Want to move up

Author: Ran Xi Nian

Feeling his gaze, Emperor Hongwen snorted angrily.

"I am also the king of Dongzhou after all. Can't I even see some of the things happening in the capital?"

As the king of Dongzhou, the capital is completely his courtyard. How could he not know what is happening here?

Prince Li's Mansion has been popping up frequently recently, how could he not notice it?

Now that you have noticed it, you will definitely find someone to pay attention to it.

"Our old Uncle Wang has been lying low and dormant for most of his life. Unexpectedly, he actually wants to move up."

"Um?"

King Jin narrowed his eyes and immediately caught the key words in Emperor Hongwen's words.

Move up?

Prince Li is already a prince of the highest rank, and the next step up is the emperor.

Prince Li actually had this idea? I have to say that Prince Jin was really surprised.

If he remembered correctly, Prince Lao Li was already in his late seventies, and he still wanted to move up at such a long age. It was really true.

But then I thought about it, maybe he has been unwilling to do so all these years.

He remembered hearing something about the late emperor when he was young.

There were many princes of the late emperor's generation. After all, the late emperor's father, the grandfather of King Jin, was the founding king of Dongzhou.

I was originally a member of the clan of the previous dynasty, and my life was relatively comfortable when I was young. After going through turmoil, I made a lot of beauties. At the same time, there were also many local gentry who gave me women for the sake of their relationship.

Therefore, Taizu had sixteen sons in total, the late emperor was the seventh, and Prince Li was the twelfth.

Even though the two brothers are quite far apart in ranking, they are only less than two years apart in age.

The mothers of both of them were also the daughters of some wealthy gentry at that time. Among the many women of Taizu, their status was not high. After all, Taizu had many women around him and many of them had status.

Either she was the daughter of some high officials from the previous dynasty, or she was the daughter of a noble family.

After all, if Dongzhou wants to found a country, it cannot just rely on fighting. It also needs support from all aspects. Among them, the aristocratic family's support for Taizu is very large, and it all relies on these in-law relationships.

However, with the success of Taizu's founding of the country, these aristocratic families became somewhat unclear. By the time of the late emperor's generation, several factions were fighting.

At one point, the situation in Dongzhou collapsed. Taizu was so angry that he directly wielded his butcher's knife and punished many restless wealthy families.

The aristocratic families here are not the ones today. Although these aristocratic families helped Taizu at that time, the relationship was not very deep, and after the founding of Dongzhou, these aristocratic families did not make too much noise.

In addition, when Taizu had a knife at that time, all of these guys were very honest, and Taizu also needed these people to help stabilize the situation among the people of Dongzhou, so he allowed these people to survive.

It is precisely because of this willingness that the late emperor's mother-in-law and Prince Li's mother-in-law were just daughters of wealthy gentry, so they were naturally incomparable with women from these wealthy families.

Therefore, the two women usually have a relatively close relationship. Firstly, they cannot compete with other women, and secondly, they each have a prince who can maintain their status, and they just want to live a stable life, so there is no conflict.

The two mothers and concubines were close, so naturally the relationship between the late emperor and Prince Li was also close.

As the fight for the throne became more and more intense, Taizu also took action, and many of his brothers who were jumping around happily were eliminated.

Among the remaining ones, apart from some who only know how to eat, drink and have fun, there are only a few princes whose mother clan is not strong.

After the chaotic situation, Taizu also understood that if the prince's maternal clan was strong, it would not be a good thing for Dongzhou's future, so when choosing a successor later, the prince's maternal clan would be the first thing to consider.

This not only brought the late emperor and Prince Li into his sight.

Then comes training and training.

Both the late emperor and Prince Li were very good candidates, but in the end the position fell to the late emperor.

Since then, Prince Li, who was originally able to compete with the late emperor, changed and became low-key and no longer stood out.

So many years have passed in a flash, and now that he is nearly 70 years old and still has thoughts, it is enough to see that he is not reconciled to the fact that he missed the throne.

There was just one thing he couldn't figure out. He had been dormant for so many years. In the past years, Dongzhou had experienced many problems. Why was there no movement at that time? Now Emperor Hongwen has purged the court.

The court and the people of Dongzhou were very stable, but he was disturbed.

As if he saw his doubts, Emperor Hongwen's face became a little ugly.

"My people received news earlier that people from Prince Li's Mansion had contact with people from Zhen Guogong Mansion."

As soon as these words came out, King Jin's eyes suddenly shrank.

"You're saying that Prince Li may already know about it?"

"It's not certain yet, but judging from the current situation, there is a high probability that we already know it."

Prince Jin's expression instantly became serious. This was a big deal. If Prince Li broke out, the entire Dongzhou would probably be shaken by this.

At the same time, the situation that has finally been stabilized now may collapse in an instant.

There's going to be big trouble.

This sentence came to King Jin's mind.

However, Emperor Hongwen on the opposite side was relatively calm when he arrived.

"But you don't have to worry too much."

"Don't worry about it, if."

Before King Jin finished speaking, he was interrupted by Emperor Hongwen with a smile.

"So many years have passed, so what if he knew about it? Who would believe it without evidence?"

"And if you think about it, if he had evidence, how could he be so cautious?"

After hearing this, King Jin's originally chaotic heart calmed down slightly, and he nodded and said, "That's true, but this matter is still very troublesome."

"Since you have already guessed Prince Li's situation, why do you want to hand over the position of commander of the army in the North to Prince Li's son?"

Hearing this, Emperor Hongwen smiled and said, "If he wants to fight, then give it. As for what he will do in the future, I can't predict it, but if he is honest, I don't mind pretending not to know. If he is dishonest, I won't mind pretending not to know."

He didn't say the next words, but King Jin understood it clearly.

Yes, if Prince Li is honest and pretends not to know anything, his family can still be saved. If he is dishonest, then with the support of the military power in the North, he will definitely take action.

Once he made a move, without any evidence, he would be committing rebellion and treason, and then Emperor Hongwen would be able to get rid of Prince Li and his family openly.

This is better than letting Prince Li and his family secretly plot in the capital to look for evidence.

After all, he is a prince and the uncle of Emperor Hongwen. Although he has kept a low profile for so many years, his status in the clan is not low. It is impossible to deal with it on the spur of the moment, let alone kill on the spur of the moment.

"It's risky for you to do this."

"The greater the risk, the greater the reward."

Emperor Hongwen was a person who liked to gamble. Didn't he gamble when he dealt with Duke Zhen Guo?
Chapter completed!