Chapter 95

Far more useful than being alive.

Since the Zhu family has obtained the realm, the Zhu family bears the responsibility of protecting the land and defending the borders on behalf of all Han people under heaven!

With the blood of two hundred and fifty thousand members of the Zhu imperial clan, we exchange for the unity of all Han people above and below, to cross this national calamity.

Excellent!

Even Li Huang Zicheng could not help but be profoundly shaken.

As for the rebel soldiers behind Li Huang Zicheng, looking at the weapons in their hands, every single one of them gnashed their teeth in hatred.

"Why have we been fighting Han people all this time!"

"If we keep fighting, if we keep fighting, we will end up as slaves to those Tartars!"

"Great King, we cannot fight anymore; let us go out beyond the pass and battle the Tartars!"

"We still have our ancestors and our clansmen! If this realm falls into our hands, we will not even be able to enter our ancestral graves in the future!"

"..."

Zhu Zhu Cunji's words.

Completely shook the sentiments of all the rebel armies.

How could Li Huang Zicheng lack even a shred of national righteousness?

Even in the original history, on the eve of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen when the capital was about to fall.

Li Huang Zicheng still sent a letter to Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian.

The Great Shun army could go out beyond the pass to jointly eradicate the Tartars with the Ming army, and Li Huang Zicheng would only need a corner of the northwest to be enfeoffed as a king.

It was just that when this letter reached Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's hands.

The entire court of the Great Ming was no longer under Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's control.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian summoned the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet to the palace several times to discuss matters of peace negotiations.

Wei Wei Zaode simply pretended to be mute.

No matter what Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian said, Wei Wei Zaode stubbornly did not utter a single word.

Forcing Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian to smash the dragon throne into fragments in frustration.

Helping Li Huang Zicheng.

They would all merit-makers with the achievement of aiding the dragon's ascent.

Helping Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian.

Where would they find the opportunity to rise several ranks and bless their descendants with fortune?

In the end, Zhu Zhu Cunji collapsed to the ground, his eyes empty.

"With this single battle, my illustrious Zhu imperial clan has every household in mourning; remaining in the various princely mansions are only a few ten-thousand minor lineage members over sixty years of age and infants not yet able to speak."

"The strength of the Zhu family is exhausted!"

"The affairs of the realm now depend on the people of the realm!"

Having spoken, Zhu Zhu Cunji collapsed before the coffin as if all strength had been drained from his body.

Only the common people of the entire city remained.

Numbly watching the coffin before them.

At this time, in Xingshan, the coffin of the Jin Principality began its transport, followed by the Zhou Principality, the Chu Principality, and the Qi Principality.

In an instant.

The entire realm trembled!

Every Han person was pondering one question.

The imperial family's people have been fought to extinction.

Does this mean the Han people's realm can simply be handed over to the Tartar wolves?

The first reaction appeared in the northwest where Li Huang Zicheng was entrenched.

According to statistics from each camp, in just one night, over ten thousand rebel soldiers fled their camps.

More than half of the women, children, elderly, and weak who had followed the camps also vanished.

The court had already prepared land, plow oxen, rice seeds, and enough grain for them to survive until next summer's harvest.

The rebel army is no longer righteous.

Li Huang Zicheng had already lost the soul that bound his forces together.

In the Great Ming of today.

Raising a banner in rebellion can no longer be called righteousness.

Dying in battle in Liaodong is what is truly called righteousness!

Clad in white clothes and white armor heading to Liaodong; many common people in Jiangnan brought their own white garments to enlist, becoming a prevailing trend!

It was precisely at this time.

That rumors and whispers gradually began to emerge in various regions.

The dirty secrets of the Shanxi merchant families were finally exposed through the mouths of retainers, clerks, and accountants who still possessed a conscience.

As soon as the coffin of the Jin Princely Mansion arrived in Taiyuan, the local common people immediately began smashing and plundering the businesses of the Eight Great Shanxi Merchants.

Massive amounts of evidence, including countless antiques and calligraphy paintings abducted by Huang Taiji, were "miraculously" searched out from the homes of the Eight Great Shanxi Merchants by the enraged populace.

The court and the countryside were greatly shaken.

At this moment, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's gaze had also fixed upon this final stubborn affliction of the Great Ming.

As the "Liaoning Cotton Case" continued to expand.

Nearly three thousand officials in the Northern and Southern Capitals were implicated.

Military affairs in the capital were furthermore taken over by those noble merit-makers whose sons had died on the battlefield.

Above the imperial court.

Duke Dingguo, Xu Xu Yunzhen, gazing at the empty court hall, as if summoning all the courage in his body, stepped forward from among the few remaining officials and whispered softly,

"Your Majesty, if this investigation into the Liaoning Cotton Case continues any further, I fear our Great Ming will be left with neither officials nor clerks!"

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian coldly stared at the memorial submitted by the Eastern Depot, without so much as blinking an eyelid.

"Last year, the treasury of our Great Ming held merely thirty-two taels of silver."

"Regarding the Liaoning Cotton Case, does Duke Dingguo know how much silver currently resides in our Great Ming's treasury?"

Hearing this, Xu Xu Yunzhen froze for a moment, then lowered his head and replied,

"This subject does not know..."

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian abruptly rose to his feet, his face contorted as he roared,

"Currently, the treasury still holds forty-three million taels of silver and sixty million stones of grain!"

"If the realm of our Great Ming possesses only such officials, it would be better off perishing right now!"

Upon hearing this figure,

even Xu Xu Yunzhen could not help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

This figure,

was what remained after Zhou Kui had swindled them once already!

According to Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's estimation,

if those capital officials in Nanzhili were executed once more, they might just scrape together one hundred million taels of silver.

Such officials—

which emperor would dare to employ?!

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's expression grew grave as he stared fixedly at the few remaining ministers before him and whispered,

"Earl of Xinjian."

"This subject is present."

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian took a deep breath and said,

"This year, I intend to hold an additional special examination; I trouble the Earl of Xinjian to serve as the chief examiner for this session."

Upon hearing this, Wang Wang Xiantong, the Earl of Xinjian, trembled violently.

"Your Majesty, I fear this contradicts the established regulations..."

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian snorted coldly,

"Our Great Ming has already reached such a pass; why still speak of whether it conforms to regulations or not?"

Among the current court officials, the only one who could barely count as half a civil official and still retained some influence among the scholars of the realm

was none other than Wang Wang Xiantong, the Earl of Xinjian.