national surname chiming

Chapter 330 How can the prince cooperate with the murder of his father and enemy

Before Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong set off, they didn't know that they could not save the emperor, so after landing at Dagukou, they still had to go all out to try.

After the defenders of Dagukou and Tianjinwei regained their control, some local defenders reported the latest news to Zhang Mingzhen directly, saying that the city of Beijing had been captured for four or five days.

But these guards were originally people who surrendered several times on both sides. It has only been more than half a month since they surrendered to the intruders. These people share.

Therefore, they can't tell clearly how many relatives of the emperor and officials died after the city of Beijing was broken, and which ones defected to the enemy.

All kinds of false news are flying all over the sky. About the life and death of the same person, there are often two diametrically opposed theories, which makes people wonder which one to believe.

After Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong sorted it out, they couldn't get a clue at all, so they could only further prove it by force.

However, before proving it by force, they still have to divide their troops and change ships, which is also very troublesome-large ships and warships coming from the sea cannot enter the shallow and narrow artificial canals of the Wuqing River.

Zhang Mingzhen had no choice but to allocate half of his troops to guard the big ship to keep the troops motivated at any time.The remaining half of the people changed into Tianjin Wei's inland water tank boats and slowly went upstream.

These tank boats are usually only used to transport grain, without considering the needs of combat, so naturally there are no protective measures.In order to prevent being intercepted and killed by the intruders on the way, Zheng Chenggong could only ask people to carry some soil boxes and sandbags on the side of the ship to provide some temporary shelters.

The power facilities of the tank boats are also very simple, basically relying on poles.Sail power is difficult to use in narrow canals, and paddling efficiency is not high.The only advantage is that it can take advantage of the shallow water characteristics of the river, and the punt can stay on the bottom of the river all the way, and the power efficiency is not bad.

In some particularly narrow river sections, in theory, the trackers can still be counted on to pull the fibers, so that more manpower can be used to pass quickly.

But now they have to deal with possible enemies at any time. Both Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Mingzhen are famous for their naval forces, so they dare not leave too many trackers on shore.Otherwise, when the cavalry suddenly appeared, the trackers would have nowhere to escape and could only be slaughtered by others.

It's not as good as the boatman who punted can always stay behind the sandbag wall on the boat to avoid being directly charged by the cavalry.As a result, among a group of Tianjin tank boats, there appeared a strange scene of more than a dozen sailors punting at the stern at the same time, just to push forward faster.

Zheng Chenggong's fleet traveled northward from Tianjin Acropolis for more than half the morning, traveling against the current for more than 40 miles.

Along the way, there were also small groups of thieves and scouts who broke into the army.

Some unsightly Chuangjun saw the suspected official fleet and thought it was as easy to bully as the Caoliang fleet, so they tried to intercept and shoot arrows at the fleet.

It can't be blamed for their ignorance. Many of the cavalry troops under Li Zicheng's command came from the Northwest, and many Shaanxi people had never been in contact with the navy or water transport in their entire lives.Seeing this kind of open boat with no roof in the cabin, of course I felt that just throwing bows and arrows could massacre the people on board, so I had the courage to come over and try it.

However, the soldiers selected by Zheng Chenggong were all heavily armored and wore iron helmets. Although they stood close together on the ship, they were not damaged by occasional throws.

More importantly, Zheng Chenggong has never been short of firearms. When encountering rogue cavalry who intercepted him, he would start to line up guns in turn to teach him how to be a man.

After several skirmishes, Zheng Chenggong sent his troops ashore to catch the wounded, identified the rogue officers and arrested them for interrogation to find out news about the emperor.

Several rogue cavalry officers who were injured and arrested all said that Chongzhen had been besieged and committed suicide. King Chuang didn't embarrass him and gave Chongzhen a generous burial.Zheng Chenggong didn't believe it at first, but after hearing several people say that, he gradually believed it.

"Young Master, we are loyal to His Majesty. In this case, why not go back to Tianjin Wei and try to contact Wu Junmen in Shanhaiguan." Some Zheng family pirate officers around Zheng Chenggong persuaded him.

Zheng Chenggong thought for a while: "Let's take another look, and by the way, find out where General Wu's rescue troops have gone. I guess he is not in Shanhaiguan right now, so we may be in vain if we go straight to Shanhaiguan.

If there is no harvest today, we will turn back in the afternoon.It will be faster to return to Tianjin Weishunshui.As long as it gets dark, you can go back to Tianjin Wei. This army is in chaos, and you can't be surrounded in the wild when it gets dark. "

The subordinates thought it made sense, so they didn't persuade Zheng Chenggong any more, and allowed Zheng Chenggong to continue to advance. At noon, they defeated a group of rogue patrolling scouts, but the main force of the rogues still hadn't had time to react, and it took a long time to come to intercept them.

From the captives, Zheng Chenggong got some new useful information. For example, Li Zicheng had sent troops to deploy defenses in Kaiping and Zunhua.It seems that the contact between Chuangjun and Wu Sangui was not smooth,

And Wu Sangui's returning defense force had already passed Kaiping, but it seems that after confirming the news of Chongzhen's death, they gave up continuing to return to the west, and then retreated from Kaiping to the east. I don't know if they have returned to Shanhaiguan now.

And Li Zicheng also sent some other generals of the Ming army to make further contact with Wu Sangui. It seems that there are Tang Tong, maybe Ma Ke or Bai Guangen——

These three people were all one of the eight generals who were taken by Hong Chengchou to participate in the Songjin Battle together with Wu Sangui two years ago.When they were under Hong Chengchou's command, everyone had the same status, but now they all voted for Li Zicheng.

Even Zheng Chenggong, an outsider, could not help sighing when he heard about it: The nine-sided soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty are really sloppy.

……

Just when Zheng Chenggong had no more gains, he let the troops have lunch and dry food and was about to return to Tianjin Wei, his troops finally encountered another accident.

A group of Zheng family sailors who had just gone ashore to capture prisoners and torture them went deep into a small wharf town by the river while chasing a few intruders and wounded.Just when they successfully captured all the fleeing enemies and were about to turn back, a young woman dressed as a court lady appeared out of nowhere and forced her courage to ask whether they were reinforcements from the imperial court.

Many of the sailors of the Zheng family were pirates, and when they first saw a beautiful girl, they instinctively showed lust.Fortunately, the woman on the opposite side also knew how powerful she was, and quickly expressed that she would be of great service in saving her, and asked to see the general of the army.The officer of the Zheng family who led the team thought it might as well be a gamble, so he took the man away without infringing.

The palace lady was the survivor Zhang Yan had found after cleaning the scene.On such occasions, Zhang Yan did not dare to show up directly in person, nor did she dare to ask Zhu Xi to show up, for fear that the opponent would not be an official army, or that the army would take risks in a hurry.

She could only throw an abandoned child out to test it first, and then sent a palace maid.If the palace maid had a stupid mouth and failed to stabilize the opposite party and gave it away for nothing, Zhang Yan could only continue to escape incognito.

After a while, the maid was brought back to the fleet and sent to Zheng Chenggong.Zheng Chenggong didn't take it seriously at first, until the other person said that she was a maid in Queen Zhou's palace, and this time she was ordered by the surviving Queen Yi'an Zhang to ask for help.

Only then did Zheng Chenggong become serious, but he didn't dare to take it too seriously, and quickly asked the other party if he had a token and how he escaped.

It's really weird to be able to escape from the chaos of war. When he suddenly met a woman and said that he had a noble status, Zheng Chenggong had to guard against a liar.

The court lady gave a brief overview of the situation, saying that Chongzhen was overtaken by the Chuangjun in Tongzhou and Xianghe, was murdered by Liu Zongmin, and returned the harem's innocence, and Chongzhen's reputation threatened the prince to surrender.In the end, he took out a few waist cards and accessories in the palace to prove himself.

After Zheng Chenggong listened to it and read it, he believed it five or six points—he basically believed that the other party had indeed followed Chongzhen to break out of the siege, and he was indeed a member of the palace.But whether the person behind her is Queen Zhang is still not sure.

Who knows if it is possible that a court lady or a low-end concubine is pretending to be a queen. When everyone in the palace is dead and arrested, no one who knows can identify it.

Both sides are afraid of beating wolves with hemp poles. After Zheng Chenggong pondered for a while, he just said generously: "I am the former prefect of Jiujiang. It is said that they are people close to Empress Zhang, so you can lead the other surviving palace people to board the boat first, and I will send you back to a safe place, and the rest will be discussed later."

After a lot of probing and confirmation, Zhang Yan and Zhu Xi were taken back to the ship under the leadership of Zheng Chenggong himself, so that they could be resettled.

Zhang Yan knew the general situation, she always wore a veiled hat, and after boarding the ship, she hid in the cabin and lowered the curtain, and stayed with Zhu Xie. She also noticed Zheng Chenggong's hesitation and suspicion, and did not boss her around.

This is also the difficulty of only a few women escaping.

If Chongzhen himself can live, or the prince can live, everything will be easy, men can show their faces, and many ministers have met and known each other. Even in the south, there are high-ranking officials in Nanjing who can distinguish between real and fake.

But the women lived deep in the harem, and the foreign ministers had never seen them.When the other witnesses were all dead and voted, a few escaped. I really can’t confirm it, so I can only be polite first.

At most, I can only hope that when I come to Nanjing in the future, I can meet some eunuchs or court ladies who were sent to Nanjing from Beijing in the early years, and I can meet the former queens and princesses.

In the "false prince case" in Nanjing in the first year of Hongguang, a young man named Wang Zhiming falsely claimed to be Chongzhen's prince Zhu Cihong and fled to the south. At the beginning, everyone in Nanjing did not dare to deny it, and finally let the former prince speak. Wu Meicun, the former Secretary of the Imperial College, came out to identify him.

From the 12th year to the [-]th year of Chongzhen, Wu Meicun worked in Beijing and taught the prince to study. After identifying him, he said that this person did not look like the prince at all, so he charged Wang Zhiming as a fake prince.

Although the history of the fake prince case was finally solved, the process of solving it still made people sweat. A mere Guozijian Siye, a former prince, said that it was a fake prince or a fake prince.What if Wumei Village was bought by someone?The consequences were simply unimaginable.

In the era of war and chaos, it was sometimes a fine line to identify the authenticity of a fleeing royal relative.

……

After calming down a bit, Zheng Chenggong also asked people to prepare food and water.

Zhang Yan and Zhu Xi have not eaten for three or four days. How could the relatives of the emperor who have been pampered and respected for many years have suffered such hardships?Therefore, even during the march, the best food was thick pancake rolls and dried fish. They all ate hungrily, and the silver chopsticks given to them were useless, so they just grabbed and ate them.

Looking at this picture of eating through the curtain, Zheng Chenggong became more and more suspicious of the other party's identity.Zhang Yan seemed to have noticed it too, and knew that she was losing face, but she was too hungry just now to bear it.

After eating, her brain became more active, and she further thought about how to prove her identity and save more people by the way.

She suggested to Zheng Chenggong through the curtain: "General Zheng, the crown prince had no choice but to make false claims with the intruder. In the past few days, I heard that the intruder is still threatening Wu Sangui? Is the prince still in Xianghe County? General Zheng If you have soldiers and horses, maybe you can do your best for the country? If you can rescue the crown prince, wouldn’t it be a great achievement, and the late emperor will also be grateful to you when he is under the nine springs.”

Zhang Yan knew very well that if the prince was also rescued, there would be more people who knew the prince, and their identities could be proved.

Moreover, Daming is at stake right now, and only if the crown prince can be rescued will the country have its foundation, otherwise it may immediately fall into a chaotic situation where warlords support their own puppets.

It's not that Da Ming is incapable of fighting, but he must not fall into division and internal friction again!

Zhu Xi, who was still sluggishly eating next to her, couldn't help crying after hearing what her aunt said, and quickly echoed, asking Zheng Chenggong to find a way to rescue her imperial brother.

After hearing this, Zheng Chenggong believed a little more in the authenticity of Zhang Yan and Zhu Xi's identities.

They dared to ask him to save the crown prince because they were obviously not afraid that the crown prince would recognize their identities, which meant that they were probably not fake.Even if the prince was not rescued in the end, as long as he could speak face to face before the battle, it would be enough to prove his identity.

But how could it be so simple to rescue the prince?Since they were held hostage by the intruders, the intruders would definitely take the crown prince as a threat. Even if Zheng Chenggong defeated one of the intruders in a sneak attack, as long as the opponent put a knife on the prince's neck, he would not be able to save him.

Zheng Chenggong didn't want to be cowardly, so he had to reason: "This is a big deal. Since the prince has fallen into the hands of thieves, even if our army can recover it, it is inevitable that we will take the story of Yingzong first. Yu Shaobao was able to keep Daming , relying on..."

He didn't say the last half of the sentence, but everyone who knows the history of this dynasty understands that after supporting Daizong, the value of the Yingzong card in the hands of the Wala people was invalidated.

Zhang Yan's expression darkened when she heard this. She was also a little dizzy from hunger these two days, and she didn't even think about such a simple truth.But she knew that the life and death of the eldest nephew was a minor matter, and avoiding internal conflicts in Ming Dynasty was a major issue. Some things, even if it was a gamble, should be tried - in the worst case, it would be better if the eldest nephew was killed after failure than the current uncertain state.

She closed her eyes in pity, and it took a long time to promise Zheng Chenggong: "General Zheng, I know that you have always been loyal and loyal. You have followed Governor Zhu to fight the thief for many years. If you can try to rescue the prince this time, whether you succeed or not, it will be a great achievement." .As long as you work hard, I will be the master and marry Princess Kunxing to you as my wife..."

As she spoke, she touched the long hair of her niece Zhu Xi, who was stunned for a while.

Zheng Chenggong's heart was shocked, and he knelt down and declined politely: "Your Majesty, why did you say such a thing! How dare you take merit, Kuangchen is already married..."

(Note: The empress of the Ming Dynasty was called His Highness, and the Queen Mother was called His Majesty, regardless of whether she was called Zhizhi or not. But Zhang Yan was the queen of the first emperor, and she was just the same generation as Chongzhen. Outsiders still called her Majesty, which is tantamount to enjoying the treatment of Queen Mother in terms of addressing.)
Zhang Yan: "So what if you are already married? The heavenly family bestows a marriage, there is always a solution, and these can be discussed later. Are you willing to be loyal to the country for the reward?"

Zheng Chenggong was helpless, thought for a while, and said euphemistically: "I will ask someone to find out again. If His Royal Highness is really in Xianghe, at least let him feel at ease, knowing that his sister can escape with her life. If the thief threatens the prince, there is no way." Rescued."

Zhang Yan: "General Zheng will do his best."

Zheng Chenggong tossed and tried, and finally had to try. Sure enough, he continued to advance with his soldiers and horses. After half an afternoon, the former army arrived in Xianghe County in light clothes and clashed with the remaining troops of the intruder army.

After investigation, the prince was indeed in Xianghe City, but the guards of the Chuangjun had put knives on his neck, and it was impossible for Zheng Chenggong to directly attack the city to save people.

During the process, Zheng Chenggong could only have an idea. He sent Princess Zhu Xi of Kunxing, who was escorted by him with the army, to the front of the battle, and shouted at the prince who was held hostage. After waking up, he hid everywhere, and was rescued by the imperial court's waterway reinforcements, so that the emperor should not read.

Zheng Chenggong asked people to shout, firstly he took the opportunity to confirm Zhu Xi's true identity, because the identity of the prince is clear, and the intruders on the other side will keep him under strict surveillance after he is captured, so it is impossible for him to be fake.As long as the prince can recognize his sister from a distance, the identity of the princess cannot be faked.

As for Zhang Yan, Zheng Chenggong did not bring him to the front of the battle with the army. On the one hand, it is enough for one relative to be identified as authentic. As long as Zhu Xi is true, Zhang Yan is also true. Fake.

Secondly, it is not a big problem for the princess to show her face in public. The princess will marry sooner or later, and what she will lose in public is her future husband's face.If the late emperor's empress showed up casually, she would lose face of the late emperor, so she had to be cautious.

It has been several days since Zhu Cihong was held hostage by Chuang Jun. He was disheartened at first, but now he was very happy to hear that his sister was still alive. He rushed to the top of the city and looked out. The voice of shouting in the throat is vaguely similar.

Zhu Cihong couldn't help crying in front of the two armies, defending his motives: "How can I be a coward who bends his knees and surrenders to the thief! Back then, it was just a dog thief who threatened him with his parents' name, and had to bear the humiliation! If I have to be buried, I will not be in league with the dog thieves again!"

Crying and crying, he pretended to commit suicide by jumping directly from the city wall, scaring the trespassers next to him to hold him back and tie him up again.

After being made such a fuss, they didn't dare to come up with the idea of ​​tying Zhu Cihong to persuade Wu Sangui to surrender, lest he say anything to boost Wu Sangui's morale when the time comes.

Even if they kidnapped Zhu Cihong to meet Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui would not vote for Li Zicheng.But now with such a sideways attack, it seems that Zheng Chenggong has fulfilled the prince's filial piety, so that the prince no longer has to be threatened, and he has also taken credit for nothing in name.

The Chuangjun defenders were very annoyed. When Zheng Chenggong retreated to Tianjin, he divided his troops into pursuit and went to Beijing to report the emergency, so that Beijing immediately sent troops to chase and kill him.

However, this level of attack was easily repelled by Zheng Chenggong by relying on the location of the canal.Especially going back to Tianjin is downstream, as long as the cavalry can't cut off the canal, they can't stop it at all.I had no choice but to let Zheng Chenggong finish talking and blow his morale and retreat.

After returning to Tianjin, Zheng Chenggong saw Zhang Mingzhen again, and also reported the situation in detail all the way, and said that he tried to rescue the prince but failed.

After Zhang Mingzhen learned about it, he was also very surprised. He learned that the identities of Queen Zhang and the princess had been confirmed, and that he had talked to the captured prince at the head of Xianghe County. Some escaped court ladies and eunuchs were collected locally in Tianjin, and they were sent back to the south by sea first, for a long-term plan.

Zhang Mingzhen himself continued to lead the main force, and together with Zheng Chenggong, went to meet Wu Sangui.

-

During the break, I basically thought of writing a little bit every day, and put together an update in three days... The quality is also a bit messy, and the coherence is gone. Let's just take a look.

The next update should be on the 6th, and then it will return to normal...

(End of this chapter)