Jiajing Chengming

When Wen Xiang woke up, he was already lying in front of Zhu Houcong, and when he opened his eyes he saw Zhu Houcong's stern and cold face.

Wen Xiang was so frightened that he quickly knelt down and lowered his head: "Your Majesty, spare my life!"

At this time, Wen Xiang discovered that his godfather Qin Wen was also kneeling in the hall.

Zhu Houcong then asked Wen Xiang, "You were carrying water for Zhang Rui to use for the palace servants to get up early, but why did you bring back kerosene?"

Wen Xiang's face was a yellowish brown at this time, his mouth was open, and he didn't say anything.

"Asshole, reply to the emperor's words!"

Qin Wen scolded Wen Xiang, then kowtowed to Zhu Houcong and said, "Your Majesty, I had no idea this would happen!"

"Your Majesty, spare my life!"

"Your Majesty, spare my life!"

"Your Majesty, spare my life!"

After Qin Wen said this, Wen Xiang came back to his senses and began to kowtow frequently.

Zhu Houcong then put his hands behind his back and continued to ask Wen Xiang: "Who told you to do this?"

"Yang Tinghe!"

Wen Xiang answered without hesitation, then fell to the ground and cried bitterly.

Qin Wen also opened his mouth at this time.

There was a look of astonishment in his eyes.

Zhu Houcong laughed at this time: "Isn't he dead?"

"Your Majesty, he is not dead. The person who was in seclusion and meditating that Abbot Jueneng mentioned is him."

Wen Xiang replied in a crying voice.

Snapped!
Snapped!
Zhu Houcong immediately clapped his hands after hearing this.

Not long after, Lu Bing walked in.

During this period, in order to prevent any accidents, Zhu Houcong always let Lu Bing sleep close to him.

So, as long as he clapped his hands, Lu Bing would appear immediately.

As soon as Lu Bing appeared, Zhu Houcong ordered: "Catch this monk immediately! Bring him to see me!"

Lu Bing agreed and left.

……

……

Although it was already the late night, Yang Tinghe did not sleep or blow out the oil lamp, but paced around the room.

Yang Tinghe walked while looking in the direction of Zhu Houcong's bedroom.

But to Yang Tinghe's disappointment, apart from the dark blue sky gradually turning white, there was no sign of fire.

Yang Tinghe's face twitched.

Keng!
Then, Yang Tinghe quickly pushed over the jar of kerosene on the table.

As the jar fell to the ground, the smoky kerosene spread throughout the room like a tide surging onto the shore.

Soon, the kerosene submerged the table legs and bed legs, and many cushions stuffed with dry grass floated up.

Then, Yang Tinghe took the torch that was leaning against the wall on the table and lit it with an oil lamp.

The whole room suddenly became much brighter, and Yang Tinghe's old and bloodless face became much clearer.

When Lu Bing put on his armor and walked quickly towards this side, he just happened to see his face and his lonely shadow flickering in the light of the fire.

After a while, Yang Tinghe also heard footsteps.

He smiled miserably at this.

The smile was filled with disappointment.

He knew that this meant that the emperor was not burned to death, but that Wen Xiang's action had failed.

In order to prevent Zhu Houcong from catching him and torturing him, Yang Tinghe decisively threw the torch on the ground.

In an instant.

A huge fire suddenly broke out in the Zen room.

The entire Zen room suddenly became as bright as day the moment Yang Tinghe was burned.

Lu Bing's eyes widened when he saw this.

boom!
There was a loud bang.

Lu Bing suddenly pushed open the wooden door and carried out Yang Tinghe, who had fainted from the smoke and whose back was still burning.

"Cough cough!"

Lu Bing coughed and blinked while putting out the fire on Yang Tinghe's back.

Other Jinyiwei also came to help. One Jinyiwei who had been ordered to prepare a bucket of cold water poured it directly on him.

Not long after, Yang Tinghe woke up because of this.

"Have I arrived in the underworld?"

Yang Tinghe asked this question.

Lu Bing said: "No!"

Then, Lu Bing ordered other Jinyiwei to tear down the houses and call for help to prevent the fire in the Zen room from spreading to other palaces.

Yang Tinghe just stood there in a daze.

He remained silent for a long while.

……

……

"You are crazy!"

"Since the fire has started, why bother going in? If you are gone, how can I govern with peace of mind?"

Zhu Houcong got angry when he learned that Lu Bing rushed into the fire to rescue Yang Tinghe.

Lu Bing was deeply moved and said, "I saw that the fire was not big, and I thought it would be easy for him to just let him burn himself to death, so I rushed in. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

"Not anymore!"

Zhu Houcong said something.

"Yes!"

Lu Bing kowtowed in reply.

then.

Zhu Houcong looked at Yang Tinghe, whose face had been washed clean.

"My Grand Master."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Am I not being decent enough to you?"

Zhu Houcong asked about Yang Tinghe.

Yang Tinghe smiled sadly and said, "Your Majesty's kindness to me is as deep as the sea, and you have the generosity that a wise ruler should have."

"So you still want me to die, and you're even willing to fake your own death in order to find an opportunity to harm me?"

"Why are you so reactionary?"

Zhu Houcong asked.

Yang Tinghe said, "I didn't intend to be so rebellious. I just wanted to wait for Your Majesty to stop making profits from foreign countries and gradually choose to be a king who maintains the status quo. But Your Majesty is too wise and brave, too good at making money from foreign countries, and too good at developing various industries at home. It has reached the point where the power of the scholars has declined and the power of the monarch and the people has flourished!"

"If I allow Your Majesty to continue like this, then in a hundred years, I'm afraid that Datong will really be gone, and I will really be exposed for how hypocritical and treacherous I have been!"

"But if you kill me, do you think Yang Yiqing and the others won't take the eldest prince and continue my path?"

Zhu Houcong asked.

Yang Tinghe smiled and said, "Of course they will, but because the eldest son is young, their factional struggle with Zhang Fujing, Wang Yangming, Gui E and others will intensify. As long as the struggle intensifies, they will have no time to take care of external advancement."

"For the sake of your noble families, you really don't care about the country at all!"

"No wonder you dare to cut down on a large number of military academies and military pay in order to save money, thus undermining the country's military strength!"

Zhu Houcong sighed.

Yang Tinghe said: "Your Majesty, you will understand why we don't care about the country at all."

"I know. Dynasties come and go, but the wealthy and powerful remain forever."

"You, Yang Tinghe, a prominent family with several generations of officials, no longer need to share weal and woe with our Ming Dynasty. The only requirement is that our Ming Dynasty must meet your demands for interests."

Zhu Houcong nodded and started talking. He stood up and walked behind Yang Tinghe: "But, Yang Tinghe, do you know what the biggest problem of you wealthy families is?"

"Know!"

"Meat eaters are vulgar."

"Your Majesty is simply saying that, in the end, we, the wealthy and extravagant people, have allowed China to be ruled by foreign races because of our selfishness and hypocrisy!"

Yang Tinghe sneered as he spoke: "But your majesty, what's wrong with foreign rule? As long as they can let us wealthy and powerful people continue to ride on the heads of the people and treat the people as cattle and horses, that's enough!"

"For thousands of years, no one with insight has ever talked about Chinese and barbarians. They only talked about good and evil!"

"As long as the foreign race that gains control of the world is willing to respect scholars and Confucianism like the previous Yuan Dynasty, then it will still be the orthodoxy of the world!"

"Have you ever thought that if the Ming Dynasty fell and the Chinese nation was really occupied by foreign races, they would learn from the lessons of the Yuan Dynasty and not indulge the extravagant rich like the Yuan Dynasty did?"

Zhu Houcong asked about Yang Tinghe. (End of this chapter)