Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 10 The Empress
Its daybreak.

The sun rises from the east.

The morning light reflected half of the sky red through heavy clouds.

The dark Forbidden City finally sees a glimmer of light.

In the resplendent Qianqing Palace, blood flowed all over the place.

There are still stains of blood on the white marble pillar.

Zhu Youjian walked out of the hall, looking at the bloodstains on Panlong Danxi, and the morning sun rolling under the yellow sand.

There are infinite emotions in my heart.

just now.

He killed a chief minister of the cabinet, a minister, Zhou Kui, a relative who had just been named Marquis of Jiading by himself, and two senior eunuchs of the Supervisor of Rites.

In addition, Zhongguang Shiheng, Zuoqian capital censor Dou Ding and so on.

These heads should be enough to commemorate the living beings who are being devastated by war in this world.

"The wind is blowing and the clouds are flying!"

Zhu Youjian raised his hands high into the sky, and read out a line of Liu Bang's poem.

All the ministers stood behind silently, with a look of distress on their faces.

But seeing the king Zhu Youjian being so heroic and confident, he felt a little bit more at ease.

Except for treacherous ministers with double hearts!

In a short period of time, the emperor himself had absolute control over the capital.

And this is also the best time for him to escape from the capital.

Think about it.

Zhu Youjian hurried back to the dragon chair.

The officials also hurriedly turned around, looking at His Majesty, waiting for him to make a decision.

Zhu Youjian also knew that time was very tight now, and now that he let Zhou Yuji abandon Ningwuguan, it was tantamount to speeding up the pace of Li Zicheng's troops approaching the capital.

Although there are still fortresses such as Datong, Xuanfu, and Juyongguan.

But according to Zhu Youjian's memory of the original history, the guards in these places almost surrendered.

Therefore, the emperor himself could not expect Li Zicheng to be blocked by the defenders in these places for a period of time.

Zhu Youjian knew that he had to prepare for Li Zicheng's army to come to the capital in advance.

Naturally, there was no delay in moving south!

Zhu Youxiao first asked Li Banghua, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, to directly act as the Yin of Shuntianfu and patrol the city's censor, and lead the soldiers and horses of the five cities to maintain law and order in the city and suppress riots, so as to avoid chaos when he moved south.

Secondly, Zhu Youjian ordered He Xin to replace Wang Chengen as the admiral in charge of the Beijing camp, and led 34 eunuchs he personally trained to control the Beijing camp.

Zhou Yuji's troops were organized into the first guard army.

Zhou Yuji was granted the title of Uncle Ning Wu, and his wife, Liu Shi, was also given the title of Prince Taibao. She was considered to be another female general after Qin Liangyu who was given the title of "Three Dukes and Three Gus" to show his trust.

Wang Chengen's Dongchangfanzi and Wu Mengming's Jinyiwei, with a total of more than [-] people, were responsible for checking all the property of the bureaucrats and gentry who committed crimes, but they could also be regarded as Zhu Youjian's third army.

In addition, the soldiers and horses of the five cities, the Shuntian Mansion and the soldiers and yamen servants of the counties in the capital.

In this way, Zhu Youjian now directly controls a total of [-] troops.

This will be the basis of his army going south to revive Ming Dynasty.

However, it is not enough to have soldiers, money and food are also necessary.

On the one hand, Zhu Youjian asked the factory guards to quickly search the property of the offending officials and gentry.

On the one hand, Zhu Youjian ordered his prince Zhu Cihong and his son-in-law captain Gong Yonggu to take his family members to Tongzhou to collect ships and prepare to ship the east and west granaries of Tongzhou immediately.

The newly appointed Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, Fan Jingwen, is fully responsible for the overall planning of the entire southward relocation, such as the collection of mule carts and horses, as well as the collection of artisans and scholars staying in Beijing, as well as the loading and early transportation of various important materials and documents. .

Wu Lu, a bachelor of the Wenhuadian University and the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, was responsible for organizing manpower to assist Fan Jingwen in completing the southward relocation.

Zhu Youjian's request to the two was to complete within five days, that is, before the fourth day of March, all important material loading and important personnel gathering work, including various craftsmen, must be completed.

Originally, Zhu Youjian wanted to take away all the people in the capital.

But helplessly, time is urgent now, and it is a bit stretched to prepare important materials and talents to move south within five days. It is naturally impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to move south with him.

What's more, in this case, it will only slow down the speed of going south.

At that time, it will be easy to be overtaken by Li Zicheng's army.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian could only give up the idea of ​​taking the people to move south.

However, he can't give up the popular support of the five northern provinces. Although in the future, it is very likely that he will rule the river with Li Zicheng or Jiannu, but sooner or later he will have the Northern Expedition.

If we want the Northern Expedition, we can't make Li Shu in the five northern provinces forget the kindness of the emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian issued an edict immediately after the court meeting.

The content of the edict is to exempt all the people in the north from taxes and corvees!He also ordered Ni Yuanlu, Minister of the Household Department, to lead all the officials in the capital to post this notice all over the city.

Li Zicheng's slogan to win the hearts of the people is that he will not pay when the King Chuang comes.

But now that he, the Great Ming Emperor, exempted the people in the north from taxation and corvee, it was natural to save the hearts of the people he had lost in the north.

For the people, the most direct benefit is taxation and corvée.

I was bewitched by scholar-bureaucrats before, and I repeatedly raised taxes, which caused the people to lose their hearts. This is the reason why Li Zicheng grew stronger.

Now, it is natural to be able to restore it.

Of course, there is nothing to lose by giving up the money, food and taxes in the north. After all, I will lose half of this country soon, even if I don't exempt it.

Southward relocation was finally on the agenda.

Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn't know when Li Zicheng would show up in Beijing, even though he had sent many people to investigate.

But there is no definite news yet.

The entire capital city was still lifeless and in a state of panic.

However, fortunately, as the emperor, Zhu Youjian used his power to suppress some officials who were about to move, and in addition, he, the emperor, had made his decision to move south.

Therefore, although the capital panicked, it did not panic.

Officials are preparing for the southward move in an orderly manner.

But there was a small incident in the palace.

Zhu Youjian had just finished interviewing the chief assistant Fan Jingwen and other ministers who were preparing for the southward relocation. When he returned to the inner palace, he heard that Empress Zhou had attempted suicide by hanging herself.

Zhu Youjian, who traveled to this time for only a little over ten days, was busy cleaning up people's hearts and moving south, and he hadn't spared enough energy to get to know his married couple in this life, the Queen Zhou.

Now that he heard that Empress Zhou was going to hang herself, he rushed to Kunning Palace in a hurry.

When Zhu Youjian came to Kunning Palace, he saw Empress Zhou sitting on the bed with a haggard face, her yellow face was unpainted and tears were still there, so she could not help but move closer and held her hand:

"Why are you doing this?"

Empress Zhou turned her face away, sobbed again, and immediately knelt down and said, "I don't know why my father disobeyed His Majesty, so that His Majesty ordered him to die!"

At this time, the crown prince Zhu Cihong also came out: "Yes, father, grandpa is just greedy for money, why did you kill him?"

"Bastard! Did I tell you to talk, get out!"

Zhu Youjian knew that Zhou Kui was a close relative to the queen and the prince, and killing him himself would definitely make them resist, but as an emperor, he had to think more about the people and benefit the world. To save his royal family, he had to Put to death Zhou Kui, a relative who has failed him, otherwise it will not be enough to deter other relatives.

As the daughter of Zhou Kui, Queen Zhou can have complaints about herself.

But the prince Zhu Cihong, as the future heir, must not be trapped by personal affairs, he must be able to understand his words and deeds as the emperor, and he must obey if he cannot understand!

Now, the words of the prince Zhu Cihong meant that Zhu Youjian saw his weakness, so he couldn't help scolding him angrily.

Prince Zhu Cihong had no choice but to retreat.

At this time, Zhu Youjian took out a secret letter from his sleeve and handed it to Queen Zhou: "You can see for yourself, this is your good father, my good father-in-law wrote to King Li Chuang, saying Sometimes we will sacrifice our children to beg for the preservation of wealth and honor, with such a ruthless father-in-law, how can I not kill him, how can I suppress the distracted hearts!"

Queen Zhou stayed silent for a while after watching it.

But just when Zhu Youjian turned around suddenly, the Queen of Zhou burst into tears again, and then said: "I am guilty, I should not blame Your Majesty, my father is guilty, and I owe the grace of God. Now the world is in crisis, and my concubine It is a delicate body, and I don't want to drag Your Majesty any longer, please take care of it now!"

Saying that, Queen Zhou was about to crash into the beam and commit suicide.

Zhu Youjian hurriedly hugged her. He knew that Queen Zhou was heartbroken and lost her mind. She was sad because of her father's death and annoyed because of her father's betrayal. He chose to commit suicide after killing his father's husband, so he knew it was impossible to persuade him.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian had no choice but to shout in an orderly tone: "You are my queen, listen, you are not allowed to die without my will! Now that the southward move is imminent, the people's hearts are at ease. If the mother of a country has another accident, It is bound to cause panic in the capital, from now on, you should lead the people in the palace to prepare for the southward move, and you must not commit suicide any more, take the overall situation into consideration, and do not abandon the country and society!"

Empress Zhou has always been intelligent and virtuous, and after hearing what Zhu Youjian said, she regained some sense, sat down and didn't speak anymore.

But it was Zhu Youjian who lost his mind and rushed towards her because he touched her still charming skin just now, and when he saw how pitiful she looked after crying.

Showing off his majestic appearance overnight, Zhu Youjian did his best to be a husband. After tasting the joy of fish and water, Empress Zhou no longer had the idea of ​​committing suicide.

It's just that Zhu Youjian demanded too much last night, so Empress Zhou had to rest for a few days, and asked Concubine Yuan Gui to help dismiss the palace staff and prepare for the southward relocation.

(End of this chapter)