Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen, who was pinned on high hopes from all sides, suddenly hanged himself, and this news was of course shocking.

Half a year ago, whether it was Miao Sanguan and Peng Wuying, who occupied Huguang, or Zhang Xianzhong, the king of Daxi who was forced to go west, they were trying their best to avoid setting themselves on fire.

Because half a year ago, the imperial court was still sending troops and horses from all sides to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng, the king of Dashun. Unexpectedly, in just a blink of an eye, Zhu Youzhen, the Chongzhen Emperor who represented the imperial court, hanged himself, and the national unity of the Ming Dynasty came to an abrupt end.

Within the north and south of the river, there are still nearly 600,000 Ming guards who have not been used, but the emperor who can command is suddenly gone. This change is really beyond everyone's imagination, and of course it catches all sides off guard.

Miao Sanguan, Wan Lian, Peng Wuying, Zhang Yuxiu, and Hou Mingde can all be described as handsome for a while, whether it is open-mindedness or vision, they are by no means general.

Even so, in the face of the sudden and huge changes, they were still at a loss for a while, because they had never thought of the current situation.

The various preparations made in the past were all around Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's exile rebels being pacified by the imperial court, and then their own Xiong family army came out to resist the encirclement and suppression of the imperial court. Whether it is the land of Huguang or the southwest coastal area, it is all for this strategic goal to make a layout.

The huge change that changed the world took less than three months, and the result was very unexpected.

Three months is too short.

As a representative of the rebellion, the rebel army of the exiles actually entered the capital, and before all the guards received the order, the emperor representing the orthodoxy was already dead.

There is no doubt that this is an eventful time, and the actions of any one force may affect the whole body.

"I never wanted to be emperor. Xiong Chu couldn't make a decision for a while: "As far as the situation you have so far, I think everything is undecided. The scout camp and the northern dark line only found out what happened to Zhu Youzhen's death festival later, and it is still too early to discuss the succession of Guozuo. ”

Miao Sanguan glanced at Wan Lian, and then said to Xiong Chu: "Lord, although the whereabouts of Zhu Youzhen's lineage are unknown, there are still many descendants of Zhu Di's lineage, and they have not been killed by the homeless rebels. Because of this, even if you get follow-up news from the north, now is not the time to become emperor. ”

"This discussion is inappropriate!" Zhang Yuxiu hurriedly interjected: "Of course, Weichen knows the truth of shooting the first bird, but there is a crucial problem that needs to be solved at present. If the lord does not become the emperor immediately, then he will not be able to become famous, and it will be very troublesome to operate. I wonder if the two military advisors have thought it through?"

"Master Zhang is very worried. Hou Mingde has always been upright and upright, and he never turns around when he speaks: "Although the northern capital Kaifeng, Jingshi, Luoyang, Chang'an, and Datong were occupied by the Dashun army, the central capital Fengyang, Nanjing, and the Ming army of hundreds of thousands, which is a huge force. ”

Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan by calling himself the king of Daxi, and his men were no less than 300,000, and this force was not small. Now the three forces are starting to wrestle, even if our Xiong Jiajun does not participate, because our Xiong Jiajun is just stuck in the middle of the river. ”

"The biggest problem of our Xiongjia Army is not that its combat effectiveness is insufficient, but that it is now divided into two independent regions, separated by three political envoys from Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, and they have lost their effective response to each other. ”

"Emperor Chongzhen is dead, and now the whole country is leaderless. If the lord can immediately ascend the throne and become emperor, we will be able to attack from the north and south, take Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan in one fell swoop, and connect the two forces together, so that we can face a more complicated situation. ”

Peng Wuying continued: "What Lord Hou said is exactly where Weichen's concerns lie. There is also a crucial point, if the lord stands up now, it will not be to steal the national ancestry, but to be ordered to revitalize the righteous deeds of the Ming Dynasty in danger, and have greater appeal, so as to complete the unfinished business of Emperor Jianwen. ”

"Definitely!" Miao Sanguan waved his hand: "What the three adults said is good, but the problem is not here." Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are both a generation of heroes, and since they have all been crowned kings, it means that they all have to compete for the world. Zhu Di has been stealing the country for more than 200 years, and of course he will not be willing to give it up. ”

"There is no doubt that in the coming period of time, there will definitely be a big fight from all sides, and then self-proclaimed orthodoxy. If the lord ascends the throne and becomes emperor at this time, it is likely to become the common target of the other three forces, and the gains outweigh the losses. ”

Wan Lian smiled and said: "Your Excellency's eyes are all attracted by the mainland, but you don't know that the British, Dutch, and Portuguese who failed before are still eyeing the enemy. The army of the Burmese and Yue Palace, especially the sailors, was almost waiting for a moment, and did not dare to relax for a moment. ”

"If the lord ascends the throne and becomes the emperor now, we will follow the old path of Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen, and we will still fight on two fronts, or even four fronts. If it really comes to that kind of situation, what will be the final outcome, even if Sun Wu is reincarnated and Zhuge is resurrected, I am afraid it will be unpredictable. ”

The opinions of the five people and the two factions, what they said were all the truth, and Xiong Chu was sweating when he heard it, and he didn't dare to nod lightly.

The current situation is too bad and complicated, and none of the six giants can find a perfect solution.

After three days and three nights of arguing, Prince Xiong had no choice but to express his attitude: "Respond to all changes with no change, and wait for the situation to become clear." Fortunately, there is a mess in the north, and no one should notice us. The five adults should pay close attention to the news from all sides and coordinate the gains and losses of various possibilities. ”

This is a way to do it at present, even if Peng Wuying, Zhang Yuxiu, and Hou Mingde are in a hurry, it is useless.

Prince Xiong's estimate was correct, the news that Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen had hanged himself had soon spread all over the country, and all political envoys across the country were in chaos.

Because of this, the scout camp of the Xiongjia army in the land of Huguang and the bright and dark lines can gallop unscrupulously, and there is no restriction at all on crossing Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi.

The more than 300 heralds sent by Shen Xiyue were all in a six-hundred-mile hurry, one person and two horses galloped back and forth, and all kinds of news came one after another. The situation is changing almost every instant, and it's overwhelming.

In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Dolgon sent a letter to the Dashun army in the name of the Qing Emperor, proposing a strategy of conspiring together and taking the Central Plains.

Li Zicheng received Liu Zongmin's report, and immediately became furious: "Fannu wolf ambition, the world is salty and knowledgeable. This king will be the king of the world, and he will be destroyed and then quickly. ”

On the ninth day of the fourth month, Dolgon was ordered to lead more than 100,000 troops of the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners to the west from Shengjing (now Shenyang).

On the 11th, the Qing troops reached the Liaohe River, and heard that Li Zicheng's Dashun army had captured the Beijing Division (now Beijing) on March 19, and the Ming Dynasty had died.

Dolgon was indignant but helpless, so he adopted the construction of the general Hong Chengchou, and decided to lead his troops south through Miyun and Jizhou, and went straight to the Beijing division. As a result, he changed from attacking the Ming Dynasty to competing with Li Zicheng for the dominance of the whole country.

It's a pity that Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, just blocked the entry channel, which made Dolgon a little jealous.

Wu Sangui is a native of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, the son of Wu Xiang, the general soldier of Jinzhou, and the nephew of Zu Dashou.

Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, opened the martial arts department, and Wu Sangui won the martial arts department.

is just a second-generation official, and he is not a great character. If it weren't for his uncle's ancestral birthday, it would be difficult to say whether Wu Sangui would have left his name on the rivers and lakes.

However, because Zu Dashou was in power, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen did not dare to slack off, and soon promoted Wu Sangui to the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and served as an errand under Zu Dashou to guard Shanhaiguan.

After that, Zu Dashou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and wrote a letter to Wu Sangui to persuade him to surrender, but Wu Sangui thought that it was impossible for the Manchu Tartars to break through the Shanhaiguan, let alone threaten the Ming court, so he ignored it.

After Emperor Chongzhen knew about this matter, he thought that Wu Sangui was a rare loyal man.

In addition, Wu Sangui contained Zu Dashou's original elite cavalry, the Guanning Iron Cavalry, and his value suddenly doubled, and Emperor Chongzhen did not dare to slack off.

Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng's army of 20,000 attacked the Beijing division, Wu Sangui turned a blind eye to Emperor Chongzhen's order, but he did not move his troops when he was close at hand, and let Zhu Youzhen hang himself in the coal mountain.

Although Wu Sangui did not save Zhu Youzhen, he wanted to surrender both the Manchu Qing and the Dashun army. The two ends of the first rat are uncertain.

On April 13, Li Zicheng, who felt the threat of Dolgon's army, was worried that Wu Sangui, who had never expressed his attitude, would defect to Dolgon, so he personally led an army of 100,000 to Shanhaiguan to conquer Wu Sangui.

On the 21st, Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui launched a big battle at a stone.

In the early morning of the 22nd, the Qing army entered only two miles away from Shanhaiguan City, Wu Sangui saw that the situation was critical, and led a few light cavalry to break out of the siege, galloped to the Qing army camp of Weiyuan Fort two miles east of Guancheng, and knelt down at Dolgon.

Wu Sangui said: "If the Qing army is unwilling to help the Ming army in Shanhaiguan, I also do not want to return to Shanhaiguan to supervise the battle, and Li Zicheng's army will attack the Qing army in one go after capturing Shanhaiguan!"

Seeing that Wu Sangui was obedient and not deceitful, Dolgon accepted Wu Sangui's request, and Dolgon ordered Wu Sangui to shave his head according to Manchurian customs, and promised to marry Princess Jianning, the eldest daughter of Huang Taiji, to Wu's son Wu Yingxiong.

After that, Dolgon ordered Azig, the king of Shuoying, and Duoduo, the king of Doro, to lead a strong army of 80,000 to enter the pass from the South Water Gate, the North Water Gate, and the Guanzhong Gate within the specified time, and Wu Sangui's subordinate Bai Bu was the vanguard.

On the 23rd of April, Wu Sangui's army was gradually difficult to support, and a Wu Sangui army guarding the northern wing city surrendered to the Dashun army.

The Dashun army failed to capture the pass because of the attack for a day and night, but changed to a field battle, and invested all its troops from Jiaoshan to the Bohai Sea, and set up a long snake formation, forming a decisive battle posture.

Dolgon took Wu Sangui's army as the right flank to meet the battle, and the heavy troops lined up in the weak place at the end of the Dashun army on the Bohai coast, waiting for the opportunity to attack, and warned all the troops not to advance in a hurry.

The Dashun army did not know the intentions of the Qing army, but still pressed on Wu Sangui's army according to the original plan, and the flag waved left and right, rushing back and forth. Wu Sangui was pressed by the Qing army, and he did not retreat from the battle.

At this time, the strong wind suddenly rose and the dust covered the sky, which was not conducive to the Dashun army, which was not familiar with the geography of Shanhaiguan, and the two sides started hand-to-hand combat, and the Dashun army surrounded Wu Sangui's troops regardless of casualties.

By noon, both sides had lost tens of thousands of people, and they had reached the end of their crossbows and were unable to fight again.

Dolgon was overjoyed when he saw this, so he hurriedly ordered Azig and Duoduo to lead 20,000 elite horsemen each, ride the wind, wave the white flag, and fight against the army that rushed straight to Dashun.

The exhausted Dashun army did not expect the Qing army to directly participate in the battle, and was caught off guard and in chaos. Coupled with the fact that the Dashun army had no experience in fighting the Manchu cavalry, the number of casualties rose sharply.

At the beginning of Shen Shi, Liu Zongmin, the commander of the army, was seriously wounded by three arrows, and the Dashun army finally began to break up after losing more than half of it.

Seeing that the defeat was decided, Li Zicheng urgently ordered the rest of the troops to fight and leave, and immediately retreated in the direction of Yongping.

The cunning Dolgon knew that there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of him, so he verbally named Wu Sangui as the king of Pingxi on horseback, and at the same time ordered him to lead his troops to chase and kill all the way to the capital.

On the 26th, Li Zicheng led the remnants of more than 30,000 people to flee back to the capital.

On the 29th, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in the capital and angrily killed 38 members of Wu Sangui's family to vent his anger.

On April 30, Li Zicheng decided to retreat from Shanxi and Henan, and went to Chang'an to stabilize the situation by relying on the Yellow River moat.

From the invasion of the capital to the exit of the capital, it was only forty-two days.

On the third day of the fifth month, Zhu Yousong, the son of the blessed king Zhu Changxun, entered the inner from the Daming Gate from Nanjing, and went to the Wuying Palace to supervise the national ceremony.

On May 15, Zhu Yousong, the emperor was located in the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, and the following year was the first year of Hongguang, and his country name was still "Ming".

On June 6, the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644), Dolgon occupied the capital, and at the same time moved the capital from Shengjing to Jingshi, announcing that the Manchu Qing Dynasty officially entered the customs and competed for the world.

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, and the first time to see the genuine content!I734