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

Chapter 62: Prince of Jing Zhu Houxuan in Zhengde's Eyes
Qianqing Palace.

"Prince of Jing?" Zhu Houzhao looked at the name in surprise as he sat behind the imperial table. His expression immediately turned angry. "Zhang Yong, you bastard, how dare you be so careless in your work!"

As he said this, he threw a stack of papers on the imperial desk to Zhang Yong who was standing aside.

Zhang Yong was one of the "Eight Tigers", supervising the 12th Regiment and the Chief of the Divine Machine Camp. In the palace, he was in charge of the Qianqing Palace and the Imperial Household Bureau, and was also the supervisor of the Shangshen, Shangyi, Sishe, Neiguan, the Plastic Surgery, Etiquette, and Sweets Rooms, as well as the Leopard Room, the Laundry Bureau, the Mixed Hall Department, and the Nanhaizi Affairs, becoming the eunuch with the most part-time jobs.

He was one of Zhu Houzhao's most trusted eunuchs, and they had always had a good relationship. But today, Zhu Houzhao rarely got angry with Zhang Yong.

Zhang Yong quickly knelt on the ground and cried out, "Your Majesty, how dare I be careless? Today's play is called Jing Opera in Jiangnan, which means the play written by the King of Jing. If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can call the members of the troupe and ask them."

Zhang Yong secretly regretted that he should not have accepted Liu Bo's request. He thought that such a novel drama would surely win the emperor's favor, but he did not expect that it would cause so much trouble by mistake.

Zhu Houzhao's expression softened. He knew Zhang Yong was not such a careless person. "Is that so?"

Zhang Yong's hands were not idle either, he quickly picked up the papers scattered on the ground, "This is the information about King Jing that I just got from Jinyiwei, the emperor will know it at a glance."

After saying this, he respectfully placed the paper on the imperial desk.

Zhu Houzhao's eyes fell on the paper, and he suddenly laughed out loud, "What a 'what about royal power and wealth', I was wondering who was so bold, but I didn't expect the answer to be so simple, so interesting!"

"I still remember that at the beginning of this year I issued an edict to confer the title of King of Jing. It seems that this is the one. What is his name?"

"Zhu Houxuan!" Zhang Yong replied quickly.

"Zhu Houxun? He is actually someone of the same generation as me?" Zhu Houzhao felt a sense of familiarity when he saw the name.

"Reporting to His Majesty, this Prince of Jing, Zhu Houxuan, is fifteen years old this year and is Your Majesty's cousin."

"Fifteen years old?" Zhu Houzhao raised his eyebrows and picked up the paper on the table and began to look through it.

The Jinyiwei had spies in Qizhou and the Prince of Jing's Mansion, and relevant intelligence would be sent back to the capital every month. The document in Zhu Houzhao's hand was a summary of intelligence about the Prince of Jing's Mansion.

"Improving looms, rehearsing plays, refining elixirs, and forging iron? The title of Blacksmith Prince makes me laugh to death! He does everything except reading! Haha, interesting! The Chief Secretary of the Prince of Jing's Mansion must be pissed to death! It would be even better if he could learn some riding and shooting." Zhu Houzhao flipped through the papers quickly.

"Yes, I can't believe it either. Other clan members have to cover up when they do something ridiculous, but this master doesn't cover it up at all." Zhang Yong came forward and smiled.

"It's better not to hide it. This is called true nature. No wonder he could write lyrics like 'Why fear the rules and regulations?'" Zhu Houzhao continued to look at the intelligence summary of the Prince of Jing's Mansion with great interest.

Then his eyes stopped on a page of text and his face turned cold.

"I still have two uncles who are so disappointing!"

But then he burst into laughter, "Haha, good scolding! Good scolding!"

Zhu Houxun's actions, which seemed absurd to the world, were extremely interesting in Zhu Houzhao's eyes.

After Zhu Houzhao laughed twice, his face became gloomy and he thought of his two bastard uncles again.

Zhu Houzhao's uncles, the Zhang brothers, were despised and abandoned by everyone during the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties because the things they did were so absurd.

When Emperor Hongzhi was in power, he was drinking with the Zhang brothers one day. When the emperor went to the toilet, the Zhang brothers snatched the emperor's hat from the eunuchs who accompanied him and wore it for fun. Another time, Zhang Yanling was so bold that he raped a palace maid after drinking. Eunuch He Wending was furious and wanted to kill him with a golden gourd in his hand. Eunuch Li Guang informed him halfway, and Zhang Yanling escaped. Afterwards, He Wending was caught and tortured by the Jinyiwei, and was beaten to death by people sent by Empress Zhang.

The heinous crime of causing chaos in the imperial palace was just passed off as is, while the eunuchs who had been sticking to their duties were killed.

Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling committed so many crimes that even the censors were too lazy to impeach them. In the past, Wu Shizhong, the chief censor of the Criminal Department, and Li Mengyang, the chief censor of the Ministry of Justice, impeached the Zhang brothers, which made Empress Zhang furious. The impeachers were almost convicted for this.

After the death of Emperor Hongzhi, the Zhang brothers still did not know how to restrain themselves and it became commonplace for them to rob people's land.

Zhu Houzhao had long wanted to punish these two uncles, but he had not yet completely controlled the court in the past few years, and because Empress Dowager Zhang continued to protect them, he did not deal with the Zhang brothers. Now that there was a good opportunity to punish the Zhang brothers, this opportunity was gone.

Zhang Yong naturally understood Zhu Houzhao's thoughts and quickly advised him, "Your Majesty is responsible for the whole country, so he cannot be as reckless as His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing. And with the personalities of the two uncles, there will be no shortage of such opportunities in the future."

Zhang Yong’s words made Zhu Houzhao feel much more comfortable.

He continued to look at the intelligence summary of the Jingwang Mansion, and suddenly asked, "Was my cousin born in the seventh year of Hongzhi?"

Zhang Yong had already read the intelligence from the Prince of Jing's Mansion in advance, so he naturally knew Zhu Houxuan's basic information and quickly replied, "He was born in the sixth year of the Hongzhi reign."

"Oh." Zhu Houzhao said without comment. He didn't ask any more questions and continued to look through the intelligence summary of the Prince of Jing's Mansion.

Zhang Yong's mind was already working rapidly.

As the saying goes, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. Everyone around the emperor is extraordinary, and every word the emperor says must be pondered in his heart at least three times.

And Zhu Houzhao's question "Born in the seventh year of Hongzhi?" is no exception. Guessing the emperor's thoughts through his every word is a basic ability for them to survive next to the emperor.

Zhang Yong kept thinking about the events of the "seventh year of Hongzhi", and it actually reminded him of one thing.

Prince Weidao Zhu Houwei was born in the seventh year of Hongzhi!
Wei is the title of a prince. The title is a single word, representing that this is a prince. Dao is the posthumous title, which means sorrow and mourning, and is suitable for people who died young.

Prince Weidao was the second son of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youtang. His biological mother was Empress Xiaokangjing Zhang. He was the only brother of Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao. He was born on December 1494, 1496, and died on February , , at the age of three.

Normally, a prince of this age was not even old enough to be given a name, let alone be granted the title of king. However, as the second son of the Hongzhi Emperor who had few offspring, the Hongzhi Emperor made an exception and posthumously conferred him the title of prince. This was unique in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Yong instantly guessed what Zhu Houzhao was thinking, but he could only bury this guess deep in his heart, not daring to reveal it at all. At the same time, he raised the importance of Prince of Jing Zhu Houxun to a higher level in his mind.

"Forget it, I won't read it anymore. My little cousin is quite interesting!" Zhu Houzhao threw the paper on the table, stretched and said.

"Then, my lord, shall we go back to the Leopard Room?"

"Don't go back to the Leopard Room! Go to the Bell and Drum Department!"

"what?"

"Didn't you finish watching the Jing drama?"

I'll post one chapter first. If I'm not satisfied with the next chapter, I'll revise it and post it later. It's so frustrating to run out of manuscripts.

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(End of this chapter)