After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, where did the princes of Chongzhen go? His last son, at the age of seventy-five, was still ordered to be executed by the Qing Emperor!

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, Yanjing changed its owner. Li Zicheng's troops entered the city from Guang'an Gate in Nancheng, and the defenders either surrendered or dispersed. Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to "conquer personally" and break out of the encirclement in person with guns and dozens of eunuchs. Unexpectedly, when they arrived at Chaoyang Gate, the guard had surrendered and refused to accept the gate. They turned north to Anding Gate, but the eunuchs could not open the locked gate. Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to return to the palace. At this moment, the sky was already dark, and Zhu Youjian rang the bell for the last time in the front hall. This was originally the bell to summon ministers to the morning court, but at that time it was the final death knell of the Zhu Ming Dynasty. He then hanged himself in Meishan.

Then the capital was successively occupied by Li Zicheng, Wu Sangui and Dorgon. Therefore, after three rounds of attacks, the descendants of the Ming Dynasty had no eggs left intact. Prince Zhu Ci was kidnapped by Wu Sangui and died in Shaanxi. The fate of the rest of the royal family and nobles was roughly the same. After that, the Qing army launched a full-scale attack to annihilate the kings of the Southern Ming Dynasty and hunt down the Ming clan members scattered throughout the country. In order to eradicate the roots, the Qing army would kill the Ming Dynasty royal family even if they were hiding in the corners of the world. Zhu Youlang, the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, left the country and ran all the way to Mandalay, but was eventually taken back to Kunming and hanged. In order to hunt down the Ming Dynasty royal family, the Qing army not only turned the country upside down, but also "extradited" those who had escaped abroad. However, they forgot that there is a saying called "darkness under the lamp". It seems that the most strict place is actually It is also the place where omissions are most likely to occur. Right in Beijing, under the noses of the Qing army, the protagonist of this article, Zhu Cihuan, the fifth son of Emperor Chongzhen, successfully escaped. And this escape lasted for 64 years. The Qing Dynasty changed emperors, and Wu Sangui also "died" for many years. However, the former prince Zhu Cihuan was peacefully living a happy life in the countryside drinking wine, and he had many descendants...

< p> Zhu Cihuan (1633-1708) was the fifth son of Zhu Youjian, Emperor Sizong and Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, and was later named King Yong. During the Jiashen Incident, at the age of twelve, he ran away in a hurry and became homeless. He fled to Henan with a general named Mao and farmed for a year. Because the police were searching for "rogue thieves", the man named Mao escaped, and he could only wander alone. The prince who was well-dressed and well-fed yesterday was now a street beggar boy, but Zhu Cihuan was able to survive by looking for food everywhere. At the age of thirteen, he arrived in Fengyang, his ancestral home. Logically speaking, as the place where Zhu Ming's dragon flourished, Fengyang should have been the most rigorously searched, but it happened to be in Fengyang that Zhu Cihuan met a noble person on the road. He met a former Ming Dynasty old man named Wang, and recognized his identity, so he stayed in the Wang family and changed his surname to "Wang" and his name to Shiyuan. In the nineteenth year of the year, something unexpected happened to the Wang family, and Zhu Cihuan went into exile again. He cut off his hair and became a monk in a Buddhist temple, living an ignoble existence.

If Zhu Cihuan ended his remaining life in the Green Lantern and Yellow Scroll, it might become another unsolved mystery. Then he went to central Zhejiang and met a Yuyao named Hu, who was also a descendant of Ming officials. After the two discussed scriptures, this man admired his talent and learning and persuaded him to return to secular life and marry his daughter to her. From then on, Zhu Cihuan made a living by teaching in a private school under the name Wang Shiyuan of Yuyao, and the family enjoyed themselves happily.

Zhu Cihuan lived peacefully like this for decades. During these decades, the fall of the Nanming Dynasty, the rebellion of the Three Feudatories, and even some people under the guise of his name gathered people to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, but these could not inspire him. It caused ripples in the heart of this old man from the countryside in Zhejiang and could not arouse his "ambition". In the forty-fourth year of Kangxi's reign, Zhu Cihuan met the scholar Zhang Yuehui in Ningbo, and later others also called him Mr. Zhang. Soon, it was discovered that Zhang was acting restlessly. He actually discovered that Zhang Yuehai was trying to cause trouble in his name, so he and his family fled in a hurry to Changxing County, Huzhou. Later, the news became more serious, and Ningbo and Zhenhai were "investigated step by step", and more than a dozen people who tried to cause trouble were arrested. Subsequently, the court's investigation became increasingly urgent. Zhu Cihuan heard that the Dongchuang incident had occurred. His six wives and daughters all hanged themselves. Three sons and one grandson were all arrested. Later, in the forty-seventh year of Kangxi's reign, the government arrested Zhang Nianyi, a monk from eastern Zhejiang who had launched an uprising in Dalan Mountain in the forty-fifth year of Kangxi's reign, and learned about Ci Huan's whereabouts from his mouth. In April, after 64 years on the run, Zhu Cihuan evaded arrest in Wenshang County, Shandong and was escorted to the capital for trial.

At that time, officials were undecided about the aging Zhu Cihuan. The "dangerous man" they had been chasing for decades had actually become a powerless old man.

During the interrogation, Zhu Cihuan immediately stopped the Qing officials and asked, "Kuai, I am seventy-five years old, my blood has declined, and my hair on the temples is all white. I will not rebel against the rebellion of the three feudal lords, but rebel against the peaceful days of Qingning." What’s more, the so-called rebels must occupy the city, store grass and crops, recruit troops and horses, and build weapons. I have this before.” The general idea is that I am already seventy-five years old this year, and my hair is snow-white. During the San Francisco Rebellion, we didn’t even come out to cause trouble. If we are still rebelling now, aren’t we just looking for trouble? Moreover, those who conspire to rebel must occupy the city, store up food and fodder, recruit troops and horses, and recruit weapons. Can I do even one of these things?

However, the Qing court was still uneasy in the end. In September, after the interrogation of the five great scholars of the Kangxi Dynasty, Zhang Tingyu wrote in a written report: "Wang Shiyuan claimed that he was the fourth son of Chongzhen, and the fourth son of Chongzhen was already here." Chongzhen died in the 14th year, and he summoned the old eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty according to the order, but they did not know that Wang Shiyuan was a fake, and both his father and son should be executed." In the end, after more than 60 years in exile, Zhu Cihuan still could not escape the hands of the Qing Dynasty.