The Dumb Prince of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 81 Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I've Come to Bribe You

One hour later.

Li Jinglong carried a wooden box and huffed and puffed as he entered the hall.

Clang!

He placed the wooden box on the ground, bowed deeply, and said, "Your subject greets Your Majesty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze fell on the wooden box: "What are you carrying?"

Li Jinglong flung open the box, revealing gleaming silver. He raised his chin and said, "Dazzling, isn't it? Could you have earned this much when you were a beggar?"

"We are now rich beyond measure," Zhu Yuanzhang snorted.

Li Jinglong slammed the lid of the box shut and hugged it to his chest, saying, "Your Majesty doesn't want it, right? Then I'll take it back with me."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly: "Is this for us?"

Li Jinglong shook his head with an upright expression: "No, this is a bribe to His Majesty. I am now the chief beggar, leading thousands of beggars to make a living in Yingtian City. Don't I have to pay my respects to His Majesty? His Majesty is the biggest beggar in the world."

"We've issued an edict: anyone who embezzles sixty taels will be beheaded," Zhu Yuanzhang said with a half-smile. "This whole box of yours is enough to chop off dozens of heads, isn't it?"

Li Jinglong spread his hands: "This is your share of the profits, Your Majesty. Have you forgotten? You get 20% of the profits from the head of the beggars' estate."

"Not bad." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slowly. "You still remember us."

He waved.

Wang Jinghong stepped forward and took the box.

"Your Majesty, your maternal aunt is no longer here, and you're still saving money on the side?" Li Jinglong complained.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, "You don't understand."

"I have no interest in knowing," Li Jinglong scoffed. "The men of the Zhu family are all henpecked."

Zhu Yuanzhang glared: "Who's afraid of their wife?"

"Your Majesty," Li Jinglong blurted out, "and Zhu Laosi, you two, one is afraid of his wife, and the other is even more afraid of his wife."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless: "You're not even married yet, you're just a greenhorn, what do you know about being afraid of your wife?"

"I may not have eaten pork, but I've certainly seen pigs run," Li Jinglong retorted confidently. "When my maternal aunt was alive, she would glare at you, and you would lower your head and pretend to be busy writing official documents."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless with emotion.

Li Jinglong's eyes darted around, and feeling he had done enough of his banter, he cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, why did you summon me to the palace in such a hurry? I'm busy with a lot of things at the Beggars' Sect."

"Busy preparing for a rebellion?" Zhu Yuanzhang scoffed.

"Your Majesty, you are spreading rumors again! The world is now ruled by the Zhu family, and the people's hearts are with you. Who would dare to rebel? Besides, Your Majesty is the one destined by Heaven, and Heaven's mandate is supreme," Li Jinglong said.

Zhu Yuanzhang's lips curled up, but he began to curse: "So you led several thousand beggars, running rampant throughout Yingtian City, eating and drinking, occupying every street and alley, and even the yamen runners avoided you. What were you trying to do?"

Li Jinglong spread his hands: "Begging!"

Zhu Yuanzhang: "————"

Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless, Li Jinglong became even more emboldened: "Your Majesty, do you think begging is simple? Begging is an art. I'll tell them where to beg. The morning market is in Jixianfang, where the women buying vegetables have soft hearts; the lunch market is in Taipingfang, where there are plenty of leftover food from the restaurants, so you can get something hot; the evening market is along the Qinhuai River, where there are many brothels and restaurants. Three sessions a day, working in shifts, that's called scientific management, precise begging."

"Your Majesty, you should be familiar with this; it's your old profession."

Zhu Yuanzhang nearly choked on his own blood: "Have you forgotten what we told you?"

"Chadarughachi? I remember him." Li Jinglong nodded.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked suspicious: "How come you seem to have forgotten your homeland? The son of the Duke of Cao, are you addicted to being a beggar?"

"This is my strategy," Li Jinglong said. "The more dissolute and unreliable I am, the more like a good-for-nothing who only cares about money, the more likely those hiding in the shadows are to approach me and take advantage of me."

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly startled: "You little rascal, you're playing tricks."

"Yes, yes, yes." Li Jinglong nodded.

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at him and said, "I can tell you just want to make money. You're trying to fool me with this nonsense."

Li Jinglong spread his hands, looking utterly helpless: "Can't we just have some fun? You're suspicious of everything. Your Majesty, you're sick, you need help."

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and started rolling up his sleeves: "I'll beat you to death."

Wang Jinghong, who was standing to the side, immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down! The young Duke is hot-tempered and doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut. Why are you getting angry with him? If you beat him up, this kid will dare to lie in the Qianqing Palace and refuse to leave, demanding that you pay for his medicine."

Li Jinglong immediately made a face that said, "Come on, hit me, and I'll lie down after you're done."

"The Emperor beat the heir apparent of the Duke of Cao, who was bedridden for three days and demanded money for medicine." He then said, "Your Majesty, I've already thought of how the historians should record this."

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him and said, "Shameless brat, you really are capable of doing this. We don't need to get angry with you."

"I learned this shamelessness from Your Majesty," Li Jinglong said with a chuckle.

"Let's get down to business." Zhu Yuanzhang stood with his hands behind his back. "Last time you asked us to guess who the Darughachi in the north wing of the cavalry headquarters was. After thinking about it, I remembered someone."

Li Jinglong perked up his ears: "Who?"

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned: "Zhang Liangbi."

"Your Majesty, who is this person? I've never heard of him before," Li Jinglong said.

"He was a fierce general," Zhu Yuanzhang recalled. "The seven Zhang brothers were all skilled in battle. At that time, there was a saying in Guanzhong: 'We are not afraid of the Zhang brothers with their golden plaques, but we are afraid of their seven spears,' which referred to the Zhang brothers."

Li Jinglong pressed further, "And then?"

Zhu Yuanzhang put his hands behind his back and paced back and forth in front of the imperial desk: "Back then, he was already a powerful general in the Yuan court. After the death of Pingzhang Chahan Temur, Kökö Temur was ordered to command the troops of the whole country, but the generals in Guanzhong were not convinced. Zhang Liangbi and Li Siqi formed an alliance and refused to be under his control."

"Their infighting has given us an opportunity. When our army launches its northern expedition, Zhang Liangbi will be stationed in Shaanxi, guarding Tongguan Pass."

"After a hundred battles, a sudden confrontation is not easy to resolve."

"We've decided to tackle the easy targets first, and then the difficult ones. We'll attack Li Siqi first and force him to surrender. Zhang Liangbi will be scared and retreat to Ningxia."

"Later, our army captured Dadu, and Kökö Temür was defeated and fled north. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Zhang Liangbi was proud and ashamed to surrender, and he disappeared from then on."

Li Jinglong said thoughtfully, "Your Majesty suspects that Zhang Liangbi, who has disappeared without a trace, has now transformed into a Darughachi of the Scouts and is hiding in a beggar's hut?"

"Possibly," Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

Li Jinglong felt something was amiss: "But the Great Yuan Dynasty is gone, so who is he serving as Darughachi for? And why is he risking his life for the Northern Yuan? Besides, he wasn't very loyal to the Yuan court back then."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slowly: "Xi Xiao is right here. Why would someone who wasn't very loyal back then still become a spy now that the Yuan Dynasty is gone? What's his motive? You'll have to investigate what's going on behind this."

Li Jinglong nodded and cupped his hands in greeting: "Very well, Your Majesty, I will investigate."

"Be careful, those people crawled out of piles of corpses," Zhu Yuanzhang warned.