First of all, what surprised King Xiang was that when he entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother, he was wearing princely clothes. Then he came to Jietian Tower without having time to change his clothes.
However, upon entering the building, he did not attract much attention and received no special care.
Jie Tianlou treats every guest equally.
The building was so packed that there wasn't even an empty seat. King Xiang even spent a large ingot of gold to buy an empty table from a diner.
Of course, gold never comes in vain, and King Xiang got the best seat on the first floor.
As soon as King Xiang sat down, he turned back to his confidants and smiled bitterly: "No wonder you say this is the first floor of the capital. Considering the scene in front of you, making one hundred thousand taels of silver a year is just talking about being a young man."
When the confidant heard this, he really counted on his fingers, and then replied: "That's more than that. If you earn one hundred thousand taels a year, if you spread it evenly every day, you will only earn less than three hundred taels.
How is that possible? Judging from the overcrowded scene, I believe that he earns three thousand taels a day. "
When King Xiang heard this, he was speechless: "This mere restaurant can make hundreds of thousands of taels a year? Is this faster than making money through robbery?"
The diners at the same table laughed when they heard this.
One of the diners laughed and said: "Although His Highness is joking, the food and tea that I ordered will cost at least thirty to fifty taels of silver to sit in the Jietian Tower for an entire afternoon.
This is still the first floor. If you go upstairs, it will be more expensive. "
When King Xiang heard this, he smiled and nodded in response, but he was even more puzzled in his heart. He was wearing a prince's attire, and the diners could recognize him, but everyone still talked and laughed calmly, not intimidated by his identity.
Is the prince so worthless in the eyes of a wealthy family in the capital?
The diner seemed to be able to see into people's hearts. Without waiting for King Xiang to ask, he took the initiative to explain: "This must be your first time here, Your Highness. Don't blame me for being rude. In fact, Jietian Tower has already established rules. As long as you enter the building, , regardless of official rank or title, diners will treat each other with courtesy.
If you leave this building, I will kowtow to you and salute you.
But in this Jietian Building, there are really countless dignitaries coming in and out every day. If you insist on etiquette, then this restaurant will not be able to continue to open.
Now when you, the prince, come in, all the guests will come to kowtow to you; a moment later a prince will come, and a moment later a prince-in-law will come, and everyone will have to come and kowtow. Then everything will be in chaos, and how can we eat?
So please bear with me, Your Highness. "
Prince Xiang nodded: "Sir, I can understand what you said. May I ask what your name is, sir?"
The diner raised his hands and saluted: "I'm ashamed, I don't dare to be called Mr. in front of His Highness. The villain Wang Shan is a small businessman in Baoding Prefecture. This time I came to Beijing to try my luck and see if I can find some A way to get money."
When King Xiang heard this, he didn't take it seriously. Can a person who can sit in Jietian Tower all afternoon do a small business?
Prince Xiang politely greeted the diners at the same table, and then asked the question he wanted to ask: "What do you gentlemen think of Your Majesty and the Queen Mother's edict on sin?"
A diner surnamed Li was the first to reply angrily: "The Holy One was wronged. This villain has lived in the capital for a long time and knows this too well.
Once the 500,000 Ming army in Tumubao was destroyed, the 80,000 Ming army came in force. At that time, people in the capital were panicked, and few people thought that the city of Beijing could be defended.
No matter they were wealthy businessmen or dignitaries, they all hurriedly packed up their belongings and prepared to flee to Jiangnan.
If you ask me, we are just a little bit close to following in the footsteps of the Southern Song Dynasty.
It was the current Holy Emperor who turned the tide, severely damaged Wala, and rescued the Ming Dynasty. It also preserved the land, wealth, property and lives of the people in the capital.
Tell me what kind of sins the Holy One has committed. Less than two months after he was repulsed, a group of young people in the court actually forced the Holy One to issue an imperial edict to commit sins.
It's really eye-opening that a person can be so ungrateful as a human being. "
Others also nodded to express their sympathy for the emperor.
King Xiang's heart became even colder, but he was still unwilling to accept it, so he continued to ask: "Your Majesty's guilty edict only talked about the whole story of defending the capital in the past six months, but there was no actual self-blame.
The Supreme Emperor was originally the orthodox emperor, and Emperor Jingtai was originally the temporary king. After the Emperor returns to the capital, His Majesty retires as Prince and is restored by the Supreme Emperor, which is also the place of etiquette. "
When everyone heard this, they all shook their heads.
The diner surnamed Li was still the first to retort: "How can it be done? The throne of heaven has been determined, and the divine weapon of Sheji is not allowed to come and go.
Besides, the position of emperor has always been about advancement and never retreat. Now that the Holy One has really retired as a prince, how can the whole family survive? "
When King Xiang heard this, he was quite surprised. Can this kind of thing be discussed openly?
The diner surnamed Li did not take it seriously and continued: "Besides, the Holy Emperor is the son of Queen Hu. He is the direct lineage and rules the world. Why not?"
Hearing this, King Xiang was even more surprised, but when he saw that the people at the same table all looked as usual.
The king was good at observing faces and knew what King Xiang was puzzled about, so he took the initiative to explain: "The master behind Jietian Tower is very powerful, and he can be said to have great hands and eyes.
As long as we diners have paid for our meals, we can talk about anything in this building, as long as we don't incite rebellion or openly insult the Holy One.
No one from the Jinyi Guards, Shuntian Mansion, or the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division would come to interfere in other people's affairs. "
King Xiang nodded and continued to ask the diner named Li: "Then your majesty is the concubine's biological son, and he was adopted by empress Hu. How can he be said to be a direct descendant?"
The diner surnamed Li asked: "Then when the Supreme Emperor was born, the Empress Dowager was still the late emperor's concubine. The Supreme Emperor was born as a concubine. Why was it that he could later be called orthodox and claim to be his direct descendant?
Since the concubine can claim to be his legitimate son after killing his wife with his concubine, then why is he not his legitimate son when the Holy Emperor now adopts his legitimate wife to the first wife of the late emperor?
And even among the people, as long as the person is an adoptive person, his or her legitimate concubines are judged according to the identity of the adopted mother. This has long been an established etiquette. "
King Xiang nodded and looked at the others. Unexpectedly, everyone else nodded in agreement.
Although the few people at the same table do not represent the thoughts of all the people in the capital. However, the sympathy of the people in the capital for Queen Hu was still much stronger than King Xiang imagined.
Twenty years have passed since Queen Hu was deposed, but the people in the capital still identify with Queen Hu and not Queen Mother Sun. Especially when the case of Princess Shunde being poisoned by her consort was recently revealed, the people in the capital sympathized with Queen Hu even more deeply.
King Xiang suppressed his unhappiness and asked a lot of questions. He stayed in the building until it was getting dark, then said goodbye to everyone and returned to the palace.
Lying in bed at night, King Xiang couldn't sleep. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. How come it’s only been half a year that the thoughts of the people in the capital have changed to this?
Although the few diners I met today cannot represent all the people in the capital, they can still give a glimpse of the situation.
Poor Prince Xiang, no matter how hard he calculated, he never thought that there was a concept of 'sitter' in the first restaurant in the capital.
In addition to the serious diners in Jietian Building, there are also some 'shills' specially placed by Zhu Qiyu to guide public opinion.
This is really not to blame for King Xiang. In people's conventional thinking, the emperor's eyes and ears were Dongchang and Jinyiwei. No one could have imagined that Zhu Qiyu would play this kind of "master among the people" trick.
During the Beijing Defense War, Zhu Qiyu recruited 3,000 loyal and brave soldiers from the people of the capital to assist the imperial army in the night attack on Oara. Later, most of these people were placed by Zhu Qiyu into Shenji Camp, Yumajian Siwei and Tiancewei.
There were also some people who were unwilling to be restrained by the military camp, and were rewarded heavily by Zhu Qiyu and became his informants. These people are all heroic men who have a wide range of friends and are well-informed. They effectively serve as Zhu Qiyu's eyes and ears.
In the evening, everything King Xiang said in the Yinghua Palace and in the Jietian Tower were all translated into words and sent to Zhu Qiyu.
Zhu Qiyu read it word by word, and smiled at his beloved concubines: "Our Highness, Prince Xiang, has been really hurt in his heart today. I'm afraid he will have trouble sleeping at night."
Lin Xiangyu laughed when he heard this and said: "Since Prince Xiang is planning to leave Beijing tomorrow, should my husband send him a few women to show his appreciation, so as to prevent Prince Xiang from being lonely on his journey? This can also be regarded as my husband's consideration for the emperor's uncle as his nephew."
(End of chapter)
