Iron blood Suiming

The Emperor Chongzhen had a reason to be angry. The front of the memorial was not bad, but what was written in the back of the memorial was "The minister heard that the capital was in danger, and came to help day and night. Today, the Tartars have retreated and the country is safe. The emperor is naturally overjoyed. But the minister is very short-lived, I think the emperor should give the minister a total of 400 million taels of silver in military pay before noon the next day, otherwise the minister will not be able to appease the soldiers under his command, so he can only lead the soldiers to collect it himself."

The most dazzling thing about the full paper is the word "Chen".Is this what the courtiers should say to the emperor?Emperor Chongzhen tore the memorial in half, and said angrily: "How much does the national treasury earn in a year? It's only 400 million taels. Damn Li Guo dared to threaten me like this. He is simply a traitor. Why should he lead his troops to take it for himself? This is the opposite. Cheng Jiming, you are the chief minister, tell me, what should you do?" He was the one who came up with the idea of ​​Li Guo's coming to Beijing for rescue.

Several cabinet ministers were sweating for Cheng Jiming.Cheng Jiming didn't care, he had been thinking of a way since he received the memorial, and at this time he was already confident.

Cheng Jiming smiled and said: "Don't be angry, your majesty. This is just a trick of Li Guo to test the court. Who is he, Li Guo? Don't you know that 400 million taels of silver is the annual income of the treasury? How can you pay him lightly? Li Guo The state knew that it could not be paid, but why did it mention it again? It was just asking the court to pay back the money on the spot. The minister thought that if Li Guo really wanted to rebel, he would rebel whether he gave it or not. But if he wanted to rebel, he would rebel. You don’t need to ask for money, just like what he said in the memorial, lead the soldiers to collect it yourself, wouldn’t the money you collect be ten times, a hundred times as much?”

Cheng Jiming is worthy of being an old minister, and he has been thinking about countermeasures for a long time. At this time, he is speaking eloquently, and every sentence is reasonable, which makes people involuntarily convinced.All the cabinet ministers agreed that Cheng Jiming's words were justified.

Emperor Chongzhen also nodded slowly.Said: "According to Chengqing's opinion, how should we respond?" At this time, he called Chengqing again instead of calling him by his first name, obviously his anger has subsided.

Cheng Jiming's face was indifferent, but he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Emperor Chongzhen was suspicious. Although he was the chief assistant minister, as long as Emperor Chongzhen became murderous, his old life could not be saved no matter what.Now that the biggest crisis has passed, Cheng Ji ordered: "I have a plan. It can resolve this matter. The emperor only needs to issue an imperial decree to exempt Shandong province from taxes for four years, and order Li Guo to collect and retain it as a tax payment." Military pay is enough."

The cabinet ministers were startled, then smiled.This is really a good idea.Emperor Chongzhen also understood immediately and couldn't help admiring.Veterans are veterans.Experienced and tactful, this countermeasure is watertight.

Originally, Shandong had already fallen into the hands of Li Guo. As long as the imperial court did not pacify Li Guo, the taxes for coming to Shandong would definitely not be paid.That being the case, it is better to use these taxes that cannot be collected in the first place to offset him as military pay.Moreover, Li Guo scraped the money harder and harder in Shandong.The people also miss the court more and more. When the heavenly army arrives, will the people still wait for the wind and surrender?

Chongzhen smiled and said: "That's it, the cabinet will draft an order. The inspector of ceremonies will approve it and send it to Li Guo."

Cheng Jiming said again: "Your Majesty, I think it's better to give some benefits to Li Guo, otherwise he came all the way to help, but he only got a decree. I'm afraid he will be upset and trouble will happen again."

All the cabinet ministers nodded, and Emperor Chongzhen also said: "Chengqing's concern is that it really is Lao Cheng who seeks the country, so let's add the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War of Li Guo, and add the title of Crown Prince and Taibao, just like this." Both of these titles are false. , but the status is lofty, although there is no real benefit, it is also a rare reward.

The imperial decree was sent to Li Guo in the evening of that day, but it was Li Kaiguo's acquaintance, Wang Chengen, who came to announce the decree.When Wang Chengen saw Li Kaiguo, his expression changed drastically, and he said in shock, "You... aren't you Li Yu? Why are you called Li Guo again? Who are you?"

Li Kaiguo laughed and said, "Eunuch Wang, you still remember Ben Fu. Li Yu is just Ben Fu's pseudonym. Eunuch Wang is here to announce the decree?"

Wang Chengen was stunned for a long while, then came back to his senses, and sighed: "Your Excellency is very human, the old slave has brought the imperial edict. Lord Li, accept the edict."

Li Kaiguo sat still, and said with a smile: "My lord, people of the Ming Dynasty don't speak secretly, and you can just say what the imperial decree says."

Wang Chengen twitched his eyes. Although his heart was extremely angry, he also knew that now was not the time to lose his temper. Although he was under one person and above tens of thousands in the palace, he killed himself in front of Li Guo , It was just to let his master, Emperor Chongzhen, reprimand him, and there was absolutely no possibility of raising troops to avenge him.

So he took out the imperial decree, put it on the table, and said with a smile: "The emperor is sympathetic to Mr. Li who traveled far away to go to the capital to serve the king and beat back Huang Taiji, so he specially rewarded Mr. Li with the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and added the title of Prince and Taibao. Also, the emperor said , Now that the national treasury is empty, if you can't get 400 million taels of silver, you will be exempted from the tax of Shandong province for four years, Mr. Li can withhold these taxes by yourself to offset the 400 million taels of silver."

Hearing this, Li Jianguo was expressionless, but the generals under the tent were extremely angry, but Li Jianguo didn't speak, and no one dared to speak, they could only stare angrily from the sidelines.

Li Kaiguo smiled lightly and said, "My lord, take the imperial decree back and tell the emperor that if you don't see 800 million taels of silver before noon the next day, I will send troops to Beijing to collect it myself."

Wang Chengen was furious, and he tolerated Li Guo in every possible way.Even his own master endured the humiliation. Immediately after he issued such a humiliating imperial decree, he was about to reprimand Li Jianguo loudly, but he saw Li Jianguo took a gun and said, "My lord, you are so honest, you don't even let a fart go!" Go back now, Ben Fu spares your life, if you say a word, Ben Fu will beat you to death."

Although his voice was light, it was full of murderous intent. Wang Chengen swallowed the words that had already reached his mouth, and turned around and left in despair.He accepted his fate, but the little eunuch who came with him did not accept his fate. He was used to being by Wang Chengen's side on weekdays. The little eunuch opened his mouth and cursed: "Damn..." Only then did the three words come out, and there was a "bang" Suddenly, a blood hole exploded on the little eunuch's forehead, and the brain and blood flowed out, and he fell to the ground, already dead and unable to die again.

The guards who came with Wang Chengen all looked ashen, and they didn't care about the dignity of the Jingwei. With a loud cry, they hugged Wang Chengen and escaped from the camp. They didn't even have time to carry away the dead eunuch's body.

A group of people were dragged up the city wall by bamboo baskets in desperation until they entered the capital.Only then did he dare to open his mouth to speak.Wang Chengen didn't know whether he was angry or scared, his hands were shaking all the time.A guard next to him said: "Don't be too angry, father-in-law, let's report it to the emperor and let the emperor punish him."

Wang Chengen shook his hands and gave the guard a big mouth, and then entered the imperial city under the blank eyes of the guards.Before he came to the Imperial Study Room, Wang Chengen felt that something was wrong, and he saw that the palace was in a state of panic, and all the eunuchs and maids had expressions of terror on their faces.

Wang Chengen hurriedly found a young eunuch and asked what was the matter?The little eunuch panicked and said, "I don't know either. I just heard from my sisters that bandits have invaded Fengyang."

Wang Chengen's mind buzzed, Fengyang is where the Ming Zuling's mausoleum is located, and now it has fallen into the hands of thieves, the seriousness of the situation can be imagined.He also stopped in a hurry and asked, "Where is the emperor now?"

The little eunuch said: "In the Huangji Hall. All the ministers are facing up." Wang Chengen took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the Huangji Hall.Though his news could be worse.But I have to go back.Otherwise, he must die without a place to bury him, so he can only go slowly now, hoping that the bandits didn't really do such a heartless thing.

It's a pity that things backfired. Before we reached the entrance of Huangji Hall, we heard Emperor Chongzhen wailing in the hall, shouting: "Thieves destroyed my ancestor's tomb. Heaven and man are angry..."

Wang Chengen fell down and sat down on the ground, his head was buzzing, as if at this moment, all his strength was gone.He didn't hear what Emperor Chongzhen said.There is only that sentence in my ears, "thieves destroy my ancestors' graves." '

Wang Chengen was so frightened that he became a fool outside the hall, and all the officials in the hall were crying bitterly, as if it was their own ancestral grave that had been dug up, and Emperor Chongzhen was disheveled on the throne, screaming and roaring, in great pain, what else? Is there anything more painful than this?The only reason why his family's ancestral grave was dug was because he issued an imperial edict to let soldiers and horses from five provinces come to King Qin to rescue him.

When the entire imperial city was covered in dark clouds and lifeless under the roar of Emperor Chongzhen, Li Jianguo also received a secret report.Li Jianguo looked at the secret report with a strange expression, and the secret report said more details.Seven days ago, Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, received a secret decree urgently sent by the imperial court, ordering him to immediately lead the soldiers of the five provinces into King Qin of Jing. up.

Chen Qiyu didn't dare to be negligent, he knew that after the emperor allowed him not to enter Jingqin, he issued an imperial decree requesting to enter Beijing again, obviously when it was a last resort, he immediately sent an order to practice state affairs, Lu Xiangsheng, Yuan Mo, and Tang Hui to bring the headquarters Soldiers and horses marched towards the capital.

He was not an idiot, knowing that the withdrawal of troops would ruin the work of several months, so he urgently sent someone to send an official document to Hong Chengchou, Governor of Three Sides of Shaanxi, asking him to send troops to monitor the movements of the bandits.Hong Chengchou received the report and immediately sent troops to come, but the soldiers from the five provinces left very quickly, and many places became unguarded places, allowing bandits to come and go freely.

When Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong learned that the Ming army had left for Beijing, they immediately turned to Fengyang. Before Hong Chengchou could react, they attacked Fengyang with lightning speed.

Fengyang is where Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral tomb is located. I heard that this is the place where Zhu Yuanzhang and the Zhu dynasty were born. Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong are all bold, black-hearted people. What kind of evil things have they never done?Immediately, the thought of digging the ancestral grave of the Zhu Dynasty came into being.

They do what they say, most of the thieves are farmers, and they are very familiar with digging. In one day, they hollowed out the ancestral tomb that Zhu Yuanzhang sent the prince Zhu Biao to build in 28 years, and killed all the officers, soldiers and soldiers guarding the tomb. The eunuch was set on fire, and the whole Fengyang was filled with smoke from the burning.

Li Jianguo looked at this news. He seemed to have heard that Li Zicheng had indeed done this in later generations, but it should have happened next year. Why did it happen now?

He flipped through it, and saw another report. Because the soldiers from the five provinces withdrew too quickly, they didn't pay attention to precautions. Instead, they were ambushed by some scattered bandits, and many officers and soldiers were lost.The governors of the provinces had no time to take care of them, they only cared about entering King Qin as soon as possible, and now even most of the bandits had already followed behind the officers and soldiers in the capital, heading straight for the capital.At the end of the news, Gao, Li, and Zhang also left Fengyang three days ago and followed the army into Beijing.Seeing this, Li Jianguo found it very interesting. The cat didn't catch mice, but the mice became rampant instead.

Emperor Chongzhen cried all day in court, and even Wang Chengen cheered up at last and returned Li Jianguo's words with a trembling voice, Emperor Chongzhen did not respond.I just cried bitterly, what is money?The ancestral graves are gone, that's the big deal.

However, Chongzhen and his courtiers were not doing nothing serious in court, they were just crying.Chongzhen urgently ordered the soldiers of the five provinces to return, and together with Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi, to suppress the bandits. If Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong were not captured within a month, the six of them would all commit suicide.

The imperial decree is clear and grand, and I am not afraid that the six governors and governors will not be dedicated.This is no joke.The imperial decree said that one month is one month, and it will not be able to be done by then, and it will not work without killing.

On the second day, Emperor Chongzhen issued an imperial edict.This is the first time he has committed a crime, in history.He was issued an edict ten months after the imperial mausoleum was burned.The imperial edict said: "With Liangde, I will inherit the Great Tradition... and send it back to the Mausoleum of the Shangqian Emperor."My ancestors threatened the people with hatred, and I am really responsible...  Thousands of words were eloquently spoken, but Li Jianguo listened in a daze, and only understood because of the explanation given by the secretary at the side.It means that it is my responsibility that my ancestral grave was dug up, and if I want revenge, everyone in the world will support me in revenge... Anyway, it's all a bunch of nonsense.

Li Jianguo didn't bother to remember.It's just that in this way, Emperor Chongzhen is afraid that he will forget his 800 million taels of silver.I think no one will pay attention to him tomorrow, so I will go to the city to get it.

Li Jianguo ordered people to come up with a list of the worst and richest families of powerful officials in Beijing, especially those Donglin Party who boasted of incorruptibility.

At noon on the third day, the time limit given by Li Jianguo had come. As soon as the time was up, Li Jianguo fired the cannon and sounded the horn. A total of 4 people from the tiger battalion, which had already been prepared, marched to Deshengmen. The city walls are broken, but still standing.

At the foot of the city, the Ming army had already panicked and didn't know what to do.Li Kaiguo said lightly: "Li Guo, the governor of Shandong, went to Beijing to receive his military salary. Anyone who dared to launch a cannon or arrow against my army horse will be severely punished and opened the door." He used his supernatural power to spread this passage far away. Going out frightened the Ming army even more. This kind of distance, but the voice can be heard in the ear, is simply a magical skill, but no matter how magical the skill is, this door cannot be opened.

Li Jianguo didn't care either, he knew that the Ming army was not a pig, it was impossible for him to say a word, and the Ming army would obediently open it, and with a sudden wave of his hand, [-] muskets were aimed at the city wall of the capital, and there were more than a hundred cannons.Just as the muskets and artillery were aimed at the Ming army on the city, hundreds of people rode on horses and charged towards Deshengmen with explosives on their backs.

Li Kaiguo now knows why the Tartars like to beat Deshengmen. Although the city wall here is also built according to the standard, the river is indeed a bit narrow, and there is a bridge on the river here, which has not been destroyed by the Ming army. It is very easy. A hundred people rushed across the moat.

Only then did the Ming army come to their senses, and they hurriedly prepared to fire artillery and arrows. Li Jianguo had already seen clearly with the eyes of supernatural powers, and he immediately ordered the tiger battalion to advance and threaten the formation.After walking 50 meters forward, the firing range was reached. At this time, the Ming army had already started to fire the cannons, which were aimed at the hundreds of cavalry who were advancing, but unfortunately, the cannon fire was not accurate enough and missed.

But that's it, the Ming army also has a way. They have prepared ten thousand enemies, which are incendiary weapons used to defend the city.Generally, a mud shell bomb is placed in a wooden frame, and poisonous fire and incendiary are added inside. As long as it is ignited, it will be thrown down the city wall, and fire will be sprayed from all sides. Anyone who touches it will die, and no one can approach it.

By this time, it was already too late. Hundreds of Tiger Squatting Cannons originally used in field battles in the Tiger Camp were placed on the cannon carriage and fired from the back, together with [-] flintlock guns, they immediately killed hundreds of outcropping Ming soldiers. The ten-thousand-enemy wooden box that was about to be thrown off the city wall was also hit, and one of them fell on the city wall. With a "boom", it turned around and began to spray poisonous fire and poisonous smoke.Dozens of Ming troops were burned, and then the rest of the tens of thousands of enemies were ignited, killing and wounding the Ming troops, and the walls of Deshengmen became a mess.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the explosive package had already been placed at the gate of the city. The Tiger Camp assault soldiers ignited the explosive package and hurriedly avoided the corner.The explosives can only blow open the city gates. If you want to blow up the tall and thick city walls of the capital, it will take hundreds of thousands of catties of explosives.

With a loud bang, the Ming soldiers on the city felt their feet go limp and fell down one after another. The city gate had been blasted open by gunpowder packets, and even the soil bags of the gate had been blown away, leaving only a few. But it has not hindered traffic.

The Ming army behind the city gate was caught off guard and dozens of people were injured.Seeing that the gate of the city had been opened, Li Kaiguo immediately waved his hands and marched in. The [-] cavalry from the Tiger Camp immediately began to charge forward.But the Ming army was already in chaos. At this time, Ming general Zu Dashou arrived and immediately commanded the battle. While he sent troops to surround the Wengcheng, he urgently dispatched troops to surround the second city gate.

But he came too late. If he had been commanding the city, Li Jianguo's tiger camp would not have attacked so quickly.Zu Dashou had just made arrangements, and the second city gate had already exploded with a bang.

Zu Dashou and General Jingying couldn't believe it. Even if the Tartars were so brave, they were blocked under the city for a day and could not break through the second city wall. Wide open, the Tiger Camp Army has entered the city unimpeded.

Although the Ming army was still trying to shoot at the soldiers of the tiger camp who entered the Wengcheng, throwing Lei wood, kerosene, gold juice, etc., the general situation was gone, and the soldiers of the tiger camp entered the inner city unstoppably.And began to attack the city along the stairs inside the city wall.The number of casualties of the Ming army and the Tiger camp army is constantly rising, but after the Tiger camp army attacked the city wall, the casualties of the Tiger camp army dropped to zero immediately, while the Ming army continued to increase the number of deaths to one To the extreme, nearly a hundred Ming soldiers were killed by the guns of the Huying army every second. (To be continued..)