Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 14
The early morning of the sixth day of March in the 17th year of Chongzhen.

Cries of killing have already been heard outside Tongzhou City.

The [-] Chuangjun who were ordered by Li Zicheng to take Tongzhou had already launched an offensive.

Fortunately, Tongzhou City has always been an important place in the capital, with high walls and thick walls, it can be said to be as solid as gold.

In addition, the Ming emperor Zhu Youjian is now in Tongzhou, and Zhou Yuji's troops are all brave fighters.

Therefore, the Ming army was desperately defending the city.

Although there are [-] invading troops outside the city, it is difficult to enter the city for a while.

At this time, the governor's office of the storehouse was already full of voices.

Many officials in green robes, blue robes and even red robes crowded outside the governor's office waiting for Zhu Youjian to summon them.

Although Zhu Youjian told them to have a good night's rest, the noise of killing outside the city kept them from sleeping well all night.

Early in the morning, all the officials came to the governor's office in a hurry, discussing how to go next, and what to do in the future.

Zhu Youjian also thought about it last night.

At dawn today, he just lay in Queen Zhou's arms and squinted for a while.

Now, with the noise outside, he suddenly opened his eyes.

"What time is it?" Zhu Youjian asked.

At this time, Concubine Yuan Gui had already brought in the maid who was waiting for Zhu Youjian to wash:
"Back to Your Majesty, it's already the third quarter of the hour."

Zhu Youjian nodded, and hurriedly dressed and washed under the service of Concubine Yuan Gui, and then hurriedly walked to the main hall of the Governor's Office.

As soon as they arrived at the main hall, Fan Jingwen and other officials were as busy as if they had seen the backbone, they immediately calmed down, and shouted in unison: "I have seen Your Majesty!"

"Now is an extraordinary time, and all red tape will be avoided." Zhu Youjian first asked Wu Mengming, the commander of Xiang Jinyiwei: "How is the battle outside the city?"

"Not yet a thief has attacked the city, and the canal pier is still in our hands." After Wu Mengming said, Zhu Youjian hurriedly asked Wang Chengen to unfold a map and paste it on the front of the lobby:
"Now you all know that the whole of Shaanxi and Shanxi have fallen into the hands of bandits, and now Gyeonggi is inevitable, and the Central Plains, the south and the vast majority of land in the west are still under my Ming rule, so even though bandits are about to conquer us The capital of Ming Dynasty, but Ming Dynasty will still have a chance to revive itself!"

When the officials looked at the map, they all understood that Daming's country had not been completely lost, so naturally they were not as discouraged as before.

Chief Assistant Fan Jingwen stood up first:

"Your Majesty, my minister Qi Zou, although I still have vitality in Ming Dynasty, you are still in danger, Your Majesty. Although Tongzhou City is a strong city, it is small in the end and there is no place to defend around it. It is said that the trespasser Liu Fangliang is heading towards Zhending Mansion, and if Li Zicheng's army goes south again, we will be in a situation of two sides! So the current plan is to evacuate Tongzhou City immediately."

"That's right, Mr. Fan Ge is really old-fashioned for seeking the country!"

All the ministers also joined in.

"What Fan Aiqing said is very true. However, when we withdraw to the south, we not only have to face the siege and interception of the army of thieves, but also have to be prepared to face the threats of Liu Zeqing, Xu Dingguo and other people with bad intentions. No one knows whether they will come. Take the emperor to order the princes; but Tongzhou City can't stay for long; however, we can't still evacuate together like yesterday, if something happens, the whole army will be wiped out, and my Ming Dynasty will have no chance to rise again."

Zhu Youjian's meaning is very clear.

Now I and the officials present are not only facing the threat of Li Zicheng's army, but also facing the threat of warlords from Shandong to Jiangbei.

And if I take the prince and the two princes, King Ning of Yue, to the south again.

In the event of an accident, the entire Ming Dynasty would not only lose its own emperor, but would even lose the three princes who were most qualified to inherit the emperor.

In that case, Ming Dynasty would have to fight among itself to establish a new generation of kings, just like Nanming in the original history.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian decided to continue to implement the decision to go south in three routes.

"Except for the fact that I personally led all the officials directly down the canal south, passing through Baoding, Hejian, Linqing, Jinan, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou and other places, and finally arrived in Nanjing;

University scholar Wu Sang and Prince Consort Gong Yonggu accompanied the prince to Tianjinwei, then took the sea route to Dengzhou for supplies, then went south to Ningbo, and finally returned to Nanjing from Hangzhou;

In addition, King Yue and King Ning were accompanied by Fan Jingwen, the chief assistant of the cabinet, and Wu Mengming, the commander of Jin Yiwei, to Daming Mansion, then turned to Kaifeng, then entered Huguang Chengtian Mansion, then arrived in Nanchang, and finally joined Nanjing! "

As soon as Zhu Youjian's decree was delivered, the ministers hurriedly praised His Majesty for his wisdom.

Divide the entire southward withdrawal team into three groups, which will increase the chances of a successful southward withdrawal.

Neither Li Zicheng's Dashun Army nor Liu Zeqing's group could concentrate on stopping their southward retreat.

Even Zhu Youjian ordered that if he was captured by Li Zicheng and other forces or placed under house arrest, whether it was himself or his son, he would commit suicide directly.

There is no need to become a political tool for thieves to take the opportunity to disintegrate Ming Dynasty.

Prince Zhu Cihong and others only need to pay attention to pirates and storms when they travel by sea, basically there is not much threat.

King Yue and King Ning traveled by land, and if they took a detour to Huguang, they had to face threats from the thieves Liu Fangliang and Huguang Zuo Liangyu.

Fortunately, there are few people on this road, and except for King Ning of Yue, they are escorted by capable Jinyiwei, so the southward retreat must be fast and not easy to be discovered.

What's more, Zuo Liangyu is still a minister of Ming Dynasty now, and he dare not do anything excessive to the two princes.

The most difficult thing in the successful southward withdrawal was the emperor Zhu Youjian's team.

Civil and military officials, women in the palace, and most of the money and food had to go south along the canal with Zhu Youjian. These people were no stronger than sergeants, and they were either old or weak, or women, children, women and children, which would naturally affect the speed of the southward retreat.

But Zhu Youjian can't leave them alone. The former is the political basis for him to control the court in the future, and the latter can be regarded as his family members. If they are willing to flee all the way here with him as the emperor, he must be responsible to the end.

Except for a small part of the proceeds from confiscated officials in the capital and the stored grain in Tongzhou, most of them had to go south along the canal with Zhu Youjian, except for a small part of them who followed Prince Zhu Cihong from Tianjinwei.

After all, pirates are rampant these years, and Liaodong is already in the hands of Jiannu. No one can be sure whether Dorgon will take advantage of the fire and rob Prince Zhu Cihong and Qian Liang, so that he will lose the foundation of going south to revive Daming.

For hundreds of years, the Ming Dynasty mainly relied on water transportation for traveling from south to north, and the entire water transportation system has already become very developed after a hundred years of development.

Today, the Daming Water Transport has not been destroyed, so it still has transportation capacity.

"The money and food have all been shipped to Tianjin Wei, and it is estimated that they will all arrive in Tianjin in three days."

At this time, Xue Degang, the governor of the warehouse, stood up and reported the evacuation of money and grain.

Zhu Youjian nodded after hearing this, and continued to order: "Tianjin Guard has no danger to defend, and it is not as strong as Tongzhou City. After turning to Tianjin, the prince and Mr. Fan Ge must board the boat and go by sea immediately. I and the King of Yue King Ning waited until Baoding Mansion and headed south on a branch road;

In addition, Tongzhou City has to hold on for another five days. Uncle Ning Wu and Zhou Yuji will escort the southward retreat. This matter will be handled by Zhang Lun, the soldier. I blame you, but if you defected to the enemy five days ago, I will definitely punish you for a felony in the future, do you understand? "

"I understand, please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely be able to stick to it for five days, unless I die!"

Zhang Lun stood in front of him and said.

Zhu Youjian didn't know whether Zhang Lun was trustworthy or not, but the so-called "employees are not suspicious", and most of the Manchu officials he brought with him were unknown literati. None of them are military commanders.

And Zhang Lun is a magistrate in Tongzhou City anyway, at least he is familiar with Tongzhou City.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian can only choose to believe him.

Of course, if Zhang Lun really defected to the enemy immediately after they left, Zhu Youjian would not face a desperate situation because of this. At most, he could only sacrifice Zhou Yuji's guards in exchange for time to withdraw southward.

　The cold has worsened in the past two days, and I feel very uncomfortable today, so I can barely make another chapter, sorry
　　
　
(End of this chapter)