"What? How could this be? I just came from there, and it was okay there, right? How so? I'm afraid I'm mistaken, right? Li Guozhen said angrily.

"What else! Li Guozhen, why don't you go and take a look! Chongzhen shouted angrily.

When Li Guozhen heard this, he hurriedly bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, this must be a rumor. The minister has just come from the Changyi Gate, and the thieves are not preparing to attack the city, which must be a rumor. The minister immediately went back to the town. Your Majesty also has to think of a way early. ”

"Get out of here!" Chongzhen said angrily.

Li Guozhen bowed again and withdrew. As soon as he left the palace gate, he saw several servants waiting outside the palace gate. He recognized these people as the people who followed him to guard the city at the Changyi Gate, but now they came here. He hurriedly asked: "What happened to Changyimen, do you know?" ”

A servant replied, "Master, the Changyi Gate is lost!" Thieves, thieves have entered the city! ”

"What's going on? Wasn't it okay just now? Li Guozhen grabbed the servant by the collar and asked.

"Master, after the master left, some soldiers made a noise, saying that the master had run away and fled for his life." The servant hurriedly replied, "Then more people ran away, and then the thieves shouted from below, and when they opened the gates, they all said, 'Kill pigs and eat sheep,' and say that if they surrender, they will have food and land to grow and no grain or anything when they open the gates." Then ......"

"And then?" Li Guozhen hurriedly asked.

Then a group of hiccups made a noise and opened the gates. The servant replied.

"What about you? You dogs are just watching like this? Li Guozhen's eyes widened and he said.

"Master, hundreds of people are clamoring, they all have knives in their hands, and there are only a few villains, how can they stop it? Don't talk about blocking, if the villain and the others run a little slower, now I'm afraid that there will be no one to report the news. The servant replied.

Li Guozhen pushed the servant aside, took the reins of his horse from the other servant, and turned on the horse.

"Sir, sir, where have we been?" A servant shouted.

"Go home!" Li Guozhen waved his horsewhip, and the horse under his crotch trotted - now it was time for them to fly separately when disaster came.

……

Li Guozhen did not bring any more news to Chongzhen, but Chongzhen still got the exact news from other people, including other officials, including the eunuchs he had sent: Changyi Gate had indeed been captured by Li Chuang. However, Li Zicheng did not use this gate to quickly control a larger area at first, as if he was taken aback by this sudden victory. For the whole afternoon, they were just busy strengthening their control over the Changyi Gate and defending against a possible counterattack by the Ming army. This was partly because of the cautiousness of winning the battle, and on the other hand, because the city of Beijing was too big, and the Shun army lacked understanding of the city. To be honest, Li Zicheng's delay is not unreasonable, although the outer city of Beijing has been breached, but from a military point of view, this does not mean the fall of Beijing. Because there is also an inner city in Beijing. And this inner city is even stronger than the outer city. This inner city is the palace of the imperial palace, as far as the military point of view, the palace city wall is tall and strong, the moat, the female wall, the city tower, the enemy tower, the horse face is the same, in addition, there are also a lot of cannons on the palace city. If there are staunch defenders, even this inner city cannot be defeated in a short period of time or the like.

However, Li Zicheng's delay did not last long, because just like after the Battle of Taiyuan, a large number of officials have sent people to lose their sincerity, and late that night, the Ming Dynasty minister who is responsible for guarding the main gate of the inner city, that is, the gate of the palace - Zhengyang Gate, my Ming Dynasty military department Shangshu Zhang Jinyan actually sent someone to contact the Shun army, expressing the hope of revolting in battle and joining the extermination of independence. The husband and the thief Zhu came from the struggle.

"No wonder, Da Ming will fall like this, speaking of which Emperor Chongzhen is really a ...... What kind of people do you think he has? After accepting Zhang Jinyan's dishonesty and sending his envoy away, Li Zicheng couldn't help but say this to Liu Zongmin.

"Your Majesty, do you really plan to treat these bastards well?" Liu Zongmin stared at Li Zicheng with round eyes.

"Lao Liu, what do you think should happen?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Of course, I want to fix these bastards to death, and also make an example for the people of the world. Let them know what will happen to these unfaithful and unrighteous fellows. Otherwise, in the future, our court in Dashun will be full of such things. With a simple sense of justice, Liu Zongmin shouted angrily.

……

In fact, when the news of the loss of Changyi Gate came, Chongzhen completely lost hope in the entire battle situation. He brought his sons and asked them to say goodbye to their mother, Empress Zhou, and then took them by his chamberlain to his uncle. Although at this time, none of those uncles surnamed Cao, naturally there is no means to coerce Mount Tai to surpass the immortals of the North Sea, but in any case, at least at this time, the palace is the first target of the thieves, and the mansions of the uncles are naturally relatively backward, so at least, at this time, the uncles' homes are at least much safer than the palace. Of course, Chongzhen also understands that if you really want to talk about safety, Uncle Guo's family is not safe, and it is not even as safe as an ordinary person's home, but Chongzhen, who was born in the deep palace and grew up in the hands of a woman, does not recognize any ordinary people at all, let alone reliable ordinary people. As for the other officials, Chongzhen believed that as soon as the thieves came, these guys would immediately sell their sons. And those uncles are relatives of his sons, so they still have to be more or less reliable. Now Chongzhen has no other way.

"Father, let's go, won't you go?" Prince Zhu Cihong said with tears in his eyes.

"I'm not leaving." Chongzhen said in a deep voice, "The Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies!" Now is the time for me to be martyred. ”

"Father, if you don't leave, I won't leave." Prince Road.

"Father, I'm not leaving, we're not leaving, we're dying with my father!" Several other sons also said.

"Bastard!" Chongzhen shouted, "What bastard are you talking about!" I am the Son of Heaven, are you! ”

After scolding this, Chongzhen took a few more breaths, and the red on his face faded a little, he looked at the prince who didn't dare to speak anymore, but still had an unwilling face, and several other sons with white or red faces, and said in a deep voice: "You guys, Beijing City is broken, and I am going to be martyred, but the Ming Dynasty is not dead!" If you can escape and escape to Nanjing, my Ming Dynasty will not die! Although there has never been a person who has crossed to the south since ancient times and can recover, since before the Taizu of this dynasty, there has never been a person who has been able to recover from the south in one day. At that time, the Yan State made Le Yi to fight Qi, and even more than 70 cities, and even the national capital Linzi was captured by the Yan State, leaving only Jimo and Jucheng. Later, King Xiang of Qi relied on these two cities and finally restored the kingdom of Qi. Wu'er, now there is still the southeast half of the Ming Dynasty, and there are still many elite soldiers and strong generals, as long as you don't forget to be in Ju, my Ming Dynasty has not died! You don't understand! Okay, you all go, if you don't go, it's too late. ”

The crown prince Zhu Cihong couldn't speak, but just knelt down, kowtowed to Chongzhen and Queen Zhou a few more times, and said, "Take care of your father!" Then he stood up and followed the eunuchs with his brothers.

Chongzhen and Empress Zhou watched several princes go away, until they disappeared from their sight, Emperor Chongzhen turned his head and said to the eunuchs beside him: "Pass the decree and order the concubine Zhu Chunchen to lead the army and assist the prince." All right, go down, all of you. ”

The eunuchs answered, and withdrew.

Chongzhen turned to look at Queen Zhou, and said with tears in his eyes: "You are the mother of the country, and you deserve to be martyred." ”

Empress Zhou cried: "The concubine has been following Your Majesty for 18 years, and Your Majesty has not heard a word from the concubine, so that there is today." Now that His Majesty has ordered the concubine to die, how dare the concubine not die? ”

After saying that, he took off his belt and hanged himself. Chongzhen saw that Empress Zhou had hanged herself, so he said to Concubine Yuan: "You can also go with the queen." ”

Concubine Yuan cried and bowed, and also hanged herself.

Chongzhen called the eunuch again and ordered, "Go and call Changping." ”

……

When the princes left the palace, they divided into two roads and went to the homes of their uncle Zhou Kui and their uncle Tian Hongyu. At this time, it was already late at night, and Beijing was in chaos, but in this area, the intrusion army had not yet come, and the citizens were hiding in their homes, closing their doors tightly, and there was no one on the street. The two groups also walked down the street without saying a word, and the street was dark, except for the lanterns in their hands to illuminate their front and back feet.

Sha Zilong had been waiting at the corner of the street for a long time, and he was ordered to join a group of brothers to intercept King Yong, who was passing through here and heading to Tian Hongyu's house, and he also knew that on the other side of the street, leading to Zhou Kui's house, Zheng Zhixiong was also personally leading a team to prepare to intercept the crown prince and King Ding. In this chaotic time, these princes are the most precious treasures. If these princes are controlled, it will be of great use in the future.

"Sand dart head, here." A humane hiding beside the sand dragon.

The sand dragon nodded, and touched the cool barrel of the gun beside him with his fingers. According to the plan, they were going to rob the Yong King, and as for the rest of the Yong King, the above means: No one will be left. Because there is no room for so many people in the vault, and the more people are alive, the more likely they are to leak the news.

The group of people carrying lanterns was getting closer and closer, and by the light of the lanterns, Sha Zilong saw that there were not many people in this group, only a dozen or so, and the two eunuchs carrying lanterns were walking in the front, and there were several brocade guards behind, all carrying lanterns, and holding embroidered spring knives out of the sheath in their hands. Behind them was a prince wearing a royal robe and a crown, followed by four guards with embroidered spring swords and brocade clothes.

Soon, these people entered the encirclement of the sand dragons.