Chapter eight hundred and sixty-eight before the annihilation (Part 2)
Emperor Chongzhen's summons took almost a whole day until a eunuch sent in a secret document. After Emperor Chongzhen read it, his expression changed drastically and he hurried away leaving the summoned officials behind.
Some people say that the secret document reported the fall of Changping, but Changping was not actually lost that day. It is just that after passing Juyong Pass, it is Pingchuan. The road to the capital does not necessarily have to pass through Changping. The vanguard of the Dashun Army reached the suburbs of Beijing on the 16th.
.It is estimated that what the secret report mentioned was the news that the Dashun Army was discovered near the capital.
That night, Emperor Chongzhen stayed up all night. He ran around the palace on the trombone, stamped his feet and beat his chest, wept and sighed, and shouted: "All the officials inside and outside have mistaken me, they have mistaken me!" He fell into a semi-crazy state.
.At this time, most of the officials at home and abroad were ready to surrender to Kaicheng. Cao Huachun, the eunuch of the ceremony, Zhang Jinyan, the minister of the Ministry of War, and others drafted a convention for the surrender of Kaicheng. Many eunuchs and bureaucrats in the palace and the court came to surrender.
He signed the word "know" on it. Of course, only Emperor Chongzhen didn't know.
On the morning of the 17th, Emperor Chongzhen once again discussed with his ministers how to deal with the crisis, and once again wept in public. The ministers also wept and wiped away their tears. Some people proposed to use talents from the eunuch party, such as Feng Quan and Huo Weihua.
Yang Weiyuan and others. Not to mention whether they can be used or not, several of them are far away, and if they are used, they will be useless for defending the city.
Emperor Chongzhen was really upset after listening to these nonsense and was too lazy to speak. He wrote the words "All civil servants can be killed" on the desk with his fingers, and asked the eunuch Wang Zhixin next to him to read it and then erased it.
. He really wanted to kill these stupid and cowardly courtiers, but at this moment when he was about to fall, he actually didn't even have the ability to kill, so he could only wait for the Dashun Army to fulfill his last wish.
In the morning, a few ministers waited impatiently outside the palace gate, waiting for news, while discussing the situation. Some said they could only resign themselves to fate, while others cheered up and said that the city was strong and there would be no problem in defending it for a few months.
Suddenly, Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng who was responsible for guarding the city, came on horseback alone. He was disheveled and looked hurried. Emperor Chongzhen hurriedly announced his entry into the palace and asked him how the situation of guarding the city was. But Li Guozhen lay on the ground crying and said: "The troops guarding the city
They all stopped obeying the orders! They all lay down on the city wall, whipped one up, and the other lay down again. What should we do?"
Emperor Chongzhen also cried: "I have been misunderstood by all the ministers!" Then all the civil and military ministers and eunuchs in the palace began to cry together, and the sound filled the palace and could be heard clearly outside.
After Emperor Chongzhen sent away the ministers of civil and military affairs, he summoned the eunuchs and asked them to arm themselves to defend the city. The eunuchs were in a commotion, and it was not until evening that they organized a team of several thousand people and divided the 200,000 people temporarily provided by the emperor.
Two pieces of silver were sent to various cities in a noisy manner.
At this time, the Dashun Army had surrounded the city of Beijing, and the "three major camps" outside Qihua Gate were defeated without a fight. Pingzemen (today's Fuchengmen) and Zhangyimen (today's Guang'anmen) and other places were attacked.
There was a fierce attack. Fires were everywhere and the sound of cannons shook the ground.
In another sleepless night, Emperor Chongzhen clearly thought about death. Who has never died in life since ancient times? However, as a generation of "English Lords", he "sacrificed himself for the country" in such an embarrassing manner. He was really unwilling to do so. There was no way to escape.
The road is guarded and there is no way to do it, so what can be done?
In the early morning of the 18th, he summoned his cabinet ministers for the last time and said dejectedly: "Why don't we all finish our work (commit suicide) in Fengxian Hall together?" None of the cabinet ministers responded. Fengxian Hall is the place where ancestral tablets are enshrined in the palace.
, facing the ancestors and ancestors who resolutely surrendered, it was still quite tragic. But this final plan did not come true. But even at this time, Emperor Chongzhen still fantasized about having the last glimmer of hope.
As if God heard Emperor Chongzhen's prayers, something unexpected happened in the morning. Du Xun, the chief eunuch who surrendered to the Dashun Army in Datong, was sent by Li Zicheng and was hoisted into the city in a big basket.
We need to negotiate with Emperor Chongzhen.
Hearing that there was this last glimmer of hope, Emperor Chongzhen hurriedly summoned him. But the message Du Xun conveyed was very simple: Li Zicheng's army was so powerful that it could no longer resist him. The only way to survive was for Emperor Chongzhen to "abdicate" voluntarily, which was actually surrender.
Give up the throne and let Li Zicheng ascend the throne majestically and legitimately.
But such an opportunity was a bit too embarrassing for Emperor Chongzhen. But it was a choice after all. He was still hesitant, hoping for a more honorable way of surrender, so the negotiations dragged on until night.
But Li Zicheng was no longer willing to delay, and launched a large-scale attack on each gate that night. Cao Huachun, the eunuch responsible for guarding Changyi Gate, opened the city gate to welcome the surrender. The outer city fell, and Li Zicheng's Dashun army rushed into the West City and North City. The fall of the inner city was also near.
In front of you.
At the last moment, Emperor Chongzhen decided not to surrender or "martyr his country", but to take a risk and try to escape from the siege. He issued a personal expedition edict, claiming that he would personally conquer the rebels and put down the rebels. In fact, he led his army to escape.
meaning.
But at this time, Emperor Chongzhen could not even organize an army. He asked the internal eunuch to summon the Beijing camp to escort him, but the internal eunuch said to him: "The Beijing camp has been defeated, and there are no soldiers anywhere! The emperor will find a way by himself.
Run away."
In the middle of the night, Emperor Chongzhen found the imperial consort Gong Yonggu and Xinlehou Liu Wenbing, and asked them to summon their servants to escort them to escape. But Gong Yonggu cried and said: "We can't hide pieces of armor in the homes of our ancestral relatives.
Where are the servants? If all the family members don’t know how to fight, how can they defend against the enemy?” There was really no other way. Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to hold a three-eyed foreign gun and a group of eunuchs and rushed out of the Forbidden City like headless flies.
After going to Huamen and Andingmen to see that there was no possibility of breaking out, they returned to the palace in frustration.
To be honest, Emperor Chongzhen at this time had become a frightened bird. As soon as he encountered soldiers suspected of being from the Dashun Army in the city, he turned around and fled. In fact, at this time, there were not many troops from the Dashun Army entering the city.
Emperor Chongzhen gritted his teeth and broke through, rushing to the outer city of Nancheng, where he could be protected by the escort led by Li Lu.
Emperor Chongzhen didn't even know that at this time, You'anmen, Guangdingmen and Zuo'anmen in the outer city of Beijing's South City were already wide open, and an army of more than 17,000 troops had entered the city.
The reinforcements from the Runing Army led by Yang Rusong arrived. However, no one passed this news to Emperor Chongzhen.
In late May, when Yang Rusong led eight thousand troops across the Yellow River to Puyang, he encountered the vanguard of the Qing army returning north. So Yang Rusong immediately followed Xue Yongli's order to avoid it, but it aroused the Qing army's strong fighting spirit and gathered them together.
More than 3,000 horsemen chased him.
Seeing the chasing Qing army getting closer and closer, Yang Rusong was furious. He simply turned around and deployed his troops to fight to the death with the chasing Qing army. After a fierce battle, the Runing army won a great victory and beheaded more than a thousand Qing soldiers, and the rest
The Qing army also turned around and fled. But at this time, Yang Rusong found that he had deviated from the road to Beijing, and the entire army was already in Anyang.
There is nothing to say, the only way is to take the road from Shimen (today's Shijiazhuang) to Baoding. Although this is the most commonly used road from the south to Beijing by land, it is also the easiest way for the enemy to block it during this time of war and chaos. Therefore,
The Runing army heading north moved cautiously for fear of encountering a large enemy force.
I didn't expect what I was afraid of. When Yang Rusong's troops arrived at Xingtai, they encountered a peasant army of more than 4,000 people. This time, Yang Rusong learned a lesson. He didn't dare to avoid it anymore, and just led him cautiously.
The army circled around and sent a large number of reconnaissance cavalry everywhere to find out whether there was the main force of the peasant army nearby.
Unexpectedly, the peasant army on the opposite side was also cautious. They were also dealing with the Runing army. Four or five days passed like this. When Yang Rusong found out that there was no main force of the peasant army around, he wanted to overwhelm the troops and annihilate the Runing army in one fell swoop.
When the peasant army was fighting against the enemy, they unexpectedly sent several envoys. They actually proposed to surrender to the Runing army.
That peasant army was led by Yang Chengzu and was the remnant of Cao Cao and Luo Rucai. After they broke with Li Zicheng, they immediately fled outward to escape the pursuit of the Dashun army.
Fortunately, the Dashun Army was about to launch a northwest offensive at that time, so the focus of the battle was not on this rebel army. So after some maneuvering, Yang Chengzu successfully escaped the pursuit of the Dashun Army.
After settling down for a while, Yang Chengzu revealed his ambitions. The long life of bandits has been deeply imprinted in their bones. In addition, Yang Chengzu and the others also looked down on those officers and soldiers who had been their defeated generals, so they
I want to build another mountain.
Unexpectedly, the good times did not last long. In just a few months, the Dashun Army swept across the entire northwest region, and then launched an eastern offensive without stopping, aiming directly at the city of Beijing. Yang Chengzu was so lucky that he was in the right place.
On the route of Tian Jian Xiu's army on the South Road. When Tian Jian Xiuyi learned that there was a traitor named Yang Chengzu ahead, Dashun's army also concentrated its superior forces and surrounded them.
Fortunately, Yang Chengzu had rich experience in escaping. After several hard battles, he finally escaped with the remaining army. However, by this time, he only had nearly 4,000 men and horses left, and all his baggage and equipment were missing.
With so little food and clothing, he could not even guarantee his own food rations and fodder.
But at this time, they encountered the Runing army led by Yang Rusong. This made Yang Chengzu very nervous, but after some dealings, they were surprised to find that this army was the army of Wu Butcher
.
So Yang Chengzu summoned his men to discuss countermeasures. After some discussion, they finally decided to surrender to the Runing Army. Now it is impossible for Yang Chengzu to stand on another mountain, and surrendering to the Runing Army is not considered a loss of face.
, after all, Butcher Wu has a complete victory record against the peasant army.
But this surrender made Yang Rusong dumbfounded. Since he had come to surrender, it was not good not to accept it, but Yang Rusong was busy going to the capital, and bringing so many surrendered peasant army soldiers was a burden!