Chapter 142: It really is the Emperor's southern tour!

Niu Yu?

Zhu Zhanji, the Emperor Xuande,'s expression shifted drastically. How could this fellow still be alive?

At this moment.

The sedan-chair bearers were also dumbfounded. Usually, upon encountering such an incident, they would step forward to hurl abuse and beat the person, and then drive them away. However, the scene before them seemed somewhat wrong!

Extremely wrong!

The Directorate of Imperial Horses and the Imperial Guard were clearing the way.

Moreover, the attire of these few brothers looked rather like imperial dragon robes!

"What is going on out there!" Niu Yu's dissatisfied voice came from inside the sedan chair, laced with extreme displeasure.

The bearer swallowed hard and whispered in a low voice, "Eunuch, would you like to step down and take a look for yourself?"

"What kind of status do I have to make me, Eunuch Niu, step down and look!"

"In Nanjing, I have spent so many years, spent so much money, and sustained so many people. Who dares to cross me!"

Niu Yu chided them twice, then reluctantly lifted the curtain to scan the front.

Dumbfounded!

Seeing stars.

His head was buzzing.

Niu Yu was utterly bewildered: "Did a giant bandit ascend the throne, or did the ancestors manifest their spirits?"

Why did this group of people look so much like the successive imperial ancestors? He held a concurrent post in Nanjing guarding the Founding Emperor's Mausoleum, but no one ever told him that the Founding Emperor could actually manifest his spirit!

He entered the palace in the eleventh year of Yongle. Not to mention the Emperor Renzong, he had even seen the sacred countenance of Emperor Taizong several times!

With a single glance,

Taizong, Renzong, Xuanzong, Emperor Jing...

What was the meaning of this!

They looked as though they were here to finish him off!

Zhu Zhanji said in a deep voice, "Niu Yu?"

"Present!"

Niu Yu gave a start and immediately fell to his knees in terror, kowtowing, "Sla... This slave kowtows to Your Majesty the Emperor Xuanzong, kowtows to the successive imperial ancestors!"

By now, how could he still not understand? There were no giant bandits or fierce outlaws; this was quite literally the emperors of the Ming Dynasty staging an open daylight robbery!

Zhu Yuanzhu narrowed his eyes and sharply demanded, "Who gave you the authority to dare ride in a sedan chair inside Our palace? Your airs are even grander than Ours."

Old Zhu naturally held no affection for eunuchs, let alone this damn eunuch who not only meddled in the selection of the Zhu family's empresses, but also dared to ride a palanquin within the imperial palace!

The inversion of superiors and subordinates—this was utterly lawless!

"I... This slave wouldn't dare! It's just, it's just that this sedan chair is damned, it truly deserves death..." Niu Yu felt his scalp tingling, gripped by ultimate terror as he stood up and began kicking and punching the sedan chair.

However, the palanquin was of exceptionally fine craftsmanship. As a eunuch with no strength to truss a chicken, aside from tearing off a few tattered strips of fabric, he caused no real damage.

Zhu Yuanzhong glanced at Zhu Di and frowned in reprimand, "If they are no longer of use, just get rid of them. Do I need to teach you 'the crafty hare is dead, the hound is cooked'?"

"Father's instruction is entirely correct."

The elder Zhu Di acknowledged the words, turned around, and without the slightest hesitation, smacked the back of Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji's head, berating him:

"Is this how Grandfather taught you? You don't understand the principle of a tail becoming too big to wag, do you? Look at what Our household has been turned into. Anyone unaware would think this was the home of this dog of a eunuch!"

Hearing the phrase 'Our household', Zhu Yuanzhang's expression finally softened considerably. A family living in mutual affection—the old man simply loved hearing words like these.

Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji clutched his head, smiling ingratiatingly as he repeatedly voiced assent. Then, he turned around with a slightly warm, stern expression, as if about to say something—

Please do not look at me!

I had no say in the matter back then.

Zhu Qiyu immediately took a step back, clutching Zhu Xiongying to his chest while continuously shaking his head.

"This slave obeys the decree. What the imperial ancestors say is right; this broken bow of mine indeed ought to be hidden away!" Niu Yu, however, wore a look of pleasant surprise. With a fawning and pitiful expression, he looked up at the various Ming emperors and pleaded:

"Your Majesty the Founding Emperor, this slave will go and guard the mausoleum for you. Since you are left alone in Nanjing, you surely cannot do without someone to keep you company in conversation!"

The complexions of Zhu Yuanzhong, the elder Zhu Di, and Zhu Laosi instantly darkened.

Fanning the flames right to their faces!

You cannot be allowed to live!

Without a moment's hesitation, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and commanded, "Execute him on the spot!"

Absolute lack of complete loyalty is equivalent to absolute disloyalty.

For Old Zhu, domestic officials meddling in politics was already a matter of extreme aversion, let alone this old eunuch daring to manipulate the selection of the Zhu family's empress!

This was simply intolerable!

It was a gross offense against heaven!

Bang!

The elder Zhu Di retrieved a long spear without the slightest hesitation and struck him down instantly. At that moment, he wished he could use the barrel of his spear to thoroughly ventilate this dead eunuch!

Indeed!

And you claimed you weren't a giant bandit!

This was Niu Yu's final thought before his head was blown apart.

Zhu Yuanzhang let out a cold snort. The imperial palace was empty, and having encountered such an event, he no longer had the mood for a stroll. With his hands behind his back, he instructed, "Let's go. Follow Us to see this assembly of upright officials in Nanjing."

"Understood!"

Wang Min hastily turned around, a deeply intrigued feeling stirring in his heart. Those high-ranking veteran civil officials of Nanjing, whose students and former subordinates were everywhere, were likely about to be scared out of their wits.

...

The Wenyuan Pavilion.

Officials of all ranks from the Censorate, the Office of Transmission, the Five Chief Military Commissions, the Hanlin Academy, the Imperial Academy, and other government offices were all gathered here waiting!

The news they had received was that the Emperor was on an imperial tour of the southern regions.

Meanwhile, the Ministers of the Six Ministries of Nanjing—Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Punishments, and Works—were hiding in their administrative chambers, trembling with anxiety.

Every so often, someone would rush in to report:

"The killing star of Southern Zhili is walking toward the imperial palace!"

"The fierce bandits of Jiangnan have already entered the imperial palace!"

"The emperors of the Great Ming have crossed the Meridian Gate!"

"The Founding Emperor—who opened heaven and established the way, initiated the epoch and founded the grand standard, the Greatly Sage and Supremely Divine, Benevolent in Culture and Righteous in Martial Prowess, of Brilliant Virtue and Successful Achievement—is leading the successive imperial ancestors and is about to arrive before their utterly loyal ministers."

Outside, a sudden commotion broke out.

Immediately afterward, the incoherent voices of officials from the Censorate and other departments, mixed with a trace of terror, drifted over:

"Your ministers kowtow to Your Majesty the Founding Emperor... Kow... Kowtow to Your Majesty the Taizong Emperor..."

"Kowtow to... kowtow to Your Majesty Emperor Jing."

The officials of the Censorate and all other ranks were utterly dumbfounded, casting frantic, question-marked gazes toward the eunuch Wang Min.

Wang Min innocent puckered his lips: It was true that the Emperor was on a southern tour, wasn't it? You all should have listened carefully; I never specified which dynasty's emperor it was.

Inside the official chambers.

Li Mu, the Nanjing Minister of Revenue, was hopping mad with anxiety:

"Quick, quick, quick! Have the memorials of these past few years all prepared, and arrange that display piece nicely so the imperial ancestors won't find fault. That Founding Emperor of ours has slaughtered countless officials!"

"We're doing it, we're doing it!"

"Lord Li, please don't rush! You're making this old man's heart beat wildly!"

Soon.

The eunuch Wang Min cleared the way ahead, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang, who walked with a blank expression. Behind him were the various emperors and crown princes of the Ming Dynasty, every single one of them exuding an extraordinary aura and overwhelming majesty.

At a single glance, the officials fell into panic and commotion.

The civil officials stationed in Nanjing basically spent their days drinking a bit of small wine and tasting tea. Aside from the Ministry of Revenue needing to collect taxes, the other departments had virtually no affairs that required handling.

Although the other civil officials held ranks equivalent to their colleagues in Shuntian Prefecture, their actual authority was restricted to the region of Southern Zhili. Even the Nanjing Ministry of Works could only scrape together some illicit gains by repairing the Founding Emperor's Mausoleum.

It was practically a retirement home for Ming civil officials, starting with officials who had served three reigns and capping off with veterans of seven reigns. A few with exceptionally old seniority had even met the Emperor face-to-face during the Yongle reign; how could they not be terrified at this moment?

When the news of the imperial ancestors manifesting in the capital first arrived, although it had aroused doubts among the officials in Nanjing, they had simply regarded it as a political maneuver by the reigning emperor.

After all, the current emperor had plenty of tricks up his sleeve—appointing ad hoc officials, issuing imperial edicts through the Guanglu Temple, and recently even establishing the Western Depot, which tormented the hundred officials to no end!

Who could have imagined that the imperial ancestors had actually come back to life!

A sweeping glance revealed not only a crowd of familiar Zhu family emperors, but even an acquaintance!

Even the Founding Emperor himself matched the portraits they had seen: square face, overflowing majesty, undeniably authentic at a glance!