In November of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the wind blowing outside the mouth was like a knife cutting noodles, and Beijing in the early morning was exceptionally quiet.

After the reorganization of the new army, the soldiers and horses in the Gyeonggi area were also reorganized into the New Army of Nine Towns, which was reorganized on the basis of the original three battalions of the Beijing camp. The new army of the nine towns is not just a change of name, in fact, the reorganization of the Beijing camp is very deep.

Nowadays, the nine towns of Gyeonggi belong to the three battalions, which have been changed from the original three battalions of the Fifth Army, the Three Thousand Battalions, and the Shenji to the three battalions of the Praetorian Guard, the Garrison, and the Garrison. The three battalions all adopted the new army establishment of the Chu Army, the town division co-standard battalion and company formation, and the combined establishment of various arms of the infantry and cavalry artillery workers at the association level. Each town contains infantry and cavalry, artillery, heavy sappers and other troops, but the biggest change is that the three towns of the Praetorian Guard guard the palace and the imperial city and their attendants, while the three towns of the garrison army guard the defense of the city of Gyeongshi, and the garrison three towns are responsible for guarding the vicinity of Gyeonggi.

The three armies and nine towns were separated, which was very different from the original distribution of duties.

The soldiers guarding the gate early in the morning were the soldiers and horses under the three towns of the garrison.

The weather was cold, the ground was stained with a thick layer of hoarfrost, and the air was cold and frozen. The soldiers guarding the city gate were all hunched coldly, holding their spears in their arms, and their hands clasped in their sleeves.

There was no warmth on the cotton armor on his body, like a big ice cube sticking to his body. To deal with such severe cold, the soldiers on duty have a magic weapon, that is, a gourd on their waists, which is not filled with water, but wine. It's really cold, so take a sip to warm up.

Although it is not allowed to drink alcohol when on duty and guarding the door, the military discipline in Beijing has long been abolished, and it is not something that can be changed by changing a name.

Just when several of the city gate guards were shivering with cold, they heard a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and a red horse rode from the east, and the man who beat the horse was tall and anxious, wearing a red military robe. The most striking thing is that the man has a red flag on his back, and a string of bells hanging from the horse's neck, which makes a nailing sound with the gallop.

The iron helmet on his head, the long knife at his waist, and the majestic war horse outside the mouth.

The gatekeeper could see at a glance that this was a pond horse delivering an urgent report, and in the blink of an eye, the pond horse had already galloped to the city gate.

There are many gates in Jingshi, but no matter which gate it is, none of them dares to pass directly through the horse like this.

Whether it is a high-ranking official or a relative of a lord. When you get to the city gate, you have to slow down, and if you are an ordinary vendor, you even need to be checked.

But this soldier galloped over so unruly, without the slightest intention of stopping.

When a soldier guarding the door saw it, he quickly grabbed the spear in his arms and was about to step forward to intercept it.

Unexpectedly, the boss next to him pulled him away, "Don't stop it, this person can't stop it, he stepped on it and injured not only in vain, but you have to be held accountable for your mistake when you turn around." ”

Between words. The sergeant who galloped to the front took out a sign from his arms, shook it at them, and shouted loudly: "There is an urgent report from Liaoxi, and 100,000 people are in a hurry." Get out of the way! ”

The man didn't wait for the gatekeepers to see clearly, he had already rushed past and flew into the Beijing Division.

"Fucking border soldiers, which onion is it. Dare to run rampant in Beijing, I'm impatient! The soldier who was almost knocked down scolded dissatisfiedly.

"Shut up, idiot." The petty officer glared at his men viciously. "Are you fucking blind, didn't you see the red flag and the bell on the horse? Didn't hear what he said? This is an 800-mile expedited fast horse, which conveys the most urgent border military information, and is not subject to interrogation along the way, and he can directly hit and kill anyone who dares to block the way, and the person who is killed will be fine, and the person who is killed will be held accountable. If it hinders them from transmitting military information, they will have to be held accountable and guilty if they turn back. ”

The little officer reprimanded his subordinates fiercely, looked at the back of the border army that had long disappeared, and couldn't help muttering, "What's the big deal here?" ”

The little pawn who was reprimanded hurriedly smiled flatteringly, "It must be a good news from Liaoxi, didn't the emperor last time order to make the Duke of Chu Guogong the governor of Guanwai, the governor of Liaodong and Liaoxi and all kinds of soldiers and horses to help Liao to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, the Duke of Chu is invincible in battle, and there must be good news coming back." ”

"You know the, if it's really good news, that's the case." The head of the soldiers is also a veteran army, well-informed, if it is really a big victory, it must be like the last time Wu Sangui relieved the siege of Jinzhou, the soldiers who reported the victory shouted the good news along the way, beaming with joy. Instead of being in a hurry just now, he was in a hurry.

"Maybe it's bad news." The soldier whispered, then stopped speaking, and went back to the doorway to avoid the wind.

After the news of the defeat of Ziyizhou and the re-siege of Jinzhou was transmitted back to the Beijing Division, the Beijing Division was full of tension during this time. The laughter on Emperor Chongzhen's face was gone, as if he had returned to those days twelve years ago in Chongzhen overnight, and the internal and external troubles made people anxious.

Today, Chongzhen, as usual, reviewed and recited until midnight last night, and got up again this morning to start managing politics.

It seems that the situation has deteriorated across the board overnight.

The situation in western Liaoning was turned upside down overnight, Yizhou was defeated, and Jinzhou was besieged. And although Liu Jun has been added as a supervisor and asked him to supervise the army to aid Liao, all parties have sent bad news back, the first line of Liaohai has begun to freeze, the Yangtze River and the East China Sea and the South China Sea three fleets are still preparing to go north, and when they are ready, this sea will definitely freeze, and they will not even be able to enter Dengzhou Port, let alone go to Liaodong and Liaoxi.

The situation of the army drawn from other towns is the same, it takes time to prepare for the expedition to the north, and without the convenience of the sea route, they can only take the land route. The march of more than 1,000 miles also involved issues such as supplies along the way.

In short, except for the Chu army in Liaodong, reinforcements from other places could not set off in a short time, let alone go to Liao to relieve the siege of Jinzhou.

But Liaodong also had no news for several days.

Chongzhen is now in a very anxious mood, and he is blind to the situation outside the gate. He is beginning to regret it now, he knew that he should have listened to Liu Jun, Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng in the first place, and should not rush to war with the Qing army, but should first negotiate peace with the Tartars to buy time to recuperate.

It's too rushed.

finally eased the situation a bit, and lost it all again.

The situation outside the border is precarious, and the situation in the Central Plains has also begun to deteriorate. According to Jinyiwei's report, bandits began to break out again in Shaanxi and Henan, and these bandits are still quite strong, not only because of the famine because of the famine, but also because of the appearance of many officers and military households from various places in the original place.

And there is also intelligence to say. Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, who had been silent for a long time, reappeared. They took advantage of the fact that the main forces of the official army in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Hubei were all transferred to the outside of the pass, and between the emptiness of the garrison, they began to wander again; now the banditry in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces is getting more and more serious day by day, and the bandits of various sizes and groups are still in a tendency to integrate, and they have even attacked the prefectures and counties several times, and three counties have already been breached.

There was no bandit rebellion in the southeast, but the governors in the southeast all reported that the gentry and landlords in the provinces were resisting taxes and were unwilling to pay the land and business taxes. They banded together and even went on a strike.

There is no place where there is peace.

The army outside the customs was defeated, the bandits in the northwest rose again, but there were gentry and merchants in the southeast who resisted taxes.

Chongzhen felt that his brain hurt, the situation outside the customs was tense, and the cabinet and the Ministry of War proposed to strengthen the defense of Jizhen and Xuanda, but the imperial court couldn't come up with the money. Previously, he got a lot of bonds through Liu Jun, and added a lot of taxes from the commercial tax.

But now, because the imperial court has exempted the three salaries, the original income has been reduced by more than 10 million a year. Originally, it was filled by bonds and commercial tariffs, and it was more than the original income. But now there has been no money coming in from the bond side for a long time, the commercial tax duties are in arrears, and the grain in the northwest and southeast cannot be harvested due to the disaster. In addition, the previous 200,000 troops were in western Liaoning, and a large number of food and salaries were continuously invested.

Now the imperial court, whether it is the Taicang silver treasury or the emperor's inner treasury, is empty again.

Chongzhen wanted to issue bonds again, but the bonds had always been issued by Sihai Bank. The Four Seas Bank issued money to the merchants and citizens, and then handed it over to the imperial court. To put it bluntly, it was the imperial court that was borrowing money from the Four Seas Bank. Now Sihai Bank is talking back. This matter has always been the responsibility of Chu Guogong, and now that Chu Guogong is far away in Liaodong, he still needs to wait for Chu Guogong to be contacted first, and then listen to his reply arrangement.

In a word, without Liu Jun's reply, even if the emperor wanted to borrow money from Sihai Bank, he would not be able to borrow it. And it is simply impossible for the imperial court to get rid of the Four Seas Bank and issue bonds directly. The credit of the imperial court is far inferior to that of the Four Seas Bank, and the issuance of bonds will only result in the same as the Chongzhen Tongbao minted by the imperial court in recent years.

Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps interrupted Chongzhen's thoughts, and Wang Chengen trotted in from outside.

"What's wrong?" Chongzhen rarely saw Wang Chengen so out of shape.

It was very cold outside, but Wang Chengen trotted all the way, and his body was sweating. He was standing in the middle of the temple, steaming white. He was out of breath, and with the violently shocked news that he had just received that he had not digested, "Your Majesty, Liaoxi is in an emergency, Jinzhou is lost!" ”

Chongzhen, who was carrying a pen, heard the news, his hand shook, and a large ball of ink dripped onto the paper.

Chongzhen's mouth trembled a few times, and he didn't make a sound for a long time.

He couldn't believe this fact.

The importance of Jinzhou to Liaoxi, Chongzhen is very clear.

Jinzhou is the gateway to western Liaoning, Jinzhou is lost, then Ningyuan is also difficult to defend, Ningyuan is difficult to defend, the Qing army will reach the Shanhai Pass, only one pass away from the Beijing Division.

Chongzhen sat there with his mouth half-open and his eyes glazed.

All that came to his mind was a question, could Ning Yuan still be able to hold it, and could Shanhaiguan still be able to hold it? Without Jinzhou and Ningyuan Mountain Customs, the Ming Dynasty's Jingshi would be completely exposed to the iron hooves of the Qing army.

After a period of unspeakable silence, Chongzhen unconsciously shed two lines of tears.

"Your Majesty, take care of the dragon." Wang Chengen knelt there and persuaded.

Chongzhen wiped a handful of tears, "How could Jinzhou be lost?" What about Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, and Yang Guozhu, Cao Bianjiao, and Wang Tingchen? They are all known as good and handsome generals, why did they lose Jinzhou in a short time, isn't it that there are still 50,000 soldiers and horses in Jinzhou City, and Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou led 60,000 soldiers in Songshan, 20 miles away? ”

"Where is the second governor of Hongsun now, and how many soldiers and horses do you have in your hands?"

Wang Chengen took two steps forward and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, when Wu Sangui's Yizhou army was defeated, the hundreds of large and small artillery pieces it used to attack Yizhou were all captured by the Qing army. When the Qing army besieged Jinzhou, it was to attack Jinzhou with this batch of artillery, and several sections of the city wall were destroyed in one day. But what a thing"

"But what?"

However, when the deputy general Xia Chengde secretly communicated with Jianyu, and was in charge of defending the city on the second day, he suddenly opened the city gate to lead the Qing army into the city. The second governor of Hongsun was caught off guard, and although he resisted desperately, he still failed to repel the Tartars, nor could he break through, and finally the whole army was wiped out. Wang Chengen replied.

Chongzhen only felt dizzy for a while, just now he heard that Jinzhou was lost, he thought that Hong Chengchou and the others had lost the city, but they must have also broken through. Now I didn't think about it, I actually heard that Hong Chengchou's 50,000 soldiers and horses were gone.

"All gone?"

"It's all gone, after Marshal Dolgon broke the city, he slaughtered all the civil and military officials and soldiers below the third rank, as well as the people in the city, and Dolgon also persuaded Governor Hong and others to surrender, and the two governors of Hongsun and the deputy generals of the general army refused to surrender, and now they are all prisoners under the Tartar ranks."

Chongzhen sat down directly on the ground, he smashed a few punches on the ground with hatred, and asked, "What about Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou?" What about Songshan City, Qin Liangyu of Xingshan, and Ning Yuan's high dive? ”

"Your Majesty, they were all defeated too."

"Defeated, defeated!" Chongzhen chewed these words weakly, and as he spoke, tears fell again.

"How did I lose, how did I lose, how did I lose the 200,000 army in Liaoxi, how did I lose it all overnight!" He roared, roared and shouted, a little out of his mind. He couldn't figure it out, he couldn't figure it out. Liu Jun crossed the sea with tens of thousands of people, invaded Liaodong, started from scratch, conquered Zhenjiang Lushun Erfu, and captured the coastal islands.

In the battle with the Tartars, he never lost a single soldier, and even broke through Gaizhou City, destroying more than 4,000 enemies and capturing more than 50,000 people, but he did not die a single soldier.

There are 200,000 Ming troops in western Liaoning, and the elite of all towns are all here, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Zu Dashou, Yang Guozhu, Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen, Wu Sangui, Qin Liangyu, etc., which one is not a famous general. Why did so many people get together, but they were defeated again and again, and they were defeated so badly, in a short period of time, they were already defeated.

"Gao Qiqian and Qiu Minyang gathered more than 50,000 soldiers and horses from Qin Liangyu, Ma Ke, and Wang Pu Zhuzhen to relieve the siege of Songshan Mountain, encountered the enemy halfway, won first, and then Wang Pu and other light enemies pursued, were ambushed by the Qing army, bombarded by the Qing army's artillery, and the Qing army tended to attack, and the towns were defeated and defeated."

"Wu Sangui heard that the reinforcements were defeated, so he broke through at the risk of death, withdrew to Xingshan, and lost most of his soldiers and horses."

"Now Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou converged with Gao Qiqian, Qin Liangyu and others, abandoned the cities of Xingshan and Tashan all the way, withdrew to Ningyuan, and collected about 80,000 defeated soldiers. Of the eight cities outside the western pass of Liaoning, there is now only one city left in Ningyuan. ”

"What about Jiye, where is he, why didn't he rush to Liaoxi to relieve the siege and rescue?" Chongzhen's eyes showed a fierce light, and he asked angrily, "What about Zhu Ciye, where is he now, and where are his Liaodong soldiers and horses?" (To be continued.) )

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