Emperor Chongzhen sat on the throne, his eyes glazed, and he seemed to be ten years old overnight.

The news in Taiyuan is confusing, and in the past three days, all kinds of true and false information, rumors and rumors have been flying all over the sky like snowflakes. Some people say that they saw the crown prince martyred, and some people say that the crown prince had left Taiyuan with King Jin before. As for the news of Shanxi Governor Cai Maode, it is even more complicated, from throwing himself into a well to committing suicide, and even hanging himself, fleeing, and even surrendering to the thief.

Chongzhen didn't believe that his son would have any accidents, or he didn't want to believe it. If the crown prince really had an accident in Taiyuan, the thieves would definitely pass on the news as soon as possible. With the East Palace guard battalion that dared to attack Li Zicheng's Chinese army, how could they let the crown prince have an accident?

But...... If it was because he blamed the crown prince for always losing his land and fleeing, so that Cihong refused to leave......

Chongzhen felt a pain in his heart, and then he realized that he had been holding his breath for a long time.

"Emperor, Cardinal Zhang Jinyan has been summoned to come." Wang Zhixin stepped forward in fear and whispered. Seeing that the emperor did not react, he was about to say it out loud again, when he suddenly saw the emperor take a long breath, as if he had just woken up.

"Xuan." Chongzhen has the strength to say.

Zhang Jinyan entered with the announcement, worshiped in Bixia, and said: "Bixia, the minister Zhang Jinyan is called here." ”

Chongzhen gathered his scattered gaze, fell on Zhang Jinyan, and said, "Is there any news in Shanxi?" ”

Zhang Jinyan guessed that the emperor was going to ask Shanxi before he came, and he knew that the emperor was actually asking the prince when he asked Shanxi. However, he did not get the Tang report about the prince, so he had to pretend to be stupid and said: "Your Majesty, it has been found out that Zhao Jianji, the political envoy of Shanxi, Bi Gongchen of Xunning Dao, Mao Bingwen of Shouning Dao, Lin Gangzhong, the governor of Liangdao, and Sun Kangzhou, the prefect of Taiyuan, have all been martyred. Taiyuan City is known to have forty-two people, civil and military ministers died in the king's affairs. ”

Chongzhen mourned in his heart, but it was difficult to make a trace of expression on his face. These dead people must be true loyalists, but how expensive is it to screen them in this way?

"Is there any news from the crown prince? Where did Li Jiantai go? Chongzhen asked again.

"This ...... The minister still doesn't know. Zhang Jinyan's forehead was cold. I was more and more depressed, and at such a moment, I made the position of the head of the military department.

"You are a cardinal, and you don't know?" Chongzhen asked sharply.

"The minister really doesn't know, and he hasn't received the report." Zhang Jinyan said in a trembling voice: "How dare the minister wave it? ”

No one cares too much about the life or death of a petty official, but important people like the crown prince and the king of Jin will always be full of legends. And Li Zicheng is also thinking about whether to use the death news of these two people to deal a big blow to the Emperor of the Zhu family. Therefore, it will not curb all kinds of strange rumors. It even adds fuel to the fire.

"Why don't you send a scout to investigate!" Chongzhen's voice became colder and colder.

"If you go out to scout and ride out, you need to send public food and silver, and there is no money in the ministers." Zhang Jinyan said.

Chongzhen only felt that the black shadow in front of him was longing, and he was almost about to faint. The dignified military department didn't even have the money to send scouts.

Seeing that Chongzhen was already crumbling, Wang Zhixin on the side glanced at Zhang Jinyan. Zhang Jinyan looked innocent, so he simply lowered his head and didn't look at the two people above.

Chongzhen was silent for a long time, and finally got up with a long sigh. Zhang Jinyan didn't have anything to say, so he left the palace to leave. He had just left the house. Wang Zhixin also followed, stopped Zhang Jinyan, and complained: "Why should this soldier be like this? Send a few scouts to run away, and the cost is only a few dozen taels of silver, even if you fill it yourself? ”

Zhang Jinyan glanced at Wang Zhixin and said coldly: "I don't want to be this soldier for a long time!" "Then he shook his sleeves and left.

Wang Zhixin originally wanted to persuade Zhang Jinyan to inquire about the news of the crown prince, but he was so robbed that he was so frightened. He stomped his foot hard. But I saw a small fireman poking his brain behind him, and scolded angrily: "What kind of monkey cub." Dare to come to our house! ”

The little fireman hurriedly stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Father-in-law is not angry, the little one is in the name of Husband Liu, and he came to invite his father-in-law to the banquet on the order of Husband Liu." ”

When Wang Zhixin heard that it was Liu Ruoyu, he was half angry. This Liu Ruoyu is highly qualified and sensible. has been staying in the East Palace Waidi and waiting to enter the palace, it seems that he has made up his mind to burn the cold stove. He breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "When?" Whence? ”

"Today's dinner is in the East Palace Outer Mansion." The little flame man immediately added: "The factory minister will also go." ”

Wang Zhixin was puzzled: Liu Ruoyu suddenly invited himself and Wang Chengen to a banquet, what does this mean? Is it because you have fallen in love with what treasure in the palace? Although it is common for people to steal treasures from the vault and go out. But he's not so shallow-eyed.

"Okay, we got it." Wang Zhixin said: "You go back and tell Husband Liu, and say that our family will definitely go to the banquet." ”

The little flame man bowed and retreated.

Wang Zhixin had another calculation in his heart, and quickly returned to Chongzhen's side.

……

After the city of Taiyuan was broken, Li Zicheng moved to Taiyuan and stayed in the Jin Palace. It's just that this time he learned to be obedient, and first ordered someone to dig three feet into the ground to "clean" the palace, not to mention gunpowder, and even the dust couldn't be seen, so he dared to stay in it. The accompanying Dashun civil and military officials have found a place to live and began to look forward to a better life in the future.

After Taiyuan, Beijing is like a little girl without clothes, lying on the bed shyly, letting others do what she wants.

Li Zicheng, who regained his self-confidence, was a hero in Taiyuan. General Quan, General of the system, marquis; General Guo Yi, mighty general Feng Bo, son, male. Although Liu Zongmin was captured and lost, his past achievements were too high, so he still made the Marquis of Ru and was ordered to return to Xi'an. Tian Jianxiu sealed Zehou and still went north with Li Zicheng. It was in the original historical script that a position was transferred.

Among the list of Hou Bo, there are a few people who are particularly conspicuous. One of them was Taoyuan Bobai Guangen, who finally failed to escape to the end and surrendered to Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng won the hearts of the people, recruited the general soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, gave him a peach garden, and personally feasted, which can be described as meaningful.

The other earl was Chen Yongfu.

Chen Yongfu, former chief military officer of Henan.

Li Zicheng sent him a broken arrow, indicating that he did not care about his previous suspicions.

Chen Yongfu could not resist Liu Fangliang's army, so he had to surrender and be named Wen Shuibo.

Wang Genzi, who dedicated the city of Xi'an, has changed his name to Wang Liangzhi and sealed the mountain uncle.

These three people are all figures at the level of the general army of a province in the Ming Dynasty, and they are all feudal uncles, which can be regarded as setting benchmarks.

Dashun Yuwen scattered out from Taiyuan, and went to the county to look at the wind and settle the village, but he resisted the officers and soldiers and wanted to vote for Dashun.

The people's hearts are like this, but there are also many victims who die in righteousness.

Anyi Zhixian Fang Zhiping, after the fall of the city, went north to worship the Son of Heaven, entered the office to worship his mother, ordered his wives to commit suicide, and then threw himself into the well.

Yang Jialong, the governor of Xinzhou, said to the left and right: "This city will not be defended, I go out, and the people can be saved." So he went out of the city and cursed the thief, and died. He had a good reputation in office, and after his death, he was also enshrined in the state people's ancestral hall.

Yan Mengkui, the general of Daizhou, and Hou Junzhao, the governor of Fenzhou, all died and perished in the city.

Liu Bida, the magistrate of Fenyang, wrote "Scolding the Thief" and was killed by the breaking army. His brave Fan Qifang killed himself after assassinating a lieutenant who broke into the camp.

Ningwu military deputy envoy Wang Zhengmao was originally the prefect of Taiyuan. After Zhou Yuji left, he led 500 soldiers to defend Ningwu Pass alone, killed Li Zicheng's persuasion envoy, committed suicide after the fall of the city, and his wife Yang was also martyred.

……

On February 21 of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng passed the Ningwu Pass, and led an army of 70,000 with Tian Jianxiu to attack Xuanfu and Datong. The reason why there are only 70,000 horses is that he really divided 30,000 people in Taiyuan, with Ren Jirong, the former general of Guoyi, as the general, and Li You, the right mighty general, as the deputy, and went east out of Guguan to enter Hebei.

On 28 February, Li Zicheng's army arrived in Datong.

Jiang Xuan, the general soldier of Datong, opened the door and surrendered.

Wei Jingming, the governor of Datong, is fair and honest, and does not enforce the law, and is quite famous. Because he is from Shaanxi, Li Zicheng also wanted to be included in his command, and persuaded him: "I am no more than a small person in Mizhi, and I can be the emperor today, but I know that it is the destiny of heaven!" You are a really good official, you have to be willing to surrender, and I still let you governor Datong. ”

Wei Jingyu slammed into the stone steps, bleeding profusely, and passed out.

Li Zicheng was helpless when he saw this, and after Wei Jingyu woke up, he sighed: "You are really a loyal minister, I will send you home." ”

Wei Jingyu said sadly: "The country has been broken, where is there a home!" Kill me! ”

Li Zicheng was stunned, shook his head and said: "You are a loyal minister, I will not kill you!" Then he ordered Wei Jingyu to be released left and right.

After all, Wei Jingyu couldn't pass the level in his heart, and died in Haihui Temple.

After Li Zicheng heard this, he allocated fifty taels of silver and ordered someone to escort Wei Jingyi's coffin back to his hometown in Hancheng.

At the same time, the first line of acting kings who were sealed in Datong, from Zhu Chuanqi (next to the fire character) to the county kings and generals below, were slaughtered by the family, and no one was left. Zhu Cunji, the king of Qin who accompanied him, was frightened, and was glad that he surrendered happily and did not intend to resist the army like the acting king. (To be continued......)

PS: There are a lot of excessive content in this chapter, if you skip it, someone will definitely ask in the future: Isn't there still 200,000 Ming troops in Xuanfu Datong? Was it eaten by the author...... So let's write about it. The next chapter returns to the main story.