Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 860: Intimidation
You still think you have great potential?
Zhu Er in the room felt that this was ridiculous, but he hated that the emperor was right in front of him, so he dared not speak. But the next moment, Zhang Shou expressed his complaints on his behalf: "How dare you say that? You are not young anymore, and you should be sensible. Why can't you learn from your third brother's steadiness? Since you know that you can't go to Qingning Palace, can't you think before you speak?"
"If I'm as good as my third brother, then I'll be the crown prince, not him?" As soon as he said that, the fourth prince knew he was impulsive again. He simply hung his head and said listlessly, "Anyway, I just say whatever I want to say, regardless of whether it offends people or not, regardless of whether it pleases my father or not. Teacher, please don't speak for me, or it will get you into trouble."
"You still want to cause trouble for others!" The emperor was so angry that he wanted to drag the man over and beat him up. "Although you liked to make trouble in the past, you were not such a reckless person!"
"Who wants me to be without a natural enemy and worries now? So I can't bear to say or do anything in the past." At this point, the naughty kid raised his head and glanced at Zhang Shou. Seeing that Zhang Shou was also very angry, he coughed and said, "But what I said wrong today was really what the teacher explained."
"A group of people with unknown origins and illogical actions made it so that everyone couldn't even celebrate the New Year. Finally, they died! The matter of the second brother is indeed unpleasant, but when the news of the shipwreck came..." Wasn't he already dead?
Finally, the Fourth Prince realized that he was talking about something irrelevant, and he finally shut up, but the drooping corners of his mouth were more eye-catching than his drooping head. As if he had finally made up his mind after pondering for a long time, he said word by word: "Father, rest assured, I will definitely treat my fifth brother well in the future, and I will definitely make him safe and happy from a young age, and no one will dare to bully him!"
If you don't bully him, who else would dare to bully him? Zhang Shou and Zhu Er, both of them just kept this in their hearts and would not say it out loud.
As for the emperor, he did not show any big expression at this moment. He just narrowed his eyes slightly and looked thoughtfully at his youngest son who was always a worry-inducing one for a while - although he is not the youngest one now, but before the fifth prince could speak, he could not help but think of him as the youngest one.
"Let's go back to the palace."
After leaving these three simple words, he turned and walked away. Until he heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and then someone clearly dragged the corner of his clothes, just like the scene when the little boy who looked like a pink ball pulled his robe to walk when he was a child. Because of his childhood experience, he actually hated his children being afraid of him the most, but the eldest and second princes were not close to him because of the queen.
Most of the princesses, except Princess Yongping, were a little afraid of him. That was because he had raised them in the Qianqing Palace since they were young and watched them over every day. Therefore, the two brothers, who had always been a little naive, were never afraid of him even though they had been beaten and scolded by .
The more children one has, the easier it is to have bias and to divide them into different levels. So he is not sure what the Fifth Prince will be like in the future, and whether he will have more sons. But now that he has established the Crown Prince, he does not want anyone to shake that position at any time in the future. So he was really happy that the Fourth Prince could say that just now.
So, after they followed him closely for a long time, and when they saw the gate of Zhang Garden approaching, he suddenly said without turning his head, "After you go back, stay in Fengxian Palace by yourself for one night. Your third brother was left in Qianqing Palace by me, and I don't know how scared he must be. But you are lucky enough to leave the palace and spread the news, and your teacher will protect you to the death. How can it be so easy!"
“Yes, yes, yes!” Although he was going to be punished, the Fourth Prince behind the Emperor was beaming with joy. He did not show any reluctance or frustration at all. He even kept on nagging, “Father should not have abandoned Third Brother. He is worried sick and must be very worried right now. And Eunuch Chu, he was wronged too. He had to run back and forth in such a cold weather. What’s more, he…”
"That's right. They are all the people I have taken my anger out on, so they are all wronged. The only one who has not been wronged is you! So kneel down in front of me in Fengxian Hall and reflect on yourself! You are already such a grown-up, but you keep causing troubles time and time again. You speak out your words. If I am no longer around, there is still your third brother. But if your third brother..."
Before the emperor finished speaking, he felt as if someone was rushing at him from behind. He subconsciously tensed his shoulders, but then he realized that it could not be anyone else but the Fourth Prince, and he relaxed again. Sure enough, the Fourth Prince hung directly on him like an octopus, holding his neck tightly with both hands.
Although he was the Son of Heaven, the Emperor simply disdained the rule of holding grandchildren but not sons. Relying on his proficiency in martial arts, he had held and carried his two sons when they were young, and even climbed over walls. But when the Fourth Prince suddenly did this in public, he couldn't help but want to shout, but the voice of the Fourth Prince rang first.
"Father, may you live a long life, and my third brother may he live a long life too. None of you will die before me!"
Even though he knew that the Fourth Prince was flattering him in a certain sense, the Emperor still couldn't help but grab the man's arm and pulled him down from behind. Then he lifted him up with one hand around his waist and slapped him hard on the butt. After hearing a scream, the man stood firm and didn't say anything, so he slapped him twice more.
"You better learn your manners when you get back to school, I really indulged you too much in the past!"
When Zhu Ying, who had chased out, heard these two sentences and saw the Fourth Prince struggling in the air, gesticulating and still able to bargain with the Emperor, she simply stood where she was and shook her head unhappily, thinking that this naughty child deserved a beating.
When she saw the emperor leaving the house, throwing his people on his horse, and then calling his escorts, and then rushing away, she couldn't help but mutter in a low voice: "No wonder the Empress Dowager always says that the emperor is so old, but when encountering things, he is still as impulsive and irritable as when he was young. Fortunately, the prince is not like him!"
She didn't blame the emperor for coming and going so hastily that he even forgot about her and returned to the palace. When she thought about what Zhang Shou had just told her in a concise manner, she realized how chaotic the court would be in the next few days.
However, everything that happened during this period of time had a clear answer, even including the camp riot in Tianjin and the officers and soldiers pretending to be pirates to rob and kill merchants. Many things had explanations, but precisely because it went so smoothly, she always felt that there was a little bit of disharmony, as if everything was too coincidental.
However, Zhu Ying was not a detective in charge of investigation, nor was she the Dali Temple who reviewed all the case files in the country, or the Minister of Justice who was in charge of criminal law. She just tilted her head and thought for a while. She used the excuse that there were many people in the world who were smarter and more perseverant than herself, and successfully threw this thought out of her mind.
Anyway, the people who should be driven out have been driven out, and the people she hated and disliked are dead, so what else is there to think about? Thinking about revenge for them? You have nothing better to do!
There were not many people involved in the chaotic battle at Lutai Horse Post, but when it came time to deal with the aftermath, they had to bury the bodies and clean up the body of the Second Prince and transport it to the capital. Even if the commander-in-chief of the Ruiqi Battalion and the lieutenant general of the Shanhai Road had ten thousand guts, they would never dare to bury the body of the Second Prince together with a group of pirates, so of course they had to collect the body and escort it over.
So, this news, which had not been deliberately concealed, became a huge bombshell and became known to everyone in an instant.
For court officials, they naturally maintained a delicate balance and everyone talked about the incident as little as possible or even not at all. However, the people had interpreted the incident in countless versions. The most explosive one was of course that the second prince encountered pirates after falling into the water, and then took the pirates to pretend to be envoys to sneak into the capital, and then plotted something evil to turn the world upside down... It was just like a play!
However, the most terrified, but not embarrassed, was the Goryeo envoys who were meeting with the South Pavilion. Unlike Zheshan Jun, who was still young and was only sent to study at the Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty, the envoys this time were not some lowly official who was selected to make up the numbers, but a third-rank official, and was appointed as the Minister of Rites.
However, compared with those envoys in history who dared to cross the sea to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty from Dengzhou, he was very timid. Of course, his excuse to the outside world was that Zheshan Jun was the king's nephew and he must not be lost, so naturally he would rather go by land instead of near.
At this moment, he really wanted to use the same excuse to deal with the people in front of him, but the young man in the lead was arrogant and didn't even look at him. But knowing the other party's identity, he not only did not dare to fight, but in the end, he was sweating profusely and simply sent the person directly to the bedside of Zhe Shanjun, who was still not fully recovered.
The moment he saw Zhu Er, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, Zhe Shanjun wanted to pretend to faint. He really couldn't stand these three sons of the Ming Dynasty. In the cold weather, these three people either took him to see the Temple of Heaven for offering sacrifices to the heavens, or took him to see the West Four Archways for killing people, or took him to see the magnificent gardens of the nobles, or took him to see the smelly horse and sheep markets...
Anyway, he himself had no way of guaranteeing whether he had said anything to anyone when he was confused by these three people. So, he was simply looking very bitter at this moment, until the Minister of Rites blinked at him desperately and said, "Zheshan Jun, this is the fourth prince of the Celestial Empire."
At that moment, Zheshanjun sat up straight, and then couldn't help but glance at the fourth prince again and again - even though the other party was a little younger than him, his status was much more noble than his. It was not only the difference between the royal family of the Ming Dynasty and the royal family of Goryeo, the difference between the great country of Ming and the small country of Goryeo, but also the difference between the prince and him, the son of the previous prince and the nephew of the current king.
Moreover, he heard on the way that the Fourth Prince and the current Crown Prince had a very close relationship.
At this moment, seeing that the other party was staring at him intently, he bowed his head deeply and said in a low voice: "Your Highness the Fourth Prince, please forgive me for my illness and inability to complete the ceremony."
It was the first time that the Fourth Prince had heard such a formal address and such respectful language. He could not help but feel fresh, so he could not help but keep looking at the other person and forgot to respond. But it didn't matter that he forgot, but others suffered. Zhe Shanjun did not dare to look up, and the Minister of Rites wondered if the imperial family of the Celestial Empire was resentful because of the rumor outside, so they were all trembling with fear.
Finally, Zhu Er couldn't help coughing, which called back the soul of the Fourth Prince. The little kid immediately smiled and nodded, "Well, no need to be polite. Since you are sick, just sit down."
He sat down on the brocade cushion personally brought by the Minister of Rites, and then he coughed and said, "Something that shocked the court and the public just happened in Lutai Horse Posthouse a few days ago. Does Lord Zheshan know about it?"
The Minister of Rites was immediately terrified. He moved his lips and saw that Lord Zheshan was embarrassed. He finally whispered, "Lord Zheshan is ill and still young. According to the rule of our dynasty that royal family members do not interfere in government affairs, I did not report it."
"Oh, is that so?" The fourth prince raised his eyebrows, and then said seriously, "But my father lost and found a son, and then lost him again. This is a serious matter. Even though the Lord of the Mountain is sick and weak and has not been involved in politics in the past, he must know about it. Second Brother Zhu, you come and talk to the Lord of the Mountain."
The naughty kid was so polite to him in front of outsiders, so Zhu Er returned the favor and explained the whole story after clearing his throat. And where he missed, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu had to fill in the gaps. When they finished their detailed narration, not only was the Minister of Rites sweating like rain, but even Zheshan Jun had cold sweat on his forehead.
Even though Zhu Er did not pretend at all and did not directly attribute the pirates occupying Jeju Island to Goryeo pirates, but referred to them as pirates of unknown origin, this was still enough to make the two top nobles in Goryeo faint. Everyone knows the history of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and everyone knows why the Lee family was able to replace the Wang family.
Wasn't it because Wang Shi couldn't see the destiny and the general trend that he wanted to go against the great Celestial Empire that had driven the Mongols to the north and laid the foundation? For this reason, the Ming Dynasty picked on the envoys, executed them at will, and even threatened to send troops. In the last years of Wang Shi's Goryeo, the tribute figures in one year were not only humiliating, but also a great intimidation.
Five thousand horses, five hundred catties of gold, fifty thousand ounces of silver, and fifty thousand pieces of cloth, this huge amount of money to show sincerity, even if it was only given for a year, it still almost drained the national treasury and plundered the people. If it had continued for another year, the last king of Wang Goryeo would have been forced to step down. So, who is not afraid of the Ming Dynasty?
In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has become less picky about etiquette for diplomatic envoys. However, only twenty years ago, there was a case where an diplomatic envoy acted impolitely, so the officials of the Honglu Temple required the diplomatic envoys to practice the etiquette of three kneelings and nine kowtows in front of the court, and a number of people fainted.
The Fourth Prince asked at this time leisurely, "May I ask, Mr. Shan, do you know anything about Jeju Island?"
The next moment, the fourth prince saw the young Goryeo royal who had just claimed to be ill staggering off the bed, kneeling on the ground, and saying in a trembling voice: "This is the first time I have heard that Jeju Island has become a pirate den. If this is true, it must be that the officials at all levels are in collusion, and the government orders in the capital can no longer be implemented! I am willing to report to the king and send troops to suppress it immediately!"
