Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 839: One Thing Conquers Another
The third prince and the fourth prince went to the Duke of Zhao's mansion to visit the lady dowager. Although they were traveling incognito, they had to bring the Sharp Cavalry Battalion with them, so the momentum certainly could not be too small. Therefore, as soon as they entered the Duke of Zhao's mansion, many well-informed people had already received the news.
Even though the Dowager was the Empress Dowager's biological sister, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince should call the Dowager great-aunt, which is what people call great-aunt. But before the Third Prince was enthroned as the Crown Prince, the Emperor did not often take the two brothers out of the palace. After the Third Prince was enthroned as the Crown Prince, he and the Fourth Prince were not seen often visiting the Duke of Zhao's Mansion. Now, of course, more and more people had some speculations.
If the lady had not suddenly fallen seriously ill and was dying, why would the two little princes in the palace suddenly come to visit?
For a time, even the director of the Ministry of Rites, who was in charge of Huitong Hall, suddenly made a desperate move and publicly impeached Zhu Er and Zhu San for trespassing into Huitong South Hall at the court meeting. As a result, the emperor angrily took out the joint letter of apology signed by the three of them and rejected the rebuttal. This also has another explanation.
The Madam is the Emperor's aunt after all. Now she is dying of illness. Why are you still going to hold her grandson responsible? He just broke into the Huitong South Pavilion, not the six ministries. Is the head of the Ministry of Rites crazy? It would be better to endure it for the time being and wait until Zhu Jing surrenders his post as Minister of War . Then it won't be too late to pursue him!
Of course, there were smarter people, such as relatives of the Zhu family, who urgently prepared many gifts for visiting the patient and then quickly rushed to the Duke of Zhao's mansion, hoping to have a wonderful encounter with the Crown Prince. However, if the Fourth Prince knew what they were thinking, he would definitely laugh and ridicule these people for thinking too much.
He used his own experience to "educate" Luo Sanhe along the way, but he had just arrived at Qing'an Hall with the Third Prince and had not sat there for long when the Madam started to drive him away. Even though she was still very weak, she was always strong and her tone was still quite tough.
"Your Highness, have you attended today's class? What will your teachers think if you ask for leave casually? The Fourth Prince has been away for so long, how many classes does he have to make up? Do you still have time to waste here with me?"
"Don't mention that I'm not dead yet. Even if I were dead, there would be no need for you to mobilize a large force. A prince and a prince would come to see me together! Yingying can go to the girls' school without worry and say that she will come to accompany me in the afternoon. You should do the same. Hurry and go back to Ciqing Palace to study!"
Zhu Er, who had been obediently attending to the sick in Qing'an Hall this morning, saw that his grandmother could blame the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince as if it was justified. He couldn't help but feel that the scolding and even beatings he had received from his grandmother in the past were nothing. Therefore, he didn't dare to speak up for the Third and Fourth Princes, but just held his breath and pretended not to exist.
However, since the lady had regained consciousness, she naturally would not see such a big grandson next to her, so she immediately said without question: "Erlang, go and send His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince back to the palace, and do your own thing."
Zhu Er was slightly startled, and then he realized that the Madam was not sure whether the Third and Fourth Princes knew that he, Ji Jiu, and Zhang Dakuai were acting on orders, so she did not make it clear what he was going to do. However, he had promised his father and brother in the morning to take good care of him at home, so he could not help but hesitate.
However, the lady didn't give him any chance to delay any longer: "Your mother and your sister-in-law are still at home. There are plenty of people who take turns to accompany me. It's useless to have one more person like you! Go!"
Seeing that Mother Jiang nodded slightly to him, Zhu Er could only bite the bullet and make a gesture of invitation to the Third and Fourth Princes. Seeing that the two of them were also helpless against the stubbornness of the Madam, they said a few words like take care and recuperate and then walked out. When he saw them off, he said with an embarrassed look: "Grandmother is always like this, she always keeps her word. My father was scolded by her this morning."
The fourth prince nodded sympathetically: "I can imagine what happened to you when you were planning to arrange a marriage between Sister Yingying and Senior Brother Lu." You're lucky you didn't get beaten to death!
I didn't expect the Fourth Prince to be so good at insulting others. Zhu Er was almost mad. But when he was in Banshan Hall, he certainly wasn't too afraid of people and the Third Prince. Now that the Third Prince is the Crown Prince, he has to be a little respectful to the Fourth Prince. Therefore, he glared at the Fourth Prince fiercely, and finally stopped talking.
But before they left the hall in front of Qing'an Hall, the Third Prince suddenly whispered, "Father said that at the court meeting today, the matter of you trespassing into the Huitong South Pavilion yesterday will be settled, and the Korean envoys will be allowed to enter and leave the Huitong South Pavilion freely. In other words, if you, Ji Zhaizhang, and Zhang Zhaizhang want to take the Korean Zheshan Jun out, you can do so now."
Zhu Er was slightly stunned, then said with relief: "When your Highness goes back, thank the Emperor for me and tell him that we were not reliable and caused him trouble."
The Fourth Prince didn't care about Zhu Er's glare at him, and looked back at him in protest: "You know you're going to cause trouble, but you still make such a big fuss. I don't know what's so great about that young Zheshan Jun that even my father is so interested in him."
Hearing the tone of the Fourth Prince, Zhu Er realized that he knew nothing, and immediately raised his eyebrows and exclaimed, his eyes revealed the meaning that if you don't understand anything, you should say less. However, there is a saying that a wink is cast to a blind man, and his eyes fell on the Fourth Prince, who was the least able to read the eyes, and it was completely useless.
Not only did he not understand, he suddenly turned his head and said to the Third Prince, "Third brother, since it's no big deal for Zhu Erlang and his men to trespass into Huitong South Pavilion, I also want to go and watch the fun with them."
"You are not allowed to go!" The Third Prince not only refused, but also suddenly grabbed the Fourth Prince's wrist - he was really afraid that if he didn't hold him, he would go his own way again and cause some mess. The Fourth Prince didn't know, but he knew, because his father told him, the Crown Prince, clearly that there was something wrong with the tribute girl from Goryeo.
The imperial court's previous letter to Goryeo did not mention asking Goryeo to pay tribute to its beauties! My father did not plan to take any Goryeo beauties in his arms.
Therefore, after making sure that the Fourth Prince could not escape, the Third Prince said to Zhu Er, "It is said that the head of the Ministry of Rites once told the King of Goryeo that if he excels in the Imperial College, he may be able to study at the Ciqing Palace in the future. You may as well try to find out what the King of Goryeo has to say about this matter."
Zhu Er was simply astonished to the extreme. The age of the Goryeo royal boy was indeed only a little older than the third and fourth princes, but was the third prince serious about using a foreigner to study in Ciqing Palace?
"My father said that even if the head of the Ministry of Rites was just joking, his words were too casual, so you have to test whether that Zheshan Jun took it seriously. If he didn't take it seriously, that would be the best, because it means that he hopes to return to his homeland of Goryeo as soon as possible and has never thought about serving as an official in our dynasty after finishing his studies. But if he took it seriously..."
The Third Prince tried hard to imitate the Emperor's tone as he recounted the story: "That means that the nephew of the great king is also feared by the people in the country, so he wants to hide with us to avoid the fighting over there."
After Zhu Er heard his father say these three words, he listened attentively. After listening to it, he nodded quickly, but then said uncertainly: "I think this kid doesn't seem to be very willing to come to the capital. Before, when the three of us went to question him, he seemed to be sincerely admitting his mistakes, but..."
After hesitating for a moment, the second son Zhu, who had made countless mistakes in his sincere confession since childhood, coughed and said, "But he seems to hope that the court will directly send him back to Goryeo because of his mistake of riding in a sedan chair!"
The fourth prince frowned immediately: "Sure enough, he is cunning! Third brother, we can't just let him go like this!"
"If it weren't for the rules left by Taizu, no one would want to keep him." The third prince ignored his fourth brother who obviously wanted to go to Huihe Nanguan to get involved, but he quite agreed with Zhu Er's judgment, because his father told him that Zheshanjun's father died early, and his mother was a widow who raised him and his brother. Now he has come to the capital of the Ming Dynasty alone, where his mother and brother depend on each other, so he must want to go back.
When Zhu Er saw that the Third Prince was still holding on to the Fourth Prince tightly, he smugly made a helpless expression to them, pretending that he didn't see that they were making all kinds of grimacing expressions towards him.
So, when he escorted the two to the gate and saw that the carriages were ready, he attentively escorted the Third and Fourth Princes to the carriages, while winking at the Fourth Prince, making him so angry that he almost screamed. But just as he was about to lower the curtains and send the East Palace group away, he suddenly heard a noise, and when he turned his head to look, he saw that the escorting team of the Sharp Cavalry Battalion seemed to be in a commotion.
Although the guards were all in plain clothes, this was in front of the Duke of Zhao's mansion, and he didn't think anyone would rush over without paying attention, so he immediately asked loudly, "What's going on back there? Is there anyone coming?"
Just as he finished speaking, he heard a voice that couldn't be more familiar: "Zhu Er, is this the Crown Prince? I was wondering why they even stopped me for no reason!"
The Fourth Prince also recognized that it was Zhang Chen's voice, and he quickly leaned over and ordered, "That's Zhang Chen, let him come over!"
Although the Fourth Prince was speaking on his own without noticing the Third Prince, the Ruiqi Battalion already knew that Zhang Chen was not an outsider, and it was their duty to stop him before. Since the Fourth Prince had said so, they let him come over.
So, Zhu Er only saw Zhang Chen, who was covered in dust, riding his horse forward, but there was no entourage behind him. He didn't know whether he was stopped by the Ruiqi Battalion behind him or he didn't bring any entourage at all.
He didn't know about the case in Ciqing Palace yesterday. He was just about to tease the speed of hearing people's reports, but he didn't expect Zhang Chen to stop and yell angrily: "Zhu Er, you broke into Huitong South Pavilion and didn't even wait for me!"
The fourth prince immediately became excited and quickly leaned on the carriage window and shouted, "That's right, I want to go with you too. Zhang Chen, come and help persuade the third prince!"
Zhang Chen would not speak up for the naughty Fourth Prince so easily. He jumped off the horse in front of the carriage. When he saw the Third Prince leaning out, he bowed solemnly and said, "Your Highness, are you here with the Fourth Prince to visit the Madam? I have heard about it even though I just returned to the city. When I was riding my horse on the road, I saw people carrying large and small boxes coming this way."
"I'm afraid I heard that you two were coming to visit, so I planned to have a chance encounter."
After saying this, the Third Prince ignored the Fourth Prince who was planning to stay and join the fun at the South Pavilion. He grabbed the man by the collar again, nodded gratefully at Zhang Chen and said, "Thank you for telling me... Hurry, let's go back to the palace immediately!"
Seeing that the Fourth Prince was dragged back despite having a face full of resentment, the carriage window was rolled down, and then a group of well-trained guards from the Sharp Cavalry Battalion escorted the carriage immediately. Zhu Er then glanced at Zhang Chen, whose face was full of energy, and suddenly sneered.
"Well done, Zhang Chen. You got some of my brother-in-law's tricks and sent these two away so easily! But you have no part in the affairs of Huitong South Pavilion. Just go and have a good rest!"
Zhang Chen was about to retort, but Zhu Er came closer and whispered, "We are the three of us, and if you have the guts, go to the palace and ask for the emperor's instructions. Do you understand?"
This kind of high-sounding excuse is fine if used to evade others, but who is Zhang Chen? He was not discouraged at all, but said with a fake smile: "Oh, you really don't want my help? Haha, well, I'll go visit your wife first. Tsk tsk, I don't know how many people will come to visit the patient in the next few days. If your grandson is not here..."
"Then people will get so accustomed to the reputation of being unfilial that their ears will become callused!"
Zhu Er didn't expect Zhang Chen to threaten him like this, and he was really angry. Even if Zhang Shou, Zhu Ying, and Jiu Niang all supported him to continue to complete the emperor's order, and the lady drove him out, others didn't know! Although he could , Zhang Chen couldn't stop him from doing bad things!
For a moment, he could only glare at Zhang Chen, but when he saw that Zhang Chen was fine, he finally pulled a long face and scolded: "Why are you so free? You have to meddle in other people's business!"
"You said I'm free, so why shouldn't I mind my business?" Zhang Chen laughed. He heard the news that the Madam was ill when he was walking on the road after entering the city. In addition, there was the incident of Zhu Er and his three men trespassing into Huitong South Pavilion. He knew there was something fishy as soon as he heard it. Sure enough, Zhu Er was not tight-lipped just now and let it slip directly. These three were really acting on orders!
After being asked this question by Zhang Chen, Zhu Er was even more angry. "If you have the guts, go and get involved with Lu Sanlang. He is now lobbying the dignitaries to donate money and manpower. The name of the Northwest Development Fund is so famous that he has made a lot of noise. What he does is much more respectable than what we do here! You don't dare to fight that damn fat guy, but you come here to rob us, what are you trying to steal?"
This time, it was Zhang Chen who got angry: "Who said I don't dare to fight that damn fat guy?"
