Chapter 168 The Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet (please give me your monthly ticket)
Perhaps only people like Zhu Yuanzhang, who have waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, can face this terrifying hell on earth.
He stared intently at the white bones and piles of corpses in front of him.
This scene and the towering Zhongdu City behind him formed a very visually impactful composition, the City of All Evils.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked again in a deep voice: "Where are those missing civilian husbands?"
"Some of them were executed together before the emperor returned home." Han Yike suppressed his nausea and said: "And some of them were secretly imprisoned in more than a dozen warehouses."
After the failure of the Zhongdu uprising and the subsequent eleventh massacre, there were still over 200,000 civilians in Zhongdu City. If it were just for show to the emperor, half of them would not be used.
So when Li Shan grew up, he could carefully select craftsmen and civilian husbands who were honest, obedient, easy to control, healthy and good-looking, and showed them to Boss Zhu.
And those who were excessively worn out, insensitive, and haggard were all hidden by him...
But Mr. Han did not expect that the two princes had actually visited the Zhongdu construction site long ago. The scenes they saw and the emperor were completely different.
Of course Zhu Yuanzhang had to ask, where were those craftsmen and civilians who were not suitable for display?
"Have everyone been rescued?"
"Some of them were rescued, but time is limited and there are still many that have not been found." Han Yike hesitated and hissed: "The scene was really tragic at that time."
"Worse than this?"
"Yes. There are dead people here." Han Yike nodded without hesitation. "But there are dead people, living people, and the living dead being locked up side by side. In order to prevent the emperor from discovering them, the government did not give them any food.
Food and drink, the result can be imagined..."
"People eat each other..." Zhu Yuanzhang squeezed out a few words from between his teeth.
"Yes, but the scene is ten times worse..." Han Yike whispered.
"..." Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes in pain after hearing this, and suddenly gave himself a hard slap in the face.
"Your Majesty!" Everyone exclaimed.
~~
It was already August 14th when the Holy Emperor returned to Zhongdu City.
The fact that the Yulin Guards released the Fangqiu Lake, allowing tens of thousands of corpses to be seen again; and that the warehouse where the civilians were hiding was found, has naturally spread throughout the central capital.
The entire upper echelon of Zhongdu remained silent, holding their breath waiting for Emperor Hongwu to unleash his thunderous wrath!
Unexpectedly, before the emperor got sick, he received invitations from Boss Zhu to the distinguished officials and fellow villagers in Zhongdu.
Invite them to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival at the newly completed Fengtian Temple Square tomorrow night...
~~
"Prime Minister, what does this mean?" Xue Xiang held the invitation in his hand as if he were holding a hot potato.
"There is no such thing as a good feast." Li Shanchang had already adjusted and regained his will to fight: "It's nothing more than cooking Ding Bin or Li Qi for everyone to celebrate the festival. He can do whatever he wants, and he can share a piece of the pie with me.
.”
"Not really..." Xue Xiang wanted to say 'not really', but Boss Zhu had already baked Li You, so it wouldn't be surprising to bake two more...
"There can be no chaos at this time." Li Shan sighed, as if to remind him, but also to encourage himself: "No matter how grand and angry the superior is, currently two of him can't move. One can't move.
None of these old Huaixi brothers can change the national policy of moving the capital."
"Yeah." Xue Xiang nodded.
"With these two protections, we won't die." Li Shanchang said calmly: "The superiors know very well that I, Old Li, have no big ambitions and only have small calculations at most. If you kill me and replace me with a careerist like Hu Weiyong, hehe,
Whether Huaixi will still be so submissive and submissive, no one can say for sure."
"Yeah." Xue Xiang nodded a lot more this time.
"So at best I will be embarrassed; as for you, at most you will be dismissed from office." Li Shanchang stood up holding Xue Xiang's arm and said:
"But as long as the capital move is successful, everything will be fine. At that time, we are like the peonies next to the peonies. No matter how many times they are cut off, they will grow back. And they will bloom more and more, so much that people can't tell which ones are.
Peony, not peony!"
"I understand, Prime Minister." Xue Xiang felt relieved.
~~
The next day the license application will be finalized.
The nobles, heroes, and fellow emperors who received the invitations came to the Hongwu Gate one after another, were inspected by the imperial guards, and prepared to enter the palace for the banquet.
It's just that the guests all had worried faces, lowered their heads and said nothing, and the atmosphere was very solemn. They didn't look like they were attending a banquet, but like they were going to the execution ground.
Boss Zhu’s food is really scary to eat.
The last time he invited someone to dinner, he ended up roasting a living person. This time he invited someone to dinner again, and he didn't know what tricks he was going to pull off again...
Everyone has shit on their butts and has ghosts in their hearts. It's strange that they can't be afraid.
But you have to come if you are afraid. Who dares not to come? The Forbidden Army will probably come to ask for jail time in the next moment...
Everyone entered the palace worriedly, and under the guidance of the chamberlain, they entered Daming Gate, Meridian Gate, and Fengtian Gate.
When they passed through the many palace gates, they felt like turtles crawling into an urn, and it was an urn within an urn. They could never escape from the palm of Boss Zhu!
The banquet was held on the spacious Danbi in front of Fengtian Hall, and there were only two rows of long tables on the left and right sides, leaving a large space in the middle.
There was a carpet in the middle, so there was clearly something going on.
What surprised the guests even more was that the emperor had already sat down on the golden platform with a big horse and a golden sword.
Boss Zhu rested his right arm on the table and rested his chin on his right hand, looking at the people walking onto the platform expressionlessly.
Everyone hurriedly kowtowed. Zhu Yuanzhang only nodded slightly and said nothing more. It was very different from the past when he would stand up to greet fellow villagers and old brothers without any pretense, greeting them as brothers and greeting them warmly.
Boss Zhu didn't speak, and no one dared to sit down. The guests all stood obediently on the throne of Emperor Dan, with their heads lowered and not daring to look at the emperor. No one was engaging in trivial matters with him as usual.
After all the guests arrived and knelt down to the emperor again, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his sleeves and said, "Everyone, please sit down."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Everyone thanked him in unison, got up and took their seats.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked around at everyone and slowly said: "Today is August 15th. You are either old brothers who accompanied us to conquer the world; or you are the heroes who founded the country; or you are fellow countrymen who broke our bones and connected our tendons. So.
I invite you here today to celebrate the Reunion Festival together."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Everyone hurriedly thanked him again.
"Pass the meal around, let's chat while we eat." Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, and music began to play.
Amidst the sound of music, the palace servants carried red lacquer trays and placed dishes one after another on the long table.
When everyone saw it, although there were still four dishes and one soup, there was actually a meat dish.
"It's not bad, it's better than the meal on the first day of the new year." Someone whispered.
"Nonsense, look carefully, those are bitter intestines!" But the smart man saw the mystery at a glance: "Almonds mixed with bitter chrysanthemums, bitter melon stewed small intestines, bitter bamboo shoots stir-fried with potherb mustard, and bitter vegetable soup... what kind of Mid-Autumn Festival reunion banquet
?This is obviously the Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet..."
ps. Fifth update, thank you for your understanding. This influenza A is really evil. After the two children, my wife has symptoms again...
Every update tomorrow will definitely be affected. Anyway, I will seize all the time to type.
