It is now the early winter of the fourteenth year of Wanli. Outside the palace, the sky and the earth are white, and the vegetation and birds are all hidden. But inside the palace, the charcoal is burning red, making the golden melon hammers on the gourds shine brightly against the background.
Zhu Yijun, who was standing on the side of the Golden Melon Hammer, looked at Queen Mother Li and asked, "Why is Queen Mother doing this?"
Empress Dowager Li sneered: "What can I do? I will naturally intercede for your brother."
After saying that, Queen Mother Li glanced at King Chong, and then asked Zhu Yijun: "What, the emperor really wants to kill him?"
Zhu Yijun glanced at King Chong deeply, without giving a clear answer, he just said: "Yes or no."
"Jun'er!"
"Listen to my advice, he is your royal brother no matter what!"
"Being respectful to brothers, friends and brothers is a principle taught by saints and a etiquette that everyone in the world pays attention to! What's more, the royal family and nobles are different from the bureaucrats and the people. They are the same family as you. You can't be too upright and offend the royal family. Too cruel!"
"Before, your imperial brother was beaten and imprisoned by you, which caused much criticism among the clansmen in the world. If you kill him for this now, you may not be able to stop their greed, but it will force them to do more risky things. thing."
“It will still be the common people who will suffer then!”
Empress Dowager Li knew that Zhu Yijun was now firmly established in the court, so she no longer used a reproachful tone, but spoke to Zhu Yijun in an admonishing tone.
At this time, King Chong also kowtowed to Zhu Yijun again and said: "I will definitely change my past mistakes. Please give me another chance!"
After saying that, King Chong looked at Zhu Yijun and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
Zhu Yijun also glanced at him, but noticed that there was still a hint of teasing in his eyes, and he seemed to be saying that he would dare next time.
Zhu Yijun then glanced at the pumpkin hammer on his head, and then said to Queen Mother Li:
"However, if we don't kill them, it will only make their greed more difficult to contain, and more people will suffer indirectly because of them!"
"In the past, the emperor's younger brother was only imprisoned for colluding with foreign ministers and interfering in the government's affairs. This still made many vassal kings take chances and felt that even if they did too much, they would not be punished with death!"
"That's why Prince Chong dares to continue doing this nonsense!"
"Although it seems that these vassal kings are just making money and not doing evil directly, you must know that they are doing evil by corrupting the bureaucrats, and most of the bureaucrats, especially the subordinates below, have no idea of the family and the country. If they become corrupt because of this, If you do evil, the whole world will suffer!"
"The price will still be borne by our royal family."
"Your Majesty, do you mean to kill me?"
King Chong asked with a sullen look on his face, and then looked at Queen Mother Li hurriedly.
Queen Mother Li also looked at Zhu Yijun.
Zhu Yijun looked at Queen Mother Li: "Do you still want to persuade me?"
Empress Dowager Li said: "I can't interfere with you, but I believe that if you do this, the royal family and nobles will be unhappy, and foreign officials will not advocate his execution, because the Ming Dynasty Code does not say that the vassal king did this." He must be executed!"
"Besides, haven't some clan members already started to plead for him?"
"You should know the consequences of being so inhumane."
After speaking, Empress Dowager Li asked Zhu Yijun: "Are you really going to let your royal brother kneel in front of you like this?"
Seeing that Queen Mother Li was still facing him, King Chong smiled lightly at the floor.
Zhu Yijun took off the pumpkin and played with it in his hand.
Suddenly, Zhu Yijun picked up the golden melon and smashed it on the top of King Chong's head.
"what are you doing?"
"Stop it!"
Queen Mother Li asked anxiously.
King Chong raised his head curiously, but as soon as he raised his head, his eyes went dark. Then he felt like stars were rising all over the world, and he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, and couldn't open his eyes.
"Ah!"
King Chong also shouted at the same time. He squinted and saw Zhu Yijun walking towards him again carrying a pumpkin. He hurriedly covered the blood flowing from the wound and walked out:
"I am your royal brother! How could you do this!"
"Your Majesty, I was wrong!"
"Spare your life, I don't dare to do anything evil anymore, I don't dare to think about your death anymore!"
"I really don't dare anymore! Don't kill me, I beg you!"
King Chong begged as he walked, anxiously expressing his true thoughts.
"If the law can't kill you, I will kill you myself. Let's see who in the world dares to sin against me!"
boom!
After Zhu Yijun said that, he chased after him and hit King Chong on the back of the head with a golden melon.
King Chong fell to the ground.
Zhu Yijun hammered him hard a few more times until King Chong didn't move before he stopped.
Then, Zhu Yijun raised his blood-red eyes, lifted the bloody pumpkin, and looked at Queen Mother Li:
"No one can ignore me because of my status!"
"I am not a slave of the Zhu family, nor a slave of the world!"
"Only I can violate my rules. No one can violate them. If you seek evil, you will seek evil!"
"If my mother and the people of the world feel that what I have done is against the king's will and that I should be deposed, then go ahead and depose me. I am not afraid!"
As Zhu Yijun said that, he dropped the pumpkin hammer, walked out of the palace, and walked on the snow, leaving bright red footprints behind.
It took a long time for Queen Mother Li to come back to her senses. She suddenly noticed King Chong who was covered in blood on the ground. She couldn't help but take a few steps back and said hurriedly:
"Go back to the palace, go back to the palace immediately!"
Queen Mother Li then hurriedly returned to the palace.
But soon, Queen Mother Li went to Chen's place again and told Chen about today's events: "Sister, why do you think Jun'er did this? It's terrible!"
"You shouldn't have gone!"
"Who asked you to see the emperor?"
Queen Mother Chen asked Queen Mother Li.
Empress Dowager Li said: "The news brought by Mr. Xu (Xu Congcheng) said that King Chong was arrested and taken to Beijing. I thought that something was wrong, so I should go and persuade Jun'er."
"You are confused!"
"It's okay if you don't go, but if you go, he will die if he doesn't want to die!"
Queen Mother Chen said something.
Queen Mother Li asked: "What do you mean?"
Queen Mother Chen smiled: "You only think that Jun'er is your son, but you don't think about whose grandson he is!"
After hearing this, Empress Dowager Li understood and said, "Jun'er said to King Chong that if I feel it is against the king's will, I can work with the rest of the world to depose him."
"What?!"
Queen Mother Chen was immediately shocked, stood up and looked at Queen Mother Li:
"Hurry up, send a kind edict to the royal family and clan members of the world, saying that King Chong provoked the emperor, disrespected you, and spoke rude words, so the emperor was angry and killed him with a hammer. Today, in gratitude for his filial piety, I hereby give you this edict. The clan must strictly control its children and uphold the virtues of ministers first, and then talk about friendship!"
"Otherwise, I really don't know what kind of emperor-like things our Jun'er will do!"
"Our Jun'er has indeed grown up now. No one in the world can go against his will. We can only fear that he will respect and love him."
Empress Dowager Chen looked at Empress Dowager Li and yelled: "Why are you still standing there! There is no family affection in the Tian family. If you don't want to die suddenly tonight, just take this responsibility for Jun'er! Don't make it look like you, the Queen Mother, are doing nothing but trouble. Useless!"
Empress Dowager Li nodded and ordered the female officer beside her: "Do it immediately!"
After Zhu Yijun left the palace, he came to the imperial palace and told Zhang Hong: "Bring Yuan Fu, Sun Xin, Ji Guogong, Tieling Marquis and Jin Yiwei Zhang Jingxiu to come."
Not long after, five people, Shen Shixing, Sun Xin, Qi Jiguang, Li Rusong, and Zhang Jingxiu, came to Zhu Yijun to serve as the imperial minister.
Zhu Yijun looked at these five people: "Remember, I am making the following arrangements now!"
(End of chapter)
