Great time travel

Chapter 98, the time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen's decision

Since waking up, the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen who had changed the core continued to rest in bed—no way, he was unconscious and hanged himself with ginseng for so many days, his body was too weak, and he could be described as weak, and he also had hair loss from time to time. Low-grade fever; while trying to sort out the memories left in the mind of the original owner of this body, at the same time ordered the eunuch Wang Chengen to bring up the recent memorials and residence reports, so as to understand the current situation of the Ming Empire.

Then, this poor time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen was deeply shocked by the magnificence of this unrecognizable bustling world today.

"...Huangshi who assassinated Nurhachi alone? Chen Xin who plotted against Dengzhou under the separatist rule? Who are these people? Why is it completely inconsistent with the history books? The battle of Dalinghe was lost just like in history, but Shandong What happened to the second Wenxiangjiao uprising? In the history books, there is only the one launched by the former leader Xu Hongru during the Tianqi period... What?!! King Chuang fought outside Beijing in the summer of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Now camping on Shijingshan in the west of the city?!!! Uh...the Chuang Wang is not Li Zicheng, but Gao Yingxiang? What is this all about?"

(In official history, there was indeed a group of Shaanxi bandits who fled to the suburbs of Beijing during the fifth or sixth years of Chongzhen, but were soon driven back by the government.)
All in all, the new version of Emperor Chongzhen feels that his mind is very confused, but unfortunately the current situation does not allow him to think slowly.In the short ten days after he woke up, the battle situation around Gyeonggi continued to deteriorate.

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——After annihilating the last out-of-province king army in Tianjin, the prudent Huang Taiji was not in a hurry to go straight to the capital, but dispatched the Eight Banners and the Guanning rebels, together with the recently surrendered mainland officials, to continue to sweep the surrounding areas The prefectures and counties in Northern Zhili cut off the outer screen wings of the capital one by one.

On the ninth day of October, the Jin army broke through Cangzhou, on October [-], the Jin army broke Renqiu, on October [-], the Jin army broke through Wuqing County, and on the [-]th, the Jin army broke through Xianghe County. Fight and flee.On October [-]th, the Jin army marched into Hejian Mansion. Because Guan Ning's rebel general Wu Xiang sent an envoy to lure him to surrender, the defenders of Hejian Mansion clamored for a mutiny, attacked the government office, and coerced the magistrate to open the city gate and surrender.After hearing the news, the remaining counties of Hejian Prefecture immediately descended one after another.

On October [-]th, Gao Yingxiang, a rogue bandit from Shaanxi, occupied Lugou Bridge, showing off his might. The imperial court dispatched officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp to fight against it.The Tianxiong army under Lu Xiangsheng's department was transferred from Tongzhou, and they fought fiercely at Lugou Bridge for a day before regaining the main road leading to the south from the capital.

On October 19, the Jin army surrounded Gaoyang City, and the county magistrate fled with his seal.Former Minister of the Ministry of War, Master of Dongge University, Sun Chengzong, the emperor's teacher, led the whole family to defend the city at the age of seventy, but because the city was small and helpless, it was destroyed three days later. The emperor Sun Chengzong was defeated and committed suicide. All [-] descendants died in battle. .

On October [-], the Jin army marched towards Baoding Mansion. Because the city of Baoding Mansion was tall and strong, the Jin army had traveled a long distance and was exhausted after a long battle.On the same day, the Guanning rebels pretended to be the defeated army of the imperial court, tricked them into opening the gate of Zhuozhou, and immediately joined forces from inside and outside to take Zhuozhou lightly, cutting off the connection between the capital and the south.

So far, the capital has been basically cut off from the outside world, relying on Lu Xiangsheng to lead the remnants of the Tianxiong Army, as well as the rout soldiers who fled from various places, barely gathered more than 1 people, and rushed from left to right in the area from Tongzhou to Lugou Bridge. To create a little strategic space, the city of Beijing was not surrounded.

However, as the counties in Gyeonggi fell one after another, and there was no army of King Qin coming from the south, the situation in Beijing was still getting worse day by day, day by day, day by day, and day by day. Gyeonggi, attacking prefectures and breaking counties, half of the villagers and gentry in Northern Zhili are fleeing to the capital.And Beijing was originally a super metropolis with a population of over one million. Now that a large number of war refugees have flooded in, the population within a square inch has skyrocketed to more than 180 million: such a large population is obviously a burden that Beijing cannot bear at this time. The capital has become a chaotic refugee camp.

What's more serious is the problem of food supply - from Abatai's breakthrough and looting of Beizhili in January, to the Wenxiangjiao uprising in Shandong in summer, to the rebellion of the Guanning army in autumn, and the massive entry of slaves into the customs... …During the five years of Chongzhen, except for a very short gap between May and June, the Grand Canal was closed.Even that extremely short period of navigation was not utilized by the empire's water transport system, making it almost impossible for the grain-producing areas in the south of the Yangtze River to transport a single grain of rice into Beijing this year.Coupled with the fact that nearly a million more refugees with their families had to eat, the price of food in the capital skyrocketed to 80 taels per shimi at the end of September, and continued to rise to 100 taels per shimi in October. The unprecedented price of [-] taels of silver for stone rice!

Even a bureaucratic organization as strict as the Soviet Union would be caught blind in the face of such a situation.As for the already inefficient Ming court, let alone mention it.What's more terrible is that now Emperor Chongzhen is ill and can't manage the council, and the Donglin civil servant who masters the six departments is singing against the first assistant Wen Tiren, so that this "wartime court" is almost on strike, not to mention stabilizing food prices and helping refugees. Policing is a mess!

As a result, inside and outside Beijing after the autumn, social order collapsed unprecedentedly for a time.The streets were full of dying refugees, all the shops were closed, and the whole city was so quiet that it was lifeless.There are hundreds of incidents of robbery, killing, riots and the like happening every day.

And the commotion of food looting that broke out frequently at every moment has left only a few grain stores with deep backgrounds in the city who can afford wealthy servants to stand guard and dare to open, and there are often piles of heads and corpses in front of the stores. It is like the palace of the king of hell, used to deter those hungry people who have evil intentions.

In the face of a sharp increase in crimes, the arresters of the Yamen of Shuntian Prefecture and the patrols of the Wucheng Army and Horse Division have been running around all day long, but they still can't stop them. Killing with soft hands can't stop these crazy hungry guys.There are even many government officials and soldiers who are secretly guarding and stealing, participating in the robbery and killing of Jingzhong grain shops by refugees, just to get some grain, rice, salt and sauce so that their families can barely make ends meet—with the deterioration of the current situation and the With the skyrocketing price of food, the salary and silver issued by the imperial court became more and more insufficient.Not to mention the ordinary soldiers and arresters, even the low-level officials and Beijing officials in the Qingshui Yamen couldn't stand it, and there were constant cases of children becoming sick from hunger and even starving to death.

Moreover, the sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from all over the world soon made it difficult to find a house in Beijing. Even the families of the gentry, if they could not seek refuge with relatives and friends, often could not rent an apartment and could only live on the streets.And there are not many small and soft ordinary people around, let alone, they can only shop on the ground along the street.The imperial court, which was in a paralyzed state, did not take any resettlement measures. As a result, the refugees slept and defecated anywhere.

As a result, the epidemic quickly spread in the city of Beijing. Thousands of corpses were dragged out of the city every day and thrown into the moat or mass graves. The epidemic has not been contained in the slightest, but it is still intensifying, making Beijing like a ghost town for a while, even the officials and eunuchs are dressed in hemp and mourning, and even the palace died in the plague good people.Wen Tiren, the chief assistant who went to the doctor in a hurry, had to call Taoist priests and monks to set up a dojo in the palace to save the dead and pray for blessings, but unfortunately it seemed to be ineffective.

To make matters worse, in August and September, those refugees from other places sleeping on the streets may be tolerable. After entering late October, with a gust of north wind, the city of Beijing in the Little Ice Age instantly became cold and windy. , dripping into ice.However, the city of Beijing has been trapped for a long time, not only lacking food, but also lacking charcoal. As a result, not only the street refugees huddled under the eaves have become zombies, but even the poor and small households in Beijing have to freeze to death every day. People... But thanks to the severe cold, the epidemic situation in Beijing began to ease a little, but it still couldn't get rid of the roots...

In the middle of the night on October [-]th, a group of rioters and rout soldiers who sneaked into the city of Beijing managed to sneak into the gunpowder depot of the Beijing camp for some reason... The huge explosion shook the palace, and it was impossible to escape. Let the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen fully understand the urgency of the situation-there is no time to rest!
So, in the early morning of the next day, even though his body was still not feeling refreshed, he still managed to walk up to the top of the Forbidden City, overlooking the capital with his own eyes.

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At this time, Beijing had just experienced a snowfall, and inside and outside the capital, there was a pure white scenery covered in silver.For those literati and refined scholars, it is natural to enjoy the snow around the stove, watch the plum blossoms, and write poems and lyrics in such weather, which is extremely elegant.For the rich and wealthy, it is also a joy in life to eat shabu-shabu, drink soju, and watch children build snowmen outside the door and have a snowball fight in this snowy day. In the mansion of the noble relatives, there is still a scene of drinking and drinking, drunk and dreaming... But for those poor and small households who can't afford a heater, or the refugees who have no size to stand on, and don't have a hut to shelter from the cold , Such a heavy snow day is fatal enough!
Before the snow fell, countless people had been frozen to death inside and outside the city.Looking down from the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, you can see the servants of Shuntian Mansion urging Lijia Minzhuang to go to the street, pulling a cart along the way to pick up the corpses, not even a broken seat, just throwing them on the cart, pretending to be dead. A large cart was pulled outside the city, and it was lost anywhere—even in the incineration field, the body could not be cremated due to lack of firewood.

At this time in previous years, various ministries of the imperial court, Shuntian Prefecture and wealthy households in the city might set up porridge factories to help the refugees.This year's situation is like this, and it is not known whether it will be able to survive in the next day, and the price of food is skyrocketing again, reaching 100 taels of silver a stone of rice. Who would be willing to lose money like this?

"... Beijing has become an isolated city, King Qin's soldiers and horses have all been defeated, hundreds of officials in the court are still fighting with each other, and on the opposite side is a generation of heroes like Huang Taiji... Well, there are also Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang outside the city in Xishan ( Shijingshan), this place is really unbearable! Not to mention that there are a group of pig teammates around you..." Seeing this bleak scene full of corpses in the street, the time-travel version of His Majesty Chongzhen couldn't help but sigh.

Relying on a bit of historical knowledge obtained by future generations from forums on the Internet, as well as the memory of the original owner of this body, His Majesty the Emperor found out very sadly: Don’t look at the streets of Beijing that are full of starvation, and there is no lack of food in this city—— The grain and rice hoarded by those rich and powerful households is at least enough for the whole city to feed for the first half year, but they will not take out a grain of millet for relief, they only want to continue to raise the price of grain to make huge profits; don't look at the emptiness of Beijing's urban defense right now It all depends on Lu Xiangsheng's more than ten thousand remnant soldiers struggling in the suburbs. In fact, there are not no elite soldiers in this city-the homes of those honorable and high-ranking officials are full of capable and combative soldiers, and there are tens of thousands of people in total. It's a pity that no soldier is willing to listen to the words of the emperor.

As for the salary, let’s not mention it—the 17 million taels of silver that Li Zicheng looted after Chongzhen broke Beijing in 7000 years should have been placed in the cellars of the rich and wealthy households in Beijing at this time. The library is empty enough to run a mouse, emperor.

In short, compared with Constantinople on the eve of the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 A.D., there is no shortage of money, food, ordnance, elite soldiers, or strong men in Beijing at this time. Refugees pouring in from various prefectures and counties in Zhili, the population of the capital has almost increased to 200 million, and it seems that a battle can be fought, but in fact, these money, food, soldiers and horses are not under the control of the emperor, and they can't use a penny. on the war.What's more terrible is that the morale and morale of the whole government have collapsed, the bureaucracy has also been paralyzed, and the loyalty of civil and military officials is even more problematic, just like the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Soldiers have money, but the general situation is gone, and it is also the end of the road.

"...The countless money and food hoarded in this city are beyond my use, and I can't mobilize all the elite soldiers who can fight, and I have to prevent them from rebelling... The whole world is a battle zone, not even the palace. Safe zone, how can you play a game dungeon that can be called hell difficulty?"

In the gusts of howling cold wind, surrounded by several eunuchs and maids, the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen went down the tower full of thoughts, sat on a soft sedan chair, and slowly moved into the palace—as a gamer The unlucky guy who is always being robbed of treasures, monsters, and equipment, and has always only had consolation prizes in the lottery draw, he has become accustomed to thinking of the worst in everything, and now this atmosphere of mourning everything can't help him not to look bad to think about.

"...Now that the Eight Banners soldiers have not yet reached the city, the capital is already in a situation like the end of the world. When Huang Taiji sets up a big tent outside the city, won't he have to disperse? Sigh According to Wang Chengen, the traitors of the Guan Ning Army have been sending people to the capital for a while, and many officials have disappeared... But strictly speaking, these guys who abandoned their officials and fled are still considered good. The remaining officials might be even worse—I'm afraid they don't want to be loyal to the country, but want to use my head to ask Huang Taiji for credit..."

He muttered worriedly, thinking about the chaotic situation at present, he couldn't help feeling that the cold wind was getting colder, even bitingly cold.

——Under the flickering of the Donglin Party, Emperor Chongzhen, who was still a high school student, once abolished the Dongchang in the early years of his ascension, and the Jinyiwei was also weakened to nothing but an empty shelf to show his respect for the "honest men" in the world Trust, leading to the complete collapse of the domestic intelligence system.Later, he realized that the situation was not right. Although Emperor Chongzhen had restored the secret service of Jinyiwei, he had just begun to encounter the current catastrophe.

Therefore, the so-called intelligence capability of Beijing Jinyiwei at present is just to send people to change clothes and go to teahouses to listen to market gossip. Those who are really amateurs cannot be amateurs.As a result, after the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen took over the mess of his predecessor, he was horrified to find that, as the supreme head of state of a great empire, the folk information he could obtain was at best the same as that of Xiao Er, a teahouse shop in the capital. many……

Therefore, the severe lack of intelligence and information made this time-travel version of the Chongzhen Emperor, who was a pessimist, even more worried-how many loyal officials are left in the current Beijing court?Could it be that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty have already colluded and just waited for the Eight Banners soldiers to surrender the city as soon as they arrived?
And the historical knowledge in his mind also made him think of everything as bad: I remember that before he traveled, he also read a fictional novel about traveling through Nanming. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen saw that the general situation was over. In fact, he did not sit in the palace waiting to die at the beginning, but took Wang Chengen and hundreds of internal caojingjun (armed eunuchs) out of the palace, trying to escape from Zhengyangmen , Unexpectedly, the top of the city refused to open the door, and later ran to the Chaoyang Gate guarded by Zhang Jinyan, Minister of the Ministry of War, and tried to sneak out of the city. Zhang Jinyan also chose to refuse to open the door to let people go. Seeing soldiers and horses approaching from a distance, he immediately knocked on his clapper and shot arrows, driving Chongzhen and Neicao Jingjun far away.When things got to such a point where people betrayed relatives, Emperor Chongzhen was completely discouraged and despaired. He disbanded the rest of the internal operation and purification army on Chang'an Avenue. He and Wang Chengen returned to the inner court and went straight to Meishan. Crooked neck tree hanging.

——When Li Zicheng sent his troops to surround Beijing, including the first assistant, the nobles, the ministers of the Ministry of war, and even the relatives of the emperor, all the civil and military officials of the Manchu dynasty in Beijing had already negotiated terms with Li Zicheng, and they were going to use Emperor Chongzhen as a nomination certificate. Then you can turn yourself into a hero of the new dynasty.The main task of the defenders on the city wall was no longer to resist the Shaanxi peasant army, but to prevent Emperor Chongzhen from fleeing: when the Chuang army arrived, the city of Beijing was no longer a fortress against foreign enemies, but instead became a prison for Emperor Chongzhen. This prison for high-level death row inmates!It was only because they were afraid of being accused of regicide that these officials who surrendered did not attack the Forbidden City by themselves, but waited for Li Zicheng to chop off the head of Emperor Chongzhen.

Otherwise, given how strong the city of Beijing was, the Qing army had been besieged many times before and never fell. How could Li Zicheng occupy the entire city within two days?The answer is that the entire imperial court abandoned Emperor Chongzhen, and the hundreds of officials and nobles did not resist at all, so they "opened the door to welcome King Chuang".It's just that Li Zicheng had no intention of keeping the contract at all. He built five thousand pairs of sticks in advance, and immediately broke the contract and changed his mind as soon as he entered Beijing. He arrested those officials who surrendered and tortured them. 7000 million taels of silver, which made all the death experts in the court regret it.

Closer to home, in this time and space that has undergone subversive changes due to the influence of many traversers, today's Shaanxi Peasant Army is not in a good mood. Although Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang are now on the west mountain outside the city, their forces are still very weak , and the combat effectiveness is also very suspicious. It is said that even Lu Xiangsheng's more than 1 remnants and defeated generals could not beat them. It is estimated that there should be few noble officials in Beijing who are willing to hang out with these mud legs.

But if it is replaced by the Jurchen Eight Banners who are in the limelight... At present, there are well-connected Liaoxi rebels like Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou who are leading the needle. For martial arts, Nurhachi in the front and Dorgon in the back are only assigned to carry shoes for him... How many civil and military officials in the capital have secretly taken refuge?It's really scary the more I think about it!

But... Although the original Emperor Chongzhen left a mess for him as a traverser, he still left a bit of inheritance.

Compared with the 17th year of Chongzhen in history, the Ming Dynasty at this time is finally a little bit stronger. First, there are still some internal funds and silver deposits in the palace as coffin books; armies, such as Wang Chengen's Neijingjing Army and Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army...

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look back at Wang Chengen, who was waiting by the side with a lantern—in the official history, when Emperor Chongzhen hanged Meishan, there was only this old eunuch who stayed with him to death ...I think there should be no one in the whole world who is more loyal than him, right?
"...That's why it's decided. We will hold a court meeting tomorrow to see how the ministers are thinking, and then we should pack our bags and get ready to go." He decided in his heart, "...Since the copy of the Battle of Beijing seems to be a I can’t fight anymore, so just change to another instance!”

Then, as soon as he went to court the next morning, the time-travel version of His Majesty the Chongzhen Emperor received a lot of resignations with embarrassment...

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PS: Based on the information that Emperor Chongzhen could get in the Forbidden City, he could not detect that the modern government had intervened. At most, he could only see some guys who did not exist in history. The emperor never thought of "handing over Ming Dynasty to the party"...