Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

On May 16th of the [-]th year of Chongzhen, two imperial edicts came out from the camp of the Qing army-"The King of Lu Announces the World", and "The Qing Dynasty Invited Friends and Neighboring Countries to Exterminate Thieves".These two edicts were immediately spread to nearby prefectures and counties, and even the Runing Army sent one.However, in these two edicts, the Qing army actually changed its appearance as a bandit, and became an army of friends and neighbors invited to enter the pass to calm down the bandits.There is nothing more ridiculous than this in the world.

In these two edicts: Lu Wang Zhu Yi sent "sincerely invited" the Qing army to enter the pass, and wanted to quell the rebellion of the rebels for the Ming Dynasty.Moreover, Zhu Yipai, the King of Lu, also pointed out that the chaos in the Ming Dynasty was caused by the fatuous Emperor Chongzhen and his treacherous officials, so the King of Lu will raise the banner of "the side of the Qing Dynasty" to wipe out the Ming Dynasty. The "monster".

In a word, Zhu Yipai, king of Lu, is the puppet of the Manchu Qing, and with the support of the Qing army, he will replace Emperor Chongzhen as the Ninth Five-Year Supreme.Of course, no one knows whether this is King Lu's real idea or whether Huang Taiji used King Lu's seal.

In addition, the Manchu Qing also had a secret agreement with Zhu Yipai, king of Lu: the Ming Dynasty would give up the land north of the Yellow River and cede it to the Qing Dynasty.And with the Qing Dynasty as the elder brother, there are still some old coins every year.Because the time was not yet ripe, Man Qing did not disclose this secret agreement immediately.

Huang Taiji wanted to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the city of Beijing or sign an alliance under the city, in order to realize the general strategic goals of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, first Liaodong, then North China, and finally the Central Plains and the whole country.At worst, it is necessary to restore the northern and southern states of the Southern Song and Jin dynasties in history.

Although Huang Taiji and the others understand that these two edicts cannot withstand scrutiny at all, the right to speak is always in the hands of people with swords and guns. Seal the edict to deceive the people of the world.

For this reason, the Qing army even sent several eunuchs from the Prince Lu's Mansion to the Runing Army to deliver an order: let the Runing Army stop hostile actions with the Qing army.And obeyed the command of the Qing army, and went north to serve the king together.

Of course, Huang Taiji and the others didn't think such a will would have any effect.But when this decree spread to the Runing military camp, Shumo, Chu Ge and Xue Yong were indeed taken aback by this decree, and really felt that the sun was about to come out from the west.

At the same time, the Qing army also began to retreat in an orderly manner. They will divide their troops into two groups. One will be [-] troops led by Abatai. They will escort the property and people seized after entering the customs, and retreat to the outside of the customs first; all the way.It is the [-] troops led by Huang Taiji himself. They will first go north to join the [-] soldiers and horses of the Duoduo tribe in Heze, and then go north to the capital together to do this thing that the oriole will follow.

And the Runing Army, which had just fought a fierce battle, did not dare to pursue them, they were afraid that the Qing Army would resort to some tricks during their retreat.So the Runing Army stayed in Xuzhou City and began to rest.Waiting for the main force of the Runing Army in Wuchang City to come north to meet up.

On the same day, under the continuous bombardment of the Runing Army's heavy artillery.The walls of Wuchang City are already crumbling.therefore.Before the deadline for Wu Shigong to surrender, Li Dingguo led 23 soldiers and civilians in the city to surrender.

However, in order to recruit Li Dingguo, Wu Shigong also made a major concession.In addition to promising not to harm the people in the city and the officers and men of the Daxi Army, the Runing Army also allowed Li Dingguo's troops not to fight Zhang Xianzhong's troops.And the officers and soldiers of the Great Western Army can freely choose to accept reorganization or disarm and return to the field. Those who do not want to join the army will be allocated a certain amount of land in Henan.

Therefore, the Runing Army pacified Wuchang City for more than two days.It is adapted from more than [-] soldiers of the Western Army who are willing to join the army.The Wuchang Independent Association led by Li Dingguo was established.

On May 3000, Wu Shigong led 5000 troops directly under his command and personal troops, 5000 marines led by Gonzales, 5000 merchant guards and village guards led by Chang Meng, and Zhao Degong's Nanyang Independent There were 7000 people from the Association, 6000 from Jiang Cheng's Junzhou Independent Association, 8000 from the Wuchang Independent Association led by Li Dingguo, and [-] from the newly reorganized Huguang Town led by Chi Ming and Huang Ding. A total of [-] troops went north.It is necessary to pass through Fengyang and join the Runing army in Xuzhou.

On May [-]th, in front of the Jinshui Bridge outside the Forbidden City, important cabinet ministers and officials from various ministries of the Ming Dynasty gathered together, chatting about the latest news in twos and threes, waiting for the summoning of Emperor Chongzhen.

In the crowd, Xue Lian was wearing court clothes, squeezed behind the circle of nobles, listening to the discussion of the crowd.

"The plague is rampant in Tianjing these days. Outside the south city, a servant in my mansion went home to visit the sick. Unexpectedly, his whole family died of the disease within a day. I was so scared that I dare not go out. If it weren't for the emperor's upload today According to the decree, this Marquis will never step out of the mansion." A Marquis said.

"Isn't Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain already building an altar and offering sacrifices to pray for the plague? Why is the plague still prevalent?" Another uncle asked.

"Hey! This is a disaster from the gods, how can it be so easy to solve. The Marquis once heard rumors from others, Zhang Tianshi privately said that this plague will spread for six months, and the common people will live only when the evil spirits are eradicated. But he won't say anything deeper, maybe it's a secret that cannot be leaked!"

"Hey--!"

It seems that misfortunes never come singly, and the plague has been prevalent in Beijing since February of this year.This is a vicious infectious disease with a violent onslaught. Some families have just discovered that someone has been infected, and within a few days the whole family died.

And such a severe plague was unheard of in the history of the capital, which caused great panic among the citizens.Since the Qing army was still active outside the city, it was impossible to escape to the suburbs to avoid the plague god. The residents in the city could only burn incense and pray for the blessing of the Bodhisattva.

Zhang Tianshi of Jiangxi was in the capital at this time, and Emperor Chongzhen hurriedly ordered him to build an altar and set up a sacrifice to pray for the plague.However, the magic power of this Taoist leader with a tradition of more than 1000 years does not seem to be very good. He burned amulets and chanted mantras for days, but the epidemic did not abate in the slightest.The common people can only use some local methods to protect themselves. Every night, the neighbors organize to beat gongs and drums all night, saying that it is to drive away the evil spirits.

And the gongs and drums were so loud all night that even the emperors and concubines in the deep palace could not sleep peacefully, but under the circumstances of the rampant epidemic and the chaos of people's hearts, it was impossible to order a ban.

"Then why is the emperor summoned today?" An uncle asked the British prince Zhang Shize, the leader of the nobles in the capital.

The British public Zhang Shize was only in his early thirties.The old British Duke happened to pass away this year, and Zhang Shize had just become a nobleman, so he was not very prudent, and he couldn't help showing off when he saw people wanting to ask questions.

"It's not that the emperor wants us to donate." British Duke Zhang Shize said.

"Ah? No!" Immediately someone exclaimed, "It's not that the imperial court is printing banknotes, saying that they can print 3000 million taels a year, so why do they want us to donate money?"

A few days ago, seeing the constant foreign enemies and internal troubles, Emperor Chongzhen, who had no means to deal with it, issued his own edict for the third time.In this edict, the tragic description of state affairs is quite specific, saying that "Nihu (referring to the Qing army) swarmed into the interior, and Gyeonggi and Shandong became ruins"; Most of the imperial mausoleums in Henan, Huguang and Jiangbei were devastated"; "In addition, natural disasters continued to appear, locusts and droughts continued frequently, and corrupt officials deliberately searched and collected them, levying violently, regardless of the decline of the people. As a result, military disasters continued, border hinterlands were trapped; the old and the weak died In the ditch, Ding Zhuang died in fighting. The surname of Wan is He Gu, and he suffered such a tragedy!"

But when it comes to his "crimes", it is still an empty sentence, "It's all due to my immorality."As for the improvement measures after the crime, this time there is finally some specific content. In addition to the taxes, money and food owed in the past five years in the areas that have been lost to the Dashun Army, "the government offices that were destroyed during the military chaos in Zhili provinces, Wei, prefecture, and county, starting from the 16th year of Chongzhen, all the three salaries and all kinds of money and food will be exempted for two years; those who have not been damaged and the villages are desolate and pitiful, each caress and play according to their respective speeds, and slow down as appropriate."

However, under the situation of the complete collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the reduction or exemption of the three-payment increase in some areas is already a drop in the bucket, and it will not help.However, this move made the already poorly funded national finances even worse. The treasury had no money, and the soldiers and horses from all walks of life were in urgent need of food and payment.Therefore, someone proposed to issue banknotes, that is, banknotes.

The Edict of Guilt has just been issued, and a scholar named Jiang Chen in Tongcheng came to Beijing to make a statement, saying that the banknote law was implemented at the beginning of the country, so the country has enough money, as long as the old system is restored and 3000 million coins are printed every year, the imperial court can earn 3000 million silver out of thin air Two, there is no need to send more troops to disturb the people, and it can also increase the military pay.And this set of astonishing economic theories actually impressed the officials of household and industry ministries and Emperor Chongzhen himself.

So Emperor Chongzhen immediately ordered the eunuch to preside over the establishment of the Neibao Banknote Bureau to print banknotes. They rushed to make banknotes day and night.However, when the merchants in the capital heard that the imperial court wanted to exchange banknotes for silver, they all closed down and fled. None of them took the initiative to buy.

When discussing this matter, the cabinet ministers said: "No matter how stupid the merchants are, who would buy a piece of paper with one tael of silver?"

But Emperor Chongzhen asked inexplicably: "Why was it possible to implement it during the time of Emperor Gao (Zhu Yuanzhang)?"

The cabinet ministers couldn't figure it out either, so they had to answer: "Emperor Gao seems to have only inherited the old system of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, it was only used for rewards and part of the official salary, and he never even used it for military pay."

But Emperor Chongzhen still coveted the annual income of 3000 million taels, insisted on implementing it, and demanded severe punishments to promote it.

In fact, everyone with knowledge of modern economics knows that without hard currency as a reserve, the issuance of banknotes will be worthless.The banknotes of the Yuan Dynasty had gold and silver as reserves, so they would not cause inflation. The Ming Dynasty, who did not know this economic principle, after issuing banknotes in the early Ming Dynasty, the value of the banknotes plummeted. There is a de facto abolition in the market. (to be continued..)