Seeing someone coming to rescue her, Empress Dowager Sun nodded hurriedly and turned to tell Jin Ying: "Just do as Minister Yu said, send Xing'an and Ma Shun together, and be sure to bring King Tan into the palace as soon as possible."
Not long after, the eunuch Xing'an and the commander of the Jinyi Guards, Ma Shun, rushed to the palace.
Needless to say, Xing'an and Ma Shun were very happy when they first entered the house. Because looking at the lively atmosphere in the palace, it is obvious that King Tan is still there. As long as the prince is still there, the court will still have a backbone.
However, when the two of them saw the princess and bowed, they heard the princess say with a smile: "Are you two delivering rewards to His Highness on behalf of the Queen Mother? You have worked hard. It is a pity that our Highness was in a hurry early in the morning. go out."
The two were stunned when they heard this, and Xing'an asked quickly: "His Highness went out early in the morning? Where did he go?"
The princess also asked with a confused look on her face: "Our Highness, under the decree of the Queen Mother, went south to Hangzhou to recuperate. May I ask my father-in-law, this was approved by the Queen Mother herself. Is there any problem?"
Xing'an replied eagerly: "There is something serious going on in the court. The Queen Mother has orders to ask King Tan to enter the palace immediately."
Hearing that it was an important matter for the court, the princess did not dare to ask in detail, nor did she dare to stay for a long time. She hurriedly ordered the maid to arrange a silver reward.
Xing'an and Ma Shun took the reward, thanked the princess, and immediately took the royal guards with them, and went south to chase the king.
…
But he said that King Tan and his party stopped by the roadside, had lunch, and rested for half an hour.
Cheng Jing stepped forward and asked for instructions: "Your Highness, shall we continue our journey?"
Zhu Qiyu smiled and said, "You're not busy. Go and gather everyone here. I have something to say. Also, bring over our boxes of gold, silver and jewelry."
Cheng Jing didn't understand what he meant, but he didn't ask any further questions. He hurriedly ordered people to move the gold and silver boxes from the carriage, and then called everyone to gather in front of Zhu Qiyu, and lined up in order to wait for instructions.
Zhu Qiyu waved his hand and motioned for everyone to sit down, and then smiled and said: "I won't talk too much nonsense. Anyone who can abandon their family and career and follow me out of the capital is loyal.
From now on, you will be my close confidants. I am not knowledgeable, and I cannot explain any great principles such as benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust.
Anyway, I will just say one thing: From now on, as long as I have a mouth, you will have a mouth.
Come, Mr. Cheng, open the box. "
When the box was opened, everyone's eyes were dazzled by the neat silver ingots, gold ingots, and the dazzling array of jewelry.
Zhu Qiyu carefully observed everyone's expressions. Although most people showed envy, no one showed greed and obsession.
Zhu Qiyu nodded secretly in his heart. He was lucky. Although his group of confidants was not many, they were indeed quite capable.
So Zhu Qiyu continued: "I'm not very familiar with most of you, so let's each step forward and introduce yourself. Where are you from, what are your life experiences, what skills do you have, what are your hobbies, etc." .”
Everyone was a little nervous after hearing this. Cheng Jing stood up first and introduced himself first.
Mr. Cheng is also open-minded and does not shy away from his experience of being sentenced for crimes. After hearing this, everyone was filled with emotion and sigh.
After Cheng Jing finished speaking, Zhu Qiyu solemnly promised: "Mr. Cheng, I promise you here that it won't take long before I will vindicate your unjust case."
Cheng Jing was dubious about these words, but he didn't show it at all on his face. As soon as Zhu Qiyu finished speaking, Cheng Jing knelt down to thank him and burst into tears.
Zhu Qiyu hurriedly helped Cheng Jing up and comforted him. Then he took two ingots of gold and two ingots of silver from the box and stuffed them into Cheng Jing's hands. Then he grabbed a large handful of jewelry and presented them together.
With Cheng Jing in front of him, the people behind him relaxed and the atmosphere became positive and warm.
After everyone finished speaking, Zhu Qiyu also presented a piece of gold and silver jewelry.
In the end, everyone got two ingots of gold, two ingots of silver, and a handful of jewels.
These treasures are worth the entire wealth of most people. But Zhu Qiyu did not hesitate. After all, his foundation was too shallow and he was in urgent need of people who could use him.
As for whether these people in front of him are talents and whether they sincerely join him, Zhu Qiyu doesn't want to delve into it, because not only does he have no time to pick and choose now, but he also has no other choice. If these people are not used, who else can he use?
So we can only use these people first and then talk about it. After a long time and experienced many things, we will naturally know who is traitorous and who is loyal, who is wise and who is stupid.
After handing out the money, Zhu Qiyu gave an order: Let’s go!
Everyone responded in unison, first surrounded Zhu Qiyu and got into the carriage, then each got on their horse and continued on their way.
It has to be said that Zhu Qiyu did a very good job in this ideological work. His subordinates were very motivated and rushed forward with roars. In more than two hours, they ran fifty miles away.
Fortunately, Zhu Qiyu's carriage was luxurious enough and the official road was smooth enough, so he didn't suffer much from the bumps.
It was already dark by now, and everyone ran around to their heart's content. They missed the inn town, so they had to camp outdoors and spend the night.
Early the next morning, everyone had breakfast, packed up, and was about to go on their way when they heard the sound of noisy horse hooves. It was obvious that a large number of people were galloping towards them.
Everyone stopped to watch, and not long after, they saw dozens of guards in royal robes galloping in front of everyone.
The royal guards dismounted and the two leaders came closer and asked, "Who is in charge here?"
Cheng Jing stood up. When he saw the two of them, he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted with his hands, and said with a smile: "It turns out that it's Eunuch Xing who is riding high. What kind of wind has brought you here?"
Xing'an hurriedly returned the favor and complained: "I'm so mature, why are you running so fast? Commander Ma and I almost didn't sleep a wink all night. In order to chase you, you look at our eyes, which are all red."
Xing'an often visited the Prince's Palace and was an old acquaintance with Cheng Jing. The two had a brief exchange, and Cheng Jing exchanged a few words with Ma Shun. He wanted to talk more, but Xing'an interrupted:
"Lao Cheng, something big happened in the court. Where is Your Highness? I want to see Your Highness immediately."
When Cheng Jing heard this, he was surprised: His Highness must have the ability to predict the unknown. He left the capital in a hurry, but why did something big happen to the court on the back?
Seeing Cheng Jing in a daze, Xing'an urged him softly. Only then did Cheng Jing come to his senses, led Xing'an and Ma Shun, walked quickly to Zhu Qiyu's carriage, and reported, "Your Highness, Eunuch Xing and Commander Ma want to see you."
"knew."
Zhu Qiyu responded lightly, then opened the sedan curtain and got out of the carriage.
As soon as Xing'an and Ma Shun saw Zhu Qiyu, they knelt down and worshiped, saying with tears in their eyes: "Your Highness, it's not good. Your Majesty's personal army was completely destroyed in Tumubao. The 500,000-strong army was completely destroyed. Even His Majesty’s whereabouts are also unknown.”
However, to their surprise, Zhu Qiyu responded indifferently and just patted Xing'an on the shoulder to express comfort. Then he sneered:
"Don't listen to those bastards from the Ministry of War bragging about five hundred thousand. If I didn't hit their heads with a stone to help them wake up, they would have thought they were possessed by Lord Wu An first.
There are only half a million or five hundred thousand at every turn. How can there be so many half a million in this world? You are just chopping cabbage. "
Xing'an and Ma Shun were stunned by Zhu Qiyu and looked at Zhu Qiyu blankly, speechless for a long time.
Zhu Qiyu waved his hand and ordered: "You two go back, just tell the Queen Mother that I am very worried about your brother, and I am very willing to contribute to the court. But my headache is getting worse, and I may not die soon. I will also give it to the court when I go back." Add to chaos.
Therefore, I still follow the Queen Mother's decree and go to Hangzhou to cultivate. "
Hearing this, Xing'an became a little anxious and quickly advised: "Your Highness, if you don't go back, who else will be able to supervise the country's governance. When the court has no backbone, how can it defend the capital and rescue the emperor?"
Zhu Qiyu smiled and said: "King Xiang is wise and has experience in supervising the country. Naturally, it is the right way to ask King Xiang to come to Beijing to preside over it. Don't worry about me anymore. Believe me, after a lot of back and forth, it will be Xiang in the end." The king oversees the country. Those civil servants will not accept my supervision of the country."
Xing'an and Ma Shun had no choice but to get up, went to the side and discussed among themselves before returning to Zhu Qiyu.
This time it was Ma Shun's turn to speak. The commander of the Jin Yiwei raised his hands to Zhu Qiyu and loudly advised: "Your Highness, please forgive me. This matter is serious and affects the survival of the capital. I have to kidnap Your Highness back today." "
When Zhu Qiyu heard this, he turned to look at his guard calmly.
With only one look from Zhu Qiyu, a group of royal guards came to protect Zhu Qiyu and drew their swords against Ma Shun.
Seeing this, a group of Jin Yiwei also drew their swords and surrounded him.
Zhu Qiyu sneered and said: "Okay, okay, okay, as expected of the Jin Yiwei, they are quite courageous. But I think you all know that according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, killing the prince is a crime of treason, and the nine tribes must be punished."
Hearing this, all the Jinyi guards retreated and hesitated.
Zhu Qiyu took advantage of the situation and shouted loudly: "If you have the guts and don't care about Lingchi or the Nine Clans, just take the Xiuchun knife and stab me in the heart. I respect you as a man. If you don't have the guts, don't follow him. I'm bluffing, put away this broken knife quickly and get out of here."
All the Jinyi guards were horrified when Zhu Qiyu yelled at him. Without waiting for Ma Shun's order, they all put away their knives, stepped back ten steps, and knelt down to apologize.
Anyway, no one is willing to go to the extent of killing the nine tribes for such a thing.
It's no use just raising a knife to scare the prince. Jin Yiwei is not a fool. Now that the emperor's whereabouts are unknown, he really wants to offend His Highness the Prince in front of him, and he will take revenge severely in the future.
So why bother? If you don't give money or land, you don't have to offend King Tao like this.
Zhu Qiyu also accepted the offer, waved his hands casually, chuckled and said: "Okay, okay, let's all get up. You are all on business, and I am not a narrow-minded person, so let's forget it. Go back, everyone. Go back and resume your life."
After that, Zhu Qiyu got on the carriage and ordered everyone in the palace to continue on their way.
However, Zhu Qiyu only looked unhurried, but in fact he was not in a hurry. The King of Huai of the Yuan Dynasty, Prime Minister Zhongshu Right, and Grand Master Yexian outside Juyong Pass were not very interested in attacking the capital of the Ming Dynasty. He still had to wander leisurely in Shanxi for fifty days.
Zhu Qiyu's next goal is to travel for another three days to get to Baoding Prefecture, then spend a few days in this larger prefecture, eat donkey meat on fire, and wait for the court officials to come and look around before going back.
