At the same time when Li Wei was entering the capital, the prince Zhu Biao was also invited to the Ganqing Palace by the eunuch. The emperor had something to summon him. He walked through Fengtian Hall, Huagai Hall and Jinshen Hall. Zhu Biao hurried to the Houting Temple where his father lived and lived. Zhu Biao had just returned to the capital for seven days. Just as he woke up later, the assassination case could not be hidden from his father. Sure enough, the day after he returned to the capital, the father called him and inquired in detail about the assassination case, although Zhu Biao tried his best. To exonerate the local officials, Zhu Yuanzhang was still furious and ordered the Jinyiwei to go and kill Dingyuan County magistrate, county magistrate, chief clerk, Dianshi and other officials who were derelict, and dismissed Fengyang Prefecture and Yingwu Guard Commander. He also ordered the left censor Zhan Hui to investigate the case. However, it was quite dramatic that before Zhan Hui left the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang called him back and no longer admitted that there was an assassination. The officials of Fengyang and Dingyuan were punished for slack sacrifices.

Although the Dingyuan assassination was suppressed by his father, Li Shanchang aroused his father's anger and suspicion because of the borrowing of soldiers from Tang He. Zhu Biao couldn't figure out how it was so coincidental. Just the day before the assassination, Li Shanchang sent someone to ask Tang He to borrow 300 soldiers to repair the old house in Dingyuan. Although Tang He borrowed some veterans, Li Shanchang was suspected of assassination, which forced Zhu Biao to lament that Li Shanchang's destiny had been decided. Even if Li Wei was giving up the plan to blame Li Shanchang, he still jumped in by himself. However, one thing that made Zhu Biao pleased was that the father did not want to use the assassination to convict Li Shanchang. Judging from the different attitudes of the father towards the assassination, the father might really not want to make his family's shame.

Just as he was thinking, Zhu Biao's sedan chair had arrived at the Ganqing Palace. The sedan chair stopped. The eunuch stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, please go and report."

The eunuch hurried away, but Zhu Biao felt uneasy. The summoned him by his father probably had something to do with Li Shanchang.

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The imperial study room of Zhu Yuanzhang was set up in the Ganqing Palace. The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty who expelled the Tartars and restored China was extremely diligent and reviewed memorials until late at night every day. He was already 62 years old this year and was at the age of knowing the destiny of heaven. On the contrary, after twenty-three years ascended the throne, he became increasingly confused. He was born into a poor peasant and knew the suffering of farming. Since the beginning of his country, he had light taxes and levies, and granted land and poor peasants. He firmly believed that "only the people can live in peace, and the king can rest in peace." For this reason, he tried every means to make the rich safe and the poor survive, but his confusion came from this. He tried his best to manage it hard, but he was resisted by both peasants and landlords.

During the Hongwu period, rebellions in various places began to occur one after another. In order to evade taxes, many farmers even hid in the mountains. They would rather farm slashing and burning than go to the plain to accept the preferential treatment given to cattle by the government.

He resolutely punished corrupt officials with horrific laws, and even stripped the stolen officials of the stolen officials to stand beside the yamen to warn the latter. However, the corrupt people were killed continuously. Although ten people abandoned the market in the court, hundreds of people still did it in the evening. Corrupt officials did not get enough of it, and continued to go down like water.

He asked himself that he worked hard to govern and diligently investigated and was comparable to the emperors of all ages. He asked himself that he was light taxes and levies, and that he only allowed the people to serve in their spare time, and that the people's land tax was only three liters, three and five spoons. He treated the people so well, why did the heaven treat him unfairly and could not let him see the world of "great governance". Is the rules he set wrong? The people cannot transcend the rules, and the ministers cannot transcend the rules; all under the world, are there any kings and ministers, and the land of the land, and only the emperor's power is not restricted. Are these not the way of heaven?

Zhu Yuanzhang began to be confused since the day of his founding. This country was clearly the private property of the Zhu family. Why could the prime minister criticize power without authorization? Why didn’t the Secretary of State have to follow his orders? There were others snoring like thunder on the side of the bed? Is this emperor’s dream still stable?

No! He will never tolerate it.

‘A bird is gone, and a good bow is hidden; a cunning rabbit dies, and a lackey is cooked’, after the founding of the country, he started a massacre and conspired to the Hu Weiyong case, Guo Heng case, empty seal case, and slaughtered all the more powerful Huaixi group, and slaughtered all enemies that exist or may exist that threaten his imperial power. He ruled the world, and he would never constrain the power of the monarch. He wanted to obtain absolute power. He wanted his family and country, and the family was the country, and the country was the family. The power of imperial power could be a thousand miles a day.

He planned for this for twenty-three years. Until today, his chess has not been completed, and there is still a final step. Now it is time to leave his last piece. Li Shanchang is already seventy-seven years old and cannot live for a few years. He must not let him die well. He wants Li Shanchang to die in his own hands, let his death warn the world, and also take the final and perfect step for his chess game.

At this moment, the diligent Emperor Ming Dynasty was writing quickly and approving memorials from all over the world. He raised his head tiredly, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Why haven't my prince come yet?"

脚步声正好远远传来,太监在门外禀报:“陛下,太子殿下来了.”

"Put him to meet him." Zhu Yuanzhang put down his pen.

After a moment, the prince Zhu Biao quickly walked into his father's imperial study. He knelt down, "I bow to my father."

"The emperor's son is not a favor."

Seeing that his eldest son seemed to be a little thinner and his complexion was too bad, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him with concern: "I heard from the palace people that the emperor had slept quite late these days. Why is this?"

"Report to my father, my sons are unable to sleep or eat every early spring. This year, it is a bit heavier. This is the norm. Please be content with your father."

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment, and then said, "But because I don't want to pursue the assassination case, is the emperor's resentment?"

Zhu Biao was shocked, and he shook his head hurriedly and said, "The prince dared not. The assassination case was also caused by the prince's carelessness. He should not insist on private visits, so he was peeped by bandits and his father refused to pursue it. This is a kind and kindness, and the prince has no complaints."

‘The kindness of kindness?’ Zhu Yuanzhang smiled self-deprecatingly. He changed his subject and smiled slightly, “When I ascended the throne, it was the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the population was sparse, the people were in decline, the people were not fed, and the clothes were not covered. I started from the end and knew very well. Therefore, after I ascended the throne, I encouraged farmers and serenity, reclaimed wasteland, and used light taxes to gradually restore people’s livelihood. At the same time, I was afraid that merchants and farmers would compete for profit, and the people would have a speculative trend. They were also afraid that the luxury and energy would prevail, so that the poor people would have their bodies would become flowers on the cake.

Therefore, I strictly prohibit merchants, but I also know that how can salt, iron, tea oil be produced by myself, so this merchant is still indispensable. In fact, I turned a blind eye. With more than 20 years of restoration of people's livelihood, my Ming Dynasty is no longer as poor and embarrassed as at the beginning of the founding of the country. So I thought about it again and again and prepared to slightly relax merchants and establish business registrations among the private households to collect commercial taxes. However, I don't know much about the situation of private merchants, so I want to order the emperor to go on a tour in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for me to see the actual business development in the Suzhou and Hangzhou area, and you can also relax, okay?"

Zhu Biao knew that his father was nominally investigating business, but actually transferred him from the capital to prevent him from interfering in the upcoming Li Shanchang case. He sighed secretly and bowed and replied, "My son is willing to share the worries of his father."

"So good." Zhu Yuanzhang became cheerful, "The emperor rested for a few days and set off in three days."

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Prince Zhu Biao left, Zhu Yuanzhang fell into deep thought. On his imperial case, there was a report from the Jinyiwei. The case of the assassination of the prince in Dingyuan County on the seventh day of the first lunar month was recorded in detail. Even some of the assassin's corpses buried by the prince's guards were dug out and carefully separated. The oral statements of the inn shopkeeper and the details of several Linhuai County yamen runners who helped the prince, including the details of Lan Yu's riddles the bridge the day before. Finally, the Jinyiwei's report pointed out that this was an extremely careful plan. The three assassins identified were all wanted by the government, but no clues were found from them.

Despite this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately judged that this was most likely to be self-harm between his sons. This made him heartbroken and angry, but also made him helpless. He was not unaware of the cruelty of the battle for imperial power since ancient times, so he set the principle of succeeding to the throne as the eldest son, but he still could not escape the vicious circle of the battle for the throne. Zhu Yuanzhang sighed exhaustedly. In any case, the family scandals should not be made public for the time being, but the report involved Lan Yu, which made Zhu Yuanzhang have another thought. He could make good use of this matter in the future. Zhu Yuanzhang put the file together and put the report of the Jinyiwei in his secret cabinet.

That night, Zhu Yuanzhang reviewed the memorials until late at night before he rested. The lights in the imperial study were bright, and Zhu Yuanzhang's figure was reflected on the window paper. Sometimes he lowered his head to ponder, sometimes he slapped the table and sometimes he sighed to the sky.

This was a moonless night, with clouds, making the night particularly dark. A eunuch hurriedly passing by with a lantern in the palace, but a small roll of silk was left in the gap of the rockery. After a moment, a team of guards patrolled and passed by the rockery. However, the guard who was walking at the end took advantage of the inattention of the people in front of him and quickly inserted the silk from the crack of the rockery and stuffed it into his belt.

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The guards handed over the shift, and the tired guards returned to the barracks. Some washed their feet and slept, while others went to the kitchen to look for night food. They were busy.

"Fu Wang, give me a steamed bun!"

Several guards rushed into the kitchen and flipped the steamer. The short and fat man Wang ran up to him and slapped them, "Go! Go! I'm going home soon, don't make trouble."

The guards were not willing to listen to him. They found a basket of buns from the cupboard, grabbed two of them and ran away.

"You turtle sons, that's tomorrow's breakfast."

Mr. Wang chased after him and cursed. He grabbed the slowest running one, "Give me the bun!"

After snatching the bun from him, Wang Fu then cursed and returned to the kitchen. When the door was closed, the expression on his face suddenly became serious. He pulled out a small roll of silk from the bun, spread it out, and carefully stuffed it into the interlayer of his hat.

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Chapter completed!