Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

The Red Banquet Building in the capital is still full of guests as usual.But shopkeeper Zhang still left the building after the luncheon, and this afternoon he will be in his shop to receive two businessmen from other provinces.

Shopkeeper Zhang's business is timber, and the Red Banquet Building is a place where several major guilds in the capital exchange news.Every morning, a group of businessmen would drink morning tea in the Red Banquet Building, chatting about news from all over the world, seeking business opportunities by the way, and even reaching several large deals.So sitting in the Red Banquet Building until lunch is used up every day is also one of the compulsory homework for shopkeeper Zhang.

And shopkeeper Zhang came out today with shopkeeper Song who is a tea merchant. The two of them were not close friends, but they had a good relationship, so after they left the building, they chatted together.

"Brother Zhang, today my little brother saw that shopkeeper Jin, who is a mule, looked uncomfortable. Could it be that he is ill?" Shopkeeper Song asked.

"Perhaps! Shopkeeper Jin has been working tirelessly, and he has always refused to rest for a few days. When he was young, he was in good health and could endure it, but now that he is old, he should also pay attention to maintenance. Brother Wei also persuaded him several times, but he always I don’t want to listen. Hey——! You’ve worked so hard!” Shopkeeper Zhang sighed.

"It's also helpless! I heard that the Imperial Forest Army of the Beijing camp was dispatched this time. The militiamen have been cornered by the Henan army. They have internal conflicts. When the Wang Shi arrives, the militias will disappear! And the army is dispatched. The purchase of folk mules and horses has caused the price of mules and horses in the capital to rise sharply, so why is the gold shopkeeper not desperate?" Song shopkeeper said.

"It's really a matter of money and life!" Shopkeeper Zhang couldn't help but shook his head and sighed.

At this moment, the shopkeepers Zhang and Song suddenly saw a group of people running towards them, and the leader of them both knew each other and was the steward of an earl's mansion in the capital.Both Zhang and Song had done business with this earl's mansion, and the steward had also received a lot of benefits from the two of them.

So Zhang and Song immediately stopped and bowed their hands to salute.The steward also hastily returned the gift.Then the steward stopped, hesitated for a moment, then ran up to the two, leaned over and said in a low voice, "Tell you, the Tartars have entered the customs again. Wan Dajun was also wiped out. The news has just reached the Ministry of War and has not yet spread in the capital. If the two of you have business outside the city, you must make early preparations. I must go out of the city to clean up the property in the mansion. Neglect! Neglect !See you!"

After finishing speaking, the manager didn't care about the two shopkeepers who were still in a state of sluggishness at all, and immediately ran towards the gate of the city with the people from the Earl's Mansion.

"This—!" Shopkeeper Zhang and Shopkeeper Song have not yet recovered from the shocking news.They are still looking at each other.

Suddenly, another person galloped in the direction of the two of them.Shopkeeper Zhang saw that this person was a clerk in his shop.

As soon as the shopkeeper saw shopkeeper Zhang, the guy immediately said to shopkeeper Zhang with a crying voice: "Shopkeeper! The third lady and the sixth son felt unwell before noon, and the third shopkeeper immediately invited the doctor. But when the doctor came, he said that the third lady and the sixth son were about to die." No more. The third shopkeeper, please go home quickly!"

"Ah!" Shopkeeper Zhang immediately turned pale with shock. "Isn't it still good in the morning?"

"The doctor said: The number of patients in the capital has increased these days. It seems that the plague has been infected. Most of the sick people can't survive for half a day."

……

When the Qing army broke through the Great Wall again and threatened the city of Beijing, the 150 troops in the Beijing camp walked for four or five days and came to a place about [-] miles away from the city of Beijing.

But after learning that the Qing army entered the customs, the civil and military leaders immediately had differences.Someone wants to return to Beijing immediately to protect the capital.Some people were afraid that the Qing army's magical soldiers would fall from the sky, and they wanted to flee to the nearest city and take the city to protect themselves.Only a very small number of people proposed to fight the Qing army.However, it was proposed to maintain the original plan, and there was no one who went to Shanxi to encircle and suppress the camp.However, the civilian commander in chief was hesitant and did not dare to make any decisions independently.

But those civil and military people have time to argue.The soldiers in the Beijing camp couldn't wait any longer.When the news of the Qing army's entry spread in the barracks, the [-] troops dispersed with a bang, and every soldier fled for his life.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp are all natives, and they are familiar with the escape route.In addition, these people all grew up at the foot of the imperial city, and they have high horizons, and their social relations are also related to the officials, nobles, and eunuchs in the capital, so they are not very afraid of the court coming to settle accounts after autumn.Especially now that the law does not blame the public, if you don't hurry up and escape, aren't you still a man in the capital with a bright heart?

But the house leak happened to rain all night.

Since the winter of the 15th year of Chongzhen, acute infectious diseases have appeared one after another in Beijing.At that time, it was called "pimple jaundice disease". The symptoms were headache and body pain, aversion to cold and strong heat, redness and swelling of the head, face and neck, sore throat, and fainting.The patient often develops nuclei first in the armpit and between the thighs, or dies immediately after vomiting light blood, without receiving the bait.The incubation period of this acute infectious disease is quite short, only 1-3 days, or even only a few hours.According to the analysis of symptoms, it should be pneumonic plague.

What's even more unfortunate is that if it was normal, the plague would be difficult to spread in the cold winter season. In addition, the Ming Dynasty also had some measures to prevent the plague from spreading, and the piecemeal plague in the capital could still be controlled.

However, just as the Qing army entered the pass, all the people around the capital took refuge in the capital, and the sick and dead in the city could not be sent out at all.This disease was fermented in the capital city, and after the beginning of spring, the weather became warmer, and the great plague suddenly became uncontrollable, causing the plague to spread wantonly in the capital city.The details of this will also be discussed later.

On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month in the 15th year of Chongzhen, Tianjin Acropolis.

"Brothers! How does my veteran treat you? Brothers, pat your chests and think about it. We have to raise soldiers for thousands of days, and we have to work hard. There is nothing to say. My veteran will just say: If there are brothers who want to leave, hurry up." I will not stop the veteran, but the rest of the brothers will follow me to kill the Tartars!"

Facing the tens of thousands of Qing troops outside the city, Jiang Shen, who was in charge of guarding Tianjin, led hundreds of his own soldiers out of the city to fight.Although there are soldiers and guards in Tianjin, there are less than 4000 soldiers that can be assembled after eating the empty pay.

Originally relying on these [-] soldiers, plus the requisitioned civilians in the city, they could barely resist the siege of the Qing army, but when they saw that the Qing army had put out sixteen general cannons and general cannons, the officials in the city I knew that the city of Tianjin would definitely not survive.

The city walls of Tianjin City have been in disrepair for years, and there are not many cannons on the top of the city. As long as the Qing army fires one or two salvos, they can break through Tianjin City.

It's ridiculous that Tianjin Wei was originally the gateway to Beijing, and its strategic position is very important. The imperial court also allocated several military expenses for building the city wall and purchasing artillery.But these fees disappeared inexplicably, and some of them didn't even come to Tianjin City.

What's even more ridiculous is that there were five major firearms manufacturing bases in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the southern Beijing city, there were three other places: Tianjin, Datong and Guangzhou.Of course, Macau also has a manufacturing base, but the artillery and firearms manufacturing workshops there are controlled by the Portuguese.In addition, each border town, especially Jiubian, has its own small workshop.And this does not include the Runing Army's firearms workshop.

However, when the Wang Gong factory in Beijing had a big explosion, most of the firearms workshops in Beijing were moved to Tianjin, making the firearms workshop in Tianjin even bigger.But with such a firearms manufacturing base, how many cannons can't be produced in the city?This shows how greedy and dereliction of duty the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty and the eunuchs in charge of firearms manufacturing were.

But the Ming Dynasty didn't pay much attention to it, and the Manchu Qing could salivate.After entering the customs, apart from attacking the necessary cities along the way, the Qing army usually walked around the city, not wasting time in the battle.They have to march all the way to Shandong, and then loot all the way there.Afterwards, a small number of troops will be left to guard the captured property and population, concentrate their main force, cross the canal, enter Guide and Runing, and eliminate the last threatening army of the Ming Dynasty.

When this main strategic goal was accomplished, the Qing army would return all the way north, plundering city by city with peace of mind.

But Tianjin City is different.There are a large number of craftsmen and apprentices who make firearms, which is a great wealth for Manchu.Because he was afraid that after the Qing army passed by, the craftsmen in Tianjin would abandon the city and flee, so Huang Taiji first concentrated his main force to attack Tianjin.

Jiang Shen, who was guarding Tianjin, saw that he was unable to defend the city. In desperation, he simply took his servants and personal soldiers out of the city to fight, and had a suicidal battle.

So after a shout, General Jiang Shen took the lead in riding towards the Qing army's camp.But in front of the huge Qing army, only a few small waves were stirred up, and then disappeared.

"Your Majesty! Such a bright dog is rare!" Aobai smiled at Huang Taiji.

"There are always some brave people. But these people are too few among the Han people, and the others are just pigs and sheep." Huang Taiji was also in a very happy mood, "Siege the city with artillery! Be careful: the craftsmen and their families in the city must not Harassment, be kind! Offenders will be punished by military law! Others, let the athletes be happy for three days!"

With the deafening shelling, several sections of the city walls of Tianjin City collapsed, and thousands of Qing troops took the lead in charging towards the gap.After a while, there were screams and screams of women in the city.

Huang Taiji and the others shook their heads, this battle was fought too easily!

On the ninth day of the lunar new year, the Qing army captured the city of Tianjin without any effort, especially without encountering any resistance in the city.In Tianjin, except for the craftsman's family and a small number of young women, all were massacred by the Qing army.In order not to affect the speed of marching southward, the Qing army created a massacre in Tianjin. (To be continued..)