Zhu Houzhao did not do the thing of a cunning rabbit and a dead lackey, but forcefully let Zhang Xuan enjoy honor after his death.

This also led Xia Yan to continue to adhere to Zhang Xuan's line.

For the conservative party of the empire, they seem to be more sure that the death of a Zhang Xuan will not change anything, because it is His Majesty the Emperor who really insists on all this.

Of course, everyone understands this truth, but the emperor is not something you can dismiss if you want to, and of course there are a few bold people who want to kill the emperor.

But it's just a matter of thinking about it, because not to mention the lessons of rebellion, it's not simple to say that the supporters behind His Majesty the Emperor are now.

The major families that controlled the various industries of the empire were all vassals of His Majesty the Emperor today.

Even the emperor himself controls the largest capital, once the emperor abdicates or dies, it means that the capital of the empire will be reshuffled, so several major families are unwilling to let His Majesty the emperor encounter any danger.

The Janissaries of the Guards, composed of the children of these families, have erected the idea of being loyal to the monarch only as a sword in His Majesty's hand since he was a child, not to mention plotting to kill His Majesty, even if they are a little disrespectful to His Majesty, these people dare to kill first and then report it.

Zhu Houzhao was not worried about his own safety, because he knew that he had shared the interests of the world with a few loyal ministers and slaves, which made him a representative of the bureaucratic capitalists, and these bureaucratic capitalists would have to protect themselves for their own interests.

But Zhu Houzhao also knew that with the development of the imperial commodity economy and capitalism, after the rise of a large number of bourgeoisie, these former gentry would awaken into bourgeois fighters.

In fact, the current Ming Dynasty has begun to appear the idea of restricting the monarchy's power, and even the idea of democracy has appeared, many years earlier than the idea of this kind of thinking in history did not appear until the late Ming Dynasty, after all, the Ming Dynasty opened the sea relatively early in this era.

Of course, the civil servants of the empire, the middle class, have been trying to limit the power of the monarchy by ritual law, but they have not explicitly proposed to limit the power of the monarchy, but now this class has begun to explicitly limit the power of the monarchy as the empire grows stronger and stronger.

For example, Luo Qin of Jiangxi began to make shocking remarks that the king could be elected by the people, and that the people could dismiss him.

Zhu Houzhao didn't do it directly, and the local governor arrested Luo Qinshun in prison, no way, in this era when everyone has just accepted the divine authority of the monarch and is actually the authority of the monarch and the people, but you Luo Qinshun put forward the view that the monarch should be elected by the people or dismissed by the people, what do you want to do, do you want to provide ideological weapons for careerists in the world?

Therefore, because of this, even the conservatives who were dissatisfied with Zhu Houzhao's ruling party demanded that Luo Qinshun be severely punished, and the bureaucratic capitalists who supported Zhu Houzhao were eager to kill Luo Qinshun, because if the emperor could be removed by the people at will, then wouldn't they be able to be removed by the people at will.

Zhu Houzhao himself actually didn't dislike Luo Qinshun's thoughts so much, after all, he was a time-traveler, and he knew that according to later generations, Luo Qinshun's thoughts were a kind of progress.

Therefore, he even wanted to save this thinker, but all the ruling class were unwilling, and even directly refuted it on the grounds of "how can the son remove the father", and demanded that the rebellious Luo Qinshun be killed, and also demanded that Luo Qinshun be severely punished.

The suggestion given by the Criminal Department was to directly Ling Chi, and it was 3,600 knives for Ling Chi.

"It's too much! Sentenced to beheading the prison marquis, he just put forward an idea, not really trying to rebel", not long after Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Huo Tao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, came to report: "Your Majesty, the thief has committed suicide in fear of crime today, and everyone in the world is happy to hear it!" ”

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but stand up in fright, he didn't know whether Luo Qinshun really committed suicide or was killed by others, but he knew that people like Luo Qinshun could only be given justice by future generations in the future, and in this era, he rebelled not only against himself, the emperor, but also against all the vested interests in this world.

But also because of this incident, Zhu Houzhao found that he could sit firmly in the position of the emperor, not because of how powerful he was, nor because of his good luck, but because the ruling class needed to install an emperor master for their own interests, even if their own emperor master was a tyrant, most people did not dare to really want to overthrow themselves except for complaining about bad luck.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know whether he should be glad about his discovery, but he admitted that some of the gentry who demanded the restriction of monarchy and democracy did not really ask for the people's lives.

Because the people have been working and farming in silence, saving money to buy a house and buy a woman from the West, whether it is the emperor or the first assistant, who likes to be the one who will be it, and they don't care about it.

Behind some of the gentry were the bourgeoisie, who wanted to occupy more political power after gaining wealth, and this demand became more and more intense.

Wu Zuqian, the commercial department of the newly established Ministry of Commerce, suggested that the imperial court abolish the eight-hour work system, and that the people should arrange their own working hours, so as to give the people the freedom to make money.

Zhu Houzhao is not stupid, he knows that Wu Zuqian wants the imperial court to make the people make more money on the surface, but in fact, he wants the capitalists to let the people work overtime at will, so as to increase the exploitation of the people.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao did not let Xia Yan agree to Wu Zuqian's proposal, and asked the local government to increase the severe punishment of factories and workshops that increased the work costs of the people in violation of regulations.

Chen Kan, the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, reduced the amount of medical insurance, and at the same time ordered each factory workshop to increase its own wages to workers.

In this regard, Zhu Houzhao also refused, allowing factory workshops to take the initiative to give workers a salary increase as medical funds is undoubtedly to increase the opportunity for factory workshops to exploit workers, and the purpose of reducing the operating costs of factory workshops is because it is more difficult to expect capitalists to increase wages than to expect to win the lottery lottery, the latter at least has some hope, and the former has no hope at all.

Zhu Houzhao, Xia Yan and other members of the Zhongjun Society, in order to consider national interests and national stability, naturally could not go along with the wishes of these bourgeoisie.

But because of this, these middle and lower class civil officials and gentry who represent the bourgeoisie are more and more dissatisfied, as the children of imperial merchants, they rely on the wealth accumulated by their families to strive for fame and become officials, not to better speak for the family and earn more political discourse for the family.

But now, it is naturally extremely uncomfortable for them to not get more political discourse.

As a result, this led to more and more criticism of the court, and even representatives of the merchant class formed various associations.

Of course, for the sake of the interests of the country and the interests of their own ruling empire, Zhu Houzhao and other big bureaucrats and big capitalists also secretly supported many sons of wealthy families and students from poor families to set up various groups to safeguard the interests of the state and the nation.

In the court, the focus of this phenomenon is still related to the determination of the storage location.

Whether it was the exploitation of foreign slave labor by external expansion, or the sacrifice of peasants by opening up internally, the ultimate decision-maker was the emperor.

There is no way to remove this emperor, so we can only hope for the next generation of emperors.

However, Emperor Zhu Houzhao has always refused to establish a candidate for the crown prince, so that the enlightened party who advocates external expansion and the conservative party who advocate internal development cannot give up.

But no one dares to force Emperor Zhu Houzhao anymore, because everyone knows that today's emperor is not something you can agree to if you force it.

Still, someone did this thing that touched the dragon scales.

"Bastard!"

Although the momentum of the Ming Dynasty's external expansion is clear, the domestic situation is becoming more and more complicated, coupled with Zhu Houzhao's inner confusion, he is now more and more irritable, so the third prince Zhu Zaiyan's note directly made his long-pent-up anger completely explode.

Zhu Houzhao threw Song Shu on the ground, pointed at Qi Jingtong, and shouted: "Catch the third prince Zhu Zaiwei to the palace!" ”

Qi Jingtong hadn't seen Emperor Zhu Houzhao lose such a big temper for a long time, so he was so frightened that he hurriedly took someone to take the third prince Zhu Zaiwei into custody, and at the same time thought uneasily: "Why did the Third Highness anger Your Majesty?" ”

Not long after Qi Jingtong left, Zhu Houzhao also calmed down a little, and at this time, it happened that Xia Yan came in to do something, and Zhu Houzhao didn't mention what the third prince played, but asked Xia Yan: "What's the matter?" ”

"King Henry VIII of England and Ireland has now sent envoys and twenty young men to visit, and is now temporarily staying in Haojing, and the ministers have inquired clearly, they are coming this time because the Spanish Armada is attacking Daming Ceuta, and they also have a vendetta with Spain, so their king hopes to cooperate with Daming, he is willing to send troops to help Daming attack Spain, but Daming needs to provide military assistance and technical assistance, and hopes that Daming can allow them to send students to Daming every year, In order to learn the cultural knowledge of the Eastern Celestial Empire, as well as science and technology. ”

After Xia Yan finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but groan, thinking that he didn't expect that Britain would one day send people from thousands of miles to visit Daming, and send students to Daming.

However, whether to cooperate with the UK and allow the UK to send students to Daming, that is, whether Daming is willing to recruit international students, Zhu Houzhao can't make a decision yet, because to be honest, Daming doesn't seem to need to accept international students.

But Zhu Houzhao asked Xia Yan: "What does Aiqing think of this matter?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty is far away from the Western Ocean, if there can be an ally to threaten the rear of Spain, it is not a bad policy, as for whether to allow the British to send students to the Ming Dynasty, the minister thinks it can be allowed;

Because even if we don't allow it, the knowledge and technology we have will inevitably flow into Britain, as far as the minister knows, Britain has hired our people to make flintlock pistols and sail warships, but many technical problems have not yet been broken, and if I can allow it to send students to Middle-earth, we can also send students to its country, then I can let my Ming know more about the development of his country, and can also control the development of his country, so that it depends on my Ming! ”

Xia Yan expressed his opinion, and Zhu Houzhao also felt that it was reasonable, rather than letting the British learn Daming secretly, it was indeed better to teach it himself, so that it could be better controlled, but Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but say: "They sent students to my Daming, and they can't learn in vain." ”

"The Crown of England and Ireland will provide two million silver dollars a year to the Ming Academy! In addition, each international student's use in Daming is also borne by the British royal family", Xia Yan replied.

"This Henry VIII is a character, and he is really willing to spend his blood."

Zhu Houzhao slandered.

But Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think of his daughter Elizabeth I as the Queen of England after a few generations after Henry VIII, and this Queen of England made Britain completely at the top during her reign, she was a very powerful queen, and the queen was never married in her life and was a virgin queen.

In order to prevent this Elizabeth from becoming the Queen of England, Zhu Houzhao said:

"You tell them that I can let their British royal family send students to the Ming Dynasty, but the British royal family needs to marry me, and I heard that the king's daughter Elizabeth is quite smart, if the royal family is willing to let her marry the Ming Dynasty, I will agree that they will send someone to study in the Ming Dynasty, and I will first let them go to Guozijian to study for ten years, learn Chinese and Bagu articles, and if they can get the Jinshi and then be allowed to enter the university!"

According to Zhu Houzhao's recollection, the photos of Queen Elizabeth I when she was young were still quite beautiful, so she was married to her current self, and she was not at a loss.

As for the arrangements for these international students, Zhu Houzhao is deliberately increasing the difficulty for British people to study in China, after all, it is difficult enough for an Englishman to learn Chinese, and it is necessary for others to write eight shares, and it is not enough to write eight shares to be admitted to the Jinshi, you must know that even if it is a Han person himself, it is difficult to take the Jinshi examination, let alone a British, in this way, there is no doubt that it is impossible to succeed in learning without more than 20 years of study abroad, and maybe he will completely become a Han Confucian.

"The minister understands!"

After Xia Yan nodded yes, he said: "Your Majesty, the Papal States have also sent envoys, expressing the hope that they can also send students to Daming to learn military technology, and hope that Daming, as the suzerainty of the Papal State, can help the Holy See punish the British royal family that has separated from the Holy See." ”

"Since the British royal family has been promised, then the Holy See has also agreed, and it is also a good thing for them to fight with each other."

Zhu Houzhao said that he accidentally stepped on the third prince Zhu Houtong's recital, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think of the third prince Zhu Houtong's request for him to establish a prince early, and couldn't help but pick up the recital and throw it to Xia Yan:

"Look at it, this is handed by the third prince, and he actually suggested that I should make the eldest son of the emperor the crown prince early, but he is more worried than the officials of the Ministry of Rites."

Xia Yan smiled slightly, then opened the song and looked at it.

At this time, Qi Jingtong also happened to escort the third prince Zhu Zaiwei back.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhu Zaiyan and asked directly: "You are more anxious than your eldest brother, anxious to make him the prince!" ”

"The emperor's brother is the eldest son, according to Confucian etiquette, he should have been the emperor, the father and the emperor, the sons and daughters don't understand, why do you still have to drag, so that the court is restless because of this matter, one by one with different hearts, the world is also uneasy, if you really think that the eldest brother has no talent to be an emperor, you choose a virtuous prince, but you don't choose; It can be seen that you yourself have figured out who to appoint as the crown prince, rather than this, it is better to follow the etiquette! ”

The increasingly complicated situation and the increasingly uneasy hearts of the people made Zhu Zaiwei really feel how unstable the storage position was unfavorable to himself, the entire empire and even his father, so he finally couldn't help but write a song to suggest that Zhu Houzhao should establish Zhu Zailei as the crown prince, which can be regarded as in line with the rules, and at the same time, it can be regarded as conforming to the hearts of most people.

But Zhu Houzhao knew that as soon as the crown prince was established, it meant that he wanted to divide power, which meant that someone would oppose him in the name of the prince, and Zhu Houzhao had not yet thought about who to make his successor, and whether he should establish some systems to limit the monarch's power before the successor was determined, so he never established the prince.

And now, Zhu Zaiwei's actions naturally made Zhu Houzhao very angry: "Don't take your eldest brother out to block the gun, don't think that I don't know, it's you who want to be the prince!" ”

"Erchen wants to be a prince! Ke Erchen doesn't care if he can't be the prince! Erchen sincerely recommends that you let your eldest brother be the prince! Otherwise, if this matter is not established, it will make the world unstable for a day! Father! ”

Saying that, this Zhu Zaiyun became emotional for a while, and said again: "Moreover, Uncle Huang is right, even if the son can't be the prince, it's a big deal to go overseas to establish a country and be crowned king in the future, who rarely stays here to fight for the position of a prince!" If it weren't for your delay in establishing the prince and arranging the way out for your sons, the sons would have gone out to make contributions a long time ago! Why bother to be a waste of teasing birds in this Forbidden City! ”

Zhu Houzhao didn't expect this Zhu Zaiwei to dare to contradict himself like this, maybe this is different from his way of educating his son since he was a child, which made Zhu Zaiyan's rebellious character more obvious, but because of this, Zhu Houzhao was also more angry, and couldn't help but say to Xia Yan: "Xia Aiqing, listen, according to the meaning of this third child, it is not me!" ”

"Your Majesty is angry! Although it is not His Majesty's, it is not impossible for the minister to think that it is impossible to be crowned king overseas! ”

Xia Yan said and said: "Now countries such as Spain and Portugal started colonization earlier than my Ming Dynasty, and Britain also began to take the initiative to learn from my Ming Dynasty, and Japan according to the information provided by Jinyiwei has gradually appeared to be unified, and there are Muscovy in the north, Ottoman in the West, etc., in the future, the Ming Dynasty is only afraid that there will inevitably be no strong enemies, and before these strong enemies appear, let the princes go to the rich and noble places on various continents to build a state, and there is no doubt that they can become a good assistant to the Ming Dynasty in the future, after all, it is difficult for a country with the central court of the Ming Dynasty to control the world!" ”

Zhu Hou's meaning of Bai Xiayan is nothing more than to let these clan disciples go to the world to establish more Han countries, so that they can better resist other civilized countries in the future.

Zhu Houzhao also felt that there was some truth in what Xia Yan said, due to the influence of geographical isolation and the inconvenience of communication methods, it was difficult for the central empire of the Ming Dynasty to colonize the world, and it was better to establish a few more Han state systems to divide global interests and realize the unification of Chinese civilization around the world.

So, Zhu Houzhao said to Zhu Houyun with a trace of anger: "Very good, you have ambitions, in this case, I will give you the opportunity to make you king overseas, and pass on the decree, and immediately crown the third prince Zhu Houhui as the permanent king, and ...... the domain."

Zhu Houzhao didn't know which place to give the three princes for a while, so he hurriedly shouted: "Bring the map!" ”

Soon, the chamberlain brought the map to Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao glanced at it, and directly drew the area east of the Mississippi River to the west of today's Appalachian Mountains: "Just this area, now this is your fiefdom, Chang Guo, give you three million silver dollars, and you can purchase arms and recruit soldiers and horses by yourself!" ”

"Your Majesty, we moved a group of Tatars to this area at the beginning, and now this area is more chaotic, and the Tatars and Western fans are fighting with each other here, so it is not appropriate to let the Third Highness go here to be a vassal!"

Xia Yan couldn't help but remind.

"What's wrong, when I ascended the throne, the Tartar forces I faced were much stronger than this, whether it was a nomadic or a Western power, it was a challenge to him, if he couldn't establish his ideal Han country there, then let me get back and be an honest waste!"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he couldn't help but look at Zhu Zaiyan: "Why, don't you dare to receive the decree and thank you, didn't you say that I won't give you the opportunity to build a country overseas, and now that I have given you a chance, why did you retreat again?!" ”

"What don't you dare, thank your father for your grace! Three million silver dollars, please cash in immediately! ”

Zhu Zaiwei replied.

Zhu Houzhao waved his sleeves angrily: "Spread the Xu Sutra!" Give this rebel three million! ”

Saying that, Zhu Houzhao felt that he was not angry again, and couldn't help but ask again: "Who is the imperial uncle you are talking about?" ”

Zhu Zaiwei secretly regretted that he had sold his imperial uncle Zhu Houxi if he leaked his mouth, but at this time, he could only bow his head and reply: "Yes, it's Uncle Xingwang." ”

"Okay, it seems that he Zhu Houyu is also an aspirant, and he will pass on the decree, Zhu Houyu instigated the prince, divided the royal family, demoted him to the king of the county, and changed his title to the king of Hanyang, so that he will be named the new Hanyang here, and this place will now be named New Hanyang", Zhu Houzhao pointed to a place in Brazil now.

……

"Your Highness, this is the latest information brought back by the Jinyi Guard, the new Chahar Department of Tartars has now occupied the entire upper reaches of the Mississippi River to the Missouri River, they are still mainly nomalist, mainly raiding the Indians, and in the south of the Gulf of Mexico, mainly Spanish colonists, and a little to the south, now the new Indian leader Yu Chen Dexin is working with the governor Tang Kekuan to occupy the area, you now want to establish your own vassal state here, you have to deal with the two forces of the Tatars and the Western Ocean!"

Gui Cao, the secretary of the military department, gave Zhu Zaiwei a detailed introduction to the latest situation of his fiefdom, and immediately, Gui Cao also said to Zhu Houxi: "As for the King of Hanyang, most of your new fiefdom is a jungle, which is an inaccessible jungle, and the local natives are mostly wild people who drink blood from Rumao, so it is more difficult for you to establish a vassal kingdom King Hanyang." ”

Zhu Houxi couldn't help but look embarrassed.

Zhu Zaiyi also glanced at Zhu Houxi with shame: "Uncle Huang, I'm sorry, the little nephew shouldn't be rash, and now it has affected you, otherwise, you just give up the prince and go to my fiefdom with me, no matter how I say it, it's not a deserted place." ”

"The emperor's order cannot be violated, besides, the wild land is the wild land, there is nothing wrong, since there are many giant wood beasts, it is just the right time to build a Taoist temple to refine the elixir!"

Zhu Houxi said with a wry smile.

And after Zhu Houzhao learned about the performance of the two from Gui Cao's mouth, he couldn't help but slander: "What's not satisfied, these two places, one is the location of the superpower in later generations, and the other is one of the BRIC countries, if it weren't for the fact that the Pacific Ocean is too wide, I don't want to seal it out!" ”