eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 642 The Prince's Preface
In the tenth year of Zhengde, the prince Xuzhi has reached the fourth place. If his daughter is included, then he is now the fourth son and three daughters.

In the past few years, perhaps because the emperor and his concubines were young, the number of heirs did not increase so quickly. After the sixth year of Zhengde, all the concubines came to celebrate their birthdays respectively.

The emperor's eldest son is named Zhu Zaihe (pronounced Tongshou). He was born in the second year of Zhengde and is now nine years old. His biological mother is Concubine Ning, also known as Mei Huaixiao.

The emperor's second son was named Zhu Zaiyan (pronounced Tongxun). He was born in the second year of Zhengde, also nine years old. His biological mother was Concubine Zhao, also known as Mei Huaiyan.

Then Zhu Houzhao welcomed two daughters. The eldest daughter was named Xiuyu, and her biological mother was Concubine Shen Shu. The second daughter was named Xiurong, the princess born to Queen Xia.

Next up is the third son of the emperor, named Zai Yao (pronounced in the same way), which means mountain high. He was born to Concubine Chen Xian in the sixth year of Zhengde and is only five years old now.

The fourth son of the emperor, Zhu Zaiji, was born in the seventh year of Zhengde. His biological mother was Concubine Shun.

The imperial concubine Kui'er also gave birth to an heir to the emperor, but it was a daughter, just two years old.

This pattern can basically ensure that the succession of the throne after Zhengde will be worry-free.

However, the structure is not very reasonable.

Although Mei Kejia is now an earl, he was born into a merchant family, and the mothers of the emperor's eldest son and the emperor's second son were his concubines.In an age where status is important, Zai Tao and Zai Yan were born shorter.

This concept is deep-rooted and does not depend on Zhu Houzhao's personal will.

The fourth prince's mother, Concubine Shun, was a Mongolian, so he didn't even think about it.

The third remaining emperor, Zai Yao, had no shortcomings in his background, but he also had no bright spots. Although his mother-in-law Xian Fei was favored by the emperor in the harem, she was not a queen after all, let alone a noble concubine.

Now the emperor is still young, and so are his concubines. It is hard to say whether he will be as good as he is today when he gets old and loses his luster.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know what to say. He couldn't take all the good fortune in the world by himself, right?

Zhu Yuanzhang's son had a very reasonable structure. No one could challenge his eldest brother's status and ability. The structure was very stable, but in the end he died earlier than Zhu Yuanzhang.

So there is nothing to complain about this result, just accept it and then think of a solution.

"...Prince who oversees the country, who do you think is more suitable?"

The princes are not big, so the actual matter must be decided by the cabinet.But let alone nine years old, even if it is three years old, you still need to find a prince to sit on it.

Yang Yiqing reported back, "I thought that the eldest son of the emperor should be ordered to supervise the country."

"Why?"

"Impartial, fair and impartial."

Zhu Hou made it clear that since there is no direct descendant, it should be the long-term, conventional approach and the golden mean.

"Yes." He nodded, then touched his nose as if he was a little embarrassed. The king and his ministers had known each other for nearly ten years, and there were some things he was willing to say to these two close ministers.

"You two elders must understand me. Yong Xie Bu Yi Bu Ya said the same thing last year and this year. Huo Si has been accumulating strength since he returned to the grassland. I originally wanted to go into suppression in the eighth year of Zhengde, but now I have postponed it. Two years can't be delayed any longer." "Your Majesty's words are serious, and I am frightened."

"Hey, it doesn't have to be like this. Let's have a chat between the monarch and his ministers. I know that some imperial officials keep saying that I am very happy for my success. I half admit it." The emperor shook his head, looking like he had made an unreasonable mistake. But he still looked shameless, "But having said that, what ambitions and ambitions does an emperor who doesn't like success have? Do you hope that I will have no fighting spirit and return to the harem to drink and have fun every night? I just want to expand my territory and go far. The merits of the Han and Tang dynasties. What’s not to do?
As for the second word they said, "militancy", I don't recognize it, nor do I recognize anything else. "

He continued to emphasize: "And if you don't recognize it today, you won't recognize it in the future. I have been on the throne for ten years. The grains in Juntun have grown to 800 million shi, right? The salt tax has been raised to 3000 million taels this year, right? The annual income of the entire country has never been enough. [-] million shi has jumped four steps in a row, reaching more than [-] million shi. Moreover, the frontier military expenditure has been reduced. The national treasury is now in balance every year. The salaries of officials have even been increased. Six more warehouses have been built in the capital. It’s still full and overflowing.

Some people say this is the result of sweet potatoes.Hehe, sweet potato is not something I strongly promote?If this is still considered militancy, then they have to look through the history books to see which emperor who fought better than me! "

Zhu Houzhao had his hands on his waist, and he had a bit of a bad temper.

Anyway, he doesn't care. If he doesn't deal with the Mongols this time, it will be more troublesome in the future.He originally had memories of the time during the Jiajing period when the leader of the Tumut tribe, Anda, invaded the Central Plains again.

Yang Yiqing also knew that this time was different from the previous ones. The emperor always had the urge to send troops. For example, when he wanted to attack Hami, he listened to the advice that time. In the eighth year of Zhengde, he also listened to the advice after considering the lack of a prince. But several times ...It seems that it really can't be stopped this time.

In fact, when he was the head of the cabinet, he would never use troops regardless of opposition. Moreover, the country's situation was excellent, and it was to the extent that the Mongols became bigger.

In the seventh year of Zhengde, Wang Shouren took command and commanded all the troops under his command to carry out a resolute attack on the Mongolian tribes by harassing, attacking and driving them away.To the northwest, the Seven Guards of Guanxi failed to form an army, so Jinglupp Zhou Shangwen sent Ma Rong to lead two elite cavalry guards in Hami, staring to see if King Zhongshun wanted to flirt with the Turpan Khanate.

These are all things Yang Yiqing agrees with and strongly recommends.

But the difference this time is: the emperor wants to conquer it himself.

Zhu Houzhao also knew that it was difficult. After all, he had a 'great' Yingzong ancestor.However, since the eighth year of Zhengde's reign, the minister's mouth should have become looser.

Yang Yiqing had no choice but to sigh and asked: "I wonder how your Majesty plans to mobilize the troops? And even if your Majesty issues an imperial edict today to set off the army, it will take less than half a year to make all preparations. Marching in winter is even more inappropriate, so just I can do it next year. But His Majesty will still visit Jiangnan next year."

Zhu Houzhao pretended to think and said: "This is not a problem. The inspection of Jiangnan can wait until my triumphant return... Oh, otherwise, I will go to Jiangnan this year to inspect, and when everything is ready next spring, I will set off directly!"

Yang Yiqing: (⌒⌒*)
Wang Hao: ￣ Pan ￣.

No wonder Yang Shen went south to fight at the front station at this time.

The emperor and his little friends have already calculated this.

It was said that Zhengde's ten years of personal expedition and eleven years of patrolling Jiangnan... turned out to be waiting for them here.

And after succeeding, they didn't hide the pride on their faces at all, which made the two of them a little bit dumbfounded. In fact, they were familiar with each other and got along very well, so they only made a few comments.

The emperor strode towards his imperial case, his whole body beaming with joy, "Mr. Yang Ge, Mr. Wang Ge, do you still remember what Ping Haibo said some time ago? He said that shipyards and artillery and gun factories are now very powerful. , these are the foundation of Ming Dynasty’s foreign exchanges. Unfortunately, in order to reduce the transportation distance, they are not all in the capital. Even since the establishment of the Ming Navy, I have not reviewed it. So no matter what, I, the emperor, should go there. Let’s go?”

With the emperor's tone, Yang Yiqing and Wang Hao no longer tried to stop him. This was also the trust they had had between the emperor and his ministers for so many years. They believed that Emperor Zhengde would never do anything harmful to the people or the country.

Next to you, You Zhi was already laughing very skillfully. Even though he knew in his heart that the emperor was talking nonsense, he still had this expression.

Ping Haibo did have this idea before, but he remembered that the sentence the emperor read out at that time was not about a shipyard or an artillery factory, but the ten-mile long street of Hangzhou, which was extremely prosperous...

(End of this chapter)