On April 25, 1644, a day before Li Zicheng invaded the capital, the former Ming Chongzhen Emperor personally killed his own concubine and daughter, and then hanged himself on coal hill with the eunuch Wang Cheng'en. In fact, he was not so unbearable, before committing suicide, he also knew that he had left a back hand for himself, and in order to leave a bloodline for the royal family, he sent his three sons out of the palace, and as for leaving the palace, they could only resign themselves to fate.
Chongzhen Emperor
The three sons he sent out of the palace were Zhu Cixuan, the third son, Zhu Cihuan, and the fifth son, Zhu Cijiong. Here you will ask, he is an emperor on these sons? Of course not, he actually had seven sons, but the other four died prematurely, and these were also the only remaining bloodlines of his Zhu family.
After the three princes were dressed as ordinary people, they were escorted out of the palace by eunuchs and palace maids. In fact, after they left the palace, it was already too late, at this time Li Zicheng had already surrounded the capital, and he didn't necessarily care if people ran away, if the treasures of the palace were transported away, he Li Zicheng was not willing. Who knew that this was also a crooked eunuch who could not escape, and in order to survive, he dedicated several princes to Li Zicheng.
Stills of Zhu Cixi
Li Zi also wanted to see who this Ming Dynasty prince really was, and at that time he ordered that he be personally interrogated. Unexpectedly, the crown prince Zhu Cixin was really a bit manly, and after he saw Li Zicheng, he not only did not kneel, but also questioned Li Zicheng: "Since you have already breached the capital, I have also been arrested by you, why don't you kill me?" Li Zicheng thought about it and replied, "You are a person who is innocent, I will not kill you." I don't believe this, he Li Zicheng, if it weren't for the fear that after the news of killing the prince was passed out, it would not have a good impact on his own image, and he was not afraid of those princes who supported Daming, how many brothers would he spare? In the end, Zhu Cixian also made three demands to Li Zicheng, first, not to disturb the tombs of Daming's ancestors, second, to bury their parents, and third, not to kill Daming's people. Li Zicheng also agreed to these conditions one by one. Anyway, for him, these conditions are indifferent, he also knows that it is difficult for him to become an emperor, and his purpose is actually... I know it, so I won't say it.
Zhu Cihuan stills
At the end of May 1644, Li Zicheng attacked Wu Sangui at Shanhaiguan with Zhu Cixi, and took Zhu Cixin with him to threaten Wu Sangui's surrender. What he did not expect was that at this time, Wu Sangui already hated him to the bone, and at this time, Wu Sangui did not negotiate with Li Zicheng at all, but directly released the Qing soldiers into the customs. Under the joint attack of Qing Bing and Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng's troops were quickly defeated and defeated. Li Zicheng could only flee west quickly with the remnants, and in the process, Li Zicheng's people had no kung fu, and even a few princes of the former dynasty, they also fled in chaos. They weren't locked up together, so they all ran away. After that, where the brothers went, no one knows.
After the Qing army occupied the capital, one day, Dorgon received a secret report that someone had asked to see Chongzhen's father-in-law. When Dorgon received the news, he ordered his men to first control the people who asked for it. Later, Dorgon learned from Chongzhen's father-in-law that this person was Chongzhen's eldest son, Zhu Cixi. Subsequently, Dorgon also sent eunuchs and palace ladies of the former dynasty to identify them, and the replies received were all from the crown prince Zhu Cixi. This made Dorgon difficult, if directly killed, this is inconsistent with the Qing's policy of claiming preferential treatment of the Ming imperial family, and at the same time, he was afraid of the rebellion of the old Ming dynasty ministers who surrendered. If he didn't kill, it was a time bomb, how could he be assured?
Li Zicheng, the king of the invasion
After much deliberation, Dorgon came up with a clever plan, that is, not to recognize his identity as a prince, and to put him to death for impersonating a prince, so that everything would be fine. Then Dorgon declared that this person was a fake prince, and killed all the eunuchs and palace women who had come to identify him, in order to confirm that he was a false prince, Dorgon once again sent a group of palace women to identify, this time the palace women were smart, and came back to say that this person was not the real Zhu Cixi, but a fake. In order to make everyone in the world believe that this is a false prince, Dorgon also found a former dynasty "Yuan Guifei" to identify, (this woman was arranged by Dorgon, the real Yuan Guifei had been killed by Chongzhen before Chongzhen committed suicide) This Yuan Guifei told everyone that he was not the real prince, the real prince Zhu Cixi, there were two tiger teeth, and there was a black mole on his foot, this person did not. In this way, Zhu Cixi's identity as a false prince was confirmed, and then he was pulled out by Dorgon and beheaded, and several people who knew the inside story did not dare to speak out at this time.
Crown Prince Zhu Cixuan died like this, but what about the third son, Zhu Cihuan? In fact, Zhu Cihuan did not die, and after the war broke out, he fled all the way along Henan and Anhui to Zhejiang. The various wars and chaos he experienced along the way shattered his hopes of overthrowing the Great Qing and repeating daming, and he also lost confidence. In this way, he came to Shangdong Wenshang County, became a local teacher, and wanted to live a peaceful life, but he did not expect to be safe in his old age. After Kangxi succeeded to the throne, he also issued an edict to find the royal family of the previous dynasty and promised to give them official positions and let them spend the rest of their lives in peace. At that time, Zhu Cihuan did not pay attention to it, or was still doing his own mr. teaching.
In 1706, a monk named Nian Yi in Zhejiang, when he learned of Zhu Cihuan's identity, did not expose it, but recruited troops in the name of his former imperial prince and raised troops at Dalanshan. This trouble of his frightened Zhu Cihuan, who hurriedly took his family and began to flee. Under the all-out pursuit of the Qing soldiers, where could he escape as a scholar? Moreover, he was already the year of the flower armor. After their family was captured, Kangxi did not fulfill his promise, but used the same method as Dorgon, executing dozens of members of his family, and of course none of them were left alive.
Portrait of Zhu Cijiong
Chongzhen's eldest son and third son are dead, but what about his fifth son? The luck of this fifth son, Zhu Cijiong, was much better than that of his two older brothers. At that time, after taking advantage of the chaos to escape, he met Zou Zhilin, the son of Zou Yuanbiao, on the way to escape, the Zou family has always supported Daming, although they are not able to restore Daming Jiangshan at this time, but it is still possible to protect Zhu Cijiong. Under the cover of Zou Zhilin, Zhu Cijiong came to Zunyi, Guizhou, where he assumed the pseudonym Zou Qigui, and since then he has settled here and lived the life of an ordinary person. It was also in this way that he was able to survive and continue the bloodline of the Zhu family, although his descendants could only hide their names, but in their hearts they all knew that they were the descendants of Chongzhen.
Zhu Yuanzhang
Today, they live in Kuzhu Village, Xiangkou Town, Zunyi, and there are also records related to their ancestors in the village's original Zou family tree.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang's bloodline has been continued, but this royal descendant is really too depressed, if Zhu Yuanzhang knew that his descendants had this day, what would he do?