Chapter 83

"Granduncle Qin is seventy-five this year."

The group of old ministers, originally eager to leverage their seniority, instantly had all their words blocked in their throats.

A member of the Great Ming imperial clan, over seventy years old, was still at the front lines.

How could these subjects have the face to claim they were too old!

Upon hearing this, Wen Wen Tiren's body trembled, yet he remained kneeling before Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian.

"This subject deserves ten thousand deaths..."

The civil and military officials, already numbed by the cold wind, noticed nothing of this.

The underlying logic of the entire court had already undergone a major collapse.

The Great Ming state machinery was gradually being reshaped from the inside out.

Seven days later.

The Son of Heaven of Great Ming, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian, arrived at the Songshan front lines accompanied by the civil and military officials of Great Ming.

Gazing at Songshan in the distance.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian silently initiated a video call with Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang.

Upon seeing the message, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood, merely watching the panel before him in silence from another spacetime.

Even though Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian had long mentally prepared himself.

When this Son of Heaven, who had grown up within the deep palace since childhood, truly witnessed the bloody battlefield.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian was still so shocked that his face turned pale.

Meanwhile, in the Hongwu era on the other side.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang looked at this scene of the battlefield he had seen countless times.

Two lines of clear tears slid down from his eyes.

These corpses on the battlefield were all children and grandchildren of the Zhu family!

Just a few days ago, when Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang first saw them, they were all alive and kicking!

Inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

None of the eunuchs or maids knew what had happened.

They only felt an overwhelming killing intent radiating from Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang.

The last time Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang's aura of violence had been this heavy.

Was during the Hu Wei case.

To be precise, even Hu Wei had never made Old Zhu this furious.

After a long while.

The first message appeared in the chat group.

Emperor Taizu the High:

"On what day was this battle fought?"

Emperor Sizong the Martyr:

"The twentieth day of the winter month."

Emperor Taizu the High:

"They are all good children of our Zhu family."

"You cannot let them die in vain."

Tears kept welling up in the eyes of these two Sons of Heaven.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang mechanically lifted his head, looked at the young eunuchs in the distance, and instructed in a low voice:

"Transmit our decree: starting this year, court sessions shall be suspended for three days on the twentieth of the winter month, and a grand sacrifice shall be held at the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

The group of eunuchs looked at each other in bewilderment.

Finally, one gathered the courage to look at Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang and ask:

"Imperial Grandfather, who... who are we sacrificing to?"

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and whispered:

"Sacrifice to our Zhu family."

On Xingshan, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian stared fixedly at the corpses before him; seeing Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's state, Wang Wang Wang Chengen could not help but step forward to advise:

"Your Majesty, the mobile camp has been pitched; it is cold on the mountain, please take care of your dragon body..."

Before the words were finished, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's feet remained stopped in place.

Then he stared fixedly at a corpse.

He walked forward, his hands trembling slightly as he touched the cold armor.

With a forceful pull of his hand.

He tore the armor open.

Revealing the thin cotton clothing beneath the armor.

The moment he saw this cotton garment, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian froze entirely on the spot.

After a long while.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian finally spoke through chattering teeth, gritting out:

"Wang Wang Chengen, what is the meaning of this?"

"Are the Mandarin Duck Battle Robes of our Great Ming soldiers really this thin?!"

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's roar continued to echo through the valley.

Wang Wang Wang Chengen stared at the scene before him in shock, speaking somewhat incoherently:

"Your Majesty, this is impossible; by the dynasty's standards, each cotton armor requires seven jin of cotton."

With eyes wide enough to split apart, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian turned to the hundred officials behind him and roared fiercely:

"Where is the Ministry of Works?!"

"Where is the Ministry of War?!"

As soon as these words were spoken,

several men among the hundred officials behind him immediately fell to their knees.

Acting like a madman, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian held a piece of cotton armor just stripped from the body of a deceased imperial clansman and stood before those men, roaring:

"Is this the cotton armor you gave to the Great Ming border troops?!"

"Is this the cotton armor you gave to the Zhu family?!"

Several scholar-officials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works trembled uncontrollably as they looked at the cotton armor in Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's hands.

Although it was the depths of winter, cold sweat still soaked through their robes.

They wished to argue and make excuses,

but the cotton armor was right there in Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's hands.

The tens of thousands of corpses behind them were irrefutable proof, every single one!

After a long while,

those few men could only bang their heads against the ground with desperate force, repeatedly chanting:

"Your subject deserves ten thousand deaths."

"We, your subjects, deserve ten thousand deaths!"

At this moment, even those scholar-officials, usually as solid as an iron plate, fell silent in the face of such circumstances.

The people lying before them were not ordinary folks.

Every single one of them was a dragon son or grandson of the Zhu family.

To harm members of the imperial clan was already the greatest act of disloyalty!

Moreover, this had happened on a battlefield defending against foreign enemies!

Who would dare speak a good word for these men?

If news reached their hometowns, villagers would immediately dig up their ancestral graves!

Yet Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian showed not the slightest intention of letting up.

Staring fixedly at the men before him, he demanded harshly: