Zhu Yuanzhang: My second son is invincible!

In the East Pavilion, after listening to Jiang Huan's report, Zhu Yuanzhang threw the memorial onto the table.

"The Lü family is in a panic."

Jiang Huan lowered his head and said, "Lu Ben went to Yang Xian's residence yesterday and had a private talk for half an hour."

"Yang Xian...we remember him. He's the most swaggering civil official in Zhejiang. We still remember all the things he's done in secret over the years! We spared his life, but it seems he hasn't learned his lesson," Zhu Yuanzhang sneered.

Zhu Biao sat at the lower end of the table, slowly adjusting his cuffs, and said, "Father, I have investigated and found that the Lü family has made six smuggling trips to Goryeo and Japan in the past two years via sea transport. The goods included silk, porcelain, and tea, and the total value was approximately ten million taels of silver."

The account books are in Yang Xian's hands, and Yang Xian uses them to control the Lü family.

Zhu Yuanzhang raised an eyebrow and asked, "When did you investigate?"

"The day my brother returned to the capital, I ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to begin their investigation. I originally planned to wait until spring to take action, but since they made the first move, let's move it forward."

Zhu Biao said calmly.

"How do you want to move..." Zhu Yuanzhang asked his son with some curiosity.

"The Lü family was involved in smuggling, and according to the law, their property was confiscated. The main culprit was exiled to Qiongzhou. Yang Xian... his old case was brought up again, and in addition to accepting bribes and forming cliques for personal gain, he deserves to be executed."

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at his son and said, "Not execute his entire family?"

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "Father, the nine generations of relatives is too heavy. Of the three branches of the Lü family, only the eldest branch was involved in smuggling. Exterminating three generations of relatives is enough. The same goes for Yang Xian. Kill him alone, and his family members. The men should be exiled and the women should be sent to the brothel as a sign of imperial grace."

"You are quite merciful," Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, but there was admiration in his eyes.

"It's all thanks to Father's excellent teaching. Your son will go and draft the decree now." Zhu Biao stood up.

"Wait... Tell the second son not to act recklessly lately, to keep him hidden for now, and send more men. That kid is simple-minded, don't let anyone take advantage of him," Zhu Yuanzhang called out to him.

"It's all arranged. Zhang Han and Chen Nian will lead twenty skilled men, working in shifts around the clock."

"not enough."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and thought for a moment before saying, "Transfer that boy from Xu Tiande's family over there. His name is... Xu Huizu, right? Let him be the second son's bodyguard commander."

Zhu Biao nodded and said, "Your subject will take care of it tomorrow."

……

Three days later, Zhu Li left the palace and returned to the Prince of Wu's residence.

As soon as the carriage left the imperial city, he sensed something was wrong; it was too quiet.

At this time of day in the past, Taiping Street would have been bustling with people, with vendors selling steamed buns, performing with monkeys, and vegetable vendors carrying their wares on shoulder poles, their shouts carrying for miles.

Today, however, it was deserted and quiet; there wasn't a single person in sight on the street.

The guard Zhang Han, who was driving the carriage, lowered his voice and said, "Your Highness, something seems amiss."

Zhu Li lifted a corner of the carriage curtain.

The shops on both sides of the street were all closed, and you could vaguely see eyes peering out through the cracks in the windows.

A faint, fishy smell filled the air—the smell of fresh blood.

"There's blood..." Zhu Li wrinkled her nose.

No sooner had he finished speaking than seven or eight men in black suddenly rushed out from the street ahead, some of them carrying crossbows, and fired a volley of arrows at the carriage.

Some wielded long swords and slashed at the carriage, while others formed sword fingers, and streaks of sword energy appeared.

Zhang Han pulled hard on the reins, and the horse reared up.

Almost simultaneously, more than ten people leaped down from the rooftops on both sides, their blades flashing like snow, and rushed straight at the carriage.

"Protect the Emperor!" Chen Nian leaped out from behind the carriage, his long sword unsheathed, its blade flashing, and the next moment, the blade directly cleaved away three crossbow bolts.

The guards instantly formed a battle formation.

However, there were too many men in black, and each of them was highly skilled. Their swords flashed, and they took down three guards in a single exchange.

Zhu Hui sat in the carriage and could hear the clash of swords and the screams and groans outside.

Just as he was about to go out, he suddenly heard a child crying from the alley next door.

He lifted the carriage curtain and looked out. At the entrance of the alley lay an old man who sold sugar figurines, with half a broken arrow stuck in his chest. Blood stained the scattered sugar figurines on the ground.

The old man was holding a little girl, about five or six years old, who was crying loudly in fright.

A man in black was raising a knife and slashing at the child.

Zhu Li's mind went blank.

He had completely forgotten what his father and older brother had told him to keep quiet.

The tattoo on my left arm is burning hot.

A bronze-colored giant axe appeared out of thin air in his hand, and the beast-face pattern on the axe blade seemed to come alive, emitting a deep roar.

The next moment, he disappeared into the carriage.

When they reappeared, they were already behind the man in black.

The axe was swung up and then fell.

The movements were as simple as chopping wood.

"puff..."

The men in black had no time to think or defend themselves.

The man in black, along with his knife, was cleaved in two, and a spray of blood mist erupted, splattering a crimson stain onto the nearby wall.

The little girl stopped crying abruptly and stared wide-eyed at Zhu Hui.

Zhu Li did not stop.

He turned around and looked at the twenty-odd men in black on the street.

Her eyes turned red.

It wasn't the angry kind of red; it was a genuine dark red glow, like glowing red-hot charcoal.

"You... dare to harm the common people?" he said in a low, hoarse voice.

The leader of the men in black roared, "Kill him!"

In an instant, the blade flashed and the sword energy crisscrossed, falling towards Zhu Hui.

Among them were several streaks of red light imbued with terrifying bloodlust.

Martial arts cultivators, Taoist cultivators, and even demons...

What a brilliant assassination attempt...

However, Zhu Hui showed no fear. He simply conjured up an axe and swung it upwards.

The movements are still so simple.

Then the ground of the entire street was turned upside down.

The bluestone slabs were torn away like pieces of paper, and the soil on the ground shot into the sky, turning into a three-zhang-high wave of earth that swept towards the man in black.

The earthen mounds were mixed with pebbles, broken logs, and a stone lion crouching in front of some unknown house.

The flashes of blades and sword energy struck the earthen waves, but not a single drop of water was splashed.

Although the crimson light penetrated several stone slabs, it eventually dissipated.

The man in black tried to escape, but the ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked open with countless fissures, like gaping mouths that swallowed them up and then spat them out, leaving them as a bloody mess.

Zhu Li did not stop.

He leaped up and chopped down on a three-story wooden building on the side of the street with an axe.

Five archers were hiding in that wooden building; they just shot an arrow that wounded one of the guards.

A flash of axe light.

The wooden building split in two and slowly collapsed to both sides.

The cracking sound of breaking wood continued incessantly, followed by clouds of dust.

The archers inside the building didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed into a bloody pulp by the collapsing wooden structure.

Zhu Li also destroyed the other two empty Tibetan houses with a single axe stroke.

Three blows demolished three buildings.

The streets were quiet.

Aside from the sound of the wind and the crackling of burning wood, all that could be heard was the little girl's suppressed sobs.

More than twenty men in black were all reduced to minced meat, mixed with mud and pebbles, making it impossible to distinguish one from another.

Zhu Hui stood in the center of the ruins, his giant axe pounding the ground.

He turned to look at the little girl, walked over, squatted down, and clumsily wiped the blood from her face, saying, "Don't be afraid, it's alright now."

The little girl stared at him blankly, then suddenly burst into tears and threw herself into his arms.

Zhang Han and Chen Nian arrived with their guards, only to freeze in place upon seeing the scene before them.

Half of the street collapsed.

The three buildings were reduced to ruins.

The ground looked like it had been plowed, with deep pits and cracks everywhere.

Blood stained the entire street's bluestone slabs a dark red, gleaming eerily in the setting sun.

Meanwhile, their Prince Wu was holding a little girl, patting her back helplessly and murmuring, "Don't cry, don't cry, uncle's here!"

Chen Nian swallowed hard and said, "Your...Your Highness..."

Zhu Hui looked up, the red light in his eyes had faded, and his simple, honest gaze had returned: "These people...are they dead?"

"Dead...completely dead," Zhang Han stammered.

Zhu Hui looked at the little girl in her arms, then at the old man who had already passed away in the distance.

After a pause, he said, "Did I... use too much force?"

He pointed to the three ruins and asked, "Are people living in those buildings?"

Chen Nian quickly replied, "No! They're all empty houses, vacated long ago. Your Highness, rest assured, no one was harmed!"

Zhu Li breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately frowned and said, "But this old man..."

"I will make proper arrangements for his funeral, and I will also find a good family to adopt the little girl."

Zhang Han said in a low voice, "Your Highness, this place is not safe to stay any longer. Shall we return to the residence first?"

Zhu Hui nodded and stood up, holding the little girl.

As he walked to the carriage, he suddenly turned around and looked at a still-intact restaurant at the end of the street.

A figure flashed by at the second-floor window.

Zhu Li squinted.

He didn't chase after them, but simply raised his axe and made a feinting strike in that direction.

"boom..."

A hundred feet away, the eaves of the restaurant roof silently slid off and smashed to pieces on the ground.

A suppressed scream came from behind the window.

Zhu Hui put away his axe and climbed into the carriage.

"Return to the residence."

……

An hour later, in the East Pavilion.

After listening to Jiang Huan's report, Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent for a long time before suddenly bursting into laughter.

"Good, good lad...you've got the same temper we had back in the day!"

Zhu Biao also laughed, but his smile was tinged with coldness as he said, "The Lü family and Yang Xian are desperate, but unfortunately, they've jumped into the wrong place."

"Have you found out whose family they belong to?"

"The crossbows were standard issue from the Ordnance Department, but the serial numbers were worn off. Those cultivators and martial artists were all Yang family's loyal followers. Although they hadn't appeared much, they were still discovered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. As for those demon cultivators, they were female demons hired by a junior member of the Lü family."

Zhu Biao said slowly, "Father, it's time to close the net."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Go ahead and do it. Remember, be discreet and don't leave any future troubles."

"Your subject understands."

Zhu Biao got up and walked to the window, looking in the direction of the Wu Prince's Mansion, and muttered to himself, "You dare to mess with my brother? You're not worthy."

Outside the window, the night sky over Yingtian Prefecture was starless and moonless, covered with thick clouds.