Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 7

It was finally time.

These ten days can be said to be the most difficult period for Zhu Youjian.

It was also his most dangerous ten days.

Fortunately, within these ten days, no one came to hold him, the emperor, hostage.

Of course, this has something to do with him, the emperor, deliberately subduing himself. He could bear it even when Guang Shiheng pointed at his nose and scolded him during the incident.

However, now Zhu Youjian doesn't have to bear it anymore!
The days of dissident civil and military officials are over!

"Everyone has it!"

Zhu Youjian yelled angrily, and 35 eunuchs appeared behind Zhu Youjian neatly from around the Qianqing Palace.

In the past ten days, he specially trained these 35 eunuchs. Although it could not be said that they became elite soldiers, they were able to prohibit them.

Zhu Youjian asked He Xin to leave 20 people to protect the safety of the concubines, princes and princesses in the palace.

And Zhu Youjian himself changed into eunuch clothes, took the prepared imperial edict jade seal, and led fourteen eunuchs to ride horses overnight and follow Wang Chengen to go out of the city to meet Zhou Yuji.

Wu Mengming is greedy, and the people under him are also greedy.

Therefore, the guards of the palace city saw that the emperor was not coming out, so they let Zhu Youjian and Wang Chengen leave the palace city easily by paying bribes. , and dare not stop it.

Once out of the imperial city, Zhu Youjian and others did not dare to ride horses anymore. After all, the inner city was patrolled by soldiers and horses from the five cities, so as not to alarm the soldiers and horses from the five cities.

The Wucheng Bingma Division belongs to the Ministry of War.

Zhu Youjian can be sure that Zhang Jinyan, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, is not trustworthy, so naturally he can no longer trust the people of Wucheng Bingmasi.

Therefore, he could only run along Qihuamen Street with Wang Chengen on foot.

Fortunately, he has practiced his physical fitness these days, and he can keep running, and it is now the middle of the night, the moon is dark and the wind is high, so no one will notice.

But when they came to Qihuamen, they were met by Wang Chengen's internal response.

Not all bureaucrats inside and outside the capital are preparing to surrender to Li Zicheng. As the admiral of the East Factory, Wang Chengen naturally has his own eyes.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian successfully left Qihuamen.

As soon as he left Qihua Gate, Zhu Youjian took off his eunuch's clothes and put on a dragon robe, and followed Wang Chengen to the vicinity of Zhihua Temple before seeing Zhou Yuji, the prince Zhu Cihong, Gong Yonggu and his servants who were guarding the prince. There are also Ningwuguan officers and soldiers who camped on the spot.

This group of officers and soldiers lined up neatly on the grass. Although most of them turned into mud faces after running all the way, Zhu Youjian could feel the murderous aura on them.

After all, it is the only frontier army that can hold Ningwuguan for more than ten days. Although it is not the most powerful army in this era, its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the rotten Beijing camp.

What's more, these officers and soldiers have experienced fierce battles from Taiyuan to Ningwuguan, and they have all been stained with human blood.

Even if they are not elite soldiers, they have been tempered into elite soldiers.

"Father!"

The prince Zhu Cihong ran over as soon as he saw Zhu Youjian, and couldn't help but hugged Zhu Youjian and cried.

And Zhu Youjian directly pushed Zhu Cihong away: "Why are you crying! Wipe away your tears! Mother-in-law, how will you become a generation of kings in the future!"

Zhu Cihong had no choice but to hold back his tears, and stood up obediently.

At this time, Zhou Yuji also came over: "Zhou Yuji has met His Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian hurriedly helped Zhou Yuji up himself, only to see that he was big and round, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, half a head taller than himself, with blood stains on the ends of his withered hair, and knife marks on his cheeks.

It is enough to guess that this veteran of many battles has just experienced a series of fierce battles.

"Ai Qing, please get up!"

After Zhu Youjian said that, he asked Zhou Yuji: "Didn't Wang Chengen tell you the reason why I called you to Beijing urgently along the way?"

"Return to Your Majesty, the factory superintendent has already said that apart from the [-] death squads staying behind at Ningwu Pass, I have personally led [-] officers and soldiers to rescue him according to His Majesty's order, and now I'm at your Majesty's disposal!"

Zhou Yuji cupped his hands and replied, speaking very simply, but Zhu Youjian still sensed a trace of uneasiness from his lonely eyes, and asked, "Who is staying behind Ningwu Pass with the Death Squad?"

"The dog Zhou Boming!"

Zhu Youjian suddenly realized, and patted Zhou Yuji on the shoulder: "Your family is really full of loyalty! If Daming can be revived in the future, I will definitely not treat Aiqing's family badly!"

"Tell me about the [-] officers and soldiers in detail," Zhu Youjian continued.

"Yes! In addition to the [-] cavaliers under Weichen's command, there are [-] infantrymen, [-] firearmsmen, and [-] archers! A thousand strong women!"

Hearing what Zhou Yuji said, Zhu Youjian discovered that there was indeed a women's army among the officers and soldiers, and the leaders were dressed in armor, but it was not easy to tell that they were a group of women.

"Very good, who said women are inferior to men!"

"From now on, the [-] officers and soldiers will be named the Guards, and they will enter the city with me!"

After Zhu Youjian said that, he and Zhou Yuji came straight to Qihua Gate with [-] officers and soldiers.

The Dongchang eyeliner of Qihua Gate immediately opened the city gate, and Zhu Youjian successfully led Zhou Yuji's [-] officers and soldiers into the inner city of the capital.

"Leave 1000 people and immediately take over the defense of Qihuamen! Anyone who violates the order will be killed!"

As soon as he entered the inner city, Zhu Youjian asked Zhou Yuji to control the gate leaving the capital, so that he could evacuate from the capital by himself.

Zhu Youjian took out three more imperial edicts.

The first way is to order Zhou Yuji to send a thousand horses to Li Banghua's mansion at high speed, and let Li Banghua succeed Zhang Jinyan as the Minister of the Ministry of War, and control the Ministry of War and the yamen of the five cities.

The second order ordered Zhou Yuji to send a thousand riders to immediately control the Beijing camp, arrest the leader of the Beijing camp, Li Guozhen, and Wang Chengen temporarily lead the Beijing camp.

The third way is to order Zhou Yuji to send a thousand riders to control Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen's mansion, take over the power of the imperial guards, and control the defense of the imperial city.

After the three imperial edicts, under the arrangement of Zhou Yuji, the three cavalry galloped towards the place Zhu Youjian pointed at. Naturally, Zhu Youjian's trusted eunuch led the way.

And Zhu Youjian personally brought Zhou Yuji and others straight to the imperial city.

However, at this time, Dong'anmen was already closed, and Zhu Youjian couldn't help shouting directly:
"I am Zhu Youjian, the son of heaven. If you dare to resist the order, don't blame me for punishing you and other nine clans!"

Since it was the middle of the night, the city guards couldn't bear it anymore and fell asleep. When they were called out like this, they thought they were going to flee the city again, so they couldn't help but yawned and cursed:

"You bastard! Why are you yelling in the middle of the night? The Duke of the State has already ordered that no one should enter or leave the city after You Hour! Just wait for me!"

Before the man could say anything, Zhu Youjian directly ordered Zhou Yuji's infantry to shoot and attack.

Suddenly, a rain of arrows shot towards the city gate. The guerrilla guarding the city was terrified and hid in the battlements in fright. After a while, he looked up after seeing the rain of arrows stop. Then he saw a man in a yellow robe.

"I am the emperor Zhu Youjian. If you don't open the city again, I will attack the city directly. Then you and your family will have no chance of survival!"

Zhu Youjian shouted.

The guerrilla guarding the city hastily ordered the city gate to be opened, but as soon as the city gate was opened, a man in a python robe appeared with a dozen servants: "Don't open it, who told you to open it!"

"My lord, that's the emperor!"

The guerrilla said with a sad face.

Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen had originally received the order of Zhang Jinyan, Minister of the Ministry of War, to inspect the defenses of the imperial city, and he was a little uneasy when he heard the sound of horseshoes everywhere in the inner city, so he came out in the middle of the night to inspect it himself. Dong'anmen saw that someone was about to enter the city.

Now that he heard that it was the emperor, Cheng Guogong asked without thinking: "What, when did Zhu Youjian come out! Hurry up and catch him!"

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian could guess that this Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen, had also betrayed him. He shouted "Kill!", and brought the two elites under Zhou Yuji's command to kill him!

Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen was stunned for a moment, but immediately had to kneel on the ground: "Your Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian was too lazy to talk nonsense with him, so he cut Zhu Chunchen off his horse with a single knife, "You bastard!"

He also ordered Zhou Yuji's wife, Mrs. Liu, to take over the defense of the imperial city as the right governor.

(End of this chapter)