Before Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong set off, they didn't know that they couldn't save the emperor, so after landing at Dagukou, they still had to go all out to try.

After the defenders of Dagukou and Tianjin Wei returned to the right place, some local defenders directly informed Zhang Mingzhen of the latest news, saying that Beijing had been captured for four or five days.

However, these guards were originally people who had surrendered several times on both sides, and they had only been on the side of the intruders for more than half a month, and they were not trusted during the enemy camp, and the high-level of the intrusive army would not share important information with these people at the first time.

Therefore, they can't say clearly, after the city of Beijing was broken, how many imperial relatives and hundreds of officials and important ministers died, and which ones defected to the enemy.

All kinds of fake news are flying all over the sky, and two diametrically opposed statements about the life and death of the same person can often be transmitted, making people wonder which one to believe.

After Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong sorted it out, they had no clue at all, so they could only further prove it by force.

However, before the military testimony, they still divided their troops and had to change boats, which was also very troublesome - the big ships and warships that came from the sea could not sail into the shallow and narrow artificial canal of the Wuqing River.

Zhang Mingzhen had no choice but to divide half of his troops and stay on the big ship to keep the troops motivated at any time. The remaining half of the people changed into Tianjin Wei's inland river boats and slowly went upstream.

These boats are usually only used to transport grain, and they do not consider the needs of combat, so naturally they do not have any protective measures. In order to prevent being intercepted and killed by the intruding army on the way, Zheng Chenggong could only let people carry some dirt frames and sandbags piled on the side of the boat to provide some temporary cover.

The power facilities of the boat are also very simple, basically relying on the support penny. In the shallow canals, the sail power is difficult to use, and the oars are not very efficient. The only advantage is that you can take advantage of the shallow water characteristics of the river, and the brace can be supported on the bottom of the river throughout the whole process, and the power efficiency is okay.

In some particularly narrow sections of the river, it is theoretically possible to count on the slender man to pull the fiber, so that multiple piles of manpower can pass quickly.

But now they have to deal with possible enemies at any time, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Mingzhen are both known for their naval army, and they dare not leave too many slender men on the shore. Otherwise, when the cavalry unit suddenly appears, the slender man has nowhere to flee at all, and can only be slaughtered.

It is better to have a boatman who can stay behind the sandbag wall of the ship and avoid being directly charged by the cavalry. As a result, in a group of Tianjin Cao boats, there was a strange scene of more than a dozen sailors supporting the penny at the stern at the same time, just to advance faster.

Zheng Chenggong's fleet marched north from the Tianjin Acropolis for most of the morning, and traveled more than 40 miles against the tide.

Along the way, there were also small groups of intruders and thieves, scouts and sentry horses.

When some of the short-sighted intruders saw the suspected official fleet, they thought that it was as easy to bully as the Caoliang fleet, and tried to come over to intercept and shoot arrows at the fleet.

This can't be blamed for their lack of knowledge, many of the cavalry units under Li Zicheng's command are from the northwest, and many Shaanxi people have never been in contact with the navy or Caoyun in their lives. Seeing this kind of open-top boat with no canopy in the cabin, of course, you will feel that you can kill and injure the personnel on board intensively as long as you throw bows and arrows, so you will have the courage to come and give it a try.

However, the soldiers selected by Zheng Chenggong were all heavily armoured and wore iron helmets, and although they stood very closely on the ship and were occasionally projectile, they were not harmed.

What's more, Zheng Chenggong has never lacked firearms, and when he encounters intercepted rogue cavalry, he began to take turns to arrange guns to teach how to behave, and there are not many thief cavalry who can smoothly rush to the distance of riding a bow and throwing fire.

After several skirmishes, Zheng Chenggong also divided his troops to go ashore to catch the wounded, identified the thieves and officers to arrest and torture them, and inquired about the emperor's news.

Several rogues and cavalry officers who were injured and arrested all said that Chongzhen had committed suicide by besieged him, and King Chuang did not embarrass him, and gave Chongzhen a generous burial. Zheng Chenggong didn't believe it at first, but after hearing several people say this, he gradually believed it.

"Young master, we are also loyal to Your Majesty, in this case, it is better to go back to Tianjin Wei and try to contact Wu Junmen in Shanhaiguan." Some of the Zheng family pirate officers around Zheng Chenggong persuaded him like this.

Zheng Chenggong thought for a while: "Let's take a look again, by the way, find out where General Wu's rescue soldiers and horses have gone, it is estimated that he is not in Shanhaiguan at the moment, let's go straight to Shanhaiguan I am afraid that we will be in the air."

If you don't get anything today, you'll turn back in the afternoon. Back to Tianjin Weishunshui, it will be faster. As long as you can return to Tianjin Wei after dark, this army is chaotic, and you can't be surrounded in the field after dark. ”

The subordinates felt that it made sense, so they didn't persuade him more, and let Zheng Chenggong continue to advance, and when it was noon, he defeated a group of thieves patrolling and scouting, but the main force of the thieves still hadn't had time to react, and they couldn't come to intercept it for a long time.

From the mouths of the captives, Zheng Chenggong got some new useful information, such as Li Zicheng had sent troops to Kaiping and Zunhua to set up defenses. It seems that the contact between Chuang Jun and Wu Sangui is not smooth,

And Wu Sangui's return defense force had already passed Kaiping, but it seems that after confirming Chongzhen's death, he gave up continuing to return to the west, and withdrew from Kaiping to the east, I don't know if he has returned to Shanhaiguan now.

And Li Zicheng also sent some other Ming army generals to further contact Wu Sangui, it seems that there is Tang Tong, maybe Ma Ke or Bai Guangen-

These three people were all one of the eight general soldiers who were taken by Hong Chengchou to participate in the Songjin War with Wu Sangui two years ago. When Hong Chengchou was under the command of Hong Chengchou, everyone was about the same status, but now they all voted for Li Zicheng.

Even Zheng Chenggong, an outsider, heard about it, and he was embarrassed: this Ming Dynasty's nine-sided soldiers and horses really have enough grass on the wall.

……

Just when Zheng Chenggong had no more gains, let the troops eat lunch and dry food, and prepared to return to Tianjin Wei, his troops finally encountered another accident.

A group of Zheng family sailors who had just gone ashore to capture the prisoners and torture them went deep into a wharf town by the river while chasing a few wounded thieves. Just as they had successfully captured all the fleeing enemies and were about to turn back, a young woman dressed as a palace maid appeared out of nowhere and forcibly dared to ask them if they were reinforcements from the imperial court.

Many of the sailors of the Zheng family were born as pirates, and when they saw a beautiful girl at first glance, they instinctively showed their lustful eyes. Fortunately, the woman on the other side also knew that it was powerful, and hurriedly said that she could make a great contribution to saving her, and asked to see the generals of the official army. The officer of the Zheng family who led the team felt that he might as well gamble, so he took the person away without violating it.

The palace maid was the survivor Zhang Yan found when she cleaned the scene before. On this occasion, Zhang Yan didn't dare to show up directly in person, nor did she dare to let Zhu Jiao come forward, lest the opposite side was not an official army, or a soldier would be in a hurry and take risks.

She could only throw an abandoned son out to test first, and then sent a palace maid. If the palace maid was stupid and couldn't stabilize the other side and gave it directly for nothing, Zhang Yan could only continue to flee incognito.

After a while, the palace maid was taken back to the fleet and sent to Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong didn't take it seriously at first, until the other side said that she was the palace maid in the palace of Empress Zhou, and this time she came to ask for help on the orders of the surviving Empress Yi'an Zhang.

Zheng Chenggong was stunned at this time, and he didn't dare to hold it up, so he hurriedly asked the other party if he had a token and how he escaped.

This soldier is in chaos, it is really strange to be able to escape, and when he suddenly meets a woman, he says that he is noble, and Zheng Chenggong can't help but meet a liar.

The palace maid briefly explained the situation, saying that Chongzhen was caught up by the intrusive army in Tongzhou and Xianghe, and was killed by Liu Zongmin, and the innocence of the harem and Chongzhen's reputation threatened the prince to surrender. In the end, I took out a few palace waist cards, ornaments and other self-proof.

After listening to it, Zheng Chenggong believed five or six points - he basically believed that the other party did break through with Chongzhen, and he was indeed from the palace. But whether she is behind Empress Zhang or not, she is not sure.

Who knows if it is possible that the palace maid or low-end concubines are pretending to be the queen, when everyone in the palace is dead and arrested, no one who knows can identify it, if you rashly admit it, the consequences will not be small.

Both sides are afraid of beating wolves with hemp sticks, Zheng Chenggong pondered for a while, but he was just generous: "I am the former prefect of Jiujiang, the former director of the Nanjing Household Transportation Department, Langzhong, and the supervisor Zheng Chenggong." This time you were ordered to rescue the driver, since you said that it was someone from Empress Zhang's side, you can lead the other surviving palace people to get on the boat first, and the official will send them back to a safe place, and the rest will be discussed later. ”

After some tentative confirmation and tossing, Zhang Yan and Zhu Jiao were taken back to the ship under the personal leadership of Zheng Chenggong and placed in good places.

Zhang Yan also knows the general situation, always wears a hat, and after getting on the boat, she hid in the cabin and lowered the curtain, and stayed with Zhu Jiao, she also noticed Zheng Chenggong's hesitation and suspicion, and did not command.

This is also the difficulty of only a few women escaping.

If Chongzhen himself can live, or the prince can live, everything will be fine, men can show their heads, there are many ministers who have seen and met, even in the south, there are high-ranking officials in Nanjing who can distinguish between serious and fake.

But the woman lives in the harem, and the ministers have never seen it at all. When the other witnesses are all dead and voted, a few escapes really don't dare to confirm it, so they can only be polite first.

At most, I can only hope to come to Nanjing in the future, and meet some eunuchs or palace maids who were sent to Nanjing from Beijing in the early years, and can meet the first queen and princess.

In the first year of Hongguang in history, Nanjing's "fake prince eucalyptus", a young man named Wang Zhiming, falsely claimed to be Chongzhen's prince Zhu Cihong fled south, and at first everyone in Nanjing did not dare to deny it, and finally let Wu Meicun, the former national superintendent who had been the prince's lecture, come out to identify.

Wu Meicun taught the prince to read in Beijing from the tenth to the twelfth year of Chongzhen, and after he identified it, he said that this person did not look like the prince at all, so he dealt with Wang Zhiming on the charge of impersonating the prince.

Although the fake prince in history was finally solved, the solution process still made people sweat - just a national prince supervisor and former prince lectured, and he said that this is a fake prince is a fake prince. So what if Wu Meicun was bought? The consequences are unimaginable.

In the era of war and chaos, identifying the truth and falsehood of a fledgling imperial relative is sometimes a line between them.

……

After settling down a little, Zheng Chenggong also asked people to prepare water and food.

Zhang Yan and Zhu Jiao haven't eaten for three or four days, how can the royal relatives who have been pampered for many years have suffered this kind of hardship? So even on the march, the best food to eat was only thick noodles, pancakes, rolls, and dried fish, and they all devoured them, and the silver chopsticks given to them were useless, so they grabbed and ate them directly.

Looking at this eating picture through the curtain, Zheng Chenggong became more and more suspicious of the other party's identity. Zhang Yan also seemed to notice it, and knew that she was undignified, but she was too hungry just now to hold back.

After eating, her brain was also more active, and she further thought of how to prove her identity and save more people by the way.

She suggested to Zheng Chenggong through the curtain: "General Zheng, the prince was forced to be helpless that day, and he temporarily made a false deal with the thief, and in the past few days, I heard that the thief is still coercing Wu Sangui?" Could it be that the prince is still in Xianghe County? General Zheng has soldiers and horses, maybe he will do his best for the country? If you can rescue the crown prince, wouldn't it be a great achievement, and the first emperor will be grateful to you under the nine springs. ”

Zhang Yan knows very well that if the prince is rescued, there will be more people who know the prince, and the identity of their group of people can be proven.

And now that the Ming Dynasty is in danger, only if the crown prince can be rescued, can the country have the foundation, otherwise I am afraid that it will immediately fall into the chaos of the warlords supporting their own puppets.

Daming is not without the strength of a battle, but he must not fall into division and internal friction again!

Zhu Jiao, who was still sluggish and eating next to her, couldn't cry after listening to her aunt's words, and quickly echoed and asked Zheng Chenggong to find a way to rescue her imperial brother.

After Zheng Chenggong heard this, he believed in the authenticity of Zhang Yan and Zhu Jiao's identities a little more.

They dared him to save the prince, obviously because they were not afraid that the prince would recognize their identities, which showed that most of them would not be fake. Even if the prince is not rescued in the end, as long as he can shout in front of the battle, it is enough to prove his identity.

But how can it be so simple to rescue the prince? Since he was controlled as a hostage by the thieves, the thieves would definitely use the prince to threaten him, even if Zheng Cheng's sneak attack won one of the invasion troops, as long as the other party put a knife on the prince's neck, he would not be able to save it.

Zheng Chenggong didn't show cowardice, so he had to be reasonable: "The matter is serious, since the prince has fallen into the hands of thieves, even if our army can recover it, I am afraid that it will inevitably take the story of Yingzong first." At the beginning, Yu Shaobao was able to keep the Ming Dynasty, but it was ......"

He didn't say the second half of the sentence, but everyone who knew the history of this dynasty understood it, and it relied on supporting Daizong to invalidate the value of the card in the hand of Yingzong after supporting Daizong.

When Zhang Yan heard this, her expression was also dark, she was also a little dizzy from hunger in the past two days, and she didn't understand such a simple reason. But she knows that the life and death of the eldest nephew is small, and it is better to avoid the internal friction of the Ming Dynasty, and some things, even if it is a gamble, should be tried - after the big deal is that after failure, the eldest nephew is killed, which is better than the current uncertain state.

She closed her eyes compassionately, and only promised Zheng Chenggong for a long time: "General Zheng, this palace knows that you have always been loyal and righteous, and you have followed Governor Zhu for many years. If you can try to rescue the prince this time, whether you succeed or not, it will be a great achievement. As long as you work hard, the palace will be in charge, and Princess Kunxing will be married to you......"

As she spoke, she touched the long hair of her niece Zhu Jiao next to her, and Zhu Jiao was shocked when she heard it, and she was stunned for a while.

Zheng Chenggong's heart was shocked, and he quickly knelt down and refused: "Your Majesty, why did you say this!" How dare the minister take credit, the minister is already married......"

(Note: The Empress of the Ming Dynasty is called Her Royal Highness, and the Empress Dowager is called Your Majesty, regardless of whether you are called the system or not.) But Zhang Yan is the empress of the first emperor, but she is the same as Chongzhen, and outsiders still call her majesty, which is equivalent to enjoying the treatment of the queen mother on the issue of title. ）

Zhang Yan: "What if you're already married?" There is always a way to solve the marriage given by heaven, and these can be discussed later. Are you willing to serve your kingdom for the sake of reward? ”

Zheng Chenggong was helpless, thought about it, and just said euphemistically: "The minister asked people to inquire again, if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is really in Xianghe, let him feel at ease and know that his sister escaped with her life." If the thief threatens the prince, there will be no way to rescue him. ”

Zhang Yan: "General Zheng just do his best." ”

Zheng Chenggong tossed a little, and finally had to try, and sure enough, he continued to advance with soldiers and horses, and it took half an afternoon for the front army to arrive in Xianghe County, and there was a conflict with the remaining troops of the Chuang army.

After investigation, the prince was indeed in Xianghe City, but the guards of the army had knives on his neck, and Zheng Chenggong could not directly attack the city to save people.

In the process, Zheng Chenggong could only have an idea, and sent Zhu Jiao, the princess of Kunxing, who he was escorted with the army, to the front of the battle, and shouted to the kidtapped prince, only saying that she was unconscious before throwing herself into the water that day, drifting along the canal, and hiding everywhere after waking up, and was rescued by the imperial court's waterway reinforcements, so that the emperor's brother should not read it.

Zheng Chenggong made people shout, firstly, to take the opportunity to confirm Zhu Jiao's true identity, because the identity of the prince is clear, and the thief on the opposite side will be closely guarded after being caught, and it is impossible to be fake. And as long as the prince can recognize his sister from a distance, the identity of the princess cannot be fake.

As for Zhang Yan, Zheng Chenggong did not bring him to the front of the battle with the army, on the one hand, as long as one relative is identified as a fake, it is enough, as long as Zhu Jiao is true, Zhang Yan is naturally true, if there is a fake, then both are fake.

Second, the princess is not a big problem, the princess will marry sooner or later, and it is her future husband's face that will be lost. The queen of the first emperor appeared casually, and she lost the face of the first emperor, so she must be cautious.

Zhu Cihong was held hostage by the Chuang army, for a few days, originally disheartened, at this moment to hear that his sister is still alive, he is also happy, rushed to the city to look out, although it is really not clear from two hundred steps, but the sound of the other party desperately shouting at the throat is vaguely similar.

Zhu Cihong couldn't help crying in front of the two armies, and confessed his motives: "How can Lone be a coward who bends his knees and surrenders to a thief!" On that day, it was just a dog thief who threatened each other in the name of his parents, and he had to endure humiliation and steal his life! Today, knowing that the queen mother and concubines have been buried, how can Lone be in cahoots with the dog thief again! ”

Crying and crying, he actually put on the appearance of jumping directly from the city wall to commit suicide, so frightened that the intruders next to him would desperately pull and re-tie up.

Being made such a fuss, they didn't dare to come up with the idea of tying up Zhu Cihong to persuade Wu Sangui to surrender, lest he say anything to boost Wu Sangui's morale at that time.

Although even if they tied up Zhu Cihong to see Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui would not vote for Li Zicheng. But now he is so sideways that it seems that Zheng Chenggong has fulfilled the prince's filial piety, so that the prince no longer has to be coerced, and he has nominally picked up a credit in vain.

The defenders of the intruding army were very annoyed, and couldn't help but divide part of the troops to pursue when Zheng Chenggong retreated to Tianjin, and also went to Beijing to report the emergency, so that Beijing would immediately send troops to chase and kill.

However, this level of attack was easily repelled by Zheng Chenggong by taking advantage of the location of the canal. Especially when returning to Tianjin, it is a downstream, and as long as the cavalry can't cut off the canal, they can't stop it at all. had to let Zheng Chenggong finish firing the mouth cannon and retreat after hitting the morale.

After returning to Tianjin, Zheng Chenggong saw Zhang Mingzhen again, and also carefully reported the situation he had found all the way, and said that he tried to rescue the prince, but failed, and he had done his best, and finally rescued Empress Zhang and Princess Kunxing of Yi'an.

After Zhang Mingzhen learned about it, he was also very surprised, and learned that the identities of Empress Zhang and the princess had been confirmed, and he had talked to the captured prince in Xianghe County, so he hurriedly divided a few of the most luxurious warships, and collected some escaped palace maids and eunuchs in Tianjin, and asked them to be sent back to the south by sea first, and to think about it in the long run.

Zhang Mingzhen himself continued to lead the main force, and together with Zheng Chenggong, he went to pick up Wu Sangui.

——

During the break, I basically thought of writing a little bit every day, and I made up a change every three days...... The quality is also a bit messy, and the coherence is gone, so let's make do with it.

The next one should be the 6th, and then it will be back to normal......