In Kunning Palace, Zhu Ying was reviewing memorials.

Seeing that it was time for dinner, he casually asked Guo Zhong who had been waiting beside him: "Grandpa has arrived at the Qianqing Palace now, how are the arrangements for dinner going?"

Having breakfast and dinner with grandpa every day has become a must for Zhu Ying.

If I don’t go there, I guarantee someone will come.

The reason why Zhu Ying asked the question today was that he felt it was a little strange. Normally, Liu He would have come over to urge him.

Guo Zhong was a little flustered when he heard this, and hesitated for a moment before replying, "Your Majesty is currently handling affairs in the Huagai Palace. Not long ago, he sent eunuchs to instruct you to bring today's meal directly to Your Majesty."

Zhu Ying immediately noticed this slight panic.

He turned to look at Guo Zhong, looking at him scrutinizingly.

Under the gaze of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Guo Zhong subconsciously avoided him and lowered his head guiltily.

"Yueqing didn't come today, so it seems relatively quiet."

Zhu Ying said calmly.

Guo Zhong didn't dare to say anything.

"Tell me, what happened? You should know that it is very difficult to hide it from me. Can this palace confine me?"

Listening to the calm tone of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Guo Zhong knew that he was unhappy. He was so scared that he knelt on the ground and didn't dare to say anything.

"I will go to Grandpa right now, and everything will be settled naturally. But as my close confidant, what should you do?"

Zhu Ying had already guessed that it was probably the old man's work, but Guo Zhong's attitude made Zhu Ying feel unhappy.

He didn't want a close confidant like Guo Zhong to hide anything from him no matter when or under what circumstances.

Guo Zhong knew in his heart that he was following His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and at this point he could no longer hesitate. If he lost His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's trust, it would be a loss.

Even if he was punished by His Majesty, it was obvious which was more serious. After gritting his teeth, Guo Zhong said directly: "Your Highness, someone outside the palace was plotting to assassinate Your Highness today, but the Jinyiwei got the news in advance and arrested them."

"Your Majesty was furious and ordered a blockade of the capital, sending a large army into the city and conducting a city-wide search."

"In order to prevent Your Highness from worrying about this matter, I have issued an order not to disturb Your Highness."

Zhu Ying's original dissatisfaction suddenly disappeared.

Assassinate me?

Are you sure?

As soon as the assassination happened, a figure jumped out of Zhu Ying's mind.

What is Zhu Di doing? He didn't kill me in Beiping, and he didn't kill me in the capital. Now that I'm the crown prince, he wants to assassinate me. Could it be that he wants to fight to the death?

Without a doubt, the first person Zhu Ying thought of was Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, the only one who had the courage and the mind to do this was Zhu Di.

Furthermore, recently, Zhu Di has acquired the ability to command an army of more than 100,000. With Zhu Di's personal charm, Zhu Ying believes that he has gained many friends in the army.

Before going to Peking, Zhu Ying knew that Zhu Di had an organization similar to the Jinyiwei under his command, which was dedicated to serving Zhu Di personally. He thought that this organization would be the one to take action against.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ying suddenly laughed.

Apparently, Zhu Di was not qualified enough under the old man's Jinyiwei and was caught before he even made a move.

Zhu Ying stood up and wanted to ask what the circumstances of this assassination were.

Most importantly, has Fourth Uncle been arrested?

Seeing that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was about to go to the Huagai Palace, Guo Zhong quickly winked at the eunuch farthest away. The young eunuch immediately understood, quietly withdrew from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's sight, and then ran away quickly.

Zhu Ying saw it but didn't care.

These are the eunuchs' ways of survival.

In the Huagai Hall, the five ministers of the five ministries gathered, and the governors of the Governor's Office, including Lan Yu, were also here.

In the middle, Jiang Lin was reporting on everything the Jinyiwei had collected so far, and Zhu Yuanzhang was listening with a gloomy face.

"That is to say, among these people, there are not only ministers in the court, but also chambers of commerce from all over the country, gangs at the capital's docks, and even foreign officials are involved."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked coldly.

Jiang Li gritted his teeth and nodded heavily.

He really had no choice. For the moment, he could only make the case bigger. If he told His Majesty, then Gu Shuanggui, who said this, was just complaining.

Haha, I’m afraid the first person to lose his head will be Jiang Li.

At present, only this situation can meet your majesty's ideas.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a gloomy face. He had not looked good today. Anyone could feel the coming storm.

The current situation is that the more in-depth the investigation is, the more people are involved.

At this time, a young eunuch came to the door. Liu He met him and walked to Zhu Yuanzhang's side and whispered in his ear: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince knows."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded when he heard this.

From the very beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't want his eldest grandson to know about the assassination attempt.

Or rather, don't let your eldest grandson know for the time being.

He knew his eldest grandson's character and didn't want to get involved in too many things or kill too many people.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was different. Anyone who dared to touch his eldest grandson must die. Even if it was just talk, this would not be allowed to happen.

Must kill, kill hard.

Only when enough people are killed will others become afraid, and only when they are afraid will they dare not have such evil thoughts.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang probably knew some key points in his mind. After all, Jiang Li would not dare to falsify the files.

Zhu Yuanzhang just glanced at the file that was presented to him and put it aside.

Some things do not require too much evidence or in-depth investigation. As long as this matter serves as a warning, it is enough.

"You, my great grandson, are not fit to be the executioner. I have killed many people already. If I kill a few more, that will be the end of it."

Zhu Yuanzhang never thought of letting this case go.

Seeing that his eldest grandson was about to arrive, Zhu Yuanzhang directly issued an edict to Jiang Lin: "According to the intelligence we have now, all those involved should be arrested and brought to justice. After interrogation, they should be executed immediately."

Everyone was shocked, and Jiang Li asked, "Your Majesty, there are currently hundreds of people involved in this case. Please give your instructions, Your Majesty."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned when he heard this and said, "How could there be only a few hundred people plotting to assassinate the current crown prince? There must be more people behind the scenes, and if we continue to investigate, we will find that there are people involved, and no one should be let off."

"Especially the Gu family. We asked them to come from Jiangnan. I'm afraid they don't care about our goodness. Other families are secretly colluding with us and waiting for an opportunity to act."

"This time, we must root out these people and leave no future troubles!"

Jiang Li immediately bowed and said, "As you wish."

At this moment, his heart trembled, and the civil and military officials present even had their heartbeats slowed down.

Who doesn't know the implication of this?

Your Majesty believes that a few hundred people are too few and that the scope should be expanded.

I'm afraid this case can't be stopped without several thousand people.

Jiang Lin went out with the order and happened to meet Zhu Ying coming over.

"Meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Zhu Ying nodded slightly and glanced at Jiang Li, but still said nothing.

In fact, he now knows what the old man is thinking.

After entering the door, the governors of various prefectures and ministers of various departments were all there. When they saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince appear, they hurriedly saluted.

"Everyone, go out. Let's talk to our eldest grandson alone."

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately drove them away, and soon only the grandfather and grandson were left in the room.

"Grandpa, I heard someone wants to assassinate me?"

Zhu Ying asked frankly. Of course, the person he suspected was Prince of Yan Zhu Di.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "This time we were wrong. Those who wanted to assassinate us were mainly from the wealthy families who had migrated from the Jiangnan area. It might be that Da Sun's Chamber of Commerce affected their interests."

"Let's gather together and carry out the assassination plot. The person has been arrested and interrogated in the Jinyiwei prison. I think the people behind him have been caught as well."

Hearing this, Zhu Ying was a little surprised.

The one who tried to assassinate him was not Zhu Di?

Instead, it’s a group of businessmen?

It’s not that I look down on businessmen, but Zhu Ying has extremely high connections and control over the current business world.

Once there is news of an assassination attempt, you should know it yourself.

Besides, it is difficult for individual businessmen to have this ability.

Zhu Ying continued to ask: "Grandpa, how was the assassin dealt with?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly and said, "What else can I do? If you dare to assassinate my great grandson, I will kill all your clans."

Zhu Ying's heart trembled.

Killing nine generations of a clan means killing all the relatives of the person who committed the crime together.

In the Qing Dynasty where clan relations were strong, an entire village was almost directly massacred.

What is the concept of nine clans? Almost anyone with the slightest blood relationship will be implicated.

According to the current laws of the Ming Dynasty, there are four fathers, three mothers and two wives, a total of nine clans.

Counting from the father, all relatives within four generations, the mother within three generations, and the wife within two generations are implicated.

Simply put, the father-in-law's family, including the mother-in-law's family, will be implicated.

You have to know that in this society, a daughter who is married off is like water spilled. In theory, there is no connection between them anymore.

But in this case, nine generations of the clan must be killed, even the mother-in-law’s family members must be killed.

Some of them were more distantly related, and perhaps even Gu Shuanggui did not know them, but when they were arrested, they were all arrested directly according to their household registration and family tree.

What does this mean? It is like a person who works well in a place and has not committed any crime, but one day someone comes and chops off his head.

The reason was that a distant cousin of his had committed a crime. Even if he didn't know his name, he would still have to die, since they were all members of the same nine clans!

"Grandpa, isn't it too much to kill nine clans? I think it would be enough to kill three clans."

Zhu Ying hesitated for a moment and persuaded.

The Extermination of Three Clans is relatively a weakened version of the Punishment of Nine Clans. It was most frequently used during the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

It refers to the three groups of father, son and grandson.

That is, all of his father's brothers, all of his own brothers, and all of his own sons.

There was no killing of the females in the family, nor any harm done to the cousins.

However, in general, female family members were punished and sent to the Jiaofangsi for their crimes.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said, "Grandson, sometimes if you want to scare people, you must have enough people to fill the gap. I know you don't want to implicate too many people, and I also know that there are many innocent people among them."

"Only in this way can we put an end to the thoughts of some people who are ready to make a move, and only in this way can we establish the dignity of our Zhu family."

"We must make it clear to the people of this world that no one can touch the Zhu family. Even if they have this idea, our entire clan will be wiped out and our incense will cease to be worshipped!"

Hearing this, Zhu Ying was silent for a moment and didn't say much.

Naturally, he would not ask about Zhu Di.

At this moment, the real turmoil in the entire capital began to come.

Jiang Li had a murderous look on his face and brought dozens of Jinyiwei to the Jinyiwei Yamen.

"Boss, His Majesty has a decree."

Song Zhong had been waiting for a long time, and immediately came up and asked when he saw him.

Jiang Li replied briefly: "This arrest will be counted as 3,000."

Song Zhong was shocked and said hesitantly, "Boss, the files have been handed over to His Majesty."

Jiang Li looked at Song Zhong deeply and said, "Your Majesty has of course read the files, but the plot to assassinate the Crown Prince cannot be let off lightly."

"Just arrest them. There are hundreds or even thousands of people in these chambers of commerce. If they are not enough, just arrest his friends along the way."

Song Zhong bowed and said, "I understand."

As a wealthy man from Jiangnan, Gu Shuanggui still has many good friends even though he moved here.

It’s a pity that these good friends have become innocent souls at the hands of the sword one by one.

As the Jinyiwei set off, the entire capital began to fall into chaos.

The emergence of a major case caused a huge uproar in the capital, and these Jinyiwei were not easy to talk to.

Especially in the streets where wealthy families in Jiangnan lived, groups of Jinyiwei rushed in without any scruples.

But if there was any resistance, they would just draw their swords and kill them. In most places, they would just kill them right away.

Three thousand people are too many, and even the Jinyiwei prison can hardly accommodate them. It is said that they will be executed on a later date after being arrested, but as far as the current situation is concerned, those who are implicated do not even need to go through a joint trial by the three courts, and the case can be directly decided.

The Jinyiwei had a bad reputation, which was somewhat related to their behavior.

For example, if a passerby just stops and looks for a few more times, he may be arrested directly or even killed on the spot.

The streets were quiet. It was just dusk, but all the shops and houses were closed.

According to the list, the Jinyiwei kicked open a door, went in and started arresting people directly.

The Jinyiwei were very efficient.

This case of plotting to assassinate the Crown Prince had been under investigation since the morning and was almost closed by the afternoon.

In ancient times, such a speed was simply unimaginable, but it happened in the capital.

This is the real Jinyiwei. When he takes action with all his strength, no one in the huge capital can escape.

The arrest and killing took the whole night because so many places were involved. After all, Nanjing is a very large city.

The operations were basically carried out by the Imperial Guards, while the other troops were only there to maintain the curfew, and they did not have enough manpower.

When the next morning arrived, the streets of the capital were filled with the strong smell of blood.