because I have no reason to condone those who are disloyal and unfilial and do not care about the eternal foundation of our ancestors.”

Zhu Houcong said in a cold voice at this time.

Zhu Xian stood up immediately after hearing this and asked: “Your Majesty, what did you condone us for?”

“Who has committed a crime and has not been severely punished by you?”

“I’m not saying that our clan members shouldn’t be punished for breaking the law, but you’re certainly not guilty of shielding a clan member!”

After Liao Wang Zhu Xian said this, Zhu Zaizhen couldn’t help but smile coldly.

At this time, Zhao Wang Zhu Houyu stood up and asked the two in a cold voice:

“From what you said, are you blaming His Majesty for not protecting you, the clan members?”

“Don’t dare!”

“We are just discussing the matter!”

Zhu Xian replied.

“Although His Majesty did not protect or indulge us, he did show us grace.”

“If it weren’t for your majesty’s determination to fight those treacherous officials, your clan salaries would remain the same as before. If you can get half of them, it means that the local officials and gentry treat you as human beings!”

“Furthermore, do we have to let you bully and abuse the people to be considered as condoning you? We did not let you be punished for visiting prostitutes because the governor impeached you, nor did we force you to return the gentry’s property because you occupied it. Instead, we used the excuse that you were in financial difficulty to redeem you. Isn’t this covering up and condoning you?”

“As members of the royal family, they wish the Ming Dynasty would fall sooner than the gentry and common people.”

“Your Majesty is overwhelmed with work, and he was afraid that we would be dissatisfied, so he allowed us to come to the capital to discuss the matter. It is obvious that he treats us very kindly, but he does not know how to be grateful at all. He is really worse than an outsider!”

At this time, Zhu Houyu reprimanded Zhu Xian.

Zhu Xian was unable to answer for a moment and sneered in his heart.

Zhu Zaizhen only cursed in a low voice, in a tone that only he could hear: “Flatterer!”

“Your Majesty, I request that the Liao King Zhu Xian and Zhu Zaizhen be punished for the crimes of disrespect, disloyalty and unfilial piety. These two should be stripped of their titles and expelled from their kingdoms!”

At this time, Zhu Houyu turned around and bowed to Zhu Houcong and made a proposal.

At this time, the Yangshan King Zhu Houying, who was in charge of Xiangfu, also stood up and said, “I second the motion!”

Prince Zheng Zhu Houwan then stood up and said, “I second the motion!”

“Yes, you are confusing right and wrong, ignoring the facts, and you dare to open a dyeing factory when you are given a little color. Do you think that I invited you here because I am afraid that you will not agree, or because you dare not forcibly relocate for the sake of our ancestors’ country?”

“In my opinion, stripping him of his title and expelling him from the throne is not enough. He should be expelled from the clan and sentenced to death! Our royal family cannot allow such unworthy descendants to remain!”

Zhu Houcong spoke at this time.

Zhu Xian and Zhu Zaizhen were shocked when they heard this and hurriedly stood up and knelt down.

“Your Majesty, please forgive us. We have no other intentions.”

“We just, just wanted to ask if we could not go out.”

Zhu Zaizhen hurriedly explained.

Zhu Xian also said: “Your Majesty, please spare us. We did say these things because we didn’t want to leave the place where we were born and raised. We were not disloyal or treacherous!”

“I am not an unkind person, but if you don’t care about human feelings, I can’t care about them either.”

Zhu Houcong then ordered: “Give each of them a cup of poisoned wine and announce to the public that they died suddenly!”

So, not long after, a eunuch came towards King Liao and King Hui with two cups of poisoned wine.

Both of them were trembling slightly, not knowing what to do.

“Do you still want to disobey?”

Zhu Houcong asked in a cold voice.

Zhu Xian was extremely scared at this time.

Zhu Zaizhen’s teeth chattered, and he shook his head: “I don’t want to drink, I don’t want to die!”

“You are all family, help them!”

“Don’t let them bring trouble to our own children.”

Zhu Houcong said something to the other princes at this time.

King Zhu Ying of Chu came over first and pressed King Zhu Xian of Liao to the ground.

But Zhu Xian kept struggling, so the King of Chu had no choice but to shout to the King of Ji Zhu Zaijun who was standing beside him: “Fool, come and help!”

Prince Ji Zhu Zaijun hurried over to help press Zhu Xian to the ground.

Prince of Zhao Zhu Houyu gritted his teeth, walked over, picked up the wine glass and poured it down towards Zhu Xian.

Zhu Xian coughed continuously, then his face distorted and he fell to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Houcong simply glanced at the princes who did not help.

These princes became even more confused.

Prince Chong Zhu Zaijing understood it first. He knew that anyone who was a little slower would be considered disrespectful, so he came over immediately and knocked Zhu Zaizhen down from behind.

Zhu Zaizhen became even more frightened and screamed heartbreakingly: “No, no, Your Majesty, please give me another chance. I won’t dare anymore. I will never dare to have any dissatisfaction again! Your Majesty!” Several other princes also rushed over and pressed Zhu Zaizhen so that he could not struggle.

Prince of Zheng Zhu Houwan even poured the poisoned wine into Zhu Zaizhen’s mouth before Prince of Zhao Zhu Houyu could.

The next day.

In front of the court officials in Wenhua Hall, Zhu Houcong formally asked the princes about the relocation: “Dear relatives, who is against the relocation and who is in favor of it?”

“This is a strategy that will benefit future generations. I am willing to move out!”

“I am also willing to relocate!”

“I have had this intention for a long time. Since Your Majesty has asked me today, I am willing to do so!”

……

All these princes expressed their agreement to relocate their vassal states.

Court officials such as Yan Song could not help but laugh.

Zhu Houcong also smiled: “Very good! I didn’t expect that all of you are so loyal to the country. In this case, I cannot help but understand the difficulties of your going abroad to serve as vassals. You will all be granted double the current farmland, and each prefecture will be allocated 500,000 silver dollar coupons as resettlement funds, and 3,000 guards.”

Zhu Houcong knew that if he did not use some intimidation tactics, it would be impossible for the princes to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

Because in this era when the gap between China and the West is particularly large, no one is willing to settle abroad easily.

But after using intimidation, Zhu Houcong would also give some sweet benefits.

The sweet thing was that he was given double the land, double the salary and three thousand guards.

The reason why double the amount of farmland was awarded was that there were many arable official fields overseas that no one cultivated. More importantly, if these official fields were not turned into private farmlands of the princes in the name of rewards, the princes would not be active in recruiting refugees and educating local people to reclaim land.

The 500,000 silver dollar notes took advantage of the opportunity of these vassal kings’ migration to further strengthen the dominant position of the Ming Dynasty’s official currency overseas.

In the name of portability, the Ming Dynasty has now promoted silver dollar notes linked to silver dollars overseas.

The promotion of this paper currency allowed the Ming Dynasty to use paper currency to organize labor overseas to mine large amounts of gold and silver and transport them back to the country.

Now, Zhu Houcong allocated a large amount of silver dollar notes in the name of resettlement funds for the princes, in order to promote the circulation of silver dollar notes through the princes.

As long as these princes are not so stingy as to keep these silver dollar coupons at home, it will greatly boost the overseas consumer market.

Due to the large amount of gold and silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty, there was a lack of gold, silver and other currencies in the overseas markets, and overseas consumption capacity had not yet been greatly improved. Steam industrialization had begun to appear in the Ming Dynasty, and a large amount of cheap cloth, machinery and other commercial goods needed to be dumped overseas, so more currency needed to be given to these places.

As for the three thousand guards, overseas is not as good as the Middle Earth. The local elites have been unwilling to lose their ruling power and would launch rebellions from time to time, especially some nobles in Wa, such as the Hosokawa, Mikawa, and Uesugi clans, as well as local Christians and so on.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong needed to provide a certain amount of armed forces to the relocated vassal kings, otherwise, they would become pawns of the local elite instead of being able to take charge.

But Zhu Houcong did not intend to give too much, in order to prevent their military forces from becoming too powerful and unable to be suppressed by the envoys, and from uniting with the local elite to invade the homeland.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong only restored their three thousand guards, instead of three guards.

The three thousand guards are roughly equivalent to one of the three guards given to the princes during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang.

And this is enough for the princes to defend themselves outside.

After all, if there are really 3,000 soldiers armed to the teeth overseas, basically no other force except the Ming Dynasty itself would dare to provoke them easily.

You have to know that in this era, even the Westerners who were establishing colonial outposts around the world only sent a few hundred soldiers, or at most a thousand.

This also made these princes feel much better, especially those who were not willing to go outside.

For them, no matter what, as long as they don’t go to a really desolate place, they can still enjoy a rich and honorable life.

It is worth mentioning that several princes who showed great loyalty in front of the emperor were subsequently granted better positions.

For example, Prince of Zhao Zhu Houyu and Prince of Zheng Zhu Houan were assigned to the Ming Dynasty’s direct-controlled area in Kanto, Japan.

That day, Zhu Houwan rode a horse to the top of Mount Fuji with his 3,000 guards recruited from retired soldiers and his family, and passed through the cherry blossom path.

“Your Majesty did not lie to us. This place is really not that remote.”

Zhu Houwan also talked about this with a smile while he was resting on his horse.

Zhu Zaiyi, the crown prince of Zhu Houyu, also came over at this time and said, “Father, maybe it was because of your loyalty that day that our Zheng clan was able to have a good place to go.”

Zhu Houwan nodded: “That makes sense. It’s a pity that your brother Zai Yu insisted on not taking the throne and wanted to stay in the capital to study. Otherwise, our family could have turned this place into a Han land together!”

“But there aren’t that many music masters here, so my brother will definitely not like it.”

Zhu Zaiwei said.

“Yes, I heard that the place where King Zhao was granted was originally the capital of the Japanese people. There are many Japanese people who understand music there.”

Zhu Houwan said this and gave an order to a new eunuch he had just received:
“Takechiyo, go play the zither I taught you. I want to enjoy the flowers here with the sound of the zither.”

This Takechiyo was the Tokugawa Ieyasu of later generations. However, because Matsudaira Hirotada launched a war, his forces were suppressed by the Ming army and his family was also dealt with. They either went to the north to mine or became eunuchs and stayed as official slaves waiting to be sent to work in the homes of clan relatives.

Takechiyo chose the latter and became a household slave in Prince Zheng’s mansion.

However, Takechiyo was very intelligent and learned Chinese language and various Chinese arts the fastest, which made her very popular with Zheng Wang Zhu Houwan.

“According to the order!”

Takechiyo agreed and went to get the zither decisively.

For a moment, in the colorful falling cherry blossom rain, graceful piano music rang out, and King Zheng felt as if he had returned to Henan, the place he could never forget.

After all, he grew up there and his parents are still buried there.

Relocating the princes was a huge project.

It will take more than one or two years to complete this project.

Even by the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, it was not completely completed.

Because Zhu Houcong’s own princes had not yet gone out to serve as fiefs.

But it has to be admitted that after a large number of princes moved away, the better life of the native people of the Ming Dynasty became apparent.

First of all, the government can use the financial resources spent on vassal kings more on people’s livelihood construction, scientific and technological research and development, and subsidies for the poor.

Secondly, people no longer have to worry about royal family members and royal relatives relying on their special status to dominate the market, and the government can manage them more easily, making the people more orderly and the market more prosperous.

Finally, the migration of the royal family and vassal states further reduced the consumption scale of the domestic powerful class. A large number of cultural and artistic workers and handicraft makers began to have to further popularize and common people’s works. Some even took the initiative to start industrialized production, instead of holding the attitude of “better to have nothing than to have something of poor quality”, making the civilian economy more prosperous.

It can be said that the swallows that once flew in front of the mansions of the Wang and Xie families now fly into the homes of ordinary people.

Ji Youde, a commoner from Henan, was originally a tenant farmer of Chongwangwangzhuang. Now he has become a farmer here. He no longer has to pay rent to the palace, but instead pays taxes to the court.

For him, there is naturally not much change in this regard.

But fortunately, he no longer had to perform duties in the palace.

Because when he was a tenant of the royal palace in the past, he had a hard time because the palace forced him to perform corresponding duties.

Now he doesn’t have to work so hard, and the remaining labor can be used to do odd jobs in wealthy families to earn some extra income.

This enabled him to have the financial resources to continue sending his children to school after they had received three years of civilian education.

“It’s good that Ruyang is free of royal relatives!”

Ji Youde sighed for this when he passed by the Chongwang Mansion. Because there were no more ferocious servants in the Chongwang Mansion, he could walk through here with vegetables and grains without any worries and shouted loudly, “Fresh vegetables for sale!”

As Ji Youde was shouting, he heard the sound of reading aloud in front of him.

He couldn’t help but smile knowingly.

Because his children are studying there.

Before this, he couldn’t even imagine that his children would study in a public academy with the children of wealthy landlords.

Of course, these wealthy landlords never expected that such a day would come.

However, they can only accept this result now.

Otherwise, they would have no choice but to move out as well.

In fact, many gentry did move away.

Some court officials reported this to Zhu Houcong, expressing their concerns that this would lead to a large loss of talent, causing future famous Confucian scholars to appear overseas, and causing local culture to become less developed than that of the foreign vassal states.

Zhu Houcong disagreed with this.

He believes that as long as more investment is made in education, there is no need to worry about talent loss.

Moreover, he also hoped that these so-called cultural elites could really go out and spread civilization to various places like missionaries.

But in fact, according to the investigation conducted by the Jinyiwei by Zhu Houcong, many of the gentry who went out were not keen on promoting the teachings of sages, but were keen on using the Legalist methods to govern the local people.

Because these gentry, just like in their own country, closed off the mountains, forests and lakes, and under various names, either claimed that they were government property or turned them into their own private property, forcing the local people to do nothing but farm.

Originally, in tropical areas like Luzon, there were many edible starch crops when the weather was hot, and bananas were particularly prolific, so the local natives could live an easy life as long as they did not have high desires, and they were relatively lazy. However, due to the deliberate monopoly of the bureaucrats and gentry, these foods became scarce resources, and these natives were forced to become diligent. Those who dared to seize resources through violence were naturally suppressed in a bloody manner.

As a result, most of the local natives had to put aside their lazy nature and become hardworking tenants and farmhands.

The gentry were content to eat the rent and lead a leisurely life of singing to the wind and enjoying the moon. When it came to propaganda and education, they were not as active as they were at home. At most, they set up a few literary societies to organize some activities, and their members were limited to within their own class.

Not only the gentry, but also most of the princes who moved out by Zhu Houcong were like this. Most of the bureaucrats were only active in cooperating with the local gentry to manage the local common people, and were not very active in external development.

Zhu Houcong knew that the expansion of civilization still depended on him, the emperor with supreme ruling power. It was basically impossible to expect the landlord elite class of the Ming Dynasty to expand outward spontaneously.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong had to issue an order in the 45th year of Jiajing to form an armed fleet to sail to Southeast Asia and the West. He first recovered Malacca, then discovered the Australian continent and built a new iron ore plant on the Australian continent.

Then, in the 50th year of the Jiajing reign, Zhu Houcong sent a large armed fleet from Luzon, followed the ocean currents to America, drove out the Westerners in America, and established the Huangming Direct Control Area of ​​the Ming Dynasty.

After Australia and America were developed, Zhu Houcong enfeoffed his princes there. And because these places were farther away from the Ming Dynasty, he increased their guards to three.

Zhu Houcong himself abdicated the throne to Crown Prince Zhu Zaigui in the 60th year of Jiajing.

After the 57-year-old Crown Prince Zhu Zaigui ascended the throne, the elderly Zhu Houcong lived his retirement life in peace.

On the eve of Zhu Houcong’s abdication, the Jiajing Dynasty had indeed brought China to its peak in history. From a macro perspective, the territory spanned thousands of miles, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Oceania in the south, from America in the east to the Indian Ocean in the west. The registered population also reached as many as 50 million in a few decades. From a micro perspective, ordinary people in the local area basically lived in brick and tile houses, and each household decorated their homes with paintings, flower arrangements, and sculptures. It can be said that every household was very beautiful.

For this reason, when Hai Rui wrote a congratulatory letter for the centenary of Emperor Zhu Houcong, he specifically used the phrase “Jiajing Jiajing, every family has a beautiful scenery” to describe the achievements of the Emperor. (End of this chapter)