Only those who have understood the system of burying people alive with their dead will know how cruel it is.

Seeing the burial methods of the Xiaoling Guards, Zhu Ying's eyes gradually became moist.

The brief introduction in the file gave Zhu Ying a sad scene.

Twelve hundred Xiaoling guards dug a deep pit themselves.

Then they dressed neatly, lined up quietly, and stood in rows in the deep pit.

The people above were comrades of the Xiaoling Guard, gritting their teeth and holding back tears.

Throwing soil into the deep pit, scattering the brothers who once fought side by side.

Among the Xiaoling guards who were buried alive below, some were afraid, some were terrified, and some were crying.

However, no matter how panicked they were, they still stood where they were without moving at all.

Let the mud fall from the sky, from the soles of the feet to the waist, until it completely covers the head.

That's how it was, 1,200 warriors were buried alive.

"What do these things have to do with them? The celestial phenomena are shifting, and the earth dragons are rolling. How can they stop it?"

Zhu Ying's eyes gradually turned red and he muttered to himself.

All these people died because of him.

If it were someone else, or if it was a certain war where a certain number of people died, Zhu Ying would not feel much. After all, they had experienced fighting, and it just sounded like a number.

However, being buried alive like this, by the Xiaoling Guards, made Zhu Ying feel very uncomfortable.

There were a total of 1,200 Xiaoling guards, and each one of them was an old and brave soldier who had made indelible contributions to the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

The final outcome was that she died because of him.

Their wives, children and parents may be treated preferentially, but dying like this is completely meaningless.

The celestial phenomena shifted and the earth dragons rolled.

Zhu Ying knew that this was probably caused by his arrival.

It doesn't even have anything to do with Zhu Xiongying.

Therefore, these 1,200 people died unjustly because of themselves.

"Why should we revive the ancient practice of burying people alive with their dead? It must be banned completely!"

Zhu Ying said through gritted teeth.

Historically, the practice of burying palace ladies alive with their loved ones, which had begun to gradually disappear, was finally restored under the rule of Zhu Yuanzhang.

This most inhumane funeral system originated from the slave society. The reason why it was restored by Zhu Yuanzhang was actually due to the influence of the Mongols.

Starting from the Song Dynasty, frontier ethnic groups such as the Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolia successively ruled the Central Plains. They all had the tradition of human sacrifice, which led to the resurgence of human sacrifice in the Central Plains.

The Mongols and Yuan Dynasty not only practiced burying concubines with the emperor, but also encouraged ordinary people to be buried with the emperor.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang grew up under the rule of the Mongols and was also affected by their customs.

This led to the revival of the system of burying people alive with their dead.

Zhu Ying calmed down and continued to look through the files.

If you look further down, there is nothing else but some records related to sacrifices.

"We must find a way to convince the old man to abolish the tradition of burying people alive with their dead."

Zhu Ying put down the file and began to think about where to start.

This change in thinking is the most difficult.

…

The Ming Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up from the dragon throne, turned around to look at the edict, rubbed his swollen head, and then left from the back of the Fengtian Hall.

With the eunuchs shouting "dismiss" and the officials cheering "Long live the emperor", the morning court ended.

"Jiang Li, send the file our eldest grandson wants to him."

After the morning court session, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Jiang Lin. It was obvious that the matter of his eldest grandson made him more concerned.

"Your Majesty, it has been delivered for half an hour." Jiang Li bowed and said.

"Liu He, prepare the car. We promised our eldest grandson today that we would go to the Gunpowder Department with him." Zhu Yuanzhang ordered directly.

When submitting a memorial, the matter can only be postponed.

"I obey your order."

After changing into casual clothes, Zhu Yuanzhang got on the carriage and went straight to Zhu Ying's yard.

…

"Fourth brother, you are really filial. You found our eldest nephew for our father."

Outside the Fengtian Hall, many civil and military officials left one after another.

Prince of Jin Zhu Gang walked up to Prince of Yan Zhu Di and said with a sarcastic look on his face.

As soon as the rumor about King Yu's tomb came out, King Jin Zhu Gang thought of Zhu Ying, the owner of the teahouse on the Qinhuai River.

As the rumors became more and more unbridled, especially when they were spreading in the palace, even the eunuchs and palace maids had no taboos about it.

Prince of Jin Zhu Gang knew that this was probably the work of his father.

After a little thought, I realized that this was closely related to Zhu Ying.

My father often went out of the palace. He would pay attention to the teahouse, check the courtyard where Zhu Ying lived, and the figures of the Jinyiwei. He basically figured out what was going on.

What surprised Prince of Jin Zhu Gang the most was that Zhu Ying was actually brought to the capital by his fourth brother, Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

He laughed immediately.

Prince Yan Zhu Di's thoughts are obvious.

The two brothers already had conflicts, so after the morning court today, Zhu Gang couldn't help but step forward and mock them.

Zhu Di was calm when he heard this. Instead, he asked, "What do you mean, Third Brother? Isn't it a good thing that our eldest nephew is back?"

"Could it be that Third Brother has something against my nephew? When I first met my nephew, I couldn't believe it, so I brought him to the capital to let Father see what was going on."

"Now it seems that he is really our eldest nephew."

Hearing what his fourth brother Zhu Di said, Zhu Gang sneered: "What can I say? My eldest nephew is back. I am very happy that you are back. I think my father is also very happy."

"My nephew has been the emperor's favorite since he was young. In my opinion, you should stop imagining certain things. This is fate."

After Zhu Gang finished speaking, he turned around and left without waiting for Zhu Di's answer.

As for his younger brother, he certainly understood his desire for the throne.

If he had been born earlier, ahead of him and his second brother Zhu Chong, his father might have passed the throne to him.

After all, among many brothers, the fourth brother Zhu Di looked the most like his father, and even had similar personalities.

However, in Zhu Gang's view, this was Zhu Di imitating his father, which was like Dong Shi trying to imitate Xi Shi or learning to walk in Handan, which was extremely ridiculous.

He and his second brother are still here.

Although my second brother Zhu Chong was imprisoned and now has no qualifications to attend court.

He himself also gained a reputation for cruelty because of certain things.

In Zhu Gang's opinion, this reputation for brutality might have been secretly instigated by Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

Although there is no evidence, when you are unhappy with someone, you feel like he is the one who did everything.

If my father wanted to make my fourth brother Zhu Di the emperor, there was only one way.

That would be possible only if he and his second brother were deposed from their titles of king.

Therefore, in Zhu Gang's view, his fourth brother Zhu Di's desire for the throne was just an attempt to put him in a desperate situation, which made them a natural opposite.

Zhu Di stood there, watching his third brother Zhu Gang leave, and his eyes began to become gloomy.

There was a gleam of light in his sharp eyes, ready to choose his prey.

Originally, Prince of Yan Zhu Di had a hot temper. After being slapped in the face by his third brother Zhu Gang, he could hardly suppress his anger.

But he had no choice but to endure it.

If I were to explode because of these few words and reach my father's ears, the outcome would probably be disastrous.

Zhu Di knew in his heart that even if his father guessed his thoughts, it would not matter.

To a certain extent, I sent my eldest nephew here, provided him with good food and drink, and gave him back the teahouse and the courtyard.

Just these, as long as you don't do anything, no one can blame you.

The emperor had no reason to punish himself, even when Zhu Ying's identity was made public and he entered the palace.

I will also receive rewards from my father.

So what if Zhu Ying becomes the crown prince?

The Ming Dynasty ruled the country with filial piety, and I found him, so he should thank me.

This is an open conspiracy, Zhu Di’s open conspiracy.

Anyone with a little bit of intelligence can see what Zhu Di is thinking.

But the Ming Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, so as long as no one took action, no one could use this to attack them.

My father can't do it, and Zhu Ying can't do it either.

Even if you stir up trouble and spread rumors, without sufficient evidence, you can only watch.

With this wave of operations, Zhu Di has obviously stood above the atmosphere and is sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai.

…

In the yard, Zhu Ying was informed that the old man was already waiting in a carriage outside the door.

So he hurried over.

"Grandpa, have you had breakfast?"

Zhu Ying asked the old man after getting in the car with the lunch box.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt warm in his heart when he saw this scene.

He himself was a sensitive person, and these details about his eldest grandson made him feel the filial piety and he was extremely pleased.

"We came so early, there's no time for breakfast. Bring it here quickly, we're just hungry."

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he took Zhu Ying's food box, opened it, took out a meat-filled bun, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Of course he had already had breakfast. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang had already had breakfast when he was in the Jinshen Hall before the morning court session.

Every time he went to Zhuying Teahouse before, he also had breakfast.

But how can the breakfast prepared by the eldest grandson be compared with the breakfast prepared by the imperial chef in the palace? Not to mention the taste, the feeling is completely different.

"How about it? Have you finished reading the memorials that were sent to you?" Zhu Yuanzhang finished his breakfast in one breath, then asked his eldest grandson with a smile.

Hearing this, Zhu Ying said helplessly, "Grandpa, do all the memorials you read have such long nonsense, or were they specially selected for me?"

"Hahaha."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang burst into laughter.

"These ministers, one by one, use a lot of flowery words and flirt with words. They use tens of thousands of words to express something that can be explained in a few hundred words."

"How are you, grandson? Are you feeling a little dizzy? You haven't read half of the eighty-two memorials."

Hearing the old man's teasing, Zhu Ying smiled and said, "I've read it all."

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned when he heard this and said, "Impossible, there are so many memorials, how can you read them all at once?"

Zhu Yuanzhang taught many of his princes and grandchildren how to read memorials.

There has never been a prince or grandson of the emperor who could finish reading twenty books in just one or two hours.

Not to mention eighty-two books.

This is the amount Zhu Yuanzhang gave to his eldest grandson for three days.

"Grandpa, the contents of these memorials are just like an old lady's foot binding, long and boring."

"But my grandson discovered that these memorials have one thing in common: they all like to put the key to the matter at the end of the memorial."

"So my grandson started reading from the end of the memorial, and when he saw the nonsense, he didn't need to read any more."

After hearing Zhu Ying's explanation, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed with surprise.

He didn't expect that his eldest grandson would be able to discover the little tricks to review memorials so quickly.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system, he had to deal with nearly two hundred memorials every day, including morning court, noon court and evening court.

There are also hundreds of state affairs to deal with.

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang did not know this skill.

He still remembered that it was in the eighth year of Hongwu when the Minister of Revenue Ru Taisu made a memorial.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew him very well and knew that this Shangshu loved to make long speeches, but the memorial had already been submitted and it was not easy to return it.

Zhu Yuanzhang was too lazy to read his memorial, so he asked the Secretary Wang Min to read it to him. However, after reading 16,500 words, he still couldn't understand what it meant.

The only things that are told are the last five hundred words.

Zhu Yuanzhang was immediately furious and scolded: "The empty words are inaccurate and the clever writing is inaccurate."

Then he was directly awarded twenty court blows.

This was the first time that a minister was punished for having too many words in his memorial.

However, from then on, the contents of the memorials submitted by many ministers became relatively concise.

It was from that time that Zhu Yuanzhang understood the little trick of reading memorials from the back first.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his eldest grandson.

It took him eight years to comprehend this method, but his eldest grandson only took one hour?

It seems that the eldest grandson is indeed a good material to be emperor.

More memorials should be sent over in the future. Eighty-two volumes are not enough for my eldest grandson to read.

Let our eldest grandson share more of the burden, and we will have more free time in the future.

Thinking of this, a hint of cunning flashed in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

Then he thought for a while and asked again: "It's not enough to just look at it. You have read the contents of the memorial. This method was proposed by you. Do you have any thoughts?"

Zhu Ying pondered for a moment, and said modestly: "My grandson is a bit fanciful. This method seems to be very effective at present, but there are too many hidden dangers, which I did not think of at the beginning."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't expect that his grandson actually had his own opinions, so he asked, "Tell us what the hidden dangers are."

Zhu Ying nodded and began to explain the complexity of work-for-relief.

The project cost is calculated according to local conditions, and there are areas where officials and gentry may intervene, including the protection of refugees and the standards for determining food.

As Zhu Ying continued to talk, Zhu Yuanzhang began to look thoughtful.

The problems mentioned by Da Sun were not seen by the six ministers or even the other ministers.

During the discussion, there might be speculation about corruption, but no one was as thorough as the eldest grandson.

After Zhu Ying finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang came to his senses and looked at Zhu Ying again.

The shock was hard to conceal in his eyes.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's mind, his eldest grandson has always been an image of a shrewd businessman.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang disliked businessmen, especially grain merchants.

Behaviors such as speculation and hoarding caused his parents to starve to death, which is an eternal pain in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

But he didn't expect that his eldest grandson had such an amazing talent in domestic affairs.

No, this can no longer be explained by just the word talent.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly remembered that his eldest grandson had once told him that he had the idea of ​​establishing a country in Annan.

Only at this moment did he realize how much thought and thought his eldest grandson had secretly put into this arrangement.