Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 67 Shocking the Kings

The setting sun is like blood.

The red sunset renders the western sky like a huge colorful painting hanging in the sky.

The palace complex of the Ming Dynasty Palace, with red bricks and gold tiles, shines under the red clouds.

At this time, in the temporary mourning hall outside the front hall of the West Palace, wailing sounds could be heard one after another, showing sadness and forming a huge contrast with the outside environment.

Just now, King Lu, King Jin (formerly King Xiang), and King Shu entered the palace one after another and came to the soul.

As the new king, Zhu Di knelt alone at the front of the mourning hall, guarding a paper-burning brazier and adding paper money to the pot from time to time.

At this time, he secretly glanced at the three grief-stricken clan kings who were prostrate under the incense table and crying in front of the memorial tablet of Zhu Yuanzhang. He felt that the overall situation of his succession was determined and the possibility of another change was extremely slim. .

The three kings went to Beijing for funeral, and they brought only a few dozen guards with them. When they saw Zhu Di after entering the palace, they immediately expressed their submission to the new emperor in sincere words.

Zhu Di combined the information secretly obtained by his spies and found that the three kings had no objections to Zhu Yuanzhang's decree for him to succeed to the throne, let alone any evil intentions.

In addition, after King Zhou and King Chu entered the palace, there was no change. Only then did Zhu Di think that he would hold a formal enthronement ceremony as emperor soon, which meant that the overall situation was settled.

After the two kings of Zhou and Chu entered the palace to pay homage to Zhu Di, the new king of the Ming Dynasty, they knelt in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's soul and cried from noon to the evening.

In fact, Zhu Di hoped that the kings of Zhou and Chu could jump out to cause trouble, even if it was just one person.

After all, King Qi had been deposed by Zhu Yuanzhang a few years ago. Now, except for Zhu Di, among Zhu Yuanzhang's surviving sons, only the two kings of Zhou and Chu are over 30 years old and are considered older.

Moreover, the two kings have been in the vassal longer than other vassal kings, and they have considerable influence on the surrounding prefectures and counties, and their foundation is relatively solid.

Although the other vassal kings held military power, their vassal age was short and their foundation was weak. For Zhu Di, they were not something to be afraid of at all.

Because of this, if someone in the two kings of Zhou and Chu launched a coup while attending a funeral, Zhu Di, as the new king, could naturally send troops to suppress it, take the opportunity to complete the reduction of the vassal, and show the power of the new king to other vassal kings as a deterrent.

But the kings of Zhou and Chu were not stupid.

When he was a boy, Zhou Wang Zhu Xi lived with Zhu Di in Fengyang, Zhongdu for several years, and knew that Zhu Di was a ruthless person.

When Zhu Di moved into the East Palace as King of Yan a few years ago, he knew that the situation was over. When Zhu Gaoxu went to Peking on Zhu Yuanzhang's order to control military affairs, he completely gave up his unrealistic illusions about the Ninth Five-Year Plan.

Now Zhu Di is the oldest among Zhu Yuanzhang's living disciples. He has been the "executive deputy emperor" for five years. His power is unmatched.

Therefore, Zhou Wang Zhu Ju's visit to Beijing this time was really to attend the funeral and had no other intentions.

As for the King of Chu, Zhu Zhen, he was four years younger than Zhu Di. He was born in the 24th year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty. He is now 35 years old. He holds military power and is a prince in one area. He is at an extremely ambitious age.

When Zhu Di was ordered to move into the East Palace, although he was unwilling to do so, there was nothing he could do.

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang passed away and he was closer to Jinling, he had some strange ideas.

However, on the way to Beijing, the King of Chu saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of the imperial court along the way, and had a very intuitive understanding of the military power Zhu Di had in his hands.

Especially after entering the capital, his more than 500 soldiers completely gave up resistance after facing fifty soldiers of the Divine Machine Team equipped with flint-haired muskets, and were then forcibly taken away to "rest".

On the New Year's Day last year, Zhu Yuanzhang's New Year's gift to the kings was a short-barreled flintlock gun that could shoot through ordinary armor.Therefore, the King of Chu, who was well aware of the power of flint-haired muskets, decisively gave up his covetousness for the throne of the emperor after weighing the pros and cons.

Because in a real fight, he knew that he would never be able to defeat Zhu Di. Instead of failing and being killed, he would do his duty as a minister, surrender and be loyal to the new emperor.

In history, King Zhu Zhen of Chu was a cautious and smart man. After King Yan Zhu Di Jingnan raised an army, he stood still. He neither rushed to aid his nephew Zhu Yunzhen nor supported his fourth brother Zhu Di. He did not take advantage of the chaos to seize the throne, but chose to sit on the mountain. Watch the tiger fight.

When King Yan Zhu Di successfully conquered the capital and ascended the throne, he went to the capital to pay homage to the new emperor.

It can be said that it is a wise move for Chu King Zhu Zhen to choose to surrender now.

At this moment, Zhang Yu, the commander of the imperial army's vanguard in mourning clothes, stooped and walked to Zhu Di's side, knelt down and whispered a message in a low voice.

After Zhu Di heard this, he waved Zhang Yu to retreat, and then called Zhu Gaoxu, who was kneeling in the mourning hall, in front of him.

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu, whose eyes were red, and felt a little unbearable, but still gave an order.

"Gao Xu, take my order and go to the Shenji Squadron to lead five hundred soldiers and wait outside the imperial city to prepare to welcome the kings to the capital."

After hearing this order, Zhu Gaoxu looked like he was hesitant to speak.

He could guess that Zhu Di asked him to lead five hundred divine machine soldiers to welcome the kings to the capital, probably in order to intimidate the kings with the power of the divine machine fleet, all equipped with flint-haired muskets.

Although showing force to the kings is a good way to scare people's hearts, Zhu Gaoxu still has a worry in his heart, but this worry is a bit "unfounded", so he hesitates whether to tell Zhu Di.

Zhu Di understood, turned around and walked to a side room behind the mourning hall.

"You come with me."

Zhu Gaoxu followed him.

After entering the side room, he looked around to make sure there was no third party, then lowered his voice and said bluntly: "Father, do you think there might be a prince from the clan who ordered his dead soldiers to disguise themselves as merchants while they were in Beijing attending a funeral?" , instead of going to Beijing and gathering in the city, waiting for an opportunity to launch a coup?"

"Gao Xu, I'm very happy that you can think of this."

Zhu Di stretched out his hands, placed one on Zhu Gaoxu's shoulders, and said confidently: "This kind of thing will never happen under my eyes, just relax."

Because three days before Zhu Gaoxu returned to Beijing on the second day of this month, he had already ordered to strengthen the defense of each gate of the imperial city and asked the gatekeepers to interrogate all those entering and leaving the imperial city.

After Zhu Yuanzhang passed away, he ordered the guards of all departments to arrest and imprison anyone who encountered suspicious people during interrogation. If they encountered resistance, they were allowed to be killed on the spot.

After Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he became even more worried.

He quickly asked: "Dad, I want to know who are the clan princes who are about to arrive in Beijing?"

Although Zhu Di didn't know why Zhu Gaoxu was so worried, he still patiently replied: "According to the spies' reports, King Tang, King Qin (second term), King An, King Dai, King Liao, King Han, King Shen, etc. have entered Yingtian Mansion successively. Within the territory, we expect to arrive in the capital tonight.”

He seemed to have guessed Zhu Gaoxu's concerns, and then added: "The followers brought by the kings are all less than a hundred people."

"Didn't Uncle Ning go to Beijing for the funeral according to the order?" Zhu Gaoxu asked doubtfully.

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(End of this chapter)