In 1644 AD, Li Zicheng broke through the Forbidden City, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen was helpless, and finally hanged himself at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve four, and the Ming Dynasty was also declared extinct.
Emperor Chongzhen was relieved, but at this time, it was an eventful time, who could care about how a dead monarch would be buried?
But in the end, Emperor Chongzhen was still buried in the imperial mausoleum, without throwing his body in the wilderness, and it was Li Zicheng who forced him to hang himself who allowed Emperor Chongzhen to retain his last dignity.
It's just that Li Zicheng did not do this very well.
On March 19, 1644, Li Zicheng's Dashun army entered the inner city of the Forbidden City from the Changyi Gate in the early morning of the same day.
He was riding a fast horse, holding a three-eyed gun, and a dozen eunuchs fleeing in the direction of Donghua Gate.
Zhu Youzhen, who wanted to break through, was blocked by the rebels' arrows in front of Donghua Gate, and in desperation, he turned his horse's head and ran to Chaoyang Gate, but as a result, Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, who was stationed here, pretended to be deaf and dumb and refused to open the door.
At this time, Zhu Youzhen was out of options, and when he was disheartened, the eunuch next to him said that it was better to go to Andingmen to give it a try, maybe there was a chance.
Zhu Youzhen thought about it, and it was only like this, it was better than being trapped here, a group of people turned their horses' heads and hurried to Andingmen, but what Zhu Youzhen didn't expect was that Andingmen ruined all his hopes.
It's not that there are rebels here in Andingmen, on the contrary, there is no one here, but the city gate is locked, and the eunuch has slashed it with an axe several times, but it still can't be split.
At the same time, the sky was getting brighter and brighter, and if it continued like this, it would soon be discovered by the rebels.
At this moment, Emperor Chongzhen can be regarded as realizing what it means to call the heavens and the earth to be unspiritual, even if he is the emperor, he is still trapped in the city wall and cannot get out.
I can only go back to the palace, at least it is safer.
Back in the palace, Emperor Chongzhen sat on the ground and sighed, and on the floor, there were still blood stains left by him when he stabbed his concubine and daughter to death last night.
Everything made Emperor Chongzhen feel almost broken, and when he rang the bell in front of the palace and tried to summon the ministers, no one came, which made him completely desperate.
In despair, Emperor Chongzhen stumbled towards the back mountain, and the eunuchs who had followed him had long since run out, leaving only Wang Chengen, who had served him for many years.
In this way, the two monarchs and ministers supported each other and came to the back mountain, standing on the mountain, Emperor Chongzhen could vaguely hear the shouting and killing sound from the direction of the palace, and he could also vaguely see the rebel army in front of the main hall
This situation made him understand that Da Ming was really over.
Who is to blame? In the 18 years since he ascended the throne, Emperor Chongzhen can be said to be conscientious and diligent, and what he thinks about most every day is how to save this debacle situation.
And in order to save money and save more military spending, a large banquet has not been held in the palace for several years.
But even so, it has come to this point, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, and now, it seems that it is about to die, even if he is unwilling, but there is nothing he can do.
"In the seventeenth year since I ascended the throne, although I bowed down to the bandits, and the heavens were angry, all the ministers mistakenly obeyed, causing the rebels to approach the Jingshi. When I died, I saw my ancestors in the ground without a face, and I took off my crown and covered my face with my hair. Let the thief divide the corpse, and don't hurt a single person. "--- Emperor Chongzhen
After leaving a suicide note, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, and Wang Chengen, the great eunuch on the side, also found a tree opposite and hanged himself in front of Emperor Chongzhen, who he had watched since he was a child.
Three-foot white silk, Emperor Chongzhen can be regarded as relieved, but in the Forbidden City, Li Zicheng's rebel army is still burning, killing and looting.
When he first entered the inner city, because he couldn't find the whereabouts of Emperor Chongzhen, Li Zicheng was very anxious, and if Emperor Chongzhen escaped, it would be very troublesome, so he ordered the soldiers to find Emperor Chongzhen over and over again.
To live to see people, to die to see corpses.
At the same time, he also ordered that if anyone found and handed over Emperor Chongzhen, not only would he be rewarded with a reward of 10,000 taels, but he could also be a marquis, and if he hid, he would directly kill the whole family.
It wasn't until three days later that a team of soldiers found Emperor Chongzhen who had been out of breath for a long time in the back mountain, and after reporting Li Zicheng, Emperor Chongzhen's body was also dragged outside the Donghua Gate.
At the same time, Empress Zhou, who had already hanged herself, was also placed next to her husband Emperor Chongzhen.
After the news of Emperor Chongzhen's death came out, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were taken aback, and Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng, cried all the way, and when he came to Zhu Youzhen's corpse, he beat his chest and cried almost out of breath.
After that, he was brought to Li Zicheng, and in the face of King Chuang, he even "touched the steps with his head, and the blood flowed on the face", which made Li Zicheng very emotional.
When Li Zicheng asked to surrender him, Li Guozhen said that as long as Li Zicheng promised not to destroy the tomb of Emperor Ming and bury Emperor Chongzhen with the gift of the Son of Heaven, he would surrender.
Li Zicheng agreed to this request one by one, and in this way, the aftermath of Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou was settled.
It's just that Li Zicheng promised to return the promise, but he was not responsible for the size of the funeral and all kinds of expenses, and he was even said to let him pay for the burial of Emperor Chongzhen, and all of them had to be figured out by the Ming Dynasty officials.
This is why Li Zicheng is not open-minded, the reason why he agreed to bury Emperor Chongzhen is to win over the officials of the Ming Dynasty, in order to buy people's hearts, so as to show his "benevolence", but after agreeing, he did not pay for it, so he really looked a little childish.
If he could bury Emperor Chongzhen in a glorious manner, presumably those officials would also be grateful to him, but unfortunately, he didn't do it.
In the end, it was Zhao Yigui, an official of Changping Prefecture, who begged his grandfather to tell his grandmother to find a local rich family to raise donations, so he reluctantly scraped together some silver to bury Emperor Chongzhen.
First of all, when Emperor Chongzhen was alive, he did not build his own mausoleum, so he could only be buried in the tomb of Tian Guifei.
Secondly, when Emperor Chongzhen was buried, due to the hurry, coupled with the shortage of silver, there was no coffin, and it was unrealistic to redo it, and in the end, it was the principal Xu Zuomei who came up with an idea to take Tian Guifei's coffin out of the coffin and put Emperor Chongzhen's coffin in.
After several tosses, Emperor Chongzhen was finally buried in the tomb of Tian Guifei, according to historical records, in order to conform to tradition, in the burial, Emperor Chongzhen's coffin was placed in the middle of the tomb, Tian Guifei was on the left side, and Queen Zhou was placed on the right side, after the placement was completed, the stone door of the tomb was closed, and the tunnel at the entrance was filled.
After that, Zhao Yigui donated some silver and organized people to build a five-foot-high wall around the mausoleum and carry out simple worship, which can be regarded as putting Emperor Chongzhen into the ground.
Although the funeral is extremely shabby, it is much better than abandoning the corpse wilderness, and it can be regarded as allowing Emperor Chongzhen to retain the last dignity.
According to statistics, Emperor Chongzhen's entire funeral cost a total of two hundred and thirty-three taels of silver, most of which came from Zhao Yigui and other officials and wealthy households near Changping.
Is it that they are very poor and have no money? Really, Li Zicheng obediently took out a lot of money as soon as he was scared.
For example, Wei Zaode, the first assistant of the cabinet, when Li Zicheng's troops were in the city, Emperor Chongzhen asked him for advice on how to retreat from the enemy, but this person kept silent and was silent, so angry that Emperor Chongzhen was angry on the spot, but he still kept silent.
After the city was broken, Wei Zaode was caught in front of Li Zicheng, and in the face of Li Zicheng asking him, as the head of the cabinet, why he didn't die with the old lord (referring to Emperor Chongzhen), Wei Zaode was ashamed to say something that made Li Zicheng feel shameless.
"Fang seeks utility, then dare to die?" (I am preparing to serve the new imperial court, how can I dare to die.) --- Wei Zaode
It is such a high-ranking official Houlu's cabinet chief, after learning that Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself, he closed his door and was not moved at all, if he had no money, it would be fine, but under the coercion of the general Liu Zongmin, he obediently handed over tens of thousands of taels of silver.
There is also Chen Yan, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, who trusted Chongzhen a lot when he was alive, and successively let him serve as the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites, the secretary of the household department and other important positions, but this person is not only mediocre, but also wantonly attacks others and deceives Chongzhen.
Especially when Li Zicheng attacked Shanxi, Emperor Chongzhen wanted to transfer Wu Sangui to resist Li Zicheng, and the entire court agreed, but Chen Geng was the only one who objected, which eventually led to the failure of the transfer of troops and the loss of the fighter.
After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Chen Yan took the initiative and handed over 40,000 taels of silver to the rebel army, but was eventually killed by Liu Zongminge.
Similar to this kind of thing, in the capital when the Ming Dynasty fell, it can be said that there are countless people, many former Ming Dynasty officials, actively or passively handed over a large amount of silver to Li Zicheng, according to historical records, Li Zicheng in the capital during that time, a total of more than 70 million taels of silver were scavenged, and other kinds of jewelry are countless.
Not long ago, Emperor Chongzhen begged these people many times to let them donate some silver to supplement military expenses, but there were few responders, and even Emperor Chongzhen's father-in-law Zhou Kui, in order to donate less, actually ran to the palace and found his daughter Queen Zhou to make a fuss, until Queen Zhou took out her savings to him, and did not give up.
But when Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were buried, these former high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty disappeared without a trace one by one, ignoring the burial of Emperor Chongzhen, lest they be implicated and affect their future prospects.
In the end, it was the petty official Zhao Yigui who gave everything he had, so that Emperor Chongzhen could be buried.