Chapter 168: The funeral of the two emperors Late at night on the ninth day of February in the seventh year of Chongzhen, Chizhou Fucheng on the bank of the Yangtze River in South Zhili In the main room of the back house of the Chizhou magistrate's office, several old doctors with white beards gathered around a bed hung with bright yellow curtains.
They fiddled with various gadgets for a long time, discussed with each other, and finally settled on He sighed, turned around, knelt down in front of a haggard lady, and reported in a deep voice, "Please forgive me, Queen.
Your Majesty is now terminally ill and medicine has failed.
Please take care of your funeral as soon as possible."
After hearing the diagnosis of these famous local doctors, Queen Zhou Yufeng, Concubine Tian and other court ladies under the oil lamp, as well as the princes and princesses held in their arms, suddenly burst into tears in unison.
The several courtiers and generals waiting outside the door also had sad expressions and heavy hearts.
The Nanjing War, which lasted for more than a month in late autumn last year, was a frightening national gamble for both warring parties.
Not only did the Qing Emperor Huang Taiji suffer from mental and physical exhaustion, but he also exhausted the time-travel version of Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian.
Especially when Emperor Chongzhen is still a loser.
More than a year of hard work suddenly came to naught.
All the elite soldiers and generals he had finally raised were lost in one day.
Such a heavy psychological blow, coupled with the injuries and rain while escaping from the battlefield, made Emperor Chongzhen feel miserable.
His body, which was not considered healthy, collapsed immediately.
Because of the excessive pressure, this time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen has already overspent his time.
You know, this time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen woke up from a serious illness in the Forbidden City in Beijing, and his body and bones were naturally severely weakened.
Then, before he could recuperate, the sharp deterioration of the war situation forced him to stand up and try to arrange his escape under the pressure of the civil and military forces of the court.
Along the way, this time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen not only had trouble eating and sleeping, but also had to face various open and hidden arrows, and be wary of long-distance pursuits by local government troops and Tartar bandits with ulterior motives.
Huge overdraft.
Therefore, in just over a year, he fell ill once in Taiyuan, Luoyang and Wuchang.
After three serious illnesses in a row, his health was already very bad.
In the later stages of the Nanjing War, His Majesty was already on the sickbed, suffering from some minor problems with his throat, stomach, heart, legs and feet.
Afterwards, the Ming army was defeated in Nanjing, and the emperor fled in a hurry.
He was first injured on the road, bleeding, and then caught a cold in the rain.
Coupled with the psychological impact of this huge defeat, he forced himself to retreat to Chizhou finally fell down.
Fortunately, after the Qing army pursued Wuhu in Taiping Prefecture and defeated Lu Xiangsheng's broken troops, they returned with their troops and concentrated on massacring the Jiangnan gentry and plundering the Jiangnan wealth.
A respite.
However, bad news continues to come from all aspects.
First, Lu Xiangsheng died in the battle at Wuhu, which not only caused Emperor Chongzhen to lose his loyal ministers, but also left him with no more usable soldiers.
Then, small-scale internal strife began to break out at the end of the year among the various gangsters who poured into Huguang because of uneven distribution of spoils.
Zhang Xianzhong, who was entrenched in Wuchang, had captured the provincial capital of Huguang, and the gold and silver women had gained the most, but his fighting skills were not as good as those of Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, Lao Huihui and others.
Therefore, he was worried that he would become a target, so he set fire to Wuchang and sent all his troops eastward along the river. , went straight into Jiangxi, and no Ming army could stop them along the way.
The royal family members and ministers' families who were originally stranded in Jiujiang had no choice but to board a ship once again and fled collectively under the leadership of Wen Tiren, the chief minister of the cabinet, and came to Chizhou Mansion to meet Emperor Chongzhen.
Zhang Xianzhong took Jiujiang lightly, and then besieged Nanchang on a large scale, seeing that Jiangxi Province was about to fall.
This series of heavy mental blows made Emperor Chongzhen's body no longer able to bear the load, and finally collapsed completely.
He actually didn't even have the strength to get out of bed.
Even the reunion with family members such as Queen Zhou and Concubine Tian did not make him recover from his extremely weak body.
By early February, Emperor Chongzhen's condition deteriorated further and he was in a coma, unable to eat or drink.
Even if I look around for famous doctors, nothing works.
There is no way, the medical technology of this era is only so unreliable, even a cold can kill someone.
At this moment, perhaps because of the flashback, the time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen became more conscious.
Looking back on my experience in this time and space for more than a year, I feel really sad.
Traveling back in time to become an emperor in ancient times, the protagonist seems to have unlimited glory in the opening treatment, but in fact it is a situation of national subjugation with a narrow escape from death.
When he took over the hot throne, the city of Beijing was destined to be lost, and the loyalty of the civil and military officials was also very doubtful.
After finally escaping from Beijing, he was about to move to Nanjing to clean up the mess.
The rebellion of the Donglin Party to depose the emperor gave him another fatal blow.
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At this point, the disintegration of the Ming Empire has become an imminent crisis.
And the various forces of time travelers have emerged one after another, and they have caused drastic changes to the historical process.
This made the aging and decaying Ming Empire face a major change that had not happened in thousands of years.
This is no longer a load that requires a talented person, but a superman to bear.
No matter how awesome a traveler is, if he encounters such a chaotic and bizarre situation with monsters dancing around, he will probably become paralyzed.
But he still did not give up, but worked hard to solve such a crisis, trying to save this old empire that belonged to him.
For a modern young man who was just an ordinary citizen before time travel, the fatigue, confusion and hardship involved , it’s really indescribable.
Unfortunately, he failed in the end and was shattered both mentally and physically by this failure.
The dream of reviving the empire was completely shattered, leaving only a desperate and crisis situation that was precarious and besieged on all sides.
Before her death, Empress Zhou Yufeng came crying to ask how to arrange her funeral.
However, Emperor Chongzhen, who was lying on the bed with his bones torn apart, just stared at the curtain at the head of the bed and left the last words in a weak voice: "What have I accomplished since I came to this world?"
Among the people present, no one heard the implication of this sentence.
After saying these last words, Emperor Chongzhen collapsed and fell unconscious again.
Even if he wakes up for a moment by chance, he can't speak.
Relying on the treatment and rescue efforts of famous local doctors, he barely managed to hold on for two more days, and finally died in the early morning of February 11th.
The successive deaths of Emperor Chongzhen of the Qing Dynasty Huang Taiji and Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Youjian heralded the end of an era.
From then on, the unified Chinese Empire no longer existed, and the vast Central Plains completely entered a turbulent and chaotic world where heroes competed for power.
Therefore, the influx of bad news did not end with the death of Emperor Chongzhen.
On February 11, the day Emperor Chongzhen died, Zhang Xianzhong's "bandit army" captured Nanchang, and the entire Jiangxi province basically collapsed.
The next day, another group of bandits captured Anqing Mansion in Jiangbei.
At the Chizhou Mansion where the Imperial Guard was stationed, swarms of thieves also emerged at this time, and the remaining officers and soldiers broke up and fled one after another.
After the death of Emperor Chongzhen, Empress Zhou and the chief minister of the cabinet Wen Tiren immediately led the civil and military officials to support the six-year-old crown prince Zhu Cixiang in Chizhou and proclaimed himself emperor.
Queen Zhou was naturally promoted to the Queen Mother, and Wen Tiren took advantage of the situation to become the Minister of Gu Ming who assisted the young emperor in politics.
In order to show the new emperor's filial piety to his late father, Zhu Cixi followed the old practice when Emperor Tianqi died and continued to use the Chongzhen reign this year, and will wait until next year to discuss changing the reign.
However, despite the new emperor's accession to the throne, there is no trace of the new emperor's new atmosphere.
Instead, it is filled with the gloom of impending disaster.
At this moment, Emperor Chongzhen was in exile and had lost control of Huguang and Jiangxi, and was trapped in a corner of Chizhou.
The once mighty army of tens of thousands, after many defeats, only less than two thousand people remained, and they were like frightened birds from top to bottom.
Even Chizhou, where Yujia is currently stationed, is wrapped between the spheres of influence of the Qing army and the rogue bandits.
The terrain is flat and there is no danger to defend.
It is really not a place to stay for a long time.
Therefore, Wen Tiren, the chief minister who actually presided over the exile, quickly reported to the Queen Mother Zhou: They had to move again.
"Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager, Huguang and Jiangxi have been lost.
Chizhou is surrounded by enemies.
Not only is there no danger to defend, but there is also no way to raise money and food.
If the imperial court continues to stay here, it is tantamount to waiting for death.
Although the Ming Dynasty is in the southwest Although there are still several provinces in Sichuan and Hunan, the road to the west is blocked by rogue bandits.
If we force the westward march with the few people we have now, it will be tantamount to throwing ourselves into a trap and sending all the nobles of the Heavenly Family to those cruel rogue bandits. in hand."
Wen Tiren, whose face was also extremely haggard, told the frightened Empress Dowager Zhou and the young emperor, "For the present plan, the only way is to move the imperial court to Huizhou, where there are thousands of elite soldiers from the Western Zhejiang General Army to escort them, and Huizhou is surrounded by mountains and far away from the Yangtze River waterway.
Chizhou is easier to defend, and Huizhou merchants are famous for their wealth, and it is easy to raise taxes and food.
In addition, I am from Huzhou, and my family has some connections in Zhejiang.
Huizhou is close to Zhejiang, so maybe I can get some support from my hometown.
To ensure the temporary peace and tranquility of the imperial court."
"This can only guarantee the temporary safety of the imperial court."
Zhou Yufeng, who had just been promoted from queen to queen mother, asked while wiping her tears, "Although the Ai family doesn't know geography, they have seen the map recently.
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Although Huizhou is good, it is still surrounded by enemies on all sides.
How should the imperial court display its plans in the future?"
"Who knows in the future?
I can't think so much.
Let's just take it one day at a time."
Wen Tiren smiled sadly, "Your Majesty, I must be honest, the world is falling apart now, and we no longer know if there will be a future for us."
On February 15th of the seventh year of Chongzhen, at the insistence of Wen Tiren, the first assistant, the young emperor Zhu Cihong and the Queen Mother Zhou took Emperor Chongzhen's Zi Palace, the coffin, and drove away from Chizhou to Huizhou, which is located in the mountains of southern Anhui, and moved to Huangshan for later generations.
City, preparing to rendezvous with Wang Dou, the commander-in-chief of the Western Zhejiang Army stationed here.
At the same time, the Jiangnan Donglin Party members, who had temporarily breathed a sigh of relief due to the internal split in the Qing army, also started activities againoshow7: