It was early morning on March 23rd, the 17th year of Chongzhen reign in the Ming Dynasty.
When the morning light came again, Concubine Yuan Guifei was crying in a ruined temple with the two sons of Emperor Chongzhen, Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao and the fifth prince Zhu Cihuan.
Because they have been surrounded by more than two thousand Dashun Army cavalry riding white hats and blue robes! Wang Chengen led twenty or thirty of the most loyal eunuchs to block the entrance of the ruined temple, and was negotiating with a certain captain of the Dashun Army to surrender.
The "surrender and save life" order issued by Zhu Cixi was now in Yuan Guifei's hands.
The decree of Prince Fujun of the Ming Dynasty is that he is not allowed to die in festivals!
"Starving to death is a small matter, but losing integrity is a big deal" is not allowed here in Zhu Cixiang! If Concubine Yuan Guifei dies, who will take care of Zhu Cixiang's two younger brothers?
Zhu Cixiang was filial to his father, Emperor Chongzhen, and friendly to his younger brothers. How could you bear to let them be left alone and helpless in the hands of King Chuang, with no one to take care of them? That's why he asked Concubine Yuan Gui to act together with Yong Wang Zhu Cizhao and Fifth Prince Zhu Cihuan... He also arranged for Wang Cheng'en, a loyal eunuch, to be with them.
This brotherly friendship is so touching!
"What? Surrender on an order? Why is there such a thing?"
Li Laiheng, Li Zicheng's great-nephew, felt incredible after reading the Prince's Edict written in vernacular Chinese twice.
This edict stated that Wang Chengen was a rare loyal person in the Ming Dynasty. He was not afraid of dangers and protected the prince, the three princes and Concubine Yuan Guifei from breaking out. When the enemy was pursuing them and the whole army could not escape, he resolutely shouldered the burden of rearguard and let the prince and King Ding go first. He protected Concubine Yuan Gui and the two young princes.
Such acts of loyalty truly moved the heavens and the earth, and changed the colors of the mountains and rivers. Therefore, His Royal Highness the Prince of Fujun could not bear that a loyal man should not die a good death, nor could he bear that his brother and concubine would not be cared for. Therefore, he issued an edict, ordering Wang Chengen to surrender to save his life, and entrusted him to take care of Concubine Yuan Gui and the two princes...
"The surname is Wang," Li Laiheng looked at the dejected loyalist Wang Chengen who was standing in front of his horse, "was the crown prince of the Zhu Thief with you before?"
"Together," Wang Chengen nodded, "otherwise how could he give me an order?"
That’s right! Li Laiheng thought about it and realized that this was the truth.
Li Laiheng asked again: "What about the emperor of the Red Thieves? Where is he?"
"I don't know about this..." Wang Cheng'en said, "I was ordered to protect the prince. I wonder where the Holy Master is?"
"But someone reported that the Zhu Thief Emperor has also arrived at Dongzhimen!" Li Laiheng said sternly, "You're not covering for him, are you?"
Wang Chengen smiled bitterly and said: "The Holy One did go to Dongzhimen, but then left again... The Holy One is the king of a country, and the prince is the crown prince. How could he break through all the way? It would be too easy for you to catch them all.
Besides, general, will you let the prince go and not pursue him? If the prince and the emperor are together, why don't they be caught by the general? "
Li Laiheng thought about it, yes, he would have to chase the prince whether he was with the emperor or not. No matter what, we can't let him join Wu Sangui's army, otherwise we will be in big trouble.
Thinking of this, Li Laiheng immediately sent a brigade with four to five hundred horsemen to escort Wang Chengen, Yuan Guifei, Zhu Cizhao, and Zhu Cihuan to Beijing. He himself led the remaining two thousand cavalry and continued to chase in the direction of Yongping.
…
"The thieves are coming!"
At dusk, the subordinates who guarded the left road in Tianjin flew straight into the Tianjin Acropolis and brought horrifying news.
Ye Bushou was the sentinel ranger in the Ming army. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of them were served by the servants of senior warlords such as the chief soldier, deputy chief soldier, and staff general. In fact, they are the backbone private soldiers of the warlords!
The current Ming Dynasty army has basically become feudal warlords, and has basically lost its strict organization. Only by relying on the big warlords to coax the small warlords, subcontracting an army layer by layer, so that all levels of military leaders share the interests, can they barely maintain it.
This is the situation in Tianjin Town. Cao Youyi, the commander-in-chief of the garrison, is ostensibly the commander-in-chief of the three armies, but in fact he can only control more than a thousand people in the Chinese army. Among them, the only ones he can really rely on are a hundred or dozens of Cao's servants. The left and right associations in Tianjin Town are each controlled by deputy general Lou Guangxian and deputy general Jin Bin. These two deputy generals also have more than a hundred servants each.
In addition, there are 1,000 people in Fubiao under the command of the governor of Tianjin, who are actually controlled by General Yang Weihan, the commander-in-chief of Fubiao. Yang Weihan, like Cao Youyi, Lou Guangxian, and Jin Bin, was also a small warlord with hundreds of servants.
In other words, there are about 5,000 soldiers and horses on the Tianjin Guard side, controlled by four warlords respectively. Among them, there are about 500 servants who can actually fight.
Although these four warlords are superior in name, they actually have no subordinates. Cao Youyi, the commander-in-chief, has long been unable to command his two deputy commander-in-chiefs, let alone command General Biaotong.
When none of the few small warlords can command anyone, the civilian officials used to "control the military" can usually play a small role. However, it is not certain who is in charge of things. Sometimes it is the governor-general, sometimes it is the governor, and sometimes it is the military preparation. Here in Tianjin, the governor Feng Yuanyang had to take care of a large number of maritime and water transportation affairs and did not have much energy to take care of the garrison and military affairs. Therefore, Yuan Yuzong, the deputy envoy and military commander who took office in the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, had always been appointed. Guan Jun.
However, after Feng Yuanyang received the order from the Prince of Fujun brought by Wang Zhixin a few days ago, he began to organize military affairs, hoping to mobilize the Ming army guarding Tianjin to pick up Chongzhen and Zhu Cixiang who had escaped from the capital.
When the news of "the coming of bandits" reached Tianjin Guard, he was in his governor's office discussing the dispatch of troops with the commander-in-chief Cao Youyi and Yang Weihan.
In the Bingbei Dao Yamen, Bingbei Daoyuan Yuzong was having a secret conversation with Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin in the inner hall.
When Ye Bu received it, the three of them were frowning and discussing something in low voices. There was no one waiting in the room. At this time, I heard the sound of footsteps outside the house. Before anyone arrived, the shouts with a Guanzhong accent had already arrived. It was Yuan Yuzong's close family member, and there was a little excitement in the voice: "Master, Master, the bandits are here, the bandits are here! Thousands of cavalry are coming along the canal and have already arrived in the Yangcun area. "
The three people in the room suddenly stood up. You looked at me, and I looked at you. The expressions on their faces were both excited and a little nervous.
Yuan Yuzong, who was in his forties, had a rosy complexion and was shiny, suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed: "It's a big deal!"
As the deputy envoy of the Ming Dynasty and the military commander, Yuan Yuzong was overjoyed when he heard that the thieves had arrived!
The two deputy commanders also looked surprised. Just as they were about to speak, the family member had already opened the door. This elderly servant was actually trembling with excitement just like Yuan Yuzong.
"I'm very happy, sir! The bandits, oh, the Da Shuntian soldiers have finally arrived! There are more than a thousand cavalry!"
Yuan Yuzong had already regained his reserve as a civil servant, nodded and said: "Go down and ask the accountant to prepare three thousand, no, four thousand taels of silver!"
"I obey, little one." The old man went excitedly.
The two deputy commanders, Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin, had already approached, with fawning expressions on their faces.
Lou Guang said first: "Soldiers, do you think we will take action immediately?"
Jin Bin also echoed: "The troops are prepared, and Lao Yang who patrols the tender is also of the same mind as us. Only Cao is stubborn and wants to work with Old Man Feng to accomplish something to protect Nan Xing. So we have an absolute advantage here in Tianjin Acropolis." !”
"Just take down one acropolis?" Yuan Yuzong smiled, "Isn't the credit a little small?"
Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin looked at each other with excitement on their faces. Lou Guangxian asked: "Bingbei, what do you mean..."
"We have to take down that stupid king Zhu Youjian!" Yuan Yuzong said, "This is an unparalleled achievement!"
"Capture Hun Jun?"
"The Hunjun is coming to our Tianjin?"
Lou Guangxian and Jin Bin both looked in disbelief when they heard this.
Yuan Yuzong smiled and said: "It's either a foolish king or a prince... Otherwise, what do you think Feng Yuanyang, Cao Youyi and Li Shichun are discussing now?"
