There was a lot of fighting in the south, and there was even more fighting in the north.

In February of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng conquered Ningxia successively, killed the king of Han Zhu Jiayan, etc., and broke Pingliang in Gansu and killed Zhu Zhuohong, the king of Qing.

By this time, Li Zicheng had completely controlled the three sides of the Ming Dynasty except Xining, and after integrating parts of Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi and Gansu, Li Zicheng's army had expanded to more than 700,000 people.

At the suggestion of Huo Zhaowei and others, on the fourth day of the first month of March, Li Zicheng officially established the title of emperor in Xi'an, and the country name was Dashun.

When the news broke, the world shook.

Not only that, since Li Zicheng founded the country, even if he raised 500,000 troops, he went out of Tongguan, crossed the east of the river, and went all the way to Taiyuan.

Cai Maode, the governor of Shanxi, led the remnants of Datong to defend Taiyuan, but only three days before Li Zicheng broke the city, and Cai Maode committed suicide.

Since then, there has been no obstacle in the eastward direction of Shanxi, and Li Zicheng's army has driven all the way to the northeast and straight to Beijing.

The prancing horse crossed the Datong Ningwu Pass, and Li Zicheng looked at Huo Zhaowei with a big smile:

"Isn't Mr. my Kong Mingzai, I don't want the Ming Kingdom to be so weak, if it weren't for Mr. trying his best to persuade me, I would have lost this great country."

Huo Zhaowei, who had been appointed as the secretary of the Dashun Ministry of Officials, humbly pointed at Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing and others:

"Your Majesty has praised it falsely, if it weren't for Prime Minister Song and Prime Minister Niu Cheng's strategy, these strategies of the lower officials would be useless, Your Majesty should reward them."

As soon as Huo Zhaowei said this, Li Zicheng laughed even more, "If the martial arts under my command can be like you, why worry about the uncertainty of the world." ”

At this time, Li Zicheng was full of spirits, and he completely lost the tragic image of being defeated by Liu Ximing when he was in Henan.

This can't be blamed on him, for most of the year, Liu Ximing only cared about guarding Nanyang, except for occasionally sending a small number of troops to harass Guanzhong, Luoyang and other places, there was no other action.

Such a battle situation, how to make Li Zicheng, who has several provinces, laugh in his heart.

Liu Ximing has also become a gatekeeper in the mouth of the Dashun army.

As Huo Zhaowei said, Liu Xi's soldiers are only 70,000 or 80,000, and they are just holding on to themselves.

On the first day of the first month of May, the Dashun army broke through Datong City and killed the king of Zhu Chuan, so far many clans of the Ming Dynasty, except for the two Guangzhou, the rest of the main branches have been almost killed.

As for those who escaped, most of them were branch remnants, and under the patriarchal system, they were no longer qualified to inherit the throne.

On May 15, the Dashun army arrived at Juyong Pass, and the eunuch Du Zhizhi and the chief soldier Tang Tong surrendered without a fight.

On May 16, the Dashun army crossed Changping, arrived at the Shahe River, and Bingfeng went directly to the city of Jingshi.

At this time, the whole Beijing division was already in fear, and the people were still only thinking about reporting themselves, but the officials and eunuchs had already begun to act and were ready to surrender to the enemy at any time.

On the 18th, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, who was the commander of the internal and external military, and his party directly opened the gate of the outer city and surrendered, and Li Zicheng occupied the outer city without a single soldier.

In the Forbidden City, Chongzhen was already disheartened.

As early as a few days ago, when the Dashun army broke through the Great Temporary, he tentatively mentioned to the courtiers the matter of moving the capital to Nanjing, but a group of auxiliary ministers, including Wei Zaode, Chen Yan and others, all righteously blocked Chongzhen's words.

What are you kidding, everyone's net worth is all in Beijing, if you move the capital, then do you still have the share of yourself and others.

As a result, when the Dashun army came to the city today, there was not even a single minister in the Forbidden City.

In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen finally struggled to look at Wang Chengen: "Has any of the cabinet ministers arrived?" ”

Wang Chengen wiped his tears and said a little unbearably: "Your Majesty, all the ministers in the cabinet have said that they have been unwell recently, and they are all resting at home and refuse to go to court. ”

"The ministers are mistaken!"

As soon as he heard this, Chongzhen finally broke out again.

He stood up with a frenzied face, pulled out the Shang Fang sword in the hall and slashed everywhere to vent, after slashing, he suddenly came back to his senses and looked at Wang Chengen, his face was full of dying struggle.

"Where is Liu Ximing's army now, and where is the army of King Qin?"

Wang Chengen burst out crying and fell to his knees.

"Your Majesty, Liu Ge Lao has reported that he took 50,000 soldiers and horses all the way north, but unfortunately he was blocked in Kaifeng, and the thieves deployed more than 100,000 soldiers and horses here, and he couldn't break the enemy after several charges!"

"Hahaha, hahaha, what a person can't break the enemy."

Chongzhen looked up and laughed madly, there was no point in accusing Liu Ximing at this time, the Ming Dynasty was really going to die.

"Quickly go and gather the queen, the crown prince, the princess and the others together."

After a miserable laugh, Chongzhen finally made up his mind.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Zhu Cihong, Princess Changping and others with panicked faces came to the Qianqing Palace under the leadership of Empress Zhou.

As soon as she entered the palace, Queen Zhou couldn't help crying, and her crying immediately caused Zhu Cihong and others to cry.

"What's the use of crying", Chongzhen, who had a miserable face, raised his head and scolded angrily, "Arrange it immediately, let the prince and King Ding take refuge in the Guozhang Mansion as soon as possible, and the rest of the people will wait for ......"

"Boom"

At this time, an explosion suddenly came from the direction of the north gate of the Forbidden City, which shocked everyone in the Qianqing Palace.

Chongzhen immediately lost his voice and exclaimed: "Before the inner city is broken, have the thieves already killed it?" ”

It didn't take long for more than a dozen little eunuchs to rush towards the Qianqing Palace crying and shouting.

"Old Ancestor, the men and horses of the Jingying have rebelled, they blew up the Shenwu Gate, and thousands of people have all stormed."

Chongzhen sat on the ground with a pale face, and muttered: "I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it, even the Jingying was reversed, this is to take me to invite credit." ”

"Quick, come quickly, the sword comes, I can't fall into the hands of thieves!"

However, just as Chongzhen was scrambling to kill himself, a fast horse outside the hall galloped over and shouted loudly:

"Your Majesty, don't be surprised, Jiang Shen, the general of the Chenjing camp, came to escort the commander and assistant minister Liu Ge on the orders of the elder minister!"

In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen, Zhu Cihong and others were all shocked again.

Zhu Cihong's tear-stained little face suddenly turned into joy and laughter: "It was Taifu who sent someone, and Gu said that he would not ignore me and wait." ”

After speaking, Zhu Cihong wanted to get up and walked out of the hall.

Chongzhen immediately shouted, "Stop, how do you know that Liu Ximing is not born with different intentions, he may also send someone to tie you and me up in exchange for an official position!" ”

Zhu Cihong's little face suddenly turned pale.

Fortunately, at this time, Jiang Deshen had already rushed to the outside of the palace gate, and knelt down directly in front of the royal steps with the palace gate wide open.

"Jiang Shen, the general of the Chenjing camp, meet Your Majesty, the Queen, and the Prince, and the ministers disturb the Holy Driver, and the crime deserves death, and I ask Your Majesty to forgive you."

Chongzhen walked out of the hall with his sword in his hand, his face full of fierce pretend.

"You said that you came on the order of Liu Ximing, what does this mean, is Liu Ximing also going to rebel, or did he know in advance that I would end up like this?"

Chongzhen's words were so heart-wrenching that Jiang Shen replied that he would be caught if he was a little careless.

However, Jiang Shen knelt down with a worried face at this time and arched his hand: "The minister and Liu Ge Lao are fellow villagers, and they have always been taken care of by him. ”

"Elder Ge told the last general that if the capital is lost, the Chinese military minister of the city will definitely defect to the enemy, and it is he who must pay attention to the last general, and must protect His Majesty and the crown prince. Who would have thought that Jianyu didn't come in, but the rogues came first, and the ministers had to deal with it in a hurry. ”

"The defenders of Shenwu Gate insisted on not opening the door, and the ministers were afraid that His Majesty would be ill, so they had to wave their troops into the palace. The minister has a letter from Liu Ge's veteran, saying that he can win the trust of His Majesty at a critical time. ”

Chongzhen took the letter from Wang Chengen's hand, opened it and saw that Liu Ximing's familiar handwriting came to his face, but what was said in it was the same as what General Jiang said.

Chongzhen stood silent after reading it, and only laughed out loud after a while, but the laughter was full of sadness.

"Ahem, ahem, if Jianyu comes, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty will definitely raise their hands and surrender, hahaha, I am not as good as Liu Wujiang, I even regard this Manchu dog thief as a henchman, hahaha."

"Your Majesty!"

Empress Zhou, Wang Chengen and the others all shouted sadly.

Chongzhen was sad alone for a while, and then looked at Jiang Shen, "How many centaurs are under your command?" ”

"Not more than two thousand!"

Chongzhen sighed when he heard this, "Forget it, it's impossible for such a little person to protect me and the prince, I think you are a loyal person, you can run away, the prince and I have their own arrangements." ”

No, Jiang Shen actually hugged his fists directly and said: "Your Majesty said that the arrangement is to count on Guozhang and others?" ”

Chongzhen was frightened, and the sword in his hand was raised to the ground and aimed at Jiang Shen.

"Who the hell are you, that you even know this?"