Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 521 The Men of the Zhu Family
The significance of the Lantern Festival lies in reunion, which is true for ordinary people and even more so for the royal family.
However, Zhu Youdong's family has not had a true reunion on the Lantern Festival for many years.
The first is the oldest person in the family, the Grand Emperor Zhu Yijun. Wanli, who was only 62 years old this year, not only lived longer than the original historical plane, but also lived happier.
The old man had been on a roll since his tour of Dunhuang five years ago. In the past five years, except for returning to Beijing once or twice, he had been touring the country. This year, he and Concubine Zheng went to Korea to celebrate the festival with Prince Fu.
In his words: Only today do I truly understand what the country I have ruled for more than 40 years is like.
In his early years, Wanli treated Zhu Youdong very well. The trust and support he showed was not what an emperor should do, but what a grandfather who doted on his grandson should do. Therefore, Zhu Youdong was very supportive of Wanli's plan to tour the country and even the entire Greater East Asia: the old man had not left Beijing for more than 50 years from his birth to his abdication!
Except for Wanli and Concubine Zheng, all of Zhu Youdong's uncles were no longer in the country due to the feudal system. Not only them, but in recent years, more than 20 princes who were enfeoffed by successive emperors before Zhu Youdong have all gone to sea to settle down.
Awaranalong of Myanmar died two years ago, and the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the situation to take it over. Following the example of Siam, after symbolically giving some land to Awaranalong's descendants and allocating a good piece of land to the Mon people, the rich Irrawaddy River Plain was divided between the two princes, the King of Shu and the King of Chu.
Not only that, when these two princes took up their fiefdoms, they also took away all the dozens of counties that had been granted to them over the past two hundred years - just from this one item, the Ming court recovered nearly 10 million acres of land.
The King of Qin went to Luzon, the King of Jin went to Mindanao. As for the Malay Peninsula, Kalimantan Island, and even Java Island and many other Southeast Asian islands, more than a dozen princes were placed there.
In short, by the Lantern Festival of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign (1625), when Wanli had not returned, Zhu Youdong had become the most senior person in the Forbidden City, except for the Empress Dowager Guo.
“Brother!”
"Haha, sister, um, and Chief of Staff Lu, you are here. Oh, this must be my nephew, come here, let your uncle hug you."
After meeting Wahid, Zhu Youdong hurried back to the harem: since he was the oldest man in the palace, he had to be present at all times on family reunion days like the Lantern Festival.
Then, as soon as she returned, she ran into Lu Xiangsheng and Zhu Huijuan, a couple who had entered the palace with their son who was only half a year old.
Speaking of which, since Zhu Youdong took office as regent, he had abolished many old rules in the past ten years. After the princess got married, the rule that the prince consort could not live with the princess as a normal couple was naturally abolished. In addition, the rule that the prince consort could not hold an actual position no longer existed. Lu Xiangsheng was now a staff officer under the Privy Council, and he made rapid progress under the advice of Ma Chengzhao and others - so now the relationship between the couple was very good.
After holding his nephew and playing with him for a while, Zhu Youdong suddenly felt someone pulling his trouser legs. He looked down and saw a two-year-old child stretching out his hands aggrievedly: "Father, I want a hug too."
"Hahaha, Yan'er can walk by himself. That's amazing." He quickly handed his nephew back to Lu Xiangsheng and bent down to pick up his third son.
A lazy man like him was quite irresponsible in naming his son: his eldest son Zhu Ciyi was born in the first year of the Tianqi reign, and was already six years old this year. According to the rule that royal children should start learning at the age of four, Ciyi's mother You Yi invited Wen Zhenmeng, the top scholar in the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, Li Jia, who graduated from Fangshan School and had just been transferred from Singapore State to Beijing to serve as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture two years ago, and Ma Chengzhao, the commander of the Privy Council, to be his son.
The second son, Zhu Ciyan, was born to Empress Liu Yun in the third year of the Tianqi reign. He is four years old this year and is about to start his education.
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong did not have a strong concept of legitimate and illegitimate children. But the concept of etiquette that legitimate sons are superior to illegitimate sons has been passed down for more than two thousand years. Therefore, Zhu Ciyan's enlightenment received much more attention from the court than Zhu Ciyi: led by the deputy assistant Yuan Keli, Wang Shaozheng, Zhao Yan, Gu Bingqian and other bigwigs all served as his liberal arts teachers. Li Guojun, Sun Yuanhua, Song Yingxing and others from Fangshan served as his science teachers. The military even sent core generals such as Li Chunzhong and Ma Chengen to serve as his military teachers. Moreover, his chief guard was carefully selected by the military, and Cao Wenzhao's nephew, Cao Bianjiao, who was now sixteen years old, was selected as the chief guard.
As for the third son Zhu Ci Yan, he was also born to Queen Liu Yun. As the second legitimate son, his birth caused the status of the eldest illegitimate son Zhu Ci Yi to decline again: the eldest legitimate son already has a spare tire, and you, the eldest illegitimate son Zhu Ci Yi, are not even a spare tire.
He felt helpless about this situation: as an emperor, he had changed many etiquette laws, but there were some things he was powerless to fight. As a father, the only thing he could do was to give his eldest son more love and care to make up for the discriminatory treatment of him in the palace.
However, this kind of care is also extremely limited: he was so busy that he didn't realize until his third son was over two years old and could walk independently: Hey? My youngest son can walk?
After picking up his little son and teasing him for a while, Prince of Lai Zhu Youxiao arrived.
"Greetings, brother."
"Haha, Youxiao, I told you not to leave in a hurry after the Spring Festival, but you have to rush back from Tianjin for the Lantern Festival."
"It's alright, my Royal Brother. The Beijing-Tianjin Railway has been accelerated again. I set out this morning and arrived before noon."
"Well, I really envy you. For so many years, I have been trapped in Beijing like Grandpa Huang in his early years, unable to go anywhere. Speaking of which, I have not experienced the Beijing-Tianjin Railway since it was opened to traffic."
"If you are free this year, why not go to Tianjin again? I will take the train with you."
"Oh?" Zhu Youdong glanced at Zhu Youxiao with interest: "Are you finally willing to let me meet your girlfriend?"
"Uh..." His Royal Highness Prince Lai blushed. "No, my dear brother, what I meant is that the latest 5,000-ton ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty will be launched in the second half of this year. I would like to invite you to preside over the launching ceremony."
"Hahaha, I will definitely go for this matter. But you have to hurry up and arrange your marriage. You are already 20 years old this year! Look at Yu (Mu Xue), he was only 17 years old when he got married last year."
In fact, due to the intrusion of Zhu Youdong, a time traveler, Zhu Youxiao's life trajectory has changed greatly: he is no longer an emperor, and his engineering talent has completely exploded under the conscious guidance of the time traveler. Now, the 20-year-old Prince Lai has become the leading warship designer in the Ming Empire as he grows older and has richer knowledge and experience. Last year, the Yingtian and Shuntian, with a standard displacement of 3,000 tons, had just completed their outfitting and the navy received them. This year, the 5,000-ton Songjiang is about to be launched again.
"I am very satisfied with your work. Not only I am satisfied, but also all the civil and military officials in the court, who dares to say that Your Highness Prince Lai is not doing a good job. However, personal problems should be solved as soon as possible. I haven't seen Zhang Yan'er yet, but I heard from General Manager Bi Maokang that she is very beautiful."
"Well, Yan'er is excellent. How about this, my royal brother? You come in the second half of the year to cut the ribbon on my new ship, and then we can hold the wedding on the new ironclad ship, and you will be the master of ceremonies?"
"Eh? That's a good suggestion. Hahahaha, although there will definitely be some old pedants saying it's against etiquette, but I'll take on this pressure for you."
The two brothers chatted for a while, and not long after, Fang Zhenghua outside the door began to call out the names of the guests: Prince Jian Zhu You (Muxue), Prince Qi Zhu Youji, Prince Huai Zhu Youmo, and Prince Xin Zhu Youjian all arrived one after another.
"Your Highness, I and your humble servants greet you and wish you a happy holiday and good health."
"No need to be polite, there's no need to be so formal between us brothers. Um, You (Mu Xue), you just got married last year. I heard that Princess Jian is pregnant now?"
"Uh..." Zhu You (Mu Xue) blushed: "Royal brother, it is true."
"Haha, then you have to work hard as the magistrate of Baoding Prefecture. If you make a mistake and get fined, and you can't support your family, I won't take responsibility."
"Your Majesty, you are joking. Not to mention that my prince's salary has been paid on time by the court. Even my current salary as a magistrate is at least a sixth-rank official. After your majesty's three salary increases, the monthly salary of a sixth-rank official is 23 silver dollars (as mentioned earlier, the purchasing power of one silver dollar in this era is roughly equivalent to 250 silver dollars in later generations, and the prices are cheaper for agricultural products and more expensive for industrial products than in modern times), which is enough for my family's expenses. However." Zhu You (Mu Xue) bowed deeply: "Your Majesty reminds me that the magistrate is doing judicial work, and there is absolutely no room for carelessness. If there is a negligence, it is possible that good people will suffer and evil people will go unpunished. So my minister has been trembling and treading on thin ice all these years."
"Well, you are always alert, and I am very pleased."
After saying this, Zhu Youdong turned his gaze to Zhu Youji and Zhu Youmo. When the two saw Zhu Youdong's eyes turned to them, they couldn't help but tense up.
As the saying goes, a dragon gives birth to nine sons, each one is different. Compared with Zhu Youxiao and Zhu You (Muxue), these two princes, who are only fifteen years old this year, are much worse.
Zhu Youxiao was a natural engineer with hard work, while Zhu You (Muxue) was not very talented, but he was diligent and hardworking. These two had neither talent nor hard work, and they also had bad habits - the former was lustful and the latter was a gambler.
As princes, it is not a big deal for them to have such a hobby, but you harassed female classmates in Fangshan School and organized them to gamble all night long, which is intolerable.
Then, Li Zhizao, who is now in charge of the specific management of Fangshan School, simply expelled the two princes after several punishments failed!
Although the royal family lost face, Zhu Youdong did not overturn Li Zhizao's decision. Instead, he sent Empress Liu Yun to apologize to the relevant teachers and students one by one.
But after these two guys returned to the palace, Zhu Youdong sent people to tie them up and beat them up personally: The eldest brother is like a father.
Now, these two guys were ordered to study behind closed doors in Xinghua Palace, where Zhu Youdong originally lived. Half a year had passed, and they finally took advantage of the Lantern Festival to leave Xinghua Palace.
"You two, listen to the reports from the heads of the inner school hall. They say that you have performed quite well in the past six months. I am very busy now. I will test your studies when I have time. If you are not bad enough, I will let you go out to accompany Grandpa Huang to travel around the world. You will be my filial piety to Grandpa Huang. If you are still a rotten wood that cannot be carved, then I have no choice but to let you go to Fengyang to guard the body, even if you are brothers."
"Don't worry, my Royal Highness. I will sincerely repent and study hard."
"Yeah." After letting the two brothers go, Zhu Youdong turned his attention to his youngest brother, Zhu Youjian, who was only fourteen years old that year.
"Youjian, you are about to graduate from Fangshan Middle School this year, right? Are you planning to continue to study at the graduate school or do something else? I heard about your grades. You have been the top student in the grade for three years. I am very happy for you."
"Brother." The childish Prince Xin Zhu Youjian first looked at his two brothers who were only one year older than him with disdain, and then answered with vigor: "Brother, I know that I have no talent for scientific research, let alone any interest in it. Therefore, I am not going to enter the research institute after graduating from high school. I beg your permission. After graduation, please let me go to the Censorate. I want to expose all the corrupt officials in my Ming Dynasty!"
