Chapter 86: Emperor Chongzhen's Despair (Part II)

Faced with the defeat reports from all directions, Emperor Chongzhen felt very tired, very tired, really completely tired.

You must know that although Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen has been on the throne for five years, even this year, he has just turned twenty-two years old, and in later generations, at most he will be the age when he has just graduated from university. But Zhu Youzhen had to sit in the high position of the Ninety-Five Emperor from the age of a high school student, and intrigue with a group of old foxes and big foxes in the court, and at the same time control the broken ship of the Ming Empire in the stormy waves.

Speaking from facts, Comrade Zhu Youzhen did a very bad job as the top leader of the Ming Dynasty. First of all, there were too many connections during the purge of the eunuch party, which not only led to the vicious expansion of the Donglin party's power, but also paralyzed the government function. Then he made a series of fatal mistakes in the internal and external wars, giving too much trust to those who should not be trusted, and being too harsh on trustworthy loyal subjects, in addition to not knowing people, there was also strategic confusion, and finally buried this huge empire...... But if you take into account his age, I'm afraid it's hard to blame Zhu Youzhen for being too stupid - when we were seventeen-year-old high school students, weren't we all from the emperor Han, cents, literary youth, middle school and second diseases to otaku? Which one is qualified for the position of county and city leader? Not to mention the leaders of the country – and the leader of the country in the midst of war!

Compared with the general secretary Gorbachev, who buried the Soviet Union in five or six years, Emperor Chongzhen's ruling level is already quite acceptable.

It's a pity that the Ming Empire at this moment needs not a decent emperor, but a genius who can turn the tide!

-- Endless and frequent famines, popular uprisings and mutinies that blossomed on all sides, state institutions that were so rotten and dilapidated that they could not be functioned, formidable foreign enemies who were eyeing each other, and scholars who were scheming and greedy...... The whole country is on the road to death in a madness, and it can be said that the gas is exhausted.

Such a situation is no longer something that a fairly good emperor can maintain, but a super strongman who can break his wrist and survive in death must have great courage, great wisdom, and great perseverance, such as Napoleon and Hitler, to have a few hopes of saving the country's fortunes.

It's a pity that Emperor Chongzhen doesn't have such a super ability, and this mess is too heavy for him. He has no cure for the country's ills, he will only have a headache and a pain in his feet, and he will send troops to suppress it wherever there is chaos, but the more he suppresses it, the more chaotic it becomes.

In order to keep up with the ancient Ming monarchs, Emperor Chongzhen's personal life was very frugal, his clothes and socks were patched, the gold and silver ornaments in the palace were melted down as military salaries, and the pomp and circumstance of meals were also reduced and reduced. He worked very hard, going to court during the day and working overtime at night, according to historical records, he had to work for about seven or eight hours (fourteen to sixteen hours), and he was so tired that he was half dead. And no matter how tired he was the day before, after sleeping for four or five hours, he had to continue working the next day, rain or shine, all year round, and he didn't even have time to spoil his concubine.

Alas, after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he did such a job, no scope of work, no work boundaries, a huge Ming Empire, he had to take care of everything, and he went to work every day, either quarreling with people (Yanguan), or watching people quarrel (party disputes), but it was difficult to hear a word of truth. I dressed very ordinarily, I didn't eat well, I didn't sleep enough, I had bad news coming from both ends of the three days, someone from the north came in, someone rebelled in the west, the city was destroyed, my relatives (vassal kings) were killed, things were robbed, and so on. The good news is that there are close to zero.

No matter who does this kind of work, I am afraid that I will feel exhausted, and even have a short life.

However, he still tried his best, went all out, day and night, day and night, diligent, hard-working, and did not die until he reached the Great Wall, and did not look back after hitting the south wall. No matter how many setbacks you encounter, you grit your teeth and refuse to give up...... The problem is that he is faced with a mess that is difficult to clean up, and although he is very diligent and supervises everything himself, no matter how busy he is, he can't do much. If a person's ability and insight are not enough, or there is a problem with his position, and he is not qualified for his position, then no matter how diligent he is, it is useless, and even the more he does, the more wrong he will be.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

All in all, after losing his temper, Emperor Chongzhen finally rubbed his forehead and thought about a strategy to deal with the current crisis.

Although at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he was as naïve as an ordinary high school student, and even thought that as long as he handed over the world to the management of the righteous men and gentlemen of the Donglin Party, he would be able to sit back and relax. But after suffering so many painful lessons in the past few years, Emperor Chongzhen still practiced some experience and skills:

First, on the side of the defense line of Liaoxi and Jizhen in the Jurchen East, the imperial court has nothing to think of for the time being. If you want to increase the number of troops and deploy defenses, the Beijing division has long been out of soldiers; If you want to give up Ningyuan and Jinzhou and shrink back into Shanhaiguan, I am afraid that the Guan Ning army will mutiny immediately. At present, the only way, in addition to trying to appease the morale of the army, is to calm down and maintain the status quo - anyway, after the attrition of the battle of Dalinghe, although the Ming side is a big defeat and a loss, the Jiannu side should also suffer a lot of losses, and before the recovery of vitality, it is estimated that Jiannu will not come again for a while.

So, Emperor Chongzhen gritted his teeth, squeezed out another 20,000 taels of money, and sent it to the Liaoxi army as a reward to prevent the sergeants from changing.

Second, on the battlefield in Shandong, the imperial court officials and troops needed to deal with the Dengzhou rebels in the east and the Wenxiangjiao demons entrenched in Jining in the south at the same time, but neither side was a fuel-efficient lamp - the Dengzhou rebels in the east have been advancing wildly since the flag rebellion, and now they have broken through Laizhou, entered the territory of Pingdu Prefecture, and defeated two imperial reinforcements in Pingdu Prefecture with the strategy of besieging the city and sending reinforcements. In Jiaozhou, Weifang and other places, there were also small bandits who took advantage of the situation to rise up, stirring up more and more turmoil. The Dengzhou Navy Division attacked in a big way, breaking the Tianjin Navy Division in the first battle and completely cutting off the sea transportation.

As for the demons of the Wenxiang Sect who raised troops in Lunan, they were even more arrogant, and they fought all the way to the Huai River in the south, and they were on a par with the blocking soldiers and horses put together by Fengyang, the central capital, and Nanjing, the capital of Liudu. In the west, he entered the Guide Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion in Henan, and in an instant, hundreds of thousands of hungry people were enveloped, and it is said that he had joined forces with the Shaanxi Liukou. In Shandong, the Wenxiang Sect not only captured Jining, the hub of the canal, but also conquered Zou County, slaughtered the Yashengfu Manmen (a descendant of Mencius), seized the Yashengfu to accumulate and open a warehouse to release grain, and attracted more than one million hungry people for a time. At present, the demon thieves and bandits have blossomed and spread wantonly in southern Lunan, and the officials and troops can only barely hold the two cities of Ziyang, where the Lu Wang's Mansion is located, and Qufu, where the Yansheng Gongfu is located.

Therefore, after Zhu Dadian went to Shandong alone to serve as governor, although he tried to cheer up, it was a pity that there was a shortage of major generals at hand, and the armies of Shandong had been peaceful for a long time, not to mention dealing with the Dengzhou rebels who could shake Jiannu, even the demons of the Wenxiang Sect often couldn't beat them. What's even worse is that the current drought in Shandong has been repeated, the hungry people are everywhere, and the Wenxiang Sect bandits are really pervasive, not only the Jining area is rebelling, but the province from south to north can not find a few places to live in peace. Even in the city of Jinan, there were incense-smelling disciples who secretly started an incident, burned the official warehouse, and assassinated the officials, which made people panic.

If it weren't for the fact that the Wenxiang Sect thieves went south along the canal with the main force, trying to sweep the rich lands of Jianghuai and Jiangnan, and then used partial divisions to enter Henan to coerce the hungry people, and cooperated with the Shaanxi Liukou, even the sect leader moved south to Xuzhou, and the strength to really stay in Shandong is not much, otherwise what Shandong Governor Zhu Dadian has to consider now is not how to go south to open up the canal, but how to strengthen the city defense of Jinan and strive to ensure that the provincial city is not lost.

But even so, the forces to quell the rebellion on both sides could not be mustered. As a result, the military department in Beijing sent one official letter after another, urging Zhu Dadian to open up the canal and exterminate the bandits. And Zhu Dadian was one urgent report after another, almost begging for reinforcements.

But where can the current Jingshi draw any reinforcements for him? Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but smile bitterly again.

-- Theoretically speaking, there is a "Beijing camp" on the Beijing side, which is equivalent to the forbidden army of the Northern Song Dynasty and the modern capital group army. In the era of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the total strength of the Beijing camp was as high as 400,000 (the capital was still in Nanjing at that time). After Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, there were about 200,000 people in Beijing. Later, because there was no war in the capital for a long time, the Beijing camp was cut to more than 100,000 people in the Zhengde period, but due to empty salaries and the like, the actual number of soldiers was far less than this number, and in the Chongzhen period, the actual amount of the Beijing camp was only 20,000 or 30,000 people at most.

Moreover, just like the local guards, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, they had been reduced to serfs who could not fight at all. In fact, the last 20,000 or 30,000 so-called "soldiers" in the Beijing camp have also been untrained and paid for a long time, and most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, and basically have to rely on themselves to work in the Beijing division for a living, or work as slaves in various military attachés' mansions, even if the legendary Shenji Battalion is equipped with a large number of "advanced firearms". As for how many truly combat-effective soldiers were left in the Beijing camp at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there are different opinions -- according to the most optimistic view, there are probably three or four thousand strong men who can fight in front of the entire Beijing camp; According to the most pessimistic view, there were only two or three hundred soldiers in the Beijing camp at that time, which was only enough to cope with the military parade under the emperor's whim...... Of course, military attachés at all levels who embezzle military salaries and save money are not counted......

In any case, such an army, which only existed on paper, was obviously unable to reinforce the Shandong battlefield to quell the rebellion.

In addition to the Beijing camp, there are only Jinyi guards left in Beijing as the "Son of Heaven's pro-army", as well as the internal prison soldiers under the Imperial Horse Prison, the soldiers who patrol the city daily, and the miscellaneous armies such as the yamen guards, all of which add up to more than 20,000 people. However, this is already the minimum force to suppress the order of the capital and ensure the safety of the royal family, once it is transferred out, the city of Beijing is only afraid of chaos, so it cannot be moved lightly.

Moreover, Beijing is the world's first-class big city, the circumference of the city wall is dozens of miles, with this little force, it is very reluctant to stand on the city wall ten steps and only one person to defend the city. If the garrison is reduced again, the invading enemy will not be able to defend it as long as he builds siege equipment and surrounds it on all sides: no matter how strong the city is, it must be defended by troops -- therefore, this little defender in the city wall of the capital division really cannot be moved outward.

Outside the city of Beijing, there were still some reinforcements from other provinces who had entered Beijing this spring and had not returned, but because the military departments and household departments had been fighting each other and refusing to provide food and salary to Qinwang's army for a long time, most of these cold-hearted reinforcements had already broken up and became bandits and horse thieves, burning, killing and looting everywhere in Gyeonggi. The remaining officials and soldiers from other provinces were also angry, and they did not listen to the dispatch at all, and it was difficult to expect them to fight well, and even had to beware of their rebellion.

At present, around Gyeonggi, or the entire Northern Zhili, there are only two mobile forces left in the imperial court, but they also have their own important tasks: one is the 9000 Sichuan Army led by Qiu Jiahe, the governor of Liaodong, stationed at Shanhaiguan, responsible for monitoring the unstable Guanning army, and as the last line of defense when the Tartars attack; The other is the Tianxiong Army organized and trained by Lu Xiangsheng, who participated in politics on the right side of the country, stationed in the three prefectures of Daimyo, Guangping, and Shunde, and is now fighting repeatedly and fiercely with the Shaanxi Liukou who came over the Taihang Mountain, and also has to suppress the Wenxiang disciples in the territory, and they are also inseparable.

However, with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Shandong, as well as Beijing's eagerness to open up the Cao Yun, it is obviously impossible not to send reinforcements to the past. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen had to bite the bullet and ordered the 9,000 Sichuan troops stationed in Shanhaiguan to withdraw from the front line, led by Qin Yiming, the leader of the white pole soldiers (the younger brother of the female general Qin Liangyu), to Tongzhou by land, and went south by boat to reinforce Jinan. As for the safety of the Liaodong front, we can only count on the loyalty of the Guanning Army and the Liaoxi Generals...... By the way, he ordered Qin Yiming to summon the Qinwang army from other provinces stranded on the outskirts of Beijing, and packed up these troublesome ghosts in one go, and there were about 20,000 people in the piece. How to harness this rabble from all corners of the world...... Just give Zhu Dadian a headache!

At the same time, he issued an edict urging Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides who had arrived in Taiyuan, to lead the Qin army over the Taihang Mountains and continue to march eastward into Gyeonggi, and then cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong army to fight as quickly as possible to clear out the Liukou and civil rebellion in Northern Zhili, and return the Beijing division to a Langlang Qiankun.

In addition, in order to alleviate the pressure of Zhu Dadian being attacked from both sides in Jinan, Emperor Chongzhen hesitated for a long time, but finally put down his face, and sent his old minister Xu Guangqi to Jinan to try to negotiate to appease Dengzhou Town, and at worst, he would also delay the offensive of the rebels, so that Zhu Dadian could free up his hands to deal with the demons of the Wenxiang Sect. Or persuade Chen Xin, a traitor, to stop the blockade of the port of Tianjin and allow the southern grain convoy to transport grain to Beijing by sea.

Third, with regard to the Shaanxi Liukou who resisted the Wenxiang Sect demons from the southern front and invaded the Central Plains, as well as the Fujian War after Huang Shi led the Funing Army to pull the flag and make a rebellion, due to the distance and poor news, Beijing was actually unable to command remotely -- at this time, the Dengzhou rebels blocked the sea route, and the Wenxiang Sect demons blocked the canal, as for the land route...... The imperial court had abolished the Tianxia Post Station in the previous two years, and the country's official document transmission system had long been paralyzed. Nowadays, a large number of Shaanxi Liukou have crossed the Taihang Mountains and invaded the northern Zhili and the prefectures and counties of Henan Province, and as a result, the messengers who entered Beijing from the south were harmed, and it was very unsafe to go north even by land. Therefore, at present, the news received by the Jingshi side is also intermittent, and there are often errors and omissions.

Under such circumstances, Emperor Rao Chongzhen, who was in Beijing, no matter how strong his desire to control ♂ was, could only delegate power to the subordinates, pinning his hopes on Lu Weiqi, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, and Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of the Nanjing garrison, hoping that they would be able to do their best and bring good news.

Finally, it is necessary to try to stabilize the grain prices of the Jingshi and stabilize the people's hearts...... Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly felt powerless: what the current shortage of the Jingshi is not 10,000 or 20,000 stone grain, but millions of stone of grain -- because the imperial court is responsible for solving the problem of feeding more than 100,000 border troops in Xuanhua, Jibei, and Liaodong, more than 100,000 officials in Beijing, tens of thousands of eunuchs in the palace, and at least 30,000 or 40,000 military horses.

Originally, the Yanji Plain around Beijing was also a very important grain-producing area in the north, which was also the basis for Ming Chengzu to move his capital to Beijing. Although with the passage of time, the land has been greatly annexed, and the better granges in the Gyeonggi area are in the hands of the emperor's relatives and wealthy magnates, and the imperial court cannot collect any taxes, but at least a lot of surplus grain will be trafficked to Jingshi, which can solve the food ration problem of a considerable part of the people in Beijing.

However, in the past two years, northern Shaanxi and Henan are of course thousands of miles of red land, and the northern Zhili side is also full of drought and flood disasters, and the Jiannu Liukou has come to visit the door one after another, not to mention the surplus grain in the Gyeonggi countryside, and there are even millions of refugees waiting to be fed waiting for the imperial court to help it!

Such an increase and a decrease have made the food shortage crisis in Gyeonggi even worse. However, at present, the sea transport has been cut off altogether, and even if there is grain in the south of the Yangtze River, there is no way to transport it to the north -- although theoretically speaking, it is still possible to transport grain from the Huguang grain-producing area across the entire Henan Province and then through the Daimyo Mansion to Beijing by land, but even in the year when the grain transportation is at its lowest, the Beijing division also has to transfer about 3 million stone of grain from the south. Based on a carriage with a capacity of 10 stones, 300,000 carts, 600,000 mules and horses, and 300,000 coachmen were needed to transport 3 million grains...... And that's not even taking into account the rations that the mules, horses, and coachmen consume themselves along the way!

Don't say that it was a ruined and chaotic era in the Chongzhen period, or in the Yongle period when the national power was at its peak, the Ming Empire couldn't afford such an exaggerated and absurd expense!

Therefore, when the sea routes and canals were not opened, Emperor Chongzhen, who could not conjure up grain, had no way to stabilize grain prices at present, and even a set of grain rationing system could not be established...... Nowadays, the grain of officials in Beijing can only be distributed in silver (according to the usual grain price, of course), and it has to be discounted. The rations of the Xuanhua, Datong, Jibei, and Liaodong armies have been stopped and reduced for several months. At this time, the wealthy and powerful families in Beijing still hoarded Juqi and raised the price of grain, but there was no way to punish them, which made Emperor Chongzhen depressed.

In short, Emperor Chongzhen soon discovered that before the sea and water transportation were opened, the food crisis in Jingshi could only rely on the people to tighten their belts and suffer. This helpless sense of powerlessness made the emperor feel very depressed, but there have been too many such things in recent years, which made him not surprised.