Li Zicheng listened to Song Xiance's suggestion and decided to implement it immediately, and he already had an idea of the specific candidate, that is, Liu Zongmin. Liu Zongmin is an old brother who survived all the way from northern Shaanxi with him, with old qualifications, great merit, decisive killing, and other people in the town, such an envoy is the most suitable to be handed over to him.

He looked at Liu Zongmin: "Zongmin, you are the most trustworthy brother of Lone, and this matter will be left to you." In the previous dynasty, there were no officials and no greed, and all the people hated them, and they severely punished the officials to recover the stolen goods, so as to help the army and enrich the treasury, and there was no room for delay. When do you plan to start? ”

Liu Zongmin forgot to get up, sat on the chair and replied: "The minister has decided to arrest the imperial relatives and ministers of the Ming Dynasty and officials above the sixth rank from tomorrow, first kill a few with sticks, beat a few to death, kill their past majesty, and show the resentment of the people in the world!" ”

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "The Dashun Dynasty was first established, and it is necessary to establish prestige, and it is impossible to wait for Gu to ascend the throne. However, there is one thing you should keep in mind: clean officials with a reputation for honesty are not eligible for pay. ”

Liu Zongmin said: "Please rest assured. Such officials who do not distinguish between grains and grains are pampered on weekdays, with fine skin and white meat, as long as the leather whip is drawn, the stick is clamped, and the ten fingers are tightened (Note 1), not to mention that they are asked to give gold and silver treasures, hum, even the beautiful wives and concubines and the young ladies who have not left the cabinet will also give them! ”

Li Zicheng nodded and smiled with satisfaction, and asked Cao Huachun, Wang Dehua and other eunuchs who followed him into the Qianqing Palace: "What are your high views on state affairs, I hope you can speak freely, give advice, and be willing to adopt it." ”

Cao Huachun felt that this so-called "chasing stolen goods and helping salaries" was an out-and-out failure, the sensitive moment of the change of dynasty, the ministers rode the wall to watch, and the reputation of the rogue has always been bad.

But thinking about it, Cao Huachun, as a eunuch who had just taken refuge, didn't dare to make a single accusation about this matter, but just said some words of praise respectfully. The rest of the eunuchs are either from the imperial horse eunuch or from the celebrant eunuch, all of them are human spirits, and naturally they will not be the first birds. Everyone is not only afraid of going against the "holy will" of the new emperor, but also afraid of angering Liu Zongmin, a celebrity in front of the new emperor.

In addition to this factor, there is another reason why no one dissuades him, everyone knows that this matter is the wish of many generals of the Dashun Army, and Li Zicheng relies on the big and small generals to conquer the country, so he can't help but make this decision according to the wishes of the big and small generals. Not to mention the past, since the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, less than 1,000 men and horses lurking in the mountains of southern Shaanxi and western Hubei rushed into Henan from Zhejiang, and came to attack the city and break the village in a few years, using the money and property confiscated from the corrupt officials and the rich and wealthy families as military salaries and government expenses, and using a part of the food and property to help the hungry people, which has formed a consistent policy and habitual thinking in the Dashun army. Although Henan and Beizhili have been occupied, production has not been restored, and people are hungry everywhere, even if a new dynasty is established, but the cost is greater, and the fundraising still cannot fail to follow the old rules, so it is imperative to enter Beijing to torture and recover the stolen goods from the Ming ministers with great fanfare, and no one can discourage them.

The first month of Chongzhen's tenth year should have been a good day for the family to reunite for the New Year, but with the entry of the Dashun army into the city, everything in the capital fell into chaos.

Li Zicheng called the emperor very hasty, although the name of the year was Yongchang, but before the life and death of Chongzhen was determined, even if he ascended the throne, it was not justifiable, and the officials of the previous dynasty were even more riding on the wall to watch, so what he urgently needed to do was two things: one was to search the whole city for Chongzhen's whereabouts, and the other was to "recover the stolen goods and help the salary" under the advice of Song Xiance, which was called "torture and salary" by later generations, which was presided over by the general Liu Zongmin. If the former only caused panic in the hearts of the people, the latter was a complete disaster for the officials and relatives of the emperor.

From the second day, he arrested Ming officials in Beijing every day, and within a few days arrested more than 600 people, including imperial relatives, ministers, ministers of the court and the central government, and ordinary ministers. Originally, it was said that only officials above the sixth rank would be arrested, but this restriction was quickly broken. Originally, ministers who had the name of incorruptibility were not arrested, but this article was also broken.

Most of the arrested officials were imprisoned in the western courtyard of Emperor Tian's mansion where Liu Zongmin was stationed, and a small number were imprisoned in the mansions of other generals, where they used all kinds of torture every day to recover stolen goods, and some people continued to scream and die in torture. When Song Xiance put forward this suggestion, he just wanted to exert pressure to make officials pay their own money, food and salaries according to their official positions, but he did not expect that it would evolve into a "torture salary" like a robbery in Liu Zongmin's hands.

The policy of torture and looting carried out by the Dashun army, coupled with the rapid deterioration of military discipline and the continuous occurrence of adultery and robbery, caused great terror and public anger in the capital, and greatly disappointed the officials and people of different strata, believing that the Dashun army was indeed a thief The nature has not changed, and they miss Emperor Chongzhen again, and hope that Pingnan Hou Xia Nan and Ningyuan General Wu Sangui will quickly lead their troops to suppress the thieves and restore the country.

The news of the capital spread to the Qiong naval camp. At this moment, Xia Nan has led the army to Gu'an County, and the distance from the capital is less than 100 miles. But after arriving in Gu'an, Xia Nan ordered the army to suspend its advance and set up camp.

Xia Nan listened to the report of the Intelligence Department and said with a smile: "The dog really can't change its nature of eating. I have created the best environment for Li Zicheng to contain the Guan Ning army and the Qing army, if he can make great efforts, hundreds of thousands of troops rely on the capital to deal with me, and it will take a lot of effort to clean him up. Unexpectedly, he went around and around, but he still embarked on the old path of robbery and returned to his true nature. ”

Lin Weiye asked: "Since the people of the capital are in dire straits, why don't we hurry into Beijing to save the common people?" What are you still rubbing over here in Gu'an? ”

In terms of the degree of blackness, Sima De is the closest person to Xia Nan in the Qiong Navy, he understands Xia Nan's intentions, and explains to Lin Weiye with a smile: "This so-called salary is mainly aimed at officials, lords and royal relatives. And the reason why we postponed the march was mainly because Li Zicheng offended the court officials, made the heavens angry and resentful, and everyone deviated from morality, so that we entered Beijing to turn the tide, so that it would be easier to get the support of officials and the people! ”

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Note 1: 拶, pronounced zan, is a torture instrument, used as a verb here, with a rope through five small wooden sticks, put into the five fingers, tighten the rope, extremely painful.