Seeing that Qin Yiming had no intention of letting him go, Zhu Guobi decided to fight to the death.

He drew his sword and shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Brothers, if you surrender you will die, if you don't surrender you will also die! In this case, why not pick up your weapons and fight your way out with me, and live and die together!"

Seeing this, the soldiers quickly drew their weapons and shouted: "We live and die together!"

Qin Yiming also shouted: "His Royal Highness Prince Ding has ordered that all those below the rank of deputy general who surrender will be pardoned and reinstated! Those who resist will be executed immediately and their families will be exiled!"

The soldiers around Zhu Guobi first looked at each other, then turned around at the same time and pointed their weapons at Zhu Guobi.

Zhu Guobi was completely dumbfounded.

His voice trembled: "What...what are you going to do?"

A soldier replied: "Sir, it is never too late to repent!"

"Yes, sir, put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha right away."

Zhu Guobi held the knife in both hands and cursed as he retreated: "They are rebelling, all of them are rebelling. You all deserve to die, all of you deserve to die!"

As he was backing away, he felt someone behind him.

Just as I was about to look back, I felt a pain in my neck, my vision went dark, and I lost consciousness.

The soldier who knocked Zhu Guobi unconscious and his companions immediately carried Zhu Guobi to Qin Yiming to claim credit.

Qin Yiming waved his hand, and the soldiers around him rushed forward and tied up Zhu Guobi.

Everyone got up and returned to Nanjing.

On the way back, Zhu Guobi woke up.

He knew he would not have a good ending, so his first reaction was to commit suicide.

But he was afraid of death.

At the same time, he still had a glimmer of hope that he would be pardoned.

The eleventh day of the twelfth lunar month in the twenty-seventh year of Chongzhen.

Qin Yiming personally brought Zhu Guobi back to Nanjing.

Zhu Cijiong immediately found Zhu Guobi and asked, "Where is my elder brother?"

Zhu Guobi was a little surprised: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is missing?"

"Stop talking nonsense and answer the question."

"I don't know."

"Where was the last time you saw him?"

"The Great Golden Gate of Xiaoling Mausoleum."

"Then what?"

"Then I was defeated and fled, and was later captured by Qin Yiming."

"You don't know the whereabouts of the prince?"

"I really don't know."

"Oh!" Zhu Cijiong sighed, asked some other questions, and then had Zhu Guobi taken away.

The process of going south to quell the rebellion went smoothly, but the results were not satisfactory.

The prince is missing...

Disappeared in front of many people.

This matter was weird from beginning to end.

He couldn't understand it and couldn't find out clearly.

I can only report the situation.

At noon that day, he took Zhu Guobi to the military camp outside the city.

As soon as he entered the military camp, Zhu Guobi found that the camp was full of prisoner cars.

There were people in every prison van.

In the prison van closest to him was Pang Tianshou, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department.

Seeing Zhu Guobi, he immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Hey, isn't this Lord Zhu? Why didn't you catch him? We were counting on you to save us, but now you've been caught in one fell swoop!"

Zhu Guobi rolled his eyes at him and said unhappily, "Go away. I'm not in the mood to talk nonsense with you."

Pang Tianshou didn't take his words to heart at all and continued laughing.

Zhu Guobi was so angry that he threatened: "Laugh, laugh as hard as you can, you won't be able to laugh when you get to the capital."

It would have been fine if the capital had not been mentioned, but when the word capital was mentioned, Pang Tianshou laughed even louder.

He smiled and reminded: "Master Zhu, you are the one who led the rebellion. When you go to the capital, your fate will be worse than mine."

Zhu Guobi retorted with a dark face: "You...you are talking nonsense. I just responded to the prince's call for the king's support. I didn't rebel. And the mastermind was not me or Ma Shiying, but Liu Kongzhao and Qian Qianyi!"

"Whether it's nonsense or not, you will find out when you get to the capital!"

When Zhu Guobi was about to retort, two soldiers brought a prison van and locked him up.

A general rode a horse to check the number of people from front to back, and came to Zhu Cijiong to report: "Your Highness, except for Zheng Zhilong and Liu Kongzhao, all the main criminals involved in the rebellion have arrived."

Zhu Cijiong frowned and asked, "Do you know where Liu Kongzhao fled to?"

"According to the surrendered soldiers, Liu Kongzhao had already prepared to escape. He had deployed several ships on the river downstream of Nanjing in advance. On the day our army entered Nanjing, he boarded a warship and went out of the river and into the sea. As for where he went specifically, it is unknown."

"Send a message to all the departments to pay more attention and report immediately if they find any trace of him."

"yes."

Zhu Cijiong turned around and glanced at the team of prisoner cars, and ordered in a deep voice: "Take these prisoners to the capital immediately and hand them over to His Majesty for disposal!"

"Yes, sir."

Amidst a burst of urging, the team slowly set off.

......

On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, the news that Li Dingguo and Li Xianzhong had completely recovered Southern Zhili reached Nanjing.

Zhu Cixiong did not continue to move south, but urged Wang Zhixin to implement the national policy of currency reform.

Wang Zhixin is already going crazy over the fight.

He sent one or two people to each prefecture and county in Southern Zhili to implement national policies.

The specific steps are very simple.

First, a notice was posted, calling on poor people to report those who hoarded silver.

Next, together with the informant, we searched the homes of those people based on the clues provided in the report.

This kind of thing is easy to find out.

Once verified, the property will be searched and the person will be held accountable.

If no money is found and the other party's family is relatively wealthy.

They will try every possible means to frame someone until the other party offers bribes.

In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the people, money will be distributed to the people for every action.

The poor people who received the silver stood even more firmly on the side of the court.

The gentry in Southern Zhili suffered greatly and began to find ways to resist.

They thought they were facing the imperial power of the lower county.

But in reality, what they faced was a group of poor people at the bottom of society who were led by imperial power.

The imperial power provided political protection to the people.

The people provided the imperial power with the manpower to take action.

They united to reap the local gentry.

Some gentry and landlords accepted their fate and lost money to avoid disaster.

Some people strongly opposed it and even started riots.

But the main force behind riots has always been the poor people at the bottom of society.

They all stand on the side of the court and Chongzhen and will not respond to the call.

Even if someone responded to the call and launched a rebellion, they would be quickly suppressed by the anti-rebellion army.

In just one month.

Wang Zhixin, the governor of the Eastern Depot, confiscated huge amounts of wealth from various prefectures, states, counties, and towns in Southern Zhili.

The money was divided into four parts.

Part of it was given to the treasury, part of it was sent to the national treasury, and part of it was given to Zhu Cijiong's army to suppress the rebellion.

The rest was divided between him and his minions.

Although Chongzhen was far away in the capital, he knew the situation in Southern Zhili very well.

Before changing.

He would remind Wang Zhixin not to be too greedy.

This time, instead of reminding him, he pretended not to know.

Use this method to fatten up Wang Zhixin.

Of course.

He will not kill the King's heart.

Because killing the king is the next emperor's business...