Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

However, most of the properties in Luoyang City are under the name of King Fu, and they cannot be moved, nor can they be taxed. Almost all the properties outside the city are Wang Zhuang properties of King Fu, and there is no money to collect them.This situation is even worse than in Sichuan. Even if they want to collect taxes, they have no place to talk.

There is no other way but to invite Fu Wang, who is the richest man in the world, his old man leaked his fingers. No matter how stingy he is, he has to spend money to keep his palace safe!So the officials in the city came to Fu Wang's mansion.

King Fu just didn't want to spend a penny to pay the soldiers guarding the city.Fu Wang's reasons are also very good: it is the court's business, not the Gu family's business, so why use Gu's money to support the court's army?

This reason is indeed very sufficient, Fu Wang is really a model of "clearing public and private"!

It wasn't until Li Zicheng's army besieged the city and there were several dangerous situations that Fu Wang Zhu Changxun reluctantly took out tens of thousands of taels of silver to pay.But the funny thing is still behind, when the silver was taken out, the eunuch in charge of the palace withheld one piece according to the usual practice, the prefect of Luoyang and others deducted one piece according to the usual practice, and the commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu deducted another piece according to the usual practice. There are not many left.It's really self-defeating!

If you don't treat the soldiers as human beings, will the soldiers guarding Luoyang City let King Fu and the officials in the city be human again?

On the evening of the [-]th, the peasant army besieging the city made loud noises in the northwest corner of Luoyang City. The officers and soldiers guarding the city wall, under the noise of the peasant army below, killed the officers and civilians who were supervising the battle on the top of the city.

The commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu was very clever, and the small universe broke out and realized the lightness kungfu to escape from the city wall, while the officers and soldiers opened the west gate of Luoyang City, and the peasant army swarmed in. After hearing that the city was broken, King Fu and his son Zhu Yousong were devastated.There was nowhere to go, and in the end, he could only go to the Ying'en Temple adjacent to Fu Wang's Mansion to hide. That day, Fu Wang Zhu Changxun was searched out by the intruders.The eldest son Zhu Yousong found an opportunity to escape.

The scene that followed was familiar.Although King Fu repeatedly kowtowed and begged for mercy, how could Li Zicheng let him go?Li Zicheng said to King Fu, "As a prince, you are the richest man in the world. When there is such a famine, you refuse to distribute a single cent of your property to help the people. You are a slave."

Then Li Zicheng ordered to hit Fuwang forty big boards first, and then show his head to the public.He also cut off the fat from the obese King Fu and cooked it with venison in a large pot, and served it with wine.Known as "Fulu Wine", they carried out massacres.Lu Weiqi, the former minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, was also killed after the fall of the city.

After Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang and occupied Prince Fu's Mansion, he distributed a large amount of food, materials and money in the mansion to the nearby hungry people for disaster relief.People from all over the world rushed to Luoyang after hearing the news.The official road is like flowing water, day and night.And after ten days.Li Zicheng's peasant army also suddenly expanded to seven 10,000+.

Yes.That's right!From December of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng had more than a thousand troops when he entered Henan, and in just two months, it expanded to seven 10,000+.

On the second day of February, Li Zicheng decided to take advantage of the time when the governor Li Xianfeng and the general Chen Yongfu led the army to rescue Luoyang City, and Kaifeng City was empty.Leading troops rushed forward, ready to take this opportunity to take Kaifeng City.

On the sixth day of February, [-] cavalry and [-] soldiers from Chuangjun arrived at the city of Kaifeng and began to besiege.Compared with the corruption of Luoyang's city defense, Kaifeng City is the capital of a province after all, and Kaifeng City is one of the largest cities in the world, so it is quite effective in defense.In addition, the king of Zhou in the city rewarded him generously, so under the leadership of the inspectors and the magistrate, the strong men of the whole city mobilized and stood on the city wall until the ninth day of February, and the city of Kaifeng was not captured. .

By this time, Governor Li Xianfeng and Henan General Soldier Chen Yongfu had led their troops back. Although this Ming army was only in the early [-]s, Chen Yongfu fought against the peasant army all year round, and the army's food supply was guaranteed, so this army can be said to be The strongest official army in Henan (not to mention Wu Shigong's Runing Army).Therefore, they were not at all afraid of the elite troops brought by Li Zicheng.

Although the commander-in-chief Chen Yongfu would never dare to lead an army to fight in the camp, but they entered the city at the west gate of Kaifeng City, and after re-arming, they have completely stabilized the defense of Kaifeng City.And Chuangying dug trenches outside Kaifeng City, built fortifications, and prepared to besiege Kaifeng City for a long time.

At this time, the king of Zhou and the officials in Kaifeng could no longer ignore the Runing Army.They sent three batches of messengers in succession, crying to the Runing Army for help.In the end, he promised that as long as the Runing Army sent troops, he would first give 10 taels of starting fee, and if the siege of Kaifeng City was solved, he would give another [-] taels.And these silvers were basically provided by Zhou Wangfu.The murder of King Fu really frightened King Zhou.

Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli, who stayed behind in Runing, also felt that Li Zicheng's threat should be eliminated after discussion.After all, Li Zicheng's camp was too close to Runing and Guide, so to keep Kaifeng City, Li Zicheng's camp must not be allowed to further expand.

So Xue Yongli gradually concentrated the main force of the Runing Army with 4000 people and mobilized them to the north of Runing.But before the troops were dispatched, another news that shocked the world came again.

After Zhang Xianzhong led his troops into Huguang, he first captured Xingshan County in the first month. When he heard that Xiangyang City was empty of defense, he led Qingqi and galloped [-] li to the vicinity of Xiangyang.Afterwards, Zhang Xianzhong first sent people to pretend to be officers and soldiers to sneak into the city. On the night of the fourth day of February, they raised fire as a sign, and cooperated with the inside and the outside.

And in the city of Xiangyang, there also lived a clan prince—Xiang Wang Zhu Yiming, who was the ancestor of Emperor Chongzhen according to his seniority, and was also captured alive by the peasant army.

Zhang Xianzhong's treatment of the prince was slightly different from that of Li Zicheng's treatment of King Fu.He took King Xiang to the palace of King Xiang, poured him a glass of wine, and said to him, "I want to behead Yang Sichang, but Yang Sichang is far away in Sichuan, so today I have to borrow the prince's head to make Yang Sichang fall into the feudal vassal. Fufa. The prince still tried his best to drink this glass of wine." Of course, King Xiang was beheaded, and Zhu Changfa, king of Guiyang in the clan of Xiangfan, was also killed.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong also opened a warehouse in Xiangyang to release grain to the hungry people. The amount of relief silver distributed reached 50 taels, which far exceeded any large-scale disaster relief activities in the Chongzhen Dynasty.And Zhang Xianzhong's move also won the sincere support of the people in Huguang, and his troops suddenly swelled to more than 50.

Because the main force of the Ming army in Huguang either followed Yang Sichang into Sichuan to suppress bandits, or followed Zuo Liangyu to hide and seek in Shaanxi to avoid Yang Sichang's command, Huguang's defense was empty.

Therefore, the officials in Wuchang and its surrounding areas were greatly shocked.They came to Ru Ning non-stop, weeping blood and begging, just to ask the Runing army to send troops to solve their crisis.To this end, officials and gentry in Wuchang and other places promised to contribute 8 taels.

The emergence of the two major peasant army groups in the south and the north made the Runing army a little at a loss. They had to weigh up which direction the peasant army should deal with first.

But at this moment, encouraged by the brilliant achievements of the two peasant armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the Fifth Gezuo Battalion hiding in the Dabie Mountains immediately made great fanfare.They began to move to the east, and refugees affected by the severe drought in Nanzhili and other places also came to vote, and the number quickly expanded to 10,000+.

Although this peasant army was the smallest in number, it could threaten Fengyang and Nanjing. In addition, Zhang Xianzhong followed and supported them, which immediately caused panic in Nanjing.

So Lu Jiude, the eunuch guarding Nanjing, led the army again, leading two official troops of Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo with a total of more than 4 people, to stop the East Criminals of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo.But he was deeply afraid that there would be insufficient troops and that it would be impossible to mobilize the heavy troops stationed in Fengyang, so he also set his sights on the Runing Army.

However, Nanjing City and Yangzhou City are indeed rich. In order to persuade the Runing Army to encircle the Fifth Gezuo Battalion and cut off the connection between the Fifth Gezuo Battalion and Zhang Xianzhong's troops, they also sent messengers to Runing, promising that as long as the Runing Army sent troops, they would pay Give a reward of 15 taels.

In a short period of time, the Runing Army suddenly became the fragrant steamed buns in the surrounding areas, and the governments all over the country rushed to ask the Runing Army to be the savior of the world.

But Deng Qifan, Xue Yongli and the others were also confused by the sudden situation.Just half a year ago, the well-known Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai in the peasant army were still in Sichuan. At that time, Zhang Xianzhong had only a few thousand troops, and Luo Rucai had more than [-]; I even thought he hung up.

But in a blink of an eye, Li Zicheng had more than 70, and it was in Kaifeng City north of Runing; Zhang Xianzhong had 10,000+, and it was in Xiangyang City in the southwest of Runing; In the southeast of Runing, plus Luo Rucai, his army strength has also expanded to more than 10,000.Luo Rucai had a quarrel with Zhang Xianzhong again this time, he broke up with Zhang Xianzhong again, and was on his way to join Li Zicheng.

You must know that Luo Rucai's military strength has been maintained between [-] and [-] to [-]. He has always won by quality, so his real strength is not inferior to other three-way peasant armies.

How did that happen?Although the Runing Army formulated a policy of raising bandits to be self-respecting, they didn't want to turn this bandit into a giant bandit at all?And now these giant bandits are all around Runing and Guide, posing a huge threat to the Runing army.

At this time, the Runing Army must make a choice.It is impossible for them to divide their troops into three groups and fight on three sides, so they must decide on a target to attack first.

But before Deng Qifan, Xue Yongli, and the others had discussed one or two, another news that shocked the world reached Runing, and this news completely paralyzed the command system of the Ming army that encircled and suppressed the peasant army in five provinces.And that news is—Prime Minister Yang Sichang committed suicide. (to be continued..)