After the dispersal of the court, Empress Zeng returned to Ciqing Palace with the crown prince and a group of eunuchs and maids. Huang Mingjun personally led his sergeants to gather in Ciqing Palace as a forbidden army, and the imperial camps under Liu Ruolan were driven to the periphery.

Zhu Yuao led a group of courtiers to prepare for the state funeral and the new monarch's accession to the throne.

Later, the obituary of Longwu's death spread all over the world, and music, marriage, and sacrifice ceremonies were stopped for 100 days. The entire Tianxing Mansion is full of vegetarian food, and the whole country mourns. Officials at all levels stayed in the office, and a few feasts were set up in the palace, and the mourning day and night weeping will continue until more than ten days later.

Early the next morning, Huang Mingjun got an urgent report that Wang Yinghua and nearly 3,000 men and horses of Cao Hongzu's army had arrived more than ten miles outside Tianxing Mansion.

Empress Zeng was worried that Wang Yinghua was the confidant of the Tang King, and the Son of Heaven was about to carry out the enthronement ceremony, which was at a critical time, so she ordered Cao Hongzu to camp outside the city, and ordered Huang Mingjun to personally lead his men and horses to garrison the gates of Tianxing Mansion to prevent someone from putting Cao Hongzu's troops into the city.

But in order to mourn the first emperor before Zhu Yuao this time, she only brought hundreds of cavalry to Tianxing Mansion in a hurry, together with the soldiers and horses sent back to prevent officials from fleeing, a total of only 800 people.

Empress Zeng was also quite bold, so she asked these 800 people to defend the city, leaving only dozens of guards by her side. She has to cry in the temple for several days these days, but she doesn't have to worry about someone trying to harm her.

It wasn't until three days later that the Longwu funeral ceremony was completed, and Huang Mingjun's brigade arrived at Tianxing Mansion with the real prince.

The next day, the new emperor ascended the throne.

Wang Yinghua first led the officials of the Ministry of Rites to sue the Heaven and Earth Temple. At the auspicious time, the bells and drums of the entire palace rang out in unison, and Empress Zeng was dressed in decaying clothes, holding the little prince in her arms, and slowly ascended to the Fengtian Gate to start praying.

At the same time, the whip sounded, and the civil and military officials knelt outside the Fengtian Gate and bowed five times and three times in the direction of the prince.

After waiting for the scene, Queen Zeng took the prince down to Fengtian Gate, walked to the front of Fengtian Palace, and sat on the dragon chair. The ministers rushed in, standing solemnly on both sides of the royal road, and after a while, Pang Tianshou took out the edict of succession and began to read it aloud.

"I am only ordered by the heavens to rule Huayi and be among the saints......

"It is to obey the edict on May 20 to only inform the ancestors of heaven and earth, that is, the emperor's throne, the Hongyou of the ancestral examination, and the eternal map of Yangming......

"However, at the beginning of the reign, it is advisable to have the title of Zhuo, which will take the next year as the first year of the Thai Expedition, amnesty to the world, and the beginning of the change with the people, and all the matters related to the joint line will be listed below."

The entire enthronement ceremony was extremely simple, and everything that could be saved was saved, and it didn't even let the priest send musicians to participate, Rao was so, and the lengthy ceremony still made the little emperor cry with hunger.

After the ceremony, the courtiers all went, and the Empress Dowager Zeng immediately returned to Ciqing Palace with the little emperor.

Two hours later, there was a zodiac Zhou with a minister who wrapped his hat in white cloth and was dressed in plain clothes.

Empress Dowager Zeng saw Huang Daozhou, Lu Zhenfei, Huang Mingjun, He Kai, Zhu Jizuo and others gathered, and knew that there was something to discuss with her, so she handed over the new monarch to the nurse, and then retreated. ”

Lu Zhenfei and Huang Daozhou glanced at each other, took the lead in arching their hands, and went straight to the topic: "Empress Dowager, we are here for the stability of the Ming Society. ”

Empress Dowager Zeng nodded, except for Yang Tinglin's people in Jiangxi, these people in front of her were almost all the members of the little emperor's team in the court, and she was very pleased that they could take the initiative to come and plan for the emperor.

Obviously, several people have discussed it before, and at this time, Lu Zhenfei is the spokesperson, "Although the emperor has inherited the unification, the situation between the DPRK and China is still not stable. ”

Empress Dowager Zeng nodded again, and said bluntly, "The Tang King has been in charge of the country for a long time, and although he went to the country to supervise the country and changed to the auxiliary king, his authority must not be reduced slightly. With the royal family in charge, this is not a long-term solution after all. ”

Huang Daozhou, Lu Zhenfei and others didn't expect the Queen Mother to say it so bluntly, which simply meant that they tried to bring down King Tang.

The ministers looked at each other again, and then knelt on the ground at the same time, and said in a low voice: "Minister, obey the decree of the emperor and do your best. ”

After the Empress Dowager Zeng asked a few people to get up, Lu Zhenfei said again: "In the current situation between the DPRK and China, there are Huang Ge elders in the cabinet, plus a few people such as me," he glanced around to the side, and at this time, several people in the room were all cabinet scholars, "At least they don't fall behind."

Among the six departments, the most important officials and households are all people of the Tang Dynasty, and the Ministry of Rites with the right to take officials is also Wang Yinghua Ren Shangshu. In this way, it is not difficult to get out of the cabinet, but if you want to really implement it, I am afraid it will not be so easy.

In addition, the soldiers and horses of the five cities and the imperial camp were also appointed by the Tang king. Although there are not many people at the moment, if the imperial camp is expanded over time, the military power of the entire Tianxing Mansion will be in his hands. ”

Zhu Jizuo added: "There is also the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and more than eighty percent of the imperial history of the capital is out of the Tang Palace. These officials are even more difficult to deal with than the officials of the Sixth Ministry. ”

Empress Dowager Zeng had expected this, and immediately looked around at everyone: "Do you have a good plan?" ”

Lu Zhenfei said: "Back to the Queen Mother, the minister thinks that he should use this strategy to eliminate the other's strengths, and slowly figure it out." ”

Before he could continue, he heard Pang Tianshou and the door outside: "Empress Dowager Qi, Jiang Zhengxi Jiang Zongbing asks to see." ”

"Kang Jung-hee?" Empress Dowager Zeng was slightly surprised, although Jiang Zhengxi was her person, his rank was obviously not enough to join the current meeting.

She hesitated for a moment, but still said to Pang Tianshou: "Let him come in." ”

When Jiang Zhengxi entered the house, he first hurriedly saluted, and then took out a copy of the Tang newspaper and handed it to Huang Daozhou beside him, and then said excitedly: "Quzhou is a great victory!" As soon as this Tang newspaper arrived in Tianxing Mansion, it was intercepted by me, because the stakes were so high, I had to come directly to the Queen Mother. ”

Huang Daozhou hurriedly unfolded the Tang newspaper, and just after reading the first few lines, he was moved and said: "Sure enough, it's a big victory!" Chen Wang's troops took advantage of the emptiness of Quzhou's captive army, and the strange soldiers went north out of Xianxia Pass, and they outwitted Quzhou three days ago! Although the first level was not much, tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass were seized from the Jianyu piling up in Quzhou, and hundreds of carts of baggage, flags and other things. ”

"Chen Wang is really talented!" Huang Mingjun praised when he heard this, "Take Xianxia Pass first, and then go down to Quzhou City, so Boluo's backup is cut off, even if he wants to send grain from Shanguan on the west side to Fujian, there is no food to send!" ”

Huang Daozhou continued to read downward: "In addition, King Chen also rebelled against the captured Fang Guo'an Ministry. When Quzhou fell, Fang Guoan took action and returned to the Ming Dynasty. He led his 20,000 men and horses to capture and kill the thieves and puppet officials in Shaoxing Mansion. There are only less than 2,000 captives in the middle of Zhejiang, and they are scattered in several cities, and there is absolutely no army to beat them. ”

He praised the Tang newspaper to the Empress Dowager Zeng and said in surprise: "Empress Dowager, Fang Guoan is afraid that he has taken Shaoxing at this time." With his team of soldiers and horses, if nothing happens, at most more than a month, Zhejiang can be recovered! ”

"Now we just need to get rid of the captive army of Boluo, and Jiangnan will be completely returned to the Ming Dynasty." Lu Zhenfei's face was also full of joy, and suddenly, he stroked his palms and smiled, "My strategy to eliminate the other's strengths can take advantage of King Chen's great victory!" ”"