According to the plan of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the clan members of the Ming Dynasty royal family were passed down from generation to generation, and those who reached the level of Lieutenant of Fengguo could receive a salary of 200 shi per year.
At first glance, this amount is not too exaggerated. It is equivalent to the output of a hundred acres of fertile land. However, it cannot withstand the Ming royal family's prolific fertility. From generation to generation, the population of the Ming clan has skyrocketed.
A hundred years later, let's say that at present, the number of clan members in the Ming Dynasty alone was tens of thousands.
If you calculate it this way, the salary of the Fengguo lieutenant, which accounts for almost 90%, requires the court to spend millions of dan in money and food every year. If you compare it like this, the amount is not small.
Just because the Ming Dynasty clan was not engaged in production and could not engage in business, it could be said that there was no way out for the imperial examination. Apart from the salary issued by the court, there was almost no means of making a living. For the Ming Dynasty, it was a complete burden.
This time, according to the emperor's plan, he will move most of these Ming clan members with the title of Lieutenant of Fengguo to Nanyang.
Of course, these people were not granted land, but each one was given a hundred acres of fertile land so that these clans could support themselves. On the one hand, it gave these clans the capital to make a living, and on the other hand, it could also reduce the burden on the court.
In the huge hall, except for a group of vassal kings and a few county princes, other members of the Ming Dynasty clan were not qualified to come here at all, so these clans would have to wait for a while before they could know the court's arrangements for them.
But no matter what, overall, the court's arrangements for these clans are quite good.
Headed by the King of Jin, King of Qin, King of Chu, King of Zhou and other Ming princes, all the vassal princes and clans left the imperial city with faces filled with joy.
At this time, all the vassal kings already knew the location of their fiefdoms, and what they were thinking about was naturally how to develop and expand their fiefdoms, so that they could enjoy the glory and wealth in their fiefdoms and experience the power in their hands.
It's a feeling, isn't it?
Although the imperial court imposed a restriction on these vassal kings, that is, each prince and king could not have more than 10,000 troops. There were rules that could limit the ambitions of these vassal kings to a certain extent.
Of course, even if these vassal kings were ambitious and wanted to go all out with military force, they would not be able to recruit many soldiers and horses from just one island.
No matter what, at least now the imperial court has given them a fiefdom, allowed them to establish a state in the fiefdom, and also allowed them to have military power. This situation is completely different from the previous situation.
So it's understandable that each of these feudal kings seemed extremely excited.
In front of the palace gate, King Qin looked at the other vassal kings with a smile on his face and said: "Everyone, I will return to the fiefdom to prepare to move the people to the fiefdom. We will say goodbye today and see you again someday!"
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Everyone knows that after today, it will be impossible for them to meet each other again. After all, although their fiefdoms are all in the land of Nanyang, they are quite far apart. It can be said that they were sealed by the imperial court.
They were everywhere, even if they, the vassal kings, wanted to unite to resist the imperial court, they couldn't.
Of course, this situation is actually expected. Let alone the land of Nanyang, even if they are in the Central Plains now, if the emperor had not summoned them this time, they may not have been able to see each other once in their lifetime.
After all, the imperial court has always been very wary of vassal kings from all over the country. Let alone meeting these vassal kings, even leaving the fiefdom is a serious crime.
The King of Jin, the King of Chu, and others also smiled at the King of Qin and said, "Let's compete to see whose vassal state will be more prosperous in the future!"
For a time, these feudal kings became somewhat heroic.
In the imperial city, on top of a tall building, the emperor in regular clothes stood on a high attic and looked at the direction of the imperial city from a distance. He slowly said, "Have all the vassal kings left?"
Standing next to the emperor was none other than Wang Yangming, the chief minister of the cabinet who had recently allocated fiefdoms to a number of vassal princes and clansmen.
Hearing the emperor's question at this time, Wang Yangming immediately saluted the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, all the princes have already left."
Turning around slightly, Zhu Houzhao let out a long breath and said: "Today, we finally solved the hidden danger of my Ming Dynasty vassal king, and Ai Qing is indispensable."
Wang Yangming hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is ridiculous. This policy was originally proposed by the Duke of Qin. I just implemented it according to your Majesty's wishes. How can I claim any credit for it?"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said: "You!"
Zhu Houzhao said with a serious expression: "Although the enfeoffment of the feudal kings has been decided, the actual implementation is the most important. The court must find a way to cooperate with the feudal kings and allow them to go there early.
fiefs, and then return their fiefdoms in the Central Plains to the imperial court."
Wang Yangming immediately assured the emperor: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will definitely keep an eye on this matter, and will definitely send all the princes to Nanyang to seal it as soon as possible."
The nineteenth day of the first lunar month of the tenth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty
Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi
As the fiefdom of King Jin of the Ming Dynasty, although Taiyuan City is not prosperous, it is still an extremely important city in the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty. Because it is close to the Mongolian grassland, Taiyuan City is somewhat prosperous.
However, because it was the fiefdom of the King of Jin, the life of the people in Taiyuan City was not very good. After all, the lineage of the King of Jin had been rooted in Taiyuan City for hundreds of years, and all the kings of Jin had devoted their thoughts to how to expand the money of the King of Jin's palace.
Come on, so most of the fertile land in Taiyuan Prefecture is almost all under the name of Prince Jin's Palace. Even the shops in Taiyuan City, Prince Jin's Palace owns dozens or hundreds of them.
It can be said that if we put aside its military and political influence, every time the Jin Palace stomped its feet in Taiyuan City, it would cause three earthquakes.
A few days after the Lantern Festival, Taiyuan City suddenly became lively, all because of a notice from the Jin Palace.
Just a few days ago, the Prince of Jin's Mansion posted a notice, announcing to the people of Taiyuan Prefecture that the King of Jin's lineage would move to Nanyang to split the earth and become a king, and establish a feudal state. Therefore, he invited people from all over the world to go to the fiefdom together.
As long as anyone is willing to go to Nanyang with the Jin Palace, the Jin Palace will reward one person with a hundred acres of fertile land in the fief, and give each person five taels of silver.
As soon as this news came out, you can imagine that the entire Taiyuan Prefecture was shocked.
Originally, Taiyuan City was a bitterly cold place in northern Xinjiang. It was not as prosperous as the Central Plains or Jiangnan. It was good for the people to make a living. Now that the notice from the Jin Palace came out, it naturally made countless people look at it.
In the palace of Prince Jin, Prince Jin, who was dressed in a python suit, looked at Su Chang, the chief official of the palace, with a look of expectation: "Chief Su, how are things going? How many people have come to sign up now?"
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It can be said that after returning from the capital, King Jin focused all his energy on how to plan the future fiefdom. According to the court, except for a very small number of indigenous barbarians in his fiefdom, all the population must be settled by themselves.
No matter how confused King Jin is, he still understands that the basis of a vassal state is its population. If the population is sparse, his vassal state has no meaning at all. If the population is large, nothing else.
At least there are enough manpower for farming.
So the King of Jin was thinking about how to recruit people to go with him to the fiefdom. After the King of Jin convened a group of officials from the palace, and after some discussions, the first thing that came to mind was the tenants under the palace, among whom there were many
It can be said that the young tenants have been farming for the prince for several generations and are completely dependent on the prince for their livelihood.
For these tenants who can almost be regarded as affiliated with the palace, they are naturally the first choice. At the same time, these people are also the most loyal to the palace. According to the statistics of the palace officials, there are almost ten thousand such tenants. Dingkou
There are about 50,000 to 60,000 people, of whom young and middle-aged laborers account for more than a quarter.
These tenants who were dependent on the royal family accounted for more than a tenth of the total population of Taiyuan Prefecture. Moreover, the household registration of these tenants was not included in the government's yellow rolls, so they were like hidden households.
The number of tens of thousands of people was already quite large, but for the Jin Palace, which wanted to establish a kingdom on a large island with millions of acres of fertile land, this population was too small.
Su Chang took a deep breath, looked at King Jin and said, "Back to your lord, nearly ten thousand people have come to sign up. Your subordinate has already ordered people to register the information of these people."
Upon hearing this, King Jin couldn't help but frowned and said: "It's been several days. How can we recruit so many people? Even if we include the tenants of the palace, there are only 60,000 or 70,000 people. What can we do with this small amount of people?"
, continue to recruit people, and take advantage of the permission of the imperial court to go to the fiefdom this time. I will move at least 100,000 people to Nanyang."
Su Chang heard this and said hurriedly: "Your Highness, don't worry, I have ordered people to post notices everywhere. I believe that with the conditions set by Your Highness, it will not be difficult to recruit 100,000 people by then."
King Jin nodded slightly. The northern land was poor, and with the good conditions he offered, it was not difficult to recruit a group of people to accompany him to the fiefdom.
But there was another point that King Jin had to consider, and that was how he was going to take away so much property from King Jin's palace.
In other words, after arriving in the fiefdom, how he builds the fiefdom and how he feeds the people who follow him to the fiefdom is the most important thing.
There are many gold, silver and jewels in the Jin Palace, but even if these things are brought to Nanyang or to the fiefdom, they cannot be used as cattle and horses or used as food.
When it comes to people's livelihood, it can be said to be all aspects, there are too many. Fortunately, there are various officials in the palace who are in charge of various affairs of the palace.
These officials usually manage all aspects of the palace, but now they have become King Jin's best helpers. With the suggestions and reminders of these officials, King Jin sent a large number of palace personnel to purchase large quantities of goods on the market.
Cloth, ironware, medicinal materials and other supplies.
The large amount of money accumulated by the palace over the years flowed out like water, but in exchange for a large amount of materials, they entered the palace's warehouse and were then loaded onto trucks and transported to the port for shipment.
Listening to Su Chang's report on the progress of various matters, the King of Jin coughed lightly and said: "Chief Su, how is the matter of collecting ships going?"
The matter of ships is naturally not a trivial matter. If there are not enough ships, it is obvious that the people he recruited and the large amount of materials purchased cannot be transported to Nanyang. This is why the King of Jin does not care about its progress.
Su Chang couldn't help but frowned when he heard this and said: "Back to your lord, now it is not only our Jin Palace that is searching for ships, but other princely houses have also sent a large number of people to say that they are searching for ships. The prices of ships on the market are huge.
It was more than double the price. Even so, it was still priceless but not marketable. The official tried his best, and in accordance with the prince's instructions, he contacted several maritime merchants and agreed to grant them titles and rewards in the prince's kingdom.
Only then did I persuade several of them, who were willing to offer the prince a hundred ships and a lot of gold and silver."
Having said this, Su Chang took a deep breath and said: "Including the ships that the palace has collected, there are almost more than 300 ships, which can transport tens of thousands of people and a large amount of materials at a time."
"good!"
After hearing Su Chang's reply, King Jin couldn't help but clapped his hands and said, "Very good, I didn't expect those maritime merchants to be so courageous."
You must know that with the opening of the sea, everyone knows that as long as there is a ship, it means having a lot of wealth.
Even if you don't engage in sea trade, just by transporting people from the imperial court to Nanyang, and then bringing back a large amount of grain produced in Nanyang, and cooperating with the imperial court, that is a stable income.
It is precisely because of this that the price of sea-going ships has remained high, and there has always been a price but no market situation.
Nowadays, various royal palaces need a large number of ships to transport people and supplies, which naturally pushes up the price of sea ships. Naturally, some maritime merchants find themselves with rare goods to live in.
It seems very normal for the King of Jin to trade the titles in his fiefdom in exchange for the support of some maritime merchants.
Although the titles in the fiefdoms of various kings were not recognized by the Ming Dynasty, they were real titles in the fiefdoms of various vassals.
For businessmen with low status and empty wealth, there are a large number of businessmen who are willing to have the opportunity to exchange money for status, even if this status has great restrictions.
Stroking his beard, King Jin looked at Su Chang and said: "Continue to send people to contact those maritime merchants and say that I will offer ten more earls. As long as they are willing to help me, I will establish a kingdom in the future."
, I will never treat them badly."
In order to recruit the people who would follow them to the sea, a group of feudal princes and clansmen resorted to all kinds of tricks, and naturally they also recruited many poor people.
The imperial court would turn a blind eye to the actions of various vassal kings, as long as they were not too unruly. After all, these vassal kings were still somewhat scrupulous about their actions when considering the future of feuding and founding a country, at least more than in the past.
What we did in the fiefdom was already much better.
Tianjin Wei Port
On this day, the flowers were blooming, the spring breeze was blowing, and a large number of ships were densely packed in the huge port. On the ships, a large flag of the Jin Dynasty's Palace was roaring loudly.
It was a slightly old treasure ship, but it was the flagship of the fleet of the Jin Palace. It cost the Jin Palace 20,000 taels of silver to buy it from the imperial court.
With this treasure ship as the core, surrounded by densely packed large and small ships, it was a fleet filled with a large number of people and supplies heading to the Jin King's fiefdom in Nanyang.