During the summons on this day, all the ministers and ministers remained silent regarding specific issues such as how to fight and how to defend the city. Emperor Chongzhen said bitterly: "I am not the king who will subjugate the country. All the ministers will do their best to subjugate the country."
Your Majesty!" He waved his sleeves and left. This was the second time that the courtiers heard the emperor talking about the country's subjugation, and they couldn't help but look a little sad.
However, this summons was more or less fruitful. On that day, Emperor Chongzhen issued an imperial edict to confer the title of earl to six relatively powerful governors and generals including Yu Zilian, Wu Shigong, Wu Sangui, Tang Tong, Zuo Liangyu, and Huang Degong.
The general officers in charge of the military have also been promoted. Although this is obviously a sign of flattering the warlord, after all, it is unavoidable because of the impending disaster.
As for the purpose of ennoblement and promotion, of course he wanted the military generals to work hard for him, so at the same time as he was ennobled, Emperor Chongzhen ordered the commander Yu Zilian, the bandit general Wu Shigong, the general of Jizhen Tang Tong and the general of Shandong Liu Zeqing to immediately lead the troops.
The troops went to Beijing to serve the king.
On the ninth day of the lunar month, Emperor Chongzhen finally ignored the gains and losses outside the pass and his own face, and ordered Ningyuan to be abandoned, and ordered the governors of Jiliao Wang Yongji and Wu Sangui to lead troops to defend the capital. But by this time it was too late, and the Dashun Army happened to be
On this day, when we captured Xuanfu, we were only four to five hundred miles away from the capital.
So Tang Tong, who was closest to the capital, was the first to lead his troops to Beijing. In fact, he was the only general who caught up with King Qin. On the 12th, he led eight thousand soldiers to garrison at Qihua Gate (ie Chaoyang Gate).
), and immediately met with the emperor.
Emperor Chongzhen was overjoyed when he finally saw a rescue force. He gave him a banquet and a reward of silver. He said many words of praise and rewarded Tang Tong with forty taels of silver (correct spelling), and each of his soldiers had five taels of silver.
money.
Emperor Chongzhen's original intention was to have the Tang Tong tribe stationed outside Beijing to resist the enemy, and he also sent the eunuch Du Zhizhi as the supervisor of the Tang Tong tribe. But Tang Tong was very angry about this and said to people: "Your Majesty
I have been promoted to grand master and given the title of earl, but I have been allowed to have internal officials control me. I am no better than a slave!" So Shangshu said that it was not convenient for the soldiers to fight in the open field with few soldiers. He should go to Juyong Pass to set up danger and wait for the enemy.
Then, without waiting for the court's approval, he took his own team and left.
During the Jisi Incident, when martial law was imposed for the first time in the capital, Yuan Chonghuan led his troops thousands of miles to come to the rescue. He had a strong force, but he could not always be frightened by the majesty of the imperial court. Life and death were left to the order of the emperor. But now, there are only 8,000 troops.
The little commander-in-chief was so arrogant and domineering. Emperor Chongzhen was deeply moved when he recalled the past and the present.
But the matter was urgent and he had no choice because he still needed to use these generals. He only hoped that Tang Tong could hold off Li Zicheng's Dashun army at Juyong Pass, at least for a while, so that more troops from King Qin could arrive.
But the other troops of King Qin never came. The messengers sent to the south were like sheep entering a tiger's mouth, without any news, and no news was returned at all. Wu Sangui of Liaodong had many soldiers and civilians outside the customs who needed to be resettled, so he took his family with him.
He was slow to move again and did not enter Shanhaiguan until July 16th, but by this time the capital was already hopeless.
As for the Langxiao Town of Zhenyuan City, Yu Ji wanted to take over the empty city of Ningyuan. Not only was he unable to mobilize troops to enter the pass, but his own military strength also became thin. Moreover, Yu Ji remembered Wu Shigong's order to take root outside the pass, so he could not do it casually.
They conveniently abandoned Zhenyuan and Ningyuan, so they could only turn a blind eye to the crisis in the capital.
In mid-July, central Beijing was already in chaos. Many officials who lived in the capital but were not in office and a large number of officials' families ignored the ban and wanted to leave the city and seek refuge in the south. There were also ordinary people, civilians, businessmen, and businessmen who wanted to flee.
The traffic has become overcrowded.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was afraid that a large number of desertions would disturb the morale of the army and the people, and he was even more afraid that a large number of spies from the Dashun Army would sneak into the city. Therefore, he decided to close the city gates and not allow casual access. Some city gates were even blocked with bricks and earth. He also ordered the Ministry of War:
"Anyone who dares to make remarks that confuse the public or leave the city with his family members will be arrested and punished." But apart from these measures, there is no other long-term strategy. He still kept calling the courtiers, but as usual, there was no result every time.
, thinking of his bad fate and the hatefulness of his courtiers, he could not help but feel sad, and returned to the palace crying bitterly for several days.
On the 15th, Tang Tong, who had expressed his loyalty a few days ago, and his eunuch Du Zhizhi surrendered to the Dashun army at Juyongguan. The last barrier to the northwest of the capital no longer existed. On this day, Dashun military general Liu Zongmin
A message has been sent to the capital, saying that "it is scheduled to enter the city on the 18th."
So the Ming court quickly stationed the "three major battalions" of the main force of the capital outside Qihua Gate, preparing to meet the enemy in the east of the city, while refusing to defend the west. However, Li Guozhen, the governor of the capital camp, Xiangcheng Bo, had no idea how to defend the city.
He just sat on the city tower and listened to the command of the eunuch Wang Chengen. Most of the soldiers guarding the city were poor people hired by wealthy families in the capital. They had no fighting spirit and lack of training. Coupled with the lack of food and pay, morale was extremely low.
Beijing is an extremely difficult city to defend because it is simply too big. If there are 100,000 troops, the outer city wall can be defended, and in the face of a concentrated attack by the enemy, there may be a certain part of the city wall.
It will be overwhelmed and be broken through by the enemy. Therefore, the previous method of defending the city of Beijing was to station the army outside the city and rely on the firepower on the city wall to prevent the enemy from approaching the city wall to prevent the enemy from attacking the city.
And now Li Guozhen, the governor of Beijing Camp, Xiangcheng Bo, followed the old example to defend Beijing. But he did not consider the actual situation at all. The soldiers in Beijing Camp were already demoralized and stood outside the city, let alone fighting.
Escape was impossible. So Li Guozhen wasted these precious troops in vain.
Li Guozhen should simply withdraw all three battalions into the city and defend the city. Maybe he can create a miracle. After all, those soldiers from the Beijing camp can fight under the cover of the city wall, and they will be more courageous. In addition, they are living in the city.
There was nowhere to escape, so in the end we had no choice but to fight Li Zicheng's Dashun Army.
On the 16th, Emperor Chongzhen still summoned the local officials who were being elected in Beijing according to the original schedule. At this time, the military situation outside the city was as urgent as sparks. Logically speaking, these non-urgent tasks should be stopped. However, in the early morning, the officials looked at each other without saying a word.
, he himself didn’t know what to do, so instead of sitting around and worrying, he might as well have something to do.
But during the summons, the selection officials had noticed that the emperor's behavior was quite unusual. He asked the people he was summoned about old issues such as how to raise military pay and how to reassure people, but he could not concentrate on listening to the officials' chatter.
He looked around, sometimes smiling for no reason, and sometimes grinding ink with his own hands and pouring tea, completely losing his usual solemn and serious look.