Tianjin Wei, on the east bank of the Lu River, over a town called Zhangjiabao, the military flag of the king with black characters on a red background was already fluttering in the wind at dawn on March 24.

It was a once-thriving town, surrounded by tall rammed-earth walls with seven or eight streets and alleys crisscrossing the walls. The houses along the street have opened up shops, which is the pattern of the front shop and the back house. Looking at the size of these shops, you can see how prosperous the town once was. But now the prosperity is long gone, and most of the shops have been closed for several years. Merchants who used to trade here either left for the country or moved to Wang Qingtuo on the west bank of the Lu River.

However, the oldest big family in Zhangjiapu Town, the Zhang Baihu family, who settled here with the Ming army in the north as early as the Hongwu period, still lives in this town that is about to be deserted.

In fact, Zhangjiabao was originally a hundred-household office, and the position of one hundred households was hereditary by Zhang Baihu for generations. It's been 15 generations now!

Now the military household system has long existed in name only, but there are still many hundreds of households and thousands of ancestors who have become local tyrants on hereditary territory. Zhang Baihu is such a local tyrant! In the early years, when the world was peaceful, their family prospered for many years because of the geographical advantage along the canal. There are also a lot of people and talents in the family, which can be regarded as the door of a few scholars and doctors in Tianjin.

By the way, the military households and scholars in the Ming Dynasty were not two completely opposite classes. There is no concept that scholars bully military households or that military households are inferior to civilian households. Although military households have more restrictions than private households when participating in the imperial examination, the proportion of military jinshi in the total number of jinshi in the Ming Dynasty is as high as 30% on average! The military household population of the Ming Dynasty accounted for far less than 30% of the total population, how could there be so many military households!

Therefore, the middle and high-level military households and scholars are simply a group of people, and there is no such thing as a military jinshi or a civilian jinshi.

In addition to these 30 percent of the military scholars, middle- and upper-class military households also monopolized the military positions of the Ming Dynasty for a long time. It can be said that both civil and military are all-encompassing, and both hereditary and imperial examinations are taken into account. They are the biggest beneficiaries of the Ming rule...... It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the backbone of the support for the great tomorrow.

Of course, it is the middle and upper class military households who have a good life, and the bottom must be bitter...... However, in any era, the poor people at the bottom are usually miserable. The loss of combat effectiveness of middle- and upper-class military households due to various reasons is the most fundamental reason for the collapse of the Great Tomorrow.

If these hundreds of thousands of military households still have the combat effectiveness of their ancestors during the Hongwu period, where are there any rogues and what are the eastern captives? It's been chopped into mashed meat a long time ago!

Of course, Zhang Zongbao, a hundred households on Zhangjiabao's side, has no ancestral ability to cut people, although he has a hundred households, but he is actually a literati. Before inheriting the inheritance of the ancestral position, he also took the imperial examination, passed the show, wrote good poems, and was also well-known among the scholars of Tianjin Wei.

In addition, he also has two cousins and brothers who have been promoted, one of whom is still an official in other places, and the other is named Zhang Zongyi, who lives in the Tianjin Acropolis for a long time. It is the leader of Tianjin Wei's Shilin!

However, after all, the Zhang family is a hereditary hundred households, even if they abandon martial arts and literature, they are not scholars who are powerless. The two brothers, Zhang Zongbao and Zhang Zongyi, are both in their forties and almost fifty, and they can still run wildly.

On the morning of March 24, the two brothers set out from the Tianjin Acropolis, led the Tianjin military Beidao Yuan Yuzong and the Tianjin patrol Yang Weihan and dozens of Yang Weihan's family members, and galloped to Zhangjiabao, which had been occupied by the Dashun army.

However, they are not going to recover Zhangjiabao, but to go to Zhangjiabao to meet Hao Shaoqi, the general of the Great Shun Heavenly Army!

A great merit is beckoning to them!

Zhang Zongbao welcomed the Dashun Heavenly Soldiers into Zhangjiabao yesterday evening, and immediately got a meritorious opportunity from Hao Shaoqi! With a letter from Li Guo's handwriting, I went to the Tianjin Acropolis to meet the soldiers and prepare for the original Yuzong!

It turned out that Yuan Yuzong, whose hometown was in Puzhou, Shaanxi, because his mother Lei was obtained by Li Zicheng, had already secretly surrendered to Dashun, and Xu Wei responded internally. He was originally a minor internal response, and when Dashun swept the world, he was an inconspicuous existence at all. But a great achievement that no one expected actually fell on the heads of Yuan Yuzong and others.

The Ming prince Zhu Cihong and perhaps the Chongzhen Emperor may have escaped from Beijing and are heading to Tianjin!

If Yuan Yuzong can help the Dashun Heavenly Soldiers to hold Chongzhen's father and son, it will be a great merit, I am afraid that he will be able to seal the marquis!

Although the two brothers Zhang Zongbao and Zhang Zongyi are not qualified to be knighted, they are still stable as a big and small official.

This is really blessed by the ancestors......

……

At the same time, outside the city wall of Wang Qingtuo, the sound of hooves was heard. The Cao family, who was on duty on the city wall, subconsciously widened his eyes. They also didn't close their eyes for a day and a night, and now they were sent out to guard the city. I should have been exhausted, but I didn't feel sleepy. Because the Great Tomorrow Son and the Prince of Fujun are in Wang Qingtuo City at the moment.

For Wang Qingtuo's Cao family, taking in the fallen Son of Heaven and the Crown Prince is tantamount to a big gamble!

The bet is won, and the Cao family is the first-class nobles when they arrive in Jiangnan!

Lost the bet...... It's extermination!

Moreover, because of Zhu Cihong's methods, Wang Qingtuo's Cao family has no possibility of not gambling at all!

Hundreds of Guanning Wu family's "Yiding Tuqi" entered the city yesterday evening. And Cao Huachun also had to take more than 2,000 Cao family soldiers to follow Zhu Cihong to meet him. On the 24th, the escape brigade led by Zhu Cihong finally arrived. Even if Wang Qingtuo's Cao family completely got on Zhu Cihong's thief ship, they could only follow...... Whether it is rich and rich, or the whole door is destroyed, it can only be resigned to fate.

What else can the Cao family who got on the thief ship do now? If you can still fall asleep, your heart is too big, right?

So when Zhu Cihong and the others were asleep, the Cao family was either silently packing up their things and preparing to leave, or they went to the city to be on duty, waiting for the arrival of the Dashun Heavenly Soldiers.

Just when the Cao family in the city was shocked by the knights from far and near, there were already more than ten horsemen galloping outside the city. It is not the Dashun army in white hats and green clothes, but the Ming army wearing mandarin duck battle jackets.

When he rode to the city, he shouted loudly: "I am the family of Cao Zongzhen in Tianjin, and I am here by the order of the general of the town, and I will ask the steward of Cao's family to talk!" ”

Cao Wenlu, Cao Huachun's nephew, who was on duty on the city wall at this time, heard that Cao Zongzhen in Tianjin had sent someone, and immediately accosted people at the head of the city. After asking about his intentions, Cao Wenlu flew down the city wall and went straight to Cao Huachun's mansion.

Cao Huachun's house is now occupied by Emperor Chongzhen, Empress Zhou, Empress Dowager Zhang, Li Xuanzhi, and several of Chongzhen's concubines. It's a holy place to stay! Cao Huachun also returned to his post, put on the python robe of the great eunuch again, and Zhang Luo came and went.

Because Chongzhen and the others were all in a carriage, they could squint in the carriage for a while when they were tired. So he was not as tired as the people who came on horseback or on foot, and Chongzhen didn't feel a little sleepy after settling down. Instead, he called several confidants and nobles, including Zhou Kui, the old emperor's prince, Tian Hongyu, Tian Guifei's father, Gong Yonggu, the commander of the horses, Liu Wenbing, the Marquis of Xinle, and Wang Shide, the commander of a brocade guard, to his side, and did not plot anything, but accompanied him to drink alcohol.

Just when I was drinking until I was very angry, the sound of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside, and it was not alone!

Emperor Chongzhen and the people who drank with him were all shocked, thinking that it was the crown prince's people! When his heart was pounding, Cao Huachun's voice came.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, great joy, Tianjin Governor Feng Yuanyang and Tianjin General Town Cao Youyi are here with troops!"

A hint of surprise flashed on Emperor Chongzhen's face, and he blurted out: "Good! Feng Yuanyang and Cao Youyiguo are loyal ministers! ”