The battle between the Kyushu Army and the Kishu Domain entered the final stage, and the Kyushu Army, relying on its superiority in firearms and numbers, defeated the coalition led by the Kishu Domain at the foot of Mt. Torafu. On April 3, the Kyushu army occupied Wakayama Castle, and Tokugawa Yorinobu committed suicide and martyrdom. Before Tokugawa Yoshinobu committed suicide, he killed all his wives and concubines and children, knowing that if they fell into the hands of the Kyushu army, life would be worse than death.

The Kishu Domain was one of the three royal clans, and the lord of the domain, Tokugawa Yorinobu, was the tenth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu and was the most powerful feudal clan in. The defeat of Tokugawa Yoritsu meant that no one in the whole of could resist the army of Kyushu.

Although the resistance of Wakayama Castle was very fierce, after the Kyushu army entered Wakayama Castle, the Kyushu army did not slaughter the castle, but only took the necessary measures against the Tokugawa Yorinobu family. Zheng Zhilong is not going to leave any of the Tokugawa family behind.

After capturing the Kishu Domain, the Kyushu Army continued to march eastward, and the lords of the domains fled and surrendered. In mid-April, the Kyushu Army captured all of.

After defeating the Kishu Domain, Zheng Zhilong and Wang Sai'er agreed to move the capital to Kyoto. On May 28, Yoshihito was enthroned in Kyoto. The Ming Dynasty also sent envoys to attend the enthronement ceremony. After attending the enthronement ceremony, Xingzi was sent to Daming.

On 6 June, King Zheng Zhilong of Kyushu announced that he would return the power to dispose of political affairs to the Emperor, and that the King of Kyushu would only be responsible for military affairs in the future, and that he would implement a complete separation of military and political affairs in Dongying. The move of the king of Kyushu won the praise of Dongying, and also won the praise of Zhu Youxiao.

In order to resist the power of the King of Kyushu, Wang Sai'er strengthened her ties with the Ming Dynasty, and she hoped to marry the Ming royal family. And Zhu Youxiao also agreed to Wang Sai'er's request, and after several screenings, he married the daughter of the King of Shu to Liangren and became the queen of Liangren. At this point, the royal family of Dongying and the royal family of Daming opened the prelude to the marriage.

The shogunate, which was cornered by Kyushu, made its first attempt to negotiate peace with Kyushu under the auspices of Masayuki Hoshina. And Zheng Zhilong also agreed to the shogunate's request for peace talks.

Under the auspices of Emperor Yoshihito, the shogunate and Kyushu began peace talks, but the two sides of the peace talks had a huge difference in terms of conditions, resulting in no results in peace talks between the two sides.

The Kyushu side made three strong demands: first, the Tokugawa family should be subordinate to the king of Kyushu and go to Kyoto to meet him; Second, Tokugawa Ietsuna's mother, Mrs. Raku, needed to go to Kyoto as a hostage; Third, the Tokugawa family had to leave Edo and change their fiefdoms.

These three demands were too harsh for the Tokugawa family to accept, and these three demands were almost the same as those made by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the time in order to seek war with the Toyotomi family, which was also considered by the Tokugawa family to be a humiliation to the shogunate. Peace talks between the two sides broke down, and the shogunate and Kyushu began to actively prepare for war.

The shogunate lost cities and territories one after another, and its strength was not as good as before, and now it could only defend. And Kyushu has just acquired, and it takes a while to digest, especially the Kyoto riots, which undoubtedly greatly prolonged the digestion time. As a result, both sides are actively preparing for war, but they are in a state of peace for the time being.

And although the empire is calm on the surface, there is an undercurrent surging inside. Zhu Youxiao was already preparing to select three people from among the princes as candidates for the prince.

"The eldest son is not virtuous, and the son is noble but not long, and the minister thinks that the eldest son of the emperor should be the candidate for the prince." Cabinet Minister Chen Biqian was the first to stand up. Chen Biqian is a member of the Donglin Party, he is listed as the general of the "Donglin Point General", and the Donglin Party has always been at the forefront of the struggle for the country.

"The minister seconded the proposal." As soon as Chen Biqian's words fell, someone stood up to support him.

"The minister seconded the proposal."

……

Soon, more than half of the ministers at the court meeting supported Chen Biqian's opinion.

Although Zhu Cijiong's mother Ren Guifei was labeled as a eunuch, Zhu Cijiong got very close to both the eunuch party and the Donglin party in order to win the battle for the country, and he was also supported by many ministers of the imperial court.

"Is there any objection to the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Cijiong, becoming a candidate for the crown prince?" Zhu Youxiao asked.

Now the entire empire is eager for Zhu Youxiao to determine the prince as soon as possible, and now Zhu Youxiao wants to select three people as candidates for the prince, even if there is opposition, he will not speak out at this moment.

"Since there is no objection, then the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Cijiong, is one of the three candidates." Zhu Youxiao made a final decision.

"Now there are still two candidates for the prince, do you have a suitable candidate in your heart?" Zhu Youxiao asked again.

"The second prince is a martial artist, and the minister thinks that the second prince should also be listed as one of the candidates for the prince." Hong Chengchou stood up and said.

The relationship between Zhu Cijun and the military is very good, during the period when Zhu Youxiao was in power, the status of the military has been greatly improved, and the military who have appreciated the sweetness does not want the military to be beaten back to its original form again after Zhu Youxiao is a hundred years old, and it is pressed to death by the civil ministers, so the military strongly supports Zhu Cijun.

"Since His Majesty wants to choose three candidates, the minister also thinks that the second prince should be listed as one of the candidates for the prince." Sun Chuanting also stood up in support.

Compared with Zhu Cijiong, most of the people who support Zhu Cijiong are military generals, and the number of Wenchen supporting Zhu Cijiong is far less than that of Zhu Cijiong, but among the small number of Wenchen, there are heavyweights like Sun Chuanting, the first assistant of the cabinet.

"Do you have any objections to the second prince Zhu Ciyan becoming a candidate for the crown prince?" Zhu Youxiao asked again.

The minister objected. Your Majesty, the system of candidates for the crown prince violates the ancestral system and the etiquette system, and the minister believes that the eldest son of the emperor should be directly canonized as the crown prince. Chen Biqian suddenly wondered.

"Chen Aiqing, are you farting when you say it? When I just said that there was no objection to the appointment of three candidates for the crown prince, now I am suddenly attacking, what do you mean? Zhu Youxiao said coldly.

"Your Majesty has just promulgated the system of candidates for the prince and immediately implemented it, and the minister did not react for a while, and I hope that Your Majesty will forgive your sins! However, the country is not a child's play, and His Majesty's wanton change of the ancestral system and the ritual system will inevitably cause chaos in the world. Chen Biqian retorted.

"Child's play?!" Zhu Youxiao sneered, "I don't think it's child's play, the reason why I set up three candidates for the prince is to choose the best one as the crown prince." In my heart, it's important to be virtuous, and the rest is bullshit. ”

"Your Majesty......" Chen Biqian wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Zhu Youxiao, "The second prince Zhu Cixuan will become the second candidate for the prince." ”

"Your Majesty must not ......," Chen Biqian shouted.

"Chen Biqian openly roared at the court, come and put it out." Zhu Youxiao said angrily.

Hearing Zhu Youxiao's will, the Han general in the court did not hesitate to put Chen Biqian out.

But even so, Chen Biqian was still shouting loudly and reluctantly: "Your Majesty, your Majesty's move will inevitably lead to chaos in the empire......"