"I am a good citizen of the borderland, living in Yinzhou, without raising the flag and rebelling, and before resisting donations and taxes. Less deceitful, for business and wealth, for the service was withdrawn, but the heart of serving the country did not change, so he joined the army to serve the country, hoping to build a super business. Later, when I heard that the eastern captives entered the customs, the people were miserable, and I was excited to bundle my armor and want to fight a bloody battle with Jiannu. However, Chongzhen was mediocre, appointed traitors, scattered reinforcements, and had no way to survive when I cried, so I joined the righteous army. Since the uprising, although there have been many killings, I have finally prided myself as a good citizen of Qin. Now he will enter Sanqin, and he should be the wings of his father. The three evils of Qindi, the harsh tax and corrupt officials Hu Lu, the first two, I have ordered to be eliminated, but Hu Lu is still a big trouble for the people. Since Yingzong, he has robbed me of grain and grass, plundered my wife and children, and burned my house. I have been thinking for a long time, and the key to overcoming the enemy lies in plowing the court and sweeping the holes, Hulu has two important lands, one is called the river Huang, and the other is called the river loop, these two places, the water and grass are fertile and the city is solid, and the thieves are incompetent, and they are all abandoned with Hulu. According to this, there is no danger if you advance, and there is a basis for retreating. However, I thought that the way of heaven was not in Yi in the summer, and I was the lord of Qin, and I should follow the strategy of Mu Gong, and if Yi Di was willing to enter the summer and naturalize, he would be my people, and if he refused, he would be a fox and a wild dog, and he would not be killed by the hunt of spring and autumn. I came out of the list today to inform the three Qin heroes that those who are willing to hunt with me should stand under the military flag. ”

A weak voice in the Imperial Palace was reciting aloud this inscription after Li Zicheng became emperor.

In addition to sometimes holding various ceremonies, the Huangji Palace is actually rarely used for the last dynasty, the Ming Emperor deals with political affairs, generally placed in Fengtianmen, Qianqing Palace and other places, the cabinet every time there is a political matter to discuss, it is to go to the Qianqing Palace to ask the emperor. However, recently, there has been a constant flow of people in the Imperial Palace, and frequent court meetings have been held here again and again.

It is no wonder that in the past six months or so, all kinds of militaristic events, large and small, have been like the lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month in the Taiping year, which are dazzling and dizzying.

Zhang Xianzhong, who wandered in Nanzhili for two months, conquered dozens of prefectures and counties in a row. Following Li Zicheng's example, he renamed the western battalion of the institute as the Great Western Army. And set up officials to manage the place, with a posture of staying in Nanzhili and not leaving. However, when the gentry of Nanzhili fled to Shanghai, he turned his horse's head and turned westward. The whole army of hundreds of thousands of horses and horses marched along the west of the river for hundreds of miles, and the troops approached Yuezhou (now Yueyang, Hunan) in the remote Yuan region, echoing with Li Zicheng's Dashun army across the river.

Li Qiande, the governor of Biyuan, and Kong Xigui, the chief soldier, led 20,000 troops to defend the city and Lingji, and soon retreated to Yuezhou, intending to hold on to the city. On the fifth day of October, Zhang Xianzhong led 200,000 Western troops to besiege Yuezhou. With dozens of artillery pieces bombarding the city walls day and night, Li Gande saw that the situation was not good, and Xu Jing, the same superintendent, fled to Changsha with the army. The Great Western Army then occupied Yuezhou and opened the door to Hunan Province.

Then. Zhang Xianzhong marched south and arrived in Changsha on 23 October. Li Qiande, the governor of Biyuan, Liu Xizuo, the governor of Huguang, and Kong Xigui, the general soldier, fled to Hengzhou (now Hengyang) with King Ji who was sealed in Changsha and King Hui, who had taken refuge from Jingzhou, and defected to King Gui. On the 25th, Yin Xianmin and He Yide, deputy commanders of the Ming Dynasty, led the officers and troops of the department to surrender. After occupying Changsha, the rebels continued to advance towards Hengzhou. King Hui of Ming and King Gui prepared to flee to Guangxi through Yongzhou under the protection of the official army; As a result, Zhang Kewang was caught up by light horses, and all the Hui royal family were slaughtered, although King Gui escaped, he was too frightened. He died of illness within a few days. King Ji fled to Lianzhou, Guangdong Province under the support of the military generals Tang Zhizhong and Yang Guodong, and soon died of illness due to excessive fright.

Zhang Xianzhong is based in Changsha and Yuezhou. The division of troops to collect the counties near the left, not to mention the recruitment of troops, but also the dispatch of officials to carry out the so-called benevolent government of the Western King everywhere, is basically the same as the money and grain tax system practiced by Li Zicheng in Henan, Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi, and Li Huayu in Shandong. They are all popular with the small people of Shengdou and make the official gentry clan change color.

King Ji occupied 700,000 to 800,000 mu of fertile land in Changsha and Shanhua counties alone. It accounts for four-tenths of the total amount of land in the two counties, and occupies 6,895 mu of grain fields in Liling County. The king of Chu will not say the number of land occupied, but he collects as much as 21,300 taels of silver and 23,837 stones of grain every year. King Rong collected 1,800 taels of land rent and 96 taels of mountain swords and axes in Taoyuan County, Hunan alone. Under the blow of the Great Western Army, the largest land occupiers such as the King of Chu, King Ji, King Gui, King Rong, and King Min who were divided into Huguang were not exterminated. It's a long way away. These lands, mountains and forests that have been looted from the hands of the small people over the years have been handed over to the people who are now cultivating in accordance with the law discussed by Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Kewang, and Zhang Dingguo's father and son.

At the beginning of the occupation of Changsha, Zhang Xianzhong issued a famous inscription: "The Lone Heavenly Soldiers are coming to Changsha, and the two prefectures and three prefectures will be surrendered within one day." Deputy commander-in-chief Yin Xianmin and He Yide led the troops to serve Shun, that is, they were willing to march forward into Jiangxi. Lonely and Jiazhi, Feng Xianmin, a German hereditary uncle, the generals of the department are all general soldiers. The prefect of Shengyue Prefecture and the former Zhu Chaotong sentenced Weibi to be the commander of the sub-patrol and supervision of Yue Dao, and Lu Fengqi of Puqi County was promoted to the prefect. The people of the prefecture and county to which they belong are happy to work as usual, and the money and grain are exempted for three years. The military and civilians should all surrender to the army and avoid slaughter. The heavenly soldiers are coming to the city, the jade is burned, and there is no regret. ”

On November 22, the Great Western Army conquered Changde, the hometown of Yang Sichang, the sworn enemy of the peasant armies of various departments. Several times, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others were almost defeated and killed under the pursuit of his commanders. Now at this time, can you expect Zhang Xianzhong to be as personable as the chairman, protect the houses and graves in Xikou, and not move a single grass or tree?

"According to Zhu thief Yang, in the past, he had transferred soldiers and horses from all over the world to dare to resist the heavenly soldiers. A certain luck died early in my sword. Now past Wuling, his house, soil field, and grave are here. It's enough to just not return to obedience, so why not tie up with the township gentlemen and set up groups everywhere. The nine tribes were punished, the graves were dug up, and the houses were burned down. Occupy the land and return the small people. Those who catch a person surnamed Yang will be rewarded with ten taels of silver, and those who catch their children and grandchildren and brothers will be rewarded with a thousand gold. For this card look up to the house. ”

After issuing this order, Zhou Shengkai, the prefect of Changde, and Wang Yuwei, the manager, immediately complied with the order. Yang Sichang's grave was dug up by the Great Western Army, and the coffin was opened and the body was killed.

Almost most of the province was occupied by the bloodless Great Western Army, except for a few counties in Xiangxi that were controlled by Tusi. Even Jiangxi and other prefectures and counties, which are bordering the Yuanyuan, are also shaken by the hearts of the people, and the government at all levels is caught in a chaos of rumors and trees. The card of the Great Western Army was passed to southern Jiangxi, and the Ming Dynasty bureaucrats in the state capital were so frightened that the chickens and dogs left, and Sun Lan, the king of the Southern Jiangxi Army, hanged himself to death.

Qiu Yanghuan, Lu Nanyang and others, the leaders of the shantytowns in Wanzai County, took advantage of the situation and announced that they would join the eight kings of Xiying. On the 5th day of the first month of October. Qiu Yanghuan led his troops to capture the capital city of Yuanzhou (Fuzhi Yichun County). In line with the principle of not allowing others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch, Zuo Liangyu immediately sent Wu Xueli, the deputy commander-in-chief, to command 5,000 troops from Jiujiang in the north to fight for Yuanzhou. In Zuo Liangyu's opinion, my soldiers can't beat Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and I can't provoke Li Shouhan. Really. Qiu's combat effectiveness was too poor, the soldiers lacked combat experience, Yuan Zhou was captured by Zuo Liangyu's soldiers and horses, and Qiu Yanghuan himself was captured and beheaded.

After the Ming army reoccupied Yuanzhou, they raped and plundered everywhere, and slaughtered indiscriminately, causing great disasters to the local people. There are many records in the historical books, only an example can be seen: "A resident of Yichun Jiangdong, the left soldier entered his hometown to search the mountains. Kill all those who are hidden. or a soldier who kills dozens of heads. When he entered a certain residence and let his cannon be branded and killed, everyone thought that the officers and soldiers did not dare to commit it. A certain said: 'Murderers are thieves too.' Is there any reason in the world for officers and soldiers to kill people? I am willing to abandon my dwelling and the burnt people, and I can slow down a little, otherwise there will be no such thing. So they obeyed their covenant, and burned them at night. When the soldiers saw the fire, they scattered silver on the ground and said, 'Take gold.'" A certain person said: 'This tempts me.' 'Burn it as hard as you can. So they flew to the sword pond to defend themselves. The area around the pond was spared from the trouble of the left soldiers. This is very similar to an army hundreds of years later, which is incapable of dealing with foreign enemies, but is good at slaughtering the people of their own country. Only to kill Jiangxi is thatched grass over fire, stone over knife. People have to change their species; Only kill Dabie Mountain, and you can use the corpses of ordinary people to build bridges. It is even more outrageous that it claims to be a government army. The darkest and most evil human trade was played, and the division commanders and army commanders transported dozens of truckloads of women to Hankou and Nanjing to sell them! What the bandits can't do, the generals of the dignified national government are all doing it like a fish in water and are handy! Moreover, if it is in relatively remote and backward places such as Qinghai and Gansu, these things are done by the barbaric and backward feudal armed forces of the Ma Jiajun. This land is also better washed, but this is a dignified Central Army, and it is in the heart of the Nationalist Government, and the women are sold to Hankou and Shanghai, which are big cities full of Republic of China style!

So. If it weren't for the sake of resisting Japan and changing the environment, the **** prisoners of war who were massacred by the Japanese army in Nanjing would be worthy of the four words "Evil".

With such an army as the vanguard for Zhang Xianzhong, the common people in Jiangxi and other places naturally "made danger in the mountains to resist officers and soldiers" and "soldiers and people vendetta killings". Bi Dengyun, a general of the Great Western Army, led the troops from Pingxiang, "the people of the people and the cattle and wine welcome the thieves, and the roads belong to each other." There were even many things that could not be laughed at: the dignified governor of Jiangxi, Lu Daqi, took his soldiers and horses to Xiajiang, and was killed by the people of Xiajiang County, and took away eight horses. Lu Daqi had no choice but to make a plan and sent his subordinates to pretend to be the team of the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong. The people of Xiajiang County were careless and gullible, opened the door and came out to greet them, offering the county seal, 25 horses and a large amount of grain and grass. As a result, after eating and drinking enough, Governor Lu's face changed and he began to calculate the change of heaven. And so on and so forth.

By the end of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the Great Western Army had set up local officials in most of the prefectures and counties in Biyuan and in Yuanzhou and Ji'an in Jiangxi. After learning that Li Shouhan's Nanyue army began to approach from southern Jiangxi to the north, and carefully weighed the pros and cons, Zhang Xianzhong began to prepare for a strategic shift. He ordered Zhang Kewang to stay in Changsha, supervise the local squire, the original Ming Dynasty who submitted to Xiying, Shi Kejing, who was appointed as the governor of Changsha Chenzhou Changde, and others, to hold Changsha Yuezhou and other places, he led the army from Yuezhou to move north, broke through Xianning and Puqi, and began to march to Wuchang!

For a time, the banners of the Great Western Army of Biyuan and Jiangxi Provinces came from east to west like a cloud. And Zuo Liangyu's department was cowering in Jiujiang City, watching Zhang Xianzhong's brigade pass by day and night, going to Wuchang in an endless stream, but he never even had the courage to go out of the city to intercept.

However, when Zhang Xianzhong's brigade drove over from Jiujiang, he never thought that his move was an excellent excuse for Zuo Liangyu, who was cramped in a corner of Jiujiang. After saying this, he plundered the Jiujiang army on a large scale, pulled out all the young and middle-aged men in almost the entire Jiujiang area, forcibly incorporated them into the army, and then rushed westward as if flying. It was the naval division of the Nanyue Army that sent gunboats to intercept the news after learning the news in Anqing. can only intercept his guards, a group of more than 100,000 strong men who have just been forcibly conscripted, but Zuo Liangyu's old foundation has fled.

At this time, Wuchang, an important town in Jianghan, was already in danger, with Li Zicheng's troops pressing the border in the west and north, and Zhang Xianzhong's troops coming from Zhang Xianzhong's troops in the east. The city of Wuchang is in chaos, there is a shortage of soldiers and salaries, and the day is precarious. Zhu Huakui, the king of Chu who was sealed here. Over the years, he has accumulated a huge amount of wealth. The only thing left behind by the civil and military officials in the provincial capital was to hope that Zhu Huakui, the king of Chu, could come up with money to raise troops and fortify them like the king of Zhou in Kaifeng, so that Wuchang could support the arrival of reinforcements.

The officials of Hu Guangbu's political envoy department, the inspection envoy department, and the command envoy department gathered in the palace, knelt in front of Zhu Huakui, and asked him to lend hundreds of thousands of taels of silver as military salaries. He Fengsheng, the former university scholar of the family, also met with Zhu Huakui to discuss the salary measures. Zhu Huakui asked someone to move out of a gold-wrapped chair given to the king of Chu when he divided the princes during the Hongwu period, and said: "This can be used to support the army, he has nothing!" He Fengsheng gave up hope and left the house crying. Until the situation is very critical. Zhu Huakui took out the money to recruit stragglers who fled from Chengtian (Ling Zhongxiang) and De'an (now Anlu), and designated Shi Xu Xueyan, the governor of Chu Prefecture, to lead him, known as the new soldiers of Chu Mansion, and not let other civil and military officials interfere.

At this time, he is bent on mastering this team, whether he wants to learn from Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and use this group of "recruits" to establish a vigorous career, we naturally don't know. But this batch of "recruits". All of them were frightened birds that were defeated by Li Zicheng's camp, and they were all stragglers. Characters such as soldier oil, battalion bastard, etc., it's no problem to cheat military salaries, and fight wars? Their 100-meter sprint and hurdles are no worse than their ex-husbands with a grenade hidden in their crotch!

On the fifth day of the first month, the vanguard of Zhang Xianzhong's righteous army crossed the river from Tuanfengzhou to Kewuchang County. On the eighth day of the first month, the whole army of Xianzhong crossed south from Yadanzhou. On the 10th, he attacked the city of Wuchangfu. Ming Daochen Wang Yanji saw that the situation was not good. Fu Shangrui, the governor of Wuchang Mansion, abandoned the city and fled. The recruits of the Chu Mansion immediately opened the security guards and surrendered at the second gate of Wenchang. After the rebels entered the city, they captured Zhu Huakui alive, "taking millions of gold and silver in the palace, and carrying hundreds of carts." ”

Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but sigh when he saw it: "With such money, you can't set up a guard, Zhu Huzi is really mediocre!" "Ordered Zhu Huakui to be thrown into the river and drowned. After He Fengsheng was captured, Zhang Xianzhong released him and returned home. However, He said. "My minister, don't survive", he ran to the Ziyang Lake Wanghui Bridge and threw himself into the water and died. This is much stronger than the water being too cold, and people are really martyrdom, not showing it to others.

After Zhang Xianzhong occupied Wuchang, he formally established Daxi, changed the provincial capital of Wuchang to the capital, and cast the treasure of the king of the west; Wuchang Mansion was changed to Tianzhu Mansion, and Jiangxia County was changed to Shangjiang County. Zhang Xianzhong lived in the palace of the king of Chu, and two large flags were set up in front of the door, which read: "Heaven and people return, recruit talents!" ”； The nine city gates of Wuchang also set up two flags, which read: "The world is quiet, and the town is in all directions." The central government has six ministries and five prefectures; The capital has five city terracotta divisions; Zhou Wenjiang, the governor of Shunzhou, was promoted to the secretary of the military department, and Zhang Qi was the former military governor of the general army. The local government took Li Shirong as the governor, Xie Fengzhou as the guard, Xiao Yan as the patrol, and Chen Yuliu as the learner, all of whom were awarded the seal. Zhou Zongwen is the prefect of Tianzhufu, Shen Huilin is the prefect of Hanyang Fu, and Huang Yuankai is the prefect of Huangzhou Fu; In addition, officials from twenty-one prefectures and counties were appointed, each with official seals, and rewarded with one hundred taels or several dozen taels of silver.

"The Bamboo Record" records a small story about raising military salaries after Zhang Xianzhong entered Hubei: "Offering thieves to rob a certain imperial historian, there are all hidden from the door to the bed. There were a lot of people who were shocked. A thief said, 'I am tired of this generation for my generation.' One thief said, 'For this generation I will be born.' 'Oh, the two thieves are also stubborn. It can be a slap for the doctor. "As for the confiscation of the family property of the Ming clan as military salaries, Zhu Huakui, the king of Chu, is a typical example.

In various historical books, there are many records of Zhang Xianzhong's occupation of Wuchang, but there are also many unscrutinizing and even contradictory arguments. Wu Weiye, a great genius who wrote the "Round Song", wrote "Suikou Jiluo" is a relatively reliable book, and it is also said that after the Great Western Army broke the city, "men over 15 and 20 years old were recorded as soldiers, and Yu Lianxiang was killed, and the thief with a knife took off his wrist, but he pretended to open the Hanyang Gate and went to it, the door forced the water, the people shouted and shouted, the iron horse surrounded and the river was in the middle of the river, from the parrot island to the Taoist priest, the floating ants moved, the water did not flow for more than a month, the human fat was thick and tired, and the fish and turtles were not edible", which was simply depicted tragically. He also said that the rebels had put all the beautiful women into the "mother-in-law camp" and "collected their value for the army."

However, Wu Weiye also said in another place in the same book: "At the beginning, he was loyal to Wuchang and had great ambitions, so he did not kill much in the city. Try the inscription poem Yellow Crane Tower, so that its subordinates and. Fraudulently collect people's hearts and send money to help refugees in Wuchang and Hanyang. This passage somewhat reveals a little bit of the actual situation at that time. Volume 16 of "Huailing Liukou Always Records" also says: "Women are used to set up a camp for their mothers-in-law, and they receive their nightly money as military supplies." Since it is said that almost all the people in the city were killed by dedication, and the ordinary soldiers of the rebel army were not allowed to hide their money privately, where did the "night of the night" come from? It can be seen that rumor-mongering also needs to be level.

It was the officials and troops of Zuo Liangyu's department who really ravaged the residents of the Wuchang area. Wei Xianyan, a local, recorded that on December 16, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the officers and troops of the left army fled from Fancheng to Hankou Town,...... And the people of Qiu Zhen are also very brave, so they live in their homes because of their salaries, eat their food because of dung, wealth their wealth, women and their wives, and men build knives and arrows to chase them. On the second day of Yue, the king of Wancheng and the general of the army were sent to cross the river. Stationed in Jinsha Jiangzhou, outside the provincial capital (referring to Wuchang). The people of Zhou were poisoned by it, and they were the same as Hankow. The two towns are old and wealthy, and the first is in the whole Chu, and it will be wiped out in a few days. What does it mean to "live in the house because of the salary, eat the food because of the dung, wealth and wealth, and women and women"? live in other people's houses, and set fire to them; Eating other people's food, pooping and peeing in food, stealing other people's property, raping other people's women. What kind of thing can only be done by a man who is inferior to a beast? It can be seen that the "mother-in-law battalion" is nothing more than a refractive reflection of the left army's bestiality, and it is also the left army's "building a sword and chasing him".

In contrast, Zhang Xianzhong, the murderer who was portrayed by literati as a murderer for fun, strictly forbade arbitrary slaughter. In the sixth year of Kangxi's "Yuanzhou Mansion Chronicles", volume 20, "Last Things" recorded that Liu Xianting said: "I heard that Zhang Xianzhong came to Hengzhou and did not kill anyone. To ask Lou Shenggong, it is indeed true. "Guangyang Miscellaneous Records" Volume 2) Gu Yanwu's "Ming Ji Records" appendix Cangwu Brother "Youyang Miscellaneous Writings" also said: "Those who commit Hengyang are the fourth son of the thief Zhang Xianzhong...... Zhao Gongzi saw that his march was forty miles long, and when he saw the horses, he robbed them, and did not kill the many people. ”

Zhang Xianzhong ascended the throne in Wuchang and declared himself Emperor of the Great West. Far away from him, Li Zicheng, who had already captured Xi'an, also ascended the throne on the first day of the first month of the first month and became the emperor, with the country name Dashun and the name Yongchang. changed Xi'an to Chang'an, called Xijing; Take the palace of the King of Qin as the palace. and the compilation of almanacs.

In addition to these, it is also a meritorious service, a fixed official system, a military system, a fixed wealth, a new money, and a scholar. Everything is like the founding of the country.

The cabinet was changed to the Heavenly Blessing Palace, and the university was set up to serve as a military and state officer, with Niu Venus as it. Song Xiance was a military advisor. The central administrative agency is six governments, and the six governments in the Xiangyang period only have one squire, and at this time Shangshu and Shilang are added as the head of the government; The subordinate member changed the middle lang to the middle lang, and the principal was engaged. Hanlin Temple is the Hongwen Museum, the six departments are the counselors, the imperial history is the direct commander, the Shangbao Temple is the Shangqi Division, the Taifu Temple is the Horse Inspection Temple, and the General Administration Department is the political envoy.

"General Quan, General System, Marquis; General Guo Yi, mighty general Feng Bo, son, male. There are Ruhou Liu Zongmin, Zehou Tian Jianxiu, Qihou Guying, Bohou Li Jin (Li Guo), Cihou Liu Fangliang, Yihou Zhang Nai, Mianhou Yuan Zongdi, Huaihou Liu Guochang, Yuehou ......"

Reading Li Zicheng, the newly enthroned Emperor Dashun, the canonization of the meritorious hero, the official couldn't help but peek at Chongzhen on the throne, quickly retracted his gaze, and just lowered his eyebrows and continued to read the list. (To be continued.) )

PS: There are many historical sources cited in this chapter, but if you don't use it, it is difficult to describe that turbulent and magnificent era for a while.