stubborn thief

Chongzhen's court had never been so chaotic.

Throughout the twelfth lunar month, Chongzhen was helpless as Hou Huangjin Taiji was about to proclaim himself emperor.

It was difficult for the Later Jin to keep any secrets from the Ming Dynasty, especially for such a major event as usurping the throne and changing the reign title, which required long-term preparation. The intelligence had already been obtained by the Ming court through various channels.

But he knew it was useless and he couldn't stop it. Now even Huang Taiji himself couldn't stop Huang Taiji from becoming the emperor.

The current predicament of Taiji of the Later Golden Dynasty is actually similar to that of Liu Chengzong of the Marshal's Office. Both have accumulated too much pressure from war for a long time and urgently need an outlet.

In particular, Liu Chengzong was relatively relaxed, facing great internal pressure and was eager to confer official titles on his subordinates; while Huang Taiji was facing greater external pressure.

Because before he became emperor, Huang Taiji was actually the leader of the alliance and had no strict affiliation with those allied countries.

Like the Khan of Khorchin and the King of Korea, Huang Taiji was also a Khan. How did he rule them?

Originally, it would be fine if this matter was slowed down. Just like Liu Chengzong, the Great Khan Lindan was buried in Bajiao City, the Khoshut Khan lived in Xining City, the Ordos Jinong was supported in the south of the desert, and there were three taijis in U-Tsang who dared not claim to be Khans.

After all, it’s all about strength. As long as you are strong enough, a marshal can also be crowned emperor.

However, the two recent setbacks in the Later Jin Dynasty's westward expeditions had damaged Huang Taiji's prestige. He had to take advantage of the fact that the opposing nobles of the allied countries had not yet risen up and have the leaders of various factions ask for the title of emperor and establish the master-servant status.

Although the Mobei Military Governor's Office was too cunning and the Ming troops in Xuanda and Liaodong were difficult to defeat, it was easy for Huang Taiji to deal with Korea, Khorchin and the various remnant nobles of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Becoming an emperor was not the goal; the goal was to better unify Manchu power through becoming an emperor.

But for Chongzhen, it was really helpless.

This era is bizarre.

He encountered all the outrageous things that his ancestors had never seen in their lifetimes.

An old soldier from the western frontier army became a warlike Han Khan and ran away to inherit the Mongolian throne.

To the east, the Jianzhou Jurchens wanted to become the Tiancong Khan of the Warrior Country and the Chongde Emperor.

In fact, Chongzhen was very distressed about Huang Taiji's enthronement, but he was not very angry.

After all, the war between Ming and Jin has long become normalized, and whether they claim to be emperors or not, the two families have long been mortal enemies.

What's more, for Chongzhen, there are some things in this world that he would never consider at all.

For example, if his country was destroyed, the Ming Dynasty would be ruined.

This is conceivable and there is a small chance that it will happen.

Then the eunuch Cao Huachun usurped the throne and became emperor.

This also has a much smaller chance of happening.

He would never have imagined that the Later Jin would enter the country and rule the world.

  How is this possible?

It's impossible. They wouldn't even dream of doing that. At most they would be a Jin Dynasty.

But Huang Taiji still accurately stepped on the tail of Chongzhen and the reign title.

Chongzhen means supreme auspiciousness.

Chongde means the highest morality.

  So you mean I'm immoral?

But even though he was angry, Chongzhen still felt a little relieved in his heart.

Fortunately, Huang Taiji did not use Shunde, Chongshun or other names when choosing the reign title, which fulfilled the prophecy that one should stop when encountering a favorable situation.

This thing was already popular during Yesen's time.

In comparison, he was actually more worried that Liu Chengzong would be provoked by Huang Taiji and proclaim himself emperor.

That's the guy who is really shaking the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen did not trust the civil and military ministers he could meet, but he was always very confident in the strength of the grassroots soldiers of the Ming army in the north whom he could not meet.

Huang Taiji's Eight Banners Army was indeed a strong army, fighting hard and with strong cohesion, but the Ming army in the north of the Ming court was also hardy and good at fighting. Although the fighting was rather frustrating, it always maintained a strategic confrontation with a strong attitude.

Such a confrontation could be maintained, firstly, the Ming army in Liaodong and Xuan was not vulnerable; secondly, Huang Taiji was unpopular within the Ming Dynasty, and even if he broke through the border, he would be attacked from all sides and could not stand.

When they led their troops on long expeditions, they would often capture one or two cities and then hastily retreat.

However, Liu Chengzong's Marshal Army was different. His army might not be much stronger than the Eight Banners Army or the Ming Army in the north, but he had many supporters in the heartland of the Ming Dynasty, and pushing the front line forward would often result in just two battles.

First attack the main army, then attack the local militia, and then the local people will accept his rule without fighting with him.

He really made Chongzhen's confidence in the Ming army in the north fall to the bottom... This guy is the Ming army in the north, and the Ming army thinks he is one of their own.

The most obvious example is General Yu Chongxiao, who is now being held in Yansui Town by Liu Chengzong and dares not move.

This person's previous official position was the deputy general of Jizhen. He led a small number of troops to defeat the larger force, and faced the troops led by Huang Taiji directly and repelled them. Only then was he promoted to the general of Yansui.

You can't say he's disloyal or incompetent.

However, in Yansui, the morale of the army was so broken that Yu Chongxiao did not dare to lead his troops out of the town.

Chongzhen was no longer completely clueless about the situation in Shaanxi as he was a few months ago.

He knows a lot about the movements of the Marshal's Office.

Because the chief minister of the court was Wen Tiren.

This is a perfect match for Wen Tihen and Chongzhen.

They are all selfish people who are only concerned with protecting themselves. Chongzhen is the one who passes the buck, and Wen Tihen is the non-stick pan.

This guy was a second-class Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli. He was only 24 years old that year. He was a genius.

This genius did not participate in party struggles. Feeling that the situation was chaotic, he tried to find a way to become an official in Nanjing.

He did not seek money, profit or form cliques, and he worked diligently and as a model of integrity for thirty years.

Wen Tiren was very capable and incorruptible. He was good at criminal law and finance. He could see through the messy data that made other cabinet ministers frown at a glance, and he was extremely smart and experienced.

But it’s the same as Chongzhen.

Whenever Wen Tiren encountered a problem that needed to be solved, he would just lower his head and remain silent.

When it comes to dealing with someone, his eyes light up.

He and Chongzhen were the kind of people who used others as a mirror and saw another self in the world. The king and his subject knew each other as well as they knew themselves, and they were a friendship made in heaven regardless of age.

Wen Tihen knew that Chongzhen was interested in Shaanxi affairs, so he found his younger brother, Xue Guoguan, who was the Shaoqing of Taichang.

Xue Guoguan was from Hancheng, the same Hancheng where Zuo Maodi was the magistrate.

At present, it is the only county in the whole of Shaanxi that has neither surrendered to the Marshal's Office nor declared war on it.

Xue Guoguan mobilized his clansmen to spy on the surrounding information and collected a lot of confidential information and latest developments about the Marshal's Office.

These intelligence reports were brought to the desk of Emperor Chongzhen through the Prime Minister Wen Tiren, and Xue Guoguan was promoted to the Minister of Rites. Zuo Maodi was lucky anyway, as Liu Chengzong recommended him for excellence, and then Chongzhen also recommended him for excellence, making him an excellent official recognized by both sides.

Zhang Xianzhong called Zuo Maodi to the Ministry of Rites for dinner, but Zuo Maodi did not respond at all. However, after receiving a letter from Xue Guoguan, the newly appointed Vice Minister of Rites, Zuo Maodi went to Beijing to report on his work.

While he was still on the way, Chongzhen's originally expectant mood fell to the bottom due to the imperial court's report.

Huang Taiji's declaration of himself as emperor had a serious impact on the situation on the grassland. A small group of Mongolian nobles in the south of the desert migrated eastwards to submit to Dai Qinggulun. At the same time, Mongolian soldiers in the east also fled westwards to submit to the Governor's Office in the south of the desert.

Since both sides were poor, in order to raise money for the journey, they would break through the border wall in Xuanyun area of ​​the Ming Dynasty and rob people before reaching their destination.

As a result, dozens of heads of Wanquandusi's guerrilla Hao Xiaozhong were given away for nothing.

If this piece of news was not too bad, then the intelligence from the south made Chongzhen's heart ache.

The third day of the twelfth lunar month.

Zhang Yichuan, the pseudo-Henan general who was defeated by Henan general Zhang Renxue, appeared outside the city of Yingzhou.

The prefect Yin Meng'ao and the assistant judge Zhao Shikuan were about to go to Fengyang to pay a visit to their superiors, but upon hearing the news, they hurried back to the city and led the people to defend the city.

The city wall was breached, and Yin Mengao personally guarded the gap with a big knife. Seven of his brothers, nephews and nephews all died. Yin Mengao also committed suicide by jumping into the water with the official seal.

Zhao Shikuan led his troops in street fighting but died of exhaustion. His wife, Li, and their three daughters climbed up a building and burned themselves to death.

Student Liu Tingfu was the nephew of Liu Jiuguang, the governor of Yunnan, and died in battle; Liu Jiuguang's son Liu Tingshi was guarding Xicheng and was stabbed to death.

In addition, retired Shangshu Zhang Heming, his son Zhang Datong, and his brother Zhang Heteng, Yunnan councilor, were killed.

Tian Zhiying, the secretary of the Secretariat, Li Shengbai, the director of the Guanglu Temple, Li Yuanbai, the deputy secretary, Liu Daoyuan, the magistrate of Huangyan, and Yang Nan, the magistrate of Huining, all died in the city.

Yingzhou Guard was also surrounded, and its commanders Li Congshi and Wang Tingjun, Qianhu Sun Sheng and Tian Sanzhen, Baihu Luo Yuanqing, Tian Demin, Wang Zhilin, Wang Tan and others were killed in the battle on the city.

A total of 103 other officials, gentry, and common people were killed, and 27 women in the city committed suicide for their chastity.

Within one day, both cities were captured.

On the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, Huoqiu County, located on the south bank of the Huai River, sixty miles away from Yingchuan, was in a state of emergency.

At that time, Huoqiu County Magistrate Huang Rifang's term of office had expired and he was waiting for new arrangements. Seeing the situation was critical, he fled to Fengyang that day and reported to his superiors that the task of defending the city could be handed over to the instructor Ni Keda.

However, the instructor Ni Keda did not know about this, nor did he receive a notice from Fengyang Prefecture asking him to guard the city.

He only saw Zhang Yichuan uniting tens of thousands of Huidao disciples from Yingzhou, Huoqiu and other places, holding high the banner of Emperor Gu Yuan Zhenlong, and besieging Huoqiu.

Before the crisis, Ni Keda was nominated by the county gentry, took out the seal of the county magistrate, and organized more than a thousand strong men from the people in the city to guard the four gates.

He personally guarded the north gate. At the beginning of the battle, he opened the city gate and pretended to surrender, letting 300 vanguards of Zhang Yichuan's army who had crossed the river into the city, and shot them all to death, thus boosting the morale of the defenders.

Only then did they use Huoqiu, a small county, to withstand the attack for a day and a night.

But Huoqiu was a small county after all, with no reinforcements from outside and no heavy artillery from inside. After the initial fighting, the army and civilians were exhausted and could only throw firecrackers at the peasant army outside the city at night.

The key point is that Fengyang Prefecture is a very complicated place. During Zhang Yichuan's attack, the people's performance was very distinct.

The natives of Fengyang Prefecture are extremely determined to defend the city. Even if the city is breached, they will stubbornly die for their country, reflecting the tenacity of the place where the Ming Dynasty was founded.

The outsiders in Fengyang Prefecture were determined to attack the city and were very welcoming to Zhang Yichuan, the outsider. They would respond in droves almost wherever he went.

This is because as the birthplace of the dragon, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty built his hometown and used manpower to forcibly transform the small Zhongli County of Linhao Prefecture into Fengyang Prefecture, the world's leading metropolis.

In this process, local residents benefited from tax exemptions, and the twenty neighboring households at that time became worry-free households for generations, but at the same time, 300,000 people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang moved in.

Emperor Taizu forcibly elevated Fengyang Prefecture to a position that did not belong to it, and naturally it declined after its peak.

The sudden influx of a large population led to the reclamation of land everywhere in Fengyang Prefecture, resulting in the reclamation of 400,000 hectares of land in Fengyang Prefecture, which originally had a population of only 130,000.

Therefore, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, Fengyang's mountains and forests were bare, the river channels were in chaos, and with the Yellow River causing trouble, disasters became commonplace.

The first to bear the brunt here are the descendants of immigrants from the early Ming Dynasty. They move around begging and naturally become the target of various secret societies.

This also divided the people of Fengyang into two distinct factions, some of whom were extremely supportive of the Ming Dynasty, and some of whom were extremely rebellious and easily ignited.

Zhang Yichuan had just experienced the collapse of tens of thousands of troops. Now he commanded these stragglers as easily as using his own arms. He easily saw the city's defenses from the hill, and then ordered his subordinates to move several cannons in the army to the laxly defended South Gate and bombard the battlements.

The person in charge of guarding the South Gate was called Shi Shilin, who replaced Ni Keda as the instructor. He lost his fighting spirit under Zhang Yichuan's fierce attack and escaped from the city wall at night. The South City Wall, which had lost its command, was immediately breached.

County magistrate Zhang Youjun, instructor He Bingruo, township officials Dai Tingdui and Tian Jiting, and juren Wang Yuzhen and Zhang Canheng died in defending the city.

After the city was broken, Ni Keda did not surrender, but continued to defend the north gate and fight in the streets. Eventually, all the militiamen around him were killed or wounded. He was captured by the angry peasant army and taken to the Yuan Emperor Palace, which enshrined the Zhenwu Emperor, and was executed.

When Ni Keda's wife, Dai, heard the bad news, she cried and worshipped towards the Yuan Emperor's Palace, and then hanged herself.

Some peasant soldiers saw that she couldn't take off her bracelet, so they chopped off her hand with a knife.

The youngest son, Ni Benyi, had been hiding in the manger and was doing nothing, but when he saw this scene, he was so grief-stricken and angry that he jumped out and cursed the thieves loudly. He used his body to protect his mother's body. He was stabbed more than 30 times and fell in a pool of blood. He was rescued after the battle and his body was covered with scars.

Ni Keda's daughter, Ni Gu, was only twelve years old. She witnessed the tragic death of her parents and was also crashed to death in the official residence in Huoqiu.

Ni Biao, a servant of the Ni family, also committed suicide after the defeat.

Ni Keda's entire family was full of loyal heroes, and only four sons survived.

The sixth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Zhang Yichuan led his army to attack Shouzhou, but failed, so he went downstream and headed straight for Lu'an Prefecture.

In just a few days, Fengyang Prefecture was completely set on fire by Zhang Yichuan. For a time, Luzhou and Anqing in the south, Sizhou and Huai'an in the east were all full of bandits.

People held high the flags of various generals and commanders under the command of the Ancient Yuan Zhenlong Emperor, and attacked cities, plundered counties, burned passes and destroyed villages.

At the same time, there was chaos in the south and in the areas of Henan and Shanxi in the north. Bandits from Yancheng, Fenzhou, Linxian, Zhangde, and Linxian gathered more than 10,000 people and burned, killed, and looted everywhere.

The situation gradually got out of control.

At this critical juncture, the imperial court no longer cared about Huang Taiji's declaration of emperorship. They all submitted petitions and requested troops to encircle and suppress Zhang Yichuan.

At one time, You Shiwei, Zhang Waijia's cavalry outside the Great Wall, Xu Laizhao's Tianjin soldiers, Tan Daxiao's white-flag soldiers, Ni Chong's Beijing camp soldiers, Yang Yufan's Shandong soldiers, and Liu Zeqing's defense troops all received orders to gather.

The northern troops were marching southwards in a disorderly manner, while the southern troops were rushing northwards, determined to surround and kill Emperor Zhang Yichuan in Southern Zhili.

It was against this background that the dusty Zuo Maodi entered the Forbidden City and was summoned by Emperor Chongzhen to the platform to make a report.

Chongzhen originally hoped that Zuo Maodi could bring him some hope.

But he was rude and asked, "What has Liu Chengzong been doing these past two months?"

Zuo Maodi said, "Your Majesty, the Marshal's Office has been traveling to Xi'an for the past few months. There must be something big going on. I'm afraid that Liu Chengzong is planning to usurp the title of king."

Chongzhen, whose mood had just eased a little, immediately lost his defense and roared: "Isn't it enough for me to deal with? He also claims to be a king to cause trouble?"

This made Zuo Maodi confused.

  He felt that Chongzhen hated Liu Chengzong the most, but why did his words sound not only without much hatred, but also as if there was a hint of blame?

This emperor is really strange. (End of this chapter)