Li Zicheng Chapter 22 Chapter 1

The Qing army crossed Beijing from late October and marched from Liangxiang to Zhuozhou, going deeper into three ways: one was from Laishui out of Yizhou, one was from Xincheng out of Xiong county, and the other was from Dingxing out of Ansu (1), and there was a siege of Baoding. By the beginning of November, the Qing soldiers crossed Baoding to the south and broke Gaoyang, and Sun Chengzong, a university scholar who had made meritorious contributions to the defense of the Qing soldiers outside Shanhaiguan, was seventy-six years old, told the old man at home, lived in Gaoyang City, led his family to fight with the Qing soldiers, and the whole family was sacrificed. After the tenth day of the first year, Chongzhen got this news and was very shocked. "How good it is for the soldiers to go deep into Kisuke like this, as if they were in no man's land!" He walked around the Qianqing Palace, sighing from time to time, "Alas, Lu Xiangsheng, it is of no use at all, it is too negative!" He said in his heart, pushing all his grievances on Lu Xiangsheng, mentioning that Zhu Had written an edict, he severely accused Lu Xiangsheng of fearing the enemy and avoiding battle, and the laborers were useless, and withdrew the Shang Fang Sword. He very much wanted to find someone to replace Lu Xiangsheng as the governor of the world, but he couldn't think of a suitable person. In his heart, Hong Chengzuo was a candidate, but Hong Chengzuo was still on his way to Beijing, and he was not in a hurry.

(1) Ansu - now Xushui.

This morning, as usual, he got up in the middle of nowhere, in a group of palace maidens

After the service, he freshened up, put on the Chang Dynasty crown dress, and then walked out of the Yang De Zhai (1) to the courtyard in front of the Qianqing Palace to burn incense and worship the heavens. After performing the four prostrations, he silently prayed for a while and returned to the room at the westernmost end of the Qianqing official. In order to be bored, he summoned the empress, the prince, the concubine, and the princess to ask for peace as usual.

(1) Yang De Zhai - Behind the Qianqing Palace, is the place where the Chongzhen Emperor slept.

Changing into a dark dragon yellow satin robe, he sat down in front of the imperial case to approve the documents. He had already reviewed all kinds of documents on military affairs for eleven years, and he had personally written countless edicts, but every time he faced this royal case, he was worried. The various pieces of music piled up every day on the case and the various tang newspapers everywhere were like hills, and almost no document would make him happy. Some of these documents report on the serious situation of the famine and are full of shocking words and phrases such as "a thousand miles of red land," "people are cut off," and "eating for a change of son," some of them report the riots of "rogue thieves" and "Tukou" and the tragic appearance of the soldiers being hot, and some report that the Qing troops have continued to advance after going deep into Kisuke, breaking down what prefectures and counties, how badly they have been burned, how many Ding Zhuang and cultivating cattle have been taken captive, as well as some local officials fleeing from the wind, and some local official cities being destroyed and martyred. Such documents made him have to look at them every day, but he really did not want to see them, did not dare to look at them. Sometimes, he was eager to kick the imperial case over.

Now, his mind was particularly heavy, and he did not immediately approve the documents, but looked down at the bronze incense burner on the imperial case. A palace maid held in both hands a peony petal-type silver tire stacked red tray made by the Yongle Year Orchard Factory (1), on which was placed a kiln (2) blue and white lid bowl containing bird's nest soup and a silver spoon, and gently walked into the warm cabinet. Another palace maid took the lid bowl and silver spoon from the tray, placed it in front of the emperor, and casually lifted the lid. Chongzhen glanced at the palace maid, then picked up the silver spoon and slowly drank the bird's nest soup.

(1) Orchard Factory - the place where the royal lacquerware was made in the palace in the early Ming Dynasty, near the current Beijing Library. The red trays and food boxes made are very valuable.

(2) Chengyao - The imperial kiln and official kiln porcelain during the Ming Dynasty, referred to as chengyao, are the most valuable in Ming porcelain.

He took from under a peach-red agate-carved Double Dragon Guardian Sun paperweight a list of petitions from the Cabinet, on which were inscribed the names of ten people, some to be conferred on such official positions, some to be granted to such official positions, some to be elected, some to be transferred (1). It is said that in the present situation in which the enemy is deeply penetrated, there are many urgent matters waiting for him, and in addition to the matter of granting promotions like this, since he has gone through the bureaucracy and the cabinet, he can not bother much, and if he agrees, he will approve the word "can", and if he does not agree with that person, he will check out his name. However, the Chongzhen Emperor picked up this less important document, because he was afraid of contacting those documents related to war and famine, and second, even in some small matters, he was often very uneasy about his subordinates, and developed a habit of "doing everything personally".

(1) Selection and transfer of grants - initial selection, granting of official positions, called selection. A migration is an upgrade.

He picked up the list and looked at it several times, unable to make a decision. Some people's names he knew, some he didn't know. As he studied the names he knew, many questions arose in his mind: Isn't this man someone's countryman? Isn't that person someone's protégé? Also, did this person change from Imperial History to Principal, was it out of someone's intention? ...... He pondered, suspected, and had to put his hand in his hand

Zhu Pen put down.

At this moment, the eunuch (1) Wang Cheng'en, the superintendent of ceremonies, walked in with a document and respectfully placed it on the imperial case. Chongzhen was afraid that there would be another bad military situation or famine, and asked suspiciously:

(1) Si Li Supervisor Bingbi Eunuch - Si Li Jian is one of the twelve prisons in the palace, and his position is the most important. Bingbi eunuch was an official of the Si Li Supervisor and was the secretary of the emperor's inner court.

"What instrument?"

"Emperor Qi, this is the transcript of Liu Yuliang, a university scholar, who was just sent to the duty room of the Si Li Supervisor (1) just now."

(1) Clerical Room - an institution belonging to the Celebrant of Ceremonies, which is responsible for receiving and sending documents.

"Liu Yuliang... What's up? ”

"Because of the deep penetration of the horse, Kisuke was corrupted, and he begged Grandpa Banzai to send him to inspect the reinforcements in the towns."

Chongzhen was suddenly overjoyed: "What? He's going to inspect the towns for reinforcements? ”

"Yes, Sir."

"Read it to me! Read it to me! ”

Wang Cheng'en picked up Liu Yuliang's recital and recited it in a tone rich in depression and frustration. Many of the sentences in the song were written passionately and generously, full of the passion of loyalty and patriotism, which deeply touched Wang Cheng'en, and he could not help but tremble in his voice and boil with blood. Of course, Chongzhen was also very moved, and nodded with a smile as he listened, tears flashed in his eyes, and at the same time said in his heart: "Rare! Rare! When the song was finished, Chongzhen had already made a major decision and decisively commanded:

"Go, quickly draw up a plan for me, and send Liu Yuliang to replace Lu Xiangsheng as the governor of Tianxia Qinwang."

"What about Lu Xiangsheng?" Wang Cheng'en asked timidly.

"He came to Beijing to listen to the survey!"

Wang Cheng'en's heart jumped, and he secretly glanced at the emperor's face. He knew that Lu Xiangsheng had not lost a battle, and the emperor usually misheard the lies of Gao Qiqian and Yang Sichang before making such a decision against Lu Xiangsheng. But he did not dare to say a word, so he had to go out according to the emperor's instructions. He had just walked to the porch of the Qianqing Palace, and Chongzhen called him back again. He bowed down in front of the emperor, waiting for a new command. But the emperor didn't say anything, obviously he couldn't wait for the eunuch Bingbi to draw up the will on his behalf, and he lifted it up like a wolf pen and quickly wrote a handwritten edict:

The first assistant Liu Yuliang neglected to invite the supervisor, and the love words were generous and special. Before the auxiliary minister went to the Baoding Army, the governor of the towns, the camera attacked, drove out the rebels, and quickly performed skin skills to secure the state. Until Lu Xiangsheng was afraid and stagnant, he really hated it, so he immediately stripped away his own and various posts, and came to Beijing to listen to the survey, and admired this!

After he had written down this simple edict, he read it himself, put down his Zhu pen, glanced at Wang Cheng'en, and then read other documents, and Wang Cheng'en picked up the emperor's edict and another stack of read music on the imperial case, and respectfully withdrew.

Although Liu Yuliang, a university scholar, was not a suitable commander in Chongzhen's eyes, because he was already very dissatisfied with Lu Xiangsheng and was anxious to change the military situation of Kifu, he decided such a major issue very hastily. He has always been a man who is accustomed to being clever and self-assured, so even if he makes the most stupid decisions, he thinks that he is wise and decisive.

He got up and walked around the house. In this warm pavilion, there are two pots of precious plum blossoms, one is a green calyx plum and the other is a jade butterfly plum, both in full bloom. But for two days Chongzhen had never paid attention, and only now had he suddenly seen them and smelled their faint fragrance. A palace maid saw the emperor looking at the jade butterfly plum, with a smile on her face, and pointed to a pot of flowers next to the vermilion plate dragon pillar and said:

"Emperor, this is a pot of peonies sent from Caoqiao (1) yesterday, just opened."

(1) Caoqiao - in the southern suburbs of Beijing, ten miles from You'anmen. The area around Fengtai and Caoqiao in the Ming Dynasty was a place to raise flowers and grow vegetables. Farmers used greenhouses and fire temperatures to make peonies bloom during the lunar month of October and supply fresh cucumbers and toon buds to the palace on New Year's Day.

Chongzhen approached the flowerpot and looked at it for a while, and said in his heart, "Such a good flower, I would not have noticed!" He praised the palace maid and said:

"Very good, there is infinite femininity in grace and luxury. What's the name? ”

"I heard it's called Hibiscus Three Changes."

"This one pours fresh. Why is it called Hibiscus Three Changes? ”

"Because it is as clean as snow in the morning, it has become tender yellow after a while, and it has changed again at noon, with a hint of redness in the pink and white, like a girl's cheeks, until night."

"Was it sent by Grass Bridge?"

"It was sent yesterday by warm car from The Grass Bridge. A total of ten pots of peonies were sent, including Yao Huang, Wei Zi, Drunken East Wind, and Yang Jiayi Twist red... Many famous colors are not as valuable as this pot of hibiscus, and the queen sent the people of Du (1) to send this pot of peonies yesterday afternoon and place them next to this pillar. At that time, I had played to the emperor, because the emperor was always reading documents in the province and did not pay attention. ”

(1) Duren - The Ming Dynasty palace called the palace women Duren, which is a Mongolian language handed down from the Yuan Dynasty.

Chongzhen looked at Peony again, and thoughtfully said to himself, "Ah, Caoqiao, this place has not yet been burned for the horsemen?" ”

When the Qing army captured the Lugou Bridge and Gongji City (1) in mid-October and defeated the high potential defending the Lugou Bridge, he climbed the coal mountain for three nights in a row and looked at the southwest suburbs and saw the fires burning villages and towns everywhere. The enemy burned all the villages and towns outside the city. He did not know at all that Lu Xiangsheng led less than 10,000 horses to stand in the area from Yongdingmen to You'anmen to defend this area unharmed. There were some small victories, Lu Xiangsheng himself did not play, Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian did not play, so the Chongzhen Emperor was always kept in the dark, and none of the palace ladies and eunuchs around him could say clearly. He sighed in his heart and said:

(1) Gongji City - that is, the current Wanping City.

"I hope that with Liu Yuliang instead of Lu Xiangsheng, the governor's armies can change the current military situation!"

It was already bright. A flock of pigeons was released from yikun palace (1), and with a whistle, it circled over the Forbidden City for a while and flew towards the White Tower of the North Sea. The sun shines on the white jade carved columns, bronze cranes and bronze bronze dings outside the Qianqing Palace. A palace maid hung a parrot cage on a sunny pine branch and pulled up the green satin cage. The parrot stretched its feathers in the sunlight, saw a group of eunuchs coming with musical instruments, and suddenly cried:

(1) Yikun Palace - on the West Road inside the Forbidden City, which was the residence of Concubine Yuan at that time.

"Please eat with the emperor!"

Just then, a beautiful-looking imperial sign (1) came to the emperor and invited him to dinner. He put down the Zhu pen, sighed, stood up and walked out of the warm cabinet.

As usual, each meal was filled with dozens of meat and vegetarian treasures in front of him, unless he summoned the empress or a concubine to accompany him in the Qianqing Palace, always he ate alone and lonely, next to many eunuchs and palace ladies who served carefully, playing the old drum music outside. He did not feel any pleasure in this stereotypical way of life, but he could not live without it, because otherwise it would not be the emperor's style, and it would not be in line with the palace etiquette passed down from generation to generation.

(1) Imperial Front Sign - The common name of the imperial eunuch.

While eating breakfast ruthlessly and boringly, he suddenly remembered that the treasury was like a wash. The disaster was terrible and the Qing soldiers were deeply involved, so he threw away his chopsticks and walked back to the warm pavilion.

In his troubles, he picked up the list again and looked at it, no longer thinking about it, and casually changed the order with a Zhu pen. He was very proud of such a casual change, because he thought that doing so would "show the unpredictability" of his ministers, and that a wise emperor would always make his servants impenetrable to his thoughts and temper. He didn't pay any attention at all, and after he casually changed the order, some of those who should have been promoted were instead demoted for no reason, and the initial granting of the seven pins unexpectedly changed from the seven pins to the seven pins of imperial history or the six pin masters. Later, the cabinet ministers were surprised to see this list that had been changed by the imperial pen, but they did not dare to ask, so they had to implement it. What is even more ridiculous is that in order to "show the misfortune" to the cabinet ministers, he picked up the "Jinsheng" (1) from the imperial case and casually flipped through it, found a more pleasing name to add to the back of the list, and marked the word "Yushi".

(1) "Jin gentry" - the list of official gentry inscriptions in the feudal era, which should be called "Jin gentry record", but in the Ming Dynasty, it was customarily referred to as "Jin gentry".

Throughout the morning, Chongzhen did not leave the Qianqing Palace. He read all sorts of documents that only bothered him, and pondered the problems with a frown. When he was sleepy, he asked the eunuch Wang Cheng'en to read the Song Shu or Tang Newspaper to him. The study room sent a letter of impeachment of Yang Sichang, and when he saw that it was Yang Tinglin, the editor of the Hanlin Academy and the lecturer of the Eastern Palace, he couldn't help but frown and think: What is this bearded Yang Hanlin talking about?

"Read Yang Tinglin's son to me!" He whispered impatiently and glanced at Wang Cheng'en.

Wang Cheng'en picked up Yang Tinglin's recital and read it aloud. Listening to it, Chongzhen's anger came up, and he couldn't help but interrupt Wang Cheng'en and ask:

What did he say? Reread this sentence! ”

Wang Cheng'en read: "Your Majesty has the will to fight, and the minister has no talent for insults; he does not plot against him, and takes the country as a play!" ”

"What words!" He wasn't happy with what he said. "The view of the bookworm! What about the bottom? ”

Wang Cheng'en then read: "Yang Sichang and Wu Aheng, the governor of Jiliao, supported the same inside and outside, conspired to mislead the country, advocated peace proposals, and forgot about Wu Bi, so much so that!" ......”

"Stop! stop! Chongzhen jumped up from his chair, tapped his finger on the imperial case, and said, "What 'supporting the same inside and outside, conspiring to mislead the country' is all nonsense!" Do you know, is this Yang Tinglin better than someone and deliberately attacking the minister? ”

"The slave doesn't know."

Chongzhen thought about it, and couldn't think of yang Tinglin's comparison with anyone in the DPRK, so he had to say: "Good, read it!" ”

"The Overseer Lu Xiangsheng blamed the Cardinal (1) for bringing calamity to the country, and his words were painful. Fu Nanzhong was included, Li Gang was ineffective, Qianshan Bingcheng, and Zong Ze died (2). ......”

(1) Cardinal - This refers to Yang Sichang.

(2) Great Nanzhong... Death - Geng Nanzhong and Huang Qianshan were both powerful vassals in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, opposing the Jin War and trusted by Emperor Gaozong of Song. Li Gang and Zong Ze were the two leaders who advocated resisting Jin, Li Gang only served for seventy-seven days and was dismissed from his post, Zong Ze died of hatred in Kaifeng, and when he was dying, he shouted: "Cross the river!" River! ”

Chongzhen slammed his foot and snorted, frightening Wang Cheng'en's hand to shake, and he did not dare to read it further.

"It's so out of words! It's a blazing slur! He walked around the house and asked indignantly, "Who are Li Gang and Zong Ze?" Who are Geng Nanzhong and Huang Qianshan? Why not say that Qin Juniper is in the Dynasty? Could it be Emperor Gaozong of Song? ...... Damn it! Damn it! ”

The allusions used by Yang Tinglin in Shuzhong made the Chongzhen Emperor unbearable. He thought, this Yang Beard is a good scholar, only to call him a lecturer, how can he use the code so indiscriminately, compared to the inferior? "What words!" He said indignantly. "Zhao Shuo is partial to the left of the AnJiang, and although Shuo is struggling to support himself, in the end he is still a unified Son of Heaven!" He hated it most that some people compared his peace plan to the Southern Song Dynasty's humiliating peace with Jin, but Yang Tinglin insisted on comparing the situation of the Southern Song Dynasty! He also remembered that ten days ago, when he was in the upper court, it was this Yang Tinglin who came out of the class and knelt down: "Now that the soldiers are deep, the qifu is rotten." Reinforcements from all walks of life gathered, and most of them waited and watched, because the Beijing division was rumored to be rumored, and they did not know that the imperial court wanted to fight with each other. Chongzhen didn't wait for him to finish speaking, and asked in a sharp voice, "Which one wants to make peace?" Yang Tinglin replied: "There is discussion outside. He said, "Since it is a discussion outside, it is not the intention of the imperial court, so why ask more!" He thought that yang Tinglin probably did not dare to say anything, and did not think that this person did not stop, and said loudly:

"The courtiers have long heard about the peace talks. Although His Majesty said that peace was not the intention of the imperial court, there were many legends in the outside world, and there must be a reason. Manchurian land, the size is owned by the ancestors. According to the historical records, Manchu was originally of Jurchen Miao descent, who was known as Sushen in Zhou, Reject Lou in Han and Wei, Beiji in Later Wei, Han and Tang as Han Spoke, and Jurchen after his Black Water Jing. Therefore, since the Zhou Dynasty, the Jurchens have been one of our chinese tribes, and even Nurhaci has been enfeoffed by this dynasty as a vassal of the dynasty. Since ancient times, China has been a unified world, and there is no reason to lose money to the tribes to seek peace, if there is indeed a matter of peace, then the world that the Two Patriarchs have painstakingly created is not the continuation of the Zhao clan (1)? ”

(1) Zhao Shi - refers to the Song Dynasty.