Wu Kuan and Liu Jian walked out of the palace, each a little silent. The crown prince was so smart, and the emperor loved him very much. Wouldn't the master of the Ming Dynasty become the Eastern Palace in the future?

in the capital city,

Zhang Tianrui followed Zhu Houzhao's instructions and began to use money to recruit some craftsmen to work and build houses.

The movement is not small,

It seems that there was also the instruction from the East Palace behind this.

Now, no money from the Ministry of Accounts is used for this matter, and it has nothing to do with the national finance. Naturally, the cabinet and the Ministry of Accounts can't say anything.

Wu Kuan thought about it and felt that Dong Gong was too slippery.

Moreover, the name of doing this is to recruit poor people to train doctors. If anyone dares to stop this, once a commotion breaks out, it doesn't matter that the people in the capital are spitting on him. His Royal Highness will also knock him down and ruin his reputation.

A few days later,

Zhu Houzhao received another copy of the prince's education plan submitted by the cabinet. This time it was much more "reasonable".

1. Practice calligraphy. Write one hundred every day in the spring, summer, and autumn months, and fifty every day in the winter months. The brushwork must be regular and simple.

Second, after lunch every day, take a leisurely stroll or practice riding and shooting - I am already doing this.

Third, read the books taught today dozens of times every night until you are familiar with them - if you are familiar with them, you don’t need to read them dozens of times, thank you.

4. Whenever you read and warm up after three days, you must memorize it and mature it. On the day when you meet the warm-up book, you are not required to teach new books, and you must understand the general meaning of the official lecture - the same as above.

5. The start and end of each day's teaching. One day in advance, the school librarian will write a post and submit it - why is the school librarian's affairs included in my study plan?

6. Whenever there is strong wind, rain, snow, severe cold or severe heat, we will suspend the reading and calligraphy exercises - does it need to be clarified how big the wind and rain are?

7. There are two class clerks, four lecturers, one clerk, and one school clerk every day - it has nothing to do with me.

He gave this thing back to Liu Jin and looked at it.

"Our Lord Wu is quarreling with me. It's enough to just copy this little thing, and I have to ask Mr. Liu to make some modifications."

After Eunuch Liu saw this thing, he didn't have any other opinions. He just sighed, "Time flies so fast. I still remember the days when I held His Highness in my arms. In the blink of an eye, I have to go out to study."

The auspicious day finally determined by the Ministry of Rites is the third day of March.

It's been a month, but actually it just happened in the blink of an eye.

Now Zhu Houzhao no longer has the concept of going to work or off work, and he doesn't care what day of the week it is. It feels like every day is a weekend, so time flies by very quickly.

When Liu Jin talked about time,

Zhu Houzhao thought about the day he ascended the throne again. He received the education from his previous life and never dreamed that he would become the emperor. I don't know what will happen in the future.

But don't think so much, just follow the plan step by step.

While we were talking, someone came from outside to report that Yang Tinghe wanted to see him.

Zhu Houzhao was slightly startled. They had not seen Yang Tinghe since he went to Qingzhou to serve as magistrate. Is this because he came to visit him during the Chinese New Year?

"Ask him to come in."

"yes!"

Not long after, Yang Tinghe, dressed in a blue official robe, with a bit of wind and frost on his face, met the prince in front of the prince's desk in the Xiefang Hall.

"Your Majesty Yang Tinghe, please see Your Highness."

"Get up." Zhu Houzhao ordered Liu Jin, "Look at the seat. Place the stool next to the charcoal basin. Our Mr. Yang will freeze after not seeing you for many days."

"Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness."

These are all our own people, so just be polite.

Then Zhu Houzhao asked: "Why did you come here suddenly today? What's the matter?"

"No. I am returning to Beijing on a business trip and will return to Qingzhou soon. I just have some knowledge in my heart that I want to share with His Highness."

While talking, he took out a memorial from his pocket and handed it to Liu Jin.

There are five big characters on the memorial: "Qingzhou Tax Book"

"From what I saw in Qingzhou, the more excellent the fertile land is, the easier it is to fall into the hands of the eunuchs and the big households. On the contrary, the poor and inferior fields will be added to the heads of the small people, but it is the small people who pay the taxes.

And those who own land are relatively good. Among the people in Qingzhou, only 23% of them have land, and 78% of them are tenant farmers. The official land designated by the imperial court is heavily taxed, and only the autumn crops are harvested every year.

, the harvest from an acre cannot be more than three dan, the less one can only get more than one dan, and the payment to be paid is one dan for the heavy one, and seven or eight bushels for the small one. The tenants have exhausted their efforts for a year, and the manure is clogged in the work, but they still have the full rent today.

And tomorrow there will be a beggar.”

What Yang Tinghe was talking about was actually the matter of land annexation. He only saw some superficial things in Qingzhou, and it will only become more profound after more years of thinking about it.

In a country dominated by agriculture, the most important thing is naturally the land. But it is very difficult to solve the land problem. Not to mention a young prince, even an emperor like Kangxi would have a hard time doing it.

This matter is extremely important, and we must not rush it. At least we cannot do it when our foundation is still shallow.

In fact, he is already making preparations. If he has the energy to accomplish things, the two most important things about this 'energy' are money and people. People are divided into civil and military. Civil, Wu, and everyone brought out by Wang Yue are all

It belongs to him. We always think about the problem from the perspective of the prince and feel that we need to recruit. In fact, thinking from the perspective of some border soldiers, they want to climb onto the lintel of the prince. With this background, they can do many things with confidence.

Of course, none of this can be done today and tomorrow, it will take time.

Zhu Houzhao's face became solemn, he had to handle this matter properly.

But Yang Tinghe continued: "Don't you know that it is a big taboo for me to commit the following crimes? However, Qi Kuan, the governor of Shandong, indulged his domestic slaves, either buying them at low prices, or using the so-called method of dedication, and usurped tens of thousands of people's fields. His crimes are too numerous to list!

"

This is a third-grade official, and he is not something that a fourth-grade official should be able to shake.

Logically speaking, he shouldn't have jumped to the next level to talk about this matter.

As for Zhu Houzhao, as the person behind Yang Tinghe, now that a minister has reported such a major case, he must take a stand, otherwise his previous reputation as a virtuous man will not be consistent with his current behavior of condoning corrupt officials.

It will also dampen the enthusiasm of such officials who still have justice in their hearts.

But in addition to supporting Yang Tinghe's work to a certain extent, as a superior, he must also consider whether the measures are appropriate from the overall situation, and cannot let him mess around and break the plan.

Also note that you cannot be too specific. Because Yang Tinghe just said it simply. What is the actual situation? Who knows?

"This memorial... I want to keep it as a reminder." Zhu Houzhao looked at it for a few times, and he already had some calculations in his mind. He first had to have the consciousness of being his backstage, "As for the Qi Kuan matter, you can just follow your instructions.

Do whatever you think in your heart, I will make the decision for you in everything! Do you still remember what I said to you when you went to Qingzhou?"

"Don't embarrass Dong Palace!"

"Well. I asked you why you didn't come to see me until today. I guess it was due to some hesitation in your heart. If you go to Xiefang Hall and don't say anything, you will be betraying my feelings. If you say... you, Yang Tinghe, are guilty.

A big taboo in officialdom.”

Yang Tinghe touched his head to the ground, "Your Highness is wiser than ever!"

"But I don't care about the taboos. If the people's affairs are not handled well, the imperial officials are not good. If there is something you can't do, send a letter to the East Palace. If you hesitated before, I don't care. Now it's time.

I have said this here, so you must not hesitate at all when you go back. Let them know that there is a Prince of the East Palace in the Ming Dynasty. This is brave, you should remember it first."

Yang Tinghe's heart was filled with excitement, and he kowtowed, "Please remember this!"

"I will read this "Qingzhou Tax Book", but I can only lock it first. The disadvantages of Qingzhou are not the disadvantages of our Ming Dynasty. I don't know how wide the two capitals and thirteen provinces are, but the annexation of the land

It’s no small matter, you and I both have to wait for the time and conditions to mature. This is deliberate, do you understand what I mean?”

What a smart person Yang Tinghe is?

"I understand that since I have participated in Qi Kuan's case, I will only handle Qi Kuan's case."

There is nothing we can do about this.

In fact, to put it simply, if we don’t have a few loyal hawks, generals and hundreds of thousands of troops that can fight, we can only handle these cases one by one. As long as they are not nationwide, nothing will happen.

trouble.

Of course, there's never just one way to do anything.

In fact, there is a second one, which is more emperor-minded, which is to find a black glove.

Zhu Houzhao frowned and bit his finger. He knew that the Hongzhi Dynasty had a big problem, that is, the vassal king requested a lot of land, and this trend had to be stopped.

"You are waiting for my letter in Qingzhou. As long as the time is right, maybe you can do more Qi Kuan and bring more blessings to the people."

Yang Tinghe raised his head and glanced at the prince, who was frowning and thinking hard about various ways, and suddenly felt moved.

"I will obey His Majesty's will even if I die!"

Zhu Houzhao frowned. He knew that Yang Tinghe would be in danger if such a thing happened. After all, he was just a small fourth-grade official.

"By the way, you...do you have a son named Yang..."

"His Royal Highness, the name of the dog is Shen, Yang Shen."

"How old are you? Ten years old?"

"New Year's Day is the eleventh day."

"Speaking of which, the preparations for the lectures in the East Palace are almost complete, and the date is very close. In my opinion, your son should not go to Qingzhou with you this time, but stay and be my companion."

Yang Tinghe was stunned and was really caught off guard. This was not an ordinary reward...

He immediately knelt down and said, "Your Highness, this favor is too heavy and I am frightened! Dogs are not people with such great blessings!"
To be continued...