Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 127: Biography of Traitors

When the three camps and Lu Xiangsheng's troops were about to arrive in Datong, they were divided into two.

Li Banghua led half of them towards Shanxi, and the other half surrounded Datong.

The reason why Cao Huachun divided his troops was that once Datong took action, Shanxi would most likely receive the news and unpredictable things would happen. His Majesty has ordered to minimize the harm.

Datong, formerly known as "Yunzhong" and "Pingcheng", is located at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia. It is the barrier of the entire Shanxi Province and the gateway to the north. It has been a battleground for military strategists throughout the dynasties and is known as the "key to the north".

Unfortunately, when the three camps arrived at the city, they found that the city gates were closed and the city walls were crowded with people.

"I am Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Xuanda. Open the city gate!"

"Open the city gate!"

"Open the city gate..."

The Yongwei Camp is the Tianxiong Army. The roars of more than 20,000 soldiers shook the sky. Their armors sparkled and shimmered like waves under the sunlight, looking very majestic.

Wang Pu, the general of Datong, looked at the situation and couldn't help shouting from the city gate: "General Lu, what are you doing? I am the general of the Ming Dynasty, and these are also the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. If you besiege the city like this, won't it make your relatives sad and your enemies happy?"

Lu Xiangsheng glanced at him and shouted in a cold voice: "Wang Pu, your collusion with the Shanxi merchants has been exposed. I advise you to tie your hands as soon as possible, leave the city to apologize, and follow Commander Cao back to the capital. Perhaps His Majesty will consider your years of guarding the border and only execute the main culprit and spare your entire clan."

"Leave the city... Why should I leave the city?" Wang Pu, who was standing on the tower, was sweating profusely. "Without the order of His Majesty, you have no right to order me."

He had been uneasy since he heard that the emperor had confiscated the property and exterminated the Shanxi merchants.

Over the years, Wang Pu colluded with Shanxi merchants and transported so many ironware, firearms, horses, and intelligence to the outside of the Great Wall that he himself could not count them.

So, when he suddenly heard that the emperor was taking action against Shanxi merchants, he prepared to flee outside the Great Wall and surrender to Huang Taiji, but later the Qing army entered the Great Wall.

Afterwards, there was no movement from the Ming court, and Wang Pu thought that the court had not found any evidence against him.

In addition, he judged that the Qing army's entry into the pass this time would inevitably take several months, just like the previous ones, and the general would plunder hundreds of thousands of Ming people and livestock to the outside of the pass.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he and Huang Taiji asked for a good price.

After all, he is the general. If he escapes to the other side, life will not be as comfortable as here. Why should he surrender to the Qing Dynasty?

But what he did not expect was that just as he came into contact with the Qing envoys, the Ming army had already defeated the 80,000-strong Manchu and Mongolian army. In a hurry, he wanted to surrender to the Qing, but unexpectedly he was blocked in Datong by the returning Lu Xiangsheng and the three battalions.

Cao Huachun came out with the imperial edict, "Your Majesty's decree, Datong General Wang Pu, who collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country, took bribes and perverted the law, killed innocent people for credit, and embezzled military funds, should be exterminated along with his entire clan... If you are stubborn and refuse to change your ways, you will all be treated as rebels."

Huang Degong narrowed his eyes and looked at the soldiers on the city wall, and shouted loudly: "Think carefully, if we go to war, you will be considered a rebel, and your entire clan will be executed."

The soldiers on the city wall were sweating profusely. They looked at Wang Pu and threw their spears and bows and arrows to the ground.

Someone tried to open the city gate, but was hacked to the ground by Wang Pu's men, "You can't open it!"

Datong had 7500 combat soldiers, but in reality it only had 1500 cavalry, and all of them were Wang Pu's servants.

Among the cavalrymen who followed Lu Xiangsheng south to intercept the Qing army, there were only a few hundred old and weak people, and all the servants were under his control. This was Wang Pu's greatest reliance.

If Wang Puruo died, these servants would surely die with him, and at this moment they burst out with tremendous energy.

"Let me see who dares?"

Suddenly everyone was afraid to move.

"Attack the city!" Cao Huachun stopped talking nonsense and gave the order.

The artillery was pushed over, and instantly the roar resounded throughout the earth.

There were less than 3,000 people in Datong, who were fired upon by artillery and muskets. They flew through and crashed into the city walls, causing brick chips to shatter, fly, and collide.

People and things on the city wall were smashed down, like splashing blood, surging and tumbling down from the city wall.

A big hole was blown open in the city gate, and suddenly the sound of drums was heard.

Under the bloody sun, the officers and soldiers rushed in suddenly.

The shouting made the earth tremble.

There was a cold light everywhere, and the blood-red glow was dazzling... In just less than half an hour, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were lined up, and Cao Huachun and Lu Xiangsheng walked in from the broken city gate.

Wang Pu's more than a thousand servants were all killed. At this moment, he was pressed to the ground with blood in his mouth.

As for those officers and soldiers who chose to surrender, Cao Huachun did not have them killed, but handed it over to Lu Xiangsheng to decide. "Put them in a cage and return to the capital!"

Then, Cao Huachun and Lu Xiangsheng bowed and said goodbye, "Governor Lu, Your Majesty has one more thing to say. You can submit a memorial to recommend a general for Shanxi and Datong."

"I thank you Lord for your kindness!"

Recommending someone is the greatest sign of trust.

After all, Xuanfu, Datong and Shanxi are the three important towns of the Ming Dynasty. How can they all belong to one person?

The army stepped over the corpses of the rebels, and the huge Sheng flag fluttered in the wind, shining as bright as silk under the scorching golden sun.

Cao Huachun did not go to Shanxi with his troops, but went straight back to Beijing because he knew it would be a wasted trip.

The Shanxi general Hu Dawei had no more than 800 soldiers and horses, of which only cavalry were Hu Dawei's servants.

However, the Beijing Camp and White-Spear Soldiers led by Li Banghua and Qin Liangyu had a total of 40,000 troops, and they were also assisted by artillery and muskets. It was impossible for them to be defeated, the only question was how the battle would turn out.

……

At the same time, inside the capital.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot arrested several officials from the Ministry of War in succession.

The reason was that they were discovered to have colluded with Shanxi merchants and committed treasonous acts such as reselling iron, salt, and firearms to the Later Jin.

If you don't move, you won't move. If you move, you will strike like thunder.

"Hang their heads on the city wall of Beijing to serve as a warning to others! From now on, anyone who collaborates with the enemy and commits treason will have his entire family exterminated and will be listed in the list of traitors of the Ming Dynasty." Although Zhu Changgan cleaned up the Shanxi merchants, he understood that the Manchus had only 300,000 people but occupied a Ming Dynasty with a population of nearly 100 million. He could not attribute all the blame to the Shanxi merchants for smuggling weapons and intelligence and ignore the real reasons for the Ming Dynasty's demise.

I am not Chongzhen, so there is no need to whitewash the face of the Ming Dynasty.

Among the four classes of people, scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants are the lowest. No matter how rich they are, they are still the lowest class.

Peasants, such as Li Zicheng, a genuine peasant uprising leader, he broke into the capital and forced Chongzhen to hang himself.

How many scholars, such as the Donglin Party scholars, died for their country? Think about it again, how many officials surrendered to the Qing Dynasty? Who helped the Qing Dynasty to conquer the Ming Dynasty, and who chased the Southern Ming emperor to Burma?

It can be said that more than half of the credit for conquering all the territory of the Ming Dynasty was accomplished by surrendered officers and soldiers and literati and scholars.

Therefore, Wang Pu had to be killed, Shanxi general Hu Dawei had to be killed, and officials who collaborated with the enemy had to be killed. This not only resolved the potential danger, but also served as a warning to others.

Zhu Changgan also asked the Ming Times to reserve a special page to write biographies of loyal and treacherous ministers.

Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents, and Teachers, don’t you civil officials and military generals shout every day that you have read the books of sages and saints, and shout: “Establish a mind for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry on the lost knowledge of the saints, and bring peace to the world for all eternity?”

You shout about your loyalty to the emperor and your patriotism every day, but you actually engage in acts of treason and betrayal. I will make you forever lose face and shame your ancestors.

"Your Majesty, this is inappropriate, isn't it?" Neo-Confucian master Huang Daozhou couldn't help but stand up and say.

Zhu Changgan looked at him coldly, "I lost my education when I was young, and I lacked experience when I grew up. I just learned a little bit of truth from the lectures. All the words of the saints are nothing more than the two auspicious things of heaven and human desire. Doing something for no reason (not for one's own selfish interests) is called heaven's reason; doing something for a reason is called human desire."

"Before this, you wrote three memorials to exonerate Qian Qianyi and Zheng Yu. Now I want to honor their loyalty and encourage their loyalty. What's wrong with that?"

Qian Qianyi, my head is itchy and the water is too cold.

Zheng Yu contacted a witch to perform a ritual to beat his stepmother with a stick, which was a heinous crime. There were also rumors that he had an affair and cuckolded his son.

After being reported to Wen Tihen by his own uncle, Emperor Chongzhen ordered him to be skinned alive 3600 times, which exceeded the 3546 cuts of Yuan Chonghuan and firmly ranked first in the list of the most number of times of being cut alive in the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Daozhou’s eyes suddenly widened.

He had already written a memorial to exonerate Qian Qianyi and Zheng Yu.

But the servant had heard that his master might become a prime minister, and was afraid that he would offend the emperor by submitting this memorial, and thus lose the opportunity.

So he made an excuse that the eunuch guarding the Huiji Gate insisted on demanding eight taels of silver before accepting the memorial, and so he did not send it into the palace.

Later, when he heard that Qian Qianyi had gotten into trouble, he was glad that the memorial had not been delivered to the emperor, so he burned it.

I never thought that the emperor knew all these things?
……

　This chapter is a bit late

　　
　
(End of this chapter)