I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 115 Zhu Houzhao's Heart Knot
Zhu Houzhao, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, looked at himself in the mirror and did not speak for a long time.

In the bright mirror, Zhu Houzhao saw his whole body, including his face, nose, mouth, upper body, and lower body. He could even see the beard under his nose clearly.

After a long while, Zhu Houzhao took a breath and said, "So this is what I look like!"

Jiang Bin also looked at himself in a mirror beside him and said with a smile, "So this is what I look like!"

Zhu Houzhao was happy and said, "Jiang Bin, today I know that you are not as good-looking as me!"

Jiang Bin smiled and said, "How dare I be more handsome than my father? The emperor is the Son of Heaven and he is the model for the people of the world."

Zhu Houzhao always felt that something was wrong, but he was also amused and laughed out loud. He turned around and looked at his back.

"So this is what my back looks like!"

Zhu Houzhao looked at himself in the mirror for a long time before he was satisfied and asked, "What kind of mirror is this?"

"This is a glass mirror. The prince led the craftsmen to make it." Yu Chunlai said with a smile.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. He knew that this was a real gift. Zhu Houxuan would definitely not give him something cheap, so he asked, "Isn't this thing cheap? It's much clearer than the bronze mirror, and it's so big."

"Your Majesty, don't ask the price. This piece of yours is unique in the world. The success rate of making such a large glass is extremely low. Your Majesty succeeded by luck. This is the only piece of this size left."

Zhu Houzhao nodded with satisfaction. He was very satisfied with this unparalleled mirror. The more he looked at the mirror, the more he liked it and he wanted to reach out to touch it.

Yu Chunlai quickly reminded: "Your Majesty, this item is not like a bronze mirror. Although it is beautiful, it is very fragile. It is so fragile that the prince does not have the confidence to transport it to the capital. Your Majesty must use it with caution!"

"Is it so?" Zhu Houzhao asked in surprise.

"We set out in July this year because it is not easy to transport such a large mirror and the journey is very slow. We transported the largest mirrors ever made in Qizhou. If the largest one is broken, we can only give Your Majesty a smaller mirror, and so on," Yu Chunlai said carefully.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the mirror again, feeling warm in his heart, but he also asked curiously: "How many of these glass mirrors have you brought?"

"We were very careful during the transportation process. None of the mirrors were broken. There were only three that were larger than half a person's height. The majority of the others were book-sized glass mirrors. The prince said that these will also be given to Your Majesty, and you can dispose of them as you please," Yu Chunlai explained.

"Take them all out and show them to me." Zhu Houzhao ordered.

All the mirrors were delivered quickly. There were about two or three hundred mirrors of various sizes, densely packed in the yard. Everyone present felt that the yard was suddenly brighter.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the mirrors with great interest, and suddenly said, "If we put these mirrors together and put them on the wall to make a bigger mirror, and then put another mirror of the same size on the opposite side of this mirror, what a sight it would be!"

Everyone was amazed when they heard this. According to Zhu Houzhao's brilliant idea, how much money would it cost?

What Zhu Houzhao didn't know was that more than 160 years later, Louis XIV of France asked his architect and urban planner Mansart to design the most luxurious and magnificent hall, the Hall of Mirrors, for the Palace of Versailles, which was almost the same idea.

Zhu Houzhao suddenly asked: "Did my brother really say that I can do with these mirrors as I please?" "The prince said that Your Majesty can do with them as you please." Yu Chunlai said respectfully.

"My brother really understands me!" Zhu Houzhao's eyes flashed with understanding, and he nodded and said, "Put all these away, and entertain the envoys from the Prince of Jing's Mansion well."

Yu Chunlai was taken away.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Houchun kept in contact every month during these three years. Zhu Houzhao would send envoys south every month. They talked about everything in the letters, so Zhu Houchun was relatively familiar with Zhu Houzhao's current situation, so he sent an extra batch of glass mirrors.

"Father, this uncle King Jing is really generous! Apart from these largest mirrors, the other mirrors must be worth at least 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver!" Jiang Bin asked deliberately.

In fact, he knew Zhu Houxun, after all, he was often mentioned by Zhu Houzhao.

"Yes, Zhu Bin, you have never met your uncle the King of Jing. Your uncle always thinks ahead of others in everything." Zhu Houzhao suddenly felt a little sad.

"Zhu Ning, your uncle has been away from Beijing for three years, right?" Zhu Houzhao looked at Qian Ning.

"Reporting to the Emperor, my uncle left Beijing in May of the fifth year of Zhengde. It has been three years and four months now," Qian Ning replied.

"I don't know what he has become in the past three years. Zhang Yong, tell me! Didn't you go to the Prince of Jing's wedding last year?" Zhu Houzhao said to Zhang Yong.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing was more mature than before, and he just had a little more beard. The emperor recognized His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing at a glance." Zhang Yong replied quickly.

"He wrote to me a while ago saying that Princess Jing is pregnant. The baby should be born soon, right? He also has a son out of wedlock. After more than three years of not seeing him, he's already going to be the father of two children. That's great!" Zhu Houzhao exclaimed.

Now no one dared to speak. Zhu Houzhao had been on the throne for 8 years, and there was still no news of any concubines becoming pregnant in the harem. The issue of offspring had become the focus of attention throughout the court.

Everyone present was a smart person, so naturally they didn't dare to get into trouble over this matter.

Zhu Houzhao sighed for a while and said nothing more.

"Since your Royal Father misses Uncle Prince Jing so much, why doesn't he summon Uncle Prince Jing to the capital?" Jiang Bin asked puzzledly.

Qian Ning was overjoyed when he heard Jiang Bin ask this: Jiang Bin must have been here for too short a time and didn't know that the uncle of King Jing was a knot in the heart of the emperor's father. This will definitely anger the emperor's father.
But to Qian Ning's surprise, Zhu Houzhao did not get angry. Instead, he sighed quietly, looked at the people present and said, "You are all people I trust, so I won't hide anything from you."

Qian Ning, Jiang Bin and Zhang Yong were perked up when they heard this and pricked up their ears to listen.

"Back then, your uncle and I agreed to fight back against the Mongols and defeat the little Mongolian prince. The problem at that time was lack of money, so your uncle racked his brains to get me two profitable industries. As a result, within three years, these two industries were ruined by the people below!" Zhu Houzhao gritted his teeth when he said this at the end.

"The rebellion of Liu Liu and Liu Qi has emptied the national treasury, as well as the money and grain I have saved to fight back against Mongolia. The national situation is even worse than it was three years ago, and the fight against Mongolia is nowhere in sight. I feel ashamed to see your uncle," Zhu Houzhao said, shaking his head with some frustration.

(End of this chapter)