Reborn After Widowhood

Chapter 70

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While Chen Tingjian was still talking to Emperor Jingshun, Chen Bochong and Chen Jingzong left the imperial study first.

The palace is not a place for heart-to-heart talks. Even though Chen Bochong had a lot to ask his brother, he could only hold it in for the time being.

After walking a distance, Chen Jingzong said to him, "I just received the assignment of the Daxing Left Guard. I will live directly in the guardhouse when I get there. Please tell my mother for me."

Chen Bozong: "You're in such a rush, just for this one night? Go home first tonight, my father will definitely have something to ask you."

Chen Jingzong: "I have nothing to say to him. Forget it. Fugui will have to go back to pack my things later. I'll ask him to inform mother."

After saying that, he quickened his pace and left.

There was no way Chen Bochong could catch up with the speed of a military officer, unless he walked as fast as his brother. However, as a civil official, he should walk at a moderate pace except when faced with emergencies.

Chen Bochong could only watch his brother walk further and further away.

.

Chen Tingjian returned to the cabinet and was very busy for the whole morning. However, no matter how busy he was, he still held the official position of the Prince's Grand Tutor.

In the afternoon, Chen Tingjian took half an hour to come to the East Palace to teach the prince.

This was also the first time Chen Tingjian met the prince alone after returning to Beijing.

The prince sat in the East Palace Academy in a very proper manner. When he saw Chen Tingjian, he stood up in a very proper manner and saluted: "Disciple greets you, sir."

Chen Tingjian looked pleased, he felt that the prince in the palace was much more sensible than his own fourth son when he was a child.

Chen Tingjian had four sons. The first three were taught in the ancestral home in Lingzhou, and he was not able to supervise them personally. When he finally settled down in the capital and could afford a large house to accommodate all his family members and bring his mother, wife, children and brothers over, the third son was already eight years old, and the fourth son was just three years old, the same age as the little prince when he first taught the prince. Therefore, Chen Tingjian always used to compare the performance of the fourth son with that of the prince when he was young.

Chen Tingjian always felt that among his four sons, the fourth son had the best fate. He could stay with him at a very young age and receive personal instruction from his father. The three older brothers unfortunately missed out on a few years of this.

It is also because of this that Chen Tingjian has always believed that the fourth son, who received the most teaching and guidance from him, will definitely become the best among his sons!

Chen Tingjian poured all the fatherly love that he failed to give to his first three sons into the fourth son!

How could he have expected that his three sons, whom he had never personally taught and enlightened, would all be intelligent, well-mannered, and would easily achieve the titles of scholar and juren. But the fourth son was rebellious. As he grew older, he became less and less interested in studying. He would climb up the walls and tear off the tiles every day. It was useless to have the servants watch him. He would always sneak out by climbing over the wall or crawling through a dog hole, and would not return home until dark!

Chen Tingjian had to worry about government affairs during the day and was upset by his son when he got home at night, which exhausted him mentally and physically. His wife doted on the fourth son and refused to discipline him strictly with him. Chen Tingjian had no choice but to let go and let the fourth son learn martial arts.

The fourth son took Master Wu back to the ancestral home, and within a few years, Chen Tingjian began to serve as the prince's master.

When Chen Tingjian saw the three-year-old prince for the first time, he felt as if he saw the three-year-old fourth child who had just arrived in Beijing.

At that moment, Chen Tingjian secretly vowed that he must teach the prince well and must not let the prince become the second Fourth Prince.

The prince's polite behavior at this time also proved that it was not his teaching method that was problematic, but that the fourth child was unruly and stubborn!

After returning the greeting, Chen Tingjian sat down, stroked his beard, and first asked the prince about the progress of his studies.

After all, it was a long-awaited reunion, and the prince found Chen Tingjian interesting and answered all his questions seriously.

This class was mainly about reviewing old knowledge and learning new things. The relationship between teacher and student was harmonious. At the end of the class, Chen Tingjian took out two carefully bound books from the bookcase he brought with him, and said to the prince with a gentle smile: "This is a set of books that I compiled when I was in Lingzhou, named "Imperial Mirror Illustrated Explanation". Now I give it to Your Highness. I hope Your Highness likes it."

The prince came over, took the books, and handed one to the eunuch Cao Li, who was beside him, and he opened the top one.

As he watched, the prince's eyes lit up!

Chen Tingjian said: "Starting tomorrow, I will explain one imperial case to Your Highness every day."

The prince was very happy, and once he was happy, he lost his reserve and asked with concern: "I heard from my sister that you were ill in Lingzhou, but fortunately you were cured by Doctor Li. I wonder if you have fully recovered now?"

The smile on Chen Tingjian's lips was slightly stiff, but fortunately it was hidden by his beard: "Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I am fine now."

The Crown Prince: "That's good, sir, please take good care of yourself. The cabinet still relies on you to share the worries of the emperor."

Chen Tingjian nodded, bowed and left.

The prince rested for a while, attended martial arts class for half an hour, and then took the two volumes of "The Emperor's Mirror Illustrations" to go to Qifeng Palace to find his sister.

It was midsummer, and Huayang saw his younger brother sweating profusely after walking all the way, with his little face red from practicing martial arts. He first asked Chaoyun and Chaoyue to bring water to help his younger brother wash his face.

While the prince was washing his face, Huayang flipped through the book his brother brought.

She had seen this set of "Imperial Mirror Illustrations" in her previous life, and it was also brought by her younger brother. But before her younger brother showed off, she didn't know that her father-in-law had compiled a book while in mourning.

The first part of "The Illustrated Book of the Emperor" collects 81 wise deeds of 23 emperors in history, while the second part lists 36 bad deeds of 20 incompetent emperors.

My father-in-law uses short, easy-to-understand words, and he cleverly provides a simple picture for each story, making the characters vivid and interesting.

My younger brother and father both liked this set of books very much, and ordered the Imperial Household Department to print it widely. Huayang also collected a set.

"Sister, has Elder Chen shown you this book?"

After cleaning up, the prince sat next to Huayang and said excitedly that he liked the simple pictures, which were much more interesting than books full of words.

Huayang smiled and said, "This is something that the elder gave to me specially. I have never seen it before."

The prince couldn't put down his new gift.

Hua Yang accompanied his brother to watch the vivid portraits of emperors and ministers. Hua Yang recalled: "Two years ago, on the birthday of the Prince Consort, Chen Bozong and Chen Xiaozong sent calligraphy and paintings as gifts. Today, when I saw the calligraphy of the elder, I finally understood where the two husbands got their talents from."

The prince often looked at Chen Tingjian's calligraphy, and followed his sister's question and asked, "Did the elder send a gift to the prince consort on his birthday?"

In the past, Chen Tingjian would give him gifts on his birthday.

Huayang: "It's been a long time since we last saw them. Elder Chen is a strict father. Since the prince consort and his brothers were ten years old, their family has not specially celebrated their birthdays."

The prince understood, looked at the book in his hand again, and said to himself, "I wonder how long it took him to compile this book."

The prince first sympathized with his sister, and then the image of Chen Tingjian blowing air into his palms while lowering his head to continue editing a book emerged in his mind.

Although Chen Tingjian was strict, he was still very nice to him.

Huayang suddenly helped his brother close the book and said with a smile, "Leave the book for later. Let's go to mother's place for dinner first."

The prince then took the gift to Fengyi Palace.

Emperor Jingshun was also there. He had read the books from Chen Tingjian in advance. Seeing that the prince liked them, he was very happy.

Emperors were urged by their ministers to be wise rulers. In fact, any emperor would get tired of hearing that. For example, Emperor Jingshun knew that being a wise ruler would be praised by the court officials and the people. However, he had to attend the morning court every day, review every memorial himself, and was not allowed to linger in the harem. That kind of life was not comfortable at all. On the other hand, although Emperor Jingshun did not want to work hard to be a wise ruler, he hoped that his son could grow up to be a wise ruler. After all, it was his son who was working hard, not him.

After chatting about books, Emperor Jingshun said to his daughter, "I met my husband this morning. He gave up his easy job as a guard and asked me for the job of commander of the Left Guard of Daxing, saying that he wanted to train soldiers for me."

Afraid that Empress Qi, his daughter and son might not understand, Emperor Jingshun also explained why Daxing Zuowei always came last in the competitions every year.

Huayang looked surprised.

In fact, in their previous life, after they returned to Beijing from Lingzhou, Chen Jingzong also went to Daxing Zuowei.

At that time, the couple had a bad relationship. Chen Jingzong lived in the guard post of Daxing Zuowei most of the time. Only during the monthly rest period or during festivals would Chen Jingzong return to Chen's home. Time passed quickly. In May of the following year, his father passed away. In June, Prince Yu rebelled. Chen Jingzong followed the army to suppress the rebellion and never returned.

Huayang suddenly realized that she couldn't recall all this at all. Every time she thought of Chen Jingzong's untimely death, she would feel sad, soft-hearted, and a little regretful.

Why didn't she treat him better in her previous life

The scene made Huayang sad, and he more or less revealed some of his emotions.

The prince misunderstood and asked, "Sister, are you worried that your husband will also be at the bottom this year, and you will be embarrassed as well?"

Huayang: …

She was amused by her brother's simple guess. Seeing that her father and mother also misunderstood that she was afraid of this, she smiled bitterly and said, "It is a little bit."

Emperor Jingshun: "This is easy. Every year, I randomly select soldiers from the list of soldiers submitted to me. When the time comes, you can ask the prince consort to write down the names of the ten most outstanding soldiers in his garrison. I will help him secretly. Even if he can't get into the top three, he won't be at the bottom at least."

Huayang smiled and said, "Father is really good to me, but I don't want to win unfairly. With the temper of the prince consort, he will never agree to do so. Forget it, since he dares to ask you for this job, let him do it. If he still comes in last, he will be embarrassed, not me."

Emperor Jingshun: "Based on his performance in Lingzhou Guard, I still have confidence in my son-in-law."

Empress Qi sighed, "I hope your husband won't disappoint you. He is still too young and impatient."

Huayang picked up the food silently.

Chen Jingzong was not impatient, he really didn't want to eat for free in the Jinyiwei. He would rather take the risk of being ridiculed by everyone and do something practical for the court.

If he was unwilling to curry favor with her, a princess, how could he be willing to just be the fourth son of Lord Chen and the consort of Princess Huayang in the eyes of others, wasting his time and achieving nothing

His bones are harder than rocks! .

Huayang stayed in the palace for nearly half a month. On the morning of June 29, Huayang sent Wu Run to Daxing Zuowei to inform Chen Jingzong that she would be leaving the palace the next day, and asked Chen Jingzong to remember to go to the palace to pay respects to his father and mother, and to take her back to the Chen family.

She could also go back by herself, but she wanted Chen Jingzong to pick her up, as this was in keeping with her dignity as a princess.

When Wu Run arrived at Daxing Zuowei, Chen Jingzong was training soldiers with his bare chest in the drill ground.

As Chen Tingjian said, the soldiers of the 26 guards in the capital were all strong men carefully selected from all over the country. Even if the senior officers did not train them seriously, these soldiers had a solid foundation. Looking around, they were all tall and strong. Moreover, under the emperor's feet, no official dared to enslave the soldiers to do hard labor, and they had enough food and drink, which made some soldiers lazy.

Chen Jingzong didn't want to know why the previous commander was so lazy. Now that he was here, he wanted to draw out the laziness of these soldiers one by one.

After ten days of training, those troublesome soldiers who relied on their powerful relatives at home have been disciplined by the prince consort and are now very obedient.

In the hot summer, all the soldiers took off their outer robes like Chen Jingzong, wearing only a pair of trousers, exposing their shoulders and sweating profusely.

For Wu Run, a handsome eunuch, coming to such a place was like a lamb entering a wolf's den.

Fortunately, the soldiers all knew that he was from the palace, and no one dared to look down on him.

Chen Jingzong walked out from the neatly arranged soldiers, whipped a soldier who didn't punch hard enough, then threw the whip to Fugui and walked towards Wu Run.

Behind him were more than 5,000 elite soldiers, but in front of these 5,000 soldiers, Chen Jingzong still stood out from the crowd.

Beads of sweat the size of beans slid down his handsome face, and his strong chest and lean waist and abdomen were also covered in sweat.

Wu Run couldn't imagine how the princess would get along with such a prince consort, but at the same time, he admired such a strong man in his heart.

When Chen Jingzong stopped and looked at him inquiringly, Wu Run bowed slightly and said with a smile: "Your Highness, I am here on the orders of the princess. The princess said that she will return home tomorrow, and asked you to go to the palace early in the morning to pay your respects to the emperor and the queen."

Chen Jingzong nodded expressionlessly: "Got it, tell the princess that I will be back to the city tonight."

Wu Run had nothing else to do, so he bowed his head and left.

Chen Jingzong continued to inspect the soldiers.

A soldier suddenly felt an unbearable itch on the back of his neck, so he scratched it secretly. When he raised his eyes, he saw the prince consort staring at him.

The soldier couldn't help but look at the whip in the prince consort's hand.

Just when he was worried that the prince consort would come over to hit him, the prince consort actually walked away as if nothing had happened!

(End of this chapter)