Chapter 63: The Great Ming Is Invited To Die!! Seeking Monthly Tickets
“The Emperor has arrived—!”
A sharp announcement, like a heavy hammer shattering the roars in the square.
Everyone jolted, their gazes snapping towards the square’s entrance.
They saw Old Zhu, not in his imperial carriage, but supported by a few close eunuchs, step by step onto the imperial staircase before the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
His face was sallow, his figure hunched, the weakness of recovering from a serious illness hard to conceal.
His gaze, sweeping over the kneeling Imperial Guards and lower-ranking officials, like cold probes, locked onto the edge of the square.
There, Zhang Biao was being held down by two Imperial Guards gripping his shoulders.
He struggled to raise his head, his gaze anxiously sweeping towards the center of the square.
With just one look, his breathing nearly stopped.
Although he had already heard “lying corpse,” “chamber pot lamp,” and those chuunibyo slogans from Jiang Huan, the impact of seeing it with his own eyes far exceeded his imagination.
On the cold golden bricks, his “fellow sufferers” who had been drinking and eating pig’s head meat with him last night lay scattered.
Shen Lang, wrapped in that dirty, tattered straw mat, looked like a true corpse, only a face frozen blue but filled with stubbornness showing.
Li Mo, wearing only a thin undergarment, lay on his official robe, his body trembling uncontrollably, yet still trying to maintain a posture of a scholar who would rather die than be humiliated.
Sun Gui!
Sun Gui was holding up the chamber pot, its dim candlelight flickering.
The strange smell, a mixture of poor-quality wax oil and residual urine odor, could still be faintly detected from a distance.
The solemn expression on his face, a mix of facing death and some shame, stabbed into Zhang Biao’s eyes like a red-hot needle.
There were more people, holding broken bowls, broken shoes, lighting their humble yet glaring ‘lights’ in various absurd and comical ways.
Seeing the Emperor arrive, seeing Zhang Biao being escorted, they did not retreat in fear, but instead struggled to lift their heads, their eyes filled with anxiety, worry, and an almost foolish desire to protect him.
“Brother Biao!!”
Someone, hoarsely and with a crying tone, shouted first.
“Let Brother Biao go!”
“Your Majesty! Injustice!”
The weak yet stubborn shouts, rising and falling, came from those ‘corpses.’
At this moment, all pretense of playing at life, all plans of going home, were shattered by this absurd, tragic, yet incredibly real scene.
Zhang Biao felt a red-hot branding iron stuck in his chest, burning so intensely that his entire insides convulsed.
These idiots!
These death-seeking idiots!
And almost simultaneously, his gaze suddenly swept towards the adjacent office.
Behind the window, those familiar figures.
Ru Chang, Fu Youwen, Guo Ying, Li Jinglong.
They were holding hand warmers, standing leisurely by the window, pointing and gesturing.
Although the specific content couldn’t be heard.
But the undisguised contempt, mockery, and the look of watching a circus on their faces, along with their condescending indifference, treating everyone as ants, formed a cruel contrast like hell and heaven to the grief and indignation burning in Shen Lang and the others in the square.
On one side, his brothers were risking their lives for him in the freezing cold in the most humble way, even not hesitating to hold up chamber pots.
On the other side, those vermin were enjoying the people’s blood and sweat in the warm pavilion, indulging in mockery to the extreme.
【 No matter how a small fish struggles, it’s still a small fish! 】
Fu Youwen’s cold and arrogant words seemed to explode in his ears.
Boom—!
An indescribable rage, like millennia of accumulated lava, instantly broke through all of Zhang Biao’s reason and pretense.
It burned away his last shred of ‘player’ mentality.
What the hell kind of world is this?!
Why?!
Why should those who work diligently and plead for the people starve, freeze, be humiliated, and trampled upon?
Why should the vermin who suck the blood of the common people be high and mighty, and act with impunity?!
Old Zhu wants to use the blood of his brothers to sharpen his blade?
Sharpen your mother’s!
Today, I will first chop off the claws of this pack of jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards!
“Zhang Biao!”
As Old Zhu’s voice sounded, a group of people rushed out of the office.
They stood at a slightly lower position on either side of the imperial staircase, like VIPs watching a grand drama.
They were all waiting to see how the Emperor would deal with the lawless Zhang Biao and how he would crush these ‘small fish’ who didn’t know their place.
The Emperor stood firmly at the highest point of the imperial staircase, the cold wind swirling the hem of his dark official robe.
He did not look at the lower-ranking capital officials lying on the ground, holding their ‘light sources.’ His gaze was fixed solely on Zhang Biao, his voice not loud, but carrying a bone-chilling coldness and cruelty that clearly permeated the entire square:
“I gave you a chance.”
“Now, I’ll let you choose.”
“Do you want to watch me…”
Old Zhu’s withered finger slowly rose, like the grim reaper’s scythe, pointing at Shen Lang, who was closest to him and wrapped in the straw mat: “Kill them all, one by one!”
“Or…”
His voice suddenly rose, with an undeniable authority: “Tell me! Are you willing to help our Great Ming illuminate this eternal night!?”
“Buzz—!”
The square instantly fell silent.
Even the cold wind seemed to congeal.
“Brother Biao…”
The hearts of all the lower-ranking capital officials were in their throats.
Shen Lang’s eyes widened in the straw mat, the candle flame of the chamber pot in Sun Gui’s hand flickered wildly, and Li Mo felt his blood about to freeze.
The nobles and high officials observing from the imperial staircase widened the curves of their mouths.
Guo Ying watched with a blank expression, Fu Youwen’s hand stroking his beard tightened slightly, and Ru Chang’s eyes flickered with bloodthirsty excitement.
Good, good, good!
Kill!
Kill quickly!
Kill to show this presumptuous madman!
Zhang Biao was held tightly by two Imperial Guards. He lowered his head, his shoulders seeming to tremble slightly.
Everyone thought he had succumbed to the immense pressure, was afraid, was struggling.
A hint of cold triumph, as if controlling everything, flashed in Old Zhu’s eyes.
However.
At this moment of dead silence, when the pressure reached its peak.
“Hahaha—!”
A laugh of extreme madness, filled with endless mockery and grief, exploded like thunder from a clear sky.
It made everyone’s eardrums buzz.
It was Zhang Biao.
He suddenly flung his shoulders.
The two Imperial Guards holding him tightly were thrown back several steps by his sudden burst of strength, as if shaking off two bags of trash.
Zhang Biao raised his head.
In those eyes, there was no trace of fear or struggle.
Only rage, burning to the extreme, as if it would burn down all directions.
That rage was not directed at Old Zhu.
Instead, like two torrents of burning lava, it fiercely swept towards the nobles and high officials on both sides of the imperial staircase, those wearing python robes and jade belts, who were watching like a circus.
“Choose?! Choose your mother’s head!”
Zhang Biao’s voice was hoarse and wild, like a wounded beast roaring, instantly tearing apart the silence of the square.
He suddenly raised his hand, his finger like a poisoned spear, and first pointed fiercely at the Vice Minister of Revenue, Fu Youwen:
“Fu Youwen! I’ve long been displeased with you! What are you stroking those old hairs for?! Dare you take out the Ministry of Revenue’s account books for public scrutiny?!”
“You think that now that Zhao Qian is dead, you can be at ease and wait to be promoted to Minister of Revenue?! Dream on!”
“Is the land your hometown has occupied bigger than the imperial estates? Is the salt and iron your brother-in-law has been privately trading more than the official salt?! You are the biggest rat and vermin in the Great Ming! Zhao Qian was just a scapegoat!!”
Fu Youwen’s face instantly turned as pale as paper, his hand stroking his beard froze in mid-air, as if his vital point had been struck. He swayed and nearly fainted on the spot.
How did Zhang Biao know these things?!
Of course, he knew. After all, he had died so many times, he knew all sorts of death-seeking news.
It’s just that he had never had the chance to ‘die for a cause’ and seek death.
“And you! Guo Ying!”
Zhang Biao’s barrage turned to the trembling Marquis of Wuding, spitting almost in his face: “To grow old without dying is to be a villain! You stand there every day tapping with that cane! Tap your grandfather’s funeral!”
“Back when you followed the Emperor to conquer the world, how many dirty things did you do behind his back? Who withheld military rations? Who forcibly took civilian girls? Now, why are you pretending to be a loyal and unparalleled hero?!”
“Your old face is thicker than the corner of the wall in Yingtian Prefecture! You are a piece of old stone that has been soaking in a latrine for eighty years! Smelly, hard, and useless! Go down and accompany Chen Youliang soon!”
“You rogue! How dare you!!”
Guo Ying was so scolded that his old face turned from red to purple, then from purple to black. A breath was stuck in his chest, and his cane fell from his hand with a clang. He was swaying precariously, and was only held up by his household generals.
“Oh, and Ru Chang!”
Zhang Biao’s rage, like a prairie fire, burned towards him:
“Minister of War is in charge of the world’s troops? What the hell do you manage?! Do you manage how to feast on soldiers’ blood, how to sell official positions, and how to treat military households like slaves?!”
“How many of the generals under you are your relatives?! How many are your sycophants?!”
“While the soldiers on the border guard the country on an empty stomach, you are in the capital counting silver with your concubines! You are more hateful than the Tatars!”
“You are a jackal wearing human skin! No! You are not even as good as a jackal! A jackal knows how to protect its young! You are a piece of stinking dog shit!”
Ru Chang’s fat body trembled violently. The composure on his face had long vanished, replaced by boundless shock and fear.
Every word Zhang Biao spoke was like a knife stabbing his most hidden abscess.
Finally, Zhang Biao looked at the bewildered Old Zhu and said with a cold sneer:
“Your Majesty, didn’t you ask me to choose?”
“I choose now!”
“I deserve to die! Shen Lang and the others also deserve to die! None of the civil and military officials in your court deserve to live! If you are crazy enough, kill us all!”
“Hahaha! Where are the historians!?”
“Remember this for me!”
He let out a wild laugh and shouted at the lower-ranking capital officials lying on the ground:
“Brothers! My path is not lonely! With me! Let the Great Ming go to its death—!”
Seeking monthly tickets! Seeking monthly tickets! Seeking recommendation tickets! Seeking continued reading! Seeking rewards! Seeking all care! Maintain the rankings!
【 Remember to like and reward pig’s head meat!!!! 】
Also, I want to say a few more words. I want to write about a person with emotions and righteousness, with flesh and blood, not a paper doll who dies for the sake of dying.
A satisfying story can be brainless, but it cannot be without emotion or righteousness. This is the core of this book.
Finally, thank you to ‘Is Spring Dawn Ah 2060’ for the reward.
Finally, thank you to ‘Listen to the Swift Wind Sing’ for the 500 reward.
Thank you to Tongtian Xiaomu for 100 reward. Thank you to Chen Zhouzhou for 100 reward. Thank you to the user with the last four digits 9028 for the 100 reward.
