The four princes said respectfully, and Concubine Xian said to the four princes: "Do you know why this palace doesn't let you go to Qiyun Mountain." ”

"Qiyun Mountain is a fief given by Emperor Gao to Wang Wenzhong to cultivate immortals, so it is naturally inconvenient for children to enter."

"Your understanding is shallow, when your father was the emperor, the current saint, when he was touring the east, he once went to Qiyun Mountain and was given nine admonitions by Wang Wenzhong, so that he kept the throne and then regained control of the artifact. Although Wang Wenzhong is now dead, if you rashly enter the mountain, the saint will suspect that you have other intentions. As for Nandu, the same is true. ”

After the concubine explained, she took a sip of tea and said again: "Don't think that now that the eldest brother is deposed, you will have a chance, if you don't fight for power too much, how can your eldest brother be re-established twice." ”

"Queen Mother, Erchen has never thought of holding an artifact and ascending to the throne, Erchen just wants to be a prince who is free from illness and disaster, and it is enough to be free for a lifetime, like a saint who is tired day and night, sleepless night, Erchen can't do it." The fourth prince once again showed his cynical expression, and when Concubine Xian saw this, she patted his hand lightly and said, "If the saint sees you like this now, he will trap you again, so why don't you go and say goodbye to the saint." ”

The fourth prince nodded, arrived at the Wenying Palace, and said to the emperor that he was going to go alone, the emperor showed an appreciative look, took a piece of jade pendant and handed it to the fourth prince and said, "Wen Yuan, you can finally reassure me." But this should be what the queen mother asked you to say, with your temperament, you should want to play all the way, and your subordinates will help you do it. ”

"Don't dare to hide it from the saint, Erchen is exactly like this, Erchen remembers that the saint has words and hard work to control people, and those who work hard control people. Now that my Dayu Dynasty is full of talents, masters, Confucians, and generals in a hundred battles, all of them are complete, they will naturally follow the work of dogs and horses, and the sons only use their hands to ......" The four princes talked about it, and at the end, they suddenly noticed that something was wrong, knelt on the ground and apologized, saying: "The sons lost their words, and asked the saint to punish them." ”

The emperor did not continue the topic, but asked the four princes to get up and said to the four princes: "That's why your queen mother suggested that if the ministers can do something, then why do I need you to go to the East China Sea?" Think about it on the road, Wen Yuan, don't let me down. ”

"Erchen knows, Erchen retires."

The four princes left here and returned to their homes.

"Congratulations to the prince, this time I can be the governor of the four provinces of the East China Sea, the soldiers, horses, money, and silver, let the prince move." When Princess Gui saw the four princes coming back, she immediately congratulated her.

The four princes picked up the tea, took a sip before smiling bitterly and said: "What kind of soldiers, horses, money, and silver, this domain didn't ask for it, and this time only one person from the domain went to the four mansions of the East China Sea." ”

"Ah, what's going on? Could it be that the saint has changed his mind again? ”

"It was the queen mother who asked the clan to do this, and she also gave the clan five thousand taels of silver, I don't know how much silver can be taken out of the mansion now."

"Lord Qiqi, you can still take out 10,000 taels." Since the princess married the fourth prince, the money and silver in the prince's mansion have been in her charge.

The fourth prince shook his head with a wry smile and said, "It seems that the queen mother knows our family very well, and she is worthy of being the chief secretary of the Four Holy Divisions." ”

At this time, a servant came up, handed over a letter of worship, and said, "Lord Qiqi, the eighth prince is asking to see you outside." ”

"Let him in."

After the fourth prince finished speaking, Princess Gui shook her head again and said: "The eighth child came this time, presumably he came to fight the autumn breeze again, and the concubine just didn't understand, why is he also a prince, but he has no money every month?" ”

"The eighth child likes to carve books since he was a child, and this engraving of books costs a lot, and he doesn't know how to do it, so he is naturally poor." When the fourth prince said this, he said to the princess: "Go and prepare a thousand taels of silver, since the eighth child is here, we can't let him go back empty-handed." ”

Princess Gui said a promise a little reluctantly, and then took her leave.

Soon the eighth prince arrived in the living room, saluted to the fourth prince and said, "Fourth brother, it's bothering." ”

"Between our brothers, there is no need to be so polite, your fourth sister-in-law has already gone to get the silver. You sit down for a while, the next few months will be on the other side of the East China Sea, if you need anything, you can talk to your fourth sister-in-law. ”

The eighth prince shook his head and said, took out a stack of silver tickets and handed it to the fourth prince and said, "Fourth brother, I have also heard about your affairs, but I am really difficult in terms of money and silver, and I can't help you too much, these five thousand taels are made up by us, and please don't dislike the fourth brother." ”

The fourth prince looked at the stack of silver tickets, thought for a while, and accepted them. He said to the Eighth Prince, "Who are they?" ”

"Mei Hao, Su Dingguo, Zhang Jin, Li Qin."

The fourth prince nodded after hearing this, these people are all Xiaojing officials, and they usually have dealings with themselves, but they didn't expect that at this time, they would actually raise money to help themselves.

"If you are polite, I won't say much for my brother, this kindness will be remembered for my brother."

The eighth prince and the fourth prince exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then retired.

After a while, Princess Gui walked in with a silver ticket and said to the four princes: "Lord, where is the eighth child?" ”

"He's not here to get the money this time, he's here to give it."

When the fourth prince said this, he looked at the silver ticket in his hand and seemed to be thinking about something.

That night, near the East Palace, Li Xingye led the guards to turn over all the areas around the East Palace with hoes.

In the flower grass next to Donggong Road, a piece of broken flowers and grass. The road that was originally clean was also full of dust.

Li Xingye ignored the mess around him, but looked at the twenty-eight villains on the table, all of which were pasted with yellow paper, and the eight characters of the prince's deep birth date were written.

A soldier walked over and said to Li Xingye, "My lord, I have checked everything, and there is nothing else suspicious." ”

Li Xingye nodded and asked a soldier to pack the villains.

Looking at the package, Li Xingye shook his head and said, "It seems that this official has entered a battle of right and wrong again." ”

After Li Xingye presented the package to the emperor, the emperor took a closer look at it and said to Li Xingye: "What do you think about this matter?" ”

"Enlightening the saint, the minister is foolish, this matter should not be made public, so as not to make a witch rebellion again."

The emperor nodded, asked Li Xingye to put it away, and went to rest.

The next day, when the four princes went to Donghai Mansion, the eighth prince was summoned to the palace.

When he was in the Forgetting Pavilion in the Wenying Palace, the emperor said to the Eighth Prince: "I heard that the autumn hunting map you drew by Wenhui is ready, you might as well show it to me." ”

The eighth prince hurriedly handed the painting to the emperor, and after Jiusi took it, he exclaimed: "Sage, how good you see the painting, this is Prince Ren, this is Prince Yi, this is Prince Li, and this is His Royal Highness Six." The paintings of the nine highnesses are really vivid. ”

The emperor nodded slightly, as if agreeing with Jiusi's words, and then took a stack of silver tickets from the desk, asked the eunuch to hand it to the eighth prince, and then said to the eighth prince: "I bought your painting, this is five thousand taels of silver." ”

The eighth prince didn't dare to take the silver ticket, knelt on the ground and said, "The ministers don't dare, the ministers don't dare." ”

"What don't you dare, you took this silver ticket, Mei Yuan, Su Dingguo, Zhang Jin and Li Qin, you should pay back as much as you want, remember the children of the Heavenly Family, you can't just accept the silver of your ministers, especially your prince."

When the eighth prince heard this, he was so frightened that he hurriedly said Nuonuo.

"In addition to this, I asked you to come so that you could go to your ninth brother's house and show him this puppet to see if he knew. I know that you and your brothers get along very well, and I can rest assured that you can do this. ”

"Erchen understood."

The eighth prince took the puppet and the silver ticket and left here in embarrassment.

When the emperor saw the appearance of the eighth prince, he sighed and said, "Alas, why are all my sons so unsuccessful, and who are I going to hand over this country to?" ”

When the eunuchs heard this, they pretended not to hear.

In the evening, in the mansion of the Nine Emperor Princes, the Nine Emperor Princes and the Eight Emperor Princes sat at a table, and the Nine Emperor Princes looked at the rich dishes on the table and said to the Eight Princes: "Starling, we brothers don't need to talk about the ancient rites of Nalaoshzi. It's not that my younger brother is straight-hearted, Emperor Gao is amazing, everything is right, but we have to restore the ancient system, everyone has a case, and eat at the same table, it's really bad and inconvenient. ”

The Nine Emperors said and took a bite of food for the Eighth Prince and said: "Look at eating like this, how lively it is, how much of a brother's atmosphere, Starling, you don't have to be formal, eat, eat." If my father blames me, I will go with you to the Three Provinces Hall and Three Provinces for a few days, hahaha. ”

Seeing that the Nine Emperors were gracious, the Eighth Prince also began to move his chopsticks.

It's just that he has a very strong heart, and he doesn't taste anything he eats, so he eats a few bites casually and puts down his chopsticks.

Seeing this, the Nine Emperors hurriedly said: "Starling, is this dish not to your taste, what do you want to eat, just say it, in front of my younger brother, there is no need to be polite." ”

When the Eighth Prince heard this, he didn't know what to say for a while, and at this time, the Nine Emperors clapped their hands, and a maidservant girl walked in, holding a plate in her hand.

The Nine Emperor Princes smiled and pointed to the plate: "Starling, when you see this, you will naturally have a great appetite." ”

The Eighth Prince curiously opened the cover on the plate, revealing the puppet inside.

Seeing this puppet, the Eighth Emperor said to the Nine Emperors: "Ninth Brother, did you really do the eldest brother's thing?" ”

The Nine Emperors put down their chopsticks, picked up the puppet, and said with a smile: "Starling, you have read a lot of books, you know that Zi Bu is strange and confused." Do you think that this little piece of wood, after being done by a Taoist priest and then pasted with a piece of yellow paper, can make people crazy? ”

When the Nine Emperor Princes said this, their tone was full of mockery. When the eighth prince heard this, his face turned red and he was a little ashamed.

"Starling, the eldest brother was made the crown prince at the age of two, but how old is he now, he is already thirty-five. Thirty-three years of the crown prince, or the eldest brother has a good temper, if it were me, he would have gone crazy a long time ago. The father is too, he gave the eldest brother the status of the crown prince, but did not give the eldest brother any power, the eldest brother has been hanging for 33 years without going to the sky or the ground, and people will go crazy. ”