Women Wearing Men: The Growth Path of the Bastards of the Aristocratic Family

"parking."

Seeing that the capital city gate was just ahead, Gu Yunji suddenly stopped the carriage. Li Jinze saw this and was puzzled:

"Master Gu, why don't you leave? Although your complexion has improved a lot along the way, Gao Shishu has been unwilling to tell the truth, and I am always unsure. I still need to see the imperial doctor to confirm your health. It’s okay, that’s what reassures people.”

Gu Yunji smiled and did not answer Li Jinze's words. Instead, he asked: "May I ask, Your Highness, what are you going to do first after entering the capital?"

Li Jinze was confused: "Of course I will place you, Mr. Gu, in a secluded garden outside the palace. After ensuring your safety, I will immediately return to the palace and ask the imperial doctor to treat you."

Gu Yunji secretly sighed and said, "Then when will Your Highness plan to apologize?"

Li Jinze was stunned: "...Please excuse me?"

Gu Yunji's voice was deep: "His Highness beheaded first and then reported. He took his subjects back to the capital privately without His Majesty's permission. This was already a violation of the imperial regulations. As the crown prince of Daxia, His Highness should have set an example for his subjects, but now he has committed the crime. If you have made a mistake and don’t take the initiative to apologize to His Majesty, are you thinking of making the same mistake again and again?”

Li Jinze stopped talking.

Gu Yunji said: "I would like to ask Your Highness to enter the city first and immediately enter the palace to plead guilty to His Majesty. I will wait here until Your Highness obtains His Majesty's forgiveness and allows me to enter the capital."

Li Jinze said in a deep voice: "Then what if my father refuses to forgive me and never allows you to enter the capital?"

Gu Yunji smiled slightly: "If I follow His Majesty into the city like this, I will ask the local officials to return to the capital privately. In serious cases, I will be punished for treason. But I will only wait outside the city and will not step into the capital without His Majesty's permission. At most, it can only be called AWOL, but the two things are of different natures."

"What's more, although His Highness's actions are illegal, there are reasons for them, so they are not completely incomprehensible. You are His Majesty's biological son, and there is nothing that cannot be said between father and son. As long as Your Highness follows what I taught you, His Majesty will definitely be relieved. of."

After that, Gu Yunji whispered a few words to Li Jinze.

After listening to Gu Yunji's words, Li Jinze took a deep look at him and said seriously: "Then please wait here, Mr. Gu, I will go into the palace to see my father now."

Gu Yunji smiled and nodded: "Your Highness, just go ahead."

-

"My son, Li Jinze, came to apologize to my father."

Half an hour later, Li Jinze knelt respectfully in the hall and said to Emperor Jingfeng who was standing above him.

Emperor Jingfeng looked at him coldly: "Please forgive me? What are you guilty of?"

Li Jinze looked calm: "My son violated the regulations of the imperial court and took the local official Gu Yunji out of the territory without authorization. This is a crime. After the death of Taifu Zhou, my son was unbearably sad. Regardless of the overall situation, I begged my father to let my son travel to the capital, sowing trouble. This is the second crime."

"While traveling in Hangzhou, I was ambushed by assassins and nearly lost my life. As a son, I failed to keep my body safe, causing my father to worry about his son and his ministers, and damaging the heart of a loving father. This is the third crime."

After saying that, Li Jinze kowtowed heavily: "As the eldest son of my father and the crown prince of Great Xia, I have committed these three crimes. If I were to lightly expose him, the people of both the government and the public would be unconvinced. I beg my father to punish me!"

Emperor Jingfeng didn't expect Li Jinze to say this. He was stunned for a moment. Half of the depression that had been brewing for several days was gone instantly, but he still had a sullen face: "... Let's not mention the last two for now, let's just talk about the first one. strip."

"Although in order to exterminate the Japanese pirates, I gave Gu Yunji and other officials the right to move freely, but that was within the scope of Zhejiang! Gu Yunji is still a local official after all, and cannot return to the capital without an order. How dare you take him back to the capital privately? Don’t you take me seriously?” Li Jinze immediately lowered his body and said, “I don’t dare!”

Emperor Jingfeng sneered: "Don't you dare? Why don't you dare? Kill it first and tell me later. On the surface, you are informing me, but in fact, when I received your letter, you were already on your way back to the capital!"

"When Taifu Zhou passed away, you cried in front of me with snot and tears. You said that the four high walls in the palace made your breath suffocated in your chest and you couldn't breathe, and your face looked sick. Thinking of the death of King Zhao that year, I was also sick. It's been a while, and I almost didn't get over it, so I felt soft-hearted and asked you to go out of the palace to relax."

"In order to allow you to travel with peace of mind, I hid it from the government and the public and only said that you were recuperating in the East Palace. What was the result? Is this how you repaid me?"

Li Jinze's body while kneeling on the ground was trembling slightly, as if he was terrified. Emperor Jingfeng became more and more angry and furious: "First you were ambushed by assassins, and then you brought a local official back to the capital without permission. Which of these things was not a major event that alarmed the government and the public? "

"In the eyes of the officials, their prince should have stayed in the East Palace, studying and recuperating, but now he has revealed such a disaster. How can you think that I helped you hide my feelings from the officials! How can you have the face to face the people? I will question you!"

At this point, Emperor Jingfeng lost control of his anger. He grabbed the cup filled with hot tea on the table and threw it to the ground. With a "pop" sound, the hot soup splashed and broken porcelain pieces scattered all over the floor.

Emperor Jingfeng was not only angry with Li Jinze for taking Gu Yunji back to the capital without authorization, but also angry that Li Jinze's visit in disguise was something that the two of them knew secretly. Li Jinze just left and returned quietly without disturbing anyone, but he happened to cause such a thing. As a result, Emperor Jingfeng was unable to answer the question of the prince's distress.

After Emperor Jingfeng had finished getting angry, Li Jinze slowly raised his head, revealing a face full of tears. He said in a tearful tone: "My son... I know that I was wrong. I made my father so embarrassed. I am guilty of this." He deserves to die..."

"My son's desire to travel outside the palace was not just a whim, but a wish that had been stored in my heart for a long time... Before his death, the teacher told my son that although my father was young when he first came to the throne, he had the courage and means to patrol the Yellow River. , traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, inspected the local people's conditions, and grasped the situation in various places, so that the officials did not dare to deceive."

"Since Erchen was the eldest son of his father, he had the ambition to imitate his father when he was young. When his father was as old as Erchen, he had already read a lot of books, inherited the Zhao palace, and entered the court to participate in political affairs. The second emperor's younger brother was younger than Erchen. , I can still go to Japan as an envoy to make achievements, but my sons and ministers are languishing in the palace and making no achievements."

Li Jinze's forehead was broken by the broken porcelain fragments that bounced up earlier, and there were strands of blood seeping out. He couldn't help crying, and his words were sincere. He looked so pitiful that one couldn't help but feel soft.

"... Therefore, my son went to Jiangnan not only to increase his knowledge, but also to walk the path my father took in the past, to understand his father's mentality and aspirations when he was young, so as to grow into a qualified prince and not disappoint his father. .”

"On the way, I carefully recorded what I saw and heard, and felt the local customs and customs of Jiangnan. This can not only leave precious memories for myself, so that I can often review them in the future, but also can be used as a reference for my father to better understand the court. Central situation.”

Li Jinze said as he handed the record book he brought with him to Ning Fuhai and presented it to the case of Emperor Jingfeng.

Emperor Jingfeng opened it and saw that the records were indeed very detailed. The geography of the south of the Yangtze River, folk customs, and the styles and reputations of officials in various places were all mentioned in it. It can be seen that the writer had worked hard.

Not to mention whether this record book is of any use to Emperor Jingfeng, it is already rare for Li Jinze to have such a heart. Looking at the fearful and regretful prince with tears streaming down his face, Emperor Jingfeng's heart softened seven or eight points and became gentle. He said in a loud voice: "Get up and talk first."

"Yes." Li Jinze held back his tears and stood up slowly. His body was a little unstable because he had been kneeling for too long.

Upon seeing this, Emperor Jingfeng said again: "Come, give the prince a seat."

Li Jinze was flattered and stammered: "My dear sir... My dear father, thank you."

At this time, a hurried palace attendant came in through the side door and whispered something in Ning Fuhai's ear.

Ning Fuhai looked at the faces of Emperor Jingfeng and Li Jinze, then stood up and said, "Your Majesty and His Royal Highness, the city gate guards have come to report that Mr. Gu Yunji's condition has suddenly worsened and he is in critical condition. Are you allowed to enter the city for treatment?"