The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 744

Also in late March, the Imperial Palace of the Imperial Palace.

Emperor Chongzhen sat on the dragon chair with a bitter face, looking at the palace full of civil and military officials, he actually panicked in his heart.

The bandit army was about to approach the city, and there were no soldiers or food to collect in the north. Chongzhen really wanted to run south.

But judging from the failure of the two negotiations, he is a typical person who wants to do something and establish it.

Of course, this kind of thing cannot be brought up by itself.

When he was frowning, Li Jiantai, a bachelor who was ordered to go to the expedition, wrote a letter in Baoding: "The thief is powerful and invincible. Please move south, and I would like to serve the prince first."

Chongzhen was overjoyed in his heart, but he still looked sad on the surface, and he pretended to say: "Li Jiantai has advised me to move south. If the monarch dies in Sheji, where will I go?"

These words are really shameless to the extreme. I guess the ministers just can't understand Chongzhen's virtue of both doing and establishing, and deliberately don't want him to move south.

Sure enough, someone objected right away. Your Majesty is right. The death of the King of the Ming Dynasty, Sheji, is the foundation of our country.

In my opinion, it is better for His Majesty to stay in the capital and move the crown prince to the south.

The ministers discussed together on the spot, and the people represented by Li Mingrui finally put forward their opinions, asking Chongzhen to stay and the prince and the kings to move south.

This was obviously pushing Emperor Chongzhen into the pit of fire. Emperor Chongzhen was furious, and was about to explode when he heard a loud cry, "What is the intention of the ministers to serve the crown prince to the south? Do you want to be a story of Tang Suzong Lingwu?"

It was Chen Yan, who was then Minister of the Household Department and a bachelor of the Wuyingdian University, who was assigned to the Military Department of Ma Zai, Guang Shiheng.

Chen Yan and Wei Zaode strongly opposed Chongzhen's southward relocation. I don't know why they opposed it, but I guess they couldn't understand Chongzhen's virtue of both doing and establishing.

Chen and Wei ordered Guang Shiheng to stand up.

Guang Shiheng immediately yelled, "If you don't kill Li Mingrui, it won't be enough to stabilize the people. If you don't kill Li Mingrui, how can you rule the world!" Difficult, you don't want to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country, but instigate the emperor to flee south and shake the morale of the army. You will be included in the history books of shame in the future.

Guang Shiheng reacted so violently, and wanted to record everyone in the history of fleeing to the south, so the courtiers kept silent.

Emperor Chongzhen's face was flushed by the words, and he had hoped that someone in the court would stand up and say a few "fair words", but in the end, no one in the civil and military circles hummed, and they all watched the show.

Chongzhen, who was full of shame and anger, finally couldn't help it, and said bravely: "The death of the monarch is the righteousness of the past and the present. My ambition has been made, so I don't need to say more!" With tears in his eyes, he decided to stay in the capital.

When this decision was made, Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses had not yet arrived in the capital.

Chongzhen missed the best opportunity to move south.

Now that he decided to stay, Emperor Chongzhen also knew that if he wanted the capital to work and contribute, it would not work without money.

So, on April 4th, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly thought of what Wu Weiye had said before. When the Qing soldiers invaded the bandits, the Linqing merchants contributed money and donated more than [-] taels of silver. The morale of the defenders was greatly boosted. The Qing soldiers had no choice but to retreat .

Jinan was attacked back then, but Linqing was not.

Wu Weiye also called on the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty to donate money, but he was condemned verbally and was later dismissed by Chongzhen.

Then Chongzhen suddenly thought of his words, so he ordered all the relatives of the emperor and the princes, ministers, civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty to donate silver as military expenses in the early morning of the day.

As soon as this remark came out, the hall was completely quiet, surprisingly quiet, everyone looked at me and I looked at you, and no one made a sound.

Chongzhen was furious, he knew someone had to take the lead, otherwise no one would.

So after the dynasty was over, he asked the eunuch to find Zhou Kui, the head of the state, and asked Zhou Kui to express his position to collect the money to recruit soldiers and horses.

Empress Zhou knew that Zhou Kui kept money like her life, so she couldn't help but sighed to Emperor Chongzhen: "My father Zhou Kui is deeply loved and trusted by the Ming Dynasty's upbringing and His Majesty. I never thought that he would be so stingy and short-sighted. How long will you keep it?" So he personally called Zhou Kui to give him a severe reprimand, and Zhou Kui had no choice but to agree to give 10000 taels of silver to help pay.

Chongzhen felt that he donated too little, so he asked him to donate more.

Zhou Kui hurried into the palace to beg for his daughter.

Seeing that her father Zhou Kui was greedy for money, Empress Zhou had no choice but to sell her gold and silver jewelry secretly from the palace in exchange for 5000 taels of silver to her father Zhou Kui.

After Zhou Kui received the silver from his daughter Queen Zhou, he withdrew 2000 taels from it, and handed over the remaining 3000 taels to the treasury.

With Zhou Kui taking the lead, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty had no choice but to donate money one after another.

But they all learned from Zhou Kui. After returning home, they messed up the bricks and tiles on the house, hid all valuables in the house, and then sold them at a low price at the door of their house.

In the early court, Zhou Kui and all the court officials deliberately put on the most worn-out clothes to go to court.In the past, it was changed from taking a sedan chair to walking up to the court.

Wang Zhixin, the great eunuch and admiral of Dongchang, was very rich. Chongzhen asked him to be more generous, but Wang Zhixin shirked and said: "The family has been exhausted for years." He barely made up 1 taels. Family wealth, the first to express that the family has no surplus money, and oppose Chongzhen's collection of wages.

Then the princes, ministers, civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty donated tens of hundreds of taels of silver, the highest amount was only 20 taels, and finally donated a total of more than [-] taels of silver to Chongzhen.

After the night of Chongzhen, seeing the tattered clothes of the civil and military men of the Manchu Dynasty, I almost doubted my life, whether I had time-traveled.

But Chongzhen was willing to stay, and he probably still counted on the arrival of soldiers from various ministries.

After all, when Huang Taiji first entered the customs, he attacked the city of Beijing, and even shot arrows with his own hands to taunt him.

Afterwards, Huang Taiji left without conquering the city of Beijing.

Therefore, Chongzhen must still have luck in his heart. First, he hoped that the peasant army would not be able to defeat the capital, and second, he hoped to have elite soldiers like Yuan Chonghuanzu's birthday to help out.

Tang Tong, who came here not long ago, is also a loyal minister of Ming Dynasty in his eyes.

But not long after, all kinds of bad news came.

At the end of March, under Juyongguan, Tang Tong surrendered Li Zicheng, and one day later, Changping surrendered.

In addition, the soldiers and horses of Xu Fuzuo, the chief soldier of Ji Town, had already retreated to Tianjin, getting farther and farther away from the capital.

And Wu Sangui, whom he placed high hopes on, has not yet reached Yongping.

This has been going for more than a month, and I have climbed to the capital.

So at the beginning of April, Li Zicheng's 15 troops arrived at the capital city, claiming to be 100 million.

Li Zicheng saw that the city of Beijing was so tall, and felt a little difficult to attack.

He came all the way from Xi'an, Shaanxi, and left 20 soldiers and horses in Shaanxi alone. After entering Shanxi, he stationed soldiers and horses in various places. When he finally entered Beizhili, there were less than [-] soldiers, of which the real elite was about [-]. .

At this time, he divided his troops again, and first divided a wave of troops to Juyongguan.

As in history, Tang Tong wanted to fight, but Du Zhizhi was demoted, so Tang Tong had no choice but to do so too.

So when he finally arrived at the city of Beijing, it was already April, and there were about 15 soldiers and horses. He thought that the city of Beijing was a bit big, and he was afraid that a strong attack would cause heavy losses. Thinking about the experience of Daizhou and Ningwuguan, Li Zicheng was discouraged. So he sent envoys to make several demands to Chongzhen.

Li Zicheng asked to segregate the provincial capital in the northwest area, make him king, and also reward the army with 100 million taels of silver.

Then he said that he could help the court to suppress other bandits, and even help fight Jiannu.

The third condition is not to obey the edict, not to go to Beijing to see the emperor.

To be honest, Li Zicheng wanted to divide the world into two, and what he wanted was the bitter cold land in the northwest. If Ding Yi was Chongzhen, in the current situation, he must agree faster than the rabbit.

But I really don't know what is growing in Chongzhen's head.

Huang Taiji wanted to negotiate a peace twice before, but for the sake of face, he failed.

This will be such a good opportunity for him to come back, and he can also use the peasant army to fight the slaves. When he recovers, he can turn his face again.

Liu Bang and Xiang Yu established the Chuhe-Han boundary in the past, but immediately tore up the peace treaty with Xiang Yu. As long as a person is shameless enough, he will always be a big winner.

But Chongzhen just couldn't figure it out, he only thought about Zhang Xianzhong's burning of the imperial mausoleum, the tomb of his ancestors was smoking, and I swore against the bandits.

Chongzhen refused without hesitation.

Li Zicheng's troops surrounded the capital, and Emperor Chongzhen knew that the situation was a little dangerous. He beat his chest, sighed all night, and shouted again and again: "The ministers inside and outside have mistaken me! They have mistaken me!"

Only then did he think about protecting the crown prince. On April [-]th, Gong Yonggu, the captain-in-law, asked to see Chongzhen. Chongzhen was overjoyed and ordered him privately to escort the crown prince to the south with his servants.However, Gong Yonggu kowtowed again and again at this time and said: "My ministers are not allowed to hide armor, how dare I have a servant!" Emperor Chongzhen was silent.

Gong Yonggu saw this, and suddenly said: "I have a word, please forgive me."

Chongzhen thought for a while and understood what he meant: "I forgive you for your innocence, please stand up and say it."

Gong Yonggu didn't dare to get up, he bowed his head and said: "The Northern Boss is good at fighting, and he has won many battles with the Tartars. Why don't you call the Northern Boss to come and join the Imperial Guard?"

Chongzhen remained silent.

Before that, he Qin Wang summoned the order to spread to the world, Jizhen, Shandong, Wu Sangui, Tang Tong, Huang Degong of Jiangnan, Shi Kefa, Huang Fei, etc. all passed the decree.

Even if it was not sent to Ding Yi's Datong Town, firstly he didn't want to ask Ding Yi, and secondly he felt that Ding Yi was unreliable. It might not be a good thing to let him lead troops into Beijing.

As the situation turned bad, when he wanted to call Ding Yi again, people in the capital could no longer get out.

Of course, Chongzhen couldn't say that he didn't call him, he didn't trust Ding Yi, and said in a deep voice: "Ding Yi is far away in Datong, even Xu Fuzuo from Jizhen and Shen Shikui from Tianjin didn't come, how could Ding Yi come back?" ?”

What he meant was that if none of Ding Yi's subordinates came, how could Ding Yi come back.

Chongzhen was right, but Gong Yonggu gritted his teeth and finally said: "Forgive me for your boldness, if His Majesty makes him king, he will definitely send troops."

Hiss, Chongzhen took a deep breath, staring at Gong Yonggu.

Gong Yonggu quickly knelt down on the ground, not daring to lift his head, and his body trembled.

(End of this chapter)