After Du Xun left, Zhu Ling leaned on the dragon chair a little tiredly. When he was a child, he had seen how the ancient emperors were doing. It was not until he personally sat on the dragon chair that symbolized the power of the world that he realized that the dragon chair that countless people were fighting for was actually the dragon chair.
So cold.
He squinted his eyes and glanced at the ministers below. They were all like dead people, and no one made a sound. But just now, Mr. Chen Ge was accused of being a traitor by Zhu Ling without saying a word, and his face was a little unhappy.
Zhu Ling sneered in his heart, saying that Li Zicheng, the head of the civil service and the chief minister of the cabinet, tried to take his family out of the city after entering the city, but was arrested in the end and gave away tens of thousands of taels of silver in order to survive.
The intruder Li Zicheng even had a lot of money dug out of Mr. Chen Ge's yard, and ended up beheading him.
Now that we are in this situation, if we can hold off Li Zicheng for a while, it is only a moment. The current Ming Dynasty, regardless of the land south of the Yangtze River, the north is completely ruined.
He stood up slowly and said to the ministers below with a lonely tone: "Everyone can leave now. Who knows whether this bandit Shi will keep his promise, agree at this moment, and attack the city at the next moment? Let's all go and protect it.
Take good care of your family and leave if you can achieve success. My great Ming Dynasty will not miss this moment for you."
"Your Majesty, I will take my leave. I hope your Majesty will take this seriously!"
Xu was dissatisfied with Chen Yan's behavior just now. At this time, he was the first to walk out and said to Zhu Ling, cupping his hands and leaving the hall without looking back.
When the other ministers saw the old man Chen Ge, who was the chief minister of the cabinet, leaving without looking back, they shook their heads, feeling extremely disappointed with the current Ming Dynasty.
At such a critical moment, it was the greatest misfortune of the Ming Dynasty that the country of the Ming Dynasty was handed over to the rebels!
"Why did Mr. Chen Ge agree?"
On the way out of the imperial city, the military department stopped Chen Yan when Shi Guangheng was in trouble, and his tone was somewhat dissatisfied.
"What nonsense!"
Chen Yan must have been quite angry, so he just threw up his sleeves and left. He once had a fierce quarrel with Chongzhen about Wu Sangui giving up the land outside the customs, which lasted for three months.
There is only one reason: the superiors are in a hurry, so they carry out their plan and immediately decide the matter, and abandon the land to kill our people. What can be done?
If this is a fact known to many ministers in the court, your Majesty's behavior today is completely intentional to harm us. He will definitely kill me afterwards to silence the world!
What a majesty! Such a vicious scheme.
After all the ministers left the hall with heavy steps, Zhu Ling also breathed a sigh of relief. Naturally, he ordered the ministers to leave not because he really wanted to sit back and wait for death, but for his next plan.
The next moment, he immediately announced that the commander of the Jinyi Guards, Wang Guoxinghe, would command Tongzhi Li Ruogui and the other two. When they arrived at the main hall, Zhu Ling looked at the two of them. They both had the waist of a wasp, legs of a mantis, and resolute faces. They were worthy of being called Jinyiwei.
"How many people do I have in Jin Yiwei now?"
"Your Majesty, there are about five thousand people in Jinyi Guard City." Wang Guoxing took a step forward, bent down and said, while Li Ruogui and Shao took a step back and stood respectfully behind.
"Find out all the people you think are loyal to me and wait in front of the main hall. Then I will give you a list. There will be two types of people on it, one will search their homes, and the other will ask their entire family to pack their clothes.
Everyone wait here, remember, hurry!"
Wang Guoxing and Li Ruogui raised their heads slightly. Although they didn't know the reason for His Majesty's move, since it was an imperial edict, they would naturally implement it unconditionally.
"Also, there is a Baihu in your place named Gao Wencai. Find him for me, promote him to Qianhu, and let him choose three hundred people to serve me!"
"According to the order!"
The two of them immediately bent over and backed away. They didn't straighten up until they carefully left the hall.
"Sir, why is Your Majesty asking you now?" Li Ruogui did not dare to say the next few words, and his frown showed his doubts.
"As a minister, don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask. How many years have you been here at Jinyiwei? Don't you know this?" Wang Guoxing was very unhappy. In his heart, His Majesty's words were words that could not be violated. He could only
Just obey orders.
And obedience, without asking, has always been the principle of Jin Yiwei.
As expected, Li Ruogui didn't ask any more questions. He had known about it before, but now the situation naturally made him feel a little frustrated. The rebels had arrived at the door, but as a minister, he was helpless.
At this time, the person in charge of Jinyiwei was naturally Luo Yangxing, but Zhu Ling knew this person and finally surrendered to Li Zicheng. After Dorgon entered the capital, he turned around and surrendered to Dorgon again. If he could die for his country like Wang Guoxing and the others,
He would be reused, but at this juncture, he couldn't gamble.
This man named Gao Wencai was only a member of a hundred households at this time. Zhu Ling suddenly promoted him to an official position because of his loyalty. Historical records record that after Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, he took his family of seventeen to die together, and so on.
Loyal and righteous people are naturally favored by kings.
Zhu Ling, who was in the main hall, naturally did not return to the harem. Instead, he called Wang Chengen in front of him and said: "Go and send someone to tell the Queen, the princes and other concubines to pack their things and come to the main hall as soon as possible. I will wait.
them!"
Then he suddenly grabbed Wang Chengen and added: "Tell them, I will only wait for them for an hour! Hurry!"
Wang Chengen also knew that the current situation was not optimistic. The rebels were outside the city. He must have some unfinished business, so he trotted to find other young eunuchs to quickly pass the message. He looked at these unhurried eunuchs.
Eunuchs and Wang Chengen were also anxious. The emperor was so worried, but they were not in a hurry.
No matter what, if the city is really captured, they can still serve the next master.
Standing in the main hall, Zhu Ling was contemplating a plan in his heart. Although he had agreed to Li Zicheng's request to claim the northwest and establish himself as king, these were things Zhu Youjian did not agree to hundreds of years ago.
But now, in order to preserve the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Ling had no choice but to agree temporarily. The northwest land was easy, but the five hundred thousand silver coins were difficult to raise, and he had no money at all.
I am afraid that one thousand taels is not enough, but the homes of those ministers are full of luxury and luxury. The official robes passed down to the palace are either deliberately old or worn out, just to make Zhu Youjian think that they are
Be an honest official.
However, they were able to deceive Chongzhen, but they could not deceive themselves, a young man who had read half of the "History of the Ming Dynasty".
I didn't dare to raid homes before because the civil servants basically had the final say in the court. Even Chongzhen's many oral edicts and imperial edicts had to go through the cabinet. If the cabinet didn't agree, it was equivalent to waste paper.
Confiscation of homes will arouse opposition from civil servants, especially ministers who line their own pockets all day long.
There are historical records that Chongzhen ordered to distribute 100,000 grains for disaster relief, but only 5,000 were left at the bottom! Exploiting people at all levels, how vicious! Everyone thought that Chongzhen was headstrong and suspicious by nature, but they didn’t know that he almost never slept for the sake of the Ming Dynasty for seventeen years.
After a good sleep and a good meal, he said he didn't know how to use people.
That's because the people who spoke about him all spoke from the perspective of history books. If they sat in this position without knowing anything, they might not be able to compete with Chongzhen.
But what makes him most angry now is that Li Jiantai gave him Shangfang Sword and specially organized a farewell banquet before leaving. However, he never thought that this person would directly rebel and surrender to the enemy!
The more Zhu Ling thought about it, the more murderous intent became in his heart. If given the chance, he would definitely kill this beast with his own hands!
After a while, Wang Guoxing led hundreds of people to the front of Fengtian Hall. They all stood there with embroidered spring knives at their waists, bright eyes and tall postures.
"Your Majesty, please bring here all the people we think are loyal to Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" After saying this, Wang Guoxing knelt down on one knee together with Li Ruogui and Gao Wencai, who were standing respectfully behind.
"good!"
Zhu Ling looked at the few people kneeling and the almost thousands of uniformed guards outside the hall, and naturally felt a little more confident in his heart.
"Wu Guoxing, Li Ruogui, Gao Wencai listened to the announcement!"
"I'm here!"
The three of them knelt down heavily, their hearts suddenly filled with excitement. Even though they were facing a formidable enemy, His Majesty's trust was enough for them to bloom with passion again!
"Order the kingdom to be the commander of the Jinyi Guards, and command the power of the Jinyi Guards. Li Ruolian is ordered to be the commander of the Nanzhen Fushidu, and he will be the commander of Qianhu with his high literary talent! Immediately arrest the traitorous officials who confiscate their homes!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
After handing the handwritten list to Wang Guoxing, Zhu Ling personally stepped forward to help him up. The other person looked at the emperor in front of him with fear and fear, and his excitement rose spontaneously, as if tears were about to pour out in the next moment.
Zhu Ling put his hands on the other party's generous shoulders and said sincerely: "The Ming Dynasty has reached this critical moment of survival, and I place my hope on you."
Looking at His Majesty's sincere eyes, Wang Guoxing felt excited in his heart, and he immediately said: "I wish I could go through fire and water for the Ming Dynasty!"
"good!"
This sound also made the two people behind them feel a little grateful, and the flags outside the hall approaching the main hall could not help but tighten their grip on the handles of their knives, and their desire to serve the country and His Majesty became more and more intense.
Zhu Ling pulled Wang Guoxing aside and whispered: "When we raid the house, we must not disturb other people. We will announce to the outside world that the court has negotiated peace with the rebel army. This move will only arrest the rebellious officials and traitors. Everyone else will go home and are not allowed to go out."
Also, when searching a house, remember to look under their yard to see if there is any money underneath."
When Wang Guoxing heard Zhu Ling's words, he was shocked. When did His Majesty know about this?
But he quickly came to his senses and responded immediately: "Yes!"
"Go quickly!"
After Wang Guoxing and Li Ruolian left, Gao Wencai stayed in the main hall with his three hundred people, and he was full of doubts about His Majesty leaving them here.
"High literary talent."
"Qianhu of Jin Yiwei, a high-ranking scholar, has come to ask for your Majesty's instructions."
"Twenty people left the city, half of them went to Shanhaiguan to level up Xibo, and handed this secret letter to him. Remember, it must be handed over to him, and there was no one else. They rushed 800 miles to Tianjin to look for ships. The bigger the better, the better.
The more the merrier.”
"Your Majesty, that humble minister?"
"Do you dare to go out of the city to find Li Zicheng to deliver a message for me?" Zhu Ling actually knew in his heart that Gao Wencai dared to sacrifice his life for his country with seventeen members of his family. He would not refuse such a trivial matter, let alone be ignored by the other party.
Win over.
"Even if I die, I will accomplish this for Your Majesty!"
[Author's digression]: Some people say that there may be some hope in moving south. I do not advocate moving south. The prince can go to Nanjing, but the emperor must not run away.
We still have to fight and stay in the north. Let’s take a look at how to fight in detail.