Li Zicheng's "holy car" arrived in front of the noon gate, facing the room on both sides, there was silence and no one, and all the doors were closed. The noon gate tower is tall and magnificent, greatly surpassing the Chengtian Gate. In the past, it was a very sacred place in front of the gate at noon, and no one had ever ridden a horse in front of Wufeng Tower, nor did there be a chaotic footstep. Today, however, the situation in this place has changed dramatically.

Liu Zongmin, who was in charge of the Qing Palace, learned that Li Zicheng had arrived, and hurriedly walked out of the noon gate and knelt down to pick up the car. Li Zicheng saw from his expression that he hadn't found the whereabouts of Zhen Zhen, and his heart couldn't help but sink: Could it be that he escaped from the city while he was in chaos?

However, he tried his best to remain silent in front of everyone, as if he didn't care, looked up at the city tower again, and asked Cao Huachun, who was accompanying him: "Is this Wufeng Tower commonly known as the Wufeng Tower?" ”

Cao Huachun bowed respectfully and replied, "Yes, Chuang...... Your Majesty, in the future, Your Majesty will go to court every day on the fifth watch, and the eunuch will ring the bell on this Wufeng Tower. ”

Li Zicheng nodded and said, "Okay, let's enter the Forbidden City." ”

Song Xiance hurriedly said: "Wait, you still need an official to lead the royal horse for Your Majesty." ”

Li Zicheng smiled slightly and said: "Half a lonely horse, trekking through mountains and rivers, and walking all kinds of dangerous roads. Now walking into the Forbidden City, do you still need someone to lead the horse for a lonely person? ”

Song Xiance said: "The minister has not joined Dashun for a long time, but he also knows that the oolong horse ridden by the emperor is a rare horse, and he has never been out of the pool. In previous years, on the two armies' formations, the artillery fire was continuous, the sound of killing was everywhere, and the oolong horse carried His Majesty into battle, made great achievements, and became famous in the whole army. It's just that what the minister is worried about is that now when he enters the noon gate, there are steps up and down everywhere, and there are tall palaces everywhere, which are resplendent and magnificent, extremely majestic and solemn, and the oolong horse has never seen it. Once the horse is frightened, the slightest mistake is a bad omen. It is better to have an official who is familiar with the terrain of the palace to lead the horse for His Majesty, in case the oolong foal enters the palace and has an accident. ”

Li Zicheng agreed with his suggestion from the perspective that everything must be auspicious, and said chisely:

"Who can lead the lone horse?"

Cao Huachun stepped forward with an arrow and said flatteringly: "The slave is familiar with the situation in the palace, and is willing to lead the horse for His Majesty......"

Li Zicheng was born from the grassroots, and he was originally not very interested in these eunuchs who were mutilated and in high positions, but the new dynasty had not yet been established, and in order to attract the civil and military officials of the previous dynasty to work for him, he had to give face to these eunuchs who took the initiative to submit. He turned his head to look, surrounded by soldiers who followed him to work hard, and there were not enough civil and military officials to return to Shun for the time being, except for this former admiral of Chaodongchang and the great eunuch of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, everyone else didn't know where to go, and there seemed to be no better choice.

He bowed slightly: "After that, you will lead the horse into the palace for Lonely." ”

Entering the noon gate, Li Zicheng was shocked by the majestic palace that appeared. He pointed north with his horsewhip and asked softly:

"This is the Golden Luan Palace?"

Cao Huachun bowed down and replied, "Back to Your Majesty, this is the Huangji Gate." After the Huangji Gate is the Huangji Palace, commonly known as the Jinluan Palace. ”

Li Zicheng: "Ah! "Yes.

He said in his heart: "An Imperial Gate is so magnificent! He thought that before entering the city, the place he chose to stay was Qianqing Palace, so he said, "Take Gu to Qianqing Palace." ”

According to the original discussion, Li Zicheng had to sit on the emperor's throne in the Qianqing Palace and be congratulated by the "ministers" in the music, so that he could be regarded as completing today's ceremony of entering the city. However, because there are not many heavyweight civil and military officials who have taken the initiative to submit to the United States, and Chongzhen's whereabouts are unknown, Li Zicheng is not interested in accepting the congratulations of his ministers, and the top priority is to make every effort to find Chongzhen in Beijing, whether he is dead or alive. At the moment, he ordered: "Today is too hasty, the matter of 'Chaohe' will be postponed for the time being, and the former dynasty will surrender to the ministers, and temporarily return to their respective homes to wait for hiring." Another edict to the whole city: tomorrow dawn, but listen to the bell of the noon gate, all the former dynasty civil ministers and military generals, must come to the Qianqing Palace to face the saint, no delay, violators raid the house and ask for beheading! ”

Cao Huachun felt a pang in his heart, this is the new emperor is going to establish rules, and it seems that he is dissatisfied with the fact that today's hundred officials did not take the initiative to submit. He had a bit of schadenfreude in his heart, despising the ministers who were holding the shelves, but also proud of his decisive decision - the sooner he surrendered, the greater the benefits, and those self-righteous ministers all thought they were Zhuge Kongming, right? It's just that this new emperor is not Uncle Liu Huang who is thirsty for talent and cares about the thatched house, and I am afraid that many people have suffered now.

However, the news that Chongzhen's whereabouts are unknown made Cao Huachun feel a little uneasy. He was afraid that if Emperor Chongzhen escaped from Beijing and went to King Qin's Xia Nan or Wu Sangui's army, and then escaped to Nanjing under the protection of Xia Nan or Wu Sangui, the Ming Dynasty would not die.

In the Qianqing Palace.

Li Zicheng, who had been holding it, finally let go of the burden in his heart, sat on the dragon chair with his ass, lost his majesty just now, and asked in a deep voice: "Where is Chongzhen going, give Gu a good inventory, at any cost, even if the city is closed, you have to see people in life and corpses in death!" ”

The people who followed into the Qianqing Palace were all confidants and important ministers, and they all knelt down when they heard the words: "Obey the order!" ”

"Besides, what's going on with the ministers of the previous dynasty, why didn't anyone take the initiative to submit to them?" Li Zicheng said with a gloomy face, "Since they don't take the initiative, don't blame Gu Bu Bu You." Zong Min, from tomorrow, will go to the homes of hundreds of officials one by one to give lectures: The Ming Dynasty is over, and the Dashun Dynasty is initially decided, and it is the time to employ people. If you are willing to serve the new dynasty, regardless of whether you have contributed to the encirclement and suppression of our army before, you will not be able to maintain your official position regardless of your past suspicions; If you toast and don't eat and drink, and want to get rid of the relationship with the previous dynasty and become a rich man, Lone will not let him have a good time, copy his home, destroy his clan, and see if the neck is hard or Lone's knife is hard. ”

Song Xiance suggested: "In troubled times, the old dynasty collapsed and the new dynasty was established, and it is natural to use some hard means. However, the minister suggested that this matter be combined with the matter of supplementing the army's salaries to recover the stolen goods. ”

"Collecting stolen goods?" Li Zicheng was thoughtful.

"Your Majesty clearly saw that after entering the city, most of the soldiers and horses directly under the Jingying and the Imperial Horse Supervisor surrendered, with a total of nearly 100,000. It is easy to accept these people, but it is difficult to feed them, and the salary of these people alone is a huge expense, otherwise it will be a huge hidden danger to cause a mutiny. But His Majesty fought all the way from Henan to the capital, so that the people along the way returned to their hearts, relying on 'equal land and acres, not paying grain', and could not collect grain and taxes from the people, where did the silver come from? So I can only start with the house of the eunuch. There are so many rich and noble families in the capital that as long as they order the officials to spit out the embezzled money and the gentry to pay the money and grain, the problem of the army's salary and silver will be solved. ”

"That's a good idea, so let's do it." Li Zicheng felt that this method was good, which not only satisfied the military needs of the salary, but also maintained his reputation of "free grain in the field", which can be described as a plan to kill two birds with one stone.