Chapter 117: Power and Self-Use
The Jingwang Mansion suddenly encountered an accident, the feudal lord died, and the prince disappeared. It was a time when everyone was leaderless.

But the feudal lord’s funeral cannot be omitted.

Fortunately, King Jing has three sons. In addition to King Taining and the Crown Prince, he also has a twelve-year-old youngest son.

Now he has been pushed out to preside over the funeral of King Taining.

It is no wonder that the various side branches are so anxious, as they want to take advantage of this opportunity to sort out the assets of the Taining Palace so that they can share the profits among themselves.

Who made King Taining heirless?

At this time, in the Jingfanwang City, there was only white linen clothes and mourning clothes on the body.

At the major city gates, members of the royal family welcomed the officials and gentry who came to pay their respects. Both sides spoke in soft voices and greeted each other.

Zhu Zaiqi, the Prince of Fanshan, Zhu Zaigang, the Prince of Fushun, and other branch clans, along with Zhu Changlan, the third son of the former Prince of Jing, stayed together in the front hall of the royal city to welcome guests and express their condolences.

There was a fire in the prince's palace, but fortunately the front hall was not affected and was used to hold the coffin.

"Alas, the imperial envoy must have gone too far, otherwise it wouldn't have come to this."

"Who says it's not true? Those imperial envoys were lawless. Zhu Xianzhen, the lord of the Chu vassal state, was arrested and thrown into prison for no reason and suffered humiliation. It was precisely because of this that King Taining was so sad that he did this heroic act."

"I heard that Li Zaiting is quite fond of men, which is why he was favored by the emperor. Now, anyone with high power and authority is imprisoned and must be humiliated by him repeatedly. Who can remain indifferent when seeing this?"

Several officials from Jingzhou Prefecture had just finished visiting the family of the deceased and were now whispering together.

When the arrangement got to the weird parts, I couldn't help but stroke my beard and laugh.

Just when I was having fun, I suddenly heard a noise coming from afar.

A few people turned around and looked curiously, and saw that Zhu Zaiqi, the Prince of Fanshan, and Zhu Zaigang, the Prince of Fushun, looked angry or shocked. They all apologized and left the guests in a hurry, leaving them there.

The prefect immediately became alert.

He walked quickly to Zhu Changlan, the third son of the late King of Jing, and said, "Jingzi, is there any difficulty in your mansion? Although we can only do a little, we can still help a little."

Now this Zhu Changlan can be said to have won without any effort. His eldest brother behaved suspiciously, and his second brother committed suicide. It is likely that he will be the crown prince. Calling him Jingzi is a compliment, but it is reasonable.

Although Zhu Changlan was only twelve years old, his behavior was quite methodical.

Seeing the local prefect coming to ask, he hurriedly bowed and returned the greeting, meticulously saying: "He Zhizhou, it's not that there is any difficulty, but the distinguished guest has come, and the servants can't handle it, so the uncles have to go in person."

Dear guest... the look of shock, anger and fear on his face just now was almost like a bad guest.

The prefect's eyelids jumped, and he immediately turned around and asked anxiously, "The imperial envoy is here!? Who is it? The Imperial Guards?"

Zhu Changlan was silent for a while before he nodded.

He Zhizhou just clasped his fists and bowed, then returned to the circle of officials. Several people were whispering to each other, but no one knew what they were talking about.

Then the group of people glanced around, without even saying hello, and disappeared quietly with their faces covered.

Zhu Changlan watched coldly and did not say anything to stop it.

These days, he has become accustomed to the fickleness of human nature.

He shook his head, put these people out of his mind, and looked at the entrance of the palace in the distance with some worry.

This morning, news came from Wuchang Prefecture that Liang Menglong had arrived at the Governor's Office.

Immediately afterwards, the governor began to lobby several imperial envoys in the hope of calming the turbulent situation in Huguang.

After much persuasion, Hai Rui and Li Zaiting were finally convinced.

Officially, the case of Zhang Chucheng was closed and filed with others including Du Si, the Censor of the Censorate, Mao Ruxian, the Assistant Commander of the Military Commandery, and Zhong Chongwen, the Prefect of Yuezhou.

When people from all walks of life in Huguang heard the news, the three officials were overjoyed and praised Liang Menglong for his talent as a prime minister.

If we correct the situation in Huguang today, it will benefit all the people in the future.

The royal family members were also involved in the congratulations, and when Zhu Xizhong heard about the royal family, his Jinyiwei habit flared up and he stormed out despite the dissuasion of the governor Liang Menglong and the two imperial envoys.

Liang Menglong was so angry that he smashed the cup and yelled: "Seeking merit and reward, handling cases hastily, disregarding the friendship of the royal family, and forgetting the kindness and virtue of Your Majesty."

Although I don't know what this person's plan is.

But this attitude of letting the Huguang officialdom go and continuing to investigate the royal family was too obvious.

They were still worried about what Zhu Xizhong would do, but unexpectedly, he would go straight to their Jing Mansion.

Zhu Changlan withdrew his gaze and sighed inwardly. He thought that he was only twelve years old anyway, so he would not be implicated. As for whether he could keep the position of prince intact, it all depended on luck.

Thinking of this, he showed a sad expression again and greeted the guests who came to pay their respects.

Meticulous.

……

There is an official road from the city gate of Jingfu to the front hall.

At the southwest entrance, there are three white marble archways, which are known as the first of the "Ninety-nine Archways in Qizhou".

The main pillars of the archway are decorated with auspicious clouds and dragons, and engraved with relief carvings. The horizontal plaque on the archway reads "Shielding the Emperor's Chamber" in four large characters.

A stone tablet nearly ten feet high stands in front of the six-pillar archway, with the words "Civil and military officials dismount and walk here" written on it.

Both inscriptions were written by Emperor Renzong himself and have protected the Jing vassal state for more than a hundred years.

But it is often precisely because of this that some members of the royal family developed such an arrogant and wanton character.

Prince De'an Zhu Yi was hot-tempered and too lazy to put on a show. He said sternly, "Zhu Xizhong, Wu Jinghe, the Jing clan is having a funeral today and you are not welcome. Please go back!"

It would be fine if the imperial envoy had been stirring up trouble in Huguang and bullying the royal family, but now that King Taining has just passed away and it is the time of the funeral, someone actually came to the Jing Mansion to cause trouble!

He simply doesn't take these princes and grandchildren of the emperor seriously!
Zhu Xizhong and Wu Jinghe beside him ignored the prince.

The latter pointed at the King of Fanshan and his clan members without any courtesy, and explained in a low voice: "King of Fanshan Zhu Zaiqi inherited the title in the 36th year of Jiajing."

"On the left is Zhu Zai'an, the prince of Fushun. Fushun is now 76 years old and has retired to old age. Most of the matters in the palace are handled by the prince."

"The one on the right, Zhu Zaihao, the Prince of Yongxin, inherited the title in the 41st year of the Jiajing reign."

"The one next to him is Prince De'an Zhu Yichang, who is the brother of Prince Yongxin."

"There were many princes and kings in Jingfan who were stripped of their kingdoms, but now there are only these four." After saying this, Wu Jinghe shook his head secretly.

According to the current feudal system, the legitimate sons of a prince will all be given the title of prince, no matter how many he has; the sons of a concubine will be given the title of general to protect the country.

But there are often exceptions.

For example, the King of Fanshan, the King of Yongxin and the King of Fushun were actually the three illegitimate sons of the previous King of Fanshan, Zhu Yougou.

In other words, as long as a prince is fertile enough, he can produce a bunch of princes and generals who guard the country.

The annual salary of a prince was 1,000 taels of silver, and that of a general defending the country was 700 taels.

Zhu Yougou, the King of Fanshan, single-handedly gave birth to eleven sons, three princes, and eight generals who guarded the country - he spent nearly ten thousand taels of silver in salary every year!

This does not even include the 500 taels per year that the princesses receive, or the money that they continue to give to their offspring.

Because of this, there were dozens of princes in Huguang, hundreds of generals who defended the country and assisted the country, and more than 2,000 people with titles. The lowest-ranking lieutenant of the country received an annual salary of 500 taels of silver.

The Huguang royal family alone is a money-eating beast, with an annual salary of up to one million taels of silver, and the amount for royal families across the world is even more difficult to imagine!
The central government is stingy with tens of thousands of taels of silver, so it is normal to delay the payment of salary silver. Only when a god comes can the full amount be paid!
Wu Jinghe was pointing and talking here, not caring at all, which made several princes frown.

They looked at each other and immediately realized that Wu Jinghe and Zhu Xizhong had ill intentions.

Zhu Zaiqi, the Prince of Fanshan, had a high prestige. He grabbed Zhu Yi, the Prince of De'an, who had just appeared.

The former stood on the steps, looking down at the uninvited guests with great courtesy: "Duke Chengguo, this is a letter from the Emperor Renmiao himself. All civil and military officials are allowed to walk here."

"If you want to come and pay your respects, you may as well abandon this wheelchair and walk into the hall."

He pointed at the stone tablet and said with sarcasm that he wanted people to give up their wheelchairs, but in fact he was just trying to drive them away - they were already in a wheelchair, and they couldn't get off whenever they wanted.

This statement is polite and also shows the attitude.

As soon as he finished speaking, several princes started to make a noise and echoed in unison.

"Duke Cheng, if you don't even have this little courtesy towards the deceased, don't blame us for turning you away."

"Zhu Xizhong! It would be fine if you forced the lord to death, but considering the lord's funeral today, we won't bother with you. Why don't you get off and walk!"

"The Duke slaughtered the royal family and humiliated the royal family at will. Doesn't he even take Emperor Renzong seriously?"

Members of the royal family gradually gathered around and made a lot of noise.

The soldiers in the palace exchanged glances privately, hesitating and in a dilemma.

Seeing the situation getting intense, Zhu Shitai became a little panicked and quickly asked the Jinyiwei behind him to be on full alert.

"Cough...cough..."

Zhu Xizhong covered his mouth and coughed twice.

He turned around and glanced at the inscription left by Renzong, muttering to himself: "Civil and military officials dismounted and walked here."

Zhu Shitai heard it from behind and thought he had grasped the key point, so he quickly said: "Get off the horse and walk, we are not riding..."

As he was speaking, Zhu Xizhong waved his hand and interrupted Zhu Shitai.

Zhu Xizhong raised his head and looked directly at the princes, taking in their expressions one by one: anger, arrogance, worry, indifference, each with a different look.

He put the towel into his sleeve, propped himself up, and said solemnly: "I am the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei, specially promoted to Guanglu Dafu and Zhuguo, hereditary Duke, a loyal and devoted military official who helped to quell the rebellion, and given the title of Taishi of the imperial court. I am the imperial envoy in charge of all military and political affairs in Huguang! You can do whatever you see fit wherever you go!"

"Etiquette... ahem... the imperial envoy inspecting the case is the greatest courtesy of the Jing Mansion today!"

"Prince De'an keeps talking about slaughtering clan members and humiliating royal relatives. Don't you know what case I'm investigating? It's a major case of treason. How can you allow me to stir up trouble?"

"Prince Yongxin always claims that I forced Prince Taining to death, and he tells the story of Prince Xiang, Xiang Zhuang dancing with a sword, aiming at Your Majesty. Does he really not know how to write the word death?"

"King Fanshan used the handwritten letter from the Temple of Benevolence to pressure me. I'm afraid he has forgotten what year it is..."

At this point, Zhu Xizhong looked stern, even arrogant, and said angrily: "I am the governor of the heavens, and you, a few princes, dare to let the angels move with just a small stone tablet!"

"You don't take your Majesty seriously, do you want to do the same as what happened at Lishan Palace the other day!?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Jinyiwei behind him suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at the ground, striking jade and gold, making a clanging sound.

The expressions of several princes suddenly changed.

Zhu Xizhong is so arrogant and domineering, how could he be so arrogant! ?
Could it be that he really came here to massacre his Jing family? Don't you know that the one who started it will have no descendants?

The Prince of Fushun was trembling with fear as he protected several of his uncles.

King Fanshan shouted in shock: "Are you going to kill all the royal family members from Huguang?"

"Is this also what Your Majesty meant!?"

He held the emperor tightly and quietly exaggerated the matter.

Do they really disregard the emperor's virtue and act recklessly?
Zhu Xizhong had a cold expression and a blank expression on his face: "Even now, King Fanshan is still rapping."

"I came to your Jing Mansion today, so I should act according to my own will. If you continue to stop me, I will kill you right now, and that will be within my means!"

"Don't say you didn't predict what you said!"

King Fan Shan paused for a moment, and then fell silent.

Prince Yongxin put his trembling hands into his sleeves and stared at his boots.

Prince De'an was incredulous and said in a lost voice: "We are the princes and grandsons of the emperor, and we are the nobles of the king. Without my ancestors, how could there be the Ming Dynasty?"

"The Ming Dynasty is our family's empire. You are just a slave. How dare you call for war and killing against us?"

Wu Jinghe hates such idiots the most.

He glanced at the prince who was looking down at him from above the steps, and finally could not help himself: "We are obeying His Majesty's will and are here as if I were here in person."

"All the people in the land are subjects of the king, and all the clansmen are under his rule."

"How dare you, a mere prince, be so arrogant, looking down on the angel and answering in a haughty manner."

Wu Jinghe suddenly became angry and shouted, "Get down the stairs!"

With an angry shout, everyone was speechless.

(End of this chapter)