Hu Weiyong braved the wind and snow, alone, under the gaze of many palace guards on the city wall, step by step in the snow, out of the majestic Yingtianfu Forbidden City.

The cold wind whipped the snowflakes on his beard and burrowed into the placket of his clothes.

But the coldness in his body couldn't suppress the heat in his heart, and he couldn't wait to run and scream to vent the mood for the rest of his life.

He, the head of the hundred officials, Hu Weiyong, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, is back!

"Prime Minister Hu Cheng, Prime Minister Hu Cheng, wait a minute!"

Vaguely hearing someone calling him, Hu Weiyong looked back and saw two palace eunuchs rushing towards him.

Hu Weiyong hurriedly greeted him, and after seeing who it was, he smiled and greeted: "Father-in-law Jin, ...... are you?" ”

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has a reward!"

Jin Liyuan gasped for a moment and said to him.

Hu Weiyong hurriedly knelt down.

Jin Liyuan stood in front of him and read the message of His Royal Highness the Prince: "Prime Minister Hu Cheng has worked hard and made great achievements, and he has been imprisoned again in recent days, so he will give Prime Minister Hu Cheng a fresh lychee." ”

Fresh lychee?!

What is this Goryeo eunuch talking about?!

Where did the fresh lychees come from in the cold winter wax moon?!

Hu Weiyong, who had been locked up for nearly a month, was full of doubts, and when he looked up, there was indeed a bright red lychee on a blue and white cloud dragon pattern plate.

Someone once came to ask him to do something, and the gift was lychees shipped from Lingnan, so he recognized it.

But the shells of those lychees have turned black, and the lychees he saw now are bright red, and even the leaves on the branches are still green.

"Thank you for the reward from His Royal Highness the Prince!"

Hu Weiyong respectfully took the lychee with both hands.

Jin Liyuan helped him up, and said with a smile: "The prime minister still has some way home, and the miscellaneous family called a carriage for the prime minister to travel." ”

"Thank you, father-in-law!"

Hu Weiyong is physically and mentally comfortable, if he is not the prime minister, how can the young eunuch in the palace slap him?

It's a pity that he doesn't have half a penny on him, so he can't send silver to Young Eunuch Jin.

Not long after, the carriage came, Hu Weiyong and Jin Liyuan said goodbye and got into the carriage.

His right hand was still holding the cold lychee, his heart fluctuated, and he was full of doubts.

"Prime Minister, sit down." The coachman reminded.

"I'm asking you something."

Hu Weiyong couldn't help but ask him: "Do you know the lychee ...... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince rewarded me?" ”

That's only half the story.

The coachman laughed, "Who doesn't know that the queen mother is now rewarding the lychee bayberry in the palace every three or five days?" ”

"Every other day?! And bayberry?! ”

"That's not it, all the ladies are looking forward to the reward every day, even the prince and princess have one or two, and the palace is happy, happier than the New Year."

"This ......"

Hu Weiyong became more and more shocked in his heart, and couldn't help asking: "How can there be lychees in winter?" ”

"How could there be?" The coachman laughed and said as a matter of course: "Except for what Your Majesty got from Chu Zhenren, who can eat fresh fruits in Yingtianfu now?" ”

“……”

Chu Zhenren!

Hu Weiyong remembered that it was Chu Zhenren who told His Majesty the three strategies for governing the country, and he escaped.

A quarter of an hour later, Hu Weiyong returned home.

The soldiers surrounding the Prime Minister's Mansion had not yet received the order to evacuate, but after seeing the lychee in his hand, their attitude immediately changed, and they let him enter the palace to rest first, and they waited for the will to come before withdrawing.

Hu Weiyong didn't dare to put on the prime minister's official authority anymore, and politely saluted before entering the mansion.

His wife, concubines, children, housekeepers, and servants wept bitterly when they saw him.

"What are you crying about, sir, I'm not dead yet, and I've been rewarded by His Royal Highness the Prince!"

Hu Weiyong put on the fox fur sent by the servant, and in front of his wife, concubine, children and servants, he opened the lychee rewarded by Zhu Biao, ate it, and closed his eyes to feel the sweet and cold lychee meat.

After a while, he spit out the pit and ordered the steward to bring up the peel and pit.

"Report, report, sir!"

A servant ran in to tell the story, saying that there was a family of Liang Langzhong of the Ministry of Rites kneeling outside the gate of the house, with blood flowing with cloth wrapped around their feet, crying bitterly and begging the prime minister to save their lives.

"What's the deal with the cloth on your feet?"

Hu Weiyong was irritable in his heart, and shouted: "Why don't you go and ask what's going on?!" ”

The servant hurried out.

After a while, he hurried back.

"Forbidden footbinding?"

Hu Weiyong was wrapped in a fox fur, and probably knew what was going on, so he ordered: "Let those people at the door go to sweep the horse ring, and also, take off the footcloths on your feet, and whoever dares to bind their feet in the family in the future will be killed!" ”

"Go back!"

Hu Weiyong waved his hand to rebuke everyone, and sat alone on the Taishi chair with his eyes closed and pondered.

It is forbidden to bind the feet, spread the ding into the mu three strategies, and fresh lychees.

Although he had never seen that Chu Zhenren, he knew that the heavens of the Ming Dynasty had changed.

……

On the second day, at the end of the day.

Hu Weiyong, wearing court clothes, stood in front of the gate of the palace and waited.

Six departments, Yushitai, Dali Temple, Taichang Division, Ying Tianfu Zhengzuoguan, Hanlin Academy, Tai Hospital......

Many officials, regardless of whether they relied on Hu Weiyong or not, many came forward to congratulate them.

A small number of officials who disdain to associate with Hu Weiyong have a heavy face, and Hu Weiyong, the prime minister of Zhongshu Province and the head of a hundred officials, actually gave him a comeback!

The officials of the upper dynasty came one after another, the palace door slowly opened, and Hu Weiyong was the first to enter the door.

Inside the canopy hall, the court meeting begins.

Hu Weiyong was the first to stand up again, holding a wat board and saluting: "Minister Hu Weiyong, there is something to play!" ”

"Say."

Zhu Yuanzhang waited for his words.

Hu Weiyong's face did not change, and began to talk about things: "The ministers studied history books hard in prison, and the decline and fall of the dynasty were all due to the oppression of the people by the gentry and landlords, the wanton accumulation of wealth, and the evasion of taxes in the hidden fields. ”

One stone stirs up earth-shattering waves.

The officials in the Huagai Hall were in an uproar, so that the master of ceremonies had to reprimand loudly and ordered the officials to be quiet.

"Your Majesty!"

Zheng Jiucheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, stood up and objected: "The family of Shilu and the common people are equal to the noble and lowly, and now that their families are reinstated, there is no difference between gentlemen and savages, and it is not the way to persuade scholars to treat the virtuous!" What the Prime Minister said is ridiculous! ”

The two attendants of the Ministry of Rites were also opposed.

Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Officials Shangshu Hong Yi, the Criminal Department, the Ministry of Industry, and Ying Tianfu Yin, all stood up against it.

Hu Weiyong's proposal to withdraw the right of officials to be exempted from forced labor is simply standing opposite all the scholars and doctors in the world, even if Hu Weiyong is a party official, no one stands up to deal with him at this moment.

Why?

Prime Minister Hu Cheng said that it was no less than a knife to slash his leg.

Before the Ming Dynasty, why did the world's scholars get rich overnight when they were lifted?

It is all because the relatives, clansmen, and villagers of the lifting people will donate their land to the people to avoid reducing the servitude.

Now Hu Weiyong proposes that everything is inevitable, wouldn't it smash the jobs of the world's corporals?

Dragon chair.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at these officials as excited as if their homes had been raided, and listened to what they said, "There is not much free food" and "Scholars serve forced labor, which is unprecedented in ancient times".

I can't help but wonder in my heart, the integration of officials and gentry as errand and food, can this policy really succeed?

When he was shaking, he remembered what Chu Zhen said.

"In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, if the scholars were exempted from military service for one acre of land, they would have a way to exempt all 1,000 acres of land from conscription."

"Cabinet minister, there is a lot of land under the name of the six books, and the tax collectors dare not ask about it......"

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand, and the master of ceremonies and eunuchs immediately stopped the ministers.

"We'll talk about that later."

Zhu Yuanzhang instructed: "Hu Weiyong, you go and write a detailed charter, and take back the preferential and exempted servitude of the scholars, and you need to make up for it from the silver, so as not to chill the hearts of the scholars in the world, and I will be ashamed." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Hu Weiyong received the order, retreated, and did not start again.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not in a hurry, and after asking a few other things, he retreated and left.

The officials looked at each other.

Taking back the preferential exemption of the corporal doctor in the world, is Hu Weiyong busy currying favor with His Majesty after coming out of prison, or is it His Majesty's intention?