Xie Ming

Chapter 258: Going North to Serve the King
The tenth day of the fifth month, the first quarter of the hour of Xu (19:15 pm).

The generals of the four towns in Jiangbei have arrived late!
In the meeting hall of the Ministry of War in the secondary capital Yingtianfu, with Shi Kefa as the guide, the discussion on the serious issue of supporting the king was finally started!
"Well, good!"

"Since all the summoned persons are here!"

"Xianzhi (Shi Kefa)!"

"You come to open the show!"

"Give a brief account of the situation here and inform the four generals in Jiangbei." Qiu Weizheng said.

"Well, yes!"

"Commanders, the civil officials present here have already known the whole story yesterday."

"Yesterday morning I also ordered the messenger officer to go to each department's account and give a brief report."

"Right now, the country has collapsed, the capital has been lost, and the emperor has passed away!"

"We are all civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty, and have received the emperor's grace. Since we are receiving the emperor's salary, there is no reason for us to be disloyal to the emperor!"

"Especially when this building is about to collapse!"

"You should all work together to protect the Ming Dynasty!"

"Four generals, do you have any doubts about this?!" Shi Kefa took the initiative and spoke in a righteous manner. He paused, raised his eyes and looked around to observe the attitudes of the four generals Huang, Liu and Gao.

But when he stopped talking, the four generals remained silent. Each of them had their own thoughts and none of them was willing to speak out, for fear that they would be the first to speak out and become the target of public criticism, and it would be difficult for them to step down.

Shi Kefa saw that his plan had failed. Although he looked unwilling, he had no choice but to continue pursuing the issue.

"At present, the Minister of Finance in Beijing, Ni Yuanlu, has brought the prince's handwritten letter here!"

"I, Qiu Weizhen, Minister Qiu, and several other ministers and vice ministers have all examined this letter. It is indeed written by the crown prince himself. It is definitely authentic!"

"The book says that after the prince and his party broke through the siege of the capital, they went through Xizhimen, entered Xiangshan, and entered Sanpojie!"

"It has been more than a month now. Let's make a rough calculation. If everything goes smoothly, we may have almost reached the border of Shandong Province. Who knows!"

"So this time, Minister Ni arrived first and summoned all the gentlemen to discuss the plan of going north to support the king and sending troops out of Shandong!" Shi Kefa finished speaking.

Everyone present was whispering to each other, while the four generals sitting on the right had a tense look on their faces, and the situation was at a stalemate for a while.

After a long while, the second seat, Left General Liu Zeqing, could no longer hold back and was the first to ask a question.

"Uh"

"Um... Minister Ni!"

"Gang Xian said that Beijing was completely lost and His Majesty passed away. Is this true?!"

Liu Zeqing went straight to the point and asked about the two most important prerequisites!

Firstly, the Ming court had two capitals, the northern capital and the southern capital, with the northern one being the most important and the southern one being the secondary. If Beijing did not encounter any sudden changes, Nanjing would not be taken seriously. Now, among the important officials sitting in the military office of Yingtian Prefecture, except for Ni, Lin and Li, the rest are all southern officials. Whether they can take advantage of this change to rise to the top is probably what everyone present wants to know the most!
Secondly, by the same token, if the emperor were still alive, the so-called prince's handwritten edict would be of no value at all.

When the emperor passes away, the crown prince can be enthroned only according to the law!

Emperor Chongzhen was buried in the capital, so the escaped prince could be said to be loyal to the king!
"haha."

"General Liu!"

"For these two questions, I, Ni Yuanlu, can stake my life and property on them!"

"The capital has indeed fallen into enemy hands!"

"Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, ah"

"Your Majesty did not want to flee, and he had already hanged himself on Coal Hill in the capital!"

"Return, return to heaven!"

Ni Yuanlu spoke with confidence, and when he talked about the emperor's death, he was so sad and heartbroken that he couldn't help but shed tears.

Some of the other civil servants present also pretended to follow suit, covering their faces and sobbing.

"Oh, oh!"

"alright!"

"What are you all crying for?"

"Right now, the most important thing is still on the prince!"

"Hey, Minister Ni!" "How is the Crown Prince doing since he fled the capital?!"

"Who is in front of me?!"

"The land west of the capital is now in the hands of the rebel Li Zicheng!"

"Your Highness, can you guarantee your safety by intruding into a den of bandits like this?!"

Huang Degong saw Liu Zeqing's suggestion and was unwilling to be left behind. He saw another important rule and hurriedly asked about it.

"oh oh"

"That's right. It was a month ago! The prince followed the troops and broke out of the capital."

"We walked through Xizhimen and went straight into the heart of the Sanpojie Mountains."

"Although the western part of Jixi is controlled by various bandits, it's still relatively better in the mountains!"

"And the prince is approaching. There is a young general named Xiao Jingchuan, who is the guerrilla general of the left camp of the Beijing Shenji Camp!"

"His subordinates number several hundred, and they have been following Xiangyou closely!"

"At the moment, I think the prince should be safe." Ni Yuanlu replied truthfully.

"Ah!"

"Hundreds of people?!"

"You know that the southwest has fallen into enemy hands and is already behind enemy lines, so why do you still insist on running in that direction?"

"If you want to escape, you should choose the eastern waterway and go downstream, which is safer!"

"Whose bad idea was it to take this route?"

"Isn't that the guerrilla guy?!"

The last seated general of Fengyang, Gao Jie, frowned, twitched one corner of his mouth, and interrupted with sarcastic remarks, which were very impolite and full of contempt.

"Uh, this..." Ni Ruyu called out to Gao Jie, who was speechless for a moment, and the situation became awkward.

But when Shi Kefa, who was standing nearby, heard this, he interrupted the conversation and told the latest news from the north.

"Haha, according to common sense, what General Gao said is indeed true!"

"However, times are difficult, and the situation in the war to the north is changing rapidly."

"I just got the latest information this afternoon."

"It is said that after the rebel Li Zicheng captured the capital, he was unable to hold on for long!"

"Right now, outside Shanhaiguan, the Jiannu and Yi soldiers are taking advantage of the chaos and have already raised their troops and invaded the interior of the pass!"

"Wu Sangui, the former general of Liaodong, was ordered to return to save the capital, but now he has abandoned the light and joined the dark, becoming a traitor and completely rebelling!"

"It is said that in the past half month or so, the Jiannu soldiers have been aggressive and have invaded the south as if they were in an empty land. They may have already seized the capital and controlled a large area in the northern part of Northern Zhili!"

"So!"

"Then the Crown Prince was right in fleeing from the capital!"

"Instead of taking the sea route, we ran into the rebel Wu Sangui, boarded his pirate ship, and fell into the hands of the Jiannu barbarians. It is truly God's blessing on our Ming Dynasty. Good people will be blessed by God!"

After hearing Shi Kefa's new report, everyone in the meeting room gasped and looked at each other in surprise!
Huang Degong, the chief on the right row, had an even more twisted face. When he heard the word "Jian Nu", he recalled the past events.

After all, among the four towns present, he had dealt with the Liaodong Jiannu before, and the barbarian army was brave and powerful. Even if others didn't know it, he must know it.

When he heard that the foreign troops had entered the pass, he became the first to get restless.

"oops!"

"Fuck you, damn slave!"

"Fuck it!"

"They are always taking advantage of loopholes!"

"Well, I mean Xianzhi (Shi Kefa)!"

"The Jiannu have entered the pass and are planning to attack the capital. Is this news reliable?!" Huang Degong pressed the issue, hoping to get to the bottom of the situation.

(End of this chapter)