The next day.

As the sound of adjourning the court was heard.

The morning court is over.

Prince of Yan Zhu Di returned to his mansion with a heavy face.

As a vassal king, although he had to attend morning court sessions when in Beijing, there was nothing else to do.

Compared with the ministers who have to continue working after the court session, it is relatively much easier.

"Your Highness, what happened in the court that made you so unhappy?"

After returning to the mansion, Zhu Di summoned Yao Guangxiao and then asked everyone to leave, obviously wanting to discuss something important.

Seeing this, Yao Guangxiao asked.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Di snorted coldly and then explained.

"At the morning court today, my father suddenly announced that in order to solve the famine and speed up the construction of my eldest brother's mausoleum, 3,000 people would be recruited from the disaster victims to work in lieu of relief."

Hearing this, Yao Guangxiao pondered in his heart and said, "Your Majesty's actions may have other intentions."

Zhu Di nodded and said affirmatively: "Of course, my eldest brother's mausoleum has been built by thousands of craftsmen a long time ago. It has been basically completed, and only some fine carving work remains."

"How can these civilians do such a thing? They are so rough and clumsy that they can destroy it, let alone build it."

"How could Father not even understand this? Obviously, these three thousand civilians did not go there to build my eldest brother's mausoleum. They must have other purposes."

Yao Guangxiao said with some doubt: "Three thousand people are so many, could there be other intentions, that is..."

After hesitating for a while, Yao Guangxiao said, "Even if it's just to dig a grave, it doesn't need so many people."

Yao Guangxiao did not directly tell Zhu Yuanzhang that he wanted to dig up Zhu Xiongying's grave and check the condition of the bones.

But Zhu Di could naturally understand the meaning of it.

"Master, you may not know that ten years ago, on the second night after my eldest nephew was buried, a sudden earth dragon rolled over."

"It happened to be at the tomb of my eldest nephew, which caused the entire tomb to collapse completely."

"At that time, my father also sent people to dig, but the cave-in was too deep and too many places were moved. My father was afraid that it would ruin the feng shui of the ancestral tomb, so he stopped."

"Now that Zhu Ying has appeared, given my father's temper, he will dig it up and find out the truth no matter what."

Zhu Di said in a deep voice, and the former palace secrets were also told in this way.

Yao Guangxiao immediately understood why Zhu Di was in a bad mood.

Obviously, if this is really dug out, the bones will be placed there neatly.

Then the Zhu Ying who is alive now is undoubtedly a fake.

All of Zhu Di's arrangements were immediately scrapped.

Once Zhu Yunwen was named the Crown Prince, everything would be over and there would be no way out.

Although Zhu Di wanted to be emperor now, he had no intention of rebelling.

Even if Zhu Yunwen really became emperor, Zhu Di would not, or dared not, rebel.

With the few troops he has, wouldn't it be courting death if he rebelled?

Later, he was forced into a situation where he had no other choice. If he did not rebel, he would die. So he decided to take this gamble and risk his life.

Due to many factors, Zhu Di finally succeeded by chance.

Throughout history, there have been many princes who have rebelled, but the only one who was truly successful was Zhu Di.

This has a lot to do with luck, strength, military talent, and Zhu Yunwen's ability to play a bad hand badly.

If there is a leak anywhere, the result will definitely be failure.

So Zhu Di planned to take the throne, but he did not expect to get it by rebellion.

Yao Guangxiao certainly didn't know about the palace secrets that Zhu Di talked about. After listening to them, the doubts in his mind disappeared all at once.

"It seems that this matter is indeed true." Yao Guangxiao said in a deep voice.

Zhu Di nodded and said unwillingly: "Master, do you think there is any other way to deal with this now?"

The Xiaoling Guards who were guarding the Ming Dynasty's body were extremely loyal to the royal family, and Zhu Di could not interfere at all.

Moreover, for matters like this, my father would definitely arrange for the Imperial Guards to monitor us, so it would be too difficult to conceal the truth and do something that would replace the truth with another's.

Yao Guangxiao remained silent for a long time, thinking quickly about a solution.

Seeing this, Zhu Di waited quietly and thought of a countermeasure in his mind.

After a long while, Yao Guangxiao finally said, "Your Highness, is there any way to allow me to visit the Xiaoling Mausoleum?"

Zhu Di heard this and said, "The ancestral mausoleum is heavily guarded. Even if I don't have permission, I am not allowed to enter without permission."

After hesitating for a moment, Zhu Di said again: "But there is a way. I can tell my father that I miss my mother and want to go to pay tribute to her. I'm sure my father will not refuse."

Yao Guangxiao nodded. Zhu Di’s reason was very sufficient. His son was paying tribute to his mother, and as a father, Zhu Yuanzhang certainly had no reason to refuse.

Yao Guangxiao then explained: "I once followed my master to learn the art of yin and yang, and I also dabbled in geomancy."

"Your Highness said that the earth dragon rolled over, causing the mausoleum to collapse. In my opinion, it is because there is a flaw in the ground."

"If I can carefully do a geomancy survey and calculate the geography, then Your Highness only needs to arrange a few people to dig according to the directions I have determined."

"Then I have a 70% chance of causing a second collapse."

Yao Guangxiao said confidently.

His former master Xi Yingzhen was extremely proficient in yin-yang, numerology, astronomy and geography.

Yao Guangxiao was the successor. Although he might not have surpassed him, he at least learned most of the basic skills.

The art of Yin and Yang itself contains the knowledge of Feng Shui and divination. Yao Guangxiao was able to figure out a general situation through just a few sentences.

When Zhu Di heard this, his frown suddenly relaxed.

If we can really cause the mausoleum to collapse a second time and bury it deep underground, perhaps we can dissuade my father from his idea.

Digging a tomb is not like robbing a grave, where you just dig a hole and get in.

Instead, it requires excavation over a large area and then continuous digging deeper.

The deeper you dig, the larger the area you move.

It doesn’t matter for other places, but the imperial mausoleum involves the feng shui and national destiny of the entire Ming Empire.

Besides, even if Yao Guangxiao had the ability to cause a second collapse, he would probably be able to cause a third collapse as well.

It is said that one or two are acceptable, but three are not.

If three collapses really occur, it will be an ominous sign.

Even my father will have to be cautious at that time.

"Then I'll trouble you, Master. After the morning court tomorrow, I will ask my father to offer sacrifices to my mother."

After deciding this matter, Zhu Di began to arrange his personal guards to infiltrate the refugees.

It was at this time,

The strong men who came from the desert have already received Zhu Ying's orders.

All the prisoners were killed without mercy.

Then after transporting the goods to the designated location, he rode away on horseback.

The next morning after the morning meeting,

Zhu Di, who was originally going to pay a visit to his father the Emperor and request to pay tribute to his mother the Empress Dowager, now stood alone and sad in front of the empty Huagai Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly finished the morning court and rushed out of the palace to see his eldest grandson impatiently.

He never went to Huagai Palace to handle government affairs.