Chapter 28: The Longevity of King Qi

  Xia Jiang leaned in to listen, vaguely hearing something "The table has been overturned!", "Hurry up and leave...", "The Governor's clothes are stained with wine and dishes", "Nonsense..., he was even slapped in the face...", "Leave, leave, leave..."

  Xia Huo looked around suspiciously, and a Qingzhou scholar who had just greeted him hurried past, whispering: "The king is angry, the birthday banquet has been disrupted, hurry up..."

  "Ah, Brother Du..."

  Just as Xia Yu was about to ask for clarification, Du brother had already hastily walked out. After a brief moment of thought, Xia Yu suddenly remembered what Feng Zongji had said and couldn't help but think: "No way! Is Qi Wang's temper really that explosive? Could it be that he made a big scene at the birthday banquet in front of the imperial envoy just because he heard that the Ministry of Revenue had suspended his funding for building his mansion?"

  Xia Fu was right, but he didn't expect that the King of Qi not only made a scene at the birthday banquet in front of the imperial envoy, but also gave the imperial envoy who came to congratulate him a big slap in the face.

  At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, most of these princes were already grown men when Zhu Yuanzhang had not yet ascended to the throne. Their father was still fighting wars in the south and north, and did not dare to hope that he would become the true Son of Heaven. Therefore, there was no one to teach his sons the etiquette of ruler and subject, or the system of the imperial court. At most, they might hire a tutor to teach them to read books and write characters. So among these princes, there were certainly some honest children who diligently studied and followed the rules, but most of them were unbridled.

  As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, they immediately became imperial princes. For some of these princes, their father was just their father, and the emperor was a title for outsiders. Home was country, and country was home. When they got angry, who cared if you were an imperial envoy or not? Weren't you just a errand boy sent by my father to deliver birthday gifts? If you hit me, so be it, what's the big deal?

  The King of Qi made a big fuss at the birthday banquet, and all the officials and gentry were shocked and fled in panic. The Pingyueyang Ping Gonggong from Beijing had a five-fingered mountain on his face, bestowed by the King of Qi, and was so ashamed that he didn't dare to retort, but could only leave with a sullen expression. The birthday banquet ended without joy, and most of the envoys from various vassal kings were delighted at the disaster, coldly observing how the King of Qi would deal with it.

  Just as Xia Yu had figured out the possible reason, the news spread quickly, and before long, the hall was empty except for him. Seeing this situation, Xia Yu thought to himself: "It's all like this now, I won't attend the birthday banquet either, let's hurry up and leave, don't spoil that Qi Wangye's tailwind." He also stood up and hastily walked out.

  But just as he stepped down from the Danzhai, he was met with the eunuch Shu Gonggong, who asked him with a smile: "Young master, where are you headed?"

  Xia Yu said: "Oh, I see the wine party has dispersed, and I was just about to bid farewell and leave."

  Shu Gongzi let out a bitter laugh and said: "Young Master, don't be in such a hurry to leave. The Prince wants to see you, please follow me."

  Xia Fu muttered to himself: "So soon? This Prince really is an impatient one."

  Helpless, Xia Liu had to follow Shu Gonggong behind him, and the two of them turned around Zhu Ge and Wei Huo. Before long, they arrived in front of a temple with a mountain peak and two eaves. The scenery here was beautiful, with mountains, water, flowers, and trees arranged in a harmonious way. In front of the temple gate, there was a tall rock, surrounded by green water on both sides, with a small bridge spanning across it, like two dragons playing with a pearl. Xia Liu followed Shu Gonggong onto the small bridge, and after crossing it, the two bridges merged into one entrance, which led to "Anshantang".

  Shu Gong led Xia Liu into the Anshentang Hall, which was extremely spacious inside. The interior used wooden partitions, green glazed tiles, curtains and various forms of flower screens, flying screens, and ancient shelves to separate spaces of different sizes, neither appearing empty nor losing elegance. The ceiling, paintings, couplets, wall decorations, calligraphy and paintings, lighting fixtures, banners, incense burners, etc. were scattered throughout, exuding an air of grandeur and refinement.

  Shu Gong said in a low voice: "Young master, wait for a moment, I'll go and report to the king."

  In an instant, a man's voice from inside boomed loudly: "Get out of here! Are you men or not? If you've come, bring them in. What's with all these damned rules?"

  Shu Gonggong rolled and crawled out, shouting loudly: "The king orders you to come in!" Then he leaned forward, lowering his voice to whisper: "The king is still in a bad mood, and his headache has started again, be careful what you say."

  Xia Liu nodded and thanked Shu Gonggong, then walked towards the inner temple. As soon as he entered the temple door, Xia Liu quickly took two steps forward, fell to the ground and said loudly: "Your subordinate Yang Xu, has seen the king."

  The system of kingship demoted the Son of Heaven by one rank, and for the ministers, it still belonged to the etiquette between monarch and subject. Even if he was a first-class official in the current dynasty, when he saw the king, he had to perform the ritual of kneeling and bowing. Xia Liu couldn't be an exception. He had practiced this set of rituals with Zhang thirteen times, and how to make gestures, how to speak, were already familiar to him. His movements unfolded smoothly, like flowing clouds and water. The man's voice was impatient again: "Forget it, forget it, get up and talk."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty."

  Xia Jiang stood up straight, only to see that there was someone lying on the couch, and an old man with a white beard was sitting on the edge of the bed, giving Qi Wang acupuncture. Qi Wang's head was shining with all thin needles, which looked a bit scary.

  "This is the King of Qi? No wonder he's so overbearing and arrogant. Apart from being a prince, he's always been reckless and unbridled. I'm afraid his headaches are also one of the reasons."

  Because Zhang Thirteen had no chance to enter the palace, he had never seen King Qi's appearance, so he had not painted his portrait. This was Xia Xun's first time seeing King Qi. He saw that King Qi was about thirty years old, with a broad forehead and thick eyebrows, a straight nose and wide mouth, tall and majestic in stature, dignified and imposing in demeanor. The sons of Zhu Yuanzhang were mostly handsome, rarely ugly or deformed. After all, their father was not considered a beautiful man, but he was extraordinary and elegant, and their mothers were all beauties, so how could these princes by birth be ugly?

  As for the image of Zhu Yuanzhang that has been widely circulated among the people in later generations, with a protruding forehead and chin, and a face full of acne, extremely ugly, it's simply like an animal. That's just the Qing people intentionally uglifying the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Those paintings were not passed down from the Ming Dynasty at all. During the Ming Dynasty, anyone who dared to trample on Zhu Yuanzhang's Mausoleum would be arrested, let alone draw a portrait of him that was completely different from the official standard image. Who would risk being punished and hide such a painting for three hundred years, waiting for the Qing Dynasty to arrive, just to take it out and present it as a treasure?

  Let's talk about the portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang that suddenly appeared during the Qing dynasty. The dragon robes and crowns worn by Zhu Yuanzhang in these paintings are actually in the style of the Qin and Han dynasties, which makes their credibility questionable. If Zhu Yuanzhang was really as ugly as depicted, Guo Zixing, the leader of the rebel army that rose up in Huizhou, would not have married his beloved daughter to such a penniless and unattractive monk, and it's unlikely that Zhu Yuanzhang would have become emperor later on.

  Furthermore, among Zhu Yuanzhang's 24 sons, not one of those "dragon breeds" resembles the alien portrait. Is it possible that none of his many sons inherited their father's eccentric genes? This further proves the absurdity and falsehood of those portraits. On the other hand, the official portrait of Taizu passed down by the Ming court should be genuine, as it was used for worship by Zhu's descendants. How could they not paint a likeness of their own ancestor?

  However, this King of Qi, although handsome in appearance, was not very particular about his attire. He had probably changed clothes and was wearing a loose, large moon-white casual garment with a relaxed belt, half-exposing his sturdy chest and abdomen with a protective vest, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, having quite a bit of the air of a heroic figure from the rivers and lakes, but without any of the dignified elegance of the imperial nobility.

  The imperial physician finished the injection, retreated to one side and made a bow. King Qi waved his hand, and the imperial physician hastily retreated to the outer palace to wait. King Qi asked: "Yang Xu, I called you here because I wanted to ask you, what method can be used to quickly earn a large sum of money for me?"

  "Your Excellency, your shops are doing very well, especially the overseas routes you've established. Every year, two ships travel to Korea and Luzon, earning a lot of money..."

  Xia Fu had not finished speaking, when the King of Qi, Zhu Yan, said: "These are not feasible, too slow, I want to immediately raise a sum of money, enough to support the construction of the palace."

  "Your Highness, we have enough money to build the mansion. Your annual salary, plus the income from the shops, and the allocation from the imperial court, are sufficient..."

  "Big deal!"

  The King of Qi jumped up in uncontrollable anger, the silver hairpins on his head shaking one by one. The King of Qi groaned in pain and held his head, while Shu Gonggong hurried forward to support him, exclaiming: "Your Majesty, calm down, Your Majesty, calm down, Your Majesty, be careful with your body..."

  King Qi pushed him away and said angrily, "Do you know how much money I need? It's enough to cover the entire cost of building the palace! The Ministry of Revenue can't allocate the funds for a while, and my palace is being built. Can't I just leave it like that?"

  Xia Fu couldn't show that he already knew the truth, and instead looked surprised. Shu Gonggong, the eunuch who was serving him, leaned in closer and explained in a soft voice: "It's like this, the king originally petitioned the emperor to have the imperial court take care of two-thirds of the cost of building the new palace, but..."

  "Son of a bitch, the result is that the Wang Fu has just started construction and the Ministry of Revenue says there's no money? Isn't this cheating people?! How can there be no money?! How can there be no money?! Other people's affairs are urgent, but my affair isn't urgent?"

  He paced back and forth in a rage, his silver hair shaking: "In February this year, my seventeenth brother (Ning Wang Zhu Quan) reported to the emperor that when he was patrolling the border on horseback, he found some barbarians who had abandoned their carts on the road, fearing that there would be bandits along the border. The emperor ordered my fourth brother (Yan Wang Zhu Di) to select elite soldiers and horses to arrive at the Great Ning and Quan Ning lines, patrol along the river where the Hu cavalry was located, and wait for an opportunity to attack."

  He also ordered Wu Ge (Zhou Wang Zhu) to dispatch elite troops from the Henan Metropolitan Command to patrol and defend the northern border. Meanwhile, he himself was ordered to gather troops from the Shandong Metropolitan Command as well as Xuzhou and Pizhou to provide support. The king's large army gathered there, with money being spent like flowing water, but the king's army had yet to receive orders to deploy.

  What's the outcome? It turns out that Fourth Brother led his army north, and in a fierce battle at Chenchui, he captured the leader of the Hu people, Bolin Temur. He pursued them relentlessly, killing all the way to Wulianghai City, and defeated Harlhatai. He has already won and returned triumphantly. Well, Fourth Brother single-handedly made the Hu people drop their helmets and abandon their armor, making a big show of his prowess. As for me? I'd like to ask, since it wasn't necessary to mobilize so many troops, what were those idiots at the Ministry of War and the Five Armies Headquarters thinking? Why did they make such a big fuss?

  "My troops may not have gone to battle, but gathering, mobilizing and preparing for war doesn't come cheap. Fourth brother won a victory, rewarding the soldiers and motivating the officers also costs money. Now the court's funds that were supposed to be allocated for my palace construction are being delayed... Who did I offend?"

  This prince is full of foul language, with a completely rogue demeanor, without any hint of nobility, but when he gets angry, that momentum is quite intimidating. Xia Liu took advantage of his panting to carefully interject: "Your Highness, this... is the imperial court's delay in disbursing funds, even if construction slows down a bit, it's not a big deal, Your Highness' mansion has only been built for a few years, and there's no rush to move..."

  "Fart!"

  Zhu Yan angrily said: "When the various kings first went to their fiefs, because the fourth brother's king's mansion was inherited from the Yuan dynasty imperial city, its scale and system were higher than those of the other kings. The emperor specially issued an edict to explain to the princes that the reason why the Yan King's mansion was different from others was due to special circumstances, and told us brothers not to compare ourselves with the Yan King. I begged my father on my knees for a long time before he agreed to let me rebuild my king's mansion!"

  "For such a thing, Zhu Yuanzhang even had to write a special letter to his sons to explain it. This emperor, notorious for his cruelty, was indeed a patient and considerate father who cared about their feelings."

  Zhu Yan said: "On that day, I asked the emperor to rebuild the Qi Wang Fu, saying that although there were many people in the palace, it was too small and not suitable for living. In fact, it's not just the emperor, but also my brothers, who don't know that I'm ashamed of the palace being too shabby. Now that the court has stopped funding, can we just stop work like this? I, the king, am losing face! Losing face!"

  Xia Xun's heart sank: "What to do? Should I really teach the trick of swindling people that General Feng taught me to Prince Wang?"

  If possible, he would not tell the three plans of Feng Zongqi to Wang Ye. He was not familiar with the temperament of King Qi, and although Feng Zongqi repeatedly guaranteed that these three plans sounded absurd and bold, but considering King Qi's temperament, they would definitely be adopted. However, Xia Liu felt that anyone who wasn't extremely stupid wouldn't accept such methods, and it was possible that King Qi would kick him out and behead him as soon as he finished listening.

  Even if the king's head was kicked by a donkey, he really accepted such an idea. He fell so deeply into the summer and thought about it afterwards, how easy is it to withdraw? The first commander of the Brocade Guard, Mao Xiang, and the second commander, Jiang Zhen, how did they die? They died in the Hu Wei case and the Lan Yu case, where the civil power was counter-attacked. Even if Commander Feng and his men had no intention of harming him, he would not have a good ending.

  A stream of blood flowed out from the crown prince's hair, along his forehead to the bridge of his nose. The crown prince didn't seem to notice, but Shu Gonggong was startled and hastily pulled out a handkerchief, rushing over to say: "Your Highness, Your Highness, you're bleeding..."

  "Huh?"

  Zhu Yan stretched out his hand and wiped it, a handful of fresh blood, instantly became a big flower face. He snatched the handkerchief from the eunuch's hand with an air of indifference, rubbed his face randomly twice, pointed at Xia Xun and said sternly: "The king's mansion will not stop work, you think of a way for me!"

  "PS: Xia Yu pointed at all the book friends and said in a stern voice, "The second on the recommendation list now, how to get up, you guys think of a way for Guan Guan!!!"