Before hanging himself, Chongzhen lifted the table

Chapter 118 Manchu ambitions

In the square, among a group of injured Dashun soldiers, a young man looked at the imperial officers and soldiers around him, and listened to the voices of his companions discussing around him, and shouted in a low voice: "Don't be fooled, Ming. When did the emperor become so kind? He spoke like a Bodhisattva! Don’t forget, I heard from my adoptive father that all the brothers who surrendered to the imperial army in the early years were executed by them!"

Hearing his words, another young man who was about the same age as him immediately echoed: "Lai Heng is right. Have you ever heard of Butcher Hong? All the former high officials of the imperial court and all the brothers who surrendered to the imperial court were killed by this man." killed!"

After hearing their words, the companions around them who were a little excited were immediately shocked.I thought I had some hope of living and could even go back, but it turned out to be a lie?
One of them seemed to be unwilling to let this hope disappear, so he said with a little hope: "But it is the current emperor who is speaking! When he was in Daizhou, in order to save Zhou Dabiao and others, he even risked his life to save Zhou Dabiao and others. Yes. I think you can compare to Grandpa Guan for being so loyal. You can’t tell lies, right?"

Grandpa Guan, also known as Guan Gong, is the most respected historical figure in the Dashun Army.Li Laiheng, who persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty to the end, built a stele of the Holy Emperor's Palace in his last years and erected it in front of the Guandi Temple.

At this time, Laiheng was Li Laiheng. When he heard what his companion said, he didn't believe it: "My father said that officials are the best at hypocrisy. If an official is like this, how can an emperor be worse? I Let me tell you, never believe what an official says!"

"Then what do you believe in?" After being poured out a ladle of water, and unable to find anyone with whom to talk to each other, I felt a little less confident in saying this.

After hearing this, Li Laiheng said decisively: "It depends on what you do, understand?"

After he finished speaking, he said in a positive tone: "Look carefully, that dog emperor said so many good things, but he actually wants to stabilize us. When they slow down, they will deal with us when they are ready!"

After hearing this, everyone else agreed. Even looking at the people around them who still had expectations, they all showed disdain.

However, at this moment, a large number of military officers in uniforms were seen pouring into the square.

The movement was a bit loud, and everyone immediately stared at the imperial guards.In their eyes, there was expectation, anxiety, and hatred, all kinds of things.

The leader of the Jin Yiwei Baihu glanced at them and pointed at a group of people. The Jinyiwei captain immediately stepped forward and asked the group of people to follow them.

When Li Laiheng's companions saw this, they couldn't help but said, "They are all women and children. What do they want to do?"

No one knew the answer, everyone was watching.Although seeing these legends about the ferocious and ferocious Jin Yiwei Xiaowei that even officials are afraid of, it seems that they are not so ferocious, many people are still worried.

Group after group of people were taken away in order.

Finally, probably after all the old, weak, women and children were taken away, it was the turn of the wounded soldiers.A group of people from Li Laiheng's side were also taken away by the captain of the Jinyi Guards.

Each of them stared around and communicated with each other with their eyes. Once they found something was wrong, they all decided to fight hard, even if it was worth a back support.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they left the square, they heard words of gratitude coming from the surrounding houses.

"Your Majesty is really kind!"

"Yes, it's all those corrupt officials who make it difficult for us to live. The emperor is still good!"

"No, that's what His Highness's letter said!"

"Let me tell you, the current emperor keeps his word, so don't do anything wrong with the emperor in the future. Isn't it good to live?"

"..."

Hearing these words, Li Laiheng and others couldn't help but look at each other. Could it be that he was really a villain trying to judge a gentleman?

As I walked along, I listened to the sounds coming from the surroundings. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't think that the people here were all prisoners, but ordinary people living at home who were celebrating the festival!

Finally, the captain of the Jinyi Guards brought them to a door and stopped, and then the ropes that tied them were removed. At the same time, the leader of the Jinyi Guards said to them: "Don't try to cause trouble. Once the trouble is discovered, they will be executed immediately." . Take off your armor, go in and warm yourself over the fire, and the porridge will be cooked later."

There were a few wounded soldiers who had difficulty taking off their armor, and even the captain of the Jinyi Guards reached out to help them, and not in a rough way, as if they were treated like colleagues.

Li Laiheng and the others didn't say anything as they walked into the door. Sure enough, they saw a brazier inside the open door.

When they were about to go in, they heard the leader of the Jinyi Guards say to them again: "It's best to wash your wounds with warm water after boiling. Your Majesty said that this will help the wounds heal!"

Hearing this, Li Laiheng and others looked at these imperial guards with complicated eyes.

The imperial officers and soldiers actually treated them like this. If they still suspected that the imperial officers and soldiers would harm them, then the imperial officers and soldiers were just taking off their pants and farting, so there was no need for such trouble!
In other words, is what the emperor said true?

Just as they were about to close the door with complicated emotions, they suddenly heard movement on the road again, and then heard the Jin Yiwei who had just spoken say there: "Everything is arranged according to His Majesty's instructions, please don't worry, father-in-law!"

Li Laiheng saw that the Jin Yiwei captain was talking to the eunuch next to the emperor.Is this because the emperor was worried and sent this eunuch to patrol?

At this moment, they were all shocked!

You must know that in the eyes of the court, they are just die-hard old thieves and their families are young, right?How could he be treated kindly like this?

The words the emperor said could not help but flash in their minds again.

"I have said that many of you rebelled because of natural and man-made disasters and could not survive. You are all my people. Stop being thieves and harming the world. I am willing to give you another chance and forgive you."

"I know that many of you have family members working under Li Thief. After pardoning you, you may still return to Li Thief's army. Then I tell you, the next time you encounter me leading an army to conquer Li Thief, don't resist. He won’t be killed.”

"For his own selfish interests, Thief Li was able to sweep away the food and grass in Taiyuan, regardless of the life and death of the local people. If you follow him to help the tyrants, you will be reviled by the world, and you will go to the eighteenth level of hell after death. I hope you can advise you. Family members, please turn back as soon as possible and stop following Thief Li to help the evildoers, so that peace can come to the world as soon as possible!"

Li Laiheng and others, or almost all the prisoners, had one thought: Is the emperor really a good emperor?

………………

They thought so, but there was one person who definitely didn't think so.

At this time, in the Chongzheng Hall of the Royal Palace in Shenyang, far away in Liaodong, the crowds were surging. Many people were looking at a Han man with long hair in the middle of the hall crying: "...the imperial court has accused the common people of collaborating with the enemy and treason, and ransacked their homes. Not to mention the genocide, the grassroots people were robbed by the Chahar tribe after they escaped from the border, and all the goods originally sent to Liaodong were robbed. Please ask His Highness the Regent to make the decision for the grassroots people!"

Needless to say, this person was Fan Yongdou, the leader of the eight Shanxi merchants who had escaped.He fled to Shenyang in embarrassment, cried to the Manchu slave chief, and asked the Manchu to send troops to avenge him.

Sitting at the top is Aisin Gioro Dorgon, the regent of the Qing Dynasty.Behind him are Shunzhi, the nominal emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and his mother-in-law Bumu Butai, but these two are just decorations for the time being, and Dorgon is the one who can make the decision.

I heard Dorgon say with great concern: "Don't panic, no matter how big or small it is, tell me everything, and I will make the decision for you!"

Fan Yongdou listened and quickly told what he knew again.Dorgon listened very carefully and even asked several questions. Seeing that he couldn't find anything else to ask, he asked Fan Yongdou to rest first.

As soon as Fan Yongdou left, Dorgon's expression was serious. He looked at Prince Beile below and asked immediately: "What do you think?"

Dorgon's main opponent was the eldest son of Huang Taiji, Prince Su, Aisin Gioro Hauge, who failed to compete with him for the throne. Upon hearing his words, he immediately shouted without saying a word: "What else is there to say? We, the Qing Dynasty, have already assembled their troops, and we just have to rush into the pass and seize the world of the Ming Dynasty!"

On the Manchu and Qing side, it was not at all what Li Zicheng thought. The Manchu and Qing had no intention of seizing the pass and running away. Instead, they had long been eyeing the pass, and they had been waiting for an opportunity because they could not capture Shanhaiguan.

After the Battle of Songjin, Huang Taiji once said to Prince Baylor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty: "If I look at it, it is clear that there are signs of death. Why should I say it? There is internal strife among the bandits, and bandits have sprung up, perhaps millions, or Three to four million people were able to attack the city and seize the territory, and they could not stop it. The Ming Dynasty relied on only the soldiers of Zu Dashou, the soldiers of Jinzhou and Songshan, and the reinforcements from various provinces led by Hong Chengchou. Now they are all defeated. Even if they recruit new soldiers, they can only How can he resist the war? Not only can the generals of the Ming Dynasty not only be unable to fight against us, but they also plunder and harm the people themselves, bribe the courtiers, and defraud them for their own merits; the courtiers specialize in treachery, blinding the eyes and ears of the master, accepting bribes privately, and even without punishment. Crime, reward and failure. Looking at it this way, it is obvious that it will perish."

The general meaning is that the civil strife in the Ming Dynasty continued, it was very violent and could not be suppressed, and all the soldiers he relied on were destroyed. Even if he recruited new soldiers, they would definitely not be able to use them.Not to mention, the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers robbed the people, bribed high-ranking officials, killed good people and took credit for their merits, and the high-ranking officials knew how to make money and unclear rewards and punishments, which were all signs of national subjugation.

After recognizing this fact, even if Huang Taiji died and Dorgon became the regent and the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty, he would still inherit Huang Taiji's legacy.

At the beginning, I wanted to unite the bandits in the pass to share the Ming Dynasty.To this end, he also wrote a letter to Li Zicheng.

No, he had just received a reply from Li Zicheng, felt Li Zicheng's arrogance, and heard that the messenger who sent the letter said that Li Zicheng had already reached Jin and occupied more than half of it, so they hurriedly discussed how to deal with the great changes in the world. Get the benefits.

Fan Wencheng, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty who was the first to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. He had both civil and military skills and was deeply trusted by the Manchu rulers in the past. He wrote in a memorial: "Those who steal the opportunity to accomplish great things will live forever, and those who miss the opportunity will regret it in the future." At that time, we thought that the Ming Dynasty was a powerful enemy of our country, but if we suppress it, we would be rogue bandits. Just like Qin lost its deer, Chu and Han chased it away. Although they competed with the Ming Dynasty for the world, they were actually at odds with the rogue bandits.

It means, don’t miss such a good opportunity.The enemy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was no longer the dying Ming Dynasty, but rogue bandits like Li Zicheng.The current situation is the same as that time when "Qin lost its deer and Chu and Han chased it away".

Dorgon felt that what he said was right. After discussing with Prince Beile, he had already decreed, "All men under seventy and over ten years old will join the army. Success or failure will be judged in one fell swoop."

According to their original plan, they had to pass through the Miyun area of ​​the Ming Dynasty to break through.

In the original history, they had just set out when they received a messenger sent by Wu Sangui to ask for help, so they immediately changed their marching route and headed straight for Shanhaiguan.

If in this plane, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had just begun to gather troops, but they encountered Fan Yongdou's incident again.

Dorgon didn't pay attention to Hauge's shouting, but looked at the old prince standing at the front, Aisin Gioro Daishan.

Dai Shan also knew that the decision at this time was related to the future of the Qing Dynasty. He frowned and analyzed: "According to what Fan Yongdou said, Li Zicheng will soon attack northern Shanxi. At this time, the imperial officers and soldiers are collaborating with the enemy. If these Shanxi merchants are punished for treason, the land in northern Shanxi will surely be in chaos! In this case, will Li Zicheng quickly occupy northern Shanxi and then go to attack the capital, or will they attack the capital in northern Shanxi? Fight?"

No matter the correspondence between messengers or the news about Fan Yongdou, there is no news about the emperor's personal expedition.Therefore, the Manchu slave chiefs never imagined that such a thing would happen.

Hearing Daishan's words, the always steady Prince Heshuo Zheng, Aixinjueluojierharang said: "There is another matter that must be taken seriously. Two small tribes from the Chahar tribe dared to rob Shanxi merchants. caravan!"

This was a challenge to the power of the Qing Dynasty, something that had never happened before.

Hearing his words, another prince, Aisin Gioro Dodo, who was the same mother as Dorgon, immediately showed a murderous look on his face and said: "If you are tired of living, just kill him!"

Dorgon found that not only did he not have any clear explanation when he asked, but he also encountered many problems.After thinking about it, he turned to look at a civil servant standing behind Fan Wencheng and said, "What does Hong Qing think of the situation in the pass?"

Hong Qing was the Ming Dynasty official who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and was the former governor of Jiliao, Hong Chengchou.If you want to say that the person who is most familiar with the situation in Guan, it must be him.

Hong Chengchou had always kept a low profile in the Qing Dynasty. I don't know if it was because he knew that Fan Wencheng's daughter-in-law would be remembered. At this time, when he heard Dorgon asking him by name, he went out and responded respectfully: "Wei Chen thought that , although the Ming Dynasty still had some capable generals, but after their defeat in the Battle of Songjin, the new soldiers would not have much fighting power. Moreover, it was impossible for the court to provide sufficient pay, and all the military generals had to raise their own funds. Under this situation, the Ming Dynasty The imperial court has no more restraints on military generals, and the corruption of the imperial court is the worst since the founding of the country. The affairs of Shanxi merchants in northern Shanxi are more likely to be the private actions of local military generals..."

Hearing this, Dorgon couldn't help but ask: "How to know?"

Hong Chengchou had his own reasons and immediately replied: "A big Shanxi merchant will naturally take care of it. If this matter is the will of the court, it is absolutely impossible. Just a quarrel in the court can last for several days. Shanxi merchants Bian should have received the news a long time ago. But what Fan Yongdou said just now was without warning. From this, Wei Chen concluded that it was mostly local military generals who coveted the wealth of Shanxi merchants. Facing the attack of Li Zicheng's troops, the world would change like never before. , so he jumped over the wall in an attempt to strengthen his own strength!"

When Daishan heard this, he interrupted and asked, "Who did this happen?"

If a general has such courage, once he obtains a large amount of wealth from Shanxi merchants, he will definitely be able to grow his power in a short time.

After hearing this question, Hong Chengchou hesitated for a moment and answered truthfully: "The minister has been away from the pass for a long time. I don't know the situation of the transfer within the pass, so it's hard to guess. If it is Zuo Liangyu, it is most likely. But this person It should be in the south, not the north."

"No matter who he is, can he still stop my Qing army?" Hauge became a little impatient when he heard this, and immediately interrupted.

Azige, Dorgon's other half-brother, also echoed: "That's right, when the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, when did it not sweep across all parts of the Ming Dynasty?"

Dorgon and others actually thought so, otherwise, they would not have gathered all their troops to prepare to enter the border and seize the territory.

After Dorgon weighed it for a moment, he looked at Hong Chengchou and asked, "How do you view Li Zicheng, a bandit?"

He estimated that after entering the customs, his main opponent would be Li Zicheng. Therefore, although he had already known him before, he still wanted to know more about him.

After hearing this, Hong Chengchou replied conservatively: "When the Wei ministers encircled and suppressed Li's army, his strength was average and he was only good at running around. But now that he can establish a country in Qin and invade Jin with overwhelming force, he must be exhausted. It has become a climate to control the military strength of the Ming Dynasty."

At this point, he saw that Dorgon was not satisfied with what he heard, so he immediately continued: "Li's army is composed of thieves from all walks of life. They have never reorganized their internal affairs. Even if they are strong now, As long as the head of the thief is struck, the head will be killed or injured, and its parts will inevitably fall apart and fight each other. Just like something built on sand and gravel, it will easily collapse!"

"I have heard that Mr. Li has injured his roots and is incompetent in sexual intercourse. Not only has his wife had an affair with someone else, but he also has no sons and a half. In the long run, Mr. Li's department will be in serious trouble and cannot last long!"

When Hauge heard this, he immediately burst out laughing, full of ridicule.

Many other Prince Baylor also laughed out loud.

However, Dorgon's face darkened and he was obviously unhappy.Because he also works very hard, but he only has one daughter and no children.

So Dorgon stopped asking Hong Chengchou and started discussing it with other prince Baylor.

This discussion lasted for several days.After hearing this, Fan Yongdou took the initiative to ask to see Dorgon, saying that he had been operating in Jin for a long time and could lead the way for the Qing army.

Therefore, Dorgon decided to send troops to the Ming Kingdom as planned.

But while he was still gathering his troops, he asked Zu Dashou to write another letter to recruit Wu Sangui.If you can recruit successfully, that would be the best.Failure to recruit will not prevent the dispatch of troops this time.

(End of this chapter)