Chapter Thirteen: The Minister Entrusted with an Orphan

  Boom!

  A shell hit the city, carrying huge kinetic energy, and landed on several Ming soldiers. In an instant, it was a bloody mess, and people turned into mud-like creatures. The red blood stung their eyes, and the soldiers who saw this scene were all frightened and scattered in all directions, screaming...

  "Chengguo Gong, after observing the situation outside, it's clear that the Ming army can't hold on any longer. Several brothers also think your proposal makes sense and we can offer the prince to the bandit king, but we don't want to do anything for the bandit king, we just want to escape to the south to avoid the war."

  "Alas, you are a young hero who cannot display your talents. It's really a pity. I will explain to General Chu on your behalf. I think I'll go find my subordinates and contact General Chu now. This great achievement of surrendering the city must not be snatched by others!" said Zhu Chunshen with a smile.

  Surrendering is just surrendering, without any burden. To say that others are rubbish is already being polite, it's simply inhuman!

  Gu Zhenhua said: "The Duke is eager to be a subject of the great Shun, and I won't stop him. However, there's one thing I'd like to ask for. Since my brothers want to go to Jiangnan, we need some capital to establish ourselves. Would you, Your Excellency, be willing to help?"

  "Ah?" Zhu Chun's expression changed, and he hastily said: "No problem, I am willing to give Mr. Gu 30,000... no, it's 100,000 taels, what do you think?"

  "Hahaha!" Gu Zhenhua burst out laughing: "100,000 might only be enough to buy one leg of the Duke's, do you want me to help you cut it off?"

  "You!" Zhu Chun Chen was both shocked and terrified, but he didn't dare to argue with Gu Zhenhua, so he could only pretend: "My wealth is not on me, I really can't take it out."

  "Don't worry about not having money, isn't the country gentleman wealthy with land? I heard that you and the Shanxi merchants exchanged 10 million mu of good land. It's just right that we brothers have arrived in Jiangnan and become big landlords too! 10 million mu ah! Enough to eat for generations, our descendants will never worry!"

  "Hey kid, don't be too arrogant!"

  Land is the foundation for a big family's livelihood, how could Zhu Chun Chen be willing to give it up.

  Gu Zhenhua smiled slightly: "Duke Guo, I also know that it's hard to give up good fortune. How about this? I'll kill you, and all the credit will be mine. Whatever land Li Zicheng is willing to give me, I won't be picky."

  Gu Zhenhua said and pulled out a dagger from his boot, Zhu Chunchen suddenly broke into a cold sweat and hastily said: "Mr. Gu, can't I just agree?"

  As they spoke, Zhu Chunshen pulled out a deed from his pocket, a full 1 million mu of fertile Jiangnan paddy fields, and gave it to Gu Zhenhua. Zhu Chunshen was truly heartbroken about this. But thinking again, if he were to rely on Li Zicheng and gain power, he would be able to take it back sooner or later. Therefore, he could only bear the pain and hand over the deed to Gu Zhenhua.

  Gu Zhenhua smiled and put his hands in his sleeves, saying: "Duke of the State, don't delay, hurry up and contact Chuang Wang!"

  Zhu Chun Chen stood up and took a step forward, then stopped again: "Mr. Gu, are you sure you're okay with me going like this?"

  "Of course, the national public will definitely keep their promises."

  Zhu Chunchen burst out laughing: "Mr. Gu, just wait for good news!"

  After finishing the last word, Zhu Chun's face was somewhat distorted, and he was extremely pleased in his heart. Gu Zhenhua, this little boy, saw money and opened his eyes, and his cleverness was confused by profit. As long as he walked out, he would gather the Ming army and kill him first, and the land would still be his own!

  Da Bu Liu Xing stepped out of the door, and Zhu Chun Chen was like a bird released from its cage. Outside, there happened to be a team of soldiers waiting, and he immediately shouted loudly: "Ming army listen to orders, immediately kill the rioters in the house, as well as these traitors who betrayed their master, cut them into pieces, not one left!"

  Zhu Chun said, with a wave of his hand, Xue Biao and the others were all inside, and suddenly pronounced the death sentence. But before he could even finish rejoicing, he heard a gloomy laugh coming from somewhere.

  "What a fine country gentleman, our family has indeed learned what it means to turn black and white upside down. Do you still have the face to say that others betray their masters? The eternal emperor's entrustment, have you forgotten?"

  This shout scared Zhu Chunshen so much that his three souls left and seven spirits fled, almost falling to the ground. A eunuch was seen supporting a 15 or 16-year-old boy walking over, with several palace guards following beside him, all gripping swords and gnashing their teeth, glaring angrily!

  The old eunuch who spoke, Zhu Chunchen, was no stranger. He was the eunuch Ke Gui, the supervisor of the Imperial Stables. In the inner court of the Ming dynasty, the Imperial Stables was a powerful department second only to the Department of Ceremonial Affairs. Originally responsible for raising horses for the emperor, it later evolved into military power, controlling the four imperial guards and responsible for guarding the palace.

  Chongzhen was not stupid either. When Li Zicheng's rebel army reached the capital, he knew that no matter what, he couldn't escape. Therefore, all his hopes were pinned on the crown prince. He ordered Guo Yu to protect the crown prince and handed over several dozen of the most elite soldiers from the four imperial guards to Guo Yu, instructing them to choose an opportunity to escape the capital.

  Zhu Chunchen proposed to Gu Zhenhua that he should hand over the crown prince to Li Zicheng in exchange for wealth and glory, at which point Gu Zhenhua became vigilant. Not only did he not want to get involved with Li Zicheng, but even if he were to surrender to Li Zicheng, being with Zhu Chunchen would still lead to a bad outcome.

  If Li Zicheng had killed Zhu Chuan, he would have been unlucky himself. If he didn't kill him and reused him instead, he wouldn't have good days either, for he didn't believe that Zhu Chuan could forget the hatred of being hijacked!

  After some thought, Gu Zhenhua came up with the best plan. When he went out, he found Old Eunuch Kou Gui and told him everything about Zhu Chunchen's plan to betray the Crown Prince.

  This shocked Lao Taiping to death, and Wan Shi entrusted the crown prince to Zhu Chunshen. If this guy is a white-eyed wolf, wouldn't the crown prince be in danger!

  The old eunuch hastily dispatched the guard Xie Bin to follow Gu Zhenhua, wanting to hear with his own ears what Zhu Chunshen had to say. Gu Zhenhua's conversation with Zhu Chunshen was all reported back to Kou Gui by Xie Bin. Zhu Chunshen wanted to sentence Gu Zhenhua to death, but didn't know that someone had already been plotting against him.

  The old eunuch waved his hand, and all these guards loyal to the Great Ming rushed up, instantly surrounding Zhu Chunshen.

  Zhu Chun's back was instantly drenched, cold sweat pouring out like water, his face deathly pale.

  "General Kou, please don't misunderstand me. I'm just pretending to cooperate with these thugs. They're all Li Kuang's men sent to disrupt the order of the capital, and they've taken me hostage too... I had no choice but to deceive them..."

  "Hahaha!" Kou Gui exclaimed in a shrill voice: "Our family finally knows what it means to point at a deer and call it a horse! It's truly astonishing! Zhu Chunshen, do you still want to save face? After more than 200 years of imperial grace, you repay the great Ming dynasty like this, it's simply unforgivable!"

  The old eunuch said, looking around: "You guys, replace Da Ming with a hoe, chop this shameless traitor to pieces."

  These people were all die-hard loyalists of the Ming court. After receiving the order, they rushed up together and dragged Zhu Chongchen to one side, not allowing him to explain himself. They immediately attacked with their knives, and in a short while, they chopped him into minced meat.

  At this time, Gu Zhenhua, who had been in the house all along, finally walked out with a smile. He had promised He Zhonghou and Zhu Chunmin that as long as he didn't die, he wouldn't touch Zhu Chunmin's family property. If he took matters into his own hands to kill someone, it wouldn't be appropriate either. But now that the person was dead at the hands of the Crown Prince of Da Ming, that was a crime that had its just deserts!

  Gu Zhenhua had just walked out when old eunuch Kou Gui hastily took two steps forward and bowed to Gu Zhenhua.

  "Our family thanks you, Mr. Gu. If it weren't for you, the young master would have been handed over to the bandits by this white-eyed wolf. Our family bows to you."

  Kou Gui was about to kneel down, but Gu Zhenhua quickly reached out and held him back, saying: "Your Excellency, the top priority is how to protect the Crown Prince. Who knows if the bandits have already broken into the inner city? You should come up with a plan."

  "What's the plan?" Kou Gui heard this and also changed color, couldn't help but sigh: "Mr. Gu, to be honest, our family has been in the palace since childhood, only leaving the city a few times on business, two eyes are black, really can't come up with any plan!"

  You can't make up your mind, then just listen to me! Gu Zhenhua thought to himself.

  "Your Majesty, time is of the essence. I think it's best for you to protect the Crown Prince and leave the city as soon as possible. Once you reach the south, perhaps there will still be loyal subjects of the Ming dynasty, and the Crown Prince will be safe."

  "Yes, to the south, to Nanjing, there are still six departments, and there are also civil and military officials!" Kou Gui muttered to himself. But the old eunuch turned his head and thought for a moment, and couldn't help but say: "Mr. Gu, now it's hard to even get out of the city, where can you escape to in the south?"

  "It's true that I wanted to escape from the capital and made preparations, but the crown prince is related to the safety of the country, and even a small person like me doesn't dare to guarantee it." Gu Zhenhua said with a worried expression. Of course, this was just a trick to lure him in, Gu Zhenhua had long wanted to get the crown prince into his own hands.

  Kou Gui also had a difficult face, just at this time, suddenly there was a loud noise from the city gate side, and then dust flew to the sky. Only saw soldiers running around everywhere, and someone shouted: "It's bad, the city wall has collapsed, Li Zicheng has broken in..."

  Kou Gui was also frightened and hastily said: "Mr. Gu, the safety of the prince is now in your hands, you must help!"

  The old eunuch said, while handing over the jade seal and will left to Zhu Zhen by Chongzhen, and didn't allow Gu Zhenhua to refute, directly stuffed them into his hands.

  With this thing in hand, Gu Zhenhua's heart was also excited. With this, he became the guardian of the great name and had the righteous name to command the world! He could proudly participate in the scramble for the Ming dynasty.

  "Lord Kou, rest assured, I will definitely do my best. Let's hurry up and go to Chaoyang Gate first, we'll leave the city from there!"

  As they spoke, everyone mounted their horses. At this moment, the sound of killing came from the direction of the city gate. It turned out that Li Zicheng's troops had already entered through a gap and the defending general had surrendered.

  "Charge!"

  "Kill him!"

  ……

  The cries of killing were right next to their ears, and Gu Zhenhua and his men could only desperately urge the war horses to gallop along the main street. They had just run for over ten minutes when suddenly another cry of killing came from ahead, two groups of people were desperately fighting each other, and there were also many horse-drawn carriages around.

  "Lao Si, it's better to avoid him." Xue Biao said, unable to hold back.

  Gu Zhenhua was also preparing to turn his horse's head, but just then he faintly heard someone shouting: "Kill all the bandits, don't let them snatch away our military supplies..."

  Gu Zhenhua heard this and suddenly his eyes lit up!