Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 10 Revisiting the Modern Times
During the period from the first year to the eleventh year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang continuously conferred titles on his sons. The second son Zhu Chong was made King of Qin, the third son Zhu Gang was made King of Jin, the fourth son Zhu Di was made King of Yan, and the fifth son Zhu Su was first made King of Wu and later changed to King of Zhou.

Zhu Chong and Zhu Gang were enfeoffed the previous year. Zhu Di was only 19 years old and had not yet reached adulthood, so he stayed in Yingtian Prefecture temporarily. Historically, it was not until the 13th year of Hongwu that he went to his fiefdom in Beiping.

Before the King of Qin and the King of Jin were enfeoffed, several princes who were over the age of fifteen had to go to the Zhongdu Fengyang to take turns leading troops to garrison there.

Before this, many people including Zhu Yuanzhang's sixth son, Prince of Chu Zhu Zhen, and Prince of Qi Zhu Gui had been there.

It just so happened that Zhu Su and some princes went to Fengyang this time and are currently staying in Yingtian Prefecture. Zhu Di is indeed the only one over the age of fifteen, so it would be most appropriate for him to go.

As for Zhu Yuanzhang, besides the fact that Zhu Di was the most suitable person to accompany him, he naturally also wanted to know what his fourth son did later.

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately asked someone to call Zhu Di over.

About three quarters of an hour later, or almost 45 minutes later, Zhu Di hurried over.

He is still sleeping.

In the middle of the night, he suddenly heard his father calling him, and asked him to bring his sword.

Although I didn't understand what was going on, I could only put on my clothes quickly and come over.

As soon as I walked in I realized something was wrong.

There was no one else in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, only his father Zhu Yuanzhang, his mother Ma Xiuying, and his eldest brother Zhu Biao were sitting there.

This situation made Zhu Di a little confused.

I thought to myself that I hadn’t done anything wrong, so why did it look like a trial?
And my father’s face was bruised and swollen.

what's the situation?
Did he have a fight with his mother?

This is impossible.

"Father, mother, and elder brother."

Zhu Di bowed first.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Old Fourth, I called you here because I have something to tell you."

"Father ordered me to do so."

Zhu Di thought about it and decided that he might have to go to be a fiefdom.

What he didn't expect was that Zhu Yuanzhang's next words shocked him.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "I just fell into a pit outside the palace. There is a stone tablet in the pit that takes me to a world hundreds of years later. I want to go there again. Your elder brother wants to go with me, but I think it's too dangerous. He has to stay and supervise the country. I want to ask you, are you willing to go with me?"

Hundreds of years later?

Zhu Di opened his mouth wide, wondering if his father was hallucinating.

But he didn't dare to ask.

I could only say timidly: "I am willing."

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and pointed to the stone tablet on the floor of the hall and said, "Come here."

Zhu Di walked to the stone tablet.

Zhu Yuanzhang also walked over and asked Zhu Di to step on the stone tablet with him and touch the protruding part in the middle of the largest dragon and phoenix on the stone tablet.

Empress Ma and Zhu Biao stood aside, both craning their necks to see the miracle happen.

However, what embarrassed them was

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

The two men were still squatting on the stone tablet, their hands pressing on the ball, and nothing happened.

Empress Ma and Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with strange eyes.

An embarrassed expression suddenly appeared on Zhu Yuanzhang's face.

"Father, nothing happened."

Zhu Di was puzzled.

"Go away, I'll try."

Zhu Yuanzhang suspected that the two people could not get along, so he had to do it himself.

This may be related to the fact that he is the true dragon emperor.

However, what he didn't expect was that after Zhu Di left, no matter how he touched it, it was useless.

After struggling for half a minute, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't hold it anymore.

He even suspected that he was dreaming.

But when he touched the bruises on his face, the scene of being beaten up by Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He came to his mind vividly, and he was sure that he was not dreaming.

"Something must be wrong."

Zhu Yuanzhang walked back and forth beside the stone tablet, pondered for a moment, and suddenly a light bulb flashed in his mind: "That's right, it must be that pit!"

He said happily: "It must be necessary to put this stone tablet back in its original place."

"That's enough, Chongba."

Empress Ma said angrily, "Did you fall into a pit and damage your brain today, or are you teasing me? If the civil and military officials and the people see you acting so crazy, what will they think?"

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that she was unhappy, so he quickly stepped forward and hugged Empress Ma and said, "Sister, I swear to heaven, this is true. How about this, I will try again and put the stone tablet back to its original place. If it doesn't work, I will just think it was a dream. It's okay to be beaten in a dream."

"If you want to try it, try it yourself. I'm sleepy. I'm going back to sleep."

Queen Ma flicked her sleeves and left.

Zhu Yuanzhang became weird as soon as he came out of the pit, always saying nonsense, which made her very annoyed.

There's nothing wrong with fooling around with your man for a while.

But now they are no longer ordinary people, but imperial nobles and the royal family of the Ming Dynasty.

It’s not that I’ve forgotten my roots.

The main thing is that after they become royal family, they have to set an example for the world and take the lead for the people.

Now is the time when the world is just beginning to settle down, and it is still unstable.

If word got out that the emperor was crazy, the Ming dynasty would be in danger.

Therefore, it was precisely because Empress Ma was a person who understood the overall situation that she did not want Zhu Yuanzhang to continue to be so weird.

But she also knew Zhu Yuanzhang's character.

He was stubborn and it was difficult to change his decision easily, so he could only lose his temper and tell Zhu Yuanzhang his attitude. He saw Empress Ma push the door and leave.

The brothers Zhu Biao and Zhu Di looked at each other in surprise.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Why are you still standing there? Move the stone tablet back to its original place."

"Yes."

The two brothers gritted their teeth and moved the stone tablet.

After Zhu Yuanzhang came out, he ordered all the guards, palace maids, and eunuchs outside the Qianqing Palace to leave and not be allowed to appear outside the palace.

He held a torch in his left hand and an umbrella in his right.

It was not too heavy for the two brothers to carry the stone tablet weighing over 100 kilograms.

The father and his two sons came to the pit. The carriage and other things in the pit had been cleared out long ago, but the ladder was still there. The two brothers struggled to carry the stone tablet down in the rain.

Zhu Yuanzhang came down with an umbrella and instructed the two men to place the stone tablet at the place he had remembered before.

Although there was a lot of mud and water accumulated below, submerging the ankles.

However, since the mud had not dried yet, and there was a mud mold on the spot when Mao Xiang had someone dig it out, it was very easy to put it in.

"come over."

After the stone tablet was placed in the mud, Zhu Yuanzhang pulled Zhu Di closer again and stood in front of the stone tablet.

After making preparations, Zhu Yuanzhang said to Zhu Biao, "Biao'er, have someone bring some flaming oil from the treasury. If it's not me who comes out, but the army of a future country, light the flaming oil, move the stone tablet, and seal the tunnel."

"Father."

Zhu Biao was stunned. He didn't expect that his father would actually cut off his own path.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "This matter is of great importance. I must find out what happened to my Ming Dynasty. However, the later dynasties are too powerful. I dare not contact their court rashly, fearing that they will attack the Ming Dynasty. If something goes wrong between me and your fourth brother, you can ascend the throne yourself."

".yes."

Zhu Biao knew that this was a serious matter, so he had no choice but to agree.

"Boom."

At this moment, another bolt of thunder suddenly broke through the sky above.

Zhu Biao was startled unexpectedly. He saw a flash of white light in front of his eyes and couldn't help but look up at the sky.

The white light passed quickly, illuminating the entire Ming Dynasty palace, and then turned into darkness again.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang touched the protruding sphere on the stone tablet.

It was accompanied by flashes of white light.

Zhu Biao originally wanted to say that this huge lightning was really terrifying, and then turned around to look at Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.

The place was empty.

"Father, fourth brother?"

Zhu Biao opened his eyes wide.

All that was left on the ground was the paper umbrella that Zhu Yuanzhang had thrown aside and the torch that had fallen into the mud and was extinguished in an instant.

"Biao'er, where is your father?"

The voice of Empress Ma suddenly came above Zhu Biao's head.

Although Empress Ma was harsh in her words, she was still worried that Zhu Yuanzhang and his companions would get cold in the rain, so she softened her heart and came back to check halfway through the journey.

As a result, under the light of the torch in the eunuch's hand next to him, all he could see was Zhu Biao standing stupidly in the pit below, getting wet in the rain.

"Oh"

After hearing what his mother said, Zhu Biao finally came to his senses and said, "Well, just now my father said he was tired and went back to the palace to rest."

"Return to the palace to rest?"

Empress Ma was suspicious for a moment, because she knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had a stubborn personality.

Although Biao'er served as regent for two years, his opinions often disagreed with Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang always insisted on his own opinion. How could he give up easily?

She saw that Zhu Biao was a little panicked, and a bold idea suddenly popped up in her mind.

"Since His Majesty is resting, I will go and take a look. You all should leave. His Majesty does not wish to be disturbed."

Empress Ma spoke expressionlessly to the palace maids and eunuchs following behind her.

"Yes, ma'am."

Many palace maids and eunuchs left.

Jin'er, her personal maid, was holding an umbrella for her.

Queen Ma turned around, took the umbrella, and said to her, "You go too."

"Um, yes."

Jin'er was a little surprised.

In the past, the Queen Mother always stayed by her side, so why did she suddenly let her go today?

However, thinking that His Majesty had fallen into a trap today, and thinking that the Empress wanted to have some private conversation with His Majesty, and it was inconvenient for the attendants to follow, she left as well.

Soon, everyone outside the Qianqing Palace, including the serving palace maids, guards, and eunuchs, left.

They didn't walk far. They all went to the back of the Qianqing Palace, which was only about twenty feet away from the main gate of the Qianqing Palace.

As people in the palace, how could they be so stupid as to leave when the Emperor and the Empress asked them to?

You need to have good vision to do this business.

That means making sure you are within their field of vision and being available upon call.

Otherwise, I don’t know how he died.

Seeing that everyone else had left and disappeared from her sight, Empress Ma held up her umbrella and shouted to the people below: "Biao'er, everyone has left."

Zhu Biao had already picked up the umbrella from the ground, walked to the ladder and slowly climbed up, saying tremblingly as he climbed: "Mother, father and fourth brother are really gone, it happened in a flash, fourth brother and I put the stone tablet down, and as soon as they touched the stone tablet, they disappeared."

Upon hearing this, Queen Ma realized the seriousness of the matter. She was surprised at first, then calmed down and said, "You come up first, we'll wait here, maybe they will come back soon."

"it is good."

Zhu Biao climbed up and asked, "But what if father and fourth brother don't come back?"

A trace of sorrow flashed across Empress Ma's eyes, and she said, "Then you go and take care of today's state affairs first. I will wait here. When the time comes, have someone build a shed here, cover the pit, drain the water, and I will go there myself."

Zhu Biao was silent.

Now they really have no choice but to wait.

(End of this chapter)