As soon as they heard the donation edict came from the palace, everyone present immediately exploded. However, it was impossible to keep making noises outside the palace and have a "rebellion", so the nobles and officials made appointments to make friends with each other.
We wanted to find a place to get together and discuss a strategy. So after a while, the crowd in front of Jinshui Bridge also dispersed.
Xue Lian still maintained a low profile as usual. He declined the invitations of several nobles and returned to his mansion alone. But as soon as he entered, he asked the guard leader to lead people to guard outside the study, and then dressed up a guard
The person was led into the study.
As soon as Xue Lian sat down, the man dressed as a guard ignored the etiquette and shouted to Xue Lian urgently: "Master Marquis! You must make a decision early. At the worst, you have to let the prince leave the capital. Tianjin Wei has been captured by the Tatars
After the enemy was defeated, the sea route was blocked. The Tatars appeared around the canal again, and it was very dangerous to go south along the Grand Canal. Now we can only use troops to protect the people living in the mansion as they go south. But once the intruders get close to the capital, the speed of the fleeing convoy will never be faster.
The cavalry is an intruder. So we must take advantage of these few days to leave the capital as soon as possible, so that we can send the Marquis and his family to your Lordship safely!"
The person who spoke was Li Zhu, deputy director of the Shanchuan Department. Before the Qing army entered the pass, Xue Zhinong sent Li Zhu to the capital and asked him to integrate the secret agents of the Runing Army in the capital to let the potential power of the Runing Army
All actions were taken to deliver Wu Shigong's family to Runing.
Li Zhu originally wanted to adopt the method of breaking up the whole into parts. He arranged several ships of the Runing Army in Tianjin Guards, and then sent everyone from Yangwuhou Mansion and Gongshunhou Mansion to Tianjin in batches.
Before the court could react, Wu Shigong's family was sent away.
Unexpectedly, the situation in the capital changed drastically. The Tatars entered the customs and Tianjin fell, immediately blocking the sea route for retreat. So Li Zhu immediately changed his plan and just wanted to send Xue Lian and his family out of the capital. Because of the gate of the capital
Now everything is closed. No one can leave the capital without an order from the imperial court, and it is no longer possible to send so many people out of the capital.
Fortunately, the current commander of the Nancheng Army and Horses Division is Zhou Xun's father, Zhou Zhengkun. The Ruzhou Army stationed in Fengtai also has nearly 4,000 soldiers controlled by the Runing Army such as Liu Guqian. Therefore,
Li Zhu was still confident in sending a few people, including Xue Lian and Xue Chenglin, out of the city and protecting them as they headed south.
Unexpectedly, Xue Lian flatly rejected Li Zhu's plan. This was because Xue Lian judged that the situation had not deteriorated yet. But the main reason was that Xue Lian hoped that Li Zhu would send Wu Weizhong's family and everyone in his house out of the capital.
However, Xue Lian was so stubborn because he was thinking about Wu Shigong. If Wu Shigong did not rescue his parents, brothers, and the family members who were originally escorts when he left the capital, but only rescued Xue Lian's family, then Wu Shigong would be criticized by public opinion in the future.
The condemnation would also chill his subordinates. For this reason, Xue Lian even refused to send Xue Chenglin out of the capital alone. He wanted Li Zhu to try his best to tap all his potential and send all these people out of the capital.
However, when Emperor Chongzhen issued the imperial edict to donate money today, Xue Lian also felt that something was seriously wrong. So he immediately discussed with Li Zhu and launched self-rescue actions immediately.
"I will ask Fei'er and Lin'er to get ready. You take them out of the capital first. Then I will ask Wu Hou to come over. Then you can find a way to send our two families to Runing." Xue Lian said.
"But...but Lord Marquis! How can we send you out of the capital when there are so many people who can't be kept secret at all now? Even if I send you out of the capital, you are being chased by the court and pursued by thieves. You can't do it at all."
You guards are very thorough!" Li Zhu said anxiously.
"Just do your best! No matter what, I will go with Wu Hou." Xue Lian said decisively.
Xue Lian's meaning is actually very clear. As long as he can make a rescue move, it doesn't matter whether he succeeds or not. If there are really casualties on the way to escape, then these people can only lament their bad luck, but they must not
I won't blame Wu Shigong. After all, Xue Lian escaped with them. Of course, before that, Xue Lian would also let his daughter Xue Yufei and grandson Xue Chenglin escape first.
"Then...!" Li Zhu was immediately embarrassed by Xue Lian's insistence. "Then the Marquis will quietly bring everyone to Nancheng, and let the younger one make arrangements first. When the opportunity is right, he will leave immediately. Don't wait until the time comes.
It delayed time."
"Understood." Xue Lian nodded.
At this moment, a loud announcement suddenly came from outside the door: "The British Duke is visiting!" Xue Lian immediately winked at Li Zhu and asked him to walk towards the back door, hiding first, and then Xue Lian stood up.
Went out to meet the British Duke Zhang Shize.
The British Duke Zhang Shize did not come to visit alone. He brought several dear nobles. As soon as Xue Lian welcomed them into the study, Zhang Shize couldn't wait to say: "Uncle! My nephew also brought Lan'er today.
Yes, she is visiting her aunt in the back house. My nephew also wants to ask his uncle for advice on something."
In the capital, Xue Lian was not the only one who felt that the future of the Ming Dynasty was not good. Many nobles had begun to look for a way out and wanted to leave the capital. As soon as Zhang Shize opened his mouth, he carried Xue Chenglin's fiancée out.
, just to hint to Xue Lian: Our two families are closely related by flesh and blood. If there is anything you can do, please don’t forget me!
But Xue Lian didn't respond. He asked, "Why did you come to see me today?"
Several distinguished nobles looked at each other for a few times, and one of the marquis spoke first, testing in a roundabout way: "Xue Hou! Do you think we should pay out the donated money?"
Xue Lian secretly sighed in his heart. It's already this time, why are you trying to test it? Xue Lian was not in the mood to be confused with them, so he asked to the point: "You said the capital is like this.
Even if we donate all the food and salary, is it still useful?"
This question shocked the nobles. They never expected that Xue Lian would say such frank words. After a moment of silence, Zhang Shize said, "What do you mean, uncle?"
"Let's find a way to go south! When we get to Chang Jing, we can be protected by any means possible."
"But how do we get out of the city?"
"Let's pack up Xinruan first and gather the clan members! We have all gathered in Nancheng these days. No matter what, if you want to leave the city, you still have to run to Nancheng."
"Uncle! Do you have a way out of the city?"
"People talk a lot, so I won't go into details here. But we can first figure out how to act..."
…
Ever since Emperor Chongzhen passed down the imperial edict asking princes, nobles and ministers to donate money, many strange phenomena immediately appeared in the capital.
Because there was no pay, holding on to the capital was just an empty talk. So as soon as the ministers heard that everyone was required to donate, they immediately launched a counterattack against Emperor Chongzhen. So the ministers focused their eyes on the internal funds that belonged to the emperor's private property.
But Emperor Chongzhen was helpless. His ministers confessed: "The internal funds have been exhausted." This was not to say that Emperor Chongzhen was crying about poverty. He had even sold all the ginseng tribute from North Korea in the palace, which was embarrassing.
After only scraping together 70,000 taels, Emperor Chongzhen himself had no money.
However, the ministers did not believe it at all and just repeatedly begged. Li Banghua, the censor of Zuodu, even pointed out clearly: "The country is in danger, does the emperor still begrudge those external things? If the skin is not left, how can the hair be attached?" But such persecution, but
This has made the relationship between internal and external affairs even more tense.
There was no money from external or internal funds, so Emperor Chongzhen once again resorted to the old method of forcing his relatives, eunuchs and courtiers to donate money and support. The nobles and internal and external officials thought that the emperor himself did not want to take a penny from outside, so naturally he
There is no enthusiasm for donating money, and there is blame-shifting and constant friction.
In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen secretly ordered his father-in-law, Jiading Bo Zhou Kui, to donate 100,000 taels of silver and take the lead among his relatives. But Zhou Kui said: "How can I have so much money?"
I can only pledge 10,000 taels through gritted teeth."
Emperor Chongzhen thought that ten thousand was too little, so he raised the amount to twenty thousand. Zhou Kui could no longer bargain, so he sent someone to the palace to ask for help from his daughter. So Queen Zhou secretly sent five thousand taels of private money to the family. Unexpectedly,
Zhou Kui deducted 2,000 taels from it and exchanged it with 3,000 taels, and then he would not take any more money. After Empress Zhou learned the news, she could only hide from Emperor Chongzhen and burst into tears secretly.
In addition, although all the eunuchs in the palace were extremely wealthy, they all pretended to be poor at this time. Some posted "This house is for sale urgently" posters outside the courtyard gate, and some sent treasures and antiques to the market for sale.
It's a chaotic mess.
Compared with the imperial relatives and eunuchs, the bureaucrats in Beijing who were relatively "poor" were even more reluctant to give money. They could only donate dozens of taels or hundreds of taels. Emperor Chongzhen felt that this was too little, so he began to divide the donations according to the yamen, and later the officials were divided into provinces according to their place of origin.
After a lot of confusion, the donated salary was only over 200,000 taels, which was a drop in the bucket and of no avail.
But secretly, a large number of nobles and friendly officials began to swarm around. They packed up their wealth and gathered all their clansmen in Nancheng. In addition, the British Duke Zhang Shize, the Marquis of Yangwu Xue Lian and the Marquis of Gongshun Wu Weizhong and others
Under his secret arrangements, all the families were grouped together.
These nobles even took out the armor and weapons hidden in the mansion, and gathered the servants and slaves in the mansion, together with the soldiers from the Nancheng Army and Horse Division, to form a guard force of nearly 8,000 people. And this
The escort force was led by Li Lu, the "famous general" unanimously recommended by the nobles. They were prepared to pass through Nancheng and send everyone out of the city if the situation went bad.
And this move also made the escape from the capital from underground to semi-public status. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!