eldest son of Ming dynasty

182 next time

Zhu Houzhao remembered that his father, a civil servant in his previous life, was so busy that he couldn't see anyone every day before he retired. He himself was working in another city, and he basically didn't have a phone call a week.

But after retiring, he kept sending him pictures of girls on WeChat, always asking how is this and what is that.

A sense of déjà vu rose in him now.

In the Kunning Palace, Emperor Hongzhi and Empress Zhang had a heated chat, as if they had neglected their son, and hearing that, they were already imagining the wonderful scene when they had a grandson.

This made him very helpless. Looking for a wife at this moment must be around his age, right?

A thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl... I feel a little trembling when I think about it.

"...Although Zhao'er is surrounded by eunuchs and maids to take care of her, but in the final analysis, those are just slaves, and they always lack a caring person."

Empress Zhang is a woman, and she is more interested in these things, and she is more idle than Emperor Hongzhi!
The emperor on the side responded happily. In fact, he came to discuss and discuss, but Queen Zhang agreed very well, as if he finally found something to do, so,

excited.

"The empress is right. Besides, the concubine chosen by the crown prince must be an excellent woman from a good family in all aspects. If this is the case, it will be next year. Coupled with the auspicious date selected by the Qintian Supervisor, maybe the next year will be obtained. "The emperor tried to convince the prince with a straight face: "So Zhao'er, you just said it was early, but in fact it is not early at all."

Zhu Houzhao has black lines all over his face, why are you so anxious about the next year!
But having said that, he still has to choose his concubine carefully, to say something unfilial... In case he also finds a concubine like Queen Zhang.

That's fucked up.

He went to court every day to deal with complicated political affairs, and he had to deal with the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law when he returned to the harem, which was really exciting.

The prince was thinking about this matter, and the emperor thought he was thinking something when he saw that he had been silent, so he calmed down his excitement a little bit, "Zhao'er is very unwilling?"

Zhu Houzhao came back to his senses, shook his head and said, "Not at all, my son is just thinking, it seems that I haven't seen my father and mother so happy for a long time."

These words made Hongzhi and Queen Zhang feel a little warm in their hearts, and the eyes they looked at their son were filled with affection.

"Although my son does think it's too early, but seeing his father and mother are so happy, he still takes care of it for his son, so he can't live up to his heart."

For him, he has to marry early or late, and 16 and 14 are both very early, and there is not much difference.To coyly insist that you have to wait until you are a full adult before getting married is actually making trouble for yourself for no reason.

That's true, for this matter, I don't know how many ministers will continue to go up and down, and to put it a bit bigger, it also encroached on the court's political resources.

Besides, Emperor Hongzhi showed great interest in this matter...Zhu Houzhao always thought about the 18th year of Hongzhi, so he felt that he could make him happier, or happier...

Get married and get married. Anyway, he is the prince and will be the emperor in the future. It is impossible to fall in love every day in the Forbidden City.

Emperor Hongzhi saw that the prince agreed, and couldn't help but feel happy in his heart. He was worried that the prince would be emotional, so he explained again: "Zhaoer, when you get married and have children, you will know how it feels to be a parent. Having a son starts from the moment of birth, until he is born. Being able to speak, becoming a sensible adult, and then getting married and having children are all things that parents look forward to. You are the prince, and the future of the Ming Dynasty will depend on you. I will pass it on to you, and you will pass it on to my grandson. Only by passing on from generation to generation can we live up to the legacy of our ancestors.”

"My son understands what father said." Zhu Houzhao was not the youngest daughter's entangled mentality. Although it was a little sudden, it was settled. "But my son has a request, so please agree to it."

Emperor Hongzhi was in a great mood, and even joked, "If you don't agree, why don't you do it? You're being polite with me."

Empress Zhang stared at him and said angrily, "Zhao'er is polite."

"Yes, yes, well, tell me."

Zhu Houzhao said: "Can the imperial court choose the concubine, and send the inner eunuch maid, can you let your son arrange it?"

The emperor and the empress looked at each other. What does this mean? He understood the affairs of court since he was a child. How could he have a hand in the affairs of men and women?
Empress Zhang has some comments, "Zhao'er, you either read and write every day, or deal with political affairs with ministers. Let us handle the marriage of men and women for you."

They are afraid. After all, their son is young and doesn't understand those things, and then he makes some strange requests and chooses inappropriate people to come in. It will be troublesome.

Zhu Houzhao scratched his forehead, a little embarrassed... How can I say this, can I still say that I understand everything?
In fact, he wanted to make some more detailed arrangements, so that he could say some things to his own people.

"Mother, the son has no other meaning." Zhu Houzhao used his brain and explained well: "Just thinking about it, the prince's concubine is also related to the face of the royal family. Be sure to choose a gentle character, family background first, and character second. But The family background is easy to identify, but this character can't be seen... Isn't it lucky that the son was chosen by the princess?"

The emperor said: "It's not scary. If you want to see their character clearly, you can let them stay in Beijing for a longer time so that you can observe."

"Father, they all knew at that time that they might be selected, so their words and deeds are definitely not what they used to be."

"Then how are you going?"

"My son wants to send some maids of appropriate age to mix in. There are no eunuchs or princes, so you can see their true character in private."

This is really well-intentioned.

But Queen Zhang dispelled her doubts when she heard this. It turned out that it was for the sake of character... Fortunately, it was not a strange request, and the prince didn't understand it at first.

As for Zhu Houzhao, he couldn't help but be well-intentioned.

Anyone who has ever been married knows that the characteristic of beauty is useful, but the most important thing is character. People with bad character will give you the kind of "who do you want me and your mother" every day? Who has loved, anyway, he has not loved.

The other one is that he is now a prince, and his figure, appearance, and skin are all checked during the selection process. In other words, being beautiful is a basic requirement for a princess, and it is not considered precious or rare in Zhu Houzhao's case.

Don't say it's not beautiful anymore, some flaws can't get in, so he doesn't have to worry about it.To put it another shameless word, he can find beautiful ones even if his hair is gray.

The emperor nodded, "The selection of concubines by the crown prince is aimed at thirteen- to sixteen-year-old girls from good families across the country. They are collected from various provinces and then transferred to the capital. In this case, the two capitals and the thirteen provinces can send two or three court ladies to mix in first, except for the inner prison , and no one else will know."

"The son thanked his father here."

"Okay, this matter is settled." Emperor Hongzhi stood up, "There is nothing else. Zhao'er, Dad will go with you."

Empress Zhang saw them off at the gate of the palace, and the emperor led the prince and a group of eunuchs and maids to walk in the palace.

"Zhao'er, you came to Kunning Palace to look for me, what's the matter?"

Zhu Hou said from his heart that Emperor Hongzhi was not so dull sometimes.

"It's about Zhejiang. Previously, Xu Ruoqin, the prefect of Huzhou, went to the court and said that his ministers were fighting for the interests of the people. But after the outbreak of the Zhejiang nest case, Jin Yiwei investigated and found that the Xu family was not only involved in smuggling, but also had some relationship with Duke Huai. After all, smuggling violates the laws of the country, so the Xu family provides convenience and protection through the vassals of the imperial court, and then shares the benefits with Duke Huai's residence afterwards."

The emperor put his hands behind his back, and when he heard this, his previous happy expression disappeared, and he still felt a little heartbroken when it involved his relatives.So he asked in a low voice, "What are you going to do?"

Zhu Houzhao said: "Prince Huai is descended from the lineage of Emperor Renzong's seventh son. How can we say that he is also a member of our Zhu family. Therefore, I feel that I should not be tempted to kill him. How about reducing his title and demoting him to a commoner?"

After listening to the first half of the sentence, Hongzhi still felt that the prince had to take care of his family, but the situation changed suddenly in the second half of the sentence.

"Relegated to common people? In this case, the blood of the Tian family will flow among the people, and some of my Zhu family will inevitably be bullied by unruly officials. Under the nine springs, how can I explain to my ancestors?"

Zhu Houzhao said: "Father and emperor care about the love of relatives, but when King Huai's family flouted the laws of the country and conspired with traitors to make profits, they never thought that this was poaching the corner of the Ming Dynasty."

"Tsk." The emperor turned around and said in a deliberative manner, "I'm not saying that there will be no punishment, but a small punishment is enough. Why do you need to be demoted to a commoner?"

"It's not good to be punished this time, let's do it next time, definitely next time." Zhu Houzhao also pouted, looking a little unhappy, "This time, the minister of the Zhejiang case rejected so many memorials, so he insisted on doing it. Yes. It’s not easy, and the emperor is very clear about it. The slogan is loud, but the result is that the treatment is unfair. How will the subjects of the world think of my son in the future?”

Emperor Hongzhi became entangled, and what the prince said was not unreasonable.Back in February, Liu Daxia teased him, saying that the emperor was partial, and outsiders would deal with him according to the law, while his own family had a different attitude.

"The Zhejiang case must be dealt with like this?"

"It must. The left guards of Tengxiang have all been dispatched to Zhejiang. My son is now riding a tiger. If you can do it, you have to do it, and if you can't do it, you have to do it. Otherwise, your son will be ugly this time." Zhu Houzhao has a kind of lying down Yes, you can figure it out.

Anyway, if he wanted to save Duke Huai, he would have to sacrifice his son.

Emperor Hongzhi's eyes rolled wildly, but when he looked up and saw the prince with his hands spread out waiting for him to speak, he knocked him on the head, "You little bastard, you usually have many ways to do it, but now you say you can't do it. Aren't you playing rogue with me?"

Zhu Houzhao refused, and settled accounts with him with his fingers, "Why is my son called a rascal? Look, Dad, I am now reviewing hundreds of memorials every day, and I have to meet so many ministers when I am done. From time to time, the country still has some emergencies. Didn't Li Dongyang say that there is a drought in Shandong? The common people are waiting to be fed, so it has to be taken care of? The border is still not moving, and the military report is also taken care of, right? But what can my son do? Duke Huai committed a crime, I was thinking about..."

"Hey, let's go." The emperor interrupted him forcefully, "I know all about your hard work. You can deal with the affairs of Zhejiang and Duke Huai like that. But next time..."

"It's my son who will remember, next time for sure!"

(End of this chapter)