The city of Zhangdefu is square in shape, with a circumference of nearly ten miles. The city wall is two and a half feet high and two feet thick.
It is divided into four gates, Yonghe Gate in the east, Dading Gate in the west, Zhenyuan Gate in the south, and Gongchen Gate in the north.
There are four main streets in the city, namely the southeast, northwest and northwest. The streets and alleys are criss-crossed and as dense as a spider web. There are nine mansions, eighteen lanes and seventy-two alleys.
There is a moat outside the city, which is ten feet wide and two feet deep.
This scale is considered to be at the forefront among the more than 140 mansions in the entire Ming Dynasty.
In addition to being the ancient capital of six dynasties (Shang, Eastern Wei, Northern Song, etc.), it is also because the third son of Ming Chengzu, Zhao Wang Zhu Gaosui, lived here and has been passed down for thirteen generations.
Although the specifications of the palace are not as good as those of the Qin Palace in Xi'an and the Jin Palace in Taiyuan, it is still among the top ten among the vassal palaces of the Ming Dynasty.
The gate of the palace is closed, and it is no longer the busy place with people and guests that it was half a month ago.
Unless they had no choice, the common people would not pass by here. Even if they had to, they would lower their heads and leave in a hurry, as if something terrible had happened in Prince Zhao's Mansion.
"They are all a bunch of white-eyed wolves!"
"On weekdays, the big kings grow up and the kings fall short. You wish you could live in Prince Zhao's Mansion, but now you won't come?"
…
When the 13th generation Zhao King Zhu Ci was angrily cursing in the Chengyun Hall, a group of people rushed over from outside the city. When they arrived at the city gate, they threw a token and got through unimpeded.
"This is Jin Yiwei!"
"Nonsense, the leader is wearing a Feiyu suit. This is the standard uniform for Jin Yiwei!"
"Silver-white Feiyu suit, this is a hundred households!"
"Hey, the long-awaited Jin Yiwei is finally here. King Zhao's good days are over!"
"Capture King Zhao? It's impossible. Although the court has arrested King Qin, King Jin, and King Dai, it all happened for a reason. Our King Zhao..."
"Stop talking, just go up and take a look, will you know?"
The crowds on the street were talking a lot and followed Jin Yiwei to Prince Zhao's Mansion.
Bang bang...
Bang bang...
Squeak...
The palace door opened, and a servant stretched out his head. Before he could say anything, he heard a deep voice.
"I, Lin Changjian, a householder in Jinyiwei's front office, have been ordered by His Majesty to come here to deliver the order. Please ask King Zhao to come out and receive the order!"
After listening to the words "Jinyiwei", "Your Majesty," and "Declaration", the concierge felt excited and said quickly: "Sir, please wait a moment. I will inform you now!"
"Come quickly, open the door!"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."
The sound went from near to far. After a moment, there was a rush of footsteps in the palace, and a middle-aged man led several people out of the gate of the palace.
After looking at the hundreds of Jin Yiwei who were dragging the imperial edict, he knelt down and said, "I, the thirteenth generation Zhao Wang Zhu Ci, will take the imperial edict with my family members!"
"The emperor was entrusted with the destiny of Heaven, and Zhi said: In the past, when an emperor ruled the world, his first priority was to respect Heaven and the Patriarch... It is reported that King Zhu Ci of Zhao has come to the capital... I admire this!"
"I accept the order!"
"His Royal Highness King Zhao, time is running out, you must hurry up, the general will retire first!"
"I know it!"
After receiving the imperial edict, King Zhao whispered: "Lin Baihu, other vassal kings?"
"I don't know what will happen next!"
"Your Majesty has already returned to the imperial court?"
"His Royal Highness King Zhao, don't ask any more questions!"
Lin Changjian, a member of the Jinyiwei family, did not give King Zhao the slightest chance to speak. He got on his horse and left straight away.
Listening to the content of the imperial edict, not only King Zhao was stunned, but also the people on both sides were stunned.
After a while, King Zhao turned around and entered the palace. After the door was closed, the people on both sides began to discuss in low voices.
"What are you doing, just inviting King Zhao to the capital to participate in the prince's 100-day ceremony?"
"Could it be that what you said is an excuse just to get King Zhao to come to Beijing?"
"Is there something wrong with your brain? Do you need to use this excuse? How dare King Zhao refuse to listen to the decree directly? If you don't listen, you are resisting the decree. You will be killed directly. What's the use of unnecessary things?"
"Hey, it's best to kill King Zhao so that we can return the land to the people!"
"Prince? When did the emperor have an heir?"
"It's strange. This is the empress's eldest son, a legitimate eldest son, and the future emperor. Why is there no edict on this matter? There should be a general amnesty for the whole world!"
"An amnesty? We just had an amnesty last August. What if we do it again? The jails are almost empty.
Moreover, His Majesty leads the expedition in person. Do you want another amnesty for such a great victory?
In the future, if you kill the Jiannu slaves and then give them an amnesty, and if you conquer the Mongolian tribes and conquer them, you can give them another amnesty. What do you think an amnesty is? What else do you need to do with Ming Law? "
"Hey, everyone, are you going astray? Aren't we discussing the true purpose of the imperial court's decree to King Zhao now?"
…
The people went off track while chatting.
In the Chengyun Hall of Prince Zhao's Mansion, Prince Zhao stared at the imperial edict, his expression changing rapidly.
When King Fu passed by here when he returned to Beijing, he said to him: Don't do stupid things!
He has never understood it, but now it seems that he is advised to be honest and not have other ideas.
"Hey, what is supposed to come will always come!"
"But this is good, so as not to worry all day long!"
"Liao Changshi, get ready and follow me to the capital tomorrow!"
"The rest of the people are strictly prohibited from leaving the mansion while I am in Beijing, otherwise you will be responsible for the consequences!"
After King Zhao finished speaking, he walked towards the outside of Chengyun Hall.
At the same time, hundreds of miles away, in the Chengyun Hall of Prince Lu's Mansion in Yanzhou City, the eighth generation King of Lu, Zhu Shouhong, had a gloomy look on his face.
"Chongzhen, you are so impatient, do you really want to kill everyone?"
"Why did your Majesty say this?"
"Stupid, look at the last time this edict was signed, it was seven days ago.
But it is more than 1,200 miles from Beijing to here. It is impossible for the person delivering the decree to use 300 miles to rush. There are only two explanations.
One is that the edict was delivered seven days ago, and the other is that the edict was delivered earlier, but the person who delivered the edict came to Yanzhou Mansion and waited until today.
But no matter which one it is, according to the news we got, the emperor was still on the grassland seven or eight days ago, and he had already had people pass the decree while he was still on the grassland. Isn't this impatient? "
"Then, what should we do? How about informing Duke Yan?"
"What's the point of Yan Shenggong? Now that Qufu is blocked, they can't even protect themselves. How can they still care about us?"
King Zhu Shouhong of Lu roared angrily that if he did not enter the capital, he would be resisting the decree. With a military order, whether it was the Tianxiong Army stationed in Qufu a hundred miles away, or the white-armed soldiers of Zhongzhenhou in Jinan Prefecture three or four hundred miles away, they could easily They slaughtered all the Prince Lu's Mansion.
But if you go to Beijing, there is a high probability that you will not be able to come back.
But no matter whether he enters the capital or not, an edict declares to the world that he, the King of Lu, will still be finished.
Moreover, he estimated that the vassal kings from all over the country were being watched by their guards, and nothing they wanted to do could escape their eyes.
This is the most difficult thing he has encountered in the nearly thirty years since he attacked King Lu.
On this day, twenty-seven palaces of the Ming Dynasty, including King Fu and King Qin, all received imperial decrees from the imperial court.
Some were silent, some were roaring, some were crying, some were happy, some were standing with hands behind their hands and a look of relief on their faces...
