Chapter 151: The Flash in the Pan of the Qing Empire (Part II)

On the evening of September 18, the sixth year of Chongzhen, the city of Beijing, which had just planted the banner of the Qing Dynasty for less than a year, once again sounded the earth-shattering shouts of killing.

-- Under the banner of "rescuing Liaodong," the 30,000 Guanning Army, which claimed to be rushing to Shanhaiguan to deploy defenses, suddenly launched a mutiny and launched a surprise attack on the city of Beijing while passing through Gyeonggi. And the pre-arranged Neiying in Beijing also opened the city gates, allowing Guan Ning's army to fight all the way into the alleys of Beijing. Immediately, the Han army stationed in the city also broke up or defected one after another, and followed the Guanning army to launch a fierce attack on the Manchurian Eight Banners entrenched in the inner city!

For a time, the city of Beijing seemed to be in chaos into a pot of boiling water, thousands of torches were lit up in the streets and alleys, illuminating the whole city in a bright light, soldiers with various accents let out murderous shouts, and the cries of hundreds of thousands of people in the city shook the sky, and the cannons that were originally aimed at the outside of the city of Beijing actually turned around at this moment, and bombarded the inner city one by one, smashing all those exquisite and luxurious mansions into bricks and stones.

In this smoke of gunpowder, the Qing Empire's short reign of less than a year over the city of Beijing finally came to an end.

Although since entering Beijing, the Qing court has always been wary of the Han Chinese power. Unfortunately, the population of the Jurchen Eight Banners was limited, and the political acumen and cultural level were even more tragic, and if they did not rely on the bureaucratic system left over from the Ming Dynasty, they would not be able to rule this vast country at all. Especially after Huang Taiji's southern expedition, even part of the daily defense and security patrols of Beijing City had to be handed over to the Han army to be responsible.

If it is in the case of the Qing Empire's victorious songs, the loyalty of these traitor troops should still be very guaranteed. However, when the entire territory of Liaodong fell in an instant, and the glossy coat of the Jurchen Eight Banners was torn off in a bloody manner, except for a few hardcore traitors, I am afraid that anyone would think that these Liaodong barbarians, who had become lost dogs, would most likely end up in the Central Plains with rabbit tails that could not grow.

As a result, with the rebellion of the Guanning army again, all the civil and Wuhan officials in the entire Beijing city refused to accompany the funeral of the Qing Dynasty, either hiding at home and watching from the side, or joining in the counterattack together, ready to take advantage of the fall of the Qing Empire to reap another benefit.

About 3,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners who were ordered to stay in Beijing put up a desperate resistance, but because of the haste of the incident, they could only fight on their own, and the various city gates had been lost from the beginning, and the horse archery skills that the Eight Banners of Manchuria had always been proud of could not play any advantage in the extremely chaotic night street fighting. Therefore, no matter how much they sacrificed their lives and forgot to die, the emperor fought desperately, they were still killed by the swarming Guan Ning army and retreated step by step.

As a result, after some desperate resistance, the inner city of Beijing also fell to the ground, and more than 60,000 dependents of the Eight Banners in the city had to retreat into the Forbidden City Imperial Palace. Although most of these people are old and weak women and children, they still show extraordinary courage in today's desperate situation, even children and old people have picked up sticks, knives and guns, and Empress Zhezhe and Princess Da Yuer have personally put on armor and called on everyone to fight until the last moment!

However, as famous chameleons and wall grasses in history, Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou did not mean to do things absolutely even though they had already cut the big knife towards the Tartars, but they knew very well the truth of "being a man and leaving a line, and seeing each other well in the future" - therefore, just when the "Jurchen remnants" trapped in the Forbidden City were preparing to die en masse with a sad heart, they did not usher in the large-scale onslaught of the Guanning army, but waited for the envoy sent by Zu Dashou to persuade them to surrender.

According to the envoy of persuasion, although the two sides are now fighting each other, but God has the virtue of a good life, relying on the past friendship, Guan Ningjun does not intend to kill all the families of the Eight Banners, but is ready to make way and "send out the country" all the Manchu and Mongolian bannermen in Beijing, and their belongings can also be retained. After leaving the city, whether they planned to return to their hometown or go to Shandong to find their emperor, they all listened to it.

Only the concubines and children of Huang Taiji, as well as the wives and concubines of the bannermasters of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, had to be temporarily detained. Because Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou needed to use them as bargaining chips to exchange with the Qing court for the disciples of Guan Ning Jiangmen who were currently driving by Huang Taiji's side. In order to make them feel at ease, Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou were willing to swear in public that they would treat them politely. Of course, if the Eight Banners family in the Forbidden City refused to accept Guan Ningjun's "kindness", then they had no choice but to let the Eight Banners be wiped out.

As soon as this announcement came out, the families of the 60,000 Eight Banners who retreated to the Forbidden City immediately began to shake people's hearts.

Before, everyone thought that this time was a dead end, so they were full of tragedy and prepared to die and struggle, even if they went to see Hades, they had to drag a few cushions. But since it seems that there is still a way to live, why not give it a try? Compared with the total annihilation of the whole clan, no matter how bad it is, how bad can it be?

Besides, at present, tens of thousands of people are trapped in the Forbidden City, there is no food and grass inside, no rescuers outside, and even a weapon cannot be made for each person, and the Guanning army outside has already set up all the Hongyi cannons, even if everyone resists desperately, how long can it last? Haven't you died in vain?

In the end, under the desire to survive, the Eight Banners family in the Forbidden City still agreed to Guan Ningjun's appeasement, and opened the palace gate in fear, looking forward to the other party's trustworthy performance. And Guan Ningjun actually fulfilled his promise, and after placing Huang Taiji's harem concubines and some of the wives and children of the Eight Banners nobles under house arrest, he ordered the city gate to be opened to make way for passage, and even collected some boats so that these bannermen could evacuate from the canal.

So far, this short-lived "change in Beijing" has completely settled. In the early morning of the next day, the citizens of Beijing, who had been hiding under the bedboard and trembling all night amid the shouts of killing and explosions, finally learned that the city had changed its owner again.

“…… In the past, the Ming court was unreasonable, treated good ministers harshly, exploited the people, and the people of the world were not able to make a living. Our generation rose up and had no choice but to make an alliance with the Tartars, temporarily borrowing tens of thousands of soldiers, wanting to wave their troops into Beijing, eliminate the traitors, and Kuang Zheng Dynasty. I am cunning and betraying the alliance, taking advantage of my internal weakness, according to Yandu, stealing my Chinese artifact, changing my Chinese crown, my generation knows the wrong thing to refuse the tiger into the wolf, don't save the mistake of fighting the fire, so I have to cry and endure it, and I don't dare to act lightly.

Now, the puppet Qing Tartars favor traitorous ministers, are greedy for endowments, and are severely punished. Unable to save the people from fire and water, but running out of divisions and traveling to capture people's money, suck the marrow and peel off the skin, and rape people's wives and daughters, what is the difference between them and beasts? Therefore, there was General Huang ploughing the court and sweeping the caves, in addition to the demonic atmosphere outside the pass, but also a bright and clear Qiankun in Liaodong, which shows that the number of Tartar captives has been exhausted. Later, there was a division of benevolence and righteousness in our army to save the people. Now that the Beijing division has been determined, the card will be sent to inform the people: the people should not be frightened, and each one will be safe. The people of Ermin abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, and reported the Manchurian barbarians for hiding the people, and they were rewarded heavily. The rest do not have to be subdued, the jade is indistinguishable, and it is too late to regret it. This one! ”

Immediately afterwards, after the Guanning army fired bullets and killed a few green-skinned hooligans who took advantage of the chaos to rob, the order of Beijing City was settled again.

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On the other hand, although tens of thousands of women and children of the Eight Banners in Beijing were old and weak, they all left the city safely in the end, and the Guan Ning army had no intention of breaking the contract and chasing and killing. But that doesn't mean these guys really escaped from life. Because after learning the news of the change in Beijing, the gentry and landlords of the prefectures and counties of Beizhili also celebrated with each other, and immediately responded in groups, organizing the townships to bravely pull the flag against the Qing Dynasty, and scrambling to fight the water dogs.

-- When the traversers were killing the gentry in various occupied areas to carry out land reform, the Eight Banners also wantonly stook land in the vicinity of Gyeonggi, and at the same time demoted all the gentry and tenant farmers in those lands to clothed slaves. Although Huang Taiji, as a heroic man of a generation, would not fail to see the harm of this destructive and plundering policy, in any case, he was also a Manchu king first and foremost, and he must first satisfy the interests of his own people. After all, it was the Eight Banners nobles who were the foundation of the Qing court's rule that got the benefits, and even Huang Taiji could only turn a blind eye and acquiesce.

As a result, the gentry and villagers who suffered greatly from the "Eight Banners Staking Movement" soon became the most staunch potential anti-Qing elements.

As a result, the women and children of the Eight Banners, who had fled in a hurry, had just left Beijing for only 20 miles when they were attacked and robbed by villagers in the suburbs of Beijing, and they were seriously injured for a time. Fortunately, it is also because of the staking of the land, now there are many small groups of Eight Banners in the countryside of Beizhili, at this time they heard the news and rushed to converge, after a fight, finally repelled the attack of the villagers and bandits, and escorted the women and children of the Eight Banners to escape into Tianjin City.

What's even worse is that with the fall of Beijing, the news of the Guanning Army's rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and self-reliance spread, and a series of vigorous chain reactions also appeared in the remnants of the Qing occupation area in the entire Northern Zhili. Those local officials appointed by the Manchu court were either expelled by force or took the initiative to pull the flag against the Qing Dynasty, and the entire vast North China Plain was full of noisy scenes of fallen trees and scattered trees.

In particular, the defenders of Shanhaiguan, who were directly facing an unknown strong enemy, immediately broke out into a mutiny after learning that their backs had also become enemy territory -- because the Eight Banners of Manchuria were basically marching south in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the defenders of Shanhaiguan at this time were mainly composed of Han military banners and Mongolian military banners, and after they were shocked to learn that Shengjing and Beijing had changed hands one after another, their loyalty to the Qing court immediately broke out and was greatly shaken. In the end, the vast majority of the Mongols chose to open the camp gate and ride their horses north to flee to the grassland, while the Han army banner and the surrendered Ming army collectively cut the back of their braids, and at the same time sent people to contact the Guanning army about surrendering to Chengcheng.

On 28 September, after peacefully taking over Shanhaiguan, the Guanning Army turned around and approached Tianjin. Although neither Zu Dashou nor Wu Xiang had any intention of fighting to the end with the Eight Banners. However, Tianjin is the gateway to Beijing, directly choking the throat of the Beijing division, and you can take a boat along the canal to Tongzhou, Beijing, and before you get off Tianjin, Guan Ningjun will not dare to leave Gyeonggi for a day, so you have to pull this nail off anyway.

Fortunately, the fall of Beijing before that already meant the complete collapse of the Qing court's rule in Zhili. Although the Tianjin Acropolis is very strong and the grain stock is abundant, the hearts of the people in the city have long been in chaos. Those frightened families of the Eight Banners, seeing that there was no way back to Liaodong, had to immediately flee along the canal to the south. The defenders in Tianjin City were also surging undercurrents, and envoys were constantly coming and going with the approaching Guanning army.

Next, on a dark and windy night, Zu Dashou personally led a Guanning army and launched a surprise attack on Tianjin. However, from a military point of view, there was actually no need for this night attack, because most of the soldiers and horses in Tianjin at that time had received the news in advance, and either they had seized the time to escape, or they were ready to surrender in advance, so Tianjin after the city was broken actually seemed very peaceful, and the streets of the houses were silent.

In short, with the quiet change of the head of Tianjin, the entire Northern Zhili was forever separated from the territory of the Qing Empire.

At this point, after the sudden loss of the entire Liaodong, and the attack of Dengzhou Town and the betrayal of the Guanning army, in just two or three months, the entire Qing Empire has shrunk from a huge territory entrenched in almost the entire North China, to the point that only a long and narrow territory along the Grand Canal has shrunk from the north to Dezhou, to Yangzhou in the south, and has become an extremely strange "Canal Empire".

Although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was China's golden waterway in the 17th century, and the river was full of prosperous cities, if it was carefully managed, the tax revenue could support an army of more than 100,000 people. However, the Jurchen Eight Banners occupied this territory for only half a year, and they did not have time to lay a foundation at all. In the face of such drastic changes in the situation, no one knows how many days this unprecedented "canal empire" will last.

Perhaps, this once prosperous Qing Empire will soon bloom as quickly as an epiphany, and suddenly wither like an epiphany.

Therefore, His Majesty Huang Taiji, who was bullied by dogs in Pingyang, unfortunately learned the above bad news in the Jinan Imperial Camp, no matter how tenacious Rao is mind was, he immediately vomited three liters of blood, and at the same time scolded Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang for having a backbone in the back of their heads, and they will inevitably die well in the future. The soldiers of the Eight Banners hugged their respective families and relatives, weeping and crying in unison, feeling infinite sadness for the lost hometown and unknown future and fate.

It's just that after crying, Huang Taiji still had to wipe away his tears, pinched his nose and reached an agreement with the envoy of Guan Ningjun, and exchanged the disciples of Guan Ning's generals who were also hostages with him before for his harem concubines and the families of the Eight Banners magnates left in Beijing. Next, without waiting for Huang Taiji to think about whether to immediately move his army north and take revenge on Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang, the two anti-bone boys, new disasters have followed!

-- Dengzhou Town, which initially put down the rebellion of the gentry in Qingzhou Prefecture and completed the mobilization of the militia, once again launched a large-scale attack on Jinan!