Chapter 99

Watching Zhu Yuanzhang impersonate a telegraph operator, Zhu Youjian helplessly closed the chat group.

He then slowly rose to his feet and asked Wang Chengen before him:

"Where are Prince Qin and Prince Tang now?"

Wang Chengen froze at the question, then whispered:

"Your Majesty, Prince Qin fell ill after the battle and is recuperating in Ningyuan."

"Prince Tang wishes to go to Pi Island."

Zhu Youjian's expression grew solemn, and he whispered:

"Draft an edict for me."

"Prince Qin shall be appointed as the Director of the Imperial Clan; once his health improves slightly, he shall gather the remains of all princely houses and transport them back for burial in their respective domains."

"Begin with the Qin Wang Fu, following the order of enfeoffment."

Wang Chengen looked up, puzzled.

"But Your Majesty, Chang'an has already been seized by that rebel Li."

Zhu Youjian's expression gradually became solemn.

"I know."

"I want the whole world to see, I want the whole world to know what the Zhu family has done for the Han people's realm."

"Tell those rebel bands in the northwest."

"Stop fighting!"

"Once the imperial relic is defiled, we shall all be sinners before future generations!"

At these words, Wang Chengen's eyes instantly filled with hot tears.

He knelt down on the spot.

"Your Majesty, rest assured—our Han people's realm will not perish at the hands of barbarians!"

"Even a cripple like me knows that traitors to the Han cannot be buried in the ancestral graves."

"I refuse to believe those starving peasants don't know this either!"

……

……

When Zhu Youjian's edict reached Ningyuan,

the lands beyond the pass were already blanketed in snow.

The old Prince Qin, Zhu Cunji, under the support of several eunuchs, received the imperial decree at the Ningyuan Regional Commander's office.

Even the most dissolute playboy,

after enduring such a great upheaval,

could not help but undergo a profound transformation.

Recalling the journey,

Zhu Cunji had seen too many starving corpses.

But what of the imperial family?

Even though the princely houses' complaints of poverty had become routine,

how could Zhu Cunji not know?

Every princely mansion had mountains of grain piled high.

Even though the court had not paid salaries for over a decade,

it had done nothing to curb the Zhu family's indulgence in wine, women, and song.

The Zhu family owed the people far too much.

This battle at Xingshan,

was the responsibility every Zhu had to bear.

And likewise, the Zhu family's retribution.

Amid the heavy snowfall, the old prince, tears streaming down his face, gazed toward Xingshan and whispered, choked with sobs:

"Children, Grandpa's taking you home—we're going home to celebrate the New Year!"

Under the escort of the Guan Ning Army, fifteen thousand corpses of Qin Wang Fu royal kin were loaded onto carts.

Originally, Zhu Youjian's edict had ordered border troops to provide horses,

to transport the imperial clan back.

But Zhu Cunji submitted several memorials, changing "horses" in the decree to mules and donkeys.

Warhorses must remain in Liaoxi to avenge the Zhu family.

Zhu Cunji would take not a single one!

On the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, as the New Year approached, under the escort of ten thousand Guan Ning soldiers clad in Bai Jia,

Prince Qin, Zhu Cunji, dressed in plain white robes, burned the memorial text atop Xingshan.

Then he stepped forward alone and lifted the funeral banner fluttering on the mountaintop.

"The Zhu family's children—come home with Grandpa!"

Zhu Cunji's voice echoed across the snow-covered Xingshan.

Instantly, the sounds of suona horns and gongs filled the mountain.

The entire procession seemed to merge with Xingshan itself.

Seven days later,

the funeral procession entered Shanhai Pass.

Just as this procession of coffins crossed Shanhai Pass,

the news that the gentry had deliberately concealed and doctored

vanished into thin air at this moment.

Even those gentry who had learned the news never imagined that this battle would be so devastatingly fought by the imperial house.

The moment they crossed Shanhai Pass,

several gentry, eyes brimming with hot tears, walked up before Zhu Cunji.

"Old Highness, are these all the Long Zilongsun of our Great Ming?"

Zhu Cunji stroked a coffin behind him............

"These are only the children of our Qin Wang's household."

"The court doesn't have enough livestock, so they can only be buried in batches."

Over two hundred thousand coffins—

even if each coffin used only one donkey, it would still take over two hundred thousand mules and donkeys to transport them all.

In this age when only animal power was available,

it was enough to paralyze Great Ming's transport system for a while.

Hearing Zhu Cunji's words,

those several gentry immediately slapped themselves hard across the face twice.

"Old Highness, this commoner deserves death!"

"How did this battle end up fought like this!"

"……"

Several gentry wept together in a heap outside Shanhai Pass.

But Zhu Cunji's footsteps did not pause in the slightest.

Because Zhu Cunji's destination was Chang'an—

that fief they had guarded generation after generation for nearly three hundred years.

The truth of the Battle of Xingshan thoroughly spread from within the pass.

The entire northern gentry heard of it and grieved.

The coffins arrived at the capital.

Son of Heaven Zhu Youjian led Crown Prince Zhu Cilang and Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong out of the city to meet them.

Then they went south via the Grand Canal to Eastern Depot Prefecture, turned into the Yellow River, and then proceeded west along the river.

Crown Prince Zhu Cilang and Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong escorted the spirit cortege for three hundred li with the procession, then knelt to see off Qin Wang Zhu Cunji.

……