Chapter 678 I’ve never seen such a shameless person
At dawn the next day, outside Chaoyang Gate.
A heavy rain overnight washed away the dust floating in the air.
The capital city seems exceptionally clean inside and outside, and the air is exceptionally fresh.
Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian and other thousands of officials and gentry who surrendered first to the Huns and then to the Qing had gathered outside Chaoyang Gate, standing in a large, dark place.
Servants and servants were busy sweeping the streets.
Sun Zhixian found that there were two small puddles on the official road outside the city gate, so he immediately called the housekeeper of the Sun Mansion and asked him and his servants to find cinders to fill the puddles.
"Your Majesty is about to lead the royal army back to the capital. This is a great joy."
"We, the officials and gentry who are staying in the capital, must welcome the return of the Holy Emperor with a first-class new look, so that we can live up to the great kindness of the country and the dynasty for raising scholars for three hundred years."
Sun Zhixian's grand remarks instantly received a large number of echoes.
I have to say that these officials and gentry are really shameless.
They first surrendered to Shun and then surrendered to Qing, but it turned out to be "left-behind".
For them, being ungrateful and treacherous became a matter of enduring humiliation and staying in the capital for the Ming Dynasty. This was comparable to Wang's twists and turns to save the country three hundred years later.
"Red silk cloth!" Zhang Jinyan suddenly clapped his hands and said.
"For such a big happy event as His Majesty's return to Beijing, there must be red silk."
"Yes, yes, if Zhang Butang hadn't reminded me, it would have almost ruined the situation."
Sun Zhixian immediately turned around and said to the officials Jin Shen on both sides of the city gate: "Everyone, please quickly ask your stewards to take people back to the mansion to get the red silk, and bring all the red silk from each family's treasury."
Zhang Jinyan said: "In these extraordinary times, I hope you can help me generously."
The officials present, Jin Shen, had no choice but to ask the housekeeper to take someone back to the house to get it.
Sun Zhixian turned his head and saw the huge gap in the city wall on the left side of the city gate, and said with some regret: "It's a pity that time was too short, otherwise the gap in the city wall should have been repaired as before."
While he was talking, Meng Xueli came out of Chaoyang Gate riding a tall horse.
Behind Meng Xueli were Yao Qisheng, Yu Chenglong and hundreds of others.
"Meng gives me advice." Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian and many other ministers who thought they were respectable quickly came forward and greeted Meng Xueli with flattering faces.
Although these ministers are shameless, they are not stupid.
There are so many officials and gentry here, and the only ones who will definitely not be liquidated are Meng Xueli and his Juzi camp, because he is a spy who followed the emperor's secret order to infiltrate the slave establishment.
Meng Xueli is a meritorious minister. If he is willing to say a few kind words for them in front of the Holy Emperor, there is a high probability that they will be exempted from liquidation and may even be reinstated.
Yes, that's right, these ministers are still dreaming of being reinstated.
For example, Zhang Jinyan was the Minister of War in the Ming Dynasty before he surrendered.
He also found out that the post of Minister of War in Nanjing was still vacant. Ever since the former Minister of War Lu Daqi, who had a Donglin Party background, took office, the post of Minister of War had been vacant.
Therefore, if Meng Xueli could put in a few kind words for him, the Holy Emperor might reinstate him as soon as he was happy. After all, he did a decent job before the national crisis in Jiashen, and the Holy Spirit was basically satisfied with him.
Of course, the heavy gift for Meng Xueli was delivered to the Meng Mansion last night.
There are not a few ministers who have the same mind and intelligence as Zhang Jinyan.
Seeing Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian and other former high-ranking officials crouching down in front of their horses and flattering them, Meng Xueli felt extremely proud. This feeling was so good.
However, what made Meng Xueli even more happy was the wealthy woman.
Last night, he collected at least a million taels worth of money and a dozen beautiful women, including Gu Hengbo, a famous Qinhuai prostitute, who was a gift from Gong Dingzi, the young minister of Taichang Temple.
After being flattered so much, Meng Xueli became a little forgetful.
I feel that I can really decide the life, death, honor and disgrace of these two ministers.
"Don't worry, everyone." Meng Xueli said with his nostrils raised to the sky, "You and your servants have done justice, assisted the Juzi camp to suppress the capital, closed the city and hunted down the Manchus in the city. I will truthfully report to the remonstrance meeting before the emperor Chen Sheng, the emperor.
There will definitely be rewards. The current Holy One is a benevolent king that is rare in ancient and modern times. The Donglin Party members are so rebellious, and the Holy One only kills the culprits, so you have nothing to worry about."
"What Xu Ji admonished is very true. The current Holy Lord is a benevolent monarch, and he will definitely not be as knowledgeable as ordinary people like us." All the ministers agreed.
Meng Xueli is being complimented here, while a scholar is running to repay him over there.
"Meng Gai warned, the heavenly soldiers have arrived, the Holy One has led the heavenly soldiers to arrive!"
"The holy driver is almost at Chaoyang Gate." Meng Xueli said again with a straight face, "Everyone, please line up according to your official rank. Don't mess up the order of etiquette, which will be disrespectful to you."
When Meng Xueli said this, he completely forgot that he was just a seventh-rank official. If he really followed the official rank, he would probably stand at the bottom of thousands of ministers, so how could he be qualified to stand at the first?
But Meng Xueli was the first to stand, riding a tall horse.
After a while, a large group of cavalry rushed outside Chaoyang Gate like lightning.
The leading scholar was wearing a t-shirt, and it was obvious that Zhang Huangyan was involved in the incident.
Meng Xueli immediately rode forward, bowed his hands to Zhang Huangyan and said, "Brother Xuanzhu, are you okay when you come?"
Then Zhang Huangyan just glanced at Meng Xueli coldly without returning the greeting, and then rushed straight into Chaoyang Gate with his cavalry.
"Huh?" Meng Xueli's face immediately turned the color of pig liver.
Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian, Gong Dingzi and others also looked at each other in confusion.
What's going on? Don't let your grandson Meng Xueli fool you, right?
Let's talk about Zhang Huangyan. After entering the city with his cavalry, he quickly controlled all the important roads.
Soon, Ming army officers and soldiers were planted like javelins at every street corner and on the top of the city.
Immediately afterwards, another group of Ming troops searched Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian and other officials. Meng Xueli and hundreds of Juzi from the Juzi camp were no exception, and they all had to be searched.
After confirming that there would be no danger, Zhang Huangyan sent someone out of the city to report the news.
Soon another infantry group came, more numerous.
It took a full quarter of an hour, after at least five thousand infantry entered the city, before another group of cavalry finally came, and the leader was Chongzhen.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "The minister Zhang Jinyan bows to the Holy Spirit Jin An."
"I, my grandson, kowtow to the scorpion to invite the Holy One to Jinan."
"I, Gong Dingzi, kowtow to the Holy Spirit, Jin An."
...The hundreds of ministers standing in front fell to their knees one after another.
Immediately, the thousands of ministers behind him also knelt down on the ground.
Thousands of ministers knelt on the ground, and the scene was quite spectacular.
In fact, Chongzhen didn't feel much sadness and anger in his heart. Instead, he had a relaxed attitude of waiting to watch a clown show, because he noticed that these two ministers claimed to be not criminal ministers.
"Your Majesty." Meng Xueli also mounted his horse and came forward to salute.
Chongzhen did not return the favor like other scholars.
But he just looked at Meng Xueli with a half-smile but said nothing.
This Meng Xueli is good, but his credit is not necessarily great, but the woman who accepted money and silk did not fall behind at all. She accepted millions of taels and a dozen beautiful maids and concubines in one night, how bold and reckless!
Meng Xueli put down his hands somewhat sarcastically, and said to himself: "Fortunately, I lived up to my command. I first successfully instigated the rebellion of the Juzi camp, and then captured the Forbidden City in time. With the help of the officials, gentry and righteous people in the city, I arrested all the slaves, old, young, women and children.
, a total of about 200,000 people."
"Officials, gentry and righteous people?" Chongzhen pointed to the thousands of ministers kneeling on both sides of the street, "You mean them?"
From Chongzhen's words, Meng Xueli keenly felt the change in the direction of the wind. It was obviously not suitable to excuse Zhang Jinyan and the others at this time.
Meng Xueli immediately changed his mind: "Although that generation has done some good deeds to atone for their sins, it is not enough to atone for their sins."
Hearing this, Zhang Jinyan, Sun Zhixian, Wang Aoyong and other officials were furious. They thought to themselves, Meng, are you trying to deny it? I'm afraid it's not that easy.
Seeing Zhang Jinyan and other ministers with angry faces,
Meng Xueli quickly cast a calm look.
Chongzhen didn't seem to notice these little moves, and walked straight to Zhang Jinyan and stood still.
"Your Majesty." Zhang Jinyan's entire torso from the waist up was almost completely touching the ground, but his head could still be raised up, and he said with a coquettish look on his face, "I am waiting in the capital day and night, looking forward to Master Wang's return.
I am really looking forward to seeing you, God is so pitiful, I finally let you and other generals, Master Wang, come back."
Chongzhen was also happy when he heard this. He had seen shameless people before, but he had never seen such shameless people.
At that moment, Chongzhen said with a smile: "In the Jiashen year, when Li Zicheng entered the city, you, Wei Zaode and thousands of other officials from the capital knelt down outside the Meridian Gate and begged for surrender, right?"
Zhang Jinyan said with an expression on his face: "Your Majesty, the surrender of the ministers is not a real surrender, but a false surrender. The intention is to leave a useful body, so that when the Holy Majesty leads the king's army to fight back to the capital, he can serve the Ming Dynasty again."
"Really?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "So, you are still loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhang Jinyan said shamelessly: "I still have loyalty to the Ming Dynasty and to the Holy One, which can be demonstrated by the sun and the moon."
Chongzhen turned around and walked up to Wang Aoyong: "Wang Aoyong, when Dorgon led the slaves to enter the city in large numbers, you were also kneeling here to beg for surrender, right?"
"Your Majesty, I have no choice but to surrender as slaves." Wang Aoyong defended without blushing. "Under the circumstances at that time, if I rose up and resisted, it would only be a few more corpses. If I endured the humiliation and waited for the opportunity, we could be saved in an emergency."
Sometimes a fatal blow is given to Jiannu. For example, last night, I led the slaves in the mansion to attack in time and captured all the Jiannu in Beijing."
"Haha, endure the humiliation and bear the burden." Chongzhen laughed.
"Today I really learned a lot about how to endure humiliation and bear a heavy burden."
Wang Aoyong clearly knew that Chongzhen was mocking him, but there was no trace of shame on his face. Instead, he continued with a sense of justice: "Forbearance is a knife in the heart. The most difficult thing in all ages is not to be loyal to justice, but to be a loyal minister who endures humiliation and heavy burdens.
I hope your Majesty will understand my painstaking efforts."
"Haha, good, very good." Chongzhen laughed when he heard this.
I originally thought that Zhang Jinyan was already shameless enough.
But he never expected that Wang Aoyong was even more shameless than Zhang Jinyan.
After laughing twice, Chongzhen walked to Sun Zhixian and stood still.
