Chapter 6 The Crown Prince and the Second Prince are showing goodwill, we are all brothers!

The construction of Prince Wei's Palace was very fast.

In just one month, the original mansion had been completely renovated, and the garden bestowed by His Majesty the Emperor was integrated into the Prince of Wei's Palace.

Today, Furong Garden is no longer a royal forbidden garden, but has completely become the back garden of Prince Wei's Palace!
The day when the news of the Western Hu King's surrender and peace talks with the Qing Kingdom was reported back to Kyoto was also the day when Li Chengde moved into the Prince of Wei's Palace.

With these two things happening together, those officials who had originally been on the sidelines also came to the Prince of Wei's mansion to celebrate.

This resulted in the street in front of Prince Wei's palace being blocked by gift-delivering convoys!
Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's carriage finds it difficult to enter!
"The prince has arrived!"

Normally, there is no need to be reminded. The moment the prince's carriage appears, the road ahead will be cleared immediately.

But now, the whole street is blocked, and it is difficult to clear a passable path!
As he lifted the car curtain and looked at the slowly moving traffic, the prince couldn't help feeling a little sour.

"Are all the people in Kyoto coming here?!"

If it was just an ordinary housewarming celebration, or if the Fourth Prince was just being conferred the title of King of Wei, such a scene would not have occurred today.

After all, what His Majesty the Emperor hates most is forming factions in private. Even if someone wants to join the Fourth Prince, they have to keep a low profile and not attract the Emperor's attention.

Even though the emperor might be well aware of this matter, he would never allow such a big fuss to happen!

However, Kyoto today is completely different!
It seemed as if all the officials were eager to let people know that they had come to the Prince of Wei's Mansion to congratulate the Fourth Prince on his move into a new home!

No reservations at all!
Of course, the prince knew the reason very well.

The surrender of the Western Hu King's tent was certainly facilitated by the Dingzhou Army, but it would never have happened so quickly without the strategy proposed by the Fourth Prince!
The Fourth Prince made an indispensable contribution to the victory of Qing Kingdom!
This result just hits the mark for His Majesty the Emperor!
You know, when the Emperor personally led the army, and Chen Pingping led the Supervisory Council deep into the grassland, they both failed to find the location of the Golden Horde!
And now, the Fourth Prince only needs to use a trick to make the other party come to Kyoto to negotiate peace!

You can imagine the importance of this!
Therefore, these carriages blocking the door are not just spontaneous actions of the officials.

It is very likely that this was actually the emperor's intention!
It is to let everyone in Kyoto know how important the newly enthroned King of Wei is!

Moreover, unlike the Second Prince back then, this was not favor given without any reason, but was based on the fact that the Fourth Prince had already performed great merits!
There is something worth thinking about here!
The Crown Prince guessed that the Emperor most likely only regarded the Fourth Prince as a wise king who could get things done, and had no intention of making him the Crown Prince!

If this is the case, then the role of the Fourth Prince is completely different from that of the Second Prince!
The Crown Prince knew very well that the Second Prince was a whetstone specially found for him by the Emperor, which made him feel a strong sense of crisis at all times.

After all, the grindstone may not be without a chance to rise to the top!

But the fourth prince’s positioning is different.

He is more like a wise king specially found by His Majesty the Emperor to assist the crown prince!
Li Chengde's status as a prince certainly made him a natural heir to the throne, and the two sides were in a competitive relationship.

But at critical moments, relatively speaking, the most reliable people are still these blood-related relatives.

Based on this consideration, the current situation of allowing the Fourth Prince to form a faction makes sense.

Well, in this case, whoever between him and the second brother can get the support of the fourth brother will have the chance to inherit the throne!
As for whether the fourth brother has the ambition to become the crown prince... the prince is even more clear about this.

As long as he is a prince, no matter how indifferent his character appears to be, it is completely impossible for him to not care about the throne deep down in his heart!
There is usually only one reason for not caring, and that is that he has nothing to do with the throne!

For example, the eldest prince who leads troops outside.

My mother was a Dongyi person, so it was naturally impossible for her to become the crown prince, and naturally she had no ambition in this regard.

The fourth prince has a special situation. He lost his mother when he was young, and all the concubines in the palace are related to him.

After all, when the Fourth Prince was young, he and Wan'er both ran all over the palace.

Therefore, if the fourth prince ascends the throne, any of the current concubines has the possibility of becoming the queen mother. However, the risk involved is not something the prince needs to consider now.

The so-called three-way court... can also become a two-on-one situation, where they first unite to defeat the other person.

Next, it’s time to decide who is the winner.

The second prince has been fighting with him for so many years, and the two sides have long been incompatible. Unless the fourth prince's power is extremely powerful, he will not join forces with the second prince.

Thinking of this, the prince became more determined and immediately gave the order, "Okay, no need to ask them to move, we will go in through the back door."

He has to compete with the second brother and win over the fourth brother. This is what he must do now.

If he had extended an olive branch to the fourth brother earlier, he might have gained some advantages in this fight.

The prince did not dare to hesitate for even a moment, fearing that the second prince would arrive before him.

As soon as he got off the carriage at the back door, he walked quickly towards the central hall of the Prince of Wei's Mansion.

But before he got close, the smile on the prince's face gradually disappeared because he heard the second brother's voice.

"...Mother complained to me a few days ago that you rarely went to pay your respects to her recently."

"But you have just been crowned king and have been focusing on the construction of the Prince of Wei's Palace. It is normal that you don't have time to pay respects."

"But you should be free now, right? Mother wants to know how you made those pottery jars. Let's go to see Mother together tomorrow morning. What do you think, fourth brother?"

Hearing this, the prince knew that it was time for him to show up.

If he didn't stop him, the second brother would have taken the girl to Concubine Shu's courtyard.

"Fourth brother, I heard that your plan was a great success. The Western Hu Chanyu will come to Kyoto for peace talks soon. This is a great achievement. Congratulations!"

The prince had a smile on his face and walked straight into the hall.

"Your Prince Wei's Palace has just been built. If there is anything missing in the palace, just send someone to the East Palace. If you like anything, just move it in. We are brothers, no need to be polite!"

Hearing this, the second prince laughed, "Your Highness, my fourth brother has just moved into a new house, and you're giving him some second-hand furniture. Isn't that inappropriate?"

"So my second brother is here too!" The prince immediately showed a surprised expression.

"Second brother, what you are criticizing is that Fourth Brother has moved into a new house and made a great contribution to our Daqing celebration. It does seem a bit stingy of me to only give him second-hand furniture!"

The second prince spoke quickly, "Your Highness, your words are too harsh. How dare I criticize Your Highness? If the censors knew about this, wouldn't they report me?"

"Hey, what you said is not right..."

Watching the two people bickering in the hall, Li Chengde did not stop them, but smiled and drank tea and watched the show.

Until someone announced, "Your Highness, the Princess Royal is here!"

Li Chengde then spoke, "My two brothers, my aunt is here too, should we go out to greet her?"

The prince immediately stopped bickering and said, "Fourth brother, what you said makes sense. Then why don't we three brothers go together to welcome him?"

"Then listen to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

(End of this chapter)