"Why are there only these few people? It's almost time now, where have all the people gone? Where have all the officials from the Ming Dynasty gone!"
At Huangjimen, when the sky was approaching, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty finally roared unbearably.
The emperor seemed to have reason to be angry, because the number of officials who came to court today was too small, less than 150. This group of people stood outside the wide Huangji Gate, looking sparse and sparse. No matter how you looked at it, they looked like the situation was over and the birds and beasts had dispersed.
Because Chongzhen went to court so diligently in the morning, most officials couldn't stand it, and it was no surprise that they were late for court. Even Emperor Chongzhen had nothing to do with the fact that officials were late for court... It was not that one or two people were late, but often only a dozen or dozens of them were on time, and the rest were either late or asked for leave.
Emperor Chongzhen couldn't fire all the officials who were late and asked for leave, otherwise the court would be without officials. Moreover, the morning court was really tiring, and it was understandable that the officials couldn't bear it, so Emperor Chongzhen didn't really pursue being late and asking for leave - anyway, all the officials who had something to report would come.
But something is wrong today. It’s already this time and we’ve only come to less than one hundred and fifty. Isn’t this too little?
And today is the day when Li Zicheng comes to the city!
As soon as Li Zicheng arrived, you Ming officials disappeared! Did he run away or become a thief? I really made Ben Mingjun so angry.
"Your Majesty, please calm down..." Wei Zaode, a bachelor of the First Assistant School, who was only about forty years old and was born in a gentle manner, hurriedly left the class to recite, "Xu, the official of the capital who did not go to court, went to raise funds and donated money."
"Nonsense!" Emperor Chongzhen shouted angrily, "Wei Zaode, do you think I am a brainless emperor? Would you believe such shameless lies? I have long asked officials, nobles, and servants to donate military pay, and it took so many days to get twenty Yu Wan, all the officials in the dynasty, almost everyone is crying about poverty! On what day is it today, you are actually rich? You are already rich? You are deceiving the emperor!"
Wei Zaode was reprimanded by Chongzhen, but he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said: "Report to your majesty, I am not deceiving you... Before I went to court, outside the Meridian Gate I met Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi of the East Palace who were sent by His Highness the Prince to persuade them to lose. They were After Chen and Lin persuaded them, many officials gave up going to court and went to Fuchengmen to donate military pay."
This is impossible!
You, Wei Zaode, seem to have a good appearance, and you are a scholar, but it turns out that you are also a traitorous minister who deceives the emperor, and you still don’t know how to repent!
"Where is Luo Yangxing!" Emperor Chongzhen roared. He wanted to ask Luo Yangxing, the commander of the Imperial Guards, to arrest Wei Zaode, the traitorous minister of Wei.
However, Luo Yangxing misunderstood Chongzhen's meaning, and after leaving work, he reported to the court: "I am here... According to my investigation, everything Wei Xueshi said is true, because when I went to court, I also met Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi to persuade them to donate. .”
ah? Is this really happening?
Chongzhen thought something was wrong, shook his head and said: "Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi persuaded everyone to donate money, so everyone is willing to donate money?"
"Yes," Luo Yangxing nodded, "the two of them are very good at words and can touch people's hearts, so officials with extra wealth have donated money..."
Is there such a thing? Emperor Chongzhen was doubtful. Are Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi so powerful? If I had known earlier, I should have put them in charge of soliciting donations, and the military pay problem would have been solved long ago.
Emperor Chongzhen thought about it but still felt wrong, "Luo Yangxing, you said they are very eloquent and can touch people's hearts. How much did you donate?"
Luo Yangxing felt miserable!
He really wanted to donate money, and he was really rich. After donating the money, he could leave Beijing openly, and he could also take part of his savings with him and go to Jiangnan to live freely... But the problem was that he couldn't leave, and he couldn't donate either.
Because his Imperial Guard Commander, Emperor Chongzhen's most trusted confidant, could he donate one or two hundred thousand taels of silver to the Crown Prince Zhu Cihong and then run away to Tianjin with the Crown Prince's decree?
Doesn't this mean that he has taken refuge in the prince, or betrayed Emperor Chongzhen?
But he couldn't tell Emperor Chongzhen clearly that there was no separation between the emperor and the prince?
And now you have to spend money to buy soldiers in Beijing. If you have money, you will have soldiers, and if you have soldiers, you will be a boss! Now that the prince has money and soldiers, he is the uncle!
So Luo Yangxing had no choice but to say with a sad face: "Report to your Majesty, I am really an upright official and I don't have much savings..."
Will you have no money?
Emperor Chongzhen rolled his eyelids and said to himself: You and your father Luo Sigong have been in charge of the Imperial Guard for fifty-eight years together... but they are both honest officials with no money! Who would believe it!
He glanced at the officials outside the Huangji Gate again and found that most of the high officials, including several bachelors and the six ministers and nine ministers, were there. Even Zhou Guozhang and Tian Guozhang, the two richest of the royal relatives, were there. Only Li Guorui, the wealthy man from Empress Dowager Li's (Wanli's mother) family, didn't come. I wonder if it was because of conscience that he lost the donation?
Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was still doubtful, Luo Yangxing added: "If your Majesty still has questions, it is better to send an internal official to Fuchengmen to ask His Highness the Crown Prince."
After being reminded by Luo Yangxing, Emperor Chongzhen woke up from a dream and looked around, looking for reliable eunuchs. After searching, he found that there were also a few missing eunuchs! Wang Zhixin has disappeared since yesterday, and Wang Yongzuo has also disappeared. Now only the two big brothers Wang Chengen and Gao Yushun are still there.
what happened? Did all those eunuchs also donate money?
"Gao Yushun," Emperor Chongzhen did not call Wang Cheng'en, but called the name of Gao Yushun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony. This guy didn't see the prince last night. He came back to serve Chongzhen in the morning and is now going out. I went to Fuchengmen and asked all the officials about their donations."
"Old slave obeys the order!"
After Gao Yushun accepted the decree and hurried to Fuchengmen, the scene of hundreds of officials queuing up to donate money was gone. Because Li Zicheng's Chuangzi banner had already appeared near Diaoyutai, less than five miles away from Fuchengmen.
Appearing together with King Chuang were the dashing and high-spirited old soldiers of Dashun Army! Moreover, there were twenty to thirty thousand people, mostly cavalry, who formed a formation in front of the Diaoyutai. Although not very orderly, they were full of murderous intent!
Zhu Cihong, who had already raised more than 3 million taels of silver, about 130,000 taels of gold, and found more than 200 loyal ministers, naturally had no intention of issuing city edicts to the loyal ministers who donated money.
Therefore, the fundraising was announced and the city gates and nearby city walls in the northwest of Beijing such as Fuchengmen, Xizhimen, Deshengmen, Xibianmen, and Guangningmen were under martial law in preparation for the war.
When Gao Yushun arrived, he was putting on a well-made long scale armor with the help of two chamberlains. This is a rather heavy armor. The armor plates are forged from wrought iron and painted golden yellow. Wearing it with gleaming gold, he looked like a golden armored general.
This set of armor was actually the equipment of the Han generals. Emperor Chongzhen also had a similar armor, but with more surface decorations.
Zhu Cihong's East Palace guards, as well as senior generals such as Zhu Chunchen, Li Guozhen, Wu Xiang, etc., also put on similar armor, either shining with gold or shining with silver, they all looked similar.
As for the ordinary soldiers who followed Zhu Cihong in the Kenan camp of the prince's personal army, and some soldiers in the Beijing camp, most of them wore cloth face armor. It looks similar to the armor worn by Eight Banners soldiers commonly seen in later movies and TV dramas.
In later generations, some people called this kind of armor "cotton armor", which is actually wrong. This kind of armor is called cloth-covered iron armor, because there are still iron sheets under the cloth. As for cotton armor, it also existed, but it was generally not worn alone. Instead, it was lined with iron armor or cloth-covered iron armor, and of course it was also covered on the outside. The so-called wearing two layers of armor usually means one layer of iron armor and one layer of cotton armor. If you add another layer of chain armor, it becomes three layers of armor. Unless you are a very powerful warrior, wearing three layers of armor will make you out of breath while walking.
Seeing that Zhu Cixi had already put on his armor and looked like he was about to go into battle, Gao Yushun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, was so frightened that he could hardly speak.
"Master Qianqian Qiansui, you, what are you doing?"
Zhu Cixiang glanced at the old eunuch, smiled and said, "Li Zicheng is here!"
"Li Zicheng... the rebel is here? Where is he?" Gao Yushun completely forgot what he was here to do, and only fear remained in his heart.
"Here he comes! Just outside the city!" Zhu Cixiang replied with a smile. He was actually just as scared. However, his psychological quality is very good, which he learned in later generations in the Chinese financial market where disasters often occur and thunderstorms occur from time to time - even if he is really scared, he has to put a confident smile on his face!
