Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 147 Huang Taiji Passes Away

By the time Zhu Changgan escaped, the sky had begun to brighten. He discussed with King Xiang and decided that since they were going to the capital, they might as well take this opportunity to reach Kyoto as soon as possible.

They changed into refugees' clothes, mingled with the starving people, and headed north.

But just as the sky was getting bright, not long after Chongzhen and Zhu Changgan exchanged bodies again, another incident happened, that is, the government troops hacked and killed these refugees.

Kill the good and take credit!
Fortunately, they were protected by the Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot, so they broke out, but more than a dozen people died.

"Damn it, they all deserve to die..." Chongzhen's body was trembling, and the flames of anger were burning in his eyes.

They hid behind a mound of earth and avoided the search by the government troops, but they had to watch helplessly as the women, children and the elderly were chopped to the ground by the government troops.

"Don't leave anyone behind, hurry up and get on with your journey."

"Understood. Don't leave any one behind..."

They left with heads in their hands. How could they be called thieves? Chongzhen could see clearly that they were just civilians. These people were unarmed, but their throats were cut and thrown into bloody sacks.

Blood continued to drip onto the ground and spread out.

"Why didn't you take action?" Chongzhen said angrily, glaring at the people from the Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot.

"The order we received is to escort the prince to the capital safely. The rest is not within our consideration." The captain of the Jinyiwei said coldly.

There are two reasons why they did not reveal their identities to the government troops.

Firstly, if you reveal your identity, you may die faster. Killing innocent people and claiming credit for something is already a capital crime. Now that you say you are a member of the royal family, these officers and soldiers are even more guilty. It's death anyway, so it's better to just kill them all. Maybe you can still have a chance of survival.

Secondly, brutal bandits like Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, Guo Tianxing, etc. are not far from here. If this news gets out, it is very likely to attract their attention and increase the risk even more.

Unless it is absolutely necessary, they will never care when faced with such a situation.

Moreover, whether it was the Jinyiwei or the Dongchang, they only had the right to report, not the right to kill people. The emperor wrote this clearly in the "Da Ming Times".

At this time, a locust jumped in front of Chongzhen, and then another... Chongzhen looked up and saw a swarm of locusts in the distance, covering the sky and darkening the sky.

The captain of the Jinyiwei was quick to cover the heads of Prince Xiang and Chongzhen with sacks, "Quick, squat down!"

When they got up again, the few green things in the distance had been eaten up.

Corpses, withered colors, yellow earth, and the scorching sun... Henan... This is Henan, with successive years of drought and locust plagues, the frequent mobilization of troops, and the back and forth dispatch of officials during the eventful late Ming Dynasty.

This well-connected land has now turned into a barren land.

After walking further north for two hours, there was still no one in sight. Chongzhen's lips were cracked and he wanted to drink some water. He came to a low-lying area, squatted down and scooped up some water. Just as he was about to drink, his pupils suddenly contracted and he kicked his legs backwards.

dead body,

A dead body floated down from above, and he was so scared that he dared not drink water.

……

At the court meeting,

Zhu Changgan and his ministers were asking for this year's taxes, while Sun Chengzong and other ministers were reporting the disaster in Henan to the emperor.

Wang Hanju, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, stood up and said, "Your Majesty, Henan has been hit by a series of famines, which is unprecedented in the past three hundred years. Take Kaifeng as an example. Within a few days, floods destroyed the people's crops, and within a few days, locusts destroyed the people's crops.

Since the flood in June last year, there has been no rain for eleven months. Floods, locusts and drought have caused disasters to the people three times in one year. The drought is so severe that wheat cannot be planted, and the locusts have planted seeds on more than 10,000 hectares.

In winter, the caterpillars come out day by day. There was no harvest last autumn, and this year's wheat season is also barren. The poor people have eaten tree bark and grass roots. Even fathers and sons and husbands and wives have eaten each other. Their cheeks are yellow and swollen, their eyes are like pig gallbladders, and there are many starving corpses.

In this year of great famine, the price of grain skyrocketed. A bushel of rice and wheat was worth three thousand yuan, and a bushel of grain was worth two thousand seven hundred yuan. Cannibalism was everywhere. There were fathers eating their sons, wives eating their husbands, and no one walked alone on the road. Even people from the east and west villages did not dare to travel to each other. Those who died in the ditches were gathered together and cut up. In an instant, their bones were propped up against each other.

Wang Hanju was from Henan. Others didn't say it, but he couldn't help saying it.

Yang Sichang also stood up at this time, "Your Majesty, this year of great disaster, local bandits are everywhere in Henan. There are no less than a hundred camps within a thousand miles of the south bank of the Yellow River. Among them, the larger ones are Li Jiyu, Shen Jingbang, Ren Chen, Zhang Ding, Yu Dazhong in the west, and Liu Hongqi, Zhou Jiali in the south... They all have their own people, rely on fences and build strongholds, and fight against each other."

"I beg Your Majesty to send three battalions to encircle and suppress them."

"I beg Your Majesty to send three battalions to encircle and suppress the enemy..."

All the civil and military officials in the court knelt down and begged the emperor to send troops to the south.

Zhu Changgan narrowed his eyes and looked at them. "I have already sent Sun Chuanting to suppress the rebellion in the south. Now the more important thing is the problem in the north. I think that Crown Prince Zhu Cilang is frivolous in words and deeds, rude in manners, and lacks moral character. He is accustomed to evil and is not worthy of the position..."

When the emperor said this, everyone in the court was stunned.

"Your Majesty, please think twice. The Crown Prince is the foundation of the country. Please don't hesitate to replace him..."

"His Majesty!"

All the court officials no longer cared about the previous topic, but all strongly opposed the emperor's change of crown prince.

Everyone thought that the emperor had forgotten the last time the prince stood up for the civil service group, but unexpectedly he suddenly brought it up at this moment.

"I think that the third son, Zhu Cijiong, is more like me..."

It's very simple. The reason is that the Ming Dynasty needs an emperor like me. You can do whatever you want.

Why did the civil service group oppose it so fiercely? Because changing the crown prince was actually a redistribution of interests for the civil service group.

Zhu Cilang was named the Crown Prince in the second year after his birth, which means that in the third year of Chongzhen, the entire court had completed the distribution of interests.

Zhu Cilang's teachers alone included the Minister of Rites Jiang Fengyuan, the Chancellor Yao Minggong, the Junior Chancellor Wang Duo, Qu Keshen, the Vice Minister of Rites Fang Fengnian, the Right Eunuch Xiang Yu, the Editor Liu Lishun, the Editors Wu Weiye, Yang Tinglin, and Lin Zengzhi; the Editor Hu Shouheng, and the Reviewer Yang Shicong, among others.

These people are now serving in the court. Even if they have retired, their sons, nephews, and students have already been stuffed in.

They have spent a lot of time and energy.

After the prince ascends the throne, they will be able to rise to higher positions and gain more power.

Now that the emperor suddenly wants to change the crown prince, it is equivalent to directly smashing these people's calculations. They will all lose everything. How can they be willing?
How can I not panic?
For a moment, the court was in an uproar and Zhu Changgan left in anger.

Wang Chengen followed behind. When they entered the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changgan asked everyone to leave. His expression instantly eased. "Bring me something to eat. I'm hungry after performing for so long."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After Wang Chengen left, Zhu Changgan took a sip of tea, then took out his pen and ink to write and draw on it.

Of course, he did not want to change the crown prince, but to realize his own ideas through the change of the crown prince.

Don't you, the civil servant group, dare to undermine the imperial power? Don't you want to dominate alone?

Now that Sun Chuanting's troops have begun to move south, the four major camps under his command (Qi's army has also arrived) have also begun to grow stronger, and it can be said that there is a bottom-line insurance. But this is not enough, there must be a second line, and this one must come from within them.

But how to divide them, how to achieve your own goals? Instead of proposing it and being rejected by the other party, you might as well do something crazier.

Let's change the prince.

Almost all the civil officials and military officers in the capital have already placed their bets on the prince. It's a huge undertaking to reshuffle the cards. I just want to ask you if you are willing to do it again?
When you are faced with the issue of choosing sides, will there be another bloody storm?
Are you willing to gamble your own worth again?
Don't panic, let the bullets fly for a few more days. By that time, when you raise any requests, you won't have such strong resistance.

This may be the so-called pioneering theory, that is, if you say that the room is too dark and a window must be opened, others will most likely disagree. But if you directly stand up and say that you want to tear down the roof, they will come over to reconcile. When someone suggests opening a window, everyone will agree.

Zhu Changgan's men wrote on the note:

"I want to reduce the taxes and labor service in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan... In addition to the regular grain of 9 square stones, the Liao military pay, the equal tax, and the suppression pay will all be exempted for three years. At the same time, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Nanzhili... Several provinces will bear the burden."

He took a look and found that even though he tried hard to imitate, his handwriting was still very different from Chongzhen's.

Then they threw it on the fire and burned it.

In addition, Zhu Changgan wanted to use this opportunity to further divide the civil service group. They were not united and there were gaps among them.

After all, as long as there is distribution of interests, it is impossible to achieve absolute fairness. In the same pot of rice, some people eat more and some people eat less.

Then he would punch hard on the gap.

Let them be on guard against each other, let them run around, and make these court officials no longer so steady as old dogs, and your own demands will be achieved.

What's more, the areas of Nanzhili, Jiangsu and Zhejiang must be a little chaotic. Only in this way can the bandit problem be driven away.

When Wang Chengen came back from outside, he saw this guy cautiously replied: "Your Majesty, the Queen is waiting outside."

"What is she here for?"

"In the palace... there are rumors that the emperor wants to change the crown prince, so the emperor..."

"No, let her go back and explain to Zhu Cilang what it means to fight with brothers and fight with fathers and sons."

A person whose head is full of the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty and the words of sages, who is a traitor and only aims his weapons at the enemy, will be a person like Chongzhen even if he grows up.

"I am doing this for his own good. This is called teaching by example."

At this moment, footsteps suddenly sounded, "Urgent news, urgent news, urgent news, eight hundred miles away..."

Zhu Changgan and Wang Chengen both stood up at the same time and looked towards the direction of the Qianqing Palace gate.

I saw a Jinyiwei riding a horse to the front of the palace gate, and then a eunuch quickly took it over and trotted inside, shouting as he ran.

All the palace maids and eunuchs looked sideways and made way.

Wang Chengen rushed over immediately, took it, unfolded it, and placed it in front of the emperor. There were many small characters densely written on it, but Zhu Changgan only saw some key words:
"Huang Taiji, the leader of the Qing dynasty, was overly sad and emotionally upset. He had phlegm and fire rising up, and blood was hot. He became dizzy and passed away..."

Huang Taiji died early?

Zhu Changgan's previous words to Haoge were all lies. He had no confidence at all, just because he had seen a few words in some historical materials, "In the second year of Chongde, on the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the emperor was unwell, and he led the empress and other concubines out of Desheng Gate at 3 p.m. and went to the Anshan Hot Springs..."

This person, who was supposed to die six years later, is actually dead now.

It seems that the Qing Dynasty's invasion of the Pass was a huge blow to him.

Zhu Changgan quickly read it again, and it said that the struggle between Dorgon and Hauge for the throne had completely reached a fever pitch.

Then he suddenly placed the paper on the table and shouted, "Okay, this is a godsend opportunity. Order the Military Affairs Office to enter a wartime state. The four major camps can start the northern expedition against Mongolia!"

……

Shengjing,

Because Huang Taiji passed away too suddenly and without establishing a successor, the political situation was shaken.

The struggle between the two major candidates, headed by Dorgon and Hauge, was extremely fierce.

All the princes and important ministers of the Qing Dynasty, without exception, were caught up in the vortex of the struggle for the throne between Hauge and Dorgon.

There was even a point where the Zhenglan Banner and the two white banners were in a dangerous situation.

The atmosphere in the palace was filled with a strong sense of tension. Everyone was on guard and nervous. If one was not careful, an accidental discharge of a gun might occur.

In Prince Su's mansion, Haoge kept walking back and forth with his fingers clenched, his brows furrowed and his face looking extremely ugly.

"how is this possible?"

"How on earth is it done?"

Now that the emperor has passed away without leaving behind a single word, this is only one reason why this situation has occurred.

His greater shock came from the Ming Dynasty Emperor.

How did the other party know that the emperor was seriously ill? How did he know that Dorgon wanted to seize the throne?

Why did an emperor from a foreign country thousands of miles away know something that even I, the Prince Su of the Qing Dynasty, did not know?!

Not only that, the other party had also predicted early on that he might have a slight advantage in the process of seizing the throne.

The two yellow flags, the two blue flags, and the red flag all supported him either openly or secretly, while Dorgon's side mainly came from the two white flags, and the red flag was wavering and did not take side.

So far, everything is consistent with what the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty said.

Why did he want to take the throne? Would it be more beneficial for the Ming Dynasty if he took the throne?

When thinking about the layers and rings behind it, the hairs on Hauge's back stood up.

He felt as if he was being held in someone's hand, pressed under water, enclosed in darkness, unable to breathe...

He even wanted to give up fighting for the throne.

But in the next moment, some other words said by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty suddenly came to his mind.

"If you lose this chance to ascend the throne, you will be imprisoned and killed by Dorgon in a few years, and after your death, your wife will be taken by Dorgon..."

No, we still have to fight!
……

ps: I saw a book friend say that Hong Niangzi is finished and has gone offline?
She has not logged off. This line has just begun. The front part is just a foreshadowing, and it will slowly unfold later.

(End of this chapter)