Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

The Duke of Zhenguo did not belong to any title system of the Ming Dynasty, and there was only one Duke of Zhenguo in the Ming Dynasty, that is, King Suleiman the Magnificent, the King of Daqing Zhu Shou.

If we count further back, the Song Dynasty also conferred such a title. Song Huizong Zhao Ji conferred the title of Duke Zhenguo on his son Zhao Mo. This was the first Duke Zhenguo in Chinese history.

But no matter what, in this era where etiquette is extremely important, the title of Duke of Zhenguo is very unique.

The two who existed in history were both members of the royal family of the dynasty, especially the Ming Dynasty, because of Zhu Houzhao's criminal record, which made him even more like a royal family.

After Emperor Chongzhen finished speaking, all the civil and military officials in the court were a little surprised. They thought that since Zhang Shikang was not a member of the royal family, it was not in accordance with etiquette to confer him the title of Duke of Zhenguo.

There was a buzzing sound for a while, but no one stood up. Hai Zhongchu twitched his beard twice, and finally fell silent.

It was no secret in the court that the emperor favored Zhang Shikang, and the bestowal of titles was the emperor's private matter.

Besides, he had even tolerated the title of Grand Marshal, so he would not go to war if he was given an insignificant title.

Several ministers in the cabinet only hope that this year's new system can be implemented smoothly, and then commercial taxes can be collected.

Only four months have passed this year, and various expenditures have reached a terrifying 20 million taels. All ministries and government offices are working at full capacity to deepen reforms and are spending money like crazy.

In order to reassure the people, the emperor not only distributed land to the people and exempted the people from the land tax they had previously owed, but also exempted the land tax for this year.

This means that not only will there be no land tax income this year, but the court will also have to spend money to purchase the grain grown by the people.

Corvée labor was also abolished and all labor was replaced by a hiring system. Two million people have been recruited to dig the canals, and more people will have to be hired in the next few months, which will cost more money and food.

Although Hai Zhongqi believes that these new policies can greatly alleviate the situation of the lower-class people, he sometimes feels that the people are treated too favorably and worries about financial difficulties in the future.

The collection of commercial taxes is of vital importance, and it is the focus of Ming Dynasty's current taxation.

Zhang Shikang was also somewhat surprised, but not too much. To put it bluntly, as the Grand Marshal of the Army, he was already in the highest position among the officials, and the title was just a bonus.

But thinking that it was Brother Chongzhen's good intention, he stood up very respectfully and formally, bowed and said:

"Your Majesty, I, Zhang Shikang, thank you for your grace!"

In addition to promoting Zhang Shikang to the rank of Duke, Emperor Chongzhen also publicly commended the soldiers who had made contributions in the Battle of Jinzhou. He also publicly announced the rewards and arrangements for the Zu family and the Ma family.

The morning court finally ended in a relatively calm atmosphere, and as expected, Zhang Shikang was summoned alone again.

When he came to the huge Qianqing Palace of Chongzhen again, there was a pile of wood in the palace and an operating table for cutting wood.

That table was actually made of golden nanmu wood.

After listening to Zhang Shikang's advice, Emperor Chongzhen began to try to cultivate his hobby, and this stall in the palace was obviously carpentry work.

Since Zhang Shikang had mentioned fishing more than once in front of him, the first thing Emperor Chongzhen thought of was to go fishing.

However, when Emperor Chongzhen wanted to fish, he did not have to run out of the capital to the river or lake like Xincheng Hou Wang Guoxing and Zhang Shikang's father did.

The Taiye Pond in the imperial city is a large inland lake with many spots suitable for fishing.

Emperor Chongzhen asked Wang Chengen from the Imperial Household Department to prepare fishing gear and went fishing excitedly.

But he was such a novice that he didn't catch anything after fishing for more than an hour. He immediately lost his patience, thinking that he was wasting his time.

Then he thought of his royal brother Zhu Youxiao, who was very obsessed with carpentry and could make all kinds of extremely exquisite wooden objects.

Emperor Chongzhen found the old eunuch in the palace who had served his brother before, and he even found out all the things that happened to his brother.

But Emperor Chongzhen was still a complete novice who knew nothing. He originally wanted to sit on the simplest stool, but it turned out that the four legs were all different lengths.

Wang Chengen originally wanted to encourage his master, so he went to try it himself. As a result, one of his legs was broken by Lao Wang, and he fell on his butt.

So Emperor Chongzhen felt bored again, and yesterday afternoon he even ordered someone to take out the documents on Emperor Jiajing's alchemy, hoping to learn how to make alchemy.

However, after he looked at the large number of elixir recipes that the alchemists presented to Emperor Jiajing, he felt his scalp tingling, thinking that they were not making elixirs but making poisons.

So he came up with an ingenious idea and used various Chinese medicinal herbs to replace the strange ingredients in the pill recipes. He worked on it until late at night, but in the end he only produced a pile of charred balls.

He hesitated for a long time and did not dare to put it in his mouth. Wang Chengen volunteered to try it, but was also rejected by Emperor Chongzhen.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen's several attempts to find a hobby all ended in failure.

"Hahahaha, Your Majesty, everyone has their own expertise. It's not okay for you to just dabble in something.

You are so patient in handling government affairs, why can't you calm down when doing other things? "

Zhang Shikang learned about Brother Chongzhen's attempts in the past two days from Wang Chengen. Fortunately, Wang Chengen had received professional training and was very serious when he spoke.

But Zhang Shikang almost collapsed.

"They are all meaningless things, tiring and boring." Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and asked Wang Chengen to remove all the carpentry tools in the hall.

He didn't even want to look at it again.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. There are 360 professions, and you can definitely find something that is beneficial to your body and mind and can also kill time.

Otherwise, I plan to go to Xishan Camp and the General Manufacturing Bureau for inspection tomorrow.

If Your Majesty is interested, you might as well go out of the palace for a stroll. You may find something unexpected." Zhang Shikang suggested.

Emperor Chongzhen did not agree immediately, but seemed to have remembered something and said:

"I heard from the Minister of Industry that you have been working on developing artillery for the French? And warships for the Europeans?

Are the artillery and warships of our Ming Dynasty really inferior to those of the European barbarians?"

Since the Ming Dynasty banned maritime trade, except for some smugglers on the southeast coast who had exchanges with the outside world, the Ming Dynasty court had almost no communication with the outside world.

Ever since the imperial court began to vigorously cast the old-style cannons of the French during the Wanli period, those various types of French cannons have been used for decades.

Emperor Chongzhen certainly had reason to believe that the Ming Dynasty's manufacturing technology was not inferior to those of the barbarians.

This isn't arrogance, it's pure ignorance.

"Your Majesty, yes, the artillery of our Ming Dynasty is not as good as that of the Europeans. The weapons of those barbarians are currently stronger than those of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhang Shikang said this very seriously and calmly in front of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

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