Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 512 Son and Daughter

After completing the ancestor worship, Zhao Xing asked all the officials to leave and come to the palace for a banquet in the evening.

Then he went to Chuigong Hall with his father.

The emperor told Zhao Xing about recent events in the court.

"This time the Central Plains had a rebellion because most of the garrison troops had been withdrawn and had not been replenished yet, leaving the army short of manpower. The rebels swept through eight states and hundreds of thousands of counties, and hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the chaos. The entire Central Plains suffered great damage." The retired emperor sighed.

Although Zhao Xing knew that the loss this time would not be small, he had never received specific statistics before.

Now that they know that hundreds of thousands of civilians have died, you can imagine the anger in their hearts.

But seeing his father's gloomy expression, he could not show it, and instead tried to comfort his father.

"You don't need to comfort me. I have seen everything. It's just that so many people died this time, and I feel a little uncomfortable."

The Emperor waved his hand and said with a self-blaming look, "I was careless this time. If I had handed the person over to the Imperial City Department for interrogation, maybe we could have caught those corrupt officials in the court and some of the high-ranking members of the Wizard Cult."

"Don't worry, father. I will get to the bottom of this matter and will not let these people go unpunished," Zhao Xing said firmly.

This time, the emperor didn't say anything about not wanting to implicate others, but nodded and said, "Come back, the rest is up to you. I am old after all."

"Father, you are not old. Didn't you say you wanted to teach Yong'er?" Zhao Xing said with a smile.

Of course, this was just talk. Zhao Xing had no intention of letting his father teach Yong Ge'er.

The emperor himself was fooled by those civil servants. Although he supported him on many things, he could not change his indecisive character.

Since ancient times, Zhao Xing did not know whether the emperor who could use "Ren" as his temple name was really benevolent, but he was definitely benevolent to civil officials.

After all, the emperor's temple name, like the posthumous titles of civil officials and military generals, were all given by others after his death.

The emperor's temple name was given by civil officials in the court.

According to the rules, even the new king cannot interfere.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been some bad temple names in history.

In ancient times, filial piety was the guiding principle for governing a country. Which new monarch would dare to give his father a bad temple name?

In Zhao Xing's view, the people and the civil servants are two different classes. If an emperor is supported by the civil servants, he cannot be supported by the people.

Although during my father's reign, he did reduce corvée labor and taxes and encouraged the people to cultivate themselves.

However, he was unable to fundamentally ease the contradictions between classes, nor was he able to solve the long-standing problems in the Song Dynasty.

The people may be grateful, but they cannot support him.

Zhao Xing didn't want his son to be poisoned by Confucianism like his father in the future.

The Han Dynasty abolished all schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone in order to better rule the world.

The purpose of the theory of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans is to fool the people and make them accept their fate and stay within their own boundaries.

In a sense, respecting Confucianism means being a foolish official.

Let all officials in the world abide by the rule of ruler-rule, subject-minister, father-father, son-son.

From the perspective of the interests of those in power, there is nothing wrong with doing so, but those in power cannot be influenced or constrained by this set of rules.

After all, when later Confucian disciples continued to distort Confucianism to please those in power, they were also using the distorted Confucianism to influence those in power.

After all, literati are Confucian scholars, and the right of interpretation lies in their hands.

How could those emperors who were influenced by the distorted Confucianism possibly be able to defeat those literati?

The emperor didn't know what Zhao Xing was thinking, so he chatted with Zhao Xing for a while and then left.

"Has Yin Hanzhang arrived?"

After seeing his father off, Zhao Xing looked at Sanshui and asked.

"Your Majesty, Inspector Yin has arrived and is waiting in the side hall," said Sanshui.

"Send him over here!"

"Yes!"

Zhao Xing came to the desk and sat down. After a while, Yin Hanzhang walked in.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!" Yin Hanzhang bowed.

Zhao Xing waved his hand and asked, "Apart from Tang Fangming, are there any other officials who are colluding with the Wizard Cult?"

"Your Majesty, according to my investigation, after the Wizard Cult launched the rebellion, there were some problems in the first few cities that were conquered. There is no conclusive evidence yet. As for the officials in the court who have connections with the Wizard Cult, according to my investigation, it is vaguely pointed to Prime Minister Li." Yin Hanzhang said.

"Mr. Li?" Zhao Xing frowned slightly when he heard that.

The granddaughter of Lord Li was his concubine, and he himself was already a Lord. Not only was he in a high position and powerful, he was also a relative by marriage.

Zhao Xing really couldn't understand why he would collude with the Wizard Cult.

For the position of Grand Chancellor? For Li to become the Queen?
But none of these can be achieved by colluding with the Wizarding Cult.

"Is there any definite evidence?"

Yin Hanzhang carefully glanced at Zhao Xing's face and replied, "Not yet, but after Tang Fangming was imprisoned, Li Xianggong met with the Dali Temple Minister alone. No one knows what they talked about."

"Tang Fangming was imprisoned for several days and was interrogated several times but he did not commit suicide. However, after Li Xianggong met with the Dali Temple Minister and was interrogated and escorted back to the prison the next day, he committed suicide."

Zhao Xing was silent for a while after hearing this, and then asked, "Are you sure that Tang Fangming committed suicide?"

"The coroner checked and found nothing abnormal. Tang Fangming broke a bowl, cut his wrist, and bled to death," said Yin Hanzhang.

Zhao Xing was also shocked when he heard this. Committing suicide requires a lot of courage, and Tang Fangming's way of committing suicide is more cruel than usual.

You should know that the bowls used in prison are pottery, not porcelain.

Even if it breaks, it's not sharp.

If you want to use the broken pieces of the pottery bowl to separate your wrist, you can only do it by grinding.

Moreover, it only abrades the skin. Although it will bleed, it will not be fatal.

This can only be done by grinding open the arteries, which requires great willpower.

"Apart from this, are there any other abnormalities?" Zhao Xing asked.

"Your Majesty, according to my investigation, about half a month before the Wizard Cult launched the rebellion, Prime Minister Li hosted a banquet at his home for several officials from the court, including Tang Fangming and Yu Wei, the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple. And on the day Tang Fangming was arrested, Yu Wei went to see Prime Minister Li." Yin Hanzhang said.

When Zhao Xing heard this, he was certain that this matter was related to Prime Minister Li.

"What about the Wizarding Cult? This time the Wizarding Cult has started such a big rebellion, many important figures of the Wizarding Cult should have shown up, right?" Zhao Xing said.

"Your Majesty, I have found some people among the rebels who have seen the high-ranking members of the Wizard Cult. I asked painters to draw their portraits based on their descriptions. After identification by Zuo Qi and his wife, they found that among them were the leader of the Wizard Cult and several guardians of the Wizard Cult. There are also some others that they don't know, who should be the hidden high-ranking members of the Wizard Cult." Yin Hanzhang said.

"Then publish their portraits to the world and offer a reward of 10,000 taels. As long as you can provide information to the government and catch the person, it will be effective!" Zhao Xing said.

Before that, he asked Zuo Qi and Ru Yu to describe the appearance of the leader of the wizard cult and important figures, and the painter would draw them.

However, Zuo Qi and Ru Yu both said that the leader of the Wizard Cult could disguise himself, and they had all learned it from him.

If this were to be announced to the world, the leader and higher-ups of the Wizarding Cult would probably have to keep disguising themselves from now on.

It was based on this point that Zhao Xing did not announce it to the world, but instead asked the Imperial City Bureau to investigate it secretly.

However, there had been no result for so long, and the Wizard Cult had caused such a big rebellion, so Zhao Xing no longer had the patience to wait.

Moreover, the people in the Central Plains have suffered such a great trauma. Although it will cost a huge amount to resettle them, it is not without benefits.

In the past, when the Wizard Cult launched rebellions, it was more of a provocation.

However, this rebellion of the Wizarding Cult has dragged in a large number of people, and the people will inevitably hate the Wizarding Cult very much.

The purpose of Zhao Xing's announcement to the world this time was to list the evidence of the witch cult's crimes and make it a trapped dog that everyone would want to beat.

In this way, it will be more difficult for the wizard sect to deceive the people in the future.

"Yes!" Yin Hanzhang replied. "You hand the portrait over to the Ministry of Justice. I will let the Ministry of Justice do this."

Zhao Xing pondered for a while and said, "I have a more important task for you to do."

Upon hearing this, Yin Hanzhang bowed and stood, waiting for Zhao Xing's instructions.

Zhao Xing whispered a few instructions and sent Yin Hanzhang away.

…………

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you and congratulate you on your great victory!"

Zhang Guifen was holding Yongger and waiting outside Renming Palace. When she saw Zhao Xing coming in a sedan chair, she bowed and greeted him.

"No gift."

Zhao Xing waved his hand, stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Let me hug you."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Guifen carefully handed Yongger over in her arms.

Zhao Xing took it carefully and looked at his son.

Now the little guy is seven months old, and he is chubby and very cute.

When Zhao Xing looked at him, the little guy was also looking at him.

"Ah...ah..."

The little guy was not afraid of strangers. He stretched out his chubby little fist, and it was unclear whether he was greeting Zhao Xing or wanting to hit him.

"Call Father!"

Zhao Xing grabbed his son's hand and said with a smile.

Zhang Guifen watched from the side and couldn't help laughing: "Yong'er is only seven months old. He has just learned to roll over and can't speak yet."

"This is my son, he is naturally not comparable to ordinary children. You should teach him more often, maybe he will learn it." Zhao Xing said with a smile.

Zhang Guifen smiled and said, "Okay, I will make sure that Yongge calls me father the first time he opens his mouth. It's hot outside, Your Majesty, please go in first."

"Ok!"

Zhao Xing nodded and carried his son into Renming Palace.

After arriving and sitting down in the hall, Zhao Xing teased his son while listening to Zhang Guifen describing the recent situation in the palace.

Nothing major happened in the harem. Zhang Guifen talked more about Zhao Xing's children.

At this moment, the palace maid came in and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, the Queen, Concubine Li, Sheng Shuyi, and Lady Sheng have arrived."

Zhao Xing looked at Zhang Guifen when he heard this, and Zhang Guifen smiled and said, "Let them in."

"Yes!" The maid bowed and walked out.

After a while, Li Yunchu, Shulan and Minglan came in, each holding a child.

Zhao Xing now has three sons and one daughter, among whom Jingjie, born to Shulan, is Zhao Xing's eldest daughter.

The son born to Li Yunchu was the eldest son, and Zhao Xing named him Zhao Xia.

The meaning is very simple, Zhao family's Xixia.

Zhao Yong, born to Zhang Guifen, is the eldest son and the third child.

Minglan's son was the youngest, born about half a month later than Zhao Yong.

The name Zhao Xing combines the meaning of Minglan and is named Zhao Ming.

According to the rules, descendants must avoid using the names of their ancestors and parents.

The name cannot contain characters that have been used by ancestors or parents.

But this is not absolute.

When Zhao Xing was watching a drama in his previous life, someone had questioned that Zhao Ceying's mother was named Shen Congying.

Both Zhao Ceying's name and his mother's name contain the character "Ying", which was impossible in ancient times.

In fact, this situation existed in ancient times. If a fortune teller said that a son would suffer many disasters, some parents would use characters from their own names to name their children.

The purpose is to protect children from disasters.

So it’s not a problem that both Zhao Ceying and his mother’s names contain the character “Ying”.

On the contrary, it is a reflection of a mother’s love for her son.

It was naturally impossible for Zhao Xing and Minglan's son to ask someone to tell his fortune, and no one dared to do so.

This is the prince. What if the calculation shows that he will be safe and sound, but ends up dying young?
But Minglan thought about the hardships she had experienced since childhood and was worried that her son would be the same.

So she asked Zhao Xing to name his son with a character from her name.

Zhao Xing naturally didn't believe this, but Minglan's actions were a manifestation of her love for her son. All she wanted was psychological comfort, so he naturally had no reason to refuse.

Zhao Xing had many concubines, but only three of them with children came this time.

This was obviously a special arrangement by Zhang Guifen so that Zhao Xing could see the child.

However, Zhao Xing should have five children, and one is still in Yu Yanran's belly.

Calculating the time, Yu Yanran is about to give birth.

"Your Majesty, your servants pay their respects to the Queen!" The three women bowed and saluted.

"Stand up, and bring the child over to me so I can see him." Zhao Xing said.

"Yes!"

The three girls responded and came forward carrying their children.

Jingjie, the daughter of Shulan, is almost two years old now. She is very cute and delicate.

Zhao Xing could already speak when he left Beijing, but at that time she was just beginning to learn to speak and her pronunciation was not clear.

But she was still young and had no memory of anything. Zhao Xing had been away from Beijing for several months and she obviously had forgotten her father.

When Shulan held her and came to Zhao Xing, asking him to see his daughter.

When Jing Jie'er saw Zhao Xing smiling at her, she slapped Zhao Xing on the back of his head without giving him any face and hugged her mother's neck tightly.

Shulan was worried that Zhao Xing would be angry, so she said, "Your Majesty, Sister Jing is shy..."

Zhao Xing waved his hand to interrupt Shu Lan and said, "She is still young. She hasn't seen me for a few months. It's normal that she doesn't remember me."

Shu Lan breathed a sigh of relief and said to her daughter in her arms, "Jing Jie'er, you've always said you missed your father, right? This is your father."

Sister Jing ignored her and continued to hug her mother's neck tightly with her head buried in her arms.

"That's enough." Zhao Xing waved his hand and said, "It will be fine when we get familiar with each other. Don't make it difficult for her."

After Zhao Xing finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Xia and Zhao Ming again.

Zhao Xia is now over one year old and can speak a few words.

But before Zhao Xing left, he couldn't speak.

He was not afraid of Zhao Xing's gaze. Instead, he looked at Zhao Xing with curiosity.

Needless to say, Zhao Ming was less than six months old and he couldn't even turn over.

"Your Majesty, please give Yong'er to me, and hug Jing'er and the others." Zhang Guifen said with a smile.

"Ah."

Zhao Xing nodded and handed Yongger over, but the little guy was unwilling. He grabbed Zhao Xing's clothes tightly with his little hands and his mouth pouted as if he was about to cry.

(End of this chapter)