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

Inside the Fengtian Hall, there was deathly silence.

"My husband could not be with me in life, but after his death, I will be buried with him in the same coffin, to be with him for eternity."

This is not merely the statement of a woman who died for love.

This is the Xu family, the foremost military family in the Ming Dynasty, their most silent and tragic accusation against the emperor!

Xu Da's usually calm and composed face could no longer hold back.

He looked at his daughter, whom he had cherished since childhood, dressed in plain white, kneeling on the ground, holding a cold peach wood comb in her arms, saying that she wanted to go to the Yellow Springs with a prince who had been unjustly killed.

His heart felt as if it had been ripped open, and the pain was excruciating.

His daughter was intelligent and well-mannered from a young age, and possessed a spirit and courage that rivaled any man's.

He always thought she would marry a hero, live a glorious and happy life.

He had also fantasized countless times about Mu Ying, who would come to marry his daughter in a bright red wedding dress, riding a tall horse and accompanied by a long procession of red bridal procession.

But now, everything is gone.

The elaborate wedding procession, stretching for miles, was reduced to a single coffin.

The phoenix coronet and embroidered robes were transformed into a simple white dress.

"Miaoyun!"

Xu Da's voice was terribly hoarse. He took a step forward, wanting to pull his daughter along.

"father."

Xu Miaoyun did not turn around; her voice was soft, yet resolute.

"Your daughter is unfilial and can no longer fulfill her filial duties to you."

She paused, then slowly raised her head, her red and swollen eyes looking straight at the high and mighty Zhu Yuanzhang.

"His Majesty."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire hall: "You are the Emperor. Whoever you say is rebelling, is rebelling. Mu Ying has also admitted it."

"But I, Xu Miaoyun, don't believe it!"

"I refuse to believe that a man who values ​​the Ming Dynasty more than his own life would betray his father and brother!"

"If he wanted to rebel, his 100,000 iron cavalry from the northern frontier could march south and who could stop him? Why should he return to the capital alone to face death?!"

Xu Miaoyun's words were like needles.

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression was beyond just looking ugly.

He felt like he was being pushed to the edge of a cliff, with a bottomless abyss in front of him and relentless questioning behind him.

He wanted to argue, he wanted to shout, he wanted to tell everyone that he was the emperor and that all his decisions were correct!

However, looking at Xu Miaoyun's face, which was filled with determination, at the glaring peach wood comb in her arms, and at the letters on the ground, each word written in a tearful lament, he found that he couldn't utter a single word.

Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze gradually turned cold again.

He looked at the people kneeling before His Highness, at Empress Ma, at Zhu Biao, at Xu Da, at Xu Miaoyun…

These people are all pressuring him.

They joined forces and used a dead man to challenge his authority as emperor!

Great, that's really great!

Did Zhu Yuanzhang, who worked so hard to build this empire, just so that people like you could stand here and point your fingers at him and question him?

An evil fire suddenly surged up from the depths of Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic and guilt in his heart, and put on that cold, hard mask that belonged to an emperor once again.

"That's enough!"

He slammed his hand on the armrest of the dragon throne, making a loud "bang" that shook the entire Fengtian Hall.

"It's just a dead man, why are you all crying and making such a ruckus here? What kind of behavior is this?!"

Empress Ma suddenly raised her head.

Xu Da and the others were so angry that their beards and hair stood on end.

Just a dead person?

That's your own son!

That was the Prince of Ying, who shed his blood for the Ming Dynasty!

That's a child we watched grow up!

Zhu Yuanzhang, is your heart made of iron?!

"The war in the north is critical! The barbarian cavalry has already crossed the Yellow River and is advancing straight into the heart of the Central Plains! Instead of thinking about how to repel the enemy and protect our Great Ming Dynasty, you're here, entangled with us over a mere illegitimate son, a traitorous villain!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, looking down at everyone in the hall.

"Do you really think that Zhu Muying alone is more important than the vast empire of my Great Ming Dynasty?!"

"Do you still think that we, the emperor, don't even have the power to punish a son?!"

He's using a fallacy of semantics; he's resorting to sophistry!

He wanted to forcefully elevate a family tragedy to the level of national security.

He wanted to shift the blame for his mistakes onto the high-sounding reason of "for the sake of the country and its people"!

"His Majesty!"

Xu Da finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "His Highness the Prince of Ying is loyal and utterly not a traitor! The crisis in the northern frontier is precisely because His Highness the Prince of Ying was unjustly killed, causing unrest in the army! Now, instead of comforting the meritorious officials and stabilizing the army, you are..."

"shut up!"

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at Xu Da's nose and shouted sternly, "Xu Da! How dare you! We've tolerated you time and again because you're a founding hero, don't push your luck!"

"Disciplining our son is a family matter! Fighting in the north is a national matter! When did it become your place to tell us how to handle family matters and how to handle national matters?!"

"you……"

Xu Da was so angry that he couldn't speak.

"And you all!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze then swept over Chang Yuchun and the others. "You've all become dukes and marquises, and you don't even understand this simple principle?! Is our emperor more important, or a dead prince?!"

"If you still acknowledge us as your elder brother and emperor today, then put aside all this messy stuff!"

"Once we drive back the Northern Yuan Tartars, everything will be negotiable!"

"If it were you, you'd insist on making trouble for us over a dead person..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint flashing within them.

"Then don't blame us for not remembering our brotherhood from back then!"

Threat!

This is a blatant threat!

He actually used their brotherhood and their lives to threaten them!

Chang Yuchun's fiery temper could no longer be contained.

"Zhu Chongba!"

He pointed at Zhu Yuanzhang and cursed, "We acknowledge you as our elder brother not because you are the emperor! It's because back then, you were a man of honor and loyalty!"

"But look at yourself now! Do you even deserve to be our leader?!"

"The Fifth Prince's body is barely cold, and you haven't even uttered a word of remorse! You don't even dare admit your mistakes! What kind of emperor are you?!"

"Yes! We're quitting too!"

Lan Yu, Li Wenzhong, and others also roared in unison.

"Let whoever wants this official position take it!"

"We only recognize our eldest sister, not you as our eldest brother!"

"boom!"

Fengtian Hall is about to explode!

He pointed at Empress Ma, his voice becoming shrill with extreme anger.

"Ma Xiuying! Look what you've done!"

"You, a woman, shouldn't be staying in your Kunning Palace? Coming to the Fengtian Hall to brandish swords and spears—what kind of decorum is this?!"

"You've even incited generals in the army to openly defy the emperor and father—what are you trying to do?!"

"Do you want our Great Ming Dynasty to perish?!"

"Don't forget your place! You are the Empress of the Ming Dynasty, but first and foremost, you are our wife!"

"I am the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty, your heaven!"

"Since ancient times, only the rule that the empress dowager must not interfere in state affairs has been in place! Today, you bring a sword, storm into the Fengtian Hall, and in front of the entire court, interrogate and accuse me!"

"Where have you put the rules of our ancestors?!"

"Where have you put my dignity as the emperor?!"

"The imperial harem must not interfere in politics!"

Zhu Yuanzhang practically roared out those last six words.

He wanted to use these ancestral rules to suppress Empress Ma.

He wanted to use those six words to shut everyone up.

He wanted to tell everyone that this was the imperial court, the Fengtian Hall!

This is a place for men to discuss national affairs!

This is not a place for you women to throw tantrums and cry your hearts out!

However, he was wrong.

He was completely wrong.

He thought that by bringing up the ironclad rule that "the empress dowager must not interfere in politics," he could make Empress Ma back down.

But he forgot that the woman in front of him was not one of those ordinary concubines kept in the deep palace who only knew how to fight and be jealous.

She is Ma Xiuying.

"That's enough!"

Cornered and with nowhere to retreat, Zhu Yuanzhang could only roar, his voice laced with bravado, "Let bygones be bygones! Now, I am the emperor! The Son of Heaven! This land must have its own rules!"

"Ma Xiuying, if you continue to act so unreasonably, we'll depose you as Empress and banish you to the Cold Palace!"