Qi Tai also knew that Zhu Ao didn't like him, and he didn't want to be polite to him here, so he was tired, so he said, "I'll leave tomorrow, and I ask Your Highness for forgiveness." ”

Zhu Ao's face suddenly showed a regretful expression, and he sighed: "Hey, I hit it off with Lord Qi at first sight, and I originally wanted to keep you for a few more days to ask for a good lesson in the art of war, but it's a pity that you have the emperor's order and can't accompany you." Well, the widow is not the kind of person who is difficult for the strong, so you can rest in this palace tonight, and we will meet later. ”

"Thank you, Your Highness." Qi Tai arched his hand expressionlessly, and the taste in his heart was really difficult to express.

That night, Zitai stayed in the palace, and all his men were arranged. Zhu Ao returned to his room and ordered Huai En to call Abi Luo and Kun Sha over to sleep, these two women from the Western Regions were proficient in music, and Zhu Ao listened to them play the piano while watching them dance, and his inner troubles would be much less.

Not long after, the two beauties came to Zhu Ao's room under the guidance of the eunuch, and after seeing Zhu Ao, they knelt on the ground and kowtowed together, saying: "The slave and maid knock to see the king, the king is a thousand years old, a thousand years old." ”

Zhu Ao raised her eyes and glanced at these two beauties, between which Abiluo wore a pink skirt, with her peerless appearance and virtuous temperament, she was very lovely, just like what was written in the Book of Poetry. And Kunsha wore a light green dress and a delicate silver hairpin, which was given to her by Zhu Ao, with her slender and proud figure, it looked very light, and it was estimated that it could be comparable to the famous beauty Zhao Feiyan of the Western Han Dynasty.

Zhu Ao was very satisfied with the two beauties that the rich Uighur merchant Altai had given him, smiled slightly, beckoned, and said, "Come here, come to the widow." ”

The two women glanced at each other with a little surprise, secretly wondering why the king didn't let them perform their talents today, but the king had an order, and none of them dared to disobey it, so they immediately kowtowed lightly on the ground and said, "Yes, the slave obeys." With that, he supported his delicate body with both hands, stood up slowly, and then took small steps towards the two cheerful birds, and ran to Zhu Ao's side, one on each side, knelt down, and said softly: "King, the slave and maid have come to serve you." ”

Zhu Ao hugged these two pieces of warm fragrant nephrite jade from left to right, and after letting them stick to his body, he suddenly felt a fragrance invade his nostrils, so uncomfortable, and said with a smile: "Altai is really a loyal person, not only gave the widow two human treasures, but also did a beautiful thing tonight." ”

It turned out that tonight's mutiny time was planned by Zhu Ao for a long time, and he specially ordered Altai, the richest man in the Uighurs, to find a group of Uighur ruffians to scare Qi Tai, since ancient times, all the big businessmen will raise a group of ruffians and hooligans to do some shady things, and Altai is no exception, after receiving Zhu Ao's order, he completed the task very quickly, of course, all his activities were carried out under the supervision of Zhu Ao's army.

Abiluo was very happy when he heard Zhu Ao's praise, the king not only affirmed them, but also affirmed their patriarch, which is also good news anyway, indicating that in the future, the two sisters will only be more favored by Zhu Ao's side, and said with a very coquettish smile: "Thank you for the king's praise, the slave and maid can serve the king, it is the slave and the maid who are fortunate to have three lives, and the slave and the maid toast the king with a cup." With that, he picked up the wine on the table, took a sip gently, and then handed the fragrant lips to Zhu Ao's mouth.

The beauty took the initiative to kiss, naturally there was no reason to refuse, and Zhu Ao successfully prevaricated the matter of changing the seal, and the mood was also very good, and the beastly desire was very inflated, so she bit Abiluo's lips and began to do bad things.

The next day, Qi Tai really said goodbye to Zhu Ao, Zhu Ao intended to give him some coils, but he insisted on refusing to ask for it, because he knew that no matter what, his errand was not done well, if he asked for King Su's money at this time, it would inevitably be suspected of bending the law for personal gain, and if someone stabbed Zhu Yunwen's ear, it would definitely be a bad thing.

Zhu Ao also knew his thoughts, and after pretending to be polite to him a few times, he no longer forced him, sent someone to send Qi Tai to the border, and he hid in the palace to think about his next development plan.

The current situation is very simple, he is now sandwiched between the two empires of the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire, and the strength of each country can be said to be stronger than him, so his basic policy is that no matter what, he can't fight on two fronts, otherwise, it will definitely be a catastrophe, looking at the current situation Zhu Yunwen should not be looking for trouble for himself, if history has not changed, then it should be difficult to calm down next, Zhu Yunwen will fight with his uncle Zhu Di in the dark, and there is no time to look west, Then he must take this opportunity to destroy the Timurid Empire, establish a great empire in Central Asia, and truly become the world's top power.

However, now you can't act rashly, after all, many of the major events you have experienced are different from the previous history, what if you don't make it difficult? Then what if Zhu Yunwen took the opportunity to stab Timur in the back?

Zhu Ao inherited Lao Zhu's genes, that is, no matter what you do, you must be steady, you must be cautious, you don't see a rabbit and don't scatter eagles, anyway, now that old boy Timur is engaged in the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the west, he only needs to be strong during this time. If Zhu Di and Zhu Yunwen don't fight, he will definitely not challenge such a strong enemy.

It is said that after Qi Tai returned to the capital all the way, he didn't return home, and first came to the Forbidden City where Zhu Yunwen was located. As soon as he saw Zhu Yunwen, Qi Tai took two steps, hurriedly knelt on the ground, and said, "Minister Qi Tai knocks to see Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty, long live." ”

Zhu Yunwen has already received Qi Tai's report, to be honest, neither of the two things has achieved the goal, he still has some small emotions in his heart, but when he thinks that Qi Tai has always been a henchman on his side, and he is the minister who left him by the first emperor, this time he has experienced many dangers in Suguo, and he almost put his life there several times, so he felt a trace of unbearable in his heart, stretched out his hand to help Qi Tai, and said: "Qi Aiqing doesn't have to be polite, get up quickly." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Qi Tai stood up from the ground tremblingly, got up from the ground in great panic, and made a gesture at Zhu Yunwen, saying, "The minister is incompetent, and he has a negative grace, and I ask Your Majesty to forgive me." ”

Zhu Yunwen moved his body sitting on the throne, and smiled very politely: "Sir doesn't have to be like this, you can't blame Mr. for this matter, it's because King Su is fledgling and no longer takes the orders of the imperial court seriously." ”

In Zhu Yunwen's heart, the most perfect Chinese dynasties except for the three generations belong to the Song Dynasty, and Song Taizu once famously said: "Don't kill scholars." As a result, the Song Dynasty became the heyday of cultural rule in all dynasties, and a large number of literati and writers emerged. The attitude of the two Song Dynasty courts towards the literati was very tolerant, even if it was against the big things, they would not kill their heads, Zhu Yunwen still admired this policy, and also wanted to be a tolerant and generous monarch, so he did not plan to delve into Qi Tai.

Qi Tai saw that Zhu Yunwen pardoned him, and felt that the boss was relaxed for a while, he deeply felt that Jun was deeply gracious, and Zhu Yunwen was good to him, so he thought that he knew everything and said everything, to repay Zhu Yunwen, and continued to muster up the courage to speak, and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that King Su has established a country, and the treatment of him should be different from other vassal states. Moreover, the first emperor once had a clear order: Su soldiers are not allowed to cross the Yellow River for a single step, that is to say, the possibility of King Su rebelling is very small. Besides, the envoy sent an envoy this time to inquire that Samarkand in the west was eyeing the Su State, and the King of Su was still too late to protect himself, so how could he rebel? For now, we should worry about the vassal kings in the interior, who are the biggest threat to the imperial court. ”

At this time, in the main hall, in addition to Qi Tai, there were also Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru, both of whom were very dissatisfied with Qi Tai's return of the feathers, but since the emperor didn't want to pursue it, the two of them were not good at saying anything, and now Qi Tai led the topic to the topic of cutting the feudal domain that they were interested in, which aroused their great interest, and said: "Your Majesty, what Lord Qi said is extremely true." At present, the vassal kings of various feudal kingdoms have committed many lawlessness, and the first emperor knew to be restrained when he was alive, but now that the first emperor is gone, they think that there is no one in this world who can cure them, so they do whatever they want. They oppressed the people in the fiefdom, robbed the people's daughters, regarded the officials of the court as slaves and maids, beat and scolded, and regarded themselves as the emperor's uncle at every turn. ”

Zhu Yunwen nodded thoughtfully, these vassal kings are too much, he can receive a bunch of letters accusing them of illegal behavior in the local area almost every month, the copywriting has long been piled up, and if it is not rectified, I am afraid that it will be true as the three adults said, the imperial court is not powerful in the local area, these feudal kings will not be able to lose their tails, and in the end they will even rise up to rebel and threaten the status of the imperial court, suddenly raised his head, his eyes radiated a sharp gaze, and he secretly made up his mind in his heart, With a firm face, he said: "What the three Aiqing said is very true, and I also agree with your point of view - cutting the domain, but there are more than 20 feudal states sealed by the first emperor, and if we want to cut the domain, which one should we start with?" ”

Qi Tai had already thought about this problem many times, and he was conceited that his plan was the most secure and most in line with the national conditions, so he took the lead in standing up and arching his hand to Zhu Yunwen, and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that he should start with King Yan, King Yan has a lot of power in northern Xinjiang, and has the privilege of controlling soldiers and horses along the border, plus King Yan uses extraordinary troops, if he doesn't plan it early, once he is full-fledged, it will be difficult to subdue." ”

"The minister objected." Before Zhu Yunwen could speak, Huang Zicheng, who was standing on the side, suddenly stood up and said loudly, he was consistent with Qi Tai on the issue of cutting the domain, and he had repeatedly sharpened and supported each other, but on the issue of who to cut first and how to cut it, it was very contrary to Qi Tai's point of view, after hearing Qi Tai's opinion, he snorted coldly in his heart and sneered, so he firmly stood up and objected: "King Yan has no fault, he has successfully resisted the invasion of the Northern Captives several times, and has captured many of their important people alive, these things are known to the world, Now we have a bunch of problematic vassal kings who don't cut it, but want to take the Yan King who has the most credit, how do the subjects of the world look at the court? From now on, where is the prestige of the imperial court? ”

What Huang Zicheng said is not bad at all, although Zhu Di has always wanted to be the emperor since he became a vassal, but because Lao Zhu's eyes are bright, he has not dared to take practical action, but he has not been able to endure it, and can only be like Zhu Ao and Di Linazha, who are obscene behind closed doors and have passed the emperor's addiction.

On the contrary, he has repeatedly led the troops out of the fortress and made a lot of contributions, and from this point of view, he is indeed meritorious. The only mistake Zhu Di made in his life was to accept North Korea's tribute horses privately, and was scolded by Zhu Yuanzhang, and since then he has been cautious and no longer makes mistakes.

Qi Tai disagreed with Huang Zicheng's view, he thought that the only one who has the strength to threaten the status is this Yan King Zhu Di, Zhu Di's ambition has been shown when Zhu Biao was the prince, he doesn't believe that Zhu Di's ambition is suddenly gone after Zhu Yunwen ascends the throne, if you want to remove the threat of the vassal king to the court, you must first remove Zhu Di, the biggest threat to the court, so that Zhu Yunwen's throne will be stable, so he stood up and argued: "Shoot people first shoot horses, Yan Wang is currently the most powerful among the kings, It is also the most threatening to the throne, if you don't solve King Yan first, but instead move those inconsequential vassal kings, it will inevitably make King Yan vigilant, and then have the opportunity to resist the policies of the imperial court. ”

Huang Zicheng still disagreed with Qi Tai's point of view, and argued without wanting to let go: "King Yan has no merit, even if you want to cut him, then you need a reason, dare to ask Lord Qi, what reason do you have to cut King Yan, and what is the way to block the mouth of the people in the world?" ”

Qi Tai's face turned red, and he knew in his heart that if he had proposed this policy before, it might be nothing, but if it was proposed now, it would definitely be refuted useless, but now is the most critical moment for the imperial court, and he can't hide it from Zhu Yunwen for the sake of his own face, otherwise he will be sorry for the kindness of his acquaintance with Zhu Yuanzhang, so he said hard: "Your Majesty, you can change the title of King Yan to Nanchang and let him leave his nest, so that he will be like a fish out of water, Even if you have great ability, you can't use it. ”

Sure enough, as soon as this remark came out, it was immediately refuted by Huang Zicheng very harshly, and said: "Lord Qi also sent an envoy to Su Guo and wanted to change the title of King Su to Suzhou, what was the result?" ”

Qi Tai's old face turned red, although this matter was Fang Xiaoru's brainless and a very nonsensical idea, but there was no way out because he didn't do a good job, and it was still very embarrassing to be exposed in public, but he thought that King Su and King Yan were different, and he also hoped that Zhu Yunwen could realize this, so he said stubbornly: "Your Majesty, King Yan and King Su are different. King Su is the king, is the king of the first emperor's order, all the civil and military soldiers in the country are subject to his control, it can be said that it is an iron plate, it is very difficult to move him, and the first emperor has an order not to let his soldiers and horses cross the Yellow River, which also puts an end to his ambition to compete for status, so there is no need to move King Su first. And King Yan is different, although he has great power, he is still a vassal king, and he is a vassal king who can be transferred by the court at will, and a considerable part of the officials in his fief are appointed by the imperial court. ”