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

Chapter 140 Fourteen Kings Gathered in Qizhou

In fact, Prince Ning made a lot of efforts to restore the three-guard system in the palace.

In the summer of the second year of Zhengde, he sent a eunuch from his palace to Beijing with a huge private gift for Liu Jin. The eunuch delivered the gift and also conveyed the request of King Ning to restore the guard.

Liu Jin agreed, and despite opposition from the Ministry of War, Prince Ning's guards were restored.

But on the day before Liu Jin was executed in September of the fifth year of Zhengde, the various policies implemented by Liu Jin were dug up by court officials to retaliate, and the guards of Ning Wang's Mansion were cancelled again.

Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao came to nothing and had no choice but to hide his private army in the mountains. He robbed houses when he had nothing to do, while training his troops and replenishing military funds.

"Your Highness, look at Prince of Jing Zhu Houxuan. Didn't he win the favor of Zhu Houzhao just by presenting a sword? Look how favored Prince of Jing is now. Not only was he summoned to the capital, but he also went to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. This time, Zhu Houzhao went south and went directly to Qizhou to find Prince of Jing. The example of Prince of Jing is here. We will definitely win the favor of Zhu Houzhao by presenting lanterns this time," Liu Yangzheng continued to persuade.

"Okay! Let's do it!" Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao made a decision, "Get the lanterns ready, get the boats ready, and we'll set off tomorrow."

It is quite convenient to go to Qizhou from Nanchang. You can take the Ganjiang River to Poyang Lake, then enter the Yangtze River from Poyang Lake, and after entering the Yangtze River, go upstream for a while to reach Qizhou. The whole journey is by water.

After making simple preparations, the princes from all over the country could not wait to set off, as if they were going to celebrate a festival. Since this was not a move, they only needed to bring ceremonial objects, and all other necessities would be supplied by the government offices along the way.

The first to arrive was the old neighbor, the King of Chu. The King of Chu's fief was directly in Wuchang Prefecture. He could just take a boat downstream to Qizhou.

Before coming, the old fox King of Chu sent someone to secretly contact Zhu Houxuan, saying that the commission on Qizhou goods would remain unchanged this year and it would just be fine to keep it as it is. His intention to show goodwill was obvious.

The current King of Chu is named Zhu Rong. He inherited the title of King of Chu last year. He did not come alone, he also brought his queen, son, and others with him.

Other vassal kings from far and near also arrived in Qizhou one after another. Many of them came to Qizhou with their relatives.

The list is as follows:

Zhu Rong, the King of Chu, was given the fiefdom of Wuchang Prefecture;
Zhu Mizhen, the King of Tang, was granted the Nanyang Prefecture;
Zhu Chongqi, the King of Liao, was given the fief of Jingzhou Prefecture;
Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao, whose fief was Nanchang Prefecture;
Zhu Yantai, the Prince of Min, was granted Wugang Prefecture;
Zhu Youxu, Prince of Xiang, was given the fief of Xiangyang Prefecture;
Zhu Houyao, the Prince of Chong, was given the fiefdom of Runing Prefecture;
Zhu Jianjun, Prince of Ji, was given the fiefdom of Changsha Prefecture;
Zhu Youqi, Prince of Huai, was given the fiefdom of Raozhou Prefecture;
Yi Wang Zhu Youbin, whose fiefdom was Jianchang Prefecture;
Zhu Youju, Prince of Xing, was given the fiefdom of Anlu Prefecture;
Shou Wang Zhu Youying, his fief was De'an Prefecture;
Zhu Youshu, Prince of Rong, was given the fiefdom of Changde Prefecture;
A total of thirteen princes gathered in Qizhou, plus Zhu Houxuan, a total of fourteen princes. This scale was unprecedented.

All the princes in the south of the Yangtze River were invited, except for a special prince, the Prince of Jingjiang. (The Prince of Jingjiang was a very special prince, his title did not seem like a prince, but the treatment and standards he enjoyed were similar to those of a prince).

That’s because the Prince of Jingjiang’s Palace was in Guilin, which was too far away, so he was not notified at all.

The oldest among these fourteen kings is King Tang Zhu Mizhen. Looking at the third character in his name, which has the radical "金", we can tell that he is of the same generation as Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Qiuyu.

The other person that Zhu Houxuan was more interested in was King Min. King Min Zhu Yantai's fiefdom, Wugang Prefecture, was the farthest from Qizhou among the twelve kings, at 1400 miles away.

Zhu Yantai, the Prince of Min, was also very hardworking. In order to catch up with the Wanshou Festival, he directly abandoned the ceremonial guards, rode a horse to Yueyang Prefecture with a small entourage, and took a boat downstream to catch up with the Wanshou Festival party. However, what interested Zhu Houxuan more was not the behavior of Zhu Yantai, the Prince of Min, but the lineage of the Prince of Min.

The generation names of the lineage of King Min are: Huiyin Yingyan Yu, Dinggan Qiyi Yong, Chongli Yuanzi Fang, Kuanrong Xiben Cong.

(If you don’t see anything, please pay attention to the seventeenth word. The author can only give you this hint.)
Another person who has some connection with the Prince of Jing's Palace is Prince of Yi Zhu Youbing, because the first Prince of Jing, Zhu Zhanji, was initially granted the fiefdom of Jianchang Prefecture, and later his fiefdom was moved to Qizhou. The palace where Prince of Yi Zhu Youbing lives now is the original Prince of Jing's Palace.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when enfeoffment was enfeoffed to various kings, great care was taken to save money, and some vacant princely palaces were put to use. After all, the cost of building a princely palace was not cheap.

For example, the current palace of Prince Chong Zhu Houyao is the palace of Prince Xiu Zhu Jianshu, who was expelled from the throne because of the extinction of his family.

This was no longer the case in the late Ming Dynasty, as this tradition of thrift was completely gone.

Of course, the most eye-catching are the four brothers, Prince Yi Zhu Youbin, Prince Xing Zhu Youlang, Prince Rong Zhu Youshu and Prince Shou Zhu Youheng. They are brothers, all sons of Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen, younger brothers of Emperor Hongzhi Zhu Youtang and uncles of Zhu Houzhao.

He can be said to be the person with the closest blood relationship to Zhu Houzhao.

This time when they came to Qizhou, Prince Yi Zhu Youbing brought his two sons Zhu Houye and Zhu Houxuan, Prince Xing Zhu Youlang brought his only son Zhu Houcong, and Prince Rong Zhu Youshu, the youngest, also brought his three sons.

Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen had a total of ten sons. In addition to these four, there is another son who is still alive, Prince Heng Zhu Youji. However, his fiefdom is in Qingzhou, Shandong, so he cannot come here.

However, Prince Heng Zhu Youji had the most sons, a total of six sons, all of whom lived to adulthood.

The four brothers, Prince Yi Zhu Youbing, Prince Xing Zhu Youlang, Prince Rong Zhu Youshu and Prince Shou Zhu Youheng, hugged each other and cried bitterly as soon as they met. They had not seen each other for more than ten years after they left the palace to go to their fiefdoms. They thought they would never have the chance to see each other again in this life, but they did not expect to get this opportunity to get together.

Moreover, their fiefdoms were not far from Qizhou, and they arrived relatively early, so they had been reminiscing about the past few days. The most embarrassed one among them was Prince Shou Zhu Youying, because he had no son yet, and in the near future his country would be abolished because of childlessness.

Zhu Houzhao strongly supported this clan gathering from the beginning because he discovered Zhu Houxun among the clan members. He actually still had the hope of discovering more clan members like Zhu Houxun this time, but the result made him very disappointed because he didn't find any outstanding people at all.

On the contrary, the gathering of so many clan members made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, because these princes were of high seniority and he did not like getting along with elders.

Zhu Houxuan began to focus on two people he was interested in: Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao and Prince Xing Zhu Houcong.

It was obvious at first glance that Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao was a man of great ambitions but little talent. This time he brought a large number of lanterns. Zhu Houxuan naturally knew what his purpose was and was thinking about how to ruin his plan.

As for the 7-year-old Zhu Houcong, the future Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong can really see something now. He is very calm at a young age.
(End of this chapter)