Parallel Ming Dynasty: The more he compared, the more devastated Zhu Yuanzhang became.

Chapter 23 Zhu Yuanzhang's Guilt Towards Liu Bowen

Welcome to the fantasy world of historical fiction. The entrance is here:

Zhu Duo's earnest and sincere words brought tears to the eyes of countless people across the land.

"As long as the people can live a peaceful and comfortable life, that's enough."

What a magnanimous heart! What a noble virtue! This is simply a living saint descended to earth!

{New World: I have no regrets about being born in the Ming Dynasty; I am fortunate to have met Zhu Duo!}

{New World: Prince Zhu Duo is a true living saint in this world!}

{New World: It turns out we all misunderstood the imperial court. It wasn't that the court wanted to take away Prince Zhu Duo's credit, but rather that Prince Zhu Duo voluntarily relinquished all his achievements.}

His reason for doing this was to ensure the greater stability and security of the Ming Dynasty.

{New World: Only Prince Zhu Duo truly deserves the title of "Sage" of the Ming Dynasty.}

In fact, from the barrage of comments, it's clear that many people secretly wished to honor Zhu Duo as emperor, but considering Zhu Yuanzhang's benevolent treatment of the people, they refrained from saying it aloud.

{Original World: The more I see these things, the more I envy your world for having such an extraordinary person.}

{Original World: Although His Majesty has always treated us kindly, that kindness is more like a father's love for his children. Zhu Duo is different; Zhu Duo's kindness towards you is more like a strict yet loving affection hoping for the success of his descendants.}

{New World: Prince Zhu Duo, a True Saint Descended to Earth.}

……

In the New World

Looking at the scrolling comments on the screen, it felt as if one could truly feel the heartfelt respect and support that people all over the world had for Zhu Duo.

But Zhu Duo felt a sense of helplessness.

The reason he took this action was twofold: firstly, he feared that Zhu Yuanzhang would become wary of the Heping Trading Company and thus take action against it; secondly, he also had his own calculations and considerations.

Minister of Works, Ying Tiancheng, was his trusted confidant planted in the court from the very beginning.

With such an outstanding achievement, he steadily promoted his loyal followers to the most crucial positions of power in the court.

Minister of Works Ying Tiancheng and Minister of Revenue Ding Yan were both trusted confidants he had personally placed in the court over the years.

Moreover, Zhu Duo had already placed his trusted confidants in all the important official positions with real power in the entire Ming Dynasty!

After hearing Zhu Duo's words, Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply moved.

The next emperor of the Ming Dynasty is none other than Zhu Duo!

Zhu Duo not only possessed extraordinary wisdom, outstanding abilities, unique insights, and a long-term vision, but he also took into account the advantages and disadvantages of all aspects in everything he did.

The fact that Zhu Duo built roads to every village alone demonstrates his ability to perfectly grasp the delicate balance between various forces both inside and outside the court.

Zhu Duo had even anticipated that if the Peace Merchants' contributions were too outstanding, he would take action to eliminate them, which is why he deliberately showed weakness and declined credit.

He even figured out his own thoughts, the emperor's!

With such shrewdness and ability, he can definitely steer the mighty ship of the Ming Dynasty with ease!

"Three Tigers!"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly spoke up and gave the order.

"Your Majesty, I am here."

Sanhu had just finished supervising the punishment of Prince Zhu Shuang of Qin, and fearing that his subordinates might misjudge the emperor's intentions and actually carry out a fatal blow, he had only just returned.

"Go and fetch our wooden stick."

"Yes."

Sanhu bowed, accepted the order, and turned to leave. He knew perfectly well the meaning behind Zhu Yuanzhang's words.

"Duo'er, you've really worked hard these past years, and you've handled things impeccably. You're richer than us, and we both know that perfectly well. As for official titles and ranks, they won't mean much to you in the future."

Therefore, we won't reward you with those gold and silver treasures today.

Upon hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Zhu Yunwen, who was standing to the side, turned deathly pale and his appearance changed drastically.

Even bestowing official titles has become meaningless. Under what circumstances would an official title become so meaningless?

emperor!

Once Zhu Yuanzhang passed the throne of the Ming Dynasty to Zhu Duo, it would be meaningless to bestow any higher official position upon him.

What made Zhu Yunwen's face even uglier was that he had a vague idea of what Zhu Yuanzhang was planning to reward Zhu Duo with.

When Sanhu returned quickly, he was holding a seemingly ordinary wooden stick.

However, this wooden stick looks somewhat dry and rotten, and anyone with a discerning eye can tell at a glance that it has gone through a very long period of time.

really--

The moment Zhu Yunwen saw the wooden stick, his face turned ashen and his body went cold.

Zhu Yunwen knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had a room specifically for storing old things, mostly his armor and weapons from his military campaigns, as well as other old items he had accumulated along the way.

He had only been inside that room once in his life, and in that room, there was a small, inconspicuous wooden stick that was placed in the most conspicuous position.

Zhu Yunwen was once puzzled and couldn't understand why an ordinary wooden stick would be placed in such a conspicuous position.

He also asked his father, Zhu Biao, who was still alive at the time, about this question that had been on his mind.

Instead of answering his question directly, Zhu Biao countered with, "Do you know what your imperial grandfather's background was?"

Later, as he grew older, Zhu Yunwen finally understood the deeper meaning behind that wooden stick.

Zhu Yuanzhang reached out and picked up the wooden stick, as if he had instantly fallen into his past memories, and even his gaze softened.

"As people get older, they tend to reminisce about their younger days."

"When we were little, we were just ordinary cowherds. For a teenager at that time, a sturdy wooden stick was like a weapon that could make a child the emperor of the world."

It can inspire a young boy with boundless ambition and lofty aspirations.

"And this stick is the same wooden stick I used to herd cattle back then. When I left, I wedged it into the branch of an old locust tree."

I had completely forgotten about it.

"But later, when I was leading troops into battle, I passed by that place again and suddenly had a whim to see if it was still there. To my surprise, the stick was still in its original place. So I took it down and put it away carefully."

After the war ended, we established the Ming Dynasty, and we sat on the dragon throne for thirty years, right up to this day.

"Now--"

"Now we're handing it over to you!" What appeared to be just an ordinary wooden stick was a profound sign of approval to everyone present. Zhu Yuanzhang had completely accepted Zhu Duo as his heir to the throne.

This seemingly insignificant wooden stick weighs thousands or even tens of thousands of times more than any gold, silver, jewels, or high-ranking official reward.

Even Zhu Yunwen, whom Zhu Yuanzhang had carefully nurtured as the crown prince for so many years, had never touched this wooden stick, which shows how deep Zhu Yuanzhang's approval of Zhu Duo was.

Zhu Yunwen was on the verge of despair, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes filled with a sinister and ruthless look.

Everything he originally possessed has been completely taken away by Zhu Duo!

This wooden stick, which carries the meaning of inheritance, should have belonged to him!

Zhu Duo had noticed Zhu Yunwen's unusual behavior long ago, but he didn't take it to heart at all. He simply reached out and steadily accepted the wooden stick that Zhu Yuanzhang handed him.

Zhu Duo spoke calmly, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes dimmed instantly. "You still haven't called me Imperial Grandfather... It seems you still hold a grudge against the Zhu family for neglecting you all these years."

Zhu Duo remained noncommittal upon hearing this.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not dwell on the matter further, but continued, "Indeed, our Zhu family has wronged you for so many years, yet you have been silently contributing to the Ming Dynasty all these years."

"We have wronged you. You haven't even started a rebellion yet; you've already done more than enough for the Zhu family."

"We don't blame you."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't force anything. He knew that it would take enough time to resolve Zhu Duo's inner conflict.

But Zhu Duo was ultimately a descendant of the Zhu family, and that was enough.

The content on the screen is still ongoing.

Just as the "Village-to-Village Road Project" was gaining momentum across the country, Zhu Duo had someone buy a full 30,000 jin of watermelons. He neither sold nor ate them, but simply left them in the warehouse to slowly spoil.

{Original World: What is this? Isn't this blatantly wasting food?}

{Original World: It'll get moldy if we leave it any longer, or is he deliberately letting the watermelon spoil?}

New World: Honestly, we don't understand what they're trying to do either. Shouldn't these watermelons be made into chilled watermelon juice? That's a good thing that can sell for a lot of money.

It's such a waste to just let it go like this.

{New World: What a wonderful watermelon! On this hot day, a bite of chilled, juicy watermelon would be so refreshing!}

{New World: But His Highness Zhu Duo would never do something meaningless; he must have his own deeper meaning and plans for doing this.}

Amidst the doubts and discussions among the viewers in the live chat.

Almost all of those watermelons had gone moldy and covered in mildew.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Duo sent nearly a hundred of his men, each carrying a clean glass container, to walk back and forth among the spread-out rotten watermelons.

Extracting...mold?

Having just extracted the required mold from ten watermelons, Zhu Duo hurriedly left with the mold samples.

This seemingly extravagant and wasteful behavior left everyone watching on screen completely bewildered and confused.

The scene suddenly shifts, and Zhu Duo has entered another closed room.

Inside the room were two cups of prepared corn culture solution, kept in a low-temperature, dark environment. No one knew what it was for.

Zhu Duo cultured the extracted mold together with corn culture medium.

After doing all this, Zhu Duo took the things he had cultivated and rode south without stopping.

Ten days later, the group finally arrived at their destination, Qingtian, the hometown of Liu Bowen.

At this time, Liu Ji's physical condition was extremely poor. He had a persistent high fever and severe inflammation. To make matters worse, Zhu Yuanzhang's previous attitude had already chilled his heart, and he refused to take any medicine.

In the live broadcast room of the new world, Zhu Yuanzhang glanced apologetically at Liu Bowen beside him.

When Liu Bowen was teaching Zhu Duo, he once caught a severe cold, a fact that Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of.

Upon learning of this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately issued an imperial edict, granting Liu Bowen's request to retire and return to his hometown, which he had submitted many years ago.

Even before he began teaching Zhu Duo, Liu Bowen feared that Zhu Yuanzhang would discard him once he had served his purpose, and repeatedly petitioned to resign and retire, but Zhu Yuanzhang always refused.

However, after Liu Bowen had been teaching Zhu Duo for several years, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly agreed to let him resign. How could Liu Bowen not guess what Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking?

It was precisely for this reason that Liu Bowen, despite his illness, suddenly resigned from his post and returned to his hometown when Zhu Duo left the capital to inspect the village road construction project.

It was only after Zhu Duo returned to the capital and learned about all of this that the scene just shown occurred.

"Bowen, I, Zhu, have let you down..."

Perhaps it was because he was getting old and his heart had softened, but Zhu Yuanzhang, who had never bowed his head to his subjects or admitted his mistakes in his entire life, suddenly had tears welling up in his eyes.

When Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bowen were fighting for the country, they were the most intimate and compatible confidants and friends.

One conquered the land with military might, the other brought peace and stability to the world with civility—truly a match made in heaven.

But after Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the dragon throne and became the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he suddenly changed his attitude and became cold towards this one of the greatest contributors to the founding of the dynasty.

Ultimately, it was simply because the two men's philosophies on governing the world were completely diametrically opposed and incompatible.

"Ever since I ascended the throne, I have been afraid day and night that I would follow in the footsteps of the emperors of previous dynasties and be deceived by those scholars. And since you are the most learned person in the world, I am even more wary of you."

"But you are still our best brother in this life, and we really can't bear to kill you."

"Therefore, I dare not let you out of my sight, for fear that you will do the things I fear most when I cannot see you. But I also dare not give you important responsibilities, for fear that once you hold great power, your influence will become even greater."

That's why I've been ignoring you all this time.

Looking back now, we really made a mistake...

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were filled with unbearable guilt and regret.

Chapter 23, "Zhu Yuanzhang's Guilt Towards Liu Bowen," is now available! Read it now!

The remaining people continued the extraction work, collecting all the mold from the watermelons one by one.

The mold extracted from 30,000 jin of watermelon weighs only about one jin at most.