Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 79: The Qing Dynasty's invasion of the Pass begins

When we fight a war, what we fight for is information and intelligence.

A big reason why Zhu Changgan was confident about this battle was because of the 16,000-strong intelligence team of the Jinyiwei.

Zhu Changgan had already made a plan for the Intelligence and Military Affairs Department. "If you follow this plan, the salaries of all the soldiers who are transferred to foreign wars will be increased by 50%. I will also allocate 200,000 taels to you in advance to purchase advanced equipment and supplies."

"I heard that your son is already sixteen years old this year. Does he have any duties?"

"Your Majesty, I have studied for many years but never passed the imperial examination. Now I am practicing martial arts and passed the military examination. I am now a centurion in the Beijing camp."

"Brothers fight together, fathers and sons fight together in battle. Let him follow you and gain some experience!"

"I thank my Lord for his grace!" Li Ruolian kowtowed again.

Zhu Changgan thought for a moment and said, "While you are gathering intelligence, you can recruit soldiers from the 'Yebushou'. They are very capable, but their work is too hard. If you can recruit them, recruit them."

He had been jealous of Ye Bushou for a long time, but they currently belonged to the Ministry of War and were mostly stationed at the border.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Li Ruolian naturally knew that Ye Bushou was a group of elite personnel walking on the edge of a knife. He would be extremely happy if he could absorb some of the elites among them.

"I asked Johann Adam Schall Johann Adam Schall to equip you with a hundred telescopes. Do you have any information?"

"Your Majesty, I have received it."

"Consider it my gift to your Intelligence and Military Affairs Department!" Zhu Changgan asked Tang Ruowang to make glass and improve the telescope these days, which is now useful.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Li Ruo Lian then opened the Intelligence and Military Affairs Department's program and asked about some details of the Intelligence and Military Affairs Department that he did not understand.

He was about to leave when he heard someone outside shouting:

"Report! Urgent military intelligence report, Yuetuo has reached Qiangziling, north of Miyun, and is destroying the Great Wall and breaking through the border wall. Dorgon's army is less than a hundred miles away from Qingshan Pass..."

"Emergency military situation!"

Zhu Changgan stood up suddenly, turned around and asked Li Ruolian, "When will the property and supplies seized from Shanxi arrive in the capital?"

First of all, we must ensure that the more than 20 million taels of silver and supplies do not fall into the hands of the Tartars.

Li Ruo Lian quickly replied, "Your Majesty, I left the team ahead of time on the way back. According to the walking speed and the distance, it is less than 150 miles, and I expect to arrive in Beijing in two days."

"Two days? That must be enough."

Qingshan Pass is 400 li away from the capital. According to the Jin army's rapid march, it would take two days and 300 li to catch up. However, Zhu Changgan still said, "Send some people to support them and let them go faster."

"Your Intelligence and Military Affairs Department can start spreading the information starting today."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

……

Xiangyang Prefecture,
When Chongzhen came in the morning, he didn't know that the Tartars had entered the pass again. He was having breakfast happily, and at the same time he was listening to Zhu Changgan's joy.

But when he heard that Zhu Changgan's Qing Dynasty had entered the Pass, he suddenly felt unwell.

The dishes and chopsticks in his hands fell to the ground with a "bang", and sweat broke out all over his forehead.

"My son, what's wrong with you?" Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming suddenly put his hand on his forehead, "Why are you sweating so much? Your hands and feet are cold too? Hurry... call the doctor over?"

Chongzhen stood up suddenly and said, "Let them go to the capital to defend the king. Otherwise it will be too late!"

Go to Beijing to support the king? What's late?
Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming looked at him, "My son, what's wrong with you? Are you talking nonsense? How can we, the princes, go to the capital to defend the king?"

Chongzhen said with a trembling voice: "I'm not talking about you. I want Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, and Lu Xiangsheng to come to Beijing to defend the emperor. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty will be over."

"Please be patient, be patient!" Xiang Wang Zhu Yiming asked everyone to leave to prevent anyone from hearing him. "Hong Tao, go get a basin of hot water and remember to bring a dry towel."

quickly,

With the warm towel of Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming, Chongzhen regained consciousness, "Father, I'm fine."

"Don't move, the doctor will be here soon. Ask him to prescribe some medicine for you. Just drink it and you'll be fine." Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming said with a worried look on his face: "My son has been taking the exams these days and he has done his best. Add to that the incident in the exam room, and it looks like he needs to rest for a few days."

Chongzhen looked at Prince Xiang, his eyes slightly red, and finally lay down again.

He could do nothing at the moment, but he was extremely anxious. This was not the first time that the Later Jin invaded the pass. If the Ming Dynasty could stop them, why would they invade again and again?

As for defeating Huang Taiji, isn't that just a pipe dream?
It would have been more helpful to capture Chongzhen, otherwise he would not have sent his generals to Beijing to defend the king again and again.

As for the 20,000 White-Flag Soldiers, he didn't think they could solve any urgent problems. Wasn't the White-Flag Soldiers also wiped out in the Battle of Hunhe?

Not long after, the old doctor came and felt Chongzhen's pulse. After a long while, he looked up at Chongzhen and said, "You are worried and worried. The prince is still young. What is there to be so frightened about?"

The doctor is a doctor in the palace. He has served in the Prince Xiang's palace for three consecutive generations and is highly respected. Therefore, some of his words are quite direct.

"..." The muscles at the corners of Chongzhen's mouth moved. There were some things he couldn't say to the doctor, so Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming called the doctor to another place.

After a brief chat, the doctor learned what happened in the examination room and nodded, "No wonder, it seems that the prince is too ambitious, and he will be easily broken if he is too stubborn!"

Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming frowned and asked, "You mean it's best not to take the prefectural exam?"

"I didn't say that. Your Highness, you can figure it out yourself." The old doctor prescribed some medicine for Chongzhen, instructed the dosage, and left with the medicine box.

Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming asked Hong Tao to go outside to boil medicine. He scratched his head and sat down on the bed. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke, "My son, father thinks it's better not to take the imperial examination. In fact, I'll just live a peaceful life..."

"I have to take the test. Didn't my father teach me that I should not give up halfway through a task?" Chongzhen did not wait for Prince Xiang to finish his words, and suddenly struggled to his feet and said, "I still have to look after the great mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty for my father!"

He was still waiting to pass the imperial examination and return to Kyoto. He wanted to prevent a situation like today from happening again... How could he just give up like that?
"This..." The muscles on Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming's face twitched.

Well, it seems like there is something wrong with the chicken.

……

After lunch, Zhu Changgan came to the Wenhua Hall east of Taihemen.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Wenhua Hall was a convenience hall where the emperor often stayed.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, it once again became the emperor's private palace because several previous princes were too young to take charge of affairs. So it was no longer used as the eastern palace exclusively for the princes, but was also used for "imperial lectures".

Now, Zhu Cilang was still young, so Zhu Changgan directly used Wenhua Hall as a temporary hall and set up the combat duty room of the Military Affairs Office here.

Another big reason is convenience. After passing the Meridian Gate and heading east, passing the Wenhua Gate is the Wenhua Hall.

"Yang Shangshu!"

"Your Majesty, your servant Yang Sichang pays homage!" The person on duty at the time was the Minister of War Yang Sichang, and he naturally also received the military report.

"Your Majesty, the enemy is 400 miles away from the capital. If there is no resistance in between, it is estimated that they will arrive in three days." Regarding the emperor's establishment of such a department, Yang Sichang's understanding was that the emperor needed a flexible inner court agency.

He was able to grasp the changes in the battlefield situation at the first time, but Emperor Chongzhen was a very suspicious person.

There were only two people, Sun Chengzong and Yang Sichang, which made him feel that His Majesty's so-called Grand Council did not have much decision-making power.

This is very different from the cabinet's draft. The cabinet is a group of civil servants who discuss in a room and write down their opinions for the emperor to see, but the Grand Council does not have any power to approve. In the final analysis, it is just a temporary department that submits intelligence to the emperor.

"Have the officials from Miyun to the capital sent people to notify them?"

"Your Majesty, I have sent someone to notify them."

It is impossible to clear the country completely, but at least the people and officials along the way can take precautions and let the people avoid the enemy for a few days as much as possible.

The policy of "fortifying the city and clearing the countryside" is feasible for sparsely populated areas, but for the hinterland of the capital, the feasibility of this policy is not as easy as imagined.

After all, the so-called "fortification of the countryside" meant clearing the lands of officials, nobles, and powerful landlords in the capital, which was real money.

They have their own ideas and calculations, and even have deep backgrounds behind them. They cannot be eliminated just by the emperor's words of "fortifying the city and clearing the fields". It is even possible that before they are eliminated, they will first provoke a civil uprising or the officials in the court will backfire.

Therefore, no one, whether it was Yang Sichang, Sun Chengzong or other civil and military officials, proposed to clear the countryside.

There were even many officials in the court who believed that as long as Huang Taiji had robbed enough, he would naturally go back. Even if a few people died or some livestock were taken away, as long as the land was still there, it would eventually be his.

Zhu Changgan asked Yang Sichang to pay close attention to the battle reports from the front line, while he himself went to the Military Affairs Department.

At present, the Grand Council is not very prominent, but when it grows slowly, these civil servants will know how powerful it is.

……

"Your Majesty, we succeeded. Based on the original, we have improved the breech-loading flintlock rifle. It has a faster reload speed and a higher firing rate than before!"

The moment Song Yingxing heard that the emperor was coming, he ran out of the room with excitement on his face, his face black and red.

"Your Majesty, we heard that the Manchu Tartars are about to enter the pass again?" Song Yingxing then realized that he was being rude, and quickly saluted with a red face and asked.

"That's right, so I came here today to ask you to produce more artillery and projectiles in the next two days."

Today, the Armory has more than 2,800 craftsmen, which is several times more than the original Armory.

These days, we work day and night to improve and produce hundreds of cannons, thousands of flintlock rifles, countless shells and projectiles, and they are still being produced in an endless stream.

"Your Majesty, I also want to go to the battlefield."

Zhu Changgan looked at Song Yingxing and was stunned. "Why are you going to the battlefield? Don't you like working on technology the most?"

"Your Majesty, although a lot of artillery has been produced these days, what is the actual power when it is fired? Only when I see it with my own eyes can I make further improvements." Song Yingxing said, holding a thick data book in his hand.

Zhu Changgan looked at Song Yingxing and discovered from the beginning that the other party paid special attention to data. He tried his best to make all the data in the process clear, and also paid attention to the quantitative relationship between raw material consumption and finished products.

If he lived in the future, he would definitely be a data geek.

"Let me think about it again!" Zhu Changgan then wanted to give him a more important task.

According to the news given to him by Li Ruolian, commander of the Imperial Guard, Fan Shu would be arriving in Beijing soon.

In addition to technical experience in physics, chemistry and other areas, Song Yingxing actually also did some research on agriculture. For example, he made very detailed records of rice, seed soaking, breeding, threshing seedlings and weeding.

He planned to let Song Yingxing take charge of the work of promoting planting. Whether it was improving firearms or sweet potatoes, which one was more important than going to the battlefield?
……

Qiangziling,
Located 80 miles east of Miyun, Beijing, it is regarded as the last natural barrier guarding the capital.

A stone city was built on the ridge, 25 feet high and 13 feet wide, with a brick and stone structure, very solid. There was a beacon tower on the top of the mountain, which could see the enemy dozens of miles away. Once there was an enemy, the signal was immediately lit by lighting the smoke.

A whole day had passed since the emperor received the military report.

At present, at Qiangziling, the army led by Yuetuo has launched an offensive against Qiangziling for a whole day.

The defense area of ​​Miyun Governor Wu Aheng, a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli, was under the command of the military governor. When he received the military report, the enemy was less than 50 miles away, and he was unable to organize a large army for defense in such a hurry.

But even so, he still led his team to Qiangziling to support General Wu Guojun and fought bravely.

Killed the Cavalry Commander Gan Jitai.

At this moment, the stones of Qiangziling were like a pit toilet, emitting a fishy stench.

It was covered with human blood, and after drying, it became like this. Flies and mosquitoes lay on it, and when arrows or shells landed on it, they would fly up with a "buzzing" sound, covering the sky like locusts, and soon fall back onto the stone.

Just then, there was a commotion behind me.
"General Wu Guojun ran away, General Wu Guojun ran away..."

"Wu Guojun, I'll fuck your mother!" Miyun Governor Wu Aheng's eyes widened, unable to believe it.

Not only did Wu Guojun run away, but the eunuch Deng Xizhao, who was in charge of the military, also ran away.

He came to reinforce and was still fighting, but the reinforcement General Wu Guojun was afraid and ran away?

With the escape of General Wu Guojun, the morale of the army was low. The soldiers under his command collapsed like wild beasts with their spines pulled out, and the soldiers fled in groups.

The gates on the left and right wings of Miyun Governor Wu Aheng were wide open. He was no longer surrounded by Ming army soldiers fighting alongside him. It became a vacuum, a route through which the enemy could attack at any time.

"Bang bang..." Several arrows fell at Wu Aheng's feet, splashing countless dust.

The rout caused more casualties among the Ming army. The long spears pointed directly at the soldiers, and they were very close to each other. What was originally intended to resist the enemy now became a giant mouth that devoured lives.

One person fell down, bringing down a group of people. The people behind continued to run and trampled the people in front to death. People kept falling down, but they could not stop the fleeing Ming army.

Desperate cries and wails filled the entire battlefield, in stark contrast to the shouts and roars of the Manchu Tartars outside.

Finally, not only did General Wu Guojun's soldiers collapse, but even his own soldiers collapsed. They threw down their spears, turned around and ran back.

Infected by it,

One, two...soon they began to flee in large numbers.

"No escape, no escape..." Ah Heng drew out the sword in his hand with great righteousness and indignation, saying: "We are born as soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and die as heroes in heaven."

He hacked down several fleeing men nearby, but still couldn't stop the defeat.

Just when he was about to die heroically, he was suddenly pulled back by someone. He turned back with bloodshot eyes and was stunned. "Are they from the Imperial Guards?"

The people who came were the Jinyiwei, led by a centurion, "Your Majesty has ordered that the Governor of Miyun, Wu Aheng, let the Manchu Tartars enter the pass..."

what?
"Let the Manchu Tartars enter the country?"

Miyun Governor Wu Aheng was completely stunned. He quickly took the imperial edict from the captain's hand, quickly scanned the contents, and instantly understood the emperor's intention. He couldn't help but be shocked.

"Your Majesty, are you going to fight the Manchu Tartars near the capital?"

The second half of the decree told him not to die, to organize his troops, and to do his best to stop the Manchu Tartars when they returned outside the Great Wall.

　There is a rumor about Wu Aheng's death that he was "killed because he was too drunk to get up". It is said that the eunuch Deng Xizhao, the military supervisor, celebrated his birthday, and the general Wu Guojun took Wu Aheng to celebrate. Both of them were drunk, which led to poor command and the Qing army broke through Qiangziling.

　　This statement was undoubtedly a fabrication by the Qing Dynasty, but people today quote it rashly on the Internet without any verification.

　　Qiangziling is located 80 miles east of Miyun, Beijing. The tower is several feet high and made of brick and stone, making it extremely solid. There is a beacon tower on the top of a mountain two miles in front of the pass, which can see the enemy dozens of miles away. Once there is an enemy situation, the signal will be lit immediately.

　　As the governor of Ji and Liao, Ah Heng's station was in Miyun inside Qiangziling. Even if he was really drunk, he would not have been killed in a sudden attack by the Qing soldiers. No matter how the Qing spread the story that he was killed because of drunkenness, it never made it to the front.

　　In fact, it took the Qing army several days to break through Qiangziling and there was bloody fighting for several days. The general Wu Guojun fled in fear, and Ah Heng, who came to support, was trapped and killed due to exhaustion!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)