The twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, the last day of the year.

Lunar New Year's eve.

Every house in the capital was decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and the children put on brand-new floral cotton-padded jackets, played with the firecrackers they cherished, and played in groups in the streets and alleys.

When the entire capital was plunged into a sea of ​​joy, only the huge palace was as deserted as in the past, without any joy and color of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

Lao Zhu stood on the gate tower of the palace, watching the rising smoke of thousands of people and listening to the hustle and bustle of the whole city, with a look of intoxication on his face.

Officials from the Ministry of Rites originally wrote a letter to strictly prohibit the people in the city from setting off firecrackers and posting couplets during the New Year on the grounds that the prince was newly mourned.

Even if you post couplets, they should be changed to white and not too festive.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and directly rejected the proposal.

The reason is also very simple. It was you who killed your son, why should you let the people suffer with you?

Lao Zhu is now standing on the city tower, listening to the laughter and laughter rising everywhere in Jinling City, and feels more and more that his decision is right.

Otherwise, where could he experience this kind of joy with the people?

Lao Zhu stood on the tower and watched for a while, then went back with Qin Deshun waiting on him.

Officials of the Ming Dynasty may have holidays, but he, the emperor, does not have holidays.

It's not that I can't, it's that I don't want to.

For Lao Zhu, only when reviewing memorials could he feel that he still firmly grasped the military and political power of the empire, and only then could he have a sense of security that would enrich him.

Just as Lao Zhu was about to get off the city wall, he suddenly heard the noise of children coming from the east.

The sound was loud, and there was something familiar about it.

"Who is making the noise over there?"

Qin Deshun looked at the direction the emperor was pointing and quickly lowered his head and replied.

"Your Majesty, over there is the main hall..."

"Ohondo?"

Since Lao Zhu's eldest son left Beijing, he has never been to the main hall, or even passed there.

Today, I suddenly heard laughter coming from the direction of the main hall, and Lao Zhu suddenly felt a different emotion in his heart.

"Come with us and take a look!"

"Don't disturb them!"

"promise!"

Today is the first Cricket King Competition in the Daihondo. Not only the princes and princesses in the palace are here, but also the male and female companions outside the palace are here to join in the fun.

After all, this gameplay is the only novelty in history, so who would be willing to give it up?

Zhu Zhi transformed from a frog-catching little prince into the organizer of the Cricket King Tournament and acted as a referee.

After leading everyone to draw lots and group them into groups, the Cricket King Competition officially began.

The first to take the field was King Ning's team led by Zhu Quan, facing off against King Su's team led by Zhu Ying.

The two of them each found four teammates from a group of companions to form a complete team.

After receiving Zhu Zhi's order to start the war, the two eunuchs lifted up the huge partition in the middle of the wooden square plate, and then five people from each team surrounded the square plate with hay, teasing their respective crickets to jump towards the middle area.

In fact, even if they don't need to be teased with hay, the crickets will still charge forward.

Because the grid on the square wooden plate is very narrow, it can only accommodate one cricket.

Relatively speaking, the crickets that only play in the jungle are a bit difficult to deal with. Many times they eat endlessly in the jungle, regardless of the battle situation outside.

….

A real foodie in the wilderness.

In order to prevent the crickets on one side from killing each other, Zhu Zhi also consulted a stranger who raised crickets among the people and asked for two copies of the secret medicine. As long as he applied it to the crickets, they would not bite their own crickets and would rush to apply it.

The crickets that had received another kind of medicinal powder bit madly.

In the first game, Zhu Quan was left miserable, with only crickets left in the wild area, eating up the opposing high ground and broad bean crystals along the way.

In the second game, Zhu Quan's luck was a bit bad. Before the foodie in the jungle could come out, his side was bitten by Zhu Ying's crickets.

The third round,

Zhu Quan, who fully realized that the jungler was unreliable, gave up the initiative in the jungle and placed the jungler in the middle, allowing the middle to destroy the opponent with overwhelming force.

In the fourth game, Zhu Ying also learned from Zhu Quan and went a step further. He simply moved the bottom lane and jungler to the middle lane, directly forming a three-on-two situation, and then sang and marched all the way to the opponent's high ground.

When Zhu Zhi saw so many changes in the first game, he even played directly into the fifth game. His face turned red with excitement and he kept clapping his hands and cheering.

Other onlookers were also fascinated by it. They had never thought that there could be so many tricks in fighting crickets.

Even the princesses, princesses, and female companions outside the palace, who couldn't even tell the difference between red and blue, watched with gusto and applauded and cheered for the familiar princes and princes.

When the battle progressed to the fifth game, the situation was extremely fierce. Both sides put their superior forces into the middle lane, and the other two lanes just randomly sent the two weakest crickets to contain each other.

But the six giant crickets in the middle battled, and each exploded with astonishing fighting power, biting them until the sky was dark.

The princes and princesses who were watching the excitement were so excited that their hands turned red.

Zhu Yuanzhang was attracted by the sound of the fifth scene. When he hid outside the door and saw these traitors working on this thing again, his old face suddenly sank.

But when he saw that all the princes and princesses were so happy, the gloom on their faces suddenly turned into ripples and spread out.

Let them have a good New Year with peace of mind first...

Lao Zhu looked outside for a while and suddenly saw a young man holding a book in his hand.

I saw this young man looking at the crickets on the wooden plate for a while, then looking down at the book in his hand, and kept reciting something.

When Lao Zhu saw this scene, he couldn't help but asked in a low voice.

"Whose child is this?"

"Your Majesty, this is Kong Yanjin, the grandson of Yan Shenggong Kong Ne."

Lao Zhu nodded in approval after hearing this.

"No wonder you are so diligent in studying. Even if it is such a fun thing, you still can't put it down..."

"If our grandson were here, he would definitely be the one having the most fun, hahaha..."

Seeing that the emperor was in a good mood, Qin Deshun made a small joke with the emperor.

"Your Majesty, I have different opinions."

"If the Third Emperor's Grandson is here, His Highness the King of Liao's referee position must belong to the Third Emperor's Grandson, hehehe..."

"you're right!"

"But from what we can see, that Nisun will not only be the referee, but he will also probably end up off the field, hahaha..."

Lao Zhu joked with Qin Deshun and looked at the door again.

….

"Kong Yanjin is pretty good. Remember to remind us in the future to let him be our eldest grandson's companion in the East Palace."

"Donggong..."

When Qin Deshun heard this, a trace of hesitation flashed on his face.

"Your Majesty, the Fourth Emperor's grandson may not be doing well recently. Would you like to go over and take a look?"

"Zhu Yunzhen?"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was shocked. He had felt something was wrong just now. He always felt that something was missing in the main hall. It was because his other grandson was not here.

"How is Zhu Yunzhen doing lately?"

"Still the same as before, he doesn't like to talk, and he doesn't like to go out of the palace. He just sits in the room in a daze all day long."

Seeing Qin Deshun say this, Lao Zhu felt like he was being pricked by a needle, and the pain made him cover his heart involuntarily.

In fact, how could he not know about Lu's little thoughts?

I just couldn't bear to scold them because of their young age.

If Da Sun hadn't put the conclusive evidence in front of him, Lao Zhu would have been able to keep pretending.

It was only after learning that the death of the prince Zhu Biao was related to this woman that Lao Zhu became murderous.

Although the Lu family has been eliminated now, the Zhu family is still the most seriously injured.

One of the two grandsons of the Zhu family changed drastically and competed with Zhu Yunxi for fame.

Strive for profit. A dull and stupid person, sitting in the palace all day long without saying a word.

Relatively speaking, he would rather hope that Zhu Yunwen would argue with Zhu Yunwen about something, even if he was a little ambitious.

At least it can distract the children and prevent them from getting into trouble.

When Lao Zhu arrived at the Prince's Mansion, he was instantly shocked by the desertedness of the Prince's Mansion.

There are no guards in the huge Prince's Mansion. When you step inside, you can't even see a palace maid or eunuch.

The dead leaves all over the yard, blown by the breeze, made bursts of rustling sounds, revealing endless loneliness and dilapidation.

When Lao Zhu saw this scene, he became furious and furious.
To be continued...