The day for the prince to leave Beijing is approaching day by day, and the pre-war team has already set off. The officials accompanying him are also busy in the hot summer, carefully packing their luggage. As the highest official escorting the prince to the north, Wang Xian is dressed in thin clothes.
Silk, sitting barefoot on the cold bamboo mat, the family ate watermelon and chatted, not a drop of sweat on the whole body...
Although he is now an old man, Wang Xingye still can't change his foot-picking problem. He picked his feet with one hand and picked up a piece of watermelon with the other, "When are you going to Beijing?"
"It's almost the end of the month," Wang Xian spit out a dozen melon seeds in one breath and said lazily, "There are still five or six days left."
"So fast?!" I was concentrating on playing with my grandson. When I heard this, I raised my head and said in surprise: "Didn't you mean Qiuli?"
"The emperor has issued an order to urge His Highness to leave within a time limit." Wang Xian said with an apologetic smile: "You are not free when you are on duty, so this is the only way."
"Won't your family follow you this time?" Wang Xingye had already followed Wang Xian's wishes and bought a house in Beijing, knowing that his family would eventually move to Beijing.
"We can't move this time." Wang Xian sighed, and he could clearly feel Lin Qing'er's body stiffening, "Firstly, it's a little hasty, and secondly... His Highness the Crown Prince doesn't want to move the capital, so I took the whole family northward.
What would His Highness think?"
"That's right." Wang Xingye nodded, got up and left the table, put on his shoes and walked to the inner hall. After drinking tea, Wang Xingye left and returned, holding a stack of deeds and saying: "This is what happened in the past few years.
You should go and take a good look at the property you bought, and don’t let others trick you into not knowing it.”
Wang Xian took the towel handed over by Lin Qing'er, wiped his mouth first and then his hands, then picked up the pile of documents and looked through them. After reading them, his face turned pale and he said, "You always bought the whole city of Beijing?
"
"It's not that exaggerated!" Wang Xingye waved his hands modestly, but couldn't hide his pride and said: "I just bought dozens of stores, a dozen houses, and more than a hundred hectares of land..."
"Do you need so much?!" Wang Xian felt a headache coming on, feeling that he could already be equated with a corrupt official.
"It didn't cost much!" Wang Xingye picked his feet excitedly and said with excitement: "If you buy a courtyard house in Nanjing, you can buy ten in Beijing! The real estate stores are even more cheap!" He said with eyes wide open.
He looked at his son brightly and said: "If it is true as you said, our Ming Dynasty will move its capital to Beijing, and these industries will be doubled several times, and the profits will be huge!"
"This..." Wang Xian looked at his father helplessly, feeling that if this old gentleman were born hundreds of years later, he would definitely be a black-hearted real estate developer...
After chatting with their parents until dark, Wang Xiancai and Lin Qing'er said goodbye and walked hand in hand on the stone path shaded by bamboos... Lin Qing'er usually would not hold hands with him in public, but the husband and wife were about to separate, and they met each other.
At some point, she wished she could be with him every second, and the countess's reserve had long been thrown out of the window.
"Why do we always get together less and leave more?" She held Wang Xian's warm hand, her reluctance to leave became stronger, and murmured: "I really saw the willows on the street suddenly, and regretted teaching my husband to find a title...
"
"Hey," Wang Xian was also full of apologies, especially since he had promised that the family would live a peaceful life. He could only try his best to comfort his wife and said: "As soon as you are settled, I will pick you up and go north, okay?"
"Okay..." Lin Qing'er nodded happily, but then she said in a low tone: "My son is still young, and my mother will definitely not let him live in a bitter and cold place."
"Beijing..." Wang Xian smiled bitterly: "It's not that bad, right?"
"Why isn't it bad?" Lin Qing'er said decisively: "Yanzhao is a bitter cold land! That's what they have always said."
"Okay..." Wang Xian had no choice but to stop. He knew that in the eyes of Jiangnan people in this era, Beijing was almost like Lhasa in the eyes of future generations... It's no wonder those officials refused to move the capital even if they were killed.
"What should I do?" Lin Qing'er put her arms around her husband's waist, buried her head in his chest, tears rolling in her eyes: "I don't want to be separated from you for so long... I don't want to be separated from you..."
"Don't worry, it won't take long. There's always a way." Wang Xian gently patted his wife's shoulder and comforted her softly.
The waning moon hangs in the dark sky, and its cold light shines on the couple who are about to part ways...
At the end of the month, the day of departure arrived. Before dawn, there were two to three hundred civil servants standing outside the Prince's Mansion. The lineup was basically the same as the group of people who petitioned in front of the Prince's Mansion last month... Of course they were not the ones who saw him off.
!
"Everyone," Ji Benqing, the young minister of Zhan Shifu, said with determination: "We must not give in this time! His Royal Highness must stay!"
"That's right!" Upon hearing this, all the officials responded in unison: "His Royal Highness must not be allowed to go north!"
"This time, unless they step on our corpses," it was obvious that the civil servants were still worried about what happened last time, "otherwise, they will never step out of the house!"
"Morale is available!" Ji Benqing nodded with satisfaction and asked: "How about the back door?"
"It's been arranged," the official next to him said, patting his chest, "Don't worry, the people inside can't fly!"
"Okay!" Ji Benqing's eyes lit up and he gritted his teeth and said, "Everyone, it's not successful!"
"Jian Cheng Ren!" All the officials shouted in unison.
After saying this, all the civil servants stopped making a sound and stood silently in front of the Prince's Mansion.
As time goes by, the sun rises little by little, and the sky becomes brighter...
The door to the Prince's Mansion slowly opened, and the guards lined up and stood on both sides of the stairs, turning a blind eye to the officials outside the door...
Looking at the unobstructed gate, the civil servants who were originally prepared to welcome the storm started to mutter: "What's going on, don't you care about us?" "There must be something fishy in this..."
"Ahem," after muttering for a long time, but no movement was seen inside, the officials finally couldn't help it and said to the wooden stake-like guards of the East Palace: "Excuse me, when will His Royal Highness leave?"
"Your Highness," the leading guard glanced at them coldly, and said with an unconcealable teasing in his tone: "You have already left the capital..."
"What? Nonsense!" The officials were furious when they heard this: "We came before dawn, how could we see any cars driving out of the palace?!"
"It's up to you whether you believe it or not." The head guard said with a serious face.
"Don't try to fool us!" The civil servants didn't believe it at all and said angrily: "You think you can trick us away like this? We won't leave today even if we die!"
"That's great." The leader of the guards laughed strangely and said, "We happen to be lonely on guard duty. It's great that you are willing to accompany us..." All the guards laughed.
"..." Seeing the guards behaving like this, the civil servants couldn't help but murmur. After waiting patiently for a while, they finally couldn't help but whisper among themselves: "What they said can't be true, right?" "That's right, it's all like this.
It’s been a while, Jinyiwei, no one from Yingtian Mansion has come yet, so you have nothing to fear!”
Just as everyone was talking about it, they saw His Highness the Crown Prince's second son, Zhu Zhanyu, coming out with a birdcage. Seeing that the door to his house was blocked, Zhu Zhanyu smiled bitterly and said, "What are you doing? Excuse me."
Give Way."
"Your Highness," the officials knew something was wrong as soon as they saw Zhu Zhanquan's behavior, and hurriedly asked, "Where is Your Highness, the Crown Prince?"
"Didn't you tell your lords?" Zhu Zhanjun looked at the guards on both sides: "My father is already on his way?"
"I told you, but what should I do if people don't believe me?" The leader of the guards said with a grimace: "My lords, can you provide some circumstantial evidence? Is this the case?"
"Really?" Zhu Zhanjuan looked at the officials again.
"This is..." The officials replied in a muffled voice: "He did say that." The topic changed and the tone increased eight times: "But how is it possible? We came before dawn!"
"Why is it impossible?" Zhu Zhanquan said with a faint smile, "My father left the city yesterday evening."
"Ah?!" All the officials were dumbfounded: "But today is the auspicious day determined by Qin Tian, how can His Highness the Crown Prince change it without authorization?"
"Who said my father would change his life?" Zhu Zhanqi said calmly: "His old man just stayed one night in the military camp outside the city to escape the summer heat and set off directly from the military camp this morning."
"How..." The civil servants looked at Zhu Zhantun in despair, and murmured in great disappointment: "How could His Highness do this?!"
"Everyone," Zhu Zhanquan said seriously, "before my father left, he wanted me to bring something to you."
"We are here to listen to Jun's decree." The officials hurriedly said solemnly.
"Please be patient and don't be impatient. I have my own sense of proportion." Zhu Zhanquan looked at everyone and sighed: "Let's go."
"Hey..." The officials then dispersed helplessly...
Outside Beijing, at the mouth of the Longjiang River, officers and soldiers from the vanguard of the government army have been put on alert. On the river, more than a dozen official ships have been anchored, and only the largest one is still moored at the pier.
His Royal Highness, Zhu Gaochi, stood on the pier, looking back at the capital behind him with a guilty face. If possible, he really didn't want to leave like this. But those officials were already unreasonable, and His Royal Highness really didn't want to cause any more trouble...
"Your Highness," Wang Xian, who was standing by, couldn't help but remind him: "It's time to get on the boat."
"Hey..." Zhu Gaochi sighed deeply, finally nodded, and with Wang Xian's help, he slowly boarded the boat.
When the guards behind them also boarded the ship, the sailors removed the planks.
Zhu Gaochi stood at the bow of the ship, holding the railing with both hands, staring intently at the outline of the capital in the distance. He wanted to imprint the entire capital in his mind, because it was very likely that this would be the last time he saw this city in his life.
The city is over...
At this moment, I suddenly heard the chaos of horse hooves in the distance, and hundreds of horsemen and horses were galloping towards me. Riding on the horses were Ji Benqing and other civil servants. They were all covered in stinking sweat and in a state of embarrassment, and they kept shouting: "Wait a minute!"
do not go!"
The officers and soldiers at the pier tried to stop them, but these normally powerless scholars were charging like crazy tigers. The soldiers could not really stab them with the tip of their spears, but they actually let them rush over.