After a period of chaos, the situation in Beijing has generally stabilized, at least on the surface, the shops have resumed business, but everyone knows that war is imminent, the price of grain here has soared, a stone of white rice was sold for two taels of silver, and all kinds of daily necessities such as cloth, oil, salt, etc. have also risen, and for a time Beijing is full of mourning and people's livelihood is withering. This gave Lin Feng and others a big headache, and they had to spare their energy to deal with this economic crisis caused by panic while preparing for war.

Although the Jiangnan Cao Yun has been cut off, but the situation is not as bad as imagined, there are many wealthy families in Beijing, most of them have enough food, and Lin Feng also has a few large granaries left by Kangxi, in a short period of time Beijing is not short of food, in fact, the current crisis is only people panic themselves, so that those grain merchants have added fuel to the fire and exploited the loopholes.

The Han army behaved very tough in this crisis, it can be said to be described as iron-blooded, in fact, Lin Feng and his subordinates were also quite angry about this, and they were about to go into battle, these black-hearted businessmen were still dragging their feet, they were simply impatient, Lin Feng wondered in his heart, did these people think that their heads would be tougher than machetes? Since you don't let us have a good time, then don't think about it, after a period of deliberation, Li Guangdi and Chen Menglei respectively co-opted some wavering factions among the merchants, and then began martial law in the whole city, and a large number of troops immediately rushed into various rice shops to arrest the whole family of these guys. After some intimidation and threats, the price of rice slowly subsided with the efforts of the merchants, and at the same time, under the overall planning of Li Guangdi, the grain from the Tongzhou granary was also transported into the city in batches in a planned manner, which stabilized people's hearts to a certain extent.

It is worth mentioning here that the 10,000 recruits who had enlisted in Beijing had tasted the sweetness of this crisis, and at Lin Feng's insistence, the military government presided over by Li Guangdi provided a batch of food and silver subsidies to the military dependents free of charge.

In fact, although the Han army did not have any major military operations during this time, it was not that nothing was done, the army was training desperately at the same time, but also pulled out to fight a few small battles, the target was more than a dozen county towns under the jurisdiction of Shuntianfu, this process is similar to fighting Fengtai camp and opening up the state, strictly speaking, it is not a battle, because most of the officials in these counties have already fled, and the rest of them are not loyal ministers, although Zhao Guangyuan's thousands of cavalry are not very well trained, but it is really scary to run with a bang, When the team was lined up and dragged out of the cannon and bombarded twice, these county towns also fell immediately and naturally. After that, the range of activities of the Han cavalry gradually expanded, facing Shanhaiguan in the north, and advancing on Tianjin Wei in the south.

Chen Menglei has shown great talent in intelligence and propaganda at these times, in Lin Feng's opinion, this guy is indeed very potential, if you train and exercise it well to become a Goebbels-type figure, it is not impossible to become a Goebbels-type character, under the guidance of Lin Feng personally, Chen Menglei quickly understood the main points of the work, during this time he used the opportunity of the last big publicity to organize a very practical team, some of the troupe, cross talk actors and other artists as the main force of the team is active in all corners of the capital, Expanding the influence of the Han army in various ways that the masses liked to see, several small-scale battles against the county town turned into huge victories under his exaggerated propaganda, helping Lin Feng to quickly stabilize the political situation in Beijing.

When the news of the fall of the capital and the martyrdom of the Kangxi Emperor spread, the rule of the Qing court immediately entered a chaotic state of disorder. The feudal officials of the northern provinces did not believe the news at first, but when this rumor was confirmed again and again, they and the bureaucracy they led had a large-scale panic, and the political life of many provinces up and down was chaotic in a short period of time, and the officials were at a loss for this. After the gathering, who would take the lead in power became the focus of debate in the northern bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy of the Qing court is quite interesting, the superiority of the Manchu people of the Eight Banners is naturally placed in the first place, most of the important positions are played by the Manchus, and the establishment of two leaders at individual complex points, one is called the Manchu people, the other is called the Han people, and the other middle and lower-level officials are Han officials as the main force, in the case of the emperor and the central court, this model seems to be working quite well, but now once the authority of the central government is lost, there are problems with the cooperation in many aspects, at this time the heads of several provinces in the north are Han people, In this extraordinary period, the officials of the Eight Banners suddenly germinated the idea that their hearts must be different from those of our race overnight, so there were many different opinions on the response measures and work attitudes, and some small disputes arose one after another, although everyone was colleagues and the civil and military division of labor was different, but now when it comes to who is the boss, naturally everyone will not give in, the officers of the Eight Banners feel that they have the qualifications of leaders, but the governors and civil officials of the Han nationality also feel that the imperial court is now in crisis. Everyone is a minister, then there should be no distinction between you and me, and we should sit on an equal footing.

In addition to the internal disputes in the provinces, there seems to be some embarrassment between the provinces and the provinces, because since the rebellion of the three feudatories, the garrisons in the north have been withdrawn, if they will attack the Beijing division to exterminate the rebels, the strength of one province and one place is naturally not enough, but at this time, everyone is a big party, no one can order anyone, seeing that the rebels are free in the Beijing division but can only do it in a hurry, so the post stations are as fast as clouds, and the official documents on the official roads of the provinces are flying wildly.

Other places are a little better, at least the rebels are still far away from them, but the governor of Zhili, Tong Xuan, is so anxious that his mouth is full of bubbles, his line is stationed in Baoding, and the impact is the most serious, the cavalry of the rebels in Beijing can be said to be coming from day to night, but at this time he has very few mobile troops at hand, the governor's battalion, including the garrison of the Eight Banners and the green battalion army, is less than 3,000 people, and most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, in addition to the shortage of food and salary, there are no troops in other counties in the jurisdiction, and most of them only have more than 100 people in the security and flood battalions, Even if it is drawn out, I am afraid it will not work, the only thing that can be counted on is the more than 3,000 people and horses of Tianjin Wei, but it seems that there is more crisis than himself, and the documents for help have been sent no less than hundreds, and he is really embarrassed to transfer them over to defend Xingyuan, the current situation is unclear, Tianjin is an important town in the Central Plains, and no one can say anything about fleeing without a fight, if he gives up lightly this time, the imperial army will fight back in the future, I am afraid that the first one will cut off his head.

Tong Outline has no intention of escaping, although he is not very bold, but in the end he is also Kangxi's uncle, as a relative of the emperor, he naturally has a high consciousness, and he has to stand up in the face of such a crisis, he hesitates and worries day after day, constantly issuing various documents for help, and rushes to Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, and even Shaanxi and the southern front line one after another.

When the southern army received the news, the capital had fallen for more than half a month, and the emperor's martyrdom came at the same time as the bad news that the whole family of the princes of the army was killed, Prince An Yue Le and Prince Jian Rabu fainted on the spot because of their age, and Prince Kang Jieshu was a little better, although he was very sad but also survived, after which the six armies were su, mourning for the first emperor.

The military crisis came at the same time, Geng Jingzhong in the south originally made up his mind to surrender, but as soon as he heard the news, he immediately announced the cessation of negotiations, and ordered the Geng army in Fujian to reinvigorate the defensive line, Shang Zhixin immediately rebelled again, and killed the surveillance officials sent by the Qing court, and Wu Sangui was even more overjoyed, during this time the Qing army's offensive intensified, he suffered several big losses on the battlefield in Jiangxi and Shaanxi, seeing that the situation was becoming more and more crisis, but suddenly came such a good news, and immediately called the strategist general to celebrate, Discuss the next step of the march.

The most unfortunate is the Dongting Sailor who has just surrendered, originally they abandoned Wu Sangui and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in accordance with the mandate of heaven, but this time it became a little embarrassing, after receiving the news of Kangxi's death and the fall of the capital, this strong inland river army immediately had internal strife and mutiny, and the whole army was dispersed overnight, and the Qing army marched to the south of the Yangtze River on the water, and suddenly yesterday's yellow flower, the original battlefield advantage completely disappeared.

But at this time, the Qing army did not have time to lament the navy, the so-called "country cannot be without a king for a day", this question of who will inherit the emperor's throne was naturally immediately put on the agenda.

The emperor is a special thing, although it is very important, but the requirements for the position are relatively simple, mainly focusing on two aspects: first, he must be a member of the royal family, and the closer to the direct bloodline, the better; Second, have a healthy and lively **. It can be said that as long as the above two requirements are met, it is theoretically possible to become an emperor. And now the situation seems to be relatively simple, because Lin Feng slashed and slaughtered in Beijing, and the men of the Aixin Jueluo family who stayed in the north had no more to live, and there were only three people left who were qualified to win the throne, namely Prince Kang Jieshu, Prince An Yue Le and Prince Jian Rabu.

It is conceivable that with the feelings of the three princes for the Qing Dynasty, naturally no one will give up this opportunity to turn the tide, although Prince An Yue Le and Prince Jian Rabu are a little older, but in the end, they are military generals, and their bodies are still really tough, and it is no problem to consciously contribute to the Qing Dynasty for decades, and more importantly, they can't give up if they want to, this time they brought a lot of children and nephews with them when they went on the expedition, and the young people were ambitious and strong, and they were all very thoughtful, so whether it was for themselves or for future generations, they had to take a chance.

Prince Kang Jieshu didn't have any ideas, he was the iron hat king of the Daishan line, from the family tradition, he has always been outside the political dispute, and he is not very interested in the position of the emperor, but now the situation is very different from the past, seeing that these two old guys are about to enter the ground, but they are still ready to move, and they can't help but feel angry in their hearts - they are all descendants of the Aixin Jueluo family and the descendants of Nurhachi, you two old guys want to go further, so why can't I be young and strong? What's more, he is sitting in Xianxialing at the moment, with an army of 140,000 horses, and the full support of Li Zhifang, the governor of Zhejiang, and his strength is not necessarily worse than them.

After some negotiations, the three princes all felt each other's toughness, but at this time no one had the idea of giving in, because everyone understood that now is the most critical moment, and making a small step at this time is a big step tomorrow, and the political struggle is the most dangerous, and there is absolutely no room for any retreat. In such a situation, the war situation in the south fell into an extremely delicate state, the Qing army occupied the battlefield advantage, but the three commanders instead contracted the main force to consolidate the front, trying to preserve their strength, and at the same time sent cronies and advisers to the northern provinces, carrying a large number of gifts and various orders, seeking the approval of the feudal officials.

At this time, the local officials in the north were still constantly prevaricating, and suddenly received three orders with different names at the same time, at this time everyone found that there was a problem that seemed to be more serious than the rebels in Beijing, the so-called once a son of heaven and a courtier, although the death of Emperor Kangxi was very sad, but how to support the new master is obviously more important - in the Chinese officialdom tradition, it doesn't matter if you do the wrong thing, but if you stand on the wrong team, you can't forgive, and if you choose the wrong thing in this regard, it can be said that you will never turn over, Therefore, while paying attention to the activities of the rebels, they also began to devote most of their energy to figuring out the current political situation -- judging from the reconnaissance of the previous incident, the rebels in Beijing were no more than 20,000 rabble, and they could not threaten their fundamental interests for the time being.

During this period of time, the war-torn land of China miraculously calmed down, Wu Sangui was busy consolidating the occupied areas of Hunan, Guangxi, and Sichuan provinces, Geng Jingzhong and Shang Zhixin of Guangdong and Fujian also sat and watched, and even Zheng Jing of Taiwan stopped the mainland offensive. At present, the general trend of the world is unknown, and no one is sure to dominate the fate of China.

Zhou Peigong's prophecy seemed to be slowly coming true, and the so-called heroic times, the little people may not be able to shake the world.