After crossing over, he has no taboos among the zombies.

"What, missing?"

A moment later, at the Dashun temporary prime minister's residence.

Li Yan was shocked to learn that Chongzheng's body was missing.

He knew that Chongzheng's body had become grievant and unhealthy after he hanged himself on Coal Hill, and he had reported to Emperor Shun to deal with Chongzheng's body as soon as possible. However, after Emperor Shun captured the capital, he suddenly lost his goal, drank every day, and ignored state affairs.

As the Prime Minister of Dashun, Li Yan was under tremendous pressure.

The Dali army was defeated too quickly, and the Dashun regime was not prepared to take over such a large area of ​​territory.

Although people from all over the country surrendered, none of the surrendered officials and generals were trustworthy and could rebel at any time.

Moreover, the Liaodong generals had no intention of surrendering at this time. The secret envoys they sent to negotiate made exorbitant demands, not only demanding a fiefdom, but also demanding an annual supply of 5 million taels of silver and 6 million shi of grain. Otherwise, they would defect to the Di Kingdom, lure the Di army into the pass, and fight to the death.

The Liaodong generals have been managing the Shanhai and Liaodong areas for nearly a hundred years, and their roots are deep and lush. Even the Dali Dynasty has actually lost control of them. If a war really breaks out, the Dashun Army is equally matched with them, and I am afraid that no one will be able to stand up. After all, they are the most elite force of Dali.

If they really risked the world's condemnation and led the Di army into the pass, it would be a disaster for Dashun.

According to Li Yan's idea, the southern expeditionary army was currently attacking Jiangnan, so it was not advisable to start a war on two fronts. He had to stabilize the Liaodong generals first.

If you want a fief, give it; if you want money, give it; if you want food, give it.

Liu Zongmin had already tortured out 70 million taels of silver and tens of millions of dan of military rations in the capital, so he could afford it.

It would be much easier to deal with the Liaodong generals after Dashun forced Jiangnan to surrender and stabilize its position.

At least, there is no risk of collapse.

However, what Li Yan did not expect was that Emperor Shun's suspicion of him had reached an unreasonable level.

A few days ago, he reported the plan to King Chuang, but King Chuang pointed at his nose and scolded him: "You are secretly communicating with the generals of the previous dynasty who refused to surrender. What do you want to do? Are you planning a rebellion?"

Li Yan was so angry at these words that he wanted to throw down his seal and resign, and leave in anger.

Since the establishment of the Dashun Dynasty, his political disagreement with Emperor Shun had become public.

Emperor Shun was used to being a commoner, and his actions and thoughts had not yet changed, but he was about to become the ruler of the world.

What he had to do was no longer to lead his soldiers around, rob money and food, eat big chunks of meat, drink big gulps of wine, and not worry about anything else.

Rather, it is about how to govern a country, how to suppress the endless greed of subordinates, how to compromise with the outside world, and how to balance various contradictions to prevent the situation from collapsing.

Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. You can’t control the temperature or the fire, and you can’t turn off the fire.

If it is said that Emperor Shun ignored state affairs, it was only one of the reasons. He could also maintain his status by doing some things secretly.

The most troublesome person was the general of the Shun army, Liu Zongmin. This man was old and powerful, and he was arrogant and unruly. Not to mention the prime minister himself, even the Shun emperor did not seem to give him much face.

This is the problem within the Dashun Army.

To sum it up in one sentence: The Dashun Army was a loose regime pieced together by various rebel forces. They would unite when it was beneficial and disperse when it was not. It was far from being fully integrated.

The most powerful military leader among them was the fierce general Liu Zongmin.

He was nominally a general under Emperor Shun, but in reality he was self-reliant and his soldiers only knew "General Liu" but not Emperor Shun.

Li Yan sometimes had to wonder, was Emperor Shun giving up because he was powerless to control his soldiers and generals, so he simply didn't want to take care of anything?

Emperor Shun had no heir, so he was powerless to visit his empress. After his death, the country would eventually belong to someone else.

Chongzheng's body is missing, which is a problem.

But Chongzheng is dead, so it's just a nuisance.

The bigger problem was that Liu Zongmin had already squeezed out almost all the civil and military officials of the previous dynasty who were imprisoned in Zhaoyu, as well as the nobles of the later dynasties, regardless of whether they surrendered or not.

Presumably, he is now looking for an excuse to expand the scope of torture so that he can target the rich and common people in the city. In fact, his men have already started doing so.

The unbridled rebels had become like bandits and robbers in the city.

If he plundered the entire city under the pretext of searching for Chongzheng's escaped corpse, people everywhere would be terrified and a wave of rebellion would surely be set off.

You know, the capital city opened the city gates and surrendered voluntarily, without any resistance.

Endless plundering brought in money but lost the people's hearts.

"Seal the news immediately!" Li Yan pondered for a moment and immediately made up his mind. He then ordered: "Find a corpse, put on the dragon robe of the previous dynasty, burn it on the spot, and tell the public that it is Chongzheng's body."

"But sir, all the guards know that Chongzheng's body has escaped. If His Majesty knew about it, it would be a big deal..." the people around him reminded hesitantly.

"Chongzheng's body escaped, and the guards are guilty. I will clean up their mess for them. Anyone with a bit of common sense will stop gossiping. This is feasible."

Li Yan's face was determined. After a pause, he said helplessly, "As for Emperor Shun... this one isn't a big deal."

This was the reason for his discord with Emperor Shun. Emperor Shun ignored state affairs, and Li Yan handled many matters on his own, bypassing Emperor Shun.

If this happens too many times, it will naturally arouse suspicion.

The reason why he was still the prime minister of Dashun was that his decisions were basically correct when he bypassed Emperor Shun.

It can even be said that if it were not for Li Yan, Emperor Shun would probably still be fleeing around Shaanxi and Gansu at this time.

"Yes, my lord."

The attendants received the order and hurried down to make arrangements.

Li Yan pondered for a moment, then called over another of his men and asked, "Have you found Zhu Ci?"

Zhu Ci, the crown prince of the previous dynasty.

Chongzheng hanged himself on Coal Hill, Empress Zhou committed suicide, but Zhu Ci and the Crown Princess were missing.

In order to stop Liu Zongmin's large-scale search, Li Yan, just like he did when Chongzheng's body disappeared, lied to the outside world that Zhu Ci and the Crown Princess had been burned in a palace fire, and then secretly intensified the search.

But strangely, Zhu Ci and the Crown Princess disappeared without a trace.

It was like being burned to death in the palace fire.

The subordinate shook his head and said, "Sir, we have not found any trace of Zhu Ci and we are still searching for him. The four gates of the capital are closed, so we think he should still be in the city."

"We must find him. If we allow him to escape to Jiangnan and succeed to the throne, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Yes!"