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

Chapter 74 Empress Dowager Zhang's Request
Everyone in the hall was a smart person, so they could naturally guess what Zhu Houzhao meant, and they couldn't help but be shocked.

They all knew Zhu Houzhao's character very well. He was a self-centered person who rarely cared about the feelings of others. However, such a person actually cared so much about Prince Jing. This was extremely rare, and everyone didn't know how to evaluate this matter for a while.

Zhu Houzhao gradually came to his senses and looked at everyone in the hall and said, "It seems that the truth of today's incident has been revealed. What do you think should be done about this matter?"

"Your Majesty, the most urgent task is to send people to Qizhou City to investigate what Shi Lu said in the memorial," Li Dongyang spoke first.

"Isn't the truth obvious? It was Shi Lu who falsely accused King Jing, so why are we still investigating? Isn't this humiliating King Jing?" Zhu Houzhao looked displeased.

"It is no small matter for the chief historian of the royal palace to report a vassal king, and the court has its own laws. We need to send people to Qizhou to investigate. If King Jing is not guilty, then we will restore his reputation and punish Shi Lu according to the law." Li Dongyang answered calmly. In fact, he had something else to say, which was what to do if the investigation found that King Jing was guilty.

"Yes! This Shi Lu must be severely punished. He almost misled me to do something that would make my relatives sad and my enemies happy!" Zhu Houzhao said hatefully.

"Then let's do as you say, immediately. I'll send someone to Qizhou after my birthday celebration." Zhu Houzhao made the decision.

"Also, I want to reward King Jing by asking the Huguang Provincial Administration Office to give King Jing one thousand hectares of official farmland around Qizhou!"

One thousand hectares is 10 acres of land, and Zhu Houzhao's reward was very generous.

"Your Majesty, please don't do that!" Yang Tinghe hurriedly stopped him, "Qizhou is located on a major transportation route, with a dense population. The surrounding land is owned by someone else, so how can we take away the thousands of hectares of fertile farmland nearby?"

"So how much do you think the reward should be?"

"It would be better to reward 50 hectares."

"Bang!" Zhu Houzhao slammed the table, "No, add more!"

After some bargaining, the reward was finally set at 500 hectares.

"Your Majesty, the envoy from Prince Jing's Palace is still being detained outside the palace. What should we do with him?" Zhang Yong suddenly reminded.

"This is a loyal servant, we must protect him." Zhu Houzhao looked at Liu Jin, and Liu Jin nodded quickly, "And today he has made great contributions, so I will give him the Qilin robe! To show his loyalty!"

The Qilin clothing is the lowest grade of the four bestowed clothing in the Ming Dynasty. It was originally the official clothing for dukes, marquises, imperial consorts and earls in the Ming Dynasty. However, because the Qilin is a famous beast of benevolence and righteousness in ancient legends, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty also used the Qilin clothing as a bestowed clothing and awarded it to ministers of the fourth and fifth ranks.

Yu Chunlai was only a sixth-rank eunuch, and logically he should not have been granted such clothing. However, starting from the mid-Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was lenient in granting clothing, which led to officials who had not received the clothing and the general public following suit, and the phenomenon of excessive clothing became more and more common. Therefore, no one objected to Yu Chunlai receiving such clothing.

"Liu Banban, go and help me find a famous swordsmanship teacher. From today on, Your Majesty will not practice with the sword anymore. I will practice with the sword instead!" Seeing that this was the end of the matter, Zhu Houzhao hurriedly instructed Liu Jin.

Liu Jin, who had a gloomy face, immediately smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I will go find the best swordsmanship teacher for you right now."

On the way back to the cabinet, Yang Tinghe sighed: "Your Majesty's favor for King Jing is not good for the country!"

"No, no, no. We have gained a lot today. Liu Jin and Zhang Yong actually had some rifts because of the matter of King Jing. Maybe we can use this to do something in the future." Li Dongyang said calmly.

"As for the King of Jing, he is a minor concern. He is thousands of miles away. Even if he is favored by Your Majesty, this favor will only fade away slowly and will have little impact on the government, so don't take it too seriously."

"Yes, Elder Li is indeed very perceptive and has seen today's events so clearly. Yes, the biggest problem now is still Liu Jin!"

The next day, all civil and military officials, as well as royal nobles, gathered in the imperial city to celebrate Zhu Houzhao's birthday. As usual, Zhu Houzhao gave a banquet in the palace.

During the banquet, when Zhu Houzhao was walking, the sword at his waist suddenly slipped out of its sheath and fell to the ground, shocking everyone present.

Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, was the closest to the enemy at the time. He quickly bent down to pick up the sword, with the tip of the sword facing himself and the hilt facing Zhu Houzhao. He was about to hand it back to Zhu Houzhao, but suddenly he saw the dense feather patterns on the sword and exclaimed, "This is a magic sword!"

Other nobles also gathered around and vied to see it, and Zhu Houzhao was very generous and let the nobles take turns to pass it around for viewing.

Everyone knew the emperor's little tricks, but the charm of the feather-patterned Damascus was irresistible to these nobles, and they couldn't put it down.

Finally, it was Xu Guangzuo, the Duke of Dingguo, who was the leader of the nobles, who asked Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, please tell me the origin of this magic sword!"

Zhu Houzhao proudly told Yu Chunlai's story about sacrificing blood to the sword, which caused everyone to exclaim in surprise.

"This sword was actually forged by the King of Jing. It is truly unparalleled in the world! I love this sword very much. I am willing to lower my dignity to ask the King of Jing for one. Your Majesty's sword must be a one-of-a-kind piece. I will just ask for one that is slightly inferior to yours." Duke Dingguo Xu Guangzuo really likes this sword.

Zhu Houzhao did not yell, "Who are you to dare to use the same sword as me?" Instead, he became more excited and said, "Then Duke Dingguo, you must bring enough silver! This sword consumes 600,000 kilograms of pig iron!"

"Six hundred thousand kilograms of pig iron!" All the nobles were shocked.

"Six hundred thousand kilograms of pig iron is worth more than fifty thousand taels of silver. The material cost alone is more than fifty thousand taels. Then this sword should be worth one hundred thousand taels, right?" Xu Guangzuo was obviously an expert and was very familiar with the price of iron.

"This sword is so exquisite that it is rarely seen in the world. I think one hundred thousand taels of silver is still a bargain!" Guo Xun said hurriedly.

The nobles around him nodded in agreement, whether sincerely or not.

This made Zhu Houzhao even more proud. "So when you ask the King of Jing for the sword, you must bring enough silver. Don't take advantage of his youth and ask for money on credit!"

In this way, Zhu Houzhao promoted Zhu Houxuan's Damascus swords on his birthday, and the target of the promotion was still the Ming nobles with the greatest potential consumption power.

Zhu Houzhao was very happy to be praised by the nobles and returned to the chair to watch the singing and dancing performances.

There were only Empress Dowager Zhang and Zhu Houzhao on the chair. Normally, the two of them didn't talk much, but this time, Empress Dowager Zhang actually took the initiative to talk.

"My son, I heard about the King of Jing's affairs. The Chief Historian of the King of Jing's Mansion is really hateful. The King of Jing's child was almost wronged."

Zhu Houzhao was not interested in other topics, but he was very interested in this topic.

"I have already issued an order to thoroughly investigate this matter, and the last order to King Jing will also be sent out tomorrow."

"That's good, that's good!" Empress Dowager Zhang said with a smile, then hesitated for a moment and continued: "My son, why don't you summon the King of Jing to the capital to live for a while?"

I suddenly worked overtime the night before yesterday, and I didn't get home until 6 am yesterday, which messed up my schedule. I wrote one chapter last night and then I was too sleepy to go to bed. I'll post one chapter first, and the second chapter will be added later

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(End of this chapter)