On the first day of the first lunar month, the wind in Beijing continued, the houses shook and the dust flew all over the sky, and the distance between pedestrians was difficult to argue, and the day was bleak. There is a good divination of the conclusion that "the wind starts from the dry, the main riot is coming, the city is broken, and the people are not blessed", and immediately arrested the Jinyi guard and took him to prison. Nevertheless, rumors of imminent sword soldiers spread in Beijing, and the people rushed to tell each other, and it was difficult to stop the repeated prohibitions, all of which seemed to indicate that an unprecedented catastrophe would befall the Ming court.

From January to February, in just two months, in the face of the aggressive Shun army, the Ming army, which had already been crushed in Shaanxi, completely fell into a passive situation in the northern battlefield. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, in view of the situation that the military operations in the entire northwest region were roughly over, Li Zicheng, the emperor of Dashun who had not long been the emperor of the pole, swore an oath in Guanzhong, and announced that the "Proposal to Raise the Battalion and the General General was Ordered to Conquer the Banner", and sent more than 100,000 soldiers and horses from the five battalions of the field battle of the old Ben lineage, leaving the commander of the battalion general Zehou Tian Jianxiu to sit in the rear and personally conquer the Northern Expedition to the Ming Court.

Because of the previous white crane led the troops as the vanguard to capture some prefectures and counties in Shanxi, the Shun army was bloodless, and the soldiers crossed the Yellow River in three ways. One of them, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Yuan Zongdi, Gu Ying and other commanders led the center, right, and front three battalions, planning to first capture Pingyang Mansion, which had been infiltrated earlier, and then go north to take Taiyuan Mansion; On the other hand, Liu Fangliang led the left battalion to march along the north bank of the Yellow River, responsible for receiving many state capitals at the junction of Henan and Shanxi provinces, and completely connecting the territory of the Shun army; There is also a partial division all the way, led by Li Guotong to cross the river from Jiazhou in northern Shaanxi, and invite the Ming army to defend the crossing along the river, so as to eliminate the aid of Taiyuan.

Cai Maode, the governor of Shanxi in the Ming court, and Wang Zongyou, the governor of the Ming court, originally sent Xiong Tong, the deputy general of the standard battalion, and the Hedong soldiers to prepare Hao?? and other troops defended the river, but the Shun army fled before they arrived, and the defense line collapsed. Cai Maode wanted to defend Pingyang Mansion, but he lacked food, so he had to ask the king of Xihe and Jiaocheng in Pingyang Mansion to contribute money and take the lead in persuading the gentry to donate. I didn't want to be at the end of the catastrophe, and no one was willing to give up money and food to recruit troops to strengthen the city defense, which eventually led to Pingyang Mansion being easily captured by the Shun army.

Cai Maode's defense of the river failed, and the Jin Domain of Taiyuan, who was in Taiyuan, urged him to return to Taiyuan again and again. When the defeat of Pingyang Mansion was irreparable, he hurriedly returned to Taiyuan, but Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, privately thought that Cai Maode was thin on himself, and impeached Cai Maode with Wang Zongyou to give up Pingyang without regard for the safety of Taiyuan. Cai Maode was deflated on both sides, and he couldn't say anything about his suffering, and the Ming court got the news, but he couldn't distinguish the truth from the false, and ordered Cai Maode to be dismissed from his post and replaced by Guo Jinchang. Guo Jinchang's name is not well known, and the Ming court uses him, which is nothing more than his name and a good fortune.

When Pingyang Mansion fell and the Shun army swept through Shanxi with a thunderous force, the urgent news reached Beijing, and the Ming court felt the seriousness of the situation. Emperor Chongzhen urgently consulted with his ministers on countermeasures, and it was rare to express his regret for giving up peace with the Qing court last year. The ministers believed that "the treasury has been empty for a long time, the external salary is not enough, all the side expenses can not be delayed, and the emperor is the inner ear", and hoped that Emperor Chongzhen could take more internal funds to recruit troops and consolidate himself. However, when it came to the issue of internal money, Emperor Chongzhen's attitude immediately became ambiguous, and he only said, "Today, there is a person who is difficult to tell Mr.", and burst into tears. I can't get the money out, so I can only decree that "all the crimes of the military department will be abolished, and the grass will be righteous and brave, and those who are inspired to kill thieves will be rewarded", which is still empty words.

As for why Emperor Chongzhen didn't take the internal money, it was not that he was stingy, after all, in the autumn of life and death, his vision would not be so short-sighted. The biggest crux of this is that Emperor Chongzhen himself really can't come up with much money. At the time, everyone speculated that Emperor Chongzhen inherited a huge amount of internal money from the previous emperors, especially Emperor Wanli, but in fact, although the Wanli Dynasty accumulated a lot of wealth, Emperor Wanli was extravagant, and all kinds of expenses were huge, and he divided part of it into six parts, and the internal money fell to about six or seven million taels in the end. After Taichang and the two emperors of the Apocalypse, it took more than 100,000 yuan to build the three major palaces, and the construction of the mausoleum was millions, and the internal funds were mostly used, and the remaining ones were not used by Emperor Chongzhen, I am afraid that there were only two or three million. Therefore, for the Ming court, it was the emperor who was short of money in the court, and the two parties were trapped in financial resources, and they were inevitably constrained and unable to do anything.

Li Jiantai, the right attendant of the Cabinet University Officials Department, was a native of Quwo County, Shanxi, and at this moment of national crisis, he saw that Emperor Chongzhen was at a loss, so he volunteered to ask himself to supervise the army in Beijing, claiming that he would return to his hometown in Shanxi to recruit troops with his family's private wealth to fight against the Shun army. Emperor Chongzhen was overjoyed, and immediately appointed the superintendent and gave Shang Fang the sword, and set up a banquet in Zhengyang Tower for Li Jiantai to practice, saying: "Mr. go, as I go." "I watched it for a long time.

Li Jiantai left Beijing, just arrived near Zhuozhou, encountered a strong wind, divination felt that it was not conducive to the march, so he ordered the soldiers and horses of the Beijing battalion who were responsible for escorting them to be stationed in the same place, and some soldiers fled day and night.

The situation in the Ming court continued to deteriorate as well.

On the sixth day of the second month, Li Zicheng led the main force to the city of Taiyuan Prefecture. Although Cai Maode said that he had been dismissed, he did not wait for Guo Jinchang to come, so he had to stubbornly defend Taiyuan Mansion with Zhao Jianji, the political envoy of Zuobu, and Bi Gongchen, the sub-inspector of Ji Ning Road. At that time, Fu Shan, Han Lin, who was born in Shanxi, was hired by Li Jiantai as a praise painting in front of the army, Fu Shan rushed to Beigi to meet Li Jiantai in order to take care of his hometown, and asked him to first aid Taiyuan. However, Li Jiantai at this time because his hometown Quwo County was occupied by the Shun army, his mentality changed, and he felt that the way to raise troops to block the Shun army at the beginning was not feasible, and the escorted soldiers of the Beijing camp were more than 3,000 and scattered, and the situation was not good, so he categorically rejected Fu Shan's request, and instead led the troops to retreat to Baoding.

The city of Taiyuan was isolated and in danger, Cai Maode sent Zhu Kongxun, Niu Yong, Wang Yongkui and others to lead 5,000 soldiers to battle, and the whole army was destroyed. Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, took out three thousand taels of silver and sent it to the city to "recruit dead soldiers to kill thieves". Li Zhichen, the deputy envoy of Shanxi Tixue, was in charge of this matter, but he still deducted from it, and issued paper tickets instead of cash from the seal of the gong, and the morale of the Ming army plummeted, and Zhang Xiong, who was garrisoned under the governor's standard battalion, secretly opened the new south gate in the early morning and surrendered to the Shun army. The Dashun army took advantage of the situation to capture Taiyuan Fucheng, Cai Maode committed suicide, Zhao Jianji, Bi Gongchen and others committed suicide, Li Zhichen knelt down - went to join Li Jiantai and was captured halfway Han Lin touted Li Zhicheng as "a man of articles in this world", and Li Zhichen was reappointed.

Li Zicheng reorganized the army in Taiyuan for eight days, during which he issued the edict of the first year of the Dashun Emperor Yongchang, explaining his original intention and intention to crusade against the Ming court, and then passed the Dashun Emperor An Min's edict, with the words of "the mandate of heaven is restored, and the homeland is returned" and other words to comfort the people, and the head of the state and county "the teacher of benevolence and righteousness, do not adulterous women, do not kill innocents, do not plunder assets, and do not commit any crimes in the autumn." But when the soldiers are in the city, they are not allowed to disobey", echoing each other's words, combining grace and power, and winning people's hearts. Then, Li Zicheng led his army north and launched an offensive against Ningwu Pass, the only way to enter Beijing.

It was the middle of February, and the folk song of "opening the door to meet the king, not being bad, not paying for food" has been transmitted to Beijing, and the situation is so sinister that Emperor Chongzhen is worried, and he is sad almost overnight. When analyzing the current situation in various localities with the cabinet ministers, Zhang Jinyan, the secretary of the Ministry of War, made clear the soldiers and horses that were still close to Beijing and could be relied on.

In Beizhili and Shanxi, there are Li Jiantai, the governor of Baoding, Xu Biao, the governor of Xuanda, Wang Jimo, the governor of Xuanda, Jiang Huang, the chief soldier of Datong, Tang Tong, the chief soldier of Yongguan Town, Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of Xuanfu Town, and Liu Zeqing, the chief soldier of Shandong Town, etc.; In Henan, there are Xu Dingguo, the chief soldier of Taiyuan Town, and Bu Congshan, the chief soldier of Baoding Town; In Liaodong, there are Wang Yongji, the governor of Jiliao, Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong, Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Liaodong, and Gao Di, the general soldier of Guanmen; In Huguang and Sichuan, there are Zhao Dangshi, the governor of Huguang, Huang Degong, the general of Anlu Town, and Zuo Menggeng, the general of Pingjiao; In Fengyang and Jiangxi, there are Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, and Yuan Jixian, the governor of Jiangxi. In addition, there are still all kinds of towns and associations in Nanzhili. Other provinces further afield are left out for the time being.

The strength of these soldiers and horses varied, and the distance from Beijing was also different. It is a matter of life and death for the country, and it must be used well. Therefore, among them, the most in need of wooing was selected and taken care of.

In terms of Beizhili, Xu Biao was given the military affairs of Jinan, Shandong, and Hebei as governors, and moved to Zhending to curb thieves. Feng Tang Tong is Dingxibo, and controls and strangles the Yongguan; On the Shanxi side, Jiang Xuanjia, the chief military officer of Datong, was singled out to lead the seal of General Zhenshuo, and encouraged his people to block the passage of the Shun army to the north; In Henan, Xu Dingguo was officially awarded the post of commander-in-chief of the aid and suppression, so that he continued to stick to the border between Henan and Shanxi, blocking the connection of Shun's forces; On the Liaodong side, Wu Sangui was named Pingxibo and shrank his troops to the Guannai; In Huguang, Zhao Dangshi was named Ning Nanbo and Huang Degong was Jing Nanbo, attacking the Shun army in Henan and Shaanxi. Li Huaxi was appointed to replace the governor of Yu Yinggui on the three sides, the governor of Song Quan Miyun, the governor of Fang Kongzhi Guangping and the daimyo Erdao and the governor of Shuntian Yang He and the governor of Changping He Qian worked together to defend the nearest area.

Subsequently, Emperor Chongzhen personally recruited the king of the world's soldiers. During the court discussion, he felt that he needed to leave a way out, so he sent his lord Xincheng Bo Zhao Zhilong to Nanjing immediately south to garrison Nanjing, and the eunuch Han Zanzhou accompanied him to serve as the eunuch of Nanjing Town. In addition, it was reported that Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, cooperated with Zuo Maodi, the governor of Yingtian, and other people, and collected Liu Kongzhi, the commander of the right prefecture of Nanjing, who also patrolled the Jiangjiang defense, Zhang Tianlu, the deputy general who assisted in guarding Guazhou, Wang Zhiren, the general of Beiwei, Huang Binqing, the general of Zhoushan, Weng Zhiqi, the general of Jinqu, and Zheng Zhilong, the guerrilla general of the Five Tigers, and other towns of the general department of the General Forest, so as to maintain the stability of Nanjing and be ready to go north at all times to help.

At the end of February, Hanzhong Mansion is expected to be cold in spring.

The day before, the civil and military forces of Hanzhong Mansion came to the door one after another to congratulate Zhao Dangshi on being named Ning Nanbo. It is a great honor to be knighted, but the Ming Dynasty is stormy, and the pragmatic Zhao Dangshi will certainly not really take a false name to heart, so in the face of Yingmen visitors, he only sent the steward to usher, but discussed the next measures with his henchmen and generals.

"The Northern Expedition of the Shun Army is like a broken bamboo, and the officers and soldiers of the defense on all sides are weak and unstoppable, and it seems that within two or three months, the Shun Army will be in Beijing." Xu Hui said with a solemn face, he is a native of Shanxi, and he is more clear about the garrison forces of various towns in Shanxi, "Ningwu Pass and Juyong Pass are the last two gates to contain the Shun army. ”

"Wang Jimo, the governor of Xuanda, Wei Jingming, the governor of Shanxi, and Jiang Huang of Datong Town are not good talents, and it is not easy to stop the morale of the Shun army." Han Gon shook his head, "Juyong Guan Tangtong is a fugitive from Liaodong, and he can't be counted on." These people look at the strength of the soldiers, and when they really face the Shun army, they will show their original form. ”

Xu Hui said again: "The imperial court mobilized the world's soldiers and horses in one go, which seemed to be a big move, but in fact, it was mostly useless. Wanting Xu Dingguo to involve Shunjun and Liu Zeqing to go north to King Qinwang are all big jokes. Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, was subject to Liu Liangzuo, and Shi Kefa of Nanjing couldn't set up the head of the camp for a while. However, the mobilization of Guan Liao's soldiers and the painstaking management of the Guanwai that have been fought for for decades are bound to give up and give them to the northern captives once they are gone, and the strong man will break his wrist, depending on whether the imperial court has this determination. ”

Han Gon said: "Isn't the imperial court still waiting for our army?" The title of earl to the lord was given in order to serve our army. He also said, "The Shun army just crossed the river into Jin, and Sun Junmen shouted every day to raise troops to serve the king." It is ridiculous that the edict issued by the imperial court does not have the name of his grandson Chuanting at all. Now that the court has called on the king of the world, he is afraid that he is going to the sky, how does the lord feel to deal with it? ”

Sun Chuanting is eager to serve the country with loyalty, everyone knows that Zhao Dangshi could prevaricate him on the grounds of waiting and watching his changes, but now that the imperial decree has arrived, I am afraid that he will not be able to suppress it if he wants to suppress him.

Zhao Dangshi pondered for a while, and said in a deep voice: "Even if Sun Chuanting doesn't make trouble, our army can't sit still." ”

Xu Hui, Han Gon and other generals were all taken aback, and said, "What does the lord mean?" ”

"The situation is pressing, and the battle with the Shun army must be started immediately." Zhao Dangshi said solemnly.