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

"What?!"

This time, it was Xu Da who exclaimed in surprise!

His usually calm and composed face was now filled with shock and disbelief.

"Nonsense! Shanhaiguan is impregnable, garrisoned by 30,000 of our Great Ming troops! How could it possibly fall so easily?! Who is it?! Did the Mongols attack?! Where did they get the audacity?!"

Chang Yuchun, in a fit of rage, rushed forward, grabbed the Imperial Guard by the tattered collar, lifted him up, and roared, "Explain yourself! What exactly happened! How did Shanhaiguan fall?!"

Zhang Shisan was lifted into the air, his body like a lump of mud, taking in less air than he was exhaling.

Looking at the Dukes before him, whom he could only admire from afar, two streams of murky tears, a mixture of blood and sweat, flowed from his eyes.

"No...not a Mongolian..."

"They're...they're...one of our own..."

"It's... a black army..."

"They...they used explosive...magic...to directly...to blow up the city wall..."

explode?

witchcraft?

Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, and the others were completely bewildered and had no idea what he was talking about.

But Zhu Yuanzhang's heart sank suddenly!

He's got it!

He thought of the thing called "Thunderclap" that Zhu Muying had presented to him!

Is it...

"Who is leading the troops?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was as cold as ice. "What is their banner?!"

Zhang Shisan's consciousness was beginning to fade.

Before his eyes, the image of that demon god, riding a black steed, wielding a huge halberd, and moving freely across the city walls of Shanhaiguan as if it were no one else was there, reappeared.

"He...they said..."

Their commander... was named... Xiang... Xiang Yu...

"Their stated reasons were... to serve the emperor... to purge the court of corrupt officials..."

"What?!"

"Xiang Yu?!"

"Serving the emperor? Purging the court of corrupt officials?!"

The entire hall erupted in chaos!

The civil officials looked at each other, their faces filled with absurdity and ridiculousness.

"Xiang Yu? Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu? Has this Imperial Guard gone mad? He's talking nonsense!"

"Exactly! 'Serving the emperor'? 'Purge the court of corrupt officials'? This is clearly treason! A colossal joke!"

But the military officers couldn't laugh.

Although they also found the name "Xiang Yu" absurd, they still believed in the principles of "serving the king and purging the court of corrupt officials."

These five words were like five knives, stabbing them hard into their hearts!

All eyes were drawn once again to the young man, still in shackles, standing in the center of the hall.

Zhu Muying.

When Zhu Muying heard the name "Xiang Yu," his heart sank to the bottom.

He knew something was wrong.

What a big deal!

His worst fears came true!

The backup plans he left behind, the trump cards he used to intimidate and save his life, were exposed by others without his knowledge!

Zhang Shisan was experiencing a final burst of energy before death. With his last strength, he pulled out a silk letter from his bosom, soaked in blood and with the writing almost illegible.

"There's...there's more..."

"The military genius... Han Xin... has cut off the routes to Hebei and Shanxi..."

"Lord Wen... Lü Bu... leading the Bingzhou wolf cavalry... has reached the banks of the Yellow River..."

"The God of Slaughter... Bai Qi... besieging Taiyuan..."

"The king is in trouble... summoning all the armies of the realm... to come to his aid..."

Names that only exist in history books and legends, and serial numbers that would keep any emperor up at night, were uttered intermittently from the mouth of this dying Imperial Guard.

With each name uttered, the temperature inside the Fengtian Hall dropped by one degree.

With each number uttered, the faces of the court officials grew paler.

When the last line is spoken, "The king is in trouble; summon all the armies of the land to come to his aid."

When he finished speaking.

The entire Fengtian Hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was frozen in place, their minds blank.

They couldn't understand or believe what they were hearing.

This is no longer an urgent report.

This is……

A death warrant!

After saying these last words, Zhang Shisan tilted his head to the side and breathed his last.

But the news he brought was like a magnitude 12 earthquake, shaking the entire Ming Dynasty court to its core, causing it to crumble and fall apart!

Dead silence.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, there was a suffocating, deathly silence that lasted for dozens of breaths.

The Imperial Guard was already dead, lying limply in Chang Yuchun's hands like a broken puppet.

But the names and words he uttered before his death were like invisible ghosts, lingering in every corner of the hall, crawling into everyone's ears, and chilling them to the bone.

Xiang Yu?

Han Xin?

Lü Bu?

Bai Qi?

What the hell is all this stuff?!

The civil officials were all pale-faced, feeling that none of the Confucian classics they had read in their lives could explain the absurd and bizarre scene before them.

What kind of wild spirits or monsters have come out to cause trouble?

Or did this Imperial Guard go mad before he died?

But generals like Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, and Lan Yu, who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, could not laugh.

Although they didn't know Xiang Yu or Han Xin, they understood one thing from the blood-written letter and the state of the Imperial Guard before his death.

Something big has happened in northern Xinjiang.

Something earth-shattering has happened, enough to shake the very foundations of the Ming Dynasty!

The root of all this lies in those eight words: "When the king is in trouble, summon all the troops in the land to come to his aid!"

king!

Which king?

In this world, besides Zhu Muying, the Prince of Ying who was just deposed and exiled to the northern frontier, who else dares to call himself "King"?!

Who else has the ability to make the entire northern frontier rise up in rebellion for him?!

"Whoosh!"

In an instant, everyone's gaze, like sharp swords, once again turned towards the young man in the center of the hall.

There was shock, anger, doubt, and fear.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang stood before the high dragon throne, completely frozen as if struck by lightning.

His mind was buzzing and in complete chaos.

Everything he had planned, his perfect solution, and his victorious attitude of controlling the whole situation all became a huge joke at this moment!

Exiled to the northern frontier?

Should we send him to atone for his sins?

Shit!

That's not atonement at all!

That's like letting a tiger return to the mountains!

Do not!

It's a million times more terrifying than letting a tiger return to the mountains!

He, Zhu Muying, is not a tiger at all!

He is a dragon!

A vicious dragon that has long since dug its lair, is covered in claws and fangs, and is just waiting for an opportunity to soar into the sky and overturn the world!

Li Shanchang!

The image of that old fellow suddenly flashed through Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

His seemingly self-serving suggestion was hardly a rescue.

That's clearly handing over a knife!

It's pushing him into a fire pit!

And Xu Da too!

Chang Yuchun!

Their grief-stricken and indignant demeanor, their willingness to risk their lives to protect Zhu Muying, was hardly loyalty.

That was clearly acting!

They knew all along!

They're all in cahoots!

And Zhu Biao!

Zhu Di!

His good sons!

They all cried and wailed, demanding to be punished the same as Zhu Muying!

What a touching story of brotherhood!

It turns out, all of this was a setup!

A massive, all-encompassing scheme targeting him, the emperor!

They were all acting!

They're all lying to him!

They were all buying time for Zhu Muying!

Try to buy some time for his "arrogant and fierce generals" to raise an army and march south!

"Serving the Emperor"?

"Purge the court of corrupt officials"?

Hahahaha!

What a loyalist to the emperor!

What a brilliant move to purge the emperor's inner circle!

In the annals of history, which rebellion didn't use this grand and respectable banner?!

Deceived, betrayed, and fooled, a boundless rage surged from the depths of Zhu Yuanzhang's heart to the top of his head!

He felt his blood boiling!

His face, contorted with anger, turned a deep liver color.

His eyes were so red they looked like they were about to bleed, and he stared intently at His Highness Zhu Muying.

That son he was most proud of, and also most wary of.

That rebellious son he had just thought he was manipulating!

He had been lying to himself from beginning to end!

His performance of committing suicide, his impassioned speech, and his reluctance to part with his brothers were all fake!

It's all an act!

That beast!

What a heartless beast!

"good……"

A beastly roar escaped from Zhu Yuanzhang's throat.

"Excellent! Zhu Muying is truly remarkable!"

He kicked over the imperial desk in front of him, scattering memorials, writing materials, and the imperial seal all over the floor.

"We really raised a good son!!"

He pointed at Zhu Muying, the finger adorned with a jade thumb ring trembling violently from the force he was using.

"You! And all of you!"

His gaze, like a knife, swept over Xu Da, over Chang Yuchun, and over Zhu Biao and Zhu Di kneeling on the ground.

"You all think we're fools! Don't you?!"

"Do you really think your plan is flawless?!"

"Do you all think that we, the emperor, should be kept in the dark and manipulated by you?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's roar echoed in the empty Fengtian Hall.

The boundless rage and killing intent contained in that voice sent chills down everyone's spines.

The wrath of the emperor can cause millions to die and blood to flow for miles!

They knew that this time, the emperor was truly determined to kill them!

A murderous intent that will never end!