Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

Zhu Gaoxi lay on the bed, his mind racing with calculations.

The army has been on the march for two days now. To be honest, the novelty has worn off. The first day was quite interesting, with people going out to see the sights. But the second day turned into a long and tedious march.

At a normal pace, it would take several dozen days to reach Annam, which is far too tedious and lengthy.

Now that we have teleportation magic, we can try a different approach to tomorrow's itinerary.

We can simply open a portal, and the army can instantly reach the Annam border.

He suddenly thought of another question: With teleportation, wouldn't fighting wars be too easy in the future?

Simply open a portal and send the entire army behind enemy lines, rendering all defenses ineffective. There's no need to train the navy; just open a portal and use infantry.

But then I thought, the navy still needs to be developed, the army still needs to be trained, and the technology tree still needs to be climbed. After all, the superpowers are one's own, and one cannot use them all the time, nor can one rely on oneself for every battle.

He had just signed in with the teleportation spell yesterday. He lay in bed pondering all night and decided not to waste any more time.

The next morning, before dawn, the bugle sounded in the camp.

As usual, Zhu Di received the generals on night duty and the commander of the scout battalion in the main hall, and listened to the patrol reports and reconnaissance reports of the road ahead.

Zhang Fu reported on today's marching plan. Everything proceeded in an orderly manner: they broke camp, reorganized their troops, and continued south along the official road, arriving at the next post station before nightfall to set up camp.

Before dawn, Tian Wenjing was dressed neatly and waiting at the entrance of the post station. Her official robe was ironed perfectly, her black gauze hat was worn upright, and even the mud on her boots had been wiped clean in advance.

He waited for almost half an hour, wondering if the emperor would give any instructions.

After all, I had witnessed the divine spectacle of riding tigers and clouds yesterday, as well as the famous scene of buildings rising from the ground in an instant. I couldn't sleep well all night after returning home. I felt that I should do something more to leave a good impression on the Emperor and Prince Rui. I thought it would be great if I could see Prince Rui again today.

Zhu Di merely glanced outside and said indifferently, "Let Tian Wenjing go back. It's nothing."

When the eunuch came out to deliver the message, Tian Wenjing felt as if he had been granted a pardon. He then respectfully bowed towards the main hall before leading his officials away.

On the way back, he was still thinking that at least he hadn't made any mistakes on this trip and had successfully completed the reception task.

It's a pity I didn't get to see Prince Rui!

After Zhu Di finished his meeting and issued an order for the army to prepare for departure, Zhu Gaoxi came down from upstairs.

It was unusual for him not to lie on the cloud chair, but to get down on his own, since he had been lying down for a long time and needed to move around.

Zhu Gaoxu was already downstairs.

He brushed the tiger king's fur from head to toe, fed it two pieces of fresh meat, and then squatted down under the corridor to wait.

He's been in an exceptionally good mood these past few days—without the eldest and third brothers getting in his way, the fourth brother is all his.

The eldest and third brothers were in Yingtianfu, while the other two leisurely followed the army south, going wherever they wanted and talking about whatever they wanted, with no one able to get in their way. It was a good opportunity to cultivate their brotherly bond.

This feeling of "having my fourth brother all to myself" is more satisfying than winning ten battles.

Wait, there's another person next to me. I almost forgot, there's that annoying old Judy too.

Never mind, just pretend he's not here.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxi come down the stairs, Zhu Gaoxu immediately stood up and greeted him with a flurry of warm greetings: "Fourth brother, you're here! Your second brother has been waiting for you for ages. Have you had breakfast yet? Would you like your second brother to have the kitchen heat up a couple of buns for you?"

Zhu Gaoxi shook his head: "Second brother, I'm not hungry. You've forgotten, I am a celestial being."

Zhu Gaoxu slapped his forehead: "Alright, your second brother was worried you'd go hungry. Since that's the case, then your second brother is relieved."

He looked incredibly serious when he said this, as if he were really worried about something important. After all, I, Zhu Lao Er, am all about being real, and I truly love my fourth brother.

Zhu Di was stretching his limbs at the entrance of the main hall when he saw his second son's expression and appearance. He seemed disdainful, but actually felt that his second son had stolen his thunder: "Fourth son, why are you up so early today? Have you rested enough?"

Zhu Gaoxi walked over and asked bluntly, "Hmm, it's quite comfortable, Father. How much longer until we reach Annam?"

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu, who was standing nearby, counted on his fingers: "At the current speed, it will take at least several dozen more days. With rhinoceroses and elephants carrying provisions, we are already much faster than ordinary troops, but Annam is too far away. After passing Guangxi, we still have to cross mountains and valleys."

He paused, then added, "Fourth brother, are you bored? Second brother is bored too. I'm thinking of going to Annam to deal with those barbarians and stretch my muscles. It's been a long time since I've killed anyone—oops, it's been a long time since I've been on the battlefield."

Zhu Gaoxi's lips twitched.

Haven't killed anyone in a long time? Are you the serial killer of Yingtian Prefecture? Only Second Brother could say something like that so matter-of-factly, and he didn't even realize there was anything wrong with it after saying it.

Zhu Di glanced at Zhu Gaoxi and frowned slightly.

According to the military regulations of the Ming Dynasty, it was a major taboo for a prince to leave the team without permission during an expedition. However, the fourth prince was not an ordinary prince and could not be restrained by ordinary rules.

He thought that the fourth brother was annoyed by the slow march and wanted to go somewhere else, so he said, "Fourth brother, if you want to go to other places, you can ride the clouds to take a look. If that doesn't work, you can go back to Tianfu first. Anyway, you can ride the clouds and come and go quickly, so it won't delay anything."

If any other prince had said this, Zhu Di would never have said it.

According to the military regulations of the Ming Dynasty, if a prince accompanying a campaign left the military camp without the permission of the commander-in-chief, it would be considered as disobeying military orders. The punishment would range from a reduction in salary and confinement to the stripping of his title and imprisonment.

But Zhu Gaoxi was a disciple of the Taoist patriarch, a person among immortals. Let alone leaving the military camp without permission, no one would dare to stop him even if he wanted to go to heaven.

Military regulations can govern mortals, but not gods. Zhu Di understood this better than anyone else, so he put his fourth son at the center of everything and didn't need to put on airs of military regulations.

I believe these military officers wouldn't dare bring this up, and as for the censors—as long as they still have any attachment to their lives, no one should dare to bring this up.

Zhu Gaoxi shook his head: "No, that's not what I meant."

He looked at Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi and asked, "Father, Second Brother, do you want to get to Annam as soon as possible?"

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi were both taken aback.

Zhu Di's first reaction was that his fourth son planned to use the Somersault Cloud to take them there.

After the upgrade, Lao Si's Somersault Cloud became extremely fast, and it only took a short while to fly several people to Annam.

But then I thought again, that didn't make sense—they couldn't possibly abandon their army and leave on their own.

The emperor and princes flew over first, leaving tens of thousands of troops to crawl behind. What kind of talk would that make? If the army's backbone is gone, how can morale be maintained?

Since the fourth brother asked this question, it means that he was not considering taking only a few people with him, but rather how to get the entire army to leave together.

Although this idea is outrageous, it might actually hold some secret for the fourth brother. Could it be that the Dao Ancestor has passed on some new supernatural power?