The ministers wanted to persuade them again, but Meng Zezhi was decisive and did not allow others to talk about it: "It's settled like this, retreat from the dynasty."

All the ministers looked at each other in dismay, is this still the gentle and humble Prince Ning they remembered?

Or is it that he originally had this temperament, and that the previous approachable and corporal Li Xian were all pretending?

This is too deep to hide!

What's more, the emperor is too strong, which is not a good thing for his subjects.

The ministers could not help but fall into deep anxiety.

After going down to court, Meng Zezhi said to Tao An, "You can handle the matter of King Tang (the eighth prince) yourself, and for the sake of him calling me fifth brother, give him a decent way to die."

"Yes." Tao An hurriedly bowed to answer, and then seemed to remember something: "Long live, what should the family of King Tang deal with, and Concubine Liu in the palace?"

Meng Zezhi paused, even though the Eighth Prince was only less than a year younger than him, he was married early, and with the yard full of concubines and concubines, he had five sons under his knees alone. ...

Liu Taifei is the mother-in-law of the Eighth Prince.

Meng Zezhi thought for a while, and said, "Send Concubine Liu to Baohua Palace to let her lose her hair and practice. As for Concubine Tang and the descendants of Prince Tang... they will be sent to guard the imperial mausoleum. The rest will be sold as slave."

Don't blame him for being ruthless, but blame them for being unfortunate enough to betray the Eighth Prince.

"Yes." Tao An led the way.

In the prison of the Zongren Mansion.

The Eighth Prince was sitting paralyzed in the corner, his body was tightly tied, and his mouth was stuffed with a cloth towel.

From the hatred and unwillingness at the beginning to the present depression, more than a month is enough to wipe out his fighting spirit.

Just then, there was a commotion outside the prison.

"Yo, isn't this Eunuch Tao, you are..."

"By the will of Long Live..."

As he spoke, the footsteps were getting closer.

The eighth prince raised his head and saw the person who came, his heart like stagnant water instantly stirred up thousands of waves, his pupils tightened, and the veins on his forehead sprouted.

Tao An——

The jailer quickly took out the key and opened the cell door.

Tao An looked down at the eighth prince condescendingly, sneered, turned back to the officials and jailers and said, "Okay, you all go down first."

"Yes."

The whole group of people retreated respectfully, leaving only the two little eunuchs brought by Tao An to guard the gate.

Only then did Tao An lift his robe, bent down and entered the cell. After standing still, he said, "His Royal Highness Tang, long time no see."

There was an uncontrollable anger in the eyes of the eighth prince, and with his disheveled hair, he looked like an enraged lion.

Tao Anpi didn't smile, crouched down, reached out and pulled out the cloth from the Eighth Prince's mouth.

"Pooh."

A mouthful of saliva spit on Tao An's face, and the eighth prince gasped and scolded happily: "The castrated thief is indeed an unfamiliar white-eyed wolf."

"Heh." Tao An was not annoyed, he took out a handkerchief from his sleeve, slowly wiped the spit from his face, and then said, "I don't dare to do it, in terms of the degree of white-eyed wolf, how can Zajia compare to King Tang As for you, Your Highness, you are someone who can even kill your own father, and I am just a planner."

"Tao An, you are cruel enough." The eighth prince gritted his teeth.

Tao An chuckled lightly and said, "If I were you and everything had come to this point, I should shrink my neck and be a man. Do you think you are still that high-level His Royal Highness?"

The eighth prince's pupils tightened: "Why, Gu Shian finally figured out what to do with me?"

He had no fear, no matter how bad it was, it would not be worse than it is now.

"You guessed right."

After laughing, Tao An's eyes darkened and he waved his hand: "At the will of Long Live, Gu Shihuai, the transgressor, is ordered to commit suicide."

He only saw a little eunuch standing behind him with a set of wine utensils.

"What did you say?" The eighth prince said in disbelief: "How dare he, I'm his own younger brother, isn't he afraid that the history books will poke his spine in the future? There are also civil and military officials and others. How could the uncle agree?"

Tao An held up a glass of poison wine: "Why is it impossible, do you think that after you know that the late emperor was poisoned by me, there is still a way to survive?"

Looking at the wine glass in Tao An's hand, the eighth prince's face flashed a trace of panic, and his tone was a little messy: "Tao An, I ask myself that I have no grievances with you, why did you hurt me like this?"

"No grievance?" Tao An grabbed his chin and said coldly, "His Royal Highness Tang is really a noble person who forgets things. Do you still remember that fifteen years ago, you were riding as a pony. , but because of the fever, the hands and feet are not easy, and you accidentally fell to the ground, but in the end, the old eunuch who was ordered to be beaten to death by you, who was obviously safe and sound?"

The eighth prince reluctantly suppressed the panic in his heart, and when he thought about it carefully, he found nothing, how could he still remember these trivial things.

"Heh." Tao An sneered, word by word: "That old eunuch is my adoptive father."

This is also the main reason why when the Xiao family came to the door, he did not hesitate to choose to betray Emperor Guangde.

After speaking, he took the wine glass and poured wine into the mouth of the Eighth Prince.

"No, pfft..." The Eighth Prince resisted desperately, and he couldn't take care of anything else.

Seeing that all the wine in the cup was spilled, Tao An kept doing it, took the jug from the tray held by the little eunuch and poured it into the mouth of the eighth prince.

"And your big family, don't even want to escape. It's a pity that your mother-in-law is a sister-in-law. After all, she was also a famous beauty. Don't worry, I will find someone to take good care of her."

"You..." The Eighth Prince opened his mouth inadvertently, with a splitting anger, and was then poured a sip of wine: "No, uuuu..."

Tao An is reluctant: "And your princess and child, where is the imperial mausoleum, isn't it normal for one or two people to die every year? Don't worry, before the miscellaneous family die, they will be sent to the underworld. meet you."

After he finished speaking, he let go of his hand, panted lightly, looked at the ground curled up in a ball, snot and tears smeared his face, desperately wanted the eighth prince, who was spitting out the poison in his stomach, and took the gift from the little eunuch beside him. Handkerchief, wipe off the alcohol spilled on your hands.

"Tao An, you, you will definitely die..."

After a while, the poisonous wine attacked, the eighth prince grabbed the ground with his head, and his body twitched.

"You really said this wrong." Tao An threw the handkerchief on the face of the Eighth Prince, put it in his ear, and whispered, "Long live today is my nephew, as long as I abide by my duty, A happy ending is not a problem.”

Hearing this, the eighth prince's pupils instantly widened.

Tao An looked happy: "You guessed right, Long Live Today is indeed not your family's seed."

"puff"

The handkerchief covering his face was soaked with blood, and his neck was stabbed, and he also lost his breath.

It was dead.

Tao An let out a light snort and looked relaxed. He stood up, patted the dust that didn't exist on his robe, and said, "Go back."

That night, Meng Zezhi received a copy of Qian Boyu (the son of Zheng Guogong, Meng Zezhi's official uncle).

"Okay, okay." Meng Zezhi couldn't help but be overjoyed.

"Long live, what is the happy event that makes you so happy?" Tao An, who was waiting by the side, asked with a smile.

Meng Zezhi didn't mind sharing his joy with him, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief: "Good news, all the Japanese pirates entrenched in the southeastern provinces have been wiped out, a total of more than 6,000 enemies were wiped out, and our army only suffered more than 200 casualties. People, the Japanese plague on the southeast coast has been eliminated."

"Long live congratulations, long live congratulations." Tao An immediately bowed to congratulate.

Meng Zezhi smiled brightly, and he was able to win the battle, which showed that the purpose of training troops had been achieved, and then he could go to sea trade with confidence.

"Li Lan, it's your intention."

"Yes." Li Lan, a member of Zhongshushe, replied immediately.

Meng Zezhi asked him to write four imperial decrees in total.

First, the Mingshenji battalion dispatched 3,000 officers and soldiers to escort 2,000 muskets and 15,000 base ammunition to the south to support Qian Boyu.

The second is to order Qian Boyu as the main envoy and Liu Wenshan as the deputy envoy, lead 10,000 soldiers, lead 100 warships, and 70 treasure ships (there were only 40 in the original, and the remaining 30 are the most recent ones. made by the moon) on a diplomatic mission to the West, allowing him to prepare a number of entourages such as luxuries, compradors, translators, etc.

The third is to order the Huangshang Fangjia to deliver the silk porcelain, match soap and other goods prepared earlier to the envoy fleet.

Fourth, the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Industry was ordered to go to the southeastern coastal provinces to build forts and strengthen coastal defense.

After doing this, Meng Zezhi was relieved.

He has done everything that needs to be done, and then waits for the real money to fall into his pocket.

Because of this incident, Meng Zezhi was in a very good mood for the next few days, until the fifth day of the eighth lunar month—

"Bang bang bang..."

The dull sound of drums woke Meng Zezhi, who was half awake: "What's going on?"

Wang Guangzhi (Tao An's godson) hurried in: "Long live the report, someone beat the Dengwen drum?"

Drumming?

Meng Zezhi's drowsiness was swept away, and he sat up immediately.

The ancients have always said that they beat drums to claim injustice, which is different from the big drums at the gates of general prefectures and counties. The Dengwen Drum is a big drum hanging outside the Meridian Gate, the emperor's drum.

According to the "Da Yang Law", drumming is not allowed unless the enemy soldiers are besieging the city, the prince dies, and the people have grievances. Fan Deng heard the drum, no matter what the emperor was doing, he must go to court.

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Great comments from the previous chapter:

Sanqi: I still remember that Gong Zeng was just an old, virgin, and pedantic, and the years are not forgiving!