Sure enough, once Shang Yi's memorial was announced, Nanjing immediately caused a big shock, because in the previous several political struggles, Shang Yi maintained an out-of-life attitude, but this time he took the initiative to buy it.
When he came in and clearly supported Shi Kefa and Wu Qi, he seemed to have a lot of intention to change from military to political affairs.
Now everyone knows that the Shangyi Group is the separatist force with the strongest military and strongest economic strength in the south, while Shi Kefa and Wu Di occupy the first and second auxiliary positions of the cabinet. Their joint efforts are equivalent to the central government
The combination of the highest authority and the largest real power in the local area is absolutely overwhelming. To put it extremely, Shi Kefa could have completely scattered the emperor and ordered Shang Yi to lead the army to Nanjing to station, and then take advantage of Shang Yi's powerful military force
, overwhelming opposition forces.
Therefore, many neutral officials also expressed their positions and joined the camps of Shi Kefa and Wu Di. As a result, Shi Kefa and Wu Di immediately regained the disadvantage and began to gain the upper hand.
However, Huang Zongxi, Hou Xun, Si Gongjie and others did not wait for death. After all, although the level of struggle of the Donglin Party is not high, the courage to fight has never been bad. No matter who it is, it is Emperor Wanli or the nine thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian.
Even if he knows that he will lose, he will dare to fight even if he dies. Besides, Shang Yi is now. From this point of view, the Donglin Party is quite a bit of a sword-drawing spirit.
So soon Shang Yi became their target of attack, such as the crime of being ruthless, being arrogant, being arrogant, robbing money and grain, damaging loyalty, fish and people, etc., and they would all be taken to Shang Yi's head at once.
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Shang Yi was not polite, and he didn't expect his memorial to calm the fight. Since he had taken action, he would no longer be scruples and immediately published articles in the [Hangzhou Times].
Directly attack the Donglin Party and disregard the overall situation and provoke internal struggle.
Regarding the writing, although Shang Yi didn't have much money, he had two good players, Wang Fuzhi and Li Yan, and the foundation of [Hangzhou Times], so a storm immediately broke out in Nanjing Xuan, and the Donglin Party side was indeed
They are all talented men, but because of insufficient carriers, they have limited influence. As a result, they quickly fell into a disadvantage. This proves that the most important point of the so-called public opinion is not whether your point of view is correct, but whether you can
Master the right to speak, that is, the propaganda tool.
Originally, this battle was limited to the officialdom and had little impact on the people of Nanjing. At most, some opposition people in Donglin and Fushe did not become a comprehensive turmoil like the downfall incident. However, [Hangzhou Times] joined
After that, the situation changed because now [Hangzhou Times] has a wide influence and has penetrated into almost all levels of society. It can be said that except for illiterate people, almost everyone knows that there is this newspaper, and there are many
I have seen it at least. Therefore, I have also shown all aspects of this struggle to people from all walks of life in Nanjing.
Although ordinary people do not care about the affairs of the court, merchants, craftsmen, and readers are still very concerned about it. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's control over cultural words and deeds was far less strict than that of the Qing Dynasty. Now the Nanjing court's control is also very low
Therefore, there is no need to worry about the understanding and discussion of the government affairs. It only lacks channels to understand and can only rely on listening to others' retelling. As a result, it is often spread by rumors, and the more it spreads, the more outrageous it becomes.
And [Hangzhou Times] can solve this problem. Not only did the process of this battle be written very clearly, but also added a lot of analysis and the content of the comments, of course, all illustrate the importance of joining Li Zicheng, and also to the Donglin Party. They were not polite, and they said directly that their behavior was to fight for power and ignored the overall situation. Of course, they also satisfy many people's curiosity.
Except for a few readers, most of the people at the grassroots level are typically to the soy sauce. To put it bluntly, as long as they can protect themselves, anyone who is the emperor, they are determined to avenge Chongzhen, and resist the Qing army and defend the south. In the meantime, they naturally tended toward the latter. In addition, Shi Kefa, Wu Qian, Shang Yi and others had a higher reputation among the people, so they naturally supported them. The situation also gradually became unfavorable to the opposition.
But at this moment, an unexpected event broke the deadlock.
Although this battle was held in Nanjing, the news also reached some of the Wuchang Li Zicheng's ears. Li Zicheng had been guarding against Nanming. After hearing these news, he couldn't help but feel a little restless, but he didn't Knowing the exact situation of the Nanjing court, it was not easy to act rashly. It happened that the Qing army stationed in Guide Prefecture, and Chengtian Prefecture was also starting to mobilize, and it seemed that there were signs of advancement. Therefore, Li Zicheng sent Song Xianke to Nanjing to As a reason to report military information, he could easily find out the news. Now Li Zicheng was also a minister of the Ming Dynasty in Ming Dynasty, so it was completely reasonable to do so.
Song Xiance had already found a lot of news on his way to Nanjing. It seemed that the current situation in Nanjing was very unfavorable to the Dashun Army, so he also added a lot of caution. Just when Song Xiance entered Nanjing City, he also Somehow, the deposed Shun Sect found out. Yu and a group of scholars gathered a group of people waiting for Song Xiance at the city gate, saying that they were just waiting for Song Xiance to enter Nanjing and wanted to kill the rebels and avenge the late emperor.
Fortunately, Song Xiance was more conscientious and immediately ran away when he saw that the situation was not good. He had been fighting with Li Zicheng for many years and his legs were very neat, so the literati did not pursue him. As a result, Song Xiance did not even enter Nanjing City. Then he fled back to Wuchang and told Li Zicheng that he had added fuel to the experience.
So Li Zicheng also hurriedly recruited his civil servants and generals to discuss countermeasures. The Dashun Army and the Nanming had originally lacked the basis of trust. They joined forces at that time because of the situation at that time. Therefore, after listening to Song Xianshu's words, the Dashun Army had no place. Suspicion is basically believed that Nanming was going to attack the Dashun Army. Although Shi Kefa later obtained information and sent someone to appease Li Zicheng, no one was willing to believe Nanming.
If the Dashun Army continues to stay in Wuchang, it will be trapped in the attack of the Ming and Qing armies, so it must leave. However, the north and west of Wuchang are all Qing armies, which obviously cannot be made, while the east is the Southern Ming, although it is now stationed in Wuchang. To the west of Nanjing are Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong. The Dashun Army will not be a problem to beat them. However, once these two people are defeated by themselves, the Nanming will definitely transfer Shang Yi to fight. In the view of the Dashun Army, Shang Yi and Nanming are of course together. Yes, the East obviously cannot go. The only choice of the Dashun Army is to give up Wuchang and cross the Yangtze River to flee to the southern part of Huguang. If necessary, they can also escape into Guangxi.
After deciding the route to evacuation, Li Zicheng also took action. When he fled from Guanzhong to Huguang, the total strength of the Dashun Army exceeded 200,000. When he was guarding Wuchang, the Dashun Army came with the Qing army.
After several battles, the losses were quite large, but there are still about 150,000 people, plus the soldiers' families, a total of more than 300,000 people. It is not easy to evacuate them at once.
Fortunately, although he joined forces with Nanming, Li Zicheng was always worried and had plans to retreat at any time. He prepared a lot of vehicles, horses, boats and other tools. At the same time, he also quietly sent a group of people to station in the paper workshop in Jiangnan.
The town was used for unexpected use. Therefore, the action was quick. First, the soldiers' families were divided into two routes, one route crossing the river from Wuchang and stationed in Zhifang Town; the other route crossing the river in Huangzhou and stationed in Daye, two routes.
Passers-by gathered in Xianning and then headed south.
At the same time, Li Zicheng ordered the general Tian Jianxiu to lead an army of 30,000. After crossing the river, he divided his troops to guard Jinkou Town and Jiayu to protect the flanks of the people crossing the river. Another general Liu Zongmin led 30,000 troops to capture Jiujiang and block the troops of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Originally, Shi Kefa arranged a very careful defensive plan, and prepared for the Dashun Army's southward and eastward advance. However, Nanjing had forgotten nothing at the beginning of the struggle. As a result, the defenses on both sides of the Yangtze River from Wuchang to Anqing were very empty, and
Wuchang and Huangzhou were originally Li Zicheng's defense zones, so on November 20, the Dashun Army first crossed the river from Wuchang. On November 23, the Dashun Army began to cross the river from Huangzhou and began to move south.
On the 18th, Liu Zongmin led his troops to capture Jiujiang very easily.
On November 24, the Dashun Army began to move south, and the news of Liu Zongmin's capture of Jiujiang also reached Nanjing, and the whole court immediately caused shock to the whole court. Because no one expected that the Nanjing court had not yet discussed it, and finally
What kind of attitude did Li Zicheng adopt? Li Zicheng has taken the lead in taking action.
However, the Baishun faction, who was temporarily at a disadvantage, finally found enough reason to turn the tables. Didn’t Li Zicheng take the initiative to attack Jiujiang? It means that he is not reliable at all, and his previous proposal is of course correct. Therefore, for three consecutive days, the opposition faction was the same.
The ministers all seized this reason in the court and launched a desperate attack. At the same time, many officials changed their positions and supported the opposition. However, they immediately showed a one-sided situation in the court.
The situation has developed to this point, and Shi Kefa and Wu Yan are also hard to argue, because they have always held the view of uniting with Li Zicheng, but now Li Zicheng has mainly broken through the alliance between the two sides and captured Jiujiang. So this responsibility
Of course they should pay for it.
Although the two were not convinced, because it was clearly Li Zicheng who was forced to rebel by the opposition, the responsibility was in the end, which was too unfair. But the rules in the officialdom were like this, and there was no way to be unfair. Although it was still among the people.
Many people supported them, but the Ming Dynasty never used the support of the people to decide the government affairs.
And at this moment, Qian Qianyi, the other two members of the cabinet who always remained neutral, finally expressed his attitude and joined the Democratic Party. Qian Qianyi is one of the current leaders of the Donglin Party, but
His turn of a large number of officials also led to a large number of officials' turn. Shi Kefa and Wu Qi also knew that the situation was hopeless and irreversible, so they both submitted their resignations.