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

The entire city gate was deathly silent.

All that remained was the dripping blood from Hu Weiyong's corpse, making a "drip, drip" sound.

Zhu Muying's arm trembled.

Hu Weiyong's still-warm body was flung off the tip of the gun like a tattered sack, arcing through the air before crashing heavily onto the bluestone slab in the center of the square.

A muffled "bang" was heard.

Li Shanchang and the other civil officials felt as if their hearts had been shattered by the impact.

They dared not take any chances anymore.

They finally realized that the young man before them was not forcing a resignation, nor was he negotiating.

He is setting the rules.

The first rule is: those who obey me prosper, those who defy me perish.

The whole world is finally peaceful.

Zhu Muying was satisfied and dismounted.

He casually stuck the gleaming silver spear into a crack in the stone bricks beside him.

The gun that had killed someone stood there, bloodstains still clinging to its tip, gleaming eerily in the sunlight.

He straightened his Hundred Flowers Battle Robe; he had just done something insignificant.

Then, step by step, he walked up to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Behind him, Empress Ma, Crown Prince Zhu Biao, Xu Da, Chang Mao, Lan Yu, and others finally recovered from their shock and followed, surrounding the father and son.

At Chengtian Gate in Jinling City.

The most powerful group of people in the Ming Dynasty gathered here.

Zhu Muying walked step by step to the dragon throne.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also looking at him.

Those eyes, once filled with majesty and wisdom, now held only endless resentment and bitterness.

After a brief period of fear and disorientation, his suppressed anger erupted from the depths of his heart like a volcano.

He can't admit it!

He was Zhu Yuanzhang!

He was the Hongwu Emperor who drove out the Manchus and restored China!

He could die, but he could never bow down and admit defeat to his own son!

He strained himself and slowly stood up from the dragon throne.

He pointed to Hu Weiyong's unseeing corpse on the ground, and to the noble generals in the square who had just experienced a silent battle. His voice was hoarse and mournful.

"Ying'er..."

He was still calling him "Ying'er".

"Take a look."

"Look at yourself! What have you done?"

"He, Hu Weiyong, was personally appointed Right Chancellor by me! You say you'll kill him, and you kill him!"

"They, Xu Da, Chang Mao, and Lan Yu, are brothers who crawled out of piles of corpses with your father! For their sake, you actually led hundreds of thousands of troops to the city gates!"

"In Nanjing, there are still a million innocent civilians!"

"Look at all these people, so many have died because of you, so many have been put in danger because of you! Don't you feel even a shred of remorse?"

He began to stand on the moral high ground and put Zhu Muying on trial.

He wanted to portray Zhu Muying as an unforgivable sinner who would cause the bloodshed of the world for his own selfish desires.

He paused, took a deep breath, and uttered what he considered to be the most scathing words.

"Shouldn't you have committed suicide to atone for your sins?"

"His Majesty!"

Xu Da, Lan Yu, and the others instantly gripped the hilts of their swords, their eyes wide with fury as they stared intently at Zhu Yuanzhang.

I've seen shameless people, but I've never seen anyone this shameless!

Zhu Muying, the person directly involved who was thrust into the spotlight, smiled.

He listened to Zhu Yuanzhang's accusations that distorted the truth, and to the insidious words of "committing suicide to atone for the sins of the world," but he didn't even raise an eyebrow.

He just listened quietly.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, and all eyes were focused on him.

He slowly smiled.

That was a laugh of utter contempt and utter mockery.

"Ha ha……"

"Hahahaha!"

His laughter grew louder and louder until it finally became a wild, uproarious laugh that echoed throughout the entire Chengtianmen Square!

He laughed so hard he almost fell over, and tears were streaming down his face.

What he had just heard was the funniest joke in the world.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face instantly turned a deep liver color.

"What are you laughing at?!"

He roared.

Zhu Muying's laughter stopped abruptly.

He suddenly raised his head, and a terrifyingly cold light flashed in his smiling eyes!

"Zhu Chongba!"

He spoke.

No longer "Father" or "Your Majesty".

Instead, it was that name that had been sealed away for decades, representing his origins.

"I'm laughing at you. Even at this point, you're still playing your old tricks on me—the mind games of an emperor!"

"To commit suicide to atone for his sins?"

Zhu Muying stepped forward and stared intently into Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

"Are you worthy?!"

"Behind me are 36,000 Tiger Guards! 41,000 Eagle Guards! 800 warships of the Longjiang Navy! And 300,000 brothers from the Northern Frontier, who have risked their lives alongside me!"

"I command an army of 500,000, and you expect me to commit suicide to atone for my sins?"

He pointed at Zhu Yuanzhang's nose and said, word by word, "You think I'm stupid?"

"Or do you still think you're adorably silly?"

"you!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so enraged by his treasonous words that he trembled all over and almost fainted on the spot.

Zhu Muying, however, gave him no chance to catch his breath.

"You're saying people died because of me?"

"Alright, let's settle this score!"

"Hu Weiyong formed cliques for personal gain, embezzled public funds, and plotted rebellion. Shouldn't he die?!"

"Those civil and military officials you framed for treason and who died unjustly in prison, did they deserve to die?!"

"Three hundred thousand soldiers in our northern frontier guard our borders in this harsh, cold land, shedding their blood and sacrificing their lives, yet you withhold their rations and leave them to fight on empty stomachs! Don't they deserve to die?!"

"And me!"

Zhu Muying pointed to her chest, her eyes filled with a mixture of sorrow and anger.

"I, Zhu Muying, have pacified the southern barbarians, secured western Sichuan, repelled the northern Tartars, and recovered the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun for your Great Ming! In what way have I wronged you? In what way have I betrayed this Zhu family's empire?"

"But how did you treat me?"

"You are afraid of my achievements, you fear my military power! You are going to drag me to the Meridian Gate and have me executed by slow slicing on a trumped-up charge!"

"Zhu Chongba! Tell me! Who is it that makes others bleed in this world? Who should commit suicide to atone for their sins?!"

His voice grew louder and more stern with each utterance!

Every word was like a heavy hammer, striking Zhu Yuanzhang's heart hard!

Smash his hypocritical moral facade to the ground!

He smashed his pitiful imperial dignity to smithereens!

Zhu Yuanzhang was so stumped by his question that he retreated step by step, and finally, he stumbled and fell back onto the cold dragon throne.

He was gasping for breath, his mouth agape, like a dying fish that had been thrown ashore.

He wanted to argue.

But he found that he couldn't find a single word to refute it.

Because everything Zhu Muying said was true.

It's a bloody fact, one he created himself!

……

200 requests for more chapters, I'll add more chapters right away!