Chapter 90

"Ancestor Qin is seventy-five years old this year."

The old ministers, who had originally been eager to play the card of their age, found their mouths full of words suddenly blocked and forced back.

The imperial clan of the Great Ming, over seventy years of age, are still at the front lines.

How can these ministers have the face to speak of being too old?

Hearing this, Wen Wen Tiren's body trembled, and he knelt before Zhu Youjian.

"Your subject deserves death ten thousand times..."

The civil and military officials, already frozen silly by the cold wind, did not notice this at all.

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

The state machine of the Great Ming is gradually being reshaped from the inside out.

Seven days later.

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

Gazing at Songshan in the distance.

Zhu Youjian, without uttering a word, initiated a video call with Zhu Yuanzhang.

Upon seeing the message, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood, simply watching the panel before him quietly in another timeline.

Even though Zhu Youjian had long prepared himself mentally.

But when the Son of Heaven, who had grown up in the deep palace since childhood, truly saw the bloody battlefield.

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

And on the other side, in the Hongwu era.

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

Two lines of clear tears slid down from his eyes.

These corpses on the battlefield are all the sons and grandchildren of the Zhu family!

Just a few days ago, when Zhu Yuanzhang first saw them, they were all lively and jumping around!

Inside the Qianqing Palace.

None of the Eunuchs or maids knew what was happening.

They only felt that a killing intent reaching the sky was emanating from Zhu Yuanzhang.

The last time Zhu Yuanzhang's murderous aura was so heavy.

was when the Hu Wei case broke out.

To be precise, even Hu Wei never made Old Zhu so angry.

After a long while.

The first message appeared in the chat group.

Emperor Taizu Gao:

"On what day was this battle fought?"

Emperor Sizong Lie:

"The twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month."

Emperor Taizu Gao:

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

"You cannot let them die in vain."

Tears kept swirling in the eyes of these two Emperors.

Zhu Yuanzhang mechanically raised his head, looked at the little Eunuchs in the distance, and gave low instructions:

"Transmit my decree: from this year on, court sessions shall be suspended for three days starting from the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month, and a grand sacrifice shall be held at the Taimiao."

The group of Eunuchs looked at each other in silence.

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

"Your Majesty, who... who are we sacrificing to?"

Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and said in a low voice:

"Sacrifice to our Zhu family."

On Xingshan, Zhu Youjian stared fixedly at the corpse before him. Seeing Zhu Youjian's appearance, Wang Chengen could not help but step forward to advise:

"Your Majesty, the camp has already been set up. It is cold on the mountain; please take care of your dragon body..."

Before the words were finished, Zhu Youjian's footsteps suddenly stopped in place.

Then he stared fixedly at a corpse.

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

He exerted force with his hands.

And tore the armor open.

Then the thin cotton clothing beneath the armor was revealed.

The moment he saw this cotton clothing, Zhu Youjian was stunned, standing frozen in place.

After a long while.

Zhu Youjian finally gritted his teeth, his upper and lower teeth trembling slightly, and said:

"Chengen, what is going on?"

"The Mandarin Duck Battle Robes of our Great Ming soldiers, are they really this thin?!"

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

Wang Chengen, shocked by the scene before him, spoke incoherently.

"Your Majesty, this is impossible. According to the Great Ming's standard regulations, each cotton armor requires seven jin of cotton."

With eyes bulging in fury, Zhu Youjian turned and roared fiercely at the hundred officials behind him.

"Where is the Ministry of Works?!"

"Where is the Ministry of War?!"

The moment these words were spoken,

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

Zhu Youjian, acting as if mad, stood before those few men, holding a cotton armor just removed from the body of a fallen member of the Qianghai Sect, and roared.

"Is this the cotton armor you provided for the Great Ming's border troops?!"

"Is this the cotton armor you provided for the Zhu family?!"

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

Although it was the dead of winter, cold sweat still soaked their garments.

They too wanted to argue their case.

But the cotton armor was right there in Zhu Youjian's hand.

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

After a long silence,

the few men could only desperately bang their heads against the ground, repeatedly chanting.

"This subject deserves death ten thousand times."

"We, your subjects, deserve death ten thousand times!"

At this moment, even those scholar-officials who had previously been as solid as iron plates fell silent.

The people before them were no ordinary folk.

Each and every one of them was a Long Zilongsun of the Zhu family.

To harm the Qianghai Sect was already the greatest act of disloyalty!

Moreover, this occurred on the battlefield defending against foreign enemies!

Who would dare to speak a single good word for these few men?

Once the news reached their hometown, villagers would immediately dig up their ancestral graves!

Yet Zhu Youjian showed no sign of stopping.

Staring fiercely at the few men before him, he demanded sternly.