"My father said this, and I have no choice but to die to make my determination clear." Faced with the emperor's accusation, Zhu Gaochi wept and said, "No matter how ruthless my son is, he cannot harm his own flesh and blood brothers!"
"Yes, Grandpa Huang." At this time, Zhu Zhanji had to stand up and speak for his father: "The most urgent task now is to quickly order Liu Sheng to send troops to meet the second uncle, and don't let him make any mistakes!"
"Stop being a cat and a mouse here!" King Zhao said with red eyes and a face full of grief and anger: "It's too late to say anything now. My second brother is probably in danger now!" After saying that, he leaned over and cried bitterly: "Father, the emperor
, the second brother has probably been killed by them! Then Wang Xian is Hei Jian, and they conspired to kill the second brother! Father, you must avenge the second brother!"
From King Zhao's point of view, if he made a fuss, the emperor would most likely lose control of the crown prince. Anyway, with the excuse of a one-month appointment, Zhu Di should be able to make up his mind this time.
"Shut up!" Unexpectedly, Zhu Di shouted at him irritably, scaring King Zhao to tremble.
"You think I don't know what kind of intentions you have?" Zhu Di said coldly: "The second brother still doesn't know whether he is alive or dead. If he really can't escape this, you can't escape the blame!"
"My father said this, and I have to die..." King Zhao said with aggrieved face: "I just said a few words of justice to my second brother, is this wrong?"
"You dare to say that you didn't know anything about the good things he did?" Zhu Di raised Wang Xian's memorial and wanted to throw it to King Zhao, but when his hand reached mid-air, he stopped abruptly! Zhu Di looked at the two men coldly.
The two sons gritted their teeth and said: "Your eldest brother, let alone your second brother, are all heartless, fatherless beasts! Ahem, cough, cough..."
When Zhu Di was excited, he couldn't help but cough violently. The cough affected the internal organs and made the emperor dizzy with pain. There was a smell of blood in his mouth. Zhu Di covered his mouth with a yellow handkerchief, and Zheng He hurriedly pushed the palace acupoint on the emperor.
Zhu Di coughed for a while and then calmed down.
"Your Majesty, take care of your dragon body!" the princes and ministers hurriedly consoled each other.
"Don't worry, I won't be mad at you!" Zhu Di clutched the handkerchief tightly, with veins popping up on his forehead and said: "You don't have to pretend to beg for death here! When the time comes, I will kill you.
These traitors!"
The prince and King Zhao bowed their heads and did not dare to say a word.
"Get out!" Zhu Di said these three words with all his strength, then closed his eyes and huddled up on the recliner, breathing heavily.
The princes and ministers looked at each other in shock. When they saw the prince and King Zhao stand up and leave, they also left the Zhaohe Palace...
Zheng He was the only one left in the main hall to accompany the emperor.
Zhu Di rested for a long time before opening his eyes weakly. Zheng He quickly brought the ginseng soup.
Zhu Di slowly shook his head and motioned for him to change the tea.
Zhu Di took the tea and rinsed his mouth, but the water he spat into the spittoon was light red.
Zheng He's expression darkened when he saw this, and he whispered: "Your Majesty, are you coughing up blood again?"
"..." Zhu Di nodded slowly, as if all his strength had been drained from his body and said, "I don't know if I can survive this winter."
"It will definitely be possible!" Zheng He hurriedly comforted the emperor and said: "This is not the first time the emperor has been ill in winter. He will be cured as soon as spring comes."
"I know my body. Even if I survive this winter, it will only take a few years." Zhu Di shook his head dejectedly and sneered: "If I were ten years younger, which of them would dare to challenge me?!"
After listening to the emperor's words, Zheng He also felt sad. Indeed, as the emperor became old and sick, the situation in the court was no longer as stable as Mount Tai. The minds of both the government and the public began to become active, and everyone made preparations for their future...
Zhu Di looked at Zheng He, who was also aging, and laughed at himself: "I am a failure as an emperor. My son doesn't take me seriously, and my ministers dare to challenge me!"
Zheng He didn't know how to answer, so he could only comfort Zhu Di softly: "The emperor has the final say in the Ming Dynasty, who dares to challenge you?"
"Hmph..." Zhu Di snorted coldly: "They saw that I am old and about to die, so they no longer take me seriously." His eyes fell on the memorial: "I didn't expect the second son.
How can he be so insane and crazy that he dares to openly instigate rebellion against my army and kill local officials!" He said bitterly: "They say that among the three sons, he is the most like me, and I believe it after they say it so much!
I know that he is simply an arrogant idiot, and there is no trace of me in him!"
"Your Majesty, you can't just listen to one side of the story." Zheng He said softly.
"I have been aware of some things for a long time, but I don't want to think the worst about my son. Wang Xian's memorial just confirmed my guess." Zhu Di said, but threw away the memorial.
Into the fire!
The flames instantly engulfed the silk cover of the memorial. Zheng He looked at Zhu Di in surprise, not knowing what to say.
"But, that is my son!" Zhu Di's face was extremely ferocious in the firelight, and he gritted his teeth and said, "How dare they not leave him a way to survive!"
"..." Zheng He didn't want to say more, but he had to say: "Your Majesty, the King of Han is just missing. Your Highness, the lucky man, has his own destiny..."
"There is no need to comfort me. If I were them, I would never let the tiger go back to the mountain again. I would be bitten by a snake instead of dying." Zhu Di said coldly.
Zheng He couldn't help but asked softly: "What are they referring to?"
"Prince! Wang Xian! Liu Sheng!" The names burst out from between Zhu Di's teeth, and the emperor said with murderous intent: "It's them! It must be them who did it!"
"Your Majesty..." Zheng He advised in a trembling voice: "It is a matter of state affairs, so we cannot jump to conclusions! We still have to investigate clearly and let the facts speak for themselves!"
"Hmph, with Wang Xian's ability, what other evidence can I find?!" Although there is no evidence and he will never find it even if he thinks about it, Zhu Di is convinced that the *** must be causing trouble here! It can't be wrong.
!But after his anger passed, Zhu Di was pinned to the chair by the feeling of powerlessness that arose from the bottom of his heart. He could only let that feeling of powerlessness spread to every corner of his body.
"Then what should we do next?" Zheng He asked softly.
"Wait." Zhu Di looked at the memorial that was burned to ashes and said dejectedly: "Since they have sung such a big drama, it will naturally come to an end. Let them sing and see what flowers they can sing.
." After speaking, Zhu Di looked at Zheng He and said, "Have your naval forces been transferred to the north?"
"We have passed Yangzhou and can reach Denglai within a few days." Zheng He hurriedly reported back: "But we don't have enough infantry, let alone cavalry, so I'm afraid we won't be able to do a landing battle." Zheng He's fleet was originally
There were elite infantry and cavalry, but they were all transferred to the canal line by Zhu Di to protect the river.
"Seal the coast of Shandong first and prevent them from entering the water." Zhu Di also knew that he could not force others to do anything, so he slowly ordered: "First cut off the water channel of the White Lotus Sect."
"Yes." Zheng He nodded and accepted the order, then asked: "Shandong side, do you need to send more troops?"
"Hey..." Zhu Di shook his head and laughed at himself: "The emperor can hardly afford to starve his troops. In the past two years, the court has been short of money and used treasure money as military pay. The officers and soldiers in the army have already been in a rage. I can't get it now."
With real money and silver, I just ask them not to mutiny, how dare I work for them."
"What about Shandong?" Zheng He said in surprise, "Is the imperial court really powerless?"
"It's just temporary... I have already transferred Zhang Fu back, and Annan's troops will be withdrawn one after another." Zhu Di said with a gloomy look: "Stop the bottomless pit of Annan, and I can send 50,000 troops next year, with Zhang Fu in command.
, pacify Shandong."
"That's good..." Zheng Hexin said, it won't take too long to turn around the events of the new year.
"But the premise is that there won't be a major famine next year, but there is no snow this winter. Who knows what it will be like next year?" Who knows that Zhu Di changed the topic and said dejectedly: "Hey, the weather doesn't holiday, and the weather doesn't match the time, so we can only
Just take it one step at a time."
"God bless the Ming Dynasty, God bless my emperor, there may not be a famine in the coming year, everything will get better soon." Faced with such a decadent and powerless emperor, what else could Zheng He say besides cheap comfort?
"I hope..." Zhu Di did not refuse Zheng He's comfort, even though he knew it was just comfort. The emperor closed his eyes tiredly and said: "I am tired, really tired..."
There was silence inside and outside the Showa Hall, with only the north wind howling wantonly...
As soon as the battle between Liu Sheng and the White Lotus Sect ended, Wang Xian knew the situation. The result was no surprise. Most of the exhausted and distraught White Lotus Sect army almost collapsed at the first touch. There was no decent resistance at all, and they were scattered under Liu Sheng's fierce attack.
The rout was completely unimaginable. It was this army that had just defeated the arrogant Han army!
Only the Qingzhou Army, a direct descendant of Tang Tiande, was unwilling to give up Qingzhou and stubbornly resisted Liu Sheng's attack.
Anyuanhou was worthy of being a famous general of his generation. Under his command, 20,000 troops repeatedly crossed the line and beat the stubborn Qingzhou Army into a sieve. Liu Sheng took away the flag of the Chinese army, Ding Gugang was killed, and Tang Tiande himself was wounded by an arrow.
!
If Liu Xin had not led his soldiers and fought his way out to escape, Tang Tiande and his son would have been captured by Anyuan Hou in the first battle!
Fortunately, Liu Sheng had distracting thoughts and did not lead his troops to pursue him, so Liu Xin gathered the remaining soldiers, took the injured and unconscious Tang Tiande, and fled north for his life.
At that time, Wang Xian was warming himself by the fire in the cave. After listening to Dai Hua's report, he said with waning spirits: "Just like others did not expect that the King of Han would be defeated so miserably, I also did not expect that Tang Tiande would lose all his capital in one battle!
"
"Thankfully, Marquis Anyuan withdrew his troops in time. Otherwise, if Tang Tiande and his son died in this scene, I'm afraid the Buddha Mother would not cooperate with us." Dai Hua said happily.
"Buddha Mother..." Wang Xian saw the stunning beauty on the other side of the water and sighed softly: "Anyway, it shouldn't be difficult for her to conquer the White Lotus Sect now."
After saying that, Wang Xian stood up, took the coat and put it on him, looked at the windy sky outside, and said in a deep voice: "Let's set off too!"