The feudal prince's palace is a luxurious city within a city. It not only covers a large area, but also has a set of institutions and teams that serve the feudal prince. They belong to the casual officials of the feudal prince's palace.

There are thousands of princes, lieutenants, chamberlains, etc., and they all have corresponding salaries, rations and public food.

But when Zhu Cixiang carried out reforms to the vassal kings, he basically banned these benefits.

Most of the vassal king's land was also divided, and each of them received land and no longer served the prince's government.

Most of the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's family members died of starvation. After establishing the Ming Dynasty, he worried that his descendants would starve and suffer from poverty.

So a series of systems were established, and the expenses were borne by the imperial treasury. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, they brought a huge burden to the Ming treasury.

Since the Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court has been adopting the policy of reducing vassal vassals.

However, in view of the close friendship, many preferential treatment policies are still retained.

Mainly manifested in the generous rewards given to farms and the like.

There are two types of farmland for feudal kings, one is rewarded by the emperor, and the other is bought with one's own money.

The farmland awarded by the emperor was very large, and there was no need to pay taxes. The initial income was good, but the later income was also very small.

Because these farms are controlled and taxed by local officials.

As the civil servant group grew larger and stronger, most of the land rent income was divided up between these civil servants and local powerful landowners.

So where did the vassal princes get their money? Except for a few vassal princes who were authorized to collect some miscellaneous taxes.

Most of the other feudal lords spent their own money to buy land, then used the purchased land to collect rent themselves, and acted as general agents themselves, thus avoiding being exploited by officials.

Of course, powerful vassal kings are different. They have their own ways of making money, such as the lineage of the King of Chu.

They have been developing in Wuchang Prefecture for more than 200 years, and they are absolutely responsible for both black and white.

Through the efforts of the eight and nine generations of Chu kings, the Chu kings had about 200,000 acres of private land under their names, some of which they bought with their own money, and some of which were annexed.

Not counting the fiefdoms and a large number of shops, the annual rent for these areas can earn about 100,000 taels of silver.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of clans already numbered hundreds of thousands, and the government's finances became increasingly difficult.

Only the members of the clan who were admitted to Yudie in the clan's mansion were paid, and those clan members who were not listed in the clan's mansion could only wait at home.

Without support from the imperial court for a long time, these clans lived in poverty, suffering from hunger and cold, and had no way to complain.

Some people even turned to crime. They stormed local government offices, beat officials, and even forged official seals to claim salaries, grain, and rice...

Zhu Cixiang's reform of the vassal kings actually saved those clansmen in remote areas. In the future, they not only had a small salary, but also owned their own land.

Zhu Cixiang's confiscation of the fields granted by the vassal king did not have a great impact on them, because those fields did not receive much money every year, and they had to argue with local civil servants.

What they feel most distressed about is the land they bought from the people. To be more precise, it is the land occupied by the local landlords and gentry.

Since the vassal kings basically own shares in the royal group, their future is still bright as the Ming Dynasty completely relaxes the maritime ban and goes out to colonize.

The land that is being divided now will be returned to them a hundredfold in the future, but only if they dare to go out to colonize the sea. By then, the bold ones may become rich and powerful, while the timid ones can only live an ordinary life.

Zhu Cihong has been to Prince Lu's Mansion in Wei Hui and Prince Fu's Mansion in Luoyang, as well as Prince Zhou's Mansion in Kaifeng. These three palaces are luxurious enough for Zhu Cihong.

But after seeing the Prince of Chu's Mansion, Zhu Cixiang realized what it means to see a big witch meeting a small witch...

There are two tall and distinguished red-lacquered doors inlaid with copper nails. There are two stone lions on both sides of the door, which are more than ten feet tall, making them look majestic and majestic.

The Palace of the Prince of Chu looks as big as the Forbidden City Palace...

Under the steps of the palace, a group of servants of the palace were already standing, and they were surrounding a man in red robes.

When Zhu Cixi got off the carriage, the man in red robe immediately led the civil and military officers to step forward and bowed:

"See Your Majesty!"

Zhu Cixi nodded:

"No gift!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Knowing that Emperor Shenwu did not know the prince, Fang Kongzhao, the governor of Huguang, reminded him in a low voice: "Your Majesty, this is the prince of Chu."

The Crown Prince of Chu is about thirty years old, slightly fat, fair-looking, somewhat elegant, and quite pleasing to the eye.

Zhu Cihong nodded when he heard this and did not continue talking to him.

Some of the followers and generals behind Zhu Cihong were angry because they did not see the King of Chu come out to greet His Majesty.

Let the prince come to greet Emperor Shenwu, but he is in the palace. This King of Chu's face is bigger than his butt!

In fact, Zhu Cixi knew in his heart that the new vassal reform system of the Ming Dynasty had a great impact on the old King of Chu, and he was dissatisfied.

That's why I don't want to come out to greet him. No matter how awesome Emperor Shenwu is, we can't use this as an excuse to cause trouble for him, right?

Besides, hundreds of thousands of acres of their land have been divided up by the little emperor. So what if Emperor Shenwu is unhappy? Can he be demoted to a commoner?

After seeing the ceremony, the prince didn't pay much attention to Zhu Cihong and led everyone towards the palace.

In addition to the important officials from Huguang, Zhou Yuji, Cao Bianjiao and other imperial guards also entered the Prince of Chu's Mansion.

A group of people passed through the Duanli Gate and entered the Chengyun Hall. At this time, Chu King Zhu Huakui was sitting on a golden throne, with palace maids and eunuchs standing next to him.

King Zhu Huakui of Chu is about sixty years old this year, with gray beard and hair, and his body is as fat as a pig.

There is no way. After Chengzu came to power, they were raised like pigs. Obesity is normal!

The king of Chu wears a Yishan crown on his head, a red uniform with a coiled collar and narrow sleeves, a gold-woven five-clawed coiled dragon on the front, back and shoulders, a jade belt around his waist, and soap leather boots on his feet.

After seeing Zhu Cixi enter the main hall, Chu King Zhu Huakui stood up from the throne and stepped forward to salute:

"See Your Majesty, I am weak and sick and did not leave the house to pick you up. Please explain it to the Emperor. Your Majesty, please take a seat!"

Zhu Cixiang glanced at the gold-covered throne above him and smiled subconsciously.

Zhu Cixi remembered that when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Wuchang, local officials from Huguang gathered at the Prince of Chu's Mansion. They knelt down and begged the King of Chu to donate silver to reward the soldiers who defended the city.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Chu King Zhu Huakui, who was penniless, pointed to the gold-covered throne given by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and said, there is really no money, so use this as military pay...

…

Being rebuked by the King of Chu, all the officials were angry and speechless.

This world belongs to the Zhu family, and the clan, vassals, and kings do not contribute, so what qualifications do they have to ask officials and ordinary people to contribute money and efforts?

Soon after Wuchang was captured by Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Xianzhong took away all the millions of gold and silver in the Chu palace, which could not be loaded into hundreds of vehicles.

Zhang Xianzhong sent an order to tie the King of Chu to a stone and throw him into the Yangtze River to drown.

Then they drove all the clan members of the King of Chu to the Yangtze River and asked them to throw themselves into the water. For a time, the sound of crying on the bank of the Yangtze River was loud, and corpses were floating for miles.

If the King of Chu could be like the King of Zhou in Kaifeng, he would spend a lot of money to reward the soldiers.

The soldiers defended the city with all their strength, and Wuchang may have been able to defend it, because Yang Sichang quickly came to support.

It can be said that everything is self-inflicted, or retribution.

Therefore, Zhu Cihong was not polite and went straight to the golden throne to accept everyone's worship.

Then the King of Chu said:

"Your Majesty and the civil and military officials please take your seats. The banquet prepared by the lonely king for everyone is about to begin!"

No matter how unhappy he was, Emperor Shenwu came all the way to Prince Chu's Mansion, and he still wanted to express his feelings.

After everyone was seated, all kinds of exquisite wine and food were delivered to everyone's seats like water, and at the same time, singers and musicians from the palace sang and danced at the table to add to the fun.

The Prince of Chu and his son sat on the lower left side of Zhu Cixiang. The father and son had a very enjoyable meal, served by several palace maids.

While they were eating, they were enjoying the singing and dancing music, nodding and commenting from time to time, and they enjoyed themselves very much.

Zhu Cihong grew up and was either fighting in the east or west or on the way to inspect the land reform. Today was the first time he had such a meal.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a little tired. If he could do this every day, he would also like to be the vassal king!

At this time, a Jin Yiwei came in, said a few words to Yue Yang, and then left.

Yue Yang glanced at the banquet for a few times, then stood up and walked to Zhu Cihong and whispered for a while.

Zhu Cixiang nodded, ate a few more bites of food, and then took out a bottle of juice. To be honest, the food from Prince Chu's Mansion tasted pretty good.

When Yue Yang saw that the emperor was silent, he went back to continue eating and drinking.

As for Emperor Shenwu's ability to pick up things with his bare hands, they were used to it...

The Prince of Chu, his son and local officials were stunned for a moment. They didn't know that the emperor took the object with bare hands, thinking that the object had been hidden in his sleeve.

But what was shocking was the plastic bottle in the emperor's hand. No one had ever seen this transparent thing.

Others were afraid of the emperor and did not dare to speak, but the prince of Chu was a fool, so he immediately asked:

"Your Majesty, what is in your hand?"

Zhu Cixiang smiled faintly:

"Juice, do you want to try it?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The Prince of Chu did not ask for it or refuse it, but immediately thanked him.
To be continued...