Chapter 108: The Fat Rat on the Big Boat
"Whatever you have to do, continue to do it according to the plan. No celebration, no silence. The Ming Emperor is dead and our career has just started. Be careful. Be wary of arrogance and impetuosity, and work hard at every step!"
After Yun Zhao and Zhang Guozhu returned from roaming in the mountains, Zhang Guozhu gave orders to the Lantian officials waiting in the big study.
The commands are very plain and boring.
However, just because Yun Zhao faced Chongzhen's suicide with a normal heart, the enthusiasm of Lantian officials dimmed.
However, outside Lantian, with the death of the emperor, people caused all kinds of waves.
After the officials of Yingtian Mansion learned that Chongzhen committed suicide and that the whereabouts of the Crown Prince, King Yong and King An were unknown, they prepared to establish a new king based on the idea that the country could not live without a king for a day.
Li Yan, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Liu Zeqing's son Liu Da, the four military towns with troops in hand, all agreed that Zhu Yousong, the eldest son of the late Prince Fu, should be elected emperor.
However, the remaining imperial court in Nanjing believed that King Zhu Changzi of Lu was more suitable.
Just when they were arguing, they suddenly discovered that Lantian's army had left the border, especially Lei Heng's southward army, which had threatened Jiangnan.
They knew that once Lantian's army moved south, neither the four towns of Huaibei nor Shi Kefa's Nanjing army would be able to resist it.
For this reason, after discussion, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying, Jiang Yueguang, Wang Duo, Zhang Shenyan, Liu Zongzhou and others believed that they could negotiate with Yunzhao to ensure the ultimate goal of dividing the river and governing it.
Originally, Yun Zhao was not interested in such a peace negotiation at all. When he heard that Zuo Maodi was among the envoys who came to negotiate the peace, he immediately changed his mind and promised that they could discuss it carefully.
Yun Zhao has been coveting Zuo Maodi for a long time.
In the third year of Chongzhen's reign, this guy was the magistrate of Hancheng County in Guanzhong. The reason why Hong Chengchou was able to defeat Li Hongji in Hancheng was due to this man. This man was worshiped by the people in Hancheng. As Zuo Qingtian, when he resigned, he was enshrined in the Pantheon by the people.
Hong Chengchou said, "When I first learned about Hancheng County, the rogue bandits attacked Hancheng three times, and then they invaded the territory. Maodi led his soldiers and people to fight, and he acted as the vanguard, and he often defeated them and fled."
Guanzhong guarantees, pushing Mao No. 1.
Yun Zhao also knew that Zuo Maodi relied on his loyalty and bravery to ensure the peace of the country, and went all out to provide disaster relief and save the hungry people. He was regarded as a rare official among the officials of the Ming Dynasty.
However, what Yun Zhao admired most about this person was that he had very hard bones.
He was supposed to be sent as an envoy to the Manchu Qing Dynasty at this time, causing Dorgon a headache and embarrassing countless Ming ministers, but for some reason he came to Guanzhong.
So Yun Zhao waited quietly for Zuo Maodi's arrival with joy and worry.
The progress of various armies in Lantian is very smooth, especially the mobility of the Yunyang Army, which makes Yun Zhao the most happy. Since this army left Luoyang, it has made rapid progress along the way., almost in a straight line from Luoyang to Baoding.
In just one month, Li Hongji's territory has been completely divided into two sections, and he and Li Ding's regiment have formed a pincer attack on the capital.
The capital must be captured in a short time, otherwise Li Hongji will destroy the city.
The fact is just as Yun Zhao thought.
In the past, Yun Zhao always thought that farmers thought that the emperor used gold poles and sickles, ate from gold bowls, went to the theater every day, and wore new clothes. This was just a way for people to ridicule the short-sightedness of farmers.
However, since Li Hongji entered the capital, he found that this seemed to be true.
The common people in the capital began to regret it on the tenth day after they cheered King Chuang's entry into the capital with the word "obedient people" on their clothes and hats.
After Li Hongji moved into the palace, the first thing he did was to summon the most famous actor and tailor in the capital to come to the palace, sing songs and tailor clothes for Li Hongji, drink and listen to music all day long, it seemed that I have forgotten that the Lantian army is so close, I just want to enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy as much as possible.
Li Hongji was busy watching plays, listening to music, and drinking.
His subordinates were even busier.
Niu Jinxing, who claimed to be the prime minister, had only entered the capital for ten days and had already recruited more than 600 disciples. Under the instigation of his disciples, he started the first scientific examination of the Dashun Dynasty.
Facts have proved that Niu Jinxing’s cultural governance is successful.
He set the questions and held major examinations to "seek talents" for the new dynasty.
There are three questions in the examination: "The world returns to benevolence", "Come to China to care for the barbarians", and "Since God's blessing is good, there is no disadvantage".
For a time, the Confucian scholars in Shuntian Prefecture were begging for exams one after another and flocked to the market. For a time, the glory of Wenchang Star was booming!
As for Liu Zongmin, this guy is very embarrassing to the people of Lantian.
After he entered the city, he only endured it for ten days and restrained his subordinates for only ten days. During these ten days, in order to maintain military discipline, soldiers who committed robbery and rape were crucified. Killed hundreds of people.
When he found out that the Ming Dynasty treasury and the palace only had 100,000 gold and 120,000 taels of silver, and that the gold bricks laid in the emperor's palace were not made of real gold, he felt bad. .
You must know that the reason why Li Hongji abandoned Huainan was that most of Shandong's foundations were aimed at the capital. They believed that as long as the capital was captured, the Dashun Army would have countless gold and silver.
Now that the palace has been searched, only this little gold and silver is found, which is far from enough for Li Hongji to reward these subordinates who have followed him for many years and only want to get promoted and get rich.
After reporting to Li Hongji, Li Hongji was naturally very disappointed.
Li Hongji has been in charge of the world all his life. He is naturally deeply touched by the corruption of officials in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, he has been accustomed to robbing families for many years. Since the emperor has no money, money will not come to nothing. disappear for no reason, then, the money must have been swallowed up by corrupt officials colluding with big businessmen and wealthy families.
So, under the instigation of Liu Zongmin, Tian Hu, Li Yu and other generals, the important task of "paying" was handed over to Liu Zongmin for execution.
There was no money, so the first person Liu Zongmin approached was Li Guozhen, a relative of the Ming Dynasty and the Bo of Xiangcheng who was the first to surrender outside Beijing with the soldiers of the three major battalions of the Beijing camp.
Liu Zongmin first tortured him, burning him with a small fire and smashing him with a big board. After a night of torture, the Xiangcheng uncle finally died of extreme pain.
Seeing that no money was plundered, Liu Zongmin gave an order and soldiers broke into his home. Dozens of people raped Li Guozhen's wife and all the women in the house, and then hugged Li Guozhen's wife naked on the horse. Walking on the street, he shouted: "Everyone comes to see, this is the wife of Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen!".
The soldiers shouted and laughed, pinched their breasts and stabbed their vaginas.
Historical books say: "No one can be more humiliated than this."
The great scholar Chen Yan has always been smart. As early as Liu Zongmin ordered: "If you offer silver with your official rank, you must give silver if you have a rank." If you are tired of tens of thousands, you must be tired of thousands. If you offer your money happily, you will be released immediately; if you hide your money and do not give it, you will be severely punished." When the time comes, he will offer forty thousand taels of silver.
When Chongzhen needed his ministers to donate 200 taels of silver to defend against the enemy, he used the excuse that he had been an honest official for many years and had no money left to donate 200 taels of silver to the emperor...
That's it. When Liu Zongmin was about to let Chen Yan go, the bachelor's servant reported that the underground of the bachelor's residence was full of hidden silver.
Liu Zongmin was furious and sent his soldiers to dig at the scholar's residence. As expected, the soil in the courtyard was full of silver.
The furious Liu Zongmin began to torture him, and asked for hundreds of taels of gold and pearls...
At this point, Liu Zongmin's deep hatred for the officials of the Ming Dynasty was all over. He broke out and stubbornly believed that none of the Ming officials were innocent.
He set up dozens of beheading pillars at the gate, killing people without hesitation. Regardless of officials, wealthy people, or residents, as long as they looked like they had money, they would definitely be invited here to be tortured.
Poor officials such as Hanlin and Kechen in the Ming Dynasty were the most unlucky. They could not afford the money and water in their families, and most of them were tortured and robbed to death.
Even so, the torture and looting in the capital still had little impact.
Until Li Hongji's "old battalion", which had the strictest military discipline, began to mobilize, the capital suddenly became a hell on earth.
It is purely Li Hongji's fault that the "Old Camp" troops began to wreak havoc on the world.
Li Hongji is not very particular about eating. He only eats a little rice mixed with dried chili peppers and drinks with liquor. There is no big meal.
In terms of utensils, Li Zicheng used crude military weapons from the old camp. He had a bad eye for the exquisite utensils such as dragons and phoenixes in the palace. He always felt that the "lifelike" works of art were like dragons and phoenixes, and he felt very ominous. So never use it.
The old soldiers and horses were stationed in the palace, so they naturally followed their example.
They used the exquisite and huge palace vats in the palace as mangers and dismantled them.Fine wooden doors and windows are used for cooking. Seeing the rare and skillfully carved rhinoceros horn cups in the inner treasury, the soldiers used the larger ones for pounding garlic and the smaller ones with soybean oil for use as lamps. They spared no expense.
Seeing that Liu Zongmin and other camps were rich, Li Zicheng's "old camp" could only use coarse rice and beans as food. These subordinates who had followed Li Hongji the longest and contributed the most complained, feeling that "Chuang Wang" was unfair.
So he secretly went out of the palace to commit adultery and plunder, and went into private houses to steal money and commit adultery. In Anfu Alley alone, more than 300 women were raped to death in one night.
Han Lingshan and Xia Wanchun were still sleeping soundly.
It’s just that the place where they slept was moved from the pavilion to the underground.
Just above their heads, there lived more than sixty Dashun soldiers. Every day, you could hear the voices of these people talking about how much gold and silver they had looted.
When people sleep for a long time, it is naturally not good for the body.
So, sometimes, they would sit up and chat.
"Uncle, how much money do you think Li Hongji can get?"
Han Lingshan said: "There should be a lot."
"I think the capital is poor. Frowning, it shouldn't be much."
"You are wrong. Li Hongji was not wrong at all. Money will not run away on its own. The emperor really has no money, but the officials really do. "Wealthy."
"Why do I feel as calm as water when I hear their miserable situation?"
"This is because they asked for the miserable situation they are in today." Come, a huge boat sailing on the sea sank. No matter how fat the rats on the boat are, they will die."