The city fell, and the invading army swarmed into the capital and surrounded the official residence.
After hearing the news, Fan Jingwen, a cabinet scholar, rushed to the palace gate.
But they learned that the emperor had left the palace and was missing.
He hurried to the court room again, but the bandits blocked the road.
Fan Jingwen cried: "The emperor is out, how can I go home?"
So, he lay down in the temple beside the road and drafted his testament, and wrote in big characters: "As a minister, I cannot make contributions on the battlefield, and I will die with lingering regrets."
With death in mind, he jumped into the ancient well next to the Shuangta Temple.
Later, when they learned that the intruder had entered the Forbidden City and received the imperial edict three days later, the whole city was horrified.
Ni Yuanlu, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and his family of thirteen, Li Banghua, the censor of the left capital, Shi Bangzhao, the censor of the deputy capital, Ling Yiqu, the minister of Dali Temple, Wang Jiayan, the right minister of the Ministry of War...
The civil servants were Fan Jingwen, and the honorary relatives were Xinlehou Liu Wenbing. There were about forty people in total. If family members were added, thousands of people died for their country, or burned themselves, hanged themselves, or threw themselves into wells, which is immeasurable.
It seems like a lot, but out of the hundreds of officials in the capital who have achieved 2,000 honors and sacrifices, less than 10% died for the country.
Even the palace maids committed suicide more than 200 times.
Three days later, the body of Emperor Chongzhen was discovered, and the Shun army moved the coffins of Chongzhen and Queen Zhou out of the palace confinement and displayed them to the public at Donghua Gate.
As expected, "Thirty of the ministers cried and worshiped, and sixty of them worshiped without crying. The rest were scornful."
The people passing by covered their faces and wept, not daring to look further.
Li Yan watched from a distance and remained silent for a long time before turning his head and sighing deeply.
Immediately, not far away, he discovered Niu Venus.
This strategist who was born in Juren also had a serious expression on his face.
"Hmph!" Niu Jinxing also saw Li Yan, immediately lowered the curtain, snorted and left.
How can it be so easy to let go of the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers?
The irony is that Li Yan and other people who broke into the army sighed for Emperor Chongzhen.
Unexpectedly, when the sky was slightly bright, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, and Wei Zaode, the first assistant, led all the civil and military officials and couldn't wait to enter the palace to congratulate them. They dressed in plain clothes and stood outside the Meridian Gate.
At this time, Li Zicheng hadn't come out yet, so they were waiting eagerly, looking forward to seeing what was going on.
Dao, as time passed, the generals of the Shun army arrived. When passing by, they saw the officials who had arrived early, with disdain in their eyes.
"What are these people doing?" Liu Zongmin asked puzzled.
"It's about persuading him to come in!" Gao Yigong said in a deep voice: "My brother-in-law entered the palace, and Chongzhen died again. They want to persuade him to come in, so as to replace Ming with shun!"
Liu Zongmin, Bai Wang, Liu Fangliang and other powerful generals hated officials the most in their lives, and they hated all civil and military officials.
In their simple understanding, it was this group of corrupt officials, disloyal and unjust high-ranking officials who ruined their families and forced them to rebel.
Liu Zongmin said disdainfully: "Before Chongzhen was buried, these people are eager to curry favor with His Majesty and seek official positions. They are really shameless."
"Are our Dashun officials created just for them?"
The generals also nodded in agreement.
"Let me play with them!"
So, Bai Wang grinned and entered the palace. Seeing the fat body of Duke Cheng, Zhu Yichun, he couldn't help but bend his feet and hook them around his neck.
Zhu Yichun did not dare to resist. His fat body was rolled into a ball, unable to move, and he was sweating profusely.
"Look at me!" Not to be outdone, Liu Zongmin directly waved his fan-like palm and beat the first assistant Wei Zaode hard, who coughed violently.
The generals were so happy that they went into battle one after another, and all the officials, both civil and military, were bullied into a panic.
"What kind of hat is this? It's so funny!"
"It's elegant, hanging by the neck, like a big rooster."
"You're so thin, so you need to practice more."
When some people saw this, thinking about their own situation and the mistreatment at this time, they couldn't help but feel sad and burst into tears.
Li Yan, Song Xiance and others looked on with cold eyes and paid no attention to it.
Obviously, they looked down upon these disloyal ministers from the bottom of their hearts.
On the side, the eunuch Wang Dehua, who had opened the Desheng Gate and surrendered, could not help scolding the ministers:
"The country is destroyed and the monarch is dead. If you don't want to bury the late emperor, what are you doing here?"
So he started to cry alone, and dozens of eunuchs also cried.
Wei Zaode and other high-ranking officials also burst into tears.
Seeing this, the generals of the Shun army stopped and felt quite bored.
In the Forbidden City, Li Zicheng accepted the palace maid Dou Meiyi as his concubine, and he stood up without noticing the officials outside the Meridian Gate.
"His Majesty!"
After he washed up, Gu Junen stepped forward and said respectfully: "Chongzhen is the king of a country, and his body is exposed outside. It will inevitably make people intolerable and lose the support of the people."
"You're right."
Li Zicheng glanced at the charming concubine, turned around and said, "He is also an emperor after all, and he is different from those ordinary people."
"Send her to a Buddhist temple and bury her in Concubine Tian's tomb!"
Gu Junen felt confident and sighed in his heart.
"By the way, there's so much crying outside, what's going on?"
Outside the Meridian Gate, the voices of thousands of people were so loud that Li Zicheng couldn't help but be awakened. He yawned: "It woke me up."
"All officials from the Ming Dynasty came to persuade us to join?"
Li Yan came over at this time and said softly.
"Quan Jin?" Li Zicheng was stunned, and then laughed: "Hahaha, I am proclaimed emperor and Ming Dynasty, what does it have to do with them?"
"Your Majesty, it's better to receive one or two. It's what the people want."
Niu Jinxing said hurriedly.
"People's support? They don't care about people's support?"
Li Zicheng snorted coldly.
Song Xiance, Gu Junen and others also advised him.
It took a long time before Li Zicheng responded.
Li Yan looked at all this and felt something was wrong.
In the past, it only took one person for His Majesty to obey, but today it takes everyone to convince him.
Could it be that the emperor has changed?
At this time, Li Yan couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, this is not the case at this time. You can rest easy. There are tens of thousands of Guan Ning cavalry in Shanhaiguan, so we must be on guard!"
…
At this time, Wu Sangui led Guan Ning's cavalry and boldly attacked Yutian.
On March 5, the imperial court granted Wu Sangui the title of Ping Xibo and ordered Wu Sangui to quickly lead troops to defend Beijing.
On March 19, Wu Sangui led his troops to withdraw from Ning and arrived at Shanhaiguan.
Immediately, after receiving the order, he led his troops westward to the capital without stopping.
On the 22nd, Wu Sangui's troops arrived in the Yutian area (belonging to Tangshan City, Hebei Province).
He only ran for three days for a distance of 600 miles, so he tried his best.
"Commander, something bad happened, His Majesty collapsed——"
When the spy came to report, his face turned red.
"What?"
Wu Sangui was shocked.
It had only been a few days since the edict was received. Why was the city of Beijing so fragile?
No, if a trespasser breaks into the capital, I’m one of them. I don’t know what’s going to happen?
Ming Dynasty is over, what about me?
"How is the master?"
Wu Sangui asked hurriedly.
His father Wu Xiang was in the capital, admiral of the capital camp, and there was nothing he cared about more than this!
"The intruders have surrendered to the capital camp. I should be fine."
Wu Sangui frowned instead: "Why did you surrender? It would be best to leave the city!"
Doesn't this put the handle in Li Zicheng's hands?
ps: There are currently three chapters, and there will be two more chapters during the day. Please support me!
