Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Jinqin King and King No Longer

At the beginning of March in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the peasant army had already reached the city of Xuanfu, only five or six hundred miles away from the capital. When the emergency documents came, the whole court was in panic.Chongzhen summoned the ministers of civil and military affairs and asked "the strategy of fighting and defending".At this time, the sour Confucians who usually talk about poetry and talk about it, can't even fart.Chongzhen sighed, and said angrily: "I am not the king of the subjugated country, and all the ministers are the ears of the subjugated ministers!" After finishing speaking, he left without looking back.

People in the capital were in panic, and there was a scene of the end of the world. There were even rumors that Wu Sangui had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.Although the suspicious Chongzhen felt that taking his father and family members as hostages was not enough for Wu Sangui to do so, he still couldn't bear his temper and called Wu Xiang into the palace to inquire about the matter.Wu Xiang said confidently: "Sangui is loyal and filial, so it must not end here." With Wu Xiang's guarantee, Chongzhen was relieved. Chongzhen's gang of useless ministers had completely lost confidence. At this time, he really wanted to hear the opinions of the governors outside Beijing.This time Chongzhen reacted very quickly, and hurriedly issued an edict to abandon Ningyuan to defend the capital. In order to encourage all generals to work hard, he did not hesitate to reward titles.On March 4th, Wu Sangui was conferred the title of "Ping Xibo", and Tang Tong, Huang Degong, and Zuo Liangyu were conferred at the same time as Sangui. .In addition, more than 20 generals including Liu Liangzuo were promoted.

On the 6th, Chongzhen conscripted Wu Sangui, governor of Jiliao Wang Yongji, general of Jizhen Tang Tong, and general of Shandong Liu Zeqing to lead troops into Beijing as "King Qin", and recruited troops from all over the country to "King Qin", but few responded.Liu Zeqing lied that he was injured by falling from a horse, so he refused to obey the order.Wu Sangui, Wang Yongji and others are far away from Beijing, and it is unknown when they will arrive.Only the Tang Tong Department was relatively close to Beijing, so at least it led 8,000 troops to Beijing.It's like a joke to order people to be the King of Qin, but finally someone came, and Chongzhen was so moved that he immediately gave him a big reward and named him "Ding Xibo".Tang Tong expressed impassionedly that he would not disgrace the king's life.However, he was just talking about it. When Du Zhizhi, the eunuch of the supervising army, led his troops to Juyongguan to intercept the peasant army, he surrendered to Li Zicheng, and Juyongguan was broken.This pass is the gateway to Beijing, and there will be no obstacles for the peasant army to attack Beijing.

Going back to Wu Sangui, he had been eagerly waiting for the edict to evacuate Ningyuan, but he didn't expect that the first thing he got was the good news of conferring.He was only in his early thirties this year, and he was flattered to be made an earl at this age.However, on the night when he was entrusted, he lay on the bed and thought about it more and more wrong. As the saying goes, there is no pie in the sky, and Chongzhen will never reward him so much for no reason.To confer him the title of "Ping Xibo" must be to make him work hard, and the reward is so heavy, it must be because the current situation is extremely critical.And the title this time is also worth pondering. He lives in Liaodong. It stands to reason that even if he wanted to be titled, the title would be nothing more than "Ping Liao" or "Zheng Liao". Isn't it just for him to fight the peasant army in the west?

It was a sleepless night, Wu Sangui's mind was constantly spinning.In the middle of the night, he suddenly heard the report from the guard outside the door, saying that there was an imperial decree. He didn't have time to think about it, so he came out to receive the decree.It was the eunuch Xie Wenju who delivered the decree. He rushed to Ningyuan overnight at Chongzhen's decree, and issued the decree to Wu Sangui to recruit "King Qin".Wu Sangui understood the urgency of the situation, and after paying homage to the emperor's grace, he arranged for the evacuation overnight.At the same time, Wang Yongji was ordered to leave the customs, and supervised the army and civilians in Ningyuan outside the customs to enter the customs.

Wu Sangui's troops were all elite divisions, and it was not difficult for the troops to withdraw, but it became troublesome if the local people had to be withdrawn.In the eyes of the barbaric Qing army, there is no distinction between the Ming army and the people of the Ming Dynasty. If they fall into their hands, they will either be killed or enslaved.The vast majority of Wu Sangui's subordinates are locals, and their relatives are also in the local area. It is difficult to say whether this army can move without their family members. Wu Sangui decided to move the people in Ningyuan and its vicinity into the pass.Despite the urgency of the situation, he had to delay for several days in preparation for his retreat.

After the evacuation was over, around March 10th, the officers, soldiers and common people of the Ming army wept farewell to Ningyuan City, which they had painstakingly managed for nearly two hundred years, and headed towards Shanhaiguan.The team moved extremely slowly, at most fifty miles a day.In fact, there were cavalry in Wu Sangui's army. He could have led the cavalry to Beijing as soon as possible, but he didn't do that. He chose to lead the army to the rear.He didn't do this to protect the people from the attack of the Qing soldiers, because after the Qing army broke through the three cities of Zhonghou and other cities, they did not occupy them but withdrew quickly because they were worried about being attacked by the enemy. They just kept military pressure on Ningyuan.Although the Qing army got the news of the evacuation of the army and civilians in Ningyuan this time, they thought that the snipe and the clam would fight and the fisherman would be successful, so they did not send troops to intercept Wu Sangui's team.Since it wasn't because he was worried about the Qing army, why did Wu Sangui deliberately slow down the speed of entering Beijing?The reason is also obvious. As a warlord, Wu Sangui is not old, but he is very clear about those things in the officialdom and on the battlefield.His wishful thinking was very shrewd, that is, to let soldiers and horses from other towns rush to Beijing to fight the peasant army first, and he not only preserved his own strength, but also shared the merits of "King Qin" with other generals.

It is about two hundred miles from Ningyuan to Shanhaiguan. At the speed of the cavalry at that time, if you travel day and night, you can reach it in one day and one night.But Wu Sangui walked on the road for five or six days, and did not enter the customs until the sixteenth.After entering the customs, he actually stopped and asked the Ministry of War to "invite 10,000 horses and rest at home for five days." Chongzhen couldn't laugh or cry, but there was nothing he could do. He ordered the commander-in-chief Gaodi to take over Wu Sangui, and divided the people into Kaiping, Leting, Luanzhou, Changli and other counties.At the same time, Wu Sangui was ordered not to delay, and immediately led the army to march towards the capital.

On March 20th, Wu Sangui's troops arrived in Fengrun, where they encountered Tang Tong and Bai Guangen, the surrendered generals sent by Li Zicheng to attack Luanzhou.Wu Sangui's department defeated him and surrendered more than 8,000 people.But Beijing had already been breached by the Peasant Army the day before, on the 19th.Although Chongzhen was physically and mentally exhausted, his face was sallow and thin, and he no longer had the appearance of an emperor, it is entirely possible to disguise himself as ordinary people and sneak out of the city, and then resume his great career in Nanjing.But the destruction of the capital this time made him extremely stimulated and broke the last string in his mind. He lost all thoughts. After killing many wives and children, he hanged himself in the Shouhuang Pavilion on Meishan behind the Forbidden City .

Sad, sad. Had he known today, why bother? If he had transferred Wu Sangui's troops and various frontier guards to Beijing, perhaps the present result could have been completely avoided.But the root of the matter is that he is indecisive and self-willed.However, this stubborn emperor was unwilling to admit his mistakes until his death, and even wailed that "every civil servant can be killed" before he died.Civil servants naturally have problems with civil servants, but according to his logic, he should be the first to be killed, so he died unjustly. The news that the capital was broken came quickly.Wu Sangui had never been considered a loyal minister, and naturally he had no feelings for the emperor. He didn't shed tears, but felt a little chill on his back. The big company he was affiliated with collapsed, and he naturally worried about his future.He originally came to "King of Diligence", but now that all the people who wanted to be "Diligence" were dead, there was no need to continue to "Diligence". He ordered the team to turn around and return to Shanhaiguan.