My father is Chongzhen? Then I have no choice but to rebel.

Chapter 121 Oh no! Chongzhen is going to kill again!

Thinking of this, Gao Qiqian hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, begging for mercy:

"Your Majesty, please spare my life. I know I was wrong. I know I was wrong!!"

"But this is really none of my fault! It was Yang Sichang who told me to do this."

"If I didn't agree, he would have killed me. I had no choice but to team up with him to frame Lu Xiangsheng!"

Zhu Cilang just felt funny in his heart.

What a guy, in order to distance himself from the matter, he actually put all the blame on a dead person. After all, the dead can't speak!

But it was obvious that no one believed him this time!
Chongzhen sneered and said:

"It's a good thing Yang Sichang died. If he hadn't died outside, I would have killed him when he came back!"

"As for you, do you think I will let you go?"

"You bastard! You're still my old friend from my time in the palace. I trusted you so much, but you actually dared to deceive and betray me."

"Just wait! I will make sure you die a miserable death!"

After saying this coldly, Chongzhen stood up and walked outside.

Zhu Cilang was speechless.

What's going on? He's already gone at this point without saying how to resolve the situation?

At the same time, Li Ruolian and Luo Yangxing were also a little confused. They looked at Zhu Cilang and said:

"My Lord, what should we do with this guy?"

Zhu Cilang thought for a moment and said:
"Lock him up first. Father might have other plans. Don't let him die prematurely!"

When the two heard this, they nodded.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Cilang also left the imperial prison.

When he came out of the imperial prison, he saw Chongzhen standing outside, looking up at the moon in the night sky, not knowing what he was thinking.

Zhu Cilang took two steps forward and said:
"Father, how do you want to deal with Gao Qiqian?"

Chongzhen sighed, and then slowly said:
"I intend to attend court tomorrow and announce my decision on his punishment in front of all the civil and military officials."

Zhu Cilang thought about it and instantly understood Chongzhen’s intention.

It is obvious that Chongzhen wanted to intimidate the civil and military officials in the court by dealing with Gao Qiquan.

Although this did not seem like a big deal to Zhu Cilang, he still felt it necessary to remind Chongzhen.

Then, Zhu Cilang said:

"Father, I have to remind you of something."

"I have already killed most of the civil servants in the court who participated in factional strife and betrayed the country, so I really can't kill any more for the time being."

"If we continue to kill, we may not be able to maintain the normal operation of the court."

When Chongzhen heard this, his tone finally softened.

"Don't worry, I don't want to kill them. I just want to scold them to vent my anger."

Ok!

After hearing this, Zhu Cilang had nothing more to say.

Immediately, the father and son left the imperial prison, one returned to the Eastern Palace and the other returned to the Imperial Palace.

Early the next morning.

As the bell for court rang, the ministers filed in and saw Chongzhen, whom they had not seen for a long time.

To be honest, Chongzhen used to attend morning court almost every day, and it was a rare occurrence if he didn't come one day.

But now the situation is completely the opposite. If Chongzhen comes one day, it would be a rare event.

Just like today!
But no one dared to say these words.

And anyone with a little bit of insight could see that Chongzhen looked very unhappy today, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

His eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn't slept all night.

This doesn't look like a good sign at first glance!
Maybe he's going to kill someone again today.

For a moment, everyone had to be extremely vigilant, fearing that they would do something wrong and displease Chongzhen, and be killed by him again.

Ugh!
Chongzhen clearly seems to be no different from before, so why are his recent actions always moving closer to those of Emperor Jiajing and Emperor Hongwu?

It's so unpredictable!

After all the ministers had paid their respects to Chongzhen, Wang Chengen shouted:
"When there is something going on, we will start, and when there is nothing going on, we will retreat."

What followed was dead silence.

It was obvious that no one wanted to report anything today.

Seeing this, Chongzhen was not angry, but said coldly:
"Since you, my dear ministers, have nothing to say today, then I will speak."

Upon hearing this, all the civil and military officials present were shocked.

Something is going to happen today!
The next second, Chongzhen shouted loudly:
"Bring that bastard up here!"

Immediately afterwards, Luo Yangxing personally walked in, leading Gao Qiqian.

Gao Qiquan had gone through a night of torture and had already become haggard.

As soon as he arrived at the court, he knelt down and shouted loudly:
"Your Majesty, I have failed your Majesty's grace. I beg Your Majesty to grant me death!"

At the same time, the ministers present also reacted!

Yup!

Since Chongzhen had already overturned Lu Xiangsheng's case and posthumously conferred him the title of Marquis, Gao Qiquan, who had wronged Lu Xiangsheng, must also be dealt with accordingly!
But what surprised them was that wasn’t Gao Qiquan in Hubei?

Why did you come back suddenly?

Chongzhen didn't care what those ministers were thinking. He sneered and said:

"Gao Qiqian, you are my servant in my residence, and you can be considered an old man who has been with me for decades."

"I trust you the most, so I sent you to supervise the army, hoping that you will be loyal to the country."

"But what did you do? Not only did you not cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng to deal with the Jiannu, but you withheld his food and even watched him being surrounded and killed by the Jiannu without rescuing him."

"And all this is just because you're worried that his achievements will surpass yours!"

"Even after Lu Xiangsheng died, you still dared to lie to me, saying that Lu Xiangsheng died because he surrendered to the Qing army!"

"It's you! You made me mistake such a loyal minister and general for a traitor!"

"Lu Xiangsheng's family came to me three times to ask me to give him compensation, but I didn't agree!"

"It's you who turned me into a completely incompetent, tyrannical, and incompetent ruler!"

"Damn it! How dare you? Do you know how much I trust you? How much I trust you all?"

"Is this what you, as subjects, should do?"

When he said this, Chongzhen's expression had become extremely complicated.

Because he really trusts Gao Qiquan!

And at this point, all the civil and military officials present understood.

Although Chongzhen said these words to Gao Qiquan, he was also speaking to these civil and military ministers.

After all, when Gao Qiquan and Yang Sichang joined forces to frame Lu Xiangsheng, they all knew in their hearts that Lu Xiangsheng was wronged, but they said nothing.

Doesn't this mean that they have become Gao Qiquan's accomplices in disguise?
For a moment, all the civil and military officials present knelt on the ground, but no one dared to say a word.

There's no way, they are really scared!

They were afraid that Chongzhen would get unhappy and kill them too!
In fact, if it were the Chongzhen of the past, he might really do such a thing.

But now, Chongzhen has changed a lot.

After a while, Chongzhen finally calmed down a little. He looked at Gao Qiquan, who had already collapsed on the ground, and said loudly:

"You bastard, let me tell you, it's not that easy to die!"

"I will torture you to death! Then I will chop off your head and offer it to Lu Xiangsheng, so that his soul in heaven can find comfort!"

Then, Chongzhen's eyes swept over the civil and military officials present.

"From today on, if anyone dares to deceive me like this again, I will never let him go. I will make sure he dies a miserable death!"

When Chongzhen said the last sentence, he almost gritted his teeth.

The civil and military officials kneeling on the ground were trembling with fear.

Although it was Gao Qiquan who was to be executed by slow slicing, why did it sound like all of them were to be killed?
Gao Qiquan, the main culprit, has lost all hope at this moment, because he knows that everything is over!
He knew he was doomed to die, but he thought Chongzhen would give him a quick death because of past events.

Unexpectedly, what was waiting for him was the most cruel Lingchi!

Realizing that things were almost done, Zhu Cilang, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

"Drag him away and execute him at noon today."

Zhu Cilang said coldly.

After hearing this, Luo Yangxing dragged Gao Qiquan away like a dead dog.

Then, the court became quiet again, with only the civil and military officials kneeling on the ground.

Chongzhen saw this scene, but said nothing. He just flicked his sleeves and left.

Then, Wang Chengen shouted:
"Retreat!"

Just like that, the tense and exciting morning court ended.

When the ministers left the hall, their calves were trembling.
After returning to the East Palace after court, Zhu Cilang was preparing to change clothes and go to the Firearms Research Institute.

But before he could leave, a young eunuch came running to report that Chen Jinglun and his son were outside asking to see him.

"Chen Jinglun?"

When Zhu Cilang heard the name, he was slightly stunned and couldn't remember who this person was for a moment.

But the next second, he suddenly realized something and asked:

"Is he Chen Zhenlong's son?"

When the eunuch heard this, he looked a little confused and replied:

"My Lord, I don't know. How about I go and ask now?"

Seeing that he didn't know, Zhu Cilang stopped asking and walked straight to the door.

Soon, a middle-aged man appeared in his sight.

At the same time, the Jinyiwei on the side hurriedly knelt down:
"I see His Highness the Crown Prince."

Chen Jinglun finally reacted, and then he and his son knelt down:
"I, Chen Jinglun, pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Zhu Cilang smiled, then helped him up and asked:

"Are you Chen Zhenlong's son?"

Chen Jinglun nodded hurriedly:
"Your Highness, I am Chen Zhenlong's son."

After hearing this, Zhu Cilang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Back to the end of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to reorganizing the military and eliminating the rebels and the Jiannu, there was one more important thing, which was to solve the food problem!
The simplest and quickest way to increase grain production is to vigorously promote sweet potatoes and potatoes!

The man in front of us is the best person to promote sweet potatoes, because it was he and his father, Chen Zhenlong, who brought sweet potatoes back to China.

Unfortunately, Chen Zhenlong has passed away long ago.

After coming to his senses, Zhu Cilang hurriedly took Chen Jinglun's hand and walked inside.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time, and finally you are here."

As he spoke, he suddenly gave an order to the eunuch beside him:

"By the way, go and call Song Yingxing to me."

When the young eunuch heard this, he left in a hurry.

At the same time, Chen Jinglun and his son were shocked by Zhu Cilang's actions.

You have to know that they were just commoners, and at this moment they were being dragged by the prince to the East Palace. It was really shocking for them.

But they did not dare to resist, and could only follow Zhu Cilang to the East Palace with an awkward look on their faces.

Afterwards, Zhu Cilang ordered someone to serve tea.

After Chen Jinglun and his son calmed down a little, Zhu Cilang asked:
“Have you been promoting sweet potatoes all these years?”

Sweet potato is the name used in later generations, but now, this thing is still called sweet potato.

When Chen Jinglun heard this, he quickly stood up and said:
"Your Highness, ever since I and my father brought sweet potatoes back to Ming, generations of my family have been working hard to promote this high-yield crop."

"Nowadays, the cultivated area has exceeded hundreds of thousands of acres!"

Zhu Cilang nodded and continued to ask:

“How many sweet potatoes can be produced from one acre nowadays?”

Chen Jinglun continued to answer:

"Take last year's yield as an example. One mu of land produced an average of about 3,000 kilograms."

Three thousand pounds!
Zhu Cilang smiled knowingly. Although the current sweet potato production was not as large as that of later generations, with an output of four or five thousand kilograms at a time, it was already earth-shattering at this time in the late Ming Dynasty.

After all, at this time, one acre of rice field only produces about 300 kilograms of rice and about 200 kilograms of wheat.

These 3,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes can definitely be considered a super high yield!

At the same time, Chen Jinglun finally understood.

It seems that the prince summoned him to Beijing this time just to promote sweet potatoes.

Fortunately, his family has been trying their best to promote sweet potatoes for generations, so doing this kind of thing is pretty easy for them.

At this moment, Zhu Cilang spoke again:

"Chen Jinglun, you are a smart person, so I won't say anything more."

"The reason I summoned you is to have you specialize in promoting sweet potatoes for the Ming Dynasty."

"I want to spread sweet potatoes all over the land of Ming Dynasty, so that all the people of Ming Dynasty can afford to eat. Are you willing to take on this important task?"

When Chen Jinglun heard this, he quickly pulled his son beside him and knelt down:

"Reporting to His Royal Highness, my father has devoted his entire life to this cause, and so have I!"

"If His Royal Highness is willing to entrust this important task to me, I am willing to devote my entire life to this endeavor."

Zhu Cilang nodded with satisfaction, then continued:
"How about this, I will first confer upon you the title of Fifth-Rank Doctor of the Ministry of Revenue. Once the sweet potato promotion has shown some success, I will then bestow upon you other honors."

"As for your son, he will temporarily be the head of the Ministry of Revenue and work with you in the planting and promotion of sweet potatoes."

"You will be directly under the Eastern Palace for the time being. You don't have to obey anyone else's orders except me. If you have any problems, just come to me directly."

When Chen Jinglun and his son heard this, their hearts began to beat wildly.

They hadn't even done anything yet, but they were directly given fifth and sixth rank official positions. This made them so excited that they almost fainted.

After realizing what was happening, the father and son immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

"I thank His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I will definitely not let His Royal Highness down!"

Zhu Cilang helped the two of them up again, and then continued to ask:
"I heard you wrote a book called 'The Law of Seed Potato Teaching'. Is that true?"

"Reporting to His Royal Highness, yes."

Chen Jinglun said hurriedly, then took out a booklet from his arms and handed it to Zhu Cilang respectfully.

Zhu Cilang took it, flipped through it, and nodded with satisfaction.

Because the planting methods above are so detailed, to be frank, as long as you can read and follow the above methods, you can basically grow sweet potatoes smoothly.

When the time comes, just publish this booklet together with the sweet potato production in the Daming Daily and spread it around. I believe everyone will know about sweet potatoes soon.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang smiled again:

"Very good. I will arrange a mansion for you to live in first, and then allocate you 10,000 acres of land near the capital. You can use this land to grow sweet potatoes first."

"Just tell me how many people you need, and I'll make the arrangements."

Ten thousand acres of land?

Hearing this, Chen Jinglun was dumbfounded.

He doesn’t have that many sweet potatoes to use as seeds!

But it was obvious that Zhu Cilang had already considered this.

Zhu Cilang continued:
"Also, I've sent people to get some other varieties of sweet potatoes and potatoes from overseas. You can try planting them all, and then select the best quality and best varieties for large-scale planting."

After saying this, Zhu Cilang clapped his hands.

Immediately afterwards, a group of young eunuchs came to Chen Jinglun carrying baskets of sweet potatoes and potatoes.

There are more than a dozen baskets!

These sweet potatoes and potatoes are big and small, and have different colors and shapes.

There is no doubt that these sweet potatoes and potatoes were purchased by Zhu Cilang in the system space.

Because he was not sure whether the sweet potatoes Chen Zhenlong brought back were the highest-yielding and best ones, he bought almost all the sweet potatoes in the system store.

The purpose is to select the most productive sweet potatoes for promotion.

Of course, the same goes for potatoes!
In short, now that we have a system, we should naturally select the sweet potatoes and potatoes with the highest yield, strongest disease resistance and best quality for promotion!
Seeing this, some people will definitely ask, since you can buy sweet potatoes and potatoes from the system space, why do you have to wait for Chen Jinglun to come before planting them?

Can't we just find some people and start planting easily?

Is it really that simple?

Of course not!
Although sweet potatoes and potatoes are high-yielding, they have very strict requirements for soil and fertilizer.

Likewise, there are many common diseases of these high-yield crops.

Including early blight, late blight, wilt, dry rot, witches' bough, bacterial wilt, black shank, scab, viral diseases, etc.
Often, if a seedling shows this symptom, it will quickly spread to the entire land.

As Chen Jinglun has been engaged in planting for decades, he naturally understands these diseases. The book "Seed Potato Teaching Rules" mentioned earlier also has an introduction to and solutions to these diseases.

This is the main reason why Zhu Cilang insisted on waiting for Chen Jinglun!
After all, professional matters should be left to professionals!

With him around, the problems mentioned just now are not problems.

Because he has enough experience to solve these problems.

At the same time, Chen Jinglun was stunned by the sweet potatoes and potatoes in front of him.

Although he and his father mainly promoted sweet potatoes, they also knew about potatoes.

But I didn’t expect that the prince had so many kinds of sweet potatoes and potatoes.

This really opened his eyes!

After realizing what was happening, he quickly knelt down to thank her again:

"Your Highness, please rest assured. I will definitely fulfill my mission."

"I will quickly select the sweet potatoes and potatoes with the highest yield and strongest disease resistance for promotion!"

Zhu Cilang was just about to say something, but suddenly at this moment, a figure hurriedly walked in. It was Song Yingxing!

Song Yingxing was about to salute when Zhu Cilang stopped him:
"No need to be polite, come and see what this is."

Zhu Cilang said with a smile, then pointed to the sweet potatoes and potatoes on the ground.

Song Yingxing looked down and then asked:
"Are these sweet potatoes and yams? They look a bit strange, though. They're not the same as I've seen before."

Zhu Cilang smiled and nodded.

"I managed to buy these from overseas and plan to promote them in Ming Dynasty."

Then he hurriedly introduced Chen Jinglun and his son.

"These two are Chen Zhenlong's son and grandson."

When Song Yingxing heard this, he was a little surprised and hurriedly bowed and said:

"I see. My apologies."

Song Yingxing is an all-round scientist. His achievements are not only in science and technology, but also in agriculture, so he naturally heard of Chen Zhenlong's name.

At the same time, Chen Jinglun and his son also hurriedly returned the gift.

"Meet the adults!"

Zhu Cilang continued:
"Just now, I have commissioned Chen Jinglun and his son to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes specifically for the Ming Dynasty. We will then select the ones with the highest yield and best disease resistance for national promotion."

"Then it suddenly occurred to me that you also have a high level of attainment in agriculture, so I'd like you to help cooperate with them. What do you think?"

When Song Yingxing heard this, he hurriedly bowed again and said:
"Your Highness, this is my great honor!"

Song Yingxing had actually tried to promote sweet potatoes and potatoes before, but was forced to stop due to the war. Now that he encountered this situation again, how could he refuse?

Zhu Cilang said again:
"In that case, to make things easier for you, you should also take on the position of Doctor of the Ministry of Revenue."

"Remember, these sweet potatoes and potatoes are of paramount importance to the future of the Ming Dynasty. You must do your best."

"No matter what, I will make sure that the people of the world no longer suffer from hunger!"

"If this thing really succeeds, you will be the greatest contributors to the Ming Dynasty. I will confer titles on you then!"

When the three heard this, their expressions changed.

After all, in the Ming Dynasty, titles were only conferred based on military merits, and no other merits were conferred.

This is enough to show how much importance the court and the prince attach to this matter.

The next second, the three of them hurriedly thanked him:

"Don't worry, Your Highness. I know what to do. I will definitely not let Your Highness down."

After giving them some instructions on other matters, Zhu Cilang let them go down and rest.

Zhu Cilang had no plans to bring the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes to the court for the time being.

The main reason is that sweet potatoes and potatoes are only grown in the south and there are none in the north at all. Even if you tell the civil and military officials, they may not believe it.

Moreover, the people in the north have never seen it either. Even if you talk about it in a very exaggerated way, they will not believe it unless they see it in person.

Therefore, it is better to carry out large-scale planting near the capital first, and then use the Ming Daily to publicize it after the results are achieved.

When everyone sees the yield of sweet potatoes and potatoes, it will be natural to promote their large-scale planting.

After solving the potato and sweet potato issues, Zhu Cilang was in a very good mood. He no longer wanted to go to the Firearms Research Institute, but went straight to the harem to see his prince's concubine.

Although this body can't do anything at the moment, it can still satisfy my visual and protective needs!

(End of this chapter)