Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

The army continued its march along the official road towards Chizhou Prefecture. Zhu Gaoxu held the jade tablet and poked at it for a long time. He sent dozens of voice messages and dialed call requests repeatedly in the private chat interface, but Zhu Gaosui's avatar remained grayed out, without a single reply.

He gritted his teeth, then pulled up Wei's private chat interface and sent a voice message: "Are you there, Madam? Third Brother is bullying me! Please talk to his wife and let her have a good talk with him!"

After waiting for a long time, Mr. Wei only replied with five words—"Playing mahjong, busy."—and then fell silent.

Zhu Gaoxu tucked the jade pendant into his robes, sighed deeply, and patted the Tiger King's head: "Alright, then it'll be just the two of us relying on each other."

The Tiger King turned around and let out a low growl, it was hard to tell whether it was a comforting sound or a sign of disdain.

The march was not boring at all.

After returning from Kunning Palace in the morning, Zhu Gaoxi distributed a batch of jade tablets that had been prepared in advance to the officials of Prince Rui's residence and explained their functions to them briefly.

The group was amazed when they received it. The jade pendant was small, about the size of a palm, with a base of mutton fat white jade, warm and translucent. The front was engraved with cloud patterns, and the back was engraved with the character "瑞" (rui), which was a special anti-counterfeiting label engraved by Zhu Gaoxi.

Then, after taking a look, the group immediately decided to bind the jade pendant with their own blood and began to study its functions.

Qiu Sheng held up the jade pendant and took a picture of it against the wildflowers by the roadside, looking as excited as a child who had just received a new toy. Zhang Ni and Xue Bin huddled together, studying how to use it...

The officials kept their heads down, playing with the jade plaques, and occasionally someone would exclaim in amazement.

In the group "Prince Rui and His Loyal Officials"—yes, the group name is "Prince Rui and His Loyal Officials"—the messages never stopped.

Zheng Cong was the first to figure out the video recording function, and he just secretly recorded a video of Zhu Gaoxu riding on the tiger's back.

In the scene, the King of Han is holding the jade pendant, gritting his teeth and muttering to himself. One moment he's saying, "Third brother, you just wait!" and the next he's constantly tapping on the private chat interface, his expression as if he has a grudge against the jade pendant.

Zheng Cong posted the video to his subordinates' group chat, with the caption: "Your Highness, what's wrong with the Prince of Han?"

Qiu Sheng replied instantly: "It sounds like you're talking to His Highness Prince Zhao? His Highness Prince Han's expression is quite varied."

Zhang Ni added, "I don't know. Judging from their gritted teeth, we don't dare to ask."

Zhu Gaoxi lay on the cloud chair, and the main control jade tablet in his hand kept displaying messages from his subordinates.

He glanced at the group chat history, a slight smile playing on his lips, and replied, "This is my second brother who's been away on campaign for a few days. He misses my third brother and is just trying to catch up with him."

There was a two-second silence in the group chat.

Zheng Cong sent another message: "Your Highness Prince Han must miss Prince Zhao very much. Back in the capital, the two princes had a very good relationship. After not seeing each other for several days since the expedition, Your Highness Prince Han's longing is evident in his words."

Qiu Sheng immediately followed up with a comment, adding a cupped-fist emoji: "Brother Zheng is absolutely right. His Highness the Prince of Han and His Highness the Prince of Zhao have such a good relationship; they are truly brothers."

Zhang Ni continued, "The two kings of Han and Zhao were brothers with deep affection for each other, truly a model for the imperial family of our Great Ming."

Not to be outdone, Xue Bin launched into a serious speech: "Your Highnesses, one is bold and heroic, the other refined and composed. This time, Your Highness the Prince of Han is away on campaign, while Your Highness the Prince of Zhao remains in the capital. Though separated by a thousand miles, the two brothers are always of one mind. As the ancients said, 'When brothers are of one mind, their strength can break metal.' The two princes of Han and Zhao are the best testament to this saying."

Zhu Gaoxi's lips twitched as he looked at the string of compliments that seemed to be in a relay race in the group chat of his subordinates.

This group of people knew nothing, yet they were able to fabricate such a lengthy and elaborate poem of brotherly affection based solely on his statement, "Second Brother misses Third Brother." Each of them was more eloquent and more engrossed in their performance than the last.

What surprised him even more was that Qiu Sheng actually posted an emoji. He had only received the jade token less than half a day ago, and he was already using emojis. His learning ability was just too strong.

Unbeknownst to him, a sense of relief and satisfaction permeated the group of subordinates at that moment.

Zheng Cong thought to himself that this time he hadn't messed up at all.

Qiu Sheng secretly gave himself a thumbs up. After all, on the official road in Taiping Prefecture, Zhang Fu and his gang had stolen all the compliments for the prince. They had struggled for a long time and could only manage to say, "Your Highness is indeed amazing." The more they thought about it, the more embarrassed they felt.

This time, the praise was for the deep brotherly affection between the two kings of Han and Zhao. It didn't seem like deliberate flattery, and it perfectly connected with the king's earlier comment, "Second brother misses third brother." In any case, it wasn't a loss.

Zhang Ni and Xue Bin exchanged a glance, each giving themselves a high score in their minds, feeling that this teamwork had delivered the desired emotional value.

He turned off the group chat, then opened the main control panel and browsed through Hanvon's private chat history.

Second Brother made over a dozen calls, all of which went unanswered, which is normal. Third Brother has always been suppressed by Second Brother, and usually acts like a mouse before a cat when he sees Second Brother. Now that he has offended Second Brother thoroughly in the group chat, he definitely wouldn't dare to answer the phone.

Thank goodness we're not in the capital, otherwise Third Brother would have gotten another beating.

He scrolled down and saw a new message—his second brother had texted his second sister-in-law again. He clicked to listen and found that his brother was complaining to his second sister-in-law, asking her to tell his third sister-in-law to deal with his brother.

Zhu Gaoxi raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that his second brother had become clever and had even learned to fight from the rear. Knowing that he couldn't break through his third brother's defenses head-on, he opened up a second battlefield from the rear.

When the army arrived outside the city of Chizhou, it was still early.

The prefect of Chizhou, surnamed Tian and named Wenjing, had received the messenger by express horse several days earlier. In the afternoon, he led his assistant prefect, sub-prefect, judge, and all his subordinates, dressed in full official robes, to line up and wait for him by the post road ten miles outside the city.

At this moment, he stood by the official road and saw in the distance the banners of the vanguard of the army turning out from the bend of the road, followed by a dark, dense torrent of armored soldiers.

His gaze passed over the banners and landed on the people in front of him, his pupils suddenly contracting.

At first, I thought I was seeing things. I rubbed my eyes and stood on tiptoe to take a closer look—I wasn't seeing things.

A man rode a fierce tiger with piercing eyes and a white forehead. The tiger's four hooves trod on a swirling white cloud, and it slowly moved forward, suspended three feet above the ground. Beside it was another man riding a white tiger, also riding a fierce tiger on the cloud, and the man on the tiger's back was wearing black armor.

Looking to the side, a young man was reclining on a large chair that looked like a cloud, holding a jade pendant in his hand. He looked as relaxed as if he were enjoying the cool air in his own yard.

"That's...that's a tiger? A real tiger? Alive?"

"Nonsense, can't you see it's still licking its paws? That's a lion next to it; I've seen it in the 'Illustrated Treatise on Mountains and Seas,' it looks exactly the same."

"Has His Majesty become an immortal? Arrived riding on a cloud? Has our Great Ming Dynasty produced a deity?"

"Your information is far too limited. I've heard for a while that His Highness Prince Rui is a disciple of the Dao Ancestor and possesses great supernatural powers. I thought it was an exaggeration, but judging from this, the information is even more conservative."

The officials behind them were so shocked by the sight that they began to whisper among themselves.