Chapter 416: Above Coal Mountain, Beneath the Crooked-Necked Tree, Before the Longevity Pavilion

Chongzhen's legs went weak, and supported by Wang Chengen, he descended the city tower, escorted back to the palace by the patrol battalion, the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office personnel, and several dozen eunuchs.

Along the way, fleeing nobles and officials were everywhere, and countless bandits took advantage of the chaos to kill people in the streets and loot homes—such scenes were everywhere.

The Chongwen Gate of the inner city was already blocked solid by carts and carriages trying to flee the capital, and the surrounding commoners rushed forward like mad to plunder.

In the heavy rain, chests of gold and silver treasure tumbled down, an entire chest of pearls scattering with a clatter across the ground, embedding into the mud.

Sacks of millet were also torn open, spilling down like waterfalls.

The commoners surged forward in waves to snatch and fight over the goods; the retainers and guards of the powerful families, seeing they could not stop them, simply joined in the grabbing themselves.

The masters of those powerful households shouted sternly to stop them, only to be killed by their own guards.

The womenfolk in the carriages either took their own lives or were dragged out and raped in the mud in the open street.

Chongzhen said not a word, only weeping silently.

Wang Chengen said: "Quick, take the Zhengyang Gate!"

The Zhengyang Gate was the main southern gate of the inner city, directly facing the imperial city; behind it were all government offices, guarded by the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office, and no nobles used this gate to leave the city, so it still had some order.

The imperial carriage entered the inner city smoothly, passed through Chengtian Gate and the Meridian Gate, and returned to the Forbidden City.

The sky had gone completely dark, and Chongzhen, soaked through, stumbled in a daze into the Western Warm Chamber of Qianqing Palace. Seeing the mountain of memorials piled on the imperial desk, rage surged in his heart, and he strode forward, sweeping them all to the ground in one motion.

"You ministers have ruined me! You ministers have ruined me!"

Chongzhen roared at the heavens, then immediately broke down in loud sobs.

Wang Chengen knelt and said: "Your Majesty, this old servant dares to speak one word—things have come to this, I beg Your Majesty, for the sake of the state and for the sake of the people, to make a southern tour."

Chongzhen wiped his tears and said harshly: "I am the Emperor of the Great Ming. For me to move the capital and flee south is absolutely impossible! Summon all the ministers to the palace to discuss the city's defense!"

Wang Chengen hesitated slightly, wanting to persuade him further.

Chongzhen roared: "Go now!"

By this time it was already late in the day, and with heavy rain falling, Lei Sanxiang, worried that the firearms would get soaked and also needing to guard against the Jianzhou barbarians returning, only had the army set up camp outside Guangqu Gate and did not attack the city.

In the latter half of the night, the few remaining loyal nobles and meritorious officials were summoned into the palace.

Chongzhen suppressed his emotions and laid out the city's defense arrangements behind the imperial desk.

He ordered Xiangcheng Earl Li Guozhen to command the patrol battalion and the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office, Wang Chengen to oversee the city's defense as Commodore, and assigned the remaining nobles their respective gate defense sectors.

At present, the Capital Camps and the Directorate of the Imperial Horses forces were all lost, but the capital still had its last remnant troops—the patrol battalion and the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office. These two were responsible for maintaining order within the city and guarding the gates, totaling over eight thousand men.

Only, these eight thousand men had duties closer to those of constables, and their combat effectiveness was nearly nonexistent.

Every one of the nobles had shifting, evasive eyes, trembling with fear, accepting their orders perfunctorily.

After the nobles withdrew, Chongzhen summoned the maternal relatives Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu.

Of these two, one was Chongzhen's cousin, and the other was Chongzhen's brother-in-law.

The moment they entered the hall, the two prostrated themselves on the ground, weeping without cease, unable to utter a single useful word.

Before long, palace attendants brought in two young boys, both no more than three or four years old, with fair skin and tear-streaked faces, bearing a three or four parts resemblance to Chongzhen.

In the attendant's arms was also held a child of about one year old.

Both of the older children were dressed in plain coarse cloth clothing of commoners, though it was extremely clean, looking utterly out of place in Qianqing Palace.

Chongzhen pointed at the slightly older child and said: "He is the eldest imperial son, also the Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang. He is the third imperial son, Zhu Cijiong."

Chongzhen looked at the infant, smiling tenderly: "This is my fourth son, Zhu Cizhao."

"We pay our respects to the Crown Prince." Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu, the two maternal relatives, kowtowed upon hearing this.

Chongzhen gazed up at the roof beams and said in a low voice: "I have only these three sons. I entrust them to you."

"Ah?" Liu and Gong were greatly startled and exchanged glances.

"Henan is prosperous. The two of you may go seek refuge with the Prince of Zhou. I have already written a secret edict—keep it safe, and after you reach Kaifeng, show it to the Prince of Zhou."

In Henan, the one with the largest fief and the greatest strength was the Prince of Fu, only his fief was too close to Li Zicheng, and whether it had already fallen by now was hard to say.

A look of difficulty appeared on the two maternal relatives' faces; they did not dare agree.

Gong Yonggu hesitated, then spoke: "Your Majesty, your servant—your servant's household has no soldiers or generals. Kaifeng is a thousand li away from here. I fear I cannot protect the three princes to safety!"

Liu Wenbing kowtowed heavily, then said weeping: "Your Majesty, it is not that your servant intends to shirk duty, only—only your servant truly lacks the capability. If we rashly leave the city, I fear we may harm the lives of the three princes, and your servant could not atone even with ten thousand deaths—"

These two were not making excuses or dodging responsibility—they truly did not have the ability. Among the nobles in the capital, the two of them had not been greedy too severely; they had no surplus wealth, nor any need to maintain household retainers.

There should still be quite a few nobles in the city who had not fled, but Chongzhen worried that once he entrusted the princes to them, they would turn around and hand the princes over to the Great Xia to trade for a future.

Rather than trust those of doubtful loyalty, Chongzhen preferred to gamble on the luck of those lacking troops.

Now the forces of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had all been scattered outside the city walls. Chongzhen no longer had any personal troops to deploy, and aside from a single imperial edict, he could give Liu and Gong no help at all.

Hearing the two of them weeping and declining without cease, Chongzhen's heart ached, and he too shed tears, and the three princes joined in crying as well.

For a time, the entire Qianqing Palace was filled with the sound of mournful weeping.

After the relatives had wept for a long while, Chongzhen wiped away his tears and snot and said in a choked voice: "Things have come to this, and I have no other way. The fate of the Great Ming and the bloodline of the Zhu family can only be entrusted to the two of you!"

Liu and Gong agreed through their tears, and guided by eunuchs, the two left the Forbidden City through a side gate, moving cautiously all the way back to their own residences.

It was now the fourth watch, and the heavy rain was gradually letting up, but the city was still filled with screams and wails everywhere.

The two men each sent household servants into the city to scout the roads and see which gate could still be used to leave.

From the fourth watch all the way until dawn, not a single household servant returned—whether they had been killed by bandits or had betrayed their masters to save themselves was unknown.

Liu Wenbing heard faint cannon fire from the direction of Guangqu Gate and guessed that the Great Xia army had begun its formal assault on the city. He steeled his heart, had his entire family change into coarse cloth clothing, and with the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang in tow, made a hard push toward the nearest city gate.

His home was east of the inner city, and the nearest gate was Chaoyang Gate. No sooner had they left the residence than corpses could be seen everywhere.

There were also sharp laughs of bandits and screams of women coming from the alleys.

Zhu Cilang was so frightened his face turned deathly pale and his legs trembled; he simply could not walk, so Liu Wenbing picked him up and hurried toward Chaoyang Gate.

But before they had even left the alley, they were spotted by bandits—his entire large family, even dressed in commoner's clothes, was far too conspicuous.

Liu Wenbing had no choice but to lead his family back to flee into the residence. His home was close to that of the State Father Zhou Kui, and he thought to himself that the State Father's household was enormously wealthy and might have some way, so he entrusted Zhu Cilang to the State Father and had his whole family wait for death in the residence.

In the main hall of Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen paced anxiously with a treasured sword in hand, sighing mournfully at the empty hall from time to time, then bursting into tears, and in the next moment turning to a look of fury, gnashing his teeth with a ferocious expression.

A young eunuch ran into the hall, knelt down, and said with a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, Guangqu Gate has already been breached by the rebel soldiers!"

Before an hour had passed, another young eunuch came running: "Zuo'an Gate and Yongding Gate have also been breached—the rebels are gathering cannons to attack Chongwen Gate!"

Chongzhen felt the world spinning around him: "What of the Earl of Xiangcheng? The outer city was breached in an hour—I shall—"

The young eunuch sobbed, interrupting his words: "The Earl of Xiangcheng was directing troops at Guangqu Gate when he was struck by a rebel cannon—struck by a—"

"Now all the troops in the city are under Eunuch Wang's command."

Chongzhen felt as if all his strength had been drained away. He collapsed onto the dragon throne and waved his hand: "Go, go."

The young eunuch acknowledged the order. Chongzhen slumped on the dragon throne as his bitter laughter echoed through the great hall.

He recalled the words his elder brother had spoken at the very start of his reign—"My younger brother shall become a Yao or a Shun"—but who would have thought that a mere four years later, he had failed to become a sage emperor and had instead become the sovereign who lost the realm.

He thought back on every detail since his ascension, believing himself diligent in governance and loving toward the people, with nothing he had done weighing on his conscience. That he had fallen to such a state was entirely the fault of his ministers—every last civil official deserved death!

"Boom—boom—boom—" The sound of cannon fire could already be heard from the direction of Zhengyang Gate.

Chongzhen's body trembled. He remembered the violated women he had seen when returning to the palace yesterday. Steeling his heart, he drew his sword and rose, heading toward the rear palace. On the way, he summoned a eunuch and instructed: "Go deliver my decree to the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and all the consorts of the rear palace—the state has collapsed, and the rebel soldiers are about to enter the imperial precincts. For the dignity of the imperial house, I grant—grant them death by their own hands!"

"Ah? This—" The eunuch was startled, stumbled back two steps, and fell hard on his rear. His face was as white as paper, his lips trembling: "Your Majesty, th-th-th-this—"

Chongzhen glanced at him sidelong, his tone icy: "What? Even a slave like you refuses to obey my orders now?"

The eunuch was terrified, knelt to the ground, and kowtowed: "This slave obeys the decree, obeys the decree—"

Chongzhen then charged into Zhaoren Hall with his sword. This place lay east of Qianqing Palace, and it was where the eldest princess, Zhu Nen, resided.

Zhu Nen was Chongzhen's eldest legitimate daughter, three years of age, born of Empress Zhou, and deeply cherished by Chongzhen. At this moment she was being looked after by palace attendants.

Startled into loud crying by the commotion and shouting outside the hall, she saw Chongzhen enter with his sword and hurriedly ran forward.

"Father, I'm scared!" The little girl hugged Chongzhen's leg and wept.

The palace attendants inside saw Chongzhen holding a sword in one hand with a grim expression, and they were so frightened they dared not even breathe loudly.

Chongzhen raised the sword with both hands, its tip slanting toward Zhu Nen. His hands trembled violently, his face twisted in agony. After hesitating several times without being able to strike, he wailed: "Chuo'er, you—why were you born into an imperial household!"

He let out a great roar, and the sword fell abruptly. Blood splattered everywhere. The palace attendants' eyes went wide as they screamed.

Chongzhen could not bear to look at his daughter's corpse. His whole body shook violently as he pulled out the sword and continued eastward, heading toward the Eastern Six Palaces where the consorts of the rear palace resided.

In Jingren Palace, several consorts had gathered, preparing to disguise themselves and flee the imperial city. Seeing Chongzhen covered in blood and entering with his sword, they were all struck dumb with terror.

Consort Zhuang knelt on the spot and pleaded with tears streaming down her face: "Your Majesty, you and I shared such love—I beg Your Majesty to grant your concubine a way to live. Once I leave the palace, I will hide my identity and never breathe a single word of what happened within these walls. Your Majesty, spare me, spare me—"

She kowtowed without cease, her head knocking against the floor tiles with a dull thudding sound. Her fair forehead quickly turned red all over.

Chongzhen's face was expressionless. He walked closer with his sword and thrust it into the back of her heart. The remaining consorts screamed in terror and scattered in all directions, but the hall doors had already been sealed in advance. With nowhere to flee, they fell one by one beneath the sharp blade.

Chongzhen's dragon robe was soaked through with blood, and the blood nearly flooded the entire floor.

Chongzhen stepped out of the hall and walked slowly toward Consort Yuan's palace. She was his most beloved consort after the Empress. When he had struck just now, he had deliberately checked—Consort Yuan, the Empress, and the Empress Dowager were not among those present.

Chongzhen left a trail of bloody footprints as he walked to Consort Yuan's hall. She was standing on a square stool at that moment, her head placed within a loop of white silk, yet she could not bring herself to kick the stool away. Seeing Chongzhen enter, she started in fright, kicked the stool over, and her face instantly turned red-purple as she struggled desperately.

The white silk was of poor quality, and under her violent struggles it actually snapped apart. Consort Yuan fell heavily to the ground.

She clutched her neck, greedily gasping for air, and said in a hoarse voice: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, wait—ah—"

A scream—Chongzhen's sword hacked into her shoulder, the wound so deep the bone was visible. Blood sprayed forth. Consort Yuan, seized by terror, soon bled to death.

Chongzhen left the hall with an expressionless face and walked toward the Empress's Kunning Palace.

A gust of wind blew past, and the air was filled with drifting snowflakes. Chongzhen looked up and realized they were all paper leaflets.

He casually caught one. Printed on it was the prisoner policy of the Great Xia.

Chongzhen snorted coldly, tossed it to the ground, and walked toward Kunning Palace on his trail of bloody footprints.

Just at that moment, Wang Cheng'en came running with a blade in hand from the eastern corridor, and the sovereign and his minister happened to meet.

Seeing Chongzhen covered in blood and carrying his sword, Wang Cheng'en already guessed what had happened and burst into bitter weeping.

Chongzhen said urgently: "Cheng'en, what is the situation outside the city? The inner city—has the inner city been held?"

Wang Cheng'en shook his head and said with deep anguish: "The rebel soldiers' firearms are extremely powerful. Our troops collapse at the first contact. Chongwen Gate has already been taken by them.

Zhengyang Gate—alas! Zhang Fengyi, Zhu Chunchen, and a pack of treacherous rebels! They—they opened Zhengyang Gate. Your Majesty, the inner city cannot be held—"

Chongzhen looked up at the sky and sighed long: "How much time do I have left?"

"The rebel soldiers are busy occupying the outer city and clearing the streets of bandits. There may still be an hour or two. Your Majesty, while the rebels have not yet taken the inner city, let us flee!"

"My poor people." Chongzhen gave a bitter smile. "Cheng'en, you are loyal. Before I depart, I wish to take one last look at the rivers and mountains of my Great Ming."

Wang Cheng'en accepted the decree and walked alongside Chongzhen, accompanying him north from Shenwu Gate all the way up to Wansui Mountain.

This was the highest point in the entire capital. Standing on the mountaintop and gazing down at the city, Chongzhen saw smoke and flames rising everywhere. The gate towers of Guangqu Gate and

Chongwen Gate had already been blasted to rubble.

On the streets of the inner city, countless commoners were scrambling to flee.

At Zhengyang Gate, a tide of crow-blue figures was already surging toward the inner city.

"Alas!" Chongzhen gazed at the heavens and sighed deeply. After a long while, he said in a low voice: "Did you bring the white silk?"

Wang Cheng'en's body trembled. He knelt on the ground and drew a length of white silk from his sleeve. Ever since the Capital Camps had collapsed last night, he had kept the white silk on his person.

Chongzhen cut a strip from the hem of his dragon robe, sliced his finger with the blade, and wrote in blood: "I, of meager virtue and slight frame, have drawn Heaven's punishment upon myself—yet all this is because my ministers have misled me. When I die, I shall have no face to see my ancestors. I shall remove my own crown and cover my face with my hair. Let the rebels tear my body asunder, but harm not a single one of my people."

After writing it, he picked up a stone and pressed the blood-stained strip of cloth onto the stone table of Wanshou Pavilion.

Then he removed his crown, took the white silk from Wang Cheng'en's hands, and looked around until he spotted an old crooked-neck tree—just right for hanging a rope.

Chongzhen tied the white silk to the tree. Mountain wind wrapped in post-rain dampness blew past, making the white silk flutter ceaselessly.

He gripped the white silk and had Wang Cheng'en gather a few stones to stack into a footstool.

Chongzhen stepped up onto it and put his head into the noose. He took one last look at the rivers and mountains full of smoke and flame. A thousand words seemed to well up in his chest, yet not a single one could he utter.

He gazed for a long while, then kicked his feet out from under him. His body hung suspended in the air, his limbs thrashing wildly for a few moments, until after several breaths there was no more movement.

Wang Cheng'en could finally no longer hold back his grief and wept aloud.

Weeping, he untied his own belt and hung it on the same old crooked-neck tree, deliberately positioning it slightly lower than the trunk where the Emperor hung.

After fastening his buttons and setting up the stepping stone, Wang Chengen gripped the hanging rope with both hands and wept: "His Majesty! This servant is coming now!"

With that, he kicked the stone away beneath his feet and followed the Ming Emperor into death.

A cool breeze blew past, swaying the bodies of master and servant back and forth.

Shortly after Chongzhen and his servant died, Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu, along with their families, burned themselves to death in their residences.

More than twenty ministers and nobles also died for the country, and wailing shook the heavens within the capital.

Soon, a squad of Daxia elite scouts charged up Wansui Mountain, heading straight for Wanshou Pavilion.

The leading soldier saw two corpses swaying beneath the old crooked-neck tree and slapped his thigh: "Damn it! We're still too late—"

The squad leader cursed: "Cut them down first, see if they can still be saved!"

The soldiers hastily lowered the two bodies. Checking for breath, they had long since stopped breathing—pupils dilated, limbs cold, deep purple ligature marks sunken into the flesh of their necks.

Another soldier discovered Chongzhen's blood-written edict in Wanshou Pavilion: "Hey! This damned emperor really did leave a deathbed edict! Director Zhou was spot on!"

The squad leader said ruefully: "Pity we were still a step too late. We'll hold position here."

Per Scholar Zhou's orders, the moment this squad entered the inner city, they made straight for this place—if they could capture Chongzhen, excellent; if not, they were to guard the corpses in place and await the arrival of the main force.

Initially these soldiers hadn't believed that the august Ming Emperor would climb a mountain to hang himself. Who would have thought that not only was the location correct, but the manner of death and the blood-written edict matched Director Zhou's words exactly, without the slightest discrepancy.

The soldiers now all praised Scholar Zhou for his uncanny foresight, saying he was a figure on par with Zhuge Liang or Liu Bowen!

Meanwhile, Lei Sanxiang's central army had arrived before Zhengyang Gate, and the outer city of the capital was now completely occupied by Daxia.

Before long, the gates of the Imperial City and the Forbidden City were also thrown open, and the eunuchs within the Imperial City knelt in surrender en masse.

Lei Sanxiang, Scholar Zhou, and the army's generals rode their horses to the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial City.

On both sides of the imperial road, surrendered civil and military officials, imperial relatives, and nobles knelt in rows. Most wore blank expressions; some pretended to wipe away tears, but there was almost no one who genuinely wept for the fall of the Ming.

Lei Sanxiang looked up at Chengtian Gate and said to Scholar Zhou beside him: "Second Brother, you were personally appointed by His Majesty to manage that... whatever business. Please, go on in."

Scholar Zhou smiled bitterly: "This place—better that we brothers enter together."

Lei Sanxiang declined: "Ah, the military affairs in the city still can't do without me."

Scholar Zhou said: "Very well then. Let's wait until the dust settles, and we'll enter together."

With that, he ordered the commander of the First Infantry Brigade to send men into the Imperial City to maintain order. The First Brigade passed it off to the Seventh Brigade, and the Seventh Brigade passed it off to the Artillery Regiment.

For a time, Chengtian Gate stood wide open, yet no one dared to enter.

The Forbidden City was too sensitive—entering it without authorization was the gravest taboo. Even though Lin Qian had given explicit orders requiring Lei Sanxiang and Scholar Zhou to restore order in the Imperial City at the earliest opportunity and protect the former Ming imperial clan, the two would rather disobey orders than dare to enter.

After all, defying the king's command would at worst earn them a scolding. With brotherhood standing between them, a mere tongue-lashing wouldn't hurt at all.

But entering the Imperial City without authorization—that could cost them their positions as minister and subject altogether.

Having held high positions for so long, the two understood this political risk all too well.

Scholar Zhou had no choice but to order his soldiers to guard the various palace gates of the Imperial City. This command violated no taboo, and the First Mobile Corps Commander agreed readily enough.

By that afternoon, all the gates of the capital's outer city, inner city, and Imperial City were fully under the control of the Xia army.

Two more days passed, and the unrest within the city still had not been completely suppressed.

The capital occupied far more land than Guangzhou. Ten thousand men could take it easily enough, but maintaining public order was considerably more difficult.

Especially in the north—though Daxia was not exactly hated by the people, it was feared by all. Even before entering the capital, a great many officials had already fled.

After entering the city, everyone was even more fearful for themselves, dreading that they would follow in the footsteps of the Jiangnan gentry.

By all rights, Daxia had only killed gentry in Jiangnan, and commoners and small landowners had benefited as a result—the northern people should not have been afraid.

But the reality was that northern public opinion was firmly controlled by officials and scholars. Years of demonizing propaganda, continually embellished with fresh exaggerations, had made even the common folk fear Daxia's blade. They all felt that King Li the Chuang was a far more benevolent ruler than King Yama.

After the Xia army entered the city, they did not enter civilian homes, cleaned the streets, and treated the sick, recovering no small amount of their reputation—but with only a few short days, the impact was limited.

The reaction in the prefectures and counties around the capital was even more intense. Gentry and landowners either fled en masse or secretly plotted to recruit soldiers, preparing to fortify their estates and defend themselves.

At this rate, forget about pacifying the realm by proclamation or having cities surrender at the sight of their banners—if the Chuang army came and the common folk didn't voluntarily open the city gates, that alone would count as Lei Sanxiang defending the city well.

While Lei Sanxiang maintained order in the capital,

Scholar Zhou led soldiers to seal the treasuries, take over official documents, receive surrendering officials, establish civil administration, and search for imperial princes—all routine measures during a transfer of power. But the workload was immense, and had Scholar Zhou not been present, Lei Sanxiang alone could never have managed it.

Additionally, per Lin Qian's requirements, after the army entered the city they strictly guarded against plague: collecting corpses, clearing garbage, isolating the sick, and especially maintaining zero tolerance for rats. The soldiers deployed large numbers of rat traps and cleared the rat carcasses every half day.

The Xia army already had strict sanitary regulations; adding further measures on top of that was somewhat overkill.

But since this was the king's command, Scholar Zhou harbored no doubt and threw himself wholeheartedly into the task.

Three more days passed, and public order in the city gradually improved.

Scholar Zhou summoned Lei Sanxiang and the former Ming officials and nobles. Several hundred people crowded together before the palace gate, and Scholar Zhou publicly read aloud the Xia King's decree, declaring that he had entered the palace by imperial order to protect the former dynasty's palace women.

Then Lei Sanxiang deployed three hundred military police and brought Bi Ziyan, Zhou Kui, and Cao Huachun along with them into the palace.

Bi Ziyan was the Minister of Revenue of the Ming dynasty, and Cao Huachun was a brush-holder of the Directorate of Ceremonial who also served as Director of the Eastern Depot.

These two men were carefully selected by Scholar Zhou from among several hundred capital officials—they could almost be called paragons of virtue, with scarcely any negative reputation for corruption, factional strife, or harming the people.

Scholar Zhou chose them to accompany him into the palace precisely to tell the capital's officials that the Xia King was a wise ruler who "punishes only the chief culprits and employs the worthy and capable"—not the King Yama that court and country rumored him to be.

Zhou Kui, meanwhile, was one of the chief culprits slated for later reckoning. When the city fell, he had tried to flee but was stopped by Ming soldiers defending the city and couldn't get away.

Scholar Zhou brought him into the palace purely because his position as head of the imperial relatives was irreplaceable. When the officials saw that even the Emperor's father-in-law had surrendered, they too would abandon any thoughts of covert resistance.

Moreover, if Empress Zhou were still alive, Zhou Kui would also be the most suitable person to persuade her to surrender.

Scholar Zhou went to all this trouble with these gestures not only to dismantle the resistance of the old Ming ministers, but also with another purpose: to prove his own innocence and demonstrate that he had committed no act of overstepping.

Now that the capital had been taken, and the king still called him "Second Brother" in private, he understood clearly that he must comport himself as a subject. If he truly acted like a second brother, he would surely die faster than anyone.

The group entered the palace but did not enter any of the halls, only walking along the outside. After confirming the halls were intact, they immediately affixed seals, witnessed by all those accompanying them.

Just as they passed Qianqing Palace, a foul stench emanated from Zhaoren Hall on the eastern side.

It was now summer—hot during the day. A corpse left in the palace would surely breed plague, so Scholar Zhou ordered the palace doors opened. There lay Zhu Nen'yu's small body, collapsed before the threshold.

Bi Ziyan and Cao Huachun both turned their heads away, unable to bear the sight.

Lei Sanxiang's hair stood on end with rage, his face flushed crimson as he growled: "This beast! Even a tiger won't eat its own cub, but that slave-girl—"

Scholar Zhou stopped him with a look: "Third Brother, mind your words."

Cursing the Emperor within the palace was far too sensitive—even if it was the previous Emperor, this was too easy a thing to be used against them.

"Sigh!" Lei Sanxiang let out a sigh.

Scholar Zhou ordered the military police to gather and bury Zhu Yu's corpse.

The group continued deeper into the harem, the stench of rotting flesh growing heavier.

Following the smell, they arrived before Jingren Palace. Pushing open the door, they saw the ground covered with the bones of imperial concubines, all bearing sword wounds, their deaths hideous and terrifying. The blood had long dried on the floor, seeping into the cracks between the bricks.

Flies covered the surroundings, maggots already breeding. The moment the door was pushed open, the flies surged out like a black cloud with a single buzz.

Even those who would not flinch from blades and spears on the battlefield now had to wave their hands to drive the flies away.

"Damn it all!" Lei Sanxiang clenched his fist and slammed it against the pillar outside the hall. "This dog of an Emperor is just as wicked as the Tartars!"

"Alas!" Scholar Zhou sighed. "Better to be a dog in times of peace than a man adrift in times of chaos."

Yahei

Pink Round

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