Mixed with salted fish in Hongwudang

Hongwu 25 years, the last day of the year.

Lunar New Year's eve.

Every household in the capital was decorated with lanterns and festoons, and the children even wore brand-new flowered padded jackets, played with firecrackers that they were thinking of, and played in the streets and alleys in groups of three and four.

When the entire capital city was plunged into a sea of ​​joy, only the huge imperial palace was as deserted as before, without the joy and color of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

Standing on the gate of the imperial palace, Lao Zhu watched the smoke rising from the homes of thousands of people and listened to the hustle and bustle of the whole city, with a fascinated look on his face.

Originally, officials from the Ministry of Rituals, on the grounds of the prince's new funeral, strictly prohibited the people in the city from setting off firecrackers and posting couplets during the New Year.

Even if couplets are pasted, they must be changed to white, not too festive.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while, and directly rejected the proposal.

The reason is also very simple, the one who killed his son was himself, why should he let the common people suffer with him?
Lao Zhu is now standing on the tower, listening to the laughter rising from everywhere in Jinling City, he feels more and more that his decision is right.

Otherwise, where would he experience this kind of joy with the people?
Lao Zhu stood on the tower for a while and watched, then went back under the service of Qin Deshun.

Ming officials may have holidays, but he, the emperor, has no holidays.

It's not that I can't, it's that I don't want to.

For Lao Zhu, only when reviewing the memorials can he feel that he is still firmly grasping the military and political power of the empire, and only then can he have a substantial sense of security.

Just as Lao Zhu was about to go down the city wall, he suddenly heard the noise of children coming from the east.

The sound was loud, and it was somewhat familiar inside.

"Who is making noise over there?"

Qin Deshun looked at the direction the emperor was pointing at, and hurriedly lowered his head and replied.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, over there is the Dahondo..."

"Dahondo?"

Lao Zhu has never been to the Dahontang since his eldest grandson left Beijing, and he hasn't even paid attention to it.

Today, I suddenly heard laughter coming from the direction of Dahontang, and Lao Zhu felt a different emotion in his heart.

"Come with us to see!"

"Don't disturb them!"

"promise!"

Today is the first Cricket King Contest in Dabentang, not only the princes and princesses in the palace are here, but also the male and female companions outside the palace come to join in the fun.

After all, this gameplay is the only novelty in the past and present, who is willing to give up?
From the little prince of frog catching, Zhu Zhi directly transformed into the organizer of the Cricket King Contest and acted as a referee.

After leading everyone to draw lots and divide into groups, the Axis King Competition officially begins.

The first to play was King Ning's team headed by Zhu Quan, against King Su's team headed by Zhu Ying.

The two each find four teammates from a group of companions to form a complete team.

After receiving Zhu Zhi's order to start the battle, the two eunuchs raised the huge partition in the middle of the wooden square plate, and then five people in each team surrounded the square plate with hay, teasing their crickets to jump towards the middle area.

In fact, even if they don't tease with hay, the crickets will charge forward.

Because the grid on the square wooden plate is very narrow, only one cricket can move forward.

Relatively speaking, only the crickets in the jungle are a bit difficult to deal with. In many cases, they can eat endlessly in the wild, regardless of the situation outside.

True wild food.

In order to prevent the crickets on one side from killing each other, Zhu Zhi also specially asked the strangers who raised the crickets in the folk, and obtained two copies of the secret medicine. The crickets who had swallowed another medicinal powder were biting wildly.

In the first game, Zhu Quan was left in a miserable state, leaving only the whole cricket in the wild area, eating up the opposite highland and broad bean crystal all the way.

In the second game, Zhu Quan's luck was a little bit bad. Before the food in the wild area came out, his side was bitten by the crickets from Zhu Ying's side.

In the third game, Zhu Quan, who fully realized that the jungler was unreliable, directly gave up the initiative in the jungle and placed the jungler Cricket in the middle lane, allowing the middle lane to bite and explode the opponent all the way.

In the fourth game, Zhu Ying also learned from Zhu Quan and went a step further.Simply move the bottom lane and the jungler to the center

The road directly formed a three-on-two situation, and then rushed all the way to the opponent's high ground.

Zhu Zhi saw so many changes in the first game, and even went straight to the fifth game, his little face flushed with excitement, and he couldn't stop clapping and applauding.

The other onlookers were also very hooked. They never thought that fighting crickets could play so many tricks.

Even the princesses, princesses, and female companions outside the palace, who couldn't even tell the difference between the red side and the blue side, read with relish, applauding and cheering for the familiar princes and princes.

When the battle progressed to the fifth round, the battle was extremely tragic. Both sides put their superior forces into the middle, and the other two just randomly sent the two weakest crickets to contain each other.

But the six big crickets in the middle fought each other with amazing fighting power, and the bite was so dark that the sky was dark.

The princes and princesses who watched the excitement around were so excited that their hands were red.

Zhu Yuanzhang was attracted by the sound of the fifth scene. When he hid outside the door and saw the gangsters fiddle with this thing again, his old face sank.

But when he saw that all the princes and princesses were so happy, the gloom on his face immediately turned into circles of ripples.

Let them have a good year with peace of mind first...

Lao Zhu looked outside for a while, and suddenly saw a young man holding a book in his hand.

I saw the young man looking at the crickets in the wooden tray for a while, and looking down at the crickets in his hand for a while, and kept reciting something.

Seeing such a scene, Lao Zhu couldn't help asking in a low voice.

"Whose child is this?"

"Return to Your Majesty, this is Kong Yanjin, the grandson of Yan Shenggong Kong Na."

Old Zhu nodded approvingly when he heard the words.

"No wonder you study so hard, even if it's such a fun thing, you still can't put it down..."

"If our grandson Ni was present, he would definitely be the one who had the most fun, hahaha..."

Seeing that the emperor was in a good mood, Qin Deshun made a small joke with the emperor.

"My lord, the slaves have different opinions."

"If the third emperor's grandson is here, the position of referee of His Highness King Liao must belong to the third emperor's grandson, hehehe..."

"you're right!"

"However, from our point of view, Ni Sun not only has to be the referee, but most of the time he has to end, hahaha..."

Lao Zhu chatted and laughed with Qin Deshun, then looked into the door again.

"This Kong Yanjin is not bad. In the future, remember to remind us to ask him to be our eldest grandson's companion in the East Palace."

"East Palace..."

When Qin Deshun heard this, hesitation flashed across his face.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the fourth grandson is not doing well recently. Would you like to go and have a look?"

"Zhu Yunxi?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked when he heard this.He felt that something was wrong just now, and he always felt that something was missing in the main hall, most likely because his other grandson was not there.

"How is Zhu Yunxi doing recently?"

"Still the same, don't like to talk, don't like to go out of the palace, just sit in the room all day in a daze."

Seeing what Qin Deshun said, Lao Zhu felt a needle prick in his heart, and the pain made him involuntarily clutch his heart.

In fact, how could he not know Lu's little thought?
It's just that for the sake of the young grandchildren, I can't bear to be harsh.

If Dasun hadn't presented conclusive evidence in front of him, Lao Zhu would have been able to pretend to be confused.

Only when he learned that the death of the emperor's son Zhu Biao was related to this woman, Lao Zhu decided to kill him.

Although the Lu family has been eliminated, the Zhu family is still the most injured.

One of the two grandsons of the Zhu family had a big change in temperament, and he competed with Zhu Yunxie for fame and fortune everywhere.One was dumb and foolish, sitting in the palace all day without saying a word.

Relatively speaking, he would rather hope that Zhu Yunxi would fight for something like Zhu Yunqi, even if he was a little ambitious.

At the very least, it can distract the children's attention, so as not to let them get into a dead end.

When Lao Zhu came to the Prince's Mansion, he was instantly shocked by the desertedness of the Prince's Mansion.

There is not even a guard in the huge Prince's Mansion.Stepping into it, even the maids and eunuchs could not be seen.

full

The dead leaves in the yard, blowing by the breeze, made a rustling sound, revealing endless desolation and dilapidation.

When Lao Zhu saw these scenes, he was furious immediately.

"What about people!"

"Although we abolished the Lu family, we did not abolish the emperor's grandson!"

"How dare these slaves dare to be so slack and neglect our grandson?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Deshun hurriedly explained.

"Returning to Your Majesty, the guards were driven away by the Second Emperor, saying that the Prince's Mansion does not need them to serve people who eat inside and outside..."

"The maids and eunuchs were taken away by Jin Yiwei."

"Although the servants sent another group of people to the Prince's Mansion, they were also driven back by the second emperor's grandson."

"Then the second emperor's grandson brought a few folk women into the palace from outside the palace and asked them to serve as maids..."

"Folk girl?"

"Why didn't you report such a big matter earlier?"

"Go back to the emperor, the servant has reported, you just nodded and passed..."

"Uh uh?"

Only then did Lao Zhu remember that he seemed to have really heard Qin Deshun talk about it, but he just thought of killing the Lu family, so he couldn't bear to criticize Zhu Yunqi harshly, so he went with the child.

"What about the folk women that Zhu Yunqi brought in, why don't you see them come out to serve?"

Qin Deshun's eyeballs rolled wildly when he heard this.

"I guess they are playing leaf cards in the backyard..."

"Leaf card?"

After hearing this, Lao Zhu couldn't bear it any longer, and roared angrily.

"Are they entering the palace as maids of honor, or as masters and concubines?"

"Come on!"

"Bring us all these people!"

"promise!"

Not long after, more than a dozen gorgeous court ladies were brought over, followed by a graceful and expensive shrew, who chased after them cursing all the way.

"Who are you, why do you take away my sisters from this palace!"

"This palace is a marriage bestowed by His Majesty the Emperor, and I will never allow you to behave like this!"

When Qin Deshun heard this, he hurriedly took two steps back, and then a hint of a naughty smile appeared on his face.

In fact, he has long disliked the chaos in the Prince's Mansion.It's just because the emperor is not in the mood to care about it, and because it's all trivial things, he has been forbearing until now.

According to his survival logic, if these people can't be rewarded and shot dead at once, then there's no need to talk to them.

Now it's just in time for the emperor to intervene, so let's solve it once and for all.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard such offensive words as "little lady", he was so angry that his old face immediately pulled down.

When did he marry the grandson of the prince's mansion?
The prince is newly mourned, and the grandchildren of the emperor are in the period of filial piety, how can they get married?
It wasn't until she saw Xiaoman's appearance that she showed a dazed expression.

Isn't this the singer Zhu Yunwen met outside the palace?
At that time, I felt that I had deprived Zhu Yunqi of the position of crown prince, and felt ashamed of the child, so I made an exception and took this girl into the palace, and gave it to Zhu Yunqi to chat and relieve boredom.

A gift is a gift, but we didn't say a marriage gift, did we?
No matter how bad Zhu Yunwen was, he was also the eldest grandson of the Ming Dynasty, and he was shouldering the important task of spreading the branches and leaves for the royal family. How could he marry a prostitute as his wife?
When Xiaoman saw the majestic old Zhu, he was also frightened out of his wits, and knelt on the ground trembling.

"Granddaughter-in-law, please greet the emperor... the emperor..."

Xiaoman originally wanted to call Lao Zhu "Grandfather" like Zhu Yunqi, but he didn't dare to say it when the words were on his lips.

But even so, when Lao Zhu heard the word "granddaughter-in-law", he still had a sinister smile on his face.

The woman in this brothel is really worthless, she doesn't even have the minimum of courtesy, justice and shame, why should she take on the important task of accompanying the emperor and grandson?

"Are these your sisters?"

When Xiaoman heard Lao Zhu's voice, he instinctively trembled with fright, and after a long while, he said eagerly.

"Back... back to the emperor, she... they are indeed granddaughter-in-law... sisters who know each other outside the palace..."

Old Zhu sneered when he heard this.

"No wonder it smells like a fox!"

"Come on, bring all these people into the Clothes Bureau
Let them learn how to do things from the old man in the palace!"

"As for her..."

"Let's beat him to death with a stick!"

"what?"

When Xiaoman heard this, he was struck by lightning, and after he regained his composure, he hurriedly kowtowed to Lao Zhu.

"Your Majesty is merciful!"

"Granddaughter-in-law won't dare anymore!"

"Your Majesty, please forgive my daughter-in-law this time, woo woo woo..."

Qin Deshun happily agreed, and then waved to the eunuchs behind him. Immediately, more than a dozen eunuchs came over and dragged out Xiaoman who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowed.

Since the emperor said that he would be beaten to death with a random stick, there should be no ambiguity, and he must be beaten to death immediately.

Therefore, before Xiaoman's dozen or so sisters who were called into the palace to enjoy their blessings were taken away, Xiaoman was already pressed to the ground and beaten with sticks.

The eunuch's execution method in the palace was inherited from Jin Yiwei. Although it is not as accurate as Jin Yiwei's control, it is still no problem to kill someone.

Qin Deshun had been beaten with dozens of sticks in Xiaoman all the time, and after experiencing a lot of pain, he gave his disciples and grandchildren a wink.

The execution eunuch, who received the signal, moved the stick up an inch, and hit Xiaoman's tailbone hard, making him paralyzed immediately.

After hitting that part with a stick a few times, Xiaoman immediately vomited blood, rolled his eyes and died in front of everyone.

Qin Deshun looked at the dead Xiaoman and shook his head secretly.

What a stupid woman, I'm afraid she didn't know why she died when she was about to die?
This idiot doesn't even think about it, just because of her humble background, she is worthy of calling herself a grandson-in-law in front of the emperor?
If there was no such "granddaughter-in-law", the emperor would at best reprimand her.

But she kept calling herself grandson's daughter-in-law so desperately that she completely exposed the emperor's rebellious scales.

In his whole life, the emperor hated the muddleheaded people who didn't know the seriousness and couldn't figure it out.

Didn't this silly girl hit the knife's edge by herself?

After Xiaoman was beaten to death with random sticks, all the lowly women kneeling on the ground were trembling with fright, and they no longer had the arrogance of the past.

On weekdays, relying on Zhu Yunxuan's trust, they made the huge prince's mansion into a mess, and they didn't pay attention to the eunuchs and maids in the palace. Even Qin Deshun didn't have a good face when he saw them.

Now that Qin Deshun had beaten their master to death in front of them, they had fully realized who was the prince and prince in the palace.

Lao Zhu's treatment of these cheap court ladies was like crushing a chicken to death.Seeing that the ignorant "granddaughter-in-law" died, Lao Zhu didn't even bother to look at those maids of humble origin, and ran straight to Zhu Yunxi's yard.

After Lao Zhu left, Qin Deshun gave orders to the eunuchs under him immediately.

"Let's stay with these people too, find a secluded place, teach them the rules first, and then send them to the Laundry Bureau to let them do coolies!"

"promise!"

After Qin Deshun made arrangements, he chased in the direction where the emperor disappeared.

Zhu Yunxi's small courtyard was even more desolate, and the dead branches and fallen leaves in the courtyard could even cover Lao Zhu's feet.

Lao Zhu opened the door and entered Zhu Yunxi's room, only to see a big bird flying towards him.Just when Lao Zhu was about to block it with his hands, the big bird twirled in the air, then flew back to his iron frame, and yelled strangely at Lao Zhu.

"The bad old man has no bounds!"

"30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi, don't bully the young and poor..."

"Damn old man!"

"30 years!"

"Zhu Yunxi is the best, awesome!"

"Third brother, third brother, I miss you...Third brother, third brother, where are you...Third brother, third brother..."

When Lao Zhu heard the previous words, the corners of his mouth could not help showing a slight curvature, and his thoughts drifted to the scene of the birthday banquet.

But when he heard Qingluan yell out the last sentence, he felt his nose sore, and tears flowed down uncontrollably.

He originally thought that the child was missing his mother and concubine, or that he was the emperor's grandfather.Unexpectedly, in Zhu Yunxi's heart, what he most wanted to see was Zhu Yunxi's third brother...

"Zhu Yunxi, Grandpa Huang has come to see you..."

Zhu Yunxi holds in her arms
A paper plane, "ha" at the plane, and then shot out the window.

The moment the paper airplane flew out, he also jumped off the bed and chased after him, as if he didn't see Lao Zhu at all.

Old Zhu once again shouted at Zhu Yunxi's back.

"Zhu Yunxi!"

Zhu Yunxi paused for a moment, then chased it out without hesitation, picked up the paper airplane on the ground and wiped it carefully, for fear of getting a little dirty.

This is already the last piece of pure land in his heart, and he doesn't want it to be polluted by any dust.

Lao Zhu chased from the house to the outside, saw Zhu Yunxi sitting in the yellow leaves, holding colorful paper kites in his arms, and wiped his face with his sleeve helplessly.

"deliver an imperial order!"

"Order Concubine Zheng An to take Zhu Yunxi to the harem to raise him!"

Just as Qin Deshun was about to agree, he heard Zhu Yunxuan, who had been silent all this time, speak.

"don't want!"

"I want to wait for my third brother!"

"If the third brother doesn't come back, I won't go anywhere!"

Seeing that Zhu Yunxi had finally spoken, Lao Zhu hurried forward and asked.

"why?"

Zhu Yunxi looked at Lao Zhu, a flash of anger flashed in his eyes, and then he looked at the paper airplane in his arms.

"No reason!"

"I only believe in the third brother, I only believe that the third brother will not lie to me..."

When Lao Zhu heard this, he secretly sighed, and then led the crowd out of the small courtyard.

"Send a few more mature and prudent people over to serve!"

"promise!"

"Order the Ministry of Manpower to urge, why the military report from Datong Mansion has not been sent back for a long time!"

"Uh……"