Wandering the Heavens

At this time, Zhu Qiyu still cared about his eldest nephew and his relationship with his eldest brother was still there. Now that his eldest brother's life or death was unknown, he, as the younger brother, had the obligation to take good care of his nephew.

"Empress Dowager, Queen, and Imperial Concubine, on the 15th of every month, the snotty eunuch will bring the prince back to the palace. Please don't worry about him." Yu Xian just wanted the child to not grow up astray, but he didn't want him to cut off ties with his grandmother and his stepmother. He was not the kind of evil person who would alienate relatives.

"Lord Xuanwu, if anything happens to my grandson, I will want you to pay with your life!" said Queen Mother Sun murderously.

"I will definitely protect the prince!"

Even if he is not the crown prince. Yu Xian added in his mind.

"It's getting late today. You and Minister Yu have worked hard. Go home and have a rest! We will discuss this tomorrow after seeing if there are any reports on the whereabouts of the Wala army."

Zhu Qiyu was tired after a whole day of tension, and when he saw that the sun was about to set, he dismissed everyone.

"I resign!"

Outside the palace, Empress Dowager Sun looked on with some disappointment as Empress Qian and Imperial Concubine Zhou were instructing Little Nose on the precautions of raising their respective children, but she had no idea that her corner was about to be poached.

"What's your name?"

The palace maid who came over carrying Zhu Jianshen felt several gazes falling on her.

"My Lord, I am Wan Zhen'er." The palace maid replied gracefully.

"You should follow the prince!"

Yu Xian thought about it and decided to take Wan Zhen'er with him. As for what kind of relationship they would have in the future, that would depend on their fate.

"Yu Xian, she is my maid!" Empress Dowager Sun stopped pretending.

"I know that the Queen Mother will feel more at ease if she follows the Crown Prince. After all, it was she who took care of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince before." Yu Xian's words were quite infuriating.

"You follow him!" Empress Dowager Sun could only order Wan Zhen'er to follow Little Nose and leave.

"I obey your command." Wan Zhen'er bowed happily and walked to Little Bit.

While this sarcastic conversation was going on here, Queen Qian and Concubine Zhou also finished their instructions and reluctantly returned to the harem with Empress Dowager Sun.

"Aren't you afraid of making everyone in the world your enemy by doing this?" Yu Qian didn't know what Yu Xian was doing, but he knew it would definitely attract a lot of hatred.

"If the prince grew up in the deep palace like the emperor, do you think there would be a Wang Zhen by his side?" Yu Xian said in a low voice.

Yu Qian turned pale with fear: "You are being treasonous!"

"Some things have to be done by someone, and it's the same for you!" Yu Xian patted Yu Qian on the shoulder and left.

The news that the Duke of Xuanwu had taken the prince away from the court overshadowed the disappearance of the Wala army, and the court officials wrote impeachment memorials overnight, so the next morning the Tongzhengsi desk was flooded with memorials. Zhu Qiyu had been prepared, and he randomly picked out a representative instruction and sent it back, and then everyone was silent.

The reason was provided by Yu Xian, that is, on August 23rd, they beat Wang Zhen's followers to death at the court meeting. Who knows if you will go crazy and do the same thing one day!

Although it is quite comfortable to kill someone without being held accountable, the consequences are still extremely serious. For example, it leaves a bad impression on the emperor.

Everyone could only grit their teeth at this. As for confronting Yu Xian directly, no one had the courage. Everyone had witnessed with their own eyes the last time Wang Zhen was paraded through the streets and then beaten half to death by the Empress Dowager. They didn't want to be treated this way.

At this time, memorials from the commander of the Great Wall in the north and the garrison in Daning were finally sent to Beijing. The remnants of the Oirat army entered the grassland from the northern mountains, and they also extorted a lot of supplies from the Daning garrison in the name of the emperor.

When Empress Dowager Sun saw that her son was still alive, she felt relieved. The next thing she thought about was how to get him back from Wala.

Zhu Qiyu and the civil and military officials in the court did not consider this aspect. The first thing they did was post-war reconstruction and liquidation.

Yu Xian couldn't wait to take over the command of the army from Yu Qian, not because he did not trust Yu Qian, but because he did not trust civil servants.

This seemingly useless behavior led to several more impeachment memorials from the Tongzhengsi. However, this was a small matter, because Yu Xian gave everyone a surprise, that is, the dead eunuch Wang Zhen who disappeared in Tumu Fortress turned out to be in his hands. At that time, the war was urgent and he did not hand him over to the court. Now that the Wala had been defeated, they needed to kill someone to sacrifice to the heaven to stabilize the people's hearts, so Wang Zhen played the final role.

Yu Xian was handling military affairs on the one hand and arguing with court officials on the other, because he and the court officials had differences on how to deal with Wang Zhen.

The court officials had a simple idea: the three judicial officials would investigate the crime clearly and report it to the emperor. After the emperor agreed and made the decision, they would drag the person to the street and skin him alive.

Yu Xian said that this was too easy for him. Skinning him alive was necessary, but they couldn't just do it and leave it at that. Their deeds should be written into a storybook and staged into a play and performed everywhere to let the people know what was wrong with this bastard.

In addition, in order to thoroughly settle accounts with Wang Zhen’s crimes, the three judicial departments could not simply investigate the case, but instead capable officials should be selected to form a working group to handle the matter.

Yu Xian did this for their own good, because in history, after Zhu Qizhen was restored to the throne, this grandson actually issued an edict to restore the reputation of that bastard Wang Zhen, and even built a temple to worship him. In the final analysis, Wang Zhen had not been properly dealt with.

It was Yu Qian who stood up to support Yu Xian, which made everyone feel betrayed. We were all civil servants who came from the imperial examination system, and now you are supporting a nobleman, and a nobleman who came from a cruel official background!

On the New Year's Eve of the 14th year of Zhengtong, Beijing was filled with solemnity. Because according to the imperial decree announced to the world on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the eunuch Wang Zhen, who had brought disaster to the Ming Dynasty and nearly brought the Ming Dynasty to ruin, was publicly executed on that day, with 3,600 cuts. Before that, the Ming Dynasty had already selected the most experienced execution team from all the executioner files.

Before this, Yu Xian and Yu Qian had spread Wang Zhen's deeds throughout northern Zhili and the army through vernacular novels and operas, and everyone hated him. Before this, everyone only thought that this dead eunuch was bad, but he was so majestic! It was similar to the reality that people's values follow their appearance and they laugh at the poor but not at prostitutes.

In order to deal with the possibility that the people might rush to the execution ground, the Wucheng Bingmasi had already guarded the parade streets and the execution ground early on, and even throwing rotten eggs was not allowed.

Those who had been harmed by Wang Zhen and representatives of the families of the 200,000 Ming troops were arranged to be in a position where they could see Wang Zhen. Some of them wore mourning clothes, some held tablets, and watched with tears in their eyes as Wang Zhen, who was tied to a pillar, passed by in a cart pulled by a mule.

At the same time as Wang Zhen was publicly executed in Beijing, an iron tablet was erected in Wang Zhen's hometown, on which were recorded all of Wang Zhen's evil deeds. At the same time, a temple was built in Tumubao, and the foundation is still being laid. The kneeling statues of Wang Zhen and his followers specially cast by the Ministry of Works have also been delivered to the construction site. After the craftsmen placed the kneeling statues in the designed positions, the groundbreaking ceremony officially began, and the first step was to spit on these people.

The entire execution process lasted seven days, from New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the following year. The executioner cut off the exposed aorta with a knife. After a cup of tea, Wang Zhen, whose internal organs were left, finally died.

Afterwards, the executioner withdrew and a group of Taoist priests came in to perform a ritual, covering Xingtai with various talismans. After that, the Jinyiwei came up with a pile of dry firewood, covered Xingtai with it, poured kerosene on it and set it on fire.

The fire burned all night long. The next day, everyone found that Wang Zhen and the wooden Xingtai were burned to ashes. The people lined up to take a handful of ashes home.

Before that, they had to get Yu Xian's tacit consent. They couldn't really be allowed to eat Wang Zhen's flesh, but they could take a handful of ashes back.