Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

The night is getting darker.

Red candle lanterns were lit in the palace, and a faint yellow light lit up.

Ancestral Temple.

"Have everyone arrived?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the rows of ancestral memorial tablets in front of him. After a long silence, he suddenly said.

Zhu Biao replied: "Father, everything that should come has come."

Outside the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

All the honorable nobles of Huaixi have come.

"Isn't it a moonlight banquet? Why did you drink tea again?" One of them looked at the teapot and cup in front of him and asked doubtfully.

"We don't know, let's just have tea." Lan Yu also felt strange, but he soon felt relieved. "Maybe after you finish drinking, we can serve you some more wine."

The thinking of generals like Lan Yu is a bit simple, but Hu Weiyong sitting opposite has already figured out the way.

"Tu Jie, do you see the trick?"

"I see, it's called the Moonlight Banquet, but the invitation is tea. The guests here are all Huaixi children related to the Prince Consort smuggling case. Your Majesty is hosting the Hongmen Banquet." Tu Jie said in a low voice.

Hu Weiyong nodded slightly.

If His Majesty really wants to entertain the old brothers from Huaixi, then it is impossible for Xu Da, Tang He, and Li Wenzhong not to be present.

When he thought about the banquet, Hu Weiyong couldn't help but get very energetic.

Here, Hu Weiyong and Tu Jie, the adopted father and son, were chatting. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao walked out of the Ancestral Temple.

"General/minister, pay homage to Your Majesty!" Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang, everyone present stood up and saluted.

"Okay, everyone is here."

"There is still one person who has not arrived. We will wait until he arrives before we start the banquet." Zhu Yuanzhang walked to the main seat, turned around and looked at everyone, opened his hands and pressed his hands, and laughed. "Everyone, sit down, sit down, just treat tonight as a gathering of brothers."

Hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, the group of Huaixi generals all laughed.

Only Hu Weiyong and his son were worried, and the smiles on their faces were slightly stiff.

These Huaixi military generals obviously did not realize the seriousness of the matter, and began to speculate about who was so proud that His Majesty needed to wait.

"Who else could it be? It must be Xu Shuai and Tang Shuai."

"How come Duke Cao's people didn't see it?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a sound of wheels was heard in the distance.

This is the sound made by the carriage rolling over the stone road in the imperial city.

This allowed some of them to confirm their thoughts even more.

Even Hu Weiyong and Tu Jie felt a little relieved. There were only a few people who could ride a carriage in the palace.

It was getting dark by now.

The entire passage leading to the Ancestral Temple was very quiet, except for the sound of rolling wheels.

A carriage drove slowly out of the darkness and stopped quietly at the gate of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

The courtyard of the Imperial Ancestral Temple is quieter than outside.

When the Huaixi nobles saw the true appearance of this carriage, their eyes widened with extremely shocked expressions on their faces.

What came was indeed a carriage.

The prison carriage is also a carriage.

"Your Highness, please." Mao Xiang opened the cage of the prison car and bowed in salute.

A prisoner stepped out of the car.

The person who got out of the car was Ouyang Lun, the prince-in-law who had disappeared from public view for a long time.

At this time, Ouyang Lun, who was wearing prison uniform, entered the courtyard full of anxiety.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw his uncle coming, he was all smiles.

"Here we come, this is the Prince Consort Ouyang Lun."

"Come on, come on, Ouyang."

Zhu Yuanzhang pulled Ouyang Lun over and introduced him to everyone.

"Greetings to Your Highness." Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu and other dignitaries from Huaixi stood up and saluted.

But their eyes still maintained the same surprise as before.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the performance of the ministers, especially looked at Hu Weiyong emphatically, and said with a smile: "You guys, don't be too surprised. Our son-in-law was not imprisoned in the Ministry of Punishment before, but has been secretly imprisoned in the Jinyiwei Prison. Here, I feel a little wronged."

Since it had not gone through the Ministry of Punishment, the Zhongshu Province had no way of knowing.

This is why everyone suddenly feels that Ouyang Lun has suddenly disappeared from the world these days.

Before the Ouyang Lun incident.

The main functions of the Jin Yiwei set up by Zhu Yuanzhang were to guard the guards on duty, and to supervise the officials, which also served as an intelligence function.

Because of his disappointment with the Ministry of Punishment's handling of the case, Zhu Yuanzhang allowed Jinyiwei to have his own prison, where he could arrest, torture, and execute on his own without going through general judicial institutions. Everything was only responsible to him, Zhu Yuanzhang.

This is just the beginning.

Only in the future will Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu truly understand the terror of Jin Yiwei.

At the moment, Hu Weiyong just felt that Zhu Yuanzhang began to distrust him, that's all.

The smile on Zhu Yuanzhang's face did not change, and he said, "Ouyang."

"The guilty minister is here." Ouyang Lun replied immediately.

"Can you please serve some tea to your uncles and brothers?" Zhu Yuanzhang said, carrying an oversized teapot and passing it over.

"The guilty minister obeys the decree."

Ouyang Lun accepted the order, stood up, took the teapot, and began to pour tea for the Huaixi nobles present.

"Thank you, Your Highness." Hu Weiyong sat in his seat and bowed.

Tu Jie, who was sitting next to Hu Weiyong, stood up and bowed: "Thank you, Your Highness."

In this way, Ouyang Lun poured tea one by one, and the Huaixi nobles bowed and thanked them one by one.

Only then did everyone realize that tonight's moonlight banquet was for this purpose.

Because of the smuggling, no one here was clean, and most of the people started to feel anxious at this time.

You have to know that your majesty's consort is a prisoner, can they still have any good fruits to eat?

Therefore, everyone looked at the tea in front of them with pins and needles.

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke.

"Today's moonlight banquet, we didn't prepare wine for you, only tea."

"Why?"

"Because wine can intoxicate people, while tea can wake people up. This tea happens to come from our hometown of Huaixi, and it's called Kuding tea."

"We like to drink this the most on weekdays. This tea is bitter and has an endless aftertaste."

"Since it's tea from my hometown, we naturally can't enjoy it all to ourselves, so I called my brothers to come over and share it with our Huaixi brothers."

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang poured himself a bowl, raised the tea bowl and said.

"Let's drink tea instead of wine!"

The nobles of Huaixi also picked up their tea bowls and drank them all in one gulp.

For those who are used to drinking alcohol, it is impossible for them to like drinking tea, especially Kuding tea.

Seeing the frowning expressions of some Huaixi nobles, Zhu Yuanzhang put down his tea bowl and said, "Is this tea bitter? It must be bitter. Our current mood is just like this tea, extremely bitter!"

"How did the Yuan Dynasty end in the end? Corruption, debauchery, lax laws and regulations, loss of discipline, the emperor and his subordinates in the court were not kings, ministers were not ministers, and the country was not a country. It caused wars everywhere and the people were in dire straits. The emperor was the first to blame for the death of the Yuan Dynasty. The emperor is stupid."

Having said this, Zhu Yuanzhang paused, and his eyes swept over the Huaixi nobles present one by one. "The second crime lies with the ministers!"

"Wen Tian was greedy and perverted the law. Such a foolish emperor and his sycophants got together and ruined this great country. We, Zhu Yuanzhang, would rather die than be such an emperor."

"But we want to ask you, do you want to be a minister like Qian Yuan?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed with two gleams of light, staring at the ministers.

At this time, the nobles of Huaixi did not dare to look at Zhu Yuanzhang at all, and all lowered their heads.

Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige was not something he only gained after he became emperor, but he already had it when he was conquering the world.

Seeing these Huaixi nobles bowing their heads with guilty conscience, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to speak.

"The Prince Consort Ouyang Lun violated the imperial court's prohibition on maritime smuggling. In just a few years, he smuggled tens of millions of taels and made millions of taels of silver."

"You cleared customs and let him pass unimpeded, and you even conspired with him to divide the stolen goods."

"And within the imperial court, there are even more people who protect, cover up, bully the emperor and bend the law."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at Ouyang Lun who was waiting aside, and said: "Our prince-in-law has put a lot of money on my face. And you have broken my heart! After thinking about it, you all He is the founding father of the country. What can we do to you? I can only treat you to a cup of tea."

"Ouyang, their tea bowls are empty. Let's continue pouring tea."

"According to the order."

Ouyang Lun's whole body was shaking. This process of waiting for the final result was the most painful.

One can imagine how much pressure he was feeling at this time.

Now he can do nothing but pour tea over and over again to the distinguished Huaixi nobles present.

On the other side, Zhu Yuanzhang is still continuing.

"Anyone who conquers the world with soldiers and horses will be harmed by arrogant and powerful generals later on, and our Ming Dynasty is not immune. From the day of the founding of the country, we have been constantly advising you to abide by the law, be peaceful, and not use your power to harm the people. We talked until our mouths were dry and our tongues were rotten. But no matter how hard it is, I still can’t talk about your greedy hearts.”

"You all are not afraid of anything. Do you think that since we conquered this world, we have to enjoy it to the fullest?"

"what?!"

Listening to His Majesty's voice getting louder and louder, the ministers were frightened. It was rare to see His Majesty be so angry, and it was even rarer to see His Majesty's words be so serious.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at everyone, but no one dared to look at him.

"Drink tea!"

The roar of the dragon sounded.

When the emperor fires up, the whole hall becomes silent.

The nobles of Huaixi could only continue to drink the Kuding tea. At this time, their mouths were bitter and their hearts were bitter.

I just don’t know, some of it is due to Kudingcha.

After finishing a bowl.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued: "Ouyang, continue to pour them tea."

Bowl after bowl, over and over again.

Finally, in this high-pressure atmosphere, the prince-in-law Ouyang Lun finally couldn't hold it any longer. He knelt down and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the guilty minister really can't pour anymore. Please forgive me."

"You are guilty, a crime that cannot be pardoned until death!" Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly.

"Mao Xiang!"

"exist!"

"Take him out."

"Your Majesty, have mercy on me, Your Majesty, please have mercy on me, Your Majesty, please have mercy on me!"

Seeing that he was about to be taken to that dark place by Mao Xiang again, Ouyang Lun kept kowtowing and begging for mercy: "Please, for the sake of the princess, please spare the life of the guilty minister, Your Majesty!"

It was okay not to mention Princess Anqing, but when she was mentioned, Zhu Yuanzhang became even more angry.

Zhu Yuanzhang shouted angrily: "Stand up! Fortunately, you are still a prince-in-law, and you don't even have a bit of royal dignity. What's so great about beheading? Look at these uncles and brothers of yours, none of them will survive a narrow escape."

"You bastard, you are a loser. We were so blind when we fell in love with you as our consort."

"Okay, we don't have to kill you!"

Hearing that he finally didn't have to die, Ouyang Lun was secretly happy, fearing that Zhu Yuanzhang would regret it, so he quickly thanked him: "Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Not only Ouyang Lun, but also Hu Weiyong and others on the side also breathed a sigh of relief.

If Ouyang Lun is really killed, the situation will be serious. If there are only other punishments, it means that Zhu Yuanzhang does not want to do things to death, and there is still room for redemption.

But soon, Ouyang Lun stopped laughing.

Zhu Yuanzhang reached out and pulled out a sword held in Mao Xiang's hand, and threw it directly in front of Ouyang Lun.

Bang!

Along with a crisp sound, there was also Zhu Yuanzhang's voice as cold as frost.

"Come and commit suicide in front of your ancestors."

"Your Majesty!" Ouyang Lun was still making his final struggle.

"Go quickly! This is the last dignity we give you." Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly.

Ouyang Lun looked down at the sword in front of him, his bloodless face reflected on the blade.

Ouyang Lun subconsciously turned to look at the Huaixi nobles.

At this time, these Huaixi nobles had too much to worry about, and no one wanted to have anything to do with him, so they naturally avoided him.

See this scene.

Ouyang Lun was completely heartbroken and suddenly laughed miserably.

He stretched out his hands, and the hands holding the sword were shaking.

After picking up the sword, Ouyang Lun walked towards the Ancestral Temple step by step.

The nobles of Huaixi all lowered their heads, even Lan Yu was no exception.

Ancestral Temple.

Ouyang Lun, who was standing in front of the Zhu family's ancestral tablet, couldn't make a move.

It was obvious that he had just made up his mind, and it was obvious that he had completely given up.

But at this critical juncture, out of human instinct to survive, I still don’t want to die.

The thing that Ouyang Lun regrets most in his life is marrying Princess Anqing and becoming the prince-consort.

It is different from those noble family princes marrying princesses.

That situation was a political marriage. Although the status of the two parties was different, they were considered well-matched and would not be as unbalanced as he was.

The reason why he smuggled was because he was deeply stimulated by what Princess Anqing did.

In the first year of marriage, she spent the Chinese New Year in the palace instead of her husband's house, and went to the palace early on the second day of the first lunar month.

He had no respect for his parents, let alone Ouyang Lun's other poor relatives.

Whenever relatives came to visit, Princess Anqing would ask her servants to smash and throw away the teacups and rice bowls used by those relatives.

He just had enough of this kind of life.

That's why they make money crazily.

But in the end, he couldn't even save his own life.

The only thing he can do now is to use his own life to protect his parents' lives in their later years.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to commit suicide so that his crime would not be announced to the outside world.

When the prince-in-law dies, of course the court will provide pensions to his family.

At the thought of this, Ouyang Lun gained courage again and clenched the hilt of the sword in his hands. (End of chapter)