Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 71 Emperor Star and Mars

[Zhou Liang! How dare you use my last words against me!]

[After watching your extremely yin-yang performance art, the Divine Emperor is furious!]

[Fuck! You're using my words!]

[He is furious and is about to tear this pirated suicide note into pieces. He will then hang your body from the tree and execute you with the following extreme punishments: beheading! Beheading! Whipping! Lingchi! Skinning and stuffing with straw!!!]

[But the tangible hand just tightened its grip, then slowly loosened its grip...]

[Looking at the body of the old man, his face covered with hair, hanging from the tree, an inexplicable sense of desolation seemed to fill the entire universe. Even the Divine Emperor couldn't help but tremble in his heart...]

Ancient sages and wise men have always talked about "martyrdom." As the saying goes, if you know it's impossible, you still do it, even if you die, you will have no regrets.

[You are now a martyred saint of our time: you have benefited the people for thirty years and are universally adored. Although you hold the title of Prime Minister, you are in reality an emperor, a true Son of Heaven who perfectly embodies the Confucian political ideal of Yao and Shun!]

A sage teaches the people by adhering to the Way, while an emperor governs the people by adhering to the state. You possess both, and you are a sage emperor!

[But now, this Holy Son of Heaven did not pass away peacefully amidst the adoration of the people, like Yao and Shun. Instead, in extreme despair, he embraced his shattered ideals and faced the destruction of his country and his family. Simply because you did not want to sit idly by and watch the people of the world be devoured by darkness, you launched this doomed war of resistance...]

[You don't fight for victory, but only for the people. Even if you are defeated and die, and your country is destroyed, you can still be called a martyred saint king, enough to glorify the world and make future generations cry when they hear of it...]

[Even a defeated Saint King is still a Saint King. Your radiance remains as bright as ever. Even more so than the legendary Yao and Shun, your radiance is even brighter!]

[So, as the one who created your defeated image, what role should he play in the story? ]

[Yes, it is the ultimate darkness, the Old Ones who bring despair to the world...]

【He couldn't help but shudder! 】

"What am I doing?"

He felt distraught. Looking at your remains and your suicide note, he felt an extreme irritation and discomfort, stirring up endless waves within his heart, the heart of the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian...

[And so, the tyranny and anger in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by sadness and helplessness... The Divine Emperor temporarily disappeared, and he once again became Chongzhen.]

Chongzhen looked up at your face hidden in your messy white hair, and remained silent for a long time...

"I am not a minister who has lost my country, but you are the king who has lost your country..."

He sighed, "Perhaps you are indeed more suitable to be the emperor than I am, and you are indeed more qualified than I to say these last words..."

[He silently placed your last words on the silk scroll against his chest, then did nothing to your body, only looking up at the sky.]

In the lingering darkness, the shaky Imperial Star in the Arctic sky has returned to its former state, and Mars, the symbol of disaster, has gradually dimmed... As if heaven and man have communicated, the disaster has been averted, and peace has returned to the world!

[But the truth is exactly the opposite: the real "Mars" has actually replaced the "Emperor Star" at the North Pole, and the real "Emperor Star" has already fallen!]

On this day, the "Emperor Star" of the Ming Dynasty's millions of people fell, and the "Mars" star hung high in the sky, its scarlet light even overlapping the "Sun"... From then on, it would bring eternal disaster to the world...

[At this time, the sky gradually brightened, and rays of sunlight once again fell on the earth, illuminating your body hanging from the tree.]

[The Prime Minister has finally lost the last battle of his life. As a result, your thirty years of peace will finally seem like a dream!]

[The sun and the moon have not changed, the sky will rise as usual...]

Your spirit stood beside the corpse, watching the entire process silently.

【…】

In December of the 103rd year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, Prime Minister Zhou Liang was defeated and killed. The six ministers, the 100,000-man Beijing garrison, and the 3,000 Jinyiwei were also killed!

On the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month of the following year, the Prime Minister's sixty-first birthday, the Divine Emperor ordered the court to bury the Prime Minister with rites worthy of an emperor in the east of the capital, naming it "The Mausoleum of the Great Ming Zhou Emperor"!

[The former Jinyiwei Commander-in-Chief "Zhu Zhongcheng", the former Minister of War "Gao Yiming", the former Minister of Personnel "Ning Bufan", the former Minister of Revenue "Lin Yan" and others were buried beside the Zhou Emperor's Mausoleum! ]

[That year, the Divine Emperor comforted the Prime Minister's parents.]

[That year, upon hearing of the Prime Minister's death, Hebei, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi, and other thirteen provinces in the two capitals all raised troops to attack the Ming!]

[That year, the Divine Emperor announced: Those who have never joined the rebels in rebellion will be forgiven!]

[That year, the Divine Emperor killed the rebels in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Yingtian, and other two capitals and thirteen provinces, but he never massacred a single city...]

[You watched all this as a spirit until your consciousness completely dissipated...]

【…】

[Ding! You're dead. The wrong choice led to the wrong outcome...]

[Compared to last time, this time you chose to stand with your subjects and fight for the people of the world until the very last moment!]

[Although you still couldn't avoid defeat and death, you still feel that it is much better than last time. At least you really made an effort...]

[And you also had an unexpected gain this time: what was originally intended to be a playful joke to break the Divine Emperor's defenses actually touched the Divine Emperor's humanity, preventing Him from wantonly slaughtering the world like last time!]

Although millions of civilians still died in the uprising, the casualties this time were undoubtedly much lower than last time...

[You truly saved countless people!] [Ding! Simulation ends, rewards calculated...]

……

Seeing the simulated character die again, Zhou Liang couldn't help but sigh...

But then again, the ending this time is actually better than the last time. Not only does it make up for the regret that "Zhu Zhongcheng" and others could not die on the battlefield, allowing them to die for a good cause, it also saves countless civilians who were about to be implicated by the tyranny of the Divine Emperor!
"This is unexpected. I thought the Divine Emperor was going to start a massacre everywhere like last time, but He actually listened to my advice and didn't punish the innocent..."

Zhou Liang scratched his head, unsure how much humanity the Divine Emperor still had left...

"Furthermore, this time, the simulated character's soul actually continued to exist independently for a period of time after the physical body died. Unlike before, it no longer just restarted after death..."

"Could it be... the effect of [Sacrifice Ambition]?"

Zhou Liang looked at the description of "Zhou Liang's" spirit residing in the world in the simulation information, and he was lost in thought. After all, this was a powerful prize he had just obtained. Not only had his real self been greatly strengthened by it, but even "Zhou Liang" had changed because of it...

[Ding! The settlement has been completed. You have received the prize "Sacrificial Ambition". Do you want to claim it?]

At this moment, the settlement was completed.

"Another sacrificial ambition?"

After hearing the prize information, Zhou Liang suddenly became excited:
The sky is big, the earth is big, and the power is the greatest!
No matter how much humanity the Emperor of God still has, as long as I have enough ambition to sacrifice him, he will die!
Zhou Liang had completely placed his hopes on the system prize, so he nodded happily:
"receive!"

The next moment, another extremely thick red light appeared out of nowhere within Zhou Liang's soul!

Combined with the "sacrifice ambition" from last time, and the two "spiritual lights" obtained earlier, Zhou Liang felt that his sense of power was growing stronger.

After a little attempt, Zhou Liang was sure that he had the strength to lift an object weighing two to three hundred kilograms!

"I've only swiped twice and I've gained this level of strength. What will happen if I swiped a few more times?"

Excited Zhou Liang immediately ordered:
"Strike while the iron is hot and continue the simulation!"

[Ding! We've detected that you're currently simulating. Would you like to return to your last life choice point and continue the branch simulation, or return to your birth node and start over?]

"Return to the previous life node!"

[Ding! Returning to the previous life node...]

【…】

[…In front of Zhu Zhongcheng's passionate presence, at this crucial moment of fate, you had second thoughts, and your original intention to die for your loyalty gradually wavered… Your choice: (?)]

[A: The enemy is in Changchun Garden! Damn you bastard emperor, you're so shameless...]

[B: If the ruler orders his subject to die, the subject must die...]

C: Kairun! Killing the God-Emperor is very possible, but it's also a bit unlikely... and submitting to death isn't really what you want... After all the choices, you think escaping is the most effective, so between "yes or no," you choose "or"!

Which one to choose?
In fact, it doesn't matter which one you choose, all three are obviously dead ends:

Option A will die, Option B will also die... Option C's escape may seem like it will not kill him, but Zhou Liang understands that in the face of the power of the Divine Emperor, escape is meaningless!

"No matter where he runs, the Divine Emperor will find him... Besides, even if the monk can escape, the temple cannot. As long as the Divine Emperor starts slaughtering civilians, what does it matter if he runs away? In branch quest B, the Divine Emperor clearly promised not to kill him, but didn't he still hang himself?"

Zhou Liang shook his head:
"Well...let's choose them all."

"Choose C!"

Ding! You chose option C, good luck! Killing the God-Emperor is very possible, but it's also a bit unlikely... And submitting to death isn't something you really want to do... After all the choices, you decide that escape is the most effective, so between "yes or no," you choose "or"!

【…】

[…Back at this hopeless point of choice, you sigh: I’ve done everything I can, what’s the point in restarting?]

"Although I don't know what just happened, you've actually existed in spirit form for nearly a year... But it was this year of soul perspective that allowed you to fully understand the cruelty of the God-Emperor. He continued to slaughter people even after your death, and the number of casualties has reached millions!"

[Escape? Can I really escape? Even if I take a step back, what's the point of running away? Can it change the outcome of the Divine Emperor's massacre?]

You shake your head...

[Hmm? Wait! ]

[Just when you were feeling pessimistic, you suddenly thought: Since the Divine Emperor would actively reduce unnecessary killings due to his humanity being touched, then could we take advantage of his human weaknesses and make him reduce killing again?]

[You thought about it, and a plan gradually became clear in your mind...]

【…】

In December of the 103rd year of the Chongzhen reign, two days before the Divine Emperor's birthday, Ming Prime Minister Zhou Liang and his trusted followers defected to the East China Sea!

[As soon as the news came out, the whole nation was shocked! ]

……

(End of this chapter)