Facing the menacing Zhu Yousong, Emperor Chongzhen was extremely angry.
On the spot, he ordered all relatives of Li Xianzhong to be sent to prison.
And inspected all of Li Xianzhong's property.
Li Xianzhong's two legitimate sons had long been under house arrest in the palace by Chongzhen. They were imprisoned in Jinyiwei's prison together with the duchess Haqiya and 77-year-old Li Rubai.
More than 60 members of the Li family were arrested in Beijing.
However, compared to arresting people, searching homes is not as smooth.
Li Xianzhong's Liao Duke's mansion had very little silver, and some of the furnishings were only worth tens of thousands of taels.
Moreover, some of the well-known industries, such as the Heaven and Earth in the Capital, the Crystal Garden, as well as the glass shop and perfume shop, are no longer under his name.
These properties had been transferred to powerful people in Beijing such as Zhu Chunchen and Zhang Weixian a few years ago.
Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, said: "Your Majesty, the traitor Li Xianzhong's property in the capital was secretly resold a few years ago. Now, apart from this Duke's Mansion, there is no other property to steal."
Chongzhen was so angry that he cursed angrily: "Li Xianzhong, this treacherous traitor, seems to have been well prepared!"
Luo Yangxing continued: "Actually, I have another worry. Since Li Xianzhong has transferred his property long ago, he will definitely not fail to take action against the hostages in our hands. Those two legitimate sons may have been swapped when they were born!"
Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, Li Xianzhong is still young, and it would have been impossible for me to kill all his descendants. Whether it's true or false, he will eventually bear the notoriety of bringing down his wife and children!"
Apart from Li Xianzhong, Chongzhen naturally hated Zhu Yousong the most.
Soon he worshiped the Ancestral Temple, officially revoked Zhu Yousong's clan status, and announced it to the whole country!
The two great emperors officially started fighting, but they gave everyone a lot to talk about after dinner.
Although the capital is strictly controlled and almost no one dares to discuss these matters publicly, it is different outside the capital.
Especially Xuanda and Jizhou, the three important towns on the nine sides facing Liaodong.
In order to stabilize these areas, Chongzhen gave Liang Tingdong, the governor of Xuanda, the title of Minister of the Ministry of War and the title of Prince Taibao.
At the same time, the border troops were also paid more.
The cavalry is paid 2 taels per month, and the infantry is paid 1 tael and 5 cents per month.
Liang Tingdong has a good relationship with his first assistant, Wen Tiren, and there is no risk of rebellion for the time being.
But the Liaodong Army originally had more than 100,000 troops, and now it has captured four northwest towns. What if Li Xianzhong's main force goes south and attacks the capital?
Chongzhen looked at the sand table in front of him without saying a word.
This sand table was originally given to Emperor Wanli by Li Xianzhong. It is very beautifully made and covers the entire north of the Ming Dynasty, including North Korea and part of Mongolia.
Looking at the large blue flag representing Zhu Yousong outside the Great Wall, Zhu Youjian looked a little angry.
Li Xianzhong must have been preparing for this day for a long time. It was really a good trick, but he was so passive in the blink of an eye.
To be honest, he had thought about Li Xianzhong raising troops to go south.
But he was not afraid. Even though Li Xianzhong's Liaodong Army was powerful, he was rebellious after all, and the gentry and people in the world would not support him.
As long as he raises his arms and shouts, countless troops of King Qin will march northward.
Even if it is a waste, the Ming Dynasty can still consume Liaodong to death.
This is also the reason why he agreed with Yuan Chonghuan's "Five-Year Ping Liao Strategy".
But he never expected that Li Xianzhong actually had Emperor Wanli's edict in his hands.
What's more, I didn't expect that Zhu Yousong, an idiot, would be so powerful that he publicly slandered himself for killing King Fu, and even lured a wolf into the house in order to ascend the throne.
How could he, a polished emperor, restrain powerful ministers like Li Xianzhong who held heavy troops?
He must not lose, otherwise the Ming Dynasty will change hands!
Under the urging of Wen Tiren's eyes, Zhang Fengyi, Secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "Your Majesty, bandits are raging in several provinces of the Central Plains. It will take some time for King Qin's troops from the south to go north. The only solution now is to let Governor Yuan lead the main force of Shandong to go north. , otherwise the traitor army may attack the capital at any time!"
Chongzhen said: "How many troops and horses are there in the capital now?"
Zhang Fengyi said: "The three major battalions of the capital have 90,000 people. The Yulin camp also has 30,000 new troops that were just recruited this year. Together with the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division, the Imperial Palace Guards and the capital have a total of 130,000 troops."
"There are currently 40,000 troops in Jizhou Town. You Shiwei, the commander-in-chief of Jizhou, requested that 10,000 people from Yongping Prefecture be evacuated to Jizhou so that they can concentrate their forces to defend the capital!"
Chongzhen said to Wen Tiren: "What does the chief minister think of Jizhou's request?"
Wen Tiren said: "Now that the rebels have occupied Shanhaiguan, it is no longer necessary to stick to the front line of the Great Wall. I think we should quickly shrink our troops before Li Xianzhong goes south, and we should withdraw Yongping's troops to Jizhou."
Chongzhen pointed to the sand table and said: "Since Shanhaiguan is already in the hands of the bandits, we can only rely on the line between Yanshan and Luanhe to prevent the Liaodong Army from advancing towards the capital."
"So Zunhua and Yongping along the Great Wall must stick to it. Losing Yongping is equivalent to giving the Luanhe River directly to Li Xianzhong!"
When the two of them looked at the sand table, they realized that this was really the case. Yongping City was located in the center of Luanhe River. Once the Yongping Liaodong Army gave up, it would inevitably march straight into the capital.
So he hurriedly said: "I almost missed a big event due to negligence, please punish me!"
Naturally, there was a reason why Chongzhen suddenly became enlightened. It was because Yang Sichang taught him "Anti-Liao Shu", which Yang Sichang told Chongzhen.
Now it seems that Yang Sichang is still very knowledgeable.
Yang Sichang is the son of the guilty minister Yang He. Yang He died of illness last year.
It stands to reason that Yang Sichang should continue to be at home with Ding You, but now is the time for Ming Dynasty to employ people.
Chongzhen has decided to reinstate Yang Sichang as appropriate and make him the left minister of the Ministry of War!
However, Yang Sichang is still on his way to Beijing.
At this time, Chongzhen said with some pride: "Yongping City must be defended. You can order all the troops in Yongping Mansion to concentrate on Yongping City. How long can we hold on? Even if Governor Yuan's troops want to go north, it will still take a while. Time, even if Yongping cannot hold on to it in the end, he can always buy some time!"
At this time, Wang Chengen hurriedly walked in and said: "Your Majesty, Tianjin Guards has sent an urgent report!"
Upon hearing the emergency report, several people were a little panicked. Could it be that Li Xianzhong directly landed at Tianjin Wei?
Chongzhen quickly opened the report and saw that it was Zheng Zhilong who expressed his willingness to submit to the imperial court.
But the premise is that the imperial court will assign Qingzhou to his jurisdiction and let him command the three states of Qingdenglai.
The three prefectures of Qingdenglai and Qingdenlai together make up half of Shandong. Zheng Zhilong is taking advantage of the situation!
Could it be that the previous intelligence was wrong? Zheng Zhilong and Li Xianzhong only have a cooperative relationship, and the two parties are not subordinate.
Otherwise, places like Monan, North Korea, Ryukyu, and Taiwan would all fall directly to Hongguang. There is no reason for Zheng Zhilong not to fall to Hongguang!
At this time, Wen Tiren said: "Pirates like Zheng Zhilong are usually sold for a price. Whoever pays a higher price will sacrifice his life for him."
Although Wen Tiren did not explicitly ask Chongzhen to accept Zheng Zhilong's request, it was obvious that if Chongzhen rejected Zheng Zhilong, he would turn to Hongguang in the blink of an eye.
And with Zhu Yousong's urinary nature, he will definitely give Qingzhou to Zheng Zhilong's jurisdiction. After all, this is generosity to others and uses Chongzhen's territory to buy Zheng Zhilong.
If a warlord now said that Liaodong would be handed over to him, and he surrendered immediately, Chongzhen would be very happy.
Although he also felt that the pirate Zheng Zhilong was not trustworthy, at this time he needed to mobilize Yuan Chonghuan's troops to help defend the capital!
Originally, Qingzhou was difficult to defend, and currently parts of Qingzhou have been actually occupied by pirates.
After much thought, Chongzhen decided to take a risk.
In the end, he decided to recruit Zheng Zhilong and appointed Zheng Zhilong as the governor of Denglai, thus emptying the three prefectures of Qingzhou, Dengzhou and Laizhou.
Prince Heng of Qingzhou was temporarily relocated to Baoding Mansion.
He also distributed 100,000 taels of silver to Zheng Zhilong, which was regarded as a pension from the imperial court.
After learning that Chongzhen had been deceived, the monarchs and ministers of Liaodong burst into laughter.
Laizhou itself is relatively narrow. Originally, the Ming army's defense of Qingzhou could restrict them to the small Jiaodong area.
Now that Qingzhou is lost, the entire Shandong is completely exposed to their attack.
Although Yuan Chonghuan still left Zuo Liangyu's 20,000 Yulin Battalion to guard Jinan, and arranged for Shandong General Liu Zhaoji to lead an army of 20,000 to guard Yanzhou.
If these people want to defend Shandong, it is just a dream!
However, he is not in a hurry to let Zheng Zhilong slap Chongzhen in the face. Anyway, there are many things that can slap Chongzhen in the face.
Let Zheng Zhilong first use the name of the pirates to implement "sharing the land between farmers and farmers" and "the gentry receiving grain from one body" in Qingzhou, and then take care of the gentry in Qingzhou.
Now that we are in wartime, Li Xianzhong feels that the cabinet is too troublesome.
So he personally served as Prime Minister, taking charge of all military and political affairs, and the cabinet took orders from him as Prime Minister.
Of course, the power to use the seal was still in the hands of Emperor Hongguang, and Chang Yun served as the chief ceremonial official.
After all, he is still the emperor, and all appointments and decrees in Liaodong must be stamped with Emperor Hongguang's jade seal to take effect.
However, the military situation was urgent, and all military transfers and appropriations could be implemented first with Li Xianzhong's consent, and then confirmed by Emperor Hongguang's seal.
Yan Mingtai, the governor of Liaodong, served as the first assistant to the cabinet and the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Li Sanshun, the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong army, served as the second assistant to the cabinet and the minister of the Ministry of War.
There are only two people in the cabinet. In principle, Yan Mingtai is in charge of civil affairs and Li Sanshun is in charge of military affairs.
In addition to the two of them, Fan Wencheng, the chief envoy of Liaodong, served as the minister of the Ministry of household affairs, Mao Yuanyi, the inspector-general of Liaodong, served as the minister of the Ministry of punishment, and Zhang Wenbing, the governor of Liaodong, served as the minister of the Ministry of industry.
The Minister of Rites is temporarily vacant.
Mao Yuanyi and Tian Ergeng served as the chief and deputy commanders of the Intelligence Department respectively. The Intelligence Department was only responsible to Li Xianzhong himself.
At this time, Hong Chengchou had also returned to Liaodong in advance. He was appointed by Emperor Hongguang as the Left Minister of the Ministry of War and the Governor of Jizhou. He led the 15,000 Yulin battalion that originally surrendered as the vanguard of this southward attack on Yongping City.
Li Xianzhong personally led an army of 60,000 people to sit on the front line of Shanhaiguan, ready to go south for support at any time.
Hearing that Hong Chengchou led his army south, Chongzhen's old face was really beaten and turned red.
When the bandits announced that Hong Chengchou would die in battle, he even wrote a memorial in person.
Now Hong Chengchou is not only alive and well, he even leads the original Yulin Battalion as the vanguard of the Liaodong Army going south.
How could this make him feel so embarrassed?
Needless to say, Zheng Zhilong was also a "big liar". Not only did he deceive Qingzhou, he also defrauded the court of 100,000 taels of silver!
The furious Chongzhen locked himself in the Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace, became furious, and rarely smashed the utensils in the house to pieces!
For several hours, no one was seen.
He didn't see either Wang Chengen or Queen Zhou.
In the end, Empress Zhou had no choice but to invite out the Queen Mother of Yi'an, Zhang Yan. Only when she saw her royal sister-in-law coming, Chongzhen was willing to let her in.
In the eyes of others, Chongzhen was a lofty emperor, but at this time he was only 20 years old.
Since he succeeded to the throne, he has worked hard and never slacked off on government affairs, but the Ming Dynasty was sinking day by day.
He doesn't understand what he did wrong?
He was so wronged that after seeing his imperial sister-in-law, he could no longer hold back the tears in his eyes.
He hugged Zhang Yan and burst into tears.
Although Zhang Yan was very shocked, she quickly calmed down.
To be honest, she hadn't been hugged by a man for a long time.
She even enjoyed this feeling at this time.
She gently stroked Chongzhen's back and said, "I know that Your Majesty feels aggrieved. If you want to cry, just cry loudly!"
Chongzhen actually lacked love and had no parents to care about him since he was a child. This also caused his mean and unkind character to a certain extent.
Zhang Yan has always taken good care of him, and he felt a bit of maternal love from Zhang Yan that he had never experienced before.
At this moment, he also realized that it was inappropriate for his uncle and sister-in-law to be like this.
So he let go of his hands, and then cried and said, "Sister-in-law, am I a foolish king?"
Zhang Yan said: "Your Majesty is diligent and loves the people, how can he be a coward?"
Chongzhen said: "If I were not a foolish king, how could I have been fooled by Li Xianzhong again and again?"
Li Xianzhong, Zhang Yan also hated this person. No matter how stupid she was, she now figured out that Li Xianzhong must be behind the mysterious organization that coerced her into the palace election.
She actually wanted to tell Chongzhen that Li Xianzhong had started the plan ten years ago, and even she was just a pawn in Li Xianzhong's hands.
In this palace, Cao Huachun, the Chief of Ceremony, Dorgon, the eunuch in charge of Qianqing Palace whom Your Majesty trusted, Duoduo, the eunuch in charge of Cining Palace, and many slaves in the open and secret are actually Li Xianzhong's people.
But the words came to her lips and she couldn't say them out. In recent years, Li Xianzhong hadn't asked her to do anything harmful, and he even gave her fewer and fewer orders.
The last time she was asked to help Chongzhen ascend the throne 4 years ago.
And the slaves around him have been trying their best to protect themselves over the years. Although Cao Huachun has threatened him once, without them, he might have been killed by Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka family long ago!
Looking at Chongzhen, who was already crying in front of her, how could she have the heart to tell him that in fact, His Majesty was the one Li Xianzhong wanted to support to the throne.
Forget it, she has made up her mind to draw a clear line with the mysterious organization behind her. Zhang Yan will never work for Li Xianzhong again!
Zhang Yan said: "Li Xianzhong is a treacherous but loyal person. Not to mention His Majesty, the three late emperors Wanli, Taichang and Tianqi were also deceived by him!"
"Now that your Majesty has seen the true colors of these people, he will naturally not be fooled again!"
Chongzhen said: "But I was deceived by them into taking away a state, a large Qingzhou; and Hong Chengchou, the traitor Li Xianzhong deliberately released the news of his death, and now he uses Hong Chengchou to slap me in the face!"
"I will become Qianqiu's laughing stock because of this matter!"
"If he dares to hit me in the face, I will dare to hit his wife and children!"
"Yes, the wife and children of this traitor Li Xianzhong are still in my hands!"
"Give me the order to kill Li Xianzhong's wife and those two brats. But don't beat them to death. I'm going to torture them slowly, hahaha!"
Although Chongzhen was very naive at this time, Zhang Yan did not stop him. Your Majesty needed to vent so much!
But she couldn't see Chongzhen sinking like this.
She said loudly: "Your Majesty, do you still remember what you said in front of your imperial brother?"
"Could it be that because the traitor succeeded in his temporary plot, Your Majesty will sink and give up the country of Ming Dynasty?"
"As long as your Majesty does something with a clear conscience, why should you worry about others talking behind your back?"
"As long as His Majesty finally turns things around, who else will dare to talk nonsense?"
Zhang Yan's meaning is very clear. As long as His Majesty himself is not embarrassed, others will be embarrassed!
Encouraged by Zhang Yan, Chongzhen quickly cheered up again.
He quickly ordered reinforcements from all walks of life to enter Beijing, and martial law began in Beijing.
Then he used his own internal funds to purchase arms from the Netherlands and the Portuguese.
But these can't change the predicament before him!
At this time, Hong Chengchou's troops had already reached Yongping City!
Naturally, the most important thing in fighting a war is to attack the heart. Hong Chengchou said: "Prefect Wang, His Majesty Hongguang is destined to return to the throne. Li Xianzhong, the king of Liaodong County, is following the edict of the late Emperor Wanli to fight against rebellion. I hope you will not help the evildoers and resist fearlessly!"
Wang Yaozong, the prefect of Yongping, was a Donglin Party member. He inherited the Donglin Party members' tough-tongued character.
He said loudly: "Emperor Taichang has long been recognized by the world as the crown prince. Even if His Majesty Wanli prefers Prince Fu, he should not leave this edict. Didn't Governor Hong die in Dengzhou a long time ago? His Majesty personally wrote a memorial for you. That is How shocking and shocking."
"Hong Pifu, as a minister of two masters, how can you persuade me to surrender in front of this government!"
Hong Chengchou scolded with a dark face: "Old man, you don't know how to praise!"
Then he gave the order to fire!
At this time, thirty 18-pound Hongyi cannons were lined up outside the city.
Soon the cannons were roaring as the gunners lit their fuses.
The Hongyi cannon of the Liaodong Army is equipped with a front sight and a cover door at the rear, and can even adjust the firing range.
The Jiangjunmen of Yulin Camp have not been idle in the past few months. In addition to daily work and ideological classes, they also conducted systematic training of the Liaodong Army.
At this time, he was able to become familiar with and master the firearms with better performance in the hands of the Liaodong Army.
Even with only the first round of firing, nearly half of the cannonballs still fell on the city.
The explosion set off a huge air wave, which blew the bricks and wood on the city towards the defenders.
Wang Yaozong, who had been arrogant just now, was so frightened that his face turned pale.
How come the rebel artillery is so powerful?
Just one round of shelling caused nearly two hundred casualties in the city.
Yongping City was also equipped with Hongyi cannon. Wang Yaozong quickly ordered the artillery to fire back. However, their twelve-pound Hongyi cannon had a range of only more than 3 miles, only half that of the Liaodong Army.
After several rounds of shelling, all the cannons on the city were gone.
The city towers and walls are already scarred.
Soon the Liaodong Army launched a charge towards Yongping City.
Three thousand gunmen were seen 110 steps away from Yongping City and began to use Lumi guns to suppress the defenders on the city.
A group of first-campers wearing heavy armor held their shields high and pushed ladders to attack the city.
At this time, the morale of the defenders on the city was completely gone.
Climb the camp first and attack Yongning City directly.
The Yongping Prefecture's army was not the main force of the frontier army, and the armor coverage rate was less than 30%. Naturally, it could not be compared with the Xianden Camp, where all members were armored. Soon they were at a disadvantage!
At this time, the Liaodong Army shouted: "Brothers, we are all Ming troops. We don't want to kill each other, and you don't want to work for the stupid king anymore. The army in Liaodong has high pay and low taxes. Put down your weapons!"
I don’t know who was the first to throw away the weapon in his hand, and soon the Ming army on the city collapsed.
Soon after, the Ming army kidnapped Wang Yaozong, the prefect of Yongning, and came to surrender.
At this time, he can no longer be tough!
Hong Chengchou snorted coldly and said: "The king of Liaodong County has an order that all local officials of the Chongzhen Dynasty who voluntarily abandon the secret and turn to the bright side will still be retained in their original posts. Those who resist in the end will be killed without mercy!"
Then he dragged Wang Yaozong down and chopped him down!
In the end, Yongning's Ming army suffered 1,500 casualties and 8,500 surrendered.
Li Xianzhong did not have so much food. He knew that a large number of Ming troops would surrender this time when going south, so he stipulated that the main force of the border army should be retained as much as possible.
The local soldiers and horses select the best and keep 20%, and the rest are registered and released!
In the end, only 2,000 people were retained to stay in Yongning Mansion, and the rest were released.
After capturing Yongping City, the Liaodong Army easily broke through the Luanhe River.
The Luanzhou, Kaiping and Funing guards around Yongping were all lost.
Soon Hong Chengchou controlled the entire Yongping Mansion.
Hong Chengchou won the first battle and led his army into Jizhou.
After all, Jizhou is one of the nine important towns with 40,000 elite border troops. The cities in Zunhua, Yutian, Jizhou, and Pinggu are also quite strong.
Hong Chengchou's 15,000 people are a bit weak.
At this time, Li Xianzhong's 60,000 main force had also arrived in Yongping.
After entering Jizhou, they decided to divide their troops into three groups. On the north route, Li Huaizhong, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, led 20,000 troops to attack the important town of Zunhua. In the middle route, Zu Dashou, the commander-in-chief of Yingkou, led 15,000 troops to attack Yutian. On the south route, Hong Chengchou continued to lead 1 Fifty thousand people attacked Liangcheng.
Jizhou Commander-in-Chief You Shiwei is also a veteran on the battlefield. He understands that although there are many cities in Jizhou Town, only Jizhou City has real defensive value.
Because Jizhou lies between the capital and Shanhaiguan.
Therefore, he only left a small number of troops in Zunhua, Yutian and other places to contain the Liaodong Army, while Liangcheng in the south was simply abandoned by him.
Soon the three Ming armies won one after another.
Li Xianzhong did not expect that You Shiwei would give up so completely and directly gave up all the gates of Jizhou to him.
In this way, he would have to disperse his forces to defend the newly occupied city.
You Shiwei wanted to fight him in Jizhou City, but he refused to let him do so.
So Li Xianzhong bypassed Jizhou and attacked Tongzhou, the gateway to the capital.
This time it was You Shiwei's turn to be dumbfounded. Li Xianzhong actually didn't attack Jizhou and went straight to Tongzhou. Wasn't he afraid that his retreat would be cut off?
Only five days after the war began, the cavalry of the Liaodong Army reached the foot of Tongzhou City, which was only 40 miles away from the capital, causing an uproar in the capital!
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