Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 116 Xuan Sun Chuanting Enters the Capital
Chongzhen was extremely nervous at this moment. As an emperor, this was the first time he had done such a thing, but he was unusually obsessed with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

He wanted to stop Li Yan. He wanted to block Li Yan's way before Li Zicheng arrived.

Hongniang's sudden departure and the fact that no one around was paying attention to this side made Chongzhen think that this was a rare opportunity, which aroused his murderous intent.

Li Yan suddenly said this to him, which made Chongzhen a little confused.

"Ah?" He turned around and saw Li Yan staring at him with a sharp gaze. He was dazed for a moment and stood there in a daze. He couldn't help but ask, "You...what did you say?"

Li Yan grabbed Chongzhen and said, "Brother Zhu, to be honest, I have a wife, but..."

He recounted the entire story between him and Matchmaker.

"You said that I am a man with a wife and children, but my wife is still at home, but I married another one outside. How can I be worthy of the sage books I read?"

Li Yan lowered his voice and continued, "That day, I heard her subordinates' third boss and a few others discussing that in order to make Hong Niangzi the legal wife, they even considered killing my wife."

"My son is only seven years old. How can I bear to leave him without a mother?"

"..."

The more Li Yan spoke, the more pain he felt. His eyes turned red. A grown man actually started sobbing and struggling. He grabbed Chongzhen's hands with both hands and pretended to kneel down to Chongzhen.

"Brother Li, Brother Li, you have an injured body, don't do this..." This made Chongzhen feel a little uneasy about where to put his hand that was holding the handle of the knife.

He didn't expect that Li Yan was still such a person.

It can be seen that his relationship with his wife is quite good.

"Promise me. If you don't, you can't get up no matter what."

Li Yan was crying and snotting, which made Chongzhen feel numb. At the same time, he finally attracted the attention of the people around him.

The muscles on Chongzhen's face twitched. Seeing the looks from people around him, he gritted his teeth, knowing that this opportunity had slipped away. He let go of the knife handle and helped Li Yan up with both hands. "Brother Li, get up first. We can discuss anything."

"Then I'll take that as your agreement."

"What did I promise?"

"Master said, 'A gentleman is like a horse. Four horses cannot keep up with the tongue.'" Li Yan wiped his eyes and lay back on the carriage as if nothing had happened.

"I didn't..."

"What are you talking about?" Just at this moment, Hongniang came back from fetching water, and Chongzhen and Li Yan fell silent at the same time.

Li Yan glanced at Chongzhen before saying, "No, we are just discussing the route we should take next."

Chongzhen was worried that Hongniang would notice something, so he nodded as well.

"Oh, I'd like to hear what the result of your discussion is?" Hong Niang looked at the two of them with a cold gaze. Although she was highly skilled in martial arts, she could not see clearly the future path of the rebel army. This was one of the reasons why she was entangled with Li Yan.

"I made some rice balls. Zhu and his son can have some here."

"..." Chongzhen's mouth twitched. At this moment, he could only nod and agree to prevent Hongniang from noticing anything.

During the meal, Li Yan and Chongzhen briefly discussed the situation of the Ming Dynasty and some situations of the peasant army.

Although the two had differences in many opinions, one was the emperor and the other was Li Zicheng's future military advisor, and they actually created countless sparks.

Chongzhen bluntly stated that the Ming Dynasty's war against the Tartars in the north should soon have phased results, and the next step would inevitably be to target the peasant army. He suggested that they should be pacified if possible... However, Li Yan did not think that the Ming Dynasty could launch any countermeasures against the Tartars, and even sarcastically said that the Ming Dynasty had become extremely rotten, riddled with holes, and difficult to save.

This made Hongniang look at Chongzhen with a somewhat cold gaze.

When Chongzhen rushed back to where Zhu Yiming was, "Dad?"

What about people?

Suddenly, the voice of Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming was heard, "Don't speak too loudly. Someone was staring at me this morning."

"Who?"

"I don't know yet, the third in command may be the second in command."

Chongzhen's forehead was covered with sweat, and his thoughts raced. Could it be that he had been discovered? Impossible, he had not revealed his knife at all, and Li Yan had called him a brother today and wanted to bring him together.

"It's okay. There's no danger for now. The people in the village are probably afraid that we will run away, so they have someone keep an eye on us. Let's keep our troops in place for now and wait for an opportunity to act."

After a while, someone suddenly approached the father and son, which made Chongzhen a little nervous. The man came over and gave Chongzhen a package and a note.

Chongzhen unfolded it and looked at it. "Brother Zhu, I have some clothes here. Please tidy yourself up."

“……” Chongzhen’s face turned pale. It turned out that this bastard was staring at him?

Now, not only did he fail to kill Li Yan, but he was also entangled by him.

If we don't solve the problem of Li Yan, running away at this time will be even more dangerous. "My son, don't sigh. There is always a way out."

"Dad, I know."

When King Xiang saw what was in the package, his eyes lit up, "Who sent this?"

"Li Yan is the scholar that the boss intercepted before. He saw that I was dressed shabbily, so he gave me some old clothes." Chongzhen looked at Prince Xiang and became more cautious. He must not endanger Prince Xiang's life due to any mistakes.

As for everything that happened this morning and the assassination of Li Yan, he kept it completely hidden in his heart.

But this is a bad thing, but also a good thing.

At least Li Yan had let down his guard a lot and he had more opportunities to be alone with him.

In the following interactions with him, I would always be able to find opportunities to take action. Moreover, Li Yan was following me and he certainly hadn't told Hong Niangzi, which meant that the chances of me being exposed were much smaller.

Next, I have to implement my plan as soon as possible, contact Li Yan more often to find opportunities, and at the same time expand my relationship with other people in the village to muddy the waters...

……

At this moment, the area hundreds of miles north of Tianjin.

Everywhere there were the galloping figures of the Eight Banners Manchu and Mongolian cavalry, like gusts of strong wind, sweeping away the population and livestock of the Ming Dynasty.

Advance towards Qingshan Pass.

This was the largest scale but the shortest duration of the Qing army's entry into the pass, with the greatest losses and the least results, so they just wanted to make up for the losses as much as possible before leaving the pass.

It was the sixth month of the lunar calendar, and it suddenly rained heavily.

Heavy rain fell from the sky madly. The dark sky seemed to be collapsing. It kept pouring down. The rain water flowing down from the mountains and fields gathered into small streams.

Less than 30 miles away from the Qing troops at Baodi, Cao Huachun looked at the artillery battalion stuck in the quagmire and finally issued an order to temporarily stop advancing.

Li Banghua couldn't help but sigh: "It's God's will. He's about to catch up."

Not only the artillery soldiers, but also the musketeers were affected. They wrapped all the pills with several layers of oil paper as a rescue measure.

But gunpowder was inevitably affected.

This is the shortcoming of cannons and muskets. They cannot be exposed to moisture, otherwise they will not only lose their power but become a burden.

At this moment, the Jinyiwei came forward and said, "Commander-in-chief, His Majesty's order."

"Oh?" Cao Huachun took it quickly. After reading it, his eyes suddenly narrowed. He folded up the emperor's edict given to him and put it into the fire.

Seeing that Li Banghua wanted to ask, he spoke first: "Don't ask, this is the secret order given to me by His Majesty. You will know it in a few days."

Li Banghua and Qin Liangyu understood immediately and stopped asking questions.

……

In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changgan sat cross-legged on the throne.

"Your Majesty, the battle report from the front line shows that the Jiannu have withdrawn their troops. Should we send the three battalions back to the capital?" Yang Sichang stepped forward and made a request: "Your Majesty, I request that Your Majesty send the three battalions to the south to wipe out the rebels."

Zhu Changgan did not comment, but looked at the names on the paper in front of him and fell into deep thought.

Wu Aheng, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting...

According to the original historical trajectory, Wu Aheng should have been one of the people who died for his country under the iron hoofs of the Eight Banners when the Tartars invaded the Pass.

Among the Ming Dynasty generals who died in the Qing army's invasion of the pass, there was another who was more famous than him - Lu Xiangsheng.

Facing the sharp edge of the Eight Banners Army, Lu Xiangsheng resolutely advocated war, but due to the restraint of the faction, he could not get enough troops. Lu Xiangsheng was called the commander-in-chief, but he had only 5000 troops under his command. In the end, he was surrounded by the Qing army near the Geshui Bridge in Julu and his entire army was annihilated. Lu Xiangsheng himself died in battle.

After the Qing army annihilated Lu Xiangsheng's troops, it began a large-scale in-depth movement, advancing as far as the border between Henan and Shandong, bypassing Dezhou, which was heavily defended by the Ming Dynasty, and heading straight to Jinan. It captured Jinan one day later, and many royal family members including Prince De Zhu Youshu were captured.

The Qing army advanced relentlessly across the plains and the Ming army was unable to stop them. It was not until April of the following year that Dorgon led his army back through Qingshan Pass.

During that invasion, the Ming army fought 57 battles with the Qing army, but did not win a single battle. They also lost a big city like Jinan and royal princes, and suffered incalculable losses in property and population.

Afterwards, Chongzhen was furious and executed dozens of officials at one time, which was unprecedented in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

now,

The Ming army won all three battles with the Tatars, forcing them to retreat in less than a month. The Ming army felt indescribably relieved.

After a long while, Zhu Changgan finally raised his head and said, "Of course we must suppress the rebels, but we have to wait for some time before the three camps return to Beijing."

"Let Xuansun Chuanting come to the capital!"

(End of this chapter)