King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 768 Longtan Mountain, Nanjing Temple!
As night fell, everyone in the Jia family gathered in Grandmother Jia's courtyard, and the atmosphere was particularly solemn.

Xichun stood in the corner. She should have been reprimanded for her rash behavior in the morning, but everyone ignored her.

Everyone's focus fell on Mrs. Wang, who was wiping her tears with her head down.

Jia Lian wanted to divide the family, and Jia She agreed in his heart, but did not agree.

Family disgrace should not be made public. Dividing the family at this time will only make the Jia family more difficult. If the old mother is angered and something happens to her, it will be even worse to be accused of being unfilial.

"Old lady, in my opinion, the only way to save us is to let them stay at home and behave themselves!"

"Just tell others that he is ill. That way you will have less worries. To put it bluntly, Baoyu is not one of our family members after all. It is fine to keep him!"

"But your branch as his second uncle will eventually have to rely on Lan'er to carry on the family line. You should pay more attention to him!"

After Mrs. Xing finished speaking, everyone present had different thoughts, but most of them were supporters. For example, Li Wan was secretly happy at this time. After all, this was a double happiness for her.

First, she no longer has to endure the anger of her mother-in-law, and second, her son's status is determined.

After a long silence, Jia She finally couldn't help but speak: "Mother, what do you think?"

At this moment, Grandmother Jia was extremely heartbroken and couldn't help crying. She couldn't understand how such a good family could become like this.

Although she didn't want to make things awkward, Grandmother Jia also knew that Wang was too stupid this time and she absolutely had to deal with it.

"Zheng'er, what do you say?" Grandmother Jia looked at her son.

"That's good...that's good!"

Before the formal family meeting, Jia Zheng and his brother had already quarreled in the study. Jia Zheng knew that his elder brother had the intention to split up the family, so he had to give in at this time.

Of course, Jia Zheng also knew that his wife had indeed gone too far and that she deserved this punishment.

Mrs. Wang understood how serious the matter was, so she did not make any excuses at this time. She just wanted to wait until the matter had faded and then slowly return home.

After all, I am the daughter of the Wang family and the biological sister of the third sister... Mrs. Wang thought to herself, this was her confidence.

But she had no idea that at this moment in the Wang family, her brother and sister-in-law were discussing this matter, with some ridicule in their words.

"Your brother... Baoyu has been removed from the family tree. How can he be considered a brother to others?" The master of the Wang family sneered. He is Mrs. Wang's brother.

At this time, Madam Wang said, "Let alone Baoyu, even Pan'er, a legitimate brother, would not dare to be so arrogant in front of the Crown Princess!"

"This stupid woman, you should spend less time with her in the future and visit the Xue family more often!"

"You still need me to tell you. By the way... I will go to the palace to pay my respects tomorrow and bring all the girls with me!"

Hearing this, Master Wang frowned and said, "Don't tell me... you want to put someone around the prince!"

"I'm not that stupid. There are many ladies coming and going in the palace every day. It would be nice to take them to see the world!"

"Well... this is indeed a rare opportunity!" Master Wang nodded.

In fact, most of the high-ranking ladies in the mansions of Yingtian had the same idea as the Wang family, and they all regarded the arrival of the Crown Princess as an opportunity to show off their daughters.

This is a more pragmatic approach. After all, these local ladies are too far away from the status of the Crown Princess, and it is too unrealistic to want to take advantage of her status.

Of course, just as there are people who fawn on Zhu Jinghong and his wife, there are also people who hate them to the core.

For example, among the local big families in Jinling, especially those engaged in maritime trade, three of them were investigated within just a few days of arriving.

The purpose of land surveying was to collect land tax, and the purpose of reorganizing the Maritime Customs Office was to collect commercial tax. The literati dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out, and in their hearts they were all cursing the Zhu father and son for exploiting them.

Zhu Jinghong was not aware of this, and of course even if he knew, there was nothing he could do. After all, this was purely a struggle for interests, and killing as many people as possible would not solve the situation.

To a certain extent, Zhu Jinghong also understood this man's thoughts. After all, it would be really uncomfortable to give up the profits he had earned "with great difficulty".

Zhu Jinghong stayed in Jinling for a month, during which time he did not even leave the city.

The main task every day is to listen to reports, including but not limited to maritime trade, shipbuilding, surveying, and rebuilding of the "Eastern Capital".

It was November, and after almost settling the affairs in Yingtian, Zhu Jinghong finally decided to visit the navy.

Half a month in advance, the order to review the navy had been issued, and each navy had already dispatched troops to Tongzhou Wharf, the headquarters of the Jinling Navy.

Nowadays, the fleets of the four navies of the Ming Dynasty are not all stationed in their home ports, but are rotated to various key locations.

For example, the Liaodong Navy had ports in Korea and Japan, the Jinling Navy was in Luzon, and the Zhejiang Navy was in Malacca and other places, guarding the Ming Dynasty's trade interests.

On the eighth day of November, Zhu Jinghong set out from Yingtian Prefecture and headed towards Tongzhou under the escort of a large number of troops.

He could have taken the water route, but because he was not in a hurry and wanted to see the local people, he ended up taking the land route.

After walking seventy or eighty miles along the official road, it was already afternoon, so the army began to set up camp.

There is a villa of the Xue family here, which was cleaned up early so that Zhu Jinghong can live in it with peace of mind.

For Zhu Jinghong, this place can be regarded as a revisit to an old place. The most dangerous day of his life was spent here.

"Yuxin, it's been almost ten years!"

In the courtyard, Zhu Jinghong was walking with his hands behind his back, and Lu Yuxin followed behind him.

As it was a long journey and he was going to review the troops, Zhu Jinghong did not bring Baochai with him and now he asked Lu Yuxin to come and talk to him.

"Your Highness, it will be exactly ten years in a few months!"

"It's been ten years, but the thrilling scene is still vivid in my mind!"

"I will never forget this and will always use it as a warning to myself... I will never make the same mistake again!"

Continuing to walk forward, Zhu Jinghong asked: "Do you know where your group of people have gone now?"

"There were 32 people who survived that year. Now, only I and Zhang Lin remain in the Dragon Guards. The others are either in the Imperial Guards or in the Beijing Camp... They all have military merits and hold high official positions!"

"You are pointing your finger at me, blaming me for not letting you two go out to lead the troops!" Zhu Jinghong stopped and said with a smile.

"I dare not!"

"There's nothing wrong with staying with the Dragon Guard. You need to have your own people by my side. If you all leave, I'll be all alone!"

Lu Yuxin understood these principles, and he also understood that if he continued to stay in the Dragon Guards, he and Zhang Lin would both be safe and have successful careers, so he really had no complaints in his heart.

As a close minister of the emperor, this is a good thing that many people would love to have, so how could he not know what is good for him?

It's just that his life now is too comfortable, and he feels a little regretful that he can't lead troops into battle, but to be frank, this is just being pretentious.

"Your Highness, I am willing to die for you and have no complaints!" Lu Yuxin answered very solemnly.

Zhu Jinghong nodded, then walked out of the villa. The defense outside was also extremely tight, with thousands of soldiers stationed around it.

Walking out of the villa, Zhu Jinghong looked across the fields and towards the mountains and forests in the distance.

"Oh, by the way, when we came here to play, we originally planned to visit the temple on the mountain, but we were ambushed while hunting... Let's forget about the mountain climbing!" "Now we are revisiting the old place, and we want to make up for the regrets of the past... What do you say?"

For Zhu Jinghong, this was a rare moment of inspiration, so he was very excited at the moment, as if he had regained his youth.

"Your Highness, it's getting late, this..." Lu Yuxin hesitated.

"It's still more than an hour before dark, and the mountain is less than two miles away. We still have time to go there!"

"Send more guards and keep a tight defense along the way, and nothing will happen!"

"But……"

"I only come here once in my life. I was in danger last time because of my poor consideration. Could I be in danger again this time with thousands of soldiers protecting me?"

The army escorting him now, including the guards in the capital and the troops drawn from the Jinling Military Commission, has a total of more than 5,000 people. Unless a large army attacks, there will be no accidents.

Seeing that Zhu Jinghong insisted on going for a visit, Lu Yuxin had no choice but to agree, and then went to discuss with the generals of various guards.

"Alas... the half-year tour to the East has been so boring. Now it's like this. Wouldn't it be even more boring to be the emperor?"

"No wonder the emperors of all dynasties always cultivated some personal hobbies, otherwise life would be really unbearable!"

In this version of history, the dozen or so emperors of the Zhu family all had their own hobbies. For example, Taizong liked beautiful women, Gaozong liked collecting books, Renzong liked engraving, and Zhu Xianming liked antiques.

What hobbies should I develop?

As soon as this question came up, he already had the answer in his mind, which was to watch various performances.

He specially brought Zhang Xiaoyue with him on this eastern tour because Zhang Xiaoyue had rehearsed various music, dances and short plays according to his wishes, which could help entertain him in his boring life.

After walking around in the yard for a while, performing a set of boxing and then practicing with the spear for a while, half an hour passed quickly.

Lu Yuxin came back to report that everything was ready, and Zhu Jinghong rode on horseback with a group of generals and rushed towards Longtan Mountain.

As he passed by, there were soldiers standing guard every few meters, and there were more than 500 guards accompanying him, who kept Zhu Jinghong firmly protected.

In addition, there were cavalry patrolling further away to prevent anyone from approaching the team. The core defense circle was centered on Zhu Jinghong, with a radius of at least one hundred meters.

In addition, in places that could not be seen, there were Jinyiwei and local military officers patrolling back and forth. Within 300 meters of Zhu Jinghong, there was no human or animal that could move freely.

Including the Nanjing Temple on Longtan Mountain, all the dozens of nuns who were practicing were guarded in the meditation rooms by soldiers, including Tanchun, who had been a nun for half a year.

Tanchun originally thought that after she left the family, she would no longer have to listen to those gossips, and she would be able to find peace of mind by reciting scriptures and worshiping Buddha every day.

But after she actually became a nun, she found that the situation was not what she had imagined, and it was really hard to stay here with the ancient Buddha and the green lamps.

At first she tried hard to change her ways to adapt to the environment, but the consequence was that her heart became more and more uneasy.

She was the daughter of a Duke, talented and beautiful, but she had to spend the rest of her life alone in this place. The more Tanchun thought about it, the more unwilling she felt.

But no matter how unwilling she was, she could only accept her fate and do the repetitive and boring tasks every day.

She originally thought that this was how her life would be, but what happened today brought new life to her dry heart.

When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince came for a tour, she saw a glimmer of opportunity, a chance to escape from her current life.

Although there was little hope and even a risk to her life, Tanchun was always decisive and made up her mind after some thought.

Rather than die alone in obscurity, she is willing to risk her life for a try!
Don’t think that Tanchun is dreaming. How dare a nun dream of getting close to the prince? After all, her elder sister who is a nun has set a good example for her.

But now that she is being detained here, even if she is extremely intelligent, she feels helpless at this moment. After all, she does not even have her personal freedom.

Staying in the Zen room, Tanchun sat next to the abbot, thinking about how to break the impasse, and soon half an hour passed.

Nanjing'an was not very big, and she could hear the noise outside, so when Zhu Jinghong entered the courtyard, Tanchun easily noticed it.

But she didn't dare to act rashly at this time, because the slightest carelessness could result in death, so she could only continue to think of countermeasures.

The opportunity was clearly right in front of her, but she could do nothing at the moment. Tanchun was undoubtedly feeling very frustrated.

But life is so unpredictable. When Tanchun was racking her brains for a solution, the opportunity came to her.

"Who is the abbot?"

The door of the meditation room was opened, and a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard appeared outside, followed by several majestic captains.

Although it was just four words, Tanchun understood that this was a summons from the prince, and this was an opportunity for her.

"Master!" Tanchun reminded the old nun beside her.

This old nun is over fifty years old. She usually comes into contact with many nobles in Yingtian Prefecture and can be considered as someone who has seen the world.

But today it was the prince who came, and she was frightened by the scene, so she stumbled when answering.

"Yes... the old nun is... yes!"

"Your Highness has summoned you, come out!"

"Yes Yes……"

Sitting next to the old nun, Tanchun felt her fear. Her trembling body made it difficult for her to even stand up.

"Master, I will help you go!" Tanchun said softly.

As for the other nuns, none of them spoke out at this moment. After all, no one wanted to get involved in this mess. In their opinion, the prince was too dangerous, and it was safer for them to stay in the meditation room obediently.

"Okay... okay!"

The old nun was extremely moved and felt fortunate that she had taken good care of this rich young lady, and today she was the only one who showed such filial piety.

Even when she was helped to stand up, the old nun had already begun planning to pass on her mantle to the young man in the future.

How could she know that Tanchun's eyes were looking up to the sky and the small Nanjing Temple was not in her sight.

When they reached the door, before the Jinyiwei asked any questions, Tanchun spoke first: "Master Qianhu, the abbot is old and needs someone to support him. Please forgive me!"

Beauty is a great advantage, and seeing that Tanchun was gentle and polite, and there was no danger involved, the captain did not say much.

After all, if Tanchun doesn't help over, we can't ask the eunuchs to help. A little nun is not qualified to do so!
Of course, they were going to meet Zhu Jinghong after all, so after the two of them left the meditation room, they were taken into a side room by the accompanying maid, and then they took off their clothes and carefully checked their bodies to make sure they were not carrying any weapons or the like.

Looking at the busy palace maids, Tanchun thought to herself, "My murder weapon is not an external object!"

She used herself as a weapon and Zhu Jinghong as prey. She was supposed to call him "brother-in-law", but now she wanted to make him her man.

After the inspection, Tanchun put on her clothes again and, supporting her increasingly nervous master, walked slowly towards the Great Buddha Hall in the inner courtyard.

With the help of the dim light, Tanchun played the wooden pipe through the gate of the Buddhist temple and saw a figure standing with his hands behind his back in the temple, who was now looking up at the Buddha statue.

(End of this chapter)