In the Spring Festival of the seventeenth year, there was no joy in the huge Forbidden City.

Although Emperor Chongzhen has been repeatedly hit by the bad news of defeat in his more than ten years of emperor history, he has never been so desperate at this time.

The last army capable of fighting in the Guannai is also finished, how else can he deal with Li Zicheng?

The latter swept through Guanzhong, swept through the northwest, and everywhere he went, hundreds of civil and military officials surrendered one after another, and urgent documents flew to his desk like snowflakes. Outsiders can't understand his sad and desperate mood at the moment.

The three towns of Hetao, Guyuan, and Gansu in the important towns of the nine borders have all been surrendered to Li Zicheng, and Hanzhong has also been surrendered.

"Three hundred years of Ming monks, there is no one to care?" What Emperor Chongzhen hates most in his heart at this moment is not Li Zicheng, but those shameless civil and military who live up to the emperor's grace, the despicable gentry who grovel to Li Zicheng.

Fortunately, there is also a Yulin town in Guanzhong that is loyal. Emperor Chongzhen felt a trace of long-lost warmth in his heart.

Even this warmth was mixed with a biting cold-he got the news that Li Zicheng had taken the approach of saluting first and then soldiering to solve the Yulin problem. The debater Shu Junrui was sent to surrender to the generals of Yulin with 50,000 taels of silver, and at the same time ordered Li Guo and Liu Fangliang to lead an army of 70,000 to march later, so that they could be attacked by force if they failed to persuade them to surrender. Seeing that the general situation was gone, Wang Ding, the chief soldier of Yulin, used the excuse of transferring troops to the Mongolian tribe and fled with dozens of cronies. When Wang Ding was appointed as the chief soldier of Yulin, he also wrote that he would do his best to repay the emperor's kindness, and he was really despicable and shameless.

But the wind knows the strength of the grass, the board knows the loyal ministers, and the Ming Dynasty is still loyal. Yulin Dao Ren hurriedly summoned the deputy general Hui Xian, the general Liu Tingjie and others, as well as the generals You Shiwei, You Shilu and Wang Shiqin, Wang Shiguo, Hou Shilu, Hou Gongji, Wang Xueshu and Li Changling, the former general of Yansui, to discuss the defense of the city.

The two armies fought fiercely for seven days and nights, the city of Yulin was broken, You Shiwei, Wang Shiqin, Wang Shiguo, Li Changling and others were captured, sent to Chang'an, and died unyieldingly.

One after another bad news came, and the emergency documents in many places had not yet been sent to Beijing, and the magistrate first restrained Li Zicheng, in such an environment, it is strange that Emperor Chongzhen can have a good year.

At the end of the first month, bad news came from the northwest again, and the last stronghold of the Ming Dynasty in the northwest, Xiningwei, was also finished.

Loyal to the Ming Dynasty, Tusi Qi Tingji, Lu Yinchang and others successively killed the general Lu Wenbin and the general He Jin. The latter was originally the No. 3 person in the Fifth Battalion of the Revolutionary Left, He Yilong, who was only killed, and Ma Shouying (Lao Huihui), who died of illness in Jingzhou, stood on Li Zicheng's side in the internal strife of the people's army, so he had to be named a general.

After Lu Wenbin was killed, He Jin was bent on revenge, and immediately fell into the strategy and was killed by Qi Tingzhi and Lu Yinchang. But the strength of the Xining Wei people is weak, He Jin's light soldiers rushed into an ambush and died, and the strength of his subordinates depended, and the whole army was filled with grief and indignation, and the army entered the plateau, and easily conquered Xining City, and captured Tusi Qi Tingzhi alive.

At this point, the strongholds of the Ming army in the entire northwest region have been completely uprooted, and the civilian army has crossed the river to the east to seize the Beijing division, and the rear has been stabilized.

Emperor Chongzhen felt a deep crisis. Although between him and Li Zicheng's army, there were still mountains and rivers in the west of Jinxi, as well as soldiers and horses in the two towns of Datong and Xuanfu, but they were more than enough to defend and not enough to attack. The Ming army was defeated again and again, and all the mobile forces were completely defeated. When Li Zicheng called, he resisted it temporarily, and it was not a long-term solution. If so, the idea of going south in his heart is even worse.

Why did Emperor Chongzhen refuse Jiang Dejing's invitation in the first place? One of the big reasons is that he already has the idea of moving south in his heart.

But he regrets it a little now, he shouldn't have refused Jiang Dejing's invitation in the first place.

Is Zheng Zhilong still very loyal, even if he is a little rebellious, but at the critical moment, he can ignore it.

If he really arrives, there will be no obstacle to moving south.

But the wood is already in the boat, and everything is over.

Now Li Zicheng's army has entered the western part of Jin, but the imperial court has no troops to defend there. Zhou Yuji and Cai Maode, the governor of western Jinxi, respectively arranged river defenses and asked the Beijing division for help, but the Beijing division had no troops to adjust, and only symbolically sent the deputy general Xiong Tong to lead 2,000 soldiers to help in the battle.

The Yellow River defense line was vulnerable.

The standard battalion under Governor Cai Maode was only about 3,000 men. He was originally stationed in Pingyang, but the western part of Jinxi was adjacent to Guanzhong from the beginning of Hequ City, only separated by a Yellow River, up and down for more than a thousand miles, and all of them were frozen in winter, and they could be crossed at any time, and they were not defended by a small number of troops at all. Cai Maode was ordered by Emperor Chongzhen to guard the river. But he had no soldiers or pay in his hands, and there was nothing he could do. When he was about to die in Pingyang, the king of Jin urged him to hurry back to Taiyuan and protect the provincial capital with all his might. Because at that time, not only was the Yellow River west of Pingyang in danger, but also near the meanders of the river, it was also rumored that the people's army was crossing the river, that is to say, Li Zicheng's men and horses not only had to march from Pingyang, but also from the north to take the pass and surround Taiyuan from the north. Therefore, in the city of Taiyuan, when the wealthy gentry arrived from the Jin royal family, they were very scared and urged the governor Cai Maode to go back to defend the city. Cai Maode knew that if Taiyuan was lost, it would be even more difficult for him to apologize to the emperor. Therefore, when the Dashun army crossed the river with a small force from Hancheng, he hurriedly returned to Taiyuan with 2,000 pacesetters, and handed over the heavy responsibility of guarding the Yellow River to Chen Shangzhi, the deputy commander-in-chief who was originally stationed in Pingyang. The latter simply surrendered. In this way, there was no more Ming army south of Taiyuan.

After Li Zicheng arrived in Chang'an, the people from all over the western Jin Dynasty spread the word about how benevolent and righteous Li Zicheng was and how strict the discipline of the people and horses was, and they were waiting for Li Zicheng's army to surrender as soon as he arrived. Sure enough, after the people's army crossed the river, the military discipline was indeed very good, and I read the proclamation of Liu Zongmin, the chief general of the battalion. Therefore, from December of the sixteenth year, there has been a situation of welcoming surrender everywhere. Zhang Yiran, the prefect of Pingyang, surrendered and was reused. Shen Jiayan, the great squire of Pingyang, fled to the mountains, was captured by the house slaves, and sacrificed to the people's army. Liu Zongmin was very angry because he was rich and unkind, and ordered him to be severely tortured, forcing him to hand over all the gold, silver, treasure, and grain in his family, and then execute him. This incident made the people of Binh Duong Province very happy.

But even with the lessons of Shen Jiayan, the states and counties in the central and southern parts of western Shanxi are still falling like a tide.

Emperor Chongzhen can only sigh "The people's hearts are so far"?

The soldiers of the People's Army have forced to Taiyuan, and I don't know how long Cai Maode can hold out?

"Long live, Hanlin Scholar Li Mingrui to meet you."

"Announce quickly." The sadness on Emperor Chongzhen's face flickered, and his expression became more vivid.

"Li Mingrui, a scholar of Hanlin, long live my emperor." Li Mingrui knows very well what he was being announced for this time.

Last time, it was also here, and among the people who were privately summoned by Emperor Chongzhen at that time were Hubu Shangshu, Zuodu Yushi Li Banghua, and the former governor of Jiujiang Military Government, Lu Daqi.

Li Mingrui bluntly persuaded Chongzhen to give up Yanjing and move south as soon as possible.

"Now Liukou has entered Jin, it is close to Gyeonggi, the northern capital is in danger, and if you want the society to be stable, the only feasible strategy is to move the capital to Jinling and guard across the river." Although none of the small courts in the south were able to fight back to the north in history. But that didn't stop him from saying a lot of things about the scene.

What to recuperate, what to accumulate strength, to revive the dynasty, to support the country, and so on.

Emperor Chongzhen at that time was overjoyed when he heard it, but Chongzhen also had his concerns, and said: "Your will is in harmony with me, but the ministers outside do not obey, what can I do?" "The strength of the northerners in the Ming court is not weak.

Once this court moves south, although the scene can be said in a bunch of words, but what is the truth, although I don't understand it in my heart?

Moving south means abandoning the north. The damage to the Northland bureaucracy is too great.

The Ming Dynasty will be able to come back to life in the future, and I don't know how many years it will take.

Li Mingrui said: "The destiny of heaven is subtle, and the sacred heart should be cut off internally, so as not to worry about devouring the umbilicus." "And please Chongzhen don't hesitate to make a decision as soon as possible.

But Emperor Chongzhen couldn't make up his mind, because he didn't want to bear the charge of abandoning the ancestral temple, and he hoped that the ministers would write to persuade him to go south, and then push the boat down the river himself, instead of his 'Qiangang arbitrariness' decision to move south, so that the history books were infamous.

"At present, the sea route is blocked, and only the land route is feasible. His Majesty can take Shandong, pretend to sacrifice the name of Confucius, and once the holy car arrives in Qufu, he can quickly whip his horse to the south, and then send an edict to Liu Zhaoji to meet him, and he can be stable within ten days. In the south of the Yangtze River, there are Wei Guogong and Shi Benbing, all of whom are loyal to the imperial court. ”