After having a meal with the old man in the Qianqing Palace, although the old man repeatedly kept him, Zhu Zhanyan still insisted on leaving.

His heart is no longer here, staying in this palace is a torment for Zhu Zhanyan every moment.

Yingtianfu, the wharf on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Xia Yuanji looked at Zhu Zhanyan, who was already fourteen years old in front of him, and was very emotional.

He had never imagined that he would one day look forward to the return of a fourteen-year-old boy and be so sad about his departure.

"Your Royal Highness, have a good trip."

"What, reluctantly?" Zhu Zhanyan still had a good impression of Xia Yuanji, so he asked with a smile at the moment.

Xia Yuanji's life is wonderful, he was valued by Zhu Yuanzhang during the Hongwu period, and even a waiter surnamed Hu once falsely accused Xia Yuanji because of jealousy, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even check, and directly beheaded the waiter surnamed Hu.

It can be said that Xia Yuanji is the team left by Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Yunwen.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang died, Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne, and Zhu Di, the king of Yan, raised troops to settle the country, and finally attacked Yingtian.

Zhu Di, who invaded Yingtian, began to liquidate Jianwen's old ministers, and Xia Yuanji was also among them, and when he was sent to Zhu Di by five flowers, he did not beg for mercy or flattery, but calmly made a request to Zhu Di.

"Can you give me another three days?"

Zhu Di was very surprised, and asked the reason, he said: The household officials fled in all directions, and the money and grain account books were in chaos, and in three days, I would be able to finish sorting out these account books, and it would be convenient for them to be handed over at that time.

After listening to this, Zhu Di took the liquidation list and crossed out Xia Yuanji's name with his own hands.

From that time, Zhu Di knew that Xia Yuanji's loyalty was not to Zhu Yuanzhang, nor to Emperor Jianwen, let alone his Yongle Emperor, but to the people of the world.

On that day, Zhu Di did not give Xia Yuanji three days, but gave him twenty-five years.

From Yongle to Hongxi to Xuande, Xia Yuanji's position as the head of the household department is unbreakable, and no one has ever threatened him.

Zhu Zhanyan knew very well that if there was no person in front of him, Yongle would have shrunk by at least half.

"Yes, I can't bear to ......" Xia Yuanji sighed lightly, not hiding his expression at all.

"I wonder when His Royal Highness will respond to heaven again?"

"Respond again?" Zhu Zhanyan smiled slightly when he heard this.

"I'm afraid it is...... Unlikely......"

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked in the direction of the palace.

"Let's go back!" Without waiting for Xia Yuanji to speak, Zhu Zhanyan took the lead in interrupting his words and slapped him on the shoulder twice.

"Don't worry, I, the boy who gave money, will continue to send you money."

"Not only that, if everything goes well, soon next year, or later the year after, I will give you a big gift, a big gift that will make you smile when you sleep."

Xia Yuanji also laughed when he heard this, and the expression on his face also changed, turning into expectation.

"Then, Wei Zhe is here to answer the day, looking forward to the good news of His Royal Highness the Prince."

Zhu Zhanyan didn't speak, just waved his hand, and then turned around directly, and got on the boat without any nostalgia.

Back to Yunnan, the land route is still too slow, and the waterway is much faster.

However, the Ming Dynasty forbids the sea, that is, Zhu Di deliberately opened the back door for Zhu Zhanyan, otherwise Zhu Zhanyan can only honestly go by land.

Standing on the dock, Xia Yuanji watched the boat leave the dock and drift away, and the emotion on his face could no longer be hidden.

"Wei Zhe!"

After a long time, Xia Yuanji was just about to leave, and was suddenly stopped.

"Zong Yu?" Xia Yuanji looked at Huang Huai who was approaching and frowned.

At this time, it will definitely not be a good thing for Huang Huai, the head of the East Palace since Hu Guang left, to come to him.

At the very least, Xia Yuanji wouldn't think it was a good thing.

Wan'an Street, Xia Fu.

The mansions of Ming officials, whether they are civil servants or military generals, are actually more than Chang'an Street, followed by Ping'an Street and Yong'an Street, and finally Wan'an Street.

Xia Yuanji, as one of the six Shangshu, has a mansion on Wan'an Street, and I have to say that he is sometimes really out of step with this world.

Moreover, the current Xia Yuanji has a feeling when Yu Qian's house was raided in the later period: the official is in a red robe, but his family is surrounded by walls.

During the Yongle years, there were three officials like Jin Zhong, Xia Yuanji and Yu Qian, I don't know what others think, but in the eyes of Zhu Zhanyi, a latecomer, Yongle was also worth it.

"It's really an honor for Xia to be able to alarm Scholar Huang......" Xia Yuanji poured Huang Huai a cup of tea, but there were thorns everywhere in his words.

"I wonder what could make Scholar Huang here?"

"Wei Zhe......" Huang Huai frowned.

He didn't like Xia Yuanji's prickly tone very much, but Xia Yuanji was notoriously not good at oil and salt, not to mention him, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, even if Zhu Di made an unreasonable request, Xia Yuanji would dare to throw his face.

This can be regarded as one of the reasons why Xia Yuanji was imprisoned at the end of Yongle.

"Huh!" Seeing that Huang Huai was really about to speak, Xia Yuanji directly picked up the teacup and interrupted Huang Huai's words.

"There are some things that you can't say if you don't say them, in fact, I know what the result is, so why bother to be boring?"

"Besides, I, Xia Yuanji, am a layman, and any righteousness is useless to me, because there are only two things in my eyes."

"One is money, the other is food."

"As for those righteousness, that's something that you Wenyuan Pavilion scholars need to consider, as the head of the household, my responsibility is to maintain the finances of the Ming Dynasty and let the Ming Dynasty run smoothly."

"For the rest, don't ask me, let alone look for me."

can become one of the six Shangshu, and he is also the household Shangshu in charge of money and food, Xia Yuanji has never just the ability to sit on the ground and make money.

He has a political sense, eyesight, and ability, and can even be said to be perfect.

If he was really a layman who only knew how to deal with money and food, as he said, then he would not have sat firmly in the position of the head of the household department for twenty-five years, which was coveted by countless people.

Not to mention twenty-five years, I'm afraid that he has just taken the position, and before he can show his talents, he will be taken down.

Huang Huai glanced at Xia Yuanji deeply, took the teacup and drank it all, and then got up to leave.

In fact, long before he came to Xia Yuanji, Huang Huai knew very well that he couldn't move him.

To put it nicely, Xia Yuanji is a person who doesn't eat oil and salt, he doesn't care about the prince or the king of Han, he only cares about who can create more wealth for the household.

To be realistic, no matter who is the crown prince or even the emperor, it has nothing to do with Xia Yuanji.

Because people have the confidence to know that no matter who is in charge, they will not be replaced.

But even if he knew this, Huang Huai had to come to Xia Yuanji, because not only him, but the Wenchen knew that now Wenchen alone was no longer enough to suppress the Han King's lineage.

As for the generals?

The generals were originally more inclined to the King of Han, and when the King of Han was in the domain, the ministers actually had a slight opportunity, but they did not grasp it.

If at some point had the ministers chosen to win over the generals instead of being unforgiving and contemptuous, then they might be much better off now, at least not as sad as they are now.

Now, Zhu Zhan first destroyed Chen Jikuan's Dayue Kingdom, and then beheaded hundreds of thousands of people in the Wa Kingdom, seizing more than 2 million taels of silver.

The generals who saw Zhu Zhan's rise again would no longer listen to Wenchen's words.

Or is it the same sentence, born as a human being, who wants to be subservient to others?

If it was when the Han Dynasty was in power, there might be a lot of generals who would compromise with reality and go against their original intentions in the face of the courtship of civil officials, after all, the prince was the trend of the times at that time.

But now, the dawn that can make them crush Wenchen has arrived, who will listen to Wenchen's blind force?

The pride of the civil servants put them in an even more embarrassing situation than before.

……

Cochin.

Even if he took the waterway, Zhu Zhanyan walked for half a month before arriving at Cochin Shenglong City.

It's all here, and home is close at hand, but Zhu Zhanyan is not in a hurry, but first went to inspect the construction progress here.

It has been more than half a year since Zhu Zhan Yan set out to conquer the Wa Kingdom, and without Chen Jikuo and most of the tribes, Jiaozhi was occupied by a large number of Yunnan people who moved south, and a new construction began.

I haven't come back for nearly a year, and there is no winter here, and the Jiaozhi, which was burned by Zhu Zhanyan's fire, now has a new appearance.

The bare, only black and gray tones of the past have completely disappeared, and the refreshing green has reappeared all over the land, telling people that the land has slowly recovered.

It's just that for Zhu Zhanyan, there are still some differences here.

In the past, Cochin was a lush rainforest, but now, there are many more scars on this land, which are all farmland carved out by the people.

However, for Mother Earth, it may be a scar, but for the people of Cochin, it is a scene that is many times better than the primeval forest.

After chatting with Mu Sheng, who was already stationed in Thang Long City, about the recent situation in Jiaozhi and the movements in Siam and Nanzhang, Zhu Zhanyan went home directly.

There are priorities in the matter, and in his opinion, although it will take a long time for countries such as Siam and Nanzhang to free up their hands to solve the problem, there will be no problems.

Anyway, the nails have been buried, the reason has been found, and if you want to do it, it's just a matter of Zhu Zhanyan's words.

When the time came to February, Zhu Zhanyan finally returned home, which was the longest time he had been away from home so far.

"It's all right, you see, isn't it okay to be a child?" Zhu Zhanyan comforted his mother, feeling a little sour in his heart, but he still had to hold back.

Because he knew that if his emotions were revealed in his face and movements, his mother would be even more unbearable.

"Okay, stop crying." Seeing his son again after a year, Zhu Gaoxu was also a little excited, but he still patted his wife's back and comforted him.

"Zhan Yan is also a son of the world, it is impossible to charge into battle with arrows and stones, even if he is defeated, the guards and soldiers will escort him away."

"What do you say!?" Princess Han couldn't care about crying at this time, and patted her husband very dissatisfied.

"Yes, yes, I was wrong." Seeing this, although Zhu Gaoxu was inferior on his lips, he had a smile on his face.

In fact, the men of the Zhu family are quite affectionate.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang to Queen Ma, such as Zhu Di to Queen Xu, and then Zhu Gaochi to Queen Zhang, Zhu Zhanji to Queen Sun, not to mention that there is a Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen to Wan Guifei among the descendants of the Zhu family.

Zhu Gaoxu is the same, he is still very good to his wife, but after his side concubine, Princess Han became silent.

"Okay, mother, you calm down first, and the child will go and meet the three people first."

When he was in Beijing, he was anxious, when he was on the road, and when he was in Jiaozhi, because home was close in front of him, Zhu Zhanyan was not much anxious.

But now that he is home, Zhu Zhanyan is anxious again.

"Okay, let's go......" Princess Han wiped her tears and patted her son's shoulder.

Whether it is the crown princess or the queen, or the concubine of the vassal king, it is not something that can be done by idle people.

Like Princess Han, she may not be particularly outstanding, but it's not far behind.

At the very least, she won't delay her husband and son's business.

Seeing that his mother's mood calmed down, Zhu Zhanyan immediately gave his father a look, and then ran directly towards the door without even changing his clothes.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu patted his wife's back, and then followed.

Next to the mansion built for Zhu Zhan Yan, there is a small house that is very eye-catching, because its existence is incompatible with Zhu Zhan Yan's mansion, which can be said to be a representative of luxury, like a plate of pickles in the Manchu and Han banquets.

However, no one dared to approach this small house, and even the guards outside only dared to patrol the perimeter, and did not dare to step into this small door for half a step.

Because after Qian Yong and the three moved in, Zhu Gaoxu gave a death order: except for Qian Yong and the three, as long as they step into this door, Qian Yong and the three can deal with it.

Even if it's killed on the spot.

Because, even Zhu Gaoxu himself will let people know in advance if he wants to come.

Squeak~

The sound that made people feel sore in their teeth sounded, and Zhu Zhanyan slowly stepped into this small house.

The sound of opening the door that had not sounded for a long time without anyone's permission immediately attracted the attention of Qian Yong and the others, and after seeing the person clearly, the emotions that Qian Yong had suppressed for a long time finally broke out.

"Temple...... Your Highness! ”

Qian Yong and the three fell to their knees with a thud, and their red eyes ushered in tears again after four years.

"I'll wait...... Live up to the trust of His Highness! ”

Although it has been four years, although Zhu Zhan's body shape has changed a lot, they still recognize Zhu Zhanyan at a glance.

The story is cliché, because years ago, it was this teenager who gave them and their family a chance to live, and when this teenager needed them, they set out desperately.

Even if they knew that they were very likely to not come back, even if they were afraid and regretted, they never thought of betraying Zhu Zhanyan.

Sometimes, people's feelings are complicated.

But sometimes, human feelings are simple.

(End of chapter)