Ming Dynasty: Emperor Wanshou is cultivating immortality!

"These are just my guesses." Seeing his father regain his spirits, Zhu Yijin shook his head slightly and said, "The emperor's mind is unpredictable. Maybe it's not as..."

"Absolutely impossible!"

Before Zhu Yijin could finish his words, he was interrupted by King Jing with a wave of his hand.

"From the perspective of weighing the pros and cons, your guess is feasible," King Jing said, taking a deep breath, looking up at the sky that had stopped raining long ago but was still gloomy, and said in a deep voice:
"I know him too well."

"Meanwhile, he is ungrateful, selfish, cold-blooded, and extremely greedy... He possesses all the qualities that all emperors in ancient and modern times have!"

"Moreover, these will be infinitely magnified on him!"

"In order to protect the interests of the Ming Dynasty and to ensure that the future of the Immortal Dynasty is not unstable, it is not impossible for him to give up a son. If Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che could do it, why can't he do it?"

"Back then, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, started the witchcraft disaster and killed his own prince. Why can't the current Emperor Wanshou abandon a prince in order to abolish his own life cultivation system?"

At this time, after his son Zhu Yijin's advice, King Jing suddenly realized what had happened and came to his senses, and his words were filled with a sense of grief.

"Boom!"

Almost at the moment when King Jing finished speaking, another thunder flashed in the sky.

"... Humph!" However, facing this roar of anger, King Jing sneered, "Are you dissatisfied? But this is the fact!"

However, he did not say anything disrespectful. He just turned around and looked at his son Zhu Yijin with a complicated look, and said, "Yijin, do you still want to fight for this throne?"

At this moment, Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen, for some reason, suddenly had an epiphany.

He admitted that when he first learned that his third brother Zhu Zaigui was named crown prince by his father, he felt jealous, resentful, and dissatisfied.

But at this moment, after realizing that his third brother's position as the crown prince might just be an abandoned son by his father, all the jealousy, resentment and dissatisfaction in his heart disappeared in an instant.

Even his pursuit of the position of crown prince, or even the throne of emperor, which he had longed for, had faded a lot.

This time, my father gave up my third brother Zhu Zaigui for the sake of profit. So who will he sacrifice for the sake of profit next time?

"Heh," Zhu Yijin smiled when he heard his father's words. He did not answer King Jing directly, but changed the subject and said:
"Father, from now on, we need to do our best to avoid conflict with Prince Yu's Mansion."

"A trapped beast will still fight. The last glory of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must be to fight for a worry-free life for his children and grandchildren." Zhu Yijin sighed and said in a low voice:

"I think this is what Grandfather Emperor has agreed to."

After hearing this, King Jing stared at his son, whose face was calm, for a long while. He did not dwell on the questions he had asked before, but said, "Just do whatever you want with these."

After saying this, he glanced at the ruins on the ground, sent out his spiritual sense, and said to the eunuch outside the courtyard: "Arrange for people from the Ministry of Works to come."

Besides Prince Jing, there was another person who was most angry about Prince Yu being named Crown Prince, and that was Prince An.

"Call Zhang Jingxiu!"

"Call Zhang Jingxiu and Zhang Juzheng to come here!"

Angry voices rang out from the palace, accompanied by bursts of sounds of smashing and looting.

At this moment, Prince An no longer had the composure he had before to deal with any situation calmly.

What replaced it was madness!
Did he hate Prince Yu? Yes, he did, but at this moment, he hated Zhang Juzheng even more.

In his opinion, if Zhang Juzheng had not publicly proposed abolishing the innate immortal cultivation system in Yuxi Palace that day, the palace would not have been pushed to the forefront.

The people behind Prince Yu's Mansion would not take this opportunity to stir up trouble.

The final result was inexplicable. The emperor summoned Prince Yu into the palace, and then this good third brother, Prince Yu Zhu Zaigui, who had previously said that he would support him and reached an agreement with him, was canonized as the crown prince just like that!
In his opinion, Zhang Juzheng and Prince Yu's Mansion were conspiring to plot against him, and he had behaved like a fool throughout the whole process, helping to count the money after being sold!

He could already foresee that after today, the officials of his faction would defect to Prince Yu's Mansion in an instant.

And Prince Yu would certainly use his status as the crown prince to suppress him and other kings.

The history books clearly show the consequences of failure in royal struggles.

"Tap, tap, tap." The sound of hurried footsteps was heard, and the serving eunuch immediately walked in and said cautiously:

"My Lord, the Zhang family said that Lord Zhang went to Prince Yu's Mansion. As for Mr. Jingxiu, he had already left Beijing three days ago. They said that he was traveling..."

"Get out!" As soon as the eunuch finished speaking, he was kicked away by the furious Prince An.

"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!" At this moment, Prince An was completely defeated. He naturally knew that Zhang Juzheng had given up on him.

Of course, at this moment he was more and more certain in his heart that the whole thing was a conspiracy between Zhang Juzheng and Prince Yu's Mansion to plot against him.

Of course, such a scene also happened to Prince Gong and Prince Ning.

From the moment Prince Yu was confirmed to be crowned as the Crown Prince, the Gao family, who supported Prince Gong, and the Zhao family, who chose to support Prince Ning, all rejected the invitations from the two palaces at the first opportunity.

For a moment, Prince Gong and Prince Ning also broke down their defenses instantly.

They knew that after this, the position of the crown prince had been decided and the battle for the heir to the throne had now been settled. At this time, there was naturally no need for them, the ministers, to support themselves anymore.

However, what the two princes did not know was that the reason why Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Zhao Zhenji and others cut off contact with them was not because Prince Yu was canonized as the crown prince, but because they had already predicted Prince Yu's fate just like Zhu Yijin.

He also knew that from now on, Prince Yu, who was appointed as the crown prince, would be completely free from any constraints.

Prince Yu will use the time he is still the crown prince to earn enough resources for all the descendants of the royal family!
This is what they mean when they say a trapped beast will still fight!

Although Prince Yu was the crown prince at this time, he was no different from a barefoot person.

As the saying goes, those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. This is the truth.

At this time, there was no need for them to choose to continue to stand on the side of the kings and Prince Yu and fight to the end.

No one knows who Prince Yu will attack.

The only thing they can do is to lie dormant quietly and watch how things develop. Facing all of Prince Yu's next actions, they will remain silent and give in as much as possible!
At this moment, the princes also felt resentful towards Jiajing, thinking that their father was favoring Prince Yu.

However, even if they understood that Prince Yu had been abandoned, they would probably end up like Prince Jing. Not only would they not be happy, but they would feel grief for the loss of their father and become more and more terrified for their father.

In short, from Jiajing's perspective, no matter what, he was destined to become a person who was alienated from his sons.

It was quiet in Yuxi Palace.

"Lv Fang," Jiajing was no longer meditating at this time. He was lying on the couch, with a tone of sadness, helplessness, and bitterness. He said sadly:

"My sons don't recognize me..."

Lv Fang, who was serving beside him, heard the master's painful, helpless, and complicated words, and silently raised his hand to wipe the wet corners of his eyes. He really couldn't say a word of comfort. He just said silently in his heart: "The master is suffering too much."

At this time, in the hall of Prince Yu’s Mansion.

Prince Yu looked at his son Zhu Yijun, who stood in front of him and remained silent after listening to his story. A bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth and he said, "Yijun, this time it is your father who is holding you back."

"All your plans have gone to waste."

After hearing what his father said, Zhu Yijun came back to his senses and shook his head slightly, saying with a smile: "That's good..."

"My original plan was to obtain the position of Crown Prince, fight for more resources for the palace, and one day in the future, go to the outer space to find a big star to settle down."

"Become an idle prince who cannot interfere with the palace even if a new emperor ascends the throne in the future."

"Your children and grandchildren will inherit the title of king, and establish an immortal family."

"Now that my father has been canonized as the crown prince ahead of schedule, I'm afraid it's time for me, the crown prince, to be put on the agenda as well." Zhu Yijun said in a rather amusing tone, pretending to be relaxed: "It can be said that the plan of Prince Yu's Mansion has never changed."

"In that case, let's plan ahead."

"We deserve it, let's make a killing before we leave!"

Seeing his son looking so relaxed, Prince Yu Zhu Zaigui nodded with satisfaction, but he also knew in his heart that according to Zhu Yijun's original plan, everything would transition smoothly.

The Prince Yu's Mansion will take root in three places: the imperial court, the outside world, and even in the world of immortal cultivation, so that it can be truly deeply rooted and flourish, instead of exhausting all its luck and fleeing the Ming world in a panic and moving the whole family to the outside world as it is now!

Taking root and developing in many places and choosing only one place and heading to the outer space with the whole clan, almost like fleeing, are two completely different things!
"But there's no need to be too anxious." After taking a deep breath and calming down his emotions, Prince Yu said in a deep voice:
"We still have time. I, your father, will probably have to sit on the throne of the crown prince for a long time, perhaps hundreds of years at the least, thousands of years at the most, or even tens of thousands of years. Only then will the court abolish the innate cultivation system. During this period of time, there will be no taboos in the development of my Prince Yu's Mansion!"

Hearing this, Zhu Yijun also nodded.

After an imperial edict was issued, the top officials in the cabinet and the six ministries, after a brief panic, calmed down and came to their senses. They had already guessed something.

However, none of these old foxes revealed any thoughts or speculations to their lower-level officials.

As a result, an interesting phenomenon naturally formed in the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

That is, except for some very smart provincial governors, many officials at the level of provincial judges and prefects began to run around and try their best to please the officials of the former Prince Yu's Palace.

In their view, the entire Ming officialdom will inevitably change, and all forces will inevitably be reshuffled.

Now that Prince Yu has been named the Crown Prince, the situation has become clear. If we don’t surrender now, when will we surrender?

Naturally, no one from the six ministries and the cabinet, such as senior officials, tried to stop all this. The reason they did nothing was because they were afraid that Prince Yu would target them next.

Furthermore, for these shrewd old foxes, if the people below them cannot see the situation clearly, have a dull mind, and are blinded by the immediate benefits, then they will just give up.

It would be totally not worth it if I were targeted by Prince Yu, who has now gone completely crazy, just for some idiots.

In this way, the phenomenon in the entire Ming Dynasty officialdom becomes interesting.

The upper class just stood by and watched, looking down on everything with indifference.

Some people from the middle and lower classes were jumping up and down in a hurry, running around, and constantly moving closer to Prince Yu's Mansion.

As long as the officials of Prince Yu's Palace have needs, officials from other factions will give them the green light and compromise as much as possible.

Some local officials would even suffer losses in the interests of the area under their jurisdiction, or even a decline in their own political performance, in order to please the officials of Prince Yu's Mansion.

In their opinion, as long as they can get close to Prince Yu, well, now he should be called His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

As long as you get close to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, you will be close to the crown prince, the future new emperor.

What does the loss of immediate benefits matter compared to future gains?

Those officials who wanted to take refuge in Prince Yu's Mansion were already so crazy, and the officials of Prince Yu's Mansion were even more domineering.

Even a small seventh-rank county magistrate, as long as he was from the lineage of Prince Yu's Mansion, could stand tall and be upright when facing the inspecting prefects, governors, or even provincial inspectors.

It seemed that at this moment, everyone had turned into Hai Gangfeng and Hai Bijia.

Prince Yu and his son Zhu Yijun were naturally fully aware of the madness of their officials.

But they no longer care.

To them, these officials can only blame themselves for not seeing the situation clearly.

Moreover, even if these officials were retained, they would only be a group of fence-sitters who only cared about interests. One day in the future, they might betray Prince Yu's Mansion.

Once that day comes in the future, when Prince Yu's position as crown prince is abolished, these people will be the first to turn against him, or even add insult to injury.

This phenomenon is too common in official circles.

Especially for the prince whose throne has been abolished, these sycophants will definitely stand up first, set an example, and add insult to injury in order to please other princes.

In the officialdom, there was a turbulent situation, but among the common people, at most they just talked about it after dinner.

For them, what they are always concerned about is whether the imperial court will abolish the system of cultivating immortals by nature?

Instead of discussing why the position of crown prince fell into the hands of Prince Yu, why not discuss how to protect one's own interests?

Of course, at this moment there is still one person who is still in his own world of victory and cannot extricate himself.

This person was none other than Zhu Youjian, who thought he had calculated everything and achieved his goal.

Donglin Academy, on the pavilion in the center of the lake.

After receiving the edict to enthronize the crown prince and still not receiving any accountability from the palace, Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly laughed.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha..." At this moment, he laughed more happily than ever before. In fact, he had been under tremendous pressure in his heart during these days.

But now it's finally time to release him.

"Cheng'en, let's go back to Beijing. My bet was right. Hahaha..." Zhu Youjian laughed loudly. He was one step closer to his goal of establishing a new Confucian sect, and it was a big step.

He also didn't expect that his grandfather would be made the crown prince!

This is simply such a surprise!

"..." (End of this chapter)