A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 858 Torture Tools
(Thanks to book friends such as Lion King, 160617121110171, etc. for their rewards. Also, the discussion among book friends is very lively. In fact, if I hadn’t written the last chapter, many people’s impressions of scholar-bureaucrats in the late Ming Dynasty would only be that the water was too cold? Haha. About The issue of life and death, I will talk about it in detail when I finish this book.)
On March [-]th, after the body of Emperor Daxing was put into the coffin, it was suspended in Shicha Temple outside Donghuamen.All officials dare not cry.But Li Guozhen, the Boss of Xiangcheng, together with Lang Chengde of the Ministry of War and Liu Yangzhen, the chief minister, mourned greatly after touching the coffin.

On that day, Li Zicheng rewarded [-] court ladies, General Quan and General Zhi who followed him, and six government officials including Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance also rewarded three to five each.The generals also broke into other people's homes, looking at the Gaomen Dadi in the capital, and then entered and occupied it. Liu Zongmin occupied Tian Hongdi, and Li Guo occupied Zhou Kuidi.

On the [-]th, Liu Zongmin and others, in addition to posting notices about the selection of officials, also strictly prohibited killing.

When the thieves first entered, the officials and gentry were afraid that they would use the crown to make a fortune, so they learned that they would destroy the virtuous crown. On the [-]th, when they saw Dashun's selection of officials, they all burst into laughter.And because the hats had been destroyed, I had to go to the Liyuan troupe to look for theatrical crowns, and each crown cost three or four taels of silver.

When the thieves first entered the city, the common people were frightened and suspicious, but seeing that the Dashun army quickly posted the notices all over the city, stating that the army did not commit any crimes in autumn, and anyone who dared to plunder the people's property would be executed in a hurry. .

It happened that in the afternoon of that day, four soldiers robbed a silk and satin shop in Zhengyangmen, and they were killed in the city immediately, with their hands and feet still nailed to the left fence of the front gate.The hearts of the people who waited and watched in horror all settled down, and everyone praised Dashun as a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, no wonder he won the world.They also boldly opened the door for business, and the people took to the streets, and there was peace.

For Li Zicheng and others today, they also did a lot of things, such as sending people to recruit Yang Guozhu from Ji Town, Liu Zhaoji, Wu Sangui and others who were in Shanhaiguan at this time.They are all promised to be treated generously. For example, Yang Guozhu is the Marquis of Jibei, and he is promised to be a duke.Liu Zhaoji, uncle of Dongping, promised to be a marquis.It is said that Wu Sangui has many soldiers and horses, and it is even more conditional for both father and son to be marquises.

They also sent their old acquaintance, Dingxibo Tang Tong, who had surrendered earlier, to bring his imperial edict to offer 3 taels of relief silver. That's it.

In the thinking of Li Zicheng and others, no matter how strong Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui and others are, there is no limit. After all, the Shun army defeated too many famous generals. I mean, maybe only Wang Dou will impress them more.

The purpose of the surrender is only to surrender without fighting. After all, if they don't use swords, they don't use swords. Sure enough, they don't know how to praise, and they will definitely be like this capital that has just fallen. Grind it into powder.

However, Li Zicheng and others believed that in the face of the general trend of the world, Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui and others would recognize the situation and would not do the stupid thing that hits an egg against a rock.And the conditions they gave were superior enough, they would not be ignorant of flattery, so things in the east were like this.

It seems that Li Zicheng and others have forgotten a group of people, that is, the Manchu Qing army outside the pass, maybe he didn't have this concept in his mind at all.The counselors and ministers around him were all from humble backgrounds, and their highest education was Juren. They also lacked the overall vision, and no one paid attention to the location in the northeast.

So even though Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui had never thought about this problem during the battle between the stones in history, it was not until the moment when the Qing army appeared that he suddenly realized that there are still such a group of people in the world, and there is a creature called Tartar.

This kind of creature has a deep foundation, established a country early, has a complete system, and is a real professional army and warrior. The situation is completely different from any opponent he has encountered before.So in ignorance, he was beaten and defeated as soon as he hit him.

Then he fled for thousands of miles, and was bitten by him all the time. In order to survive, he abandoned the Shaanxi foundation and the Huguang foundation that had been in business for a long time, and he did not hesitate to attack the Nanming defense line to pieces, but he couldn't turn over.In the thousands of years of history, Li Zicheng and others considered themselves second in terms of short-sightedness, and no one dared to say that they were the first.

Of course, right now he is in high spirits, thinking that Jingdong's affairs are mediocre, and he mainly focuses on Xuanfu Town to the west.

The Luoyang battle in the first month of the 14th year of Chongzhen left a deep impression on Li Zicheng and others, so Li Zicheng and others will be more cautious when dealing with Wang Dou.

After discussing with each other, they decided to send envoys to surrender first. Wang Dou is now a Marquis, and he will be treated like a duke.Sure enough, he didn't know how to flatter, so he used all his soldiers and horses from Dashun to attack Xuanfu in the west!

No matter how strong his Xuanfu is, how strong is the capital?Which city of the Ming Dynasty under Dashun was not strong?No matter how strong his army is, after all, there are few people, so how can he resist if he raises his own army?When Jieshi captured Xuanfu, he just followed Xuanfu, sweeping Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Gansu.

Therefore, the remnant forces around the capital agreed on this, but now there are a few troubles that Li Zicheng and others urgently need to solve.

One is Dasuo Jingshi, who has never allowed the prince, second king, queen and others. They think that the prince and others have escaped from the capital, but there are several possibilities for where to flee.

One is to flee to the east, to where Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui and others are. It happened that Tang Tong went to surrender and asked them to hand over the crown prince and the second king.

The second is to flee westward to where Wang Dou's department is located. This matter is a bit troublesome. It's okay if Wang Dou surrenders.

The third is to flee to the south, fleeing to the south of the Yangtze River. If this is the case, this matter will be much more troublesome, and it is very likely that there will be another Southern Song Dynasty.After all, the Shun army is not familiar with water warfare, and the dense network of rivers in the south of the Yangtze River also gave them a headache. It's not that they didn't have the idea of ​​going south back then, but they were scared back to Henan by the raging Yangtze River.

This is a major annoyance.

Another worry is money.

Once upon a time, the Chuang army did not value gold and silver. They valued mules and horses most. Even the money they got was mostly used for trivial matters.However, today is different from the past. To establish a country and become an emperor, a large amount of money is naturally needed.

After entering the capital, the soldiers also need to be rewarded, and there are too many soldiers in Dashun, and there are 50 people who went north alone.

These people all need rewards, and the amount of gold and silver they need is huge.

If you want to use troops against Xuanfu Shanxi, you will also need a lot of food and salaries.

All of this requires silver.

In the past, when Li Zicheng went north to the capital, he didn't worry about money. In addition to his belief that the capital was the capital of the Ming Dynasty, there would naturally be a lot of money in the treasury. He also heard a royal secret.

No matter ancient or modern, Chinese and foreign, the secrets of the royal family are always the object of discussion among the grassroots. Ordinary villagers in the fields talk about the emperor picking up millet with a golden pole, and eating white flour steamed buns one by one.Senior literati, officials and generals talked about another matter.

For example, they whispered and vividly described that there is a town treasury of gold in the palace. There are 700 million ingots that have not been used for a long time. Extra pie.

Sure enough, if there were so much gold and silver, one mule could carry two ingots of silver and 1000 taels, which meant that it would take 850 million mules and horses to carry them all.In other words, not only the entire Ming Dynasty, but also all the horses of the Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties added up, did not know whether they could pull all the gold and silver.

Perhaps only people with low IQ and ulterior motives would believe such rumors. Li Zicheng and others half-believed, but it was certain that there were more gold and silver hidden in the palace.

According to their final statistics, there are 17 taels of gold in the palace, 13 taels of silver, and 20 taels of silver in the treasury.

The emperor's net worth is many times poorer than Li Zicheng's.

This matter will be difficult.

……

On the 21st, a turbulent crowd of applicants flocked to Chengtianmen. These former Ming Dynasty officials are now all utterly loyal to serve Dashun.Because many people got up early, before the Chengtian Gate opened, they simply sat on the steps and waited.

As soon as the door opened, they scrambled to squeeze in, fearing that if they were too late, their places would be taken by others.Seeing them huddled together in a disorderly manner, the long team guarding the gate couldn't help but beat them away with sticks, telling them to behave.

Then they registered in the Wufeng Tower in front of the Meridian Gate, and they all crawled outside the Meridian Gate to listen.

They also have different costumes, some wearing basic auspicious clothes, and some wearing green clothes and small caps, but no matter whether they are old-fashioned, clever, talented, famous, or eloquent, or They are high-spirited people, and now they all bow their heads and lower their eyebrows, standing like puppets.

There are also people who shaved their hair and dressed like monks, or wore handkerchiefs to make them sick, in order to win sympathy.

The gatekeepers of the Shun Army pointed at them and laughed, hurling all kinds of insults, but they didn't dare to speak out.

At the end of the day, Dashun didn't give them food or drink. They comforted each other and said, "Although the stomach is hungry, the heart is very happy."

On this day, Chen Yan, the cabinet minister, and Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, were dressed neatly. They came to persuade them to enter, but they couldn't even enter the Meridian Gate.

Near noon, Wang Dehua suddenly came out from the Meridian Gate. He walked directly to Zhang Jinyan, the minister of the Ministry of War, who was prostrate with low brows. In the stunned eyes of others, he suddenly slapped Zhang Jinyan heavily on the face, making his head buzz. Venus shoots straight up.

Then Wang Dehua pointed at Zhang Jinyan and yelled at him for harming the country.

The soldiers of the Shun Army next to him fell down with laughter, because Wang Dehua had been used by Dashun, and Zhang Jinyan did not dare to speak out even though he was beaten.He was humiliated in his heart, and just thought: "You Wang Dehua is so loyal, why didn't you die for the country and the Lord like Wang Chengen? Didn't you also surrender the bandit?"

Of course, he only dared to think this way in his heart, but still lowered his eyebrows and shrunk his head, not daring to say a word.

On the 22nd, Liu Yangzhen, the principal in charge, kowtowed outside the Meridian Gate, asking to punish the treacherous ministers Zhang Jinyan, Wei Zaode, and Chen Yan. Li Zicheng said, "Why didn't you say it in the first dynasty?"

On the same day, Li Zicheng suddenly got Zhu Shu, which wrote: "Cheng Guo Gong Zhu Chunchen admiral of all internal and external military forces, and assisted the East Palace." There is also a line of ink writing: "All officials are going to the East Palace." On it is the emperor's seal. However, before the collapse of Gai, the cabinet was instructed by Zhu Shu, and Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, was entrusted to assist the prince.

It turned out that at that time, the internal ministers brought Zhu Yu to the cabinet, and the cabinet ministers had dispersed, so they were placed on a few. The civil and military ministers, who were unknown, were now acquired by Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng looked at the ink edict and Zhu Yu, thinking that the prince has never been seen, could it be?

He ordered Zhu Chunchen to be killed, and he was in his family. At the same time, he escorted more than 200 military officials of Xunwei, all of whom were killed outside Pingzemen.

That day, in the mansion occupied by Liu Zongmin, he was circling around in a circle, and all the famous Tie Lihua, Lu Gongsash, red embroidered shoes, etc. in front of him were creepy instruments of torture, which made him very satisfied.

There are also newly-made Jiajian, which are connected by iron nails, and the wood has edges and looks very powerful. They are all newly made in Beijing.

Liu Zongmin touched the stick, and he murmured: "I don't know how powerful the new stick is, I still need someone to try it."

(End of this chapter)