At night, the huge capital city was pitch black.

Only the night watch's torch flickered in the darkness, like an erratic will-o'-the-wisp.

During the day, the Shun army was mobilized back and forth, and a tense and solemn atmosphere aroused the whole city. Not to mention the people, even the dogs stopped barking.

Even the watchman who was doing the watch disappeared without a trace.

After Dashun captured the capital, all the government offices of the previous dynasty were dissolved and have not been restored to this day.

However, at this time, on the streets of Xicheng, there were two slightly thin figures holding hands with each other and running on both sides of the street, carefully avoiding the light of the night patrol.

Occasionally, firelight passed by, and what was reflected was two fair and slightly frightened faces.

One is a boy and the other is a girl.

The boy's eyebrows are quite heroic, and he looks like he is fifteen or sixteen years old. The girl is slightly younger, with delicate features and a gentle temperament.

If there were any old officials from Dali here, they would definitely exclaim: Prince.

These young girls are none other than Crown Prince Zhu Ci and Crown Princess Mingwan.

After the capital surrendered, the officials and generals who decided to surrender finally retained the last trace of shame and did not arrest Chongzheng and the prince and send them to the Shun army.

Before Chongzheng hanged himself, he ordered the queen to commit suicide and killed the princess. Then he summoned Zhu Ci and ordered him to put on civilian clothes and escape during the chaos.

Perhaps he was completely desperate for the dynasty. Before leaving, Chongzheng did not ask Zhu Ci to go south to succeed him, but asked him to leave the capital, remain anonymous, and forget everything in the palace.

At that moment, Zhu Ci felt that the sky was falling. After bidding farewell to Chongzheng in tears, Zhu Ci took Mingwan with him, secretly changed into civilian clothes, took advantage of the chaos, ran out of the palace, and hid in the house of a minor official who was attending the East Palace.

The so-called East Palace Attendants are the officials who accompany the prince to study in the East Palace and are close ministers of the prince.

This man was so loyal that he took in Zhu Ci and Mingwan at the risk of being exterminated if he was found to be harboring the former prince.

In this way, although Zhu Ci and Mingwan were on tenterhooks every day, they finally had a place to stay.

But soon, Liu Zongmin, the general of the Shun Army, began to torture people throughout the city, arresting people almost according to the list of officials.

It started with princes, nobles, cabinet ministers, and then spread to senior officials of the fourth and fifth grades.

In the end, even the ninth-rank officials like the East Palace Attendant were not spared.

The amount of money blackmailed from the East Palace attendant was as high as 3,000 taels.

Chongzheng was a poor emperor, Zhu Ci was a poor prince, and he had the position of Qingshui as a minister in the East Palace. His salary was pitiful, and his rewards were just a few symbolic gifts during the New Year. The family was poor, so how could they get as much as three thousand taels.

So this East Palace attendant was beaten to death in Zhao Prison.

He was loyal, and even until his death he did not reveal Zhu Ci's existence in exchange for a chance to survive.

A few days later, a group of loyal soldiers broke into the home of the East Palace attendant, killed all seven members of the East Palace attendant's family, old and young, and stole all the money and food.

Zhu Ci and Mingwan were deprived of food and had to go out to find a new hiding place after two days of starvation.

The two of them were lucky enough to avoid one after another of patrolling troops, and arrived at the door of a house with a rather grand façade. The words on the door plaque had been knocked out, and only four remaining marks were faintly discernible:

Jiading Bofu.

After a while.

When Zhou Kui, who was lying on the bed and humming, saw Zhu Ci and Mingwan, he was immediately ecstatic.

Zhou Kui, the father of Empress Zhou and father-in-law of Chongzheng, was also Zhu Ci's maternal grandfather.

That's right, the owner of Jiading Bo's Mansion was the same Chongzheng who cried for money and was only willing to donate fifty taels. Empress Zhou had no choice but to secretly give him 10,000 taels and asked him to donate, but he cried and made five thousand taels.

The ultimate miser, Zhou Kui.

In the huge capital, when Zhu Ci left his home, the first thing he thought of was his grandfather.

However, Zhou Kui's ecstasy was not the joy of meeting his "grandson", but the opportunity to get back the family property that had been kidnapped.

Liu Zongmin's donation was naturally indispensable for Zhou Kui, the "father of the state" of the former dynasty.

After being tortured, Zhou Kui couldn't bear the pain and revealed the location of the silver hidden in his home.

At first, Chongzheng called for donating money to fight against the Shun army, but Zhou Kui was only willing to donate fifty taels of silver. However, Liu Zongmin tortured him and "donated" all the three million taels of silver in his family.

Three million versus fifty, one side is the enemy of the country's subjugation, and the other side is his "daughter and son-in-law".

What is retribution? This is called retribution.

But looking at the bigger picture, Zhou Kui's behavior is just the epitome of the nobles, nobles, civil and military officials in the capital.

After all the family property was donated, Zhou Kui's heartache was more severe than the pain in his body.

Silver, that is his life.

As a result, Zhu Ci appeared at this time.

What's this?

Grandson?

No no no!

This is the merit of living, the hope of claiming credit from Shunjun and taking home wealth.

Zhou Kui felt his blood surge, and he quickly climbed out of bed. He pointed at Zhu Ci and Mingwan and shouted to his servants: "Quick, quick, catch them!"

The servants on the left and right did not understand the identities of Zhu Ci and Mingwan, so they swarmed in and knocked down the two people who had no power to resist.

"Grandpa, you...you, why is this?!" Zhu Ci's face changed drastically and he screamed.

"Don't call me grandpa again." Zhou Kui's eyes sparkled and he pointed at Zhu Ci and said, "You are a remnant of the previous dynasty. If I don't capture you and send you to the official, my life will be hard to save."

"No... no, I'm leaving now, don't catch me..."

Zhu Ci was so frightened that his face turned pale. He was so immature in experience that he never imagined that Zhou Kui would arrest him as soon as they met.

"Please, don't arrest me~"

"I promise I won't say I've been here, and I won't hurt you, Grandpa, please~"

Zhu Ci begged hard, but what he didn't know was that Zhou Kui was not afraid of being implicated, but wanted to arrest him to take credit.

Capturing the prince of the previous dynasty will be a great achievement in any dynasty.

However, Zhou Kui would not allow him to talk any more, so he ordered his servants to silence him and Ming Wan, loaded them into the carriage, and hurried out to the Prime Minister's Mansion.

The way he was jumping up and down didn't look like he had been tortured in Zhao Prison, and his face was glowing red.

Zhu Ci, who was lying in the carriage, looked pale, filled with fear and a little dazed. He still could not accept the fact that his grandfather would arrest him and send him to the official. Mingwan's face turned pale and her whole body was trembling.

.

The two looked at each other with tears streaming down their faces.

The running carriage bumped up and down at high speed, and the cold wind pouring in from the door curtain made the two people's bodies feel as cold as falling into an ice cave.

If you fall into the hands of the Shun army, you will die. If you can get a happy life, you can just pay it back, otherwise you will be tortured to death.

For thousands of years, there has been no exception.

However, at this moment, the cold wind pouring into the door curtain suddenly stopped, and even the bumping of the carriage became less severe.

Zhu Ci looked up and his eyes suddenly widened.

I don't know when there was an extra person at the door curtain.

This man was dressed in coarse linen clothes. He was sitting behind the curtain with his back straight. He looked at him with a dark look, shook his head and said in disappointment: "The dragon's head is dull. This Dali's energy has finally been exhausted."

After saying that, he let out a "shush", stretched out his hand to pull out the mouth cloth from Zhu Ci's mouth, and asked: "Are you going to go to the Crown Prince, Zhu Ci?"

Zhu Ci didn't dare to say anything and nodded quickly.

"Do you want to live?" the visitor asked again.

Zhu Ci nodded again and again.
Chapter completed!