The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 745 All the ministers misunderstood me
It was quiet all around.

It took several seconds for Chongzhen to react. His voice was extremely fierce: "Have you met Uncle Zhenbei? What did he say?"

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, I have only met the subordinates of Bo Zhenbei." Gong Yonggu was sweating profusely: "I thought to myself, Your Majesty can make Tang Tong a Boss, and because of Bo Zhenbei's meritorious service, don't make him a Boss." King, how can he raise his troops to help?"

The hall was deadly quiet again. After a long while, Chongzhen laughed wildly: "What a Zhenbei Bo, what a Ding Yi."

"You all deserve to be killed, you all deserve to be killed—" Chongzhen pointed at Gong Yonggu and cursed like crazy.

He was really mad. Before Li Zicheng came to raise three conditions and demanded that he be crowned king and crack the earth, now Ding Yi also came to join in the fun, and at such a dangerous juncture, if he fell into trouble, it was tantamount to forcing Chongzhen.

How could Chongzhen agree.

He could not immediately ask someone to take Gong Yonggu down and chop him up.

"Your Majesty doesn't think about yourself, you have to think about the prince, the kings and princesses." Gong Yonggu gritted his teeth and said again: "Your Majesty, please think twice."

He hit his head heavily on the ground, bang bang bang, knocked three times in a row, and when he raised his head again, it was covered in blood.

Speaking of this time, who can keep Chongzhen calm and calm, and only Prince Zhu Cihong.

Thinking of the young prince, and seeing Gong Yonggu kowtow desperately, Chongzhen's frantic and murderous heart finally calmed down.

Chongzhen stared at Gong Yonggu viciously for a while, maybe he still didn't want to be the king of subjugation, so he asked: "Is there any subordinate of Zhen Beibo?"

"We're waiting outside the palace." Gong Yonggu said hastily.

Sure enough, Chongzhen was ashamed and angry, and hated Gong Yonggu for colluding with the general in private, but he couldn't allow him to think about it now, Li Zicheng's conditions had been rejected by him, all reinforcements were gone, and even Tang Tong had surrendered, Now all his hopes are on Ding Yi.

He immediately ordered to see the people who came to Ding Yi.

Soon, Lu Chao entered the palace to meet Chongzhen.

"Where are the soldiers and horses of Uncle Zhenbei? How many troops are there?" Chongzhen cut straight to the point as soon as he saw it, and he couldn't wait, which shows that he was actually panicked.

"Zhenbei Bo's [-] troops are all in Tianjin, and the troops will arrive every morning and evening. As long as the holy order is given, the troops can be dispatched immediately." Lu Chao said.

"Then what is he waiting for, I will order Zhen Beibo to send troops immediately." Chongzhen said angrily.

Lu Chao knelt on the ground, head to the ground, motionless.

"He's threatening me, threatening me." Chongzhen roared suddenly.

Gong Yonggu knelt down in fright, trembling.

Thinking about his own life, Gong Yonggu gritted his teeth and said, "Tang Tong's generation can be named uncle, please think twice, Your Majesty."

Tang Tong has surrendered now, what nonsense are you talking about, Your Majesty.

Face is more important than life.

Chongzhen took a deep breath and calmed his frantic heart: "If I make an order, how will I send troops?"

"The city fires a cannon, and the number of shots is used as a signal." As for how many cannons were fired, of course we can't say now.

Chongzhen gritted his teeth severely: "Okay, I will do as he wishes."

So that afternoon, Chongzhen summoned a group of ministers to discuss matters, but what made him angry was that less than half of the civil and military officials from the Manchu Dynasty came.

Many civil and military officials said they were sick and did not come.

Chongzhen cursed angrily in the hall again: "The ministers inside and outside have mistaken me! They have mistaken me!"

After scolding, he announced the decree on the spot, which also shocked everyone.

"Zhenbei Boding Yi, pure and good-natured, outstanding in military exploits—"

The Jin Dynasty granted him the title of King of Zhenbei, and the fiefdom as overseas Jeju. At the same time, Princess Zhu Yu of Kunxing was married to Ding Yi.

The matter of marrying Princess Kunxing was completely out of Lu Chao's surprise, it was Chongzhen's own idea.

According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, if you marry a princess, you cannot be an official in the court, let alone be a king.

This is to find a reason to cut Ding Yi's military power afterwards.

If Li Zicheng announced such an edict before his soldiers came to the city, the civil officials below would immediately quarrel, which was completely inconsistent with the ancestral system.

The son-in-law of the Ming Dynasty was one of the first to lead soldiers. When Chengzu Jingnan was born, his son-in-law Mei Yin led hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but he sat and watched Zhu Di conquer the world, and died a miserable death in the end.

But if the son-in-law is crowned king again, it is not in line with the ancestral system.

In addition, Ding Yi has a regular wife. According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, after the princess marries, Ding Yi's wife will divorce. Will Ding Yi do it?

Jeju is also the land of the Kingdom of Korea. When did it become a territory of Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen’s imperial decree is full of holes, it’s simply shocking. The first thought many people hear is that Chongzhen is playing Ding Yi, but this will be full of civil and military affairs. What about my own retreat?

After Chongzhen announced his decree, he immediately asked for an imperial decree to be issued to the world.

Of course, there is a problem whether the imperial decree can come out of Zhili.

At the same time, he also encouraged the ministers, that King Zhenbei's [-] troops are in Tianjin, and they will arrive in a short time. Let the Beijing army guard with all their heart, and our Ming Dynasty will surely win.

This will make Chongzhen full of confidence, even thinking that Ding Yi will hand over the soldiers and horses to him in the future, and Ming Zhongxing will be hopeful.

Naturally, the ministers were full of flattery.

After the imperial decree was issued, Chongzhen summoned Lu Chao again and asked Ding Yi to send troops as soon as possible.

Lu Chao said, please give the princess to Wei Chen first.

Chongzhen glared at him immediately.

Lu Chao said a few words carefully, the general meaning was that he was afraid that Chongzhen would not accept his account afterwards and used the princess as a hostage first.

Chongzhen was furious, but he also issued the imperial decree at this time, and announced it in the court hall, and of course it was impossible to take it back.

Lu Chao said again, we are still in the capital anyway, can we still fly into the sky?
Chongzhen had no choice but to agree.

At this time, he was actually quite annoyed, and he was even thinking in his heart that he would eliminate Ding Yi's military power afterwards, and then he would destroy Ding Yi's entire family first.

Ding Yi threatened him again and again, and Chongzhen hated him to the bone.

He thought about how many people held Lao Zhu's death-free coupons when the Ming Dynasty was founded, and they were all killed in the end.

Zhu Di also promised to share the world with King Ning.

To be an emperor, you must be shameless.

Chongzhen must regret it a little now, as long as he was shameless and didn't care about his reputation, he would have gone to Nanjing long ago.

After Lu Chao got Princess Kunxing, he ordered the city to fire ten cannons as a signal, and the soldiers and horses from Tianjin would come to kill him immediately.

Chongzhen was overjoyed, and hurriedly sent people to go to the city to shoot cannons.

And at the same time they fired artillery that day, Li Zicheng launched troops and horses and began to attack the city.

On the first day, Li Zicheng's troops did not capture Beijing, and Chongzhen was very confident, thinking that Ding Yi's troops were coming.

But Tianjin is quite close to Beijing, just over 200 miles away.

If the cavalry run with all their strength, they can really arrive in one day.

Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses attacked for a day, and Chongzhen survived in fear. He called Gong Yonggu many times that night, where are the soldiers and horses of King Zhenbei?

Gong Yonggu said, it's coming soon, bandits are besieging the city, and messengers can't get in, according to my minister, it should be Wuqing.

Wuqing was in the middle of the capital and Tianjin, and he had only run halfway. Chongzhen thought about it and comforted himself that reinforcements would arrive tomorrow morning.

The next day, the Peasant Army attacked again, and the offensive was even stronger. People in the capital panicked, and the common people and nobles were all trying to make a living.

If on the first day, everyone still believed in Chongzhen's words that Ding Yi's soldiers and horses were nearby, then on the second day, not many people believed it.

Ding Yi really wanted to come to rescue him, the time must have come.

More than a dozen hours have passed, and the cavalry has not run twenty miles per hour?
By noon, Chongzhen was also in a hurry, and sent people to the top of the city to see the reinforcements many times, but he didn't see a single hair on the reinforcements.

Later, Gong Yonggu was called again, but the people below said that Gong Yonggu had disappeared, and he did not know where he had gone.

"What?" Chongzhen was surprised and angry.

He summoned his ministers again, but this time not even a tenth of the people came. Everyone knelt on the ground, looking at each other speechlessly, and some would only cry bitterly without any idea.

At this time Chongzhen knew that something was wrong.

In the afternoon, Zhang Jinyan, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, surrendered and opened the Zhangyi Gate. The peasant army poured in, and the outer city of Beijing fell.

Eunuch Wang Lian hurriedly reported to Chongzhen, but Chongzhen couldn't believe it like a bolt from the blue.

At this time, Chongzhen kept yelling at Ding Yi, why the soldiers and horses hadn't arrived yet.

But the matter has come to this point, and it is useless to scold. He hurriedly sent people to disguise the prince, Yongwang, Dingwang, etc. and send them out of the Forbidden City, and took refuge in relatives' homes.Afterwards, Chongzhen called Concubine Yuan and Queen Zhou over and ordered them to drink together. Chongzhen drank dozens of cups in one go.

Drinking is for courage, Chongzhen couldn't see his concubine fall into the enemy's hands, so he swung the sword in his hand and slashed at Concubine Yuan, who immediately fell down in response.

Empress Zhou was ordered to commit suicide. Before she died, she said to Chongzhen: "I have been with you for 18 years. Your majesty has never heard a word from my concubine. Even today, your majesty orders my concubine to die. How dare I not die!"

He was hanged one by one to die for his country.

Chongzhen then said to several concubines, "Go too!" and killed several concubines.

At this moment, he had already lost his mind, but after he killed the concubine, he wanted to survive.So, he changed into civilian clothes again and prepared to abscond out of the city.

That night, Chongzhen changed into the clothes of ordinary eunuchs, mixed with many eunuchs, and went out of Donghua Gate to Chaoyang Gate.He pretended to leave the city under the order of the eunuch Wang Xiangyao.But the gatekeepers insisted on verifying their identities before letting them go after dawn.The eunuchs tried to seize the gate, but were fired by the guards.

Chongzhen had no choice but to send someone to the home of Qi Guogong Zhu Chunchen, who was in charge of the city guard, but Qi Guogong himself was not seen.As a last resort, Chongzhen went to Andingmen again after being shut down, but because the gate was heavy, he couldn't open it no matter what, and the way to survive was completely blocked, so he had to return to the palace.

At dawn the next day, the flames inside and outside the Forbidden City reflected the sky.The eunuch Wang Xiangyao surrendered at Xuanwumen, and the generals of "Chuangwang" Li Zicheng marched into the capital in mighty force.Zhu Chunchen, who was guarding the Chaoyang Gate, also hurriedly opened the gate to welcome the surrender, and the inner city of Beijing fell into the hands of Li Zicheng's army.

After Chongzhen learned about it, he personally rang the bell in the empty front hall and summoned all the civil and military officials, hoping that someone would come to accompany him for the last part, but no one came.He looked up to the sky and sighed, bit his finger, and wrote a letter in blood to Li Zicheng:
"Since I ascended the throne for 17 years, the rebels have been attacking the capital. Although I am virtuous and ruthless, the heavens are angry, and the rebels are attacking the capital. However, all the officials have misunderstood me. When I die, I will see my ancestors in the ground without a face. Take off the crown, and cover the face with hair. Let the thieves split my corpse, and don't hurt a single person of the people."

Not long after, Emperor Chongzhen tremblingly climbed up to the Shouhuang Pavilion on the top of Meishan with the support of his personal eunuch Wang Chengen, and hanged himself under an old crabapple tree.

Wang Chengen immediately followed suit and hanged himself.

Two days after Chongzhen's death, everyone discovered the already frozen monarch. The peasant army moved the coffins of Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou out of the palace and parked them at Donghua Gate for public display.

On April [-]th, Li Zicheng sent people to bury Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou in the tomb of the imperial concubine Tian in Changping. This is Siling in the Ming Tombs.

(End of this chapter)