Now, the Qing soldiers have moved south from Pyongyang City, and it will not take long to reach the outside of Hanyang City. The ministers who had previously advocated continuing to clear things up, and the ministers who advocated waiting and seeing the situation before making a decision, immediately gained power in front of Li Yan. .

The Prime Minister of the National Assembly Hong Seifeng, whose life was in the hands of Yang Zhen, including his legitimate son Hong Ming-il, could no longer care about his son's life. He changed his previous wait-and-see attitude and began to advocate the execution of pro-Ming faction ministers. , in order to gain the Qing Emperor’s understanding.

As for Bingcao Banshu Shen Qiyuan, who had been secretly supporting the pro-Ming officials before, this time he began to protect himself wisely and decisively stood on the side of Li Zhu and Hong Ruifeng.

Not only did he not say a word for Kim Sang-heon and others, but he also publicly announced early on that he was severing the marriage relationship with the Liu family where Liu Lin, the military commander of Ping'an Road, was located, and at the same time, he exterminated all relatives and "killed the whole family".

At the same time, he also took the initiative to give generous gifts to Jin Zidian, an important minister of the Qing Dynasty who was close to Li Zhu, and visited him many times, trying to make friends with him again and again.

After such operations, Shen Qiyuan, who had previously had a quarrel with the ministers of the Shiqing faction, transformed into a staunch Shiqing faction. Finally, the general was able to protect himself and was not impeached as a pro-Ming faction.

However, in this case, the fate of Kim Sang-hyun and others is completely hopeless.

At noon on November 22, Huang Taiji's army, which had not encountered any resistance along the way, arrived outside Hanyang City with great force and joy.

The leader of the country, Li Ju, issued an order early in the morning to behead all pro-Ming officials including Kim Sang-heon, Kim Ji, Song Si-yeol, and Song Jun-gil who were in prison.

Then he asked someone to pull a bunch of heads in a car, and accompanied him and a large number of officials from the small court of Hanyang City to go out of the city for several miles to welcome Huang Taiji's arrival.

In the west of Hanyang City, in the ice and snow outside the Biti Pavilion, Li Zhu, wearing a king's crown, led the civil and military courtiers, kneeling in the snow against the biting cold wind.

The severed head of Kim Sang-hyun was placed next to Li Jing.

"Li Jie, a criminal subject of the country, kowtows to welcome His Majesty the Qing Emperor. Long live the Qing Emperor! Long live the Qing Emperor!"

Li Shu knelt on the ice and snow, his legs were numb, and he was about to lose consciousness from the cold. Huang Taiji, under the protection of many yellow-flag bagaras, rode a tall horse to Li Shu's house. before.

Huang Taiji is already tall. Although he has lost a lot of weight during his illness for more than two years, the skinny camel is still bigger than a horse. At the moment, he is wearing a black fox fur hat and a black mink fur cloak, riding on Standing on a very tall and majestic white war horse, it looks particularly impressive.

He rode his war horse to Li Zhu and looked down at Li Zhu, just like a fierce black bear looking down at a frightened quail that was lying motionless.

"Hmph, Li Zhu, do you know why I led my army here?"

Huang Taiji has no intention of abolishing Li Zhu. If Li Zhu is obedient, shows enough sincerity and completely surrenders to him, he is actually inclined to let Li Zhu continue to work.

After all, during the Sanda Ferry meeting a few years ago, the cowardly and cowardly appearance of Li Zhuo, who was raped by a powerful foreigner, left a deep impression on Huang Taiji.

As for the so-called clan of the Li Dynasty, Huang Taiji didn't know much about it. Who knew if he could find someone more cowardly and obedient than him after deposing Li Zhu?

But Huang Taiji's thoughts will naturally not be revealed as soon as they meet. At least he will continue to observe and hammer on it.

Moreover, this time the imperial commander personally marched all the way to Hanyang City, and there was no way he would return empty-handed.

In addition to promoting the Qing Dynasty's clothes and hair styles here and completely cutting off the Li Dynasty's retreat from returning to the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji also wanted to take away a large amount of food and property, and at the same time increase the Li Dynasty's tribute to the Qing Dynasty.

If Li Zhu agreed to all these requests, then there would be no need to abolish him and replace him with someone else.

If Li Jie refuses to agree, it is not too late to make other plans.

"I know that I am guilty, but I don't know the person well, and I employ people improperly. I cannot restrain the soldiers and civilians of the two northern provinces. As a result, the soldiers and civilians of the second northern province are instigated and bewitched by others. They rebel and people are in ruins. I am guilty. I know the crime. I invite the Qing Dynasty."

Your Majesty the Emperor, forgive me!"

Li Jie kowtowed to the ground and could only speak while staring at the hooves of the war horse under Huang Taiji's crotch.

His respectful attitude, sincere words, and thorough confession of guilt made Huang Taiji who was riding the horse feel a little dazed for a while.

It made him feel that in the face of such a spineless person, there was no need for him to travel thousands of miles and come to Hanyang City in person to question his guilt.

Perhaps an envoy would be enough.

At the same time, Li Zhu's attitude of admitting his guilt also made Huang Taiji suddenly feel that his previous attitude towards Li Chao was too merciful, and whether his previous worries were too unnecessary.

"You don't know people well, you employ them inappropriately, and you are instigated and beguiled by others? Well, just a few years ago, I personally led an army here. At that time, it was because you betrayed the contract and rebelled against the alliance, so I raised an army to investigate the crime, and you immediately said that you were bewitched!

"At that time when we were at Santian Crossing, I thought that you were sincere in your intention to surrender and submit to Shuo. I also thought that it was not easy for the Li family to stay in Korea for two hundred years, so I made an alliance with you at Santian Crossing. If I had destroyed you at that time,

Li's ancestral temple, isn't it as easy as turning the palm of your hand?"

Huang Taiji first talked about what happened when he personally conquered the Li Dynasty in the winter of the first year of Chongde, and then his tone changed and he said murderously:

"Unexpectedly, you guys are so heartless that you are so ungrateful to me for my kindness and sage and the compassion of our great Qing Dynasty. Instead, you treat it as a weakness and can be bullied and do everything you want to do!

"Now that we have once again betrayed the contract and rebelled against the alliance, we have liaisons with the Southern Dynasties and are plotting to endanger the Qing Dynasty, how can we just write it off if we don't know the people well and hire them improperly? How can we let it go just because we were instigated by others?"

"I know the crime, I know the crime, I know the crime——"

Guqin

Faced with Huang Taiji's threatening scolding, Mr. Li did not dare to raise his head. He kowtowed on the snow with his whole body trembling, and said "I am guilty" three times in a row.

Immediately afterwards, he picked up the head of Jin Sangxian next to him, raised it above his head, handed it forward, and continued:

"The two rebellions in the north were all caused by the instigation and instigation of this generation of denouncers and the He faction. The failure of the guilty ministers to send troops to suppress the rebellion in time was also because of this generation's monstrous words in the court, which deceived the public and hindered them!

"The Qing Dynasty sent troops to quell the chaos in the small country, and the guilty ministers are extremely grateful. The guilty ministers have executed the traitors and traitors of the court and their family members for the crime of treason. The guilty ministers are unswervingly loyal to the Qing Dynasty! Please ask the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Your Majesty has mercy!"

Li Zhu had already heard Huang Taiji's meaning from Huang Taiji's words just now, and also knew that if Huang Taiji wanted to abolish his throne and establish someone else, it would be very easy.

In the past few years, after repeated blackmails from the Qing captives and various coercions from Yang Zhenjun in Jinhai Town this year, Li Zhu's prestige among the court people has fallen to the bottom.

I think all the aura of being a wise king that was brought to him by overthrowing Lord Gwanghae and correcting all his bad policies has been lost.

Needless to say, in the north of the Li Dynasty today, after repeated wars, the cities were abandoned, the fields were barren, and the people fled, leaving no one alive.

However, the relatively stable South is also in various dire straits and people are living in dire straits.

Because almost all of the countless rice, goods, craftsmen, and war horses and equipment demanded by the Qing captives from the Li Dynasty came from the relatively stable southern Shudao.

Over the past few years, not only ordinary ordinary people were unable to make a living, but even the wealthy gentry could not bear the increase in taxes and stipends time and time again.

Even in Hanyang City, where the rich and powerful families gathered, it was already a luxury to be able to eat kimchi and rice for three meals a day.

Under such circumstances, there is an undercurrent of longing for Gwanghaejun among the people, and there are rumors of postings attacking him for being unfair in his position.

And what worried him the most was that Lord Guanghai, whom he had ousted from the throne, was not only still alive, but also in the hands of Yang Zhen of Jinhaizhen.

This was something he couldn't let go of.

In fact, if this were not the case, after Yang Zhen captured Zhenjiang Fort and the soldiers and civilians of the Second Road in the north rose up against the Qing Dynasty, he might have half pushed back and followed the trend anyway.

But Guanghai Jun is in Yang Zhen's hands, which really makes him a bit defensive.

Correspondingly, continuing to serve the Qing Dynasty has become a basis for him to keep the throne.

In the past two months, Li Zhu has been weighing the pros and cons, but in the end, he made the decision today to kill the pro-Ming officials, march more than ten miles out of the city, and kowtow to the Qing Emperor to plead guilty.

.

And his actions really won Huang Taiji's "favor".

Of course, Huang Taiji knew that what Li Zhu said was half true and half false, so he could not believe it in full. He also knew that there were many ministers in the court who had their hearts set on the Southern Dynasty, and they acted against it.

The reason why he turned a blind eye to this in the past was because his key strategic direction had always been in western Liaoning, and his ambition was to conquer the Southern Dynasties.

Therefore, for Huang Taiji, the Li Dynasty only needed to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. He did not want to make a big move in this direction, which would give the Ming army in western Liaoning an opportunity to take advantage of it.

But for some thorny ministers in the small court of Hanyang City, Huang Taiji certainly did not hesitate to arrest them and bring them to Shengjing City for trial and execution.

When the Santiandu Alliance was reached a few years ago, Huang Taiji asked for the main war faction of the Li Dynasty, and finally executed the three main war faction ministers Hong Yihan, Yin Ji and Wu Daji.

This time, before he could say anything, Li Zhu had already taken the initiative to do the work, which indeed made him feel some "sincerity" of submission.

Next, Huang Taiji had someone call Gushan Beizi Nikan, who was familiar with both the emperor and the ministers of Li Dynasty, and asked him to identify the head presented by Li Zhu.

And Gushan Beizi Nikan naturally recognized the people in the court, especially Jin Shangxian, who was very famous in Hanyang City. When he saw it, he immediately reported to Huang Taiji in old Jurchen words:

"Master, this is indeed the head of Kim Sang-hyun. Kim Sang-hyun is the so-called top scholar in the imperial court. There are often discussions about the Southern Dynasty. The king must have made up his mind to kill this person this time.

"

Li Zhuo, who was kneeling on the ground in front of him, couldn't understand what Gushan Beizini Kanji Li Gulu and Niao Ya said, but Huang Taiji nodded slightly after hearing it.

He raised his eyes and saw that both sides of the road outside Biti Hall were filled with thousands of heads of men, women, old and children. Knowing that those were the heads of Ming Dynasty officials and their families, he felt even more satisfied.

So, when he looked at Li Zhu again, his eyes were no longer as cold as before.

"Very good. Since you know your crime and plead guilty, I will give you another chance. But since you have not abided by the previous agreement, the covenant between me and you at Santian Ferry will be invalidated, and you will be free from me.

A new covenant must be made!”

"The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty had orders, and all the guilty officials obeyed them!"

Hearing that Huang Taiji's attitude toward him began to soften, Li Zhu felt a stone fall in his heart. He immediately agreed without even asking about the content of the new covenant.
Chapter completed!