Since the attack could not be conquered for a long time, Fei Ruhe had already divided his troops.
One thousand regular soldiers and two thousand peasant soldiers went to take over the defense of Nanjing.
Three thousand regular soldiers and many civilians stayed in Taiping Mansion to continue the siege.
The remaining soldiers were divided into occupying surrounding prefectures and counties.
"Bingyuan, someone sent a letter."
"Bring it here."
Fei Ruhe knew that it was Xu Ying who sent it. The overall situation in Jiangnan was decided, and Xu Ying quietly went to Yangzhou.
This letter is very thick. If the piece is calculated based on weight, there will definitely be an additional courier fee.
Fei Ruhe took a cursory glance, looked towards the north, and muttered: "Chongzhen must have gone crazy." He then ordered, "Someone, send this letter into the city."
A soldier rushed to the city, holding his shield and shouting: "Don't shoot arrows, don't shoot arrows, I'm here to deliver a message!"
"Shoot to death with random arrows!"
Zheng Eryang, the governor of Anlu, was afraid of the bad news.
Zheng Yu, the prefect of Taiping, quickly persuaded: "Fujun, the two armies are fighting. If you don't want to kill the envoy, let's see what military information he sends."
Zheng Eryang was inconvenient to have a conflict with the magistrate, so he had the envoy hanged up.
The two of them stepped back and entered the tower to read the letter.
Zheng Eryang only glanced at the first page for a few times, and then quickly turned to the back. After flipping through the pages, he suddenly stopped, his whole body trembling.
Zheng Yu took the letter, confirmed that he had read it correctly, and then sat down on the ground.
This is a newspaper sent from the capital. Several newspapers are put together, and they all contain the list of convicted officials.
In the history of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, it took half a year for the emperor to begin a large-scale liquidation to deal with the officials who had neglected their duties when the Manchus broke through the customs, including those who failed to encircle and suppress the bandits.
He killed thirty-three eunuchs, civil servants, and generals in one go, and many others were imprisoned for their crimes. Almost everyone was demoted and reprimanded.
Now the implication was even wider, forty-seven people were directly killed, and Xiong Wencan was finally imprisoned.
I don’t know who impeached him, saying that the Taiping Mansion had fallen, and that Zheng Eryang and Zheng Yu were all traitors. So Chongzhen ordered the arrest of their families, the man was exiled to the army, and the woman was sent to the Jiaofang Division.
Zheng Yu burst into tears at this moment: "Your Majesty is confused. Even if you want to ask questions, you should send someone to take a look. We have not yet surrendered, but we are punished by demoting our officials. Doesn't it make the frontline generals feel chilly? No one will be willing to serve the country in the future.
!”
"Why send people to watch? The river is blocked," Zheng Eryang sighed, "Even if we can cross the river smoothly, you and I will definitely be guilty. Haha, it's just a party dispute."
Zheng Yu said angrily: "How long has it been? The DPRK and the Central Government are still fighting among the parties. A governor, a prefect, a fortified city, and tens of thousands of Jiangbei new troops, are they all bargaining chips for their party fights?"
Zheng Eryang was disheartened: "The situation between the DPRK and China is like fire and water. It is a situation of no end."
Zheng Eryang, military theorist and medical scientist.
This king was upright and upright. He once abolished King Lu's right to collect rents and conscripts, and also offended a lot of eunuchs and gentry. It was so normal that he was slandered as a thief, and even the Donglin Party did not help to speak out.
In other words, the Donglin Party has too much time to take care of itself.
The Donglin Party was clamoring to resurrect Zhou Yanru as its leader and assistant, so Xue Guoguan naturally refused to sit still and wait for death.
Therefore, Xue Guoguan took advantage of Chongzhen's opportunity to punish officials and instigated party members to impeach the Donglin Party on a large scale. Zheng Eryang was one of the unlucky ones.
Zheng Yu, the prefect of Taiping, was framed incidentally. Who asked him to defend the city with Zheng Eryang?
Zheng Yu looked through the list of guilty officials again and found that at least half of the commanders and governors from various places had been convicted. Even the eunuchs who were in charge of the army were killed several times. Emperor Chongzhen was really angry this time.
The most ridiculous thing is that Chongzhen only dared to attack eunuchs, civil servants, and generals who lost their troops.
As long as the military commanders still have troops in their hands, Chongzhen will always give "small punishments but big warnings".
For example, Zuo Liangyu was afraid of the enemy and fled from the battlefield. He was only demoted to the third level and fined several months' salary.
The generals who dared to fight tough battles fought to the death for the country and killed the enemy. They might be beheaded by the emperor after the army was finished fighting. And those generals who fled before the battle could keep their official positions and heads because they kept the army.
Who wants to fight anymore?
Zheng Yu became angrier as he watched, and suddenly darkened: "Mr. Qian'an, our families have been lost, our children and grandchildren have been exiled from the army, and my wife and daughter have been relegated to lowly status. I am worthy of the imperial court, but the imperial court is sorry for me. I will surrender the city to the bandits. Qian'an
Do you still want to be loyal to the Hunjun?"
Zheng Eryang felt as if his soul had left his body, sitting there like a dead person.
He worked hard for the country all his life, but in the end he was "captured as a traitor", and his family was exiled and sent into the army. But he was not a traitor. Nanjing surrendered, but Taiping Prefecture did not surrender, and even organized troops to go out of the city to attack at night.
After a long time, Zheng Eryang stood up slowly and said feebly: "The emperor is ignorant and has no moral principles. The Ming Dynasty will surely perish, so just offer the city."
The two went out together, called the magistrate, and the three of them surrendered together.
Following them in surrender were more than 10,000 Jiangbei new troops trained by Shi Kefa.
…
Nanjing.
Li Xiangjun put on a Confucian shirt and stood with the swordsman carrying a sword, looking up at the river in the distance.
I heard that King Zhao Tian is coming.
Zhao Han came from Zhenjiang. After Nanjing surrendered, Zhenjiang surrendered. The surrendered officers and soldiers waited for several days before Datong soldiers finally arrived to take over the city.
This was called surrendering in anticipation of the wind, because Zhao Han's army was still far away from Zhenjiang at that time.
"I'm coming!"
The soldiers and civilians of Nanjing shouted, "There are so many people who came to watch today."
As the Minister of Civil Affairs in Nanjing, those who were demoted were temporarily under the management of Zhen Shu, who was responsible for helping to maintain order inside and outside Nanjing.
Zhen Shu is seventy years old this year and comes from a large landowner family. When she was young, she was known as a poor person. She went to Beijing to participate in the imperial examination. She did not bring servants or take a carriage or horse. She walked to the capital for more than two months and took the opportunity to observe the people's sentiments in various places along the way.
He served as a local official, punished the powerful, and encouraged farmers to cultivate mulberry trees. He had outstanding political achievements, so he was promoted to a capital official.
Then, there is no more.
Plunging headlong into the vortex of party strife and wasting decades, Zhen Shu has become the same person she hated when she was young, except that she is still poor and frugal.
Standing at the front of the pier were Datong officials who had arrived in recent days.
Zhen Shu looked at the backs of those officials and suddenly felt envious. These officials were all young, under forty years old, and some were even under twenty years old.
What a beautiful and beautiful youth, and you can concentrate on doing things without getting involved in party disputes and being unable to escape.
How wonderful would it be if I could be forty years younger?
Zhen Shu's eyes were moist. He didn't know who he was crying for, but he just wanted to cry.
The fleet came and stopped at the shore.
A group of personal guards disembarked first, and then Zhao Han strode off.
"Greetings to the main town!" Datong officials bowed and saluted.
Zhen Shu, who had been demoted many times, subconsciously wanted to kneel down, but then she remembered the warning. This King Zhao didn't seem to like kneeling down.
"Long live King Zhao, long live!"
A large number of gentry and common people knelt down, and some demoted officials followed suit.
Zhen Shu could only kneel down and worship. Others were kneeling down. If she didn't kneel down, wouldn't she have to be remembered by Zhao Han?
When he was young, his bones were very hard, but as he got older, he inevitably lacked calcium. After decades of party struggle, he had already lost his firm will.
Li Xiangjun stood on tiptoes and looked around. When Zhao Han approached, she finally saw his face clearly.
Because of the hot weather, Zhao Han was dressed very shabbily.
The linen clothes made of ramie were simply linen clothes. Although they were made for coolness and breathability, they were so different from his identity that at first glance he thought he was coming from a poor family.
At this moment, no one dared to laugh at Zhao Han's dress, but everyone felt that King Zhao Tian was really frugal.
Zhao Han smiled and raised his hand: "Everyone, get up quickly. The sun is making the ground hot. Don't burn your knees."
Countless people stood up one after another, lamenting that King Zhao was so kind that he was worried that their knees would be burned.
Summer in Nanjing is so damn hot.
Zhao Han only wore a linen shirt, and his vest was soaked with sweat. He just wanted to find a cool place to rest.
Hou Fangyu mingled among the crowd and observed secretly.
Zhao Han's image at this moment was completely different from Hou Fangyu's imagination. He had heard that King Zhao Tian was very young, but he should be a big man with a beard, but he didn't expect that he didn't even have a beard.
Even in Jiangnan, there are very few young people who shave their beards.
"This Nanjing city is really high!" Zheng Sen looked up at the city wall and exclaimed.
"Yes, it's really high." Li Yu also came to Nanjing for the first time.
The highest point of the Nanjing City Wall is 20 meters, and the lowest point is 14 meters.
Zheng Sen followed the team and walked through the wide and thick city gate, feeling unspeakable pride in his heart.
Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng have already resigned from office, and they are all living in Nanjing. At this moment, they can only mix in the crowd, and they are very anxious in their hearts, not knowing how to meet Zhao Han.
They want to become officials directly instead of becoming petty officials.
Zhao Han was taken to the Duke's Mansion of Wei State. The Xu family had more than ten gardens in Nanjing, each of which cost tens of thousands of dollars to build.
"Have you dealt with all the Wei Guogong lineage?" Zhao Han asked.
"The nobles and nobles haven't dealt with it yet. We're just waiting for the town chief to make the decision himself." Fang Shenghong replied.
The Fang brothers surrendered their territory very early. The elder brother is now the prefect of Guangdong, and the younger brother was directly sent to Nanjing to take charge of the work.
Zhao Han said: "Those nobles will not be wronged if they are all killed. There is no need to waste time on retrial. All the men will be sent to mine, the women will be ordered to remarry, and the children will be separated and sent to various institutions."
"Yes!" Fang Shenghong replied.
Zhao Han added: "Call all the Datong Society members."
These Datong Society scholars were equivalent to the underground party, and Zhao Han would personally meet them wherever he went.
"Greetings to the main town!" More than thirty people came in at once.
Zhao Han stood up and returned the courtesy: "Thank you for your hard work. If you want to be an official, you can start as a mayor, or you can continue to work in the north. You don't have to rush to answer, I will give you half a month to consider."
Everyone sat down happily, most of them wanted to be the mayor.
With their status as Datong scholars, as long as they don't make mistakes in the future, they will be promoted very quickly.
Zhao Han suddenly looked at Li Xiangjun and said with a smile: "There is also a female gentleman."
Li Xiangjun stood up in a hurry: "General...General Town, I begged all the brothers to bring me in for a look."
"Don't be nervous, I won't punish you," Zhao Han asked with a smile, "What's your name?"
Li Xiangjun replied: "My real name is Wu Xiang, but now my name is Li Xiangjun."
