Zhu Yunying was ruthless towards such people.

Old Zhu was in a good mood and joked, "Next, we're probably going to be criticized by scholars all over the world again."

Joo Yoon-young joked, "Who told you to always try to bring up their 'quasi-saint'!"

"This time it's all your fault!" Old Zhu said irritably, with some disdain. "If it weren't for our great-grandson, I wouldn't bother with your nonsense! Why did you have to get the Duke of Yansheng taken down? You look down on him so much?"

Zhu Yunying explained again, "Grandfather, I have never looked down on Confucius. It is his descendants that I look down on. Think about it, throughout the dynasties, the descendants of Confucius have always loved to submit petitions of surrender. Whoever gives them an official position, they will obey. They don't care whether they are Han or barbarians."

Yes, the descendants of Confucius truly didn't care who ruled the country; what they cared about was whether their lineage as Duke Yansheng could be passed down, and whether the ruler needed to establish them as role models for scholars. What these people cared about was essentially their own privileges; everything else was irrelevant.

When the Jurchens came, they sent a surrender document. When the Yuan people came, they did the same thing, continuing to act as Dukes Yansheng. Everything else was irrelevant to them; enjoying the privileges of the Dukes Yansheng was enough for them.

"What about the scholars?" Old Zhu looked at Zhu Yunying with utmost seriousness. "We must treat the scholars well. If you continue to cause trouble like this, we're probably going to end up like the Yuan people. The scholars will start to turn against us."

Zhu Yunying then said, "We have granted some powers, such as not having to kneel before officials, and the right to travel. We have given them dignity. We have also granted them exemption from corvée labor. However, we must set a limit on the amount of land exempted from taxes for these scholars. The same applies to officials."

In reality, this simply sets an upper limit on the amount of land exempt from taxation; it absolutely cannot be a matter of simply having a title to continuously claim exemptions. Zhu Yunying also knew that it was impossible to completely prohibit things like offering land as tribute in the future.

However, the land donated in general will not be too much. There will not be a situation where an entire village or county is almost entirely occupied by one household, and the land in the Ming Dynasty will not be in such an awkward situation as 'less and less'.

Not only scholars and officials, but even members of the imperial family will not find it easy to annex land in the future.

Old Zhu became more and more satisfied with his grandson, feeling that his grandson and he were actually very similar in temperament.

I can't speak for everything else, but I'm definitely a worrier. I want to do well in the present while also looking to the future. I'm not just thinking about three or five years, but also about a hundred or a thousand years, about the future generations.

Even if we can't do everything right now, we should at least eliminate some potential problems in advance.

Little Zhu ran over happily and said to Zhu Yunying, "Father, I will also go to the sacrifice tomorrow."

Zhu Yunying laughed and, holding little Zhu, said, "Okay, you can come with us then."

"Great-grandfather is going too!" Little Zhu leaned towards Old Zhu and said happily, "Great-grandfather is the old emperor, father is the great emperor, and Yin'er is the little emperor!"

Old Zhu beamed with joy; it was obvious that this was someone Old Zhu had taught. Anyone else who dared to teach like this would surely be doomed.

Zhu Yunying was speechless. He used to only dare to 'rank' people by seniority, creating a system like Old Zhu, Great Zhu, and Little Zhu. But his imperial grandfather was bold enough to directly use the emperors as the ranking, but it didn't seem to have any problems.

As if remembering something, Zhu Yunying said, "Grandfather, if the weather gets a little warmer, why don't you take Yin'er back to our hometown?"

Old Zhu's eyes lit up, and he asked excitedly, "Really? You really want us to take Yin'er back?"

“Take him back. Yin’er has never been back since he was born. It’s most appropriate for Grandfather to take him back.” Zhu Yunying laughed and said, “I’m afraid I don’t have time to take Yin’er back. It’s better for Great-Grandfather to take him back.”

Old Zhu was happy just thinking about all this. He would take his great-grandson to see his parents. How proud he would be!

It seems we need to urge him on. That damned Duke Yansheng needs to come to the capital as soon as possible to settle these matters so he can take his great-grandson back to his hometown!