With the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the Zhu Ming Dynasty also officially came to an end. www.biquge.info The three sons of Emperor Chongzhen, including the crown prince Zhu Cihong, are nowhere to be found, and everyone speculates that it is very likely that they all died in the chaos, and no one has seen all of this, so there is no definite evidence.

Li Zicheng didn't have time to think about these questions at this time, he entered the Forbidden City to find the body of Emperor Chongzhen, and after arresting some palace maids and eunuchs to identify them, he made sure that Chongzhen was indeed physically and mentally, and then he was relieved. Ordered someone to find a broken coffin to collect the body of Emperor Chongzhen, and put the coffin outside the Donghua Gate to show the public, announcing to the whole world that the Emperor of the Zhu family had died. Then Li Zicheng lived in the Forbidden City and enjoyed the feeling of being an emperor.

With Li Zicheng's idea, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty had been forced to death by him, and he occupied the city of Beijing with hundreds of thousands of troops, which was an ironclad change of dynasty.

It is not only Li Zicheng who has this kind of thought, but the ministers of the original Ming Dynasty are all active at this time, hoping to continue to live the previous days of prestige and fortune in the new court, and ask to see Li Zicheng outside the Forbidden City every day, ready to express their allegiance to Li Zicheng, and the former Ming officials who want Li Zicheng to be an official lined up, completely lacking the impassioned spirit that even the emperor's will dared to refute in the court at the beginning.

However, Li Zicheng's people did not have a good impression of these Ming officials. Before entering Beijing, Li Zicheng thought that the emperor was rich all over the world, and the Forbidden City must be full of gold and silver, so he had promised the soldiers that once he captured Beijing, he would reward the three armies. But when he entered the palace and searched hard for a long time, he only found more than 100,000 taels of gold and 100,000 taels of silver in Emperor Chongzhen's inner treasury. This Emperor Chongzhen is indeed out of money, not unwilling to take out the money if he wants it.

Disillusioned, Li Zicheng appeased the soldiers and ordered the ministers and magnates of the DPRK and China to be "chased" under the leadership of the general Liu Zongmin, and asked the ministers to give silver according to their ranks. They forgot that Liu Zongmin was not Emperor Chongzhen, and Liu Zongmin was not satisfied with the amount of silver he received, so he began to torture and ask for it one by one. Liu Zongmin also erected more than a dozen stakes on the street, tying up bureaucrats and powerful people who refused to take money, and they continued to cut them up every day. Liu Zongmin's efforts were not in vain, and within a few days of his hard work, Liu Zongmin looted more than 70 million taels of silver from the capital. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen called on his ministers to donate only a hundred thousand taels of silver, and if he saw the piles of silver today, he didn't know how to feel.

Since Liu Zongmin has set an example, of course, the soldiers under Li Zicheng are doing the same, and the big officials and gentry can't get involved, so they naturally target some small rich families and ordinary people, and the poor people have no money and women in their families. Li Zicheng's team was originally composed of displaced people, and the purpose of their participation in the rebel army was to go everywhere to loot rice and grain, and at first they were forced to restrain military discipline, but after the officials took the lead, the whole situation was out of control, and the people who remained in the capital could only ask for more blessings.

After enjoying many days in Beijing, Li Zicheng remembered that it was not the time for the world to be peaceful, and there were still a large number of Ming troops outside the capital that had not been eliminated, especially in the Shanhaiguan area, and the most elite Guanning Iron Cavalry of the Ming Dynasty led by Wu Xiang.

So Li Zicheng ordered someone to write a letter to Wu Xiang, to the effect that the Ming Emperor was dead, the Ming Dynasty was over, and Wu Xiang was asked to come to Beijing to surrender. Wu Xiang was hesitating when his son, Wu Sangui, came over and reported to him an astonishing news.

Wu Sangui hurriedly ran in, and before he could catch his breath, he said to Wu Xiang: "Father, there are a few people from outside the camp who claim to be eunuchs in the palace who say that they want to see you, I went to check, and those eunuchs said that they were escorting His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to flee here. ”

Wu Xiang was also taken aback when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Does anyone else know about this?" ”

"They only asked to see me, and I pressed them again and again, and only told me alone when I knew my identity, that I had ordered them to be placed in a tent, and to be kept under strict guard, and no one was allowed to approach them. No one else knew about the news. "Wu Sangui is still very cautious.

"Can you confirm that it's the crown prince?" Wu Xiang thought of a key question.

"I haven't met the prince, I'm really not sure about this." Wu Sangui had never seen the prince, and he really had no roots in this matter.

"They are guarded by additional men, and no one is allowed to touch them without my orders. But don't treat them badly, prepare food for them and arrange rest. I don't see them for a while. "Wu Xiang has his own ideas, and now Li Zicheng wants him to surrender, and with the strength in his hands, if he adds the crown prince, he may be able to negotiate a good price.

"You go and find the eunuchs who have seen the prince in the palace, and bring them to the camp for later use." Wu Xiang is still ready to confirm the authenticity of this prince when necessary.

Wu Xiang sent someone to write a reply letter to Li Zicheng, and the letter was written very tactfully, and instead of mentioning the matter of surrender, he asked Li Zicheng about the current situation.

After receiving the letter, Li Zicheng understood that Wu Xiang wanted a clear statement, and if Wu Xiang surrendered, how would Li Zicheng treat him.

At this time, Li Zicheng was extremely inflated due to a series of victories, and he had a feeling of dominating the world, and letting you surrender was to give you face, and there was no room for bargaining. So Li Zicheng issued another decree, ordering Wu Xiang to surrender quickly, and did not answer Wu Xiang's question.

Wu Xiang was furious when he received Li Zicheng's holy decree, Li Zicheng obviously didn't take their Guan Ning army seriously, and there would definitely not be much to gain from surrendering at this time, Wu Xiang was thinking about whether to add the prince's bargaining chips, and news came from the capital. Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin tortured the powerful to collect money, and Wu Xiang's mansion in the capital did not escape this difficulty, not only was the things in the house looted, but the family was also killed, and Wu Xiang's wife and concubine were also robbed to the camp by the rebels, and the fate can be imagined.

When Wu Xiang heard the news, he felt that Li Zicheng didn't pay enough attention to his Guan Ning army at all, and even if he surrendered, he might not be able to get what he wanted.

"Go to Jinzhou City quickly and invite your uncle Zu Dashou. I have important matters to discuss with him. Wu Xiangchang called Wu Sangui and ordered him to hurry to do something.

Wu Sangui knew that it was an eventful time, and every decision of his father was related to the honor and disgrace of their family and the survival of life and death, so he didn't dare to slack off at all, and took his subordinates all the way to Jinzhou to ask for Zu Dashou.

Zu Dashou was able to hold Jinzhou, which was entirely thanks to Zhang Chu's vigorous efforts to relieve the siege, and the Houjin people were hurriedly evacuated after being taken to the Shenyang nest, and Zu Dashou's team and Jinzhou City were preserved.

Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang were originally in-laws, and they had been operating outside the customs for many years, and they had already had close contacts, and he listened to the message brought by Wu Sangui, knew that the matter was urgent, and did not make any delays, and hurried to Wu Xiang's camp to discuss what to do in the future. (To be continued.) )