Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 339: Zhu Di teaches his son, Prince Qi fails the exam [Please subscribe]

Zhu Gaochi immediately recited, "Youzi said: 'Those who are filial and respectful to their elders, but who are fond of offending their superiors, are dangerous; those who are not fond of offending their superiors, but who are fond of causing chaos, have never existed. A gentleman should focus on the fundamentals; once the fundamentals are established, the Way will emerge. Are filial piety and respect for elders the foundation of benevolence?" (The end of the previous sentence has been revised)
Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction after listening to it, and then said, "What do you mean by this paragraph?"

Zhu Gaochi had a good memory and was still learning, so he immediately said, "Confucius's student Youruo said: 'Respect your parents and obey your elder brothers. It is rare to like to offend those in power...'"

After Zhu Gaochi repeated the meaning of this passage from the Analects, he added, "But our Confucian teacher said when he was discussing this passage, it's like living in the Spring and Autumn Period, when people valued ancient customs and were simple in nature. Therefore, he said, 'Those who dislike offending their superiors and are fond of rebellion have never existed.' That's fine."

"But over the past thousands of years, people's hearts have become treacherous, and the ancient customs no longer exist. Hence, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian usurped the Wei Dynasty, and the chaos of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms."

"That is, even those who usually behave honestly and obediently may not be immune to rebellion. If we want to prevent such incidents, it is best to not give subordinates the opportunity to rebel."

Zhu Di was even more satisfied after hearing this and praised him, saying, "Your Confucian teacher has explained it very well. You are descendants of the royal family. When you go overseas in the future, you will be the royal family and hold the power of a country. You should pay special attention to this matter."

Then he turned his face to Zhu Gaoxu and said, "Gaoxu, look at your elder brother. He is much better than you in literature. Does he laugh at you?"

"You've been strong, courageous, and resolute since childhood, making you a natural warrior. But relying on your talent to mock your brother is inappropriate and hardly a skill. Do you understand?"

"I understand, son." Zhu Gaoxu responded, then couldn't help but say, "Father, when we go to India, we will definitely have to rely on military force to expand the vassal state. Why not learn martial arts instead of literature?"

"Foolish!" Zhu Di scolded. "After establishing a vassal state, don't you need to govern it? Conquering the world requires force, but governing the world requires culture!"

Zhu Gaoxu said, "I just don't understand why we should rely on culture as the primary means of governance. If anyone disobeys me or refuses to pay taxes, I will lead my troops to destroy him. Isn't this relying on force? How can this be considered governing by culture?"

Zhu Di was even more furious. "Governing the country is not as easy as you say. If we rely solely on force, the country will be destroyed in a few years!"

"You're only eight years old. I can't explain some of these things to you. Anyway, read more. The more you read, the more you'll understand how to govern a country!"

"Okay, it's sunny, stop practicing, let's all go inside and study!"

After hearing Zhu Di's order, Zhu Gaoxu looked unhappy, while Zhu Gaochi looked happy - unlike Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaochi liked to stay in the house and read books, rather than working out in the sun and getting covered in sweat.

After educating his eldest son and second son, Zhu Di went to see Zhu Gaosui and his four younger children - these four children were born to three other concubines, and they happened to be two boys and two girls.

Speaking of which, perhaps the Zhu family's gene for being loyal is really more prominent. After Zhu Di was granted the title of vassal, although he was allowed to take several concubines according to the rules, he had a good relationship with Xu Miaoyun. In addition, Xu Da was the first meritorious official of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, so he favored Xu Miaoyun.

Xu Miaoyun was also very fertile and gave birth to three sons for him in just a few years.

However, since he learned from Liu Kuan that most of his descendants had short lives, Zhu Di secretly looked for the reason.

He felt that having spent his entire military career, and living to the age of sixty, was not considered short-lived. Therefore, the problem must lie with his eldest son, Zhu Gaochi.

He originally thought it was just because Zhu Gaochi didn't like to exercise, but later he heard that the medical school, based on some later medical theories passed down by Liu Kuan, believed that the longevity of descendants was also related to the bloodline of their parents.

The Zhu family's bloodline should be long-lived, so the problem can only be with the Xu family - after all, in history, Xu Da died of illness at the age of 54.

Therefore, in the past few years, Zhu Di, despite the pressure from Xu Miaoyun and the Xu family, took in three concubines.

Zhu Yuanzhang also contributed to this - his three concubines each had a different background. One was a noble lady from the Mongolian tribe, one was a noble lady from the Wanyan clan of the Haixi Jurchen tribe, and the other was the second daughter of Guangping Marquis Yuan Hong, who was good at managing money.

However, ever since he took in three concubines in succession, the relationship between him and Xu Miaoyun seemed to have grown a little cold - in the past two years, Xu Miaoyun had devoted almost all her time to the education of her three children, but from what we can see so far, the effect was not significant.

After having lunch in the villa at noon, Zhu Di discussed and handled some matters with civil officials such as Daoyan, Chen Ying, Tan Heng, Huang Zicheng, and Fang Bin. In the afternoon, he went to the military camp with his guards.

When Zhu Di became a vassal, in addition to giving him 3,000 guards, he also allowed him to recruit 5,000 immigrants.

Zhu Di felt that 3,000 guards were too few, and was worried that they would not have enough troops when they encountered a powerful enemy. So he decided to designate 3,000 immigrant households as military households, and require each household to send one able-bodied man as a regular soldier.

Now in the Yan vassal army camp outside Guangzhou city, there are 3,000 guards and 3,000 Yan vassal garrison troops.

The troops in the garrisons were all trained as infantry, combining soldiers and farmers.

That is to say, after arriving in India, if the enemy's military strength is not strong, these garrison troops will be responsible for construction, engineering, and farming; if the enemy is strong and the Yan vassal's military strength is insufficient, then these 3,000 garrison troops will have to go to the battlefield.

Today, only a few of the 8,000 immigrant households (3,000 of whom are families of the guards) are responsible for farming on a farm of the Yan clan on the outskirts of Guangzhou, while the others do some handicrafts.

One is to generate income for each family so that they can buy more supplies before going out to sea; the other is to prevent these immigrants from being too idle and causing trouble.

These immigrants were mainly managed by his civil officials. There were only a few thousand people, so it was easy to manage them. Zhu Di was not worried, so his focus after coming to Guangzhou was always on the army.

After arriving at the military camp, Zhu Di saw that two thousand off-duty guards and three thousand garrison troops were all training, sweating profusely in the hot afternoon, and that all the regular garrison troops were well-maintained and strong, which made him very satisfied.

Then he said to the gray-haired veteran beside him, "Commander Chen has trained these garrison troops very well. Thank you for your hard work."

Chen Heng clasped his fists and said, "This is my responsibility, so I dare not call it hard work."

Chen Heng was fifty-six years old and was originally a general of the Yuan army. He joined Zhu Yuanzhang's army in Haozhou in his early years. Unfortunately, his luck was bad later, or he was not trusted enough by Zhu Yuanzhang in his early years. After more than twenty years, he could only hold the position of commander-in-chief of the army, and there was almost no hope of being granted a title.

When Zhu Di went overseas to be a vassal, he needed a steady veteran general to command the army. This person must not have a title - if a duke or marquis was sent overseas, it would most likely be regarded as exile.

Zhu Di then appointed Chen Heng as the commander-in-chief, commanding 3,000 garrison troops, and promised him a great reward after establishing a vassal state in India.

What Zhu Di didn't know was that in history, Chen Heng was originally a general of the garrison stationed in Daning. He ended up surrendering to Zhu Di when he attacked Daning and became one of the four people who were granted the title of Duke after the Jingnan Campaign.

As for why Chen Heng came to serve Zhu Di, whether it was fate or Zhu Di did it intentionally because he heard some news from Liu Kuan, no one knows.

In addition to Chen Heng, several other famous generals in the Jingnan Rebellion in history also joined Zhu Di's army.

Such as Zhu Neng and his father Zhu Liang, Zhang Yu and his son Zhang Fu, as well as Qiu Fu, Zhang Wu, Xu Zhong, Tan Yuan, etc.

Of course, most of the famous officials in the Jingnan Campaign in history no longer had any contact with Zhu Di, nor did they appear in the Yanfan Army...

···
While Zhu Di was training his troops in Guangzhou and ambitiously preparing to become a vassal in India, Prince Jin Zhu Ying and Prince Qi Zhu Gui in the capital were taking a literary examination in Fengxian Hall to qualify for overseas vassalage.

Eunuch Li Gui stood beside His Majesty and looked at them secretly. He saw that the two princes were not in good condition.

Prince Jin Zhu Xing was in better condition, with only a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and a frown on his face.

However, King Zhu Gui of Qi was scratching his head and cheeks while looking at the test paper, even his hair was messed up. It was obvious that there were too many questions on the test paper that he could not answer.

Li Gui secretly shook his head, thinking that Zhu Yu had little hope of passing the literary examination this time.

Zhu Gui was naughty and disliked studying since childhood, and he did not catch up with the good time when Uncle Keji was teaching in the main hall, so his literary skills were probably very poor.

As for whether Zhu Xing could pass, Li Gui couldn't guess for sure.

Two hours later, the palace's water-powered mechanical clock struck a bell. Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been reviewing memorials, looked up and said, "Time's up. Hand in your papers."

After saying this, he saw that Zhu Ying and Zhu Gui did not stop, but instead hurried to write something on the scroll.

Zhu Yuanzhang was immediately displeased and shouted, "If you continue to do this, you will be breaking the rules if you take the imperial examination. You will be deemed to have failed the exam!"

Zhu Ying and Zhu Gui were so frightened that they quickly stopped writing.

Only then did Li Gui tactfully go up and collect the papers of the two people, and hand them to the two chief teachers who were summoned to the hall to supervise the examination and correct the papers for evaluation.

After the two finished their evaluation, Li Gui took the paper to Zhu Yuanzhang for review.

Zhu Yuanzhang had no objection to the teacher's judgment, but his expression was unfriendly when he held the paper.

"Humph, you two are really good. One of you just barely passed with a B-grade, and the other one just got a D-grade, and your paper was a complete mess!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Ying, who thought he had done relatively well on the test paper, breathed a sigh of relief - even though it was a B-, it was still acceptable, and he had passed the written test.

Zhu Yu also knew his own limitations and said with a look of grievance, "Father, it's not that I didn't do my best. It's just that the test paper is too difficult. I haven't even heard of many of the questions. How can I do them?"

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed the imperial desk and said, "You don't study in your spare time, but instead blame the exams for being difficult? Shouldn't all the scholars who failed the imperial examinations blame the difficulty of the exams?"

"That's not what I meant..."

Zhu Gui still wanted to explain and fight for his rights, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not give him a chance.

"Don't say useless things. If you fail the civil service exam, you won't be able to get the chance to be an overseas feudal lord this year. If you really want to be an overseas feudal lord, study hard and wait until this time next year to take the civil service exam again."

Zhu Yu was frustrated and didn't dare to argue anymore. He could only respond with a wronged "yes".

Zhu Ying suppressed his excitement and asked, "Father, have I obtained the qualifications to be a vassal overseas?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "You are qualified, but if you want to build a good vassal state, you will need to learn more about civil governance in the future."

Zhu Ying hurriedly said, "I will continue to study after I become a vassal!"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "Do we have to wait until he becomes a vassal? Can't we arrest him now?"

Zhu Ying now only wanted to appease Zhu Yuanzhang and settle the overseas vassalage matter as soon as possible. As for going overseas, Zhu Yuanzhang would no longer be able to control him. At that time, whether he would spend his days in revelry or study at night was entirely up to him.
So he replied repeatedly, "Yes, yes, I will go to ask the teacher for advice on the questions I answered incorrectly on the test paper after I go down."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in satisfaction and then said, "Now that you have obtained the qualifications to be an overseas vassal, it is time to determine the location of your vassal state - you should have decided where to go, right?"

While speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang did not forget to signal Li Gui to get the map.

Then Zhu Ying said, "After much deliberation, I have decided to go to Africa."

"Africa?"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)