frightfiction Chapter 1030 A Living Bandit!
Chapter 1030 A Living Bandit!
Emperor Zhu sighed softly and said, "What do you think?"
"We have thirteen sons now."
“When they get married and start their own families, even if each of them only has two sons, we will have twenty-six grandsons.”
"If we add them all together, we'll have thirty-nine descendants."
"If each of these twenty-six grandsons were to give us two great-grandsons..."
"Fifty-two great-grandchildren, plus twenty-six grandsons and thirteen sons, that makes ninety-one."
Emperor Zhu unconsciously swallowed. "In other words, we need to support ninety-one members of the imperial clan, but what about our Biao'er?"
"Our Biao'er probably needs to support around two hundred members of the royal family."
"By the time it comes to our eldest grandson, the number of members of the imperial clan may exceed five hundred."
"If this growth continues..."
The thought of the potentially endless number of imperial relatives in the future sent a chill down Emperor Zhu's spine.
One or two hundred members of the imperial clan are easy to support, and three or five thousand members can also be supported.
But what if the number of members of the royal family reached hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions?
Damn it, who can support so many members of the royal family?
If it weren't for the fact that our Biao'er still needs his brothers to help him, we wouldn't even want to give him the treatment of inheriting the title with a lower rank for three generations!
What our old Zhu wanted to leave Biao'er was a stable and prosperous Ming Dynasty, not a potentially endless burden of imperial relatives in the future!
Well, the second, third, fourth, and fifth sons will ultimately receive preferential treatment.
These are also the biological sons of Zhu Chongba and his sister.
We shouldn't treat them too badly.
The more Emperor Zhu thought about it, the more skewed his thinking became.
Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, Xu Da, and Chang Yuchun fell silent.
It's still better to be in a higher position, because no matter how many descendants a person has, the national treasury will allocate money to support them to the Imperial Clan Court.
What about my own home?
It doesn't matter if I have one son or two sons.
But if these sons all have a bunch of grandsons, will they still be able to support them with their own salaries?
Yes, one's own descendants can openly serve as officials and receive salaries, but who can guarantee that their own descendants are necessarily suited to be officials?
If someone with a bad temper were to get involved with those local gentry and gentry, not only would they not be able to keep their own title, but they might not even be able to keep the heads of their entire extended family.
It seems I should have fewer sons in the future, or at least not too many.
……
Yang Shaofeng has been having a lot of headaches lately.
What the hell did they do to deserve this?
He was inexplicably outmaneuvered by Lao Deng and Xiao Deng, by Li Wenzhong, by Mu Ying, and by that old scoundrel Li Shanchang.
So, I came to Nanjing only to be framed?
"I don't want to come to the capital again."
Yang Shaofeng took a slurp of the small dragon ball, then slumped back in the recliner expressionlessly, muttering, "I've discovered that every time I come to the capital, I get schemed against."
"A trip to the capital means someone will take a portion of your savings."
"This is bad. The Ningyang Thousand Household Office, Ningyang County School, Dengzhou University, and ten county schools in Dengzhou have all been plundered."
“The key point is that they not only covet my things, but they also stay at our house for meals.”
"They all have absolutely no manners!"
If it were a matter of proper etiquette, when people like Heizhima Tangyuan, Li Wenzhong, and Mu Ying came to the Prince Consort's residence, they would at least have to present their visiting cards properly, agree on a time to visit, and bring gifts and proper presents.
The problem is that the black sesame dumplings and the others don't treat the Prince Consort's mansion as outsiders.
These guys are like bandits, they come and go as they please, and they take everything they can get.
Especially that black sesame glutinous rice ball, which actually argued, "Does a younger brother coming from his older sister's house need to bring a visiting card and a gift?"
"No, brother-in-law, when have you ever seen a brother-in-law in ordinary families bring a visiting card when he visits his brother-in-law's house?"
"Isn't it true that people can go whenever they want?"
"Besides, what's wrong with me having dinner at my sister's house?"
"If you're still upset, why don't you just come to my house for a meal next time?"
"Oh, by the way, brother-in-law, don't forget to urge those students from Ningyang County School to study there."
Look, look, these are the words spoken by the first Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty.
Yang Shaofeng sometimes wondered if the gentle and refined Crown Prince in the history books was a perfect Crown Prince Zhu Biao, imagined by the historians who were so frightened by Lao Deng's cruelty that they had lost their minds.
Just like Sima Guang's various fantasies about how perfect Empress Zhangsun, Li Erfeng's wife, was.
Seeing Yang Shaofeng's face full of doubt, Jin'er couldn't help but laugh and said, "Husband, don't worry. Next time His Highness and the others come, I'll just say that you went out to walk the dog and haven't returned yet, so we won't keep them for dinner."
Yu'er rolled her eyes, chuckled, and said, "Actually, it's fine to leave it one more time, but you can ask the kitchen to add more mustard to the dishes."
Yang Shaofeng grunted twice and said, "Forget it, His Highness knows where the kitchen is. If you add too much mustard, he can just go to the kitchen and ask Aunt Liu to make him a new meal."
After complaining about Zhu Biao, Yang Shaofeng turned to Jin'er and said, "This time, we went through a lot of trouble with my father-in-law and Prime Minister Li about the matter of demoting the hereditary title. Our son can only inherit the title of Marquis of Yingguo in the future. My wife won't blame me, will she?"
Jin'er smiled and said, "Husband, what you're saying makes it sound like the Marquis of Yingguo is some worthless title?"
In fact, even the lowest-ranking baron could enjoy many privileges.
To give a simple example, if a person with a noble title commits a crime, the local government cannot arrest him directly; it can only report to the imperial court, where the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review will handle the matter.
That alone is enough to make people envious.
Moreover, the Marquis of Yingguo is the second-highest rank of nobility after the Duke, and its prestige is already quite high.
Yu'er said with a smile, "Of course, the Marquis of Yingguo is worthless in your eyes, after all, what you really care about is the Marquis of Champion."
"Besides, there are at least eight or ten master craftsmen with noble titles in our Ningyang County."
"My lord has seen many people with titles, so titles are naturally worthless."
Jin'er gently shook her head, reached out and touched her belly, and said, "Whether it's valuable or not, as long as our family is all well, that's better than anything else."
Just as Yang Shaofeng was about to speak, a bandit's voice came from outside: "Sister, brother-in-law, your little brother is here again!"
Having just exchanged greetings, the bandit then directly instructed the young lady-in-waiting of the Prince Consort's residence: "Tell the kitchen that I want to eat poached chicken and braised carp today."
The young female official bowed in agreement, and the bandit, ignoring Yang Shaofeng's disdain, walked into the house and said with a grin, "Brother-in-law, the small steam engine from Ningyang County is almost here."
"Also, my father asked me to tell you that the capital city is going to be rebuilt in Beiping Prefecture. Do you think it would be suitable to send someone there?"
Yang Shaofeng paused slightly, then asked, "What arrangements are there for who should go? Isn't this something that Prime Minister Li and the officials of the Ministry of Personnel should worry about?"
The bandit found another deck chair and sat down, saying, "My father's idea is to choose one of those twenty-five from Yanyun to be the prefect of Beiping."