Dashun Yongchang

Zhu Cihong looked at Chen Mingxia in surprise, and then asked the teacher beside him: "Could it be that there are still ministers of the Ming Dynasty who want to murder our three brothers? They don't want to embrace me as Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so they don't have to be so vicious, right?"

Li Shichun looked at the crown prince, then at the silent Chen Mingxia, finally sighed and said, "Your Highness, you must be cautious."

Chapter 32 Beneath the End Door

Duanmen is located behind Chengtianmen, and its structure is similar to Chengtianmen. It was originally used to store the emperor's guard of honor.There are 100 court houses built on both sides of the royal road between Duanmen and Meridian Gate. This place was originally the Six Branch Houses, but the Dashun regime was newly built and there was no branch official, so this area became a resident. Where the soldiers are.

The empress, who was originally placed by the Jinshui River, was replaced with a more conformable coffin, and some necessary processing was done to enable the long journey.Fortunately, although Li Zicheng didn't pay enough attention to Chongzhen's funeral before, he still asked the palace eunuchs to deal with the emperor's corpse in accordance with the old palace rules. In addition, the weather in Beijing was not hot during this period, so the corpse was preserved. The ones are good.

So in the early morning of April 4, the coffins of the emperor and empress were moved to the Duanmen tower, and the prince, Chen Mingxia, Li Shichun and other officials returned the ceremony in the sacrificial shed under the tower.Compared with the few people who held a sacrifice for Emperor Chongzhen before Li Zicheng left Beijing, more people from the capital came this time.

Because although Dashun set up a sacrifice for Chongzhen before, he did not ask Prince Ming and officials to officiate. Instead, he sent troops to patrol around.Of the more than 3000 officials in the capital, only 30 dared to cry in the end. Officials who had just voted for Dashun passed by were reluctant to dismount, to show their intention to completely break with the old dynasty.

Even if the officials are so trembling, the common people are even more worried and dare not go to worship.This time Li Zicheng ordered Ming Taizi to come forward to officiate, and removed the guards in front of Tiananmen Square, allowing ordinary people to worship outside Tiananmen Square, civil and military officials and gentry went to Duanmen to pay respects to Ming Taizi, and summoned the whole city. I personally went to Duanmen to worship, so the flow of people outside Tiananmen gradually increased from the afternoon.

Wearing filial piety, Prince Ming returned the salute blankly to the officials who came to pay homage. Seeing so many officials appearing today did not make him relieved, because he knew that not many people had worshiped his father before, so these People who came here today were simply forced to come under the strict order of Emperor Dashun.

It was only when Chen Mingxia and Li Shichun repeatedly reminded him not to be rude, that Zhu Cihong returned the courtesy to these old ministers at both ends of the head rat, but he only had resentment towards these people in his heart, so his face was expressionless.Chen Mingxia and Li Shichun saw the prince's expression, but they couldn't persuade him any more. Although they knew that the prince's expressionless face was mostly aimed at these officials who had abandoned Ming Dynasty, but in the eyes of others, the prince was a little heartless now.

Even if it's just pretending to cry a few times, this scene can be explained away.After all, after Li Zicheng announced that he would let the prince go south to restore the country, Zhu Cihong was no longer the former prince but the future king of Ming Dynasty.From now on, his every word and deed will be magnified to the world, thus becoming the source of his future authority.

It's just that no matter how anxious Chen Mingxia, Li Shichun and other close officials of the prince were, they would not dare to provoke the prince at this time. If the prince suddenly thought of Chongzhen's sentence before his death: the king is not the king of the subjugated country, but the ministers are the ministers of the subjugated country.Today, I would also like to say something to the old officials who paid homage, so it is estimated that it will be difficult for everyone to support the crown prince's ascension to the throne.This country has not yet been restored, and the monarch and ministers have begun to believe that even if this Ming Dynasty is resurrected, how long will it be able to exist.

Chen Mingxia and Li Shichun could only cover up for the prince, and at the same time appease the officials who came to worship for him, hoping to leave a good impression on the prince in the hearts of these officials.Regardless of whether these people will stay in Dashun or go south with the crown prince, they need to form a good relationship right now.And these officials who came to pay homage, after the Dashun Army tortured the officials in Beijing, most of them lost the idea of ​​following the new dynasty, and began to miss the benefits of the Ming Dynasty. Those who took refuge in the Zhu family.

However, at the beginning of Shen Shi in the afternoon, Zhu Cihong, who was originally standing in the filial piety with a blank expression, suddenly ran out. Chen Mingxia and Li Shichun were shocked, and quickly left behind their old colleagues who were greeting each other, trying to stop the prince from making rude moves. .However, the two of them ran a few steps out of the filial shed, then stopped and looked forward in a daze.

Just over ten steps in front of them, Zhu Cihong grabbed a girl in filial piety and cried bitterly. The girl hugged Zhu Cihong with her right hand, also bursting into tears.Ji Shen, an official from the surrounding area who came to worship, silently avoided the two of them, and there were many people standing beside them with their heads bowed and weeping.

Looking at the girl's empty left sleeve, Li Shichun sighed and said, "It's Princess Kunxing, how can I bear it."

Only now did Chen Mingxia understand that the one-armed girl was Aimee Zhu, the same mother and sister who was one year older than the crown prince.Seeing the siblings hugging each other and crying under the shadow of the palace wall, Chen Mingxia couldn't bear to look up to the sky, looking at the narrow line of sky above the palace wall, at this moment he didn't feel any majesty, but the oppressiveness rushing towards his face.A thought flashed through his mind, could this Daming really be resurrected?

On the evening of the 26th, Li Zicheng arrived at Shaheyi with his army. Looking at the four-way team with torches behind him, he had to admit one thing. The march of tens of thousands of people is indeed a science.Even if he racked his brains and sneaked away for a day and a half, he is only 200 miles away from Shanhaiguan.I walked for almost 15 hours today, and it was less than 100 miles.

This speed is a forced march that discards the old and weak and part of the luggage, and takes advantage of the morale stimulated by the previous military competition, and it cannot continue.The march to maintain combat strength should not exceed 30 miles in plain areas, and the mountainous areas should be reduced by half.That is to say, the Dashun army was accustomed to mobile warfare, and they could only accept such a forced march on the march. Those Ming troops who surrendered this year have already begun to complain.

So when he stopped to garrison, Li Zicheng once again summoned the chief generals of each battalion to discuss the issue of marching. He said to everyone: "Although we evacuated Shanhaiguan for nearly two hundred miles yesterday and today, if the Qing army and the rebellious Wu react Come here, bring fine cavalry to chase after us, given our current marching situation, I am afraid that we will be crushed by the cavalry."

Zhang Nai also agreed and said: "The old battalion soldiers are still patient with this kind of march. After all, we are walking on the official road now, which is much easier than the wilderness and mountainous terrain in the past.

However, those newly surrendered officers and soldiers were a bit overwhelmed. Most of them were defenders in the past and lacked the experience of such a fast march. They had almost exhausted their physical strength from Beijing to Shanhaiguan.Now that they have to return after a battle, many people have complained, thinking that it is better to stay and fight against Wu than to go back and forth like this.In my opinion, these newly demoted troops still lack discipline. "

Liu Zongmin said: "There is no time to discipline them now. It is better to continue to divide into two armies. The old battalion will go first, and the new army can let them follow slowly."

Song Xiance immediately objected: "Leaving Bai Guangen's department before was just a stopgap measure. Your Majesty also said when mobilizing the armies before that we were going to Jizhou to ambush against Wu and build slaves, and now we have to leave the new army to walk slowly. , Doesn't this tell the soldiers that we are fleeing? How can the morale of the army be maintained?

The Shahe River flowing through this place goes to Tangshan, where it happens to pass through Kaiping Zhongtunwei.I suggest that the new army be divided along the Shahe River to Kaiping Zhongtunwei, and then diverted to Tianjin to join the Baiminghe Department.Since our army is going south along the canal, Tianjin must be defended, which kills two birds with one stone. "

Li Zicheng glanced at the generals and said, "Zhang Nai, tomorrow you can lead the old battalion with 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry, and then take the new battalions and some of the supplies to Tianjin. Is it feasible?"

Zhang Nai replied without hesitation: "The minister takes orders..."

On the 27th, Li Zicheng woke up at about 8 o'clock in the morning, and after washing up and discussing matters, he took the battalions back on the road at 9 o'clock.After this reduction, there were only more than 9 people left in the 6 army. The Dashun army, which was divided into four routes, was indeed much lighter.On the other side, Zhang Nai organized the nearly 3 soldiers of the Shun Army into six groups, and went down along the banks of the Shahe River in the afternoon. people only.

After the march was over on this day, Li Zicheng also sent messengers to Zunhua and Shanhaiguan's left-behind camps. First, he ordered the Zunhua Jiedu envoy Song Quan to move to Xuanhua, and ordered Zunhua's Shunjun to gather in Jizhou; It was to tell Li Guo that after the 28th, he could withdraw first.

That night, Li Zicheng recruited Ma Bao and Li Laiheng, and said to the two generals in charge of the personal guards: "I have also watched your march in the past two days. If you want to order it yourself, the powers and responsibilities below the cavalry team are not clear enough, and they can be arranged calmly during a battle, but in case of emergencies, the command lags behind. Therefore, I want to adjust the formation of the pro-guard army by one or two, Do you have any ideas?"

Ma Bao and Li Laiheng were not familiar with Li Zicheng's personal guards, so naturally they couldn't come up with any ideas, so they both expressed their willingness to obey His Majesty's orders, and they would follow what Li Zicheng said to change.

Li Zicheng was very satisfied with the attitude of the two men. After thinking for a while, he said to the two men: "The current cavalry has a team of 50 people, and there are also teams of more than 50 people. I think it is better to have a unified standard.

The cavalry team was changed to a cavalry company, and each company was divided into 3 cavalry units, each with 15 people, and the cavalry company commander had 2 deputies, 1 trumpeter, and 1 messenger, so the total was exactly 50 people.

2 cavalry companies form a cavalry squadron. The squadron leader has 2 deputies, 1 trumpeter, 3 messengers, and 8 guards. A squadron has 115 people. 4 cavalry squadrons form a cavalry regiment...the whole regiment has 380 people, and the horses are matched according to 425.The children raised by each cavalry regiment were unified under the name of the cavalry regiment, and the number was 400, plus 400 servants.

During the war, 3 squadrons went out to fight, and 1 squadron was left behind as a teaching team to train reserve cavalry.The personal guards around me should be able to form two cavalry regiments, which are called the Guards Cavalry Brigade.Ma Bao was the brigade commander, Li Laiheng was the deputy, and another person was transferred from the Kaogong Division to be in charge of military discipline.If you have something to do, you should look for the regiment, the regiment for the squadron, the squadron for the company, and the company for the unit..."

Chapter 33 South

In the early morning of March 17, [-], the Dashun Army entered Beijing from Zhangyimen. Emperor Chongzhen rode out of Donghuamen with a three-eyed gun and dozens of eunuchs. They were blocked by random arrows and then ran to Qihuamen. At that time, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, closed the door and turned to Andingmen. The defenders here had dispersed, the gate was locked, and the eunuch could not open it with a sharp axe.

In desperation, the emperor returned to the palace, and there were only a dozen or so eunuchs around him.At this time, the sky was getting bright, and the emperor rang the bell in the front hall to summon all the officials, but no one came after waiting for a long time, and only Wang Cheng'en was left with the eunuch beside him.The emperor walked in a daze, stopped at Jingshan, and hanged himself. Wang Chengen also hanged himself in a nearby pavilion.

However, the South knew nothing about the great changes in the North.Eleven days after the emperor's death, on the first day of April, Shi Kefa, Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, had just summoned soldiers and horses to go north to serve the king. None of the officials in Nanjing knew that not only Beijing had fallen, but even Chongzhen had died.

Qin Wang's troops had just passed the Yangtze River before they got the news of the fall of the capital, and then stopped at Pukou on the north bank, but Nanjing still didn't get the news of Chongzhen's death.

On the tenth day of April, Li Changqi, the general of the Beijing camp, fled to Huai'an, and the governor Lu Zhenfei who was stationed here officially got the news of the Chongzhen Daxing. Two days later, the bad news reached Nanjing.Nanjing officials did not dare to announce such important news without authorization, so they kept it secret and sent people to the north to verify it.

On April 4, the envoy sent to the north to inquire about the whereabouts of Chongzhen reported that Chongzhen had indeed died. Only then did Shi Kefa discuss with the ministers in Nanjing how to mourn Emperor Daxing and announce the sad news.

Before the 25th, the Jiangnan area was still a prosperous scene of singing and dancing. Even the drought in the south last year did not leave any traces on the prosperous Jiangnan area, and the lives of ordinary people are still going on.

Gentlemen from all over the country are still leisurely holding poetry gatherings at home, or inviting the Liyuan troupe to sing, and some people are busy building gardens to take advantage of last year's disaster and cheap labor.

However, this kind of leisurely days finally disappeared after the 25th. On the 25th, the residents in Nanjing first learned the news that the capital had fallen, and everyone began to panic. Some scholars were still watching a play in Liyuan when they received the news. A bigger bad news came out, the emperor was martyred.

The bad news quickly spread from Nanjing to the Jiangnan countryside, but the ministers of the Southern Capital did not put their minds on appeasing the hearts of the people at this time, which caused various rumors to appear in the countryside, or that the bandit army had arrived at the north bank of the Yangtze River, or that the prince had passed away. Going south, there may be rumors that the ministers in Nanjing are ready to surrender to the new dynasty.

The countryside in the south of the Yangtze River was in turmoil for a while. Not only did the residents of the city begin to seek refuge in the countryside, the price of rice and silver in this area also began to skyrocket, the value of cloth, silk, and copper coins began to fall, and the social economy began to become chaotic.

So the ministers in the southern capital are not focused on appeasing the hearts of the people at this time, and are preparing and training the army to go north to avenge Emperor Chongzhen. What are they busy with?The answer is to compete for the power of decision-making.In fact, after Nanjing received the news of the death of Emperor Chongzhen on April 4, the ministers of the southern capital and the ministers of border control in Jiangbei who had received the news had already begun to discuss who would succeed the Ming emperor.

Compared with the last days of the previous dynasties, the Ming Dynasty actually had much better conditions. Not only was most of the south of the Jianghuai River still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing also had a backup central government team.As long as it was decided who would inherit the throne from Chongzhen, the backup system in Nanjing could function and become the new central government.

Does Ming Dynasty lack suzerain vassal to inherit the throne?The answer is of course no.As early as March, all the vassals in the north had abandoned their vassals and headed southward, and they went straight to Huai'an on the fourth day of March.On March 21, King Zhou of Kaifeng, King Lu of Weihui, King Chong of Runing, and King Fu who had nowhere to go, all appeared in Huai'an.

In other words, there are four vassals closest to Nanjing alone, and one of them is King Fu who is closest to Emperor Chongzhen.At this time, it is not difficult for the ministers in the southern capital to choose a vassal to succeed the Ming emperor. As for the Chongzhen blood in Beijing, the ministers have already tacitly agreed that they have been martyred.Even if they didn't die and fell into the hands of the intruders, they couldn't be threatened by them.Therefore, we can only establish a new king.

But at this time, the ministers in the Nanjing court began to be confused.Shi Kefa, who was born in the Donglin Party, was the Secretary of the Nanjing War Department at this time, holding the military power in Nanjing, and Lu Daqi, Zhang Shenyan, Jiang Yueguang, Qian Qianyi and other Donglin Party members controlled the public opinion in the southern capital. It can be said that if Shi Kefa is arbitrary at this time , no matter who you are, it is feasible.

However, Shi Kefa is not a decisive person, so he hesitated at this time.At this time, there are actually three forces who are qualified to discuss the succession of the emperor's power, Lu Zhenfei in Huai'an, Ma Shiying in Fengyang, and the six backup departments in Nanjing City.

Lu Zhenfei is pro-Donglin Party, but he is not Donglin Party.In fact, it is the easiest thing for him to support a certain vassal, because the four vassals from the north and south are all on his territory, and he still has an army of 20 to [-].Huai'an is also located at the north-south hub, and he was the first to know the news of the coming from the north. If he hadn't spread the news of the capital's fall and the emperor's death to the south that day, and directly led troops to support a certain vassal southward, the ministers in Nanjing would have no choice but to Hold your nose and accept.

But Lu Zhenfei also expressed his feelings to the people close to him, "Someone who persuaded someone to go to Nanjing to support the establishment, at this time, if there is a certain movement, Huai and Yang will not keep it, and the world will be over. It must be decided in the southern capital. Otherwise, if I serve the king and refuse to accept him, I will fight with each other, and I will not wait for the intruders to come and kill each other, and the matter will be defeated."

Although he has the ability to make decisions, but due to the overall situation, Lu Zhenfei chose not to participate in the decision-making discussion.But he still wrote a letter to Shi Kefa, admonishing him, "Discussing the virtuous will lead to chaos, and discussing relatives will lead to unity."

It's just that Shi Kefa and the Donglin parties really find it difficult to accept King Fu's ascension to the throne, because decades ago, they used the name of Yixian to put Emperor Taichang on the throne and send the old King Fu to Luoyang.At this time, it is necessary to use marriage negotiations to support King Fu's ascension. Let alone whether King Fu will settle old accounts with them after he ascends the throne. It's gone.

However, for the four vassals closest to Nanjing, King Fu can still personally talk about them, and no one in the other vassals has ever heard of them being famous.Under Chongzhen's rule, no minister dared to come forward to advocate that a certain suzerain was a virtuous king.So within thirteen days from receiving the news of Chongzhen's martyrdom to verifying the news, Nanjing has never been able to draw a conclusion.

The public opinion is to discuss relatives and welcome King Fu, but Shi Kefa and others disagree.But among the Donglin party members, they didn't think about who to welcome as emperor, and Shi Kefa even had to propose King Hui who was far away in Guilin as a candidate.In the blood of Emperor Wanli, except for Emperor Chongzhen who died for his country, King Rui who was captured by Zhang Xianzhong, King Fu of Huai'an, and King Hui of Guilin.

It's just that Shi Kefa's proposal is completely messy. First, it deviates from the principle of Donglin party members to discuss meritorious officials; second, King Hui is too far away from Nanjing, and there are too many accidents on the road.Therefore, it was overthrown within the Donglin Party.

At the same time, Ma Shiying, another governor of Fengyang who is qualified to participate in the policy-making discussion, is not as hesitant as Shi Kefa, nor is Lu Zhenfei so considerate of the overall situation.After receiving the news that Emperor Chongzhen had died for his country, he sent his subordinates to Huai'an to meet the vassal.

Ma Shiying did not decide to welcome the vassal king at this time, he told his subordinates that he would welcome whoever he met first in Huai'an.At the same time, Ma Shiying began to contact several military forces that were still loyal to Ming Dynasty in the north of the Yangtze River at this time. achievement.

On April 4, Shi Kefa summoned Nanjing officials and nobles, and wanted to formally decide to welcome that suzerain vassal as emperor.However, except for the Donglin Party, other officials and dignitaries were not present. Only the Donglin Party in Nanjing felt bad at this time.Qian Qianyi and some Donglin party members began to publicize that King Lu is the most virtuous, and that King Lu should be welcomed into the great unification.

However, the good opportunity of the Donglin party members has been missed. Ma Shiying has already arrived in Yizhen with a large army to support King Fu, and formally wrote a letter to Shi Kefa and Lu Daqi saying: "There is nothing like King Fu in order to follow the order. Lord, please treat me as the emperor."

At this time, Huang Degong of Luzhou also accepted Ma Shiying's persuasion and announced his support for King Fu's succession to the Datong.From Yizhen to Pukou, it has been occupied by the army supporting King Fu.Obviously, if Nanjing refused, a civil war would start.

At this time, Nanjing Xungui asked Shi Kefa to convene a meeting of ministers on April 4 and decided to welcome King Fu.The officials in Nanjing were afraid that the Jiangbei army would go south, so they finally accepted the idea of ​​welcoming King Fu at the meeting. In the afternoon, officials from the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing crossed the river to meet King Fu, and handed over the "Baishi Gongqi" inviting King Fu to come to Nanjing.

It is said that after the decision was made at the meeting, Lu Daqi was still reluctant to write, but Li Zhan stood up and shouted loudly: "Anyone who dissents today will die." The matter was finally settled.

On April 4, King Fu arrived in Pukou, and Wei Guogong Xu Hongji and others crossed the river to greet him. On April 28, King Fu crossed the river but did not disembark. On April 4, the ministers of Nanjing went to Yanziji to pay a visit. On the first day of May, King Fu dared to disembark and land. He first went to Xiaoling to pray, and then entered the city and entered the Nanjing Palace.

At this time, Li Zicheng in the north did not know that there were so many moths in the south. On May 5, he managed to bring the army to Huangtuzhuang, Jizhou, about 1 miles away from Beijing.At this time, the soldiers were a little exhausted, and the Qing army and Wu Sangui's troops behind them finally discovered the fact that the Dashun army had fled, and they were mobilizing their fine cavalry to chase after them.

Li Zicheng had to consider such a question, whether to run first with a few cavalry, and then see how lucky the remaining troops are to escape the pursuit of the Qing and Wu cavalry; The morale of the coalition forces slowly returned to Beijing.

Chapter 34 Exposure

On April 4, the cannons of the Han army flag arrived in the army. On April 25, Dorgon began to urge Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan to send troops to fight with the Dashun army, but the main force of the Qing army stopped 4 miles outside Shanhaiguan and did not move forward. .

While Wu Sangui sent people to bargain with Dorgon, he sent people to the Dashun Army again, trying to paralyze Li Zicheng, but this time Wu Xiang was driven back before he even got close to the Dashun Army's camp.The cavalry of the Dashun Army on patrol told him that he must either let Wu Sangui come to talk in person, or fight a battle with the Qing army outside the pass first, otherwise His Majesty will not see him again.

Wu Sangui didn't want to go to war on either side. Although he had already decided to join the Manchus, he hoped to maintain his independent identity as the Ming army instead of completely surrendering to the Manchus when the Dashun Army did not attack for a long time.

Dorgon ordered the Qing army at the Jiumen Gate to monitor the movement of the Dashun Army, but at the same time insisted that Wu Sangui completely surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and refused to give Wu Sangui an independent status. On April 4, he sent Sun Youbai to the Dashun Army again, trying to lure Li Zicheng to attack Shanhaiguan to increase pressure on Wu Sangui.

But on the evening of the 28th, Sun Youbai did not come back, which made Dorgon have some doubts.At this time, Fan Wencheng saw that the three parties were in a stalemate at Shanhaiguan, thinking that this would greatly damage the morale of the Qing army and would be detrimental to the battle after entering the customs, so he also came to advise Dorgon, thinking that he could not tolerate Wu Sangui any longer, otherwise It will only be "proud of its ambition".

So on the 29th, Dorgon ordered the Han Army Banner to set up artillery positions outside Shanhaiguan. After making an intention to attack Shanhaiguan, he issued an ultimatum to Wu Sangui, "If you don't leave the city today and surrender, Shanhaiguan will be destroyed."

Wu Sangui panicked immediately. While sending people to beg Dorgon for mercy, he sent envoys to the Dashun Army again, wanting to know how Li Zicheng planned to support him if the Qing army started to attack Shanhaiguan.

Only on the morning of the 29th, Li Guo summoned the generals of the former battalion and read the will of Emperor Yongchang to them. Li Zicheng said this: "Wu Sangui has accepted the canonization of Dashun King of Liao, and is willing to defend Dashun against the Manchus outside the pass. So he decided to assign the army of the former battalion to the command of King Liao, and he had already returned to Beijing with the main force.

Those who do not want to serve under Liao Wang can also return to the capital with Li Guo.No matter whose subordinates the soldiers are in, their qualifications are still recognized, and the treatment after retirement is still guaranteed. "

Both Ren Guangrong and Guan Fumin immediately expressed their intention to return to the capital with Li Guo. Ren Guangrong's elder brother was being reused by Li Zicheng's side at this time. Naturally, he would not serve under the King of Liao. , In fact, everyone knows that the main force will not come back, this will is just Li Zicheng's final explanation to them.

Guan Fumin was unwilling to surrender to the Manchus. Since Li Zicheng's main force retreated, Wu Sangui could only switch and let the Qing army go south. He is willing to vote with Wu Sangui, not to mention that Yulin is in Shaanxi, and he can't ignore his family.

On the contrary, Zhou Fengwu seemed a little hesitant. As Zuo Liangyu's general, he had not been valued in the camp, and now he was finally able to lead the army alone, and he was a little reluctant to let go.Seeing this scene, Bai Guangen on the other side quickly persuaded him to stay with him to supervise the Liao King's defense of Shanhaiguan.Everyone else can leave, but Bai Guangen definitely can't, because more than half of the troops in the front battalion belong to him.

Li Guo didn't give them more time to think about it. If they couldn't make a decision in such a matter immediately, it meant that this person was not loyal to Dashun in his heart.However, he still comforted Bai Guangen and Zhou Fengwu, telling them that if they were unhappy working under King Liao, they could still apply for transfer to another place.

So at 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, Li Guo retreated with Ren Guangrong, Guan Fumin and several thousand horse infantry.When Wu Sangui's envoy arrived at the front camp, Bai Guangen let him hang out for an entire afternoon. When he saw that the sky was beginning to darken, Bai Guangen felt that he was worthy of Li Zicheng, so he recruited Wu Sangui's envoy into his tent and conveyed Li Zicheng's handwritten order to him. .

Then Bai Guangen said to the envoy: "Since the Lord has a decree, the last general will wait for more than 3 soldiers, and he will obey the orders of the Liao king from now on. Please also ask the envoy to go back and report to the Liao king, and ask him to send someone to preside over it." ..."

However, when Bai Guangen conveyed Li Zicheng's letter to Wu Sangui's envoy, Wu Sangui had already left the city and surrendered to the Qing army.After noon, the Qing army ordered to fire, and more than a hundred cannons fired violently at the corner of Xiluo City in Shanhaiguan. Two hours later, the foot of the city collapsed, and the Ming army in Xiluo City set up a tree against the Qing army. up the white flag.

The soldiers and civilians in Shanhaiguan immediately became riots. They didn't know what Wu Sangui wanted to do. First offended Dashun, and now he was about to start a war with the Northern Dynasty, and they all resented him.Wu Sangui received a report from Hu Xinshui, saying that part of the army was in contact with Gao Di, trying to support the Shanhaiguan general to leave the city and surrender to the Qing army.

Wu Sangui didn't dare to hesitate any longer. Once Gaodi opened the door before him, his value with Dorgon would be greatly reduced, and he might even be hated by Dorgon.So he led a team of personal guard cavalry out of the city to the Qing army camp two miles outside the city, and asked Dorgon to surrender.

At this time, Dorgon didn't have a good face towards Wu Sangui. Not only did he not allow Wu Sangui to enter the big tent to meet with him, but let him kneel outside the big tent to express his affection, he also sent a pair of razors out and told Wu Sangui: "If it is If you sincerely come down, then shave your hair to show your will.”

Facing the surrounding soldiers of the Qing army who were staring at him covetously, Wu Sangui quickly picked up the razor and asked his attendant to shave his hair, and also shaved the attendant's hair.

After Wu Sangui shaved his hair, Dorgon came out of the big tent to support Wu Sangui enthusiastically, asked about his family situation, and learned that his son Wu Yingxiong was not engaged yet, so he promised to marry Princess Jianning, Huang Taiji's daughter, to Wu Yingxiong. Then Dorgon ordered Azige to take Wanqi into the North Water Gate, Duoduo took Wan Qi out of the South Gate, and he took Wu Sangui and the rest of the army through the Middle Gate into Shanhaiguan.

So when the envoy sent by Wu Sangui to the Dashun Army returned to Shanhaiguan City, Shanhaiguan City had already been replaced with the flag of the Qing army.After receiving the news brought back by the envoy, Dorgon naturally knew that he had been fooled by Li Zicheng. He didn't say anything for a while, but just summoned Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou to discuss the matter, and asked them what to do next .

Although Hong Chengchou had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty at this time, he could not gain the trust of the Qing Dynasty. However, as the highest civil servant of the Ming Dynasty who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengchou still had great political influence on the entry of the Qing Dynasty.The first thing to call it to discuss matters is to see if it has been tamed, and the second is to further make it betray Daming.

At the beginning, Hong Chengchou wanted to surrender to the Manchus like Zu Dashou, but he didn't make any effort. After all, his family was in Fujian, and being too ostentatious on the Manchus' side would only hurt his family.Another one, after Huang Taiji's death, he was unwilling to intervene in the power struggle within Manchuria, so he still rarely spoke about the state affairs of Manchuria.

But for the Dashun Army, he didn't have such a burden. In other words, after Chongzhen was martyred, he felt that the shackles on his body had been let go, and there was nothing worthy of his allegiance in the pass.At this time, he hoped that the Manchus could seize the Dashun world, so as to wash himself off the notoriety of surrendering to the northern captives.

Therefore, when Dorgon called him to discuss Li Zicheng's retreat, Hong Chengchou immediately suggested: "Li Zicheng led the army before he settled down in Beizhi. It was a big mistake. Now he has arrived at Shanhaiguan but has not fought a single battle." He backed off again, making mistakes even more, and I think Beizhi's people's hearts became even more confused.

In my slave's humble opinion, at this time, our army should send people around with great fanfare to spread the news that the Chuangjun fled in fear of our Qing soldiers.Then, in the name of helping the Ming Dynasty to suppress the thieves, I called on the gentry and officials from all over Beizhi who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty to help me destroy the thieves anyway.In this way, our Qing Dynasty will win the hearts of the people in Beizhi, while the trespassers will lose the hearts of the people in Beizhi.

If there is no support from the local people, Beizhi is not the Beizhi of thieves; and if I have the support of the people of Beizhi, then Beizhi is the Beizhi of the Qing Dynasty.In addition, our army should also follow behind with a fine cavalry, so as not to give the intruders a chance to clean up the hearts of the people, and if it is difficult for them to hold on to Beijing, the intruders will inevitably abandon the capital and flee.If Beijing can be recovered, great things will be accomplished. "

Although Hong Chengchou's suggestion was very agreeable to Dorgon, he still turned his attention to Fan Wencheng who was frowning and thinking, and asked, "What's your opinion, Grand Scholar?"

Fan Wencheng seemed to have been awakened, looked up at Dorgon and said: "Heng Jiu is right, and the slave also thinks so. But looking at the actions of the intruder Li Zicheng, the slave thinks that this person is very cunning and sinister.

It is common for trespassers to leave Bai Guangen's troops behind, but before leaving, they canonized Wu Sangui as the king of Liao and assigned Bai Guangen's troops under his tent. It's a blow.Speaking of today's events in the future, it's not that the trespassers are unkind and unrighteous, but that Wu Sangui and Bai Guang'en's tribe betrayed Dashun.

When I entered the customs this time, the biggest opponent was the thief, and Li Zicheng, the leader of the thief, was such a treacherous person.Nine kings, you can't give him a chance to breathe, you must chase after him, and you must get rid of the evil.Otherwise, with his treachery, within a few years, a larger army can be gathered to fight against our Qing Dynasty.

Looking at it this way, Chongzhen's defeat to the intruders was really not a fluke..."

Chapter 35 Discussion

Dorgon took Fan Wencheng's remarks deeply, so he convened the kings overnight to discuss how to march, and soon came up with a strategy: chase Li Zicheng with fine horses, and the army will follow closely behind.If Li Zicheng left his troops to defend the city on the way, then the cavalry would continue to move forward around the city, leaving the city for the army behind to attack; if the cavalry captured the main force of Li Zicheng's army, they should hold on to it and notify the main force behind them to encircle and wipe out Of.

Regarding the Bai Guangen Department of the Dashun Army outside the city, Dorgon decided to send out the army early tomorrow morning to accept the opponent's surrender, instead of letting Wu Sangui take over the department.Wu Sangui didn't dare to have any objections, and that night all the Ming soldiers in Shanhaiguan shaved their heads to vote for the Qing.

Early the next morning, Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the pass and surrounded Bai Guangen's camp.Bai Guangen was actually ready to surrender to the Manchus, but the Qing army asked his troops to surrender, which immediately aroused dissatisfaction among Zhou Fengwu and others.According to the will of Emperor Dashun Yongchang, it is fine for them to accept Wu Sangui's dispatch, but if they shave their heads and surrender, then their treatment in Dashun will be lost.

The Qing army is certainly strong, but Emperor Yongchang promised to divide the land for the officers and soldiers below, and he would shave his hair and surrender before the treatment was settled, so how could he negotiate terms with the Qing army afterwards.As a result, more than half of the officers and soldiers of the Manchu battalion did not want to shave their hair. They launched representatives to petition Bai Guangen, thinking that surrender was okay, but shaving was not.

Bai Guangen didn't want to stir up internal strife among his subordinates, so he sent envoys to the Qing army outside the camp to intercede, saying that the whole camp was willing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, but please skip the haircut.Dorgon thought that other conditions could be negotiated, but shaving one's hair was inevitable, because only those who shaved their hair truly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

So Dorgon ordered the Han Army Banner to transport the cannon to the outside of Bai Guangen's camp, and told him that if he didn't want to shave his hair, he would wait to be captured by the army and come to see himself as a prisoner.In the end, Bai Guangen didn't dare to continue to resist, so he ordered his subordinates to shave their hair, and sent cronies to suppress the officers and soldiers who opposed the shaving. Zhou Fengwu had no choice but to open a fence with dozens of cavalry and escape from the camp.

Dorgon was extremely satisfied with the conquest of Bai Guangen's troops, so he ordered Bai Guangen to write letters to appease the former Ming army generals at various passes of the Great Wall; For you and others to restore the king and father's revenge, it is not to kill the people, but the one who is punished today is the trespasser. Those who come from the government will return to their jobs, and those who come from the people will return to their jobs. Teachers and disciplines are strict, and you will not harm you."