The Dewang Mansion in the south of Jinan City, the layers are tired of flying eaves and arches. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

There were many vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, and the Son of Heaven in the Ming Dynasty registered his son as a prince and sealed it all over the country. The descendants of these princes have been passed down from generation to generation, forming the major vassal kings of the country. There are three princes in Shandong, namely King De of Jinan, King Lu of Yanzhou and King Heng of Qingzhou.

Dewang is located in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, and is the most influential. King Dewang City is located in the north of Jinan City, sitting north and facing south. The city is two feet high and nine feet, and there are three major halls in the front part of the city to imitate the Forbidden City. From the three major halls to the carrying gate in the middle of the royal city, there are a total of 138 houses. The back of the palace is the front, middle and back palaces. There are ninety-nine houses on each side of the palace gate. In addition to the royal city, there are supporting buildings, and there are more than 800 palace rooms in the whole royal city.

Since the rebellion of the Yongle Emperor, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty no longer have military power and the power to manage the local area. But even so, the prince still had an extremely high political and economic status. Economically, the clan relied on its own status to run the industry, and even monopolized important commodities in a place. Politically, even the governor and prefect did not dare to offend the clan. On weekdays, if there was a conflict between the princes and local officials, the officials involved were often transferred to other places.

Therefore, at the local level, the magistrates all held the vassal kings high. Some officials would even associate themselves with the vassal kings and clans as political support.

This time, Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, approached the three vassal kings of Shandong, hoping to use the identity of the vassal king to solve this problem that made him sleepless at night, and resist the increasingly fierce offensive of Li Zhi, the prince of Jinguo.

In the carrying hall of the royal city of King De, Wang Yongji took the civil officials of the Shandong Chengxuan Political Envoy Department and the Punishment and Prosecution Envoy Division, all stood under the throne and bowed their hands.

King Zhu Youshu was a slightly chubby middle-aged man with a medium build and a long beard. He sat on the throne decorated with red lacquer and gold cockroaches and listened to Wang Yongji's words, stroked his beard and asked: "Does the governor mean that the king of Shandong, the king of Lu, and the king of Heng will join forces to set up a newspaper to compete with the Tianjin Daily of the Duke of Jin?" ”

Zhu Youshu stroked his beard and said: "I have printed some ancient books over the years, and I have accumulated some literary voices in Shandong. But running a newspaper requires too much energy, and I haven't thought about it. ”

In the Ming Dynasty clan, there were many people who had nothing to do every day, but there were also some clans who were unwilling to do so and turned to study culture. Shandong is the hometown of saints and the place of cultural prosperity. The three princes of Shandong were very enthusiastic about cultural undertakings and had close contacts with scholars.

Each of the three feudal lords had a "publishing house" in the royal city that published books. King Lu's Mansion has Min Academy, Chengxun Academy, and Sanwei Hall. There is the most Lexuan in the Dewang Mansion. There is a Houde Hall in the Hengwang Mansion. The books published by the three vassal kings were circulated throughout Shandong Province and even to Gyeonggi and Henan.

Zhu Youshu is praised by Shandong scholars because of his publishing career, and he is proud of it on weekdays.

Since Zhu Youshu, the king of Germany, was enthusiastic about the publishing business, he naturally paid close attention to Li Zhi's newspaper after it entered Shandong. It's just that "Shandong Daily" represents the voice of Li Zhi, an emerging group, and various views are often at odds with Zhu Youshu, which makes Zhu Youshu very uncomfortable.

Zhu Youshu also hopes that there will be a newspaper in Shandong to counter Li Zhi's Shandong Daily. Therefore, after hearing Wang Yongji's suggestion that he run a newspaper, Zhu Youshu was not particularly surprised.

Wang Yongji bowed his hand, and said to Zhu Youshu: "Wang Ye Mingjian! If the three princes can't stand up and join forces to run a newspaper and fight against Li Zhi, it won't take three years, and Shandong will be Li Zhi's country within a country. ”

Zhu Youshu was silent.

Wang Yongji arched his hand and said: "Lord Wang, Li Zhi is quite ambitious, and he is not satisfied with occupying Tianjin, and it is only a matter of time before he reaches out to Shandong." He spent so much effort to suppress the gentry in Shandong, and invited the Jinyi guard of the Son of Heaven to send troops to Jinzhou as a bargaining chip, and the bloody killing, was it just for a newspaper? ”

"There is no doubt that what Li Zhi wants is the whole territory of Shandong. It is to turn Shandong into a second Tianjin. ”

Zhu Youshu stroked his beard, but still didn't speak.

Wang Yongji said loudly: "Lord Wang, Li Zhi collects business taxes in Tianjin and collects taxes from the gentry, and there is no royal law in his eyes, and he kills people like hemp. If he controlled a province in Shandong, how could he take the three princes in his eyes? I'm afraid that in less than three years, not only will all the princes' shop properties have to pay commercial taxes, but also all the princes' farms will have to pay land taxes. ”

Hearing Zhuang Tiantianfu's words, Zhu Youshu's face changed and he was already moved.

During the Ariake period, feudal lords in various regions owned a huge number of farms. These farms were not subject to field taxes, but were managed by local officials on behalf of the vassal kings, who were given about 15 to 3 cents of silver per mu of land per year. Although the income of the vassal king per mu of land does not seem to be much, the domain king's Zhuangtian covers an extremely vast area, often hundreds of thousands of acres, so the final income is also very high.

Many of the farms of these feudal kings were donated by local people with their own fields in order to avoid the land endowment. The feudal kings first accepted the contributions of the small people, and after accumulating a certain amount, they begged the emperor to open up new estates, and turned these donated fields into the feudal king's farmland, and no longer paid the field tax.

If Li Zhi collects taxes from the feudal kings' farmlands, I am afraid that the income from the feudal kings' farms will be drastically reduced. The extravagant life of the feudal lords will be greatly affected.

This sharp drop in income was probably unbearable for the kings, who were accustomed to a life of luxury.

Zhu Youshu often reads Li Zhi's newspapers and knows Li Zhi's style. According to Li Zhi's style, it is probably impossible to allow hundreds of thousands of acres of feudal lords to be allowed to pay their land endowments. Wang Yongji was right, if Li was implanted in Shandong, the income of the vassal king's farmland would plummet.

Zhu Youshu took a breath, twisted his beard and frowned.

Wang Yongji looked at King De's face and knew that King De was already tempted. He struck while the iron was hot and said: "King De, now King Lu and King Heng have agreed to jointly run the newspaper, and the name has been thought of, and it will be called "Three Kings Daily". The prince does not need to worry about the personnel and financial expenses needed for the newspaper, and the gentry of the entire Shandong will work together to run this newspaper well. ”

Li Zhi used newspapers to clear the way for his commercial taxes, land taxes, and courts, and wanted to enter Shandong. We will do the opposite, use newspapers to unite people from all walks of life in Shandong, and resolutely keep Li Zhi's forces out! ”

"King De only needs to make a name for himself to save Shandong and prevent Shandong from becoming a second Tianjin. If the king is not worried about the content of the newspaper, he can send a few people to the newspaper printing office as reviewers! ”

Zhu Youshu stood up, walked back and forth in front of the throne and thought about it for a long time, but finally he was unwilling to give up a lot of Zhuangtian income to Li Zhi like this.

He nodded and said, "Okay, I will work together with the governor to run this daily newspaper, and resolutely prevent Li Zhi from getting involved in Shandong." ”