On February 28, Zhu Youzhen issued an edict to the world to rescue the Beijing Division, and ordered the civil and military officials to play the battle and defense matters, and Li Banghua, the imperial historian of the left capital, and Li Mingrui, the right concubine, asked to move south and let the crown prince go to Jiangnan to comfort the army, but the emperor did not allow it. On the 29th, Chen Yan, the first assistant to the cabinet, resigned and retired. As Zhou Yanru's dismissal after Chongzhen's number one favorite minister, Chen Yan had no plan, repeatedly made mistakes, when Li Zicheng invaded Shanxi, Chongzhen that is, the ministers wanted to transfer Ningyuan Wu Sangui to withdraw to Shanhaiguan and resist Li Zicheng, but Chen Yanli excluded public opinion, resulting in Wu Sangui failed to make the trip, and Zhu Youzhen regretted it and urgently transferred Wu Sangui into the customs.

On March 2, Li Zicheng went to Datong, the chief military officer Jiang Hao surrendered, and on the 3rd, Li Jiantai asked to move south. On the 4th, Li Banghua again asked the crown prince to go to Jiangnan to comfort the Nanjing soldiers, but he did not get permission, and on the 5th, Wu Sangui, the chief military officer, was Ping Xibo, Zuo Liangyu was Ning Nanbo, Tang Tong was Ding Xibo, and Cao Bianjiao was Ning Guobo, and the soldiers from all towns were enlisted to enter Beijing for rescue. On the 7th, Tang Tong entered Beijing to guard, and Zhu Youzhen ordered him and his minister Du Zhizhi to guard Juyong Pass, and the eunuch Wang Chengen was responsible for the city defense. On the 11th, Li Zicheng went to Xuanfu, and the eunuch Du Xun, who was responsible for monitoring Xuanfu, surrendered, and the governor Zhu Zhifeng and others were killed, and then Tang Tong and Du Zhizhi surrendered to Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng then waved his army into Juyong Pass and captured Changping. On the 17th, Li Zicheng's troops came to the city of Beijing.

Everything came too fast, so fast that Zhu Youzhen didn't even have time to react, he asked Tang Tong to lead the army to resist Li Zicheng ten days ago, Tang Tong had more than 10,000 people in his hands, plus the original 10,000 defenders of Juyong Pass, under such a favorable terrain, he should always be able to resist Li Zicheng for a few days, and buy some time for the soldiers and horses of the town Qinwang, but I didn't expect Du Xun and Tang Tong to surrender Li Zicheng, which made Zhu Youzhen very desperate, and now Li Zicheng has come to the city, in the face of the current situation, Zhu Youzhen can be said to be like ashes.

On the morning of 17 March, when a part of Li Zicheng's cavalry arrived outside Beijing, the first to be surrounded were the Desheng Gate and Anding Gate in the north, the Xizhi Gate and Fucheng Gate in the west, and the east gate and the outer city gate of the inner city were not surrounded by the Dashun army until the afternoon of 17 March, and there were cavalry patrolling the suburbs of the outer city. Since then, the city of Beijing has been completely cut off from the outside world.

He had to believe in a sentence, Da Ming Qi was exhausted, if not, why did there be so many changes, this was a sleepless and heart-wrenching night, this night was so long, and it was so short, for Li Zicheng, it was long, for Zhu Youzhen, it was short, watching the time pass little by little, he never knew how to deal with it.

Zhu Youzhen stood in the imperial city, but he could feel the momentum of Li Zicheng's army outside the city, the starless night sky was illuminated by the bonfire in his military camp, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, for Zhu Youzhen, it was nothing, the Ming Dynasty had millions of soldiers, but this million army had already become his Li Zicheng, who would be loyal to him, Zhu Youzhen didn't know, after Tang Tong surrendered to the enemy, for the rest of the people, Zhu Youzhen no longer had much hope.

At the court meeting this morning, when Zhu Youzhen asked about the countermeasures, all the ministers were panicked and wept. Zhu Youzhen pondered for a long time, seventeen years of depression and grief instantly turned into a cloud of turbidity, held in his chest, and wanted to gush out, he stood up stiffly, trembling his hands, and wrote down "All civil and military attaches can be killed, but the people cannot be killed", and then brushed his sleeves away.

"Ancestors, you have experienced a hundred battles, expelled Hu Yuan, and there is a great tomorrow, but I didn't expect that my grandson Zhu Youzhen was immoral and incompetent, although I also tried my best to cheer up, I was determined to prosper, but I was pitiful and the country was not good, I struggled for seventeen years, I was happy in my heart, I couldn't return to the sky, I saw that the city was about to be destroyed, the family was slaughtered, the mausoleum and the temple were burned by thieves, and even though the grandson was determined to die, he was willing to die in the community, but he hated to see the two ancestors in the underground......"

Zhu Youzhen knelt on the ground and cried to the sky, which provoked the palace people around him to burst into tears, others don't know, but they know, what kind of life the emperor lives every day, the Ming Dynasty has still fallen to this point, they are also sad and difficult to control.

Just when Zhu Youzhen was crying in the sky, the eunuch Wang Chengen also came to Zhu Youzhen's back with tears in his eyes, bowed to the ground, and cried: "Your Majesty, Cao Huachun opened the Guangning Gate on the west side of the outer city half an hour ago, and the Dashun army entered the city. ”

Zhu Youzhen stopped crying, but laughed, laughing so sore, as if his heart was filled with sour vinegar and chili oil, mixed with sour, hot and bitter tastes, the only thing missing was sweetness, at this moment, he had no need to cry anymore, tears, that was the behavior of a coward, he was a great tomorrow, and he would rather die than live humblely.

"Your Majesty ......" Wang Chengen looked at Zhu Youzhen with a puzzled expression, I don't know what happened to the emperor, whether he was crazy and crazy, why was he still crying just now, but at the moment he was laughing so miserably, why.

When the dawn of dawn appeared in Zhu Youzhen's hysterical call sign, Zhu Youzhen was like a crazy wild dog, running in a hurry, all the palace people chased after him, but he couldn't catch up, Zhu Youzhen came to Jingyang Bell, and hit the big bell in front of him hard, and the bell of "Dong Dong Dong" sounded melodiously in the sky, which was also mixed with a trace of desolation.

Fifty-four rings later, Zhu Youzhen ran wildly to the Jinluan Palace, when he sat on the dragon chair of the Taihe Palace, the usual bustling court, but only one of the Jinwu stood there alone. After waiting for a long time, there is still no sound in the court, are the ministers collectively deaf, or are they all dead? Zhu Youzhen was not in the mood to ponder this weirdness, but he was a little impatient to wait. He had no anger of the past, only despair and desolation.

Zhu Youzhen's feet couldn't help but tremble, and his whole body slumped heavily on the chair. The crown on his head was shaken off, and he rolled a few times before stopping not far away. Zhu Youzhen ignored it, he tilted his head and slowly closed his eyes. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of qi has been exhausted. This is the slogan that Li Zicheng shouted when he swore in Xi'an, and Zhu Youzhen fully agreed with it from the bottom of his heart at this moment.

He returned to the harem, saw Queen Zhou, and said bitterly: "Now that the general trend is gone, it is irretrievable, you are the mother of a country, you must not be humiliated, it is better to commit suicide as soon as possible!"

After hearing this, Empress Zhou also knew that there would be this day, but she knelt on the ground to say goodbye to the emperor and cried bitterly: "The concubine has served Your Majesty for eighteen years, but Your Majesty has never listened to the advice of the concubine, so that today, the concubine can be martyred, and there is nothing to say!"

After saying that, she caressed the three princes and cried for a while, then resolutely turned around and entered the house and locked the door. After a while, the maid in the house came out and reported that the queen had committed suicide in accordance with her order.

Zhu Youzhen turned to Yuan Guifei and said, "You can also go with the queen!"

Yuan Guifei cried goodbye and hanged herself, and Zhu Youzhen summoned Princess Changping, who was only fifteen years old, and said with tears: "Why did you want to be born into the emperor's house!" After saying that, she covered her face with her left sleeve, pulled out a knife with her right hand and slashed her left arm, and then slashed her right shoulder, she passed out, and at the same time stabbed her six-year-old Princess Zhaoren to death with a sword.