Bringing the Railway to Daming

Zhang Mao readily agreed, saying, "That's easy. We can publish dozens of articles, let alone just a few."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Di felt even more that Zhang Mao was a good-for-nothing, but he was not displeased. Instead, he said in a gentle tone, "Young Master Zhang, you might as well let me finish speaking first—this article introducing the Indian subcontinent and the Yan Kingdom should make people want to go there after reading it, feeling that fame, wealth, gold, and beautiful women are within easy reach once they go there."

"However, we can't be too deliberate—like just now when Young Master Zhang mentioned dozens of articles like this, even a fool would know that you're deliberately promoting the Yan Kingdom. If that's the case, probably not many people will actually believe it, and it won't be good for our reputations if word gets out."

"Does Mr. Zhang understand what I've said?"

Fortunately, Zhang Mao wasn't too stupid. He pondered for a moment and nodded, saying, "I understand a little—Jia Fu, Cui Zhao, did you understand?"

The two wealthy merchants exchanged glances, and then Jia Fu nodded and said, "I think we understand—if His Highness the Prince of Yan really wants us to introduce the good things about Yan, we can do what 'Overseas Scenery' did and send two or three reporters to Yan to visit the country in person. That way, we can have something to say and make our words more convincing."

"Haha," Zhu Di smiled with satisfaction, "This is a good suggestion—you can select the right people, and when I return to Yan, they can accompany me on the same ship."

After saying this, Zhu Di got up and left.

Zhang Mao was somewhat disappointed—he had thought Zhu Di would immediately offer him benefits, such as arranging an official or military position for him, but unexpectedly Zhu Di left just like that.

However, an inconspicuous middle-aged attendant who had come with Zhu Di did not leave. Instead, he stayed in the private room, smiling and cupping his hands in greeting, saying, "I own a jewelry store in the capital. I recently imported a batch of treasures from India. They are of excellent quality but inexpensive. Why don't the three of you take a look?"

Zhang Mao frowned, puzzled as to why Zhu Di's attendant was suddenly trying to sell them some treasures.

But Jia Fu and Cui Zhao both changed their expressions and agreed.

He then realized that the middle-aged man was probably offering them benefits on behalf of the Prince of Yan, so he agreed.

Afterwards, the three of them went with the middle-aged man to a jewelry store called "Jinzhulou" and, as expected, each bought several gemstones, pearls and other treasures at a very low price.

Zhang Mao even bought a small box of treasures on credit, overjoyed...

···
Zhu Di stayed in the capital for another half month before submitting a memorial to Zhu Yuanzhang, preparing to leave the capital and return to the Yan Kingdom.

As a result, he was summoned to the palace the day after the memorial was submitted.

Upon arriving at Fengxian Hall, he saw that besides Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan was also present. The eunuchs who usually served him were not there, and even the eunuch who had brought him in had left. He immediately had a bad feeling.

He dared not think too much and hurriedly bowed, saying, "Your subject greets Your Majesty!"

"Get up." Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand. "Fourth Prince, if you go to India again this time, I'm afraid you won't return to the capital until we've passed away, will you?"

Zhu Di's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this, and he quickly replied, "May Father Emperor live to be a hundred years old. Your son will certainly return a few more times in between."

"Live to be a hundred years old? Look closely, do we look like we could live to be a hundred?"

Hearing this, Zhu Di couldn't help but look up and scrutinize Zhu Yuanzhang carefully—even though he was over thirty and the ruler of a country, he usually wouldn't dare to look at Old Zhu like that.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that Zhu Yuanzhang had aged considerably compared to six years ago. His hair and beard were almost entirely gray, and he had lost a lot of weight, with more and deeper wrinkles on his face.

Historically, it seems my father lived until the thirty-first year of the Hongwu reign, right?

'If my father's predetermined lifespan remains unchanged, it seems he indeed doesn't have many years left.'

'But the lifespans of Mother, Eldest Brother, and Xiong Ying have all changed, so Father's lifespan should be more than seventy, right?'

Zhu Di now truly has no desire for the Ming throne, and he is well aware that with Zhu Yuanzhang on the throne, they, the princes who established their own fiefdoms overseas as princes, had the best life.

When Zhu Biao ascends the throne, he should treat these first-generation princes well, at least he won't deliberately suppress or target them.

But if we wait until Zhu Xiong Ying ascends the throne, then things might not be so easy to predict.

Therefore, he sincerely hoped that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao would both live to be a hundred years old.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di said sincerely, "Your Majesty, please take care of your health. I believe that if the Empress Dowager is watching over us from heaven, she would also wish for Your Majesty to live a long and healthy life."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression softened slightly.

Since Empress Ma passed away last December, he has been greatly affected and in a bad mood. He has also lost his appetite. In addition, he had been copying Buddhist scriptures for Empress Ma for more than a month, which made his health worse.

After finishing copying the Buddhist scriptures, he rested for a while, but found that his body could not recover to its previous state, and he was also somewhat unable to handle state affairs at night.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that he was really old and it was hard to say how many more years he could live.

Therefore, he has been thinking about something important lately...
When Zhu Yuanzhang came to his senses, he realized that quite a while had passed, and His Highnesses Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, and Liu Kuan were all looking at him. "Ahem." He coughed and said, "Fourth brother, the reason I called you here is because you have finally come back, so I wanted Liu Kuan to tell you more about the history of the Ming Dynasty."

"I hope you and Biao'er can learn something from this so as not to make the same mistakes as in history."

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to call Zhu Di over and give him a beating—it was one thing to seize the throne through the Jingnan Campaign, but after taking the throne, he deliberately reduced the money and food supplies for the Xiaoling Guard. Wasn't that unfilial?
In addition, there was something else he didn't ask Liu Kuan, nor did he want to, for fear of hurting the relationship between the brothers Zhu Biao and Zhu Di.

That is, how Zhu Di handled Zhu Biao's funeral in the original history.

In fact, if you asked Zhu Yuanzhang, you could guess a thing or two—if Zhu Di dared to cut the expenses of the Xiaoling Guard, how could he possibly make good arrangements for Zhu Biao's funeral? He would definitely strip Zhu Yunwen of the imperial title given to Zhu Biao, and after Zhu Di, there might not even be anyone to pay respects at Zhu Biao's tomb.

Judging from the original history mentioned by Liu Kuan, emperors of Zhu Di's lineage were absolutely capable of doing such a thing!
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while, then, after regaining his senses, said, "Liu Kuan, you've covered most of the historical emperors of the Ming Dynasty, haven't you? How many are left to mention?"

Liu Kuan: "Your Majesty, if we don't count the Southern Ming rulers, there are still three left to discuss: Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Then let's tell the story of the three men today, so that the fourth prince can understand how his line of emperors ruined our Ming Dynasty."

Although he had expected it, Zhu Di still felt uncomfortable upon hearing these words, but he had no way to refute them and could only stand there awkwardly.

Liu Kuan recalled what he knew about the Ming Dynasty emperors and said, "Let's start with the Taichang Emperor—he was the emperor with the shortest reign in the history of the Ming Dynasty. He reigned for exactly one month before he died in a rather comical way."

Reigning for a full month?
A comical death?

Upon hearing these two sentences, Zhu Di couldn't help but twitch his eyelids, thinking to himself: My good brother-in-law, couldn't you have shown a little mercy? Even if that's the truth, couldn't you have embellished it a little?
Alas, it's all my fault for being so busy when I got back that I forgot to send a generous gift to the Liu family.

I still need to make up for it before I leave.

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao frowned as they listened, wondering why Liu Kuan used a comical description to depict the death of Emperor Taichang.

"In the eyes of later generations, Emperor Taichang, Zhu Changluo, is a person who is hard to describe. If one had to describe him, he would be both pitiful and infuriating."

"Although Zhu Changluo was Wanli's eldest son, his birth mother, Lady Wang, was a palace maid who was occasionally favored. This palace maid was different from the one who favored Consort Wan during the reign of Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen. There was a real affection between Zhu Jianshen and Consort Wan, while Emperor Wanli probably only had a moment of impulse when he favored Lady Wang and forgot about her afterwards."

"Unexpectedly, Lady Wang became pregnant as a result and gave birth to Zhu Changluo. At first, Wanli was unwilling to acknowledge this son."

"Later, neither of Wanli's two empresses, Lady Wang and Lady Liu, had any children, and the other concubines also did not give birth to princes. Empress Dowager Li was eager for a grandson, and since Lady Wang was a palace maid by her side, she forced Wanli to acknowledge the affair and made Lady Wang a concubine in the tenth year of Wanli's reign."

"After that, Wanli also met his 'true love' like his ancestors, Consort Zheng. He doted on her and quickly promoted her to Noble Consort, and then to Imperial Noble Consort. If the Empress had not been still alive at the time, Wanli would probably have put Zheng on the Empress's throne in one go."

"In the fourteenth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, Lady Zheng gave birth to the third prince, Zhu Changxun, who later became the Prince of Fu. She then took the opportunity to beg the Wanli Emperor to make Zhu Changxun the crown prince in exchange for her becoming empress."

"Emperor Wanli was so in love with Zheng that he not only agreed to the matter, but also wrote a contract with her in the temple and swore an oath as proof."

???

Although Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Wanli was the most unreliable emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty, he still couldn't help but have three question marks pop up on his forehead when he heard this. Zhu Biao and Zhu Di were no exception.

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his fist on the imperial desk and angrily exclaimed, "To make a favorite concubine swear an oath for such a thing, and even write a contract? Is this something an emperor should do? It's utterly absurd!"

Zhu Di quickly chimed in with a curse: "Truly utterly foolish!"

Liu Kuan continued, "Later, Wanli raised this matter in the court, which led to the 'Succession Crisis' that lasted for more than ten years during Wanli's reign and triggered subsequent factional struggles."

"That is to say, it was not until the 29th year of the Wanli reign that Zhu Changluo, the eldest son, was made crown prince, and it was only under pressure from the court officials that Wanli had no choice but to compromise."

"Wanli already disliked the Wang family, and when the Wang family and Zhu Changluo became tools for Empress Dowager Li and the court officials to pressure him, he naturally disliked them even more."

"Therefore, Zhu Changluo had a very miserable life in the palace—he was raised by Empress Dowager Li and was timid and cowardly because he was not favored by Emperor Wanli."

"Furthermore, according to the rules set by His Majesty, princes must begin their education no later than ten years of age..."

"Wait!" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but interrupt Liu Kuan, his old eyes widening as he said, "We clearly stipulated that the princes should begin their studies at the age of five, what do you mean by 'no later than ten years old'?!"

Liu Kuan shook his head, "This humble subject does not know."

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately glared at Zhu Di, "Fourth son, this is yet another instance of you rewriting the rules we established, isn't it? You unfilial son, it's one thing for you not to like studying, but you also indulge your descendants. How dare you call yourself the Yongle Emperor?!"

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang so angry he was about to stand up and beat someone, Zhu Di hurriedly cried out, "Father, I'm innocent! I didn't do it!" (End of Chapter)