On the other side, hundreds of Jinyi guards led by Li Ruolian were also unaware and surrounded the residence of Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of War at that time. They blocked the place with water, and the people inside had no idea of the danger coming.
In front of the door, rows of uniformed guards were already lined up. They were a little nervous and excited about the house of the Minister of War, which was about to be ransacked. After all, the people in front of them were high-ranking officials. They had not ransacked their homes for several years, and they didn't know if they were going to raid the house.
gave birth.
"Master Commander, when do we start?" A Qianhu stepped forward and said, while his eyes were always wary of the surroundings.
"His Majesty's order to us is to hurry up."
After saying that, Li Ruolian drew his sword without expression and stepped forward. Qianhu behind him called for others to draw his sword and rush forward. He only called the door. The servant inside received a slap on the neck as soon as he opened the door.
Seeing this tragic situation, the rest of the servants got into a mess and fled in all directions. Li Ruolian did not say anything. The banner guards behind him seemed to have been used to it. They took a few steps to catch up with these servants and kill them all.
More servants and maids came out to check, but they were all found and killed by the Jin Yiwei. They were all like the living king of hell, showing no mercy with their swords in hand, and blood splattered with them every time they struck.
Suddenly, blood flowed all over the ground, and screams were repeated. The Zhang Mansion, which was originally a beautiful place, had turned into a hell on earth in just half a day.
"Insolent! Who is making a noise outside!"
At this time, Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of the Ministry of War, walked out menacingly with his hands behind his back, followed by several trembling maids. Several little girls were really frightened when they saw this scene, but Zhang Jinyan, as the Minister of the Ministry of War, had also been on the battlefield.
Yes, naturally not afraid.
At this moment, his heart was full of anger towards the Jin Yiwei who suddenly broke in and started killing people. The Minister of War, even if His Majesty ordered the punishment, he should not have sent someone directly to the door without notifying him in advance!
It's such a shame and humiliation. If I survive today, I will definitely unite with my students to demand an explanation from His Majesty.
"Mr. Zhang Ge, we are here to settle accounts with the Minister on His Majesty's orders." Li Ruoxian passed over the many corpses on the road and walked slowly into the courtyard, just in time to meet the angry Zhang Jinyan.
"Where is your Majesty's imperial edict? Where is your oral message? At this moment, the enemy is facing you, and your Majesty is raiding your home and killing people for no reason. How can I, a high-ranking official, be so humiliated?"
Zhang Jinyan swung his sleeves and panted heavily. In front of him stood the imperial guards who gathered around him, their hands covered with blood. They were not afraid of danger and even scolded them.
"You are about to die under my sword, and you still have so much to say." Li Ruolian was not angry at all, but sneered, and then continued: "Your Majesty ordered that Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of War, had an affair with thieves and tried to open the city gate to meet them.
The verdict is to be executed without mercy!”
When Zhang Jinyan heard the word "fornication and trespassing," Zhang Jinyan suddenly sweated on his forehead and became weak-headed. He was a little unsteady on his feet for a moment. Thanks to the support of the maid behind him, he didn't faint and die like Chen Yan did.
Never seen it with my own eyes.
"Nonsense! There must be some villain who is provoking it! Your Majesty has wronged me!" Zhang Jinyan felt extremely guilty at this moment.
At the same time, he was extremely confused in his heart. He clearly asked someone to deliver the letter to King Chuang late last night. How could His Majesty know about it today? Could it be an insider?
"At this juncture, you go talk to the King of Hell!"
This time, it was Li Ruolian who personally swung the knife and chopped off his head, but the other person still had an unbelievable look in his eyes before he died. He didn't take back the Xiuchun knife until his head fell to the ground.
Following the death of the master of the mansion, the imperial guards behind him no longer restrained themselves and began their own killing...
"Your Majesty, the Commander-in-Chief ordered us to quickly search the house without stopping, and deposit the silver coins obtained in front of the palace for the father-in-law of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to count them!"
In the time it took to burn an incense stick, Li Ruolian's men had massacred the entire Zhang Mansion. While they were looking for the treasures in the mansion, a flying horse from the flag school came to report.
Li Ruolian saluted to show that he understood, and a complicated look flashed across his eyes. It seemed that His Majesty was really in a hurry. There was no imperial decree, so he directly arrested people according to the list. If this was the case in the peaceful and prosperous times, he would have been attacked by the ministers and would have been too busy to take care of himself.
Fortunately, the enemy is now at hand, the whole city is closed, no one is allowed to go out at will, and the streets are deserted, which allows the Jin Yiwei to raid the house in an orderly manner.
While Wang Guoxing and Li Ruolian were searching the house in an orderly manner, Zhu Ling, who was anxiously walking up and down the main hall in the palace, finally saw the arrival of Queen Zhou and others.
"Your Majesty, the thieves besieged the city and asked me to wait here. Why?" The clothes on Queen Zhou's body were just like Zhu Ling's. They also felt a little dirty and old, but the other party did not dislike it at all, and her words were extremely gentle.
Behind him, the crown prince Zhu Cixiang and his two younger brothers and sisters followed closely behind him, their faces also filled with fear.
"I feel sorry for you, you are so worried when you are a queen." Zhu Ling looked at the Queen Zhou who hanged herself in history, and felt quite sad. This was actually a generation of virtuous queens, but it was only because of Zhu Youjian's willfulness that it seemed very sad.
.
"What did your majesty say? The concubines, princes, and concubines are all members of your majesty and the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, they depend on each other for life and death."
Listening to Empress Zhou's words, which were much better than those of Cixi in the later dynasty, Zhu Ling was also quite emotional. Zhu Youjian was really lucky to have such a queen, and he was also quite lucky to have such a queen.
"We have hope, but we must leave Beijing."
"Why? Since Emperor Taizong established the capital here, Beijing has never moved south even after the great defeat of Tumubao and the troops approaching the city. Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that this move will disregard the honor of your ancestors?" When Empress Zhou heard about the move south, she immediately refused.
The concubines behind him felt a little hopeful, but as the queen scolded them, they did not dare to answer.
"Queen, you are overthinking this. The so-called relocation to the south is just a last resort that I had to do in order to protect our country, the Ming Dynasty. I have never thought of relocating south, and I have no intention of retreating. Do you know how many people in the court and ministers are thinking about fighting with the intruders outside?
Do you want to make a deal? Do you know who is thinking about making a deal?"
"I don't know, but Beijing is the foundation of our Ming Dynasty..."
Queen Zhou was interrupted mid-sentence.
"Chen Yan, the chief assistant of the cabinet, had already started packing his luggage at home, hiding his treasures, thinking that the intruders would invade the city, and escape in chaos; the Minister of War, the cabinet minister Zhang Jinyan, had colluded with the intruders late last night and opened the door late today
The Zhengyang Gate in Beijing opened to welcome the army of thieves. Cao Huachun was captured by me, but there are still countless people who want to open the door and surrender."
"But one person opens the door, and an army of thieves swarms in. The Ming Dynasty is over, and I, you, and them are all over."
Zhu Ling felt quite unbearable when he looked at the underage Crown Prince Zhu Cixi, who was only a few years old.
"I will not retreat, but I am not willing to surrender. I have already thought about sending a few of you to Nanjing to reassure me of the princes and ministers in the south. I will continue to fight in Shandong and Gyeonggi.
Among thieves and slaves, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty was never a person who was greedy for life and afraid of death."
Zhu Ling's words immediately moved the plaintive Empress Zhou to tears, and she stepped forward to hug him.
"It is my concubine who made the mistake of blaming Your Majesty."
"It doesn't matter, the most important thing now is that you guys pack your luggage and dress up like farmers. When the time is right, we will escape from Beijing first."
Zhu Ling didn't know where to put his hands, so he had to push Queen Zhou away first. He was really not in a leisurely and elegant manner at this moment, but he didn't like being hugged like this.
"Where is Wang Banban?"
Zhu Ling suddenly discovered that Wang Chengen had gone somewhere and was still missing.
"My concubine asked him, and he said he went to find something important."
After hearing Queen Zhou's words, Zhu Ling also knew that he was going to find his own life. This Wang Chengen was a smart man. From his words, he could guess that he wanted to escape from Beijing.
When Wang Chengen arrived, a group of people, led by Zhu Ling, left the palace and came to the palace gate. At this time, Li Ruolian and the imperial guards led by him also arrived. On the other side were piles of countless gold and silver treasures.
.
"Can you check clearly? How much silver is it worth?" Zhu Ling, accompanied by Wang Banban, came to the piled treasures and asked Li Ruolian, who was bowing and saluting.
"Reporting to your majesty, there are more than 1.8 million taels in total here. According to the reports from the king's envoys, the total amount is probably close to 3 million taels."
After saying that, Li Ruolian lowered his head. Normal people would show greed when faced with such a huge amount of money, fearing to be noticed by His Majesty. Li Ruolian not only lowered his head, but also asked all his subordinates to lower their heads to avoid being misunderstood by His Majesty.
.
Zhu Ling nodded without any change in his expression. Even Wang Banban, who had received a lot of bribes, couldn't help but gasp when he saw so many treasures. It was close to two million taels.
There are so many treasures in the homes of these ministers. Considering the salary of the Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to live a slightly wealthy life, let alone buy other gold and silver jewelry. No wonder the national treasury currently only has a few hundred taels left.
"Take the value of 700,000 taels and send it to the intruders under the city. The remaining one million taels will be distributed to the sergeants in the Beijing camp. You can divide the rest."
"The humble minister obeys the decree."
Li Ruolian listened carefully, then suddenly froze and looked up at Zhu Ling. For fear of mishearing, he asked: "Did your Majesty tell us the last sentence?"
"Otherwise?" Zhu Ling smiled.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Li Ruolian immediately knelt down, and the guards behind him also knelt down at the same time, shouting long live.
"Where has the kingdom gone?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the king has sent his envoy to the Admiral Li in the capital camp."
…
[Author's digression]: In the early morning of March 19, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Zhang Jinyan, then Minister of War, took the initiative to open the Zhengyang Gate to welcome Liu Zongmin's army.