I

Nanjing, Forbidden City, Qinzheng Hall.

The table where the emperor usually worked was now moved aside.

Zhao Han sat on the throne with a calm expression and looked forward.

In front of him are four painters.

There is a painter named Zhu Mounai, a descendant of King Ning. Standing next to him is his nephew Zhu Tong (钅采). The character (酅采) is difficult to write and read, so let's call him Zhu Da.

Another painter named Li Zhicheng, an Italian, stood next to his Chinese apprentice.

Both of them were wielding their paintbrushes, while their nephews and apprentices helped.

After some time, Zhu Mounao took the lead and said: "Your Majesty, please read a book." After saying this, he raised his eyebrows at the Italian in a provocative manner.

Li Zhicheng also said: "Your Majesty, please help yourself."

The table was not brought back, and the painters still needed to perfect the details of the clothes. Zhao Han just didn't need to pose anymore, he could just sit there and read by himself.

They continued to paint until noon, and neither of them had finished the painting, but they all chose to quit so that the rest could be completed elsewhere.

Two days later, Zhu Mou'an came first to hand in a task, which was a traditional portrait painting called "The Royal Appearance of the First Emperor of the Republic of China".

After Zhao Han finished it here, Zhu Mounao went to paint portraits of the concubines, while Italian Li Zhicheng was still slowly tinkering. This foreign devil painted oil paintings, applying oil layer by layer. It took him half a month to finish in a month or two. After all, he was very serious about painting the emperor's portrait.

When the news of the victory in the Nanyang naval battle came back, Li Zhicheng finally finished the painting and presented the oil painting to the emperor.

Zhu Mounai and Zhu Da's uncle and nephew came to watch the foreign devils' jokes. They had finished painting all the portraits of the concubines, and the foreign devils had just finished the first one.

Zhao Han compared the two portraits, each had its own merits, and said, "You should also take a look."

Zhu Mou and his nephew bowed to take the oil painting from the female officer's hand. At first he was disdainful, but soon he began to examine it carefully because the light and shadow effects of the oil painting interested him very much.

"How?" Zhao Han asked.

Zhu Mounao said: "Reporting to your Majesty, this Western oil painting also has merits."

Zhao Han said: "You can learn from each other, and maybe you can combine Chinese and Western styles to create a new painting method."

Historically, it was Castiglione who combined Chinese and Western styles.

"According to the order!"

The two painters bowed at the same time.

Zhao Han said: "There is a new painting hall at the Hanlin Academy. You all can go into the painting hall and become bachelors."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The two of them were overjoyed.

Emperors of all dynasties have always maintained royal painters. Zhao Han didn't plan to keep him in the Forbidden City and throw him away to the Hanlin Academy, and he wouldn't lose the salary of those painters.

Zhao Han waved and said, "Zhu Da, come here."

Zhu Da's identity is the heir apparent of Prince Yiyang. If the Ming Dynasty is not destroyed, he will be able to be a well-dressed and well-fed county king.

When the Datong army captured Yiyang, his father was so frightened that he almost hanged himself. Later, after a public trial, it was discovered that several generations of Yiyang kings were all obsessed with poetry, painting and art, and did not care about other things. The evildoers were all the palace officials.

As a result, King Yiyang and his family were not punished, but their fields were collected.

Even the palace was kept, just take off the plaque, and only the garden villa was confiscated. King Yiyang also reciprocated the favor and took the initiative to donate money and food to help the Datong army pacify the eastern Jiangxi area.

King Yiyang died of illness four years ago, and Zhu Da followed his uncle to Nanjing for three years.

He even changed his name. He no longer used the Ming Dynasty clan name and changed it directly to the current Zhu Da.

Upon hearing the emperor's call, Zhu Da quickly stepped forward: "The grassroots are here."

Zhao Han said: "You are not yet 30 years old. If you are interested in an official career, you can return to Jiangxi to participate in next year's provincial examination."

Zhu Da said: "Your Majesty, the common people are not the scholars of the previous dynasty and are not qualified to participate in the provincial examination."

Zhao Han smiled and said, "I have granted permission."

Seeing that his nephew was stunned and didn't speak, Zhu Mounao quickly urged: "You still don't thank me!"

Zhu Da said, "Your Majesty, the common people are obsessed with painting and have no intention of pursuing an official career. The common people... want to enter the Hanlin Academy Painting Hall."

Zhao Han nodded and said, "That's right."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhu Da became happy.

When he was more than ten years old, Zhu Da had resentment against the new dynasty of Datong. But now I have figured out everything. Except for those Ming Dynasty clans in Jiangxi who were executed for heinous crimes, which one is not luckier than the clans in other provinces?

Look at what happened to those princes in the north when they encountered rogue bandits.

The painters left the palace, really intending to go back to practice painting skills, and then come up with a combination of Chinese and Western painting methods - the emperor's casual words, everyone below must take it seriously.

Zhu Da was walking on the street when he suddenly heard cheers from in front of him.

Then the sound of horse hooves came from far and near, and a postman came galloping on horseback, shouting along the way: "Great naval victory, great naval victory. I, the officers of the Datong Navy, defeated the Spanish Dutch fleet in Nanyang and captured more than ten warships, large and small. Peace in the South China Sea Tranquility, tranquility in the South China Sea..."

Zhu Da said happily: "We have won another battle. Our army is truly invincible."

Li Zhicheng, an Italian, also gloated: "Well done, Holland should have been taught a lesson long ago!"

The Netherlands is really disgusting. Not only does it dominate the North Sea trade, it also often wanders around the Mediterranean. Italian businessmen have always been in a long-term competitive relationship with Dutch businessmen - they were all tricked by the Spanish royal family. Spain declared bankruptcy several times, causing a large number of Dutch and Italian businessmen to go bankrupt.

The victory was being celebrated on the street, and news of the victory soon reached Jinling University.

Zhu Cijiong, the third prince of the former Ming Dynasty, celebrated happily with his classmates. He was only a few years old when he left Beijing, but he has more memories in Nanjing and has long been accustomed to his current identity.

A female student walked up to him, frowning a little.

Zhu Cijiong smiled and said: "Xiaomei, the navy has won!"

Gu Xiaomei bit her lip and said nothing.

Zhu Cijiong asked: "What's wrong with you?"

After hesitating for a long time, Gu Xiaomei said with difficulty: "Father wrote a letter saying he doesn't agree with our marriage."

Zhu Cijiong froze on the spot, then smiled bitterly: "I know."

Zhu Cijiong skipped class that day, bought a bottle of wine on the way, and got drunk when he got home.

In the evening, Zhu Ailao was the first to come back, and she smelled the smell of alcohol as soon as she entered the house. Then he saw his younger brother lying on the table, already asleep, so he had to get some clothes and put them on him.

It was almost dark, and brothers and sisters came back one after another.

Zhu Cihong, the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, is now an official in Jiangning County. His job evaluation is pretty good, and he is expected to be promoted to county magistrate in another year or two. After all, he studied at Jinling University (a self-financed student borrowed tuition from the emperor, and stopped studying without getting a diploma) .

Zhu Cihong chose to drop out of college because he was in a bad mood.

His classmates knew his identity and treated him like a monkey. They were always careful to avoid suspicion and had no close friends at all, which made him feel very awkward.

"Third brother, what's wrong?" Zhu Cixiang asked.

After waking up, the drunkenness dissipated a lot. Zhu Cijiong shook his head: "It's nothing. I'm in a bad mood. Let's drink some wine to relieve the boredom."

"Third brother, have you been bullied?" Zhu Cizheng asked.

Zhu Cijiong smiled bitterly: "The marriage fell through because Xiaomei's family did not agree."

As soon as this was said, everyone fell silent.

The eldest brother Zhu Cixiang is twenty years old and has not married yet. They once said that the two marriages were going well, but when they heard that he was a former mentaiko, the girl's parents immediately changed their expressions.

If they get married to ordinary people, there is probably some hope.

But they all have high standards, and the women all have status. Even if the family is not an official, at least they are relatively wealthy. How could a family that was either rich or noble dare to marry the prince of the previous dynasty? If something goes wrong one day, the family may be confiscated and the family exterminated.

Zhu Cixi comforted him: "Don't be discouraged, there are better families."

Zhu Yuluo suddenly said: "It's better to find an ordinary family."

Zhu Cixiang smiled and said: "To be honest, I have asked a matchmaker to find one. The woman who runs a grocery store by Xuanwu Lake outside the city has no prominent status and is not very beautiful, but the woman has studied in elementary school for three years and can also write A girl who knows how to calculate. The matchmaker said that the woman’s elders won’t dislike us. Once the birth date is correct and we choose a good time, we can go over and propose marriage. "

"Congratulations, brother!"

The younger brothers and sisters quickly congratulated each other that the eldest brother's marriage was finally settled.

Zhu Cixiang said: "Third brother, why don't you find a matchmaker to help you find one?"

Zhu Cijiong was still thinking about his lover, and said half-heartedly, "Let's wait until we graduate from college." Then he turned the conversation to Zhu Ainao, "My sister is already nineteen years old. It's time to find a house for her."

Zhu Ainao said angrily: "Don't mention me, I'm just a sister-in-law."

The former princess also had high vision and did not want to marry an ordinary person. But who among the promising young men would have the guts to marry her?

Zhu Cizheng said: "How about I go and beg my mother?"

Zhu Cizheng's biological mother is Tian Xiuying, but according to the rules of the previous dynasty, she can only be called aunt. Now, his biological mother has become a concubine again, but in order to avoid suspicion, she rarely enters the palace to see her.

Zhu Cizheng said: "It's better not to trouble Auntie, for fear of making His Majesty unhappy."

But Zhu Cijiong seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw: "Your Majesty is so merciful that you won't blame me, just this once. I'm not trying to embarrass my aunt, I'm just trying to say a few nice words to see if I can ask your Majesty for a marriage."

Zhu Cixiang thought about it and felt that procrastination was not the answer.

He was not afraid of annoying the emperor, but he didn't want to be helped by the emperor anymore. As he grew older, the former prince became more sensible and had a very complicated view of Zhao Han. There is resentment, there is gratitude, all kinds of emotions are mixed together, and I don't want to get involved with the emperor anymore.

But it was impossible not to be involved. Before he started working, he moved out with his brothers and sisters.

The house was gifted by the emperor, living expenses were borrowed from the emperor, and tuition fees after middle school were also borrowed from the emperor. Although the emperor would definitely not urge them to repay their debts and could just refuse, the Zhu brothers and sisters kept it in mind.

They even dared not take the initiative to request to move to another place for fear of provoking unnecessary associations with the emperor.

After hesitating for a long time, Zhu Cihong said: "There is no need to ask Concubine Tian. I will go and see Your Majesty myself tomorrow."

The next day, Zhu Cihong went to the Imperial City and took out the badge given to him by the emperor. Immediately, the Imperial City guards went to report it. The reply was also very quick, and the emperor asked them to go to the imperial garden to have an audience with the brother and sister two days later.