The brothers were talking, laughing, and playing around, as if they were back to the past again.
When they arrived at the gate of the palace, the eunuch of Kunning Palace announced that at noon, Queen Ma would host a family banquet in Kunning Palace to welcome her sons. The emperor would also go there and let them go directly to Kunning Palace.
When the eunuch of Kunning Palace walked away, Lao San said bitterly: "It's thanks to you two, otherwise the queen mother won't be able to support us."
In fact, he and his second son had been back in Beijing for some time, but the two of them had really made a lot of noise in the fiefdom, and they were both scolded several times by their father.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked them to return to Beijing to celebrate the New Year this time, and he also meant to beat them and let them live in peace and order in their fiefdoms.
"Hmph..." Zhu Di sneered. He really wanted to say, 'I don't care what good things you have done. My mother invited you to dinner, but my father didn't invite you to eat stir-fried meat with a whip.'
But because the second brother was also there and had done more work than the third brother, he didn't say anything.
But he is not in a hurry. Since his father is also going to attend, he will definitely scold the third child when he sees him. Just watch the show then.
~~
The brothers then came to Kunning Palace to pay their respects to the Queen Mother.
Concubine Hu Xian was also there, and the brothers sent her greetings again.
As she grew older, Concubine Hu Xian became much calmer. She talked to several highnesses kindly and kindly, but her eyes never left her son. She thought to herself:
'Ouch, why is my baby so thin...'
"Zhu Chongba, you are a murderer with thousands of swords. You left so many brothers untouched and spent the whole day catching Lao Liu and plucking the hair off a sheep. Look at how you plucking him..."
'I'm not done with you!'
"It's good to lose weight. I feel more energetic after losing weight." Queen Ma was very happy that Lao Liu had lost weight. She took his hand and looked up and down: "Your father was like this back then, except that your eyebrows were thicker than his.
He looks exactly like he looked like thirty years ago!"
"Ah?" Lao Liu opened his mouth wide. He always thought that he was following his second uncle. Unexpectedly, there was still the shadow of the old thief on his face.
"Ah, what are you unhappy about following your father?" Zhu Yuanzhang came in from the outside with his hands behind his back and said angrily.
Everyone in the palace hurriedly paid homage to the emperor.
"Everyone, get up, there are no outsiders today, no need to be formal." Zhu Yuanzhang was in a very good mood, and with a smile, he took the fourth child with one hand and the sixth child with the other, and said happily: "Today, you two sit next to us and have a good drink with me.
"
As he said this, he called everyone to sit down. "Everyone, please sit down."
After everyone in the royal family thanked them, they waited until the emperor and queen were seated before everyone returned to their seats.
The family banquet of Lao Zhu's family was not like that of the royal family of the previous dynasties, where each person had a small table, and the emperor and queen were above each other, sharing the meal.
Boss Zhu felt that it was too alienating and did not have the atmosphere of a family. Therefore, his family always used round tables to eat. If there were many people, they would set up more round tables. It symbolized reunion and completeness.
Zhu Zhen usually sat at the children's table, but this time he sat between Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, becoming the focus of the audience, which made him feel uncomfortable.
"Why, you haven't enjoyed the love of your parents for too long, are you not used to it?" Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him.
"How did your father figure it out?" Zhu Zhen felt strange.
"Isn't this nonsense? Usually I use two chopsticks and you can use three chopsticks. Today I used three chopsticks and you only used two chopsticks." Zhu Yuanzhang moved his chopsticks like flying as he spoke and put a piece of meat into his mouth.
While saying proudly:
"The heat is not coming home, boy."
"That's why I just came back..." Zhu Zhen snorted, immediately changed gears, and pulled out the chopsticks.
"Fuck, slow down..." Zhu Yuanzhang was so anxious that he hurriedly cursed and fought with him for food.
"..." The fourth child sitting on Zhu Yuanzhang's right hand was actually a big eater, but he was stunned by the momentum of the two men. They couldn't hold out a few chopsticks...
"Alas, when Lao Liuyi comes back, someone is accompanying the emperor to go crazy again." Empress Ma sighed to Concubine Hu Xian.
"They never eat the food I cook like this." Concubine Hu Xian said depressedly.
~~
After finishing the meal, Boss Zhu stroked his round belly and said: "We are really happy this year. The fourth and sixth sons have made great contributions this time. In the future, our Ming Dynasty will last for thousands of years, and he will be indispensable.
Thanks to both of you today."
"..." Hearing the emperor's ridiculously high evaluation, everyone present was secretly surprised, especially the concubines and the young prince.
"It's too exaggerated," Concubine Da Ding muttered in a low voice, "Isn't it just to get a farm? What's so great about it?"
"We know that most of you don't understand the meaning of the Yellow Book. Let's put it this way, without this thing, the Ming Dynasty would be a short-lived dynasty. With this thing, we are confident that the Ming Dynasty will become the longest-lived dynasty!"
Then I heard Zhu Yuanzhang continue:
"You people, as well as the descendants of our old Zhu family, will be able to enjoy wealth and honor for hundreds of years."
But Zhu Zhen secretly slandered, and then his descendants became Ming Dynasty's tumors...
"A few hundred years is not enough, at least a thousand years!" The third child over there quickly flattered him in order not to be executed in public later.
Unexpectedly, the flattery was slapped on the horse's hooves. Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him and snorted: "A thousand years? With you good princes here, we don't dare to hope."
"..." Zhu shrank his neck, not expecting that such a harmonious atmosphere could also hide murderous intent.
"Forget it, this is a family dinner for the children. Can't we just wait until the meal is over before training?" Queen Ma interceded on behalf of the third child.
"Okay, we will train you on other matters another day, but there is one thing, and you have to train her now!" Zhu Yuanzhang gave Empress Ma face, but to the third child, it was as if he had not given it at all.
"Yes, please give me instructions, father." The third child had no choice but to leave the table dejectedly and kneel down to be scolded.
"I won't talk about the ridiculous things you did in Taiyuan, let's talk about that incident on the road. I kindly sent Xu Xingzu, the cook who has been with me for twenty-three years, to you, and specifically asked you to treat him kindly. But you are better
, they hung him up and whipped him on the road! He turned a deaf ear to our instructions!" Zhu Yuanzhang slapped the case angrily.
"My son was very kind to him at first and even called him Uncle Xu. I didn't expect that this guy would turn his nose up and dare to go against my son." The third child muttered.
"Why did he go against you?!" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a raised voice.
"That morning, Erchen remembered the sweet tofu pudding he had eaten in Suzhou, so he asked him to make it for me. When he tasted it, it was salty." Lao San said depressedly:
"My son was not happy at that time. Someone called him and asked him what was going on. Why did the king want to eat sweet food? He had to make it salty. Not only did he not think it was wrong, he even said it plausibly. Douhua is
It’s salty, he has been with my father for more than 20 years and has never made sweet tofu pudding.”
"I said that the king just wants to eat something sweet. You go and make it for me, but he doesn't want it. In front of the palace people and the local officials, I can't keep it on my face, so I threaten him and say, if you
If you don't make sweet bean curd, I will hang you up and beat you. He said that even if you burn me to death, the bean curd cannot be sweet..."
"Since we're in such a hurry, it's really not appropriate not to give him a good beating." The third child said sarcastically: "Plus, Fan is in a bad mood after leaving his parents. As soon as the hot weather sets in, I'll just give him a beating."
