With the private support of an enthusiastic citizen who wished to remain anonymous, Prince Lu, who had been refusing to go to his fiefdom in Beijing, finally returned to his country in September of the 17th year of Wanli.

On that day, Emperor Wanli, who only appeared once a year at the New Year's Day court, also made an unprecedented move to personally send his younger brother off at the Huangji Gate.

Prince Lu knelt on the ground to say goodbye, and Wanli came down to the throne, and the brothers shed tears together. Because of the Ming Dynasty's ancestral system, unless the prince of a vassal state wanted to welcome him back to succeed the throne, he could not return to Beijing even if the sky fell.

Thinking that they would never see each other again in this life, the brothers finally couldn't help but hugged each other and cried.

In the end, Wanli watched Prince Lu leave the Meridian Gate and still refused to look away. Many of the ministers were moved, such as Mr. Zhao, whose eyes were red.

However, the result of the emperor's doting on his younger brother was that when Prince Lu left Beijing, he used 9,250 ships to transport treasures and belongings, accompanied by 27 officials from the palace, more than 600 lieutenants, and 2,000 soldiers. He also used 32,900 laborers and more than 1,000 horses. In addition, there were tens of thousands of palace maids, servants, and eunuchs.

In order to complete such a huge system project, the imperial court had been busy for several months. It ordered the counties along the way to send one worker for every ten men, and the remaining nine men to help pay for the work. The cost was eight cents of silver per month, including the food for the men and horses. In addition, the cost of this alone was another four hundred thousand taels.

Officials from various prefectures and counties in Beizhi and Henan along the way had to hold grand welcoming and farewell ceremonies, which was another catastrophe.

The local area had suffered from drought for many years, and the people had long been unable to survive. When they heard that another vassal king was coming, they were so scared that they fled with their families. Even though the immigration office had no more places, they still had to flee to the south first.

The government was also in great pain. Song Shi, the governor of Baoding, submitted a petition saying, "The Lu prince's country passes through the two prefectures of Hejian and Daming, which is very expensive. There have been years of famine and labor, and it is difficult to deal with it. I beg to withdraw 17,000 dan of rice from the Tianjin warehouse and 11,000 dan of rice from the Linqing warehouse."

Other counties along the way followed suit and asked the court to reimburse them. Fortunately, since they wanted food, the Ministry of Revenue agreed.

In fact, the government of Northern Zhili could do nothing about it, after all, it was a one-time expenditure, but the Henan Provincial Administration was in trouble. Because according to the strange rule of Emperor Taizu that "sitting and spending", since Prince Lu was enfeoffed in Henan, his annual salary had to be paid by Henan Province.

Moreover, Henan already has seven vassal kings and more than 50,000 royal family members. The salaries of these pigs alone are more than twice the income of Henan Province. Now there is one more, and he is the emperor's favorite little brother, and he cannot be delayed or fooled. Isn't this going to cost the lives of Henan people?

~~

In Wenyuan Pavilion, Zhao Shouzheng and his son did the same thing, holding a hookah in their hands, leaning back on the armchair, and closing their eyes to listen to Wang Jiaping reading the memorial from Henan Governor Zhou Shixuan to him.

He was not showing off, but the arrangements for Prince Lu's enfeoffment had exhausted Prime Minister Zhao. Even now, his eyes were still burning with anger and he saw double, so he could only let his subordinates read to him.

Actually, this Wang Ge Lao was not a newcomer. He entered the cabinet in the 12th year of the Wanli reign, but returned home to mourn for his father in the 14th year.

This year, he was reinstated from the imperial service and had been back in the cabinet for three months. However, he had not seen the emperor's letter in three months in Beijing, which made him angry and asked Wanli:

"There has never been a minister who consults with the emperor day and night, and who can go three months without seeing him!"

As expected of Lao Xier, he is very jealous.

However, although Wang Jiaping could only be the last assistant according to the rules, he was of the same age as Zhao Shouzheng, and was from the same hometown as Liu Dongxing. He was also an old friend of the second assistant Shen Shixing and Xu Guo in the Hanlin Academy, so they were able to get along well with each other without becoming jealous.

"... Henan Province has been unable to bear the heavy burden for a long time. I request that the officials collect the farmland, housing taxes, salt shops, rivers and lakes left by King Jing and use them to pay the salary of King Lu. This may help to reduce the burden on the people..."

After listening to him, Zhao Shouzheng opened his eyes and said to the one or two Wang Jiapings in front of him with a wry smile:

"Isn't this a dream? Prince Lu has been eyeing Prince Jing's inheritance for a long time. Didn't he submit a petition to ask for it last year?"

"Yes." Xu Guo, who was sitting at the other end of the desk, nodded and said, "I requested this last August, and the emperor approved it directly at that time, 'The farmland is allowed to be given, and the boundaries are surveyed and established so that they can be followed forever. If you check the corresponding land, you may give me additional money to show my friendship and solidarity.'"

Anyone who can become a Grand Secretary must be well-informed, have a good memory, and can remember everything he sees...Except Zhao Shouzheng.

"What a friendly and sympathetic talk." Liu Dongxing snorted, picked up the teacup and took a sip of rice vinegar, saying: "Your Majesty only knows about friendship and sympathy, but never cares about the people. Aren't the people of the world his subjects?!"

"Yes, but there are differences between relatives." Shen Shixing said calmly: "So at the end of last year, Prince Lu asked for another 20,000 hectares of farmland in Huguang to fill the shortage of farmland in Henan, and Your Majesty approved it again."

"To be honest, this is human nature, Prince Lu." Wang Jiaping said dimly, "If I had a brother like this who always responds to requests, I would also try my best to ask for more at a time like this."

"What kind of human nature is this? He is just greedy!" Xu Guo said indignantly, "He has asked for tens of thousands of hectares of land. How can he eat it all?"

"We have to plan for our descendants. Once two generations have passed, the emperor will no longer care about us." Shen Shixing said calmly.

"What about our descendants! If we continue like this, it's hard to say whether we can last for two generations!" Liu Dongxing snorted.

"Shanxi and Henan retain 2.5 million dan of rice every year, while the annual salary of the royal family in the two provinces has reached 7 million dan! The provinces can't afford it, and the capital doesn't want to manage it, so they can only let the royal family seize the people's land and not pay taxes!"

"The situation in other provinces with vassal kings is not much better! This is no longer a long-term concern, but an imminent worry of national destruction!"

The cabinet ministers all nodded silently. Anyone who stood at the overall position would see this extremely huge hidden danger... Well, it can no longer be called a hidden danger, but a malignant tumor.

But what can we do? Master Zhang had finally made some cuts, but when Emperor Wanli came to power, all the cuts were cancelled and everything went back to normal. All the advice and remonstrances were ignored. What can the disciples do?

As soon as you think about the fact that you can only allow these provinces with vassal kings to rot away bit by bit... you will lose any sense of pride or honor.

"Forget it, let's not go off topic. Let's do this matter according to the emperor's wishes. After all, Prince Lu is still the first generation. How much more money can he spend from the province? Doesn't the Ministry of Revenue have to allocate disaster relief grain to Henan? Allocate another 100,000 shi, and write a letter to Zhou Zhongcheng in the south, and the matter will be almost settled." Fortunately, Zhao Shouzheng never takes it seriously. As long as he can get away with it, it's fine.

"Oh, okay." Wang Jiaping nodded. Dui Nan was his number.

Zhao Shouzheng had thought it through long ago. He should not think about solving the problems that Zhang Juzheng could not solve, nor should he try to solve them beyond his capabilities.

This is called getting into officialdom... Oh no, this is called 'having the courage to not dare'.

Lao Tzu said, "The courage to dare will be killed, the courage not to dare will live."

It means that it is dangerous to just rush forward with force. One must have the courage to be weak or retreat, and have the courage to choose not to do something. This is the long-term solution.

This principle applies to everything from how we conduct ourselves in society to how we govern a country.

In his opinion, although his "courage to not dare" would not make the Ming Dynasty better, at least it would not make it worse.

In fact, it was extremely difficult for Zhao Shouzheng to maintain the basic situation of the court under such a harsh internal and external environment.

Over the past two years, he has been trembling with fear, treading on thin ice, and his hair has turned completely white...

~~

After discussing the more important memorials of the day, Zhao Shouzheng discovered that several university scholars were still reluctant to leave.

"What's the matter with you guys dithering so long?" he asked curiously.

"Prince, the Prince of Lu has already been enfeoffed. Shouldn't we put the issue of the country's foundation on the agenda?" Several cabinet ministers exchanged glances, and Shen Shixing spoke up, "The Emperor had agreed on this at the beginning."

"Ah, this..." Zhao Shouzheng felt a headache after hearing this. He felt like everyone in the room was circling in front of him, and he quickly closed his eyes again.

"You guys, can't you just let me take a breath before you speak?"

"Prince, the country has not yet been established and people are uneasy. How about we work together and have a good rest after the crown prince is established?" Xu Guo said with a smile.

The two old men nodded in unison, and it was obvious that this was what everyone wanted.

"Oh, it's not that simple..." Zhao Shouzheng had a worried look on his face and was smoking his water pipe.

The crown prince is the foundation of the country. He has been troubled by the issue of appointing a crown prince for a long time.

In fact, Emperor Wanli is not yet 30 years old this year, and his eldest son is only eight years old. In theory, the matter of appointing a crown prince is not that urgent.

But because of a woman, the ministers were always anxious and felt uneasy if they didn't get this matter done quickly.

Her name is Zheng Mengjing, she is a real Beijing girl. She has fair skin, beautiful face, long legs, and a fierce personality...

In the ninth year of the Wanli reign, because the queen and two concubines that Wanli married had no children in the past four years, Wanli issued an imperial decree to select concubines and confer titles on nine concubines the following year. Zheng was conferred the title of Shupin because of her outstanding beauty, ranking second among the nine concubines.

In fact, Wanli was not trying to have a son, he was just lustful. Because when he issued the order to select concubines, Queen Wang was already pregnant. In the twelfth month of the ninth year of Wanli, she gave birth to a princess.

At the same time that Queen Wang gave birth to her eldest daughter, he also secretly made a palace maid named Wang who was close to Queen Mother Li pregnant.

Because that was a spur of the moment, he just pounced on her. When he entered the Saint Time, Wanli realized that this was not a glorious thing, and he was even a little scared.

Don't forget, just the year before, he was almost deposed by Empress Dowager Li because he shaved a palace maid's head after getting drunk while strolling in the Western Garden at night. He even issued an edict of remorse and vowed never to do it again.

It's only been a year, and I actually raped my mother's maid in her palace. If my mother knew about this, would she still let me stay for the New Year? I would probably have to go to Fengyang for the New Year.

Thinking of this, the guy was so scared that he pulled up his pants and left. Not only did he not give the palace maid a set of headgear according to the rules, he also threatened her not to tell anyone...

Unexpectedly, it was so difficult for him to make his legal wife pregnant, but he succeeded in getting the palace maid pregnant at first, and she became pregnant a few months later.