Daming: I am the Crown Prince

Old Zhu was a little unsure whether Zhu Yunhuan would commit a major crime, but he didn't care too much about it.

He knew very well that if the situation this time was serious, his precious grandson would definitely not hesitate to bring up a big case. As for the need for stability in the next one or two years, it was actually not particularly important.

After all, Zhu Yunhuan's situation is somewhat different. The transition of imperial power will not cause too many disturbances for him. It does not necessarily mean that a stable political situation is suitable for him to sit firmly on the throne.

After all, there is still Old Zhu to protect him. Old Zhu is abdicating, not doing anything else.

While Zhu Yunhuan was still thinking about doing some things, the Kaiping Palace seemed quite lively.

Chang Sen came back from Fujian to report on his work. This former military governor's deputy governor had been in Fujian for the past year, and had been working hard to carry out the tasks assigned by the Crown Prince. Even though his ability was average, he was a second-rank official, the youngest son of the Prince of Kaiping, and the third uncle of the Crown Prince.

These identities are enough to make him feel very comfortable in Fujian.

Although the official rank of Fujian Dusi Commander is the same as Chang Sen, they are the two highest-ranking officials in Fujian.

Together with the Dusi, the three divisions were the Chengxuanzhengshisi and the Tixinganchashisi. The governor was of the second rank and the censor was of the third rank. Not only were they not subordinate to each other, but their official ranks were also not high enough.

It is no exaggeration to say that Chang Sen felt more comfortable in Fujian than in Yingtian Prefecture.

It may not seem as prosperous as Yingtian Prefecture, but it is not a remote place in the absolute sense. When in Fujian, Chang Sen felt that he was the most powerful and everyone respected him.

He was free and easy in Fujian, but when he returned to Yingtian Prefecture, Chang Sen understood his position. He was a second-rank official, so he was not very useful. There were too many second-rank officials in Yingtian Prefecture.

After returning to the Kaiping Palace, there was even less to say, and his status was not worth mentioning at all.

"Mother!" After paying respects in a proper manner, Chang Sen asked impatiently, "Where's Jizu? Let me see her too."

Chang Lan said, "He is still asleep. When he wakes up, I will bring him to you for you to see."

Chang Lan was genuinely happy when she mentioned her precious grandson. She felt that she had nothing to regret in her life. She used to be too embarrassed to see Old Chang because she was worried about the issue of incense, but now she doesn't have to worry about these things.

Looking at her youngest son, Chang Lan urged, "You and your wife should hurry up. Your second brother has a son now, so you should have one too."

Chang Sen naturally nodded repeatedly. He used to be a little worried about age, but now he is not worried anymore. If his second brother can have children, then he can do it too.

"Your Highness is still the best to you. Which general would let his family accompany him when he is away?" Chang Lan said proudly, "You should not let His Highness down."

Chang Sen was naturally aware of this, as he was one of the few senior generals who brought his family with him to take office.

Chang Sen couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked, "Mom, did Yun Hun really have a child?"

Chang Lan couldn't hide the smile on her face at all. "Yes, they announced the good news in the court, and they also told me privately before. Our stepfather is lucky. He has the protection of his cousin, the crown prince. Maybe he can enter the palace to study with him in the future."

Chang Sen was also very happy. The identity of a study companion was very important. The future emperor's playmate was extremely special in itself. With enough family background, Chang Jizu would be the leader of a noble family in the future.

It doesn't matter if he has no ability, it will not hinder his transcendent status.

The Xu family and the King of Zhongshan are actually similar. Xu Qin will be lucky in the future, and it won't be a problem for him to take up the responsibility of the family.

In the final analysis, it is because they were born well, which is an innate advantage that many people cannot achieve even with continuous efforts. Even if there are some geniuses with outstanding abilities, they cannot reach the starting point when Chang Jizu and Xu Qin were born.

Chang Lan asked seriously, "How is the task that Yunxun asked you to do going?"

Chang Sen did not hide it, "This time I came back with more than 200 people. Some of them were put in jail for me, so I gave them some opportunities to prove their crimes, while others were from wealthy families, so I just needed to give them some benefits."

Chang Lan didn't ask too many questions. As long as her youngest son worked diligently, that was obviously enough.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Chang Lan likes to pray to Buddha and chant sutras now, and looks like a kind and gentle old lady. You should know that she used to live with Chang Yuchun in a den of robbers, and she had a younger brother who was a burden.

If you are not ruthless, you cannot survive in troubled times, and it is even more impossible for you to keep the Chang family going when the second generation is unable to take on the responsibility.

Chang Sen continued, "Yun Hu probably wants to send people to sea. I don't know what he is thinking, just do the work. I copied the Pu family in Quanzhou and found some people."

Chang Lan asked in surprise, "Quanzhou Pu family? Didn't Your Majesty punish Pu Shougeng for the crime of leading the Yuan Dynasty to overthrow the Song Dynasty?"

Pu Shougeng was originally from Champa, and later moved to Quanzhou to engage in maritime trade and accepted an official position in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, after surrendering to the Yuan Dynasty, he massacred all the royal family members in the city and defended Quanzhou for three months.

This also made him prominent during the transition from Song to Yuan, and his descendants also achieved great success in the Yuan Dynasty. However, this practice aroused the dissatisfaction of Zhu Yuanzhang, who believed that Pu Shougeng was disloyal and demoted all the men of the Pu family to slaves. The once high-ranking family eventually paid a heavy price.

Chang Sen said directly, "Your Majesty is still merciful. The Pu family was disloyal after all. Many of them changed their surnames out of fear of being implicated. Some of them were also dishonest, probably still thinking about the glory of the Song and Yuan dynasties. The Pu family was originally a maritime merchant, how could they be so ignorant? It has only been a few years, and they have forgotten all the property of their ancestors?"

Chang Lan also understood, and then said, "That's asking for punishment. If you don't know how to use torture, go and ask His Majesty to let the Jinyiwei people to interrogate him. Those people are good at torturing people, and they can make them say everything they shouldn't say."

Chang Sen was immediately proud. "Mom, even if I am incompetent, I still thought of these things. Yun Hun wants to go out to sea and look for sea merchants, so I will find someone in Fu Guang. I have found out exactly when to go out to sea, which foreign countries there are along the way, and what goods those sea merchants like. Some dishonest people in the Pu family wanted to keep some secrets for their reinstatement, and I found out everything."

Hearing Chang Sen say this, Chang Lan was naturally very satisfied. Her youngest son had made some progress and was still able to do some things well.

As long as I can do some things well, it will be enough. I don't ask for a lot of help to the Crown Prince, but it will be good if I can contribute a little.

After all, even if one's status and relationships are here, if they really have no effect at all, one will gradually be alienated, which is definitely not what Chang Lan wants to see.

Chang Sheng and Chang Sen also understood these principles, and they also knew that their abilities were limited. But they would definitely have no problem getting things done. As long as it was arranged by the Crown Prince Zhu Yunhuan, they would be able to do it well. The atmosphere in the Kaiping Palace seemed to be good. After all, Chang Sen, the Third Master, was back, and it was considered a family reunion.

But in the Wenhua Hall, the atmosphere seems to be a little different.

Zhu Yunhuan looked serious and asked, "I heard that your ruler calls himself the emperor?"

Li Yuancheng immediately knelt down and said in a panic, "Your Highness, please understand that although the royal family of Annan has changed, the country's name is Dai Viet. However, I have always remembered that the Zhao Song Dynasty gave the country the name Annan."

Zhu Yunhu just listened to this. Now Annan is Chen's Annan, and before that it was Li's Annan. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty was busy dealing with Liao and Western Xia and had no time to take care of the southwest. The intensity of the Li Dynasty's invasion increased again and again.

There were even incidents where they captured Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Yongzhou and other places in the Northern Song Dynasty, massacred hundreds of thousands of people in Guangdong and Guangxi, and took the people captive.

That is to say, he was defeated by Guo Kui and Zhao Xie, and then he asked for peace.

But now it is hard to calculate the account. In Annan, the Li Dynasty was replaced by the Chen Dynasty, and the Chen Dynasty was about to be usurped. As for China now, the Northern Song Dynasty is gone, the Southern Song Dynasty is gone, and even the Mongols have been driven back to the northern desert.

So it is definitely a bit far-fetched to bring up old issues now.

Even with Zhu Yunhuan's thick skin, he would be embarrassed to use such excuses and reasons.

If he wanted to use military force against Annan in the future, he could still find other excuses and reasons. Zhu Yunhuan could easily find many reasons, especially the fresh evidence in Annan was unstable, which was also a good reason.

So you can just be more patient and consider some things at the right time. That’s enough and you don’t need to think too much about other things.

Zhu Yunhuan looked at Li Yuancheng and continued, "I heard that in Annan, your father deposed and murdered the king. Is this true?"

Li Yuancheng said calmly, "Your Highness, please understand that this is slander. The matter of deposing and enthroning the old master was decided by the Supreme King, and has nothing to do with me, my father."

Zhu Yunhuan actually didn't care much about these things, and didn't care who killed Chen Feiwang, because it was not particularly important to the Ming Dynasty. The most important thing was to find a topic to talk about, and bring it up at the right time, which would naturally have enough effect.

As for the smooth communication with Li Yuancheng, that was actually no problem. Even though Li Yuancheng had an accent, it was not a big problem.

Not only did Goryeo always use Chinese characters as its official writing system, but Annan also used Chinese characters to record history. For the dignitaries of these kingdoms, learning Chinese characters and understanding Chinese was also one of the standard requirements.

Zhu Yunhuan did not dwell on the matter too much. He simply summoned Li Yuancheng and asked him a few questions, and that was all.

Zhu Yunhuan then looked at Daoyan and said, "Take the Annan envoys to the camp tomorrow to see our Ming Dynasty firearms."

Daoyan immediately accepted the order, and Li Yuancheng shuddered in his heart, but did not think much about it. The reason was that such things were relatively common and not worth making a fuss about.

When vassal states came to pay homage, they would often be arranged to see the military might of the suzerain state. At most, Li Yuancheng seemed to be treated mediocrely, and was only accompanied by a minister who was not particularly high-ranking, just to see the military might of the Ming Dynasty.

It was unknown what Li Yuancheng was thinking. When he came to the Ming Dynasty, the sovereign state, he actually had no more choices. For many things, he could only obey the arrangements.

After Li Yuancheng left, Daoyan asked, "Your Highness, tomorrow I will lead this person to inspect the Beijing camp. Should we focus on the Shenji Camp?"

Zhu Yunhuan also nodded and said, "Of course. You have also heard that this person is good at making firearms. Try to test him and see if he is really capable."

Daoyan naturally understood what he should do. He was indeed curious about this matter and wanted to know whether the son of the powerful official of Annan was really good at making firearms.

After all, the rumor that Li Yuancheng was good at firearms was not only reported by Ren Hengtai, but the Jinyiwei also gave such an evaluation. Naturally, it was worthy of the Ming Dynasty's monarchs and ministers to pay a little attention to it. After all, outstanding talents are welcome.

Even the fact that Li Yuancheng was able to come to the Ming Dynasty was actually the request of Ren Hengtai and others. It was a combination of soft and hard tactics that allowed Li Yuancheng to come to the Ming Dynasty as an envoy.

After Zhu Yunhuan arranged these things, he naturally needed to continue to deal with some other matters. The Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty also had a lot of things to do now.

"Let my third uncle enter the palace tomorrow." Zhu Yunhuan said, "The people he brought back will be arranged by him. The Five Military Commanders' Office will send someone to pick them up."

Daoyan replied, "Your Highness, we brought back a lot of sailors and merchants this time. If the court needs them urgently, they must be sent to Taicang."

Zhu Yunhuan certainly understood this and said, "Let's screen them and see how capable they are. The Ming Dynasty needs capable sailors, and my fleet is even more in need of them. Let's see if these people can be used by me."

It would be the best if they could be used by Zhu Yunhuan. If they were not capable enough, given their backgrounds and experiences, there would probably not be any good results.

It wasn't Zhu Yunhuan who murdered them, but these people themselves were not clean. If they didn't have enough ability, the best outcome would be to continue living as slaves.

If those sea merchants are not aware that secretly communicating with overseas is a serious crime, it will not be as simple as just being executed.

Therefore, if you want to change your destiny, you still need to come up with some real skills and knowledge, otherwise everything will naturally become empty talk and you will not be able to control your own destiny.

Come to think of it, many things do need to be stepped up further and efficiency needs to be improved. Let's try to start working hard this year so that we can see some initial results next year.

After all, next year is a very critical year. Even if Zhu Yunhuan will not deliberately pursue auspicious signs, he still hopes for more good news.

There is no one who doesn’t like happy events.

If something is exciting, then it would be even better! (End of this chapter)