"Why are these people? It's almost time now, where have all the people gone? Where have all the Jingguan of my Ming Dynasty gone! ”

Huangji Gate, when the sky was approaching, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty finally couldn't bear to roar.

It seems that the emperor has reason to be angry, because the number of officials who have come to the court today is too small, less than one hundred and fifty people. This person stood outside the wide Huangji Gate, looking sparse, no matter how you look at it, it looks like the general trend has gone, and the birds and beasts are scattered.

Because Chongzhen's early court was too diligent, most of the officials couldn't stand it, and it was not strange that the court was late. Even Emperor Chongzhen didn't have a problem with the fact that officials were late to the court...... It's not that one or two people are late, but often only a dozen or dozens of people are on time, and the rest are either late or ask for leave.

Emperor Chongzhen can't open all the officials who are late and ask for leave, so the court will have no officials. And the early dynasty was really tiring, and it was understandable that the officials couldn't stand it, so Emperor Chongzhen didn't pursue tardiness and leave - anyway, the officials who had something to do would come.

But today is not right, it's this time, and it's less than a hundred and fifty, which is too little, right?

And today is the day when Li Zicheng's soldiers are coming to the city!

As soon as Li Zicheng came, you Ming officials were gone! Is this running away or going to be a thief? I'm really angry with Ben Mingjun.

"Your Majesty is angry...... "Shoufu University Scholar, who is only forty years old, and Wei Zaode, who was born gentle and elegant, hurriedly went out of the class to play, "The Beijing official who did not go to the court may have gone to raise funds and donate." ”

"Nonsense!" Emperor Chongzhen shouted angrily, "Wei Zaode, do you think I am a brainless faint monarch? Would you believe such outrageous lies? I have long asked officials, nobles, and chamberlains to donate military salaries, and it took so many days to get more than 200,000 yuan, and almost everyone in the Manchu Dynasty was crying poor! What day is it today, and you have all the money? All rich? You're a bully! ”

Wei Zaode was reprimanded by Chongzhen, but he couldn't cry or laugh, and said: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister is not a bully...... Before the ministers waited for the court, they met Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi of the East Palace sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to persuade them to lose outside the noon gate. ”

That's impossible!

You, Wei Zaode, look dignified, you are still from the top rank, it turns out that you are also a traitor who deceives the king, and you don't know how to repent!

"Where is Luo's nourishment!" Emperor Chongzhen roared. He wanted to ask Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, to arrest Wei Zaode, Wei's traitorous minister.

However, Luo Yangxing misunderstood Chongzhen's meaning, and after leaving the class, he played: "The minister is here...... According to the minister's investigation, what Master Wei said was true, because when the minister was in the court, he also met Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi to persuade him to donate. ”

Yes? Is there such a thing?

Chongzhen thought about it, shook his head and said, "Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi persuaded them to donate, so everyone is willing to donate money?" ”

"Yes," Luo Yangxing nodded, "The two of them are quite verbal and can touch people's hearts, so the officials who have surplus money have gone to donate money......

Is there such a thing? Emperor Chongzhen will be suspicious, this Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi are really so powerful? I should have known that they should have been responsible for soliciting donations, and the issue of military pay would have been solved a long time ago.

Emperor Chongzhen thought about it or it was still wrong, "Luo Yangxing, you said that they are quite verbal and can touch people's hearts, so how much have you donated?" ”

Luo Yang's heart is bitter!

He really wanted to donate money, and he really had money. If you donate money, you can leave Beijing in a bright and bright way, and you can also take some of your savings away and go to Jiangnan to enjoy yourself...... But the problem is that he can't go, and he can't donate.

Because of his Jinyi Guard's commander and Emperor Chongzhen's most trusted confidant, can he donate one hundred or two hundred thousand taels of silver to the crown prince Zhu Cihong, and then run away to Tianjin with the prince's order?

Isn't this tantamount to taking refuge in the crown prince and betraying Emperor Chongzhen?

But he can't say it to Emperor Chongzhen, can't he say it clearly, can't he divide the relationship between the emperor and the prince?

And now you have to use money to buy soldiers in Beijing, and if you have money, you will have soldiers, and if you have soldiers, you will be the uncle! The prince is now rich and soldiers, and he is the uncle!

So Luo Yangxing had no choice but to cry and say: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister is really a clean official, and he has no savings......

Will you run out of money?

Emperor Chongzhen rolled his eyelids and said in his heart: You and your father Luo Sigong have been in charge of Jinyiwei for fifty-eight years...... They are all clean officials who have no money! Who will believe it!

He glanced at the officials outside the Emperor's Gate again, and found that there were several scholars and six ministries and nine qing, and most of these senior officials were there. Even Zhou Guozhang and Tian Guozhang, the two richest of the royal families, are here, only the big guy Li Guorui from the Empress Dowager Li (Wanli's mother) didn't come, and I don't know if my conscience found out that I went to donate?

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was still suspicious, Luo Yangxing said again: "If Your Majesty still has doubts, it is better to send the internal officials to Fuchengmen to ask His Royal Highness the Prince." ”

was reminded by Luo Yangxing, Emperor Chongzhen woke up like a dream, looked left and right, and wanted to find reliable eunuchs, only to find that there were several fewer eunuchs! Wang Zhixin has been gone since yesterday, Wang Yongzuo is gone, and now only Wang Chengen and Gao Yushun are still there.

What's going on? Could it be that all those eunuchs have also gone to donate money?

"Gao Yushun," Emperor Chongzhen did not call Wang Chengen, but named the name of the eunuch Gao Yushun, who was the master of ceremonies, and came back in the morning to serve Chongzhen, and now he is going out again, "You go to Fuchengmen and ask about the donation of hundreds of officials." ”

"The old slave obeys!"

Gao Yushun received the will and hurried to Fuchengmen, the scene of hundreds of officials queuing up to donate was gone. Because of Li Zicheng's banner of breaking the word, at this time it had appeared near the Diaoyutai less than five miles away from Fuchengmen.

appeared with King Chuang, and the old battalion soldiers and horses of the Dashun Army were also majestic and high-spirited! And there are 20,000 or 30,000 people, mostly cavalry, and they have formed a formation in front of the Diaoyu Tai, although it is not very neat, but it is murderous!

Zhu Cihong, who had already raised more than 3 million taels of silver and about 130,000 taels of gold, and found more than 200 loyal ministers, naturally did not have the heart to issue a city decree to the loyal ministers who donated money.

Therefore, it was announced that the fundraising was over, and the city gates in the northwest of Beijing, such as Fuchengmen, Xizhimen, Deshengmen, Xibianmen, and Guangningmen, and the nearby city walls, were under martial law.

When Gao Yushun arrived, he was putting on a well-made long scale armor with the help of two chamberlains. It was a rather heavy type of armor, the pieces of armor were forged from wrought iron and painted golden yellow. Wearing it on his body, he is shining with golden light, and he looks like a golden armor god general.

This set of armor is actually the equipment of the Han general, and Emperor Chongzhen also has a similar armor, but the surface decoration is more.

Zhu Cihong's East Palace guards, as well as Zhu Chunchen, Li Guozhen, Wu Xiang and other senior generals, also put on similar armor, either golden or silver, looking quite similar.

As for the ordinary generals of the Prince's personal army who followed Zhu Cihong, and some of the soldiers in the Beijing camp, most of them wore cloth mask armor. It looks similar to the armor worn by the Eight Banners soldiers in later film and television dramas.

In later generations, some people called this kind of armor "cotton armor", but it is actually wrong, this kind of armor is called cloth iron armor, and there are still iron pieces under the cloth. As for cotton armor, it also exists, but it is generally not worn alone, but lined with iron armor and cloth iron armor, and of course there are also those that are covered outside. The so-called wearing two layers of armor is mostly a layer of iron armor, a layer of cotton armor, and if you add another layer of chain mail, it is three layers of armor. Unless you are a warrior with infinite strength, you can really breathe when you walk with three layers of armor.

Seeing that Zhu Cihong had already put on his armor and looked like he was about to go into battle, Gao Yushun, the eunuch who was about to go into battle, was really scared enough, and he almost couldn't even speak.

"Qianqian Chitose, you, what are you doing here?"

Zhu Cihong glanced at the old eunuch and smiled: "Li Zicheng is here!" ”

Li Zicheng...... Coming to the rebellion? Where is he? Gao Yushun completely forgot what he was here for, and there was only fear left in his heart.

"It's coming! Just outside the city! Zhu Cihong replied with a smile, he was actually just as scared. However, his psychological quality is very good, which is experienced in the Chinese financial market, which often has disasters and will step on thunder from time to time in later generations - even if he is really scared, he has to put a confident smile on his face!