After finding the body of Emperor Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's state of mind could finally relax, and he felt that it was just the will of heaven that he entered the city of Beijing.

Originally, the Dashun army's eastward crusade only wanted to expand and consolidate the territory in the northwest, but who expected that the Ming army along the way had no fighting spirit, which made the Dashun army like a bamboo.

When Zhou Yuji desperately resisted at Ningwu Pass, causing heavy casualties to the Dashun army, Li Zicheng had the intention of teaching Xi'an, he had achieved the previous strategic goal, there was no need to lead the army forward, you must know that there are still many passes heavily guarded by the Ming army ahead.

But the world makes people, just when Li Zicheng retreated, Datong and Xuanfu, the two major military towns that gathered the Ming army, which made him jealous, inexplicably sent a surrender, which made Li Zicheng determined to continue the eastward crusade, and as a result, he entered the city of Beijing, everything seemed to be in a dream.

"Your Majesty, our army's salary is insufficient, and if it is not resolved, I am afraid that the army's morale will be unstable."

A few days later, when Li Zicheng and his newly established concubine Dou were enjoying the flowers in the imperial garden, a middle-aged man who looked like a civil official came to report that he was Niu Jinxing, the first strategist by Li Zicheng's side, and also the military advisor of the Dashun Army.

"The dignified Ming Dynasty, its treasury and inner treasury silver combined are less than 10,000, it's really hateful!" Li Zicheng's brows suddenly furrowed when he heard this, and his expression became serious.

Because Li Zicheng preached "no grain" to the outside world, the military expenses of the Dashun army always came from landlords and wealthy merchants, and no taxes were levied on the people.

At the beginning of the Great Shun Army's Eastern Expedition, the strength was only 20,000, but after entering the capital, the number of troops had more than 100,000, and many surrendered Ming troops became a member of the Dashun Army, so that military pay became a problem that needed to be solved urgently.

Li Zicheng originally thought that after capturing the capital, he would get the required military expenses from the emperor's inner treasury and the treasury of the household department, but after entering the city, he found that the inner treasury and the treasury were empty, otherwise he would not have dragged the military salaries of the troops in the Gyeonggi area, which made the Ming army unintentional to fight, so that the Dashun army picked up a big bargain.

After entering the capital, the Dashun army searched the palace exhaustively, and the Ding'er door knocker was embedded and stripped all over, and a total of more than 100,000 silver was obtained, which was far from the military salary and reward that Li Zicheng gave to the soldiers of the Dashun army.

"Your Majesty, although the inner treasury and the national treasury have no money, but those high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital are so rich that they are all rich, why don't the emperor start from them, and he will definitely get the required military salary."

Seeing that Li Zicheng was very annoyed and worried about the matter of military salaries, Niu Jinxing said quietly, in this way, the issue of military salaries for the troops can be solved.

"But they have already attached themselves to Dashun, what name do we use to ask for money?" Li Zicheng bowed slightly when he heard this, and the local officials were all wrapped around their waists, so the officials in the capital would naturally not be much inferior, and then looked at Niu Jinxing with interest and asked.

"Your Majesty, this is simple, with the money of these officials in the capital, they will not accumulate a huge amount of property no matter what, we can confiscate their illegal gains and recover the stolen goods!" Niu Jinxing had already prepared, smiled and replied in a deep voice.

"Collecting stolen goods? Well, okay, that's it! Li Zicheng savored the words carefully, then nodded and agreed, and commanded the guards on the side in a deep voice, "Go, call you over." ”

Ru Hou is Liu Zongmin, although he is a military general, he has the right to control civil officials, which is the opposite of the Ming Dynasty, as Li Zicheng's most trusted person, he naturally wants to use Liu Zongmin to recover stolen goods.

"Big brother, this matter is on me, I must let those guys spit out all the money they are greedy for." After Liu Zongmin learned of Li Zicheng's intentions after entering the palace, he immediately patted his chest and assured that he had long seen that those Ming officers who surrendered were not pleasing to the eye.

"Remember, as long as you get paid, don't indiscriminately hurt the innocent." Li Zicheng nodded when he heard this, with a look of relief on his face, and then said in a deep voice, he didn't want to stir up a bloody storm as soon as he entered Beijing.

"Don't worry, big brother, I know how to measure." Liu Zongmin replied with a smile when he heard this, isn't it just a forced confession, what's the big deal?

"Qi to the emperor, Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of the Ming army, sent someone to send a table of surrender, to the emperor and presented the Shanhaiguan, hoping that the emperor will send someone to receive it, and it will return to Ningyuan City."

When Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and Niu Jinxing were discussing the matter of recovering stolen goods, a guard trotted in to report and handed over a letter in his hand to Li Zicheng.

"Great!" Li Zicheng couldn't help but look happy when he opened the letter, which was a letter of surrender written by Wu Sangui, expressing his surrender to Dashun and hoping that Dashun could ensure the safety of his wife and children.

Before the capital was breached, Emperor Chongzhen had transferred Wu Sangui and other four general soldiers back to aid the Beijing division, only Wu Sangui, who was the farthest away from the capital, rushed back from Ningyuan, and the remaining three general soldiers did not move in order to protect themselves, and later successively threw themselves into Li Zicheng's Dashun.

When Wu Sangui arrived at Shanhaiguan, the capital had been broken by the Dashun army, so he had to lead the army to be stationed in Shanhaiguan to watch the changes, and sent people to monitor the movements of the capital, hoping that Emperor Chongzhen and the crown prince could escape, and he would send troops to meet at that time.

In fact, judging from the current situation, if Emperor Chongzhen and the crown prince can escape from the capital, the best choice is to go north and hide in Shanhaiguan, which is not only easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also has tens of thousands of elite Daming Pass Wai Xiongshi, which is enough to ensure the safety of the two, and then go south by sea.

It's a pity that Wu Sangui couldn't wait for Emperor Chongzhen and the prince to break through, but instead got the news that Emperor Chongzhen was dead, and the prince, the acting king and the king were arrested.

After all, Wu Sangui is now facing the situation of being attacked by the enemy, there is a Manchu army in the north, and the Dashun army in the south is sharpening his sword, he must make a choice, although Li Zicheng's Dashun is rebellious, he is always of the same clan, and he is quite concerned about the civil and military officials who surrendered, so he naturally wants to surrender Dashun to ensure his own interests.

Wu Sangui's tens of thousands of Ming troops outside the pass are the elite of the northern army of the Ming Dynasty, and they have rich combat experience in fighting against the Manchu Qing all the year round, and the Ming army that surrendered to Li Zicheng has a very big difference.

Now, Wu Sangui has finally surrendered, which makes Li Zicheng secretly relieved, and finally lifted the threat from Shanhaiguan, so that he is undoubtedly safer in the capital.

After receiving Wu Sangui's letter of surrender, Li Zicheng immediately sent someone to Shanhaiguan to discuss the reception with Wu Sangui, and he was in a good mood.

At the same time, the streets and alleys of the capital posted a notice of Dashun's "recovery of stolen goods and assistance", so that the civil and military officials of the capital took out the money they were greedy for ink during the period of serving as an official of the Ming Dynasty, and Dashun would use the money as a military salary to pacify the world and the funds of the independent people.

As soon as those notices were posted, they immediately caused an uproar in the capital, and the ordinary people naturally strongly supported this, while those civil and military officials who were dreaming of continuing to be promoted and make a fortune after surrendering were shocked and panicked, and no one thought that Li Zicheng would come to such a hand.

As the person in charge of the recovery of stolen goods and salaries, Liu Zongmin, in order to deter the civil and military officials in the capital, specially ordered a batch of clamping sticks to be made to force the officials of the Ming Dynasty to pay money.

This kind of clamping stick has edges, connected by iron nails, and anyone who does not obey will definitely crush his hands and feet, not only that, Liu Zongmin also ordered people to set up two pillars at the door as Ling Chi's special use to demonstrate and intimidate.

Li Zicheng set a standard for this recovery of stolen goods and salaries, that is, 100,000 taels for university scholars, 70,000 taels for officials in ministries and courts, 50,000 taels for officials in science and Taoism, 30,000 taels for officials under the six ministries, 10,000 to 30,000 taels for Hanlin, and 1,000 taels for the rest of the officials.

In other words, those Ming officials in the capital had to pay the quota given by Li Zicheng before they could pass the test.

Like the situation when Emperor Chongzhen raised donations not long ago, this time the officials of the Ming Dynasty began to cry poor again, and no one was willing to hand over their money.

But unlike Emperor Chongzhen, this time the officials of the Ming Dynasty faced Li Zicheng, and in front of Li Zicheng, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were all demoted, so what qualifications did they have to bargain with him.

What is particularly important is that the Dashun army is now short of military salaries, and under the premise that it cannot collect taxes from the people, Li Zicheng must attack these rich officials in the capital.

Therefore, under Liu Zongmin's orders, the soldiers of the Dashun army began to arrest the civil and military officials in the city, torture them to recover the stolen goods, and broke into the homes of those officials to search them.

This made the capital, which was originally peaceful with singing and dancing, suddenly shrouded in a terrifying atmosphere, and people were panicked.

Those who were interested in the officials were okay, and when they saw that the situation was not good, they obediently handed over the silver taels, so as not to suffer from the flesh and skin, while most of the officials wanted to get away with a fluke mentality, and as a result, they were tortured by the soldiers of Dashun with sticks and cannons, and they did not die.

Even those who paid the silver taels were no better, and as a result of the domestic servant's denunciation, the Dashun soldiers seized a large number of silver taels hidden from their homes.

According to historical records, in the first five days of the recovery of stolen goods, hundreds of officials and rich gentry were killed because of this incident, and the good days of officials and gentry in the capital finally came to an end.

Instead, the fruitful results of the Dashun army's recovery of stolen goods, taking the two nobles who were most relied on by the Chongzhen Emperor during the Chongzhen Emperor's fundraising period, but at the same time the two nobles who were most disappointed by him, namely Guozhang and Jiading Marquis Zhou Kui, and Chongzhen Emperor's cousin, Wuqing Marquis Li Guorui as an example, we can know how much money the Dashun army received.

Marquis Wuqing is the mother of Emperor Wanli, the Empress Dowager Xiaoding, who gave countless gold and silver treasures in the palace to the Marquis of Wuqing when she was in charge.

It is reported that several major money houses in the capital belong to the Li family, and the scale of the Li family's manor is comparable to that of the imperial palace, which can be described as wealthy.

Emperor Chongzhen's donation to Li Guoruiding was 400,000 taels, after all, their kinship was more distant than Zhou Kui.

Although the Marquis of Wu Qing did not dare to openly resist the decree but deliberately pretended to be poor, after demolishing a few idle old houses, he said that he wanted to sell wood, bricks and tiles, and put the old utensils at home on the street to practice stalls and shout, and the result was a storm in the city, and in the end only 4,000 taels, one percent of the amount stipulated by Emperor Chongzhen.

Emperor Chongzhen was furious about this, and ordered to seize Li Guorui's Juelu and sent Jinyi guards to the door to urge the payment.

When the Dashun army invaded the capital, the people of the Marquis of Wuqing died and fled, and it became an empty house.

After Li Zicheng gave the order to recover the stolen goods and help the salary, the soldiers of Dashun dug three feet into the land in the mansion of the Marquis of Wuqing and the Li family's manor, and finally transported dozens of well-sealed silver ingots from the Li family's manor.

As for the Marquis of Jiading, Zhou Kui was not much better, as the recovery of stolen goods and subsidies progressed, Zhou Kui was arrested by his family, and Zhou Kui was forced to pay 700,000 taels of silver after being punished with a stick.

Later, the soldiers of the Dashun Army searched for more than 500,000 taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of precious coins in the cellar of Zhou Kui's house, which made Zhou Kui, who originally hid the prince and the king, end up with no money and no money.

Not only did the nobles suffer, but the situation of the civil officials was not much better, the former cabinet chief assistant Chen Yan took the initiative to hand over 40,000 taels of silver with a fluke mentality, and later because the domestic servants reported the soldiers of the Dashun Army and dug up tens of thousands of silver and other property from under his house.

Chen Yan was not as lucky as Zhou Kui, because he was immediately beheaded by a Dashun soldier because he was hiding his belongings, and he died on the spot.

As for Wei Zaode, the first assistant of the cabinet, although he complimented Li Zicheng and made great efforts, he still could not escape the fate of being chased for stolen goods, and handed over tens of thousands of taels of dirty silver by the punishment of a stick.

However, the general Dashun who interrogated Wei Zaode did not think that he had served as the head of the household department, and Wei Zaode, who was now the first assistant of the cabinet, only had such a little silver.

To tell the truth, tens of thousands of taels of silver are indeed a lot, if the general in the past will gladly accept it, but with the development of the recovery of stolen goods, the Dashun army from the Ming officials in the capital often searched for hundreds of thousands of taels, hundreds of thousands of taels, so that the generals of the Dashun army have become numb to tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Therefore, the general gave Wei Zaode a heavier punishment, so that the dignified cabinet chief assistant actually died of a split brain.

Although the recovery of stolen goods and subsidies brought rich funds to the Dashun army, Li Zicheng never expected that he originally just wanted to raise military salaries from those civil and military officials, but the situation gradually got out of control and was out of control.

There are not only many high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the capital, but also many wealthy businessmen, and the common people are also richer than other places.

Therefore, as the behavior of chasing stolen goods and helping to pay became more and more bloody, the mentality of the soldiers of the Dashun army gradually changed, and some soldiers began to take the opportunity to burn and loot in the city, which in turn affected the whole army of Dashun, so that the soldiers of Dashun began to openly loot in the capital, killing people and setting fires.

The people in the city originally thought that the three chapters of the covenant when Li Zicheng entered the city could ensure their safety, and the pursuit of stolen goods and salaries had nothing to do with them, and they could live a stable and good life.

(End of chapter)