Chapter 87, Emperor Chongzhen’s despair (Part 2)
PS: Explain the basis for the 150,000 Ming army annihilated in the Battle of Daling River in this plane - first of all, due to the changes in this time and space, Zu Dashou's food garrison in Daling River City was very sufficient, so the battle lasted longer Time, more than half a year, the court can organize more waves of reinforcements to fill the hole, and the casualties will naturally be more heavy. Secondly, there are two calculations for the loss of troops, one is to count only combat soldiers, and the other is to count all coolies, servants and miscellaneous soldiers, plus the quota of empty pay, the number shown in the Ministry of War account books is very large. Huge. The figures reported to Emperor Chongzhen were obviously exaggerated.
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Finally, there is a small problem that needs to be dealt with urgently, which is the internal strife that broke out between the Xuanfu and the Datong frontier army in order to compete for the Baoan Prefecture silver mines. Just relying on the conflicting contents described in the memorial, Emperor Chongzhen was confused for a while. At the moment I really can’t tell who is right and who is wrong, who is right and who is wrong. , who is true and who is false, and the current situation does not allow for slow verification and trial... So Emperor Chongzhen was determined to cut through the mess quickly, and gave the warriors suspected of this matter fifty blows each, and reprimanded each one to end the matter. At the same time, the silver mines in Baoan Prefecture were put under internal supervision - now the palace is also short of silver!
In addition, another edict was issued, urging the Xuanda border army to mobilize a strong force southward as soon as possible to assist the local government in Beizhili to suppress Shaanxi bandits and suppress local riots, so as to acquit themselves of the previous internal strife and so on. .
Seeing that all the troubles were solved, Emperor Chongzhen's mood became a little more relaxed. At this time, Cao Huachun had assigned several young eunuchs to clean the palace, and then he came over and whispered to Chongzhen: "...Your Majesty, would you like your maid to send you some meals..."
Because he was in a good mood, Emperor Chongzhen also felt that he had an appetite, so he nodded slightly and said, "...Well, let's pass on the food!"
In the next month, the situation in the capital remained the same, except that the price of food skyrocketed day by day, reaching the price of fifteen taels of silver per stone for brown rice. As a result, the poor people in the city who did not have enough food to live in their homes starved to death or died. Apart from committing suicide, the rest was nothing major.
As for the war around the capital, it is neither sullen nor angry, with a mix of good and bad news. First, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong army won many battles in Daming Mansion, defeating more than ten groups of rogue bandits within twenty days, but they forced them to flee north into Shuntian Mansion, where the capital was located, and even ran to the foot of Beijing City at one time, causing the city to feel like a massacre. Facing a powerful enemy. Later, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, led 50,000 Qin troops to the capital. King Qin finally temporarily eliminated the banditry in the capital, and the court was full of joy. However, the Ministry of Household Affairs expressed that it was really unable to supply so many rations to the Qin troops. As expected, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to commend a group of Shaanxi and Shanxi generals, and then reluctantly asked them to go south to meet Lu Xiangsheng for dinner, or to go to Shandong to eat, and by the way help Zhu Dadian eliminate the Wenxiang Cult demons.
Next, the situation of the Xuanfu and Datong border troops made Emperor Chongzhen feel a little unhappy - after learning that all the ministries participating in the fight for the silver mines had been beaten fifty times by the court, everyone was unlucky, and as the lucky winner After the Baoan Prefecture silver mines were returned to the palace, the Xuanfu armies who had been fighting for nothing immediately broke into an uproar. Someone immediately beat up the eunuch who was delivering the order and drove him out. Even the Xuanfu general soldiers could not suppress the people below. . As for the matter of asking Xuanfu Town to send troops to the capital to suppress the rogue bandits, there was naturally no further progress. Instead, the Xuanfu army requested official documents from the Ministry of Households for the accumulated food and salary over the years. No species Lawless chaos must be severely punished and rectified, but at this troubled time in the world, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to hold his nose and endure it for the time being. Bar!
Then on the battlefield in Shandong, after Xu Guangqi, a veteran of the three dynasties, fell ill and went to appease the Dengzhou army, the situation of the Shandong army also improved slightly - although the Xu Ge Department could not yet convince Chen Xinran, the general of Dengzhou, to wake up, abandon his weapons and surrender. The Dengzhou Navy failed to lift the blockade of the Tianjin coast, but the land offensive on the Dengzhou side at least eased: the main force of the rebels stopped in Pingdu Prefecture and did not continue to invade the west.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shandong Governor Zhu Dadian was able to adjust his deployment and concentrate his troops. After receiving reinforcements from the capital, he went south to defeat the thieves and regain Jining, a water transport hub. Unfortunately, Yutai County and Xuzhou further south are still in the hands of demon thieves, and the canals are still blocked.
As for the news from further south, due to the large number of rogues ravaging the Central Plains, looting prefectures and counties, and causing the post roads to be blocked, no news has been sent to Beijing for several days. Only a group of officials in Beijing relied on their own imagination. Talking nonsense in the memorial and criticizing the war in the south make people Not even interested in taking a look... While Emperor Chongzhen was waiting anxiously, a group of cavalry finally risked their lives to cross the Central Plains war zone from the south, and delivered the memorial from the Minister of War in Nanjing to Beijing, giving Emperor Chongzhen, who was full of expectations, a Bolt from the blue: Fengyang, the central capital, was captured by rogue bandits! ! !
Well, also, the ancestral grave of Lao Zhu's family in Fengyang was also dug up by Zhang Xianzhong, the bandit leader who killed a thousand people.
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In this era of turmoil, weird things, and wars, there is not only competition between time-travelers, but also competition between countries, and even competition between rogue bandits. Pay more attention to visibility.
After all, being a bandit is a bit like being a gangster. It is very important to have a resounding reputation. In some cases, you can even make a fortune just by relying on your name. Otherwise, why would it be that when Li Zicheng was defeated and left Shangluo Mountain, he had only thirteen cavalry soldiers left with him and no money or food savings at all? But as soon as he came out of the mountain, thousands of his younger brothers came to join him, bringing their own dry food. , became the overlord of the Central Plains again in the blink of an eye? Without him, it’s just famous enough.
(At this time, Li Zicheng was only a general, and the king was Gao Yingxiang.)
As the leader of the Shaanxi bandits, the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong naturally also wanted to be famous. When the two groups divided their forces before, he did not go to attack Taiyuan. Instead, he followed the alliance leader "Purple Jinliang" Wang Ziyong to Henan, and then they developed separately.
In the past two months, Zhang Xianzhong has been working as a landlord and recruiting young men in the densely populated Central Plains, and has developed quite smoothly. He has also established a relationship with the Wenxiang Sect. He was very proud... However, at this moment, he suddenly heard that Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, had successfully captured Taiyuan City, the capital of Shanxi Province! Let your own achievements pale in comparison.
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong resolutely decided that in order to overshadow Gao Yingxiang's reputation, he would do something that would cause a sensation in the world - attack the capital of the Ming Dynasty!
Of course, the target capital of the Ming Dynasty was not Beijing. In fact, there were three capitals in the Ming Dynasty: Beijing, Nanjing, and Fengyang, the central capital.
——With the little power Zhang Xianzhong has at his disposal, it is simply a joke to attack Beijing and Nanjing, but he can still give Fengyang a try.
Fengyang, located in southern Zhili (now part of Anhui), has been a poor place famous for its rich production of beggars since ancient times. The reason why such a poor place is called the capital is just because it is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown. But even in the Ming Dynasty, the only things related to the Ming royal family in Fengyang were the clan prison for the emperor's relatives and the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestor (not Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb, the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is in Nanjing) .
What is more advantageous for the rogue bandits is that the garrison in Fengyang, the central capital, has been mobilized to the Huai'an area to resist the southward invasion of the Wenxiang Sect army, so Fengyang's defense force should be very empty. Even if Fengyang City cannot be conquered, it is estimated that the Zhu family's ancestral tomb located outside the city can be dug up, causing a sensation all over the world! So, Zhang Xianzhong marched south like this. When he arrived at Fengyang, he was even more delighted: Fengyang, the capital of Zhongdu, had no city wall!
——It turns out that when Zhongdu was built, firstly, the imperial court had financial difficulties, insufficient allocations, and there was no way for the local government to raise funds (again, Fengyang is a very poor place), and secondly, there was a Feng Shui expert who was invited by the imperial court. Gao Shi claimed that if the city wall was built, it would destroy the feng shui of Fengyang Imperial Tomb.
Therefore, the central capital of Fengyang, like Kyoto in Japan, has no city walls, and even the garrison and chief officers have been transferred away.
In this way, Zhang Xianzhong led a group of refugee troops and successfully entered Fengyang without even climbing the wall, occupying the Longxing land of Lao Zhu's family.
What happened next was even more logical. Zhang Xianzhong and his minions easily annihilated more than a thousand old and weak soldiers in the city. Tens of thousands of private houses in the city as well as all the government offices were burned down by him. In addition, as the most important task, Zhang Xianzhong also dug up Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral grave, demolished the Huangjue Temple where he once became a monk, and humiliated the Zhu Ming royal family in various ways. In the end, before the troops from Nanzhili arrived to counterattack, Go away happily.
Now things are going to be serious - from ancient times to the present, digging up ancestral graves has been the most vicious and unscrupulous method, and having one's ancestral graves dug up is the most unforgettable shame. In the past dynasties of China, except for Dong Zhuo in the late Eastern Han Dynasty who seemed to have acted as the "Faqiu Zhonglang General" and robbed the Luoyang Emperor's tomb, there were basically no scandals in which the ancestral tombs were dug up while the dynasty was still alive ( After the fall of the country, many graves were dug up. For example, all the imperial tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty were dug up by the Mongols). As expected, the "Eight Great Kings" Zhang Xianzhong shocked the world in one fell swoop, overshadowing the reputation of King Chuang Gao Yingxiang.
What's even more terrible is that after learning that such a huge trap was revealed from the rear, the Fengyang governor and the guarding eunuch who were supervising the battle on the front line of Huai'an were so frightened that one fled and the other committed suicide. Fengyang soldiers and horses immediately blew up the camp and collapsed in an uproar. Wang Ke, the leader of Wenxiang Cult, took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, quickly crossed the Huaihe River, and then successfully defeated the Nanjing soldiers and horses who were in chaos due to the collapse of friendly forces. As a result, the entire front collapsed, and the 50,000 officers and soldiers were beaten to only a few thousand. Lv Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, fled to Yangzhou in one breath. He even wrote a suicide note and was waiting to be dismissed from his post and questioned by the imperial court. The rest of the generals at all levels They were also extremely frightened and had no intention of fighting. They just sat back and watched the Shaanxi bandits and Wenxiang Sect monsters going south in batches. The situation in the Jianghuai War was in a bad situation...
Therefore, after Emperor Chongzhen heard the news, he was so angry that he almost fainted, and shouted loudly that he wanted to kill someone.
But when he came to his senses, he did not punish anyone. Instead, he sighed and ordered people to send the Four Treasures of the Study to prepare to write an edict of sin. That is to say, he took on this responsibility - Emperor Chongzhen was so powerful at this time. Degree does not mean that he has a good temper, but any person will fight for his life as long as he digs his ancestral grave, let alone the emperor who cares about face the most in the world.
But there was no way. The graves of the royal ancestors were dug. The impact of this incident was too great. No official could bear such responsibility. If the emperor insists on serious action, I am afraid that the entire Southern Zhili court team will be bloodbathed, and hundreds of heads will definitely not be enough to chop off. Now the situation in South Zhili is very precarious. If there is another bloody purge before the battle, and several local officials who have the ability to integrate various forces to fight against the rebels are killed, Nanjing's military and political institutions will be paralyzed, unable to deal with the rogue bandits. If the Hejiao bandits attack, the next thing that will be lost is probably not Fengyang, the central capital, but Nanjing, the remaining capital! The value of the two is more important than the other. It is clear at a glance and can be known without asking.
As an emperor who already has some sense, Emperor Chongzhen will make the only right choice no matter how angry he is.
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Therefore, faced with the embarrassing situation that the law failed to punish the public, Emperor Chongzhen could only reluctantly write a self-incriminating edict, taking responsibility for the fall of Fengyang, the central capital, and the excavation of the Zhu family's imperial mausoleum. To appease the military morale of Southern Zhili and prevent the outbreak of chaos that would be more detrimental to the court.
Before the sinner's edict was drafted, there was another sound of footsteps outside, and a eunuch rushed to report that Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, wanted to see him and had an urgent report from Liaodong.
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his heart immediately trembled - since he ascended the throne, almost all urgent reports from Liaodong were bad news, which made him almost reluctant to read their memorials. But he is the emperor, the most noble ruler in the world, and there is no room for evasion for all bad things.
Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to sigh: "...let him come in."
Then, Zhang Fengyi hurried in, his face extremely gloomy, and he knelt on the ground and said: "...Your Majesty, Governor Qiu Jiahe of Liaodong is reporting urgently..."
Emperor Chongzhen frowned when he saw this, hiding the tension and frustration in his heart, and said as calmly as possible: "...Ahem, you choose what's important."
But Zhang Fengyi hesitated for a moment, and then said in a solemn voice, "...Your Majesty, Jinzhou mutiny, Guan Ning's army mutinied and surrendered!"
"...Really? The generals of Liaoxi have really surrendered to the enemy? Alas, what a bunch of immature wolf cubs!"
After a long silence, Emperor Chongzhen closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He felt that he no longer had the energy to be angry. The annual Liao salary of five million taels was invested in it, but it only resulted in the successive defeats of Guan Ning's army. and rebellious, and now they have simply turned against each other en masse.
Were the first-class luxurious and elite soldiers in the world that I and the late emperor have been plundering for years to supply, were they originally raised for the purpose of building slaves?
But even if reality betrays him again and again, he still has to reluctantly open his eyes and continue to face this cold world.
"...Now that Jinzhou is owned by the enemy, has Qiu Jiahe, the governor of Liaodong, come up with any countermeasures?" Emperor Chongzhen asked, cheering up.
"...Your Majesty, Guan Ning's army had a very deep plot to defect to the enemy. The governor of Liaodong made a poor plan and did not have many available troops. They designed to seize Shanhaiguan! Qiu Jiahe just escaped alone." Zhang Fengyi said bitterly. He replied, "...Now that the vanguard of the Jiannu army has entered Yongping Mansion, it will only take three to five days to reach the capital. Qiu Jiahe, the guilty minister, felt that he had betrayed the divine grace and fled to Chang. After Li County issued this testament, he took medicine and committed suicide..." What Zhang Fengyi said next was not heard by Emperor Chongzhen - in despair, he only felt a pain in his heart, his vision went black, and he immediately spurted out With a mouthful of dirty blood, he fell to the sky, and then rolled down the Danqi amidst the exclamations of all the imprisoned maids...