Ming Empire

Chapter 186 Beijing is Encircled

Beijing, Forbidden City.

Inside the palace, there was a heavy and chilling atmosphere.

The court meeting was going on, but there was almost no sound in the Taijimen Great Hall. The red-eyed and haggard Emperor Chongzhen stared at his highness's ministers in despair.The ministers who participated in the court meeting lowered their heads one by one, not daring to look at Emperor Chongzhen.

The chief assistant of the cabinet, Zhou Tingru, knelt on the ground, with blood on his forehead, which was just kowtowed in the hall.

The thieves came straight to Beijing like a broken bamboo, but Zhou Yanru and other cabinet ministers were helpless.

What's more terrible is that Zhou Tingru still concealed the military situation when the battle situation was extremely unfavorable. He did not tell Emperor Chongzhen about the successive defeats of the Ming army, but only selected those partial victories to tell Chongzhen, such as Zhou Yuke's tenacious Resistance, fierce battles under the city of Datong, etc.

The concealment and false reporting of military information by Zhou Tingru and others caused Emperor Chongzhen to make wrong decisions in succession. He did not recruit King Qin's division at the first time, especially the Nanjing new army led by Cao Yue, which he relied on most.It wasn't until Zhou Tingru and others knew that they could no longer hide it and reported the real situation to Emperor Chongzhen that Chongzhen was shocked and urgently recruited Cao Yue's troops to King Jingqin.

After the start of the court meeting today, Emperor Chongzhen denounced Zhou Tingru for wronging the country and said that he would be severely punished for his crimes.

Zhou Tingru knew that the death penalty was inevitable, but his subconscious sense of surviving in spite of himself made him kneel down and beg for mercy, but Emperor Chongzhen was unmoved, and after losing his temper, he ordered him to commit suicide.In desperation, Zhou Tingru was forced to commit suicide by drinking poisoned wine in the hall.Emperor Chongzhen ordered Liu Zongzhou, the censor of Zuodu, as the first assistant, and Zhang Jinyan, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Wei Zhaocheng as the second assistant.

Emperor Chongzhen ordered Zhou Tingru to commit suicide in the palace. The purpose was to intimidate the ministers and unite with each other. However, he did not expect that this move frightened many ministers. After being frightened, many people were thinking about their own future. The monarch and his ministers are completely renounced.

After the rogues attacked the city of Beijing, there were not many people who shared hardships with him, the emperor, and resisted the siege of the rogues.

Because of the deliberate concealment by Zhou Tingru and other ministers, the current Emperor Chongzhen is not completely clear about the enemy's situation.But he knew that the situation was extremely critical, so he urgently ordered the Nanjing New Army, Liu Zeqing in Shandong, Zuo Liangyu in Hubei, Kong Zhenhui in Sichuan, Cao Bianjiao, Zu Dashou, Wu Sangui, Tang Tong, and Bai Guangen in Liaodong Wait for the Ming Dynasty officials and troops to rush to help Beijing as quickly as possible.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't even care about Liaodong anymore. He ordered Zu Dashou, Cao Bianjiao, and Wu Sangui to abandon Jinzhou and Songshan and do their best to rescue Beijing.

After receiving another urgent order from Emperor Chongzhen, Zu Dashou and Cao Bianjiao did not dare to disobey, and they also knew the crisis in Beijing.After Cao Bianjiao received the order, he did not hesitate too much. After making careful arrangements, he personally led the main force of nearly 4 people, left Songshan City, and rushed into the pass.Due to full preparations, he set off again in the middle of the night. Jiannu, who was confronting the Ming army under Songshan City, did not find out. After rushing to Cao Bianjiao's tribe away from Songshan, Dorgon received the news and hurriedly led his generals to chase after him. .

However, the thousands of troops left behind in Songshan City went out of the city to take the initiative to restrain Jiannu.Dorgon received a report again, saying that Jinzhou's Zu Daxing Department had also changed. Although Dorgon knew that the Ming army might return to Beijing, he was afraid of accidents. In the end, Dorgon did not dare to go all out to chase and kill, allowing Cao Bianjiao's men to get rid of the pursuit.

But Zu Dashou, who finally decided to return to the army to rescue Beijing, was attacked by Jiannu frantically, and finally suffered a disastrous defeat. Zu Dashou had to retreat to Jinzhou with the defeated army.Then Jiannu devoted all his strength to attack Jinzhou and Songshan, and vowed not to give up until the two cities were captured.

After receiving the report, Emperor Chongzhen felt a little more at ease when he learned that Cao Yue led the Nanjing New Army to urgently assist Beijing, and that Cao Bianjiao and Zu Dashou in Liaodong were also preparing to return.But he also knew that the situation was extremely critical, and if one more troops returned to Beijing, the capital would have more protection, so he continued to order the troops of the kings from all walks of life to rescue Beijing as quickly as possible.

Because he was deceived and missed the best time to make a decision, it was difficult for the army of Qin Kings from all walks of life to arrive in Beijing in the shortest time. Emperor Chongzhen was furious and severely punished many important officials again.

But at this time, the bandits led by Li Zicheng were progressing very smoothly.Except for their defeat at the foot of Datong City, Zhou Yuji's men and horses resisted tenaciously, they won almost no other battles without strong counterattacks.

However, the tenacious resistance of the Datong Army and the persistence of Datong forced Li Zicheng's plan to change.

Li Zicheng's original arrangement was as follows: after the main force captured Datong, they went east to capture Xuanfu Town, and finally went east via Juyong Pass to capture Beijing.The other two partial divisions led by Li Guo and Liu Fangliang marched along the north bank of the Yellow River and attacked the southern part of Beizhili. There is a possible route for the imperial court to flee south.

There was no way to capture Datong, and Li Zicheng didn't dare to stay too long under the city of Datong, so he had to change his plan.

He ordered general Liu Zongmin, prime minister Niu Jinxing, and military adviser Song Xiance to lead the army to cross the Yellow River eastward into the south of Shanxi and attack along the direction of Pingyang Mansion.

Zhang Lin, the magistrate of Pingyang Prefecture, suddenly gave up resistance and surrendered the city.After capturing Pingyang Mansion, Liu Zongmin led an army to Taiyuan Mansion, Shanxi governor Cai Maode defended the city, but the governor under his command, Biaoying general Zhang Xiong, had already had an affair with the rogues, and when the rogues attacked the city, he opened the city gate and surrendered.The city of Taiyuan was destroyed, and governor Cai Maode committed suicide.After the bandits rested in Taiyuan for a few days, a group of troops went northward, preparing to cut off the passage between Datong and Beijing, preventing the Datong army from returning to aid Beijing, and preparing to concentrate their superior forces to attack Datong after capturing Beijing.

The main force of the rest of the army continued to march to Beijing. At Pingwuguan, they encountered the resistance of Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Shanxi. The bandits were executed.Next, the rogues did not encounter any strong resistance, and advanced rapidly all the way, and several armies were preparing to encircle Beijing.

When Li Zicheng personally led an army to surround Beijing, Liu Zongmin led an army all the way to attack Xuanfu.Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, surrendered in Kaicheng, and Zhu Zhifeng, the governor of Xuanfu, committed suicide to disable the country.The rogues arrived at Juyongguan smoothly. Tang Tong, the general soldier, and Du Zhizhi, the eunuch who supervised the army, did not resist when the rogue army came under pressure, and opened the city gate to surrender.The rogues then captured Changping, burned part of the Xiangdian of the Ming Tombs, and Li Shoufeng, the general guarding the Ming Tombs, committed suicide.

At the beginning of October, except for Datong and a few military mansions that were still guarded by the Ming army, most of the nine military towns of the Ming Dynasty were captured by the rogue bandits, and the encirclement circle of the rogue bandits on Beijing was basically formed.

(End of this chapter)