In the Wenhua Palace, Chongzhen was discussing the disaster relief situation in Shaanxi with Yang Sichang, the first assistant of the cabinet.

Since Huang Degong led the army into Shaanxi, in less than a month, seven battles and seven victories, the 30,000 Tianwu army broke through the 100,000 thieves, and Li Zicheng was terrified.

According to the Tang newspaper sent from the front line yesterday, Sun Chuanting led the Qin soldiers back to Shaanxi to join Huang Degong, and was just about to make a posture of attacking Xi'an, Li Zicheng withdrew from Xi'an overnight and ran to the Shangluo Mountain area again.

In the face of the two sides who had beaten him violently, Li Zicheng still dared to defend Xi'an and continued to start guerrilla warfare.

The eunuch guarding the noon gate ran into the Wenhua Hall and shouted, "Your Majesty, it's not good! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince led the troops to arrest the ministers who petitioned before the noon gate! ”

Chongzhen frowned and said, "What about Dingguo Gong?" How did he defend the imperial city! ”

"Your Majesty, the Duke of Dingguo has been taken down by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

There was a loud bang, and several copies of the recital on the dragon case flew up.

Chongzhen slapped the dragon case violently, and said in a fierce voice: "What does the prince want to do?" ”

The eunuch who supervised the noon gate said again: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has brought the ministers to the Taimiao, I heard that it seems that he is going to cut down these misguided ministers in front of the ancestors and ancestors......."

Yang Sichang's hands shook violently, and the notebook in his hand slipped to the ground, knocking out a dull sound on the gold bricks.

Chongzhen was no better, his whole brain was short-circuited all of a sudden, he couldn't believe that this rebel was so bold that he was ready to kill two or three hundred Beijing officials in one go? Still in front of the Taimiao? Even if Cao Mengde is reincarnated, he won't dare to be so prodigal!

Yang Sichang quickly picked up the notebook and said emotionally: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince first blatantly acted against the Jin merchants, dug up the roots of the gentry in the world, and then unscrupulously hunted down and killed the court officials, he wanted to cut off my Ming dynasty!" ”

The more Yang Sichang spoke, the more excited he became, and he said hoarsely: "Emperor Taizu's preferential treatment of the gentry is the foundation of the dynasty, how is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's move different from a thief?" If Your Majesty doesn't stop it, I'm afraid the world will die! ”

"Enough!" Chongzhen took the case and looked at Yang Sichang with a blue face.

Yang Sichang knelt on the ground and said: "The minister has lost his words, please forgive your majesty, but the minister also wants to say that His Royal Highness the prince relies on the strong army to act recklessly, and His Majesty must take precautions......"

Chongzhen's face was ugly, how could he not know this, he ignored the huge petitions of the officials outside the noon gate, and there was no lack of meaning to use the civil official group to deal with Zhu Cihong, when the Wanli Emperor wanted to abolish Chang Liyou, the civil officials collectively opposed and had to let the Wanli Emperor give up.

Now that the civil officials are forced to confront the prince, Chongzhen's best way is to put his hands in the middle and let the two forces confront each other, so as to achieve the goal of balancing the government and government, and even take Zhu Cihong and the civil official group, but he never expected that Zhu Cihong would not play his cards according to the routine at all and forcibly use force to break this situation.

Chongzhen immediately issued an order: "Wang Chengen, you personally go to the Taimiao Temple to deliver the decree, and let the prince release him immediately!" ”

After speaking, he waved his hand and asked Yang Sichang to retreat.

......

Taimiao is located in the east of the central axis from Chengtianmen to Wumen, only adjacent to the six straight houses, was built in the eighteenth year of Yongle, covering an area of more than 200 acres.

Taimiao is the place where the ancestor worship ceremony is held in the Ming Dynasty, its building is built according to the traditional ritual system of "respecting the heavens and the ancestors", the ceiling and the pillars in the hall are all pasted with red gold flowers, the production is fine, the decoration is luxurious, the east side hall is dedicated to the god seat of the meritorious royal family of the Ming Dynasty, and the west side hall is dedicated to some different surnames of the meritorious heroes.

In front of the main hall, hundreds of officials who had petitioned in front of the noon gate were pressed to the ground one by one by the Yongwei Battalion, kneeling neatly in several rows.

Hearing that the prince was going to kill them in front of the Taimiao, the officials were terrified one by one, and wanted to shout but were gagged and couldn't make a sound.

However, he was responded to by a heavy rifle butt, and one of the guards smashed his head on the spot and bled to his knees.

After Zhu Cihong simply worshiped the temple, he walked out of the colorful glazed door and stood under a cypress tree in front of the door, the cypress tree here was planted by the princes of the Ming Dynasty, because the princes of the past dynasties were young and naughty, planted at will, did not follow the line distance, and the eunuchs of the priests did not dare to stop it, which formed this unique shape of Berlin, among which there were several small cypress trees planted by Zhu Cihong when he was four or five years old......

Zhu Cihong waved his hand and ordered: "After the worship is completed, prepare for the execution, and send them to see Emperor Taizu!" ”

A team of guards raised their swords and aimed at the officials in front of them, under the refraction of the sun, a bright light flickered, and most of the officials who were tortured were paralyzed, no one thought that their lives would end so suddenly, let alone die in the temple......

This epoch-making way of death, not only did they not think of it, but no one had ever dared to do it throughout the ages, and they set a precedent.

"Keep people under the knife!"

"The holy decree has arrived, and people will be left under the sword!"

The sound from afar was like a heavenly sound, echoing in the ears of the officials who were about to be tortured, and they writhed back and forth excitedly, and their mouths indistinctly shouted that His Majesty had come to save him!

Zhu Cihong frowned and looked at Wang Chengen, who was running in a hurry, and suddenly shouted: "Chop!" ”

With a flash of the knife, a large area of blood splashed, hundreds of human heads rolled to the ground, and the temple seemed to have become a hell on earth, with crooked and twisted headless corpses all over the ground, and the smell of blood was everywhere.

Wang Chengen ran with the holy decree, just entered the halberd gate of the Taimiao, and suddenly saw the tragic image in front of him, so frightened that he fell to the ground unsteadily, and the holy decree in his hand flew out two meters away.

Zhu Cihong ordered the troops to be collected and returned to the house, and when he passed in front of Wang Chengen, he didn't stop at all, and he didn't even look at him.

Wang Chengen picked up the holy decree, was stunned for a while, then glanced at the scene outside the main hall of the Taimiao, and immediately returned to the palace.

A group of eunuchs who were in charge of the temple sprinkling and cleaning, incense lamps and other things walked out of the side hall with trembling legs, and some of them were paralyzed on the spot with fright.

When the news came out that the prince killed hundreds of officials in the Taimiao, the whole city of Beijing was in a sensation, no less than a major earthquake, and many officials related to the eight major Jin merchants were in a panic, as if it was about to reach the important day of the world, and they were looking for a way around, lest they would be suddenly taken down and cut off their heads.

The Tianwu Army and the Jinyi Guards still arrested the nobles in the inner city, and raided all the Hou Bo mansions that committed crimes, and captured thousands of people.

Sun Yingyuan and Li Tingbiao knew that the prince wanted to completely eradicate these nobles, so they were also unceremonious, one counted as one, and all the clansmen who committed the crime were arrested.

All the nobles have become frightened birds, and they are looking for relationships everywhere, but at this juncture, who dares to stretch out their heads to speak, even the British public bluff has closed the door of the mansion tightly, and no one can see it.

The arrest operation in Beijing lasted for a whole day and a night, and for a time the people in the inner city of Beijing were panicked, and the nobles who participated in the murder of the prince were even more frightened, especially Jiading Hou Zhou Kui.

Jiading Hou Zhou Kui is Zhu Cihong's grandfather, and he also has a presence in the murder of the prince, originally Tian Guifei and Queen Zhou had a good relationship, but after the death of her two princes, Tian Guifei began to confront Queen Zhou in public, and complained, indicating that the Tian family should have clues.

Empress Zhou gave birth to two princes, one of whom is still the crown prince, even if Tian Guifei is favored again, she will not shake her position as queen, and it is naturally impossible to do anything to murder the prince, so there is only one possibility, Empress Zhou's father Zhou Kui was involved in this matter, and Tian Guifei's father Tian Hongyu found some clues.

The two princes who died were the grandsons of Tian Hongyu, how Tian Hongyu was not in a hurry, and mobilized all the forces of the Tian family to investigate the matter, and finally had a little frown, but he knew that the Tian family could not compete with the nobles, and after learning that the crown prince Zhu Cihong investigated the murder of the prince, he wanted to remind him through some hints.

On that day, Tian Hongyu invited Zhu Cihong to a banquet, and sending Chen Yuanyuan to have a relationship was only one of the purposes, and the other purpose was to test whether Zhu Cihong was determined to investigate the case thoroughly, but Zhu Cihong left halfway, so that Tian Hongyu's plan was ruined, so he had to secretly send someone to reveal the news that the fifth prince's nurse had seen a maid out of the palace to a brocade guard of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Tian Hongyu never expected that the crown prince's intelligence network was so powerful, and only such a small hint could dig out all the nobles behind him in just a few days, and directly sent someone to raid the house!

Tian Hongyu was surprised and delighted, but he didn't know how the emperor and the crown prince would deal with these nobles next, especially Jiading Hou Zhou Kui......