A sudden change occurred in Prince Jing's palace, the feudal lord died, and his son was nowhere to be found. It was the time when all the dragons were leaderless.

But the funeral ceremony of the feudal lord cannot be skipped.

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

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

It's no wonder that the various branches are so eager to take advantage of the opportunity to sort out the Taining Palace's industries, that is, to divide the profits among themselves.

Who left King Taining without an heir?

At this time, in the royal city of Jing Fan, there was a piece of plain linen clothes and bows.

At the major city gates, the royal family greeted the officials and gentry who came to express their condolences. Both parties spoke softly and greeted each other.

Zhu Zaiyu, the king of Fanshan, Zhu Zaiyuan, the prince of Fushun, and other side branches, together with Zhu Changzhen, the third son of the late concubine of King Jing, guarded the front hall of the royal city to welcome the guests and express their condolences.

There was a fire in the Prince's Mansion, but fortunately the front hall was not affected and was used as a place for mourning.

"Hey, the imperial envoy went too far to bully people, otherwise why would this happen?"

"Who says it's not the case? Those imperial envoys were lawless. Zhu Xianzhen, the lord of the Chu vassal, was imprisoned for no reason and suffered humiliation. It was because of this that King Taining was so sad that he did such a great feat."

"I heard that Li Zai was quite a good man in court, so he caught the emperor's fancy. Now that all powerful people are in jail, they will be humiliated by him again and again. Who can remain indifferent to this?"

Several officials from Jingzhou Prefecture had just paid their condolences to the family members of the deceased and were gathering together to whisper.

It was arranged in such a weird place that I couldn't help but laugh while stroking my beard.

While I was having fun, I suddenly heard a noise in the distance.

Several people turned around and looked curiously, and saw Zhu Zaiyu, the king of Fanshan, and Zhu Zaiyuan, the prince of Fushun, looking either angry or frightened. They all apologized, left the guests where they were, and left in a hurry.

The governor immediately became alert.

He walked quickly to Zhu Changzhen, the third son of the late King Jing, and said, "Jingzi, what's the trouble in the house? Although we only have a small amount of ability, we can still help."

Now this Zhu Changzhen can be said to be the winner. The eldest brother behaves suspiciously, and the second brother set himself on fire. He is probably destined to be the heir apparent. Calling him Jingzi is a compliment, but it is reasonable.

Although Zhu Changzhen is only twelve years old, his behavior is quite orderly.

Seeing the local magistrate coming to ask, he hurriedly handed over his hand and returned the gift, meticulously saying: "Congratulations magistrate, it's not that there is any difficulty, it's just that an important guest has come to visit, and the servants can't deal with it, so my uncles have to go in person."

The distinguished guest... the one who looked frightened, angry, and frightened just now is not the same as a bad guest.

Zhizhou's eyelids twitched, and he immediately turned around and asked urgently: "The imperial envoy is here!? Who is here? Jin Yiwei?"

After Zhu Changzhen was silent for a while, he nodded.

I saw He Zhizhou cupping his fists and saluting, then retreating back to the circle of officials. Several people were whispering, not knowing what was said.

Then the group of people looked around, but without even saying hello, they covered their faces and disappeared quietly.

Zhu Changzhen looked on with cold eyes and did not say anything to stop him.

These days, he has become accustomed to the warmth and coldness of human relationships.

He shook his head, throwing these people out of his mind, and turned to look at the distance, the entrance to the palace, with some worry.

This morning news came from Wuchang Mansion that Liang Menglong had arrived as governor of the Yamen.

Immediately afterwards, the governor began to lobby several imperial envoys because of the turmoil in Huguang, hoping to calm down the situation.

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

The case of Zhang Chucheng was officially closed and filed by Du Si, the inspector general of the Ministry of Public Security, Mao Ruxian, the commander of the General Command Department, Zhong Chongwen, the prefect of Yuezhou, and others.

When everyone in Huguang heard the news, the three ministers were overjoyed and even said that Liang Menglong had the talent to serve as prime minister and assistant.

If we rectify Huguang today, we will benefit all people tomorrow.

The clan wanted to share their joy and congratulations, but they heard that when the clan was being discussed, Zhu Xizhong's royal uniform broke out, and he walked away despite the dissuasion of the governor Liang Menglong and the two imperial envoys.

Liang Menglong was so angry that he threw a glass of wine and cursed on the spot - "Seeking rewards for merit, handling cases carefully, ignoring the close friendship between the royal family, and forgetting His Majesty's benevolence and holy virtues."

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

But it is too obvious to let the Huguang officialdom go and continue to delve deeper into the clan's attitude.

I was originally worried about what Zhu Xizhong would do, but I didn't expect that he would directly kill them in the Jing Mansion.

Zhu Changzhen withdrew his gaze and sighed secretly. Since he was only twelve years old anyway, he would not be implicated. As for whether he could be given the position of a prince with full beard and tail, it would depend on luck.

Thinking like this, he once again showed a sad look and greeted the guests who came to express condolences.

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 called the first of the "ninety-nine archways in Qizhou".

On the main pillar of the archway, there are auspicious clouds and dragons engraved in relief, and the banner on the archway bears the four characters "Pingfan Emperor's Chamber".

A stone tablet nearly ten feet high stands in front of the six-column archway, with the inscription "Civil and military officials dismount their horses and walk here."

Both characters were written by Emperor Renzong himself, and they protected Jing Fan for more than a hundred years.

But it is often precisely this that develops the wanton and arrogant temperament of some clans.

The king of De'an, Zhu Yikan, had a bad temper and was too lazy to do anything on the surface. He said in a stern voice: "Zhu Xizhong, Wu Jinghe, and Jing Fan are having funerals today. You are not welcome. Please go back!"

The imperial envoys were just stirring up trouble in Huguang and bullying the clan. Now that King Taining had just left and it was the time of the funeral, someone actually came to Jing Mansion to look for trouble!

I simply don’t take them, the princes and grandsons, seriously!

Zhu Xizhong and Wu Jinghe beside him ignored the prince.

The latter pointed at the royal clan of King Fanshan without any courtesy and explained softly to the people around him: "King Zhu Zaiguo of Fanshan ascended the throne in the 36th year of Jiajing reign."

"On the left, this is Zhu Zaiyuan, the eldest son of Prince Fushun. Prince Fushun is now seventy-six years old and is already enjoying his old age. Most of the affairs in the palace are handled by the eldest son."

"The one on the right, Zhu Zaihao, King of Yongxin, ascended the throne in the 41st year of Jiajing reign."

"The person next to him is King De'an Zhu Yihan, and he and King Yongxin are direct brothers."

"There are many princes and princes of Jing Fan who have eliminated the country, but now there are only these four princes."

After saying that, Wu Jinghe shook his head secretly.

According to the current vassal regulations, no matter how many children are born to the legitimate sons of a county king, they will all be granted the title of county king; if they are born as concubines, they will be granted the title of general of the country.

But there are often exceptions.

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

In other words, as long as a county king is fertile enough, he can create a bunch of county kings and generals.

A county prince's annual salary is one thousand taels of silver, and a general's annual salary is 700 taels.

Zhu Yougou, the king of Fanshan, single-handedly gave birth to eleven sons, three county princes, and eight generals who controlled the country - he ate nearly ten thousand taels of silver a year!

This does not include the five hundred taels a year for those princesses, and even the continued reproduction later on.

Because of this, there are dozens of princes in Huguang, hundreds of generals who govern and assist the country, and more than 2,000 people with titles. The lowest lieutenant of Fengguo has a salary of 500 yuan a year. two.

The Huguang clan alone is a gold-swallowing beast, and its annual salary is as high as one million taels. The clans in the world are even more unreasonable!

The central bank has tens of thousands of taels of money, so it is completely normal to default on the salary. Only when the gods come can the full amount be paid!

Wu Jinghe was pointing and nonchalantly, which made several princes frown.

They each looked at each other and immediately understood that Wu Jinghe and Zhu Xizhong were coming with bad intentions.

The King of Fanshan, Zhu Zaigao, was very prestigious, so he grabbed hold of the King of De'an, Zhu Yikan, who had just come forward.

The former stood on the court steps, condescendingly looking down at the uninvited guests: "Mr. Cheng Guo, this is a personal letter from Renmiao. All civil and military officials are walking here."

"If you are interested in coming to express condolences, you might as well give up your wheelchair and walk into the temple."

He pointed at the stone monument, and there was a thorn in his words. He said that he was asking people to give up their wheelchairs, but in fact he was chasing them away - they were all in wheelchairs, and it was not like they could get off if they wanted to.

These words are not disrespectful and also show your attitude.

As soon as he finished speaking, several county princes started making noises and echoed in unison.

"Mr. Cheng, if you don't show any courtesy to the deceased, don't blame us for shutting him out."

"Zhu Xizhong! It's enough for you to force the lord to death. For the sake of the lord's funeral today, I won't argue with you, so I won't come down and walk!"

"The duke wantonly slaughtered the clan members and insulted the royal relatives. Could it be that even Emperor Renzong didn't take it seriously?"

The clan members gradually gathered around and made constant noises.

The soldiers in the palace exchanged glances in private, hesitating.

Seeing that the scene was becoming intense, Zhu Shitai panicked a little and quickly asked the guards behind him to stand ready.

"Cough...cough..."

Zhu Xizhong covered his mouth and coughed twice.

He turned around and glanced at the inscription left by Renzong, and murmured to himself: "The civil and military officials have dismounted and walked."
To be continued...