golden scales

Emperor Chongzhen sat on the throne with dull eyes, as if he had aged ten years overnight. .

The news in Taiyuan is complicated and confusing, all kinds of true and false information in the past three days, rumors and rumors are flying all over the sky like snowflakes.Some people said that they saw the crown prince die for the country with their own eyes, while others said that the crown prince had left Taiyuan with King Jin before.As for the news about Shanxi governor Cai Maode, it is even more complicated, from throwing himself into a well to digging himself, to hanging himself, fleeing, and even surrendering to the intruders.

Chongzhen didn't believe that any accident would happen to his son, or he didn't want to believe it.If the crown prince really had an accident in Taiyuan, the thieves would definitely pass on the news as soon as possible.With the Donggong guard battalion who dared to attack Li Zicheng's army, how could they let the crown prince have an accident?

But...if Cihong refuses to leave because she blames the crown prince for always running away...

Chongzhen felt a pain in his heart, only then did he realize that he had been holding his breath for a long time.

"My lord, the minister Zhang Jinyan has been summoned to come here." Wang Zhixin stepped forward tremblingly and said in a low voice.Seeing that the emperor didn't respond, he was about to say it aloud again when he suddenly saw the emperor took a long breath, as if he had just woken up.

"Xuan." Chongzhen said weakly.

Zhang Jinyan followed the announcement, paid homage to His Majesty, and said, "Your Majesty, my minister Zhang Jinyan is here on call."

Chongzhen gathered his scattered eyes, fell on Zhang Jinyan, and said, "Is there any news from Shanxi?"

Before Zhang Jinyan came, he had guessed that the emperor was going to ask about Shanxi, and he knew that the emperor was actually asking about the prince when he asked about Shanxi.However, he did not get the report about the prince, so he had to pretend to be stupid and said: "Your Majesty, it has been found out that Shanxi Chief Envoy Zhao Jianji, Xunning Dao Bi Gongchen, Shouning Dao Mao Bingwen, and Liang Dao Lin Gang Sun Kangzhou, the magistrate of China and Taiyuan, has died for the country. Taiyuan City is known to have 42 civil and military officials who died in the king's affairs."

Chongzhen mourned in his heart, but it was already difficult to express an expression on his face.These deadly people must be true loyal ministers, but how expensive is it to use this method to screen them out?

"Is there any news about the crown prince? Where is Li Jiantai?" Chongzhen asked again.

"This... I don't know yet." Zhang Jinyan's forehead was cold, and he became more and more depressed to take the position of Minister of the Ministry of War at this moment.

"You are a junchen, and you don't know?" Chongzhen asked sharply.

"I really don't know, I didn't get the pond report." Zhang Jinyan tremblingly said: "How dare I make a fuss?"

No one would care too much about the life and death of a small official, but important figures like the Crown Prince and King Jin were always full of legends.Moreover, Li Zicheng was also considering whether to use the news of the death of these two people to deal a big blow to Emperor Zhu's family.Therefore, he will not try to curb all kinds of strange rumors, and even add fuel to the flames.

"Why don't you send detectives to investigate!" Chongzhen said in a colder voice.

"We need to send public food and silver to go out to investigate and ride, and there is no money in the ministerial department." Zhang Jinyan said.

Chongzhen only felt dark shadows looming in front of him, almost fainting.The majestic military department doesn't even have the money to send scouts.

Seeing that Chongzhen was on the verge of collapse, Wang Zhixin winked at Zhang Jinyan.Zhang Jinyan looked innocent, and simply lowered his head, not looking at the two above.

Chongzhen was silent for a long time, and finally got up and left with a long sigh.Zhang Jinyan had nothing to say, and went out of the palace to leave.As soon as he went out, Wang Zhixin followed him, called Zhang Jinyan, and complained: "Why do I do this? Sending a few scouts to go for a trip costs only a few dozen taels of silver, so what if I paid for it myself?"

Zhang Jinyan glanced at Wang Zhixin, and said coldly: "I don't want to be this soldier for a long time!" After saying that, he shook his sleeves and left.

Wang Zhixin originally wanted to persuade Zhang Jinyan to inquire about the crown prince's news, but being robbed like this made him feel depressed.He stomped his feet heavily, but saw a little fireman poking his head behind him, cursing angrily: "What kind of monkey dares to come and spy on our house!"

The little fireman hurried forward and said in a low voice: "Don't be angry, father-in-law, the younger one is under the name of Mrs. Liu, and I was ordered by Mrs. Liu to invite my father-in-law to the banquet."

When Wang Zhixin heard that it was Liu Ruoyu, his anger was half gone.This Liu Ruoyu is very experienced and sensible, he has been staying in the outer mansion of the East Palace and will not enter the palace, it seems that he has made up his mind to burn the cold stove.He took a breath and asked, "When? Where?"

"Today's dinner will be at the outer mansion of the East Palace." Xiaohuo immediately added: "The factory officials are going too."

Wang Zhixin was puzzled: Liu Ruoyu suddenly entertained himself and Wang Chengen, what does this mean?Did he fall in love with some treasure in the palace?Although there are often people who steal the treasures in the treasury and go out, he is not so short-sighted.

"Okay, our family knows." Wang Zhixin said: "Go back and tell Mr. Liu that our family will definitely attend the banquet."

The little fireman bowed and retreated.

Wang Zhixin was thinking again, and hurried back to Chongzhen.

……

After Taiyuan broke the city, Li Zicheng moved to Taiyuan and lived in Jinwangfu.It's just that this time he learned his lesson, first ordered someone to dig three feet to "clean" the palace, not to mention the gunpowder, even the dust could not be seen, so he dared to live in it.The accompanying Dashun civil and military officials found a place to live one after another, and began to look forward to a better life in the future.

After passing through Taiyuan, Yanjing was like a little girl without clothes, lying shyly on the bed and letting others do anything.

Li Zicheng, who regained his self-confidence again, became a hero in Taiyuan.General Quan and General Zhi are named Marquis; General Guoyi and General Mighty are named uncle, son, and male.Although Liu Zongmin suffered from being captured, his past achievements were too high, so he was still granted the title of Marquis Ru and ordered to return to Xi'an.Tian Jianxiu sealed Zehou, but still went north with Li Zicheng.It is a position adjusted in the original historical script.

Among all the list of uncles, there are a few people who are particularly conspicuous.One was Taoyuan Bo Bai Guangen, who failed to escape to the end and surrendered to Li Zicheng.In order to win people's hearts, Li Zicheng recruited the general soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, bestowed a Taoyuan Bo, and hosted a banquet in person, which is very meaningful.

Another earl is Chen Yongfu.

Chen Yongfu, the former general of Henan Province.

Li Zicheng sent him a broken arrow, expressing his disregard for past suspicions.

Chen Yongfu couldn't resist Liu Fangliang's army, so he had to surrender and was named Wenshuibo.

Wang Genzi from Xiancheng in Xi'an has been renamed Wang Liangzhi and named Que Shanbo.

These three people were all at the level of the commander-in-chief of a province in the Ming Dynasty, and each of them was appointed uncle, which can be regarded as setting a benchmark.

Dashun's call to action spread out from Taiyuan, and wherever they went to counties and counties, they resisted the officers and soldiers and wanted to vote for Dashun.

The people's hearts are like this, but there are also many victims who died out of righteousness.

Fang Zhiping, the county magistrate of Anyi, went north to worship the emperor and his mother after the city fell. He ordered all his wives to commit suicide and threw himself into a well.

Yang Jialong, the magistrate of Xinzhou, said to his left and right: "This city will not be defended. If I go out, the people will be safe."He was quite an official in office, and he was also worshiped by the state people after his death.

Yan Mengkui, the general of Daizhou, and Hou Junzhao, the magistrate of Fenzhou, were all dead and dead.

Liu Bida, the magistrate of Fenyang County, wrote "Curging Thieves" and was killed by the Chuangjun.His heroic hero, Fan Qifang, killed himself after assassinating a captain who broke into the camp.

Wang Yunmao, deputy envoy of Ningwu Bingbei, was originally the prefect of Taiyuan.After Zhou Yuji left, he led five hundred soldiers to guard Ningwu Pass alone, beheaded Li Zicheng's envoy to persuade him to surrender, committed suicide after the pass was broken, and his wife Yang also threw himself into a well to die.

……

On February 17, the 21th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng passed Ningwu Pass, and led an army of 7 troops with Tian Jianxiu to attack Xuanfu and Datong.The reason why there are only 3 horses is that he really allocated [-] people in Taiyuan, with Ren Jirong, the handsome former Guoyi general, as the general, and Li You, the mighty general of the right, as the deputy, and left Guguan in the east and entered Hebei.

On February 28, Li Zicheng's army arrived in Datong.

Jiang Guan, the commander-in-chief of Datong, opened the door and surrendered.

The governor of Datong, Wei Jingyuan, is fair and honest, and enforces the law well, which is quite famous.Because he is from Shaanxi, Li Zicheng also wanted to take him under his command. He persuaded him, "I am just a small man in Mizhi, and I can be the emperor today. You know it is destiny! You are a good official. If you are willing to surrender, I will still let you Governor of Datong."

Wei Jingyuan slammed his head against the stone steps, bleeding profusely, and passed out.

Seeing this, Li Zicheng was helpless, and when Wei Jingyuan woke up, he sighed: "You are such a loyal minister, I will send you home."

Wei Jingyuan said sadly: "The country is broken, where is there a home to return to! Kill me quickly!"

Li Zicheng was startled, shook his head and said, "You are a loyal minister, I will not kill you!" Then he ordered Wei Jingyuan to be released.

After all, Wei Jingyuan couldn't pass the test in his heart, and died in Haihui Temple.

After Li Zicheng heard about it, he set aside 50 taels of silver and ordered someone to escort Wei Jingyuan's coffin back to his hometown in Hancheng.

At the same time, the generation of kings who were sealed in Datong, from the generation king Zhu Chuanqi (next to the fire word) to the county kings and generals below, were slaughtered by the whole family, leaving no one behind.The Qin king Zhu Cunji who accompanied him was terrified, and he was glad that he surrendered readily, and did not intend to resist the army like Dai Wang. (To be continued.)