Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 41 Is His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu planning to rebel?

Fang Xiaoru's mouth suddenly opened wide.

The hand that was touching his beard stopped in mid-air, motionless.

He could hardly believe his eyes and ears.

Shouldn't Lan Yu have resisted?

Why did he kneel down when he heard that there was no imperial edict and that it was the King of Wu who made the decision privately?
After all this fuss, this is how it ends?

Not only him, but everyone in the field, including Jiang Lin and other Jinyiwei, also dropped their eyes to the ground.

Originally they were all prepared to fight to the death.

After all, the Duke of Liang’s Mansion has already made its plans.

But I never expected that Lan Yu actually gave up.

No resistance!

The sudden change startled them all, and they couldn't believe what they saw.

"Thank goodness, you guys are the good men that Duke Liang brought back from the army."

Just when everyone was deeply shocked, a sharp and piercing voice suddenly rang out.

There was still a hint of childishness in the voice, and one could tell without guessing that it came from a man who had just grown from a child into a teenager.

It was none other than Zhu Gaoxu.

He walked into the Duke of Liang's mansion with Zhu Gaochi, pointed at the servants in the mansion headed by Fu Ye and said, "What are you still standing there for? Come on, how can you watch the Duke of Liang being humiliated and remain indifferent?"

"Are you all cowards?"

"We are all just returning from the battlefield. We are passionate men. The worst that can happen is death. What are we afraid of?"

"I'd rather live standing than die on my knees. Come on! Come on!"

The place was extremely quiet at this time, so his voice was naturally very pleasant to the ear.

Zhu Yunhuan turned his head and looked over.

"Hello, cousin!" Zhu Gaoxu waved and shouted.

As she said this, she pretended to be innocent and ran towards him in a skipping manner.

"Call King Wu!"

Zhu Yunhuan corrected calmly.

Zhu Gaochi, with his extremely fat body, took shaky steps and pulled Zhu Gaoxu to his side, saying, "Second brother, please don't be rude."

Zhu Gaoxu pouted and said, "We are cousins, why are we so formal?"

He bowed slightly, saluted, and said with a smile: "Greetings, Brother King Wu."

Zhu Gaochi also bowed and saluted.

He is older, but his attitude is much more serious than Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said, "There are many outsiders here. When we meet, we still have to follow the etiquette of the court. It doesn't matter in private."

Then he asked, "What wind blew you two here today, my cousin?"

Zhu Gaochi said, "We heard that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu led his troops to raid the Duke of Liang's mansion. We brothers were afraid that you would suffer, so we hurried over to support His Royal Highness. How is it going? Is everything going well? Do you need our help?"

Zhu Yunhuan shook his head and said, "No need to help, everything is going well. You are late, and everything is over."

Zhu Gaoxu widened his eyes.

"Is this the end? Brother Wu, that Fu Ye, and these abominable servants, they actually dared to disrespect you, Brother Wu, and even held weapons in their hands, intending to resist the Jinyiwei and the court. Shouldn't we kill them all?"

He had just been scolding Fu Ye and others for not rising up to resist, but now he was urging him to kill these people.

He really is afraid that the world will not be in chaos!

"Second brother, don't say any more." Zhu Gaochi pulled him and said, "Although these people are hateful, they are loyal to the Duke of Liang."

"Your Highness the Prince of Wu, beating and scolding the Duke of Liang is fine, but if you kill his cronies, wouldn't that really force the Duke of Liang to rebel?"

"This is not what His Royal Highness King Wu wants to see."

"After all, the Duke of Liang is also a relative of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu. He is his great-uncle."

Zhu Gaoxu jumped up and said, "What Duke of Liang? What relative? Even the emperor can't tolerate him, so he should be killed as well. How can we keep him alive?"

"Is my great uncle closer to me than my grandfather? And he's protecting him?"

"If the Emperor can't bear to kill him, then we should do it ourselves. Even if the Emperor blames us later, we are still filial!"

"If we capture him and hand him over to Grandpa Huang to handle, it would be embarrassing for Grandpa Huang and would be unfilial."

"I know that Brother Wu Wang is the most filial. He would rather bear the blame himself than embarrass Grandpa Huang."

He changed his tone, showing two rows of white teeth, looked at Zhu Yunhuan and smiled: "Brother Wu Wang, am I right?"

Did Zhu Di deliberately release his two sons to cause trouble?
Although this move is despicable, it has to be said that it is indeed disgusting.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said, "What you said makes sense." "However, I came here to arrest Duke Liang today because of the advice of my fourth uncle, your father."

"Speaking of which, this matter should have been handled by your father."

"Since you two are here, you can help your father."

"You are all filial children, so you should be happy to help your father, right?"

"Come on, do what you want. Tomorrow when I go to court, I will tell Grandpa the Emperor how filial you are."

He took his time and immediately passed the ball back.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaochi quickly said, "My second brother is young and ignorant, and he is talking nonsense. Your Highness the Prince of Wu should not take it to heart."

"My father was a prince in a distant land, and the two of us came to the capital to attend the funeral of our uncle, so we dare not interfere in the affairs of the imperial court."

"Your Highness, King Wu, just do it. We will just stay by the side and watch the fun quietly."

Zhu Gaoxu also lowered his head and stopped talking.

He is a little boy with a smart mind, and actually knows everything very well.

At this moment, the fire burned on his body and he immediately stopped talking.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled slightly, not wanting to bother with the two men anymore, and turned back to order, "Catch the Duke of Liang and bring him back."

Then he glanced at the servants in the Duke of Liang's mansion and said, "Also, arrest Fu Ye as well."

The Jinyiwei immediately stepped forward and tied up Lan Yu and Fu Ye.

Lan Yu did not resist at all.

Fu Ye was surprisingly cooperative this time.

Zhu Yunhuan nodded in satisfaction and ordered: "Surround the Duke of Liang's mansion tightly. Don't let a fly out without my order."

"No one else is allowed to enter the mansion."

"How to deal with the people in the Duke of Liang's Mansion will have to wait until I have thoroughly examined them before deciding."

"Before that, you must keep everyone in the Duke of Liang's Mansion under guard."

"But you must not be rude to the family of the Duke of Liang. Before the court formally convicts them, they are all innocent. If anything happens, I will hold you accountable. Do you understand?"

All the Jinyiwei said in unison: "Understood!"

Zhu Yunhuan did not stay any longer. He ordered Lan Yu and Fu Ye to be taken away and turned away.

Zhu Gaoxu was anxious, and he pulled Zhu Gaochi and whispered, "Brother, are we just going to watch him take Lan Yu away like this?"

"Then what can we do?" Zhu Gaochi said, "You got too excited just now, but neither of them is fooled! We can only take it one step at a time."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard a burst of bustling noise coming from outside.

The two brothers looked at each other and ran out quickly.

But at the other end of the long street, a large group of people were walking towards the Duke of Liang's Mansion.

The sun had already set, and although it was not yet dark, the curfew was approaching.

Normally, everyone should go home quickly during this period of time.

Most of the people who gathered to watch the excitement from a distance were high-ranking officials of the imperial court or their families. They always found ways to get permission to pass at night, so they dared to stay here for a long time.

But now with so many new people suddenly arriving, it seems extremely abnormal.

Those people were dressed differently and held all kinds of weapons in their hands. They didn't speak, but just walked slowly towards them in relatively orderly steps.

The number of people is so large that there are at least several thousand.

The leader was a man riding on a horse, wearing heavy armor, holding a long sword, with an angry look on his face and a fierce look in his eyes.

Zhu Yunhuan couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly.

Zhu Gaochi was so shocked that his mouth opened wide, while Zhu Gaoxu was extremely excited.

"Here it comes, here it comes. I knew it wouldn't be that simple. The real drama is yet to come!"

Zhu Gaochi quickly made a "hush" gesture, signaling him not to say any more.

The fire burned even more fiercely, without the brothers adding fuel to the fire.

The crowd did not move very fast.

But perhaps it was because the sense of pressure was so strong that people forgot about time, and it seemed that in the blink of an eye, it was already in front of them.

The man on horseback waved.

The crowd behind suddenly stopped.

Jiang Li shouted angrily: "Your Highness the Prince of Wu is investigating a case, it has nothing to do with you, please leave immediately. If you continue to stop us, we will regard you as treason!"

The man on horseback glared at him fiercely, then turned his gaze to Zhu Yunhuan and shouted loudly: "Marquis of Dingyuan Wang Bi, lead the people to suppress the rebellion!"

"May I ask, Your Highness, the King of Wu, that you surrounded the Duke of Liang's mansion without reason and arrested the Duke of Liang without permission, does this mean you are rebelling?"

(End of this chapter)