March 23, 17th year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, early morning.

When the morning light came again, Yuan Guifei was crying with Emperor Chongzhen's two sons, Yongwang Zhu Cizhao and the fifth prince Zhu Cihuan, in a ruined temple.

Because they have been surrounded by more than 2,000 cavalry of the Dashun army in white hats and green robes! Wang Chengen led twenty or thirty of the most loyal eunuchs to block the gate of the ruined temple, and was negotiating surrender with a lieutenant of the Dashun army.

And the order of "surrender and save your life" issued by Zhu Cihong was pinched in the hands of Yuan Guifei at this time.

The will of the prince of the Ming Dynasty is not allowed to be martyred!

"Death by starvation is a small matter, and a loss of festival is a big matter" is not allowed here in Zhu Cihong! If Yuan Guifei dies, who will take care of Zhu Cihong's two younger brothers?

Zhu Cihong was filial to his father, Emperor Chongzhen, and friendly to his younger brothers. How can you bear that they are lonely and helpless in the hands of King Chuang, and there is no one to take care of them? That's why he let Yuan Guifei act together with Yongwang Zhu Cizhao and the fifth prince Zhu Cihuan...... also arranged for Wang Chengen, a loyal eunuch, to be with a few of them.

This brotherly friendship is so touching!

"What? Surrendered by order? How can there be such a thing? ”

Holding a book written in vernacular and reading it twice, Li Zicheng's nephew Li Laiheng only felt incredible.

This decree said that Wang Chengen was a rare loyal man in the Ming Dynasty. He was not afraid of hardships and dangers, protected the crown prince and the three princes and Yuan Guifei to break through, and when he encountered the pursuit of the enemy army and could not get out of the whole army, he resolutely took on the burden of the palace, and let the prince and the king go first. He protected Yuan Guifei and the two young princes.

This kind of loyal and righteous behavior really moved the heavens and the earth, and made the mountains and rivers change color. Therefore, His Royal Highness the Prince of Fujun could not bear the fact that loyal and righteous people could not die well, nor could he bear that his younger brother and concubine mother would not be taken care of, so he issued a special decree ordering Wang Chengen to surrender to save his life, and entrusted him to take care of Yuan Guifei and the two princes......

"The surname is Wang," Li Laiheng looked at Wang Chengen, a loyal man standing in front of his horse, dejected, "The prince of the Zhu thief was with you before?" ”

"Together," Wang Chengen nodded, "otherwise how would he give me an order?" ”

That's right! Li Laiheng thought about it, this is the truth.

Li Laiheng asked again: "What about the emperor of the Zhu thief?" Where is he? ”

"I don't know this...... Wang Chengen said, "I was ordered to protect the prince, I don't know where the saint is?" ”

"But someone reported that Emperor Zhu Thief had also arrived at Dongzhimen!" Li Laiheng said sharply, "You're not covering for him, are you?" ”

Wang Chengen smiled bitterly and said, "The Holy Lord did go to Dongzhimen, but then he left...... The saint is the king of a country, and the prince is the prince, how can he break through all the way? It's too easy for you to catch them all.

Besides, will the general let the prince go and not chase him? If the crown prince and the emperor are together, it is not the same that the general will be caught? ”

Li Laiheng thought about it, yes, whether the prince of Zhu Thief is with the emperor or not, he has to chase after him. Can't let him join Wu Sangui's army, otherwise it will be a big trouble.

Thinking of this, Li Laiheng immediately sent a brigade with four or five hundred horsemen to escort Wang Chengen, Yuan Guifei, Zhu Cizhao, and Zhu Cihuan to Beijing City. And he himself led the remaining more than 2,000 horsemen and continued to chase in the direction of Yongping.

……

"The thieves are coming!"

At dusk, the subordinates of the left side of the Tianjin town guard flew straight into the Tianjin Acropolis at night, and brought a frightening news.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of them were filled by the family members of the senior warlords, such as the general soldier, the deputy general soldier, and the staff general. In fact, they are the backbone private soldiers of the warlords!

The current Ming Dynasty army has basically become feudal warlords, and it has basically lost its tight organization. It is only by relying on the big warlords to coax the small warlords, subcontracting an army layer by layer, and allowing the interests of military leaders at all levels to be evenly distributed, so that they can barely be maintained.

And this is the situation in Tianjin Town, Cao Youyi, the chief soldier of the town guard, is the commander of the three armies on the surface, but in fact he can only control more than 1,000 people in the Chinese army, and the one who can really rely on it is only the 100 Cao family members. The left and right associations of Tianjin Town were each controlled by Lou Guangxian, deputy commander-in-chief, and Jin Bin, deputy commander-in-chief, and these two deputy commanders also had more than 100 family members each.

In addition, there are 1,000 people under the command of the Tianjin governor, which are actually controlled by Yang Weihan, the general of the Fubiao Army. Yang Weihan, like Cao Youyi, Lou Guangxian, and Jin Bin, is also a small warlord with hundreds of families.

In other words, there are about 5,000 soldiers and horses on the Tianjin Wei side, which are controlled by four warlords, of which there are about 500 people who can really fight.

Although these four warlords are nominally superior, they are not actually under the command. Cao Youyi, the chief military officer, has long been unable to command the two deputy commanders under his command, let alone command the standard commander.

When none of these small warlords can command anyone, the civilian officials who are used to "defend the military" can usually play a little role. However, it is not certain who is in charge of things, sometimes it is the governor, sometimes it is the governor, and sometimes it is under the control of the army. And here in Tianjin, Governor Feng Yuanyang has to take care of a large mess of shipping and transportation, and does not have much energy to manage the military affairs of the town guard, so he has always been in charge of the army by Chongzhen's deputy envoy and military preparation Daoyuan Yuzong, who took office in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

However, after Feng Yuanyang received the order of the prince of Fujun brought by Wang Zhixin a few days ago, he began to rectify military affairs, and wanted to mobilize the Ming army guarding Tianjin to pick up Chongzhen and Zhu Cihong who escaped from Beijing.

When the news of "the thieves are coming" reached Tianjin Wei, he was discussing the matter of sending troops with the commander-in-chief Cao Youyi and Yang Weihan in his governor's yamen.

In the Yamen of Bingbei Dao, Yuan Yuzong of Bingbei Dao had a secret conversation with Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin in the inner hall.

When the night did not arrive, they were frowning and discussing something in a low voice, and there was not even a person in the room to wait. At this time, I heard the sound of footsteps outside the house, and before anyone arrived, the shouting of Guanzhong accent had already arrived. It was Yuan Yuzong's confidant family, and there was a faint excitement in his voice: "Master, master, the rogue has arrived, the rogue has arrived!" There are thousands of iron horsemen, coming along the canal, and they have already arrived in the area of Yang Village. ”

The three people in the room stood up suddenly, you look at me, I look at you, the expression on their faces was both excited and a little nervous.

Yuan Yuzong, who was in his forties, with ruddy skin and shiny oil, suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed: "It's a big thing!" ”

As the deputy envoy of the Ming Dynasty and the preparation of soldiers, Yuan Yuzong was overjoyed when he heard that the thief arrived!

The two deputy commanders were also surprised, and just as they were about to speak, the family had already pushed open the door. This elderly servant was actually the same as Yuan Yuzong, trembling with excitement.

"My lord is delighted! Rogue, oh, it's the Great Shun Heavenly Soldier who has finally arrived! There are more than 1,000 iron riders! ”

Yuan Yuzong had already restored the reserve of civil officials and doctors, nodded and said: "Go down, let the account room prepare three thousand, no, four thousand taels of silver!" ”

"The little one obeys." The old family went excitedly.

Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin, the two deputy commanders-in-chief, had already made up, with flattering expressions on their faces.

Lou Guang said first: "Bingbei, do you think we will do something right away?" ”

Jin Bin also echoed: "Armament, the old Yang of the patrol is also of the same heart as us, only the surname Cao is stubborn, and he wants to do something with Old Man Feng to protect Nan Xing." So we have an absolute advantage on the Tianjin Acropolis! ”

"Will you take an acropolis?" Yuan Yuzong smiled, "Isn't the credit a little smaller?" ”

Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin looked at each other, both of them were excited, Lou Guangxian asked: "Bingbei, what do you mean ......?"

"We have to take down that faint monarch Zhu Youzhen!" Yuan Yu Zong said, "This is the work of the world!" ”

"Take down the faint king?"

"Dusk Jun is coming to our Tianjin?"

Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin both looked incredulous when they heard this.

Yuan Yuzong smiled: "It's not the faint king, it's the prince...... Or do you think Feng Yuanyang, Cao Youyi and Li Shichun are discussing something now? ”