Chapter eight hundred and fiftieth eight evil spirits dance
On May 16, the 16th year of Chongzhen, two edicts were sent from the Qing army camp - "The King of Lu's Letter to the World" and "The Qing Kingdom's Invitation to Friends and Neighboring Countries to Destroy Thieves". These two edicts were immediately
spread to nearby prefectures and counties,
Even the Runing Army sent one here. In these two edicts, the Qing Army actually changed its appearance as a bandit and became a neighboring army that was invited to enter the border to pacify the civilian thieves. This is the most ridiculous thing in the world.
That’s it.
In these two edicts: Lu Wang Zhu Yipai "sincerely invited" the Qing army to enter the pass to quell the rebellion of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Lu Wang Zhu Yipai also pointed out that the chaos of the Ming Dynasty was caused by the mediocre Chongzhen.
It was caused by the emperor and the treacherous ministers around him, so King Lu will raise the banner of "purifying the emperor's side" to clear out the "monsters" of the Ming Dynasty.
In a word, King Lu Zhu Yipai is the puppet of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. With the support of the Qing army, he will replace Emperor Chongzhen and become the supreme leader of the Nine-Five-Year Plan. Of course, is this the real idea of King Lu himself or is Huang Taiji using King Lu's seal?
Then no one knows.
In addition, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also had a secret agreement with the King of Lu Zhu Yipai: the Ming Dynasty would give up the land north of the Yellow River and cede it to the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the Qing Dynasty would be its brother, and there would be a certain amount of coins every year. Because the time was not yet
mature, so the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not immediately disclose this secret agreement.
Huang Taiji wanted to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the city of Beijing or sign an alliance under the city, in order to achieve the Qing Dynasty's overall strategic goal of first Liaodong, then North China, and finally the Central Plains and the whole country. At the worst, he had to restore the Southern Song Dynasty in history.
and the north-south separatist state of the Jin Dynasty.
Although Huang Taiji and others knew that these two edicts could not withstand scrutiny at all, the right to speak was always in the hands of those holding swords and guns. If the Manchu Qing Dynasty could really realize its overall strategy, it would be easy to make use of these two edicts in the future.
The edict was issued to deceive the people of the world.
For this reason, the Qing army even sent several eunuchs from Prince Lu's palace to the Runing army to deliver a message to the Runing army: let the Runing army cease hostilities with the Qing army, obey the command of the Qing army, and march north together to King Qin.
Of course, Huang Taiji and the others did not think that such an edict would have any effect. However, when this edict was transmitted to the Runing military camp, Shu Mo, Chu Ge and Xue Yong were indeed stunned by this edict.
Yes, I really feel like the sun is coming out from the west.
At the same time, the Qing army also began to retreat in an orderly manner. They will be divided into two groups. One group will be 30,000 soldiers and horses led by Abatai. They will escort the property and people captured after entering the customs, and first withdraw to the outside;
Along the way is the 70,000-strong army led by Huang Taiji himself. They will first go north to join the 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Duodu tribe in Heze, and then go north to the capital together to do this thing of the oriole behind.
The Runing army, which had just fought a fierce battle, did not dare to pursue them. They were afraid that the Qing army would make some tricks during their retreat. So the Runing army stayed in Xuzhou City and began to rest, waiting for the main force of the Runing army in Wuchang City to come north to join forces.
.
On the same day, under the constant bombardment of the heavy artillery of the Runing Army, the walls of Wuchang City were already crumbling. Therefore, before the deadline for Wu Shigong to surrender, Li Dingguo led the 230,000 soldiers and civilians in the city to surrender.
However, in order to recruit Li Dingguo to surrender, Wu Shigong also made major concessions. In addition to promising not to harm the people in the city and the soldiers of the Daxi Army, the Runing Army also allowed Li Dingguo's troops not to fight with Zhang Xianzhong's troops. And the Daxi Army officers could freely choose to accept the adaptation.
Or those who are disarmed and returned to the fields, and those who are unwilling to join the army will be allocated a certain amount of land in Henan.
Therefore, the Runing Army pacified Wuchang City for more than two days. They reorganized more than 6,000 Daxi Army soldiers who were willing to surrender and established the Wuchang Independence Association, led by Li Dingguo.
On May 19, Wu Shigong led 13,000 troops and personal troops, 5,000 marines led by Gonzalez, 15,000 trading company guards and village guards led by Chang Meng, and 15,000 troops led by Zhao Degong.
The Nanyang Independent Association has five thousand people,
Jiangcheng's Junzhou Independent Association has 7,000 people, the Wuchang Independent Association led by Li Dingguo has 6,000 people, and the newly reorganized Huguang Town led by Chi Ming and Huang Ding has 18,000 people. The whole army has a total of 70,000 people heading north, passing through Fengyang.
, joined with the Runing Army in Xuzhou.
On May 20th, in front of the Jinshui Bridge outside the Forbidden City, important ministers of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet and officials from various ministries gathered together. They talked in twos and threes about the latest news, waiting for the summons of Emperor Chongzhen.
Among the crowd, Xue Lian, wearing court clothes, squeezed behind a circle of nobles and listened to everyone's discussion.
"The plague is rampant in the capital these days, outside of the south city. A servant in my palace went home to visit the sick. Unexpectedly, his whole family fell ill and died in one day. I was so frightened that I didn't dare to go out. If it hadn't been for the emperor's announcement today
According to the decree, I will never step out of the palace." A prince said.
"Didn't Master Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain already build altars and pray for the plague? Why is the plague still prevalent?" asked another uncle.
"Hey——! This disaster brought by God cannot be solved so easily. I once heard rumors from others that Tianshi Zhang said privately that this plague will spread for six months, and only when all the evildoers are eradicated will the common people be able to live.
But if it gets deeper, he won’t say anything, maybe it’s because the secret must not be leaked!”
"Why--!"
As if misfortunes never come singly, the plague began to spread in Beijing in February of that year. This was a vicious infectious disease that struck violently. Some families had just discovered that someone was infected, and within a few days all the family members were dead.
Such a severe plague was unheard of in the history of the capital city, causing great panic among the citizens. Since the Qing army was still active outside the city, it was impossible to escape to the suburbs to avoid the plague. The residents in the city could only burn incense and pray for the blessings of Bodhisattvas.
Zhang Tianshi from Jiangxi was in the capital at this time, and Emperor Chongzhen hurriedly ordered him to build an altar and set up a ritual ceremony to pray against the plague. However, this Taoist leader with more than a thousand years of tradition did not seem to have much magical power. He burned talismans and chanted mantras for days, and the epidemic
But it has not diminished at all. The common people can only use some native methods to protect themselves. Every night, the neighbors organize themselves to beat gongs and drums all night long, saying that they are to drive away the evil spirits.
The gongs and drums were so noisy all night that even the emperor and concubines in the palace could not sleep peacefully. However, when the epidemic was rampant and people were in chaos, there was no way to order a ban.
"Then why did you summon the emperor today?" an uncle asked the British Duke Zhang Shize, the distinguished leader of the capital.
The British Duke Zhang Shize was only in his early thirties. The old British Duke happened to pass away this year, and Zhang Shize had just ascended the throne. Therefore, he was not yet very stable. When people wanted to ask questions, he couldn't help but show off a little.
"It's not like the emperor wants us to donate." British Duke Zhang Shize said.
"Ah? No!" Someone immediately exclaimed, "It's not like the imperial court is printing banknotes. It says it can print 30 million taels every year. Why do you still need us to donate?"
A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen, who saw the continuous internal and external troubles from foreign enemies and had no other means to face them, issued a self-incriminating edict for the third time. In this edict, the painful description of state affairs was quite specific, saying: "
The Nihu (referring to the Qing army) swarmed into the interior, and the capital and Shandong were reduced to ruins." "The bandits successively captured the vassal fiefdoms and disturbed the imperial tombs several times. Most of the Henan, Huguang, and Jiangbei areas were devastated." "In addition, natural disasters continued to occur.
, locust droughts persisted frequently, but corrupt officials bent on raiding and extorting money, regardless of the depletion of the people. As a result, military disasters continued, and the borders and hinterlands were trapped; the old and the weak died in ravines, and young men died in wars. How could all the surnames suffer such misfortunes?
!”
But when it comes to his "crime", he still makes an empty sentence, "It's all caused by my immorality." As for the improvement measures after committing the crime, this time there is finally some specific content, except for the mistakes that have been exempted before.
In addition to the tax money and grain arrears for the past five years in the areas where the Dashun Army was owed, "the prefectures, guards, prefectures, and counties in Zhili provinces that were damaged by the war, starting from the 16th year of Chongzhen, all three rates and various types of money and grain were distributed, and they were exempted from taxes."
Two years; those who have not been destroyed but whose villages are desolate and pitiful will be cared for individually and played according to their respective speeds and slowed down as appropriate."
However, in the context of the total collapse of the Ming Dynasty, reducing or reducing the three-month salary increase in some areas was a drop in the bucket and was of no help. This move made the already poor national finances even worse. The national treasury had no silver, and various soldiers and horses were in urgent need of it.
The Ministry of Household Affairs tried its best to raise food and wages, but still could not raise funds. Therefore, someone proposed to issue banknotes, that is, banknotes.
The Edict of Sin Ji had just been issued, and a scholar named Jiang Chen from Tongcheng came to Beijing to make a suggestion. He said that since the banknote law was implemented in the early days of the People's Republic of China, the national supply was sufficient. As long as the old system was restored and 30 million banknotes were printed every year, the court could collect silver out of thin air.
With thirty million taels, there was no need to send more troops to disturb the people, and at the same time, it could increase military pay. This astonishing set of economic theories actually impressed the heads of households, the Ministry of Works, and the Emperor Chongzhen himself.
So Emperor Chongzhen immediately ordered the eunuch to preside over the establishment of the Neibao Banknote Bureau to print banknotes day and night. After printing some of them, he solicited merchants to sell them in the capital. Each banknote had a face value of one tael and only charged nine cents and seven cents. But the merchants in the capital
When people heard that the imperial court wanted to exchange banknotes for silver, they all closed down their businesses and ran away, and no one took the initiative to buy.
When discussing this matter, the cabinet minister said: "No matter how stupid the business people are, who will buy a piece of paper with one tael of silver?"
But Emperor Chongzhen asked puzzledly: "Why was it implemented when Emperor Gao (Zhu Yuanzhang) was the emperor?"
The cabinet minister also couldn't figure it out, so he had to answer: "Emperor Gao seems to have only inherited the old system of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, it was only used for rewards and part of official salary, and was not even used for military pay."
However, Emperor Chongzhen still coveted the annual income of 30 million taels, insisted on implementing it, and requested severe punishments to be used to promote it.
In fact, everyone with knowledge of modern economics knows that without hard currency as a reserve, the issuance of banknotes will be worthless. The banknotes of the Yuan Dynasty had gold and silver as reserves, so
It will not cause inflation, and the Ming Dynasty, which did not know this economic principle, issued banknotes in the early Ming Dynasty. The value of banknotes plummeted, and finally it was de facto abolished in the market.
