Chapter 15 Heading south to Cangzhou
It was another day, and at this time, it had been eight full days since Zhu Cihong escaped from Beijing, and the news of Emperor Chongzhen's self-hanging had already spread all over the world. It's just that Zhu Cihong and the others have been fleeing for their lives for so many days, and the news is relatively closed, and they didn't get the news until they fled to Hejian Mansion.
Now Hejian Mansion is still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and there are 10,000 Ming troops stationed here.
When more than 1,000 Donggong Imperial Forest Army escorted Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou to only about ten miles away from Hejian Mansion, Zhang Kuishan asked Zhu Cihong and immediately sent someone to notify officials at all levels of Hejian Mansion to come to greet him.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is still alive, God bless Daming!" The governor of Hejian Mansion and others looked up to the sky and shed tears, a few days ago, since they got the news that Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself in the coal mountain, they were hit hard all of a sudden, and they almost lost hope in the Ming Dynasty completely.
Many officials in the Ming Dynasty are greedy and greedy, but they have always adhered to a loyalty to the Ming Dynasty in their hearts, otherwise when they heard that Beijing City was captured by Li Zicheng, they may have surrendered directly to Li Zicheng's thief army like many people, but they have never been, which shows that the Ming Dynasty is not hopeless.
The governor of Hejian brought a large group of civil officials and the general soldiers of Hejian Fu Town with a few generals to the city gate to greet Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou.
Finally returned to the territory of Daming, Zhu Cihong was very emotional, there was no danger along the way, starting from Hejian Mansion, he no longer had to hide every day.
"Ministers, see His Royal Highness the Prince, the Queen Mother Chitose!"
All the civil and military generals knelt down to meet them, they all knew very well that since Emperor Chongzhen had died, the crown prince must be the next generation of emperors of the Ming Dynasty, as long as he returned to Nanjing, he would immediately ascend the throne and succeed to the throne.
Looking at the group of civil and military officials kneeling in front of him, Zhu Cihong's heart was surging and he felt special, is this the power of imperial power? It's no wonder that so many people want to be emperors.
"Excuse me!" Zhu Cihong's face was expressionless, making it impossible to see the fluctuations in his heart.
The governor of Hejian arranged for Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou to live in a large mansion, and Zhu Cihong ordered the guards to take turns to rest, and they ran away for many days, everyone was too tired, and he counted here to rest for two consecutive days before setting off south to Cangzhou.
The news of Emperor Chongzhen's self-hanging in the coal mountain reached the ears of Empress Zhou in less than half an hour after Zhu Cihong and they entered the city. Queen Zhou stumbled violently when she heard this, and tears flowed out of her pale face, but she didn't say a word, Zhu Cihong looked slightly worried, afraid that Queen Zhou would not have any thoughts that she couldn't think of if she couldn't accept it.
Fortunately, Zhu Cihong is too worried about this point, although Empress Zhou and Emperor Chongzhen have had a husband and wife relationship for more than ten years, there has been no conflict, and they can be called a husband and wife, but in the end, one of them is the emperor and the other is the queen, how can the relationship between the emperor and the queen really be deep, even if Empress Zhou and Emperor Chongzhen are different from other emperors and queens, Empress Zhou is not enough to be buried for Emperor Chongzhen. In the previous life, the reason why Queen Zhou hanged herself was nothing more than that she was afraid that she would be humiliated by falling into the hands of Li Zicheng, so she had to do it as a last resort in order to preserve her name, but now she is with Zhu Cihong, and she has not yet reached such a dangerous situation, so she naturally does not have to die to protect her reputation.
"Your Majesty, if you are really willing to listen to your concubines in the past ten years, how can you end up today." After Queen Zhou finished speaking loudly, she wept bitterly.
"Please mourn the queen mother, although your father is gone, you still have children." Zhu Cihong stepped forward to help him and comforted him, he also showed sadness on his face, but only he knew how much sadness he really had.
Queen Zhou cried for more than half an hour before she was tired and stopped, and Zhu Cihong asked the two little palace maids of Lanxiang and Begonia to help her to rest.
Zhu Cihong turned around, stunned for a moment, but saw Chen Lao's granddaughter Chen Xiuxiu still standing there, she watched Lan Xiang Haitang serve Queen Zhou to rest in the house, and she didn't know whether to follow her or what, this will see the prince Zhu Cihong looking at her in a daze, and suddenly looked a little overwhelmed.
"Miss Xiuxiu, you are the granddaughter of Chen Lao, why don't you go to Chen Lao to fulfill your filial piety, what are you doing standing here?" Zhu Cihong smiled peacefully.
"I, I--Prince, don't you, don't you need to, wait, wait?" After Chen Xiuxiu finished speaking, she reacted instantly, and immediately her face was like fire, flushed, and she regretted it very much in her heart, she was not the maid of His Royal Highness the Prince, how could she say such a thing, she was ashamed.
Zhu Cihong shook her head and smiled, the little girl was innocent, and couldn't help but teased casually: "Oh--, it turns out that Miss Xiuxiu want to stay and serve the prince?" Okay, if the prince takes a bath, he must let the Xiuxiu girl strip and rub the prince's back. ”
"Huh? I, I don't want to be grinning! Xiuxiu was so frightened that she opened her big smart eyes wide, smeared oil on the soles of her feet, forgot to salute, and immediately fled. What a cute little girl.
"Hey, Xiuxiu girl, don't run so fast first, on behalf of Prince Ben, I apologize to Old Chen, I have followed Prince Ben all the way to escape and work hard for his old man these days!"
Zhu Cihong laughed, his mood was much more relaxed all of a sudden, and his whole body was relaxed. Don't look at Zhu Cihong flirting with other little girls, but he doesn't have any ideas in his heart at all, although Chen Xiuxiu is beautiful and beautiful, she is a rare beauty embryo, but in the end she is only thirteen or fourteen years old, Zhu Cihong has a soul in her twenties, and she has been educated by the party, so she can't have such an evil mind.
Zhu Cihong went back to the house to wash up and came out, and was about to rest, but the eunuch Zhao Dequan walked in with a guard holding something.
"Your Highness, are you going to rest?"
"Hmm."
Zhao Dequan smiled and uncovered the red cloth on the thing that the guard was holding, and looked at the exposed thing, the corner of Zhu Cihong's eyes jumped.
"Your Highness, this jade pillow is the heirloom of the Governor, and the Governor is afraid that His Highness will not sleep well, so he specially ordered someone to bring it over and give it to His Highness to sleep on the pillow." Zhao Dequan introduced.
"Humph! The heirloom of the Governor of the River? Zhu Cihong pointed to the exquisite jade pillow with a calm face, and his voice was solemn.
Zhao Dequan chuckled violently in his heart, as an old man beside Zhu Cihong, he naturally saw Zhu Cihong's dislike at once, and immediately knelt down in front of Zhu Cihong to ask for guilt without thinking about it.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince forgives his sins, the little one deserves to die!"
"Hehe, how can this jade pillow be worth tens of thousands of taels of silver, he can't make so much money in his life as a governor, so he sent it to Prince Ben like this, and I'm not afraid that Prince Ben will think that he got it in exchange for the people's fat and ointment of the people of Hejian Mansion? It's stupid! Zhu Cihong smiled and said coolly.
It is conceivable that the abacus of the governor of Hejian was empty, and Zhu Cihong did not appreciate it.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is wise, and the slaves and maids also feel that there must be a problem here, His Royal Highness should immediately send someone to thoroughly investigate the governor of Hejian and punish such corrupt and lawless people, and must not let corrupt officials continue to harm the people-----" Zhao Dequan said righteously, and after a long speech, he didn't see the smiling greed for money just now.
Zhu Cihong glanced at Zhao Dequan lightly, this Zhao Dequan would be a sycophant.
"No need, this prince has just arrived here, and it is not appropriate to make extraneous branches, so this jade pillow will be accepted by this prince, and it will be used as military funds when he arrives in Nanjing." So as not to be cheap, Li Zicheng. Zhu Cihong added another sentence in his heart, in history, Li Zicheng would soon send a large army to the south, and Hejian and Cangzhou would definitely fall, even Shandong would not be able to protect it.
The foundation of the Ming Dynasty is corrupt, corruption is very normal, Zhu Cihong has no extra energy to pay attention to these now, he just wants to return to Nanjing as soon as possible to ascend the throne as the emperor, only when he really grasps the power can he slowly figure it out and slowly transform the Ming Dynasty.
Two days later, Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou left Hejian Mansion and went south to Cangzhou under the escort of more than 1,000 Donggong Imperial Forest Army.
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