I have a cornucopia

Chapter 268: Blood Pill Loyalty Record

His Majesty the Emperor did not cooperate, which embarrassed the Senate.

Although in theory they could indeed cause the emperor to die, in reality doing so would have very serious consequences. After all, everyone was well-read and knew Cheng Ji's affairs very well.

Even though the militia did fire at the Emperor in Jiujiang and sank the Emperor's ship, they did not admit it in their propaganda!

That was Li Zicheng murdering the emperor and usurping the throne.

In those days, there were no videos or cameras, and it was not the pens of literati that recorded facts. They wrote history books, newspapers, and even folk stories and operas.

So what is the truth?
The real facts are not the facts, what they need are the facts.

Not to mention decades or hundreds of years later, even now they can make those who fired at the emperor in Jiujiang become soldiers under Li Zicheng...

Du Yinxi?
He is clearly protecting His Majesty!

The Emperor tried to escape from the clutches of the rebels. After a series of planning, the five rebel warships were inspired by loyalty and righteousness to resolutely rebel and escorted the Emperor downstream to Jiujiang, but were chased by other rebel warships and fired at the Emperor's ship. Du Yinxi acted decisively and ordered the Jiujiang and Suojianglou Forts, and even the Xiaochi Fort on the north bank to intercept the rebel warships with Suojiang cannons, but the latter went downstream and eventually broke through the interception and sank five loyal warships including the Emperor's ship.

It's so moving!
Even a novel titled "The Blood and the Red Chamber" was produced by a famous studio in less than ten days, and the samples were then sent to various elders' associations over an express route of 500 miles.

At the same time, in some cities that have already received the books, publishers have printed and put them on sale in the shortest possible time.

So now the people in cities like Nanjing can hold this book in their hands and sigh in admiration for those loyal ministers and righteous men.

Uh, while watching the loyal ministers and righteous men escorting the emperor to break out of the siege and being hunted down by the rebels, and shedding their last drop of blood to protect His Majesty the Emperor, His Majesty the Emperor stood on the deck and watched Du Yinxi and his loyal and brave militiamen on the shore who were also fighting bloody battles with the rebels to protect him, shouting three times to punish the rebels, and then jumping into the Yangtze River with the imperial seal in his arms, while watching His Majesty the Emperor suddenly appear in front of him in reality...

A bit magical.

Of course, this is not important.

At worst, we can write a new one. No, we can write at least a hundred books to flood the people's brains with all kinds of different legendary stories that they love and love.

In this way, even if there are people who really spread the truth, it will be drowned out by a bunch of preconceived so-called truths that have long occupied a firm position in the minds of ordinary people.

drama……

It's being edited! It's being edited!
This will be the truth from now on!

But the problem is that it is no longer possible now. After all, Nanjing is not the only one in the Jiangnan clique, especially since Chongzhen is still under the protection of the Guangdong-Guangxi Allied Forces. If you want him to die, you must first deal with the Guangdong-Guangxi Allied Forces, which means you have to fight a war. Given the temperament of the Guangdong gentry, they must record the facts. After all, this can make them loyal subjects. Similarly, the Shandong clique is not sure what will happen. Gao Hongtu and Yang Guanguang are watching, and the Southwest Allied Forces are also watching. Huang Daozhou has already crossed the river with some Fujian-Guangdong ministers and asked to see His Majesty, but was blocked by the militia.

Huang Daozhou was already clamoring for Zeng Ying to send troops across the river to escort him and force his way through the militia interception.

We can't kill them all. Besides, even if we kill them all, it will provide an excuse for other places to join forces with Li Zicheng to seize Jiangnan. After all, the gentry in Jiangnan are also very clear that everything is ultimately determined by interests. The gentry in Huguang have already made their choice in the face of silver. What will the gentry in other provinces choose?
It's impossible that they are more noble than the gentry in Huguang, right?

It’s even hard to say whether the princess will accept it.

After all, he is her father.

She could accept her father being forced to abdicate afterwards, but if you kill her father, the nature of the matter would change. A regicide would not have a good ending under any new monarch.

No matter what the new king gets, he must get rid of this kind of people.

Unless you don't have the ability.

In short, in the next few days, the Jiangnan Group headed by Liu Zongzhou maintained the blockade of the imperial palace and Xijiangkou, while continuously sending people to meet with His Majesty the Emperor in an attempt to make him sober up.

Even Queen Yi'an was invited out by them...

After Zhang Yan was exchanged back, she had been in Nanjing ever since. However, she was very clear that as a prisoner of the enemy, her identity was actually very embarrassing. Even if Dorgon was indeed polite to her, it was hard to explain such a thing. In short, after she was sent to Nanjing by Yang Feng, she announced that she would worship Buddha and not care about worldly affairs. She also gave herself a Buddhist name. The ministers who were really forced into a corner also invited her out to persuade the emperor. After all, an eldest sister-in-law is like a mother. In the Ming Dynasty where there was no empress dowager, she was actually equivalent to an empress dowager.

But the problem is that the emperor is now very sober, and it is because of this that he will not abdicate. If he abdicates, his daughter will succeed him, and then the Zhu family's country will sooner or later fall into the hands of a different surname. If he does not abdicate, he will help Li Zicheng, and his son will eventually inherit Li Zicheng's throne. After Li Zicheng's death, the country will still belong to the Zhu family...

As for the fact that His Majesty the Emperor has now come back to life, it is not important. At most, Li Zicheng can say that the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River made a fake one, otherwise why didn't he dare to let him out?

Even if Li Zicheng admitted that this was true, Chongzhen has not said that he was tricked by Li Zicheng, and was almost killed by Li Zicheng's men. He just didn't die after falling into the water, and was washed to the riverside with Wang Chengen, and then met the fishing boat. But now he has been surrounded here, and in the end, whether he died of illness or was killed by illness, it will be attributed to the Jiangnan Group. It has no impact on Li Zicheng. At most, he said that he was just pretending to be the emperor before confirming the truth...

The prince can have a fake title, and of course the emperor can also have a fake title.

His Majesty the Emperor is imprisoned by the Jiangnan rebel group, and his life or death is unknown. His good brother, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin, pretends to be the emperor and uses this to command the loyal and righteous people in the world to fight against the Jiangnan rebels and rescue His Majesty.

Of course, in the end, His Majesty was killed by the cruel and cruel rebels in Jiangnan.

Then the fake emperor naturally became the real emperor.

In the final analysis, this kind of thing is just a matter of whether it is acceptable in terms of interests. If Chongzhen passes the throne to a princess now, it means that the future Ming Dynasty will maintain a weak or even a figurehead monarch, and the local areas will continue to happily govern themselves. At this time, Li Zicheng is not the best choice, because he has a strong military force. He may just not be able to deal with the local factions now, so he has to pretend to allow local autonomy.

But after getting the wealth of Jiangnan, he will eventually have to take action against the local faction.

The guys who control the place are not fools. On the contrary, they are well-read in history books. There is no shortage of various samples for reference in this land.

But if Chongzhen did not pass the throne to the princess, then he might as well choose Li Zicheng.

At least you can get a piece of the pie.

Who doesn’t envy the wealth of Jiangnan?
Even if choosing Li Zicheng is not wise in the long run, in the short term it is indeed possible to make a fortune by fighting for Jiangnan together.

Everyone has the same strong desire for windfall!
Isn't it reasonable to ignore long-term dangers in the face of short-term windfalls? The dignitaries in Nanjing are certainly aware of this, and they are actually in great danger now.

After the failure of the tentative attack on Jiujiang, Li Zicheng did not continue to attack, but wore the yellow robe, waiting for the choice of various places. He needed more forces to join in order to reduce the cost of his attack. In the final analysis, he did not want too many men to die, especially before the upstream forces made a clear choice. If he failed in the attack and suffered too much loss, it was not impossible to be stabbed in the back for the second time. If he wanted to attack downstream with confidence, he had to at least pull the Southwest Alliance to his side.

Especially Zhang Xianzhong.

He had already begun to win over Zhang Xianzhong.

Just confer the title of king on the latter, transfer the title of King of Shu, and then make Zhang Xianzhong the King of Shu, or continue to retain the title of King of Shu but give Zhang Xianzhong the title of Prince of a County, and give him a satisfactory official position.

As for the remaining chieftains in the southwest, the problem can be solved as long as we give them enough benefits.

Li Zicheng has now begun to learn from his previous lessons. He is not in a hurry as his rear is stable. As long as he always controls Huguang, he can go downstream whenever he wants. But if he is too anxious, he will be in danger. His several major failures were due to being too anxious.

His biggest danger now is the Qing army, but the last battle has made him realize that Dorgon cannot defeat him if they really fight.

Unless the latter joins forces with Jiangnan.

But if that were the case, Yang Feng, who had disappeared for a long time, would probably show up.

The Jiangnan Group should be very clear about this, so if they join forces with Dorgon, it would be suicidal, as they can only fight him on their own.

So he could solve his own problems calmly. As long as he solved these problems, it would be a disaster for the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, the high-ranking officials in Jiangnan were not only negotiating with Chongzhen, trying to win back the emperor's favor, but also negotiating with other forces. They negotiated with the Fujian faction, promising not to challenge the other party's maritime trade rights, fully abide by the maritime rules set by the Zheng family, and not to trade with the Dutch privately. They negotiated with the Guangdong faction, promising that the future empress's court would include a cabinet minister and several nine ministers from Guangdong. They negotiated with Feng Shuangli, who represented Zhang Xianzhong, and offered him money. As long as Zhang Xianzhong continued to support Jiangnan, the empress would still make him a king and give him another one million taels...

Let’s win him over first.

Of course, the most important is Shandong Group.

There is no need to talk about this, the Queen is enough.

Besides, Yang Feng hasn’t shown up yet, so there’s no point in talking to others.

Of course, in addition to this, what is more important is to strengthen internal unity, especially to prevent the people from making trouble. The propaganda for the empress began. In order to dispel the people's doubts about the empress system, Confucianism must be reinterpreted, at least to make the empress conform to Confucian principles. Fortunately, this is very simple for the great Confucian scholars, after all, the right to interpret the scriptures is in their hands. Similarly, the benefits of the empress system must also be made clear to the people, so some reforms must also be promised, especially the most critical rent and interest reduction, which must be truly comprehensive...

First, we need to coax the unruly people not to rebel. As for the problem in the future, we will of course find other ways to solve it. The rent can be reduced, but it is not impossible to make up for it from other aspects.

After all, as long as you have power in your hands, you won't really lose out.

But if we can't stop Li Zicheng, it won't be just a simple loss, but we will have to queue up to be put in the siege.

In order to avoid being trapped, the dignitaries in Jiangnan really tried their best. They even called on all provinces to discuss state affairs together.

Simply put, the elders' associations in each province nominated elders to go to Nanjing to discuss state affairs together.

Expand the Council of Elders.

The Elders' Council, which was originally composed of three provinces, was expanded to become the Elders' Council of the entire Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there are still restrictions on the conditions for participating in the Elders' Council. For example, at least one must be a Jinshi of the Wanli Dynasty, otherwise he cannot be called an elder. A Jinshi of the Wanli Dynasty means he has been an elder for four dynasties. Secondly, he must have at least been a cabinet minister or a great nine ministers. The lesser nine ministers are not qualified, and only the great nine ministers can barely count, that is, the six ministers, the left and right censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Thanks to the dozens of changes in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, and the countless changes in the six ministers, there are still many elders of this level. After all, even a remote province like Yunnan can have a university scholar like Lei Yuelong.

He is qualified enough!

He was also a Jinshi in the Wanli Dynasty!
However, everyone understands the thoughts of the Jiangnan elites. If we really count the final elders, the majority of them are still from their three provinces.

Apart from Fujian, which other province in the Ming Dynasty can compare with these three?
Be it the cabinet ministers or the nine great ministers, excluding Northern Zhili which had already become the territory of the Jianlu, if they really wanted to form this Senate, the three provinces of Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi would have to account for more than half.

However, this attitude is still worthy of recognition. After all, it is impossible for Li Zicheng to hold such a council of elders.

Just as the Jiangnan elites and Li Zicheng were recruiting people in their own ways and preparing for their decisive battle, an insignificant matter also ended.

Zheng Zhilong captured Fort Zeelandia.

The Dutch surrendered.

Compared to the original history, this war lasted for a very short time, less than half a year. After being completely beaten in the field battle, the Dutch had only one choice left to retreat to Fort Zeelandia, and their reinforcements did not arrive during their tenure due to seasonal issues. Because Zheng Zhilong chose to attack in autumn, the maritime shipping in the South China Sea went north in spring and summer and south in autumn and winter. Every spring and summer, merchant ships would go to Ming and Japan for trade, and then return home fully loaded after the north wind changed in autumn and winter.

Zheng Zhilong launched an attack on the Dutch during the period when they were unable to go north for reinforcements.

Then, in an era when even the Yangtze River was using ten thousand jin cannons, he also sent his ten thousand jin cannons to the battlefield, and used those thirty-pound shells to blast open Fort Zeelandia.

Then came the strong attack of the Fujian militia.

Unlike Zheng Chenggong, who originally had only a small territory in history, Zheng Zhilong now has the full support of the Fujian Elders Association. There are 10,000 Fujian militiamen following him to fight, most of whom are mountain people from various places, and their combat effectiveness is still very strong.

But this victory was really just a small matter. No one cared about it except Fujian. It was just that the Fujian general wiped out a few thousand pirates.

What's the big deal?

Hundreds of thousands of troops here are preparing for a decisive battle.

Who cares about his victory?

(End of this chapter)