Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 31
"Father, that is Yan's second direct descendant, Zixu."

In Duke Ying's mansion, when Fu Zhong walked behind a screen in the corner of the front hall, he also introduced him to Fu Youde, who was looking at Zhu Gaoxu.

But judging from Zhu Gaoxu's performance, Fu Youde knew his identity even if Fu Zhong didn't introduce him.

"Blessed is King Yan..."

Fu Youde didn't say much, just left this sentence, turned around and walked to the backyard.

When Fu Zhong saw this, although he was a little confused, he still followed.

Compared with the calmness of those under surveillance, Zhu Gaoxu, as the supervisor, did not dare to be distracted.

He still doesn't know the meaning of Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangement of spying on Duke Ying Fu Youde and Song Duke Feng Sheng. It will be difficult for him to relax until the matter is clarified.

But compared to his own uprightness, for Zhu Yuanzhang, who had absolute power, such a thing was just a minor episode.

While Zhu Gaoxu was on duty, Zhu Yuanzhang had already gotten up early and handled government affairs in Wuying Hall for an hour and a half.

Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's permission, Zhu Yunwen could go to Wuying Palace again at Chenshi.

When the time came to Chen, Zhu Yunwen came here as normal and paid five bows and three kowtows to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sitting behind the dragon case and processing the memorial, raised his head and glanced at Zhu Yunwen, who had a normal expression, and nodded slightly to signal him to stand up and sit down.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Yunwen stood up in return, walked to a desk beside Zhu Yuanzhang and sat down.

There are more than two hundred memorials on the desk. These memorials have been screened by the Sixth Ministry and the Fifth Army Governor's Office.

In the Wuying Palace, Zhu Yunwen needed to sort out these two hundred memorials into fifty, and then hand them over to Zhu Yuanzhang for decision.

Originally, this matter was handled by the former prince Zhu Biao, but since Zhu Biao passed away the year before last, Zhu Yunwen, who was promoted, became the heir.

After accumulating two years of experience, Zhu Yunwen was not slow in handling these memorials.

He knew Zhu Yuanzhang's governance philosophy very well, so he made decisions based on Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas, and only handed over matters that could not be dealt with for decision-making.

After Zhu Yunwen arrived, Zhu Yuanzhang's work became much easier.

It only took him a quarter of an hour to finish processing the memorial he had kept yesterday, and then sat on the chair and looked at Zhu Yunwen quietly.

No one knew what he was thinking, because most of the people who tried to figure out his thoughts were buried underground.

Time passed little by little. Except for getting up during lunch and going to the side hall to eat, the grandfather and grandson sat in Wuying Hall to deal with memorials at other times.

It was not until dusk that Zhu Yunwen finished processing all the memorials and turned his mind from state affairs to the palace.

He glanced at the dusk outside the palace, and then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's Dragon Case.

At the moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was dealing with the last memorial, and Zhu Yunwen, who saw this, said something inexplicably:

"Grandpa Huang, today is the second day of May."

"Well..." Zhu Yuanzhang responded without raising his head. It took him two seconds to react. He turned his head and looked out the window at the dusk:

"How is Gao Xu? Which government did he join as an errand?"

"According to the rules, today is the residence of Duke Yingguo." Zhu Yunwen reported truthfully.

"Yingguo Duke's Mansion..." Zhu Yuanzhang murmured a few times, and then picked up his pen to write on a blank memorial. During this period, he seemed to have thought of something. He paused his writing, but continued writing after a moment.

"Write down the words on it word for word, and send it to the Song Dynasty Duke's Mansion the day after Yan's second descendant, Zi Xu, is on duty at the Song Dynasty Duke's Mansion."

"Remember, the people you send should have a higher profile." Zhu Yuanzhang pushed the memorial to the dragon table and ordered the eunuch waiting on the side.

"My slave, take your orders..." The eunuch responded, and Zhu Yunwen also looked at the memorial, curious about its contents.

However, this curiosity did not last long. After a while, he came back to his senses and said to Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Grandpa Huang, Gao Chi and Gao Sui hope to take a day off and go to Yulin Zuowei to look for Gao Xu."

"Let them go on the fifth day of the lunar month." Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, and when he saw this, Zhu Yunwen followed.

The grandfather and grandson walked out of the Wuying Palace one after another, followed by a large number of eunuchs and soldiers, gradually drifting away, and finally disappeared on the palace road.

Compared with them, Zhu Gaoxu finally waited for the replacement of C-character Baihu.

He left the Yingguo Duke's mansion and handed over the bronze medal to the official of Baihu, whose name was C, and then turned to look at his Baihu, whose name was Xu.

More than a hundred soldiers wearing armor were waiting for military orders on the street in front of Duke Ying's mansion. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also walked down the steps.

They cannot disband directly, but must return to Habayashi Zuowei before they can declare their dissolution.

"Your Highness, your residence is far away from Habayashi Zuoe's station, so you can just take care of it for me."

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu was about to lead the team back to the Yulin Zuowei, Wang Jian of the Baihu family spoke up in time, but Zhu Gaoxu turned back and glanced at the brothers of the Yulin Zuowei.

There are standards for selecting soldiers for the twelve guards. They are taller than ordinary soldiers. Their height must not be less than five feet four inches (173), so they look very neat.

Most of them are young adults between 35 and [-], so they can maintain a day's workload.

"Brothers are not tired even after standing all day. As the commander-in-chief, how can I survive alone?"

After finishing his words, Zhu Gaoxu said nothing more and turned around to signal the soldiers to follow him.

Under his leadership, more than a hundred soldiers from Baihu, named Xu, began to return to the Yulin Zuowei garrison.

After they walked out of the alley and came to Datong Street, off-duty officials could be seen everywhere on the street.

Datong Street, which is more than [-] feet wide from left to right, is very spacious, and here you can fully experience the class gap.

On the left side of Zhu Gaoxu and others are Xingrensi and Huitong Hall, and on the right are Jiaofangsi and Wumanyi.

Most of the officials who were off duty here were of low rank. Even if they went home, they could only walk home or take the carriage provided by the Yamen.

However, the yamen's carriages are all escorted in order of official rank, so if they simply wait, officials of the eighth or ninth grade may not be able to go home even under the curfew.

"Then why are there so many men holding musical instruments in the Jiaofang Department?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the many musicians coming out of the Jiaofang Department and couldn't help but curiously asked Wang Jian.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's confusion, Wang Jian was confused: "Your Highness, Jiaofangsi is the place where the musicians of Jiaofangsi live. Naturally, the musicians live there."

"What about the official prostitutes?" Zhu Gaoxu was a little confused. He remembered that the most widely spread story in later generations was that Zhu Di sent Fang Xiaoru's wife and daughter to Jiaofangsi to be official prostitutes. Why is it that now Jiaofangsi is the Liyue Yamen?

"Official prostitutes are housed on the sixteenth floor. Most of them are the wives and daughters of Beibei generals and rebel bandits. Your Highness, you still..."

"I didn't want to go, I just asked out of curiosity!" Hearing that Wang Jian was thinking wrongly, Zhu Gaoxu raised his hand to interrupt him speechlessly, and at the same time he cursed in his heart.

He thought Jiaofangsi was a place to house official prostitutes, but he didn't expect it to be a joke.

Faced with embarrassment, Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to lead his soldiers and continue southward back to Yulin Left Guard, scolding in his heart the people who fabricated the story that Fang Xiaoru's wife and daughter were accused of being official prostitutes.

(End of this chapter)