Whether it is out of affection or speculation, these orphans are willing to call Chen Sanmei their mother.

Whether they are willing or unwilling, they are all labeled as Chen Sanmei's sons.

So they naturally have to support Chen Sanmei's son, at least when Chen Sanmei's son competes for the throne with the sons of other concubines, they must unswervingly stand behind Chen's mother's children, otherwise they will be labeled as traitors, this is not necessarily their sincerity, but the cultural environment is like this, they are all people who have been labeled in advance and demarcated circles.

Therefore, Zhou Jitong was born, he had no choice, and he had to be the emperor in the future; Zhou Jitong was born, and Zhou Lang had no choice but to make him the prince.

Therefore, while Zhou Lang gave this son the strictest education, he also had to worry that he would affect his personality in strict education and exercise. Emperor Wanli under the personal teaching of Zhang Juzheng, it can not be said that he is not strict, even the queen mother has to use Zhang Juzheng's name to scare the little emperor, but Wanli, who grew up in such an environment, later had a perverse personality, copied Zhang Juzheng's home, not to mention, and did such a ridiculous thing as not going to court for 30 years.

Compared with Zhu Jue, Zhang Juzheng is really not a good teacher. Zhu Jue only educated Jiaqing for a period of time, but let Jiaqing respect Zhu Jue as a father all his life. When emperors like Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Qi educate the emperor or prince, it is impossible to simply treat each other as ordinary students, and they often have political goals.

Zhang Juzheng mostly hopes to strictly educate Wanli, so that Wanli will inherit his reform career in the future; Zhu Qi may not have failed to pass the idea of cultivating Jiaqing and then fulfilling his lofty ambitions as a literati. Historically, after Jiaqing was in power, Zhu Jue did a lot of things through Jiaqing, such as ending the literary prison, but unfortunately he didn't have enough time to live, and he died before he had time to show his ambitions.

The crown prince is also indispensable to such people, although the erudite Confucians hired by Zhou Lang may not have the intention of realizing their own ambitions through the prince, but they must have the idea of achieving their goals by cultivating the prince. But this is unavoidable, and those Western scholars invited will also influence the prince with their own thoughts. Education itself is a process of self-domestication of human beings.

And although Zhou Lang is incompatible with the concepts of some great Confucians, he still insists on hiring them to teach the crown prince, the reason is very simple, what his son will rule in the future is the descendants of these people, how can he do it if he doesn't understand the thoughts of these people? Inviting Western scholars is to hope that the crown prince can have a broader horizon, not like the prince of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, thinking that the world is a group of small countries except for China.

But education is sometimes like gambling, pressing the same treasure, and no one will know what the result will be until the lid is untied. Chinese and Western scholars were invited to the crown prince, and in the end, he was really sure what he would learn. It is possible that he will become a reformer who admires Western culture, such as Peter the Great; Perhaps become a defender of native culture, such as Louis XVI.

Scholars can only impart knowledge and experience to students, and what students can learn sometimes really depends on talent.

In short, the crown prince understands Western philosophy, history and other elite education content very well, but in his bones he is more and more like a king who says the same, which cannot be said that he was influenced by the Chinese Confucianism, after all, there are relatively more such kings in the world, China has Qin Emperor Han Wu, and the West also has Caesar Alexander.

Zhou Lang was not worried that the prince's character would be stronger, because the national strength he inherited in the future would allow him to be strong, but he was worried that the prince would be too good and happy, and that the great national strength would be exhausted. Was the Sui Dynasty strong? Emperor Wen of Sui subdued the steppe peoples earlier than Li Shimin and received the title of Heavenly Khan, and the grain accumulated by the Sui Dynasty was eaten by the Tang Dynasty for twenty years, but the Sui Dynasty II died.

Therefore, Zhou Lang sent the crown prince to the army early for training, let him see the cruelty of war with his own eyes, and at the same time give him professional military training, so that he would not be afraid of war in the past, in short, he should not let him understand war, but also do not want him to be keen on war.

Zhou Lang can be said to have worked hard.

As an emperor who rules over more than 300 million people, and this great empire is still out of a period of change, Zhou Lang's time for cultivating his son is limited, and he cares too much about the growth of the crown prince, and relatively ignores the growth of other sons.

Unintentionally, the crown prince did not perform well in all aspects, but the other son showed quite a strong ability.

This son was one year older than the crown prince, and he was conceived before Zhou Lang's Northern Expedition, and he was born shortly after the capture of Nanjing.

Zhou Lang was about to go on the Northern Expedition at that time, prayed for peace, and named this son who was born in time Zhou Chenggong!

It's a pity that his mother is just a maidservant girl with a low status, if the queen has no children, he may inherit the throne as the eldest son, but unfortunately Chen Sanmei was left with Zhou Jitong in the second year. The queen has a son-in-law, and the queen has cultivated too many righteous sons, so Zhou Chenggong has lost all possible hopes.

Although Zhou Lang cares less, as a prince, the educational conditions will not be bad. He also studied with some great Confucians, and even when he was a child, he received the same education as the crown prince, but there must be differences in personal qualifications, the importance of teachers, etc., and the results are different.

As the eldest son, although Zhou Chenggong is not as concerned by Zhou Lang as the crown prince, he is still more than other younger brothers.

He was a little older, the crown prince went to the military academy, and he was placed in a university to study. As for the students, it was not compulsory, and when he reached the age of sixteen, he was simply arranged to study abroad. Because Zhou Lang found a problem, as a prince with outstanding performance, there are always some forces trying to get closer to him, and Zhou Jitong's future succession to the throne is ironclad, so the emergence of competitors is meaningless, but will cause a fierce struggle for imperial power, which must be eliminated, so he was sent abroad and let him separate from domestic forces.

In this way, sixteen-year-old Zhou Chenggong hid his identity and entered Oxford University in the United Kingdom to study. At that time, the British had just defeated Napoleon, and a kind of inflated great power mentality began to emerge throughout Britain.

In this atmosphere, he silently completed four years of college at Oxford University, and then returned to China to visit his mother, and was arranged by Zhou Lang to go to Europe to hold positions in European companies, at this time he can show his identity, as a Chinese prince, it is easier to help European companies expand their business.

At that time, the canal of the European company had just been repaired, and the European business was developing rapidly, Zhou Chenggong was arranged to be the director of the London branch of the European company because of his background in the British aristocratic school, but this director was actually only nominal, he could not deal with specific affairs, he was more like the mascot of a company, going in and out of various salons and drinking parties in the upper class all day long, and socializing with various forces in the British upper class. For specific work, there are naturally more professional counters and technical positions to be responsible.

After all, it is his own son, and at the age of sixteen is equivalent to being exiled to other places, his mother, who was born as a servant, is used to being submissive, and does not dare to intercede for her son in front of Zhou Lang, but how can a mother not care about her son, and how can a son not miss his mother. Therefore, Zhou Lang felt a little guilty about this son in his heart, and his correspondence with his son has never been broken, so he can only express his concern as a father in this way.

In the letter, apart from a simple greeting, there is actually very little communication between the two men. The son is well-behaved, and he will inevitably write a letter to Zhou Lang to say hello when he encounters the festivals, there are many festivals in China, twenty-four solar terms, and write at least two or three letters every month. Zhou Chenggong is very cautious, only talking about life, talking about what he has seen and heard, and never mentioning politics.

Zhou Lang also cares about him from life, he doesn't have to worry about it financially, the salary provided by European companies is enough for him to live a decent life in London, Zhou Lang can only explain from the eating habits and climate. said too much, Zhou Lang himself felt hypocritical. As a father, it's really sad when you can only talk to your son about these tasteless words.

So he began to put his identity as an emperor before, and communicated with his son like an ordinary father. Zhou Lang told Zhou Chenggong that if he encounters any knots in his life, he can open his heart and talk to himself, and he can talk about anything, including the state and power, which can be used as a topic of discussion between father and son, or complaining.

But Zhou Chenggong still didn't talk about this, showing that he was very satisfied with everything he had and was full of filial piety to the emperor.

Filial piety!

Zhou Lang sometimes scolds his mother after reading the letter, this is not a normal relationship between father and son at all.

After the opening of the Black Sea Railway, the time from China to London was greatly shortened, and Zhou Lang felt that as a father, he might never be able to open up to this son, but his mother should. So he told Zhou Chenggong that he wanted him to come back regularly to visit his mother, and he could also take his mother to London to live for a while.

Zhou Chenggong came back once a year to visit his family, and then took his mother to London to live for a few months. The performance is flat and stable. Even Zhou Lang thought that this son had no ambitions. This is also human nature, after all, the advantage of the crown prince is too obvious, so strong that even the emperor has no choice, let alone a concubine prince.

What really made Zhou Lang start to notice that this son was different was when he kept postponing his marriage.

Zhou Lang is not an ordinary old man, he is not in a hurry to hold his grandson, but when his son reaches the age of marriage, it is also the duty of parents to arrange marriage. But Zhou Lang was more open-minded and discussed with his son, hoping to choose one that would satisfy him. After all, politically it is impossible to leave too much inheritance to this son, and I hope he can get more happiness from ordinary people.

At this time, Zhou Chenggong made a request, he hoped that his concubine would let him go to find it, and asked Zhou Lang to agree.

This surprised Zhou Lang very much, because even in Europe, royal families and nobles are also popular in interest marriages, and there is no concept of free love. But because of guilt, he still agreed to his son's request. As a result, Zhou Chenggong's marriage was delayed again and again, and his other younger brothers had already arranged to marry ministers or noble women, although the crown prince and concubine had not been decided, but they had already married two side concubines.

Zhou Chenggong has always been single, and later news from a European company said that Zhou Chenggong has been in and out of London's social circle for a long time, and many European powerful families are interested in marrying, introducing their daughters who are not out of the cabinet to get acquainted with Zhou Chenggong in the social field.

This situation made Zhou Lang can't help but wonder, could it be that this son, who grew up in European culture, plans to marry a European aristocratic woman?