Chapter 47 Section 1 The situation is grim and there are no talents

Songshan and Jinzhou fell one after another, and Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou rebelled one after another. This made Chongzhen have to face a serious question: should this battle continue?Is there any chance of winning this battle?The situation is grim, there are no talents, people's hearts are scattered, the country is lost, the Central Plains is unstable, the treasury is empty, there are not enough soldiers, and Chongzhen is suffering. At this critical moment, Huang Taiji proposed a peace.This time, it was he who offered to negotiate a peace, when the situation was favorable. Chongzhen had to seriously consider Huang Taiji's proposal.Although, not long ago, he had shown to all officials his determination to destroy the bandits and avenge their shame, but the situation was stronger than others.The defeat of Songshan and Jinzhou proves that on the land of Daming, the Ming army fighting on the north and south fronts at the same time can only kill itself.

It was Yang Sichang who was right when he said that he first made peace with the Qing soldiers, concentrated his forces to deal with the "bandits" in the Central Plains, and after the "bandits" were successfully suppressed, he would then compete with the Qing.This is a long country-seeking project, but it is also the only feasible project.Unfortunately, not many people understand.I didn't understand it well back then, and as a result, the situation got out of hand.Alas, it's too late to regret.Yang Sichang was a talent, a great talent, but it's a pity that he died too early... Fortunately, Chen Xinjia can also understand this level now, so let him handle the matter of reconciliation.

Chongzhen began to write the peace treaty.Negotiating peace is very interesting. It is written in the form of "Chen Xinjia, Shangshu of the Ministry of War". Chongzhen told Chen Xinjia that since the Qing State had a request for "resting the army and resting the people", it was decided after research that the request was agreed. The people", generation after generation will never speak war. Only in this way can the Qing Dynasty be qualified to communicate with Ming Dynasty and be qualified to be a good neighbor and good partner of Ming Dynasty. When Huang Taiji got such a peace treaty, he almost doubted whether it was a pirated copy.First of all, this tone is wrong. Who is the victorious country and who is the defeated country?How can anyone speak like this; the second is that the form is wrong. What does the peace agreement written in the form of "Shangshu Chen Xinjia of the Ministry of War" mean?You don't bother to communicate with me directly; there is also a big seal of "Emperor's Treasure" stamped on it, which is very similar to the imperial edict issued by the celestial dynasty to the vassal states.When Huang Taiji got such a peace agreement, he wanted to tear him up immediately, but Hong Chengchou blocked his anger with two hands stretched out diagonally.Hong Chengchou said that the emperor of Ming Dynasty had such a character, a cooked duck had a hard mouth.If you can't bear it a little, you can make big plans, so bear with it.

Of course Huang Taiji wouldn't bear it.Although he didn't tear up Chongzhen's peace treaty, he did the same. He made a peace treaty of the same specification and asked someone to bring it to Chongzhen in the form of an edict to King Azig of the British County. Chongzhen almost vomited blood in anger.But in order to discuss the overall situation, Chongzhen still endured.Chongzhen even agreed to the harsh conditions put forward by Huang Taiji in the peace agreement: Every year, the Ming Dynasty donates 10,000 taels of gold and one million taels of platinum to the Qing Dynasty.When Chongzhen was enduring all this, the tragic scene of King Goujian of Yue lying on the woodpile licking the gall appeared in his mind. He kept greeting Huang Taiji's mother and all his female relatives in his heart, and at the same time silently recited "Who laughs last?" , who laughs best" and other mottos.

But Chongzhen did not silently recite the motto "If you want others to not know, you can't do it yourself". If you want people not to know, unless you do nothing yourself.Chen Xinjia's crime of treason was first discovered by other officials. Since Chongzhen's image has always been for the glorious image of Daming who would rather smash jade than tile, when Chen Xinjia was actually handling the peace talks, the officials of Daming would not have thought that the real behind-the-scenes driver was actually showing the "destroyer" to all officials not long ago. Emperor Chongzhen with the banner of Kou Xuesha".

Moreover, Chen Xinjia couldn't argue with his words, because Chongzhen had already explained to him that this matter had to be done in secret.In fact, as early as when he was negotiating peace, Chongzhen thought of the problem of face.In Chongzhen's heart, there are two plans, A and B, for the peace negotiation. Plan A-the matter is successful, and Chen Xinjia is promoted to a higher level; plan B-the matter fails, Chen Xinjia will be the scapegoat, and Chongzhen will save face. The speakers were the first to get angry. Anger is the passport of the angry, and peace is the epitaph of the peacemaker.During the incident, Fang Shiliang and Ma Jiazhi stood up out of righteous indignation, accusing Chen Xinjia of committing crimes against the wind, and against the background of our emperor's "exterminating the bandits and avenging his shame", he dared to have an affair with the Qing Dynasty and negotiate peace. The crime of bullying the king.Chongzhen also acted angry, as if he had really been deceived, and began to angrily denounce Chen Xinjia's heinous crime.

Chen Xinjia endured silently, making excuses and making poor speeches, but Chongzhen's condemnation was very interesting, and he gradually entered the drama, wishing to use the same method he used to deal with Yuan Chonghuan to deal with Chen Xinjia. , but no matter how good you are, you have to let me have a good death... Chen Xinjia began to defend himself. He first defended himself carefully, and then told all the emperor's "conspiracies and tricks" to the civil and military officials of the Manchu court.Chen Xinjia had a mournful expression and burst into tears, just like a male version of Mrs. Xianglin.The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were stunned: Could it be that the emperor is so face-to-face and behind-the-scenes?

The icon of a dynasty has come crashing down. Chongzhen is really angry now, Chen Xinjia, you are courting death!Didn't you see that I was fake anger just now?Although my performance was a little too much, but the play is here, don't worry too much, after all, I won't really do anything to you.But it's good for you, you said everything, so that I really can't step down. In this way, I have to fake the show, come on, put Chen Xinjia to death for me. Chongzhen finally maintained the dignity of a dynasty idol with his last anger. Chen Xinjia, who was in death row, began to look forward to the emperor's rain and sunshine.He confessed that his family used a lot of money to bribe the four officials who shouted the loudest.The four speech officials were also open to money, and after receiving bribes, they ran to Xu Shilin, the servant of the Ministry of punishment, to tell Chen Xinjia N reasons why he couldn't be killed.

But Xu Shilin insisted on the principle. He sent a report to Chongzhen, planning to chop off his grandma's head on the charge of Chen Xinjia presiding over the peace talks.Chongzhen couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat when he saw the report, presided over the peace negotiation?What right does Chen Xinjia have to preside over the peace talks?Doesn't this call me Chongzhen for finding a scapegoat?The historians of later generations knew about this, and wouldn't they scold me so much?No, no, change the name... Chen Xinjia finally died, and the charge had nothing to do with the negotiation of the peace, but during his tenure as Minister of the Ministry of War, "Four of the border cities, seventy-two of the abdominal cities, and seven of the relatives and vassals were trapped. It has never been a strange disaster. Advance troops to support them, and those who make mistakes in military aircraft will be executed."

Chongzhen let out a long breath, but felt a little melancholy and confused.The situation is becoming more and more difficult to support, but there are fewer and fewer people around.He felt a profound loneliness. Maybe, life is lonely; maybe, all efforts are just dying.But what can be done?To live is to toss, to witness arrival and departure.In the end, he will also leave this world and this dynasty, leaving only his name and his dynasty to be repeatedly mentioned and criticized by later generations. After capturing Luoyang and killing Queen Fu, Li Zicheng's next goal was Kaifeng. Li Zicheng's troops surrounded Kaifeng City for seven days and seven nights. Kaifeng was in danger, but Li Xianfeng, governor of Henan Province, stopped and watched in Yanshi, not daring to come forward to rescue.Chongzhen was so angry that he wanted to arrest this idiot. Unexpectedly, Li Xianfeng's vitality was extremely fragile, and he was frightened to death overnight, which made Chongzhen's arrest attempt unsuccessful.

In order to break the siege, Chongzhen appointed a Shaanxi official named Ding Qirui as the supervisor to control the troops of Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Huguang, and Hebei provinces, and rushed to Kaifeng.But Ding Qirui set off from Tongguan, Shaanxi, but he didn’t dare to enter Henan, but went to Huguang. Huguang governor Wang Chengzhao was frightened when he saw it: everyone who knew knew that you came here uninvited, and those who didn’t know thought it was I, Wang Chengzhao, recruited you, so hurry up and leave, lest the emperor blame you and I will not be able to afford it.Ding Qirui refused to leave, so Wang Chengzhao hid all the ferries in the area of ​​Han and Tianjin, and refused to let Ding Qirui use them. Ding Qirui wandered around with a large group of people for three days, but he was unable to enter Chu.He had no choice but to go in the direction of Henan.But when he walked near the Henan provincial border, he heard that Zhang Xianzhong was active in Guangshan and Gushi, and there were not many people, so he decided to take dealing with Zhang Xianzhong as his duty in his life.Anyway, the emperor told him to suppress the Yu bandits, but he didn't say which Yu bandits it was.To suppress Li Zicheng is to suppress, and to suppress Zhang Xianzhong is also to suppress.Now that we have met, let's suppress Zhang Xianzhong first.So Ding Qirui began to act as a supervisor and ordered Zuo Liangyu in Nanyang to rush to Macheng to deal with Zhang Xianzhong.The poor Kaifeng defenders ran to Ding Qirui crying every day, begging him to quickly reinforce Kaifeng, but Ding Qirui always said earnestly to the guards who reported the urgent letter: "Food must be eaten bite by bite, and battles must be fought one by one. Wait for me." Let's talk about it after Zhang Xianzhong is eliminated. Facing such a living treasure, Chongzhen was almost speechless.He has seen quite a few strange phenomena in Daming, but this is the first time he has seen them so strange. There is no one in Daming.There is no one in Daming. Of course, if you dial carefully, Daming can still find a talent. This talent is not above the court, but in prison. He is Sun Chuanting, a frontier talent who has been imprisoned for three years.At that time, Sun Chuanting cried and shouted to return to Shaanxi after breaking the siege of the capital, but was thrown into prison by Chongzhen in a rage.But today, three years later, when Chongzhen looked back on the past, he felt that Sun Chuanting had no major faults except for being "roundabout". What matters is that he is talented. In this day and age, talented people are rarer than rich people. Chongzhen decided to be magnanimous: let Sun Chuanting come out to serve the country.Sun Chuanting was re-appointed as the right servant of the Ministry of War and the governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Military Affairs. He will go to the front line of the Central Plains to fight from now on. But Sun Chuanting, who has been in prison for three years, seemed a little slow to respond.He did not go to the Central Plains to fight on the front line from now on, but started a theory with Chongzhen from now on.Sun Chuanting believes that there are currently only three main forces of the Ming army; the Liaodong Frontier Army, the Huguang Zuoliangyu Department, and the Qin Army under him.These three branches are like the three support points of a triangle, each of which can only protect one side.If any of these three points is easily moved, it is likely to bring about unmanageable consequences.So the top priority now is not to let the Qin army enter the Central Plains, but to let Zuo Liangyu's department play their subjective initiative and break the siege nearby. After learning about Sun Chuanting's theory, Chongzhen gasped. This stubborn donkey, after three years of imprisonment, still has the same old concept: guarding the land of Qin and not moving his nest.No, absolutely not!I don't care if you are a triangle or a quadrangle, Kaifeng must be guaranteed. Sun Chuanting had no choice but to go west out of Tongguan. He can't help but appreciate, the emperor's love.After imprisoning him for three years, the emperor said he would let him go, and he still entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. He had no reason to refuse. This is the fate of being a courtier, and it is also the tragedy of being a courtier.Under the guidance of Chongzhen's erroneous theories, Sun Chuanting fought and failed repeatedly. In the end, not only did he fail to break the siege, but he also lost Tongguan.In the Battle of Tongguan, Sun Chuanting died at the hands of the rebels, and in the end he couldn't even find his body. The last talented person in Ming Dynasty did not die well. Daming's first castle with strategic significance - Tongguan thus fell.For Li Zicheng, the change of owner in Tongguan was equivalent to opening the Pandora's box of the cities in the west of Ming Dynasty. Which city he wanted to take was a piece of cake.On October 11, the 16th year of Chongzhen, five days after Tongguan was captured, Li Zicheng's troops captured Xi'an.Li Zicheng established his capital here, changed Xi'an to Chang'an, and established the country as Dashun.In this way, for the first time in this land of China, the three pillars of Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and Dashun emerged. After Li Zicheng took control of the whole of Shaanxi, he vowed to carry the revolution to the end.He issued a general mobilization order to attack Shanxi.At this time, it was December 20th of the lunar year, and there were only ten short days before the Spring Festival of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.