The north wind howls and the white snow falls.
The first snow after the beginning of winter this year came earlier than usual.
The weather is becoming increasingly unfriendly to travelers, but Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai don’t care much about it; especially Sun Yixie, because his family is in Jiangnan, very I rarely see snow, so when I encounter it now, it’s a fresh sight.
Let’s talk about Sun and Huang. After Anqiu and the two heads of the Yiyong Escort Bureau discussed a plan to deal with Xiao Zhun, they went on the road again.
Their destination has not changed, and they will continue to rush to Huang Donglai's hometown. If the journey goes smoothly, Huang Donglai may be able to go home to celebrate the New Year this year.
The two of them did not delay much on this section of the road. After coming out of Anqiu, they drove all the way to Jining along the official road and soon arrived at the boundary of Yanzhou.
On this day, they left the inn around noon. They had lunch in the wind and snow, and finally arrived at a place called Fengjiazhuang before sunset.
As for the village itself, there is nothing special about it. It looks neither big nor small, neither poor nor rich...that's it.
But there was one thing that made Sun and Huang more concerned - as soon as they entered the village, they discovered that every household in Fengjiazhuang had a small flag hanging at the door.
The flag is black, with a ball of red printed on the black background. The red thing looks like fire but not fire, and looks like lotus but not lotus. It is really eye-catching.
As soon as Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai sat down in the inn, they asked the waiter in the village what the flag was about.
When the waiter heard this, he instinctively looked left and right first, as if he was afraid of someone eavesdropping, and then lowered his voice and replied: "I think the two guests are from out of town. Yes, I don’t know... This is the flag of the Fire Lotus Sect. According to the rules, every house in the area must hang it in front of the door. "What?" Huang Donglai? He responded casually, "I've never heard of it..." He was also idle and asked one more question, "Eh? What will happen if you don't die?"
He said this immediately. As he exited the hotel lobby, several pairs of eyes immediately began to look at him.
The waiter in the shop also reacted very quickly. He smiled apologetically and said, "Hey, sir, what you said..." When he said this, he suddenly raised his voice a little higher, "The Fire Lotus Sect is... The 'holy religion' bestowed upon us by the young prince of Yanzhou Prefecture is a great benefactor to our common people... They asked us to fly the 'Fire Lotus Flag', but it's too late for us to be grateful. How could anyone not hang it up?"
Let's make a digression here. The term "Little Prince" is common in novels and storytelling, but it is not actually a standard term.
A prince is a prince, and there is no difference in age, no matter how young he is; as for the prince’s sons, the one who inherits his title is called the crown prince, and the others are called county princes (on this point, Dashu It is different from the Ming Dynasty’s rules, which we will discuss in detail below).
The storyteller described the young prince or prince asHe is called "Little Prince" just to sound nice and not look old.
Anyway, you remember, the person mentioned by the waiter at the moment refers to the prince of the local Prince Lu's Palace.
"Oh~" Sun Yixie had come to his senses now. While pretending to be enlightened, he kicked Huang Donglai under the table, "I see... ...That's because we are ignorant and disrespectful."
"Ah? Ah...yes, yes..." Huang Donglai was reminded by Sun Yixie and responded, "It's because we are shallow. ”
The two of them had a laugh and just passed this article.
The waiter breathed a sigh of relief, and several pairs of eyes nearby also looked away.
Nothing happened at that time. The two of them chatted with the waiter for a few more times and inquired about some local conditions. Then they returned to the guest room after eating and drinking as usual.
But when the two of them entered the room and closed the doors and windows, the chat box full of vulgar words opened up...
"What the fuck, it's okay, bro." React quickly, otherwise we will be in trouble again." When Sun Yixie said this, he had already checked the doors, windows and beams to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
“I was so fucking stupid just now.” Huang Donglai said, “I have been in this world for twenty years, and this is the first time I heard that the son of a feudal lord can seal a certain religious organization. The 'Holy Cult' is going to rebel."
"Huh?" Sun Yixie just noticed that the atmosphere around him was wrong, but he didn't know how outrageous this thing was. At this time, after listening to Huang Donglai's words, he wondered, "Is it that serious?"
"Nonsense." Whether in the past or in today's world, Huang Donglai is better than Sun Yixi in terms of culture. It's better, at least he still knows some common sense, "The power of enfeoffment is the imperial power. Those nobles of the feudal lords, let alone their own sons, have no power to grant enfeoffments... Then It must be carried out from generation to generation in accordance with the rules of inheritance by the eldest son, establishing a concubine without a direct descendant, and eliminating the country without a son, and everything must be reported to the court. "
"Oh," Sun Yixi raised his eyebrows after hearing this. One challenge, "Then this so-called 'little prince'..."
"Trespassing." Huang Donglai immediately answered, "If this matter is brought to the capital, the emperor may have to deal with it. Everyone in Prince Lu’s house has had their heads removed.”
“Isn’t it possible?” Sun Yixie said, “The prince and the emperor are all members of the same family, so he can kill them just because of this. ?"
"It's harmful..." Huang Donglai curled his lips and laughed dryly, "Brother Sun, you have a bad history. Let me tell you this... It has been more than three hundred years since the founding of Dazu. The prince's descendants and the current emperor may have been one family three hundred years ago, but now... the emperor wishes they were all dead."
This matter that Huang Donglai said is very common in China. Zha, basically anyone who has read the book will know.
Brother Sun isWhat I don’t know...I won’t explain it.
Let’s just talk about the “Ming Dynasty” that everyone is more familiar with. Part of the reason why it perished in the later period was because there were too many descendants of the royal family, which brought down the country’s economy.
Think about it, after the military power of those vassal kings was reduced, they spent the whole day eating, drinking and having fun on their fiefdoms with the royal salary, even if they did things like bullying men and dominating women. If people can manage it, then their reproduction and survival rates must be much better than ordinary people's families.
The prince’s eldest son can also be a prince, a concubine can be a county king, a county king’s concubine can be made a general of the country, and so on...
These people , but they all get a salary when they are born.
During the Jiajing period, the imperial court felt that something was wrong with this situation. There were endless descendants like you, and the imperial court could not stand it anymore, so it began to demote the prince's descendants and nephews in various ways. The title was used to reduce the overall title of non-direct descendants of the royal family, thereby reducing the salary expenditure.
Unfortunately, this is just a drop in the bucket...
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, after more than two hundred years, the descendants of the old Zhu family were still living on their stipends. As many as 100,000... The agricultural economy cannot sustain what you are doing. Can the people not rebel?
So what about "Dazhao"?
Obviously, if Dashu has been able to withstand it for more than three hundred years and is still doing so, then the world line must have changed.
The key is just four words - a concubine without a noble title.
Of course, this does not apply to the emperor: except for the one who inherits the throne, the emperor's son can be a prince regardless of whether he is a direct descendant or a concubine.
But among the sons of these princes, only the eldest son can succeed his father, and the second son can be granted the title of county king, while those born from concubines have no title.
No title, no salary.
The prince wants to use his own salary to support these concubines, which is fine, but the court will not provide additional salaries to these grandchildren.
In this way, the situation will be much better...
Because in the prince's family, the number of bastards is far more than the number of legitimate sons.
Ordinary people usually only have one daughter-in-law in their homes, so it is common for the same mother to have several children. However, most princely families have wives and concubines who are too busy to keep busy, so they do not produce too many legitimate sons.
Furthermore, even if the prince’s first wife could have more children, not all of them might be boys, not to mention that the medical conditions at that time could easily lead to dystocia or premature death of the child. .
As for the bastards, whether there are a dozen or dozens, when their father is still alive, they will be prosperous and wealthy, but as long as their father dies... it is hard to say .
Do you expect a half-brother to provide for you and your mother all year round? Even if he is willing to do this out of consideration for brotherhood or the honor of the royal family, what will happen to your children in the future? They all rely on their uncle to support them.?
This is undoubtedly unrealistic. Therefore, in Dashu, the bastards born to the princes have nothing to do with the royal family for up to two generations - you can say that your great-grandfather is the great-grandfather of the current prince. They are the same person, but this does not change the fact that the prince is popular in the palace and drinks spicy food, while you are selling straw sandals on the roadside.
Of course, I am just making an analogy. Not all bastards do not do well in life. There are also shrewd ones who have already thought of a way out when their father was alive, and those who are arrogant and extravagant. Sometimes, they use the resources at hand to train their children to practice literature and martial arts. Even if they don't have the protection of the royal family in the future, their lives will not be too bad.
To sum up, there are far fewer royal descendants of Dashu, or royal descendants who can receive royal salary from birth, compared to the Ming Dynasty we know.
【Receive Red Envelope】The cash or point currency red envelope has been sent to your account! Follow the public account [Book Friends Base Camp] on WeChat to get it!
But even so, the emperor's attitude towards these relatives who were "one family hundreds of years ago" is not good. After all... "give less" compared with "don't give", the latter is still the latter Better isn't it?
"Then what you say..." Now, after listening to Huang Donglai's popular science, Sun Yixi said again, "Someone should have reported this matter to the court a long time ago, right? Isn't this possible? What a great achievement."
"Normally there is no need to report it," Huang Donglai said, "All the vassals in this dynasty are under the surveillance of the imperial court, and each prince's fiefdom is under his control. There are Jinyi guards who are responsible for keeping an eye on them, and the eunuchs used in the palace are also people from the East and West Factory... This is an open secret."
"Is that so..." Sun Yixie said. He thought thoughtfully, "Is it the so-called 'little prince' who took care of all the spies who were responsible for monitoring them in King Lu's fiefdom?"
"Then who knows where to go?" Huang Donglai He said, "But since the waiter just now dared to say loudly and openly in public that the Fire Lotus Sect is a holy religion consecrated by the young prince, it proves that... at least locally, the Fire Lotus Sect can definitely cover the sky with one hand... ...I think the water in this pond is a bit muddy and not easy to walk through..."
"I also think..." Sun Yixie nodded, "We are just passing by, this kind of thing is related to the royal family. It’s better not to worry about it. It should be fine once we get out of Jining.”
The two of them discussed this and went back to their houses to sleep.
At this time, they did not expect that it was rare for them to have something they didn't want to take care of, but it had only been less than a day... Even if they didn't want to take care of it, they had to take care of it.