It is already the sixteenth day of the lunar month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and it will soon enter the last stage of the year.

However, all the ministries and yamen in the capital did not prepare for the New Year in the slightest, and the officials and scribes were pretending to be nervous and busy, making a diligent appearance of political affairs, lest they be found wrong by their superiors.

On the streets, the guys of the shops everywhere are also seizing the time to sell their own business for the best and last bit of business opportunity at the end of the year, but it is bustling and lively.

The sudden sound of horses' hooves came from the burnt ash pavement of the wharf outside Chaoyangmen, knocking on people's hearts, and couldn't help but make many people's hearts suddenly, is there a place to lose the battle?!

Because the comers and the previous victors rushed into the Beijing Division, lest others not know that they had won the battle, they waved the victory in their hands all the way and shouted hoarsely: "Great victory, great victory!" "It's different, neither did he write his own exploits on it with a huge banner, nor did he shout loudly along the way to show off, but he rode his horse and galloped.

"I'm afraid it's a bad omen!" Several shopkeepers who set up shops outside Chaoyang Gate unanimously made such a conclusion in their hearts. "Tell the brothers and sisters, from now on, no credit! Tell the customers that we will settle the bill with silver dollars, and if we settle the bill with Nanzhong Tongbao, we can only collect it according to the price, and if we give silver dollars, we can give a discount! Then, after the sacrificial stove collects the accounts, you have to move quickly, at least eighty percent of it must be recovered from the shop. ”

"Shopkeeper, why is this?!" Although the big guys in the store have been doing business with the shopkeeper for many years, they will not be able to figure out the shopkeeper's plan for a while.

"Confused!" The shopkeeper with some gray hair on his sideburns, who was old and mature, looked around, lowered his voice and shouted to the big guy: "Haven't you seen how many battles have been defeated recently?!" The thieves hit Tongguan. How many rich and powerful people in Xi'an City fled across the Yellow River to our Shanxi? It's also unstable outside the border, maybe when, a big chaos is just around the corner! When the time comes, let's flee, and it is better to escape with some silver, and carry so many treasures. How to escape?! ”

The shrewd and capable big guy rolled his eyes, and suddenly frowned: "Master, if this is the case, everyone is throwing copper coins out and exchanging them for silver dollars, wouldn't it be cheap silver again?" Why don't we take out the silver dollars and silver stored in the shop and exchange them for copper coins, even if it is exchanged for raw copper, and then cast into bronze and sold, it is a good deal! ”

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment. Immediately relieved. Nodding, he praised the apprentice he had trained single-handedly for having such an opinion, but the matter was serious, and he had to write a letter to report the general number as soon as possible.

"Or cast bronze ware for sale, or in the capital to exchange Tongbao to Liaodong, Korea, Mongolia, Wa and other places, you can get huge profits!" The shopkeeper said in a letter to the Shanxi General Account.

When the messenger delivered the documents to the military headquarters, all the officials were dumbfounded. The squire on duty finally came back to his senses and picked up the document of good fortune stamped with the seals of the governors of Shandong and Denglai. And he ran to the imperial city.

Wang Dehua, the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, took the good news with his own hands, and ran towards the Qianqing Palace in a trembling manner.

East Warm Pavilion in the Qianqing Palace. It was a gloomy fog. The palace maids and eunuchs who served were all silent, lest they would follow their fate and cause trouble.

These days, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen has been vigorous in his liver, and he is angry in the Qianqing Palace at every turn, and there have been several unlucky eunuchs and palace maids who have inadvertently offended the scales. He was dragged out by his order and killed on the spot.

The Central Plains is erosive, the thieves are like entering a no-man's land, Sun Chuanting's army of more than 100,000 people was scattered overnight, and was eaten by the thieves.

What made Chongzhen even more annoyed, in Xiangyang, Li Zicheng openly established a title, set up a political regime, and granted official positions, as if a regime was fighting against him. In the "Suppression of Soldiers and the People" issued by him, he denounced "the Ming Dynasty is unkind, favors eunuchs, heavy subjects, corrupt taxes, heavy punishments, and cannot save the people." The Japanese army ran out of brigades, plundered people's property, raped people's wives and daughters, sucked the marrow and stripped the skin". This is undoubtedly pointing at Chongzhen's nose and scolding him for being a bastard, and then, he changed Xiangyang to Xiangjing, with Niu Jinxing as the prime minister, and set up six governments, and local defense history, government, state, and county adjutant, and threatened to open a branch to open a way for poor scholars in the world.

In addition to the establishment of political power, it is also the reorganization of the thieves under his command, and the battalions and posts that have already begun to take shape are divided into five battalions of the center, left, right, front, and rear of the siege field and local defenders, and Li Zicheng, the generalissimo of Fengtian Advocate Righteousness, has a general Quan, a general, a general Guoyi, and a mighty general, and has an "elite army" composed of one or twenty cavalry and infantry. The old, weak, sick and disabled, or non-elite soldiers and soldiers, who were left behind, were sent to various places for reclamation, and the Generalissimo's Office provided them with iron farming tools, seeds, and a part of rations, and let them reclaim the fields in the prefectures and counties.

In this way, how can Chongzhen's heart not be burned? The so-called is not afraid of the rogue to burn and kill, but is afraid that the rogue will not burn and kill.

As stated in the inscription of Xu Yilian, the imperial history of the Ming Dynasty inspection of Shaanxi tea horses: "?? Chuang, Cao and other more than a million people, do not dare to take the front, go to the year Lu Shen Zhongzhou, this spring fell to Mochu Province, six prefectures and counties, invincible, all left the puppet officials to defend, knot my people's hearts, in order to become a prairie fire. And the thieves and soldiers are four, the wolf runs to the three Qin, the Han soldiers are short of pay for more than a year, the soldiers are violent, they are not necessarily powerful, the city is shallow, and it is very cold. ”

In this regard, the Qing people outside the customs can see it, "He is a civil and military official, big and small, all bought with money." The lack of strategy in the text, the lack of courage in the martial arts, the management of military horses and horses will reduce the military money, the equipment will reduce the official money, the military horses will not make a living, the equipment is not practical, why should the soldiers use their lives? Every time he goes out on the expedition, he is called the king of Qin, blindly robbing, as the saying goes, 'Dazi thieves are combs, and their own soldiers and horses are better than grates.' Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong, said with deep feelings: "With the strength of the Qing people, in the past, it was not as good as a large county in China, and the strength of the naval battle was still comparable. Now they have made ten times as many cannons and medicines as me, robbed horses and equipment a hundred times as many as me, captured more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians of Ding Zhuang, and robbed more than 100,000 treasures.

Therefore, although some people found that after the death of Huang Taiji, the Qing army "Yesterday outside the Kou Pass. Seek and return, not subordinate civil strife, that is, the group of chiefs compete for power", it is recommended to "take advantage of their funeral, the small chieftain is the first to stand, and secretly spy on it." Surprise troops, contact Korea, and cross the sea to make them suspicious of each other, and there is a period of extermination", Emperor Chongzhen also issued an edict saying that "what the virtuous Qing played, it is very appropriate", but the cabinet and the Ministry of War have a detailed calculation, and it seems that there are no available soldiers in the hands of the imperial court at the moment! There is no silver to be filled!

The bigwigs are very clear. If you take advantage of the fact that the new masters of the Liao thieves are standing up and the internal situation is not very stable, they will advance by land and water to attack Liaodong, this plan is not impossible. But where is the imperial water division? Will the Nanyue Army Naval Division be used? Where are the soldiers on land? Sun Chuanting was newly defeated, Zuo Liangyu was defeated, and the imperial court had no soldiers and horses that could be maneuvered, so he reluctantly ordered Wu Sangui in Liaodong to send troops. I'm afraid that Guan Ningjun will need it in every possible way. In the end, I still have to ask Liang Guogong for help.

However, although this Liang Guogong was very kind. But the means are ruthless. I am afraid that after serving the imperial court with food and weapons, the imperial court will lose some local rights and interests and the like. At that time, there was a lot of uproar among the scholars everywhere, and I was afraid that the cabinet would not be able to stand it.

Therefore, this matter has to be foolish.

However, you don't get your hands dirty. It doesn't mean that Dorgon won't do nothing.

Huang Taiji's coffin was still parked in the Chongzheng Hall and was not transported to the Beiling Tomb in Shenyang for burial, so Dolgon couldn't wait to let Prince Zheng Jierharang, Yingjun King Azig and other princes and ministers release their mourning clothes, change into military uniforms, and set out to conquer the Ming Dynasty. They went to the hall to blow the snail trumpet and salute the heavens. After three cannon shots, it marched westward. At the end of September, the Qing army used red-coated artillery to bombard the city, captured the Ming Dynasty's stronghold outside the Guan, captured more than 20 guerrilla Wu Liangbi and other officials, and captured more than 4,000 horse infantry. Then marched to the front guard, conquered it on the first day of October, beheaded more than 30 officers such as Li Fuming, the general soldier, more than 4,000 soldiers, captured more than 2,000, and countless livestock utensils. When Huang Huang, the chief soldier of the former guard, heard that the front guard had been lost, he was so frightened that he abandoned the city and fled, so that the Qing army conquered the city without a fight. The so-called Zhonghou Office, Qiantun Guard, Zhongqian Office, that is, Guangning Zhonghou Office, Guangning Qiantun Guard, Guangning Zhongqian Office, they are the three important strongholds between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan, after the Qing army captured Jinzhou, at this time and Lianke three towns, cut off the connection between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan, so that Ningyuan is lonely outside the pass, sooner or later will be captured by the Qing army. At this point, a large area of land outside the customs was obtained by the Qing army, and it was only a matter of time before they entered the customs and competed for power.

Although after the fact, Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Liaodong, had no words to defend himself except for asking for guilt, but only said that he was ineffective in controlling the battalions, and even expressed his intention to recapture the above-mentioned city, but Emperor Chongzhen and several cabinet members saw clearly that Wu Sangui was taking the opportunity to release water to put pressure on the imperial court and ask for the full command of the Liaodong military horses, personnel, money and food! At the same time, it is also to eradicate miscellaneous cards and exclude dissidents. The so-called recapture of the former guards, the middle and the rear and other places is just an excuse for him to ask the imperial court for the right to ask for food and wages!

Otherwise, with the scale of Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses, and the strength of the soldiers, how could he not send troops to rescue and make meritorious contributions when there was something wrong with the middle and rear posts and the front guards? However, Wu Sangui currently has at least 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers and horses at hand, and in terms of combat effectiveness, he is several times stronger than Zuo Liangyu, who is arrogant and arrogant and often plunders prefectures and counties and slaughters good people. The imperial court didn't even dare to punish Zuo Liangyu, so he could only comfort him with warm words and reward him generously, how could he dare to attack Wu Sangui?

After some consideration, Chongzhen had to reluctantly pinch his nose and make an order, ordering Wu Sangui to take full control of the soldiers, horses, money and food affairs in Liaodong, Jizhen and other places, and the reward of 500,000 yuan of silver allocated by the inner treasury to Liaodong according to the will. But at least two of these three cities must be recovered within a month of the decree!

Wu Sangui is also genuine, and Tong Su is not deceived. After getting the power and military salary, he ordered his troops and horses to go out of the city to fight that night. Within half a month, three cities were recovered, more than 100,000 people were recaptured, and a lot of horses, knives and guns were captured.

With the delivery of the report documents to the capital, Chongzhen was furious, obviously Wu Sangui took the opportunity to blackmail the imperial court, and cut off dissidents by the hands of Liao thieves, he also had to pinch his nose and soothe with kind words and praise. I can't say that I have to add a nominal title to Wu Xiang, who is blessed in the capital, to show his favor. However, everyone knows that Wu Sangui selected a lot of captured horses, and let them go south by sea, and naturally the government and the opposition know who they are given. In addition to horses, there are more people. Captured Mongol soldiers, herdsmen who are good at herding, and riders who are good at riding and shooting. There are also all kinds of craftsmen who were captured, and Wu Sangui was even packed into the sea boat. Then he was ashamed to report in the inscription: "The minister was lucky to recover the three cities, in addition to relying on the son of heaven Qi Tian Hongfu, the soldiers bravely used their lives, and the firearms under the rule of Liang Guogong were even more powerful!" ”

A high-sounding remark, as if Chongzhen is regarded as a martial artist. If there is a benefit, you must first think about the adulterer Ximenqing, and only think of Chongzhen when you ask for money. It's a pity that if Chongzhen didn't want to return to the West now, not only could he not stop Wu Sangui's **** behavior, but he also had to praise Pan Jinlian for being gentle and virtuous.

The fire in my heart can only be sent to those palace maids and eunuchs in my own palace! These days, Emperor Chongzhen has been angry many times, and the palace maids and eunuchs beside him are also trembling.

However, there are also people who are good at figuring out the holy will and observing the wind, such as Zuo Zhongyun and Li Mingrui...... When Emperor Chongzhen summoned him and asked him how to defend against thieves from all over the country, Li Mingrui asked him to retreat and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Now that the thieves are powerful and have approached Gidian, it is really a critical autumn of survival, and only moving south can temporarily alleviate the current urgency." These words really reached the heart of Emperor Chongzhen! When you go south to Nanjing, you will be blocked by a big river, which can defend against thieves and thieves. can even follow the example of the ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang and sit in the south of the Yangtze River. Watching the sword soldiers north of the Huai River fighting fiercely, let the warlords everywhere fight. Even when necessary, Li Zicheng and Dolgon, the two big thieves, can fight in Jiangbei. Second, guarding the river and having a joint defense agreement between the river and the sea, it is naturally much easier to obtain Liang Guogong's assistance! With the holy drive in front of him, it is Liang Guogong who is domineering again. It's also a bit more constricted! Emperor Chongzhen looked around at no one before he said; "I have long had this intention, and no one has praised it, so it has been delayed until now, but I am afraid that the ministers will not obey. So it has to be kept secret," Later, as soon as this proposal came out, some military officers immediately objected to it, thinking that this was heresy, and it was not enough to reassure people.

This matter can only end without a problem.

is depressed, the sound of footsteps is mixed, and with the sound of footsteps, there are voices from far and near. Hearing such a noisy sound, Emperor Chongzhen's eyes widened, and he was about to have a seizure immediately. However, a cry of surprise ensued him, and he immediately dispelled this thought.

"Emperor! The emperor is overjoyed! Emperor! ”

The eunuch Wang Dehua, the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, stumbled into the Qianqing Palace, accidentally tripped over the threshold of the Dongnuan Pavilion, and fell in front of Chongzhen, and even the hat on his head fell crookedly. But Wang Dehua didn't care about the great crime of dereliction in front of the king, so he just held the box in his hand and grinned at Chongzhen.

"Companion, why are you so happy?"

"Emperor! There's infighting! The two thieves are infighting! Wang Dehua held up the box of cloud embroidered dragon brocade and took out the document sent by Li Huayu in the name of the acting governor of Shandong and Denglai.

The victory document is about the victory of Germany. Although the Southern Yue Army pays attention to the internal text, it is concise and bright, and it is not a false text. But Li Huayu's subordinates naturally have a lot of pens who are familiar with how to write a similar military intelligence book for the imperial court, and an article about the great victory of Guide is written with flowers and wonderful writing.

"The two thieves broke into the internal strife of Cao, and Li Zicheng merged Luo Rucai and annexed his subordinates. However, the people were not convinced, fortunately the luck of the court, relying on the emperor's blessing, the people of Cao Ying were forced to break into the camp, and they were enlightened by me, and they immediately repented and returned to the east. ”

The elite backbone of Cao Ying's department was unwilling to accept Li Zicheng's annexation, and a large number of mutinies and clamored for Li Huayu to defect to Shandong, which naturally made Chongzhen very happy. Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai are two, no matter who killed whom, he Zhu Youzhen was happy to see it. Anyway, both of them are big thieves, and they are both heinous! Ten damned deaths!

"The soldiers and horses of the minister's department responded to Wang Long's troops in Caozhou Mansion and other places, and they returned from the thief camp anyway, which coincided with the arrival of the army led by Liu Fangliang, the general of the thief and the general. Fight with thieves outside Jining...... In this battle, the soldiers and horses of the minister's department, Liu Fangliang, the fierce general of the thieves, beheaded thousands of thieves, killed and wounded countless people, captured thousands of mules and horses, and countless heavy knives and guns. ”

Although it has long been commonplace to see all kinds of killings and exploits of the imperial court's soldiers and horses, Chongzhen and the cabinet bosses are very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Nanyue Army. Moreover, this army has always not told nonsense and will not falsely report its military exploits. This point is that the people who attack Li Shouhan the most vigorously from the government and the opposition are not easy to talk about. Moreover, the name Liu Fangliang also appears repeatedly in various documents of the imperial court. knows that this person is no less fierce than Liu Zongmin, but he is the first-class fierce general in the camp. According to the style of the official army, it is rare to say that Liu Fangliang was killed, but unfortunately the corpse was nowhere to be found in the chaotic army. However, Li Huayu didn't say this, just honestly said that the cannon wounded the fang.

After the war, he took advantage of the victory to pursue, and with the aftermath of the great victory, he successively recovered dozens of prefectures and counties in Chenzhou Mansion and Guide Mansion, and pushed the soldiers to Kaifeng!

This is probably the only report that Chongzhen has heard in the past six months to defeat the enemy and regain a large number of lost territories.

Especially at the end of the article, Li Huayu solemnly reported to Zhu Youzhen: "Don't be afraid, buddy, my Lao Tzu has sent a letter, he has already ordered the people to pack up the grain and grass, and is ready to come north to occupy the field for you!" As soon as he comes to the old man, he will be able to do whatever Li Zicheng or Dolgon! ”

Seeing where Chongzhen smiled slightly, Wang Dehua immediately followed: "Emperor, the thieves are fighting among themselves, and the Shandong official army has recovered the prefecture and county, should this matter be reported to the palace to the world?" ”

"That's right! Dispatch newspaper! Then, big companion, you go and tell the cabinet and let them draw up a charter, and don't be stingy with the amount of official positions that should be rewarded for the soldiers who have returned from Cao Cao's old department! I look at that Wang Long, at least I should give a deputy general, let him do a good job under Li Huayu's account, contribute to the court, and avenge his uncle! ”

With the emperor's will, it is needless to say that the gentlemen of the cabinet are upright, and they also know that they must not touch the emperor's scales at this time, otherwise he will say a word, it is good to dismiss you and return to your hometown, if the group of eunuchs in the inner court bewitch Shengcong and let us go to the front of the Liangguo army to do things, it will be too insulting.

Soon, Li Huayu and his meritorious soldiers and subordinates returned to Germany for a great victory, and the will to recover the city was made clear to the world. Upon hearing the news that Liang Guogong's army was about to go north, the price of goods and the exchange price of silver money in the capital immediately fell slightly.

"You kid can see it accurately, if our treasure is bet on the exchange of silver, we will lose a lot of money in the next few days!" The Shanxi shopkeeper outside the Chaoyang Gate chatted with the big guy about the market in the past few days, and he couldn't help but sweat beads on his forehead.

"Quick! Brother Wang Long is here! wrote a letter to Shandong and invited him to come to the capital, saying that my Lao Luo misses him! Then, prepare some good wine and meat in the capital, and order people to send them to Shandong quickly! ”

Luo Mingzu and Tan Chery, who had already been promoted to the Governor of the Governor's Mansion and were responsible for managing the training affairs of the new army in Beijing, heard the news in their respective barracks and couldn't help jumping three feet high, and ordered their henchmen without hesitation. (To be continued.) )

PS: Ask for subscriptions, ask for monthly passes, ask for rewards.