Chapter 27 The meeting between monarch and minister
After Zhu Yuanzhang established his rule over the country, he set up three capitals for the country.

In addition to Nanjing City, there are also Beijing and Zhongdu.

Of course, this Beijing is not the Beiping city decades later. The Beijing at this time is the Kaifeng city.

These three capitals all built imperial cities, but they differed in scale.

When Zhu Yuanzhang arrived in Fengyang, he went to Yingling first.

The Yingling Mausoleum is where Zhu Yuanzhang's parents and brother and sister-in-law are buried.

In this hall, Zhu Yuanzhang, wearing plain clothes, sat there for half an hour.

Tang He was guarding outside. When Zhu Yuanzhang left the hall, Tang He saw that Zhu Yuanzhang looked depressed.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time." Zhu Yuanzhang spoke in Fengyang dialect with a gentle tone.

Tang He shook his head and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's slightly lonely expression, feeling a little at a loss.

Zhu Yuanzhang finally said: "Let's go."

Although he said let's go, after walking dozens of steps, he turned back to look at the Xian Palace.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that everything before his eyes was just like a dream. Decades ago, his parents and brother died tragically. At that time, they didn't even have a place to bury them. The so-called "dying without a place to stand" was like the collapse of heaven and earth for Zhu Yuanzhang, who was still a child.

At that time, he had never thought about doing anything great, but just wanted his parents to be safe. He would be satisfied even if he had to work like a slave and live a miserable life.

Unfortunately, they all died one by one in the end, either from illness or starvation, like grass, and the child who was originally named Zhu Yuanzhang could only embark on a bleak future with sadness.

Zhu Yuanzhang's memory of his parents and brothers who were buried here was already vague, or in other words, only a few fragments that were most worth recalling remained. And now, even though these few memories were so vague that they were distorted, Zhu Yuanzhang would occasionally recall them when he was dazed or in his dreams.

He always savored it, as if it were a piece of chewed sugarcane that had lost its sweetness and only had residue left. But even today, Zhu Yuanzhang still chewed it over and over again. He was unwilling to spit it out, but he also couldn't swallow the residue raw.

So, at this moment, when he arrived in Fengyang again, the little joy and endless pain in his long-lost memories came to his mind again. When he looked back at the side hall, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but have his eyes red. Even if he had a heart of stone, hot tears rolled down his cheeks.

Seeing this, Tang He quickly turned his head away.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and strode forward.

He has lost his parents and brother and sister-in-law, but he still has a wife and son.

He once lost everything, but now he has gained a vast territory!

Soon, the people from the Yiluansi took action.

They drove secretly and took Zhu Yuanzhang to a warehouse.

After entering the warehouse, Zhu Yuanzhang saw the gold and silver that had already been sorted.

He stepped forward and took out a silver ingot, as if thinking about something. Or rather, he seemed to be wondering how he earned all this gold and silver.

It's only been a few short months!
"Your Majesty." A captain of the Yiluansi bowed and whispered, "The people are coming."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood with his hands behind his back, expressionless, as someone entered the huge warehouse.

The man who came seemed trembling with fear. He was wearing cloth clothes, but his complexion was well maintained.

“I’ve seen it…I’ve seen it…”

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said calmly, "No need to be polite. Let me tell you. The account book says that you spent 500 taels of silver to place an order here. Why is that?"

"Because... because..."

…………

The cell was extremely dark and damp.

What makes people even more uncomfortable is this endless darkness.

At this time, Deng Qianqiu was lying on his back in the straw pile. He was originally afraid, but after coming in, he found that the fear had disappeared.

It is said that there is a type of person who, when faced with danger, will not panic but will be exceptionally clear-headed. This seems to be related to the adrenaline in the human body.

So Deng Qianqiu's mind was full of thoughts on how to get out of this situation. Of course, the only thing he was worried about was his father who only cared about studying hard. Of course, this father was also really good to him!

The emperor wouldn't really kill his whole family...ah...poor dad...he had only done half of his work. There was no day or night or time here, and after who knows how long, suddenly, a ray of light finally illuminated the darkness here.

It was just an oil lamp, so although it dispelled the darkness, it also blurred the vision.

Deng Qianqiu only saw a burly figure slowly walking to the fence in front of the cell.

On the other side, there was a thin man following behind. He first brought a chair to the burly man, then sat in front of Deng Qianqiu through the fence.

The lights were dim and Deng Qianqiu couldn't see clearly who was coming.

The man sat upright, half of his face hidden in the darkness. He said nothing, but it was as if the chirping of insects and crickets in the cell had suddenly stopped.

It's deathly quiet here.

Deng Qianqiu looked at that half-cold face and felt mixed emotions.

Like this man, many people in the Yiluansi had a murderous aura about them. Even from a distance, Deng Qianqiu seemed to be able to smell the blood.

So he started to take action.

If he wanted to survive, it seemed that he had no choice but to pretend to be stupid. This was not Deng Qianqiu resorting to an old trick, but he really couldn't think of any other way to solve the problem.

So he squinted his eyes like a mentally retarded person, twisted his mouth, and tried to drool.

The thin man who was serving beside him whispered, "He has been like this since he came here. He seems... not very smart."

The burly man was still sitting upright, his eyes hidden in the darkness, but still without any expression.

As a result, the performance that Deng Qianqiu thought was brilliant seemed to have turned into an embarrassing pantomime at this moment.

Suddenly, the silence finally broke.

The burly man said in a voice as loud as a bell: "If you continue to act stupid, you will be castrated immediately and dragged away to be fed to the dogs."

"..."

Deng Qianqiu shuddered, then instantly returned to normal. His eyeballs began to move around, indicating that he had cunning and smart eyes. He said hurriedly, "Not stupid, not stupid, I'm smart."

Strength can defeat skill. Deng Qianqiu has a talent for acting, but he can't resist the other person's knife!
The burly man was Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless for a moment as he looked at the young man whose expression changed faster than turning pages of a book.

But who hasn't he seen? Then he asked, "Was it your idea for the King of Jin to open this clinic?"

I originally thought that Deng Qianqiu would deny it until his death.

Unexpectedly, Deng Qianqiu said: "Yes, it was my idea."

There seemed to be a hint of interest in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, instead of calmness.

"Was it your idea to include the eldest princess in the clinic?"

Deng Qianqiu's head was buzzing, he knew that this was the root cause of his troubles.

My brother is so wronged, even more wronged than Dou E! If I had known in advance that this was the eldest princess, even if little Lao Ai had become a little Zhao Gao, I would not have dared to provoke her.

But Deng Qianqiu thought about it and said, "Yes."

"Was it your idea? You should think it through. You should know what crime it is to insult the princess's innocence."

Deng Qianqiu's head was buzzing. Princess, she used her identity to defraud people, and she was the main culprit...

Deng Qianqiu felt his neck was itchy.

He almost cried, as if there were two little people punching each other in his head.

It seemed that he saw Deng Qianqiu's hesitation.

Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly: "If it wasn't you who ordered it, I might have let you off easily."

Unexpectedly, Deng Qianqiu said, "Yes... I was the one who ordered it."

(End of this chapter)