Concubine Tian is not dead. She is not afraid of death, but she is reluctant to die.
The year before last, she lost a son in infancy; last year, she lost another son in infancy; this year, she gave birth to another son.
Historically, this son would also die in infancy, so Concubine Tian was overly sad and died in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.
Now that her youngest son is not even a hundred days old, how could Concubine Tian be willing to commit suicide?
Although she kicked down the stool when she was hanging, she grabbed Bai Ling with both hands and maintained her position for a quarter of an hour. After confirming that Chongzhen had left, she jumped to the ground.
Concubine Tian rowed her own boat and left the island in the middle of the lake. She quickly ran to the elephant room and brought out a majestic horse.
"drive!"
Concubine Tian got on her horse, moved very skillfully, and rode towards the palace city.
Because she was afraid of being recognized, she also changed her clothes and spread her hair to cover her face.
On the way, she saw a waist knife, and she didn't know which guard had thrown it away. Concubine Tian quickly dismounted and picked up the weapon. She galloped around the palace and wandered around for a quarter of an hour, and finally heard the cry of a baby.
Concubine Tian came to the baby, gritted her teeth and said, "The people in the palace are really untrustworthy!"
Chongzhen also made arrangements for his young son, asking his confidant eunuchs and wet nurses to leave the palace and take him to Tian Hongyu's home to feed him.
Tian Hongyu was the father of Concubine Tian, who rose to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army and the Commander of the Jinyi Guards. According to unofficial history, Tian Hongyu brought Chen Yuanyuan to the capital in an attempt to dedicate it to Chongzhen but failed, thus the story of Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan came into being.
It was obvious that both the eunuch and the wet nurse ran away, abandoning the prince in the palace, and were not willing to abide by Chongzhen's orders.
Concubine Tian picked up her young son and returned to her palace. She wanted to find gold and silver as payment.
As a result, the gold and silver jewelry disappeared without a trace, probably taken away by the eunuchs and maids. After searching for it, she only found a piece of broken silver on the ground. Concubine Tian picked up her bamboo flute and left.
Holding the child in one hand and holding the reins in the other, Concubine Tian rushed out of the Forbidden City and came to the foot of Meishan Mountain.
At this time, Chongzhen had not yet hanged himself. Concubine Tian, unaware of the situation, rode around Meishan and went straight to Xuanwu Gate. After leaving Xuanwu Gate, she did not dare to ride a horse again and ran along the inner prison with her young son in her arms. She fled out of Bei'anmen to
Near Shichahai.
"Wow wow wow wow..."
The baby kept crying, and Concubine Tian was very worried.
The streets were in chaos, and many city guards were fleeing back to their homes.
The soldiers of Dashun Army also came in from Deshengmen and Andingmen, and were heading towards the imperial city.
Concubine Tian hid in a remote place, made herself unkempt, and her clothes were stained with a lot of dust and mud, and then she relaxed and breastfed the child.
Since she had been fed by a wet nurse, Concubine Tian had almost finished breastfeeding.
The baby sucked for a long time and couldn't suck it out at all.
Concubine Tian could only keep rubbing and stimulating herself, and the baby bit her hard, which immediately caused her to be in severe pain.
…
Coal Mountain.
Li Zicheng stood in front of Chongzhen's corpse, looking at the bloody letter on the ground, his expression was extremely wonderful.
For more than half a year, although Chongzhen lay there waiting for death, he was full of resentment towards his ministers.
In other words, it was last year's absurd fund-raising that made Chongzhen completely give up on officials. He left this suicide note simply to vent his anger through Li Zicheng!
"It has been fourteen years since I ascended to the throne... Every time I think about myself, I am not the king who has subjugated the country, but all the ministers are the ministers of the country. I have died without a face to see my two ancestors, and my ancestors are buried underground. Now I take off my clothes and hair to show my hair.
I will cover my face and let the thieves split my body to repay the suffering of the people of the world for the repeated conquests and excessive extortion. If there are loyal and heroic people among the thieves, kill all the civil servants and all the military generals on my behalf, and do not harm any of my people."
Li Zicheng put away Chongzhen's suicide note and ordered: "Give him a generous burial. This eunuch who died will also be buried generously."
After only one day of chaos, order was restored in Beijing, and no large-scale looting occurred.
Niu Jinxing once again made a suggestion, hoping that the salary would not be extorted. Even if the money and food were not enough, the noble officials could be donated.
Li Zicheng thought about it and felt that he was about to ascend the throne, so he really shouldn't do what he did before. So he posted notices all over the city, hoping that wealthy people would donate money and food, and then a magical scene happened again.
Xue Guoguan, the chief minister of the cabinet, took the lead in donating three thousand taels.
Xue Guoguan felt that by donating so much, he could show his loyalty. If he donated tens of thousands of taels directly, wouldn't it prove that he was a corrupt official?
With the chief minister as an example, noble civil and military officials donated money one after another, ranging from dozens of taels to three thousand taels. They also performed comedy shows, put up houses for sale, went to the streets to set up stalls, peddled calligraphy and paintings... They all pretended to be poor.
It seems that after donating money, I can no longer afford food.
"Copy money! Coat money!"
Li Zicheng met a palace maid in the palace, and upon learning of the ugly behavior of the officials, he became furious.
Dashun soldiers quickly dispatched to pick out large houses inside and outside the city. They could not determine whose family was an official, and could only judge based on the size of the house. Many wealthy businessmen also became targets of payment.
As the head of the state, Liu Zongmin was responsible for the interrogation of Zhou Kui, an honorable person of this level.
"Your Majesty, I am wronged. The imperial court has not paid any salary for half a year. The official's family really has no money!" Zhou Kui was still stubborn.
Liu Zongmin escorted Queen Zhou's mother and Zhou Kui's wife: "You can hang yourself and leave a whole body."
The old woman didn't dare to disobey. If she didn't commit suicide, she would be hacked to death. At least she could die more decently by hanging herself.
In front of Zhou Kui and his son, he quickly committed suicide.
The father and son still refused to confess, because the family had too much money, and if they revealed Zang Yin's location, they would definitely die, but if they survived, they might still have a way to survive.
As a result, Zhou Kui's daughter-in-law was also forced to hang herself.
The father and son were so frightened that they still refused to let go.
"Very good. I have a very tough mouth. I don't know if my neck is that hard." Liu Zongmin drew his sword in anger and hacked Zhou Kui's son to death.
Blood spattered and Zhou Kui fainted from fright.
Liu Zongmin had no choice but to report truthfully, and Li Zicheng decided to come to the trial in person.
Li Zicheng's ability to pay was very rough. After meeting him, he said: "Beat him to death!"
The whip is not only dipped in water, but also in salt water.
Zhou Kui was beaten to a pulp, and when he was about to die, he finally couldn't hold on anymore and begged: "I say, I say, don't beat him again."
Zhou Kui had a house inside and outside the city, and Zang Yin's location was divided into several places.
Two days later, after the statistics were completed, Liu Zongmin came to report: "Zhou Kui's family has five hundred thousand taels of silver."
"It's not a lot." Li Zicheng commented.
Of course it's not much, because Xue Guoguan, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, was tortured and gave away a total of 2.8 million taels!
Half a month later, tens of millions of taels were credited to the account.
If divided by groups, the eunuchs have the most money, the nobles have the second most money, then the civil servants have their turn, and the wealthy businessmen are at the bottom.
This is logical. Those great eunuchs are often sent to supervise the army, and there is even a superintendent to supervise the world's troops! How much military expenditure does this have to embezzle?
In addition, a few years before Chongzhen ascended the throne, he sent eunuchs to serve as local tax inspectors, and also handed over the financial power of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Household Affairs to the eunuchs. How much money would be embezzled?
Xungui ranks second, it is purely the savings of past generations.
For more than two hundred years, nobles have made money from generation to generation, accumulating a huge amount of wealth.
Faced with more than 60 million taels of silver, Li Zicheng sighed.
He found that he did have money, and it was more than enough, but where could he buy food? An army of hundreds of thousands of people would eat horse chews every day, so how much food would be consumed!
Poor Li Zicheng was so poor that he only had money left.
If this continues, Dashun's army will be without food in three to five months at most.
Inspecting grain was of no avail. The grain merchants and wealthy households had food stocks that could barely supply the people of Beijing. Once Li Zicheng used all of it to make military rations, the people of the entire city of Beijing would starve to death.
If all the people in the capital died, what kind of emperor would Li Zicheng be?
It was still the change brought about by Zhao Han. The south itself did not have enough grain, so how could it be allowed to be transported to the north? The north did not transport grain to the north, and Henan and Shandong suffered from famines for years. Beijing could not get commercial grain from other provinces at all.
"We still have to fight!" Li Zicheng called Liu Zongmin and the military adviser.
Niu Jinxing said: "There are still soldiers from Jizhen in North Zhili. We may recruit Hong Chengchou to surrender, and Ma Ke, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, to surrender. We order Ma Ke to guard Shanhaiguan, and we will send troops to Shandong with Hong Chengchou to kill Zuo Liangyu.
You may be able to get a lot of military rations. It is best to go all the way south and fight to Jianghuai, which is the real place of wealth."
"Let's do it!" Li Zicheng decided.
If you don't go south, you're waiting to die. Dashun's army will starve to death!
Therefore, Li Zicheng sent people to recruit Hong Chengchou and Ma Ke, and at the same time, he made intensive preparations for his enthronement.
After ascending the throne, you have to fight.
Just like Zhang Xianzhong chose to attack Zhao Han, Li Zicheng's ultimate target was also Zhao Han. They all went to the whole world for food. Except for several provinces in the southwest, only Zhao Han's territory had food!
These poor devils are very likely to join forces to attack Zhao Han.
Because Zhao Han belongs to Dabo SS, he can explode food after killing him.
…
Sun Chuanting walked out of the prison in confusion. His imprisonment had nothing to do with Chongzhen, but was purely caused by the aftermath of the party struggle.
It was also a miracle that he was released from prison this time. All the officials in the prison were arrested and tortured.
Sun Chuanting didn't have a house in Beijing at all. Where could he hide his money?
No matter how incorruptible Sun Chuanting was, before he could even buy a house in Beijing, he was sent to Shaanxi as governor to suppress bandits. From then on, he conquered the east and west, leading troops to serve the king every time he returned to the capital. The only two exceptions were when he returned to the capital and was imprisoned.
In the end, when he became the governor, the imperial court could not even pay military salaries. Where could Sun Chuanting go for corruption?
After being tortured, Sun Chuanting confessed truthfully. It seems that the person who tortured him felt that it was outrageous, so he simply let him go.
Every wealthy family in the capital cried bitterly.
Sun Chuanting was penniless, so he had no choice but to look for help from his friends. When he came to the house, he found that most of his friend's family had died tragically, having been tortured and beaten to death. There were several coffins parked in the yard, and he didn't even have the money to hire someone to bury them.
The people in the capital were also very miserable. It was true that they were not affected by the military disaster. However, Li Zicheng raided a large number of grain merchants, causing the price of grain in the capital to skyrocket again.
Six taels of silver and one stone of rice. Who can afford this?
Dead bodies can be seen everywhere on the street, and some people even steal the bodies home to eat.
very hungry.
Sun Chuanting was about to faint from hunger. He didn't have enough to eat in prison, and he was forced to pay without eating for a whole day.
Dragging his wounds all over his body, he walked towards Beicheng District in a daze, where there was a friend of Sun Chuanting's who might be lucky enough to get a bite of food.
After finally reaching the destination, Sun Chuanting stood outside the door and could hear the wailing inside.
It seems there is no food to eat.
Sun Chuanting went in to pay homage, and after asking some questions, he learned more about the officials.
Only a handful of officials committed suicide for their country, and some hid at home and refused to surrender. Most of the officials quickly defected to the new emperor. However, there was no difference, they were all tortured, and countless people were beaten to death these days.
Sun Chuanting staggered away from his friend's house, not knowing where he was going.
In a daze, he walked into an alley, and several sallow-looking men ran past him.
These people came outside a small courtyard and started chattering there.
"It's here. The previous landlord's name was Deng Xin. He went south to join relatives a year ago. A few days ago, a woman came here with a baby in her arms. I heard that she also bought a few kilograms of sorghum."
"How many kilograms of sorghum are there really? Can she keep it as a woman?"
"This woman was very fierce. She carried a knife with her. She seemed to be a practicing practitioner. Wu Er was snatched by her and she killed him and ran away."
"No matter how powerful she is, she is just a single woman. If we all stand shoulder to shoulder, we will definitely be able to restrain her."
"Her few kilograms of sorghum are probably almost finished. I wonder if there is any money left."
"Let's talk after we go in."
"..."
Sun Chuanting was so hungry that he had scars all over his body. He didn't know what to do. When he saw a group of gangsters trying to do bad things, he simply walked over and stopped them.
"Leave far away!"
Before Sun Chuanting could say anything, the gangsters started to attack him fiercely.
"Collide!"
The courtyard door was bolted on the inside. These guys took a few steps back and tried to open the courtyard door with all their strength.
"boom!"
After seven or eight blows in succession, the courtyard door fell down, and several gangsters could not stand firmly and fell into the courtyard along with the gate.
"ah!"
"Spare your life!"
Before these guys could stand up, there was a woman with disheveled hair slashing at them with a sword, and the sound of a baby crying could be heard in the room.
"What a neat skill!"
Sun Chuanting clapped his hands in admiration, rushed over to snatch the stick, and swung the stick to attack the woman in front and back.
(I have things to do these two days, so there may only be two updates today.)
