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On 26 March, seven days after the Dashun army entered Beijing.

The sky is gray, the original most lively outer city Zhengyang Gate is deserted and lonely, several heavy fences are set up inside and outside the city gate hole, and many Shunjun armor soldiers wearing white hats and green clothes are distributed in the meantime, strictly controlling the entry and exit.

Chen Hongfan, Zhao Yuanheng and his entourage were sandwiched between a group of businessmen and walked slowly. Someone from the Shun army came up to interrogate, Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuanheng turned out slightly, and in a blink of an eye, they saw many notices posted on the city wall, and they glanced at them roughly, and they all wrote words such as "The master is in the city, and there is no crime in the autumn", "Because the city is sacrificed very quickly, the suffering of the slaughter of the people is avoided", "The people of Ermin are in peace, and they must not stop the city", "Those who are disturbed by the soldiers will be governed by military law".

Before he could finish reading, there was a sudden formation of horses' hooves not far away, but seeing hundreds of horsemen rushing from the countryside in a blink of an eye, the leading knight showed his token, and immediately moved the fence away, allowing them to fly into the city. After the Shun army entered Beijing, guards and horses were added to the gates of the inner and outer cities to prohibit people from entering and leaving, but the horse soldiers and merchants who patrolled back and forth in the Shun army were not prohibited.

After a while, a few shouts were heard from the cave of the city gate, and then the bells of the mules and horses jingled, and the officers of the Shun army who were in charge of guarding the city gate began to let the merchants in, and every person who passed shouted and counted the number of people.

When it was Chen Hongfan's turn, the officer looked at him and said, "Are you still going out to do business when you're so old?" ”

Chen Hongfandui said with a smile: "Forced by livelihood, I came to the capital from Liaodong to do some small business. ”

The officer heard that his accent was indeed from Liaodong, nodded and said: "The emperor is benevolent, thinking that the capital has been under fire and the livelihood of all people is in difficulty, so he has issued a decree to allow merchants to come and go to supplement the needs of the people." You are all the people of Dashun now, and you must remember the good of Emperor Dashun. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the two heads hanging high on the city tower, "These two guys competed for the silk in the front door shop when they first entered the city, and the Emperor Dashun personally issued an order to capture and kill them, and take their heads to show military law." You can do business in the city, you can be bold, although the city is full of horse armies, but I don't think anyone will dare to embarrass you. ”

Chen Hongfan bowed and saluted, "Thank you, Your Excellency, for your advice." On the way from Tianjin Wei to Beijing, he had already heard about the military discipline of the Shun army after entering the city. There is a ban on soldiers and plunderers, there is a ban on those who rob the people, there is a ban on those who go down to the city, and those who commit crimes will die immediately, and their heads will be cut off."

When entering the Zhengyang Gate, the first thing that appeared was the team of Shun Jun Ma Jun who came and went like the wind, many people on the street walked as before, some avoided the roadside, and some who were too late to bow their hands to apologize, and the Shun Army and the Ma Jun went by themselves, and they did not scold and insult. Seeing this, the caravan turned his head and secretly said to Chen Hongfan: "I have relatives in the city, and he said in his letter that when the Shun army entered the city, although there were occasional individual stealers of money and silver, they were soon arrested and questioned, and as for adultery, robbery, beheading, and killing, they were especially unseen!" ”

Chen Hongfan smiled and said to the caravan: "Brother, thank you for bringing me into the city." As he spoke, he took out a silver ticket from his sleeve and stuffed it into the other party's hand, "Take it to the governor of Huguang Zhao or the Qianzhuang silver number under the name of the Zheng family in the southeast, and it can be exchanged for a hundred taels of silver." ”

The head of the caravan was surprised: "You and I are fellow countrymen, we met in Tianjin, and it is appropriate to help each other." With that said, he still took the silver ticket in his hand. In today's world, most of the silver bills are like waste paper, and the amount is difficult to redeem, but only the tickets issued by the Shanxi Jin merchants, the Huguang Zhao family, and the southeast Zheng family are still hot.

Chen Hongfan, Zhao Yuanheng and a few companions separated from the caravan near Shanchuan Altar and went to an inn in Xicheng to settle down. The inn is the property of Chen Hongfan's family, and it has been doing well in Beijing.

Zhao Yuanheng asked Chen Hongfan on the road: "Gong Chen, let's change the route temporarily, can we still see people?" ”

Chen Hongfan smiled and said, "If you don't change your route, you may not see you." Wu Sangui is already on his way to Beijing, let's just wait. ”

They were entrusted by Zhao Dangshi, and the main purpose of this trip to the north was to find Wu Sangui, the current commander-in-chief of Liaodong.

There were two main parts of the Ming army in the area of Liaodong and Shanhaiguan, one part of the Liaodong general army Wu Sangui 40,000 people, and the other part of the Guanmen general army of nearly 10,000 people. Wu and Gao are absolutely powerful, and Wu Sangui is dominant.

A few days ago, Chen Hongfan and his entourage, who had arrived in Sanwei in Tianjin from Linqingzhou in Shandong, had just wanted to continue their journey to Shanhaiguan when they heard the news of the fall of Beijing. Chongzhen had previously ordered Wang Yongji, the governor of Jiliao, Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong, and Wu Sangui to migrate the soldiers and civilians outside the border from both sea and land, and led the army to the king. On the eve of the destruction of Beijing, Wu Sangui was still directing sea ships to transport people back and forth into the customs, so he naturally stayed near Shanhaiguan. But the situation in Beijing has changed abruptly, and King Qin has come to naught, and it is really difficult to predict what Wu Sangui will do in this delicate situation.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou was defeated in the battle of Songshan Fort, and the aftermath caused Wu Sangui's uncle, Zu Dashou, the general of the former Liao Expedition, to be besieged by the Qing army in the following year, and finally surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Zu Dashou later wrote to Wu Sangui many times, persuading him to "repent and make up his mind to return to obedience", Wu Sangui's brother Wu Sanfeng, Zu Kefa, Zhang Cunren, Pei Guozhen and a large number of relatives and old friends who were reduced for various reasons were also persuaded to surrender year after year, but Wu Sangui never agreed. After all, as a Ming army in Liaodong, he fought with the Qing army for more than ten years, and once he changed his face, he was embarrassed after all, and although Wu Sangui had many relatives and friends on the Qing side, it was far less important than the immediate family members who stayed in Beijing.

Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, was the general soldier of Liaodong in his early years, and the Manchurian soldiers of Chongzhen were on the border in the seventh year. It was not until last year that the Qing troops re-entered the Kou and the situation in the Central Plains was unfavorable that Wu Xiang was used again, and was sent to Yu Yu at the request of Wang Yongji, the governor of Jiliao, and in this year he was appointed to the Beijing camp to resist the Shun army. However, the city of Beijing was broken, and Wu Xiang himself and many of the Wu family's family members were captured by the Shun army. Li Zicheng did not embarrass the Wu family, and asked Wu Xiang to write a letter to persuade Wu Sangui to surrender by Jiang Huang, who surrendered in Datong Mansion earlier, Tang Tong, who surrendered at Juyongguan, and Ma Ke, who surrendered in Beizhili.

Although Wu Sangui had a large number of soldiers and horses in his hands, as soon as Beijing was broken, he was immediately sandwiched between the Shun army in the west and the Qing army in the east. In just a few days, there were three paths for him to choose in front of him: first, to attack Beijing back, fight with the Shun army to break the net, and if he didn't succeed, he would become a benevolent and become a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty; second, accept Dashun's appeasement and go to Beijing to meet Li Zicheng; The third is to re-exit the customs and surrender to the Qing State.

The first was the first to be vetoed, for no other reason, the army of Dashun in Beijing exceeded 100,000, and a forcible attack was tantamount to a moth to a fire, even if he Wu Sangui wanted to sacrifice his life for the country, no one under his command was willing to do so.

And the second is obviously more persuasive than the third.

In the eyes of the people of the time, although the Shun army and the Qing army were both enemies of the Ming Dynasty, they had essential differences. Although the Shun army started as a rogue, it was a Han Chinese, breaking Beijing and killing the emperor, throughout thousands of years, but it was just a normal change of dynasty. Change the top or not the bottom, the emperor of the old Zhu family is dead, and the officials and people below should live or how to live, and the impact is not great. When the Shun army entered Beijing, the army was very solemn and disciplined, and the people also welcomed them, set up incense cases at the door, and wrote "Long live the Emperor Yongchang of Dashun, long live", and even the word "Shunmin" was pasted on the hat. Some people questioned angrily, but more people refuted that "Taizu was also a coward at the beginning", so he was speechless.

Most people not only did not show their disgust with the arrival of the Shun army, but instead had the expectation of a new dynasty and a new policy. Not only the people welcomed Shun, but even the two or three thousand officials in Beijing were the same, and there were very few martyrs for the country, but only about 20 people, and the rest were well-dressed and surrendered like clouds. Dashun chose the old officials, and on March 19 issued a notice to Zhang Bang that "all civil and military officials will surrender their names the next day and see the court on the 21st." Those who are willing to use their resources for officials, and those who do not want to listen to their hometowns. If there is any concealment, the official will be suspended and the neighbor will be punished together." Under an order, the temporary officials of Dashun discharged a long queue for several miles outside the yamen, and the old officials of the Ming court rushed to submit their names to Dashun, lest they fall behind and not be appointed by the new court.

People's hearts are like this, and so is Wu Sangui, if he surrenders to the Qing State, then it will be a disloyal, unfilial and unrighteous act of being a barbarian and ignoring his ancestors.

The immediate family members in Beijing, Tang Tong and other generals surrendered to Dashun and were all reused as a model, and Dashun was a Han country, considering all aspects of the conditions, Wu Sangui was naturally inclined to Dashun.

Chen Hongfan, Zhao Yuanheng and others stayed at the Dagu Pass of Tianjin Sanwei for two days, and then heard the news that Wu Sangui was preparing to lead troops into Beijing to meet the new lord Li Zicheng. That's why I was rerouted to Beijing halfway.

After walking along the streets and alleys, I arrived at the inn opened by Chen Hongfan's family. The inn was deserted, Chen Hongfan entered, the shopkeeper and the guy were stunned when they saw it, and then pretended to be calm, came up to greet each other, and there was no intimacy between the lines.

The scale of the inn is not small, the lobby on the first floor is for dine-in, and the second floor is for accommodation. The companions unloaded their luggage from the mule and moved to the wing room on the second floor, while Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuanheng found a place to sit and drink some tea in the hall on the first floor.

There were very few guests in the hall, but there were two people sitting opposite each other in the corner, Chen Hongfan's eyes were sharp, and he saw at a glance that the one facing him was an old acquaintance, and he turned around to avoid it, but the other party recognized him at the same time, and suddenly stood up and beckoned: "Brother Chen!" ”

Seeing that he couldn't hide, Chen Hongfan compared his index finger in front of his mouth, motioned him to whisper, and at the same time walked over with Zhao Yuanheng, arching his hand and saying, "Brother Ma, long time no see." Then he said to Zhao Yuanheng, "This Master Ma Shaoyu is my old brother, who often exchanges letters and serves in the Ministry of War. ”

Ma Shaoyu shook his head and said: "The imperial court is gone, where is there still a staff." He turned to introduce a young man standing beside him, "Zhang Jiayu, the character Yuanzi." A native of Dongguan, Guangdong, a young talent, last year's Jinshi, and a Jishi of Hanlin Academy. ”

Chen Hongfan nodded with a smile, looked at Zhang Jiayu, and saw that he was about thirty years old, with delicate eyebrows and eyes, and a fine body, and he was indeed a talent. Zhang Jiayu smiled bitterly: "Ma Gongcai said that the court is gone, where do I start?" As he spoke, he looked at Zhao Yuanheng.

"This is my nephew, and I have some personal matters in Beijing this time." Chen Hongfan smiled awkwardly.

A few people sat down, and Ma Shaoyu sighed: "It's not the right time for Brother Chen to come. ”

Chen Hongfan nodded and said, "I have to come here because of the important things at home." Fortunately, Shunjun was reasonable and did not embarrass him. ”

Ma Shaoyu said: "The new dynasty has been established, the future has been decided, and it has been tossed for nearly 20 years, and this great tomorrow is still gone." ”

Chen Hongfan shook his head with a wry smile and said, "The world is unpredictable. ”

Ma Shaoyu asked: "I heard that Brother Chen has been developing in Huguang, I don't know what the situation is there?" ”

Chen Hongfan said perfunctorily: "It's still the same, it's just a mess of life." Dashun entered Beijing, the situation in the world was confusing, and how to deal with it locally was also the business of the admiral and governor, and small fish and shrimp like me followed. He didn't want to get involved in his own affairs, so he changed the topic and asked, "The two of you have been in the court for a long time, I don't know how the situation is going?" ”

Ma Shaoyu sneered: "Brother Chen can know the recent situation when he looks at the down-and-out appearance of the two of us. ”

Zhang Jiayu said: "The new dynasty is thirsty for talents, and two batches of old officials were hired earlier, and a few days ago a few days ago, some places were released, and both of us voted for the name, and we are still waiting for news." ”

Chen Hongfan pretended to be surprised and said, "The two of you want to join the Shun army? ”

Zhang Jiayu said calmly: "Mingzuo has been destroyed, and the national fortunes have overturned. The new dynasty should stand in response to the sky, and those who follow the trend will prosper, and those who will go against the trend will die. ”

"But the South...... I'm afraid I haven't tried to obey the army. ”

"The Ming dynasty is in the north, not in the south, and now Beijing has changed hands, and the Ming court exists in name only." Zhang Jiayu replied, "What's more, I recently learned that the saint is indeed dead, and the prince and prince are in the hands of the Shun army, and the sky is irreversible." ”

"Holy ......?" Chen Hongfan was taken aback. Previously, the Shun army invaded the Forbidden City and did not find Emperor Chongzhen, thinking that he had escaped, while sending troops to chase after him, while passing down a strict order "Those who can come out will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of gold, and those who hide will be punished by their whole family", Chen Hongfan has always thought that Emperor Chongzhen has escaped.

"Hmm. Later, a eunuch first found the Holy Imperial Horse in the Coal Mountain, and then found the Holy Lord and the Queen hanging themselves there on a tree. When Zhang Jiayu said this, his eyes turned red, "It is rumored that the sleeve of the saint's shirt reads, 'Because of the loss of the country, I have no face to see my ancestors, and I dare not die properly'...... Alas, I knew why I had to do it in the first place. After the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the Shun army moved the corpses of him and Empress Zhou to the outside of the Donghua Gate to show the public, and some of the courtiers around Emperor Chongzhen in the past were looking for cracks in the hope of changing the court, and some hid their heads and tails for fear of avoiding them, and almost no one paid attention to this cold corpse. Zhang Jiayu saw it in his eyes at the time, and he didn't say anything about it at this time, but he still felt very sad when he thought about it.

Chen Hongfan sighed, and when it came to the heavy part, several people were silent. After a long time, Chen Hongfan said: "Both of them are pillars of talent, and it is natural for them to be appointed by the new dynasty." ”

Ma Shaoyu shook his head and said: "This is not necessarily, Dashun appoints old officials, and not everyone wants it." Dashun's officials selected the yamen to divide the Beijing officials into three, six, nine and so on, and selected the best, like me and Yuanzi didn't catch up with the first two batches, which is still quite suspenseful. continued, "But fortunately, Yuanzi and I stayed in the Qingshui Yamen before, and there was no oil and water, no matter how bad it was, we wouldn't be hired after all, otherwise if we were beaten as corrupt officials, it would be a lintel for eight lifetimes." ”

Chen Hongfan asked, "How do you say this?" ”

Zhang Jiayu replied: "The Shun army has not committed any crimes in the autumn of the people, and it can win the hearts of ordinary people, but the money and food of more than 100,000 troops need to be taken out in a real way, and there is no tax or collection, so they can only continue to do the policy of 'chasing stolen goods and helping salaries'." For example, Lord Wei Zao Dewei was branded with the title of a corrupt official, not only could he not be appointed, but he was thrown into prison and tortured. Most of the Kyonai lords were also killed after that. ”

Ma Shaoyu sighed and said: "I heard that in order to live, Lord Wei has a beautiful daughter from his family who is willing to give it to General Liu Zongmin of the Shun Army who is in charge of torture as a concubine. Alas, the new dynasty needs a new policy, how can it do it again. ”

Zhang Jiayu answered: "It is because we need to wait for us to enter the court, set the outline, clarify the order, and open peace for the new dynasty." ”

When Chen Hongfan heard this, he nodded secretly, several people had their own hearts, drank more tea, and said less. Not long after, Chen Hongfan suddenly asked: "Chen has been away from Beijing for a long time, and many things are not clear. I'm lucky enough to meet two of you today, and there's one thing I want to ask. As he spoke, he dipped his fingers in the tea and wrote two words on the table, "I wonder where this person is now?" ”