Chapter 58: Yesen—If This Thing Doesn't Leave Soon, My Khanate Will Be Lost!

It took Esen a great deal of effort to bring Zhu Qizhen to the border of the Great Ming and send him back, but then... he seemed to have discovered a serious problem.

That was... the Great Ming seemed to have forgotten that they still had an emperor over here?

The gate-guarding soldiers, fearing that Zhu Qizhen was once again coming to shout open the gates, stubbornly ignored him entirely!

As a result, things became terribly awkward... This kid, damn it, couldn't go back...

Esen was completely dumbfounded... The damn thing was stuck in his hands!

Esen's younger brother was overjoyed. He threw his arms around Zhu Qizhen and laughed out loud, "Ha ha... Good brother, we can go hunting together again!"

"Come on... let's go back quickly, before they mistake you for one of us and shoot you to death. Little sister will be overjoyed when we get back!"

Zhu Qizhen was moved to tears. "Good brother... always in my heart. Let's walk back, I don't want to return to the Great Ming anymore!"

The two of them, riding horses one after the other, galloped back toward Esen's home...

Esen was completely stupefied, left standing alone, fluttering in the wind... He couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into loud wails...

"Oh Heavens! Oh Earth! What kind of sins did I commit in this lifetime?!"

That very night upon returning, this fellow slept with Esen's daughter... When Esen found out, his mind completely broke down beyond repair!

Beneath the heavenly canopy, everyone burst into laughter that sounded like squealing pigs.

First Emperor of Qin: "In all my half-life of ruling, I have never seen such a formidable plague of a human being!"

Emperor Wu of Han: "Hahahaha... Indeed... I'm even starting to grow a little fond of this kid..."

Emperor Taizong of Tang: "There must be something extraordinary about this fellow. His peerless popularity is truly unmatched!"

……

Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di let out long sighs of relief as they watched the thoroughly traumatized Esen.

No matter who suffered the scourge, as long as it wasn't his Great Ming, it was fine. It would be best if he stayed in Oirat for the rest of his life!

Meanwhile, the imagery upon the heavenly canopy shifted once more.

[The seizing of the gates]

The members of the Zhu family beneath the canopy felt a sudden, violent jolt in their hearts!

"Damn it, can't this brat just let our Great Ming go?" Zhu Yuanzhang was thoroughly defeated at this moment... defeated to the utmost extent!

He prayed for nothing else, only that this monstrosity would spare the Great Ming.

During the Chenghua era of the Great Ming.

At this moment, Zhu Jianshen's face was as dark and terrifying as could be when he saw those four bold characters on the canopy.

Seizing the gates... to put it nicely, it meant seizing the gates from his uncle; to put it bluntly, it meant his own biological father had personally snatched away his imperial throne!

Right, exactly like that. Originally, I could have ascended the throne ahead of time, but that shameless father of mine had to come out and act up again...

"Father, I ask you... why on earth must you be so unfilial?" With that, Zhu Jianshen kicked Zhu Qizhen's spirit tablet, smashing it into countless pieces.

……

Meanwhile, narration rang out across the heavenly canopy!

「Following the Defense of Beijing, Zhu Qiyu and Yu Qian heavily employed virtuous ministers such as Yu Qian and reformed the political system, giving the imperial court a completely fresh atmosphere.」

「At the same time, he strengthened centralized authority, exercising stricter control over the military, the appointment and dismissal of officials, and other domains, making the regime much more stable.」

「Although he fell short of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Renzong, he was still a hundred times better than Zhu Qizhen. And Yu Qian, single-handedly, forcefully prolonged the life of the Great Ming by hundreds of years!」

「At the beginning of his ascension, Zhu Qiyu was pushed onto the throne to stabilize the situation. At that time, he distantly honored Zhu Qizhen as the Grand Emperor Emeritus and established Zhu Qizhen's son, Zhu Jianshen, as the Crown Prince.」

「Later on, however, in order to have his own son inherit the imperial throne, Zhu Qiyu broke his promise without hesitation, deposed Zhu Jianshen, and designated his own son, Zhu Jianji, as the Crown Prince.」

Everyone beneath the canopy could understand this.

After all, who wouldn't want their own son to inherit the imperial throne?

The imperial household was always like this; for the sake of the throne, let alone a nephew, even a biological father could be pulled down from power.

What was a mere nephew compared to that?

「However, the monstrous Empress Sun was still alive, and Zhu Jianji was still in the inner palace... There were simply too many things this monstrous Empress Sun could do, such as getting rid of Zhu Jianji?」

「In the end, Zhu Jianji died prematurely in the inner palace. Moreover, from that time on, regardless of which concubine in Zhu Qiyu's inner palace became pregnant, they would inexplicably either suffer miscarriages or meet with sudden accidents.」

「As time passed, this became a lingering illness in Zhu Qiyu's heart!」

Emperor Wu of Han: "Dammit, if there's no shady black-box operation behind this, I'll eat my hat!"

Emperor Taizong of Tang: "He had sons and daughters when he was a vassal prince... yet he became heirless after becoming emperor... Think about it, chew on those details carefully!"

……

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di were practically seething with rage...

Veins bulged on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead, pushing him to the absolute brink of a breakdown.

"Damn it... what a vicious woman, she actually dares to cut off our Zhu family lineage! Truly deserving of death!"

The imperial physicians were frantically administering acupuncture until their hands grew sore, praying desperately in their hearts, "Your Majesty Hongwu, please be reasonable! We can simply stop watching this heavenly canopy! This old minister is truly terrified that you'll be angered to death!"

Zhu Di's situation over here was much the same as Zhu Yuanzhang's, both of them barely clinging to life with the aid of imperial physicians.

"Good... very good, excellent!"

"Eldest son, go... go tell the second one, I want this woman surnamed Sun to be reduced to ashes immediately, right now! Furthermore, I want her ten clans eradicated!"

"Eradicate ten clans!"

The entire imperial palace echoed with Zhu Di's roars, as decree after decree was dispatched from within the palace!

……

「Zhu Qiyu busied himself day and night with the grand undertaking of producing offspring, gradually exhausting his physical strength. Meanwhile, under the manipulation of the monstrous Empress Sun, the court situation grew unstable!」

「A faction of ministers claimed that Zhu Qiyu lacked the virtue and talent to occupy the imperial throne, which was why Heaven's punishment had struck down his son, sending him to the netherworld.」

「In the end, it was once again the monstrous Empress Sun who led several ministers in jointly submitting a memorial, demanding that Zhu Qizhen be welcomed back!」

「Can you believe that the entire court practically had not a single loyal partisan of Zhu Qiyu left? Even Yu Qian was loyal to the Great Ming and its people rather than to the emperor who had once regarded him like Bo Le discovering a steed. Ultimately, forced by utter helplessness, Zhu Qiyu had no choice but to welcome Zhu Qizhen back.」

At this moment, within the imagery on the heavenly canopy...

Zhu Qizhen looked back three times with every step he took, bidding farewell to his good brother!

Esen had grown a whole circle thinner... Heaven alone knew what he had endured over the past two years.

Seeing that Zhu Qizhen had finally walked far away, Esen wept with excitement... weeping straight from the bottom of his heart!

Beside him, Esen's younger brother patted Esen's shoulder to comfort him. "Elder brother, I never expected you to be so reluctant to part with our eldest brother... How about we bring eldest brother back to be our Khan again?"

Hearing these words, Esen spasmed violently and fainted on the spot!

*(Don't say another word, younger brother. If you say any more, I'll want to strangle you to death. How on earth did we deserve to possess such a Khan!)*

The welcomed-back Zhu Qizhen was honored by Zhu Qiyu as the Grand Emperor Emeritus and locked up in a dark little room.

At this sight, Zhu Di felt as though ten thousand mud-clod horses were stampeding across his heart.

"No... didn't you even think of letting some accident happen along the way?"

"Locked in a dark little room? What the hell is the point of locking him up... You should have welded the door shut directly... Welded it shut!"

Compared to Zhu Di's fury, Zhu Yuanzhang was much calmer by now, as long as this brat didn't stir up trouble.

He also understood Zhu Qiyu's helplessness; not a single person in the entire Great Ming stood on his side, and his military generals were basically all dead... In the inner palace was the monstrous Empress Sun, and in the court were a bunch of civil officials pointing fingers and ordering things around!

With the court severely unbalanced and imperial power difficult to control, he had no other choice.

Having been through all the previous events, the current Zhu Yuanzhang had actually grown much calmer!

"Oh Heavens... Send down a bolt of lightning to strike this pest dead."

……

*(Humbly begging once more for five-star book reviews! Dear patrons, please bestow some upon this child!!)*