The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

Kunning Palace.

His Majesty is accompanying Empress Xia.

Especially as Empress Xia's belly gradually grew bigger, Zhu Houzhao would come to accompany Empress Xia as soon as he had time.

Empress Xia lay in Zhu Houzhao's arms with a happy face. This was the happiest moment of her life.

As long as she waited for the birth of the child with peace of mind, all the rumors would be broken.

Even if she gave birth to a princess, it could prove that there was nothing wrong with her body. This time it was a princess, and the next time it would be a prince.

And since the imperial physician confirmed that she was pregnant, the entire Kunning Palace was under full martial law, and the four guards were responsible for the duty. Even Empress Xia's daily drinking water and meals had to be eaten by the palace maids before entering her mouth. There were also old maids in the palace sent by Empress Dowager Zhang to check whether there was anything wrong with the food and water at all times.

This was not making a fuss, but giving importance.

In the deep palaces of all dynasties, pregnancy and childbirth were undoubtedly the biggest problems for concubines.

Not only must we ensure the safety of our offspring, but we must also be on guard against all kinds of conspiracies and intrigues in the deep palace!

After all, legitimate sons and illegitimate sons, eldest sons and second sons, these are all different!

A mother's status is determined by her sons, which is an irrefutable truth!

What's more, Queen Xia is pregnant with the first offspring of Emperor Zhengde!

Even if she is an imperial princess, she is the eldest princess of Emperor Zhengde, and her status is indescribably noble!

At this moment, the entire Forbidden City is serving Kunning Palace, waiting for the arrival of this noble life.

And His Majesty once strictly blocked the news of the pregnancy of the Central Palace, just for fear of any accidents.

Reduce some variables, avoid some troubles, and give birth peacefully, this is what Zhu Houzhao and Queen Xia are looking forward to at the moment.

"Your Majesty, do you think the baby in my belly is a boy or a girl?"

Zhu Houzhao subconsciously reached out and gently stroked Queen Xia's belly, and smiled: "All good, all good!"

Hearing this, Queen Xia looked at Zhu Houzhao in disbelief.

"Your Majesty, if it's a boy, then he's your eldest son, isn't that better?"

Unexpectedly, Zhu Houzhao smiled and shook his head.

"Perhaps before, I definitely hoped that you would give birth to an eldest son."

"But when Zhang Jingshu was pregnant, the wild man showed that he wanted a daughter very much. I curiously asked him why he didn't value his offspring?"

"Do you know how this guy answered?"

Queen Xia shook her head curiously.

"I don't know."

"Hahaha..."

Zhu Houzhao laughed: "This bastard said that a daughter is a father's sweet little cotton-padded jacket, and a son is a father's creditor!"

"This daughter is good in every way. She knows how to be considerate and take care of people. Who doesn't like a father?"

"But this son, he is a little creditor, naughty and mischievous, and even when he grows up, he will get into trouble, and he will get into even bigger trouble. At that time, the father will have to clean up his ass. Isn't it a living creditor coming to the door?"

Queen Xia couldn't help but "puff" and laughed, and didn't agree with this statement.

I think only the Marquis of Zhongshan dared to talk nonsense in front of His Majesty.

After all, in this era of respect for etiquette and law, the system of primogeniture has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the impact it brings is that boys are favored over girls.

Even if there are parents who like children, they are a minority. Even in the hands of those foolish men and women in the countryside, girls will be drowned tragically, because only boys can become the labor force to help the family farm. They can't afford to raise girls, and they don't want to raise them at all.

"Your Majesty, I still want a son, after all, this is your eldest son!"

"If Your Majesty has an eldest son, then the court and the people will be at ease, and they will not have other thoughts."

Zhu Houzhao nodded when he heard this, and subconsciously squeezed Queen Xia's hand.

"The queen is thoughtful."

This is indeed the truth.

Zhu Houzhao knows better than anyone what the result will be if the emperor has no son.

Because Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, once gave him a clear and straightforward analysis of why the coup d'état broke out in the late Jingtai period!

The crux of the problem is that Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu has no son, and Shi Heng and other confidants are worried that after Zhu Qiyu dies of illness, Zhu Jianshen, the son of Zhu Qizhen, will ascend the throne and become emperor, and will immediately settle accounts with them. After all, the reason why Zhu Jianshen was deposed as the crown prince was because of the instigation of these confidants of Emperor Jingtai. No one dares to take such hatred lightly.

If Zhu Jianji, the son of Zhu Qiyu, had not died young, if he could grow up safely, even if Zhu Qiyu was seriously ill, these court officials would not dare to have any other thoughts. How could the Ming emperor who ruled the world for eight years not be prepared at all?

Unfortunately, Zhu Jianji died young, and Zhu Qiyu failed to give birth to a son afterwards.

So when his condition worsened, Shi Heng and other confidants of Jingtai had to think about themselves and had to have other thoughts.

Should they continue to be loyal to the dying Emperor Jingtai and wait for Zhu Jianshen to take the throne and settle accounts with them, or should they choose to take a chance and enter the Nan Palace to help the retired Emperor Zhu Qizhen to ascend the throne and become the minister who follows the dragon and continue to enjoy wealth and glory?

This choice is not difficult to make.

As for whether Zhu Jianshen can still ascend the throne after Zhu Qizhen's successful restoration, who can guarantee it?

After all, Zhu Qizhen was famous for not liking Zhu Jianshen. The reason why he appointed him as the crown prince after the restoration was to stabilize the overall situation. Later, he tried many times to depose Zhu Jianshen and support his second son, Prince De Zhu Jianlin, to take the throne. In the end, he failed because of the firm opposition of civil officials and gentry.

This is the truth of the "Dou Men Incident".

It is also the unknown secrets of the old Zhu family.

So, for Zhu Houzhao, having a legitimate eldest son will not only make him happy, but also make the whole Ming Dynasty happy, and will also make his position as the Zhengde Emperor stable and further enhance the prestige of the emperor!

"Whether it is a boy or a girl, they are all our children, and I will treat them equally!"

Queen Xia's eyes were a little red, and then she hugged Zhu Houzhao tightly.

However, just when the man and the concubine were in love, Zhang Yong rushed in with a rolling and crawling.

"Your Majesty!"

"Zhongshan Hou was assassinated!"

"Now he is poisoned and his life and death are unknown!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole palace was quiet in an instant.

All the palace maids and guards fell to the ground in fear after their faces changed.

All the eunuchs in the Forbidden City knew how important Zhongshan Hou was to His Majesty.

At this moment, Zhongshan Hou was assassinated and his life or death was unknown, then His Majesty...

Zhu Houzhao sat up straight, his face gloomy to the extreme.

"How could he be assassinated?"

"Who would assassinate Tang Hou at this time?"

"Damn bastard! Who did this?"

Facing the furious emperor, Zhang Yong knelt on the ground in fear.

"Tang Hou and the Korean envoy Cui Tan visited the capital. At sunset, they sent the drunk Cui Tan back to Huitong Hall. When passing Wudao Street, they were assassinated. Dozens of black-clad assassins suddenly attacked, and all their weapons were poisoned, and they used bows and crossbows..."

"Investigate!"

Zhu Houzhao suppressed his inner rage and gritted his teeth and ordered.

"Send an order to the Beijing camp, let Xu Tianci and Leng Hantie lead the Beijing army, block the entire capital area, and catch these beasts for me!"

"Send an order to the Jinyiwei East and West Factories, immediately send out all the manpower, track down all clues, no matter who is involved, I must kill them!"

"Send an order to the Imperial Hospital, go to treat Zhongshan Hou immediately, if anything happens to Tang Hou, I want the entire Imperial Hospital to be buried with him!"

Orders were issued one after another!

Each one was full of the endless anger of the Ming emperor!

When Zhang Yong turned around and left, Zhu Houzhao still couldn't suppress his anger.

Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao!

Savage Tang Hao!

This is not only his minister, but also his close and trusted friend and comrade-in-arms, and the right-hand man he relies on the most!

Before the Savage, Zhu Houzhao was just a capricious and reckless little emperor. Once he encountered the constraints of civil officials and gentry, his first thought was to kill people, and wanted to kill all these disobedient civil officials and gentry.

At that time, the little emperor could not even be considered the Son of Heaven, but just a puppet.

It was the barbarians who had been helping him to gather power, training soldiers for him, and expanding overseas for him...

Along the way, the barbarians were no longer ministers to Zhu Houzhao. They were more like "both teachers and friends", or even "like teachers and fathers".

"Your Majesty, calm down! Your Majesty, calm down!"

"Marquis Tang is a lucky man, and nothing will happen to him!"

Queen Xia looked at the emperor with red eyes, and was panicked for a while, and hurriedly spoke to comfort him.

However, Zhu Houzhao just glanced at her coldly, and then got up and left.

"Queen, rest early and don't get involved in other affairs."

Zhu Houzhao strode out of Kunning Palace and headed straight for the palace gate.

"I want to leave the palace and go see Marquis Tang!"

Since the emperor had spoken, the imperial guards naturally did not dare to stop him.

When Zhu Houzhao hurried to the Zhongshan Marquis's Mansion, he saw that everyone in the mansion was in a gloomy mood.

The ward where Tang Hao was located was already surrounded by doctors, but basins of pungent black blood were brought out from the room. Everyone knew that the situation was very serious!

When the emperor came, everyone knelt on the ground, including the doctors.

Zhu Houzhao saw this and cursed: "Hurry up and treat Marquis Tang!"

The doctors got up in a hurry and continued the rescue work.

Zhu Houzhao asked someone to bring a chair and sat in the yard with a big horse and a golden sword.

Tang Mu and Chang Kuohai were brought up, and both of them looked dazed, as if struck by lightning.

Because they saw with their own eyes that the Marquis was shot by the poisonous arrow in order to protect them!

"Tell me, what happened?" Zhu Houzhao asked patiently.

Tang Mu trembled and hurriedly recounted the assassination.

Obviously, the four of them had been targeted for a long time, so the assassins would ambush on the road they had to pass.

"Bows and crossbows, huh? That's a good trick!" Zhu Houzhao sneered, "Go check!"

"These bows and crossbows are military weapons, each of them has a source, no matter who is implicated, find them all for me!"

After giving the order with murderous intent, Zhu Houzhao immediately looked at Mou Bin, his stern eyes did not hide his murderous intent at all.

"Mou Bin, how did you, the Jinyiwei, happen to be there?"

Upon hearing this, Mou Bin knelt down on the ground and respectfully took out a piece of paper.

"Your Majesty is clear!"

"This is someone who shot an arrow into our Zhenfu Division!"

Zhu Houzhao was shocked when he heard this and immediately took the note and saw the words "Wudaojie Cihou" written on it.

"As soon as Wei Chen saw this note, he immediately dared not be careless and mobilized the elite Tiqi troops to rush to Wudao Street. The result... now it seems that Wei Chen and others have fallen into someone else's plan!"

There is indeed paper.

But does this rule out Mou Bin and Jin Yiwei's suspicion?

Zhu Houzhao looked at Mou Bin coldly, and the man's life and past kept reappearing in his mind.

Fortunately, Mou Bin has always been an upright person, so Zhu Houzhao reluctantly gave up his doubts about him.

This time, Mou Bin's Jin Yiwei was really tricked.

But the question is, why did the mastermind do this?

First, he sent someone to assassinate Tang Hao, the Marquis of Zhongshan, and then he sent a message to the Jin Yiwei, asking them to rush to Wudao Street to rescue people?

No!

not like this!

Something's wrong with the time!

Zhu Houzhao keenly grasped the key to the problem.

When Mou Bin arrived, it was when Tang Hou was hit by an arrow.

In other words, the reason why the mastermind behind the scenes sent a message to Mou Bin was not to let Mou Bin lead the imperial cavalry to rescue people, but to let Mu Bin lead the tiqi to arrest people!

"Have you ever caught those assassins?"

"Can you leave me alive?"

Mou Bin nodded quickly.

"There are three people left alive. The rest are all dead and are being tortured right now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a Qianhu came over with a pale face and whispered a few words to Mou Bin in a low voice.

After hearing this, Mou Bin's expression changed drastically, and he subconsciously exclaimed: "How is this possible?!"

Zhu Houzhao realized something was wrong and hurriedly asked: "What happened?"

"Your Majesty, these people, including the dead assassins, are all...Japanese!"

Mou Bin replied with a bitter expression.

"Japanese?"

"You told me they are all Japanese?"

Zhu Houzhao roared angrily: "So this major assassination case is a group of remnants of the Japanese country. I don't know how they crossed the ocean and came to my Ming Dynasty, and then I don't know how they sneaked into the capital of my Ming Dynasty and plotted this assassination." Do you want to kill Zhongshan Hou in order to avenge their country's subjugation? "

"Aren't all the Jin Yiwei like you useless?"

Facing His Majesty the Emperor's furious scolding, Mou Bin was so frightened that his liver and gallbladder almost burst.

"Your Majesty, forgive me! I will go and investigate right now!"

"Get lost!" Zhu Houzhao yelled angrily: "Find out how they got here! Find out who helped them sneak in! If you can't even find out this, I will destroy your royal guards!"

This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last.

Because of Jin Yiwei's incompetence, Zhu Houzhao had the idea of ​​​​reform and rectification more than once.

But the savages told him that under the leadership of Mou Bin, the Jin Yiwei was a good and upright sword. Some things would be miraculous if left to them, so Zhu Houzhao would endure it again and again.

But now, Zhu Houzhao really couldn't bear it anymore.

He couldn't understand how stupid Mou Bin was to cultivate such a group of useless guards!

how?

You have become so accustomed to being a good person that you have even forgotten your own profession?

Hearing His Majesty the Emperor's last words, Mou Bin couldn't help but tremble, then hurriedly stood up and left.

He knew very well that no matter what the outcome was this time, he, the commander of the Imperial Guard, had accomplished his goal today.

His Majesty the Emperor's dissatisfaction with him has long been expressed. This time, because of Tang Hou's assassination, he will inevitably be implicated.

However, Mou Bin knew very well that he was by no means the only person implicated in this case!

That damn mastermind has completely touched His Majesty the Emperor's evil side!

Jin Yiwei went to torture the assassin for the murder, while the East and West Second Factory gathered intelligence. The factory guards cooperated and tried to dig out the mastermind through some clues.

Xu Tianci and Leng Hantie mobilized their troops overnight to blockade the entire capital and even the capital. From the soldiers at the city gate, it was known that no one secretly left the city during the time of the incident!

That means that the contact person for the assassins, or the person who helped them, must still be in the capital.

Zhu Houzhao never left, but sat in the yard with a pale face and said nothing.

He is waiting for a result.

And such earth-shattering changes occurred in the capital, and naturally they could not be hidden from the powerful officials.

When they learned that Tang Hou had been assassinated and his life and death were unknown, they were all frightened.

Yang Tinghe slumped on the chair with a pale face and murmured: "Tang Hou was assassinated and his life and death are unknown?"

"Which bastard beast is this? Damn it!"

The chief minister of the cabinet grabbed the tea cup on the table. It was his favorite thing on weekdays, but because of his rage, he smashed it on the ground and broke it into pieces!

The situation was originally very good, and Tang Hao and he had also reached cooperation, and the development of Ming Dynasty would enter a new stage!

But at this juncture, Tang Hao was assassinated?

What will happen to Ming Dynasty?

Yang Tinghe remained silent.

Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao also changed his expression.

"This is impossible!"

"Who will assassinate Tang Hao at this time?"

"Which bastard did this?"

Zhu Chenhao was a little panicked, because it looked a bit like his previous handiwork.

Back then in Nanchang, Jiangxi, those officials and gentry who did not want to submit to him would all be assassinated to death by the soldiers he raised. This was "eliminating dissidents"!

So Zhu Chenhao subconsciously looked at his confidant Liu Yangzheng, who shook his head in horror.

"Your Majesty, how can I dare to act without your orders?"

"Is it really not you who did it?" Zhu Chenhao asked in a stern tone.

Liu Yangzheng smiled bitterly and shook his head, and hurriedly explained: "Has the prince forgotten that I have been persuading the prince to win over Zhongshan Hou, and now I am almost successful, how can I send someone to assassinate Tang Hou?"

This is indeed the truth.

Zhu Chenhao couldn't help but pace back and forth with his hands behind his back and sigh.

"Who is that?!"

"Immediately send a summons back to Nanchang. I am worried that it is the one who did it!"

Zhu Chenhao said with a gloomy face: "If it is really what they did, whether they were deceived or on their own initiative, we will be in real trouble next time!"

Liu Yangzheng felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave when he heard this.

In big trouble?

Not just trouble!

They will bury Tang Hou with him!

How could Nanchang act without permission?

Aren't you cheating?

But what if they really did it?

Then there will only be one fate for you and others...death without a burial place!