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Chapter 396, Emperor Chongzhen's Despair (II)


Chapter 87: Emperor Chongzhen’s despair s: Explain the basis for the 150,000 Ming army annihilated in the Battle of Daling River in this plane.

First of all, due to the changes in this time and space, Zu Dashou's food garrison in Daling River City was very sufficient, so the battle lasted longer.

After more than half a year, the imperial court could organize more waves of reinforcements to fill the hole, and the casualties would naturally be more severe. yznn Secondly, there are two calculations for the loss of troops, one is to count only combat soldiers, and the other is to count all coolies, servants and miscellaneous soldiers, plus the quota of empty pay, the number shown in the Ministry of War account book is It's huge.

The figures reported to Emperor Chongzhen were obviously exaggerated.

Finally, there is a small trouble that needs to be dealt with urgently, which is the internal strife that broke out between the Xuanfu and the Datong frontier army in order to compete for the Baoan Prefecture silver mines.

Just relying on the conflicting contents described in the memorial, Emperor Chongzhen could not believe it for a while.

I really can’t tell who is right and who is wrong, who is Who is wrong, who is true and who is false, and the current situation does not allow for slow verification and trial, so Emperor Chongzhen is determined to cut through the mess quickly and give the warriors suspected of this matter 50 blows each, and reprimand each one to end the matter.

At the same time, the silver mines in Baoan Prefecture were put under internal supervision.

Now the palace is short of silver.

In addition, another edict was issued, urging the Xuanda border army to mobilize a strong force southward as soon as possible to assist the local government in Beizhili to suppress Shaanxi bandits and suppress local riots, so as to acquit themselves of the previous internal strife. .

Seeing that all the troubles were solved, Emperor Chongzhen's mood became a little more relaxed.

At this time, Cao Huachun had already assigned several young eunuchs to clean the palace, so he came over and whispered to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, would you like your servants to send you some meals?"

Because he was in a good mood, Emperor Chongzhen also felt that he had an appetite, so he nodded slightly and said, "Well, let's pass on the food."

In the next month, the situation in the capital remained the same, except that the price of food skyrocketed day by day, reaching the price of fifteen taels of silver per stone for brown rice.

As a result, the poor people in the city who did not have enough food to live in their homes starved to death or died.

Apart from committing suicide, the rest was nothing major.

As for the war around the capital, it is neither sullen nor angry, with a mix of good and bad news.

First, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong army won many battles in Daming Mansion, defeating more than ten groups of rogue bandits within twenty days, but they forced them to flee north into Shuntian Mansion, where the capital was located, and even ran to the city of Beijing at one time, causing the city to be filled with chaos.

Facing a powerful enemy.

Later, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, led 50,000 Qin troops to the capital.

King Qin finally temporarily eliminated the banditry in the capital, and the court was full of joy.

However, the Ministry of Household Affairs expressed that it was really unable to supply so many rations to the Qin troops.

As expected, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to commend a group of Shaanxi and Shanxi generals, and then reluctantly asked them to go south to meet Lu Xiangsheng for dinner, or to go to Shandong to eat, and by the way help Zhu Dadian eliminate the Wenxiang Cult demons.

Next, the situation of the Xuanfu and Datong border troops made Emperor Chongzhen feel a little unhappy.

He learned that all the ministries involved in the fight for the silver mines had been beaten fifty times by the court.

Everyone was unlucky, and Baoan Prefecture, as the lucky winner After the silver mines were returned to the palace, the Xuanfu troops, who had been fighting for nothing, suddenly burst into an uproar.

Immediately, someone beat the eunuch who was delivering the order and drove him out.

Even the Xuanfu general soldiers could not suppress them.

As for the matter of asking Xuanfu Town to send troops to the capital to suppress the rogue bandits, there was naturally no further progress.

Instead, the Xuanfu army asked the Ministry of Household Affairs for the accumulated food and salary arrears over the years.

Lawless chaos must be severely punished and rectified, but at this troubled time in the world, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to hold his nose and tolerate it for the time being.

Bar Then on the battlefield in Shandong, after Xu Guangqi, a veteran of the three dynasties, fell ill and went to appease the Dengzhou army, the situation of the Shandong army also improved slightly.

Although the Xu Ge Department was not yet able to persuade Chen Xinran, the general of Dengzhou, to wake up, abandon his weapons and surrender, nor could he The Dengzhou Navy's blockade on the Tianjin coast was lifted, but the land offensive on the Dengzhou side was eased: the main force of the rebels stopped in Pingdu Prefecture and did not continue to invade the west.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shandong Governor Zhu Dadian was able to adjust his deployment and concentrate his troops.

After receiving reinforcements from the capital, he went south to defeat the thieves and regain Jining, a water transport hub.

Unfortunately, Yutai County and Xuzhou further south are still in the hands of demon thieves, and the canals are still blocked.

As for the news from further south, due to the large number of rogues ravaging the Central Plains, looting prefectures and counties, and causing the post roads to be blocked, no news has been sent to Beijing for several days.

Only a group of officials in Beijing relied on their own imagination.

Talking nonsense in the memorial and gesticulating about the war in the south, No one was even interested in taking a look.

While Emperor Chongzhen was waiting anxiously, a group of cavalry finally risked their lives to cross the Central Plains war zone from the south and delivered the memorial from the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing to Beijing, giving Emperor Chongzhen, who was full of expectations, a Bolt from the blue: Fengyang, the central capital, was captured by rogue bandits Well, also, the ancestral grave of Lao Zhu's family in Fengyang was also dug up by Zhang Xianzhong, the bandit leader who killed a thousand people.

In this era of turmoil, weird things, and wars, there is not only competition between time-travelers, but also competition between countries, and even competition between rogue bandits.

Pay more attention to visibility.

After all, being a bandit is a bit like being a gangster.

It is very important to have a resounding reputation.

In some cases, you can even make a fortune just by relying on your name.

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Otherwise, why would it be that when Li Zicheng was defeated and left Shangluo Mountain, he had only thirteen cavalry soldiers left with him and no money or food savings at all?

But as soon as he came out of the mountain, thousands of his younger brothers came to join them, bringing their own food. , in the blink of an eye, he was once again the overlord of the Central Plains, and his reputation was just loud enough.

At this time, Li Zicheng was only a general, and the king was Gao Yingxiang.

As the leader of the Shaanxi bandits, the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong naturally also wanted to be famous.

When the two groups divided their forces before, he did not go to attack Taiyuan.

Instead, he followed the alliance leader "Purple Jinliang" Wang Ziyong to Henan, and then they developed separately.

In the past two months, Zhang Xianzhong has been working as a landlord and recruiting young men in the densely populated Central Plains, and has developed quite smoothly.

He has also established a relationship with the Wenxiang Sect.

He was very proud and satisfied.

However, at this moment, he suddenly heard that Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, had successfully captured Taiyuan City, the capital of Shanxi Province, which made his achievements eclipse in comparison.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong resolutely decided that in order to overshadow Gao Yingxiang's reputation, he would do a big thing that would shock the world and attack the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the target capital of the Ming Dynasty was not Beijing.

In fact, there were three capitals in the Ming Dynasty: Beijing, Nanjing, and Fengyang, the central capital.

With the little power Zhang Xianzhong has at hand, it is simply a joke to attack Beijing and Nanjing, but he can still give Fengyang a try.

Fengyang, located in southern Zhili, which is now part of Anhui Province, has been a poor place famous for its rich production of beggars since ancient times.

The reason why such a poor place is called the capital is just because it is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown.

But even in the Ming Dynasty, the only things related to the Ming royal family in Fengyang were the clan prisons dedicated to the emperor's relatives, and the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestor was not Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb.

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum was only in Nanjing.

What is more advantageous for the rogue bandits is that the garrison in Fengyang, the central capital, has been mobilized to the Huai'an area to resist the southward invasion of the Wenxiang Sect army, so Fengyang's defense force should be very empty.

Even if Fengyang City cannot be conquered, it is estimated that the Zhu family's ancestral tombs located outside the city can be dug, which will cause a sensation in the world.

So, Zhang Xianzhong sent his troops south.

When he arrived at Fengyang, he was even more delighted: there was no such thing as Fengyang, the capital of Zhongdu. city ​​wall It turns out that when Zhongdu was built, firstly, the imperial court had financial difficulties, insufficient allocations, and there was no way to raise funds locally.

Again, Fengyang was very poor.

Secondly, a Taoist master who was asked by the imperial court to see Feng Shui declared that if Building the city wall will destroy the feng shui of Fengyang Imperial Tomb.

Therefore, the central capital of Fengyang, like Kyoto in Japan, has no city walls, and even the garrison and chief officers have been transferred away.

In this way, Zhang Xianzhong led a group of refugee troops and successfully entered Fengyang without even climbing the wall, occupying the Longxing land of Lao Zhu's family.

What happened next was even more logical.

Zhang Xianzhong and his minions easily annihilated more than a thousand old and weak soldiers in the city.

Tens of thousands of private houses in the city as well as all the government offices were burned down by him.

In addition, as the most important task, Zhang Xianzhong also dug up Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral tomb, demolished the Huangjue Temple where he once became a monk, and humiliated the Zhu Ming royal family in various ways.

Finally, before the troops from Nanzhili arrived to counterattack, Go away happily.

Now things are going to be serious.

From ancient times to the present, digging up people's ancestral graves has been the most vicious and unscrupulous method, and having their ancestral graves dug up is the most unforgettable shame.

In the past dynasties of China, except for Dong Zhuo in the late Eastern Han Dynasty who seemed to have acted as the "Faqiu Zhonglang General" and robbed the Luoyang Emperor's tomb, there was basically no scandal in which the ancestral tombs were dug up while the dynasty was still in the country.

After that, many graves were dug up.

For example, all the imperial tombs of the Southern Song Dynasty were dug up by the Mongols.

The "Eight Great Kings" Zhang Xianzhong shocked the world in one fell swoop, eclipsing the reputation of King Chuang Gao Yingxiang.

What's even more terrible is that after learning that such a huge trap was revealed from the rear, the Fengyang governor and the guarding eunuch who were supervising the battle on the front line of Huai'an were so frightened that one fled and the other committed suicide.

Fengyang soldiers and horses immediately blew up the camp and collapsed in an uproar.

Wenxiang leader Wang Ke took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, quickly crossed the Huaihe River, and then successfully defeated the Nanjing soldiers and horses who were in chaos due to the collapse of friendly forces.

As a result, the entire front collapsed, and the 50,000 officers and soldiers were beaten to only a few thousand.

Lv Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, fled to Yangzhou in one breath.

He even wrote a suicide note and was waiting to be dismissed from his post and questioned by the imperial court.

The remaining generals at all levels He was also extremely frightened and had no intention of fighting.

He just sat back and watched the Shaanxi bandits and Wenxiang Sect demons going south in batches.

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The situation in the Jianghuai War turned into a disaster.

Therefore, after Emperor Chongzhen heard the news, he was so angry that he almost fainted, and shouted loudly that he wanted to kill someone.

But when he woke up, he did not punish anyone.

Instead, he sighed and ordered people to send the Four Treasures of the Study to prepare to write an edict of sin.

That is to say, he took on this responsibility.

Emperor Chongzhen was so generous at this time, It does not mean that he has a good temper, but any person will fight for his life as long as he digs his ancestral grave, not to mention that he is the most face-saving emperor in the world.

But there was no way.

The graves of the royal ancestors were dug.

The impact of this incident was too great.

No official could bear such responsibility.

If the emperor insists on serious action, I am afraid that the entire Southern Zhili court team will be bloodbathed, and hundreds of heads will definitely not be enough to chop off.

Now the situation in South Zhili is very precarious.

If there is another bloody purge before the battle, and several local officials who have the ability to integrate various forces to fight against the rebels are killed, Nanjing's military and political institutions will be paralyzed, unable to deal with the rogue bandits.

If the bandits attack, then what will be lost next is probably not Fengyang, the central capital, but Nanjing, the remaining capital.

The value of the two is clear and can be known without asking.

As an emperor who already has a certain sense of reason, Emperor Chongzhen will make the only right choice no matter how angry he is.

Therefore, faced with the embarrassing situation of not punishing the public, Emperor Chongzhen could only reluctantly write a self-incriminating edict, taking responsibility for the fall of Fengyang, the capital of China, and the excavation of the Zhu family's imperial mausoleum.

To appease the military morale of Southern Zhili and prevent the outbreak of chaos that would be more detrimental to the court.

Before the imperial edict had been drawn up, there was another sound of footsteps outside, and a eunuch rushed to report that Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, wanted to see him and had an urgent report from Liaodong.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his heart immediately trembled.

Since he ascended the throne, almost all urgent reports from Liaodong were bad news, which made him almost unwilling to read their memorials.

But he is the emperor, the most noble ruler in the world, and there is no room for evasion for all bad things.

Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, Emperor Chongzhen could only sigh: "Let him come in."

Then, Zhang Fengyi hurried in, his face extremely gloomy, he knelt on the ground and said: "Your Majesty, Governor Qiu Jiahe of Liaodong is reporting urgently."

Emperor Chongzhen frowned when he saw this, hiding the tension and frustration in his heart, and said as calmly as possible: "Ahem, you choose what's important."

But Zhang Fengyi hesitated for a moment, and then said in a solemn voice, "Your Majesty, Jinzhou mutiny, Guan Ning's army mutinied and surrendered."

"Really, the Liaoxi generals have surrendered to the enemy?

They are really a bunch of immature wolf cubs."

After a long silence, Emperor Chongzhen closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.

He felt that he no longer had the energy to be angry.

The annual Liao salary of five million taels was invested in it, but it only resulted in the successive defeats of Guan Ning's army. and rebellious, and now they have simply turned against each other en masse.

Were the first-class luxury soldiers in the world whom I and the late Emperor have been plundering for years to supply, were they originally raised for the purpose of building slaves?

But even if reality betrays him again and again, he still has to reluctantly open his eyes and continue to face this cold world.

"Since Jinzhou has been owned by the enemy, has Qiu Jiahe, the governor of Liaodong, come up with any countermeasures?"

Emperor Chongzhen asked, cheering up.

"Your Majesty, Guan Ning's army had a very deep plot to defect to the enemy.

The governor of Liaodong made a poor plan and did not have many available soldiers.

They designed to capture Qiu Jiahe of Shanhaiguan and just escaped alone."

Zhang Fengyi hated it.

He replied loudly, "Now that the vanguard of the Jiannu army has entered Yongping Prefecture, it will only take three to five days to reach the capital.

Qiu Jiahe, the guilty minister, felt that he had betrayed the divine grace.

After he fled to Changli County and issued this testament, he He committed suicide by taking medicine” Emperor Chongzhen didn't hear what Zhang Fengyi said next.

In despair, he only felt a pain in his heart and his vision went black.

He immediately spat out a mouthful of dirty blood and fell to the sky.

Then, under the shock of all the imprisoned maids, he Amidst the shouts, he rolled down from Danqi oshow7: