There was some doubt and even a little suspicion in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.
He seemed to be a little undecided, giving Lan Yu a feeling of uncertainty about the true identity of his eldest grandson.
Every emperor is a top actor, even if he is not, he will become one after being in the position for a long time.
What's more, for a person like Zhu Yuanzhang, it is no exaggeration to say that he was a natural actor. This is the basic quality of a founding emperor.
From a poor man to the founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang's acting skills are unquestionable.
In order to gain the support and loyalty of many generals, Zhu Yuanzhang had encountered all kinds of situations.
However, facing His Majesty's temptation, Lan Yu became a little anxious.
"Your Majesty, I have heard about the Xiaoling Mausoleum. Indeed, I also watched His Royal Highness Changsun being buried."
"But in this world, anything can happen. I have heard of the reincarnation of the Living Buddha in the Western Regions."
"It may seem absurd that His Royal Highness Changsun has been resurrected, but I have also seen cases of faked deaths."
"Your Highness must have been blessed by heaven to have this glimmer of hope. When I first saw Your Highness, my heart was moved, just as if I had seen Your Highness the Crown Prince."
"I even saw the shadow of the Queen."
Lan Yu thought for a while and spoke quickly.
He must protect Zhu Ying's identity. In Lan Yu's opinion, the current Zhu Ying is the most suitable one for him.
Yesterday he and his sister Lan talked about Zhu Ying's identity.
Sister Lan recognized him very clearly. This was definitely the real Prince Chang Sun.
What Lan Yu said just now about his resemblance to Empress Ma was something he learned from his sister Lan.
Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, when he and his brother-in-law Chang Yuchun were fighting outside, his sister Lan, as well as the wives of some other famous generals and important officials, followed Empress Ma.
As Zhu Xiongying's grandmother, when Zhu Xiongying was a child, Lan often told Empress Ma that her grandson was very similar to her.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his expression remained calm, but a hint of longing still emerged in his eyes.
That's about the older sister.
No matter how long, no matter when, Zhu Yuanzhang would do this whenever he thought of his eldest sister.
He originally wanted to continue testing Lan Yu's feelings, but his desire faded when he mentioned his elder sister.
"I know this too. Otherwise, why would I hand over the Gunpowder Department to Da Sun? The first time I saw Da Sun, I knew I would not make a mistake."
"You are the uncle of our eldest grandson. Now he has lost his memory and can't remember anything. You have to help him as much as possible and don't let us down."
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed slightly, and then gave instructions to Lan Yu.
"I obey your order."
Hearing this, Lan Yu's eyes flashed with joy, which showed that His Majesty truly recognized Zhu Ying's existence.
"By the way, you came from Bashu. What did you see and hear along the way?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.
When asked about this, Lan Yu pondered for a moment, frowned and said, "It seems that the famine this year has increased again, and refugees are everywhere. If it weren't for your Majesty's work-for-relief, I'm afraid there would be even more people starving to death."
"Some rioters even attacked government offices and robbed government grain, but they have been suppressed so far and are unlikely to cause a major problem for the time being."
In today's world where the military and politics are integrated, Lan Yu not only needs to command wars, but also needs to govern the local area, carry out military farming, disaster relief, and even try criminal cases in some areas of his jurisdiction.
Zhu Yuanzhang said nothing when he heard this. If the people were not extremely hungry, why would they attack the government?
Work-for-relief is to take food out of the pockets of the gentry and save the victims together.
However, in some places, the disaster was so severe that the landlords had no surplus food and had to flee the famine anyway. No matter how good the strategy was, it was impossible to create food out of thin air.
These disaster victims, with nowhere else to go, can easily turn into a mob and then join the uprising.
Even though the Ming Dynasty now intimidates the world, there are still many uprising groups within its territory.
During the first 25 years of the Ming Dynasty alone, there were hundreds of uprisings.
Zhu Yuanzhang was also a member of the uprising. With the help of the power of the uprising, he established the Ming Dynasty. He not only completely defeated the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty, eliminated the bad policies at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, brought stability to most areas, but also eased many tense social contradictions.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang's conquest of the world did not mean that he had conquered the entire territory of the Ming Dynasty. In some areas that had not been swept by uprisings, the sharp contradictions between the landlords and the general public were not alleviated by the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
On the contrary, due to the destruction of the economy by the war, the abuses of local officials and excessive taxation led to even more severe problems, and the burden on the people was not reduced.
Under such circumstances, poor peasants who could not survive in various places continued to revolt. These uprisings spread across the country and occurred in more than ten provinces in today's Ming Dynasty, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang, etc.
The scale of an ordinary uprising is not large, with dozens or hundreds of people at the least and only a few thousand or tens of thousands at the most.
There have also been several relatively large ones, reaching tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 people.
It can be said that it is one after another, continuous.
Especially the Jiangxi and Huguang regions, which were under the jurisdiction of Xu Shouhui and Chen Youliang during the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, they were particularly influenced by the White Lotus Sect.
Even now, the White Lotus uprisings occur every now and then here.
This year, when Lan Yu led his troops to attack Handong, he also suppressed an uprising in Huizhou.
Now, the resumes of many Ming Dynasty military generals, nobles, and generals, even including princes, show that they trained troops in certain places.
This military training does not mean leading the troops in drills, but rather suppressing uprisings everywhere and then carrying out routine farming.
There are not many military generals in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and basically those who have some ability are traveling around the country.
Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated for a moment.
It is impossible for the Jinyiwei to have complete control over the entire country, and relying solely on the memorials from local officials is bound to lead to deviations.
Whenever a military general returned to Beijing to report on his work, Zhu Yuanzhang would call them to the palace for a chat in order to understand what really happened.
About half an hour later, Lan Yu had basically finished telling everything he knew.
"It's getting late today. You haven't had dinner yet, so stay in the palace and have dinner with us," said Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Lan Yu replied.
Lan Yu was extremely happy that His Majesty invited him to have dinner with him, and at the same time, he felt relieved, as this showed that His Majesty still trusted him.
While the imperial chef was preparing dinner, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Jiang Lin to bring a copy of Zhu Ying's intelligence, and said to Lan Yu with a smile:
"You don't know much about our eldest grandson. Here are some of his insignificant achievements in the ten years he has been in opposition. Take a look."
Zhu Yuanzhang said this with a bit of Versailles in his tone.
Lan Yu took it with both hands. As for Zhu Ying, he had only had preliminary communication with her and knew nothing else.
Zhu Yuanzhang was leisurely reading the intelligence. When he saw Lan Yu's shocked expression, he couldn't help feeling happy and complacent.
He wanted his son to be successful, and he was extremely proud of his grandson for achieving such results.
To some extent, there is not much difference between Da Sun and himself.
When Dasun was this age, he had been a monk at Huangjue Temple for less than two months before going around begging for food.
The eldest grandson's adoptive father died when he was ten years old, and he survived by competing with wild dogs for food, which was very similar to his own experience.
It is incredible that he has built up such a powerful force through his own means at the age of just a teenager.
"It is too unbelievable. Your Highness Changsun is a true born noble, the reincarnation of a living Buddha. If Your Majesty had not given it to me, I would never have believed it."
After reading it, Lan Yu couldn't help but exclaim in praise loudly.
The records about Zhu Ying in these intelligence reports are simply a legend, a legend created by a ten-year-old child.
Is there really anyone in this world who is born with knowledge?
Thinking back to his childhood when he was ten years old, Lan Yu felt that there was nothing comparable to him, even his two sons, whom he had brought up by his side since childhood.
Compared with Zhu Ying, there is a world of difference.
"When I first met His Highness, I felt that he was very scholarly. In addition, His Highness was a little thin, so I thought that He was a scholar."
"Last night, I invited His Highness the Grandson to the Chang Mansion to meet with my sister. After dinner, His Highness suggested some exercise. In the Chang Mansion martial arts arena, His Highness was calm and composed, and shot an arrow through the bull's eye with a 150-jin hard bow."
"I now understand that your Highness is even more brave than I am."
Lan Yu was generous in praising Zhu Ying, and this was also what he thought.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. Although he had never witnessed his eldest grandson's personal fighting ability, he could tell just by looking at the scars on his body.
There was another person in the palace who was covered with scars like the eldest grandson, and that person was Guo Ying, whom Zhu Yuanzhang often called "Guo Si".
In the Ming Dynasty Imperial Palace, the Jinyiwei was only a part of it. There were also eleven other guards guarding the palace together. They were directly commanded by Zhu Yuanzhang and were not under the jurisdiction of the Five Military Commanderies.
The Twelve Guards, including the Jinyi Guard, are the emperor's personal army.
And Guo Ying was the commander of the twelve imperial guards.
However, in the 15th year of Hongwu, the Jinyiwei was established and the Zhenfusi was set up under it. It was basically separated from the ranks of the Twelve Guards and was under the charge of Zhu Yuanzhang.
Guo Ying had been following Zhu Yuanzhang for more than twenty years, experiencing over a hundred battles, big and small, with wounds all over his body. Only then was he responsible for guarding the imperial palace.
Even in the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang was reluctant to kill his meritorious officials, but Guo Ying was able to safely survive the horrific late Hongwu years, which shows his favor.
"I can feel that my grandson is very interested in military affairs. I have been thinking about when to arrange some soldiers for him to train these days."
"It just so happens that your uncle has returned, so you can take our eldest grandson to the military camp to have a look. Also, take our imperial edict and dispatch some troops from your Central Military Commander's Office for our eldest grandson to practice his skills."
"There's no need for too many. We're afraid that our eldest grandson won't be used to it, so we'll just send 5,000 people to let him get familiar with it first."