Hearing Li Mingrui say so bluntly and so bluntly, Chongzhen felt very uncomfortable in his heart, and the muscles on his face twitched slightly.

Yes, reinforcements are difficult to arrive, there is no strong army inside, and a huge capital is actually like a crumbling building on the beach, and I am afraid that a gust of wind can blow it down completely.

Such a terrible and sinister situation, even a fool really understands how dangerous it is.

It's just that when the matter comes, can I really be so resolute and completely abandon this capital city that has lasted more than 200 years since Emperor Yongle set the capital?

Can you really give up the temple, the Forbidden City, the heart of the Ming Empire, and the political center of the Ming Emperor, and move south in a hurry?

So, isn't it no different from Song Gaozong, who immediately pulled out his legs and fled for his life as soon as he heard Jin Bing's smell, and was scared alive into impotence?

"It's too vain, if I act like this, but I don't know the ministers of the court, how should I look at it?" Chongzhen, who was embarrassed in his heart, said in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, with all due respect, the courtiers must have a large number of critics among them, so what's the wonder?" Li Mingrui looked anxious: "It's just that the current situation is so dangerous, even if there are villains who criticize it, how can Your Majesty be so wise and sacred, how can you be bewitched by it?!" If this last opportunity is missed, and the capital is besieged by the enemy, His Majesty will never be able to get rid of the siege if he wants to go south in person, and then he wants to get out of the siege! '

In these words, Li Mingrui cleverly described the escape to the south as an extremely decent personal expedition to the south, but it also shows his good intentions.

It's just that Chongzhen's face is still gloomy, and he is silent, he lowers his head and keeps brushing his beard, not knowing what he is thinking.

"Your Majesty, if the sacred heart is difficult to break, or if you are determined to live and die with the Jingshi, then please forgive the ministers for their courage, please order the ministers to lead the prince to move south, and at the same time immediately divide the king of Ding and the king of Yong, so as to calm the society and the hearts of the people." Li Mingrui gritted his teeth and finally said this.

As soon as Li Mingrui finished saying this, the muscles on Chongzhen's face trembled involuntarily.

Li Mingrui's intention is nothing more than to let the crown prince Zhu Cihong rush to Nanjing to be a prisoner of the country when the emperor refuses to move south, and at the same time divide the king of Dingding and the king of Yong, thinking that the vassal king is guarding the momentum, this method can be described as the second best thing, in case Emperor Chongzhen hangs up, he can continue to save the country, and can ensure the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty to continue.

It's just that Li Mingrui didn't know that this suggestion was actually completely out of line with the emperor's wishes.

Because if this method is implemented, the emperor himself will still not be able to escape his life, and he will still not be able to get out of the crisis, which the emperor will absolutely not accept in his heart.

Moreover, the emperor always has an illusion in his heart, that is, if he is lucky and God will favor him, those soldiers and horses who are in the field can arrive in time before the arrival of the Liukou, and finally get lucky enough to hold the Jingshi, then the prince of Nanjing, the crown prince, may repeat the old drama of Tang Suzong's Lingwu ascending the throne and forcing his father Tang Xuanzong to become the emperor, such a thing is absolutely intolerable to Chongzhen.

Therefore, when he heard Li Mingrui's words, he immediately said with a gloomy face: "Taixu, what is the truth of your words? I want to come to me to run the world for more than ten years, but I can't make money, what do my brothers and children do? There is no need to say anything about the prince's move to the south. ”

Li Mingrui, who had worked hard but touched a nail, keenly guessed the emperor's subtle thoughts, and for a while, he didn't know how to reply.

In the East Warm Pavilion, there was an awkward silence.

Li Mingrui thought about it, and then said tentatively: "If Your Majesty thinks that the southern expedition to Jinling is too far away, and the impact on the morale of the army is too great, you can also move to Jinan, where the Tang King is located, and set up a court there." In this way, it can also ensure that His Majesty is safe and that the Ming Dynasty will not move. It's just that Shandong is the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and His Majesty lives in it, so it may be inconvenient......"

Chongzhen was worried in his heart, and it was no longer difficult to listen to Li Mingrui's words, he waved his hand to interrupt Li Mingrui's words, and said with a long sigh: "Forget it, I have understood your suggestion, you don't have to say much, let's retreat first." ”

Hmph, I don't even want to go to Nanjing, but I also want to go to the territory of the former traitor Li Xiao, isn't this like Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, who automatically runs and is controlled by Cao Cao? How could such a thing be allowed to happen?!

Li Mingrui raised his head and looked at the emperor's melancholy and haggard face, feeling very sad in his heart.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say more. However, he still bowed his head and bowed slowly, and then withdrew from the Dongnuan Pavilion.

Chongzhen watched him silently disappear outside the palace gate, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

Chongzhen was alone, pacing back and forth in the Dongnuan Pavilion, he thought about it and thought about it, and finally decided to convene all the ministers to discuss matters in the Jianji Palace. Let's see if the ministers have the opinion of whether they should move south immediately, or if there is another way to ensure that the Jingshi does not have to move the entire dynasty to the south in a big way.

The next day, Chongzhen vaguely proposed the decision to move south to the courtiers again, and sure enough, as soon as the emperor finished speaking, it caused an uproar.

According to Emperor Chongzhen's original intention, he planned to flee to the south, but he wanted the ministers to praise him, and he wanted to take care of his face.

For example, when Li Mingrui played the right game yesterday, he deliberately called the southern flight in the name of "pro-conquest", which was to find out the emperor's psychology of having a good face, but in the end, it was because of Li Mingrui's proposal to mobilize the prince to move south, which angered the emperor, so that this conversation, which could have been fruitful, ended in nothing.

Li Mingrui, who is bold and outspoken, is still like this, and those courtiers who only want to protect themselves are even more shrewd in their calculations.

They were afraid that after the emperor moved south, he would leave himself to assist the prince to guard the capital and become a living substitute for the dead, which was a fatal thing. And in case he is fortunate enough to move south with him, once the Beijing division is lost, he may have suffered for others because he once advocated moving south.

After all, for an emperor like Chongzhen, who is not responsible and good at blaming, there is a high probability that such a thing will happen.

So in the entire court, all the ministers were submissive and noncommittal, and in real history, the "emperor wants the minister to say what he wants." The minister was afraid of the emperor and did not dare to speak, thinking that the driving line belonged to his stay, or that the Beijing master could not guard after driving, and the emperor would sin the master. No one decides. The situation is exactly the same.

And among them, there are even more speechless things and conspiracies.

That is, people such as Shoufu Chen Yan and Wei Zaode, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, have even made up their minds in their hearts to surrender to the rogue and change their courts.

They planned in their hearts that they wanted to take Chongzhen, the great genius, as a gift to the rogue, so they didn't want Chongzhen to escape.

Therefore, when Chongzhen was helpless, he personally asked Chen Yan what he thought about the move to the south, Chen Yan immediately knelt on the ground, wept without saying a word.

"Chen Yan, why do you have such an attitude?" Seeing Chen Yan's expression, Chongzhen was full of disgust and asked coldly.

Chen Yan, who was kneeling on the ground, never looked up, and only replied sullenly: "Your Majesty thinks of moving south, and Weichen doesn't dare to say much." It's just that what the minister wants to say is that before the Liukou arrived, he abandoned the Beijing master first, and he was in the temple of Naizong! '

"You! ……”

Chen Yan's words hit the softest place in Chongzhen's heart, choking him speechless.

Chongzhen gritted his teeth and slammed the dragon chair angrily, the anxiety and shame in his heart, how can he speak.

Seeing Chen Yan behaving like this, and the emperor didn't know how to deal with it, Wei Zaode, as well as Li Banghua, the imperial history of Zuodu, and others also came out one after another, kneeling on the ground, weeping, making the entire court as if it was holding a memorial service, full of mourning and desolate atmosphere.

Seeing that they seemed to have made an appointment, they pretended to be loyal ministers one after another, and made this cowardice of asking for their lives for the country.

In the midst of the chaos, Shi Heng keenly sniffed out the changes in the atmosphere of the court, and he Shi Shiran came out of the queue and immediately said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Li Mingrui's proposal to move south is really a heresy, and the emperor must not ignore the treacherous and evil intentions hidden in the meantime!" ”

As soon as his words came out, Chongzhen's face changed, and the entire court was instantly silent.

At this time, Chen Yan, who was kneeling on the ground, had a dark smile on his face. And Li Mingrui, who had been standing in the court class with his head bowed, was pale and stunned.

"Light Shiheng! You say that Li Mingrui's words are heresy, but why? But let's be honest with me! “

Seeing the light, this guy Heng spoke amazingly, and as soon as he came, he buttoned a big hat to Li Mingrui, Chongzhen's face was very ugly, and he asked sharply.

Guang Shiheng was not in a hurry, and knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty, the capital is the capital of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, how can you abandon it?" Thinking that the Mongolian tile spur department besieged the city with 500,000 soldiers, they could only be trapped under the fortified city and could not conquer it, so they had to flee in a hurry. Nai He is now in the flow of Kou has not arrived, I Ming a large number of foreign reinforcements are also on the way to reinforcements, is about to rush to the capital to report to His Majesty, this sincerity up and down with their lives, together to defend the city also. However, Li Mingrui, out of selfishness and for the sake of selfish interests, insisted on encouraging His Majesty to abandon His Majesty and move south to Jinling. “

Guang Shiheng's words made Chongzhen's face red and white for a while, and before he could reply, a group of ministers in the court who saw the wind and made the rudder immediately called out to me word by word.

"Your Majesty, Jingshi is my capital city of the Ming Dynasty, and you must not abandon it!"

"Your Majesty is so wise and sacred, how can he be shaken by the villain. If the capital is lost, I am afraid that the military and civilians of the world will be angry, even if they move south to Jinling smoothly, how to clean up the hearts of the people? ”

"Your Majesty, Li Mingrui's words are absolutely selfish and have ulterior motives. This person is afraid of thieves like a tiger, and he is bent on personal gain, please Your Majesty will punish him to boost the morale of my Ming army and people! ”

……

Hearing that these ministers stood in line one after another, they quickly turned their guns and turned to Li Mingrui, and this court meeting that talked about moving south turned into a personal attack on Li Mingrui, and the emperor's face was pale, and he was almost angry.

He stood up in a rage and shouted, "Wait a minute! Now that the situation is so hot, you are still here to attack and fight, what kind of system is it really like! What is the intention of the people, only Li Mingrui? Such rhetoric is obviously a partisan's argument, but it is necessary to deceive me and not be able to detect it? Let me tell you, I can't keep the community, but I can die in the community! ”

Chongzhen's words quite set the tone for the court, pasted gold on his face, temporarily extinguished the verbal disputes of the courtiers, but also cut off his last chance to flee south.

Perhaps, this is the fate of a dynasty.

can't change, don't want to change, just thinking about dragging mud and water for a day, and in the end, this cocoon is not destined.

However, now that the enemy army is forcing out the Beijing Division, Chongzhen still did the last thing he thought was the most important.

That is, the eunuch Xu Gao, who had given Zhou Kui, the chief of ceremonies, personally passed on to him to donate 20,000 taels of silver, so that he could bring his own handwritten imperial decree and cross the sea from Tianjin to Liaodong at the risk of being plundered by the Qing army's sailors or pirates, and asked Li Xiao to quickly lead the troops to evacuate the Qing realm, and the whole army went straight to Beijing, striving to keep the capital of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years. Of course, at the same time, he also fought to save his own life.

If you can't move south, this Li Xiao may be the last straw.

In the dim Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen carefully sealed the edict, personally walked down the Danqi, and handed the edict to Xu Gao, who was kneeling on the ground.

"Xu Gao, Cao Huachun has been in Shandong for a long time, and there is no news, I really can't wait any longer." Chongzhen's face was gloomy, and there was an indescribable sadness in his voice: "Your trip is very important, you must hand over this edict to Li Xiao personally." I know how risky it is for you to go by sea, and the captives and pirates are all haunted by it. But now that the fire is burning my eyebrows, I have no choice but to hope that you are on the road, and I am more careful. ”

Xu Gao raised his head, already with tears in his eyes, and replied in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, rest assured!" The slave and maid received His Majesty's great favor and could not repay it. If you go to Liaodong, you will definitely overcome all difficulties, and you will also hand over the edict to the king of Tang. Hugh said that if he takes the sea route, even if he has to cross the sword mountain and the sea of fire, he will go to work for His Majesty! ”

Chongzhen's eyes were suddenly filled with tears.

He couldn't say anything more, so he could only pretend to pat Xu Gao on the shoulder intimately to show comfort.

An hour later, Xu Gao, who was ready, accompanied by several brocade guards, left the capital from Dongzhimen and went straight to Tianjin Hejian Mansion.

They crossed the Jinghai Sea and the salty water Gu, and came to the Dagu ferry, where they took the sea boat that the officials of Hejian Province had already prepared, and immediately crossed north.

Xu Gao and others were lucky, probably because of the thaw at the beginning of spring, the pirates and Qing army sailors on the sea were almost not visible, and the group went all the way north.

Coincidentally, the day before Xu Gao and others arrived at Yingkou, Cao Huachun, who set off from Laizhou, Shandong, took a boat all the way to Yingkou, and hurried for a day, and finally arrived at Haicheng, where Li Xiao was.

It turned out that Cao Huachun stayed in Shandong for nearly a month, and he was really bored, and what he hoped for most every day was that the waters of Liaodong could be frozen as soon as possible, so that he could cross the sea by boat to announce the decree, so that he could return to Beijing as soon as possible to resume his life.

Therefore, after getting the news of the thaw in Liaodong, he really couldn't wait for Li Xiao's sailor fleet to return from Liaodong, so he hurriedly took an ordinary civilian ship from Laizhou, and he was lucky to reach Yingkou all the way.