"Your Majesty, this is a letter from the Ming army shooting in from outside the city, saying that it is to be presented to Your Majesty." The old chamberlain stepped forward tremblingly holding a letter and whispered to Li Zicheng, who was reclining on the collapse and pouring himself a wine jug in his hand.

Li Zicheng was already a little drunk, he poured wine into the cup in his left hand again, raised his head and drank it all, then raised his eyes to look at the old waiter, and said drunkly: "Take it and let Lao Tzu take a look." ”

Li Zicheng is a Mizhi native in the north of Shaanzhou, and the local dialect is used to calling himself Lao Tzu.

The old chamberlain hurriedly presented the letter in his hand.

Li Zicheng took it, opened it and read it with both eyes, threw it away, and the letter fell to the ground in a swaying manner.

"Donkey Day! Lao Tzu fought in the south and north for decades before he conquered this great country, they asked me to surrender, I surrendered? Fuck it! Lao Tzu will not surrender, will not surrender, they have the ability to come in and cut off Lao Tzu's head! the ball, hahahaha......"

Li Zicheng raised his head and poured in a glass of wine again, and scolded.

In the end, he laughed wildly, and the old servant on the side felt sour, Your Majesty, this is a precursor to madness.

The old chamberlain silently squatted down to pick up the letter, and then slowly withdrew outside.

"Lao Zhang, what are you doing?" Li Zicheng shouted drunkenly from behind.

"Back to Your Majesty, the old slave goes and throws away this letter." The old waiter turned around and said tremblingly.

"Don't throw it away, take it back. Go and call Lao Tzu the civil and military capital of the Manchu Dynasty, let them listen, and see, Lao Tzu will see who dares to surrender, and whoever dares to surrender will cut off his head. Destroy his nine clans! Li Zicheng shouted with a wine jug.

"Your Majesty, the way you are now, I'm afraid it's not appropriate to summon hundreds of officials, right?" The old chamberlain hesitated.

was already panicked, and the undercurrent was surging, and they were ready to surrender in private.

You, the emperor, look drunk and depressed, don't the civil and military officials seem to be even less confident, and they have to speed up their surrender?

"What's wrong with Lao Tzu like this? Lao Tzu drank a glass of wine, what is this wine? Go ahead, or I'll cut off your head first!" Li Zicheng sat up, stared at him and shouted.

The old chamberlain had no choice but to get up and put the letter in front of Li Zicheng and go out to deliver the message.

In fact, there is no need for the old chamberlain to pass the decree, and the council hall at this time is already full of people, all of whom are the remaining civil and military officials of the Dashun Dynasty.

Di Qing's letters of persuasion were not one, but many.

Li Zicheng was actually the last to see this persuasion, and others already knew about it.

Li Zicheng could see that this letter was actually what the civil and military officials wanted him to see.

Everyone knew that this city could never be defended, and everyone had already begun to think about their own way out.

Some of those who moved quickly had already fled before the official army besieged the city, and the remaining ones who moved slowly or did not have time to escape for various reasons were blocked in the city by the official army.

In this situation, if you don't want to die, there is only one way out, and that is to surrender.

Everyone wanted to surrender, but no one dared to say these two words. After all, the tiger is still here, Li Zicheng is not dead, he is still the emperor of this great Shun country, and there are still a group of people loyal to him.

Whoever dares to say the word surrender first will definitely cause death.

Nearly a million troops were camped outside the city, and the mere sight of the dense tents scattered with no end in sight from the tower was enough to make people's hearts tremble and their scalps tingle.

What's more, there are siege artifacts in the hands of the officials and soldiers - artillery, or new artillery, and countless cities along the way are quickly fallen under the artillery fire of the officials and soldiers.

But when they saw that the official army did not immediately attack the city after the siege, many people realized one thing - the official army was waiting for the surrender of the city.

This made many people's previous worries suddenly turn into hope.

Once the official army begins to attack the city, with the might of a million-strong army and the threat of artillery, the city will definitely suffer heavy casualties, and the city will definitely be breached quickly.

At that point, they completely lost all opportunities. If you die, you really die in vain, and even if you fall into the hands of the officials and soldiers alive, you will become a prisoner.

Even those of them who were officials in the Dashun Dynasty are very likely to end up beheading in the future, and their families will be involved together, even if they don't die, they will be slaves and servants.

That's what no one wants to see.

Now, since the official army did not immediately start the siege of the city, they also sent a letter of persuasion to surrender. The letter clearly stated that those who were willing to open the door and surrender could be spared death, as well as their families and wives.

But if you are obsessed, stubbornly resist to the end, and insist on dragging the people of the city to be buried with you, then you will be slaughtered by the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty and the emperor Li Zicheng of the Great Shun Kingdom, and pay for the lives of those innocent people.

It was said to be a multiple-choice question, but in fact, there was no choice at all.

Die if you don't surrender, it's as simple as that.

Therefore, the content of the letter of persuasion soon spread among the civil and military officials, and everyone saw the desire for life in each other's eyes after reading it.

Although no one said anything, they all tacitly agreed.

When the opportunity comes, it's up to you to see if you can grasp it.

However, everyone quickly realized that the key to whether they could successfully surrender and survive was Emperor Li Zicheng.

As long as the emperor agrees to surrender, then everyone does not have to bear the charge of a traitor and a second minister.

And you don't have to take the huge risk of being a bird.

Therefore, sending the letter to Li Zicheng was actually a temptation for civil and military officials.

After the letter arrived, they waited anxiously for news here.

For, as the letter of surrender says, it is clear that a decision must be made within twelve hours. If no one surrenders by then, the army will immediately begin to attack the city, and after the city is broken, they will be killed according to the previous promise.

Hearing the footsteps, everyone hurried to look.

Seeing the old waiter's expression heavy and depressed, everyone's hearts sank, and they had a bad premonition.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Your Majesty declares your audience." The old chamberlain trembled and made a circle and arched his hand.

"Father-in-law Zhang, has Your Majesty read the letter?" Prime Minister Song Xiance came up and asked.

When the others heard this, they all hurriedly stared at the old chamberlain, looking nervous.

The old chamberlain didn't understand the thoughts of these officials, and his heart was desolate, and he boasted of being loyal ministers on weekdays, saying long live, but when the country was broken and the king was in trouble, he only cared about himself, and it was ridiculous and shameful to abandon the king as if he were abandoning his shoes.

"Your Majesty didn't say anything, just let the old slave summon you, presumably to discuss this matter." The old chamberlain lowered his head and said.

"That father-in-law, how is Your Majesty feeling at this time?" Another person hurriedly asked.

"Liu Shangshu, the old slave doesn't know." The old chamberlain shook his head and said.

The crowd was disappointed.

Song Xiance stood in place, thought silently for a moment, and then looked at the other people behind him one by one, and finally said, "Ladies and gentlemen, since Your Majesty has summoned, let's go together." ”

After saying that, he took the lead and walked towards the inner hall, and the others glanced at each other, and they had to follow.