My father Yongle, building a five-good family

Chapter 106: Breaking into the Meridian Gate, Secret Conversation in the Palace

Huang Zicheng and Mei Yin stood in front of the Meridian Gate, one a civil official and one a military official, with the armored Yulin Guards behind them.

The Yulin Guards had solemn expressions on their faces, with swords and spears in their hands pointed directly at Prince Yan and his entourage.

Zhu Di looked at this scene and felt it was extremely ironic.

The old man has been hunting geese all his life, and there have been times when he was pecked in the eyes by a goose.

In the old man's eyes, the prince had always been a humble and friendly grandson, but before he took his last breath, he was already jumping up and down so impatiently.

Zhu Di was the King of Yan appointed by the old man himself!

He is the old man’s biological son!
Not to mention the royal family, even ordinary civilians, if they cannot see their parents for the last time, they will probably never forget this feeling in their lifetime.

But...that kid Zhu Yunwen actually dared to do such a thing!
Zhu Di slowly drew out the long sword from his waist. The long sword was made of iron, with a long sword ridge in the middle and densely packed bulges where his hand held it.

His eyes were clear and stern, his facial features were distinct and chiseled, and his whole body exuded a powerful aura, as if he were a general walking out from among countless corpses on the battlefield.

Faced with such a Zhu Di, Huang Zicheng wanted to retreat for a moment.

But he thought of the palace behind the Meridian Gate and what Zhu Yunwen had told him. Huang Zicheng actually gritted his teeth and took a step forward, bowed, and spoke slowly:
"The emperor is seriously ill, and the whole city is under martial law. We are afraid that the remnants of the former Yuan Dynasty will take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble, so we can only ask Your Majesty to wait for a while."

But these are just excuses made up casually.

Huang Zicheng knew in his heart that Zhu Di would never believe it, but so what?
Today, there are still officials from the previous dynasty on duty in the court, and no one knows whether any of these people care about the previous dynasty.

All Huang Zicheng wanted was a legitimate excuse.

It was as if he and Zhu Yunwen had discussed that if they wanted to reduce the power of the princes, no matter what they really thought in their hearts, all they had to do was to label these princes as "treasonous". That would be enough.

But... Zhu Di has never been a man who follows the rules.

If he were really that honest, he wouldn't have the powerful military authority and reputation among the nobles that he has now.

Moreover, he would not have been reprimanded by Zhu Yuanzhang for forming cliques in the late Hongwu period.

However, before Zhu Di could break the deadlock, a figure suddenly jumped out of the carriage.

The figure didn't look big, but it was surprisingly agile.

Before anyone could react, he grabbed a horse nearby, whipped it in his hand, and rushed into the Yulin Guards with an unscrupulous look, whipping his horse and giving a clear shout, as if he was in an empty space.

With the horses neighing and their front hooves raised high, they charged forward like dark clouds stepping on snow, scaring the Yulin guards so much that they retreated to the side.

When the son-in-law of the emperor, Mei Yin, saw this scene, his face changed slightly. He turned the handle of the knife in his hand and actually wanted to cut off the horse's hoof to stop Zhu Gaoyu.

And it was at this moment that Zhu Gaoyu turned his head and found a box on his back.

He suddenly pulled out a matchlock gun. The match had been lit at some point. The black gunpowder exploded in the bronze gun, and the ammunition burst out and hit Mei Yin's right shoulder.

Bang.

The long knife fell to the ground.

In the wind and snow, Mei Yin's uncontrollable cry of pain was heard. Zhu Gaoyu swung his musket, almost lying on the horse's back with his upper body, holding the horse's neck, and forced his way into the encirclement by advancing left and right.

Mei Yin was unwilling to give in and wanted to step forward to stop it.

At this moment, Zhu Gaoyu took out the jade pendant again, with his palm facing behind him, and said without turning his head:

"Anyone who sees this jade pendant will be treated as if the Emperor himself is here. You can act first and report later. After that... the Emperor will handle the matter!"

Seeing this jade pendant, it’s like Your Majesty is here in person!

Just this one sentence shocked Mei Yin and Huang Zicheng to the point where they were, unable to recover for a long time.

They turned their heads and looked at each other, and saw astonishment and disbelief in each other's eyes.

This kind of thing...how could Your Majesty easily hand it over to Zhu Gaoyu?
Your Majesty...what exactly do you mean?!

……

After crossing the Jinshui Bridge, we were getting closer and closer to the palace.

When Zhu Gaoyu saw a group of people kneeling outside the bedroom, his heart suddenly shrank, as if a piece of paper was crumpled into a ball, and it felt like it was pulling.

Without thinking too much, he dismounted from his horse, leaped forward, and came to the palace gate.

He wanted to look inside, but just as he was about to stick his head out, a wall suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his view.

Seeing the apricot-yellow uniform, Zhu Gaoyu seemed to have thought of something. He looked up and saw Zhu Yunwen standing in front of him. His face seemed to be haggard and sad:

"Cousin, you're here."

He seemed to want to laugh, but the bitterness at the corners of his mouth could not be ignored no matter what.

Zhu Gaoyu's eyes were red, but his tone was unexpectedly firm:
"Your Highness, I want to go in and see Grandpa."

Zhu Yunwen smiled bitterly and touched Zhu Gaoyu's head.

Zhu Gaoyu felt a little uncomfortable and frowned slightly, wanting to avoid it, but thinking that his grandfather the emperor was seriously ill at the moment, he still stood there.

Seeing this, Zhu Yunwen sighed again:
"Grandpa Emperor is not feeling well right now, and I'm afraid he doesn't want to see anyone. Cousin, you should wait outside. If you feel cold, I have asked someone to prepare the side hall. You have been traveling in the snow and ice, sleeping in the open air, and I'm afraid you are cold now, so it would be good to take a rest."

Zhu Gaoyu didn't say anything, just looked at Zhu Yunwen.

Zhu Yunwen's expression was sincere at this moment, and it seemed that it was completely impossible to tell that he was the one who ordered people to block the Prince of Yan and his son at the city gate and the Meridian Gate.

It was not until Zhu Gaoyu stared at Zhu Yunwen for a long time without even blinking that Zhu Yunwen's mask finally showed signs of cracking.

It was at this time that the door of the bedroom opened slightly.

The eunuch beside Zhu Yuanzhang said softly:

"Prince Dinghai is here. His Majesty is calling you in."

Zhu Gaoyu breathed a sigh of relief. Before leaving, he glanced at Zhu Yunwen, who looked a little unhappy, and then turned around and walked into the hall.

Zhu Gaoyu said nothing, but Zhu Yunwen felt his face burning.

It was as if I had been slapped in the face.

Moreover, this slap was delivered personally by his royal grandfather.

He turned his head and looked at the ministers kneeling in the snow. He took a deep breath, and the last bit of softness in his heart finally became hard.

Grandpa Emperor, you are old.

I, Zhu Yunwen, will walk the rest of the way by myself.

……

In the bedroom.

When Zhu Gaoyu came, his heart felt like beating like gongs and drums, and he was in a hurry.

But when he actually stepped into the bedroom and smelled the strong, almost pungent smell of medicine, no matter how sensible and mature he was, he couldn't help but feel a little panicked and at a loss.

He stood in front of the dim bright yellow bed curtain and wanted to lift a corner of it, but he felt an indescribable fear.

It was at this time that Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to feel something.

The hand that was originally placed in the quilt slowly stretched out.

Just looking at that hand, it seems to be no different from that of an old man who is about to die.

Skinny, spots, blue veins...

Zhu Gaoyu felt like crying again.

But he gritted his teeth and held it back, just sniffing, but Zhu Yuanzhang still heard it.

A faint sigh came from behind the bed curtain.

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded, even with a smile:

"Gao Yu, don't cry... Grandpa Huang is here... Look, it's snowing heavily outside. Even if we lie here, we can still hear the sound of snowflakes falling... There is nothing that Grandpa Huang can't do as he promised you..."

Zhu Gaoyu carefully placed his face against the back of Zhu Yuanzhang's outstretched hand, which was icy cold.

He whispered:

"Grandpa Emperor, I defeated the Tatars."

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to laugh.

Silly boy.

The Tatars are not so easy to defeat.

Zhu Yuanzhang worked hard all his life, but the Tatars still went south from time to time to harass the Ming border. This time, his son was implicated, so that he could not survive the winter...

But at this moment, he just touched Zhu Gaoyu's head and praised him in a gentle tone that he had never used before in front of other people:
"Great. Our Gao Yu is already a general at such a young age. He will definitely be a good prince in the future."

Zhu Gaoyu rubbed his grandfather's hand and continued softly:

"Grandpa Emperor, I tricked a cannon into giving me, and I also fooled a Lumi countryman."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed:
"Okay. Our Gao Yu is just smarter than others."

Zhu Gaoyu held onto Zhu Yuanzhang's hand tightly, as if he was afraid of losing something:
"Grandpa Huang, can you stay with me all the time?"

"Well... I'm afraid that won't work."

Zhu Yuanzhang almost said it fluently.

He finally lifted the bed curtain and coughed slightly. His skinny face was filled with a pair of cloudy but kind eyes.

"Gao Yu, you have to listen carefully to what I'm going to say next."

Zhu Gaoyu felt more and more panic in his heart, but he didn't dare to say anything more.

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his voice:

"We'll give you a map of Ming Dynasty, do you still have it?"

Zhu Gaoyu didn't know what this had to do with Daming Hunyitu, but he still nodded seriously.

He kept every thing that the Emperor gave him privately.

Apart from showing the Great Ming Unification Map to Sanbao, I'm afraid even Zhu Di didn't know much about it.

Seeing Zhu Gaoyu's expression, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows relaxed slightly, but he still patted Zhu Gaoyu's hand and couldn't help but give another instruction:
"No matter where you go, you must always carry the Great Ming Unified Map and the jade pendant I gave you. Remember, remember, don't lose them. Otherwise, in the future, if something happens..."

At the end of the speech, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly kept silent.

Zhu Gaoyu opened his eyes wide, waiting for the second half of the words, but as he waited, he found that there was suddenly no follow-up.

future?

What will happen in the future?
Could it be that the Emperor had already anticipated this?

Moreover, isn’t the “Great Ming Unified Map” in his hand fake?

What good would a fake do?

In the confusion, the wheel of history, carrying wind and smoke, rolled in.

Zhu Gaoyu, a semi-illiterate person in history, vaguely felt that history had changed, but it seemed... it had not changed.

First update today, I have enough time, so I'll go lie down for a while, haha, my waist~ I'll be back in Hangzhou in a few days, so the updates may be a little irregular, I'll try to save the manuscripts in advance. There's another chapter with 4,000 words in the evening ^_^
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(End of this chapter)