Chapter 68 2.Xiangjing in the wind and snow

Li Zicheng originally wanted to wait for Gao Yigong and other ministries to retreat from Yanzhou and Qingyang, and then retreat to the south together, but a Qing army from the east came very fiercely. After they captured Huazhou, they quickly approached Weinan. The wind is jittery.At the beginning of the first lunar month, Li Zicheng finally led his ministers of civil and military affairs, family members and imperial troops, totaling more than 50,000 people, to evacuate Chang'an City reluctantly when the wind and snow were blowing. The people of Chang'an who were in panic earlier, most of them fled with their families and their families in the team. There were already a large number of family members in the team. When they were rushed by these refugees, they fell into chaos. Hiss, the son is crying and the mother is crying, the soldiers will be full, and he will be in chaos first.

Li Zicheng rode out of the palace on horseback, followed the team out of the city, and immediately rode to Baqiao. What appeared in front of him was clearly a picture of exiles in troubled times. Chang'an was his hometown.Thinking of this, the feeling of helplessness in my heart is hard to describe. Yes, the state of mind this time is worse than when he left Beijing a few months ago. At that time, not only in his heart, but also in the hearts of many civil and military ministers, he also believed that the Manchus could at best occupy Beijing or the north of the Yellow River. It can also sit in Guanzhong, connect Jin and Henan, and rely on the risk of Weihan to divide the world with Nanming and Manchu.But in just a few short months, the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Not only did Henan and Shandong fail to defend, but also large rivers and mountains in Shanxi and Shanxi fell. How long can you keep it?

He couldn't help thinking of Song Xiance who had run away.Last night Li Jin told him that Song Xiance had spread rumors in the army that Emperor Dashun was the Son of Horse and would only be in power for three years.It wasn't until this time that he suddenly realized that the damn Song dwarf, when he presented the prophecy, the eighteen sons mastered the magic weapon and the eighteen children were all deceitful nonsense made up by him. I have coaxed many people, but in the end it is myself who is coaxed. Why do I listen and believe? He thought, if Song Xiance fell into my hands at this time, I would kill him immediately.

From Chang'an to Xiangyang, you must pass through Shangzhou to go to Longju Village.The stretch of the Qinling Mountains, the majestic Zhongnan, this road is very familiar to him. Seven years ago, when Tongguan failed in the first battle, he was trapped in the Shangluo Mountains and was chased around the Zhulin Pass. He was in a state of panic all day long. How can they escape from the boundary of Shangzhou and leave Henan? At that time, there was famine everywhere in Henan, and the victims were in groups, just like piles of dry firewood. As long as there is a spark, a prairie fire can erupt. Like a dragon swimming in the sea, the chess game came to fruition, and finally came true. After they arrived in Henan, the team really snowballed, growing stronger and stronger until they returned to Chang'an.Right now, he went to Xiangyang in Henan from this place again, and it was also after failure. Then, is the dead chess turned alive, or is it getting darker and darker?

At this time, Li Jin, who was serving as a guard in the back, sent someone to say that the Manchus attacking Tongguan had indeed sent a team to Lantian. Stay with us, please don't stay in Lantian City, the emperor will set up camp after passing Yaoguan. Gaoguan is Lantianguan, and there is still a distance from Lantian City to the south. At this time, Li Zicheng has been walking for almost a whole day, and the dry food he brought has been frozen into lumps of ice, which cannot be chewed. Immediately, he was suffering from hunger and cold. He wanted to rest in Lantian City, but the military situation was urgent, so he had no choice but to move on.

I don't want to think that Gaoguan is full of wind and snow at this time, the road is muddy, and walking is very difficult. They don't have enough mules and horses, and many of their relatives are walking.Li Zicheng saw these situations in his eyes, but there was nothing he could do, so he swung his whip and galloped away, covering his face, until his heart settled down after passing the Gao Pass. At this time, Liu Zongmin had already caught up from behind. Li Zicheng has already lived in a large family in the lower part of the mountain. This family is obviously a rich man, and he has fled elsewhere, leaving an empty house. Right now, there is a big fire in the hall. Li Zicheng is embracing the fire and drinking with a group of wives and concubines. The general came, and Gao took two concubines to hide in the inner room.

Liu Zongmin took the wine glass he handed over, sat down, sighed lightly, and said without looking at Li Zicheng: "This is not like a fighting team. Such a dragging family is like refugees fleeing for refuge. Not to mention that it is difficult to get rid of the enemy, even dragging will be dragged down by these people." Li Zicheng didn't answer for a while, and while he was still on the road, he was also thinking about this issue.Ordinarily, he should rush to Xiangjing to set up arrangements while the Manchurians are stranded in Guanzhong, and try to gain a firm foothold, otherwise, if the Manchurian cavalry follow, he will be at a loss to deal with it.However, it is not an easy task to leave these family members behind. They are not like the women who were carried on the back of the horses when they retreated from Beijing. Most of them were captured from Beijing by ordinary soldiers. When you are in a hurry, you can kill them with a knife or push off your horse, but the women in front of you are the married wives or biological children of soldiers of some status. Chilled the hearts of all the soldiers.

At this time, Liu Zongmin said again: "I know, you are afraid that everyone will not agree, but at this time, you have to give up if you don't want to, and you have to give up if you don't want to. A man, a man, when he rebelled, he didn't even care about destroying the nine clans." A magnificent palace like Beijing, if you say it will be burned, you can just burn it, and a beautiful aunt like Chen Yuanyuan, if you say you want to lose it, don’t you just lose it? My head is also pinned to the waistband of my trousers. I can’t control my wife and children, just leave it behind More, only if they are all slaughtered and watch dramas every day, can't Wu Han kill his wife too?"

Li Zicheng's face was still ashen, and he didn't answer.Liu Zongmin didn't care so much, he drank a large cup of wine, his face began to turn red, and the veins on his forehead were bulging, as if crawling with earthworms, and said: "You can't do this, let me do it, grandma, I will kill my mother-in-law and aunt first, and others will have nothing to say." As he said that, he smashed the wine glass and split it into eight petals. With a "sand", he drew out his sword and was about to go out.At this moment, a woman suddenly screamed from behind: "Zong Min, come on slowly."

Liu Zongmin knew that this was Empress Gao, but he didn't know what she was doing out now, so he turned around and said, "Why, are you afraid that Zicheng will kill you too?" Empress Gao was already in tears at this time, and said: "Husband and wife are originally birds in the same forest. When the deadline comes, they will fly separately. The situation is so urgent now, and we don't want to drag you down. What is so terrible about death? If the enemy really came, we will I don’t wait for you to do anything, I will find that way myself, but if you say that our aunts deserve to die, but the dolls don’t deserve to die, just let them live.”

Liu Zongmin said: "Can the current situation be put to rest? You can't walk dozens of miles a day without children, and the cavalry full of Tartars can catch up as long as they smoke a bag of cigarettes less." Empress Gao sneered and said, "Right now we think we're a drag, why did we have to be happy back then? There are men like you in the world, so we're blind." With that said, she turned around and looked at Li Zicheng and said, "Your Majesty, how about this, I will give you all the mules and horses, and you only give me a small amount of guards and food, and we will walk slowly by ourselves. If you jump into a river, you jump off a cliff, if there is no river or cliff, you just hit a rock, anyway, I won’t embarrass you big men.” At this time, Li Zicheng's two concubines and Li Jin's wife came out, and Li Jin's wife was holding her son Li Laiheng by the hand. They knelt in front of Li Zicheng and wept bitterly.When Li Zicheng saw Li Laiheng, his nephew and grandson, who was only in his teens, his heart softened—this is the only seedling of the two generations of the Li family's uncles and nephews, can he bear to do it?Besides, if you kill all these relatives who share weal and woe, even if you escape with your own life, who will follow you in the future?Thinking of this, Li Zicheng waved his hand and said: "Okay, let's go first, you follow slowly, don't be afraid, Shuangxi, Yigong, Tian Jianxiu, Hao Yaoqi are still behind." Seeing this, Liu Zongmin looked up to the sky with a long sigh, stomped his feet, and walked out on his own. Looking at this group of mothers-in-law who were still crying bitterly, Li Zicheng felt very uncomfortable. In fact, Empress Gao was not his first wife. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, his original wife Xing was abducted by his confidant, Gao Jie. Married to him, married for ten years, the husband and wife love each other, because she is the niece of King Gao Chuang, so she was established as the main palace. suffered?Today, Liu Zongmin is going to kill all his family members. He understands that Liu Zongmin's current aunt is not a normal person. She is from Henan and once worked as a prostitute in Luoyang. I and Gao are a couple in need, if I kill her, how can I meet King Gao Chuang under the nine springs?Thinking of this, he waved his hand to drive away all the women, leaving only the queen behind, while handing a silk handkerchief to the tearful queen, he said: "I can't blame Liu Tiejiang for being ruthless. From now on, this battle will be as bad as before. How can he allow drags? If he hadn't been forced to this point, he wouldn't have come up with this idea. You know , right now our opponent is not Chongzhen, not Sun Chuanting, but the Mantars, their cavalry moves quickly, if Rang catches up, we will all be doomed." Empress Gao nodded and said: "The concubine knows, but why did this situation happen? The emperor may not have thought about it, but these days, the concubine has been thinking that when we captured Chang'an, our team was so prosperous, we were really soldiers. There are many generals, food and money are needed, and there are many cannons in red clothes. It is very majestic to put them together. But since entering Beijing, the emperor has changed, and this group of generals has also changed. I don’t recognize myself anymore, and I don’t know where I came from—” Li Zicheng was very anxious at the moment, he didn't want the queen to complain about him, and hit the weak spot, poking the sore spot.He couldn't help but glared at her, and said angrily: "When is this, do you still use you to nag me?" When Empress Gao saw that the emperor was angry, her eye sockets that had just been wiped dry immediately became moist again, and she said twitchingly: "Don't get angry, it's time, listen to me, and from now on, I may not be able to go my own way. Seeing you again, if you want to hear it, you may not be able to hear it.” Li Zicheng said impatiently: "What are you talking about? You women have long hair and short knowledge, and you can only make jealous jars. It's nothing more than blaming the man for begging for a few more wives. But this failure is not due to this class. Mother-in-law, but defeated by the braided soldiers, if Wu Sangui hadn't led the Qing soldiers into the customs, even if each of them begged for a hundred more mother-in-law, we wouldn't have been defeated!" Mrs. Gao said: "Look, look, I just opened my mouth and said I was jealous. How long would I care about this? I wish you could ask for more, and see if I can give birth to a son for the Li family." Li Zicheng stared with one eye and said, "Then what are you going to say?" Empress Gao said: "I have heard many people say that you should absolutely not, but you didn't listen to Li Renzhi's words, you shouldn't have gone to the Northern Expedition so early to compete with Chongzhen for the emperor. If you wait for your seat to be secured, The rear has also been consolidated, and if we send troops to the Northern Expedition, the ending will not be like this. In fact, you are from a local family background, and it is not bad to be able to become some kind of Wang Dangdang. Besides, you are already the emperor in Chang'an, why bother to fight for it? How about being emperor in Beijing? It’s all right now. Li Renzhi was killed by you, and the whereabouts of the red lady are unknown; Don't worry about you, I hope you will think more when you are alone at night, and think twice before doing anything. First, you are born in hardship. When you are successful, don't forget your surname; second, Don't be too decisive, kill Cao Cao, He Yilong, and Yuan Shizhong, I don't say you are ruthless, but is it too much to kill Li Renzhi?" When Li Zicheng paused for a moment after she finished talking, he interjected and said, "Okay, okay, you've said so much, let me say a few words." Empress Gao said: "I know, what I said hit your sore spot, you're getting impatient, if it's someone else, this little life is over again today, I'm on the way to death anyway, you kill it if you want." Li Zicheng stomped his feet angrily and said, "My good lady, are you still going to finish?" Empress Gao said: "It's over, you can go if you want." Li Zicheng said: "We are leaving, where are you going with this large group of people?" Empress Gao said: "We will follow you slowly." Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "That won't work. Doesn't it mean walking all the way?" Empress Gao said: "Then how do we go, why not go back again?" Li Zicheng said: "That's not necessary. However, after we leave, the Manchus will follow. If you follow behind, won't you be a backup for us? Well, I will send Zhang Nai with a thousand elite soldiers to protect you. Yigong, Tian Jianxiu, and Hao Yaoqi are here. You can also pass on my order and follow you. You must go straight south, go to Zhen'an, Xunyang, and enter Huguang on the edge of Hanzhong Mansion. But the attention of the Tartars was distracted, so they couldn't figure out where we went. We went southeast to Longjuzhai to Wuguan, entered the border of Nanyang, Henan, and then transferred to Xiangjing. At that time, we will meet in Xiangjing , do you like it?" Empress Gao sighed, looked at her husband affectionately, and said, "What's good? Even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead, we can only bite the bullet and rush forward. Who told me to marry you in the first place?" Where is the king?" The husband and wife have discussed it, and they have nothing to say all night.The next day, they went their separate ways.