"What? The prince died? How did he die? ”

"Back to my father, Lord Wang died of illness!"

"When was it?"

"It should be on the evening of December 29th, on the morning of the 30th, Lord Liu Jing Liu sent someone to send the news to Xiaoling, His Majesty, who was worshipping Emperor Taizu, was shocked, and immediately sent someone to verify the situation, and by the way, condolences to Lord Wang's family!"

"Oh," Ping'an sat down slowly, thought for a while, looked at his son Pingcheng who was standing in front of him, pointed to the chair next to him, and said, "Cheng'er, sit down and tell your father in detail about the past few days!" ”

Maybe it's because he saw Ping'an's serious expression, Pingcheng was a little nervous, and he stammered a little when he spoke, but let's detail what I've seen and heard in recent times:

“……”

"On the way back to Beijing, Your Majesty summoned the crown prince, Yu Shangshu and Zhuo Taifu, and when he returned to the Qianqing Palace, he summoned the prince and Zhou Xinzhou......"

"The next day, Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei, rushed to the Holy ...... of Xiaoling"

“……”

"On the fourth day of the first lunar month, Your Majesty sent me out of Beijing to send a decree to my father, ordering my father to go to the northwest to sit in the town, and the affairs of Huguang were handed over to General Tan Yuan Tan to be responsible!"

……

In fact, Pingcheng doesn't know much about things, to be precise, what he knows is not much different from the palace newspaper issued by the imperial court, but it is relatively more detailed, as for more confidential things, he is not qualified to know, of course, as the emperor's personal guard, he can still feel some clues, but he does not have the ability to analyze the ins and outs of the whole thing, or rather, he does not dare to analyze.

Ping An closed his eyes and listened to his son's description, there was almost no fluctuation in the whole process, except for a little inquiry when he heard that Xu Zengshou was killed and Ji Gang and others were in prison, and Ping An was very calm during the whole process.

After a while, Ping An opened his eyes, looked at his son who was sitting upright and looked uneasy, suddenly laughed, stood up, and said: "Cheng'er, polish ink for your father, Your Majesty is indeed a saint of the ages, with an open mind and a magnificent momentum that directly catches up with the first emperor!" ”

Pingcheng was a little puzzled, thinking that his father was very strange, he was so serious just now, but now he has become so relaxed, and he is still in the mood to evaluate His Majesty's poems, but he did not dare to disobey his father's orders, first repeated His Majesty's poems to his father twice, and then polished the ink, flattened the paper, and waited for his father to write.

I saw that Ping An closed his eyes, his lips moved slightly, as if he was silently reciting something, and then suddenly put down the pen, the strokes showed the momentum of the generals, the pen force penetrated the back of the paper, the gesture was like a silver hook and iron painting, each word was like an axe and chisel, but it was completely integrated, and the whole was like a formation of troops, giving people a majestic momentum of thousands of troops......

"Good, good!" Pingcheng looked at his father's handwriting, and couldn't help clapping: "Father, your handwriting is really good, even better than the emperor's!" ”

Hearing Pingcheng's voice, Ping An was stunned for a moment, but glared at him fiercely: "You shut up for me!" Then he picked up the paper in front of him and threw it into the brazier, and in an instant, the brazier was blazing, and before he could react honestly, the exquisite rice paper had turned into ashes......

Ping Cheng was stunned for a moment, and said in amazement: "Father, why do you want to burn it?" How well written! ”

"You know what?"

Ping'an spread out the rice paper again and continued to write "Qinyuan Spring. After writing it, he shook his head and burned it again, wrote more than a dozen in a row, burned more than a dozen, and finally stopped his pen, gently wiped the sweat beads on his forehead, sat down, pointed to the last version, and said, "Cheng'er, how about this one?" ”

"Father, son doesn't understand very much, how can your writing get worse and worse, more and more like those poor scholars! The first one is so well written, every word is like a soldier, and the whole poem is like a line of soldiers, almost jumping out of the paper! This one, hey, hey, hey......"

"Hehe, that's the best!"

Looking at his son's puzzled eyes, Ping An sighed slightly, but said with a smile: "Cheng'er, you are eighteen years old this year, and soon Your Majesty will let you out to lead the troops." But today's events, you have to rot all in your stomach, don't mention it to anyone, anyone asks about today's things, you have to say that your father listened to His Majesty's poems, admired His Majesty's eloquence and strategy very much, so he copied a copy and studied it day and night, so as to experience His Majesty's Sacred Heart! ”

"Why? My father wrote fourteen and burned thirteen! ”

"Cheng'er, my father solemnly tells you that if you say what you just said, our Ping family will be destroyed!"

"How is that possible?" Ping Cheng was stunned for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "Does my father think that His Majesty is Emperor Yang of Sui?" Do you think that Wencai is not as good as Xue Daoheng, so you kill people? ”

"Hehe, what kind of person do you think Your Majesty is?"

"Your Majesty?" Pingcheng thought for a moment and said: "Your Majesty is wise and martial, elegant and magnanimous, knows people and is good at his duties, has a discerning eye to promote his father and Licheng Hou, pacified the Yan Rebellion, and opened up the Northeast and pacified Korea in the past two years, but there are not many casualties; In addition, Mongolia, a strong enemy outside the Cypriot Republic, has also been weakened by His Majesty's clever schemes, and from this point of view, His Majesty is slightly not under the first emperor! ”

"What else?"

"Your Majesty is broad-minded, and can even be said to be unashamed to ask, even when he goes to the College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture, he talks with those craftsmen and farmers about the knowledge of iron-making and farming, and he is very peaceful, and he never oppresses people with power. Even if His Majesty made a mistake in some places and was pointed out to those people in person, His Majesty was not angry, but praised them a lot, and even rewarded them on the spot! ”

"So, the father thinks that His Majesty will be jealous of your calligraphy, and the child thinks that it is too much!"

"Hehe," Ping'an smiled and shook his head: "Cheng'er, you can observe this, my father is very happy, Your Majesty is indeed wise, open-minded, and ambitious, for now, my father is indeed too worried." ”

"However, Your Majesty is still young, and now he won't care about these things, but in a few decades, when Your Majesty is old, will he still care about these things? My father didn't know, and my father didn't dare to bet! ”

"Therefore, my father must make Your Majesty feel that my father has no edge, and I must not let Your Majesty feel that my father is ambitious and keen on using soldiers!"

"Is this necessary? Father? ”

"Hehe, you'll understand later!" As he spoke, Ping An stood up, pressed his hands on Pingcheng's shoulders, and said, "Father wants the Ping family to become a martial arts family like the Xu family, and let you become the hereditary Duke of Yi Guo, and retire with the country, so my father can't take any risks, do you understand my father's hard work?" ”

"Well, well," Pingcheng was frightened by Ping'an's solemn expression, and nodded again and again, like pounding garlic.

……

After Pingcheng went down, Ping An looked at the night outside the window, and there was an indescribable disappointment in his heart, Cheng'er was still too young to understand the truth of accompanying the king like a tiger, Your Majesty is Your Majesty after all! Although Wang Du is nothing on the political map of the Ming Dynasty, his influence on the emperor is far beyond his own Yi Guogong, and he is just a knife of His Majesty to put it bluntly, while Wang Du is His Majesty's adviser and can influence the overall situation of the court, but this time, His Majesty can execute him without hesitation. Although from the overall point of view, this approach shows His Majesty's attitude, and he still defends the generals, but His Majesty's decision is beyond his expectations!

Also, wasn't the first emperor elegant and magnanimous and open-minded in his early years? Who would have thought that in his old age, he would set off such a big prison? Your Majesty, as his own grandson, can't be too careful about himself, and Ping An secretly admonished himself......

The next day, the eighth day of the first month.

After Ping'an and Tan Yuan, the new director of Huguangdu, handed over slightly, he led 5,000 cavalry to the northwest. After Tan Yuan sent him away, he immediately adjusted the Huguang garrison, and at the same time assisted the new Huguang political envoy and the envoy to stabilize the situation, because the former political envoy and the envoy had been transferred back to Beijing to accept the review of the imperial court......

To Zhu Yunwen's surprise, Wang Du's wife Zhang returned the house given by the emperor and insisted on moving her family back to her hometown in Shanshan (now Jiangbei, Huicheng District, Huizhou City, Guangdong), and also refused the emperor's kindness to give Wang Du's two sons, Min Zhong and Min Xiu, officials, on the grounds that the two sons had limited abilities and were not suitable for officials.

When Liu Jing and Fang Xiaoru reported Zhang's meaning to Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Yunwen pondered for a while, and said slowly: "Wang Du has made great contributions to the country, but unfortunately he died halfway, and he can't be with me from the beginning to the end. In addition, he gave 1,000 acres of fertile land and 5,000 taels of silver tickets......"

……

"Mother, the angel is gone, it's windy outside, get in the car, old man!"

"En," Zhang wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, turned around and said: "Minzhong, Min Xiu, don't let you be an official for your mother, do you blame your mother?" ”

"Don't blame, my son listens to his mother!" Min Zhong and Min Xiu glanced at each other and replied in unison.

As if he didn't hear the reluctance in his son's mouth, Zhang nodded with satisfaction, turned around and got into the carriage.

Looking at the sergeant sent by the emperor to escort her party home, and then at the coffin in the car in front of her, Zhang's tears burst out of her eyes, she quickly lowered the curtain and muttered: "Husband, you expected everything, but, but, why, why did you do that?" ”

……