I have a cornucopia

Chapter 260: Run, the tyrant is coming!

half a month later.

Hankou.

The unfortunate Babutai and three hundred captured Qing soldiers were pinned to the dock, with their tails facing the surging river in front of them and the executioner standing behind them, ready to carry out the execution.

His whole army was wiped out.

None of the 1,000 Manchus escaped, and now they are the only ones alive, and they were used by Li Zicheng as an example to scare the monkeys...

Of course, it was used by His Majesty the Emperor to make an example of someone else.

At this time, the emperor was accepting the kowtows of the officials from Huguang, led by He Tengjiao. He still wore the leather cap on his head. As for the Yishan crown and the ordinary dragon robe, the emperor no longer wore them when he went out. After all, these equipments were not enough to show his status. What he needed now was a high profile, like an Internet celebrity, to make everyone along the way remember his image. The dragon robe was obviously too ordinary, but the crown was too grand. The leather cap, which was between the ordinary clothes and the crown, and was also used for receiving audiences, was the most suitable.

In fact, there was a Tongtian crown in the Ming Dynasty, but it was only used in the early days and there is no record of its use in the later period.

Even the leather hat is rarely worn. Basically, it is a winged crown and a dragon robe. But apart from the number of dragons and the sun and moon on the shoulders, this kind of dress is really difficult to distinguish from that of a vassal king or even a prince of a county.

At least they look the same from a distance.

Including colors.

In short, the only pleasure of His Majesty the Emperor now is to show his imperial majesty in public, or to steal the limelight from Li Zicheng and establish the image of a true emperor in the hearts of the people.

Li Zicheng was of course aware of this, but he was too lazy to care. He was not sensitive to such things. After all, his background limited his imagination. Moreover, no matter how hard Chongzhen jumped, he could not escape from his palm.

Even if His Majesty the Emperor really jumped out, it would be more dangerous than staying in his hands.

Since His Majesty the Emperor likes it, let him do it!
It’s also entertainment!
"These Jian barbarians intended to attack me, but I have captured them alive. Today, I will behead them in Hankou and display their heads to the public. I will pile their heads on the dock so that those traitors can see them!"

His Majesty the Emperor said shamelessly.

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

He Tengjiao and others quickly shouted "Long live the emperor".

"Where is Huguang Governor Du Yinxi?"

His Majesty the Emperor said.

He Tengjiao...

What's the answer?

Could it be that Du Yinxi is in Jiujiang, gathering an army of 200,000 and waiting to stop His Majesty the Emperor?

"Your Majesty, since the Jianlu invaded the south and stole Fengyang, Du Yinxi has been stationed in Qichun to resist the Jianlu, and I will guard the two places separately."

He said.

Chongzhen nodded without comment.

"I want to go to the Southern Capital, and you should accompany me with your troops."

He went on to say.

He Tengjiao lay there in silence.

"Your Majesty, now that the Jianlu are around, the troops of Huguang are all at Du's place. As for the Tusi in Pianyuan and other places that are causing chaos, the garrison troops need to suppress them, but they dare not move. Moreover, the King of Qin has sent 200,000 troops to protect Your Majesty, which should be enough. Huguang still needs to supply the King of Qin's army with military supplies, so it is not appropriate to dispatch more troops to accompany the King. If the troops are dispatched, the Jianlu and Tusi in various places will take advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos, which will hinder the King of Qin's military affairs."

Fu Shangrui, the governor of Pianyuan, who was beside him, said cautiously.

Governor Fu was from Shandong, his native place was Wuding. Historically, he had learned that the Shandong gentry were happy to welcome the royal army, so he also went to Yuanzhou to welcome the royal army. However, he was taken to Wuchang and killed by Kong Youde.

Chongzhen's expression changed instantly.

"My words are no longer effective? Are you not my subject? I personally ordered you to mobilize troops to protect the emperor, but you evaded me with clever words and deceived me. Isn't this deceiving the emperor? King Qin, arrest this traitor and behead him together with the Jianlu. You all understand clearly. It was I who ordered you to mobilize troops to protect the emperor. This is an imperial decree. Those who disobey the imperial decree will be beheaded."

Chongzhen shouted.

"Capture this traitor who disobeyed the emperor's order."

Li Zicheng, who had been waiting for a long time, shouted immediately.

The soldiers guarding him immediately stepped forward and held down the unfortunate Fu Shangrui.

"Your Majesty, I am innocent. I am from Shandong and I am loyal to Your Majesty..."

The latter shouted in panic.

He was reminding Chongzhen that Yang Feng was behind him.

Of course, Yang Feng was not familiar with him. He became the governor purely because of his good relationship with He Tengjiao. He Tengjiao was currently in a semi-separatist state in Huguang, and it was inevitable that he was nepotistic. In history, he made a mess because he trusted people like Fu Shangrui. Most of Huguang now was actually under the jurisdiction of the Pianyuan governor. Of course, he had to recommend a confidant to this governor. The Huguang Elders Association was also relatively accepting of a Shandong person as the Pianyuan governor.

You are not ignorant!

After all, Huguang and Shandong are so far apart.

On the contrary, Zhang Kuang, whom Ma Shiying originally wanted to appoint, was rejected by the Huguang Elders' Association.

They still remembered clearly the surprise attack on Jiujiang by Du Yinxi. If they sent another man from Songjiang to Pianyuan, the elders in Changsha would be afraid that he would surprise attack Changsha one day.

At this time, the governor of Pianyuan had already moved to Chenzhou. After all, suppressing the chieftains was no longer a top priority.

Governor Fu's shouting was useless. Even though He Tengjiao didn't say anything, He Tengjiao knew very well that this was a play between Chongzhen and Li Zicheng, which was to force Huguang to send troops. He couldn't be a fence-sitter anymore. He had to either send troops to follow the emperor to Nanjing, or kill him for disobeying the emperor's order. He didn't have any room to resist. After all, Chongzhen asked him to do it in person. He couldn't say that Li Zicheng forged the imperial edict, nor could he say that Li Zicheng used the emperor to force the princes to force the emperor to issue an order.

The Emperor was before him.

He said it himself.

"cut!"

His Majesty the Emperor looked at Fu Shangrui, who was pinned to the dock and still crying, and shouted majestically.

The executioner raised his knife without hesitation, and Governor Fu's head fell under the curious gazes of captives such as Babutai.

Blood spurted into the river ahead.

Then Chongzhen looked at He Tengjiao.

"You have been a county magistrate for more than ten years. You were appreciated by me and stood out. In less than ten years, I promoted you to governor. Then you were made governor-general for your contribution in resisting the Jianlu. I want to ask you one question today: will you send out the troops or not?"

He said.

It was indeed he who promoted He Tengjiao.

He Tengjiao was a juren in the first year of the Tianqi reign. He was promoted to county magistrate as a teacher, and then he served as county magistrate until the eleventh year of the Chongzhen reign, serving as county magistrate for nearly twenty years. Then he suddenly got lucky and was promoted to the Ministry of War. In the second year, he was promoted to Bingbei Dao. His official position rose rapidly. Chongzhen could indeed say that he was promoted by himself. In fact, there were many people like this who were born as juren in the late Ming Dynasty and then stood out because of their talents. After all, he was a Guizhou native, and it was hard to say that he had any big legs in the court to rely on. At least Sun Yuanhua had Xu Guangqi behind him.

"The minister obeys the order."

He Tengjiao lay on the ground and spoke slowly.

After all, he could not disobey the order, and he had to be a loyal minister.

"This is a loyal minister. However, Huguang does need troops to garrison. You can select 10,000 people to accompany you and obey the orders of the King of Qin." Chongzhen said.

He Tengjiao had no choice but to continue to obey orders.

This kind of thing is not important. If he sent troops, it would mean that Huguang had become Li Zicheng's minion.

In the past, they did stand idly by, but they also refused to allow Li Zicheng to enter Wuchang. At most, Li Zicheng's army could operate in Huguang, but no city would allow Li Zicheng's army to enter. This was also the basis for Wang Guangtai and Sun Kewang to cooperate in defending Yueyang last time. The two sides had already agreed that Li Zicheng's army could pass through the Yueyang section of the river, but could not enter Yueyang City.

Of course, he had no such agreement with Sun Kewang, so Sun Kewang could enter.

As for Sun Kewang entering the city and using cannons to bombard Li Zicheng's warships on the Yangtze River outside, there was nothing he could do about it.

Li Zicheng could rest assured that Huguang would send out 10,000 troops, after all, he was afraid that the Huguang soldiers would stab him in the back.

Chongzhen raised his head and looked at Babutai and others.

"Let's kill them all!"

He said.

After he finished speaking, his eyes swept majestically over the people around him, and suddenly, as if the picture was stuck, he froze for a moment.

But then he smiled in self-deprecation.

And where he had seen before, a wealthy-looking scholar with a goatee was staring at a woman in front of him with lustful eyes, as if he hadn't noticed anything...

"We are so connected!"

Prince Yang, who used an internet celebrity outfit to dress himself up as a goatee scholar, admired the graceful back view while sighing about his relationship with the emperor. However, the current emperor did make him look at him with new eyes. Of course, no matter how hard the emperor tried, it was useless. His method of coercing with his status as an emperor relied on the other party still accepting him as an emperor, or relying on the other party being a loyal minister in the traditional sense, but what he was going to face next was no longer the same.

At this moment, Tian Jianxiu walked up to Chongzhen holding a roll of paper...

"Your Majesty, this is a letter from the Nanjing Elders' Council to the world. It contains many outrageous words. I dare not read it."

He said.

Chongzhen smiled coldly...

"These traitors!"

He said.

Then he picked up the letter to the world and opened it...

This thing actually arrived in Hankou yesterday, and Tian Jianxiu even arranged for someone to read it out in public.

Of course, his purpose was to let the people see the traitors, but the effect was somewhat beyond his expectations, and it made many gentry and businessmen quite agree with it.

Because the content of the letter to the world was jointly written by Huang Zongxi and Gu Jiang, and also included Zhu Zhiyu and a group of other enlightenment thinkers of the Ming Dynasty. The core is that the world belongs to all people in the world, and then Mencius's theory of people being more important than the king is used to explain the king, the people, and the country. According to their theory, only the country accepted by the people of the world is the country, and the loyal ministers are loyal to the country accepted by the people of the world, that is, the ancestral temple and the country of the dynasty. At that time, the concept of the country was not the same as the modern one.

Rather than simply being loyal to a certain monarch, the monarch is only a servant of the ancestral temple and the country, not the ruler of the ancestral temple and the country.

If the monarch's behavior shakes the ancestral temple and the country, and puts the ancestral temple and the country in danger of being abandoned by the people, then what a loyal minister should do is not to continue to be loyal to the monarch, but to find someone who can protect the ancestral temple and the country.

If the king is unjust, the ministers can expel him.

Less than twenty years after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he had already shaken the country and caused chaos. He was no longer qualified to continue to be a monarch. Now he was being held hostage and used by the traitor Li Zicheng, putting the Ming Dynasty in danger of overthrow. He was even less qualified to continue to be a monarch. So what a loyal minister should do at this time is to replace him with a new monarch.

Therefore, the Nanjing Senate invited each province to elect elders to come to Nanjing to discuss the abolition and enthronement of the emperor.

Of course, before that, we must first stop Li Zicheng from taking Chongzhen into Nanjing.

Yang Feng looked at His Majesty the Emperor with great interest in the crowd. The Emperor was holding the letter to the world and was already shaking with anger.

This isn't really directed at him.

Really.

Although His Majesty the Emperor was almost driven mad with anger, Huang Zongxi and his men were not really targeting him.

Rather, it was these young men who were cutting off the retreat of the elders. After all, the elders were still not rejecting Chongzhen, but Li Zicheng, who was holding the emperor hostage to control the other princes.

They were just like Yu Qian back then. Faced with an emperor captured by the enemy, they had to choose between the ancestral temple and the emperor. Since Yu Qian had already set a precedent, they would of course follow suit. As a loyal minister, Yu Qian chose to abandon the ancestral temple and support the new emperor in similar circumstances. Of course, they can do the same now. But they were not disloyal to Chongzhen himself, and Chongzhen was not a tyrant. They were all Chongzhen's former first and second assistants. Chongzhen was a tyrant, so what were they? Chongzhen was just captured, but the emperor was captured, so they still had to prioritize the ancestral temple and the emperor, and had no choice but to choose to be loyal to the ancestral temple and the emperor first.

After all, our Ming Dynasty has precedents for such things, such as the example of Baozong in the past. These old ministers have no psychological burden when doing such things. After all, Yu Qian is still a model of a loyal minister. He was rehabilitated during the Chenghua period, and he is still the standard of a loyal minister in the Ming Dynasty.

So the elders are also loyal ministers.

But this is not what the young generation wants.

What they want is to redefine the monarch, the people, and the country.

Therefore, Chongzhen must be a tyrant.

Captured?

He deserved to be captured.

And it’s not because he was captured that we have to abandon him now.

Instead, he destroyed the country himself. It was his own fault. He was not worthy of being an emperor. Even if he had not been captured, he would have been abandoned. How could such a tyrant be worthy of ruling the world?

A dog on the throne is better than him.

His Majesty the Emperor...

His Majesty the Emperor was trembling, and his expression kept changing, like a balloon that was about to burst.

"Traitors, they are all traitors. All the officials have betrayed me. I was blind. Why did I use these bastards in the first place? All the officials can be killed. I will kill all nine generations of their clans!"

He suddenly roared.

While roaring, he was also tearing up the letter to the world.

It was as if he was in the capital.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. It's not good for your health to get angry. Leave these traitors to me. I will put them in my cage like those in the capital."

Li Zicheng persuaded the Emperor with obvious glee.

He was indeed gloating over other people's misfortune. He deliberately let Tian Jianxiu go to Chongzhen at this time. In fact, he was very clear about the emperor's temper. Although he was very tolerant sometimes, he was actually very irritable and could easily lose control at the slightest provocation. In other words, he was tolerant at ordinary times, but lacked self-control when he exploded. Therefore, when the emperor was most proud, he poured a basin of cold water on him to give him a stimulus.

"Kill, kill all nine clans, leave no one alive!"

His Majesty the Emperor roared.

Li Zicheng smiled with satisfaction.

That's all. From now on, no matter what he does, it will be the will of His Majesty the Emperor.

(End of this chapter)