Zhu Ao raised her eyes and looked at this little girl of Peugeot, only to see that she was also dressed in a costume, obviously dressed up carefully, I saw her walk to the bedside, Ying Ying knelt down, her lips opened lightly, and she said coquettishly: "Yes, the slave must try her best to serve the king." ”

Zhu Ao really feels very good today, and his pregnant concubine can't move, so he can only vent this little girl, although it is very evil, but he is used to it, who let us be the prince?

After serving Zhu Ao, the green pothos retreated with full succession, leaving time and space to Zhu Ao and Di Linazha.

The next day, the envoys of Zhu Chun, the king of Shu, and Zhu Chang, the king of Qing, came, and they each brought a secret letter, in which the two princes invariably asked about the situation of Timur in the west, and said that since the father had an order, saying that once Timur and the Ming Dynasty went to war, the king of Su could control the troops of the king of Shu and the king of Qing, then they would definitely obey their father's order and hand over their national army to Zhu Hao.

Zhu Ao smiled faintly after reading the letter, naturally understood what they were thinking, it has been several years since Zhu Yuanzhang issued this order, and I haven't seen them say anything in the past few years, but today they are extraordinarily attentive, isn't it strange? They must have smelled the danger signals emitted by the imperial court, and turned to Zhu Ao for protection, so that they would take this opportunity to expand their power.

Zhu Ao entertained the two envoys, personally wrote a reply letter to the two brothers, and invited them to visit the country to discuss the matter of dealing with Timur.

After all kinds of events were arranged, Zhu Ao began to train the troops and raise grain and grass again.

In the blink of an eye, in April of the first year of Jianwen, three major events that shocked the government and the opposition occurred in succession in this month, that is, the emperor cut the three princes of Qi, Xiang, and Daiwang in one go, and abolished them as concubines.

It turned out that since Yun Wei abolished the king of Zhou, he was also afraid that the kings would react if the blow was too big, so he secretly observed for a period of time, and found that the other vassal kings did not have an obvious hostile attitude towards themselves, but many people secretly expressed their loyalty, and the subjects of the world praised themselves for their righteousness and selflessness, and public opinion was greatly beneficial to the reduction of the domain, so they struck while the iron was hot, and cut the titles of the three princes in one go, and they were all abolished.

The reaction of the king of Qi and the king of Dai was the same as that of the king of Zhou, they were all crying and crying, but when the envoy of the imperial court arrived at the palace of the king of Xiang, an accident happened.

Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang, is the twelfth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, is the elder brother of Zhu Ao, Hongwu was named the king of Xiang in the eleventh year, Hongwu was in Jingzhou in the eighteenth year, he loves to read, every day to study and learn very late, the strength is outstanding, the bow, horse, sword and gun are all fine, can be described as a person who is both civil and military, once led the troops to quell the rebellion in Changde and Guzhou, it can be regarded as a certain merit, believes in Taoism, and gives himself a nickname called "Zixuzi". ”

Although this king of Hunan is all-round in civil and military affairs, Kong Wu is powerful, but it is estimated that he has also done a lot of outrageous things as a prince, the most important of which is to print money privately.

This point is like complicity in ancient times, you can buy people's hearts if you print more money, and you can rebel if you buy people's hearts, anyway, the ancient emperors are all this logic, and they will rely on you to rebel at every turn, because after all, the country is their own, if their wives are the same, they must not let others get involved.

This King of Xiang is also a hard bone, when the envoy of the imperial court came to the door of the palace, he did not open the door to greet him, but gathered his wife, children and subordinates, and said with a smile: "I have seen with my own eyes that many ministers who have been convicted under Taizu are unwilling to be humiliated and commit suicide to death, I am the son of Emperor Gao, how can I be insulted by the jailer in order to seek a way to live." ”

So the palace gate was closed, and the whole family set themselves on fire and died. This incident caused quite a stir at the time, a dignified prince was forced to commit suicide, no matter what, it will make people feel that the methods of the imperial court are too spicy, at this time, even some of the people who are usually very supportive of the imperial court's cutting of the feudal domain began to feel that Zhu Yunwen had gone too far, they were all a family, why bother?

Not to mention those vassal kings, they completely gave up their illusions about Zhu Yunwen, and turned to find a way to protect themselves, King Qing and King Shu thought of King Su Zhu Ao, because they were closer to Zhu Ao, and they had the express order of the first emperor, so they took refuge in Zhu Ao for protection, and the other vassal kings set their sights on Zhu Di, the head of the kings. Two months later, King Min was cut down and deposed as a concubine, and this incident had no impact on them, because they had completely given up their illusions in the imperial court and began to unite to protect themselves.

In the palace of King Yan in Beiping, Zhu Di sat in the inner hall worriedly, and the master Yao Guangxiao, who was standing next to him, took the trouble to persuade him to rebel, saying: "Your Highness, the situation is obvious now. The emperor intended to depose all the vassal kings and enjoy the world for himself. If you don't take any action, I'm afraid you can only be like the previous princes, who will be deposed as a concubine and live an incognito life from now on. ”

Zhu Di still didn't speak, sat on the chair, rubbed his hands, and said slowly after a long time: "He is now popular with the people, and the people praise him as a good monarch who destroys relatives with righteousness and spreads benevolence, even if this king rebels, can he succeed?" ”

Who knew that Yao Guangxiao was disdainful of this question, snorted coldly, and said: "I only know the way of heaven, and I don't care about the people's will." Emperor Taizu Gao divided the princes as kings, with the intention of letting you lead the troops outside, so as to deter the traitorous ministers in the court, so he gave you a lot of power. Especially you, the nine great Sai kings, almost all of the more than 800,000 border guards of my Ming Dynasty are controlled by you, and this is a blessing from heaven to Your Highness. ”

"Your Royal Highness is a vassal king, you should know that my Ming army is only 1.23 million people, excluding these 800,000 border guards, how many troops can the imperial court have? How many more can be sent to fight His Highness? ”

"What Your Highness is worried about is that the rest of the vassal kings are interested in the imperial court, and after they have deceived His Royal Highness with rhetoric, they will send troops to attack His Highness, so as to ask for merit from the imperial court. But now, the imperial court's methods of cutting the feudal domain are so ruthless, and even the king of Xiang has been forced to death, all the feudal kings have long been in danger of themselves, and no longer have illusions about the imperial court. And His Royal Highness is the chief of the kings, and the power is also the largest, if you can ascend to the top at this time, and raise troops in the name of restoring the family law of the Qing monarch and restoring the family law of the ancestors, then the vassal kings of the world will definitely respond, at least they will secretly help Your Highness, so that the court is lonely, even if it has the hearts of the people, what is the use? Caused by His Royal Highness's soldiers, those ordinary people still have to look at the wind and descend to eat pot pulp to welcome His Highness? After His Royal Highness won the war, he was the first righteous hero, so who is qualified to do this emperor's position except for you? ”

"I remember that King Su once said a famous saying, it is never those who win the hearts of the people to win the world, but those who win the world win the hearts of the people, and in the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng won the hearts of the people the most, what was the result? In the troubled times at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Dou Jiande was also very popular with the people, what was the result? ”

"Your Highness, this world has always been the strong for the king, now all the vassal kings are standing on the opposite side of the court, this time is the weakest time for the imperial court, His Royal Highness has 200,000 troops near Beiping, and has the right to control the soldiers and horses along the border, this is the strongest time for His Highness. This is the best time to raise troops. Otherwise, when the imperial court adjusts its policy, eases relations with the vassal kings, draws them over again, and gradually cuts His Highness's military power, His Highness will become a caged bird, and the meat on the board can only be slaughtered by others even if he has great ability. This is the way of heaven, and the way of heaven must not be violated, otherwise you will be blamed. ”

"Tang poems have a cloud: 'When the time comes, heaven and earth are all together, and heroes are not free when they are far away.'" Timing is the most important thing in the world, I remember that the old man once said to His Royal Highness, to His Royal Highness to keep quiet, accumulate strength, and wait for a storm to soar into the sky, now that the wind and clouds have come, why does His Highness dare not fly high? ”

As soon as he said this, Zhu Di's blood was boiling, and even the blood of Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng beside him, as well as his three sons, was stimulated, and they persuaded Zhu Di one after another: "Yes, father, king, it's the opposite, if you don't do it again, the knife will be added to the neck." If someone else takes the lead, will we still serve him as the new emperor? ”

"Good!" Zhu Dihuo stood up, glanced at everyone with tiger eyes, and said with a calm face: "Since you all have said this, how can this king refuse?" From today onwards, individuals will secretly prepare weapons, secretly contact confidants, and not leak the slightest rumor, waiting for the king's orders. ”

"Yes." Everyone saluted Zhu Di and said with a resolute face.

Subsequently, Zhu Di took a series of measures, including secretly building armor and weapons, secretly contacting henchmen, etc., and of course, the most important thing was his good show of pretending to be crazy.

According to the records in the history books, Zhu Di pretended to be crazy in order to deceive Zhu Yunwen in order to gain time for himself to raise troops, in fact, this is certainly one of his purposes, but there is another purpose he is embarrassed to say, that is, to win people's sympathy.

Look at me, what has I been forced to do by my nephew, a dignified prince and the emperor's own uncle? I can only rely on pretending to be crazy and stupid to save my life, how pitiful I am, how difficult it is, so I raised the army to save the lives of my family, not that I want to be the emperor.

It can be seen that the old fritter Zhu Di's sophistication is much stronger than that of the little white Zhu Yunwen.

However, the trick of pretending to be crazy has been used by countless predecessors in history, and the credibility is really low, Zhu Yunwen and his ministers are all people who have read poetry and books, and they are naturally familiar with this strategy.

Therefore, in order to find out the truth, Qi Tai, who was the secretary of the military department at the time, detained and interrogated Ge Cheng, the envoy of King Yan, Ge Cheng did not carry the interrogation, and truthfully confessed to Qi Tai that King Yan pretended to be sick and all kinds of misdeeds, after Qi Tai got the confession, he was overjoyed, he originally advocated cutting the strongest King Yan first, but he lost to Huang Zicheng to make his plan run aground. Now that I have this confession, I believe that no one will disagree with his opinion. Immediately ordered the servants to prepare the carriage and horses, and personally took Ge Cheng's confession and ran to the palace.

On the way, Qi Tai was thinking about how to talk to Zhu Yunwen, but he felt that the carriage suddenly stopped, and immediately shouted unhappily: "What are you doing?" If you delay the big thing, can you afford it? ”

The coachman who was driving the car was afraid that Qi Tai would be angry, so he immediately turned around and said respectfully: "Lord Qiyu, it is a group of people in front of you who are surrounding a crazy monk, what kind of song does that crazy monk seem to be singing?" ”

"What tune to sing? They all sang on the streets. Qi Tai was not only furious, but shouted with a tiger face.

"It seems to be singing: 'Don't chase the swallow, chase the swallow and fly high.'" Goofy Koki. The driver said tentatively, uncertainly.

"What's the mess? Blow them away for me. Does the official still have to face the saint? Qi Tai was furious, thinking that there really was such a thing as a person these days, and then sat down in the carriage without saying a word.

It is said that after Zhu Yunwen got Zhu Di's counter-complaint, he immediately sent a message to Zhang Yu and Xie Gui to arrest King Yan, and Zhu Di made a strategy to deceive the two and capture them, and then sent the general Zhang Yu and others to seize the nine gates of Beiping.

Guo Ziyuan, the guard of Xizhimen in Beiping, was a general under Zhu Di, and was ordered to guard Xizhimen at this time, and suddenly heard a civil strife in the city, I don't know what was going on, and ordered his subordinates to prepare strictly, and then suddenly saw Zhang Yu dressed in military uniform, with a group of people killed violently, I couldn't help but be stunned, and said: "Brother Zhang, what are you doing?" ”

Zhang Yu glared at him, spat at the ground, and scolded, "What are you doing? Don't you see? Lao Tzu is rebelling? ”

Guo Zi was stunned for a moment, then understood, and said, "Big brother, do you mean that His Royal Highness King Yan is the opposite?" ”

"What if you don't? The court deceived people too much, crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, how much did His Royal Highness King Yan make for the court, and in the end they were forced to look like it, in order to save his life, he wore a cotton jacket in the summer, and he pretended to be crazy and stupid in the stove? Is there still a way to live? Then he looked at Guo Zi again, lit up the big knife in his hand, and said, "Guo Zi, who gave you today?" You tell me the truth. ”

Guo Zi's expression was stunned, but he still said honestly: "Of course, it was given by His Royal Highness King Yan, without the support of His Royal Highness King Yan, where would Guo Zi be today?" ”

"Okay, okay." Zhang Yu was obviously very happy, and laughed loudly: "You kid still have a little conscience, how is it?" Do it with us, His Royal Highness King Yan is eloquent and talented, you also know that if you work with us, if you succeed, you can also be a marquis and a general, isn't it better than you being a petty official here to watch the city gate? ”

"This ......" Guo Zi's face showed obvious hesitation, this is also human nature, after all, rebellion is such a thing, even if it has a good relationship with you, it is not just a matter of doing it.

Zhang Yudeng was in a hurry, kicked him in the head, and scolded with a tiger face: "You wolf-hearted little rabbit cub really doesn't know the times." His Royal Highness King Yan has been cultivating you, but now you want to be the turtle you entrust? Let me tell you clearly, the heads of the two dog thieves Xie Gui and Zhang Yu have been cut off, and now the officials of the imperial court in Beiping are leaderless, and most of them have surrendered to King Yan, if you don't want to end up with those two old boys, then be smart for Lao Tzu. ”

Guo Zi rolled his eyes, thought about it for a while, and thought about it for a while, it seemed that he had only this way to go, so he knelt down on one knee and said reverently: "The minister is willing to take refuge in King Yan and serve His Royal Highness King Yan." ”