In front of Tongzhou Water Transport Terminal, Li Zhe looked at the swaying water plants in the river. The setting sun looked like a boiled hot spring egg, half of which had sunk into the western mountains, exuding the last afterglow.
"Master, Prince Qi will definitely not be able to come back. He may have taken the boat and wandered off somewhere. Let's go back to Zhejiang." The servant advised from the side.
Li Zhe shook his head and said, "Wait a minute. I heard that King Qi came to the north with his army. He is going to fight. The army must still be in Tongzhou. There is no reason to run away for an empty ship like mine. I think this is an opportunity and want to wait.”
Among scholars, farmers, industry and merchants, merchants were the lowest class and the most humble.
But they are the kind of people with the most sensitive sense of smell and can smell opportunities. Li Zhe is the kind of person with extremely sensitive sense of smell. He feels that if he continues to wait, he will definitely be able to wait for a big opportunity.
"The ship is coming, the ship is coming!"
When Li Zhe heard the sound, he suddenly looked forward and saw the shadow of the sail.
"I knew it, I knew it!"
Li Zhe laughed loudly and looked like he was pissing in the wind while standing on the dock.
When the merchant ship docked, Zhu Gaojie asked Chi Rong to direct the sergeants to unload the grain: "Find some trailers and move the grain up. This grain must not be delayed. We will rely on these 80,000 kilograms of grain to support the army to Shuntian Mansion." .”
Then, Zhu Gaojie looked at Li Zhe again: "I thought you had left."
Li Zhe bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty asked the common people to wait. The common people will never dare to leave without permission."
Zhu Gaojie glanced at this middle-aged man in his forties, thought for a moment, and said with a smile: "He is a courageous man. You are very good."
Li Zhe's heartbeat quickened: "Your Majesty, this is so embarrassing for a villain, the common people are terrified!"
"If you have any ideas, please come to Prince Qi's Mansion to work in the future. I admire you as a courageous businessman." Zhu Gaojie said, "Since ancient times, businessmen have pursued profit, and I have no objection to those who pursue profit. If we say pursuit of profit, I'm afraid all the scholars in the world regard themselves as commodities and sell them to the emperor's family."
Li Zhe was overjoyed and bowed and said: "Thank you for your appreciation, Your Majesty. I am a common man. I am willing to ride for Your Majesty and obey your orders!"
He had calculated correctly, and he had indeed waited for an opportunity to get on the big ship of Prince Qi's Mansion!
Li Zhe is good at calculations and does not have a long-term political vision, but he is very accurate in judging people. He saw the possibility of success in Prince Qi. This Prince Qi was not cultivating the royal way, but the imperial art!
From the time a person is born, it is determined whether he will have the bones of an emperor. This is a natural temperament, just like jade that is made from nature!
King Qi has the character of an emperor!
…
capital city, imperial palace
Zhu Di sat on the golden chair and casually opened the secret letter sent from Tongzhou Anzhuang. He frowned and said, "This kid, Fourth, is really bold."
The great eunuch Tang Cheng was waiting at the side. Seeing that the emperor was so happy, he couldn't help but ask: "Is there anything that makes Long Live Lord so happy?"
Zhu Di was happy in his heart and raised the corners of his mouth slightly: "King Qi robbed the ship at the water transport terminal in Tongzhou and went to the Grand Canal to rob the grain. This grain was originally sent from Suzhou to Shuntian Prefecture, but this boy cut off the Hu. "
Tang Cheng was stunned and chuckled: "King Qi always does things so unexpectedly."
Stealing grain from the canal is of course a serious crime, but it also takes time.
What time is it now?
Is it more important to accuse King Qi of ordering grain, or to fill the bellies of tens of thousands of soldiers in the Northern Expedition?
The result is self-evident. If the canal grain is gone, it can be shipped again, but if the soldiers who work for the court go hungry, it will really chill the hearts of the people in the world. What's more, the reason why these 30,000 elite soldiers were starved was not because of other reasons, but because the Zhu family's fighting among themselves went too far this time, and King Qi was just cleaning up the mess left by the East Palace.
It's true that the blame will be placed on Dong Gong in the end.
"Is the prince's rebellious son still grounded?" Zhu Di asked with a frown.
Tang Cheng nodded: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Great Grandson are both confined in the East Palace."
Zhu Di touched his chin: "Tang Cheng, do you think the man who sank the grain ship and burned the granary behind Tongzhou's back was the prince?"
It's not that the old man is suspicious. Although he hasn't found out who did it now, he already has a general direction, and all the evidence is moving closer to the East Palace.
His Royal Highness the Emperor Taisun was very cautious in looking for people and left very few traces. Even with the level of the Jin Yiwei, he could not detect anything at all. But Zhu Zhanji didn't know at all that the emperor still had a "high-quality version of the royal guard" hidden in his hands.
For cases that the Jin Yiwei cannot detect, the Shadow Warrior can. As long as there are clues, the Shadow Warrior can follow the clues and get to the bottom of the case. It can be called a human scanner.
"Your Majesty, the Twelve Guards have mobilized two guards, Hu Ben's right guard and Jinwu's avant-garde, to patrol the East Palace day and night alternately. There is no leakage, and even the birds cannot fly out when they come." Tang Cheng replied.
"Well..." Zhu Di thought for a while and said, "Let the prince's rebellious son come to see me. I have something to say to him."
Tang Cheng lowered his head and cupped his hands: "No."
The great eunuch retreated, and after a long time, the slightly bloated Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi came in and knelt in front of the palace: "My son, Zhu Gaochi, has been ordered to pay my respects to you."
"I'm fine, come in."
Zhu Di looked at the prince's haggard face due to exhaustion, and couldn't help but said softly, "I have lost weight again. I have worked hard for you for so many years. He is my good son, and his hard work has contributed a lot. I am incompetent as a father, and I have made you suffer so much." So many sins.”
The prince's heart skipped a beat, his forehead was dripping with sweat, and he quickly said: "It's not hard, it's not hard."
He knows the old man’s way of doing things very well!
If the emperor scolds him all over the place as soon as he comes in, even though he may feel a little embarrassed, he will still be scolded to death. The more severe the scolding, the lighter the subsequent punishment.
King Zhao stabbed the king to death and was scolded by the emperor. In the end, most of the foundation was destroyed. The emperor couldn't be cruel in the end for the sake of the blood of father and son, and just beat and scolded King Zhao.
The King of Han was defeated in the party struggle. Without saying a word, the old man cut off the King of Han's wings in the capital and forced the King of Han to surrender.
Now that the emperor was looking kind and cheerful, Zhu Gaochi was frightened.
You can figure it out with your feet, this is the calm before the rainstorm!
If you put it in an ordinary family, if the father who is always domestic violence suddenly talks to the older girl in a friendly manner, he will probably sell the girl to a brothel!
"Boss, how many years have you followed me?" Zhu Di suddenly asked.
Zhu Gaochi thought for a moment and replied cautiously: "My son was born in Fengyang, the land of Longxing, the land of Emperor Taizu Gao. Counting from the 28th year of Hongwu when he was established as the eldest son of Prince Yan, it has been twenty years. .”
"Twenty years is already a long time. There are only a few twenty years in life."
Zhu Di stood up from the golden chair, walked over and knelt in front of the kneeling Zhu Gaochi, and looked at his son with loving eyes: "Your mother is a good girl. The only woman I have ever loved in my life is your mother. Your mother gave birth to four sons for me, each of them is a dragon and a phoenix among men, capable of conquering the heaven and earth. But two tigers cannot live in the same mountain, let alone six dragons in the same dynasty."
The six dragons in the same dynasty: the emperor, the prince, the king of Han, the king of Zhao, the king of Qi, and the grandson.
The level among the six people fluctuated slightly. A certain Prince Zhao, who did not want to be named, may not have the fate of an "emperor", but he was definitely the best among the vassal kings and a great man of his generation.
Or it could be said that Lao Zhu’s family knows how to choose a daughter-in-law, and co-authoring is screening genes!
There are seven members of the family, one is the emperor who is excellent in both civil and military skills, one is Empress Xu who is known as a wise queen, one is a prince who is famous for his benevolence but is proficient in politics, one is King Qi who has great power to save the world, and the other is a heroic warrior. There are two unique Han kings: one is the scheming King Zhao, and the other is the emperor's grandson who has the qualifications to be a holy king.
What kind of fairy family is this? They have the best luck in the world!
Zhu Di sometimes even wondered whether the Yongle Dynasty had exhausted the Zhu family's national destiny, which led to the lack of luck in the foundation of the dynasty in later generations.
However, just because this family is all capable people, this has caused countless disputes, and relatives are killed and chattered endlessly.
"My son has failed to live up to his father's expectations." Zhu Gaochi hesitated, wondering what kind of medicine the old man was selling in this gourd, and why he started to engage in sensationalism.
Zhu Di said in a gentle tone: "Boss, tell the truth to dad. Tell me whether you did what happened in Tongzhou. You can tell me. We are all one family. I won't blame you."
The alarm bell rang in Zhu Gaochi's heart. He knew that the old man was about to talk about business. He was going round and round just for the knife hidden in the warmth!
How can the prince dare to tell the truth? He just wants to fool him by committing misfortune: "If my father thinks that I did it, then I did it. Dad, you watched me grow up, and I feel the same in my heart." I don’t have any big ambitions, I just care deeply about the Ming Dynasty. I want the people to have enough to eat and wear good clothes, so that the people of Li will suffer less. Even if I am a little tired, it doesn’t matter. After so many years, Erchen’s body has become If my father doesn't like me, then so be it."
It has to be said that what Zhu Gaochi said was accurate.
He simply told Zhu Di clearly that after selling to you for so many years, I didn't survive you old thing, but almost made me fat to death. I exhausted my fuel and almost disappeared into ashes. Now you doubt me? Are you even a human being?
This is a psychological tactic, retreat in order to advance. Zhu Gaochi worked hard to make his old father feel embarrassed and touch his heart.
This trick worked well in the past, but today Zhu Di was obviously motivated to kill. He heard the prince's words in one ear and out the other, and said with sharp eyes: "Boss, I know you can't do this." Such a thing. Tell me who did it, was it Zhan Ji? I didn’t do a good job as a grandfather and gave Zhan Ji a bad start. Hey, this is also my fault. I don’t blame Zhan Ji..."
Zhu Gaochi was 100% sure that the old man was deceiving him!
It is absolutely impossible for the emperor to identify the person behind the scenes in such a short period of time!
The old man was just trying to use language tactics to turn this "uncertain matter" into a "certain matter". He said he was kind, but Zhu Gaochi didn't dare to agree.
"Father, what are you talking about?" Zhu Gaochi covered his chest and said sadly, "Father, you single-handedly brought up this child Zhanji. Don't you know what his virtues are? Although Zhanji occasionally does It's wrong, but the fourth child is also his fourth uncle! How could Zhanji attack his own family!"
"Oh, I know everything you said, I..."
Just when Zhu Gaochi breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking that he had fooled the old man, suddenly Zhu Di's eyes burst out with frightening pressure, like an iron horse roaring, and asked with a sinister temperament: "As of now, are you still here?" You are so stubborn, do you really think that I don’t know about the scandalous things you did in your home! It’s the other way around, it’s the other way around! I really misjudged him, Zhu Zhanji, his virtue is not worthy of his place, how can he inherit the throne and how can he deserve it? Grandson!"
Zhu Gaochi was shocked, and was dizzy by the sudden change in the wind. He quickly raised his hands and said: "Father, Zhan Ji is still a child! He..."
The prince's voice suddenly came, and his stomach turned green with regret at the words.
Under the emperor's high pressure and under the sudden change of words, Zhu Gaochi revealed a small flaw and made a wrong sentence.
He shouldn't plead for Zhu Zhanji!
Asking for mercy is tantamount to admitting your fault. Can you admit this?
He should try his best to betray himself, condemn himself, and not give Zhu Di a chance to speak out, but now he has handed the flaw into Zhu Di's hands!
Zhu Di's expression was calm: "Boss, you are tired."
Zhu Gaochi's face turned ashen: "My son... you are not tired..."
"No, I think you should be tired."
Zhu Di rubbed Zhu Gaochi's hair and sighed, "Go back to the East Palace. I already know it in my heart."
"Father, I still have something to say..."
"No need to say anything, just go back."
"My son...understood."
Zhu Gaochi's body softened immediately, and he almost collapsed to the ground, but he supported his spine, supported the wall with his hands, looked gloomy, and limped away while holding on to the wall.
He knew that he was going to completely lose ground this time.
The East Palace has fallen because of Zhu Zhanji's youth and his own mistakes... The process was cumbersome and the result was even more hurtful.
Zhu Gaochi walked to the red gate of the palace and looked up at the sky on the high wall.
The sky is eclipsed, the stars are shaking, the sun and the moon shine together, but it is impossible to reverse the passing trend.
Zhu Gaochi suddenly remembered how high-spirited he must have been when he was appointed as the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty ten years ago.
But now, only the twilight energy is left.
Party struggles and national affairs have made this honest fat man more and more proficient in political strategy. He has everything, but it is not until today that Zhu Gaochi realizes that he has nothing and is so barren.
Zhu Di's last words made the prince's hopes flattened and filled with decadence.
It turns out that I worked hard for him for so many years, but in the end, just one word could take everything away.
This means that the royal family has no family ties.
It's really cold in Jinling City.
I miss Prince Yan’s Mansion in Peiping so much. Will I be able to go back in this life? I probably won’t be able to go back.
Zhu Gaochi supported the wall and walked out. He knew that if he walked out today, he would have nothing tomorrow.
Zhu Di stood in front of the palace gate, staring at the prince's bloated back with complicated eyes.
"I can't give it to you tomorrow."
"Don't blame me, kid."
