Dolgon suddenly attacked from the direction of Xuanfu Town.

Dolgon, who had been prepared for a long time, moved very quickly, and the sergeants who were recuperating were like bamboos, and defeated the Xuanfu Sanwei with lightning speed, in fact, the remaining troops of the Xuanfu Sanwei were originally not much, more than half of the sergeants were transferred to Cangzhou to participate in the operation against the Jiangning battalion, and most of the remaining were old, weak, sick and disabled, almost no combat effectiveness, and collapsed at the touch of a button, on the twenty-fourth Chinese New Year's Eve of the lunar month, Dolgon captured Xuanfu Town and marched towards Changping Prefecture.

Dolgon's methods were very cruel, and where they passed, the chickens and dogs were not left, which led to a large number of people beginning to flee, including the gentry and wealthy households, as well as the common people, and a large number of people rushed in the direction of the capital, even the gentry and wealthy households in Changping Prefecture did not care about anything and fled in the direction of the capital.

The news reached the capital, causing a huge shock, no one would have thought that Dolgon, who was huddled in Datong, would suddenly launch an attack at this time, could it be that Dolgon thought that with tens of thousands of people, he would take the capital of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how you look at it, it is unlikely.

Dolgon's attack caused a huge shock, and it also caused the Ming court to fall into an unprecedented panic, especially those ministers in the court, as well as the gentry and wealthy families in the capital, if the Jiangning battalion attacked the capital, they would not worry, because Su Tiancheng would not loot, and they could also rely on Su Tiancheng and be an official in the Great Jin court, after all, Su Tiancheng is a Han person, to say a big rebellious word, the Han people are the emperor, everyone is almost the same, and Su Tiancheng is really capable, but the Manchu people are different, The Manchus were inhumane, and they didn't talk about the Han people at all, and they were in the eyes of the Manchu ministers of civil and military affairs. What kind of thing is Manren, and are you also qualified to enter the Central Plains?

Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the Ming Cabinet, was a little dizzy, and Dolgon's sudden attack was also something he didn't expect, if Dolgon really captured the capital, then the capital would be completely destroyed. The civil and military ministers of the DPRK and the central government, who were originally quiet, all spoke at this time, and countless twists and turns flew to the cabinet, most of which demanded that the imperial court must deal with it, and must defeat the Houjin Tartars, and not let the Houjin Tartars be arrogant around the capital.

The methods proposed are also varied, and the most common is to mobilize the border army of eastern Liaodong to resist the Houjin Tartars, after all, there are still nearly 300,000 troops in Liaodong, and the Houjin Tartars are only tens of thousands. Some people even suggested that the imperial court should quickly report the news to the Jiangning battalion stationed in Tianjin, and let the Jiangning battalion go to clean up the Houjin Tartars.

The emperor has fallen into complete despair, and he is not very concerned about such an important matter, and thinking about it, the imperial court is unable to deal with the Jiangning camp stationed in Tianjin. Now the Houjin Tartars have taken the opportunity to attack again, and they have to face attacks from both sides at once. It can't be said that it will not be destroyed.

The pressure was all on Zhou Yanru, and the cabinet also had a fierce quarrel in order to deal with the attack of the Houjin Tartars, and the final opinion was to mobilize the Liaodong border army to resist the Houjin Tartars. In any case, the Houjin Tartars could not be allowed to threaten the capital. In fact, everyone knew very well that since Dolgon had launched an attack from the direction of Changping, how could the Houjin Tartars, who were stationed south of the Liao River, not take action, and maybe mobilize the border army in eastern Liaodong. It will also cause a crisis in Liaodong, but at this time, everyone can no longer control the affairs of Liaodong, what they think of is the safety of the capital and their own safety.

In the process of this quarrel, a large number of people began to pour into the capital, inns and restaurants are full, a lot of people, choose to sleep on the street, the climate of Layue is the coldest, 3949, frozen pigs and dogs, how can it be possible to bear sleeping outside, outside the capital, there are also a large number of people, crying and asking to enter the capital, as if entering the capital, their lives can be saved.

The defense of the capital was already very tight, and at this time, it was even more tense.

Zhou Yanru's final report to the emperor was to mobilize 200,000 border troops in Liaodong to protect the Beijing Division, and the nearly 100,000 border troops in Liaodong left behind must protect the Guanningjin defense line to defend against the attack of Houjin Tartars, otherwise Houjin Tartars will drive straight in, and no matter how many troops there are, it will be difficult to defend the capital. Zhou Yanru knew that with less than 100,000 Liaodong border troops, it was impossible to protect Liaodong, and this move was tantamount to drinking water to quench his thirst, but unfortunately in such a situation, Zhou Yanru had no way, and the court couldn't think of a good way to deal with it.

This opinion was quickly adopted, and the decree was quickly sent to Liaodong.

In just a few days, the capital was filled with people inside and outside, and the huge consumption made the capital unbearable, and just before the imperial court could react, the shortage of food appeared. The imperial court has no place to mobilize grain, it is impossible in the south, and Liaodong cannot transfer grain, and as for Yongping Mansion, it is difficult to protect itself.

Zhou Yanru knows very well that if this situation continues, there will be major problems in a short period of time, and the shortage of food is a fatal problem, and the consequence will be the death of a large number of people.

But Zhou Yanru had no choice, watching all this, in desperation, Zhou Yanru even thought of it, and asked the Jiangning camp in Tianjin for help, begging them to allocate grain to solve the problem of food shortage in the capital, no matter what, the famine caused the death of the common people.

The price of grain in the capital began to soar, and the price of grain was originally maintained at about three taels of silver per stone, but now it has risen to the price of three taels of gold per stone, and in just a few days, it has skyrocketed tenfold.

The common people outside the capital are even more pitiful, in the cold winter, it is very difficult to eat the bark and weeds, the bark of some big trees is quickly stripped away, and even the Guanyin soil dug out of the ground has become a rare thing, this situation continues, and eventually a large number of people die, and there may even be a situation of cannibalism.

This wax moon is the most difficult wax moon for Zhou Yanru, he doesn't know how the situation of Lu Dao has changed, and there is no good way to deal with it, the emperor fell into despair, he didn't ask about the affairs of the court at all, he hid in the harem every day, no one saw him, even if there were any twists and turns, all of them were handled by the cabinet.

In fact, Zhou Yanru really wants to ask for help from Jiangning Camp in Tianjin, such a dilemma can be solved, but unfortunately under the high-pressure atmosphere of the capital, Zhou Yanru did not dare to come up with such a method, maybe the letter for help has not been sent to Tianjin, he himself went into the prison, and it is needless to say what will happen when he enters the prison at this time.

In this way, Zhou Yanru lost the best opportunity to solve the food crisis in the capital.

Dolgon soon captured Changping Prefecture, and this day was the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month.

The capital was in turmoil, from Changping to the capital, but more than a hundred miles, the Houjin Tartars led by Dolgon, most of them were cavalry, but in half a day, they could reach the capital. If Dorgon attacks the capital in one go, the capital will be in a great crisis.

At this time, Zhou Yanru's thoughts also changed, he began to constantly urge Shi Kefa in Liaodong, and quickly led the army to defend the capital, as for the situation in Liaodong, he couldn't take care of it for the time being, and the capital also entered a high state of martial law, and all the soldiers in the Beijing camp were deployed to the four gates of the capital, and the capital was divided into the inner city and the outer city, and the inner city was of course the focus of the guard.

But the strange thing is that after Dolgon took Changping Prefecture, he did not immediately attack, but sent a small force and began to harass the perimeter of the capital, and the consequences of this harassment were fatal, and more people began to be displaced and flee, flocking to the direction of the capital.

After the Jin Tartars temporarily stopped the attack, this question Zhou Yanru has not been able to understand, and discussed with many cabinet ministers, but did not get the final answer, in fact, Zhou Yanru does not have to be so anxious, the Houjin Tartars led by Dolgon, less than 40,000 people, want to attack the capital, it can be said to ascend to the sky, in the capital, there are still 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing battalion, plus the Jinyi guards and the guards of various provinces, etc., there is no big problem in organizing 100,000 people to resist, plus the walls of the capital are strong, the moat is wide, there is no special preparation, Don't think about being able to take the capital at will.

It's not just Zhou Yanru who panicked, but the entire court panicked.

It was in this panic that the terrible upheaval appeared.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, there are still two days before the Chinese New Year's Eve, a large number of dead people have begun to appear outside the capital, I don't know what the reason is, some people fall down while walking, without any warning, but these people have a common symptom, that is, the neck is thick, or the neck will suddenly appear huge tumors, these tumors will fester, emitting a foul odor in just one or two days, some people die, the body is black, the same stench.

On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, such a situation also appeared in the capital, and the number of dead people began to rise suddenly, and the government did not even have time to count the number.

In fact, such a situation has also appeared before, as early as in the sixth year of Chongzhen, it once appeared in Shaanxi, but with the gradual sufficiency of food, this situation gradually disappeared, and it did not attract everyone's attention.

This situation did not attract the attention of the imperial court, they thought that it was the shortage of food, which caused a large number of people to starve to death, and the imperial court could not take care of other things at present, and dealing with the attack of the Houjin Tartars was the most important thing for them to consider, and everything else was put behind.

A great change appeared silently, which also indicated that the Ming court was bound to perish. (To be continued......)