high official

Chapter 248
Zhu Gaochi said in one sentence, the needle could be heard in the hall, and he could even hear his heart beating.

Zhu Di's long silence made Zhu Gaochi feel as if he was about to suffocate, so he said slowly: "Since the crown prince has opened his mouth, I have to give you this face, let him go back to Zhejiang!" On the two-foot imperial silk that had been prepared a long time ago, write a big word 'forgiveness', and then threw it in front of the prince.

Zhu Gaochi was overjoyed immediately, kowtowed heavily and said, "Long live father!"

"Don't be too happy." Zhu Di snorted coldly and said, "You should handle this errand yourself," he said, looking at the hourglass in the corner, and said, "It will be noon soon, and there are still three quarters before the knife is cut. You can’t ride a horse or sit in a sedan chair, and you can’t have someone to help you, but you can walk to Taiping Causeway by yourself, can you do it?”

"This..." Zhu Gaochi was stunned. He was seriously ill when he was a teenager. Although he finally saved his life, his legs and feet were also disabled. Later, his body became fatter and he was very inconvenient to walk. He had to be supported by someone when he went in and out. Isn't it embarrassing to walk to Taiping Causeway.

"Why, it can't be done?" Zhu Di said lightly, "Then there's no other way."

"I will do my best!" Zhu Gaochi took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said, "If Zhou Xin's life is not to die, I will let my servant arrive."

"Well said." Zhu Di nodded and said, "It's fate if you don't get there..." Then he closed his eyes and said, "Why are you dawdling?"

"My son obeys the order!" Zhu Gaochi saluted his father, picked up the imperial silk on the ground, dried the red traces on it, carefully folded it up, put it in his sleeve, and then stood up with difficulty while supporting the scorpion.

Zhu Di looked indifferently at his fat body limping to the door of the hall, then turned around and crossed the threshold with his legs, and disappeared from sight, then slowly lowered his eyelids and said, "Huang Yan, it's your first time to go to prison. How did you tell Zhou Xin?"

"Minister..." Hearing the emperor's question about this, Huang Yan suddenly lost his mind. Fortunately, he is also a former minister of Yan's residence. I mean to ask him, you want to be Bigan, but where do you put the emperor? He replied that the Ming Dynasty was not the Shang Dynasty, there was no Bigan, and there was no King Zhou. Other..."

"Really?" Zhu Di said coldly, "Why didn't you tell me before, Zhou Xin's answer."

"Chen, I'm afraid the emperor thinks I'm speaking for him," Huang Yan swallowed hard and said, "I thought he would say in the memorial..."

"Hmph..." Zhu Di gave a cold glance, and Huang Yan immediately knelt down with sweat profusely.Fortunately, Zhu Di has been feeling unwell recently, and was extremely annoyed by this matter, so he didn't intend to go any further, but coldly warned: "Next time, don't dare to make up your own mind..."

"I just hit my head to death." Huang Yan kowtowed like garlic.

"It's good to know." Zhu Di snorted coldly and said, "Decree, order Dongge University scholar Yang Rong to go to Shaanxi immediately to deliver the decree, calling Song Hu, Marquis of Xining, back to Beijing; and meeting Li Bin, Marquis of Fengcheng, to discuss the strategy of marching troops, and set off immediately. Make no mistake!"

"Yes." Huang Yanru was amnesty, and hurried to the cabinet to pass the decree.

Sending Yang Rong this kind of hard work is obviously a disguised punishment, and the emperor's heart is like a prison.It's just that the emperor's heart can't do whatever he wants, because he still has the heart of heaven on his head, the heart of his ministers around him, and the heart of the people below... After all, Zhu Di is a wise emperor. He knows the thoughts of his ministers and people; The big tide in Zhejiang is a warning from the heavens. It seems that the hearts of the subjects and the hearts of the people and the hearts of the people do not want to kill Zhou Xin. Only a single husband can ignore the hearts of the people.

In the end, let’s follow the trend...

.

Emperor Yongle's following the trend may be the cruelest one in the world.Now all hopes are pinned on the prince's lame leg. If he can't arrive at the execution ground at [-]:[-] noon, Zhou Xin will not be able to save him, and the prince's reputation will plummet.The subjects don't care whether Zhu Gaochi is disabled or not, they will feel deeply disappointed, which the prince can't afford anyway.

Zhu Gaochi had no choice but to go all out, gritted his teeth, and moved towards the palace gate step by step.

The palace servants, guards, and officials in the Beiyuan looked at Zhu Gaochi's limping figure with complicated eyes, and saw that he walked slowly through the long royal road, taking twice as long as ordinary people , went to the gate of the palace.

The guards at the gate of the palace and the eunuchs on duty were stunned when they saw the prince limping, and hurriedly saluted him.The eunuch of the East Palace hurried forward to help, but was stopped by the sweaty prince and said: "I have a will, I want to walk to Taiping Causeway by myself."

How can it be?The eunuchs in the East Palace were stunned. Seeing the prince walk from Yitian Palace to the forbidden gate, he was already exhausted and on the verge of collapse. There is still a full two miles away from Taiping Causeway, how could he arrive on time?

At this time, Yang Shiqi happened to walk to the gate of the palace, and whispered to the dumbfounded eunuch, "I still haven't found a crutch for Your Highness!"

Only then did the eunuchs suddenly realize, and hurriedly shouted: "Guai, go find a crutch!" It's just that although this thing is not rare, it doesn't mean that you can find it by looking for it.

It was a guard of the Eastern Palace who had an idea and removed a crossbar from the prince's carriage, and handed it to the prince to use it as a crutch.Needless to say, although this thing is not suitable for use, it can support the heavy body of the prince and give him the strength to walk on.

Under the high vermilion wall of Beiyuan, there appeared such a picture, countless palace guards formed a large circle, guarding and guiding the prince in the circle, walking towards the Taipingmen with sticks.More and more officials got the news and joined the ranks of guards.Although the imperial guards couldn't move, they still paid attention with solemn expressions...

Countless pairs of eyes were filled with tears, looking at the trembling prince. Although no one dared to reach out to touch him, once he was exhausted, there would be countless hands to support him, and they would never let their highness fall down.

But not all of them stared at the prince emotionally. There was Jin Yiwei who had already galloped away on horseback, and first went to Taipingdi to report the news.

.

On the Taiping Embankment, although Zhu Gaoxu and Ji Gang didn't drink much, they were all drunk. Looking at Zhou Xin kneeling on the execution platform, they were already a little tipsy.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside the execution ground, and the two frowned slightly. Looking down from a height, they saw the gate open, and a flag schoolman got off his horse and galloped towards the execution stage.

At this time, there must be no good news, Ji Gang waved his hand, motioning for the guards to let him up.Sure enough, the flag school stepped onto the stage, knelt down in front of the two of them and reported: "The emperor decreed that Zhou Xin was pardoned!"

The faces of the two of them changed drastically immediately, but they held the two wine glasses firmly in their hands, obviously they were both people with amazing concentration.After a moment of silence, Zhu Gaoxu stretched out his hand and said, "What about the will?"

The flag school was taken aback, I'm just a messenger, okay?

"Who has the will?" Ji Gang asked in a deep voice.

"In the hands of the prince." The flag school hurriedly said.

"Prince!" Zhu Gaoxu gritted his teeth and crushed the wine glass in his hand...

"The crown prince came here on foot." The flag school rushed too fast, panting a little, and then calmed down, and finished speaking: "It seems that the emperor has an order to ask the crown prince to walk to the execution ground..."

"What?" Zhu Gaoxu would definitely have kicked the bastard off the stage if it wasn't for the full attention of everyone.Ji Gang was delighted: "With his lame leg, can he walk in an hour?" He said and glanced at the sundial in the middle of the execution ground.There are strict restrictions on killing people in this era. Generally, criminals are executed in the beginning of autumn. It is the moment when the extreme sun turns to cloudy.Even if it is a prisoner who is determined to be executed, he can't wait until the autumn, and it must be at three quarters in the afternoon.This is the time of the day when the yang energy is at its peak, and the souls of the dead will dissipate immediately and will not form unjust ghosts.So there is nothing wrong with this moment.

Execution in the capital city, the killing of the imperial convicts, so it is necessary to strictly abide by this regulation, so there is a sundial on the execution ground, and the Qin Tianjian adjusted the position in advance, and waited until the shadow of the pointer in the middle of the stone plate turned to three o'clock in the afternoon. On the engraved lines, he will be cut immediately!

At this time, the cloud had cleared a lot, and the sunlight shone on the hands, casting a faint shadow on the engraving at noon.

"There are still two quarters of an hour." Ji Gang said in a deep voice.

"He can't make it!" Zhu Gaochi spread his hands, threw the broken porcelain on the ground, then picked up a white towel and wiped his palms, but there was no bleeding.That's because of years of practice, the palms of the hands have thick calluses, which form a protection.He said in a dark voice: "With his lame leg, he can't walk here even in a day. Father is just making a gesture to block the mouths of those civil servants, and it will embarrass the boss severely!"

"It should be like this." Ji Gang nodded and said with a smile, "Let's just watch the show." He brought a new wine glass for King Han and filled it up.

"Yeah." Zhu Gaoxu took it over, drank it all and said, "Father really wants to go with us!"

The two continued to drink and laugh, but their smiles were forced, and their eyes kept going back and forth between the sundial and the fire gate, obviously they were insincere, but in fact they were so nervous... If a miracle happens and Zhu Gaochi arrives on time, Ji Gang will be the one this time. Lose and lose.Although Zhu Gaoxu seems to stay out of the matter, if the prince can save Zhou Xin under such circumstances, he will win back all the losses he lost before, and his reputation will rise to a higher level!The blow to him was even greater than the blow to Ji Gang...

The two wanted to deploy troops to block the emergency gate, but neither of them dared to act recklessly, because they knew very well that the emperor was watching all this closely, even if they dared to play some small tricks behind the scenes, under the eyes of the emperor, it was nothing at all. Don't dare to make mistakes!
In that room, the prince had already put on padded crutches, and under the expectant eyes of countless people, he speeded up and moved forward step by step... In fact, he had reached the limit, his vision was black and his eyes were filled with gold stars. But he knew that his father was watching him, his subjects were watching him, and Zhu Gaoxu was also watching him. Whether it was for those expecting gazes or cursing gazes, he had to let himself go!
Even if you die from exhaustion, you have to go to Taiping Dike to die!
(End of this chapter)