Chapter 136

Slowly, he rose to his feet from the great hall.

"Come, Su Qiao, tell me…"

"Your Majesty, please ask."

Zhu Yuanzhang's tone suddenly shifted, and he roared at Su Qiao at the top of his lungs

"How much silver did the Prince of Yan give you, that you'd speak up for him in court like this?"

"Hm? Fourth, how much silver did you give him?!"

"Why has everyone gone silent?!"

All these years.

Zhu Yuanzhang had seen every kind of person.

But he had never once seen anyone like Su Qiao.

This couldn't even be counted as buying a name outright.

Once word got out, Su Qiao would be the greatest sorcerer since the founding of the Great Ming!

Could it be that Su Qiao simply wanted to become famous?

What was he after?

Zhu Yuanzhang's emotions were already on the verge of collapse.

Yet in the chat group, Zhu Di suddenly fell silent.

"Father, no!"

"This matter won't work!"

"It actually seems feasible!"

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had just been roaring at the top of his lungs, froze on the spot.

He couldn't help muttering

"Feasible?"

Huang Zicheng, Su Qiao, and the others couldn't see the chat group.

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang blurt out "feasible" out of nowhere, everyone was instantly thrown into a panic.

Huang Zicheng dropped to his knees on his own.

"Your Majesty, you absolutely must not! Partitioning the land is the way to invite chaos. The common folk of the realm long for order as if parched for water—how could we partition the land and invite chaos?!"

Even Zhu Yunwen dropped to his knees and cried out loudly

"Grandson, even if I must yield half of Jiangnan to my Fourth Uncle, I will never become the kind of ruler who leaves calamity to later generations!"

In the chat group, Zhu Di said excitedly

"Father, it's feasible!"

"Dividing the realm along the Yangtze is naturally not acceptable."

"But I have a piece of land here where he can be settled!"

"Years ago, a powerful minister in Annan usurped the throne and slaughtered the entire Annan royal family. I dispatched troops to help the Annan Princess restore her kingdom, but in the end, with no king left, I had no choice but to take Jiaozhi back."

"But these past few years, Annan has been showing signs of growing powerful."

"I can enfeoff Second Brother with Jiaozhi!"

"Annan has a decent foundation. The only issue is Eldest Brother now finds governing it too troublesome and not worth the cost."

"But once Second Brother is enfeoffed there, it becomes well worth it!"

"Internally it settles the royal clan; externally it expands the realm. A sure profit, no loss."

"If he governs well and wants to be king, let him be king; if he wants to be emperor, let him be emperor. The court can send troops, grain, officials, and clerks to help govern. After all, it's land picked up for nothing. If he loses his kingdom and runs back, when the time comes to take him in and care for him, I doubt he'll have much to say about it."

103, revised. Clear cache and re-view.

Zhu Di's words gave Zhu Yuanzhang an idea.

Enfeoffing his sons and grandsons overseas?

The moment this thought arose, it lingered ceaselessly in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

It wasn't that Zhu Yuanzhang had never considered this.

The so-called Nine Border Princes, for instance, were essentially enfeoffed as feudal lords beyond the frontier.

Princes like the Zhou Wang, the Liao Wang, and the Ning Wang.

None of them had actually been assigned a permanent fief—they had only been provisionally enfeoffed at a Zhongzhen along the Nine Borders.

Beginning in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang began taking the Prince of Jin Zhu Gang and the Prince of Yan Zhu Di, the two brothers, to slowly encroach upon the great desert.

First he built Dongsheng City and moved the Zhou Wang's fief to Dongsheng; then he built Daning City and enfeoffed the Prince of Ning Zhu Quan at Liaodong.

Clearly, from the very start, Zhu Yuanzhang had intended for these sons to slowly build cities and fortifications to nibble away at the steppe.

It was only that this historical process had been cut short by Zhu Di's Jingnan Campaign.

But Zhu Di's words had suddenly given Zhu Yuanzhang an idea.

Who says

they had to keep encroaching northward?

Su Qiao had said before that Jiaozhi was also a land of fish and rice, and the several kingdoms of Annan stretched a thousand li—settling ten or eight sons there wouldn't be a problem.

If the Great Ming suffered a disaster in the future, buying grain from one's own relatives was surely better than buying it from outsiders, wasn't it?

Besides, these lands were never former central plains commanderies to begin with. If these sons had ambition, they could go out and carve their own path—on land or at sea, where couldn't they go?

Moreover,

if all these sons remained in the Great Ming,

what fate awaited them, Zhu Yuanzhang had already foreseen.

In the Battle of Xingshan, who suffered the most?

Huang Taiji?

Or Zhu Youjian?

The only one who truly felt the heartache and shared the pain was one and only one person.

That would be Zhu Yuanzhang!

Every one of these feudal princes was Zhu Yuanzhang's own flesh and blood!

"Enfeoff the princes overseas, establish many relatives..."

At this thought.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

And the people in Donggong, hearing Zhu Yuanzhang mutter to himself, were all terrified pale.

Even Su Qiao was a little shaken.

Old Zhu, have you lost your mind?

Are you really going to tear this realm in half?

It won't have any effect on me after I go back, will it?

Just at this moment, a streak of golden light suddenly flowed through the chat group.

Then a line of pale gray text appeared in the chat group.

【Great Ming's national fortune has received a stage-based boost. American crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and chili peppers have been arranged for merchants to deliver to Jin Ling in the 24th year of Hongwu. Group leader, please note and explore.】

Looking at this line of text in the chat group.

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows couldn't help but tighten.

Taizu Gao Emperor:

"Fourth, what the heck is this? You've ever heard of it?"

Chengzu Wen Emperor:

"I haven't heard of it either. These potatoes — beans from the soil?"

Emperor Sizong Lie:

"Great-grandpa, this should be an immortal item, right? Could it turn stone into gold?"

Zhu Yuanzhang studied the chat group, the corners of his mouth curving up despite himself.

Taizu Gao Emperor:

"Screw whatever the hell this thing is."

"Let's get it over here first, then talk."