I was to be executed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Empress Ma smashed Zhu Yuanzhang's jade seal.

"Get out of my way, all of you!"

The hot-tempered King Zhu Shuang of Qin pushed aside the officials blocking his way and ran ahead.

Following behind him, Prince Yan, Zhu Di, had eyes like lightning and immediately spotted the executioner holding the ghost-head knife.

"Who dares to touch my fifth brother!"

Zhu Di's voice was cold and ruthless, completely unlike that of a young man who was not yet twenty years old.

As he roared, he drew the sword from his waist.

The executioners were so startled by this sudden turn of events that they froze in mid-air with their raised knives.

Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that his other sons would come at this time!

"What are you doing here! Get back here!"

Zhu Yuanzhang roared at them.

However, this time, none of his sons listened to him.

Zhu Shuang, Zhu Gang, Zhu Di, and Zhu Su scrambled up the platform, not looking at their father, but rushing to Zhu Muying's side and protecting him tightly behind them.

"Fifth Brother!"

"Fifth Brother!"

Their eyes turned red as they looked at the shocking scars on Zhu Muying's body and the cold shackles around his neck.

"Father!"

Prince Qin, Zhu Shuang, suddenly turned around and knelt down before Zhu Yuanzhang, his voice trembling with sobs, "Father! My fifth brother is innocent! You can't kill him!"

"Yes, Father!"

Prince Zhu Gang of Jin also knelt down, saying, "My fifth brother has rendered unparalleled service to our Great Ming Dynasty. If you kill him, what will the people of the world think of our Zhu family!"

Looking at his sons kneeling before him, Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer contain his anger.

"Fine! Fine! So you're all here to lecture us, huh? Even you're going to turn against us for this rebellious son?"

He pointed at Zhu Di and roared, "Zhu Di! What did you just say? Whose whole family are you going to kill? Say it again!"

Zhu Di raised his head, meeting Zhu Yuanzhang's murderous gaze without the slightest fear.

Although he was kneeling, his back was ramrod straight.

"Your Majesty, I say, anyone who dares to harm my fifth brother, I will kill their entire family!"

"You've rebelled! You've really rebelled!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he trembled all over.

Just then, Crown Prince Zhu Biao, who had been being dragged along, finally broke free from the two captains' restraints. He scrambled back and rushed to his younger brothers, kneeling down beside them.

He raised his head and looked at his father. The pleading in his eyes was gone, replaced by a resolute and tragic determination.

"Father!"

Zhu Biao's voice resounded throughout the entire venue.

"If you insist on executing my fifth brother today..."

He paused, took a deep breath, and then, with all his might, shouted out the words that made the entire Ming Dynasty tremble.

"Then let's execute us brothers along with them!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Prince of Qin (Zhu Shuang), the Prince of Jin (Zhu Gang), the Prince of Yan (Zhu Di), and the Prince of Zhou (Zhu Su) behind him, as if by telepathy, raised their heads in unison and roared with the same resolute voice: "We are willing to die together with our eldest brother and fifth brother!"

"I'm willing to die with you!"

"I'm willing to die with you!"

Five princes, in the prime of their youth and who should have been the most dazzling princes of the Ming Dynasty, knelt on the cold stone slabs, facing their father and the supreme imperial power, and made the most tragic protest, risking their lives!

The entire Meridian Gate Square fell completely silent.

The entire court, officials and civil and military personnel alike, were stunned by this astonishing scene.

What did they see?

The princes...

They're forcing him to abdicate!

They are using their own lives to force their father, the emperor!

"I am willing to die alongside my eldest brother and fifth brother!"

Those resolute and tragic cries, like the heaviest war drums, pounded fiercely on Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

He froze, staring blankly at his five sons kneeling before him.

Zhu Biao, his crown prince, his future hope, now had blood on his forehead and tears streaming down his face. His eyes no longer held the kindness and weakness of the past, but only the fierce determination to perish together with the enemy.

Zhu Shuang, his second son and the Prince of Qin who guarded the northwest, was always hot-tempered, but at this moment he knelt upright, his tiger eyes filled with tears, like an enraged lion, desperately protecting his brother.

Zhu Gang, his third son and the Prince of Jin who guarded Taiyuan, was usually calm and composed, but at this moment his face was flushed and his fists were clenched so tightly they cracked.

Zhu Di, his fourth son, the son he always thought best resembled him in his youth, was now looking at him with a cold and stubborn gaze he had never seen before, as if to say, "Try moving."

And then there was Zhu Su, one of his youngest sons, who usually only knew how to study medicine and didn't care about worldly affairs. At this moment, he was also kneeling there, his little face tense and his eyes full of fear, but he didn't flinch at all.

His sons...

His biological sons...

Today, for the sake of another son, they all stood against him.

They used the most direct and brutal method to tell this father, this emperor: We are a family. If you want to kill him, kill us first.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt a sudden dizziness, and he staggered back two steps, grabbing the dragon throne behind him to avoid falling on the spot.

Why?

How did things turn out this way?

His mind was in turmoil. One moment he saw Empress Ma's resolute and pale face, the next he saw Zhu Biao's shattered crown, then he saw Xu Da and the others' swords lying on the ground, and now, his five sons were kneeling before him, begging for death in unison.

He felt like he was having an absurd nightmare.

In his dream, he was abandoned by the whole world.

"You...you..."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at them, his lips trembling, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time.

He wanted to curse them as unfilial children, to yell at them for being so rebellious.

But the words just wouldn't come out.

Besides overwhelming anger, a strange, inexplicable feeling also welled up inside him...

desolate.

How much did Zhu Yuanzhang sacrifice for his family and his country?

He crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, risking his life to fight against Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, and the Mongols. He survived countless near-death experiences to achieve everything he has today.

He thought that since he had given them the most honorable status and the most prestigious position, they should be grateful to him and obey his every command.

But he forgot that they were first and foremost his sons, and only then princes.

They share the same blood and have an unbreakable brotherhood.

"Father!"

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's pale and distorted face, Zhu Biao knew that the most critical moment had arrived.

He suppressed his grief and raised his voice.

"Father, you always taught us that brothers united can move mountains. You said that the future of our Zhu family's empire will depend on us brothers, working together with one heart and one mind to protect it!"

"But today, you are going to personally sever the limbs of us brothers because of a fabricated charge!"

"Father, you killed our fifth brother. How are we, the older and younger brothers, supposed to face each other after this? When we see each other, will we remember this day, remember the way our fifth brother died tragically by your blade?"

"At that time, will there still be trust between us brothers? Will there still be kinship? Won't all that be left be suspicion and fear?"

"How can the Zhu family, filled with mutual distrust and disloyalty, possibly protect the Ming Dynasty?!"