The Ming Dynasty: The most ruthless imperial grandson, Old Zhu begged me not to kill him.

Chapter 554 The general trend

"presumptuous!"

"Zhu Liangzu, you're about to die, yet you're still trying to frame others. Are you trying to harm others?!"

"Your Majesty must not allow this man to continue living. He is spreading heresy and deliberately harming loyal officials of the country!"

"That's right, this person has actually rebelled, he absolutely cannot be spared!"

"Otherwise, what if others follow suit?"

The crowd was buzzing with discussion, and everyone wanted to kill the man. Hearing this, Zhu Liangzu looked utterly incredulous.

He realized that he had wanted these people to save him, but they wanted to kill him instead. He immediately started cursing.

"What do you mean?"

"You took so much money from me before, and now you want to kill me? We used to be brothers!"

"How could you do such a thing!"

However, the ministers in the court did not listen to him at all. Now they only wanted to kill Zhu Liangzu, which would only implicate more people.

Hu Weiyong sighed. Li Shanchang was now very old.

Although the alliance between the noble families of Huaixi has long since dissolved, it would still be extremely disadvantageous for them if the court suffered too many losses.

He walked out and said.

"Your Majesty, this Zhu Liangzu is spreading heresy and has probably guessed his fate. He's trying to take this opportunity to implicate more people!"

"They just want to make a big fuss about this. Your Majesty, you absolutely must not listen to this person!"

The others nodded in agreement, afraid of being associated with it.

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered. How could he not know what these people were thinking? Zhu Liangzu had committed a crime, and these guys weren't necessarily clean either; in fact, they were all birds of a feather.

However, their crimes will be settled with them in due course.

"We'll talk about your matter later. Right now, Zhu Liangzu is guilty of heinous crimes. Men, take Zhu Liangzu out and behead him, and exterminate his entire clan!"

Zhu Liangzu looked incredulous. He couldn't understand why the ministers in the court wouldn't help him, and why Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill him. Why were these good brothers who used to call him brothers now unmoved?

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the ministers in the court and said.

"There are many rebellious families now. Although we have arrested many of them, there are still many. I know that many of you have a lot of entanglements with them, but don't worry, as long as you don't do anything stupid!"

"We certainly won't implicate you, but you also need to show me how efficient you are!"

When the court officials heard this, especially those who were related to the families, they couldn't help but shudder.

Now they have no way out but to follow Zhu Yuanzhang to the very end.

Thinking of this, one person stepped forward and spoke up.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, we will definitely capture all these rebels and bring them to justice!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and nodded, then looked at Crown Prince Zhu Biao and said.

"We don't trust you that much. Since the Crown Prince is here, let him supervise you. In addition, I will send the Imperial Guards and the other two princes to participate as well!"

"If any of you have acted illegally or abused your power in this matter, don't blame me for being impolite!"

"Of course, if someone does a good job, I won't be stingy with my reward!"

"After this incident, there will definitely be many vacant positions in our Great Ming Dynasty, and even your salaries can be increased!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up. If they could truly make a contribution in this matter, wouldn't they be set for life? Excited by this, they worked even harder.

Crown Prince Zhu Biao curled his lip, never expecting that his father's skill in giving a beating followed by a sweet treat was so masterful.

Meanwhile, Zhu Xiong Ying was also compiling statistics on this matter in Jiangnan.

Now that most of the families identified in various places have been apprehended, if this continues, and a comprehensive system of merging land tax and poll tax is implemented, along with the requirement for gentry to pay taxes as well, there will likely be little resistance. In this way, the strength of the Ming Dynasty will definitely increase at an extremely rapid pace.

Thinking of this, he was extremely satisfied.

After all the families had been marked, the soldiers outside came to report that one of the families they had surrounded had sent an envoy to seek peace with Zhu Xiong Ying.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xiong Ying smiled dismissively.

"The world has really changed. What level of guy dares to negotiate with me?" he said with a smile after thinking about this.

Since that's the case, then let him come. I want to see what tricks these people are up to.

An old man arrived here.

This man is the head of the Gu family in Jiangnan.

They have been running the Gu family business for a long time now, and they were involved in this incident.

Now these families are surrounded, and their manpower is dwindling. Many soldiers have even fled the area with them.

In addition, they don't have much food at all, so if this continues, they will inevitably suffer heavy losses, which is extremely disadvantageous.

So after careful consideration, the head of the Gu family decided to negotiate this matter, hoping to use what they had to try to change the future of their family members.

At this moment, he looked at Zhu Xiong Ying in front of him with an extremely complicated expression.

Zhu Xiong Ying was not particularly old, but it was precisely because of him that his family suffered heavy losses. In fact, if he had been able to cooperate with their powerful clans, he would definitely have been a wise and powerful ruler.

Unfortunately, this person didn't care about their aristocratic families, which were the foundation of everything.

After all, they were taught from a young age to serve their family.

This is what he said as he looked at Zhu Xiong Ying in front of him.

"This old man pays his respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Zhu Xiong Ying smiled and nodded, looking at the intelligence in his hand.

"If I'm not mistaken, you should be the head of the Gu family!"

"The Gu family has done a lot of things in recent years, and of course, they've also made quite a few mistakes!"

"I had no idea that the Gu family's wealth was so vast—it's almost half the national treasury!"

"This imperial grandson is extremely envious."

It seems the Gu family patriarch is truly adept at making money!

Upon hearing this, the head of the Gu family gave a forced smile and said...

"Your Highness, you flatter me."

These are merely the accumulated wealth of my Gu family over generations!

"My family started developing in Jiangnan during the Han Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)