At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the monarch has Taizong Li Shimin, the ministers have Fang Du and others, there will be Li Jing and others, among the Tang Dynasty, the monarch has Xuanzong, the ministers have Li Linpu and the like, the end of the monarch is not enough, the ministers are tiger and wolf ministers, such as Zhu Wen's generation, at the beginning of the dynasty, the monarch is strong and the ministers are strong, in the dynasties, the monarch is strong and the ministers are weak, at the end of the dynasty, the monarch is weak and the ministers are strong, all dynasties and dynasties, all of them are like this.

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-- The book continues --

In the second year of Chongzhen, on November 11, Huang Taiji, who had finished recuperating in Zunhua, led his army to attack Beiping and confused Yuan Chonghuan with suspicious soldiers. On the twelfth, a vanguard of the Houjin army engaged the Ming army at the Mashen Bridge in the east of Jizhou City, and Yuan Chonghuan and the generals went to the East Gate Tower to wait for the enemy.

In the early morning of the 13th, after receiving the report, the Jin army had passed the Shimen Post sixty miles east of the city, and Yuan Chonghuan ordered the horse infantry in the city to camp outside the east gate. The Ming army found that the Houjin army was camped five miles outside the city, with more than 200 cavalry divided into four teams, stationed in the southeast of the Ming army's position, holding each other for two hours, but the Houjin army did not arrive.

Yuan Chonghuan ordered the cannons to be fired, and after firing three cannons in a row, he saw that the Houjin cavalry lined up the four teams in a line and all withdrew. The next day, Yuan Chonghuan was shocked to hear that the Jin army had secretly crossed Jizhou last night, rushed westward, and hurriedly pursued from the intersection. In the process of pursuit, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Jizhou, on the 18th, Emperor Chongzhen sent the eunuch Feng Yunsheng to check on the army, and sent the eunuch Lu Zhi out of the city to reward the division, and distributed grain and grass, and gave Yuan Chonghuan and the generals jade belts, python clothes and other things.

On November 20, Huang Taiji camped in the eastern corner of Tucheng Guandong, eight miles outside Desheng Gate, and sent two armies to attack Desheng Gate and Guangqu Gate respectively, and Guangqu Gate was defended by Yuan Chonghuan and Zu Dashou.

Yuan Chonghuan sent Dai Chengen, the capital secretary, to choose a position outside the Guangqu Gate, Zu Dashou led the main force to line up in the south, Wang Chengyin to line up in the northwest, Yuan Chonghuan and Zhou Wenyu to line up in the west, leaving the east to wait for the Houjin army to ambush. At noon, Houkimbel Abatai, Azig, Dolgon, and Haug were really ambushed, and the two sides began to fight.

Yuan Chonghuan personally went into battle, slashed and killed, and suddenly a golden soldier slashed at him, and Yuan Chonghuan's material officer Yuan Gao was separated by a knife holder, and the two knives were broken at the same time, and Yuan Chonghuan survived. After the Jin army broke through, Yuan Chonghuan and Zhou Wenyu were hit by arrows, "the two ribs are like hedgehogs, and the heavy armor is impermeable".

Subsequently, Zu Dashou led the southern troops to come to the aid and repelled the Houjin army. The guerrillas Liu Yingguo, Luo Jingrong, and Qian Zong Dou Rong pursued to the canal, and the Houjin army drowned many people due to ice subsidence when crossing the river. Another Mongol army was also defeated by an ambush set by Yuan Chonghuan in the woods outside the Guangqu Gate. The two sides fought until the second watch, and the battle ended.

When Yuan Chonghuan resisted the Houjin outside Beijing, rumors of Yuan Chonghuan "leading the enemy to threaten peace" appeared in Beijing, and even spread the folk song of "killing Yuan Chonghuan, half of the Tartars are gone", and outside the city, the relatives and eunuchs of the Grange Real Estate were particularly dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan, and they all complained to Emperor Chongzhen about Yuan Chonghuan's situation.

Emperor Chongzhen gave Yuan Chonghuan a good gift, not only got up to comfort him, but also took off the mink fur he was wearing and gave it to him, and he and Zu Dashou were each given a pair of silver armor and gave him imperial food. However, when Yuan Chonghuan asked to lead his troops into the city to rest, Emperor Chongzhen categorically refused, Yuan Chonghuan asked only 3,000 people to enter the city, and Emperor Chongzhen said: "Even 30 people can't!" On the 25th, Yuan Chonghuan asked for "Hughes from the outer city" and asked the auxiliary ministers to help, but Emperor Chongzhen's response was "not allowed".

On the contrary, Mangui's troops were allowed to rest in the outer city. It can be seen that Emperor Chongzhen no longer trusts Yuan Chonghuan.

Emperor Chongzhen expressed his strong dissatisfaction with Yuan Chonghuan to the ministers, and said: "What is the reason why the slave chieftain rode under my city and let him plunder? I don't see Chonghuan killing! ”

"Chonghuan's soldiers are all worthy of battle, people pick people, immediately pick horses, he once played in person, and said that the captives are less than five thousand, and the rest are not enough to kill, why don't you move?" He also asked the cabinet ministers to remind Yuan Chonghuan to "move the camera and make a big difference."

Huang Taiji's counter-plot led to Emperor Chongzhen's determination to arrest Yuan Chonghuan. On the first day of December, Emperor Chongzhen had summoned Yuan Chonghuan, Zu Dashou, Man Gui, and Heiyunlong again on the grounds of discussing salary. At that time, Yuan Chonghuan was sending Zhang Hongmo, the deputy commander-in-chief, to wait for the Jin army, and after hearing the call, he wore military uniforms and entered the city with his ancestors to meet him.

On the evening of the day of Yuan Chonghuan's arrest, Zu Dashou returned to the camp and reported the news of Yuan Chonghuan's imprisonment.

At this time, the city defenders were suspicious and killed Guan Ningjun, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned on the day that the Later Jin army moved from Nanhaizi to the day, after which the Later Jin army no longer stormed Beijing, but plundered Gyeonggi County, December 17 and defeated the Ming army outside the Yongding Gate, Mangui was killed, and on the 26th, the east attacked Yongping City.

After the minister's plea, Emperor Chongzhen's attitude towards Yuan Chonghuan was somewhat relaxed, and he once sighed, "It is not a barbarian (Yuan Chonghuan) to defend Liao."

However, the cabinet minister Wen Tiren and the military secretary Liang Tingdong wanted to put Yuan Chonghuan to death, while constantly asking Yuan Chonghuan to be killed, on the other hand, Yuan Chonghuan's subordinate Xie Shangzheng came to provide evidence of Yuan Chonghuan's collaboration with the enemy, and at the same time united with Wu Sangui to find the palace female official Cheng Chen Yuanyuan.

Wu Sangui asked the brainless Chen Yuanyuan to say to Zhu Youzhen, Yuan Chonghuan was wronged, and the people looked forward to Yuan Chonghuan's big destruction of Jiannu, Zhongxing Daming, the emperor, you are a Ming monarch, you will not wronged the loyal minister Yuan Chonghuan, and then said all the advantages of Yuan Chonghuan.

When Zhu Youzhen was about to release Yuan Chonghuan, he suddenly asked the people what they said about themselves, and the brainless Chen Yuanyuan said that the people didn't know who Zhu Youzhen was and knew Yuan Chonghuan.

On August 16, Emperor Chongzhen officially announced to the hundred officials on the platform that Yuan Chonghuan was "a thief of rice in the city", "beheading the commander for money", "arson of slaves", "stopping the army without fighting", "dismissing reinforcements", "sneaking lamas", "insisting on entering the city" and other crimes and Ling Chi's verdict, the hundred officials had no objection, and then ordered Tu Guoding, the servant of the Criminal Department, to leave the palace for imprisonment.

On the same day, he was executed in Xishi, and Yuan Chonghuan screamed for a long time before dying. The people whose family members were killed by the Houjin soldiers rushed to buy their cut meat, each piece of meat for a penny, which was quickly sold out, and people had to curse before eating his meat.

Yuan Chonghuan was originally sentenced to exile in Zhejiang-Jiangsu-Hangzhou-Prefecture-Chang-Hua County after the arrest of Ningyuan's concubine Ruan, two young daughters, his nephew Yuan Zhaoxi, and fifteen domestic servants, but it was not until the middle of the Qing Dynasty that Yuan Chonghuan was overturned and proved innocent.

And when Chen Yuanyuan knew that Yuan Chonghuan was killed because of his mouth, he cried that he said the wrong thing and begged to let Yuan Chonghuan go, and Zhu Youzhen wanted to be a Mingjun and resting on his laurels, how could he listen, and then he rewarded Chen Yuanyuan to Wu Sangui as a concubine, and then Chen Yuanyuan became a monk.

Ming died in Chen Yuanyuan's brainless mouth!

In the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters in Shaanxi-West and He-Nan and other places led to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the peasants, the people, the uprising, and the Ming court's suppression of inappropriateness, resulting in Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Zhu Youzhen frequently changed cabinet assistants, successively killed Yuan Chonghuan and other 18 feudal officials, and used Hong Chengchou, Yang Sichang, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, etc. to solve internal and external troubles, but ultimately failed.

Sun Chuanting, the word Boya, the name Baigu, the twenty-seven-year-old Zhongjinshi, successively served as the director of Yongcheng Zhi County, Shangqiu Zhi County, the head of the Seal Inspection Division of the Ministry of Officials, and Ji Xun Shilangzhong, who abandoned the official and returned to his hometown because he was dissatisfied with Wei Zhongxian's dictatorship, and was idle for nearly ten years.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, he returned to Beijing to serve, successively served as the official department to inspect the seal of Shi Langzhong, Shuntian Fucheng, and Hong Chengchou together to suppress the peasant uprising, capture the "King of Chuang" Gao Yingxiang, eliminate the fifteen rebel armies, and stabilize the situation in Shaanxi.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, because the Qing soldiers entered the fortress, he went to King Qin, and after Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle, he was promoted to the governor of Baoding in the following year, and soon asked to resign on the grounds of deafness, and was suspected by Emperor Chongzhen and imprisoned.

After Li Zicheng heard that Zhang Xianzhong had raised troops in Gucheng, he rushed to the rendezvous, and soon broke up, from Hu-Guang to Si-Chuan, and then from Si-Chuan-to He-Nan, in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he captured Luo-Yang and killed Zhu Changxun, the emperor's uncle; In February, Zhang Xianzhong broke Xiang-Yang and killed Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang. When Yang Sichang heard the news of the fall of Luoyang and Xiangyang and the killing of the two kings, he died of fear in March.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, although the internal and external situation became more and more unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty, since Chongzhen, "there was no happy year, drought and locusts one after another, and disasters were still frequent", a large number of hungry people joined Li Zicheng's team, making it grow stronger, and began to be called "King Chuang", Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and other intellectuals also defected to Li Zicheng.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in February, Li Zicheng captured and killed Wang Qiaonian in Xiangcheng. Zhu Youzhen was forced to release Sun Chuanting, who was imprisoned, and worshiped him as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi.

In September, the embankment of the Yellow River collapsed, the city of Kaifeng was destroyed, and Li Zicheng no longer attacked Kaifeng. In October, Sun Chuanting went out of Tongguan, defeated Jiaxian, and retreated to Guannei, Li Zicheng captured Runing in leap November, killed Yang Wenyue, controlled most of Henan, and then moved to Huguang.

Zhang Xianzhong, who was once suppressed by Ding Qirui and others, was also active in Nanzhili again, captured Luzhou in May, broke Huang Degong in July, Liu Liangzuo was in Lu'an, and Chongzhen was transferred to Huguang in early 16 years.

In order to enter the customs, Huang Taiji invaded Songshan, Jinzhou and other fortresses in western Liaoxi for many years, Huang Taiji personally led 3,000 fine cavalry to Songshan, and sent troops to camp between Songshan and Xingshan to cut off the connection between the Ming army. Hong Chengchou sent six general soldiers including Wang Pu, Wu Sangui, and Li Fuming to lead the army to break through the siege, but most of them were annihilated by the Qing army, so Hong Chengchou and the general soldier Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen and Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, were besieged in Songshan City.

Zu Dashou, who held on to Jinzhou, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the two cities of Xingshan and Tashan were also captured by the Qing army.

After the war, Zhu Youzhen instructed Chen Xinjia to negotiate peace with the Qing Dynasty, but the peace agreement was leaked, which once again aroused the opposition of the ministers, Chen Xinjia not only did not admit his mistakes, but also thought that he had merit, Zhu Youzhen put Chen Xinjia in prison in July and killed him in September.

Seeing the breakdown of the peace talks, Huang Taiji sent troops into the fortress for the sixth time in November, which was the change of Renwu.

With the great rout of the war on both internal and external fronts, the image of the fall of the Ming Dynasty appeared, and the hearts of the people of the government and the wilderness were gradually dispersed.

Although Zuo Liangyu had 200,000 troops, not only could not exterminate Zhang Xianzhong, but also plundered everywhere, threatened Nanjing, and demanded military salaries, Zhu Youzhen could only appease him, but he was helpless against him.

Zhang Xianzhong took the opportunity to capture Wuchang in May, and Zhu Huakui, the king of Shenchu, was in the Yangtze River to establish the Daxi regime. Li Zicheng also proclaimed himself the king of Xinshun in Xiangyang, initially established political power, and put forward the slogan of "three years of exemption from taxation and no one killed", and the folk song of "no food when King Chuang comes" appeared.

Zhu Youzhen pinned his hope of turning the tide on the last strong force of the Ming Dynasty, the Qin soldiers commanded by Sun Chuanting, appointed him as the supervisor, and went out of Tongguan to eliminate Li Zicheng.

In September, Sun Chuanting marched into Henan, and at first even spread the good news, and the news of Huang Taiji's death also reached Beijing at this time, and the Ming court was filled with the illusion that the country's situation had turned from danger to peace and that "Zhongxing" was just around the corner.

However, Sun Chuanting was first defeated in Ruzhou, and then died in Tongguan at the age of 51, only five months after Sun Chuanting's death, the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by Li Zicheng, so the "History of the Ming Dynasty" has the saying that "Chuanting died and Ming died".

In October, Li Zichang drove into the pass to occupy Xi'an, and then quickly took control of all of Shaanxi. Zhu Youzhen successively sent Yu Yinggui and Li Huaxi to replace Sun Chuanting, but they were all without soldiers and salaries, and they were at a loss.

Despite this, Chen Yan, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Li Yuzhi, the secretary of the ministry, still comforted Zhu Youzhen, saying that "when a thief enters the customs, he will love his children and silk, and he will fall into a trap" and "he wants to make this his home", completely misjudging the situation.

——To be continued——