"Wang Pu and Yang Guozhu were incompetent and the Xuan Mansion, which was heavily defended, was captured by the yellow-robed thieves in just a few days.
Zhu Dadian of Tianjin and Zhang Shize of Tongzhou were both incompetent and failed to block the attack of the thieves in yellow for me.
Wu Sangui in Zhuzhou deceived the emperor. I received a letter from Wu Sangui a few days ago. The city of Zhuzhou is as stable as Mount Tai.
The thief in yellow basically arrived in the capital together with Wu Sangui's inscription.
Now the thieves in yellow are attacking outside the capital, and nearly 200,000 troops have surrounded the capital.
But no one can help me solve my problems."
Emperor Chongzhen never thought that the thieves in yellow would arrive so quickly.
From the time when thieves in yellow raised troops to attack Henan, to now they are heavily besieging the city.
In just half a year, the yellow-robed thieves came to the capital from the west. Hundreds of thousands of Ming troops did not stop the yellow-robed thieves.
Now the capital city is surrounded by thieves in yellow clothes, but the Ming army in the city dare not go out to fight.
Emperor Chongzhen was very panicked. Looking at history, at this point, he was only one step away from the destruction of the country.
Unexpectedly, Guo Zuo of the Ming Dynasty would be terminated when he came to him.
Emperor Chongzhen's heart was full of anger, shame and other emotions.
He felt that he was ashamed of his ancestors and his brothers.
He was angry at his own incompetence and angry at the fact that none of the officials in the Ming Dynasty were loyal ministers and good generals, which was why Ming Dynasty reached this point.
Wen Tiren's confidant, Zuodu Yushi Tang Shiji stood up and said with panic in his voice:
"Reporting to your Majesty, I have heard that Wu Sangui surrendered without a fight.
We can all calculate the time when the thief in yellow will arrive in the capital.
After three or four days of waiting at Zhuzhou, the thieves in yellow would not be able to reach the capital so quickly.
I ask your Majesty to take down Wu Xiang, the commander of the capital camp. We cannot leave the safety of the capital in the hands of these people with ulterior motives."
Tang Shiji's reminder made Emperor Chongzhen wake up immediately.
The thief in yellow arrived too quickly. He had just received the inscription from Wu Sangui, and the city of Zhuzhou was as stable as Mount Tai.
Within a few days, the thieves in yellow arrived outside the capital.
It seems that Wu Sangui has surrendered to the men in yellow and used Zhuzhou, which was heavily guarded by soldiers, as a bargaining chip for his own glory and wealth, and dedicated it to the thieves in yellow.
Emperor Chongzhen heard rumors that the situation in Xuanfu was because the generals had surrendered, which was why the thieves in yellow came so quickly.
The imperial eunuchs he sent were too late and failed to take control of the army in time.
Only in Tongzhou, which is closest to the capital, can Cao Huachun control Tongzhou's army.
The imperial guards sent out by the capital could all see the yellow-robed thieves attacking the city.
Tongzhou was defended for a long time and was only breached some time ago.
Only then did Emperor Chongzhen believe that Tongzhou really could not be defended and had been captured by a heavy army of thieves in yellow.
He weighed in his mind that he could no longer let Wu Sangui's father, who was suspected of defecting to the enemy, continue to lead the Beijing camp.
Once Wu Sangui really surrenders to the thieves in yellow, he will persuade Wu Xiang to surrender and open the gate of the capital.
The fortune and life of Emperor Chongzhen and the fate of the Ming Dynasty were all ruined by their father and son.
"Immediately remove Wu Xiang from the post of commander of the capital camp, and let Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Chengguo, take charge of the capital camp, assisted by Zhenyuan Marquis Gu Zhaoji.
Wu Xiang and his family members were forced into a prison to await trial."
Emperor Chongzhen could not trust civilian officials and military generals, so he left the defense of the capital to the nobles.
Xungui and Ming Dynasty both prospered and suffered losses.
Emperor Chongzhen could rest assured by entrusting the defense of the capital to them rather than entrusting it to civilian and military generals who did not know whether to surrender to the thieves in yellow.
Emperor Chongzhen finally set his sights on Yang Sichang.
Emperor Chongzhen trusted Yang Sichang very much and handed over the military command of Northern Zhili to him.
Yang Sichang used this kind of record to repay.
The thieves in yellow had already reached the outside of the capital, and Yang Sichang's preparations to occupy the enemy had no effect at all.
The officials he selected were either incompetent or eager to surrender to the thieves in yellow.
Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "Yang Sichang, the Minister of the Cabinet and Minister of War, has betrayed my trust.
He led a large army to fight, but lost the city and territory, and even allowed thieves in yellow to besiege the capital. This is an unforgivable crime.
He was taken to Caishikou and executed in Lingchi."
The guards in the palace immediately stepped forward and pushed Yang Sichang out of the palace.
Yang Sichang lowered his head, but he did not complain.
He commanded the army himself and failed to resist the thieves in yellow.
He presided over the peace negotiations with Hou Jin, but did not play its due role.
Now that thieves in yellow are besieging the capital, he has nothing to blame. If he takes on this responsibility, he can think of the day he will have after failure.
Emperor Chongzhen saw Yang Sichang being dragged away.
He asked the civil and military officials what strategies they had for retreating from the enemy.
All civil and military officials were silent, and no one could come up with a strategy to retreat from the enemy.
Emperor Chongzhen looked a little lonely, flicked his sleeves and ordered to retreat.
…………………………
Huang Dongping, the shopkeeper of Huang's Grain Store, is sitting on the counter of the grain store.
A skinny middle-aged woman, with trembling hands, put all the scattered silver on the counter.
"Shopkeeper, I'll buy five taels of rice bran."
Huang Dongping frowned when he heard this. Five taels of rice bran would cost a lot of sacks.
"Sister, are you sure you want to buy five taels of rice bran? You can buy one stone of brown rice with this money."
The middle-aged woman said firmly: "This is my husband's life money, and he will follow you to the city wall to defend the city tomorrow.
I know you sell rice bran here. As soon as I get the money, I will exchange them for rice bran.
The backbone of the family is gone, and only me and my young children are left.
Buying rice is likely to bring disaster, but keeping money is even more likely to bring disaster.
Those adults who buy these rice bran will not eat pig food.
When the time comes and I am short of things, I can exchange these rice bran for some with my neighbor."
When Huang Dongping heard this sentence, he understood the cause and effect.
He immediately accepted the money and sent a man to deliver the rice bran to the man's home.
He also specifically told the waiters to break the sacks and sprinkle some rice bran in front of the door before entering.
Huang Dongping bought a large amount of rice bran and sold it to the poor. In today's world, many poor people cannot even afford rice bran.
They could only let their husbands participate in the defense of the city, receive money from the court, and let their wives and children at home buy some rice to satisfy their hunger.
As far as Huang Zhongping knew, the imperial court distributed twenty taels of silver to each person, and when it was distributed to the people, only three or five taels were left.
These corrupt officials even take money from other people's lives.
Corrupt officials took advantage of it, as well as petty officials and city gangsters.
They see that there is no youth in the family but there is rice. What will happen to this family will be endless troubles, and the bones and marrow will be sucked out by these people.
When Huang Dongping opens the door every morning, there are more unknown bodies on the street.
Now that the weather is getting warmer, people who freeze to death are very rare, and most of them die of starvation.
Huang Dongping didn't dare to save them, not to mention that he couldn't save them with his worth.
If we really can afford to save him, then the Jin Yiwei will come to the door and help the Huang family in.
Without any reason, these people can extort some money from their businessmen.
If you really give them a reason, their whole family and half their life, at this price, they will be considered very lucky.
Huang Dongping heard the sound of gongs outside, and he pricked up his ears to listen.
The Ming Dynasty wanted to execute Yang Sichang, the Minister of War, at Caishikou, the chief culprit of the failure to unite the troops in Northern Zhili.
Huang Dongping believes that when the Qin Army and the Ming Army are fighting, it will take more than a few outstanding generals to turn the current war situation around.
From what he learned, under the rule of the Qin army, the people could at least afford to eat.
Never mind whether they are eating sweet potatoes, corn, or rice bran.
As long as they have enough to eat, no one wants to rebel, and most of them live peacefully.
Under the Ming Dynasty, the people simply did not have enough to eat.
As long as someone rises up, these hungry people will join the rebellion.
The Ming Dynasty continued to lose blood, and the King of Qin developed steadily.
Even if the Ming and Qin armies were evenly matched, the King of Qin would definitely win in the end.
What's more, now, Ming's army is defeated in one attack.
Huang Dongping felt that he saw very clearly that with the strength of the Ming army in the Ming capital, there was no way to defend the capital.
He stood up and walked towards the market entrance.
Huang Dongping came to Caishikou and saw that the atmosphere in the capital was very tense even now.
Here at Caishikou, there are still many people watching.
When Huang Dongping saw half of it, he left.
Ling Chi's punishment was too intrusive, and some foolish people rushed to eat the flesh and blood cut off by the knife in order to vent their anger.
"Lao Huang, Lao Huang."
As soon as Huang Dongping turned around, he heard a familiar voice calling him.
He saw it was Zhou Li who was in the oil business.
"Old Zhou, you are still staying in the capital."
"Old Huang, let's go sit in the teahouse.
There’s not much to see here.”
They came to a teahouse they frequented.
There are many regular customers here, chatting about the situation in the capital while enjoying tea.
"The Qin army is advancing too fast and has already surrounded the capital. I think the Ming Dynasty is about to be over."
"To be more subtle, don't invite the Jin Yiwei."
"What are you afraid of? In this current situation, the Jin Yiwei are busy taking care of things, and they have no time to take care of us common people."
"The daughter of my second uncle's cousin's nephew is the concubine of the son of the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
I heard from him that half of the officials in the Ming Dynasty have already fled.
These are the people who can see the opportunity in the early stage and immediately abandon their official positions and run away.
When the time comes, they will transform and become the new great masters."
Huang Dongping and Zhou Li sat on the side.
They drank tea and chatted.
Huang Dongping asked: "Old Zhou, I am a native of Beijing, and I have such a big business. Even if the situation reaches this level, I will not avoid it.
You can pour rapeseed oil all over the country and sell the oil in your hands at a low price, and you can directly leave the capital, a place of right and wrong."
Zhou Li took a sip of tea and said helplessly: "The situation is developing too fast, where can I run?
My hometown is Henan, and when I got the news, it was already occupied by the Qin army.
You tell me where I can run, or towards a war zone?
Under the conditions at that time, I could only choose to escape to Shandong and the southeastern region.
If the capital city can't stop it, can Shandong and the southeastern regions be able to stop it?
If you think about it carefully, it's impossible.
As a businessman with no background, I went to an unfamiliar place, and that was a lamb to be slaughtered.
I just want to end the war as soon as possible, and then I will leave it to fate whether I will die or live.
It’s much better than being scared now.”
When Huang Dongping heard what Zhou Li said, he couldn't dissuade him. At this time, he was already luckier than many people to be alive.
…………………………
Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen and Zhenyuan Marquis Gu Zhaoji inspected the capital camp.
As nobles, they understand the situation in the Beijing camp.
Gu Zhaoji has a relatively straightforward personality and has never had much of a presence in the court before.
As the deputy general of the Beijing camp this time, after inspecting the Beijing camp, he couldn't help but say:
"Mr. Cheng Guo, can the capital camp in this situation be able to stop the yellow-robed thieves from attacking the city?
That is simply wishful thinking.
The country spends hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year to maintain the Beijing camp, and this is what it comes up with.
The camp was full of old, weak, sick and disabled people. We counted them according to the roster, but not even half of the soldiers came to the school ground."
Zhu Chunchen was not surprised at all and said directly: "It is already very good to have so many soldiers.
Which of our nobles in the capital city has not benefited from the capital camp?
I remember that in the Zhenyuan Marquis Mansion, there were dozens of places in the Beijing camp, all occupied by children of the Gu family.
Not only did they not come to the Beijing camp for a day of training, they also asked their ordinary soldiers from the Beijing camp to help them with some chores.
There are also some well-off Beijing soldiers who spend money to hire some ordinary people to help them train and do exercises."
Gu Zhaoji could only smile helplessly after listening to Zhu Chunchen's words.
He also has a certain understanding of the current situation in Beijing Camp.
But I didn't expect that the entire Beijing Camp had become completely incompetent.
Zhu Chunchen saw that Gu Zhaoji was a little confused, he smiled and said: "Don't worry! We Beijing soldiers are not needed to defend the city.
They were all recruited from garrison soldiers near the capital and young men recruited to guard the city.
By the time the Beijing camp goes to the battlefield, the war has reached its most critical moment. If the Beijing camp doesn't go to the battlefield at that time, it won't be of much use."
Gu Zhaoji sighed deeply. What did he want to do for the Ming Dynasty?
But they found that the Ming Dynasty was already in trouble and nothing could be done.
…………………………
The residence of Wen Tiren, the first minister of the Ming Dynasty.
Wen's party and his party were discussing matters at Wen Tiren's residence.
In front of Chongzhen, Wen Tiren's biggest characteristic was that he did not form any clique and was a pure minister.
In the official environment of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to reach the position of chief minister without forming a party.
If you don't form a party, how can you exclude Zhou Yanru?
If you don't form a party, how can you block the attacks from other forces?
If you don't form a party, how can you use the power of the chief minister to seek benefits for yourself?
"Master Chief, we need to prepare early."
"Master Chief Assistant, the force of the thieves in yellow is too strong. The city's defense is already very strong, but it may not be able to stop the thieves in yellow from attacking for a long time.
Mr. Chief Assistant, is there any way to point out a way out for us?"
Tang Shiji, the censor of Zuodu, suggested: "Master Wen and the Holy Emperor can negotiate peace with Hou Jin. We can also try to negotiate peace with the thieves in yellow."
Wen Tiren felt that there was something in Tang Shiji's words.
He immediately asked other civil servants to leave, leaving Tang Shiji alone.
Wen Tiren retreated and had a secret conversation with Tang Shiji.
"Mr. Wen, your proposal to negotiate peace with the Qin army has a low success rate, but regardless of success or failure, it will be beneficial to us.
If the peace negotiation is successful, you will be a hero of the Ming Dynasty.
The peace talks failed because the Qin army was the peace advocate.
If King Su He of Qin really conquers the world, they will not kill all the Zhuhe faction."
When Wen Tiren heard this suggestion, his eyes lit up.
