Xie Ming

Too much scheming and cleverness can backfire and cost you your life.

Humans may wish to devise clever strategies to overcome the heavens, but what can they do against the capricious nature of the weather?
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Shaoxing Peace Treaty was based on the premise that Yue Fei would lead the army to resist the Jin Dynasty and recover lost territory. Only later did Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gou and Qin Hui advocate for the peace treaty.

As stipulated in the treaty, the Southern Song Dynasty submitted to the Jin Dynasty, and the Huai River-Dasanguan Pass was designated as the boundary. The Southern Song Dynasty voluntarily relinquished its northern territories.

In addition, they paid an annual tribute of 250,000 taels of silver and 250,000 bolts of silk in exchange for survival and a temporary halt to the war.

Twenty years later, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, the Longxing Peace Treaty was forced to be restarted due to the failure of the Longxing Northern Expedition.

On that occasion, the Southern Song Dynasty referred to the Jin Dynasty as "Nephew Emperor".

The annual tribute was reduced to 200,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of

After barely surviving, the Kai Xi Dynasty was established, and the Jiading Peace Treaty was signed again.

The Southern Song Dynasty increased its annual tribute to 300,000 taels of silver and 300,000 bolts of silk, and also paid 3 million taels of silver as a reward to the army.

The relationship between the Jin and Song dynasties was completely changed to "uncle and nephew states," with Jin being the "uncle" and Song being the "nephew."

If it weren't for the later rise of the powerful Mongols in the north, which forced the Jin dynasty to shift its focus northward, the Southern Song dynasty would likely have perished much earlier.

Economic costs and political humiliation can never buy lasting peace and stability; such behavior is nothing more than a desperate attempt to prolong one's life.

Nowadays, the Southern Party does not learn from history; they are all driven by self-interest and forget public duty. Their fate will not be good.

On the third day of the fifth lunar month, in the Wuying Hall of the Nanjing Imperial Palace, the Hongguang Emperor, filled with grief and indignation, coughed up blood. Observing the situation, he feared that he was about to pass away.

The Third Prince arrived by chance, and before the two brothers could say much, Zhu Cilang suddenly fell into a coma. For several days afterward, he was unable to get out of bed and was too weak to speak.

Fortunately, on the day he was about to collapse from weakness, he had made a solemn promise to fulfill his obligations to the cabinet.

As arranged, the following day, Wang Zhixin personally dispatched the Imperial Guards to deliver the imperial edict to Xiao Jun's headquarters in Jiujiang.

Ni Yuanlu surrendered, and it was agreed that three days later, on the sixth day, Zheng Guan would lead a delegation across the river to the north in several dragon boats.

On the other side, to briefly explain the details, in reality, after the main force of Dodo had completely slaughtered Yangzhou, it was only on the eighth day of the fifth intercalary month that they reorganized their troops in the southwest to join forces with Geng Zhongming's right-wing army.

Ni Yuanlu and his party were stranded on the north bank for two days. Ni Yuanlu originally thought that even if he could not persuade the Jurchens to withdraw their troops immediately, he could at least buy time for Xiao's army on the western front through this mediation. Moreover, he believed that by arguing with reason and persuasion, he could still manage to get the enemy camp to retreat thirty miles.

However, to everyone's surprise, the person was extremely difficult to guess.

Two days passed in vain. When they finally met Dodo, the Qing prince and commander of the northern troops, the Qing army prince gave the old man from the Southern Ming no room to maneuver whatsoever.

Dodo was young and ambitious, and with the capture of Yangzhou, his logistics were well-supplied.

Now that Nanjing is right in front of him and his army is at its peak, how could he easily give up the credit that is already in his hands?
Thus, there was no room for politeness. Upon entering the tent, in the blink of an eye, Ni Cifu, the face of the Southern Court and the envoy between the two armies, was bound tightly at Dodo's command and thrown into the accompanying prison tent like a pig or a dog.

Ni Yuanlu, along with more than twenty other envoys, were all captured and executed.

On the ninth day, in order to deceive the Southern Ming troops stationed on the river and to prevent any unforeseen complications, Dodo ordered his generals to press on with one decisive move and not give the Southern Ming too much time to prepare and strengthen their defenses.

That night, the Jurchens, along with the Manchu and Han vanguards on both the left and right routes, totaling more than 50,000 men, launched a simultaneous attack, beginning a large-scale crossing of the Yangtze River from the east and west.

Vast and mighty, the northern enemy, stirring up the river mist, pressed down on the south.

The sheer ferocity of the scene was like that of a band of evil spirits running rampant in the night; it was enough to send chills down anyone's spine, truly a force capable of stopping a river with a single whip.

By the time the Chuzhou soldiers stationed at the beach on the south bank of the Yangtze River north of Nanjing discovered the traces of the people, it was already too late.

Suddenly, the noise subsided, and all the cannons fired simultaneously, their flames piercing the long night.

Once the two armies made contact, the situation quickly escalated into a heated confrontation.

It was anticipated that the 10,000 old, weak, and disabled soldiers who had retreated from Chuzhou would be unable to completely stop the enemy's main vanguard, the Jiannu army.

As a result, day and night, the officials of the Southern Court's cabinet, as well as the heads of various ministries and their subordinates in the capital, discussed the matter and began to hastily prepare to abandon the city and flee.

The first quarter of Hai hour (11 PM).

On the south bank, the Chuzhou troops reinforced their lines and were on the verge of collapse when the enemy's vanguard attacked from both the left and right flanks and from the east and west.

Left with no other choice, the temporary commander of the Chuzhou troops urgently ordered 5,000 soldiers to break out to the south, leaving less than 3,000 to hold the artillery positions. At 3:45 PM, the Chuzhou troops who broke out to the south entered Nanjing City first, joining the original 5,000 defenders in the city, totaling less than 10,000, who prepared to hold the city to the death and await reinforcements.

Yes, soldiers are ready to serve their country and will do their duty.

Why are the officials in the capital so afraid of death and clinging to their lives?!

It was chaotic, with everyone acting independently, and they agreed to meet at midnight that very night.

A group of high-ranking officials in the cabinet, including Ma Shiying, Gao Hongtu, Li Shichun, Lin Zengzhi, Zeng Ji, and Lin Zhiwan, along with various subordinate officials and officials in Beijing, totaling more than a hundred people, under the urging and leadership of Grand Secretary Qiu Weizhen, actually opened the palace gates wide, took the Hongguang Emperor and Wang Zhixin and a group of eunuchs from the inner court with them, explained the consequences to them, and with the protection of three thousand guards, they fled through the South Gate of Nanjing under the cover of darkness.

Yuan Rong promised to be able to push the boss, and the civil servants came to understand Sui Sui.

In the latter part of the night, half of the Jurchen vanguard crossed the river.

The remaining artillery positions of Chuzhou that were stranded on the beach were wiped out and could no longer resist.

Starting at dawn, tens of thousands of Northern troops deployed and surrounded Nanjing.

Only now did the officers and soldiers trapped in the city realize that the emperor and his officials had abandoned the city and fled long ago.

He was filled with unbearable hatred and despair, knowing that there would be no more reinforcements here.

Once this news spread, morale plummeted.

With the city walls and high moats, the army was well-defended and well-equipped.

But the people's hearts have been lost, and there is no way to win them back.

The city of Nanjing, which had been developed by its predecessors for hundreds of years and served as a secondary capital for two hundred years, has now come to an end.

After holding out for just two more days, the defending soldiers were overthrown by a mutiny and fell into the hands of the Jurchens.

On the 12th, the main force was imprisoned in the prison on the north bank.

Upon hearing the news of the fall of Nanjing, Ni Yuanlu felt an overwhelming sense of despair.

This man is determined to die in order to preserve his reputation.

That night, he planned to take advantage of the laxity of the defenses and hang himself inside the tent with a hemp rope.

But alas, things didn't go as planned.

He was discovered by the guards at the moment of his death and was saved.

Ni believed that his country was destroyed and his family was ruined, and he was humiliated beyond his control, so he refused to cooperate in any way.

When Dodo received the letter, he was still puzzled as to what Dodo's true intentions were.

They even added more guards, just to prevent Lord Ni from getting his way.

Left with no other choice, Ni Yuanlu had her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged with hemp straw.

The only remaining option is to fight back by fasting.

The Qing army's vanguard crossed the river, and in their haste and chaos, Nanjing fell.

Thus, the dream of wealth and glory faded, and half of the country was shattered.

Xiao Xiao Yu Xi
For forty years, my home and country have been separated by three thousand miles of mountains and rivers.

Phoenix pavilions and dragon towers reach the heavens, jade trees and coral branches form a misty canopy. How could they have known war?

Once reduced to captives, Shen's waist and Pan's temples would wither away.

On the day I hastily left the temple, the music hall still played farewell songs. I wept as I faced the palace maids.

(End of this chapter)