Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 18

It's March, which is the season of spring germination.

But there are still no farmers in the farmland shrouded in mist.

You can even see wild dogs haunting the forest, with green eyes, staring at Zhu Youjian in military uniform and the officers and soldiers behind him.

Occasionally, you can see starving people lying on the ground from the barren fields.

Being bitten by wild dogs.

Even the land of Gyeonggi has become so desolate after Jiannu went south several times to plunder and bandits rebelled.

Zhu Youjian didn't know what it was like in Henan, Shandong and other places where the military disaster was more serious.

He could not help but clenched the saber in his hand.

At this time, the front sentry came to report that Baoding City had been captured.

After Zhu Youjian heard about it, he immediately ordered the army to advance quickly, and he himself took the lead, galloping on the official road.

It didn't take a while to see Baoding County hidden in the tall wormwood.

The former canal city, the prosperous place of flowers and willows, is now just an abandoned fortress in the wilderness.

Even the official road leading to the city gate is overgrown with weeds, which shows how much trauma the war has brought to this world.

Zhu Youjian entered Baoding City.

Under the mottled city walls, there are still bloodstains from the old battles.

Seeing that it was His Majesty Zhu Youjian entering the city, the officers and soldiers of the First Guards stood aside energetically, with spears in their hands lined up straight.

Riding through the desolate streets, Zhu Youjian can see from the row upon row of houses how prosperous Baoding City was in the past. As a major commercial town, what should accompany him should not be this kind of deathly silence, but one after another. the uproar.

"The city should have been looted once. Many houses showed signs of being burnt, and blood can still be seen in some places. It is difficult for the people to hide their hatred for the officers and soldiers. Since the second year of Chongzhen's rebellion, Baoding City has fallen into the enemy's hands several times. ?”

Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking Li Banghua, Shangshu of the Ministry of War.

Li Banghua replied: "Your Majesty, Baoding City has always been an important town for water transportation and is related to the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty, so it has never fallen into the enemy's hands. Now it is so dilapidated, I am afraid it was caused by officers and soldiers. Since soldiers are always bandits, burning, killing and looting are even worse than bandits. Even more ruthless, after Li Jiantai settled in Baoding, he was afraid that he would loot Baoding City."

"Bastards! With officers and soldiers like this, how could my Ming Dynasty not lose the hearts of the people? The ruins of the country to this day are all related to the nonsense of this group of people who don't care about the people and are loyal to the emperor!"

As Zhu Youjian spoke, he saw that Zhou Yuji was already standing in front of the government office in full armor, waiting for him, and next to him were tied up Li Jiantai, a cabinet scholar, and Du Zhi, an eunuch who supervised the army.

Li Jiantai, a cabinet scholar, did not expect that he would be fooled by Zhu Youjian, nor did he expect to become a prisoner of the Ming army at this time.

You know, just two hours ago, he was still a dignified cabinet minister, with a high official position and a number of officers and soldiers under his command.

But unexpectedly, just when he was about to bet his wealth and wealth for the rest of his life on the Dashun regime with greater hopes, he became a prisoner of the Ming army, and he had already made it clear before without any scruples that he would join the bandits, So now he has no way to find a reason to fool Zhu Youjian.

But when Zhu Youjian appeared, Li Jiantai couldn't help but knelt down and cried out, "Your Majesty! The humble minister Li Jiantai is guilty! Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

Li Jiantai was crying like a woman, crying heartbreakingly.

He knelt down directly, moved to Zhu Youjian, kowtowed and explained:
"Your Majesty, I didn't mean to surrender to the trespassers. I just saw that there were rebels. In order to protect the safety and security, I had to pretend that I wanted to surrender to the enemy. Now that Your Majesty has appeared, I am willing to be a cow and a horse for His Majesty's orders. Help His Majesty revive Daming, I hope His Majesty will forgive me!"

Li Jiantai no longer has any principles. He only hopes that Zhu Youjian will spare his life. As long as he can spare his life, it doesn't matter if he is dismissed.

Li Jiantai even tried his best to wink at Ni Yuanlu, his former friend behind Zhu Youjian, but Ni Yuanlu waved his sleeve that was half broken, and gave Li Jiantai a disgusted look.

This made Li Jiantai very stunned. He didn't know what ecstasy soup the emperor Zhu Youjian had given these officials, why all of them stared at him with hatred like the people in the city, and even looked worse than the emperor. Zhu Youjian was still angry.

I betrayed the Zhu Dynasty and not you, why do you hate me so much!
Li Jiantai couldn't figure it out, so he could only continue to kowtow and beg for mercy.

Zhu Youjian snorted, too lazy to talk to Li Jiantai.

At this time, the eunuch Du Zhi also knelt down, tears streaming down his face:

"Your Majesty! The servants were forced to do so. When the servants heard that His Majesty left the capital, they wanted to serve His Majesty as soon as possible. However, Mr. Li Ge did not allow the servants to leave the city. I hope Your Majesty will see clearly!"

The eunuch Du Zhi kept kowtowing.

Li Jiantai, a scholar of the cabinet, looked at the eunuch Du Zhi with contempt. He was the one who first suggested surrendering to the intruder, but now he blamed himself. Sure enough, the eunuch has nothing good to say!

"Zhou Yuji, go back to Bazhou immediately and bring the queen and others to Baoding. He Xin, quickly send people to build a high platform in the city, and Li Banghua, call the people in the city. I will interrogate these two people who abused the people and failed them in front of the people in the city. Jun'en's traitor!

Not Ling Chi is not enough to anger the common people, not enough to quell the anger in my heart! "

As soon as Zhu Youjian said this!
Li Jiantai shut his mouth immediately after hearing this, and stayed where he was, not knowing what to do.

He didn't expect that Zhu Youjian finally decided to execute himself, and it was Ling Chi!
What he didn't even expect was that none of the officials stood up to object, and they even showed joy.

Li Jiantai couldn't help thinking at first, is he really so hateful? Isn't it a rule recognized by everyone that a good bird chooses a tree to live in?
They are all scholar-bureaucrats who work for the emperor's family. Is it necessary to have deep hatred because of their pursuit of differences? Even if they really surrendered to the intruders, isn't there still everyone's friendship, and maybe they will surrender to each other in the future?

Why, none of the officials stood up to save themselves today.

Li Jiantai was very indignant!

Seeing that Zhu Youjian didn't turn his head back, Li Jiantai saw that none of the civil servants stood up to intercede for him. He also knew that he had no hope, so he simply tore off the disguise and yelled again:

"Zhu Youjian! Don't think that if you kill me, you will be able to save the Great Ming Dynasty. Let's see which of these people around you can save the Great Ming Dynasty for you. Stop dreaming, haha!"

"Da Ming must perish! Great Ming must perish!"

Li Jiantai yelled hysterically.

He even longed to annoy Zhu Youjian and others with this, and let them kill him directly in a moment of anger, so that he might be able to avoid the pain of Ling Chi.

"Slap your mouth, hit him until he can't speak, but don't beat him to death!"

Zhu Youjian gave an order to a soldier.

The soldier hurriedly rolled up his sleeves, and slapped the cabinet scholar on the face with his fist as big as a bowl, so that Li Jiantai's mouth was not his mouth, and his nose was not his nose.

(End of this chapter)