In April of the 25th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the eldest son of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the crown prince Zhu Biao, died of illness for a long time and died in the palace of Emperor Yingtian in the capital.

The crown prince is known for his generosity and benevolence, and has always been deeply supported by his subjects; Hearing of his death, the whole country mourned. Zhu Yuanzhang, who has always been resolute and cold, was also deeply shocked by the loss of his beloved son in his later years, and did not look at the court for three days. The saddest thing is probably the eldest son of the crown prince, the sixteen-year-old emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen. He kept vigil day and night for his deceased father, did not think about tea and dinner, and lived in mourning and desolation. So much so that later, Zhu Yuanzhang saw that his grandson was haggard and unhuman, and he couldn't stand steadily, and he was distressed, and he felt even more deeply that his candle shadow was fluttering, and he didn't have much to do, so he couldn't help but sigh: "And sincerity and filial piety, don't you care about me?" He was forced to rest.

Now that the prince is dead, all rituals should be carried out according to the system. So the sealing, moving the spirit, and the burial, everything was in order and orderly. At the very least, it is a comfort to the living. What's more, the ancients have always worshiped ghosts like gods, and death is like life; What's more, it was the prince of a country who was sent away this time. Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor peasant, let go of cattle to beg for food and became a monk, and was almost semi-illiterate when he joined the rebel army, but it is commendable that he has always been studious and self-reliant. Later, when he became an emperor, it was not comparable to the past, although the writing was far from catching up with Cao Cao and Li Yu, but it was also self-contained, and there was a strange pride in it. In terms of etiquette, there is a group of literati who help each other, and they are not as independent as writing articles, so naturally they can't be wrong. Then Zhu Biao was the prince of Yiwen and was buried on the east side of the filial piety tomb of the Purple Mountain. Xiaoling was originally a mausoleum prepared by Zhu Yuanzhang for himself, but he didn't expect that his son used it first, and half of the grief in the old emperor's heart was probably born for himself.

The crown prince died first, and the top priority was to set up a new prince. Zhu Yuanzhang's first thought was Zhu Di, the king of Yan. Among his more than 20 sons, only a few of the eldest sons once went out to take command and made contributions to the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Among them, Zhu Di is the most successful. Zhu Yuanzhang is also proud of Zhu Di because his personality is quite similar to himself. However, Zhu Di ranked fourth, and there were also Zhu Rong, the king of Qin, and Zhu Li, the king of Jin. As a result, the idea of establishing King Yan as the crown prince was opposed by the ministers. Liu Sanwu, a bachelor of Hanlin, said deeply and pertinently: "The emperor's grandson is rich, and he is a descendant, and his grandson is a common gift." If the king of Yan is established, where will the king of Qin and the king of Jin be placed? The younger brother cannot be the first brother, and the minister means that it is not as good as the emperor's grandson. ”

Primogeniture is an unbreakable rule. Zhu Yunwen is actually not the eldest son of Prince Yiwen; Originally, he also had an elder brother named Zhu Xiongying, who died when he was eight years old; Zhu Yunwen ranked second, and became the eldest son of the upright son. The old emperor was helpless, so in September of the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Biao's eldest son Zhu Yunwen was officially appointed as the emperor's grandson.

He still loves this grandson very much. Zhu Yunwen is very similar to his father in many ways. He is quiet and studious, good at poetry and writing, and extremely filial to his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang and his mother Princess Lu. He has a gentle temperament and is deeply loved by the people in the palace. When he first ascended the throne, he was like his father, and it didn't take long for him to win a reputation among his subjects as benevolent and loving for the people. This is what Zhu Yuanzhang likes, and it is also what worries him the most. The imperial grandson was too soft, especially in front of his several high-ranking uncles, and sometimes showed a kind of cowardice. He inherited the throne, it is difficult to guarantee that his uncle, who has a few strong soldiers, will not covet it, in case he really rises up to seize the throne, with the character of this grandson, how can he not lose?

Zhu Yuanzhang firmly believed all his life that in order to be the king, he must be hard-hearted, and he must not be soft when he should be ruthless. This is especially true when you are an emperor. For this, he himself absolutely complied.

Since the rebellion of Hu Weiyong, the prime minister of Zuo, was launched in the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty has officially entered its infamous bloody and terrifying era. This is also thanks to an ancient spy mechanism founded by Zhu Yuanzhang - Jinyiwei. Relying on the work of these eunuchs, who may be loyal or ill-intentioned, Zhu Yuanzhang killed Hu Weiyong's entire family, but also killed a large number of people who were related to the Hu case and had nothing to do with it, as well as their families. At one time, tens of thousands of people died, most of them innocent officials and civilians. Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang drastically rectified his old comrades-in-arms. A large number of founding fathers were slaughtered, including Guo Xing, the brother of Zhu Yuanzhang's beloved concubine Guo Ningfei. Later, even Li Shanchang, the Korean prince who had served as Zhuguo, Taishi and Zuo Prime Minister, and ranked first in meritorious service, and more than 70 people from his wife, daughter, brother and nephew were all killed by Bai Aya, and Li Shanchang became the son of Li Qi, and even Princess Lin'an, who married into the Li family, Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite biological daughter, was not spared, and the husband and wife were both exiled and soon died in Jiangpu. For a time, the whole world was shocked.

Without these founding fathers, especially without Li Shanchang, Zhu Yuanzhang would naturally not be where he is today. However, he did so only out of an emperor's instinct to consolidate his power, and it was completely natural. And his killing did work very well. When the emperor is the emperor, he must be denied by his six relatives if necessary; At this point, he knew very well that the sons of Qin, Jin, and Yan who had experienced success or failure on the battlefield and were able to fight well were the same as him. However, the crown prince Zhu Biao is different; When he was alive, he was deeply worried about his father's indiscriminate killing, and he also admonished his father. In the face of the prince's questioning, Zhu Yuanzhang once threw a thorny staff full of thorns on the ground and asked the prince to pick it up. Seeing that Zhu Biao's face was embarrassed, the old emperor took the opportunity to tell him, isn't the reason why I am killing like this is to help you get rid of these thorns, so that you can pick it up. The crown prince's reaction to this was truly amazing. He immediately knelt down and said, "There is the king of Yao Shun above, and the people of Yao Shun below." This sentence made the old emperor furious, and he picked up his cane and was about to beat him. Thanks to the prince's attention in advance, he hid a picture scroll in his arms, which depicted the scene of his father fighting with his father when he was still a baby on his mother's back when his father fought in the world in the early years. Seeing his father swinging his staff, the prince ran away, deliberately scattering the scroll on the ground. At that time, Queen Ma had already died; Zhu Yuanzhang saw the scene of the hard life of his wife and children in the early years, and immediately felt sad, and the prince escaped with it.

However, all this did not make Zhu Yuanzhang put down the butcher knife. The killings continued. The benevolent prince gave fruitless advice, accumulated depression and became ill, and finally died. Now the grandson step-prince who is as benevolent as him, the throne is handed over to him, in front of the heroes and generals, in front of the three kings of Qin, Jin, and Yan, who are strong and old, whether the emperor can be stable and peaceful, and whether everyone will take him in their eyes, this is all a question that Zhu Yuanzhang is anxious about.

However, in the old days, comrades-in-arms could be slaughtered, heroes and good generals could be punished, and tiger poison would not eat children after all. As early as when he sat firmly in the country and divided the many sons into the big line, there was a small Shanxi official Ye Boju who wrote a letter to admonish that "the division of the seal is over, and the disaster will be born", thinking that the emperor is now "too extravagant to divide the seal", which may lead to the disaster of the Seven Kingdoms of Hanjing. When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the table, he was furious, scolded Ye Boju for "flesh and blood", and sent him to prison. After many years, Ye Boju, who was outspoken back then, has already died in prison, and what he said about the tail of the vassal king is too big to fall has unfortunately become a fact. Zhu Yuanzhang deeply realized this and felt a headache. He also convicted the old father-in-law and eldest brother of Tan King Zhu Zi because of Hu Weiyong's case, and forced the amorous and helpless King Tan to close the palace with the princess**; But after all, it was Zhu Zi who set fire to himself and didn't want to live, saying "I'd rather see the king of Hades than the king of thieves". He could comfort himself that it was a misunderstanding between father and son. At the moment, he can't kill his own son in order to protect his grandson's throne to prevent future troubles, which is tantamount to admitting that it was a mistake for him to be a feudal domain; What's more, his favorite is this fourth son, Zhu Di, the king of Yan.

In February of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Jiang Xuan, the Jinyi guard, sued Lan Yu, the Duke of Liangguo, for rebellion. As a generation of famous generals with high achievements, Lan Yu's prestige and military power in the army naturally became a major trouble for the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately sneered Lan Yu, perhaps because he wanted Lan Yu to wake up and take the initiative to hand over his military power like Tang He, the Duke of Xinguo, and become a Duke of Taiping from now on. Helplessly, Lan Yu has been a general for many years, and has never lost a battle, and has long developed the problem of being arrogant and arrogant, which is to cut his teeth even more to Zhu Yuanzhang. Sapphire isn't a nerd; He was clearly aware of the emperor's coldness and suspicion, and muttered in private: "He already suspects me", and was listened to by the well-known Jinyi guard, which turned into evidence of rebellion.

The commander of hundreds of thousands of troops, how many times he has fought in the north and south, the feelings of sharing weal and woe with his subordinates, and the prestige of repeatedly making great achievements, it is indeed much easier for Lan Yu to rebel than Hu Weiyong. I don't know if Liang Guogong expected that the emperor would attack him, and indeed left a way back for himself in advance, or the unprecedented torture in the edict to extract a confession, General Lan, who has always been known for his pride and iron blood, actually confessed to the crime of rebellion.

The old emperor thundered and raged again. Qingjian's hand struck the armrest of the supreme dragon chair, and a shocking case in the Ming Dynasty that was as famous as Hu Weiyong's case once again stirred up the bloody and ruthless butcher's knife. Lan Yu himself was executed by Ling Chi and wiped out the Nine Clans; Tens of thousands of people, from nobles and princes to ordinary people, were thrown into the Blue Prison. There will be two princes, thirteen princes, two counts, and a large number of court officials. And Lan Yu's old father-in-law, Jingning Hou Ye Sheng, was beheaded half a year ago because of his involvement in Hu Weiyong's case. Legend has it that Ye Sheng's confession has Lan Yu's name, so Lan Yu's case is also likely to be the aftermath of Hu Weiyong's case. This is basically the last party prison that shocked the world during the Hongwu period. In September of the 26th year of Hongwu, the blue storm that lasted for seven months finally subsided after frantically strangling more than 20,000 people. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered and pardoned the remaining parties in the cases of Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu, and never asked again.

Of course, at this time, after the purge of Hu Lan's Party Prison, the founding fathers and meritorious generals have basically been swept away; The old emperor purged dissidents, eliminated all real and imaginary threats, and firmly held all the power in the world in his own hands, and in this way, officially brought the people of the world into a unique dynasty in the history of the country, the most glorious and darkest, the strongest and most dilapidated era of the Ming Empire.

The October of the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu. It has been a year since Zhu Yuanzhang granted amnesty to the remaining prisoners in the Hu Lan Dang case. The capital should be as busy as ever; The prosperity of Jiankang and the royal spirit of Jinling, thousands of years later, still overflow every corner of this ancient capital.

Sanshan Gate is the main gate of the west wall of the capital, adjacent to the hazy Mochou Lake, and is the only water gate in the whole capital that is directly connected with the Qinhuai River by the waterway outside the city in addition to the Tongji Gate in the east. When you enter the Sanshan Gate, you will see the Qinhuai River, which has been famous for a long time, and Sanshan Street, the main road where dignitaries live and are the most flowery in Beijing.

A two-storey liquor store on the street. At the corner of the second floor is a private room, and when you look through the window, you can see that there is a person sitting inside. It was a young man, about twenty years old, with a burly figure, a purple complexion, dressed as a martial artist from head to toe, and the long sword he carried with him was placed on the wine table in front of him, staring blankly at the traffic outside the window, crowded, but obviously he didn't see anything, just a person who was distracted.

Not long after he sat down, a scholar-like man of the same age walked into the private room under the guidance of his fellow man, saw him, walked straight to the table, and raised the coarse cloth burden in his hand.

"Brother Liang has been waiting for a long time. Brother is not paying you a lot. I went to get two babies over, and I will be able to help you and me today, so I delayed some work, and I hope that the virtuous brother will forgive me. ”

The young man who arrived first raised his head, watched as his companion sent the shopkeeper away, closed the door, took a seat opposite, and put the baggage sword on the table.

"What baby?"

The man blinked and smiled mysteriously, "You'll know when you look back." ”

"Brother Jing is so righteous, I really don't know how to thank you."

"Don't be in a hurry to say this; I may not be harming you. Today's incident is extremely risky, and if it doesn't go well, it's light to lose your head. I don't want you to thank me now, and then blame me for letting you destroy the Nine Clans. ”

The young man he called Brother Liang was actually not younger than him, but he didn't mind the other party putting on such a score, and smiled honestly and sincerely as always:

"I won't, today's events are all my Liang Tiehan's private affairs, and they have nothing to do with you. Brother Jing, you have already done me a great favor, and the next thing is enough for me to solve by myself, so you don't care about it anymore. I don't want to go back and bother you. ”

The other person replied:

"It's enough to say these words once, your mother-in-law and mother have been verbose for several days, and my ears are calloused, so don't you feel annoyed yourself? You are now my brother; I, Jing Yuluo, have never been one to sit idly by. I'll just ask you two questions. ”

"Brother Jing asked."

Jing Yuluo lowered his voice.

"Are you really determined to save them and die? You know, there are many honest people who have been unjustly killed in this world, but he is not the only family, how can you save them one by one? After all, they don't have much friendship with you, is it worth your risk to rob the law field at the feet of the Son of Heaven to save the prisoners? ”

Liang Tiehan nodded without hesitation.

"I stayed at his house, and they lived in such a difficult situation on their own, but they still took out the rations they had worked so hard to save for the New Year to entertain me, and refused to charge me a penny. If it weren't for such good intentions, they wouldn't have taken in a Blue repeat offender to cause today's disaster. It's too unfair for God to treat his family. I will die today by ten thousand arrows, and I will deliver them out. ”

Jing Yuluo said: "Since you have made up your mind, my brother will give up his life to accompany the gentleman, help you get home, and save people to the end." This is another question, but I don't know if you have thought about it. A family of five is a repeat offender in the court, even if you can succeed with all your might, the robbery is just the beginning; What are you going to do when you rescue someone? In the capital, you can't hide from people. When you leave the capital and go to the ends of the earth, you are also wanted criminals, where are you going to take them? ”

Liang Tiehan hesitated.

"I have a place to go, and it seems that there is only one way to go, whether it can be done or not, there is only one try."

"Where?"

"Take them back to their hometown."

Jing Yuluo paused slightly.

"Under the whole world, it is not the king's land; How can your hometown escape the imperial court? Seeing that you are an authentic Han Chinese, you can't always have your hometown in the northern desert, right? Even if you can really escape, can you bear to let this family go to the desert with you? ”

Liang Tiehan said: "Where my house is, the court will never come to disturb me. It's a long story. In short, as long as they can go back to their hometown, they will be safe. You don't have to worry about it. The only problem is to make sure that you evade the pursuit and get home smoothly. ”

Jing Yuluo smiled. "If you don't want to say it, don't say it. I'm afraid that even if you don't say it, I can guess it. You take them back to your hometown, what about your wife in Kaifeng? and your errand in the palace of the king of Zhou; This catastrophe will definitely ruin your job, and maybe your wife will also be implicated. ”

Liang Tiehan sighed. "I don't know; Let's take it one step at a time. If it goes well today, we will be masked, and no one will know who you and I are. After settling them down, you can go back to the capital without any worries, and I can also go back to Kaifeng again. If your identity is exposed, it's good to be able to escape with your life, where can you take care of so much. ”

Jing Yuluo laughed: "I'm going back to the capital? I won't leave the capital even half a step. If you want to go, you take them yourself, wherever you go. ”

Liang Tiehan's eyes widened in surprise: "You...... You're not leaving? ”

Jing Yuluo smiled cynically: "I don't." Shall we not take all our pursuers out of the city when we flee out of the city together? If I stay in the capital, I can still lure away the pursuers for you. ”

"That's not going to work; Haven't I done you harm? How do you escape? The capital is too dangerous, even if you can escape today, there will always be a time to be discovered. You yourself just said that you can't hide from people in the capital. ”

"That's someone else; It's easier for this capital to hide my well than a mouse. I have a solution, and I don't need you to worry about me. Besides, I was born and raised here, and in the past 23 years, I have never left this capital. Don't have the golden wire bed of Jinghua Inn, the steamed mandarin fish of Kaiyuan Restaurant and the Jiaoyun Niang of Yuchun Building? I can't stand those days. ”

"Since you are a native of Beijing, why do you live in an inn? Don't you have a home? ”

Liang Tiehan instantly regretted asking this question. Jing Yuluo had a relaxed smile on his face just now, and when he heard his question, he immediately smeared a layer of gloom. He didn't answer, but took Liang Tiehan's sword and played with it.

Liang Tiehan was embarrassed when he suddenly heard the other party ask:

"This is Ling Zun's sword?"

He was slightly stunned: "Yes, he gave it to me when he left his hometown, and he will return it to him when he returns home one day." How does Brother Jing know? ”

Jing Yuluo smiled proudly: "You can see the owner of the sword from a sword, do you believe it or not?" This is a good sword like no other in the world; Although the virtuous brother is strong in martial arts, his mind is too simple, and his temperament is very different from this sword. It's not your sword. ”

"Temperament?" Liang Tiehan was a little puzzled.

Jing Yuluo said: "Brother Xian, you and I have been together for five days, and you only told me that your martial arts were taught by your father-in-law, but you still refused to say what kind of master your father-in-law is, and where you come from; I just told you, even if you don't tell me, I'm afraid I'll be able to guess. I'm not bragging. I can see your Father from this sword. ”

Liang Tiehan was suspicious: "Then you say, who is my father-in-law?" ”

Jing Yuluo didn't answer immediately, but lowered his head again and looked at it carefully. It was a very ordinary-looking long sword; The wooden scabbard is plain and plain, without any carvings. He drew his sword; The sword body is neither inlaid with jade nor bundled silk, but the most primitive appearance, except for a bundle of seal body Yin text carved on the sword surface, there is nothing eye-catching.

He carefully stroked the shiny blade of the sword with his hand, staring intently at the light reflected on it. Then, his gaze fell on Kenshin's seal, flickering, and pondering for a long time.

He smiled quietly, his gaze still wandering from the sword, and said confidently:

"Taking them back to their hometown is indeed the safest way out. Yanshan is deeply cold, and half of the time every year is covered by heavy snow, isolating the world; Your home is hidden in the mountains, far away from the choke point, and even in the time of battle, you can hide from the intrusion of the imperial army and the Saiwaihu people. The imperial court exempted all the taxes and servitudes in Yanshan, claiming that it was because of the harsh environment in the mountainous areas and the difficult survival of the mountain people, which was all a pretense; Everyone knows that the real reason is only one person, and that person is your stepfather. The reason why the canon is rent-free is precisely because he does not dare to enter the mountain to disturb Ling Zun; And the king of Yan sits in Beiping, Mingli guards the border of the northern frontier, and secretly monitors the movements of Yanshan, and always beware of Lingzun out of the mountain. In this way, although the climate in your hometown is bitterly cold, I am afraid that it is indeed difficult to find a second place so safe. ”

Liang Tiehan couldn't hide his surprise.

"Brother Jing! W- how do you know that?! ”