The sounds of hundreds of officials kneeling and crying outside Fengtian Gate could be heard through the layers of palace walls and even reached the Wuying Hall.
This made Boss Zhu, who was reading and replying to the post, very upset and kept throwing the finished memorial to the ground.
With a bang, a memorial flew too far and almost hit the prince who walked in.
"What kind of treasonous memorial made my father so angry?" Zhu Biao bent down and picked it up.
"What else could it be?" Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and said, "It's nothing more than scolding. Now there are ten memorials and nine of them scolding the mother. It makes me want to kill his mother."
Zhu Biao opened the memorial, casually read a paragraph from it and said:
"...Since the ancient emperors, it has never been seen that the junior officials of the Jin gentry live together with colleagues and can help each other. Today, the old elders are thinking of resigning and leaving the throne. How much danger and doubt have gone away? I look at Your Majesty in the thighs, arms, and heart.
If we take the example of virtuous articles, peace can be established..."
"As long as you use good moral articles, you can immediately bring peace to the world. Isn't this nonsense?" Zhu Yuanzhang said disdainfully: "If this was really the case, the Song Dynasty should have regained Youyan and defeated the Liao and Jin Dynasties. What's the point?
Wait until we go to the Northern Expedition?"
"Well, I am a Confucian, so I can only say this." Zhu Biao smiled bitterly, picked up all the memorials on the ground, sorted them out and put them back in the imperial cabinet.
"Those guys are still kneeling there?" Zhu Yuanzhang didn't bother to look anymore, picked up 'filial piety', and scratched his back.
"Well, my son tried to persuade me for a long time to no avail, so I finally had to agree to come and talk to my father for them." Zhu Biao said truthfully.
"What nonsense! Where is Hu Weiyong?"
"Hu Xiang is still watching them there to prevent him from doing anything drastic again." Zhu Biao sighed and said, "Someone was about to jump off the Wulong Bridge just now."
"If you want to jump into the river, jump outside, don't dirty our river." Zhu Yuanzhang was not happy when he heard this, and raised his voice and said: "The second and third children peed in it when they were young, and we all took care of it!"
"No, is this a matter of dirtying the river?" The prince said speechlessly: "Wu Zhuangyuan and hundreds of Confucian scholars knelt outside the Meridian Gate again. If this matter is not dealt with quickly and properly, the trouble will become bigger and bigger.
"
"Let them make trouble and see whether our swords are faster or their necks are stronger." Zhu Yuanzhang snorted.
"If they continue to make trouble, the imperial court will be paralyzed, and there will be no war in Yunnan. The world has just been settled, and all directions are unstable. If this trend spreads to other places, there will be big troubles!" The prince said in a serious tone: "Dad, the country is unstable.
It belongs to our family. If the stalemate continues, the losses will also belong to our family..."
"Okay, okay, we get it." Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand in apology, and Eunuch Wu quickly led the people, closed the palace door, and let the two men talk alone.
"Hey, boss," Zhu Yuanzhang finally confessed to the prince in a low voice: "Do you know what 'remove the roof and open the windows' means?"
"I've never heard of it..." The prince shook his head.
"This is what Lao Liu told us. He said that Chinese people always like to reconcile and compromise." Zhu Yuanzhang imitated:
"For example, if you say that this room is too dark and a window needs to be opened here, no one will allow it. But if you advocate removing the roof, they will mediate and open a window."
"This statement is somewhat interesting..." The prince was startled at first, and then he couldn't laugh or cry again:
"So you two are following the example of Confucius and Mencius? This is not tearing down the roof, this is tearing down the whole house!"
"Wouldn't that be more effective..." Zhu Yuanzhang said proudly.
"Uh," the prince was choked to the point of being speechless, and after a long while he sighed: "Okay... So, my father doesn't intend to fight them to the death?"
"Of course." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said slyly: "If we really planned not to do anything, we wouldn't call Yan Shenggong back. After all, Confucius's tricks are quite useful.
of."
"What about Mencius?" the prince asked.
"He should be beaten to death, so that no one knows about him anymore." Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily: "But in order to reform the overall situation, we can't let him return to the Confucius Temple, but all of Meng Ke's reactionary remarks must be deleted
, can no longer appear in the Ming Dynasty."
"Alas..." The prince sighed, nodded and said, "What's the price?"
"They can't stop any of the three reforms!" Zhu Yuanzhang said categorically: "They agreed and discussed everything about Confucius and Mencius. If they don't agree, don't blame me for being rude."
"My son, I understand." The prince nodded and sighed: "But it is probably difficult for them to accept my father's conditions."
"You go and talk first. If we really can't talk, we can talk later." Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "Besides, they are begging you now. It is them who should be worried, not you!"
"My son, I understand." The prince nodded. His father had given him the final answer. It was up to him to decide what to do next.
~~
After coming out of Wuying Hall, the prince did not go to Fengtianmen immediately. Instead, he first handled government affairs at Huichunhe Palace, and the afternoon pilgrimage was held as scheduled.
Only half of the ministers came to attend the Hajj. Among the civil servants, only Hu Weiyong, Peng Geng, Zeng Tai, and even Wang Guangyang did not come.
"Where's Wang Guangyang?" the prince asked with a frown. Unexpectedly, even an old cunning guy like Wang Guangyang would take sides.
"Xiang Wang is watching outside Fengtian Gate on behalf of the old minister." Hu Weiyong explained to Wang Guangyang: "Those civil servants have been kneeling until now and are very emotionally unstable, so the old minister asked Wang Xiang to stay to prevent them from going to extremes."
"Yes." The prince nodded and sighed: "My father has not calmed down yet, why don't we let them go back first and come back to kneel tomorrow?"
"Prince, I'm afraid they won't agree. From what I've seen, there's no answer today. They're afraid they'll have to spend the night outside Fengtian Gate." Hu Weiyong sighed.
"Isn't this nonsense? It's only February, and the spring cold at night will hurt people?" The prince frowned and said: "They are all weak scholars. If they kneel down this night, how many people will suffer from diseases."
"The prince is kind." Hu Weiyong hurriedly flattered him and said, "They have been kneeling all day long, and if they continue to torture them all night, they will really die."
"..." The prince glanced at Hu Weiyong unaccustomedly, as if he had changed his gender. To use an inappropriate metaphor, it was like a 'shrew' who was always against him suddenly turned into a 'virtuous man' with three obediences and four virtues.
Wife's gone.
It always makes people worry whether he has ulterior motives.
But I can’t worry about that much at the moment, let’s just focus on the present.
The prince then asked in a deep voice: "Then what can Mr. Hu do?"
"Of course the best thing is for the Emperor to be merciful..." Hu Weiyong said softly.
"As I said, my father's anger has not subsided, so asking for mercy at this time will only be counterproductive." The prince sighed and shook his head.
"Then we have to give each of them a clockwork quilt first." Hu Weiyong said with a wry smile: "Of course it would be better if they could have hot soup."
"Well, we can have this." The prince nodded and said, "Please go and prepare it, Mr. Hu."
"Yes!" Hu Weiyong responded quickly, not forgetting to add: "The lower officials will definitely tell them that this is the crown prince's grace."
"No, I said it belongs to the emperor." The prince shook his head and said, "I will inform my father about this matter first."
"Yes, the old minister is confused." Hu Weiyong sighed inwardly. Although the prince's position was unassailable, he was still so cautious. Even if he wanted to sow discord, he would not find a chance.
