Just when Beijing fell into despair due to the death of Sun Chuanting and the defeat of the Qin army, Xi'an, more than two thousand miles away, was prosperous.
All the soldiers of the invading army rejoiced and saw the hope of overthrowing the Ming Dynasty and replacing it.
In early October of the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Chuang army captured Tongguan and killed Sun Chuanting, the governor of the Ming Dynasty.
After occupying Xi'an, the Chuang army did not stop their march.
Li Zicheng personally led a tiger army from the rear camp of Li Guo's command and the left camp of Liu Fangliang's command to pursue Gao Jie, the general of the Ming Dynasty, to the north, vowing to abduct his wife.
He cuckolded the thief and caught him, breaking his bones and throwing them into ashes.
Facing the menacing intruders, Gao Jie did not dare to resist at all, and fled northward in a hurry.
He fled from Shaanxi to Shanxi while the Yellow River froze.
Still not daring to stay, he fled southeast to the Xuzhou area.
While he was leading troops to the north to attack the Ming Dynasty border troops in Yulin and other places, Li Zicheng ordered Tian Jianxiu to go south to Hanzhong, attack the Ming general Gao Ruli's troops, and open up the passage south to Sichuan.
At the same time, he ordered generals Liu Zongmin, He Jin, Yuan Zongdi and others to lead the troops.
The troops went west to attack Bai Guangen's tribe who had fled, and captured Ningxia, Gansu, Xining and other places, completely occupying the entire northwest.
By the end of December, Yulin was captured by Li Guo's troops, and all the castles on the border wall in northern Shaanxi were under the control of the invading army.
At the same time, Tian Jianxiu captured Hanzhong, and Gao Ruli, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, was forced to surrender.
Liu Zongmin led his troops to Guyuan, and Bai Guangen surrendered.
General Chen Yongfu once shot Li Zicheng out of one eye in Kaifeng, but he did not dare to surrender for fear of retaliation.
Li Zicheng broke an arrow and swore an oath to ensure that the old score would not be settled, so Liu Yongfu and other northwest troops surrendered one after another. , Ningxia, Gansu, and Xining were successively captured by the insurgent army.
At this point, the Chuang army had occupied the entire northwest, most of Henan and western Hubei, and had an overwhelming advantage against the Ming Dynasty.
On the first day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng founded the country in Xi'an.
The country's name was Dashun and its name was changed to Yongchang.
Change Xi'an to Chang'an and call it Xijing.
With the Qin Palace as the palace, the great-grandfather and his descendants were named emperors, his wife Gao was named the queen, and his concubine Chen was named the noble concubine.
The great meritorious officials include generals Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Gu Ying, Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Zhang Nai, Yuan Zongdi, etc., and Liu Tichun, Wu Ruyi, Ma Shiyao, Li You, Bai Guangen, Chen Yongfu and other earls.
The official system was changed, the cabinet was renamed Tianyou Hall, and the academician Pingzhang was established as the state affairs officer.
Niu Jinxing was appointed as the prime minister, and Song Xiance was appointed as the military adviser.
The central government changed the six ministries into six governments, with Gu Junen, Yang Yongyu and others as ministers.
The Hanlin Academy was renamed Hongwen Hall, the six subjects were admonitions, and the imperial censors were direct commanders.
Everything imitated the Ming system but had slightly different names.
Now that a country has been established, destroying the Ming Dynasty and unifying the world is what it should be.
In fact, at the end of December, after leveling the entire northwest, Li Zicheng had sent Li You, Bai Jiuhe and other leading troops to cross the Yellow River on December 18 and occupied Ronghe and other counties in Shanxi, preparing for the army's eastern expedition.
Ready.
In late December, the Dashun Army circulated cards to all counties in Shanxi Province with the following message: "Advocating righteousness, the general in charge of the camp is ordered to conquer the matter: Since ancient times, the rise and fall of emperors has been a sign of the people's hearts.
In the Ming Dynasty, most of the people have come to an end.
The punishments are severe and the people are miserable.
The birth of my holy Lord, the body is benevolent and the life is good, the banner of righteousness In one move, Haiyu returned to his hometown, crossed Henan and flattened Hechu, entered Guanxi and swept through the Three Qin Dynasty.
On the 20th of this month, the special commander led an army of 500,000 troops from Chang'an and marched forward in separate directions.
Our Lord personally sent a million troops to the rear without committing any crimes.
Assess the situation at all times, offer the city to receive seals, and hope for the title and salary as early as possible; if you insist on refusing, ask the gentry and the people to offer, not only will the reward be doubled, but also the lives of the people everywhere will be protected, just like the officers and soldiers resist together, the soldiers will destroy the city, and the jade and stone will not be separated. , how can I regret it?”
Preparations have been made to attack Beijing.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month of the first year of Chongzhen, General Quan Tian Jianxiu and Queen Gao were left behind to stay in Xi'an.
Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and others led the main force of Dashun Army from Xi'an and began to attack Beijing.
After the main force of the Dashun Army crossed the Yellow River, they arrived in Pingyang on the 23rd of the first lunar month.
Zhang Lin, the prefect, surrendered and after a short rest, they headed for Taiyuan.
At the same time, General Li Guo, who was guarding Yulin in northern Shaanxi, also led his troops across the Yellow River and marched towards Datong to contain the defenders of Datong border towns in order to support Li Zicheng's attack on Taiyuan.
At the same time, Li Zicheng ordered General Liu Fangliang to lead the Zuoying, cross the Yellow River into Shanxi, march along the north bank of the Yellow River, pass through Huaiqing and Lu'an Prefectures, march towards Weihui and Zhangde, and then march north to Daming to capture various prefectures in Hebei.
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County, and then joined forces with Li Zicheng under the walls of Beijing.
The advance of the Dashun Army was like boiling water melting snow, and soldiers and civilians across Shanxi Province surrendered one after another.
Over the years, the Shanshan and Shaanxi areas have been hit by natural disasters repeatedly, with crop yields reduced and people struggling to make ends meet.
However, Shunjun's policy of no conscription for three years has made countless people yearn for it.
The folk song "Kill the cattle and sheep, prepare wine and pulp, and open the city gate to welcome King Chuang, but King Chuang will not accept food when he comes."
The folk song was spread in various places.
The people ate pots of wine and welcomed the arrival of Chuang's army.
Li Zicheng also changed his past rogue behavior and put forward the clear slogan "Killing a person is like killing my father, and raping a person is like raping my mother."
He no longer harassed civilians and maintained strict military discipline.
As for the food and wages required by Dashun's army, they all came from the wealthy gentry families in the area.
Therefore, wherever the Shun army went, the common people rejoiced, while the powerful gentry felt as if they were mourning their heirs.
News of the Dashun Army's founding of the People's Republic of China in Xi'an and the eastward expedition across the river reached Beijing, and Chongzhen was so frightened that he became restless.
He himself knew that even the elite Qin army led by Sun Chuanting had been defeated, and now the Shanxi defenders would definitely not be able to stop the intruders.
It is necessary to dispatch troops to Shanxi for reinforcements.
However, although there are still several armies near the capital, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers in the capital camp, the deployment of troops always requires food and salary.
Without food and salary, even if he is the emperor, those Qiu Ba will never obey orders.
But where should the salary money come from?
Now the treasury is empty, and even tens of thousands of taels of silver cannot be spent.
In desperation, Chongzhen could only appeal to the court officials, hoping that they could donate part of their money to the court to help tide over the difficulties.
But in the face of his hints, both civil servants and nobles pretended to be deaf and dumb, pretending not to understand what the emperor meant.
In desperation, Chongzhen could only find the father-in-law Zhou Kui through the queen, hoping that his father-in-law could take the lead in donating silver.
Zhou Kui complained to his daughter, and the helpless Queen Zhou could only give Zhou Kui the five thousand taels of silver she had accumulated from selling her jewelry and ask him to donate it to Chongzhen.
However, Zhou Kui secretly withheld two thousand taels and only dedicated the remaining three thousand taels to the court.
Other distinguished officials were only willing to donate a small amount of money.
In the end, the money raised was only tens of thousands of taels, which was still far short of what was needed.
Faced with such a situation, Chongzhen knew that Ming Dynasty's strength had been exhausted.
He once again made up his mind to evacuate to Nanjing: