Wang Xiuchu, a man of the time, recorded the tragic situation of that day in his "Ten Diaries of Yangzhou": a full soldier with a knife in front of the guide, a full soldier in the rear to expel in the rear, and a full soldier in the center to guard the left and right of the team to prevent escape. The three full soldiers drove dozens of people like dogs and sheep, and if they stopped moving forward, they would be beaten or killed immediately. The women were also tied around their necks with long ropes, which were dragged like beads, and the women were constantly falling and falling all over the mud because of the difficulty of their small feet. At this time, the streets were full of abandoned babies, trampled by horses' hooves, or trampled by human feet, and their livers and brains were smeared, and the sound of weeping was full of wilderness. Passing by a ditch and a pond, I saw that there were piles of corpses inside, hands and feet pillowed, blood flowed into the water, turned into colors, and the pond was filled with corpses.

The stench of blood filled the air, and mutilated corpses were everywhere. Those who tried to escape by jumping from the walls either broke their thighs or fell into the hands of scoundrels and stragglers, who took them and tortured them to hand over their treasures. In the city, some people hid in garbage heaps, smeared themselves with mud and dirt, hoping to avoid people's attention, but the Qing soldiers stabbed the garbage heap with spears from time to time until the people inside squirmed like animals and blood flowed from their wounds. The fire spread, and those who were still alive because they were hiding in their houses or basements were either consumed by the merciless fire, or they ran out into the streets in fear and were killed by the Qing soldiers who were still slaughtering the city. Even those lonely and helpless citizens who had been let go by the regular Qing army and wandered naked in the streets were stopped by hordes of stragglers and beaten to death with sticks.

After the war, according to the cremation book, more than 800,000 people died in the massacre, not including those who fell into wells and rivers, set themselves on fire in closed homes, and hanged themselves in remote places. The tragic slaughter of the city made the prosperous Yangzhou city turn into a place of ruins in an instant, and the famous town in the south of the Yangtze River became a hell on earth overnight, and later generations called it "Yangzhou Ten Days".

The Manchu slaughter in Yangzhou was very effective, and the whole of Nanming had seen this kind of brutal war. The rumors on both sides of the Yangtze River are even more bizarre, what Qing army is eight feet tall, eating human flesh and so on. This kind of terrifying rumor frightened the Southern Ming monarchs and ministers, and this was one of the main reasons for the rumors in the south later.

The four towns of Jiangbei saw that Yangzhou, a number of fortified cities in the world, was breached in a few days, and they were so frightened that they surrendered one after another, and Duoduo later mentioned in his letter to Dolgon that after the occupation of Nanjing, he received 238,000 soldiers from the Southern Ming Dynasty at one time, not counting the soldiers on the left who surrendered later. In other words, the Yangtze River defense line of the Southern Ming Dynasty as the Great Wall completely failed.

The news of the destruction of Yangzhou City and the martyrdom of Shi Kefa reached Nanjing, which frightened the timid Zhu Yousong, and he immediately convened a court meeting to discuss with the ministers what to do.

At this court meeting, the Donglin Party was completely out of power, and they didn't expect that Zuo Liangyu, who they found, would die of illness on the way, and things developed beyond their expectations.

At this time, Ma Shiying showed his true character as a loyal minister, and he suggested that he should defend Nanjing. This was also a safe idea at that time, there was a stronger city than Nanjing in the entire Nanzhili, and Nanjing had invested a lot of money when Zhu Yuanzhang built the capital.

But after Ma Shiying finished speaking impassionedly, he found that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty bowed their heads and did not speak, and Zhu Yousong, who was sitting above, was even more ignorant. Nothing was studied at this court meeting, so we had to break up unhappily.

Zhu Yousong, who returned to the harem, was anxious, the Qing army was in Yangzhou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and it was a matter of a few days to Nanjing, so it seemed that it was important to run quickly. In the next few days, Zhu Yousong didn't tell anyone, and even escaped from Nanjing with a few eunuchs wearing makeup.

On the tenth day of the first month of May, Zhu Yousong escaped from Nanjing late at night. It was only after dawn that the minister received the news that the emperor had run away. Shoufu Ma Shiying paused again and again, but he couldn't help it at this point. Ma Shiying's heart was crossed, and he went to the palace to kidnap the Queen Mother, and he also ran out of Nanjing.

The emperor and the first assistant both ran away, but the Donglin Party couldn't run because their home was in Nanjing. On 11 May, several leading figures in Nanjing, including Wang Duo, a scholar and Zhao Zhilong, a scholar from Xincheng, gathered at the home of Qian Qianyi, the leader of the Donglin Party, to discuss what to do.

Wang Duo, a scholar, said: "Brother Mu Zhai, now that the Qing army is in Jiangbei, what should I do?" ”

Qian Qianyi was also speechless.

These ministers discussed and discussed, and decided whether to surrender or surrender.

Qian Qianyi sent the ministers away and returned to the back house to see Liu Rusi.

Liu Ru asked, "What is the master going to do?" ”

"Hey, Shi Xianzhi's resistance in Yangzhou was fierce, but after the city was broken, hundreds of thousands of innocent people were implicated. So we have discussed, for the sake of the millions of people in Nanjing, let's sacrifice the city! ”

Liu Ru had nothing to say, and said half-ringingly: "The master's decision is not objected to by the concubines, but what about the future?" Does the lord have to bear the infamy of the ages? ”

"What can I do? Heaven and earth are so big, there is a place where my money can go! ”

"Master, you sacrificed the city for the safety of the people before, and died for the Ming Dynasty, isn't this an opportunity to leave your name in history?"

Qian Qianyi heard Liu Ru persuading him to be martyred, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "But what about you, the Chen family will not allow you, how can you live if I am gone?" ”

Liu Ru stood up and said: "Master, although the concubine is from a dusty background, she still knows about marrying her husband, and I have decided to die with my lord!" ”

At this time, Qian Qianyi was also stirred by what Liu said and said: "Okay, let people prepare a boat, let's go to the lake." ”

The boat was quickly prepared, and behind the Qian family was Mochou Lake, which was very convenient to throw into the lake. But when Qian Qianyi got on the boat, he changed his mind.

Qian Qianyi saw the rippling lake water, and said, "Madam, this water is too cold to jump!" ”

Hearing Qian Qianyi say this, Liu Ru was so angry that he said, "Okay, since the master doesn't jump, then I'll jump." After saying that, he jumped into the lake. Of course, Qian Qianyi couldn't let her die, so he hurriedly called someone to go down to save people.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the huge Yangzhou was killed like a ghost. Seeing that the killing was almost done, Duoduo ordered all the departments to seal the swords, and found hundreds of monks in the temples outside the city to enter the city to collect the corpses.

And Duoduo led the army south, came to Yizhen, and prepared to cross the Yangtze River.

Now guarding the Yangtze River is Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Zhibao, a fierce pirate who was also frightened enough by the Manchu Qing to abandon Yizhen and flee to the open sea in embarrassment.

On May 10, Duoduo crossed the Yangtze River, and on the 14th, dozens of Qing army vanguards arrived outside the Hongwu Gate.

On May 15, Duoduo led the main force of the Qing army to the outside of Nanjing, and more than 30 high-ranking officials and dignitaries, including Zhao Zhilong and Zhu Guobi, together with Xu Jiujue, Duke of Wei, Zhang Gongri, Marquis of Longping, Wang Duo, Cai Yichen, Qian Qianyi, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, and Li Zhan, the Imperial History of Zuodu, opened the city gate and went out to the suburbs. After the Qing soldiers entered the city to search and guard, Duoduo entered Nanjing on the 17th, and immediately drove out the Han residents in the east and north of Nanjing, and established a full city for the Qing army to live in.

After the occupation of Nanjing, the next step was simple. Duoduo spread the surrounding provinces, and Nanzhili basically did not resist much, and they all returned to the Manchu Qing.

In the eyes of the local people, the Manchu Qing Dynasty came in just to change the emperor, and it was not to become an official as a literati and a peasant farmer as before, and there was not much change from before. So there was no turmoil everywhere and they accepted the rule of the Manchus.

At this time, the Manchus had not yet adapted to the strange nation of the Han people, who were a family-oriented people. Whoever you are the emperor can be, but once it infringes on my own interests, I will fight you to the death.

After writing to Dorgon, Duoduo decided to go north to return to Beijing, because Nanjing was too hot for the Manchurians outside the Guan.

On June 15, Dolgon in Beijing issued an edict ordering more than 30 former Ming officials who had surrendered to go to Beijing immediately to serve as officials, and Qian Qianyi was appointed as a chamberlain of the Ministry of Rites. At the same time, there is also an order, that is, the "Easy to Wear Shaving Order".

After the order arrived in Nanjing, these surrendered scholars immediately fried the pot, "parents of the body hair and skin", how can they say that they will shave, is that not a beast? At this time, Qian Qianyi stood up and said, "Everyone, you sit down first, my scalp is very itchy, I'll clean it up." ”

At that time, the Ming people kept their hair full, that is, they did not shave their heads after birth. With the sanitary conditions at the time, dandruff, parasites or something should be a little. So these Wenchen didn't think much about it, and thought that Qian Qianyi was really cleaning his hair.

Who knew that the old money would come back after a while, and it was "braided" - shaved on the door of the head, which was called a shiny.

But what Duoduo didn't expect was that the upper echelons of scholars and doctors all shaved their heads, but the common people at the bottom disagreed. As soon as the head was shaved, Nan Zhili, who had already settled down, immediately set fire everywhere and erected righteous flags everywhere. Duoduo's plan to return to Beijing also came to naught, so he had to act as a firefighting team and put down the rebellion everywhere.

At this time, Zhu Hongsan in Guangdong was also anxious, but he was not forced by the rebellion, but by his group of scholars.

The news of the fall of Nanjing and the arrest of Hongguang was transmitted to Dongguan by the intelligence agencies on 20 May. Zhang Jiayu, who was the first to receive the news, jumped up happily, this news is too good.

Zhang Jiayu showed the news to Zhu Hongsan as soon as possible, and Zhu Hongsan was noncommittal and put it aside.

Zhang Jiayu was also very strange and asked: "Lord Wang, now that Nanjing has been breached, the emperor has been arrested, and King Yan is directly extinct." Isn't this a good time for the prince to ascend and shout, the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains? ”

Of course, Zhu Hongsan knew that twenty years ago he knew that Nanming would perish in May this year, but now was not the time. Zhu Hongsan's strategy is to slow down the king, it is not good to rise in this troubled era, let others take the top first, and it is the right way to make a fortune behind his back.

But these words can't be said to Zhang Jiayu, Zhu Hongsan just said perfunctorily: "This king is deeply favored by the emperor, how can he fall into the well at this time?" Don't say that again. ”

Zhang Jiayu heard Zhu Hongsan perfunctory him, and he was so angry that he scolded him. You Zhu Hong are ruthless and treacherous, can you still be grateful? It seems that he is a small person, and this kind of thing has to be discussed with Ma Mingyuan.

Zhang Jiayu went out to find Ma Mingyuan at the Changshi office, and told Ma Mingyuan about the information as it was, Ma Mingyuan was also trembling with excitement, put down the work in his hand and immediately came to Zhu Hongsan.