On the twentieth day of the ninth year of Chongzhen, after the Dashun army defeated the men and horses of Liu Guozhu, the general soldier of Baoding, it successfully advanced to Changping, which was only one day's journey from the capital, and the capital of the Ming Dynasty was only one step away from Li Zicheng. Changping is just a small city, there are not many troops, how can it stop hundreds of thousands of troops, the Dashun army captured the city effortlessly, from Zhizhou to Tongzhi, the judges were all reduced to prisoners, and none of them were spared.

In order to open the way for the army, Li Zicheng sent the vanguard to take the lead and sweep away the officers and soldiers, while the main force stayed in Changping for a night's rest. Since he had learned Liu Zongmin's lesson, he did not dare to be careless, and increased the number of the vanguard to 80,000, led by Liu Fangliang, the general of the old battalion. As for the number one general, Liu Zongmin, he was left behind because he still had important things to do.

The Changping Prefecture was still relatively spacious and was used as Li Zicheng's temporary station. Liu Zongmin was stationed in the Zhentai Yamen of the Changping General Army, Hao Shaoqi was stationed in the Xue Palace, Tian Jianxiu, Gao Yigong, Li Guo and others were crowded in other yamen and private houses respectively, while the other troops were stationed in barracks and set up many tents in the open space. After dinner, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin talked a few words, and then ordered to send a message to the generals of each battalion to come to Changping Yamen to discuss important matters.

Since the Dashun army marched north from Henan, there have been many meetings on the march. And now that the army has arrived near the capital division, what to discuss, everyone vaguely guessed a few points, and couldn't help but secretly excited, thinking about how much glory and wealth their dragon function would bring.

Sure enough, Li Zicheng announced happily: "First announce a decision: the capital is in front of you, and the change of dynasty is in an instant, and the decision is to change the name of the generalissimo from Fengtian to the king of Xinshun, and after entering the capital, he will force Chongzhen to take the throne and be called the emperor logically." ”

Everyone cheered: "King Shengming, it should have been like this a long time ago." "Since you are the king, you are only one step away from being the emperor, and everyone can rise to the top, and the chickens and dogs will ascend to heaven.

Liu Zongmin cleared his throat and said proudly: "King Shun said, everyone will discuss it well tonight, where will his old man be stationed outside the city after arriving in the capital, where will he enter the inner city of Beijing after the city is broken, and where will he enter the imperial city and the Forbidden City, and what palace he will live in after entering the Forbidden City. ”

Everyone was excited and discussed, but they couldn't come up with a feasible plan. They are all from mud legs, and they don't even know which side of the palace door is facing, and how can they understand these twists and turns. It was Liu Heizi who proposed: "King Shun can refer to the route of my general, directly enter the city from the Yongding Gate in the south, and then take the Chengtian Gate from the Zhengyang Gate to directly enter the imperial city." As for where to live after entering the Forbidden City, this depends on King Shun's own will. ”

Li Zicheng suppressed the joy in his heart and asked, "I often hear people say the name of the Qianqing Palace, where is the competition in the Forbidden City?" Is this palace huge? ”

Naturally, others couldn't answer, and Liu Heizi replied cautiously: "In the Forbidden City, there are many palaces, and it is difficult for outsiders to know in detail. It's better to bring in local officials and ask them. Changping is so close to the capital, I have never eaten pork, and I have always seen pigs running. ”

"Makes sense." Li Zicheng ordered to go down, "Bring Changping Zhizhou." ”

Changping Zhizhou came to the yamen tremblingly, and learned that he was not going to kill himself, but to inquire about the situation of the Forbidden City, and to choose a place to live, so he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and replied: "The king ...... to break through."

Liu Zongmin interrupted him unceremoniously: "It's called King Shun, it's not called King Chuang for a long time." He was the generalissimo of Fengtian and the righteousness, and now he is the king of Xinshun. ”

Zhizhou was disdainful in his heart, a few mud legs, after a few victories, he didn't know how many catties and taels he had, he was a generalissimo and a king, and he was afraid that he would establish himself as the emperor in a few days. However, he didn't dare to show the slightest abnormality on the surface, and replied respectfully: "Yes, yes, the lower official knows his mistake." King Yushun, before the official took office as the governor of Changping, he was the director of the Ministry of Works, and he knew a little about the layout of the inner garden of the palace. Today, the courtiers are called, or for the platform, or for the Wenhua Palace, or for the Qianqing Palace, and the Qianqing Palace is the most. The palace in the Forbidden City was built, divided into a front and rear harem, which is in terms of the main layout in the middle. The so-called former dynasty refers to the Huangji Palace, the Middle Pole Palace, and the Jianji Palace, which are collectively referred to as the three major halls. Between the harem Qianqing and Kunning two palaces, there is a hall, which is called Jiaotai Palace, and takes the righteousness of Qiankun Jiaotai. After King Shun entered the Forbidden City, if he could inherit the unification from the hands of the current saints, of course he should live in the Qianqing Palace and deal with state affairs. The Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing in the nineteenth year of Yongle, and it has been more than 220 years since then, only the two emperors of Zhengde and Jiajing, ignoring the government and politics, do not like to live in the Qianqing Palace, which is not enough for training. King Shun came into being, and replaced fire virtue with water virtue (Note 1) and dominated the world, and did not live in the Qianqing Palace, how could he show that Dashun won the righteousness of the world? ”

"Qianqing Palace?" Li Zicheng nodded, what he heard the most was this palace, and there was an inexplicable yearning in his heart, "It makes sense." Brothers, what do you think? ”

Most of the rest of the generals didn't know a few words, and where did they know these exquisiteness, so they responded indiscriminately: "Very good, choose Qianqing Palace." ”

Liu Zongmin proposed: "King Shun, since you want to seize the throne of Chongzhen Lao'er, you must pay attention to the right name." If you look at other people's rebellions, you will make a crepe article to publish it to the world, what is it called, we have to make a ...... too."

Li Zicheng nodded again and again: "Zong Min has won my heart, and everything is thoughtful. It's just that none of the brothers here have ever studied, so how can they write? ”

Liu Zongmin smiled triumphantly: "These big bosses are naturally not good, they have already been prepared." Yesterday, a scholar came to join the army, and he volunteered to write an essay for King Shun, so he left him behind. Now that the text has been written, why don't you ask him to come up and read it to King Shun? ”

"Very good. There are a lot of martial arts in our Dashun, but there are few who can write, and there are scholars who come to join the army, and they have to be treated well, and they can't be lazy. Li Zicheng was very happy and asked casually: "By the way, what is this person's name?" ”

"The surname is Song, and the name is a suggestion."

Liu Heizi was taken aback when he heard this. Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, and Li Yan were exactly the targets that the general repeatedly told him to get rid of secretly. Niu Jinxing was already sinking in Luoyang, but he didn't expect that this Song Xiance entered the Dashun Army silently through Liu Zongmin's way, and also appeared in Li Zicheng's field of vision. This person is exposed, and it is difficult to start.

A short, middle-aged literati entered the yamen and said respectfully: "Student Song Xiance, I have seen King Shun. ”

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Note 1: Replacing fire virtue with water virtue - adapting to the development and maturity of the ancients' political philosophy of great unification, at the end of the Warring States period to the Qin and Han dynasties, the principle of explaining the transmutation of dynasties with the five elements was produced, which is called "the end of the five virtues". The so-called "prosperity in response to the times" is the luck of the five elements.