Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1384 Pulling up the carrot brings out the mud

The next morning, Zhu Zhen came to Wuying Palace.

Originally, he and the prince were the only two who could enter the palace directly without being informed.

But today he was stopped at the palace gate.

"What's going on?" Zhu Zhen asked the eunuch Wu who was guarding the door, "Is this because I don't allow you to see the emperor?"

"No, no, I just want to inform you." Eunuch Wu winked at him and said, "The emperor specifically instructed that it was for the prince alone."

"..." Zhu Zhen curled his lips and had to pretend to bow and say, "Good morning, eunuch. I would like to see my father. Please let me know."

"Okay, Your Highness, please wait a moment." Eunuch Wu went in to report.

"Let him hang out for now." Zhu Yuanzhang listened and continued to read and reply to the posts. After a cup of tea, he stretched and said, "Announce."

"The emperor has ordered that King Chu Haidian be summoned to see him!" Eunuch Wu said hurriedly in a long tone.

Upon hearing the order, Zhu Zhen entered the palace, lifted the hem of his dragon robe, pushed down the golden mountain and overturned the jade pillar, and kowtowed to Boss Zhu firmly: "Your son pays homage to the emperor, may the emperor be in good health and live a long life."

"Humph." Zhu Yuanzhang said unhappily, "You didn't even kowtow to me during the Chinese New Year, and now you're doing this to me. What's the point of playing tricks on me?"

"No, I realized that I was too unruly in the past." Zhu Zhen shook his head and said seriously, "So from today on, I should change my past and make my words and deeds conform to the etiquette."

"Fuck you, you're really good at making your dad mad..." Seeing his most beloved sixth son acting like a stranger, Boss Zhu started coughing in anger.

Zhu Zhen quickly stood up and stepped forward to stroke his father's chest and said, "Father was here first."

"I am your father!" Zhu Yuanzhang puffed his beard and glared, "And you were the first one. Didn't you submit a petition to 'beg for your remains'?"

As he spoke, he accurately pulled out Zhu Zhen's "Memorial for Retirement" from the piles of memorials piled on the imperial desk, slapped his head, and angrily cursed: "I told you to beg for your bones! I told you to beg for your bones!"

"I was wrong, I was wrong, I know I was wrong!" A wise man never suffers a loss in front of him, so Lao Liu quickly held his head and begged for mercy.

Boss Zhu finally punched him so hard that his hand hurt and he said, "Damn it, he's just getting too cocky."

After a pause, he said sadly, "Your father is old now, otherwise he would have sent you flying three meters away with that punch."

"A good man never brags about his past achievements. You already have more than a dozen grandchildren. How can you not look old?" Zhu Zhen smiled and continued to smooth things over for Boss Zhu: "But no matter how old you are, you are still my father, you can't be my grandfather."

"Get lost!" Zhu Yuanzhang cursed and slapped him again.

Eunuch Wu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. They could feel that the Sixth Prince's arrival had finally dispelled the thick haze that shrouded the Wuying Palace.

~~
"Why, you can't wait to abandon your elderly parents?" Zhu Yuanzhang waved the "Petition for Retirement" in front of Lao Liu and said, "Are you here to urge us to approve it and release them?"

"Really not." Zhu Zhen hurriedly shook his head, touched his conscience and said: "Since I submitted the memorial, my attachment to my father and mother has become stronger. I wish my father would keep me for a few more days."

"Oh, is this bloody mouth filled with honey?" Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him and said, "Tell me, what do you want from me again?" "Father, didn't we agree that the matter of Fourth Brother is over?" Zhu Zhen smiled and asked, "Why are you making trouble again?"

"The situation has changed. Someone wants to use the matter of the fourth brother to force me to let them go." Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, "What do they want?! I, Zhu Yuanzhang, have never been coerced by anyone!"

"That is to say, it's not father who wants to kill fourth brother?" Zhu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

"Isn't that nonsense? Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs..." Zhu Yuanzhang spat, "But if the situation really gets to that point, I won't let them go even if I kill the fourth brother!"

"Not really." Zhu Zhen waved his hands and said, "With my father's wisdom and intelligence, how can I let them lead me by the nose? They want to tie me up? Dream on!"

"It seems that you are confident that you can handle this mess?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Lao Liu steadily, unable to hide his joy.

"I am here to offer some advice..." Zhu Zhen said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "We agreed that I won't have any errands before leaving Beijing."

"But we have also agreed that you will take the fourth brother with you on the journey," Zhu Yuanzhang said confidently, "Anyway, he can't be pardoned in this situation, so just wait."

"Okay, okay, I'll take it." Zhu Zhen raised his hands in surrender and said, "Father, tell me, what effect do you want?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked around, and Eunuch Wu hurriedly led the crowd to retreat silently.

When no one else was in the hall, Boss Zhu sighed tiredly and said, "We are in a difficult situation too."

"Tell me, the war has just ended and we are killing the nobles. What will people think of us? What will the history books say?" Zhu Yuanzhang said depressedly, "Even if you don't dare to say it, we know it."

"Why don't I dare to say it? It's better to kill the meritorious officials after their death." Zhu Zhen said with a wry smile: "We have offended the scholars, so they will definitely say whatever they want."

"That's true." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a wry smile, "We shouldn't have any illusions."

"My son is more worried about practical issues." Zhu Zhen said slowly, "One is that it has been seven years since the Hu Weiyong case, and the other is that the nobles did not join the rebellion after all."

"There must be Hu Weiyong's accomplices among them, and most of them have planned treasonous things with him, but most of the nobles are on good terms with Hu Weiyong because he is the leader of the Huaixi noble group, not because they want to rebel against him."

After a pause, he continued, "Combining these two reasons, I am worried that digging into the root of the matter will implicate too many people, and may even involve a large number of innocent nobles."

"Isn't it always better to be unjust than to let off the hook when suppressing a rebellion?" Zhu Yuanzhang said without comment.

"You can't dig up your own roots!" Zhu Zhen shook his head and said, "Everything has its pros and cons. Father can't just look at the harm and ignore its benefits. Although the military leaders of Huaixi nobles are lawless, they are the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's rule."

"Without them, we still have Xu Da, Tang He, Feng Sheng, Fu Youde... and you princes who are in charge of the military, you can't damage the foundation of the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Yuanzhang snorted.

"They can be hurt." Zhu Zhen shook his head decisively and said, "A mere dozen nobles do have limited influence, but as my father said, when it comes to suppressing a rebellion, it is better to be unjust than to let it go. Once suspicion begins, it will quickly spread to the middle and lower-level officers!"

After a pause, Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice: "Due to historical reasons, almost all the middle and high-level military officers of the Ming Dynasty were born in Huaixi. These people are closely intertwined through hometown relationships, superiors and subordinates, and marriages. If you pull up a radish, you will also bring out the mud. A dozen nobles are enough to implicate most of the middle and high-level military officers."

As he said this, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "This is what I mean by shaking the foundation!"

(End of this chapter)