Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

"How...how could this happen! How...how dare this brat do this! I actually...I actually got roasted to death?!" Zhu Gaoxu's face turned from white to red, and finally turned black. His voice suddenly rose, as if the clouds in the sky were shaken apart. Even the Fierce Tiger King was made to turn around and look at him by his roar.

"Father! Did you see that? This is your good grandson! He always calls me 'Second Uncle'. He... he put his own Second Uncle in a copper vat and roasted him alive!" Zhu Gaoxu shouted at Zhu Di, his voice filled with anger and grievance.

"I told you he wasn't a good person! This kid has been going against me since he was a child. Now look at how he treats his own uncle! I'm his own second uncle! His own flesh and blood!" Zhu Gaoxu got more and more excited as he spoke, and his voice got louder and louder. He almost cracked when he said the last sentence.

"I'm not deaf." Zhu Di didn't even look up, just casually making a sarcastic remark, his eyes still fixed on the book in his hand. "Isn't it because you went too far? Besides, you can't even defeat your own nephew, so who else can you blame? Don't you always boast about being the most powerful general in the Ming Dynasty? How come you're being roasted in a bronze vat at this crucial moment?"

Zhu Di may have been sharp-tongued, but he was perfectly aware of the situation.

He had long known that the second son couldn't compete with the eldest: all the provincial, prefectural, and county officials came from the Crown Prince's household, either released from his own office or promoted by the Crown Prince himself. Despite the Prince of Han and the Prince of Zhao's swaggering power, the most powerful person in the Ming Dynasty was still the Crown Prince.

Moreover, he had a premonition that the future position should belong to Zhu Zhanji.

When Zhu Zhanji was born, Zhu Di, then the Prince of Yan, had a dream: he dreamed that his father, Emperor Taizu of Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang, personally handed him a large jade tablet and said, "Pass it down to your descendants, and may it prosper for generations to come."

He knelt respectfully to receive it, then woke up with a start and told Princess Xu about the dream.

Princess Xu had just said that this was an auspicious omen of prosperity and good fortune for her descendants when a servant outside the door announced: "The wife of the Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, Madam Zhang, has given birth to a baby boy."

This son was none other than Zhu Zhanji.

From that time on, Zhu Di's attitude towards Zhu Zhanji was quite unusual.

Zhu Zhanji was indeed intelligent and was the most beloved grandson in the Zhu family, a relationship that could be considered a special bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

I never expected that this grandson could be so ruthless, roasting his own second uncle alive.

It seems that the relationship between the uncle and nephew in the Zhu family is also a matter of inheritance.

At this point, Zhu Di raised his head, glanced sideways at Zhu Gaochi, and questioned, "Let me ask you one more question, from a different perspective. If you had won back then, how would you have treated your elder brother's family?"

"Father, I admit I have ambitions for the throne, and I accept that I can't beat my nephew." Zhu Gaoxu said, his voice still loud, but his confidence had waned.

"Even if I had succeeded, I never intended to kill him! At most, I would have just imprisoned the eldest brother's family and fed them well. But he went and roasted me! Is that something a human being would do? He would have rather just given me a quick death! Roasted? Did he think he was roasting a whole lamb?"

"Heh, that's what you think now. But when that day comes, things might be different." Zhu Di sneered, turned his gaze away, and continued flipping through the book.

He knew the affairs of emperors best. His father, Zhu Yuanzhang, had issued death-exemption tokens before, but were they effective? On the contrary, those who had death-exemption tokens were the most severely killed.

Zhu Yuanzhang: I tricked them with sugar, but what I actually issued was a death warrant.

Zhu Gaoxu was speechless, turning to the protagonist and Pigsy beside him, as if seeking a judge: "Fourth brother, Pigsy, tell me! Did this bastard do anything human? He roasted his own uncle like a chicken! Who could tolerate this?"

"Second brother, I'm here now, this kind of thing won't happen again." Zhu Gaoxi lay on the cloud chair. After all, he still had to coax his second brother, since his second brother had brought him a lot of joy.

When Zhu Gaochi looked over, Pigsy quickly waved his hand and said, "Brother, this is your family matter. I, Pigsy, am an outsider and it's not appropriate for me to interfere."

After he finished speaking, he moved to the side, as if to say, "You guys continue, I'll just listen," which made Zhu Gaoxu so angry that he almost rolled his eyes.

Zhu Gaoxi, who was standing to the side, thought for a moment and then added, "But to be fair, turning you into roast chicken is definitely not right."

Making it into roast chicken is definitely wrong, because it's roast pig.

"Fourth brother, you still love your second brother the most." Zhu Gaoxu muttered one last time, then lowered his head and continued flipping through the book.

Pigsy, riding his lion, followed beside them. Seeing the two engrossed in their books, he leaned closer to Zhu Gaoxi and whispered, "Brother, what books did you show His Majesty and the others? They seem completely absorbed."

Zhu Gaoxi smiled and said, "It's nothing, just a book that records the fate of the Ming Dynasty. Let them be mentally prepared."

Pigsy seemed to understand, but not quite. He looked at Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi again and sighed, "No wonder. Knowing their fate is less comforting than not knowing it. Look at their faces, each one uglier than the last."

"The main problem is that the result is not satisfactory. It's like fortune telling. If the result is good, you'll definitely be happy," Zhu Gaoxi said in a low voice.

Zhu Gaoxu wiped his face, his emotions coming and going quickly. He lowered his head and continued flipping through the book, but this time he flipped through it more slowly, clearly the scene had really upset him.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi continued turning the pages.

Zhu Gaoxu flipped through the pages quickly, eager to see his own affairs; Zhu Di was still looking through the matters concerning Zhu Zhanji after his ascension to the throne.

"This son of a bitch, he's just giving up the empire I fought so hard to build." Zhu Di thought as he saw Zhu Zhanji abandon Jiaozhi, which was Annam, the country they were currently fighting.

His face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

Without the fourth prince, he would have spent countless lives and resources to bring this territory into the country. But Zhu Zhanji, upon taking power, immediately withdrew his troops and abandoned it.

Then wouldn't their war have been fought for nothing?

He continued reading.

Zhu Zhanji moved the capital to Kaipingwei, voluntarily abandoning the buffer zone in southern Mongolia and handing over the strategic initiative to the Mongols; he terminated large-scale ocean-going operations and ceased voyages to the Western Ocean; he completely abandoned the initiative to launch a northern expedition, focusing instead on appeasement and defense against the Mongols.

Zhu Di frowned more and more as he looked at the scene, feeling as if something was stuck in his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

He continued flipping through the pages, and as he flipped through them, his expression calmed down.

"But overall, he did a pretty good job." He looked down and saw that Zhu Zhanji had rectified officialdom, reduced taxes and levies, allowed the people to recuperate, knew how to appoint people to positions, managed civil and military officials, defended Beijing, valued agriculture and sericulture, and accumulated national wealth, allowing the Ming Dynasty to recover its strength. Seeing these things, his mood gradually improved.

Zhu Di was a mature and capable ruler who could distinguish between short-term advantages and disadvantages.

He understood that his years of conquest had emptied the national treasury and exhausted the people. There was nothing wrong with allowing the people to recuperate and rebuild. He could also understand Zhu Zhanji's consideration of cutting his losses.

But his life's grand ambition was to expand the territory, spread the might and virtue of the Ming Dynasty to all corners of the world, and establish a lasting order for the world.

Seeing Zhu Zhanji choose to implement a comprehensive strategic contraction, ending the layout he had spent his life building, I feel a little regretful and disappointed.

However, upon further reflection, it's understandable that if the eldest son, Zhu Gaochi, wants him to stop the war now, it would be normal for Zhu Zhanji to do something like maintaining the status quo if he were to succeed to the throne in the future.

Regardless, he didn't make any major mistakes and even achieved some merits.