Chapter 13: The Battle for Succession
Chapter 13: The Battle for Succession
After staying in Chaotian Temple for half a day, Zhu Zaigui finally left with satisfaction.
Lan Daoxing's "Xiantian Gong" really has miraculous effects. After trying it a few times, I felt warm all over, as if I was soaking in a hot spring. All the fatigue in my body was swept away, and replaced by a vibrant spirit.
This comfortable feeling also made Zhu Zaigui more confident that if he continued to practice in this way, it would be just a matter of time before his current body turned from a loss to a profit!
Of course, Zhu Zaigui would not pin all his hopes on this Taoist method of training.
Zhu Zaigui believed that no matter how powerful the Taoist training method was, it was just an auxiliary skill to strengthen the body.
If you really want to keep your body healthy, you still need a normal diet and a happy mood as the basis.
Otherwise, no matter how advanced the training method is, it will be useless if you live a life of poor diet and depression!
After all, people are people. It is impossible for them to survive by eating wind and drinking dew, and by having a so-called transcendent mentality of not being happy or sad because of things.
Since people live in this troubled world, they are bound to encounter all kinds of problems, calculations and human hearts.
The so-called transcendence is nothing more than the sublimation of one's state of mind after one's status and position has reached a certain level.
People who can produce such an elevated state of mind are most likely either of high status or have no worries about food and clothing.
Without these two foundations, even if a god descends to the earth, he will have to go back crying: this world is too hard and he will never come back again.
Now Zhu Zaigui has both of these foundations. In terms of status and identity, he is the son of Emperor Jiajing, and in terms of living conditions, he is treated like a prince of the Ming Dynasty.
As long as Zhu Zaigui could think open-mindedly and clearly, and not be frightened by the lofty and cold attitude of Emperor Jiajing, and just eat, drink and play as usual, there is no reason why Zhu Zaigui would not live a long life unless he met with a sudden disaster.
Looking at the energetic Zhu Zaigui, Lan Daoxing was also shocked by Zhu Zaigui's talent for cultivation. If it weren't for Zhu Zaigui's identity as the son of Emperor Jiajing, he would have been unable to resist the urge to accept him as his disciple.
Lan Daoxing said: "Since the prince is not ill, I will not allow him to stay in the temple any longer, lest he be taken advantage of by someone with ulterior motives."
Zhu Zaiyi immediately understood what Lan Daoxing meant, and he quickly returned the greeting, first thanking him: "Thank you for your teachings, Taoist priest. I will remember your kindness in my heart and will repay you generously in the future." Then, Zhu Zaiyi formally said: "I will take my leave and will not disturb your cultivation."
Lan Daoxing performed a Taoist ritual to send Zhu Zaigui off.
Zhu Zaigui did not stay any longer. He took Meng Chong and left Lan Daoxing's courtyard and walked straight out of Chaotian Temple.
The reason why Zhu Zaigui left so decisively was also because of Lan Daoxing's identity.
Zhu Zaigui was very clear that Lan Daoxing would become a wise and virtuous person trusted by Emperor Jiajing in the future. Emperor Jiajing was also extremely intelligent and his heart was unpredictable. If he had too close contact with Lan Daoxing, it would not only affect Lan Daoxing's weight in Emperor Jiajing's heart, but would also affect the scholars of the world who already supported the law of succession in accordance with the order of seniority.
Therefore, in order to have a leisurely and comfortable life in the future, Zhu Zaigui must not have too much contact with people trusted by Emperor Jiajing, so as not to arouse the emperor's suspicion.
After all, the royal family is ruthless. The relationship between the emperor and his son, in addition to that between father and son, is also that between monarch and subject, and a competitive relationship in which they can replace each other.
Faced with such a complicated parent-child relationship, when their power is threatened, many emperor fathers will not hesitate to turn their butcher knives against their sons in order to consolidate their power.
Although the crown prince is dead now, Zhu Zaigui is still not the only child of Emperor Jiajing. He has a younger brother of the same age.
Only this younger brother existed, and facing Emperor Jiajing, who had an almost perverted obsession with power, Zhu Zaigui had to be extremely careful.
Otherwise, God knows whether Emperor Jiajing would use his own children as chess pieces in order to maintain his power.
Since he didn't want to be the hated or abandoned chess piece, what Zhu Zaigui had to do now was to stick to his duty and live a happy and blissful life as a prince of the Ming Dynasty like a pig, and not take the initiative to participate in the political struggles of the Ming Dynasty.
As for those who wanted to use his name to engage in political struggle, Zhu Zaigui only needed to pretend that he didn't see or know anything and just wait for his victory.
Meng Chong followed Zhu Zaiqi carefully and quickly. He was still a little uneasy at the moment. Although Lan Daoxing said that Zhu Zaiqi was fine and had not lost his soul.
However, as an old man who had followed Zhu Zaigui for ten years, Meng Chong could still keenly feel the changes in Zhu Zaigui that were different from before.
In the past, Zhu Zaigui had a gentle personality and was taciturn. Although he occasionally had a temper, most of the time, his temper came and went quickly, like a deflated ball, without any power at all.
But Zhu Zaigui's performance today surprised Meng Chong. First, he talked nonsense as if he had lost his soul, and then he lost his temper and threatened the immortal in Chaotian Temple to teach him the Dharma.
These two performances clearly show that Prince Yu has changed.
However, as a servant, no matter how much his master's temperament changed, he dared not say a word, and could only attribute Zhu Zaigui's current changes to the fact that his own prince had "come to his senses".
Apart from this, Meng Chong had no other explanation, nor did he dare to have any other explanation.
Therefore, as a slave, Meng Chong was undoubtedly the most qualified one, which also laid a solid foundation for his future success.
Just as Zhu Zaigui and Meng Chong were quietly returning to Prince Yu's Mansion in a small carriage, Lan Daoxing was also writing a memorial to the emperor regarding Prince Yu's illness.
Taoist priests writing memorials was also a major feature of the Jiajing period.
During the reign of Emperor Jiajing, he also classified the memorials from officials.
Memorials written by normal officials are called "previous dynasty" memorials; memorials written by Taoist officials are called "later dynasty" memorials.
Moreover, the memorials written by the Taoists were not archived or made public, but were sent directly to Emperor Jiajing for his personal review.
Therefore, in form, the Taoists' memorials are more like secret memorials.
However, there were only a few Taoists who could deliver memorials to the "later dynasty", and Lan Daoxing, who was recommended by Xu Jie, just happened to have such qualifications.
Therefore, Lan Daoxing naturally took advantage of this opportunity to make a secret report to the emperor and wrote down the fact that Prince Yu was not suffering from amnesia and sent it to the emperor.
Under normal circumstances, Lan Daoxing would never have written such a memorial to the "later dynasty".
The reason why Emperor Jiajing gave Taoists the privilege of writing memorials for the "later dynasty" was also for the purpose of practicing.
If it weren't for the problems in their cultivation, these Taoists would have written memorials when they had nothing else to do, and the consequences could have been very serious.
After all, Emperor Jiajing's main job was to cultivate himself to become an immortal. How could he have so much free time to read the memorials from the "later dynasty" sent by the Taoist priests?
If the memorials written by these privileged "later dynasties" did not conform to the wishes of Emperor Jiajing, their fate would naturally be predictable.
Therefore, these Taoists who were able to write memorials to the "later dynasty" were also extremely cautious when writing each memorial to the "later dynasty".
After Lan Daoxing finished writing this memorial to the "later dynasty", he sealed it with a Daojian, which represented his identity.
Then Lan Daoxing wrote another secret letter to Xu Jie, conveying his positive words about Zhu Zaigui in the form of secret words.
It can be said that from the moment the Crown Prince Zhu Zaigang passed away, the tide of fighting for the throne surged again in the Jiajing Dynasty.
However, the protagonists in this fight for the throne were not the sons of Emperor Jiajing, but the Qingliu headed by Xu Jie, and the Yan Party headed by Yan Song and Yan Shifan.
(End of this chapter)