Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 641 The troops are approaching the city
He who knows the times is a hero. The situation is stronger than the person. Naturally, these nobles would not offend Zhu Shenzhui. They even stood up and cursed him as a "traitor".

On the one hand, their lives were in Zhu Shenzhui's hands, and on the other hand, everyone admitted that what Zhu Shenzhui said made sense. Once the Ming Dynasty was gone, it would not be as easy for them, the nobles, to change their families. More importantly, Zhu Shenzhui's sincere attitude at this time told everyone that even if Zhu Shenzhui entered the capital, he would not take action against the nobles, but would rely on them.

The nobles were amateurs at fighting, but they were politically astute. After the Battle of Tumu, the backbone of the nobles of the Ming Dynasty was broken, the civil service group officially occupied the court, and the nobles gradually withdrew from the political stage. Except for the small piece of land in the Beijing Camp, they had no real power at all.

Even in the past few decades, some nobles have even turned to the civil officials to protect themselves. This act of humiliating their ancestors is helpless. But in the hearts of the nobles, restoring the glory of their ancestors is what most people want. Don't they hope to be on an equal footing with the civil officials one day? But this is just a thought. Facing the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, they are completely powerless.

But now, although Zhu Shenzui did not say it explicitly, he implicitly expressed his intention to re-employ the nobles, which suddenly gave them a glimmer of hope.

Now that the main force of the Beijing Camp has been destroyed and Zhu Shenzui is at the gates of the city, the enemy's strong fighting power has been proven, and it may not be impossible for them to really capture the capital.

Once Zhu Shenzhui entered the capital, he would control the core of the Ming Dynasty. Everyone could imagine what would happen next. And don't forget, if it was an ordinary rebel or a minister who rebelled, even if he replaced the emperor, the Ming Dynasty would probably not recognize him. But Zhu Shenzhui was different. He was a royal family member and a direct descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang. This identity was legitimate. If he took the throne, the opposition from the world would not be so strong, and he would have a great chance of keeping his position.

It is the same as the reason why Zhu Di seized the throne in the Jingnan Rebellion. Since Zhu Di could do it, why couldn't Zhu Shenzhui do it? With the first one, there will be the second one. This is understandable. It's just that the original Nanjing has become the current Beijing.

No matter who from the Zhu family sits in this position, the wealth and glory of these nobles will definitely be assured. Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu has implicitly promised that as long as they are willing to support him, he will make use of the children of the nobles after the success and allow the noble group to once again step onto the political stage. This is something that several generations of nobles have dreamed of.

With the benefits and risks in front of them, and their own situation being real, everyone immediately understood how to choose. As Dingyuan Hou Deng Wenming was the first to stand up and express his opinion, he said that he had never thought that the court had been controlled by treacherous officials, and Emperor Chongzhen was even sidelined in the deep palace. As a member of the nobles, how could he see the Ming Dynasty like this? He should follow Zhu Shenzhui to clear the court, pacify the country, and restore order in order to reorganize the court!
As soon as Deng Wenming finished speaking, the others suddenly came to their senses and rushed to express their opinions one by one. Zhu Shenzhui was very happy to see that they were so considerate, and he admired them even more. After all, they were nobles who shared the same fate with the country. His own people were reliable. With their help, why wouldn't the Ming Dynasty be revived?
Then, Zhu Shenzhui looked at Han Zanzhou, who had been silent, and asked with a smile what Han Zanzhou's plan was.

Han Zanzhou felt bitter at this moment. He glanced at Zhu Shenzhui and then at Li Guofu who was standing beside him. Li Guofu looked at him anxiously, as if asking him to bow to Zhu Shenzhui. Although Han Zanzhou was unwilling, he had no other choice now. As the military supervisor of the Beijing Camp, he would have died if he was defeated and captured, but he was captured alive. It was impossible for him to commit suicide now.

Moreover, Li Guofu was his adopted son, and everyone knew about his relationship with him. He had a high status in the palace, and was even a eunuch in the Imperial Horse Administration. Li Guofu had already surrendered to Zhu Shenzhui, and he had helped Zhu Shenzhui to come up with this plan. Once it got out, people in the world would definitely think that he was secretly instigating it, and they would even put the blame for the defeat of the Beijing camp on him, thinking that Han Zanzhou had secretly surrendered to Zhu Shenzhui and used his status as a military supervisor to cooperate with Zhu Shenzhui, which led to this great defeat.

Yellow mud fell into the crotch, it was shit if not shit. Han Zanzhou himself was not afraid of death, he was a eunuch and he died, but the problem was that Han Zanzhou was not a person, although he was a eunuch, he also had relatives, his brothers and clansmen were all there, Li Guofu knew all of this, if he refused, his life would be over, but what would happen to these relatives?
Han Zanzhou sighed when he thought of this. Although he knew that this choice would be unfair to Emperor Chongzhen, he had no other choice. Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu was a member of the royal family after all. This was the Zhu family's own business. He, a eunuch, was just a slave of the Zhu family. What could he do if the Zhu family was tossing about?

In desperation, Han Zanzhou also expressed his willingness to surrender to Zhu Shencui and help Zhu Shencui to eliminate the emperor's entourage and pacify the country. Seeing this, Zhu Shencui was overjoyed and expressed his admiration for Han Zanzhou's loyalty and promised to use him after entering the capital.

Then, Zhu Shenzhui brought the topic to the present, and told everyone bluntly that the army was approaching the capital, and he hoped that they could cooperate with his people to take good care of the prisoners in the Beijing camp, appease the soldiers, and never do anything unwise. As long as they did this well, it would be a great achievement after they entered the capital, and it would be easy to reward them.

After hearing this request, all the nobles patted their chests and guaranteed that there would be absolutely no problem. Zhu Shencui was even happier upon hearing this. He waved his hand on the spot, and someone brought something. Zhu Shencui asked someone to read this thing. This was the manifesto that Zhu Shencui had written before. After everyone finished reading it, he said with a smile that since everyone agreed, please sign and seal the manifesto to confirm this matter in writing. Everyone naturally understood that Zhu Shencui did this to keep a handle. Without their signatures, then everything just now would be false. Only by taking this step would they truly get on Zhu Shencui's ship.

Without thinking too much, everyone signed the letter one by one. After this was done, Zhu Shenzhui laughed and asked someone to take the letter away. He then sent some wine and drank together. After that, Zhu Shenzhui asked everyone to leave and arrange to appease the surrendered soldiers and prisoners to stabilize the army. Of course, Zhu Shenzhui could not let these nobles return to the army. Although all the prisoners were disarmed and kept in custody, after all, with so many people, once these nobles entered the army, who knows what would happen.

Therefore, their role was just to go around the prisoner camp under the supervision of Zhu Shenzhui's subordinates, explain the situation to all the prisoners, and tell everyone that the Jingnan Army would not do anything to them. Not only would they not kill them, but as long as they were obedient and did not cause trouble, they would be released after the capital was captured, thus saving everyone's lives.

In addition, they also told everyone why Zhu Shenzui wanted to launch the Jingnan Rebellion, and told everyone that there were treacherous ministers in the court, and it was these treacherous ministers that made the people of the Ming Dynasty live in misery and the world in chaos. Zhu Shenzui did not start the army to rebel, but to purge the court of corrupt officials. The Ming Dynasty would still be the Ming Dynasty. Once the capital was captured and the treacherous ministers were eliminated, the Ming Dynasty would be revived, and everyone's life would be better in the future...

These words soon took effect. After everyone's explanation and comfort, the tense atmosphere in the originally unstable prisoner camp gradually disappeared. After hearing this, the soldiers of the Beijing camp all felt relieved. They also understood the reason for this battle and figured out who defeated them.

Especially after knowing that Zhu Shenzhu was a member of the imperial clan, the people in the Beijing Army were completely relieved. Since the Zhu family was not a slave or a bandit, let alone a vicious Mongolian, then everything would be fine. Most of them were just messing around in the Beijing Army, so what did the Zhu family's own affairs have to do with them? Anyway, no matter who the emperor was, he would still be surnamed Zhu. Their lives were saved, and their safety was no problem. After the war was over, they could go home safely.

At this time, many people even hoped that Zhu Shenzhui would take the capital as soon as possible, because as long as he took the capital earlier, they could go home earlier. If they kept fighting, the longer it would take, wouldn't it be longer for them to go home? Moreover, they might not have enough troops at the end of the battle, and they might be dragged onto the battlefield as cannon fodder, which would be a loss!

After regaining these nobles and pacifying the captives, Zhu Shenzui's army no longer had any worries and began to prepare to attack the capital.

Last night's battle not only defeated the main force of the Beijing camp, but also seized a lot of spoils.

The Beijing Camp brought with it a large amount of food and fodder, military equipment, and also a lot of firearms. You should know that the Shenji Camp in the Beijing Camp was the firearms unit. Although the quality of the firearms made by the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Works was not very good, especially the muskets, most of them were crudely made, not to mention the short range and inaccuracy, but even more terrible was that they were prone to explode. The Ming army itself was unwilling to use them, let alone Zhu Shenzhui's troops?

But apart from these, the captured gunpowder, bullets, and cannonballs were still usable, especially when the Beijing Camp went to war, they also brought ten cannons. These ten cannons were not ordinary cannons, but red cannons, also known as red-coated cannons.

The Red Cannon is made of fine iron and imitated Western cannons. Each cannon weighs about 5000 to 5500 kilograms, with a barrel nearly three meters long and a diameter of more than three inches. It can fire eight-kilogram iron shells or twelve-kilogram lead bullets, with a maximum range of more than ten miles.

These cannons were the treasures of the Beijing Camp. There were only twelve cannons in the entire Beijing Camp. In order to ensure firepower, ten cannons were directly brought for this expedition. Unexpectedly, all of them became Zhu Shenzhui's capture before a single shot was fired.

Zhu Shenzui's army was not without artillery, but because of the march, they only had light Portuguese cannons and tiger squat cannons. Even the heavy Portuguese cannons were not many, and their range and power were far inferior to the Red Cannon.

Now with these ten red cannons in hand, Zhu Shenzhui's heavy firepower is not lacking, otherwise he would have to beware of the heavy cannons on the top of the city wall of the capital. Now he can set up the red cannons from a distance and fight against the city wall cannons of the capital. If used in a concentrated manner, its firepower can still steadily suppress the opponent.

(End of this chapter)