Zhu Hongsan's announcement team left the Nanjing dock on the first day of December, five days later than Qian Sunai,.。

The Chinese are the most respectful of façade, and in ancient times, officials had to sound gongs to open the way when they traveled, and any honorable things at home had to be posted on the door, especially the emperor as the ruler of the country. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty traveled in three modes, the big driving book, the honor guard, and the honor guard. The big chauffeur book is used for court sacrifices, the guard of honor is used in the imperial city, and the guard of honor is used to patrol the Quartet. These systems were all set by Zhu Yuanzhang after the founding of the People's Republic of China, except for Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di who were used as emperors immediately, and the most unserious Zhengde Emperor Xia Jiangnan used them, and several other emperors rarely used them. In the late Ming Dynasty, the war inside and outside the Guanli was tight, and the emperor had to wear patched clothes, so the honor guard to show the prestige was not used for many years. When I arrived at the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty, I couldn't eat anything, and I could still take care of it. Zhu Yujian, the most miserable Tang king, only after fleeing Fujian did he ask his subordinates to find two rice balls and share them with the queen to eat.

However, Guangdong's Zhu Hongsan is much stronger than those hard-pressed emperors, Guangdong has not been affected by the war, and Zhu Hongsan's Guangdong New Army is very strong in combat, so Zhu Hongsan does not have to flee in a hurry like his former imperial uncles.

Although Zhu Hongsan is rich, he has the army and the navy, two gold-swallowing beasts, and Zhu Hongsan's personal life is probably not much different from that of Tang Wang. Zhu Hongsan only has four dishes and one soup in one meal, and among all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, only Zhu Yuanzhang can compare. Because Zhu Hongsan has no money, so when he was in Guangdong, the Son of Heaven's ceremonial guard was naturally all decorations, Zhu Hongsan himself was the emperor immediately, he thought that the most awesome thing was to go out with hundreds of thousands of troops, not much better than any honor guard, so Zhu Hongsan has always looked down on this kind of face project, so even the Taifu Temple in charge of the emperor's chariots and horses in the Guangdong court is vacant.

But when I arrived in Nanjing, these institutions and honor guards were ready-made, and when Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong ascended the throne, he prepared a full set, who would have thought that Zhu Yousong was arrested in Beijing and beheaded after only one year as emperor, and these chariots and horses and honor guards piled up in the palace were cheap Zhu Hongsan.

And when Zhu Hongsan ordered Li Chengen to send someone to Wuchang to deliver the decree to the prince, he asked people to bring a full set of honor guards for the prince to use. It's not that Zhu Hongsan has any ideas, it's just that Zhu Hongsan felt that he let Zhu Hai be a soldier and almost died on the battlefield, and he felt some guilt about Zhu Hai in his heart, so he was ready to compensate Zhu Hai on this.

It was precisely because it was time-consuming and labor-intensive to prepare the chariot and horse honor guard, so it was only on December 15 that they arrived in Wuchang. The eunuch sent by the palace to announce the decree was the number two person in the palace, Han Qi, the chief eunuch of the internal official and the deputy governor of the East Factory. Han Qi is Chinese New Year's Eve six years old today, and he is not as handsome as Li Chengen, he is only one meter six tall, and he looks like a cylinder in the ground.

It stands to reason that this kind of appearance is completely incompatible with Zhu Hongsan's eyes, but Han Qi and Zhu Hongsan had a one-sided relationship, when Zhu Hongsan was named the king of Chu in Nanjing, and the eunuch who announced the decree was Han Qi, so after the city of Nanjing was broken, Han Qi secretly escaped to Guangzhou and defected to Zhu Hongsan. Zhu Hongsan saw that this guy was also quite pitiful, so he ordered him to serve as the eunuch in charge of the seal and manage everything in the palace.

The internal officials and eunuchs are actually mainly in charge of purchasing the utensils used by the emperor, but the world is in turmoil, and there are not many eunuchs who have fled to Guangdong. Of course, the highest department of eunuchs, the celebrant is naturally managed by the emperor's absolute cronies, the great eunuch Li Chengen. However, the celebrant of the Shenwu Dynasty has weakened a lot, and Zhu Hongsan moved the approval of the red power to the military aircraft, so the celebrant in charge of Li Chengen only became the head of Emperor Zhu Hongsan's steward, and did not have any actual rights.

Because Han Qi was in charge of the emperor's carriage and horses, he was sent by Li Chengen to Wuchang to pass the decree, and naturally the emperor's secret order also had to be handled by him, that is, Xiang Rong'er, the wife of the crown prince.

Han Qi's face turned green when he received Li Chengen's order, everyone knew that the prince was the next son of heaven, and he would go to kill the prince's concubine now, and he would definitely die a good death when the prince ascended the throne. But Li Chengen's order could not be carried out, and there was no way for Han Qi to catch the ducks on the shelves, with 500 Dongchang fans, and 3,600 guards, and come to Wuchang by boat.

Zhu Hongsan's inner court was similar to the outer court, and it was also divided into two factions fighting each other, led by Li Chengen and Han Qi. Han Qi knew Zhu Hongsan first, so he looked down on Li Chengen, who was originally just a city manager, of course, the two still stood together in safeguarding the overall interests of the eunuchs, just like the two of them teamed up to clean up the old Huguang Department in Guangzhou a few months ago. But when it comes to the struggle for power in the inner court, the two are also inseparable.

Han Qi knew that Li Chengen had set himself up this time, but there was no way, who called Li Chengen the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor, and he was also in charge of the East Factory, and he was just a deputy of the East Factory.

However, Han Qi is not a staring and waiting to die, at the same time as the big ship docked at the Wuchang wharf, Han Qi sent his henchman and little eunuch to hurry into the city to deliver the news to the prince, and let the prince figure out his own way. And Han Qi put the score of the great eunuch on the table, and went to the governor's yamen to report first.

The holy decree of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is divided into two kinds, the first is called the holy decree, that is, the words of the emperor, after the approval of the cabinet, become a formal law, and then promulgate the world, this is called the holy decree. There is also a central decree, that is, without the consent of the cabinet, this kind of central decree has no legitimacy, and the magistrate has the right not to carry it out.

Zhu Hongsan let his son go home this time, and he issued a central decree, so it stands to reason that he didn't need to go to the governor's yamen to report, but Han Qi came to the Huguang governor's yamen to report in order to buy time for the prince.

Although Yu Yinggui, the governor of Huguang, was not a good thing, as a literati, he was naturally opposed to the eunuchs, and he did not come forward himself, but just asked the Yamen to leave a copy of the documents, and then sent Han Qi to the Jiangxia County Palace to deliver the decree.

Prince Zhu Hai has nothing to do today, and is sitting in the courtyard with Qian Sunai Kan Dashan. The soldier who carried the door outside the door came in and reported that a young man had come to the door and wanted to see the prince.

Zhu Hai was stunned, could it be his relative again? Zhu Hai said to Qian Sunai: "Mr. Qian, it won't be my uncle who comes to the door again this time!" ”

Qian Sunai listened to the prince making fun of himself, and said with a red face: "Don't make fun of the prince!" Let's see who this person is! ”

Zhu Hai looked at Qian Sunai's embarrassed face, laughed, and asked the sergeant to let that person in. After a while, the kung fu sergeant led a young man of seventeen or eighteen in, and Zhu Hai looked at the person and didn't recognize it.

Zhu Hai asked, "Who are you?" It won't be a relative of Hongu again! ”

This young man was Han Qi's godson Han Wei, he was ordered by Han Qi to report to Zhu Hai, and when he saw that there was another person beside Zhu Hai, he was anxious. Han Wei took out the waist card in his arms, offered his hands to Zhu Hai, and said in a low voice: "Your Highness, the slave has something to say to the prince alone!" ”

As soon as Zhu Hai heard this person say this, he knew that he was a eunuch, and took the waist card and saw that the words of the inner official and eunuch were engraved on it. Zhu Hai thought that something had changed in Nanjing, so he stood up and asked, "What's the matter?" Has Nanjing changed? ”

Han Wei looked at Qian Sun Ai on the side and stopped talking.

Zhu Hai knew that he was afraid of leaking the news, and said in a low voice: "This is Mr. Qian, a henchman of this palace, what do you have to say!" ”

Since the prince said that this person was a confidant, Han Wei no longer concealed it, and after kneeling down and kowtowing, he whispered: "Master, the slave is the godson of the internal official Han Qi, and now that the eunuch Han has arrived in Wuchang with His Majesty's holy decree, the slave's godfather asked the slave to report to the prince first, so be prepared!" ”

Father's will? What do you mean? If it is normal to let yourself return to Beijing, you don't need to be so sneaky, just read it out directly, why is this now?

Han Wei continued: "Master, in addition to the holy decree of letting the master return to Beijing, the godfather of the slave also has a secret decree to execute Mrs. Xiang, and the godfather of the slave is afraid that the master will not know, so he secretly sends the slave to report the news first!" ”

Zhu Hai was frightened when he heard the news, he was also very worried about Xiang Rong'er in the past few months, and he originally planned to return to Nanjing to talk to his father, but he thought that his father was so well-informed, and he knew it early. Zhu Hai didn't expect his father to be so ruthless, Xiang Rong'er was pregnant with his own child, and his father could not take into account the affection of flesh and blood, and said that death would be given.

Qian Sun Ai on the side heard the little eunuch say this, there was no surprise, he had deep contact with that cheap brother-in-law Zhu Hongsan in Guangdong, and knew that this brother-in-law was not a thing, in his eyes, only the world and the throne were the most important, and any other family affection and women could be abandoned. A few days ago, Qian Sunai knew that Zhu Hai had made a woman behind Zhu Hongsan's back, and according to Zhu Hongsan's temperament, he must secretly deal with that woman.

Zhu Hai sat on the chair for a long time before he recovered, and saw Qian Sun Ai sitting next to him, right! And such a strategist, listen to what he has to say!

"Mr. Qian, what do you say should be done?"

Qian Sun said in love: The safest thing now is to leave it alone and let the emperor quietly solve Xiang Rong'er, so that the Ma family will have nothing to say. But Qian Sunai knew that he couldn't say this, so he had to say, "Your Highness, what do you want to do?" ”

The crown prince also knew that he was a little embarrassed about Qian Sun Ai, after all, this is a protest, and in this kind of monarchical society, resisting the decree is to lose his head, not to mention that this is still the emperor's family matter. But the crisis is just around the corner, the prince thought of Xiang Rong'er's voice and appearance, as well as the fact that she sacrificed herself to save herself outside Nanchang City, as well as the child in her womb, the prince Zhu Hai gritted his teeth and said: "Mr. Qian, this palace knows that this matter is too big, and it is very likely that Mr. will be in crisis, but Rong'er is pregnant with a child in this palace, and this palace will beg Mr. Qian, please save Rong'er!" After speaking, the crown prince Zhu Hai came to Qian Sunai and gave a deep salute.