Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 125 Lao Zhu’s way of dealing with it: summons!

royal palace.

Old Zhu sat next to the brazier, warming himself by the fire while flipping through today's "Da Ming Daily".

What I read was the legend of Emperor Hongwu on the front page.

"Hey, the story in today's newspaper is really well written!"

Old Zhu was fascinated by the show and exclaimed in amazement.

"Did the author of this article change? He's getting better and better! We should reward him."

Yoshigaki smiled and bowed: "I heard that the author of this article is Luo Guanzhong, who is very talented and is especially good at writing legendary stories."

"This man was once a subordinate of Zhang Shicheng. His teacher Shi Naian was even Zhang Shicheng's military advisor."

Old Zhu frowned and said, "Why don't they arrest this kind of person and put him in jail? Why do they let him write articles in the newspapers?"

There was anger in his voice.

Yoshigaki was shocked and knelt down immediately: "Your Majesty, I will go and pass on the order to arrest Luo Guanzhong."

Having said that, he stood up with his back bent, ready to go out.

"Come back!" Lao Zhu called softly.

Yoshigaki turned around quickly again.

"Who arranged for him to write an article for the Ming Daily?"

Ji Yuan's heart tightened, and after a breath or two, he whispered, "I heard that it was arranged by His Royal Highness Prince Wu. His Royal Highness Prince Wu also said that as long as he wrote an article in the Da Ming Daily, he would be pardoned for his past crimes."

He just felt his heart beating faster and cold sweat began to appear on his forehead.

"Yeah!" Old Zhu responded, looked at the article in the newspaper again, and suddenly laughed.

"Huer has good vision!"

“This guy really writes great articles!”

"Letting him write our stories for the Ming Daily is the best use of his talent."

"What's the point of being a disciple of Zhang Shicheng, the military advisor? He is a scholar and has never killed anyone or done anything evil."

"Now that Zhang Shicheng is dead, there is no need to pursue those matters."

"Huer said to pardon me, so I'll pardon me."

"Send someone to tell him to write well. If he does well, we will give him a reward."

Yoshigaki didn't expect that Lao Zhu would suddenly change from anger to joy, and his heart finally settled down.

He couldn't help but secretly sigh that the King of Wu was truly favored.

If someone else did this, he would definitely be severely punished by the Emperor.

But when he heard that it was the King of Wu who did it, His Majesty the Emperor was not angry at all. Instead, he praised him highly.

Such treatment was even worse than when the late crown prince was still alive.

At that time, although His Majesty loved the prince, he was also merciless when it came time to scold him.

"Yes! I will convey your order later." Yoshigaki's face was full of smiles and joy.

If His Majesty the Emperor does not get angry, life will be easier for these attendants.

"Has anything happened in the past few days?"

Lao Zhu put the newspaper aside and asked calmly.

Perhaps it was due to the sudden drop in temperature, coupled with the fact that Lao Zhu was old, his health had not been very good in the past few days.

He lay in bed all day and did not even look at the intelligence information sent from the outside world.

It is also because of this that we know about Luo Guanzhong.

Yoshigaki submitted the secret report he had prepared long ago.

Old Zhu opened it casually.

The first one is the murder of Li Jinglong.

Old Zhu read it silently and sighed softly.

"Wen Zhong!" he murmured, tears welling up in his eyes.

Yoshigaki stood beside him, bent over, even his breathing became very small, not daring to make any sound.

His Majesty the Emperor was thinking of Li Jinglong's father, Li Wenzhong.

"Good kill!"

Suddenly, Lao Zhu shouted angrily.

"This Li Jinglong actually dared to stop Hu'er from becoming the military commander of the world and to prevent the inheritance of the Ming Dynasty. Why should we keep this kind of person alive if we don't kill him?"

Yoshigaki was still bent over, concentrating and calming his mind, not saying a word.

"By the way, does Li Jinglong have a son?" Old Zhu asked sideways.

"He has a son." Ji Yuan immediately replied: "I heard that although His Royal Highness the King of Wu executed Li Jinglong, he did not intend to implicate his family and was planning to let Li Jinglong's son inherit the title."

"Good!" Old Zhu praised: "Hu'er did a good job."

"Wen Zhong is our nephew after all, and he has made contributions to the Ming Dynasty."

"His son broke the law and was killed, but Wen Zhong's merits are still merits. His grandson will inherit the title. This is a very appropriate move!"

Yoshigaki smiled and said, "Your Highness the King of Wu has always handled state affairs very properly."

Old Zhu glanced at him sideways and quickly looked away.

During this period, Zhu Yunhuan was in charge of state affairs, and Zhu Yuanzhang became more and more satisfied with him.

He felt that he was more tactful and experienced in handling government affairs than Biao'er was at the beginning, and he was more adept at it, which was very much to his liking.

You know, Huer is only fourteen or fifteen years old!

At this age, he can handle the major affairs of the court in an orderly manner. Why should we worry that he will not be able to govern the world well in the future?

Thinking of this, Lao Zhu was very happy.

The longing for Li Wenzhong and the slight sense of guilt that had just been aroused by Li Jinglong's death disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up into an arc.

Then he picked up another secret report.

This one is about Zhu Yunhuan inviting Luo Guanzhong to the Da Ming Daily in Juxian Building, and then Fang Xiaoru gave a topic and Zhu Yunhuan wrote a poem. "What a great poem, 'The rolling Yangtze River flows eastward'. The poem written by Yunhuan should make those scholars who are well-versed in classics ashamed, hahahaha!"

Old Zhu was extremely excited, his eyes shining as he looked at the poems written in the secret report.

Yoshigaki laughed and interjected, "That's right. I heard that when His Royal Highness the King of Wu wrote his poems, countless people in Jinling City rushed to recite them."

"Everyone praised His Royal Highness the King of Wu for his amazing poetic talent."

"If you were not born in an imperial family, the top scholar in the next imperial examination of our Ming Dynasty would be none other than His Royal Highness Prince Wu."

Old Zhu had a bright smile on his face, opened his hands and waved his sleeves, saying: "The descendants of our Old Zhu family don't need to become the new top scholar."

"Hu'er will be the emperor in the future. Writing poetry and prose is just a pastime for him."

"However, Hu'er's poems are majestic and magnificent, unlike some literati who are squeamish and petty. We like the poems written by Hu'er!"

"A pot of muddy wine brings joy to our reunion. So many things from the past and present are all turned into jokes! It's really well written!"

Old Zhu laughed loudly towards the sky, with no attempt to conceal the smugness in his brows.

After a long while, he stopped and asked, "Did Fang Xiaoru resign?"

"Your Majesty, yes. I heard that after he resigned, His Royal Highness the King of Wu visited him in person."

"I talked to him privately for a long time, but I don't know what we talked about."

"Later, Fang Xiaoru left Jinling City."

Yoshigaki reported the information he had collected in detail.

"Just let him go." Old Zhu had a complicated look on his face: "His teacher, Song Lian, was Biao'er's teacher."

"People say that he is Song Lian's most outstanding disciple. We originally thought that letting him be the teacher of Biao'er's son would be a great story for all time."

"But now it seems that Fang Xiaoru is a learned man, but he is not cut out to be an official."

"It's better to leave now so that no innocent people will be implicated."

Old Zhu thought of the matter between Zhu Yunwen and Lu, and suddenly became upset.

"Anything else today?"

Yoshigaki handed over a memorial.

"When delivering the Ming Daily to the palace today, His Majesty the Prince of Wu also sent a memorial, saying that it was about the case of Zhao Mian, the Minister of Revenue, who embezzled hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Your Majesty is requested to make a decision."

Old Zhu's expression brightened, and two rays of light suddenly shot out of his eyes.

He has always hated corruption and bribery, and once he discovered it, he would punish the perpetrators severely.

When he suddenly heard that he had embezzled and accepted bribes of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, his heart was suddenly struck by thunder.

What's more, the person who embezzled and accepted bribes was the Minister of Revenue Zhao Mian, whom Zhu Yuanzhang was very familiar with.

He suddenly snatched the memorial from Yoshigaki's hand and began to read it carefully.

The more I looked, the more frightened I became, and the angrier I became.

"Wow!"

Old Zhu threw the memorial away.

"How dare Zhao Mian do such a corrupt and lawless thing? This is intolerable under the law of the country! This is intolerable under the law of the country!"

His chest rose and fell, and he was obviously very angry.

After a while, Fang gradually calmed down and asked calmly, "What does Hu'er say about this?"

Ji Yuan bent his waist to 90 degrees, his eyes staring at the dust on his feet: "His Royal Highness the King of Wu said that most of Zhao Mian's corruption and bribery were done through his wife."

"And his wife is the daughter of Hanlin scholar Liu Sanwu."

"Liu Sanwu is a person trusted by His Majesty."

"How to deal with this matter, he dare not make a decision on his own, please let your majesty decide."

Old Zhu cursed angrily: "Liu Sanwu, this old man, didn't teach his family well enough, so he gave birth to a daughter who ruined the family tradition!"

Immediately, he sighed again: "Save some dignity for Liu Sanwu and let him resign! The court can no longer tolerate people like him!"

"As for Zhao Mian," said Old Zhu, "send him the memorials impeaching him and the evidence of his corruption and abuse of power, and ask him if he has anything else to defend himself. If not, let him and his wife and family end their lives on their own."

Yoshigaki was stunned.

His Majesty the Emperor's handling of the matter can be described as extremely magnanimous.

If it had been in the past, Zhao Mian’s property would have been confiscated and his entire family would have been exterminated.

But now we just let it end on its own.

Your Majesty has grown older and more merciful.

"Yes!" Yoshigaki responded.

"Ms. Lu's birthday is coming soon, right?" Old Zhu suddenly asked.

"It will be in three days." Yoshigaki said.

Old Zhu asked again: "The one who found out that the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue were not right and Zhao Mian was corrupt and violated the law was Yao Guangxiao, right?"

Yoshigaki said: "It is this person!"

"Hu'er is very good at using people!" Lao Zhu said, "I've said before that I want to meet him."

"Go and convey the imperial decree to summon Yao Guangxiao to see the emperor tomorrow."

"Yes!" Yoshigaki turned around and was about to leave, but was stopped by Lao Zhu.

"Wait!" Old Zhu pondered, "Isn't Yao Guangxiao a monk?"

"There is no need to summon him to the palace."

"It's been a while since I went to the temple to burn incense."

"Tomorrow we can go to Tianjie Temple to burn incense and worship Buddha."

"Go and pass on the order to have Zuo Shanshi, the monk registrar of Tianjie Temple, gather all the nearby monks to go to Tianjie Temple tomorrow. Remember to summon Yao Guangxiao."

"When the time comes, we will meet him in the temple."

"Didn't Huo'er say he was a demon monk?"

"The Buddha is watching over the Tianjie Temple. If there really is any monster, it will be a good opportunity to suppress it!"

……

(End of this chapter)