In order to thank Shen Xing for his help, Erke asked his sister Esi'er to go to Jiangnan with a large number of cattle, sheep and horses to condole, and also wrote a letter intentionally or unintentionally to express his hope that he and Shen Xing would be married forever! Yizhuang's political marriage was unilaterally brewed in this way, and Shen Xing didn't even get any news before he met Esi'er.

In the blink of an eye, more than two months have passed and come to the end of the year, Hubei Sun Chuanting led 200,000 troops out of Xiangyang City to attack Li Zicheng, but they were all in vain because of the lack of food and grass for the labor expedition, and the last detour to Bazhong was finally broken because of the Xi'an defender Tian Jianxiu's skillful fire ox formation, losing more than 20,000 soldiers, and retreating to Hubei without the power to attack.

Anwei's Zuo Liangyu held an army of 300,000 and did not listen to the announcement, allowing Chongzhen to ignore the will of King Qin, he wrote several letters to contact Shen Xing in the hope of getting the Shen family's military salary and funding, and talked about his difficult situation, but Shen Xing did not reply after all.

Although Li Zicheng did not take the initiative to attack after the relationship with Shen Xing eased, he did not relax his defense at all, relying on the advantages of favorable terrain and personnel to block Lu Xiangsheng's way back to aid Beijing. Huang Taiji's elite cavalry lined up in the north again, waiting for the opportunity to take advantage of it.

If it weren't for Shen Xing's previous drastic rectification of Shanxi, which made the millions of people in Shanxi feel the same hatred, I am afraid that our Lu Dashuai would have died no less than hundreds of times, but this is how our good subordinates of Chongzhen, a die-hard member of the Ming Dynasty, still think about how to fight back to Beijing every day.

"Generals, you are all Marquis Shen's old subordinates, and you are well versed in his way of using troops, don't you have a good strategy to break the enemy in this current situation?" Lu Xiangsheng said, staring at the sand table in front of him, showing a bitter expression.

"Marshal, it's not that we are incompetent, it's really the battle situation is scorching, the army is difficult to withdraw, if you abandon Shanxi, the lone army goes deep into the Hebei region to have the opportunity to go north to Beijing, but in this way, it is equivalent to cutting yourself off, Shen Houye has already warned that the Manchu Tartars may be desperate to break through the Shanhaiguan, if this is the case, my Shanxi army will not only not be able to save the king Qin, but also be attacked from both sides!"

"The marshal General Liu is right, Li Chuang has long coveted my Shanxi, and he will definitely take advantage of the situation as soon as the army withdraws...... Most of the Shanxi children in the army, now in order to protect their families and land, they can sacrifice their lives and forget about death, but they can abandon their relatives and children, regardless of the fear that the army's heart will collapse immediately! ”

Lu Xiangsheng heard the sky and shouted, "Your Majesty, the minister is ashamed of the emperor's grace, and the crime deserves death, but the millions of Li people in Shanxi have just had a peaceful birthday in a few days, and the minister really can't bear to let them be affected by the war......"

"Report ...... Li Chuang gathered millions of people to attack Hebei, and now he has captured Handan, Xingtai, and besieged Shijiazhuang! "What!" Lu Xiangsheng collapsed to the ground with black eyes, and there was a panic in the handsome account.

To Songshan, Jinzhou lost, Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing, the reinforcements did not arrive for a long time, Chongzhen's heart actually became a lot of complicated want to negotiate peace with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the military department Shangshu secretly discussed the plan, and later the peace was leaked, was opposed by the ministers, Shangshu was killed and the Qing soldiers finally negotiated peace The opportunity was also shattered.

Chongzhen above the court saw that he was facing a catastrophe, and when he summoned his ministers, he lamented: "I am not the king of the country, you are all the ministers of the country." I don't treat the soldiers well, so far today, why don't the ministers follow each other?" However, hundreds of officials argued on the basis of reason, and the opposition of Chen Yan, Guang Shiheng and other new court officials was extremely fierce, and the reason was that they could not learn from the corner of Gou'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the old head Fu Wen Tiren was the only person in Chongzhen, but he fell ill early on the bed because of physical reasons.

Chongzhen saw that the situation was eroded to the point of being out of control, and once again rediscussed the plan to move south with Li Mingrui and Li Banghua, the emperor of Zuodu, and asked the scholar Chen Yan to take responsibility, but Chen Yan was unwilling and was dismissed soon after.

After the failure of the second southward relocation plan, Chongzhen asked the concubine Gong Yonggu to ask the important ministers to guard the Beijing division, and went out of Beijing on the grounds of "the holy drive to the south, and the conscription of troops to discuss in person", and the ministers were afraid that the emperor would become a substitute for the peasant army to vent their anger because the emperor was not in the capital, so they still did not let Chongzhen leave Beijing.

At this time, the peasant army uprisings were large and small for almost ten years, from Beijing to the south, Nanjing to the north, between thousands of miles, the ground was full of bones, the population was cut off, and the pedestrians were scarce.

Emperor Chongzhen summoned Xu Biao, the governor of Baoding, to Beijing to meet with each other to discuss the matter of guarding the city, Xu Biao said, the minister came from Jianghuai, thousands of miles of land was empty, even if there is a city place, there are only four surrounding walls, at a glance are overgrown with weeds, can not hear the rooster and dog barking. I can't see a person who cultivates the land, how will Your Majesty defend the city and govern the world like this?

After Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he burst into tears and sighed. Therefore, in order to sacrifice the refugees and the fallen soldiers and the princes who were killed, Emperor Chongzhen made a Buddhist event in the palace to pray for peace in the world, and issued an edict to punish himself, and once again urged Hubei Governor Sun Chuanting and Shanxi Governor Lu Xiangsheng to quickly encircle and suppress the peasant army.

But who has the ability to turn the tide when the building is about to fall, and the Ming court disappeared little by little in Chongzhen's sad voice.

Li Zicheng left the general Tian Jianxiu to stay in Xi'an, personally led an army of 500,000 to the outside world, claiming to be one million, and then attacked when the epidemic in Henan slowed down. Wherever the army went, it was like no one, and the people all rushed to welcome it.

In a few months, he conquered Shijiazhuang and directly supplemented Baoding Mansion, seeing that the distant water could not save the near fire, Chongzhen was sick and rushed to the doctor to appoint Wu Sangui as Ping Xibo, and Feiyu Sangui entered the Weijing Division, and used Wu Xiang to supervise the Beijing camp.

Li Zicheng fell into Xuanfu, everything came so suddenly, Xuan surrendered to the eunuch Du Xun who defended the city, and on November 15, the scholar Li Jiantai surrendered, and Li Zicheng's troops began to besiege Beijing.

The eunuch Cao Huachun said: "If the loyal and virtuous are here, the current affairs will not come to this." "On December 16, Changping was lost, and on the 17th, the city of Beijing was besieged. At the beginning of the new year, the peasant army attacked Xizhi, Pingze, and Desheng with flying ladders, and the defenders either fled or surrendered.