On the official road leading to the southeast of the Beijing Division, the carriages and horses are crowded, the crowds are crowded, the neighing of mules and horses, and the sound of calling the grandfather and the mother to find a wife and children are endless.

Starting from Chaoyangmen and continuing along the canal to Tongzhou, nearly 100 miles of ash-burning roads were congested by the flow of people and vehicles who escaped from the capital. It is no wonder that Li Zicheng's Dashun army broke through Chadao City, Badaling, and Juyong Pass in succession without bloodshed, and changed his surname to Shun at the last dangerous pass leading to Beijing.

Hundreds of thousands of Dashun soldiers and horses condescended from a high position, swooping down along the mountain road like a flash flood on the Badaling, how could this kind of momentum be able to withstand the garrisons of Nankou, Changping, Shahe, and other places? What's more, the garrisons in these places have long been imaginary.

After the civil engineering change of the three major battalions, the main force was exhausted, and the following year was not as good as the year, although the fixed number of troops was 100,000, and there were 160,000 officers and soldiers of the second class in the Spring and Autumn Period, but it is really difficult to say how many were there.

Moreover, the squad army was reduced to craftsmen, and they were not allowed to enter the exercise all year round, and they were called and drunk by the powerful people in the capital to serve as miscellaneous laborers. Most of the battalion soldiers are noble children, arrogant and lazy, and there are few people who usually go to the teaching ground to deal with the drills, and they disperse before it gets dark, so this combat effectiveness naturally needs not be mentioned.

Of course, not to mention the combat effectiveness, when it comes to appearance, the people of the three major battalions are tall and mighty, and the image goes without saying that every time the emperor parades, he sees a forest of flags, bright armor, and officers and soldiers shout long live together, and they are always happy in their hearts.

However, there are many drawbacks, and they can hide it from the emperor, but they can't hide it from the people and officials who also live in the capital. They know very well that the previous slaves and thieves entered the customs and plundered on the ground in Gyeonggi, when did they see the masters of the Beijing camp beheading the generals and making meritorious contributions? Aren't they all Qinwang soldiers and horses drawn from all over the country to do hard work? However, now that even the border army has surrendered without a fight, how can these masters in Beijing be opponents?

An idea was immediately formed in the minds of the residents of Jingshi, and thirty-six plans were taken into account!

I heard that the Dashun army on the south road only led troops and horses out of Taihang, and took the road of Zhending and Baoding to the north, intending to attack Beijing City from the north and south with the main force led by Li Zicheng, who was heading south from Yongguan. These people have made a choice:

"Go out of Chaoyangmen and run along the Tonghui River to Tongzhou, and when you arrive in Tongzhou, you can either change the boat and go south along the canal, or simply go to Tianjin and go to Shandong by sea boat!"

The people who fled were also divided into three, six, nine and so on.

Rich and powerful people rode horses and cars and sat in sedan chairs, that is, they arrived at the Shuiguan Wharf in Chaoyangmen, and there were also people to greet and escort, get on the grain ship moored in the Tonghui River, and prepare to take a boat to Tongzhou in a leisurely manner. The gang members of the Cao Gang also seized the time to take advantage of this rare business opportunity to make a lot of money.

"Fifty silver dollars for one man. There is no distinction between masters and slaves, men and women, old and young. Cage luggage, one piece is five silver dollars! We are really not the same price, Tong Su is not bullied. You don't have to be too expensive, some people want to do it. What's more, our ship is a boat of the Cao Gang, if you arrive in Tongzhou and plan to go south to the canal, we will not charge more. Go down to Shandong and return to Jiangnan! If you plan to go to Tianjin to change the sea ship, then you have to take our ship even more, although our Cao Gang is a group of bitter haha, but the two generations of Grandpa Mengguo's father and son can afford it, and we are all contributing to his old people. Cao boat and sea boat, that's the Jiang Hai family! If you don't take our ship, even if you arrive in Tianjin, I'm afraid you will have to find another way to get a ship. Let's be different, go directly to the North Canal to Nigu, to the wharf, as long as there is an empty sea boat, you can board the ship! ”

There is a way, the foot of the car and boat shop is not guilty, and he should be killed. These people who have been in the rivers and lakes for a long time have a sharp mouth, and the truth and falsehood fool people regardless of the south, east, west, and northwest.

Soon, the ship was full of cages, luggage, and well-dressed dignitaries.

And the people who can't afford this fare can only continue to walk along the road on both sides of the Tonghui River with envy and jealousy, walking in the direction of Zhengcunba, Yangzha and Tongzhou, preparing to go to Tongzhou again to find a way to either find a boat to go south, or go east to Tianjin to take a sea boat.

Those who really don't have much spare money make up their minds at the beginning, take their two legs, and go south along the canal, Tongzhou, Cangzhou, Dezhou, and Linqing.

Looking at the crowded banks of the Tonghui River, he got the holy decree and transferred the troops from Nanyuan to Chaoyangmen, Dongbianmen, Zhengyangmen and other places to guard the southeast direction of the Beijing Division, Tan Qirui and Luo Mingzu, the two governors and earls of the left, were also interested. Although their dependents and furniture have already been watching the sunset on the Pujiang River in the Shikumen house by the Huangpu River and listening to the sound of boats and oars, watching this scene is indeed quite sad and has a sense of despair.

"Lao Luo, look at this formation!" Standing on the tower of Chaoyang Gate, looking at the people who kept pouring out of the city gate cave engraved with an ear of grain, Tan Chery completely lost the spirit of the past, but was quite depressed.

"Looking at it, Jingshi has to be lost!" The two bold guys recklessly spoke in front of a group of henchmen and generals on the city tower.

"What do you think King Li Chuang has in mind?"

As the commanders of the army, Luo Tan and the others naturally knew more about military affairs than the people in the city, and there were several military documents in the briefcases hanging on the wall behind them. The situation of Li Zicheng's march to the north and south is clearly explained.

Needless to say, the main army under the personal command of Li Zicheng on the North Road had already dragged hundreds of cannons across Badaling, and marched all the way along the southern foot of Jundu Mountain to the line of Changping and Shahe. In the area of Qinghe, there have been forward rangers of the Dashun army, and the soldiers and horses of the three battalions stationed in this area are panicked, and the deserters continue to desert every day.

Compared with the old army of the three major battalions of the Beijing Division, and the new army born from the Beijing Battalion, Luo Tan and the two of them have really mastered it well. The team of nearly 30,000 people is basically well organized, and the morale is not bad, but under such an urgent situation, only a few hundred people have run.

"No matter what others think, let's just hold the brother in our hands!" Luo Mingzu is very determined, among his subordinates, the families of officers above the thousandth general have all been sent to Tianjin, and they can board the ship and go south at any time. For low-ranking officers and non-commissioned officers below the thousandth level, each of them was given two months' salary as a settling-in allowance to win the hearts of the military.

Tan Chery did not do a bad job, he sat on a box with a loud bang, and kicked open the lid of a false box in front of his feet with the tips of his iron mesh boots, revealing a red patch inside.

"This is the 200,000 silver that our Lao Tzu gave up this old face and borrowed from Longshengxing in Beijing. Today, Lao Luo and I called you dogs to tell you that when it comes to the moment, the two of us will not spare money. You have to be worthy of the money! ”

In the castle tower, there are more than 20 silver boxes piled up in the east and west, all of which are rolls of silver dollars wrapped in red mulberry paper.

"Uncle, don't worry! What other battalion leaders do, we can't control it and it doesn't matter. But these of us are all following you all the way from Shandong. Those dog-skinned people who eat empty pay and drink the blood of soldiers, we don't bother to do it! Every time the emperor pays the salary, we pay it by name, and we never deduct the military salary of our brothers. ”

"You just give the order, do you want us to escort the emperor south to patrol the south of the Yangtze River?"

In a chaotic uproar, the voices of the officers turned the castle tower into a vegetable market.

"We have all heard that the envoy sent by the Southern Army to welcome the emperor to the south has arrived in Tianjin, just waiting for the emperor to leave the capital!"

This is not bad, Li Peiting, the special envoy who was ordered by Li Shouhan to go north to deal with the situation, has already arrived in Tianjin. However, he only arrived in Tianjin, and he refused to leave anything further. Just ordered someone to write a letter and send it to the capital, asking Emperor Chongzhen to go out of Beijing to Tianjin, "the minister to prepare dozens of large and small sea ships, once the saint comes, he can sail south to stay in the capital." ”

These news were all sent to Chongzhen through the channels of Wang Chengen and Wang Dehua. It's a pity that the cabinet still refuses to let Chongzhen out of Beijing. On the contrary, he strongly advocated that the crown prince and several princes could go out of Beijing to Tianjin. At the same time, an edict was issued in the name of Emperor Chongzhen, clearly telling the clans of the world that they could give up the feudal land and go to Nanjing.

However, Emperor Chongzhen himself could only continue to fight with these cabinet ministers when the enemy army was about to enter the city. In order to be prepared, he transferred the last bit of elite in his hand, the new army of Beijing that he had built with millions of military salaries and food, to the line of Chaoyangmen, which leads to the southeast of Beijing, and was ready to leave the city at any time.

However, it seems that the emperor, the cabinet, and Li Shouhan, who has been reduced to the Southern Army, are stuck in an endless circle.

Emperor Chongzhen accepted Li Shouhan's suggestion and prepared to go south to stay in the capital and re-establish the Ming Dynasty. However, the cabinet asked the emperor to choose someone to stay behind on the grounds that the Beijing division could not be left behind, and designated who would do this errand of death or life, or carry the black pot for countless people. However, Emperor Chongzhen refused to do what the cabinet wanted, and did not plan to let the princes go to Nanjing first, and at the same time, the arrangement of several candidates to stay in Beijing was rejected by the cabinet on the grounds of character, talent, courage and even poor health. Seeing that the emperor had not left Beijing for a long time, Li Peiting, as a response to the emperor's southward journey, asked the emperor to leave Beijing as soon as possible. So, another round of endless rip-offs began.

"Your Majesty might as well give up the capital for the time being, and let the hundred officials travel with the car. The minister was ordered to go north to meet His Majesty, and he was sure to find a perfect plan. In a recent note, Li Peiting even tearfully asked Emperor Chongzhen to go with hundreds of officials in the court. However, when Chongzhen passed this note to the ministers like grasping the last straw, he was unexpectedly ridiculed.

"If he, Li Shouhan, is really loyal to the country, why is there still not a single soldier coming to the rescue of Jingshi at this time? But he just sent a white-clothed lobbyist to Tianjin and kept shaking his lips there to bewitch His Majesty's southern tour, what does this mean? ! Notice! Since the ancestors, the tombs of His Majesty's ancestors are in Beijing, and the palace room of the temple is in Beijing. Once you leave the capital, how can Your Majesty become Your Majesty?! Is Your Majesty really willing to be Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty who are fiddling with others in the palm of his hand? ”

These words can be described as poisonous juice splashing, and every sentence is heart-wrenching.

"The minister seconded the proposal! Liang Guogong was far away in the south for a while, and the water was difficult to solve, and the fire was also a bit of a prevarication. His Majesty's decree ordered Li Huayu to go north, and he was close at hand, but to this day, the soldiers and horses in Shandong have not yet left Texas! His heart is already obvious! ”

"Exactly! This father and son are treacherous. The thief Liu Fangliang's subordinate went out of Taihang and ravaged all parts of southern Jinan, and the Daimyo, Zhending, and Baoding were harassed by him successively, and Li Huayu garrisoned in the area of Zhangde Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion, and sat back and watched the thieves rage and ignored it! With the combat strength of the Shandong military horses, if he took advantage of the Shun thief Qu Kui Liu Fang to face the head attack when he showed the Taihang mouths, how could he have the fallen thieves of the southern provinces! How can there be the dilemma of the Beijing division being surrounded! ”

The ministers who had already quietly taken away their families and those who could be carried away, and those who could not be moved were also digging cellars in the house to prepare to hide, but in the court, they were tireless in the court, and the Li family's father and son, the traitors who brought disaster to the country and the people. It is almost unbelievable that their family members have been in Songjiang Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion and other places at this time.

Chongzhen saw that this group of people were still like this, only to feel that the anger filled his body, as if all his internal organs were about to be burned into charcoal, he almost coughed up blood, and finally forced himself to hold back. Since Li Zicheng crossed the Yellow River to conquer Shanxi, Emperor Chongzhen has been unable to eat and sleep at night for several days, not only his eyes are deep-set, his face is gray, but he is dizzy and his body is difficult to support. But seeing that the country is in front of him, he can't fall down and leave the fortunes of the country alone, otherwise, he will really not be able to see the ancestors and ancestors under the nine springs.

"I can't fall, I have to hold on! Uncle Ning Yuan, no, Liang Guogong is my minister. He is a little selfish, and he is a hundred times stronger than these beetles! While supporting himself, he recited silently in his heart.

Chongzhen can also guess the inner thoughts of the ministers in front of him. If they don't tie him up and offer him, the emperor of the Ming court, to Li Zicheng's horse, it is already a heavenly and generous kindness! The reason why Chongzhen was prevented from going south several times was that they didn't have the idea of flattering in front of the new lord in their hearts, then they had seen a ghost!

"Humph! You want to learn from Li Jinglong, but I am not Emperor Jianwen! ”

That Li Jinglong is the son of Li Wenzhong, the Duke of Cao Guo, and in terms of it, he is also the cousin of the crown prince Zhu Biao, the cousin of Emperor Jianwen, he was originally a confidant of Emperor Jianwen, and he was deeply trusted by him. Soon after Emperor Jianwen succeeded to the throne, Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, was accused of rebellion. Emperor Jianwen sent Li Jinglong to Kaifeng in the name of preparing for the border, surrounded the palace of the king of Zhou, escorted the whole family of the king of Zhou back to Nanjing, and abolished him as a concubine. can also be regarded as a right-hand man who assisted Zhu Yunwen in cutting the domain. Soon Zhu Di, the king of Yan, raised an army and defeated Geng Bingwen, the Marquis of Changxing, in Zhending (now Zhengding, Hebei). Huang Zicheng recommended Li Jinglong to Emperor Jianwen and suggested that he be allowed to replace Geng Bingwen. In August, Emperor Jianwen appointed Li Jinglong as a general, let him lead an army of 500,000 to the north, and personally traveled by the river, performing the gift of "holding the hub and pushing the wheel", and giving him the right to "act cheaply". This kind of favor, power, and trust have never been seen since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

However, how did Li Jinglong repay his cousin for his kindness?

Zhengcunba and Baigouhe lost hundreds of thousands of teachers successively, and Emperor Jianwen killed Li Jinglong against the government and the opposition, and saved him with a cry of thanksgiving to the world. However, when the Yan army approached Nanjing, he opened the Jinchuan Gate to welcome the Yan army into the city, causing Nanjing to be lost. After Chengzu succeeded to the throne, Li Jinglong was awarded the title of Fengtian Fuyun Tui Cheng Xuanli Wuchen, Doctor of Guanglu, and Zuo Zhuguo because of his "merit of silent affairs", and was awarded the title of Prince and Prince, and increased the number of years by 1,000 stones. (What do you mean?) Is he also the same historical merit as Chang Gong? Or is he from Chang Gongxue? At that time, whenever the imperial court discussed major matters, Li Jinglong was at the head of the train. The heroes of the martyrdom were indignant about this. In the second year of Yongle (1404), he was impeached repeatedly by the King of Zhou, Chengguo Gong, the Secretary of the Criminal Department, the Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and others, and was imprisoned by the Emperor.

"Retreat!"

Knowing that today is also a situation where the quarrel ends endlessly, Chongzhen didn't bother to bother with these crows anymore, and waved his hand to signal these people to get out.

Wang Chengen, as the emperor's companion and the eunuch of the celebrant Bingbi, added the responsibility of the commander of the Jingying at this time, and saw that the emperor was very unhappy, so he waved his hand and signaled the ministers and the gentlemen of the cabinet to go down quickly. If it had been a few years ago, he could have ordered the Jinyi Banner School to pull these ministers down and give them a cane, or simply send them to the prison of the Zhenfu Division, but now is not the time.

"Alas! The dynasty is sluggish! ”

ordered someone to send Chongzhen back to the Qianqing Palace to rest in a warm sedan chair, but Wang Chengen planned to inspect the palace, which was also the duty of him, the celebrant and the eunuch, and the admiral.

After not counting the steps, his godson Wu Liangfu in front of him quickly greeted him, and muttered a few words in his ear in a low voice.

"Is this false?"

"It's true, I'll see him in the prince's mansion tonight."

The prince Wu Liangfu mentioned was Wang Dehua, the eunuch who held the seal of the celebrant eunuch.

Over the years, Wang Dehua, Wang Chengen, and the eunuchs in the palace have gained countless benefits through trade with the south. It was Wang Chengen himself, who also partnered with others to open several large businesses in the capital specializing in selling japonica rice, grain, oil and cloth in the south, and privately sold some armor, knives, guns, gunpowder and other things, and even had many farms in Jifu, and sent his nephew to reclaim hundreds of miles of wasteland under the rule of Liang Guogong.

And Wang Dehua made a lot of money. His house is on both sides of the drum tower near the Houzaimun, and the houses are in a patch, which is very spectacular. And there are not only pavilions and pavilions in the courtyard, but also a large garden. Rockery, ponds, green bamboos and pines. Slaves are in groups, and they all respond. When Wang Dehua was young, he was good friends with a palace maid surnamed Jia in the palace, and he was used to being called "vegetable household" in the palace, also known as "right food". One year, the queen released a group of elderly palace maids from the palace on the Thousand Autumn Festival. After leaving the palace, the people of Jia Palace neither returned to their parents' house nor married, but lived in Wang Dehua's mansion to preside over housework, as if they were the hostess in the palace, and were also respected by Wang Dehua's nephews and slaves, and called his wife.

"Alas!" Thinking of all this, Wang Chengen couldn't help but sigh, "You will reply to the prince and say that our family will go to the appointment on time." ”

At this time, Chongzhen was already asleep in the warm sedan chair.

Chongzhen was haunted by nightmares when he slept alone, and later he dreamed that he was kneeling in front of the god of Emperor Taizu Gao of Fengxian Palace, and cried bitterly. Grandpa Tai "appeared". There are two portraits of Emperor Taizu Gao in the palace: one is with a chubby face, peaceful and blessed; The other is an ugly statue with a long face and a prominent chin, which is a pig statue, which is very different from ordinary people. Since childhood, Chongzhen heard that the portrait of a pig's face was painted according to Hongwu himself. Now the one who "appeared" to him was this old emperor with a pig's face and a majestic demeanor. He was very frightened, trembled, fell on his head and wept, saying:

"The grandchildren are not good, there is no blessing and no virtue, and it is not enough to inherit the country. The thieves are about to break the city, the clan and society will not be protected, and the country will be destroyed. The grandson had no face to see the spirit of the emperor Taizu in the sky, and he had decided to die in Sheji to thank his ancestors and the world. ”

Hong Wuye sat on the emperor's throne, sighed, called his name and said, "Youzhen, what's the use of you martyrdom?" You should run away, run away and restore your ancestors. You are still young and you should not die in the palace in vain! ”

Chongzhen cried and asked, "Please make it clear to Emperor Taizu, how can a grandson escape from Beijing?" ”

Hong Wuye groaned and said: "You have to find a way to escape from Beijing, and if you can't escape, you will commit suicide and martyrdom." ”

"How do you get out?"

Chongzhen bowed to the ground for a moment, but Emperor Gao did not answer. He boldly raised his head, but saw the smoke on the high throne, and the appearance of the "manifested" was gradually blurred, and at last only a gray, floating cloud of smoke remained, and a sigh came from the smoke.

Chongzhen couldn't help but cry bitterly.

"Emperor! Emperor! ……”

A hurried call made Chongzhen wake up in a half-dream, but he hadn't fully woken up yet, and he didn't know whether he was waking up crying or being woken up. He opened his eyes blankly, saw Wang Chengen standing by the warm sedan chair, and blurted out unconsciously: "I dreamed of Emperor Taizu Gao!" ……”

Wang Chengen couldn't care about this, and shouted again: "Emperor, it's not good, you wake up quickly!" ”

Chongzhen's eyes widened suddenly, and he asked in a panic, "What's the matter?" What's the big deal? …… Hurry up! ”

"I got a report just now, you sent Li Guozhen, the boss of Xiangcheng, to lead three battalions of thousands of soldiers to deploy in Shahe, preparing to block the advance of Li Chuang's army. Two hours ago, the soldiers of the three battalions saw the banner of the front team of the thieves, and they collapsed without a fight, most of them fled, and some of them surrendered with white flags. Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng, saw that the army's morale was disintegrated and out of control, so he hurriedly rushed back to Beijing with a group of personal soldiers and slaves. ”

For the defeat of Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng, Chongzhen has long been mentally prepared. Tang Tong, the general soldier of Juyongguan, who had done a few battles with slaves and thieves with real swords and real guns in Liaodong, went out of the city thirty miles before Li Zicheng's soldiers arrived. Compared with Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng, it is much stronger!

"Forget it! Big companion, Xiangcheng Bo is also doing his best. You can go and soothe it on my behalf! ”

"Yes! The Emperor. In addition, tonight, that person was in the palace of the prince and the princess, and the slaves and maids were secretly discussing how to escort the emperor out of the southern tour of Beijing. ”

Hearing the news, Chongzhen's eyes suddenly lit up! (To be continued.) )