Ming Dynasty: pacifying the rebellion and defending the border, dominating the world

Chapter 72: Truths Spoken After Drinking?

Zhu Jinzhen did have a momentary impulse.

But he soon regained his composure.

Zhu Jinzhen stared into Zhu Houzhao's eyes and calmly reminded him, "Emperor, you are drunk."

"I'm not drunk."

Zhu Houzhao's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Zhu Jinzhen. "Prince Su, you are a descendant of the Zhu family. I ask you, if I personally issue an order, will you be willing to purge the emperor's court, quell the national crisis, punish the rebels, and restore order to the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Jinzhen was silent for a moment, then raised his head and said, "If the emperor insists, as a subject, I will obey his orders."

He was unwilling to start a rebellion because he did not want to cause civil unrest in the Ming Dynasty.

But if the emperor put the meat to his mouth, Zhu Jinzhen had no reason not to eat it.

Fengtian Jingnan, with the emperor's order, was to rebel or something like that.

Zhu Jinzhen felt excited just thinking about it.

"Good, good, good."

"Tomorrow, when I sober up, I will issue an edict." Zhu Houzhao slammed the table happily. It can be seen that facing the pressure of the civil service group alone, even he is in a difficult position.

"Why wait until tomorrow? It's better to do it today than tomorrow."

Zhu Jinzhen rolled his eyes. It was hard to say whether Zhu Houzhao would admit his mistake when he sobered up tomorrow.

But even if he wanted Zhu Houzhao to write it now, there was nothing he could do.

He couldn't produce an imperial edict.

Zhu Houzhao seemed to realize that he had spoken out of turn due to his momentary excitement, so he simply drank heavily until he was drunk, and then pretended to be dead to change the subject.

Then, it was as if he had found someone to talk to, or perhaps he had faced the reality and knew that if Zhu Jinzhen wanted to do something, he would not be able to resist it at all, so he simply opened his heart.

He complained bitterly to Zhu Jinzhen.

"My father died suddenly. I know it was the work of the civil officials, but I have no proof. The Imperial Guards and the Eastern Depot are useless. They couldn't even find this little evidence. They used a forged imperial edict to force me to bow my head and obey the young me."

"In the defeat at Yutai Ridge, the historians recorded neither the number of enemy troops nor the identity of the invading enemy. They didn't even know why the enemy invaded our borders. When I investigated later, even though I knew it was another mutiny within the court caused by treason, I could do nothing. The cabinet only shifted the blame, believing that I was young and should be a puppet."

"I supported Liu Jin, and they came one after another to attack him, and even wanted me to kill him with my own hands."

"I only spent less than three hundred thousand taels to build a leopard house. That's only three hundred thousand taels. The information I got from the Jinyiwei shows that any single person in the six ministries and cabinets has embezzled ten times that amount of silver and land. Yet they accuse me of excessive extravagance, completely forgetting that my father is just..."

Zhu Houzhao kept spitting and talking about the undercurrents in the civil service group and the court, which kept forcing him to make concessions, bow his head, be obedient, and admit his mistakes.

It was a ridiculous fact that Liu Jin, an old eunuch who could barely read, had the intention of treason and even colluded with the princes to rebel. As the emperor, he could only "believe" it.

I heard that he put a lot of effort into helping Yang Yuxuan, the top military scholar during the Hongzhi period, become the Minister of War, hoping that he would help him check and balance the six ministries and the cabinet and regain military power, but in the end he was betrayed.

Zhu Jinzhen listened quietly without expressing any opinion.

He knew better than Zhu Houzhao how corrupt and dark the Ming Dynasty's civil service was.

However, it was the first time that Zhu Jinzhen heard of Yang Yuxuan, the Minister of War, oh no, the former Minister of War.

"The emperor's dog was taken away by the civil service group with just one bone."

"No wonder the emperor was so furious that he even ignored the opposition of the cabinet, the six ministries, and the three departments and directly beheaded his entire family."

Zhu Jinzhen had an amused expression as he thought of the news he received a few days ago. Before Yang Yuxuan was beheaded, his two children were kidnapped by a mysterious master and brought all the way west from the capital. He couldn't help but sneer.

If Zhu Houzhao hadn't said this, he wouldn't have felt anything strange. After all, both Dragon Gate Inn and Number One Under Heaven had stories about Yang Yuxuan's children being rescued.

But now, Zhu Jinzhen smelled a conspiracy.

The world is so big, where can't we hide?

But Yang Yuxuan's children, or rather the people who kidnapped Yang Yuxuan's children, chose to head towards Jiayuguan.

Zhu Jinzhen listened to the complaints of the left and right, many of which were secrets of the Ming Dynasty and the imperial family that he did not understand, but he was also a little tired of listening to them, so he reminded them: "The emperor has profound cultivation. If he can get drunk with just a few drinks, it would be a huge joke."

Zhu Houzhao, exposed, was not annoyed. Instead, he used his true energy to force out the alcohol and sighed, "Alas, I have been sad for many years, and no one has told me. I actually lost my composure for a moment."

"Where were we talking just now?"

"Rumors are spreading in the capital, unusual movements are taking place all around..." Zhu Jinzhen reminded.

"Oh yes."

Zhu Houzhao, looking drunk, rubbed his brows and said, "The rumors in the capital are indeed not my doing. Although from the perspective of Prince Su and the world, getting rid of Prince Su will benefit me the most."

"Not only has he taken back the military power, but he has also eliminated a major threat."

"But when I received the news, I quickly realized that this was another conspiracy."

"A conspiracy to alienate you and me, the emperor and his subjects, and to shake the foundation of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Jinzhen held the teacup, blew on it, and listened quietly to Zhu Houzhao's explanation.

At this moment, the king is no longer a king, and the minister is no longer a minister.

It's just two equals having a conversation.

Even the emperor was the weaker party.

If this scene were to be spread out and seen by the outside world, it would probably shock many people.

"Rumors spread suddenly in the capital, leaving me no time to prepare. I issued a strict order forbidding the spread of the rumors, and the next day, I received a memorial from the cabinet and the six ministries impeaching Prince Su's mansion."

"I know very well that they may have received this news before it reached my ears."

"I realize that perhaps my close ministers, and even..." Zhu Houzhao paused, leaving the last two words unsaid. "The Imperial Guard has been thoroughly infiltrated, as have the Six Gates. The East and West Factories are my household servants, and even the dogs I raise aren't very obedient."

"The Emperor's uncle's Hulong Villa is nominally for the protection of the royal family and the maintenance of government order, but in reality he has other plans. The three secret agents cannot be trusted."

"The Baolong clan received news of your rebellion, Prince Su, and I wonder if they too are in trouble."

"After much deliberation, in order to prevent the situation from escalating further and to prevent my plans from being disrupted again, I have secretly summoned Lu Xiaofeng to the palace and asked him to help investigate this matter."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jinzhen couldn't help but sneer, "That's quite secretive. Lu Xiaofeng had just arrived when he was followed by at least five groups of people. There are also countless people watching in secret."

"There's even a dark red bounty on the line to silence Lu Xiaofeng."

A cold murderous intent flashed in Zhu Houzhao's eyes. It was not directed at Zhu Jinzhen but at certain people.

"If Lu Xiaofeng can investigate thoroughly, then everyone will be happy. But I know that the scope of this matter is absolutely unimaginable. It would be a foolish dream for him to find the source and restore the truth with his own efforts."

"So I have prepared a second method." Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile proudly when he said this.

"You used him as bait to draw attention away from yourself, but in reality, you were planning to leave the palace incognito and meet me privately to explain the whole story. Or perhaps you were planning to take advantage of the situation and eliminate me, thus relieving yourself of your worries?"

(End of this chapter)