Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 42 Secret Letter
Zhu Gaoxu quickly returned to the Chinese army's tent and saw the anxious messenger.

"Cao Fu, the messenger of Chunhe Palace, pays homage to the Crown Prince!"

When the messenger saw Zhu Gaoxu, he immediately knelt down on one knee and shouted loudly.

"Exemption."

Zhu Gaoxu knew Cao Fu. Five years ago, Zhu Di took over the East Palace and transferred many people from the Peking Palace, including skilled personal guards like Cao Fu.

Cao Fu has clear articulation and a good memory. Although he cannot have a photographic memory, there is absolutely no problem in being qualified for the position of messenger officer.

Seeing Cao Fu looking left and right after getting up, Zhu Gaoxu reminded: "There is no one within ten steps outside the tent."

"I hope you will forgive me, Your Majesty." Cao Fu clasped his fists and apologized.

Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand.

Cao Fu still did not dare to let down his guard. He took out the secret letter from his arms and handed it to Zhu Gaoxu respectfully, saying: "This is a secret letter dictated by His Majesty and written by His Highness King Yan. I invite the prince to read it."

Zhu Gaoxu took the secret letter, opened it with his back to Cao Fu, and read it quickly.

This letter was written specifically to Zhu Gaoxu in Zhu Yuanzhang's tone.

The general content is that Zhu Yuanzhang planned to launch the reform of the imperial examination and asked Zhu Gaoxu to return to Beijing as soon as possible after arranging border defense and military affairs so that he could take charge of this matter.

A few years ago, Zhu Gaoxu discussed with Zhu Yuanzhang how to improve the imperial examination system in order to more reasonably train and select talents for the imperial court.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not promote the reform of the imperial examination at that time, he seriously considered it.

But now, Zhu Yuanzhang took the initiative to raise this matter. It is likely that there is something wrong with his body.

He was probably worried that his time was running out and he might not be able to implement the reform of the imperial examination during his lifetime, so he wrote a secret letter to tell Zhu Gaoxu bluntly about his plan.

Zhu Gaoxu felt very uncomfortable when he thought that Zhu Yuanzhang, who had worked hard all his life to drive out the Tartars, restore China, and found the Ming Dynasty, would soon die.

Turning around, Zhu Gaoxu suppressed the turmoil in his heart, kept his expression unchanged, and asked in a low voice: "When was the imperial edict for me to enter the capital issued by Grandpa Huang?"

Cao Fu thought for a while and replied: "Your Majesty, according to the normal schedule, the imperial edict should arrive in Peiping in the next few days."

He may have guessed Zhu Gaoxu's inner worries, and quickly added: "Your Majesty attaches great importance to this edict. Zhao Junchen, commander of the Jinyi Guards and acquaintance, is the chief envoy, and Wang Jinghong, the aide of Chunhe Palace, is the deputy envoy. The prince does not need to worry."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded slightly.

This regulated mission must carry more than one copy of the imperial edict. After leaving Peiping, it would obviously change its route to continue delivering the edict to other places.

"Does my father have anything else to say?" Zhu Gaoxu asked in a low voice.

It can be said that Cao Fu is Zhu Di's confidant, so Zhu Di should tell him some confidential things, and Zhu Gaoxu feels it is necessary to ask.

Upon hearing this, Cao Fu lowered his head and took out a two-inch-long khaki mailbox from his left sleeve and presented it respectfully.

"His Royal Highness King Yan indeed has a secret letter for the official to hand over to the Crown Prince."

Zhu Gaoxu took the small mailbox, opened it, took out the secret letter, and quickly glanced at it. He immediately discovered that Zhu Di was not very optimistic about Zhu Gaoxu's return to Beijing this time.

In the letter, Zhu Di briefly described the situation between North Korea and China, and asked Zhu Gaoxu to return to Beijing in advance through covert means to prevent "bandits" from robberies on the way.

After all, the world of the Ming Dynasty has not truly reached the prosperous age of lasting peace, and there are indeed bandits who have turned into bandits in some places.

These tough thieves, no matter whether you are a relative of the emperor or an official of the imperial court, are very familiar with killing people and stealing goods.

Moreover, it is extremely common for thieves to collude with certain people for the sake of profit and eliminate dissidents on behalf of the financial backers.Zhu Gaoxu could not bring a large group of troops back to Beijing. He could only bring some guards and followers. Without the order of the court, bringing troops to Beijing was tantamount to rebellion.

Through Zhu Di's tone in the letter, Zhu Gaoxu realized that there might still be variables in the DPRK.

Of course, based on Zhu Gaoxu's understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang, this variable will definitely not be a variable of the successor, but refers to certain national policies that Zhu Yuanzhang intends to implement, which may encounter great resistance during the implementation process.

For example, in the previous secret letter, the imperial examination reform mentioned by Zhu Yuanzhang, if implemented, would definitely touch the interests of many people.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu put the two letters close to his body, turned around and shouted outside the tent: "Come here, please ask Ambassador Cao to go down and rest."

Zhu Gaoxu can discuss some matters with his confidants and generals, but when it comes to confidential matters between Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di and him, he can only keep them in mind and cannot talk to others.

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu to return to the capital ostensibly according to the normal schedule, but asked Zhu Gaoxu to secretly come back early. This matter could not be implemented by Zhu Gaoxu alone, and someone needed to cooperate.

Therefore, late that night after the martial arts performance in the school field ended, Zhu Gaoxu summoned his absolute confidants Wei Xian and Ma He to his tent for face-to-face instructions.

The next day, Zhu Gaoxu summoned King Han, King Shen and senior generals from various guards to hold a border defense layout meeting.

At the meeting, Wei Xian was appointed captain of the escort team for Zhu Gaoxu's return to Beijing.

As for Ma He, the attendant of the Prince of Yan's Palace who often served as a general in the guard and accompanied the army on expeditions, this time Zhu Gaoxu only asked him to do his duties as the attendant of the Prince's Palace.

After arranging the border defense and military affairs, Zhu Gaoxu told everyone that the imperial court would issue an imperial edict in the near future.

As for him, he will be ordered to return to the capital to report on his duties. He hopes that everyone will obey the court's orders and do their respective border defense tasks to prevent the Hulu from suddenly attacking the border.

A few days later, the envoys carrying the message arrived in Peiping.

The mission read out three imperial edicts in total.

One of them ordered Zhu Gaoxu to return to Beijing to report on his duties, requiring the border generals to obey Zhu Gaoxu's border defense arrangements and prohibit unauthorized actions.

The other two copies were given to King Han and King Shen respectively.

Originally, after the envoys announced the edict in Peiping, their next stop was to go to Kaiyuan and Shenyang. Now that the two kings of Han and Shen were also in Peiping, they could no longer mobilize their troops, so they read out the edict together.

Generally speaking, the two kings Han and Shen were not allowed to leave their fiefdoms, but Zhu Yuanzhang not long ago issued an imperial edict to put them under Zhu Gaoxu's control, so this saved the edict-proclaiming mission a lot of trouble.

The content of Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edicts to the two kings Han and Shen was roughly the same, requiring them to study the latest revised ancestral precepts in detail, be sure to be careful in their words and deeds in accordance with the ancestral precepts, fulfill the king's responsibility of guarding the border and expanding the territory, and strictly prohibited from interfering in local administration or harming the people. , Violation of law and discipline.

Due to time constraints, on the day when the envoys arrived in Peking, Zhu Gaoxu hosted the envoys in person and then set off back to Beijing the next day.

Two days after setting off, he sat in the sedan on the pretext of being ill. At this time, he had not yet left the boundaries of Beiping Mansion.

In order to prevent others from noticing that Zhu Gaoxu was not in the team returning to Beijing, Wei Xian, the captain of the guard, became the driver specifically to drive Zhu Gaoxu's carriage after Zhu Gaoxu fell ill.

Everyone knows that Wei Xian was originally Zhu Gaoxu's personal guard and was deeply trusted by Zhu Gaoxu. Now he is temporarily serving as a coachman, which is enough to dispel other people's doubts.

Afterwards, Ma He led more than a dozen royal guards and followed quietly.

Before leaving Peiping, at the border military affairs deployment meeting, Zhu Gaoxu asked Ma He to do his "duties" as the attendant of the palace.

After Zhu Gaoxu met Ma He and others, he put on businessman's clothes and then hurried to the capital.

PS: Thank you for the bad guys in the crowd, 2020 Amnesia, Handsome Tie, The First Chosen Child, Zhu Wei, The Class Teacher Next Door, Han Bingyu, Zi Zhou Han Shuixing, Hey~ Come Out, Nuclear Ai Krypton Hydrogen, Book Recommended votes from friends 2019, book friends 2021 and other veterans!

(End of this chapter)