First Prince of Ming Dynasty

Liu Jin led the two lords to the side hall of the Wenhua Palace and sat down. After Zhu Yan sat down, he took the tea handed over by Liu Jin himself and said with a smile: "On the way back to Beijing, I passed the state capital, and I got a few interesting gadgets. Have someone bring it to you."

Liu Jin hurriedly said: "My servant thanked His Royal Highness the King of Chu first. You can still remember my servant when you are out of Beijing. I don't know what to say now."

Although I know that the king of Chu can give him a gift for an eunuch, it must be for the face of His Royal Highness behind him, and I hope that if something happens in the future, he can help a group, but it is rare for someone to have this kind of heart, after all, it is Tianhuang Nobility.

Zhu Xi pretended to be dissatisfied and said: "Remember Liu Jin but forgot the second brother?"

Without waiting for Zhu Po to speak, Liu Jin helped to reply: "Melons are bitter before they are sweet, people are old and handsome, and good things come later. Why should His Royal Highness be so anxious?"

"Hahaha, younger brother will naturally not forget second brother's share, but let's say it first, it's not a rare item, it's just something in the ordinary market."

Only then did Zhu Xi say with satisfaction: "It's fine if you have something interesting, if you talk about rare things in this world, you really don't need to go out of the palace to find them."

After talking for a while, Liu Jin went out to arrange food and drinks to leave room for the two brothers. The two princes are not criminals, and they are considered honored guests in the East Palace, so they should not be neglected.

After Liu Jin withdrew, the two brothers suddenly fell silent. The youngest was already a very clear team when he went to Beijing on business this time.

Disaster relief is hard to come by so easily, and Zhu Bian managed it so beautifully not only because of his status as the King of Chu, but more because of the full support of the local East Palace.

It is true that the prince's position is very noble, but he has no real power, and he will not be able to control them in the future. To some extent, if he does not listen to the prince, he is showing his loyalty to the prince.

Only the prince, who belonged to the same party as them, and had a real distinction between subordinates and subordinates, would the local officials respect him. Otherwise, how different would the prince be from the imperial envoy?

"I heard that you promoted a few small officials to be officials. It's not like you can do it."

Zhu Bing took a sip of the fine and fragrant tea before saying: "I didn't dare to do it before, but now it's nothing. I heard that there are not many censors in the court to impeach me."

Zhu Xi smiled coldly: "Not many, Chen Tongzheng and others will help you to excuse, not to mention the big brother standing on top of Dan Bi, few dare to stand up and impeach you."

After saying this, the hall was silent for a while, Zhu Dian drank the tea in his cup and even chewed the tea leaves in his mouth: "Second Brother, it turns out that it is true that the book says Yi Zi Shi Shi."

"I set off from Beijing, thinking along the way that it was nothing more than corrupt officials who hid the relief funds and used heavy codes when they arrived in the local area. I am not one of those imperial envoys who have their hands tied. Rats?"

"When I first arrived at the place, as I expected, I got the secret report from the pro-military captain's mansion and the officials who wanted to join the government. Soon I found enough food, and then I started to distribute porridge to the victims, and the people's hearts gradually strengthened. .”

"I thought it would be enough to continue like this for two or three months, but there are more and more victims, and the food that was originally enough was consumed in a short period of time... It is the people in the city. Seeing that the victims are eating so well, they pretend to be The disaster victims go to eat every day..."

"Some people eat more while others eat less. In order to save food, even if I order people to add sand to the porridge, it will not help. After one and a half months, the food is completely in a hurry... I rely on my status as the king of Chu to forcefully confiscate food from the merchants of the gentry. Only then can we barely maintain the food for the next batch of court."

"During this period, I saw with my own eyes the legendary Yizi who was eating porridge. I could barely survive by eating porridge, but the hunger in the stomachs of the victims could not be stopped. There were five households, seven children, and three of them had already died of illness. Those who died of hunger and disease turned into white bones exuding the smell of meat overnight..."

Zhu Xi seemed to be telling anecdotes from the countryside, and there was no sense of intolerance on his face. Zhu Xi frowned after listening: "Then how did you deal with these five households?"

"After the official reported to me, I took a look in person. The women who just finished eating their children last night have been tied up by their men. How can they be willing to continue eating porridge after eating meat?"

"So, I ordered someone to kill them all in private."

Zhu Xi frowned: "Well done, animals, especially animals that have eaten human flesh, must be exterminated."

"Hehe, second brother, I killed them not only because of this, but also because I, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, ruled the world, and the sky is in the sky. How could there be such a scandal so quickly?"

"Not only these households, but even the neighbors who reported them have been dealt with by me, and I have saved a few mouthfuls of food."

Zhu Xing stood up and looked at his younger brother in astonishment, Zhu Xing spit out the chewed tea leaves and shook his head: "Second brother, you can't do it, listen to younger brother, go and give elder brother a soft look, wait for the father to come back , you go and admit your mistake again, and be the king of wealth and leisure with peace of mind."

Zhu Xi seemed to be offended, he slapped the table and said sharply: "Third brother, don't think it's a big deal if you do something dirty, do you want to scare me with a dozen lives?"

Of course not, Zhu Xi stood up and put his hands on the shoulders of the king of Chu Zhu Xi: "I don't know what kind of temperament my own second brother is, let alone a dozen or hundreds of lives in front of you are nothing. But second brother, you are just plain bad, and I am already different."

"Oh, third child, there is no big brother. Based on your words, I want you to look good in the future."

"If you don't have a big brother, you will be a big brother. Of course, I am your good brother, but you are not as good as a big brother, and my little brother will not be willing to be a little brother forever."

……………

Zhu Biao opened his eyes in a daze and looked at Li Yan who was guarding the side of the bed, and then he was about to go back to sleep. The sleep was so comfortable that he didn't want to wake up at all.

But almost instantly Zhu Biao remembered that the third child should be back, although it could be postponed until tomorrow, but since he thought about it, it was not easy to fall asleep again.

Standing up under the service of Li Yan, the imperial physician who had been staying in the East Palace went in to ask for the pulse, and then delivered the decocted medicine. The imperial physician who learned that the king of Chu had returned also told him not to drink alcohol.

He changed into a set of light long clothes, his hair was casually loosened behind his back, and he didn't go out of the East Palace to meet his courtiers, but just to meet his younger brother, so there was no need to be too serious.

It was dusk and the sun was sinking, and the breeze was blowing the ink hair. After stepping out of the palace gate, Zhu Biao slightly raised his head to look at the sunset, and looked at the familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar palace pavilions.

Liu Jin came up and put a light cloak on him: "Although there is no wind, the Lord is sick after all, you should be more careful, or you should go and invite the two highnesses to have a meal here."

"Also."

The Wenhua Palace was not far away, but Zhu Biao really didn't bother to take a trip at this time. Liu An who was on the side immediately walked towards the Wenhua Palace quickly after hearing it.

"Just now, the maid on duty outside the Wenhua Palace seems to have heard some quarrel between the two Highnesses..."

Not long after, Zhu Biao, who was standing at the gate of the hall, saw the two younger brothers coming hand in hand, they looked very affectionate, it seemed that they hadn't seen each other for so long, and they had a very happy conversation.

Zhu Xi stopped, and King Zhu Zhu of Chu quickly stepped forward and bowed down: "My brother Zhu Xi pays homage to His Royal Highness, Your Highness will be blessed forever."

Zhu Biao walked down the steps with a smile, bent over and pulled him up to have a closer look before saying: "It seems that this trip has suffered a lot, but it's okay, how can I help my elder brother solve problems without going through the past, and how will my elder brother use big things in the future?" Trust me."

"Compared to elder brother, my brother's hard work is no more than Yinghuo than Haoyue. As for the others, my younger brother dare not humiliate his responsibilities, and will not let elder brother down."

Zhu Biao patted him on the shoulder slightly, and then looked at Zhu Xi who was standing aside with a smile on his face: "Don't stand here, our brother said inside."

When the three of them entered the palace, Chang Luohua led Li Yan to greet them. The king of Jin and the king of Chu saluted his wife first.

Although they are from their own family, it is not easy to be together all the time. It is the right way to have more contact with their sisters-in-law after they get married.

"Sister-in-law, go slowly."

Zhu Xi and Zhu Su stood upright to see off, they couldn't look directly at the back of their sister-in-law, they turned around and took their seats after the footsteps got far away, as for Zhu Biao, he naturally sat down a long time ago.

The food and drink were ready, Zhu Biao held the teacup and said, "My body can't drink alcohol these days, second child, you can drink a few more glasses with third child for me."

"Don't worry, big brother, I'll leave it to my younger brother."

At the end of the talk, the topic returned to Zhu Xi’s experience in the disaster relief trip. Zhu Xi talked about it carefully from beginning to end, not avoiding merits and demerits. Zhu Biao commented a few words from time to time, but did not blame Zhu Xi for anything.

It is not easy to work as an errand, let alone disaster relief and peace of the people. The attitudes of all dynasties towards disaster relief imperial missions are that no major fault is equal to merit, otherwise, who would be willing to do such thankless tasks.

As for the matter that Zhu Xi said with Zhu Xi in the Wenhua Palace earlier, it was not mentioned here, and Zhu Xi did not deliberately mention it, so he naturally skipped it.

After more than half an hour, the two brothers stood up and said goodbye. The crown prince is sick, so it is not good for him to accompany him, otherwise something will happen. The status of the two of them is so embarrassing. body.

Zhu Biao felt pretty good about himself, but he also understood the concerns of the two of them, so he didn't force him to stay. When he walked to the palace, he saw that Chang Luohua was not there: "Where did the princess go?"

The maid who served the pastry replied: "Reporting to Your Highness, the eunuch in charge of Concubine Guo Ning just came to invite the concubine Guo Ning, saying that she wanted to invite the princess to uphold justice."

Zhu Biao nodded slightly, picked up a pastry and lay back on the bed. Lao Zhu was away for a while, and the harem was peaceful for a long time. When he was about to return, the concubines started to make noise again.

Liu Jin knelt by the couch and took off his highness's boots. Zhu Biao straightened his legs cooperatively, but suddenly ordered, "Bring me the secret performance from the military captain's mansion in Shandong."

The pro-military Duwei's Mansion monitors the world, and there are reports almost every day. Zhu Biao does not check every moment. Although Shandong is a disaster area, it is really not an important place. After all, there is no year in this world. There is no disaster anywhere.

The dispatched imperial envoys have allocated food and funds, and the rest of the work is done by local officials. It is impossible for the imperial court to stare at one place, unless there is a major event such as a civil uprising.

…………………