Zhu Houzhao has always been worried that with the opening of the country, some poisonous products that can easily lead to the physical and mental decay of the Chinese people have appeared.

At this time, the elixir recommended by King Hui was obviously the so-called opium 0.

In the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, this should be called Fushou ointment, but why it has appeared now, Zhu Houzhao doesn't know the specific reason, but he can guess that this should be related to the opening of the sea in the Ming Dynasty, so that some overseas poisons and 0 products began to flow into the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that in this era, this kind of Fushou paste is still used as medicine, and they don't realize the poison of Fushou ointment.

However, Zhu Houzhao could see that Zhu Houjiao, the king of Hui, knew the harm of Fushou ointment, otherwise he would not use various reasons to prevaricate the reason why he couldn't take Fushou ointment.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao wanted to let King Hui take this medicine, and he wanted everyone in the Ming Dynasty to know that this so-called medicine that can make people immortal and make people energetic is toxic.

King Hui stepped away with some trepidation, of course he knew what the elixir of life he offered was, and what the consequences would be, but now that Emperor Zhu Houzhao ordered him to take it, he had to take it, he pinched and pinched the Fushou ointment in his hand, and he couldn't wait to pinch it into powder and pinch it away.

"Wait!"

Zhu Houzhao suddenly shouted again at this time.

King Hui couldn't help but be overjoyed, thinking that the emperor was reluctant to let himself take this medicine, or if he had other ideas, but no matter what, as long as he didn't let himself take this medicine, it would be a good thing.

Zhu Houzhao didn't speak to King Hui, but just asked Gu Dayong: "Have all the clans entered Beijing?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the clans have all entered Beijing", Gu Dayong replied.

"Immediately declare the decree, and all the clans and civil and military officials will enter the palace to reward the medicine, and say that King Hui has an elixir of life that he wants to offer to me, and since it is a miracle medicine, it cannot be rewarded by me alone, and the ministers should also have a blessing for their eyes, and the other attendant room will immediately send a report to let all the people know about it!"

Zhu Houzhao plans to make this matter bigger, and it is best to let everyone in the Ming Dynasty know what this so-called elixir of life is and what kind of poison it has.

King Hui understood Zhu Houzhao's intentions, he knew that he could only be at the mercy of Zhu Houzhao now, and he also knew that Emperor Zhu Houzhao must have known the effect of this elixir.

But what he didn't understand was that since Emperor Zhu Houzhao already knew the poison of this elixir, why didn't he want to rely on this medicine to control others, but wanted everyone to know that this medicine was harmful.

"Your Majesty, may I ask, what are you going to do, why do you want to let the world know about this medicine?"

King Hui really couldn't help the doubts in his heart and asked.

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly: "Although I am a king, I don't regard the people as grass mustard, you are just a vassal king, but you only have the position of me in your eyes, you naturally can't see this vast number of sentient beings, if one day, you sit in the position of me, after being condescending, you will find that you yourself are closely related to the salient beings below." ”

After saying that, Zhu Houzhao asked Gu Dayong to send someone to temporarily guard King Hui.

At that time, the clan and civil and military officials entered the palace one after another.

The news about King Hui's offering of the elixir of life and longevity to the Son of Heaven was also published by Huangming Bao and other newspapers and periodicals under the instruction of Zhu Houzhao.

A few days later, nearly 10 million people in the entire capital almost knew about the Fushou ointment.

Xia Yan, the second assistant of the cabinet, said to Zhang Xuan with some concern: "King Hui offered the elixir of life to His Majesty, this matter is probably not a good thing, since ancient times, the wise monarch has not made the prosperous era of Zhongxing come to an abrupt end because of the pursuit of immortality, and attracted the phenomenon of troubled times." ”

"I also have this worry, Your Majesty is still just a human being, and if you are a human being, you will have the worry of life and death, but the pursuit of immortality is a negligent move, and now Your Majesty has summoned me to the palace to reward this elixir of life, and I still have to persuade Your Majesty to do one or two", Zhang Xuan also replied.

"That's exactly what you said," Wang Shouren also echoed.

The courtiers were very worried that His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao would be infatuated with the way of immortality, which would lead to the ruin of the government.

But in fact, Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty is now widely advertising the elixir of life offered by King Hui, which happens to only make people in the world not believe that there is an elixir, but to believe in science, and at the same time expose the poison of the elixir, that is, Fushou ointment.

However, Zhu Houzhao's behavior also incidentally let everyone in the world know that King Hui was a lucky person, which made King Hui attract the black of the whole world.

After the children of the clan and the civil and military officials entered the Royal West Garden, they saw a feudal king on the collapse next to the Guanyue Pond, holding a smoking gun in one hand, and seemed to be very favored by His Majesty, otherwise it would be impossible to sit down in this royal garden to calm down.

Zhang Xuan, the first assistant to the cabinet, couldn't help frowning, and asked Xiang Xiang Celebrant Palm Yin Gu Dayong: "Dare to ask the Prime Minister, who is His Royal Highness sitting on the couch?" ”

"Hui King Zhu Houjiao", Gu Dayong replied with a smile.

"Is it His Royal Highness the Hui King who offered the elixir of life to His Majesty?" Wang Shouren came over and asked at this time.

"Exactly, His Majesty was very interested in the medicine he offered, and he specially gave him Zhang Collapse", Gu Dayong said with a smile.

Zhang Xuan couldn't help but wave his sleeves angrily.

The other officials also showed anger, all of whom were disdainful of King Hui's behavior of inviting favor by offering the elixir of life.

"Your Majesty has arrived!"

At this time, the whip sounded, Zhu Houzhao came by the chariot, when he was young, he sat on the throne after the clan and the ministers saluted, and said: "Recently, King Hui has an elixir of life dedicated to me, and I have named it Fushou Ointment, and now I invite Zhongqing to come, which is to let you see the medicinal effect of this Fushou Ointment!" ”

As soon as Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Zhang Xuan wanted to step forward and advise Emperor Zhu Houzhao not to be too obsessed with the pursuit of immortality, and even convened his ministers for this purpose, but at this time, Xia Yan pulled Zhang Xuan to take it: "The first is slow, Your Majesty is not taking it yourself, maybe it has a deep meaning." ”

Zhang Xuan was stunned, thought about it carefully, and understood, so he didn't stand up.

At that time, the courtiers inside and outside all showed a smile and looked at King Hui.

King Hui held a cigarette gun, sat on the couch, his heart was as cold as snow, and when he looked at countless pairs of cold eyes looking at him, he was even more aware of the cold in his bones, so cold that his hand holding the cigarette gun was shaking.

"Your Highness, it's time for you to take it", a eunuch lit a cigarette gun for King Hui, King Hui nodded, and had to start sucking, just took a puff and choked, but after a while, he unconsciously took another puff.

King Hui found that the more he smoked, the more he felt refreshed, and he felt comfortable as flying above the clouds.

"It is difficult to see the effect of this medicine for a while, within a month, all the Qing and I will come here to see this Hui King, and see how the Hui King's Fu Shou Paste works", Zhu Houzhao said and ordered someone to give a part of the Fu Shou Paste offered by the Hui King to the clan and the ministers, and pass the decree to give the water cloud pavilion and the Hui King to live temporarily! ”

A few days later, Zhu Houzhao really brought the children of the clan and civil and military officials to see King Hui, and King Hui was like a walking corpse at this time, only swallowing clouds and spitting fog in the house, and gradually lost weight.

The children of the clan and the civil and military officials were all puzzled when they saw this.

Zhu Houzhao didn't feel too surprised, and only ordered: "Suspend the medicine supply to King Hui!" ”

Thereupon.

This Hui King was stopped from supplying Fushou ointment.

Not long after King Hui was stopped from supplying Fushou ointment, Zhu Houzhao brought the children of the clan and civil and military officials to see King Hui.

At this time, King Hui was already skinny, grabbing the railing of the water pavilion like a ghost zombie: "Give me medicine, please give me medicine!" Your Majesty, I beg you, please give me medicine! ”

Seeing this, the children of the clan and the civil and military officials were naturally even more surprised, and were surprised that this so-called elixir of longevity would make people's bodies become so bad after eating it, as if they were suffering from a serious illness, not to mention, they seemed to be addicted and difficult to restrain themselves.

Zhu Houzhao saw that the eyes of these clan disciples and civil and military officials were all wide open, and he couldn't wait to learn about the Fushou ointment, so he also pretended not to know and took the initiative to ask King Hui: "King Hui, what medicine are you asking me to give you?" ”

"The elixir of life! It is the elixir that Your Majesty named Fushou Ointment, please give me Fushou Ointment! ”

King Hui cried with a sad face at this time, and pleaded bitterly with Zhu Houzhao.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao continued to ask: "Why did you ask me to give you Fushou Ointment, where did you get this Fushou Ointment?" ”

"There is no Fushou ointment, minister, the minister can't live now, the minister doesn't dare to deceive Your Majesty, this, this Fushou ointment is from the hands of the Taixi people, it was given to the minister by a person named Wan Lide, the minister begged His Majesty to give the minister a little Fushou ointment, woo!"

King Hui shrank in the railing of the water pavilion, stretched out his hands, and begged Zhu Houzhao like a beggar for food.

"It's actually from the West", Zhu Houzhao smiled secretly in his heart, and then waved his hand and ordered: "Give King Hui Fushou ointment!" ”

Thereupon.

The eunuchs threw a whole piece of Fushou paste to King Hui, who hurriedly picked it up from the ground and began to smoke it.

Looking at King Hui's enjoyment, the children of the clan and the civil and military officials were all embarrassed, and they all really felt the power of Fushou ointment.

Zhang Xuan glanced at Xia Yan and didn't say more, he naturally understood that Your Majesty did not mean to ask for the pursuit of the elixir of life, Your Majesty meant to let all the powerful people of the current dynasty recognize the essence of Fushou Ointment.

"Your Majesty has taken great pains! It's a pity that King Hui thinks that he is reliable This medicine invites pets, but unexpectedly, the eyes of the Holy Son of Heaven are like torches, how can ordinary people be bewitched", Zhu Taihan, King of Fenglin, also sighed at this time.

King Hui died a few days after taking an overdose of Fushou ointment and some other means, and the world was amazed after hearing about it, but because of this, everyone in the world knew that Fushou ointment was not a medicine to save people, but a medicine to kill.

At this time, the imperial history of the king Shi Ke also played the impeachment of King Hui during his lifetime, plotting to assassinate and even instructing the people in the palace to manipulate the city's profits, Zhu Houzhao also took advantage of the situation to remove the title of King Hui, and the criminals also asked the criminal department to detain and execute.

"King Hui's matter, I don't want to say anything more, you must have understood what this Fushou paste is now, the cabinet, as soon as possible, order all provinces and cities to strictly prohibit Fushou paste from entering the territory of my Daming, including my Daming control area, and prohibit the people of Daming from smoking Fushou ointment, once they are found to be smoking, they will be forcibly detained and abstained by the government!"

"Jin Yiwei, immediately send someone to escort the Western fan of Wanlide who confessed to King Hui into Beijing, I want to deal with this person strictly!"

As soon as Zhu Houzhao said this, the cabinet ministers and Guo Rong all stepped forward to receive the order.

Immediately, Zhu Houzhao said again: "The matter of Fushou paste needs to be dealt with, and right now, I have gathered you clan disciples, and there is another matter, which is the matter of clan reform. ”

"At present, the number of people in the clan is increasing, just since the first year of Zhengde, it has increased by nearly a thousand, and you clan relatives are also very capable of giving birth, as far as I know, the late Duanshun King Zhu Qizhen has a hundred sons alone, not counting the number of daughters, so that every festival party, there are relatives and children who do not know each other."

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he asked: "Zhu Qizhen's heirs have all arrived in the capital, stand up and let me see." ”

Most of the clans present smiled a little embarrassedly, and not long after Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, on a long row of nanmu chairs on the right side of the Qinzheng Palace, a cluster of clan disciples dressed in purple clothes and jade belts stood up one after another, including white-haired old men and young boys who were not yet weak crowns.

And at this time, the white-haired old man walked out: "Zhu Biaoluan, the king of Gongyu, has seen Your Majesty. ”

Next, a series of auxiliary generals began to introduce themselves.

"You are all the sons of Zhu Qizhen, the king of Duanshun?" Zhu Houzhao waited for these people to introduce themselves and then asked again.

All of them replied, "Yes!" ”

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh dumbly, although the other people present already knew that Zhu Qizhen had many heirs, they were still shocked at this time.

"One hundred sons, which means that in addition to the eldest son of the eldest son, the imperial court will also seal ninety-nine auxiliary generals, and every year for this Duanshun royal mansion alone, more than 100,000 stone of grain will be distributed."

Zhu Hou calculated the math, and called out Wang Tingxiang, who was in charge of the household department: "Wang Qing, if these Gongyu kings have a hundred sons, or if all the kings of the world are born like this, can the imperial court afford to raise so many children of my Ming dynasty." ”

"Back to Your Majesty, although the imperial court is now full of treasury, it can't afford to consume so much, only in the past ten years of Zhengde, the expenditure on the distribution of clan money and silver has increased tenfold compared with the first year of Zhengde, nearly 10,000 clans, and the annual expenditure of grain has reached millions of stones, and if this continues, after ten generations, even if the income of the imperial court does not decrease, it will be difficult to maintain."

After all, as the head of the household department, he knows best how much pressure these clans that do not pay taxes and taxes and do not engage in agriculture and business will put on the financial expenditure of the imperial court, so now as soon as Zhu Houzhao talks about this matter, he also actively raises the seriousness of the problem.

Zhu Houzhao also knew that the reform of the clan was also imperative, but the reform of the clan was the most difficult, because the pressure of the reform clan did not come from the court or the vassal king himself, but from the pressure of the ancestral system.

The ancestral system can be broken, but the purpose of the ancestral system, which restricts a series of freedoms of the clan, is to prevent the clan from plotting rebellion, and now that Zhu Houzhao wants to break these ancestral systems, it may naturally cause a series of political struggles between the clans.

But it is still necessary to change, even if the clan will be resentful because of this, even if there will be some petty people who take this opportunity to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of the clan to rebel, what should be changed still has to be changed, after all, from the interests of the country and the interests of the people, clan reform is necessary.

Moreover, now that Zhu Houzhao and the officials who hold important positions in the DPRK are all reformers, it is also the best time to reform the clan.

It stands to reason that Zhu Houzhao wants to carry out the reform of the clan, and it is not necessary to summon these clan children, but Zhu Houzhao feels that since it involves the reform of the clan, it is also necessary to let these clan children participate, at least let them understand that the interests of the imperial court to reform them are not really unkind to them, but the imperial court cannot continue to raise them like this.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao originally planned to let these vassal kings not have to go out of Beijing after entering Beijing, according to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the kings at that time was a bit of a feudal system to let the clan guard the territory for the imperial court, and he regarded the world as his Zhu family's family property.

But in fact, these clans are scattered all over the locality, and after Zhu Di's reforms cut off military power and restricted freedom, there is no other benefit than harming the locality.

Moreover, if the vassal kings want to rebel, they will still rebel, and the cases of King Anhua and King Ning are in front of them.

Rather than allowing these vassal kings to plague the local area, and once the rebellion increases the cost of the imperial court's expropriation and prevents them from colluding with local forces, it is better to encircle them in the capital, which can not only better monitor these feudal kings, but also prevent these feudal kings from annexing land and seizing people's property locally.

Moreover, these feudal clans can also learn more about the cutting-edge information of the Ming Dynasty when they stay in the capital, so that they will not really become a pig in the pen, in addition to harming people during the day and making people at night, in case the Ming Dynasty will still be in chaos in the future, there will not even be a reliable clan.

As for the fear that the vassal kings might take power because of their close relationship with the emperor because they stayed in the capital, and then made a decision to usurp power, Zhu Houzhao also considered it, but he was more worried about the decline of the entire Chinese nation in the future because of the selfishness of his own emperor than about the instability of the throne of his descendants in the future.

In fact, when history progresses to this era of the beginning of the industrial revolution, as an emperor, the decision he makes is selfish in order to maintain his family's dominance, or in order to prevent the nation from being overtaken by later generations, and would rather risk his family's status to be overhauled.

The historical Kangxi, a Ming monarch who was highly praised by later generations, refused to improve firearms in order to maintain his Manchu aristocratic riding and archery advantage, and made the country far behind the West in equipment manufacturing, and Peter the Great of Tsarist Russia boldly innovated after visiting Europe, making Tsarist Russia even serfdom one of the great powers in modern times.

Zhu Houzhao knows that he is now facing such a choice, if he is a little selfish, a little reluctant, in order to maintain his throne and try not to cause accidents, there is no need to reform, and it will not be a problem to keep the Ming Dynasty's century-old national fortunes.

But Zhu Houzhao is a modern man, a person who has received the national ideological education of later generations, and he does not want the empire to continue to be in a state of self-restraint because of his timidity and selfishness.

"The times are already changing, there are more and more bourgeoisie and handicraftsmen, the popularization of education and the improvement of literacy, the emancipation of the mind, the idea of limiting the power of the monarch and refusing to be ruled by the dictatorship will appear sooner or later, it is more and more difficult to be a dictatorial emperor, even if you are selfish, you can't guarantee that your children and grandchildren will be emperors forever, and in the future, you will either be forced to change by others to open the door, or you will be pushed to the guillotine by your own people, rather than so, it is better to change a little now, At least the emerging classes must not be allowed to attribute their dissatisfaction with politics to the dictatorship of the monarchy! ”

Zhu Houzhao thought about it like this, and then looked at the children of the clan and the civil and military officials present: "As the Hubu Wang Qing said, the imperial court is about to be unable to support us royal relatives, and the reform of the clan seems to be really necessary, everyone, my clan relatives, what do you think about this, you can speak freely, you can put forward your opinions, I don't want to change the reform at that time, you say that I am not close to people, since I am a family, then sit down and talk together, how not to make our royal family a burden to the world, but to become the leader of the prosperity of the dynasty." , Pioneer! ”

The clans present were eager to try, some were embarrassed, some were so indifferent that they only fell asleep, and some of them looked at some courtiers with a smiling smile, after all, the appearance of being able to be elected to the court as an official is not low, especially some young people who are in charge of the six branches.

Eager to try, it is natural that the clan will be worried about the world, so Zhu Taihan stood up first, when he learned that the imperial court ordered the clan to enter Beijing, he guessed that the imperial court might reform the clan, he is a person who loves to think about the world, and he also realized that the clan must be reformed through the observation of his palace life.

Therefore, Zhu Taihan said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what Wang Butang said is very true, the number of clans has expanded too much, and the burden on the court is increasing day by day, and it is indeed not conducive to the society in the long run, so the minister thinks that the number of heirs of the clan can be limited;

For example, the prince can limit the birth of only five sons, the county king can only have three sons, and so on, according to the decreasing number of titles, if the number exceeds the regulations, they will not be given knights, only crowns and honors, so that they can be self-reliant! ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled and nodded, Zhu Taihan, as a clan, can take the initiative to stand up and demand reform for his own class, no matter whether the reform proposal is thorough or not, it is commendable.

However, at this time, Meng Chun, the secretary of the ministry, had a dark face, and Zhu Taihan's active strategy made him think not that this vassal king was commendable, but that this vassal king was ambitious and ambitious, and he was afraid that he would become a trouble for the imperial court in the future, and even deliberately show off in order to attract the attention of His Majesty the Emperor, and replace the civil official group to rule the world for His Majesty.

Not only Meng Chun thought so, but at this time, Zheng Yue, the secretary of Dali Temple, was also deeply disturbed, and Zhu Taihan's positive response made him feel that Zhu Taihan must have bad intentions in doing this, but he could also see at this time that His Majesty was obviously very satisfied with Zhu Taihan's behavior with a smile on his face, so he stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, according to the ancestral system, vassal kings are not allowed to participate in politics, so the ministers think that the reform of the clan can be discussed by the imperial court, and there is no need to move the people so much, and the clan of the vassal kings cannot stay in the capital for a long time according to the system, and they should return to the domain as soon as possible."

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