Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1403 The King Returns

In mid-May, Zhu Zhen returned to his loyal city of Kunming.

Yunnan Commander Hu Quan, Left Governor Pan Yuanming, and the newly appointed Right Governor Dao Tong, led the civil and military officials and had been waiting outside the city for a long time.

"Your Highness welcomes you back to Kunming!"

"Hahaha, everyone, please stand up." Zhu Zhen laughed and asked his ministers to stand up. Looking at the familiar Kunming city in front of him, he felt that every cell in his body relaxed.

"Thank you all for your hard work while I was away!"

"It is not we who are tired, but Your Majesty!" said all the civil and military officials in unison.

"Stop being polite and let's go into the city." Zhu Zhen called out, and then, surrounded by his ministers and guided by a guard of honor, he drove into Kunming city in a mighty procession.

There were densely packed people on both sides of the avenue, all setting up incense tables, placing flowers, and kneeling on the ground devoutly to welcome the return of their king.

Zhu Zhen looked ahead, and saw dragon flags blocking the sun and axes like a forest; he looked around, and saw people bowing in worship. Everything he saw and heard clearly showed that he was the master of this land! Only here was he the real king!
Zhu Di, who was standing behind him, watched this scene and his breathing became heavy. He secretly shouted in his heart: "A real man should be like this!"

He finally understood why Zhu Zhen had been obsessed with the distant land since he was a child! Because only in this far-flung southwest land could he obtain a position that truly matched his status!

In the interior, whether it was Peking, Taiyuan, or Xi'an, they were all too close to the emperor. How could anyone be allowed to snore beside his bed? If you were a tiger, you had to lie down; if you were a dragon, you had to coil up!

No wonder I always felt that being a prince was meaningless and never took my identity seriously. It turned out that all the previous princes I had been were fake ones.

He has no right to interfere in local civil affairs. He can only supervise and make suggestions. It's one thing if people listen to him, but there's nothing he can do if they don't.

He had no power to appoint or dismiss civil and military officials. It was one thing for people to respect him, but if they were really angry and ignored him, he could of course have them tied up and beaten. But there was no guarantee that he would end up like Lao Qi.

Not to mention the local money and finances, he didn't even want to get involved and could only wait for others to pay him a salary.

Under such circumstances, who would sincerely respect him, and how many people could truly regard him as a king?

In Yunnan, all these were decided by Lao Liu. All the troops had to obey his orders, and all the civil and military officials had to carry out his orders. All the money and grain taxes were also in his hands!
This is the real prince!
"I must be a real king, not a false one!" Zhu Di silently swore to himself.

Although he had been somewhat forced to come to Yunnan before, from this moment on, his mind had completely changed. He vowed to carve out a kingdom in the southwest that would truly belong to him!

~~
After returning to his palace, Zhu Zhen rested for a while, took care of the children seriously during the day, and served the two princesses diligently at night, trying his best to make up for the lost two and a half years.

The effect was also good. Meng Xuan and Meng Can finally called "Father" at the same time after his unremitting efforts. Zhu Zhen's ears rang as if he heard the sound of heaven, and he was filled with emotion and tears flowed.

And his two princesses finally calmed down and were no longer so aggressive...

"The prince's back disease seems to be recurring again?" Seeing Zhu Zhen holding his waist while walking, his uncle worriedly said. "Ah." Zhu Zhen smiled awkwardly and said, "Maybe it's because of the wrong posture... I mean holding the baby."

"Oh, so that's it. Your Highness shouldn't have such a big body, the child is so light." His cousin Hu Xian tried to find the reason for him and said, "It seems that you didn't hold him enough. You need to hold him more in the future. I hold him every day, but my waist doesn't feel anything."

"Oh, your waist is fine." Zhu Zhen rolled his eyes at him and changed the subject: "During the time I was away, were those local officials dishonest?"

"Your Highness." Hu Quan knew that he was being asked about the Yunnan Commander, so he quickly replied in a serious tone, "Since the battle of Luchuan, all the local officials in Yunnan have become obedient. Not only do they not dare to cause trouble anymore, they will also take the initiative to send troops to help the court to suppress those tribes and mountain strongholds that refuse to submit."

"In addition, the official roads and post stations have been built to the county level. The mobilization speed of the garrisons in various places can gather troops in any county in the province within ten days. All rebellions can be nipped in the bud! Therefore, there have been no major rebellions in the province in the past two years, but..."

"Just what?" Zhu Zhen asked in a deep voice.

"It's just that Dongchuan Huize has never been peaceful, and Tongchang has been attacked from time to time. Those tribes hide in the Ten Thousand Mountains, and it is difficult to capture them without sending out a large army. In addition, in places close to the snowy areas, there are often Tibetan leaders leading Tibetans to rob tea and horse caravans, and then when the Mufu soldiers are dispatched, they quickly retreat to the snowy areas." Hu Quan replied:
"The snowy area is not under Yunnan's jurisdiction, and the prince has ordered us not to cross the border, so we don't have any better solutions."

"Hey." Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said, "This order was issued before the destruction of Luchuan. The purpose was to prevent them from joining forces with the Tibetans. Now that Luchuan no longer exists, why should we be polite to them?"

"So we can cross the line now?" Hu Quan asked in surprise.

"Why not?" Zhu Zhen raised his voice and said, "Isn't the snowy area the territory of our Ming Dynasty? Beat them hard! Beat them until they behave themselves!"

"Yes, sir!" Hu Quan responded excitedly.

"As for Dongchuan, it should be because of the copper mine." Zhu Zhen said again.

"Yes, originally the copper mines belonged to those chieftains. After we conquered them, they were all taken over by the imperial court. In addition, due to the introduction of copper mining technology from Zhejiang in recent years, the output has increased nearly tenfold. How can they not be jealous and angry? This knot is difficult to untie." Hu Quan sighed.

"Then we can cut the knot in half with one sword." Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice: "They attacked the copper field but not the copper mine. It's obvious that they didn't just want to vent their anger."

"Of course." Hu Quan said with a smile: "The ore is heavy and worthless. It has to be refined into pure copper to be valuable."

Although the grade of Yunnan copper is high, the copper content is less than one-tenth, and most ores are around one-twentieth. The advantage is that it can be mined in open pits and in large quantities, so the ore is not valuable.

But after smelting, the purified copper ingots are different. They are money itself, and even more valuable than money. After all, copper coins are mixed with some lead or tin...

Moreover, the smelting process was not simple, at least far beyond the capabilities of the natives. Therefore, the barbarians were aiming to rob the copper field, and no one had the idea of ​​robbing the copper mine.

"How about this, I'll take those mine owners to inspect and find the most suitable location to build a county town." Zhu Zhen said in a deep voice: "Concentrate all the copper mines in the city, leaving no one outside the city, and then we'll see what they're fighting for!"

(End of this chapter)