Chongzhen's heart was a little relaxed, and a thought suddenly flashed: "This Wei Qinghui is so loyal, knows things well, and always worries about state affairs, which is rare in the palace. ”

Chongzhen's thoughts at this moment, the people of Wei Palace did not expect it, she just felt that the emperor's sadness was slightly lighter, and she must continue to persuade the emperor to go up for breakfast, so she continued to say softly.

"Emperor, today's Guanning elite soldiers are coming, and it takes the emperor's efforts even more, although the slave maid entered the palace at a young age and did not understand anything about external affairs, but the slave maid thought that when the Guanning soldiers arrived, there would be a fierce battle outside Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen. At that time, the emperor rode to the top of the city, and tens of thousands of soldiers in Guanning saw a yellow umbrella on the head of the city from afar, and the emperor sat in front of the yellow umbrella to watch the battle, and he would be thunderous with joy and courage. Emperor, you don't need to eat, you hurt the Holy Body, how can you go to the city?"

After listening to Wei Qinghui's words, Chongzhen's face showed a slight smile, and he nodded and said, "Okay, it's time to eat!"

Although the meal has been reduced as much as possible, the imperial dining room still has more than a dozen side dishes and snacks. Chongzhen only ate a small bowl of longan lotus seed porridge and a small sesame cake with minced meat, and suddenly thought that Wu Sangui's rescue might be another utopia, and today Li Zicheng will definitely attack the city fiercely, so he will no longer eat it, and immediately looked gloomy, threw himself up, and said to Wu Xiang: "At the moment of the hour, the imperial gate is early, and there must be no mistake." ”

Wei Qinghui and the imperial eunuchs were taken aback, and looked at Wu Xiang, Wu Xiang should have reminded the emperor that today was not a day of the ordinary dynasty, but when he saw that the emperor's square inch was in chaos, he didn't dare to speak, so he had to hurry up and prepare. Soon after, the bell on the noon gate rang, and after a while, Chongzhen rode to the court, and Wu Xiang and some eunuchs in the Ganqing Palace went with him.

Wei Qinghui knew the rules of the imperial court, and when he was not in the last court, only when there was a special event, he would ring the bell at noon gate and summon hundreds of civil and military officials to enter the palace. She was afraid that the palace would be suspicious, and after the emperor left, she quickly sent the palace maids to Kunning Palace, Yikun Palace, Ciqing Palace and other places, and told everyone that there was no urgent matter to ring the bell at the door at noon.

Then she went back to her boudoir, closed the door, and sat down to rest. The other palace maids didn't dare to alarm her because they knew that she had been overworked for days, only two rough palace maids pushed open her door and brought her breakfast. But she didn't want to eat anything, so she waved her hand silently and asked the two palace maids to take the breakfast away.

She thought that it was time for the emperor to arrive at the platform at this time, and that the bell had been rung in a hurry, and that there would never be a group of ministers going to court, and the emperor would not be angry? Wouldn't she be sad? She suddenly thought that she had an idea this morning to make up a lie about money divination to comfort the Sacred Heart in order to make the emperor eat. Although the matter she made up kneeling in front of the emperor's feet had passed, she blamed herself for deceiving the king in her conscience and sighed secretly. After a while, she figured it out again, if she didn't make up this lie of money divination to relieve the Sacred Heart, and the emperor didn't eat breakfast at all, could it be her loyalty to the emperor?

She immediately thought that in the palace, the big and small things that deliberately deceived the master's pleasure could be seen at any time. Tian Niangniang was the most favored when she was alive, precisely because she was smart and knew the emperor's thoughts, and she could make the emperor happy at any time. The palace people say that Yuan Niangniang is more honest, but is there less time for Yuan Niangniang to coax the emperor to be happy?

Thinking about it like this, she no longer felt guilty for making up nonsense, and suddenly decided, why not take advantage of the fact that it was okay at the moment, sincerely use money to divinate a hexagram, and ask the gods if Wu Sangui's rescuers could come, and what the good luck and evil of Beijing City were.

So she closed the door, poured warm water into the silver basin, washed her hands again, lit three incense sticks in front of the statue of Guanyin hanging on the north wall, and then took out a yellow silk bag from a carved red lacquered camphor wood box, and respectfully opened it, revealing the brocade box. After thinking for a while, I finally made up my mind, put the brocade box on the square table in front of the Guanyin statue, carefully asked for two coins, and placed them in front of the brocade box, so as not to make a sound.

She knelt on the mat, kowtowed three times sincerely, was silent for a moment, then flattened down, picked up the money, held it in the middle, shook it three times, but hesitated, and did not dare to pour the money out of her hand. She prayed silently to the statue of Guanyin again, as if she saw the white painted statue of the god from the famous painter of the former court, the incense and Gong Gong, fluttering slightly. She couldn't help but burst into tears, and prayed in a choked voice: "Please give the Bodhisattva an auspicious hexagram." ”

Two coins fell on the table, one of them leaning down on the table, clearly pointing upwards, and the other was still shaking. She whispered a plea: "Qian trowel down! down!"

However, this one was facing upwards again, and she almost wanted to cry, but as soon as she was bold, she immediately picked up the two coins, held them in her hands, prayed again, shook them three times again, and threw them on the table, and it turned out to be a black hexagram again. Wei Qinghui was so desperate that she didn't dare to say it for the third time. She looked up at Guanyin, although Guanyin was still holding the treasure bottle with a slender hand, and the willow branch was still holding a willow branch with a slender face, still looking down at the side with a demure expression, but the people of the Wei Palace suddenly saw that she was no longer smiling with kindness as before, but with a sad face.

Wei Qinghui suddenly thought of the emperor's martyrdom and her martyrdom after the city was broken, and couldn't help but be frightened, and shouted sadly in her heart: "The Guanyin of the South China Sea who saves the suffering." ”

The previous generations of emperors in Chongzhen rarely listened to the government, and even rarely met with the ministers. After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he tried his best to correct the accumulation of shortcomings that led to the sluggishness of the emperor since the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

It was only after Li Zicheng's army passed through the Xuanfu that he was a military emergency, and many problems needed to be dealt with by him at any time, and he also needed to summon a few courtiers to discuss secretly at any time, so he stopped the method of going to the court every morning and changed it to listen to the government at the royal gate every 369. Today is not the 369th day, and suddenly decided to go to the court, and there was no message the day before, how could the ministers come?

When Chongzhen left the Ganqing Palace not far away, when he arrived at the Jianji Palace, he suddenly thought that he was wrong, he regretted that he had messed up, and sighed in his heart: "Is this also the image of the death of the country?"

But the bell on the noon gate had already sounded for a while, and it was too late to cancel the court. He thought about it, at a time like this, even if he only saw a few courtiers on the platform, it would be good, maybe someone would come up with an emergency solution, if Wu Sangui's rescue soldiers didn't arrive today, and the thieves broke the city, this would be the last time he would listen to the government.

There was a burst of sadness that made him almost cry. But the whip had sounded on the platform's pier, and he was also on the inside of the right rear door.

In the ordinary court, although there is no halogen book, and there is no music, but there are Honglu Temple officials and the imperial history responsible for correcting the court rituals in Danqi, and there are a large number of brocade wrestlers standing and waiting next to Danqi. As for the thirteen imperial histories and the six branches, they are all close ministers of the Son of Heaven, called Yanguan, and they must come in advance.

Today, Chongzhen suddenly decided to go to court, although the bell on the noon gate rang for a while, most of the officials scattered in the east and west cities and the north city did not hear it, and the few who heard the bell could not arrive. Although the Jinyi Guard's Yamen was relatively close, Wu Mengming, the Jinyi Guard's envoy, was secretly discussing their own future affairs in Cao Huachun's mansion under the pretext of guarding the Dongzhi Gate.

In the past seventeen years, Chongzhen has never been so abnormal as this court, deserted, only a few eunuchs waiting, and kneeling on the platform to pick up only two ministers, one is the left neighbor of the Imperial Court Li Banghua, and the other is Wang Jiayan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War. Li Banghua is 71 years old this year, with a white beard like silver floating on his chest, and Wang Jiayan is 57 years old this year.

Chongzhen saw that there were only two old ministers kneeling a few feet away from the imperial case, in addition to these two old ministers, there were only a dozen ministers who came from the Ganqing Palace to wait, and the palace seemed empty, and he unconsciously shed tears. In the past, there is no need to mention the lively and solemn scene of holding a grand court meeting, as far as the usual court is concerned, there are generally one or two hundred people, step by step, kneeling in front of a large area.

He didn't consider that today was a temporary bell ringing to go to the court, so there were not many courtiers coming, he only thought about the comparison with the situation of the regular court in the past, and sighed sadly in his heart and said: "Alas, the elephant of the country. ”

He couldn't stand this unseemly phenomenon, and suddenly ordered to retreat from the court, which surprised the eunuchs on the left and right and the two ministers kneeling in front of him. Everyone's thoughts have not yet turned a corner, Chongzhen has already stood up and walked back, but as soon as he got on the chariot, he regretted that he should not suddenly retreat back to the palace, and his mind was so flustered. He thought that Wang Jiayan was a servant of Rong Zheng, and he was responsible for guarding the city, and now that he was rushing to the court, there must be something urgent.

He should have asked face to face on the platform about the situation of guarding the Ming City, but because he couldn't bear to see the image of the country falling in the last dynasty, he retreated from the dynasty without asking anything. He also thought that Li Banghua, who had a beard like silver, was an old minister of the Four Dynasties, who was knowledgeable, ethical, and upright all his life, and was highly regarded by the courtiers of the court; then he thought that on the fourth day of the first month of this month, Li Banghua and Fan Jingwen, a scholar of the Ministry of Industry and a scholar of Donggong University, suggested that the crown prince be escorted to Nanjing.

This was a very good suggestion, but because there was a speech official at that time who opposed it, he couldn't make up his mind for a while, this plan was not adopted, hateful, and other courtiers suggested that he move to Nanjing, but he did not take it, and he regretted it to this day. These two controversies are now appearing in his mind like lightning, is there any new suggestion that Li Banghua can't make today?

"Summoned Li Banghua and Wang Jiayan to Ganqingmen to wait for the call. Chongzhen gave Wu Xiang an order, with a choked voice in his voice.

Chongzhen returned to the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Ganqing Palace and sat down, waiting for Li Banghua and Wang Jiayan to come, he said hatefully in his heart: "In the past, big and small courtiers, this request is right, that request is right, why since Beijing was besieged, the country is about to die, but no one asks for a call? In the past, not only did many documents be sent from all over the country every day, but also the big and small courtiers in the capital also had many copies of the book every day, but in the past three days, there was not a single book, and no one offered a plan or proposal to save this dangerous situation, hateful! hateful!"

As soon as she thought of this, Wei Qinghui gently lifted the curtain and came in, and brought a cup of fragrant tea with the carved lacquer dragon and phoenix tray made by the orchard factory in the Yongle period. She knelt in front of Chongzhen: "Please ask the emperor to use tea." ”

Chongzhen was waiting for Li Banghua and Wang Jiayan to arrive, and at the same time wondered why Wang Chengen, the confidant eunuch of the Admiral Jingying, was nowhere to be seen, his mind was in turmoil, and he suddenly asked Wei Qinghui, "What is the news in the city?"

Wei Qinghui replied: "I don't know anything about the affairs outside the palace, please use tea while it's hot." ”

Chongzhen suddenly sobered up, only to notice that it was the Wei palace people kneeling in front of him, he ordered the Wei palace people to put the teacup on the coffee table next to the throne, and ordered her to retreat. At this time, he suddenly saw a square lacquer box on the imperial case, with four imitation books of the East Palace in golden characters on them. He asked the people of the Wei Palace, "Has the prince's imitation book been sent again?"

The Wei palace man replied: "Yes, the emperor, just now a palace man from Zhong Cui Palace sent the prince's imitation books in the past few days. The slave told her that the emperor was afraid that he would not have time to judge the imitation for the prince, and asked her to take it back, and when the situation calmed down, it would not be too late to send the imitation book. She said that this was the rule set by the emperor, and handed over the box of wounded books to the slave maid and left. ”

"Well, when has this been the case, and you are still talking about such an unhurried thing?"

As soon as Chongzhen's words were finished, Wu Xiang came in and bowed down: "Li Banghua and Wang Jiayan have come to Ganqingmen, waiting for the order to summon them. ”

Chongzhen said, "Tell them to come in quickly!"

Wu Xiang respectfully withdrew, and Wei Qinghui quickly withdrew. Immediately, there was a sharp voice on the dan pier in the main hall: "Li Banghua, the imperial history of the left capital, and Wang Jiayan, the assistant director of Rongzheng, quickly enter the Dongnuan Pavilion and summon each other." ”

After a while, a eunuch lifted the curtain, Li Banghua in front and Wang Jiayan in the back, entered the Liwen Nuan Pavilion and kowtowed in front of Chongzhen. Chongzhen asked, "Wang Jiayan, how is the city guarding, and what is the movement of the rebels?"

Wang Jiayan played: "Your Majesty, the troops in the city are thin, and the hearts of the people have been dispersed. The day before yesterday, the three battalions defending outside Shahe and Tucheng Pass were immediately defeated by the enemy, and some of them surrendered to the enemy, but now most of the troops attacking the city outside Xizhimen and Fuchengmen are the surrendered troops of the three battalions, and the real thieves are resting in the rear. The three battalions of troops kept talking to the soldiers and civilians defending the city, saying how strong the rebel army was, and that there were 200,000 elite soldiers surrounding Beijing, who could break the city at any time, and advised the people in the city to understand the current affairs, open the door and surrender as soon as possible, so as to avoid being slaughtered. When the people of the city heard their words, their hearts were further dissolved. ”

"Why isn't it strictly forbidden to speak in the city and under the city?"

Wang Jiayan said bitterly: "Your Majesty, since the traitors came to the city, the hearts of the people in the city have collapsed, what else do you say about the order and prohibition? Weichen, as a squire of the military department and assistant minister of Rongzheng, guarded the Anding Gate, and from 16 June to yesterday morning, he was unable to go to the city to inspect the city, and he was stopped by the ministers guarding the city several times; Zhang Jinyan was the secretary of the military department and an important minister of the imperial court, and he was unable to visit the city to inspect on the day of the siege of the great enemy. ”

Wang Jiayan couldn't go on, and he couldn't cry on the ground. Li Banghua also cried silently, regretting that he had a reputation for being upright and daring to speak out in his life, but he did not dare to have a firm advocacy for the proposal of moving south, so there was today's disaster. Chongzhen couldn't help but cry when he saw the two ministers crying, and said hatefully: "The ministers were originally the domestic slaves of the royal family, but they didn't expect to be so childish about guarding the city?"

Wang Jiayan continued: "The ministers couldn't go to the city several times, so they had to go back to the Rong government to hug their heads and cry. The officials of the Rong government thought that this was a sign of the death of the country, and when they saw the ministers crying, everyone also cried. In the afternoon of the day before yesterday, the minister went to the yamen of the Ministry of War to discuss with Zhang Jinyan, and Zhang Jinyan was also at a loss. After we discussed, Zhang Jinyan made the situation clear and urgently stated. Fortunately, His Majesty immediately made a move: Zhang Jinyan went to the city to inspect, and the ministers must not obstruct it. From the afternoon of the 16th, after Shen Shi, the soldiers were first to ascend the city, and Weichen also accompanied Zhang Jinyan to the city. The situation is like this, the minister is worried about the society, and by His Majesty's favor, he ordered the minister to assist in the government, and the minister was ordered to repay His Majesty with a death, even though he was determined to repay His Majesty with a death, but he hated death and did not hide his guilt. After saying that, he cried again.