Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 29
"Gao Banban, you're not dead?"

Chongzhen was also quite surprised, this is Xiaoqiang who can't be beaten to death.

Gao Qiqian ran up to Chongzhen's horse with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and said with a flattering face: "The Holy Majesty is blessed with great blessings, and this old servant was lucky enough to survive because of a little bit of good fortune."

Chongzhen said: "Okay, just follow me and serve by my side."

Not this time, I will find another chance for you next time, and let you be the king of eunuchs after all.

Gao Qiqian responded with an ai, and happily took the reins of Chongzhen's war horse.

Chongzhen turned back and said: "Hurry up and pack your bags, and then set off for the south."

Wang Jiayan took a step forward and said, "Your Majesty, do you want to return to Yanshan for a while?"

"That's right." Chongzhen nodded and said, "The Chahar Mongolian army is coming, we can't stay in the grassland any longer."

Hu Xinshui then said: "The Gongtu tribe has been severely injured, and the rest of the tribe just want to expel us. At this time, it is wise to return to Yanshan for shelter."

Chongzhen's heart skipped a beat, and Hu Xinshui started offering advice?Good sign.

But on the surface, he said calmly: "Going back to Yanshan does not mean that you can sit back and relax. The tribal coalition forces of Chahar Mongolia will not fight us desperately for the Gongtu tribe to enter Yanshan, but the bandits will never be kind. Let it go, Li Yan's vanguard cavalry will definitely be followed by a large army!"

Wang Jiayan said: "But it won't be worse than before."

Meng Zhaoxiang, Wu Linzheng and other officials also said: "Yes, we have persisted in such a difficult and desperate situation. Now that there are a thousand barbarians in the Guanning Army, what is the point of a few thousand bandits?"

Gao Qiqian said: "The main thing is that the Holy Majesty's blessings are equal to the sky, and there are ancestors to protect him."

"Shut up!" Chongzhen's face immediately collapsed, and he cursed, "What kind of blessings are equal to the sky, what kind of blessings from ancestors and ancestors, it's all bullshit! I can live until now because of the bloody battle of the soldiers."

The nearby Ming army officers and soldiers looked at Chongzhen in unison.

Gao Qiqian, but Weiwei retreated, thinking that he was slapping the horse's leg again.

Today's Holy Majesty is really difficult to serve, life is hard.

……

Li Zicheng also felt that life was not easy, and governing the country was too complicated.

It's not clear that Ming's "Former First Assistant" Wei Zaode and "Second Assistant" Chen Yan brought hundreds of high-ranking officials above the third rank and ran outside Chengtianmen to kneel and petition.

Li Zicheng wanted to go out to do errands, but he was blocked.

Faced with Wei Zaode's questioning, Li Zicheng said angrily: "Use you? I'm afraid I will become the second in Chongzhen if I use you."

"My lord's words are absurd." Wei Zaode said boldly, "I really have the talent of a prime minister. Because Chongzhen didn't listen to my words, I am here today. If I would listen to my words, why would I be reduced to a bereaved dog?"

"Shut up!" Li Zicheng was really angry now, and cursed, "No matter how unbearable Chongzhen is, he is still a king, and he even promoted you to be the chief assistant of the false Ming Dynasty. Officer, you still call the old master a bereaved dog? But if you still have some duty to be a minister, you should follow the example of Ni Yuanlu and Li Banghua, who will kill themselves and become benevolent."

On the night when the Dashun Army entered Beijing, on the night when Chongzhen led a thousand mobs to break out of the siege, thousands of officials and gentlemen, headed by Minister Ni Yuanlu of the Ministry of Officials and Li Banghua, Minister of the Ministry of War, hanged themselves or died in despair. Throwing into the well, the Jiashen national disaster is inevitable after all.

Faced with Li Zicheng's reprimand, Wei Zaode did not blush.

Instead, he said cheekily: "The lord is a world-renowned emperor, and the humble minister has long intended to assist him."

Li Zicheng laughed angrily when he heard the words, pointed at Wei Zaode's nose and cursed: "I've never seen such a shameless person, come here, put this old man in prison and torture him!"

Wei Zaode's coercion finally brought about a catastrophe for himself.

Since entering Beijing, Liu Zongmin and Niu Jinxing have been persuading Li Zicheng to launch a large-scale recovery of stolen goods and subsidies, but because Li Yan and Song Xiance stopped them, they have been swaying from side to side.

But now the balance in Li Zicheng's heart has finally turned to Liu Zongmin's side.

Of course, the more important reason is that the Dashun Army's military salary has also been exhausted, and they are in urgent need of money.

At that moment, Li Zicheng said to Liu Zongmin who was accompanying him: "It seems that we are still too polite to these demotions of hypocrisy, and everyone has started to push their noses and face their faces."

Liu Zongmin was overjoyed and said, "Brother, do you agree?"

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "Yes, you just have to go after the competition! Let these royal relatives, corrupt officials and eunuchs pay the price for their past evil deeds!"

Liu Zongmin was overjoyed and said, "Okay!"

So a large-scale pursuit of stolen goods and payment began.

That morning, a piece of imperial edict was sent out of the Forbidden City and spread throughout the capital.

The edict stated that all honorable officials in Beijing and high-ranking gentry and eunuchs, regardless of whether they were officials in the Dashun New Dynasty, would be paid, and the amount of payment was initially determined.

The highest amount is the cabinet's bachelor, [-] taels.

This shows how rough the Dashun Army's handling methods are.

Because the richest people in Beijing are not university scholars, but those relatives of the emperor.

But fortunately, Liu Zongmin quickly improved the method and started to implement the floating quota system.

To put it simply, it is how much money you have to pay until you donate all your property!

This is amazing. In a few days, more than 7000 million taels of silver were tortured. Among them, Zhou Kui, the father-in-law of Chongzhen, contributed 60 taels of silver, as well as gold, pearls, and a large number of rare antiques.

However, problems inevitably arose in the process of recovering stolen goods and subsidizing payment.

The soldiers of the Dashun Army, who had never done anything wrong to the common people, began to break into the house unscrupulously, blatantly plundering the property of the rich, frequently beating and killing the original owners, and frequently violating the female family members.

In the end, the scope of the infringement even expanded to the Shengdou Xiaomin group in central Beijing.

Some Dashun soldiers even blocked the alleys, and then began to do whatever they wanted.

Li Zicheng saw that this was not going to work, so he quickly stopped the pursuit of stolen goods and torture.

However, the impact has already been caused. This time, the severance of recovering stolen goods and extorting salaries has shaken the unstable foundation of the Dashun Army, and also caused irreversible damage to the Dashun Army's discipline.

Wu Sangui finally got his dream opportunity.

Although Dorgon hadn't given a clear answer yet, he didn't want to wait any longer.

On the second day after Li Zicheng called to stop chasing stolen goods for payment, that is, on the fourth day of April, Wu Sangui led the Guanning Army to make a surprise attack on the pretext that his concubine was robbed, easily defeated Tang Tong's troops, and regained control of Haishan Pass.

The window of opportunity that Chongzhen had been thinking about for half a month had arrived.

……

But Chongzhen didn't know it at this time.

At this time, Chongzhen was still hiding in the depths of Yanshan Mountain with Li Yan, Li You, and Gu Kecheng.

The one thousand barbarians of Guan Ning's army could indeed fight. If Gu Kecheng's two thousand cavalry hadn't arrived in time, Li Yan's cavalry would have been wiped out by the thousand barbarians, and Li Yan's three brothers might have died in the grassland .

But even so, there are less than five hundred horses left under Li Yan's command!

Not long after, Li You also came to meet up with [-] cavalry.

Now the situation was reversed, and the Dashun army chased the Ming army.

Facing more than [-] rogue cavalry, Chongzhen did not have a head-on decisive battle with the opponent, but decisively adopted the bull-raising tactic, leading the rogue cavalry to circle in the depths of Yanshan Mountain.

From March [-]th to April [-]th, I have spent seven days in the mountains.

Thanks to the help of a thousand barbarians, the Ming army can always get rid of the bandits easily.

During these seven days, Chongzhen resolutely rejected the specialization proposed by Wang Chengen and Gao Qiqian, and also rejected the kind reminders of civil officials such as Wang Jiayan, and insisted on eating and living with a thousand barbarians.

Of course, during this period, Hu Xinshui was always monitored separately.

To win people's hearts is to win people's hearts, and the necessary precautions are still necessary.

When it was time for lunch again, Chongzhen took Wang Chengen to Wubatan's camp.

The army generally only eats two meals, lunch and afternoon. Only when there is a war will it be changed to three meals a day, and a supper may be added in case of a night battle.

Now I only eat two meals without fighting.

"My lord!" Seeing Chongzhen approaching,
Wu Batan and his subordinate Yi Ding hurriedly got up to salute.

"No." Chongzhen waved his hands, and sat down beside Wu Batan.

Conveniently, he covered the ears of the earthen pot with a sweat towel, and took down the earthen pot that was cooking on the bonfire. soup.

"Hey, not bad." Chongzhen said with a smile, "There are haggis."

"In the morning, a settlement in the Gongtu tribe was slaughtered, and dozens of lambs were robbed."

Wu handed Chongzhen a large piece of wheat cake with charcoal, and said, "Barely enough for a meal of haggis soup."

Following Yi Ding's example, Chongzhen tore up wheat cakes, soaked them in mutton soup until soft, and then ate them. He said, "Now the conditions are a bit difficult. When we arrive in the south of the Yangtze River, I will treat you to a big meal."

"My lord, what delicious food is there in the south of the Yangtze River?" asked a Yi Ding.

"That's a lot." Chongzhen said, wringing his fingers, "There are all kinds of steamed vegetables, boiled vegetables, and stewed vegetables. There are all kinds of chicken, duck, fish, and so on. The most delicious thing is shad. All the state capitals will pay a lot of tribute, and let you have a taste of what is called the real delicacy in the world."

"Gudu." Several Yi Ding swallowed.

It is really hard for normal people to resist eating.

Chongzhen was talking happily when Hu Guozhu came over.

"Your Majesty." Hu Guozhu said, "If you don't pay back at night, the bandits will suddenly withdraw!"

"Withdrawn?" Chongzhen's heart moved when he heard the words. It seemed that something major happened in the pass, otherwise Li Zicheng would not have withdrawn Li Yan's more than [-] cavalry.

(End of this chapter)