The meaning of the Lantern Festival is reunion. This is true for people’s homes, and even more so for their families.

However, Zhu Youdong's Lantern Festival has not had a real reunion for many years.

The first is the senior member of the family, the Supreme Emperor Zhu Yijun. Wanli, who was only 62 years old, not only lived longer than in the original plane of history, but also lived more happily.

The old man went on a tour of Dunhuang five years ago and completely lost his temper. In the past five years, except for returning to Beijing once or twice, he spent the rest of the time touring the country. This year, he and Concubine Zheng even went to North Korea to be with Prince Fu.

Celebrate the holidays.

In his words: Only today do I truly know what the country I have ruled for more than 40 years is really like.

Wanli was very good to Zhu Youdong in his early years, and the trust and support he showed was no longer what an emperor should do, but a grandfather who doted on his grandson. Therefore, Zhu Youdong was not satisfied with Wanli's move to tour the country and even the entire Greater East Asia.

They are very supportive: From the time he was born to the time he abdicated, the old man has not left Beijing for more than fifty years!

Except for Wanli and Concubine Zheng, all of Zhu Youdong's uncles are no longer in the country due to the enfeoffment system. Not only them, but in recent years, more than 20 princes who were enfeoffed by the emperors before Zhu Youdong have all left the country to go abroad.

.

Awanalong of Myanmar passed away two years ago, and then the Ming Dynasty took advantage of the situation and took it over. Following the example of Siam, a good piece of land was allocated to the descendants of Awanalong in a symbolic way.

After conquering the Mon people, the fertile Irrawaddy plain was divided between the two princes, the King of Shu and the King of Chu.

Not only that, when these two princes became vassal, they also took away all the dozens of princes and counties that had been entrusted from them over the past two hundred years - this item alone was taken back by the Ming Dynasty.

Nearly ten million acres of land.

The King of Qin went to Luzon, and the King of Jin went to Mindanao. As for the Malay Peninsula, Kalimantan, and even Java, many other islands in Southeast Asia, more than a dozen princes were placed there.

In short, by the Lantern Festival in the seventh year of Qi (1625), when Wanli had not returned, Zhu Youdong was already the most senior person in the Forbidden City except the Empress Dowager Guo.

"Brother!"

"Haha, sister, um, and Staff Officer Lu, you are here. Oops, this is my nephew, come here and let your uncle hug you."

After meeting Wahid, Zhu Youdong hurried back to the harem: since he is the oldest man in the palace, he must always be present on family reunion days like the Lantern Festival.

Then, as soon as they returned, they met Lu Xiangsheng and Zhu Huijuan, who were carrying their son, who was only half a year old, into the palace.

Come on, he, Zhu Youdong, has abolished many old rules in the more than ten years since he became the supervisor of the country. After the princess got married, the stinky rule that the prince-in-law could not live with the princess as a normal couple was naturally abolished. In addition,

The rule that the prince-in-law could not hold actual positions no longer existed. Lu Xiangsheng was now a staff officer under the Privy Council, and he had made rapid progress under the guidance of Ma Chengzhao and other officials. Therefore, the relationship between the husband and wife was now very good.

After holding his nephew and playing with him for a while, Zhu Youdong suddenly felt someone tugging on his trousers. He lowered his head and looked down, only to see a two-year-old child stretching out his hands in grievance: "Father, I want it too.

hug."

"Hahaha, Yan'er can walk on his own, it's amazing." He quickly handed his nephew back to Lu Xiangsheng, leaned over and picked up his third son.

For a lazy man like him, it is quite irresponsible to name his son: His eldest son Zhu Ciyi was born in the first year of Qi, and he was already six years old this year. According to the rule that royal children were initiated at the age of four, Ciyi His biological mother Youyou invited Li Jia, who had just returned to Beijing from Singapore two years ago to serve as the governor of Shunfu, and Ma Chengzhao, the commander of the Privy Council.

The second son, Zhu Ciyan, was born to Queen Liu Yun in the third year of Qi. He was four years old and was about to become enlightened.

As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong does not have a strong concept of concubine. However, the concept of etiquette and law that a legitimate son is superior to a concubine has lasted for more than two thousand years. Therefore, Zhu Ciyan's enlightenment has received much more attention from the imperial court than Zhu Ciyi. : Headed by his second assistant, Yuan Keli, Wang Shaozheng, Zhao Yan, Gu Bingqian and other big names served as his liberal arts teachers. Li Guojun, Sun Yuanhua, Song Yingxing and others from Fangshan served as his science teachers. The military even sent backbone generals such as Li Chunzhong, Ma Chengen and others to serve as his military teachers. .Moreover, the military carefully selected Cao Wenzhao's nephew, Cao Bianjiao, who is now sixteen years old, to be the captain of the bodyguard.

As for the third son Zhu Ciyan, he was born to Queen Liu Yun. As the second son, his birth caused the status of the eldest son Zhu Ciyi to drop again: The eldest son already had a spare tire, but you, the eldest son Zhu Ciyi, are not even a spare tire. Up.

He also felt helpless about this situation: as an emperor, he had changed a lot of etiquette, but there were some things that he was unable to fight against. As a father, the only thing he could do was to give more care to his eldest son to make up for this. Ouchi treated him differently everywhere.

However, this kind of care is also extremely limited: he is so busy that he didn't realize until his third son was over two years old and could walk independently: Huh? My son can walk?

After picking up his son and teasing him for a while, Lai Wang Zhu Youxiao arrived.

"Meet my brother."

"Haha, the school and my brother told you not to leave in a hurry after the Spring Festival. You see, you have to rush back from Tianjin for the Lantern Festival."

"It's okay, Brother Emperor, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway has speeded up again. I set off this morning and arrived before noon."

"Well, Brother Wei is really envious of you. For so many years, Brother Wei has been trapped in Beijing like the emperor in his early years, unable to go anywhere. Now that the Beijing-Tianjin Railway has been opened, Brother Wei is still I’ve never experienced it.”

"If Brother Huang is free this year, why not go to Tianjin again. Brother Chen will take the train with Brother Huang."

"Oh?" Zhu Youdong glanced at Zhu Youxiao playfully: "Are you finally willing to let me go see your girlfriend?"

"Uh..." His Royal Highness Prince Lai was made red-faced: "No, brother, what I mean is that Ming Dynasty's latest five-thousand-ton iron-clad ship will be launched in the second half of this year. , I will ask the emperor to preside over the water launching ceremony when the time comes."

"Hahaha, I will do this for my brother. But you must hurry up and get married. You are already twenty years old this year! Do you think you were only seventeen when you got married last year?"

Up, due to the intrusion of the time-traveler Zhu Youdong, Zhu Youxiao's life trajectory has undergone great changes: he no longer wants to be an emperor, and his talent as an engineer has completely exploded under the conscious guidance of the time-traveler. Now, at the age of twenty

His Royal Highness King Lai, with his age and rich knowledge and experience, has become the leading warship designer of the Ming Empire. Last year, the Yinghaoshun, with a standard displacement of 3,000 tons, had just been outfitted and the navy took over the ship. It has arrived.

This year, the 5,000-ton Songjiang will be launched again.

"Brother, I am extremely satisfied with your work. Not only are you satisfied with your work, but also the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty, who dares to blame His Highness for not doing a good job. However, personal issues should be resolved as soon as possible. That Zhang Yaner has not yet done so.

I’ve seen it before, but I heard that General Bi Maokang is extremely beautiful?”

"Well, Yan'er is great. How about this, brother emperor, you will cut the ribbon on my brother's new ship in the second half of the year, and then by the way, we will hold a wedding on the new armored ship. You will officiate at the wedding?"

"Huh? That's a good suggestion. Hahaha, although this will definitely cause some old scholars to jump out and say it's inappropriate, but I will bear this pressure for you, brother."

The brothers chatted for a while. Not long after, Fang Zhenghua outside the door began to roll call again: King Jian Zhu You? King Zhu Youji of Qi Huai Wang Zhu Youmoxin and Wang Zhu Youjian all arrived one after another.

"My dear brother, please pay homage to your royal brother. I wish you a happy holiday and good health."

"No gifts, no gifts, we brothers don't have to be so particular about it. Well, why? Ah, you just got married last year, and now I hear that Princess Jian already has a baby in her belly?"

"Uh..." Zhu You? blushed: "Brother, it's true."

"Haha, then you have to work hard at your position as an official in Baoding Prefecture. If you make a mistake and get fined, it doesn't matter if you can't support the whole family and take care of your brother."

"Brother Huang laughed. Farewell, my brother's princely salary has been paid out on time by the court. Even my current official salary is still a sixth-grade official after all. After three salary increases, the monthly salary of a sixth-grade official is still twenty-three yuan.

Silver dollars (as mentioned before, the purchasing power of one silver dollar in this era is roughly equivalent to 250 yuan in later generations, and compared with modern times, the price of agricultural products in the Ming Dynasty was cheap, and industrial products were extremely expensive), it is enough for the expenses of Chendi's family. But..." Zhu Youshen

Bowed: "My dear brother, I would like to remind you that the job of recommending officials is judicial work, and there is absolutely no room for sloppiness. If this is an oversight, good people will suffer and evil people will go unpunished. Therefore, my brother, I have been doing this all these years.

It’s about doing things cautiously and like walking on thin ice.”

"Okay, I am very happy that you are always alert."

After saying this, Zhu Youdong turned his eyes to Zhu Youji and Zhu Youmo. When these two guys saw Zhu Youdong's eyes turning around, they couldn't help but tense up.

As the saying goes, nine sons born from a dragon are all different. Compared with Zhu Youxiao and Zhu You?, these two princes, who are only fifteen years old this year, are much worse.

Zhu Youxiao had an engineer talent and worked hard. Zhu Youxiao didn’t have much talent, but he excelled in being diligent and working tirelessly. As for these two, they had neither talent nor diligence, and they also had bad habits - the former was lustful and the latter

Good to gamble.

Originally, as princes, it was not a big deal for them to have such hobbies, but you harassed the female classmates at Fangshan School and organized the classmates to gather for gambling all night long. This was unbearable.

Then Li Zhizao, who is now in charge of the specific management of Fangshan School, simply fired the two princes after several punishments failed!

Although the royal family suffered a huge loss of face, Zhu Youdong did not overturn Li Zhizao's decision. On the contrary, he sent Queen Liu Yun to apologize to the relevant teachers and students one by one.

But after these two guys returned to the palace, they were kidnapped by Zhu Youdong and gave them a beating in person: "Elder brothers are like fathers."

Now, these two guys were ordered to study behind closed doors in Xinghua Palace, where Zhu Youdong originally lived. It has been half a year, and they finally took advantage of the Lantern Festival to take a trip to Xinghua Palace.

"You two, I heard from the leaders in the inner study hall that your performance in the past six months has been quite good. I am very busy now. When I have free time, I will take a test of your coursework. If you are passable, then I will let you go out to accompany me.

As the emperor travels around, you will perform your filial piety on my behalf at the emperor's knees. If you are still a rotten tree that cannot be carved, then no, even if you are a biological brother, I will have no choice but to let you go to Fengyang to keep vigil."

"Brother, don't worry, I will repent seriously and study hard."

"Yeah." After letting these two brothers go, Zhu Youdong turned his attention to his youngest brother, Zhu Youjian, who was only fourteen years old this year.

"Youjian, you are about to graduate from Fangshan Middle School this year, right? Are you planning to go to graduate school or do something else? I heard about your results. You have been number one in the grade for three years. I am very proud of you.

you are happy."

"Brother Emperor." The childish King Xin Zhu Youjian first looked at the two brothers next to him who were only one year older than him with disdain, and then replied energetically: "Brother Emperor, I ask myself whether I am doing scientific research.

I don’t have much talent in this area, let alone any interest. Therefore, after graduating from middle school, I don’t plan to enter the graduate school. My brother requested that after graduation, my brother please let me go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. My brother wants me to go to the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!