Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

As soon as they heard the donation edict from the palace, everyone present immediately exploded.But it is also impossible to make noise outside the palace all the time and create a "mass incident", so the nobles and officials met with a few good friends one after another to find a place to meet and discuss a strategy.So after a while, the crowd in front of the Jinshui Bridge also dispersed.

Xue Lian still kept a low profile as usual.He declined the invitations of several honorable men, and returned to his mansion alone.But as soon as he entered the door, he asked the leader of the guards to lead people to guard outside the study, and then led a person dressed as a guard into the study.

As soon as Xue Lian was seated, the man dressed as a guard ignored etiquette and shouted anxiously to Xue Lian: "Your Majesty! You have to make a decision early. At worst, you have to let the prince leave Beijing. Tianjin Wei has been captured by the Tatars. The sea route is no longer accessible. Tartars are haunting the canal again, and going south along the Grand Canal is also very dangerous. Now we can only use troops to protect the people living in the mansion and go south. But once the intruders approach the capital, the speed of the fleeing convoy is absolutely unmatched The cavalry who broke into the thief. Therefore, we must take advantage of these few days and leave Beijing as soon as possible, so as to send the whole family of Lord Hou to the adults safely!"

The speaker was Li Zhu, deputy director of the Shanchuan Department.Before the Qing army entered the customs this time, Xue Zhinong sent Li Zhu to the capital, and asked him to integrate the spies of the Runing Army in the capital, and let all the potential forces of the Runing Army take action, in order to deliver Wu Shigong's family. To Runing.

However, Li Zhu originally wanted to adopt the method of dividing the whole into parts.He arranged several ships of the Runing Army in Tianjin Wei, and then sent the Yangwuhou Mansion and Gongshunhou Mansion to Tianjin in batches, and sent Wu Shigong's family members before the court reacted.

Unexpectedly, the situation in the capital will change drastically next.The Tartars entered the customs.The fall of Tianjin City immediately blocked the retreat of the sea route.So Li Zhu immediately changed his plan, just wanting to send Xue Lian's family out of the capital.Because the gates of the capital city are now closed, no one is allowed to leave the capital without the order of the imperial court.It is already impossible to send such a large population out of the capital.

But fortunately, the current commander of the Nancheng soldiers and horses is Zhou Xun's father, Zhou Zhengkun. Among the Ruzhou Army stationed in Fengtai, there are nearly [-] soldiers controlled by Liu Guqian and other Runing Army.Therefore, Li Zhu was still confident in sending Xue Lian, Xue Chenglin and a few others out of the city and protecting them going south.

Unexpectedly, Xue Lian flatly rejected Li Zhu's plan.This is why Xue Lian judged that the situation has not deteriorated.But the main reason is: Xue Lian hoped that Li Zhu would send Wu Weizhong's family and everyone in his mansion out of the capital.

But Xue Lian's stubbornness is also for Wu Shigong's consideration.If Wu Shigong didn't rescue his parents, brothers, etc. and the family guards he had brought with him when he left Beijing, he would escape from the capital.But only Xue Lian's family was rescued, then Wu Shigong will be condemned by public opinion in the future, and it will also chill the hearts of his subordinates.For this reason, Xue Lian even refused to send Xue Chenglin out of the capital alone, just to ask Li Zhu to try his best to tap all his potential and send all these people out of the capital.

However, with the imperial decree of Emperor Chongzhen's donation today, Xue Lian also felt that something was wrong.So he immediately had to discuss with Li Zhu, and immediately launched a self-rescue operation.

"The Marquis will make Fei'er and Lin'er ready, and you will take them out of Beijing first. Afterwards, the Marquis will let Marquis Wu come over. Then you can find a way to send our two families to Runing." Xue Lian said.

"But... But Lord Hou! With so many people, there is no way to keep them secret now. How can they be sent out of Beijing? It is the capital where the little ones sent you out. There are courts chasing you and trespassers chasing after you. The little ones can't do it at all." You guards are considerate!" Li Zhu said anxiously.

"Just do your best! No matter what, this Marquis will go with Marquis Wu." Xue Lian said decisively.

Xue Lian's meaning is actually very clear.As long as you can make rescue actions.It doesn't matter if you succeed or not.If there were indeed casualties during the escape, these people could only lament their bad luck, but they would never blame Wu Shigong.After all, Xue Lian escaped with them.Of course, before that, Xue Lian would let his daughter Xue Yufei and grandson Xue Chenglin escape first.

"Then...!" Li Zhu was immediately stumped by Xue Lian's insistence, "Then Lord Hou will take everyone to Nancheng quietly, let the little ones make arrangements first, and leave immediately when the opportunity is right. Don't wait until the time comes. There was a delay."

"Understood." Xue Lian nodded.

At this moment, a loud announcement came from outside the door: "The British Duke is visiting!" Xue Lian immediately winked at Li Zhu.Let him walk towards the back door, hide first, then Xue Lian stood up, and went out to meet the British Duke Zhang Shize.

The Englishman Zhang Shize did not come to visit alone, he brought several friendly honorable persons.Wait until Xue Lian welcomed them into the study.That Zhang Shize couldn't wait to say: "Uncle! Today my nephew also brought Lan'er, she is visiting my aunt in the back house. My nephew also wants to ask my uncle for some advice."

In the capital, Xue Lian was not the only one who felt that the future of the Ming Dynasty was not good. Many nobles had already started to look for a way out, wanting to leave the dead land of the capital.As soon as Zhang Shize opened his mouth, he carried Xue Chenglin's fiancée out, just to hint to Xue Lian: Our two families are blood-related relatives. If you can do anything, don't forget me!

But Xue Lian didn't answer, he asked: "Everyone came to see me today, why?"

The nobles looked at each other for a while, and one of the marquis spoke first, probing in a roundabout way: "Hou Xue! Look, should we donate the lost money?"

Xue Lian secretly sighed in his heart.It's already this time, so what's the point of trying?Xue Lian was not in the mood to be confused with them, so he asked sharply: "You said that the capital looks like this, even if we donate all the food and wages, is it still useful?"

These nobles were shocked by this question, they never expected Xue Lian to say such frank words.After a moment of silence, Zhang Shize said, "Then what do you mean, Uncle?"

"Let's find a way to go south! Go to Chang Jing's place, no matter what, we can protect us completely."

"But how are we going to get out of town?"

"Clean up the things first, and gather the clansmen! These days they are all gathered in Nancheng. No matter what, if you want to leave the city, you still have to run to Nancheng."

"Uncle! Have you found a way to get out of town?"

"There are a lot of people talking, so I won't go into details here. But let's figure out how to act first..."

……

Ever since Emperor Chongzhen passed down the imperial decree asking princes, nobles and ministers to donate, many strange phenomena immediately appeared in the capital.

Because there is no salary, sticking to the capital is just empty talk.Therefore, as soon as the ministers heard that everyone was required to donate, they immediately launched a counterattack against Emperor Chongzhen.So the eyes of the ministers were fixed on the internal money belonging to the emperor's private property.

But Emperor Chongzhen was also helpless, and his ministers confessed: "The domestic funds have been exhausted."It's not that Emperor Chongzhen was crying for poverty. He even sold all the ginseng tribute from North Korea in the palace, and he managed to scrape together only 7 taels. Emperor Chongzhen himself had no money.

But the ministers didn't believe it at all, they just pleaded repeatedly. Li Banghua, the censor of Zuodu, even pointed out clearly: "The country is in danger, does the emperor still spare those things outside his body? If there is no skin, how will the hair be attached!" But such persecution, but This makes the relationship between internal and external affairs even more tense.

There was no money in external or internal funds, so Emperor Chongzhen had to resort to the old method of forcing relatives, eunuchs, and courtiers to donate money to help pay.But Xungui and the officials at home and abroad thought that the emperor himself didn't want to take out a penny, and naturally he was not motivated to donate money. They pushed each other and resisted stubbornly.

In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen secretly ordered his father-in-law, Jiading Bo Zhou Kui, to donate 10 taels of silver to take the lead among his relatives.But Zhou Kui said: "Where does the veteran have so much money? Gritting his teeth, he can only pledge 1 taels."

But Emperor Chongzhen thought that 5000 was too little, so he raised the amount to 2000.Zhou Kui could no longer bargain, so he sent someone into the palace to ask his daughter for help.So Queen Zhou secretly sent 3000 taels of private house money to her family. Unexpectedly, Zhou Kui deducted [-] taels from it and paid [-] taels for the business, and then dragged on not taking any more money.After Queen Zhou heard the news, she could only hide from Emperor Chongzhen and wept secretly.

In addition, although the great eunuchs in the palace were all wealthy, they also pretended to be poor at this time. Some put up posters saying "this house is urgently sold" outside the courtyard, and some sent treasures and antiques to the market for sale. It's a mess, it's a mess.

Compared with the relatives and eunuchs, the "poor" bureaucrats in Beijing were even more reluctant to give up money, and the donations were only a few dozen taels, or a hundred taels. Hard apportionment, in the end, there is not much income.After some confusion, the donated salary was only more than 20 taels, which was a drop in the bucket, to no avail.

But in the dark, a large number of dignified and wealthy officials began to stalk in secret. They packed up their wealth one after another, and gathered their clansmen in Nancheng.And under the secret arrangements of the British Duke Zhang Shize, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian, Gongshun Hou Wu Weizhong and others, all the families were grouped together.

Even these nobles took out the armor and weapons hidden in the mansion, assembled the servants and slaves in the mansion, and together with the soldiers of the Nancheng Bingma Division, assembled a guard force of nearly 8000 people.And this escort force was led by the "famous general" Li Lu who was unanimously recommended by the nobles, and was prepared to pass through Nancheng and send everyone out of the city if the situation was not good.

And this action also made the escape from the capital from underground to a semi-public state.