Chongzhen hesitated for a moment, and said in his heart: "It's all thinking that I should set myself on fire, alas, only Wei Qinghui knows about my nightmare. ”

He didn't answer Wu Xiang's words, and said to Wang Chengen: "Let's go!"

Chongzhen's Imperial Horse Jiliang has already been led outside the Ganqing Gate and waiting. A small eunuch brought a vermilion lacquer stool. Chongzhen got on the Qibao golden carving saddle, and a long eunuch led the horse for him, bypassed the three major halls, and passed the Huangji Gate, and stopped the horse on the south side of the Jinshui River in the inner Jinshui River, and stopped for a while.

He looked back for a while, thinking that the majestic palaces and carved balustrades left by his ancestors were only found in the sky, and in the blink of an eye they would no longer be his, and his heart suddenly felt tingling, and tears burst out of his eyes. Do you want to set it on fire? His heart hesitated, and he could not bear such cruelty, so he immediately turned his horse's head and continued to move on.

Chongzhen was only followed by Wang Chengen, a eunuch leading the horse, and he had never walked so far at night in his seventeen years of emperor's career. He walked out of the noon gate alone, walked through the empty and dark courtyards on both sides, walked out of the end gate, and came to the courtyard that was about the same. The difference between this one and the courtyard is that although there are also east and west rows of houses between the end gate and the Chengtian gate, they are broken in the middle, and two gates are built, the east leads to the Taimiao, and the west leads to Sheji.

Chongzhen couldn't help but look left and right on the horse, thinking that he had worked hard to run the world for 17 years, and he had never neglected political affairs.

He rolled out tears again, and cried out in his heart: "Heaven!

Chongzhen was full of sorrow, rode out of Chengtianmen, crossed the Jinshui Bridge, paused for a moment, and looked around with tears in his eyes. Three or four hundred ministers led their horses and waited for orders. Wang Chengen understood that Chongzhen's mind was in turmoil, and he had nowhere to go when he left the palace, so he boldly asked him: "Your Majesty, where are you going?"

Chongzhen sighed and said, "Go to Zhengyang Gate." ”

Wang Chengen was taken aback, and hurriedly admonished: "Emperor, the Zhengyang Gate must not be opened, and the holy car must not go out of the city." ”

"I don't want to go out of the city. As the lord of a country, I only want to know how the thieves enter the outer city, how to set fires, and how to kill my people. You go up to the city with me!"

Wang Chengen ordered three or four hundred eunuchs to immediately get on their horses, escort them from front to back, left and right, and huddled Chongzhen through the thousand-step corridor, walked out of Daming Gate, and came to Qipan Street. In front of it is the closed Zhengyang Gate, and outside the city is the enemy, where to go? Wang Chengen looked at the emperor and waited for orders. At this moment, the eunuchs guarding the city saw in the dim night that the lanterns on the chessboard street were scattered and crowded, and they thought that something had happened in the palace, and they were greatly alarmed, and asked what was the matter. After answering from below, the city could not hear clearly.

One of the eunuchs guarding the city shouted nervously: "Release the arrows! Release the arrows! Hurry up and release the arrows! There is a change in the imperial city, hurry up and release the arrows!"

Someone else shouted: "Hurry up and put your guns on!"

On the chessboard street, someone shouted to the city: "No arrows! No cannons! It's the Admiral King here, not anyone else!"

The people in the city asked, "What, what, who?"

Wang Chengen stepped forward, looked up at the city, and said in a majestic voice: "It's me! It's the Holy Driver coming, don't panic!"

As soon as the city heard that it was the Holy Driver coming, there was silence. No one dared to look down, no one dared to make a sound anymore, only the sparse sound of a sparse chirp from afar. In the dim night of the city, three white lanterns were seen hanging from a high pole, indicating that the military situation had reached a moment of great urgency.

For a day, Chongzhen's mental state was panicked and confused for a while, and he looked at death for a while, just now he left the palace and the Forbidden City, and was blown by the cold wind in the middle of the night, and his mind was already much clearer. At this moment, he was immediately on the chessboard street, because the city was going to shoot arrows downward, and his heart was suddenly shocked, and his mind was even calmer.

After a pause, he came to his senses and asked himself, "Why did I come here when people were so suspicious?"

He understood that he had intended to go up to the top of the city and take a look at the outer city. But he suddenly understood that at this time, the inner city was about to be defended, his life was no longer guaranteed, and the society was not guaranteed, and he went to the city to see the thieves killing people and setting fire to the outer city, which was to no avail.

"Alas!" he sighed in his heart, "how many urgent matters are waiting to be dealt with by me at the moment, and I can't delay for a moment to return to the palace...... , hurry back to the palace. ”

At this time, three or four hundred people crowded on the chessboard street, and it was very chaotic. Wang Chengen knew that the emperor was in a hurry to return to the palace, so he came to him and said, "Please come with the slaves and maids and bypass from the east, without further ado." ”

Chongzhen immediately followed Wang Chengen, surrounded by eunuchs, from Qipan Street to the east and returned to the palace via Baijia Lane. The south entrance of Baijia Lane is connected to the west entrance of Dongjiang Mi Hutong, and there is a fence. When he entered the fence, he suddenly stopped his horse and looked back sadly at the head of Zhengyang Gate, only to see three white lanterns hanging above the city. In fact, these three white lanterns had already been hung on a high pole, but Chongzhen and the eunuchs around him were crowded on the chessboard street just now, and they were standing at the wrong angle, so they didn't see it, and now they can see it clearly.

Originally, it was stipulated in advance that when the thieves attacked the outer city urgently, they would hang out a white lantern, and when they began to attack the outer city, they hung up two white lanterns; a large number of men and horses had already entered the outer city, and when they arrived at the street outside the front gate, they approached the urn city, and immediately hung out three white lanterns.

Now Chongzhen saw the three white lanterns, and suddenly collapsed on the saddle, and cold sweat broke out all over his body. He quickly tightened his grip on the saddle with his trembling left hand, and the three-eyed gun fell from his right hand to the ground. The eunuch who led the horse for him bent down and picked up the three-eyed gun from the ground, and presented it to him with both hands, but he shook his head and asked for it no more.

Out of Baijia Lane, come to the street of East Chang'an Street, go west you can walk into the left gate of Chang'an, enter Chengtianmen to return to the palace, turn east to north, you can go to Chaoyang Gate. Wang Chengen asked him, "Where else does Your Majesty want to go?"

Chongzhen's mind was even more confused, thinking only about when the enemy would attack the inner city, how he should be martyred, how the palace dependents should deal with it, and how the crown prince and the second king would escape? In his confusion, he was still fantasizing that Wu Sangui's rescuers would suddenly come from the east, so he replied casually: "Go to Chaoyangmen!"

After walking a distance in the direction of Chaoyangmen, a very spectacular first house appeared on the north side of the road ahead, and Chongzhen asked, "Where is this?"

A eunuch replied, "Emperor Qiyu, this is the Chengguo Mansion." ”

Chongzhen said: "Call Cheng Guogong out!"

Three or four hundred people stopped between the east and west stone arches in front of the gate of the Chengguo Mansion, and a eunuch dismounted and went to call the gate of the Chengguo Mansion.

The eunuch replied: "It is the commander of the capital camp who ordered the commander, and the master of ceremonies, Master Wang, has something to visit the prince." ”

The voice in the door: "Grandpa Guo has not returned to the banquet in the mansion of Marquis Li in Goldfish Hutong, please come another day!"

The eunuch who called the door came back and said to Wang Chengen: "Master Nei, no one will set up a banquet tonight, Zhu Guogong must be in the house." It's just that the people in Zhu Mansion are afraid that you are here to donate military salaries, so they refuse under the pretext. I told him it was the Holy Driver, okay?"

Chongzhen whispered: "It's useless to see him, go back to the palace!"

On the way to Chengtianmen, Chongzhen said sadly to Wang Chengen: "Since Zhu Yong became the prince of the country, it has been hereditary for more than 230 years, and he shares weal and woe with the country, and tonight he even refuses to see the eunuch Bingbi next to me, which is really hateful!"

When he was about to walk to the left gate of Chang'an, Chongzhen was completely sober after this period of tossing about himself. Now that it has been the third watch, he needs to deal with the major affairs in the palace and prepare to die as soon as possible.

He temporarily stopped in the heart of East Chang'an Street and told Wang Chengen that the ministers did not have to enter the palace and went home. When these three or four hundred young eunuchs left one after another, only Wang Chengen, the eunuch of Bingbi, was left by Chongzhen's side, and there was another eunuch from the Ganqing Palace who led the horse for him, and one was Wang Chengen's personal eunuch. In the silent ten-mile long street, there were suddenly only the four lonely monarchs and ministers left, which made Chongzhen tremble.

The place where he temporarily immediately arrived was Zuo Gongshengmen in the south, and the Taimiao Temple was separated by the red wall in the north. He looked southwest at the front gate, where three white lanterns fluttered slightly in the cold wind. He looked again at the red wall, the tall pines and cypresses in the courtyard of the Taimiao, and occasionally the white cranes perched on the trees were suddenly awakened from their dreams by the sound of cannons, and whispered a few times with sleepiness.

Chongzhen said to Wang Chengen: "I want to go back to the palace, you should also go home." ”

Wang Chengen said: "The slave and maid have said goodbye to their mother yesterday, Your Majesty was martyred, the slave and the maid were martyred, and the righteousness is right, and the slave and maid will never be born in the world." ”

Chongzhen often thinks about one thing angrily today: in ancient times, when the emperor was martyred, there were often many ministers who died, but when he was in the country, there was no loyal minister who came into the palace to die with him. He usually knew that Wang Chengen was very loyal, and listening to Wang Chengen's words at this time moved his heart. He looked at Wang Chengen fixedly, suppressed the surging feelings in his heart, still did not lose his status as an emperor, nodded and said: "Very good, after all, I don't forget the grace of my cultivation, and I am much better than many Wenchen who were born in school." ”

Wang Chengen followed the ancestral system that no one in the Forbidden City could ride a horse except the emperor, and when he arrived at the dismounted monument outside the left gate of Chang'an, he quickly dismounted, handed over the horse to the eunuch who accompanied him, and he followed Chongzhen's horse into the palace on foot. He couldn't guess and didn't dare to ask, whether the emperor was going to set himself on fire in the Ganqing Palace or hang himself. When he walked into the east corner gate of the Huangji Gate, he saw that the Huangji Hall was in front of him, and bypassing the three major halls was the Ganqing Palace.

Wang Chengen timidly asked: "Emperor, there is not much time, do you want to order the ministers to hurry up and move dry firewood to the three major halls and the Ganqing Palace?"

Chongzhen was shocked again, stopped Ji Liangcheng, looked back at Wang Chengen, and then made up his mind again, and replied: "I have a proposition since yesterday, so I don't need to ask more!"

Wang Chengen didn't dare to ask again, but he was very anxious in his heart, afraid that once the thieves entered the inner city, it would be too late for the emperor to commit suicide calmly. He had already seen that Wang Dehua and Cao Huachun had changed their minds and had a secret discussion with Du Xun. When the appointed time comes, the nine gates of the inner city will be opened at the same time and the thieves will be put in. Not only was he worried that the emperor would not have time to die calmly, but there were also queens, imperial concubines, princes, two kings of Yongding, princesses, and many palace dependents in the palace......

"The emperor, please don't worry, the slave has a plan to keep the emperor safe. ”

Chongzhen looked at it, it turned out to be a eunuch named Zhang Yin, who was a small promise in the Ganqing Palace, usually very honest, doing some rough work, and never dared to speak in front of him. He felt strange: What is the trick of this honest slave? So he lowered his head and asked, "Zhang Yin, don't be afraid, what is your trick?"

Zhang Yin replied: "Emperor, if the thieves enter the inner city, just surrender and it will be fine." ”

Chongzhen's eyes widened, and he kicked Zhang Yin hard, kicking him to sit on his back on the ground, and then pulled out his sword, slashed down diagonally, and killed Zhang Yin. This is the first time in Chongzhen's life that he killed someone with his own hands, and after the killing, his anger was still not gone, and he trembled. The eunuchs and palace maids saw the emperor killing people in the palace for the first time, and they all fell to the ground in horror. Seeing that the emperor was still angry, and walked down the Danqi with heavy steps, Wu Xiang hurriedly caught up, knelt in front of him and asked, "Where is the emperor going?"

"Kunning Palace!"

When everyone heard that the emperor was going to Kunning Palace, they were all shocked, knowing that the tragedy in the palace was about to begin. Wu Xiang hurriedly ordered a eunuch to rush to Kunning Palace, and Empress Qiyu was ready to take over, and at the same time took two palace lanterns, and followed the emperor out of the Rijing Gate and walked north from Dongchang Street. Wei Qinghui also hurriedly pulled a palace maid, lit two palace lanterns, and went out from the back corner door of the Ganqing Palace to catch up with the emperor.

Zhou Hou was crying, and when he heard that the emperor had arrived, he hurried to the courtyard to pick him up. Chongzhen thought all the way, to summon some of the officials to Kunning Palace, and ordered them to commit suicide, if there were those who refused to commit suicide immediately, he would kill them with a sword, and never leave them to thieves and lose the royal system.

Because he was thinking that he was going to kill the palace family with his sword in person, he did not enter the main hall of Kunning Palace, and hurriedly walked into the side hall in the east. The queen followed him closely. The eunuchs and palace maids who knelt in the courtyard to take over all stood up and stood around the gate of the side hall to wait, trembling and resting.

Chongzhen sat down on the dragon chair in the middle of the side hall, ordered the queen to sit down quickly, and said to the queen: "The general trend is gone, and the country is dying in front of you." You are the mother of the world, and you should die. ”

Zhou Hou was already prepared for death in his heart. The emperor's words did not surprise her. She didn't speak, just nodded her head in understanding. The palace maids of Kunning Palace knew that the queen was about to commit suicide, so they all knelt on the ground and cried. The eunuchs standing outside the hall cried because of the palace maids, some wept, and some whimpered.

In the past three days, because Zhou Hou knew that the country was going to die, he had a hatred in his heart that he could not say to anyone, and now it suddenly appeared in his heart again.