Gao Yingxiang bowed his head, has not yet been sent to the capital, the ceremony of offering prisoners has not begun, Li Zicheng jumped up again, pressed the gourd to float the scoop, after receiving the emergency, the military department issued several orders, Chongzhen also passed the decree one after another, ordering Hong Chengchou to return to Shaanxi. Due to the lack www.biquge.info of war horses in the army, the main force was mainly infantry, and the marching speed was slow, so Cao Wenzhao was sent as the vanguard and led 3,000 cavalry to go first.

At this time, the number of troops led by Li Zicheng had reached 200,000, and even if the troops were divided to attack Jingning, Tai'an, Qingshui, and Qinzhou, the strength of each force far exceeded that of Cao Wenzhao's vanguard army, and the disparity between the two sides was very large. In June of the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Cao Wenzhao led the army to meet the Liumin Army in the Ranmachuan, was outnumbered, and suffered the first formal defeat in the face of the Liumin Army in recent years. Cao Wenzhao had no choice but to temporarily lead the remnants to retreat and join Hong Chengchou's army, not daring to advance again.

Cao Wenzhao, who frightened the exile army, suffered a defeat, and this news greatly stimulated the leaders of the exile army from all walks of life, and for a time there was a storm in Shaanxi and Gansu, and several prefectures and counties were captured one after another, and there was a great momentum to sweep the entire western provinces. Hong Chengchou felt deeply troubled, he didn't know whether to enter Shaanxi or Gansu first, and the troops were not enough, so he didn't dare to divide the troops, and Cao Wenzhao was defeated and wounded, and the morale of the army was frustrated, so he temporarily stayed in Henan, and sent people to the imperial court to ask for more soldiers and horses.

While the messenger was still on his way, a grand sacrifice of prisoners was being held in the capital.

On the second day of the first month of June, as soon as Huang Mengjia escorted Gao Yingxiang into the capital, he was immediately taken over by the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp who had been waiting for a long time, and Gao Yingxiang was loaded into a prisoner car and taken away, and the entire grand ceremony of presenting prisoners was officially launched.

On the sixth day of the sixth month of June, it is advisable to break the ground, take fish, sacrifice, and bury. Thousands of people in the entire city of Beijing were empty, and dignitaries and ordinary people poured into the streets to watch this grand ceremony. The emperor has issued an edict to inform the world that the leader of the Liukou, King Chuang Gao Yingxiang, was captured alive and will be sent to Taimiao and Taishe for a salute and then sentenced to death. Everyone wanted to see what the storyteller's mouth looked like as "big as copper bells, tall and tall, three heads and six arms, and a mouth that can eat people", and many people who had never seen the emperor also wanted to see the royal demeanor - although the forbidden army was surrounded by three layers and three layers outside, nothing could be seen.

The ceremony presided over by the Ministry of Rites is very cumbersome, the emperor has to lead the civil and military officials to tell the heaven and earth, the temple, the shrine, the Yuedu, the mountains and rivers, the palace and the shrine within ten miles of Beijing, and make a gift with preserved wine, that is to say, the temples within ten miles of the capital must be announced, and the wine and three sacrifices and nine ceremonies are offered. There are hundreds of large and small temples inside and outside the capital, of course, it is impossible to worship them one by one, and the Ministry of Rites only selected one or two of the largest and most famous ones for Chongzhen. Rao is so, this link still took a long time.

After the prelude is the main event, the "enemy chief" Gao Yingxiang was tied with white silk and taken to the Taimiao, and Chongzhen made a salute.

Standing in the solemn and solemn temple, Chongzhen faced the tablets of the ancestors of the past dynasties, and when he saw the tablet of Zhu Youxiao of Xizong, he thought of the bumpy journey after taking over the throne from him, and couldn't help but feel a lot of feelings.

When he was a child, Zhu Youzhen, who was still the king of letters, had a good relationship with his brother Zhu Youxiao, and Zhu Youzhen, who was not sensible at the time, once asked his brother naively: What kind of official is the emperor? Can I do this?

Zhu Youxiao replied with a smile: When I do it for a few years, I should do it with you.

Xizong Zhu Youxiao was 16 years old and hastily ascended the throne, the year name was Tianqi, reigned for 7 years, and at the age of 23, he suddenly drowned and fell seriously ill. "Passing the throne to this younger brother can be regarded as fulfilling the joke of the year.

Chongzhen sighed, and until now he still remembers that when he heard this, he was terrified, and replied: "Your Majesty said this, and the minister should die." "After the death of the first emperor, Wei Zhongxian, the powerful eunuch at that time, let him enter the palace and take the throne, and he entered the palace alone, and he didn't even dare to eat the food in the imperial dining room, for fear that Wei Zhongxian would be poisoned, so he only dared to secretly eat the food hidden in his sleeve and brought into the palace. For a whole day after entering the palace, except for the people who Wei Zhongxian arranged to guard the palace gate, no minister could see the emperor who was about to ascend the throne, and no one could know Chongzhen's helplessness and desolation at that time. Whether the process of ascending the throne in this environment has created his current narrow-minded and radical character, Chongzhen himself does not know.

Of course, later Chongzhen still succeeded in killing Wei Zhongxian, overturning the mountain that pressed on him, and eradicating the eunuch party became his highlight moment, and he was once praised by the ministers as the "holy master" who could "rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty".

"However, I have worked hard for several years and have never dared to get tired of the government, why is the general trend of the world not as good as day by day?" Chongzhen looked at the tablet of the Apocalypse in confusion, "Wenchen is mediocre and incompetent, military attachés are greedy for life and afraid of death, and the things I order to go down are always handled by these people." Why don't I have a capable minister like Zhang Taiyue to assist me, and no famous general like Qi Jiguang to share my worries? ”

mentioned Qi Jiguang, Chongzhen woke up to the fact that the purpose of his trip was to pay tribute to the ancestors and hold a prisoner ceremony, not to guard the spiritual position of the first emperor Xizong to complain.

"However, I also did one thing, which is enough to comfort the first emperor: after I ascended the throne, I spent countless money and food, mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and finally captured the biggest leader of the Liukou, Gao Yingxiang, and I came to inform the first emperor and the ancestors...... "He took it for granted that the credit for capturing Gao Yingxiang was on his head, but he didn't think that the Qiong Navy was not trained in his hands, the weapons were self-produced, and even the grain and grass were self-raised.

After the end of the salute, Chongzhen stepped out, outside the temple, the civil and military officials were waiting, and Gao Yingxiang was also sandwiched by two Han generals with big shoulders and round waists to stand in front of the hundred officials.

Chongzhen stood still ten steps away from Gao Yingxiang and asked, "When you rebelled and committed great rebellion, did you ever think that there would be today?" ”

Gao Yingxiang saw the posture of offering prisoners, knowing that his life was difficult to protect, and he had no luck in mind, so he replied coldly: "Your dog emperor has been in power for eight years, and the people of the world are not happy, and the northern Shaanxi area is even more bare land, if you don't rebel, wait for death?" Instead of starving to death, it is better to take up a knife and resist. Instead of asking me why I rebelled, ask yourself, what have you done for the people? ”

Chongzhen's face was ugly: "I have never been tired of the government, I only sleep three hours a day, I am always reviewing and reviewing the folds, dealing with military affairs, you are a rogue leader, how can He De come to question what I have done?" ”