Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

But after hearing that the Shun Army promulgated the "Yongchang First Year Edict", Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming court needed to do something.

However, the southward relocation is not possible, and the Guanning iron cavalry who transferred Wu Sangui cannot be settled, so the only way left is to send ministers to meet the enemy.At this time, Li Jiantai, a cabinet scholar, recommended himself.He said that he would use his family's property to recruit troops to resist Li Zicheng's Dashun army.When Emperor Chongzhen heard that Li Jiantai didn't need the court to allocate military pay, he was overjoyed immediately, and immediately appointed him as the old supervisor of the cabinet and allowed him to go out.

In fact, Li Jiantai's hometown is in Quwo County, Shanxi Province. Since the Dashun Army had conquered several provinces in the northwest, the information there had been completely blocked, and the imperial court had no idea of ​​the situation in Li Jiantai's hometown.Not to mention that Li Jiantai's private wealth has long been wiped out.The reason why I still believe Li Jiantai's statement may be that Emperor Chongzhen still has a fluke mentality!

As for Li Jiantai himself, he never thought of fighting the Dashun Army.The reason why he volunteered was because he wanted to leave the dead land of the capital earlier, and he was unwilling to be buried with Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming Dynasty.

But no matter what, some superficial work still needs to be done.After a few days of planning, Li Jiantai managed to cobble together an army of 500 people. Because it was agreed in advance that he would not need food and salary from the household department, he did not bring military food and luggage, and was ready to go.

Then, Emperor Chongzhen formally appointed Li Jiantai as an assistant minister and supervisor, added the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, and "conquered on behalf of me", and appointed Wei Zhengu, the former imperial censor recommended by Li Jiantai, as the army supervisor and deputy general of the Chinese army.But for how this jokey army behaves, how to meet the enemy, and how to dispatch other armies where to organize battles and so on.The imperial court was at a loss, but it was roughly confirmed that Li Jiantai's department moved south after leaving Beijing.Because at that time it was estimated that the main force of Li Zicheng's Dashun Army might be attacking northward from Zhending and Baoding in the south of Jingnan.

For this joking army, Emperor Chongzhen had high hopes as if he had grasped a life-saving straw.He held the most solemn "dispatch ceremony" for Li Jiantai's expedition.In the early morning of this day, he first sent his son-in-law Wan Wei to the Taimiao to worship his ancestors, and then he personally saluted at Zhengyangmen (commonly known as Qianmen).From the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City to the east and west sides of the Zhengyang Gate, there are guards and guards of honor, and the scene is magnificent and solemn.

Civil and military ministers from the cabinet, six ministries, five governments, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate stood on both sides.Emperor Chongzhen sat in the center and said many condolences and awards to Li Jiantai.Afterwards, a banquet was held, and Emperor Chongzhen personally drank three glasses of wine for Li Jiantai and gave him the gold cup containing the wine.After drinking, Emperor Chongzhen personally wrote the "Edict Bestowed by the Governor and Assistant" at the banquet, and solemnly handed it to Li Jiantai after printing.

In the imperial edict, Li Jiantai was granted great power to punish, reward and punish civil and military officials at all levels and arrange all opportunities at his own discretion, and said: "I hope you will be in a demon atmosphere early, and the master will play triumphantly. You will enter the rank of the Dingyi Minggong. I will still welcome you personally. Feast and share peace."

After the banquet, the internal officials covered Li Jiantai with red hairpins to the sound of drum music, and greeted him with Shangfang's sword.Li Jiantai kowtowed and bowed again, went down the tower and took a group of men and horses to set off.Emperor Chongzhen watched Li Jiantai's team go away from the top of the city tower before driving back to the palace.

The grand ceremony of Li Jiantai's expedition this time was unprecedented in the Chongzhen Dynasty.But with Li Jiantai's mediocrity, he led five hundred scattered troops.Wanting to turn the tide is nothing more than a dream.A show of grandeur is nothing more than self-deception and courage.

The group of remnants led by Li Jiantai did nothing.As soon as he left the city, he was threatened by lack of food, and later had to "raise food on the spot" everywhere.

Until the end, it was heard that Liu Fangliang's Ministry had occupied Quang Binh.Only a stone's throw away from him, Li Jiantai hurriedly led his troops to flee northward, holding back and not daring to stand out, and finally surrendered to the Dashun Army.But these are all things for later.

Today, the news that the Dashun Army has successively marched to Pingyang and Taiyuan spread to the capital.Emperor Chongzhen suddenly became a little restless, as if the sky was about to fall, and he was even more anxious all day long.So he specially summoned Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, and the officials of the household department and the military department to discuss again the issue of abandoning Ningyuan and transferring troops to the guard.

While the dignitaries and ministers were waiting outside the Forbidden City, Emperor Chongzhen, who was sitting on the dragon chair, felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, but he still had to endure Wu Xiang's spittle.And Wu Xiang was talking nonsense in a nonsense manner, and the central meaning surrounding it was nothing more than "the size of the ancestral land cannot be discarded."

Wu Xiang is a veteran who has commanded troops outside the pass for many years, and his family assets and properties are all outside the pass, so of course he is unwilling to give up Liaodong, and he is also unwilling to transfer Guanning cavalry to the pass.In addition, Wu Sangui's Guanning iron cavalry is now a rare commodity, and it is the only official army that can be transferred to the capital very quickly.Therefore, the treacherous and cunning Wu Xiang definitely wanted to get more benefits from Emperor Chongzhen.

Finally, Emperor Chongzhen became impatient.He interrupted Wu Xiang with a wave of his hand, and asked, "The bandits are very urgent. Is your son's strategy enough to suppress it?" The current Emperor Chongzhen is only concerned about whether Wu Sangui's Guanning cavalry will work or not. .

Hearing Emperor Chongzhen's question, Wu Xiang opened his mouth wide and came out of nowhere: "I speculate that the thieves occupy Shaanxi and Shanxi, so they may not come to attack the capital. Even if they come, we must send one to try. If you come to die, you will be able to capture him alive and present him to His Majesty."

Who said that only civil servants can talk nonsense?A military officer like Wu Xiang who has been in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty for a long time can still be coquettish.They are all skilled workers for this set. First, they use big words to deceive Emperor Chongzhen and the court. After defrauding the court of food and benefits, will they be successful?I'll talk about that later.Anyway, with soldiers in hand, don't panic.The imperial court couldn't help them either.

But the current Emperor Chongzhen is not stupid or naive anymore.Anyone with a normal IQ will understand: Li Zicheng has millions of people, and how many provinces in the Northwest have been swept away?Being able to stop the Dashun army from attacking the capital is already very good, but where is the possibility of capturing Li Zicheng alive?Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen automatically ignored Wu Xiang's cowhide, and only asked: "How many soldiers does Wu Changbo have?"

In this regard, Wu Xiang did not deceive Emperor Chongzhen, he replied honestly: "There should be [-] soldiers in the military register, but in fact there are only more than [-]."

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen felt a little strange.Is the Guan Ning iron cavalry so powerful?Thirty thousand can resist 100 million.So he went on to ask: "Are these 3 people fighting bravely?"

Unexpectedly, Wu Xiang's answer made Emperor Chongzhen want to vomit blood.He replied: "If the 3 people were all fighters, the suppression of the bandits would have been accomplished long ago, and only 3000 people can really fight."

So Emperor Chongzhen said in great disappointment: "How can 3000 people become thieves and millions of people."

And Wu Xiang immediately explained: "These 3000 soldiers are not ordinary soldiers, but the sons of Chen Xiang, the brothers of the ministers. Since the minister received the state's favor, he has eaten coarse grains, while the three thousand soldiers have eaten fine wine and fat sheep; cloth, and the three thousand warriors all wear silk and satin, so they can serve their ministers to death."

In fact, what Wu Xiang was talking about was the unique family system of the Ming Dynasty.Of course, the [-] family members he mentioned is a bit exaggerated. During the most prosperous period of Liaodong cavalry, Li Chengliang only had [-] family members.But now, with the successive defeats of the Liaodong Ming army, and the fact that most of the land outside the pass fell into the hands of the Manchus, Wu Sangui would never be able to afford so much food and pay to support his servants as his own private soldiers.

But Wu Xiang didn't lie, the fighting strength of the servants at that time was simply worlds apart from that of the general Ming army.For example: Li Zicheng's Dashun army has millions of people, of which only his old eighth team can be used as the core, that is, the 5 to [-] troops of the old battalion.

Relatively speaking, there is very little difference in the strength of the troops of the Qing army and the Runing army.Like the Qing army, its core is white armored soldiers and red armored soldiers, with a total strength of more than 3000 troops.However, the strength of more than 6 horses in the Eight Banners of the Qing Army is not bad, and the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Han Army is not satisfactory, and they are also strong compared with the Ming Army.

As for the Runing Army, of course his core is to teach the nearly ten thousand Xiehe soldiers.However, the strength of the six major towns and the Marine Corps, which are the main force of the Runing Army, is not bad.The rest of the three towns, the three independent Concorde business guards and other troops are the second-line troops, but they are also much stronger than the general Ming army.

However, when Wu Xiang said this mixed truth and falsehood, Emperor Chongzhen was very tempted.He really hoped that Wu Sangui was a living god who could bring the Ming Dynasty back to life.

So Emperor Chongzhen then asked: "How much food and salary does Wu Changbo need to enter the customs?"

Unexpectedly, Wu Xiang replied: "The army's Zhuangtian outside the customs has to be compensated, the arrears of more than ten months have to be made up, and the 600 million people outside the customs (actually only about a hundred thousand people) have to be relocated. It takes at least 100 million taels. silver."

Wu Xiang's vision was quite vicious, he had already seen that Emperor Chongzhen was in a hurry to go to the doctor, so he took the opportunity to start a big blackmail.

But this answer surprised Emperor Chongzhen.Then he slumped on the dragon chair as if his spine had been pulled out.Now there is less than 40 taels of silver in the treasury of the household department, and the same is true in the internal treasury of Emperor Chongzhen (the emperor’s private money, of course, there are a lot of private money in the palace for concubines and eunuchs, but it is impossible for Emperor Chongzhen to ask for it). It's empty, where did Emperor Chongzhen come from to collect this money?

After being paralyzed for a while, Emperor Chongzhen finally recovered a bit.He waved his hand feebly, making Wu Xiang retreat first.The long conversation made Emperor Chongzhen physically and mentally exhausted.He was not in the mood to summon the nobles and ministers who had just been summoned.So he simply issued an imperial decree, asking the dignitaries and ministers waiting outside the Forbidden City to donate money and pay, and forcibly stipulated the amount of donations from each family, and then sent them home.