Chongzhen's request for help to Zhu Shuren was sent from Beijing on October 15th.
It was December 11th when Li Zicheng's army reached Shuntian Prefecture, and it was December 15th when it reached the walls of Beijing.
In other words, just two months had passed since Chongzhen gave Zhu Shuren the imperial edict, and Li Zicheng came to kill him. At this time, it was really difficult for Zhu Shuren to react.
Of course, the city of Beijing is still strong. It would still take a necessary period of time before Li Zicheng could reach the outside of Beijing and finally invade the city.
Historically, it took Li Zicheng four days to capture Beijing after he made early preparations and officially launched a comprehensive general offensive.
(Note: There are many versions of the historical data. Some of them, although the description is shorter, have obviously unreliable descriptions such as "Cao Huachun opened the door to welcome the thieves". They are also inconsistent and there was a battle after the door was opened, so I do not accept it. But
Generally speaking, there are theories that the city can be destroyed in three to five days. I will take four days, it is not important.)
Nowadays, because Li Zicheng arrived earlier, the plague in Beijing has not yet reached its peak, so the defensive force in the city is stronger than at the same time in history.
Moreover, Li Zicheng launched his attack in the twelfth month of winter, and the weather was more unfavorable to the siege than in March, and the soldiers, horses and equipment that had been fighting along the way suffered more damage.
Under such circumstances, it would not be surprising for Chongzhen to stay for another ten days and a half even if he relied on the isolated city of Beijing.
More importantly, Chongzhen also had an additional reason to boost morale that did not originally exist in history:
After Beijing was besieged, Chongzhen summoned his ministers and generals several times a day and reasoned with them earnestly, saying, "The situation in the Ming Dynasty is not desperate now. Zhang Xianzhong is dead in the south, and Sun Kewang is also dead (Chongzhen temporarily increased his bragging to deceive his men).
It's just that Zhu Shuren didn't free his hands at first. He didn't expect that the intruders would come to the capital of Gyeonggi so quickly and cause trouble, so it was too late for reinforcements.
And it was Li Zichen himself. The imperial newspaper clearly stated that four months ago at Dashan Pass, he was defeated by Cao Bianjiao, a mere branch of Zhu Shuren's command, and suffered tens of thousands of losses! So as long as he defends the capital, he can hold out until Zhu Shuren
Dispatch the Sichuan army and the Huguang army! The world will surely return to peace! Before that, Wu Sangui of Shanhaiguan can help me hold on for a few months until the Zhushu people arrive!"
Not to mention, although all the ministers had deserted their morals, especially Chongzhen, he was still liquidating his internal responsibilities for more than half a month before the siege of the city. He killed Zhou Yanru, the chief minister of the cabinet, and dismissed Xu Shiqi, the minister of punishment.
Zhang Guowei, the Minister of War, was demoted, which made the courtiers' hearts become more depraved than when Chen Xinjia was killed.
But Chongzhen's words still make sense. He knows his sincere ministers, and with strong support outside, he may come to Qinwang at any time. If he grits his teeth and gets through this period, won't his name go down in history?
Once they have this idea, many people are still willing to stick to it——
After all, even if someone like Chen Peisi is a "bastard who only comes out in thousands of years", if he reads the script first and knows, "If I grit my teeth again and survive, I will become a positive character," then he will probably have the motivation to bite the bullet.
Grit your teeth and straighten your teeth.
In the first ten days after Li Zicheng besieged the city, the defenders and generals of Beijing were temporarily blinded by this kind of motivational talk. They didn't think much about it for the time being and just followed the siege troops of the invading army.
The city of Beijing is still very strong. Although the firearms are old and unreliable, they are in sufficient quantity, and the quantity of inferior gunpowder is sufficient. Regardless of the cost, Li Zicheng's troops were hit with heavy casualties, even more than at Ningwuguan.
What's more.
It's just that Li Zicheng had eaten the steamed buns to the edge of the bean paste, and he was just short of his last breath. He was still risking the lives of his whole family. How could he give up easily at such a critical moment?
Especially for Li Zicheng in this life, the threat from behind was more serious than at the same time in history. He knew very well that once Zhu Shuren freed his hands and attacked from behind, he might not be able to reap the benefits.
Nowadays, several provinces in the north are so dilapidated. If the two sides continue to be in a stalemate for a long time and cannot loot the south to regain blood, then the north will definitely not be able to defeat it - unless they directly defect to the Tatars and join forces with the Tatars.
With the strength of the Tatars, they can suppress the Han people in the south. If the Tatars do not intervene and rely only on the civil war between the Han people, given the extent of the disasters that have devastated the northern provinces, there is no need to even think about it.
Li Zicheng must make a quick decision, and it is best if he can seize Chongzhen. At the worst, he must force Chongzhen to form an alliance under the city to legitimize his Dashun regime.
So he had no choice but to continue to desperately fill it with human lives. He used all the siege methods he had used in the past when facing all the fortified cities, no matter whether they were effective or not, he just piled them up regardless of the cost, and tried them all over again.
Ten days later, after the initial courage of the Ming army had passed, the decline began to show again. The main reason was that the soldiers guarding the city found that the imperial court was too stingy with rewards. They were beaten so hard at this juncture. Normally, they should send out money every day to stabilize people's hearts.
good.
The pie "General Wu and Governor Zhu will come to the rescue" painted at the beginning is indeed beautiful, but what does it have to do with ordinary soldiers?
Ordinary soldiers have fought for the Ming Dynasty for so many years, but they haven't seen much benefit from winning?
Things like merit promotion can only motivate officials, but are of no use to the grassroots.
Just like a company, you can use your mission, vision, and values to describe your middle management and key team, but you can only talk about money directly with your grassroots employees. A jobber can tell you nothing about your vision.
After the morale of the army was unstable, Zhang Jinyan, the new Minister of War, was still afraid of taking responsibility and did not pass on the information. In the end, he almost caused a small-scale mutiny before being reported to Chongzhen by Luo Yangxing of Jinyiwei, so Chongzhen asked people to urgently raise pay to reward the army.
The result of all this is nothing to elaborate on. It is still the same as the same period in history. Even Queen Zhou's father was reluctant to take out the money, and even narrowed down part of the money Queen Zhou got through his pretense.
Because whether you are willing to pay for Chongzhen or not has nothing to do with "whether you have any hope of holding Beijing and whether you have any hope of becoming a hero of ZTE."
The key to whether officials are willing to pay is not whether they are willing, but whether they dare.
Chongzhen's stubbornness and lack of flexibility doomed all officials to dare not. As soon as Chongzhen got through the difficulties, he killed ministers indiscriminately. Who knows if he survived this time, whether he would clean up the officials who were too corrupt and find some money in the future.
Any other excuse to kill him? Now that he can get a large sum of money, doesn't that mean he has solid evidence of his crime?
Therefore, it is not hopeless to save the current city of Beijing until reinforcements arrive, but as long as Chongzhen is alive, courtiers cannot gamble.
The city of Beijing and Chongzhen must be destroyed one by one and cannot coexist at the same time.
If Chongzhen could open his eyes, commit suicide immediately, pass on the throne to the crown prince, and let the crown prince show weakness to others, pretending to be a coward who would accept everything and never punish the guilty ministers, there might be a glimmer of hope for the city of Beijing to be saved, but he couldn't.
Eye of Heaven, I can only leave it to fate.
…
The war in Beizhili was in full swing, and the envoy sent by Chongzhen also traveled for nearly 20 days after leaving Beijing. Finally, on the third day of November, he found Zhu Shuren in Hanzhong who was personally deploying to fight the plague, and conveyed his message.
.
Because the eunuchs could not stand the bumps and had no martial arts skills, they could not travel more than three or four hundred miles a day, so the messenger this time was not the prince who always dealt with the Zhushu people, but someone sent by the Ministry of War.
The envoy was sent by Zhang Guowei, a military general named Jiang Ruolai. Nine years ago, when Zhang Xianzhong excavated the Fengyang Imperial Tomb, Zhang Guowei was still the governor of Anlu, and Jiang Ruolai was a local guard, helping Zhang Guowei maintain peace.
Supervisor Shi Kefa fought several battles in the Qianshan area and repelled the bandits.
(Note: When Zhang Guowei was the governor of Anlu, Shi Kefa was the local military officer, so Shi Kefa supervised the army. After Zhang Guowei was transferred, Shi Kefa was promoted to the governor of Anlu, which is equivalent to a deputy to a full position)
This Jiang Ruolai was also considered Zhang Guowei's confidant. Later, Zhang Guowei went to the Ministry of War in Beijing and took him with him to Beijing. Historically, Zhang Guowei was demoted from the capital by Chongzhen and went to be the governor of Zhejiang, and he took this Jiang Ruolai with him to become the governor of Zhejiang.
The commander-in-chief, so he is the most direct line of iron.
Because when the imperial edict came out of the capital, Zhang Guowei had not yet been captured and was still the Minister of War. Even on the day the imperial edict was delivered, there were still twenty days before Zhang Guowei was demoted.
Zhu Shuren was loyal and loyal. After receiving the order from Jiang Ruolai, he immediately expressed his position respectfully, saying that he would definitely send troops to rescue His Majesty as soon as possible.
But he also had several difficulties, and he had to immediately go to the Ministry of War to clarify:
"There is no delay in rescuing the troops. However, some soldiers in our Hanzhong garrison are still infected with the plague, and there are still those who are latent and have not yet developed the disease. I follow the medical officer's instructions and isolate those who are suspected of being infected and stationed in a camp. If suddenly the entire army
If we move out, it will inevitably spread. We are afraid that most of the troops will have lost their combat effectiveness before they reach Beizhili.
I also ask the envoy to be considerate and allow our army to spend a few days to screen and move out the recovered soldiers first, and the rear army will advance slowly. In addition, if it is necessary to speed up the march for rescue, the most convenient way is to send the Hanzhong soldiers along the Han River.
Pass through Yunyang and arrive at Xiangyang first.
The rest of the armies in Chongqing and other places will first follow the Yangtze River to Jiangling, and then go north to Xiangyang to capture the Qi. This can save the Hanzhong soldiers the trouble of first going south and then going north. However, in order to march in this way, the Yunyang road needs to be opened. Now all places in Yunyang
There are still sporadic remnants of bandits hiding deep in the mountains, and harassment is inevitable.
Even if our army can defeat them, the search and pursuit will waste a lot of time. In order to save our lives, I pray that the imperial court can order and allow me to obey my authority urgently and persuade the remaining stragglers in Yunyang to surrender on the condition of complete pardon of previous crimes.
In the same way, the governor has now chased Sun Kewang and almost forced him into a desperate situation. However, if he wants to completely destroy him, it will still take more than two months. If the court can grant a pardon for Sun Kewang's previous crimes, I have a certain degree of confidence in forcing him to surrender.
In this way, all the armies in Sichuan can be mobilized as soon as possible without leaving too many troops to guard against Sun Kewang. I wonder if the imperial court will approve these points?"
Jiang Ruolai was just here to convey the decree. How could he have the authority to agree to such big things? But considering that his favored prime minister, Zhang Butang, was being pressed by His Majesty, he was also loyal. Regardless of his identity, he knelt down and begged Zhu Shuren to be responsible:
"My surnamed lord! I will not be punished by your Majesty's life! Now, in order to rescue the enemy more quickly, even if you take the initiative and pardon the few thieves in Zhao'an on your own initiative, so that the march will not be harassed, Your Majesty will only appreciate it in the future."
Your loyalty and bravery! What could possibly go wrong?
It’s better to send troops as soon as possible! Your Majesty is already very dissatisfied with Zhang Butang. If you don’t ask for reinforcements, I’m afraid Zhang Butang will be accused by Your Majesty!”
Of course, Zhu Shuren had to put on a posture of absolute loyalty and act until the last moment. He hesitated for a while and then said: "Forget it, my merits and demerits will be judged by future generations, so I won't go to the capital to ask for orders first.
[Recommended, the Changyuan app for chasing books is really useful. Download it here. You can try it soon.]
I am responsible for the scattered bandits in Yunyang. Taking advantage of the time when the army is reorganizing and raising supplies, I send people to Zhao'an to pardon them and ask them not to obstruct the passage of our army. I tell them that the opportunity cannot be missed. If it were not for
Come on, there will never be such good conditions in Zhao'an again!
Sun Kewang, give me half a month to deal with it! I and the Sichuan governor have made a joint decision to handle this matter! It would have taken at least half a month to organize the Sichuan soldiers and horses out of Sichuan, so this is not a waste of time.
!
After I lead the front troops to Xiangyang, I will take a short rest and wait for the rear troops from Chongqing, Jiangling and other places to come and gather them. During this period, I will send a 600-mile horse to Beijing to report my urgent matter to Your Majesty.
We have taken these measures and obtained His Majesty’s understanding.
It is much faster to get to Beijing from Xiangyang. Even if Henan falls, we have to detour from Xuzhou. The 600-mile expedited journey can take five days and a round trip can take ten days. I will stay in Xiangyang for ten days and wait for the rear army. This is nothing.
Let's divide it up? There is no faster march in the world!"
Jiang Ruolai also knows how to fight. After fighting for so many years, he can certainly tell that only ten days are needed for the army to assemble, which is already very fast.
Li Zicheng has an army of hundreds of thousands, and it is impossible for Zhu Shuren to send reinforcements with only the few troops currently in Hanzhong. He must gather troops, otherwise it will be in vain if he has fewer people.
In contrast, if you compare Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan, you will know that Zhu Shuren was very quick and sincere in rescuing the driver.
…
After everything was implemented according to plan, Zhu Shuren spent more than ten days in Hanzhong to prepare baggage, deploy logistics, and screen out plague soldiers - other tasks were quite fast, and the time to screen for plague can be long or short. If you are really urgent, you can just do it.
It's too fast to clean up the mud, but in actual implementation, it was finally discovered that the slowest preparation work was that there were simply not enough ships.
The Hanzhong garrison had never thought of marching along the Han River from Yunyang to Xiangyang before. There were only a few local ships and there were no preparations. Of course, they could not transport 30,000 troops at once.
This section of the Han River in the Qinling Mountains is famous for its fast currents and dangerous shoals. It is easy to walk from Hanzhong to Xiangyang, but it is difficult to walk back to Hanzhong from Xiangyang.
If during the Three Kingdoms period, after Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wan had suggested to Liu Chan that "the three counties of Shangyong can be taken from Hanzhong downstream", Jiang Wei would not have been told by Jiang Wei that "the Han River is easy to advance and difficult to retreat, and even if a sneak attack is successful, the gains will not be as good as those of Wei"
However, it is difficult for our army to support them for a long time." He dissuaded Liu Chan from accepting it.
After the ship reached Xiangyang downstream, it was really difficult to pull the fibers back to Hanzhong upstream for a second trip.
The geographical environment is so harsh, so we can’t blame Zhu Shuren for walking slowly.
In order to show his sincerity, Zhu Shuren even made other attempts when he found that there were not enough ships on the Han River. For example, he sent the vanguard of Dashanguan from the north to try to leave Qinling and Baoji to attack Guanzhong controlled by the intruders.
See if you can break out of Guanzhong and then walk along the Yellow River.
This road must be very dangerous, as it has to penetrate the occupied areas of the invaders along the way. After Zhu Shuren tried it, he quickly got some important information: Li Zicheng cleared the country in Guanzhong Jianbi! Not only did the counties have no food, but also the population
Evacuate them all and concentrate them into a limited number of strongholds!
Today's Shaanxi is simply a vast area of bare land, and it is impossible to raise food on the spot! The Sichuan Army must bring its own food and grass during the Northern Expedition!
This logistical pressure is undoubtedly unbearable, and the result of taking this route will only be that the entire army will starve to death.
Therefore, during the past few days of planning the boat in Hanzhong, Zhu Shuren did not just wait.
He showed the greatest sincerity and proved that all other paths were impossible. In the process of trying, he also achieved some military exploits and defeated some of Yuan Zong's peripheral troops.
He even wrote to Chongzhen again, hoping to ask Chongzhen to give him a chance to pardon Yuan Zongdi and send him an imperial edict. As for whether this letter could be delivered, he didn't know.
After such delay, Zhu Shuren's army finally pacified the Yunyang bandits on November 16th, and set off in batches to Xiangyang.