In 1644, the Ming Dynasty was in turmoil, at the beginning of the year, Li Zicheng was proclaimed emperor in Xi'an, with Li Jiqian as the ancestor, and the founding name was "Dashun". And in early February, he swore to go east to conquer the city of Beijing. As a result, the Dashun army began to cross the Yellow River on the second day of the second month of February, successively captured Fenzhou, Yangcheng, Puzhou, and soon captured Huaiqing, killing the king of Lujiang. On the fifth day of the first month, he conquered Taiyuan and rested in Taiyuan for eight days. On the 16th, continue to go north to Kexin Prefecture, the officials and the people surrendered, and Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of the Daizhou Guanguan, held the city, and the two sides had fought for ten days.

Under such chaos, Emperor Chongzhen didn't have the heart to stay here longer, and after comforting Zhu Cihong for a few words, he was sure that Zhu Cihong was fine, and immediately went back to deal with the erosive government.

Looking at the back of Emperor Chongzhen's departure, Zhu Cihong sighed secretly, because he knew that Daizhou would not last for a few days, and the general army of Houzhou would retreat to Ningwu Pass in a few days, and finally Ningwu Pass was also Li Zicheng, and then within half a month, Datong and Xuanfu would also fall one after another, and the northern gateway of Beijing City would be opened, and Li Zicheng would soon be under the city.

"I don't have much time left, only a month!" Zhu Cihong was extremely anxious, and there was not much time left for him.

"Emperor, you have a good rest, the queen mother is going back to the palace." Empress Zhou guarded Zhu Cihong here for three days, and she knew a little about the situation outside, knowing that Li Zicheng was about to hit Beijing, she was in a bad mood and was very tired, so she told Zhu Cihong to rest well, and then went back to her bedroom to rest.

Throne room.

"Your Majesty, the minister has just received the news that Daizhou City has been broken by the thief army a few days ago, and the general soldier Zhou Yuji led thousands of remnants to retreat to Ningwu Pass, and now Ningwu Pass has been surrounded by hundreds of thousands of thieves, Your Majesty, hurry up and send troops to support, otherwise Ningwu Pass will be lost, Datong, Xuanfu, is in danger!" The military department Shangshu played.

"Didn't I already give an order to Datong, and Shandong soldiers and horses went to support? Why is there no news for a long time! Emperor Chongzhen suddenly stood up from the dragon chair and said angrily.

The military department was still in a hurry, and said half-loudly: "Your Majesty, Datong, the two chief soldiers of Shandong said that the imperial court has not paid military salaries for three months, and now the soldiers have no heart to fight, and the soldiers are unwilling to be promoted, and they have no choice." ”

"Bastard---- Emperor Chongzhen's face was pale, he was furious, and after some angry scolding, he sat down on the dragon chair helplessly, and said weakly: "Since the military salary has not been paid for three months, let's send it, all at once." Liu Aiqing, how much silver is left in the treasury now? ”

Hearing the emperor ask about the silver in the treasury, Hubu Shangshu said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, this year's New Year's Ring has already been distributed, and the treasury has no half of a tael of silver, and you are so poor that you can starve to death of mice, how can you get the silver!" ”

"What a good thing that is!" Hearing that the treasury could not take out a tael of silver, all the courtiers talked about it, and they all looked sad and worried about the country and the people.

"Your Majesty, the minister suggests that the people be paid again to tide over this difficulty!" A minister suggested.

"Your Majesty, the minister is reconsidering!" Some ministers agreed.

"No, although I am not a holy monarch, I also know that the people have just begun to sow seeds at this moment, and there is no surplus grain in their hands at all, even if they increase their salaries, they will have to wait for the day of the people's harvest, and I am afraid that it will be too late in time." Emperor Chongzhen thought about it and said with a frown.

"But Your Majesty, if you don't pay the people, the court has no money, you can't pay the military salary, and the soldiers are disheartened, so how can they resist the thief army!"

Emperor Chongzhen took a deep breath, glanced at the Manchu Dynasty and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no way, since the court is short of salaries, although the treasury is empty, but I think, there should be thousands of taels of silver in your house, now Li Zicheng's thieves are powerful, if you want to exterminate Li Zicheng's thieves, silver is indispensable, I propose to call on all the ministers and princes in the world to donate salaries, all Aiqing are willing?" ”

After Emperor Chongzhen finished speaking, his eyes swept over all the courtiers.

"This--- this ---, the emperor, Shengming, ministers, ministers, etc. are willing." The courtiers were divided, their faces were sad, although they said that they were willing to donate, but it is still unknown whether they would really donate it, which of them did not have their own selfishness, even if they wanted to contribute to the Ming Dynasty, but who really dared to donate how much silver. You must know that the income of Ming officials is extremely low, only one hundred and ten taels per month, and it is not enough to support the family, how can you have the money to donate, and the more you donate, the more you donate, the more you are greedy, and if you are caught by someone in the future, isn't it a worrying future?

Emperor Chongzhen didn't care what the courtiers thought, and when he heard that everyone was willing to donate silver, he immediately said with a happy face: "Okay, in this case, I thank you for your generosity on behalf of the people of the world. ”

"Ministers, obey Your Majesty's will!" The courtiers are unwilling to return, but where dare to oppose it openly.

East Palace.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, it's time to drink the medicine!" This is a beautiful little palace maid about fourteen or fifteen years old, beautiful and lovely, holding a bowl of medicinal soup at the moment, and next to her there is another little palace maid who is also fourteen or fifteen years old who is holding a bowl of hot porridge at the moment, which is also a little beauty embryo.

Zhu Cihong recognized these two little palace maids, who were arranged for him by Queen Zhou a month ago, one was called Lanxiang and the other was called Begonia, not so much as a personal palace maid, but a room for Zhu Cihong's first 'meat'.

Zhu Cihong was born in the second year of Chongzhen, at this time he was fifteen years old, theoretically it should be the age to start choosing a concubine, but the Ming Dynasty is in danger, how can the emperor and the queen still be in the mood to do this kind of thing, but when the age is up, the queen thinks that it is still necessary to pass on the ancestry, so she first chose two beautiful and lovely little palace maids to serve him.

It's just that at this time, the city of Beijing is about to be occupied by Li Zicheng, how can he still have the heart to think in that way.

Zhu Cihong had also heard about the emperor's fundraising, and he already knew the final outcome, it was impossible for that group of selfish courtiers to donate much silver, and in history, Emperor Chongzhen even vomited blood for this.

Sure enough, Emperor Chongzhen called on all the princes and ministers to donate, but there were almost few responders, and after a few days, he only donated a mere 12,000 taels of silver, not even a fraction of the required military salary, Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that he vomited blood, although he knew that there was a lot of silver in the families of various nobles and nobles in the capital, but as soon as he opened his mouth, everyone cried poor in front of him, and he refused to take out an extra tael of silver.

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't, although he was angry, he could only sigh, expecting that the Ming army would still be able to fight bravely even if there was no military pay and exterminate the thieves.

The idea was good, but the result was not good, the number of front-line troops was far less than Li Zicheng's thief army, and reinforcements were urgently needed, but since the imperial court could not pay the army, the general soldiers in various places were not able to lead the army to support.

A few days later, a tragic scene occurred. On the first day of the first month of March, Li Zicheng finally broke through Ningwu Pass, Zhou Yuji was killed in battle, tens of thousands of troops were annihilated, but because of Zhou Yuji's desperate resistance, the Dashun army also suffered tens of thousands of casualties, in order to take revenge, under anger, Li Zicheng brazenly ordered the slaughter of the city, Ningwu Pass was like hell, tens of thousands of innocent people were killed, and the capital of Daming was shaken.

Ningwu Pass broken, Datong Xuanfu was in danger, and finally in desperation, in order to raise military salaries to resist Li Zicheng, Emperor Chongzhen had to raise salaries from hundreds of officials again, and he also reduced the amount of money in the palace, took the lead in donating, and finally took the lead in donating 50,000 taels of silver, the queen also set an example, called on the harem to donate money, and got 10,000 taels of silver to give to the abbot Zhou Ren to donate on behalf of the emperor has been a hundred officials to set an example, but unfortunately Zhou Ren did a stupid thing that almost made the queen angry to death, he took the queen's 10,000 taels of silver, but in the end he only donated 5,000 taels, and he was greedy for another 5,000 taels.

When the emperor is still so selfish, not to mention the other courtiers, there is no one who really thinks about the Ming Dynasty, and in the end, although Chongzhen's donation this time is much more than the last time, it is only less than 200,000 taels, and Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his eyes were black, and he almost fainted to the ground.