Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1000: Offering prisoners at the Meridian Gate

When the prisoner offering procession arrived in front of the Meridian Gate, all civil and military officials stood up in order from east to west under the guidance of the ceremony officer.

General Tianwu took the cloth off the flagpole and knelt down to present it to the prince.

The prince held the cloth in his hand, placed it on the yellow table, and returned to his position.

Afterwards, the Jin Yi guards escorted 300 important prisoners outside Duanmen, making them kneel down neatly and keep silent.

When the preparations were complete, the minister of Honglu Temple quickly stepped inside and respectfully asked the emperor to ascend and sit down.

After a while, ritual music was played on the Wufeng Tower, and Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang boarded the Wufeng Tower.

After the emperor ascended and sat down on the Meridian Gate Tower, the music stopped, the eunuchs sounded their quiet whips, and the whole audience was solemn.

All the officials bowed four times facing the Meridian Gate, the ritual music played again, and the music stopped after Ping Ping's death.

Then Gao Xin, the Minister of Etiquette, who served as the official of praise, sang in praise: "Enter the dew cloth!"

The sound of ritual music started again, and the deacon officials carefully carried the yellow case and placed it squarely in the middle path in front of the Meridian Gate.

The salute officer sang again: "Announcement!"

Cao Guogong and Song Guogong, who were the publicity officials, came to the case. The former took the cloth and the latter knelt down to announce it. After reading it, he placed it on the case and returned to his place.

At this time, rituals and music resumed, and the ministers congratulated the emperor on the restoration of Yunnan and the unification of Jin and Ou!

The four worships bring happiness and happiness stop.

The deacon lifted up the big case and relocated it to the east of the royal road.

The salute officer sang again: "Present the prisoners!"

The end gate slowly opened, and the guards in brocade clothes, wearing flying fish uniforms and carrying embroidered spring knives on their waists, escorted three hundred prisoners, marched majestically to the Meridian Gate, and made them kneel at the feet of the emperor.

Then Kaiji, the Minister of Punishment, came to the Meridian Gate and knelt down to report that he had received more than 3,000 prisoners from the southern army. Among them were the uncle, the son of the late Yuan Weishun, the brother of Liang Wang, Duan Juren and Duan Juyi, the princes of the Duan family in Dali. Three hundred other important people. Let the emperor handle it.

Zhu Yuanzhang went as planned, showing the mercy of a victor, and pardoned these prisoners of war on the spot.

The officials who took over the system praised and sang: "With grace, the prisoners captured will be pardoned for their capital crimes."

After the prisoners understood, they hurriedly kowtowed and thanked them. Many of them burst into tears and were in fear all the way. They finally saved their lives.

Of course, they will never be able to return to Yunnan again in this life, and most of them will be sent to Tamna Island for resettlement. There they will resume their ancestral business and raise horses for the Ming Emperor.

~~

After the ceremony, Zhu Zhen entered the palace immediately to visit his mother and concubines.

In Kunning Palace, he was surprised to see Miaoqing, Liu Li and Wang Runer...

"Ah, you are all here!" Zhu Zhen was overjoyed. After not seeing each other for such a long time, he really misses her.

The three girls have also lost their youthfulness and have all grown up into grown-ups. Everyone looked at His Highness with red eyes, but because the queen and concubine were in front of them, they couldn't act boldly, so they could only look at him dreamily.

"Let me just say, you forget your mother when you have a wife." Seeing that her children were only looking at each other, Concubine Hu teased and said, "When the brat comes back, he doesn't ask the two mothers first, and only looks at the three wives. .”

"What's so good about the old lady?" Queen Ma smiled and came to the rescue of Lao Liu: "It's been a long time since we last seen the children. We can't be evil mothers-in-law."

"My son, I pay my respects to the Queen Mother." Lao Liu came to his senses and hurriedly kowtowed to the Queen Mother. After a pause, he made a face at Concubine Hu and said, "There is also Concubine Mother."

"He's almost married to a wife, and she still looks like a monkey." Queen Ma smiled and glared at him, but she was speechless when she saw Concubine Hu and her son making faces there. "You are also going to be a mother-in-law..."

When both women were honest, Empress Ma asked Lao Liu to come forward, took his hand, looked up at him and said, "Good guy, hurry up and catch up with your second brother."

"Eat less, otherwise it will be like a roof beam." Concubine Hu said with a smile.

"Young master, you should have a drink." Lao Liu retorted.

"Shut up, both of you." Queen Ma said, dumbfounded, "Are you still acting like a mother-in-law in front of your daughters-in-law?"

After silencing the two incompetent ladies, Empress Ma spoke sternly to the concubines in the palace: "The sixth son should have gotten married a long time ago, but because of state affairs, he has delayed it again and again, and it has been delayed until today. What can't be done anymore?" Let’s put it off. We in the palace will do nothing next, and we will focus on organizing his wedding first.”

"Queen, don't worry, we have held weddings for so many highnesses, are you familiar with it?" Concubine Da Ding said with a smile.

"Lao Liu is different this time. He wants to marry three princesses at the same time, and they are all princesses." Empress Ma declared boldly.

There was an uproar in Kunning Palace, and the concubines couldn't help but whisper. Of course they knew that Lao Liu had three little lovers... It seemed that there were more than three, but that Jurchen, a master of obstetrics, probably would not become His Highness's concubine. So when they discuss in private who will be Princess Chu in the future, they usually limit it to the three girls present.

In fact, there is no need to discuss the choice of the concubine at all. Looking at it horizontally and vertically, it is Xu Miaoqing. How could the daughter of the first hero of the founding of the country be a child?

Can Chengyi Hou’s daughter be a child? That's Liu Bowen's granddaughter! How many noble families are looking for pearls.

Even Wang Bi's daughter is not suitable for being young. Her father is a marquis and her uncle is also a marquis. With this status, it is more than enough for her to be a royal concubine.

There are those shady women, such as Da Shi, who often gloat in private, saying that when the emperor asked Wei Guogong's daughter to be the prince's concubine, she would rather burn herself than agree. The emperor has not accepted the lesson yet. This time he will either make Chengyi Bo and Dingyuan Hou lose face, or force two young girls to death.

Although others did not dare to agree with her, they agreed in their hearts, secretly thinking that Lao Liu always hid outside and never came back, which was probably to avoid this unsolvable problem.

This time Lao Liu returned from Yunnan in triumph, and the queen also called his three girls who were in love with him to the palace. Even if the engagement was not announced on the spot, the status of the three girls would be clearly defined. The concubines did not mind the excitement and came over to watch the show.

Who knew that the queen would actually say that all three of them were royal concubines? How could such a cheap thing be possible in the world? !

"Queen, is it child's play to confer a princess? How can there be any reason for everyone to be a true concubine?" Concubine Da Ding couldn't help but asked:

"No matter how much you dote on the sixth child, you have to have a limit. You can't mess with Tsuna... The daughter of King Ninghe didn't get this kind of treatment before."

"Wait until I finish speaking!" Queen Ma gave her an annoyed look.

"Yes." Concubine Da Ding quickly stopped.

"The situation of the sixth child is different from that of the second child. He already has two titles of prince, and the emperor wants to give him another title of Dian Prince. He will be the unique third prince of our Ming Dynasty." Then Queen Ma said in a deep voice: "One prince's title can correspond to one princess. Three princes naturally lead to three princesses."

"But..." Concubine Da Ding couldn't help it anymore.

The administrator, Empress Ma, raised her hand to silence her, and continued: "When Lao Liu made great contributions, the emperor asked how he should be rewarded. He said that he would decide who to marry. The emperor agreed."

"Although the emperor did not expect that he would have more than one candidate, and he could not bear to let any of them be his concubines, you have no choice but to make an exception." Empress Ma glanced at the concubines with a majestic gaze and said calmly:

"But the emperor did not take it easy on him. He asked him to conquer Japan and Yunnan, capture Prince Huailiang who assassinated the emperor, and eliminate Prince Liang and the Duan family in Dali who were dissatisfied with the king's rule. After completing these things one by one, he was allowed to come back and get married. Those of you who are jealous and want to have a companion, you should first consider whether your son has the ability."

"Yes..." All the concubines were now honest.

However, the three girls were moved to tears and instantly regarded Queen Ma as their mother. Only a mother would protect them like this.

(End of this chapter)