92Chapter 92 Clouds Surge

After Mu Hanzhang left the court, he saw Jing Shao practicing sword in the East Garden, and there was no sign of Xiao Huang. After all, Xiao Huang was a tiger. Even if he had no backbone in front of them, he was still very fierce to outsiders, so Mu Hanzhang never allowed him to run outside the East Garden to play, so as not to hurt people.

When Jing Shao saw his princess coming back, he put away his sword and came over, looking up with his sweaty face waiting for his princess to wipe it.

"Where is Xiao Huang?" Mu Hanzhang took the cloth handed over by Zhixi and wiped his sweat resignedly.

"I don't know," Jing Shao squinted comfortably, "He doesn't want to play with me, probably ran to sleep somewhere."

Mu Hanzhang was a little worried, so he asked Yunzhu to look for him.

The two sat down on the couch under the corridor, and Miaoxi brought sour plum soup to relieve the heat.

"Why are you back so late today?" Jing Shao drank a whole bowl of sour plum soup, breathed a sigh of relief, and looked at the slender legs with greed. While talking, he rubbed over and quickly lay on them while Mu Hanzhang was not paying attention.

Mu Hanzhang put down the small bowl and saw a big head on his thigh. Maybe because he was bored at home these days, Jing Shao became more and more attached to him, and he would come up to kiss and touch him whenever he had time. Helplessly touching the top of his head, he sat back and made him lie more comfortably: "Father asked me to go to the imperial study to talk for a while."

Regarding the matter of opening up the sea trade, Emperor Hongzheng seemed very interested. A few days ago, Mu Hanzhang handed in the charter, and there was no movement for a long time. Unexpectedly, he suddenly called him today and discussed many details.

"It seems that father has indeed read your charter carefully." Jing Shao looked up at his beautiful chin.

"Well, maybe father has already planned this." Mu Hanzhang carefully recalled the expression of Emperor Hongzheng today, and seemed to be very interested in this. There are ports in Jiangnan where overseas ships dock. If I go to Jiangnan after a while, maybe I can try this kind of business first.

"Princess, it's not good!" Yunzhu ran in in a hurry.

"What's wrong?" Mu Hanzhang frowned. Yunzhu just went to find the tiger. Could it be that Xiao Huang got into trouble?

"I just asked for a long time and found out that Xiao Huang ran to the stable!" Yunzhu said breathlessly.

"What?" Jing Shao sat up immediately. Xiao Huang is now quite big. A roar might scare the docile horses in the stable. The horses in the palace are all famous horses. It would be heartbreaking to scare any of them to death.

The two hurriedly followed Yunzhu to the stable. The horse breeder stood outside the stable with a sad face, trembling with fear.

"What's going on? Where's the tiger?" Jing Shao asked him.

"In, in Xiao Hei's stable." The horse breeder was about to cry. He saw that the tiger was so scared that he couldn't move, and watched it get into Xiao Hei's exclusive stable.

Because Xiao Hei is the prince's favorite horse, he has always been placed alone. His stable is much more spacious than other horses, and two exquisite low walls are built. The reins are also tied very long to ensure that he can move freely in the entire stable.

Mu Hanzhang raised his feet and walked towards Xiao Hei's stable. Jing Shao was relieved after hearing this and followed his princess in slowly.

The stable was very clean, with soft hay on the ground, fresh hay in the trough, and a bamboo pole built on the trough. A stream of clear water flowed in continuously, and the excess would be caught by the outer trough and discharged directly outside the stable. The whole stable was very clean, probably because it was cleaned several times a day, and there was no smell of horse manure at all.

Xiao Hei was curled up on the haystack, swinging his tail boredly, and a furry half-grown tiger was curled up beside him, holding a horse hoof and sleeping on his back.

Everyone was silent for a while.

Xiao Hei was very happy to see his master coming. He stood up immediately, thinking that Jing Shao was going to take him out to play.

Jing Shao was speechless when he saw this scene. He knew that Xiao Hei was born abnormal. He could not only avoid obstacles by himself, but also face wild beasts without fear. No matter what happened on the battlefield, he had never seen him get scared. Xiao Huang ate a full meal every time, so he naturally would not attack Xiao Hei. So he was not worried at all. But it was beyond his cognition that a horse could sleep on the same bed with a tiger.

Xiao Huang's pillow suddenly disappeared. He got up in a daze, shook his head a little unwillingly, turned around and saw Mu Hanzhang, and ran to him and rubbed around.

It happened to be noon at this time. Because Xiao Hei's stable was not easy to serve, the servants who raised horses took turns for half a day. The servants on duty in the afternoon came to change shifts and found that there were many people around the stable today. They thought something had happened to Xiao Hei and ran over to see in a hurry. After finding out what was going on, the man said boldly, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. This tiger cub often comes to the stable to play with Xiao Hei, and they have become friends for a long time."

It turned out that Xiao Huang couldn't find a suitable playmate in the palace. Once, he sneaked out and got into the stable. He jumped onto the trough to scratch Xiao Hei's mane, but Xiao Hei blew hot air on his face, which scared him so much that he almost fell down. Later, he found that Xiao Hei was the only living thing in the palace that was not afraid of him. In the afternoon, he often came to play with Xiao Hei.

"Wow!" Seeing that his master ignored him, Xiao Huang ran back to Xiao Hei to catch the tail that was swinging back and forth. Xiao Hei was anxious to go out to play, so he stamped his feet and turned back to blew hot air on his face, which only blew a small curl out of the hair on his head.

Xiao Huang usually came to the stable in the afternoon, but today he came in the morning, which caused everyone to toss and turn. Mu Hanzhang looked at Jing Shao. This guy must have bullied the tiger so much that he forced the little guy to escape to the stable.

Jing Shao looked away with a guilty look: "It's not my fault, I was just bored and played with it for a while."

Mu Hanzhang sighed. He had been raised in the inner house since he was a child. It was okay for him to stay in the palace for ten days or half a month without going out. Writing and reading books could also kill time, but Jing Shao was different. It was really unfair for him to be locked up in the palace: "I have already told my father that this regulation needs to be drafted in detail. My father has exempted me from other tasks. I will come back after the court."

"Really?" Jing Shao was immediately happy when he heard it. When he was not in the court, Emperor Hongzheng actually let Mu Hanzhang take over the affairs of the Ministry of War. His own princess was a serious person. She often came back from the court to have lunch and then went to the Ministry of War for an afternoon. Now, as long as he went to the court, he would take a nap in the morning and see him when he opened his eyes.

Seeing that he was happy, Mu Hanzhang also curled his lips. There was another reason why he didn't interfere in the government affairs. Because the Emperor discovered that the King of Huainan had secretly entered the capital, he issued an edict to reprimand him but received no response. The King of Huainan was like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water, which made Emperor Hongzheng furious. The tone of the imperial letters became more and more severe, and it seemed that the withdrawal of the vassal state was not far away.

As for Gu Huaiqing's previous contact with Jing Shao in the capital, Emperor Hongzheng still seemed to be unable to let it go. He discussed with Jingchen to avoid this storm, so he should try to avoid sensitive places such as the Ministry of War.

Of course, for Jing Shao, this is really a good thing.

In a blink of an eye, it was July, the weather was getting hotter, and the situation in the court was getting more and more tense. Jiangnan was very important to Jing Shao and others, and the Fourth Prince had also set his sights on this "opportunity to make merit" early. The decree to withdraw the vassal state had not yet been issued, and the two sides had been struggling. As Jing Shao had not been released yet, the situation seemed to be very favorable to the Fourth Prince.

At the same time, Qiu was about to give birth.

"I heard that the young prince of the Rui Palace is sick again. Have you visited him?" Qiu took the fresh fruit handed over by her son and asked with some concern.

Mu Hanzhang is a man, and there are many rules in the royal family. Qiu has always been worried that her son will not handle it well and hurt the harmony between the sisters-in-law.

"How did mother know this?" Mu Hanzhang frowned. It is taboo to tell everyone when an underage child is sick. With the temperament of Princess Rui, she naturally would not want others to know. Mother stays at home every day, how could she know these?

"The third lady went to Biyun Temple to burn incense. Master Mo Bei was not there. I heard from the little nun that she went to the Rui Palace again." Qiu sighed. It is not easy to raise a child. If the child is healthy, it is fine. If he is often sick, it always makes people worry. But Princess Rui is too partial to that nun Mo Bei now, which is not a good thing.

Mo Bei coaxed Princess Rui to light 49 ever-burning lamps in Biyun Temple. The money for the lamp wicks was 49 taels of silver per month. Every time the Third Lady came back from burning incense, she would sigh for a long time.

"The child is still young, I'm afraid it will cause trouble if I go there," Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips, "Besides, there are so many things in the court, and the prince is under house arrest, so it's not easy for me to go to the Rui Palace."

A few days ago, the old nun calculated that the one who was incompatible with Xiao Si was the illegitimate son who was only a few days older than him, so Princess Rui said she wanted to send the illegitimate son to another courtyard to raise him. Jing Chen was very angry when he knew about it, saying that she was bewitched, but the princess was smart. She knelt in front of Prince Rui and said that she wanted to take the child to another courtyard. Now she has lived there for more than a month.

Qiu frowned when she heard it: "Then don't go for the time being." Now that the illegitimate son is not here and Xiao Si has a fever again, I don't know who to blame, so it's better not to cause trouble.

Mu Hanzhang advised her not to always worry about these things. He was very careful about his mother's health. After all, she was old and childbirth was a bit dangerous, so he spent a lot of money to hire a famous midwife, who lived in Beiwei Marquis's mansion. Doctor Jiang's pulse diagnosis was changed from once every seven days to once every three days to prevent any accidents.

The women in Beiwei Marquis's mansion were all shocked, lamenting that having a son of a marquis was different. Even if the wife of Beiwei Marquis was pregnant, she had never been taken care of so carefully.

In mid-July, the court and the King of Huainan finally broke up. Emperor Hongzheng ordered the withdrawal of the vassal state, but Gu Huaiqing directly blocked the envoy who was announcing the imperial edict outside the city gate, and asked him to announce the imperial edict under the city gate. He immediately announced that he was disobeying the imperial edict, which scared the envoy so much that he turned his horse around and ran away.

Emperor Hongzheng was furious and decided to send troops to attack Huainan.