***

On March 18, the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's Dashun army had surrounded the capital and stormed it for a day, and a cannon continued to bombard the city, and the thick gunpowder smoke enveloped the entire capital, and there was a tendency for black clouds to crush the city.

At this time, it was not the elite Ming soldiers who desperately resisted at the head of the city, let alone the literati doctors who were impassioned and looked down on the world in the past. It is eunuchs, at least six or seven percent of the number.

Back then, Zhu Yuan erected an iron plaque at the gate of the palace that eunuchs were not allowed to interfere in politics, and at this junihou moment, the Ming Imperial City had to rely on a group of Tailin to resist Zuihou.

This is the sorrow of Chongzhen and the sorrow of Daming.

After all, the eunuch was not a soldier, although the resistance was very stubborn, but under the onslaught of the Dashun army, the casualties were extremely heavy, and the city was full of mourning and crying, and many people began to waver.

Especially in the Changyi Gate, where the Dashun army attacked the most violently, the city gate tower of the pavilion type of the three drops of water in the heavy eaves of the mountain has been blown down, the ash tube tiles, the green glazed tiles are scattered everywhere, the city head is covered with corpses, the blood soaks the city head so slippery that it does not leave its feet, and the smell of gunpowder smoke is mixed with a strong smell of blood, which makes people feel suffocated.

Just when the eunuchs at the head of the city were about to collapse, the Dashun army outside the city suddenly retreated, and the sound of artillery and gunfire stopped at the same time.

Cao Yongyi, the eunuch who led the crowd to stick to the Changyi Gate, secretly breathed a sigh of relief and looked through the fading gunsmoke, but saw that under a big banner with a Li character outside the city, the king of Jin and the king of Dai sat on the left and right, and in the middle sat a burly middle-aged man, whose eyes were covered with a black cover.

Immediately afterwards, I saw a person approaching the Changyi Gate, and shouted to the city: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, it's me, I'm Du Xun." ”

Cao Yongyi couldn't help but exclaim when he saw it, as if he had seen a ghost.

Cao Yongyi had this reaction, and there was another reason: this Du Xun was originally the supervisor of the Xuanfu Army, March 6. Li Zicheng attacked Xuanfu, and the general soldiers Wang Chengyun and Du Xun wanted to go out of the city to meet Li Zicheng, and the governor Zhu Zhifeng scolded: "You rely on the letter, send Er, and seal the territory of Er." Then you are a thief, how can you see it? ”

Du Xun didn't say a word, and Daxiao left. Zhu Zhifeng saw that the general trend had gone, and hanged himself.

However, the Tang newspaper of the Great Dynasty lied that Du Xun was in the Xuanfu, and Chongzhen also gave Du Xun as the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, and his nephew was a hereditary brocade household.

Everyone thought Du Xun was dead. At this time, he appeared under the city full of corpses, no wonder Cao Yongyi mistakenly thought he had seen a ghost.

Cao Yongyi licked Shi Crack's lips and asked suspiciously, "Are you really Du Xun?" How did you end up here? ”

Du Xun under the city shouted: "Cao Yongyi, you don't have to care how our family is here, our King Dashun is not very good for himself, give you a chance, hurry up and come down alone, my King Dashun has something to tell the emperor." ”

What good things can Li Chengzi say to the emperor? I'm afraid that whoever will pass the word will suffer, but the Dashun army is about to break the city, and Li Zicheng wants to talk to the emperor at this time. Could it be that things have taken a turn for the better, and Cao Yongyi, who was hesitant in his heart, hurriedly said: "We will take someone hostage, please go to the public." ”

Du Xun said impassionedly: "I, Du Xun, have nothing to fear, why do I need hostages? Quickly put the rope down. ”

That's it. Du Xun was taken to the city, but after Du Xun was taken outside the imperial city, he made it clear that none of the ministers dared to tell Chongzhen about it. was afraid that Chongzhen would suffer under his anger, so it dragged on for a long time.

Later, it was the little eunuch in the palace who discussed the matter in private, and was overheard by Chongzhen. Chongzhen asked the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch of the ceremonial superintendent, to come out and lead Du Xun into the meeting.

After Du Xun met Chongzhen, he honestly bowed down for his own life.

Chongzhen held back his anger and asked coldly, "Du Xun, what did Li Zicheng send you for?" ”

"Back to the emperor, the king of Dashun has millions of troops, and the city is only broken in an instant, please think about your situation." Du Xun said stubbornly.

Chongzhen didn't say a word, he looked at Du Xun coldly, he wanted to kill people, but at the same time, he also knew that Du Xun was right, the capital might not be able to be saved, Li Zicheng's army came too suddenly, and it was too late to even give an order to let the king of soldiers and horses in the world, the city was already crumbling, and these Wang Chengen had already known to him.

Da Ming, is it really like this? Do you really want to be the king of the dead country? Chongzhen's heart was extremely angry, extremely sad, and at the same time full of unwillingness.

Du Xun saw that Chongzhen didn't say a word, so he had to continue to bite the bullet and said: "Li Zicheng said that as long as the emperor agrees to canonize him as king, cut the northwest as a fief, and give the army a million silver, the king of Dashun is willing to immediately withdraw from Henan. ”

The city is about to be broken, and it is in danger, Chongzhen is really unwilling, he doesn't want to die like this, and he doesn't want to bear the infamy of the king of the country after death, and he is moved by Li Zicheng's conditions.

However, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there have been rules of no harmony, no compensation, no land cutting, no tribute, and the Son of Heaven guarding the country, as well as the ancestral training that a different surname is not allowed to be crowned a king. Once Li Zicheng was promised these conditions, Chongzhen also had to bear endless infamy.

These ancestral rules are like mountains pressing on top of Chongzhen's head.

However, if you don't agree to the Ming Dynasty, you will lose the country.

Chongzhen was silent for a long time, and said to the first assistant Wei Zaode: "The matter is urgent, Qing is the first assistant, what is the countermeasure?" ”

Wei Zaode lowered his head and said nothing.

Chongzhen gritted his teeth and said, "Say, as long as you open your mouth, I will immediately give an order." ”

Chongzhen said this, and the fool also knew what it meant, but Wei Zaode didn't dare to say it, and kowtowed to the ground for a long time.

He knew very well that as long as he opened his mouth to propose to accept Li Zicheng's conditions, Chongzhen would definitely agree.

But he Wei Zaode has to bear all the infamy and be spurned by the world, and as soon as Li Zicheng withdraws from the army, it will definitely be when he dies in Huangquan.

Chongzhen couldn't help but be angry when he saw Wei Zaode lying on the ground, he turned his head to Du Xun and said, "I have made a plan, and I have a decree to seal it." After speaking, he glanced at Wei Zaode angrily, overthrew the imperial seat, and went straight back to the harem.

Du Xun was taken out of the palace and detained the Changyi Gate, but Chongzhen's words were vague, "I have a plan, and there is a decree to seal it." "What's the plan? When is it calculated? What is the covenant? King or Marquis or Official?

Of course, Li Zicheng would not be satisfied with such an answer, and in order to further put pressure on the city, Li Zicheng immediately ordered to continue the siege of the city.

***

The Dashun army attacked the city urgently, the city was in chaos, after the third watch, Zhang Jinyan, the secretary of the military department, patrolled the city, from the east to the west, and will arrive at the Zhengyang Gate. But seeing that there is a wine feast in the city here, one person in the middle sits, because the lights are dim, he can't see his face clearly, and the eunuchs sitting next to him are all eunuchs in the inner palace, and several eunuchs next to him saw Zhang Jinyan coming, and hurriedly greeted him.

Zhang Jinyan asked who was in the city, and the official replied: "The governor of the city." Jinyan was shocked and asked how it could be? The internal official did not answer, and took out a piece of straw paper. On it, with a red pen was written the words "talk to him again".

Seeing Zhu Bi, Zhang Jinyan understood that this was the emperor's imperial book.

Listen to the rumbling of cannons outside the city. Shouting to kill, looking at the straw paper in his hand, Zhang Jinyan sighed gloomily in his heart. After passing the Zhengyang Gate, he hurried to the Changyi Gate in the west, preparing to talk to Li Zicheng again.

But he didn't go far, but when he saw Li Guozhen, the governor of Xiangcheng, the governor of Jingying, rushing from the opposite side, Zhang Jinyan was shocked and asked urgently: "Uncle Xiangcheng, why are you rushing here?" ”

Li Guozhen replied sadly: "Defeated, what's the matter!" I still have 3,000 strong soldiers. I will fight the thief to the death, and that's it!"

Zhang Jinyan didn't care about saying more, and rushed away to Deshengmen. The Dashun army had poured into the city like a tidal wave, and there were torches everywhere, shouts everywhere, and chaos everywhere.

Talk. Who else can you talk to at this time? Zhang Jinyan burst into tears

***

Chongzhen died to save face, hesitated, and finally missed Zuihou's life.

When the outer city is breached. Emperor Chongzhen climbed the coal mountain, saw the beacon fire in the sky, and the sound of killing was all over the city, and he couldn't help but sigh gloomily: "Bitter for my people." ”

Chongzhen wandered in the coal mountain for a long time, and after returning to the Qianqing Palace, he sent people to send the crown prince, King Yong, and King Ding to the homes of Zhou Kui and Tian Hongyu, the ministers of foreign relatives. Then the sword hit the eldest princess and made Queen Zhou kill herself.

On the 19th, Ding Wei, the sky is not clear, the imperial city has not been guarded, at this time Chongzhen Wu Zhong gathered hundreds of officials, and none of the civil and military ministers who crowded the court in the past heard the bell to come.

In fact, Chongzhen rang the bell at this time to recruit ministers, not in vain to rebel, he just wanted to see that the Ming Dynasty had been raising soldiers for three hundred years, and when the country was ruined, there was one person who was willing to martyr for the Ming Dynasty;

It is said that when the Southern Song Dynasty fell, 200,000 soldiers and civilians threw themselves into the sea to die for the country, but now when the Ming Dynasty fell, no one came.

It's come to this, what can I do?

Chongzhen is to climb the coal mountain again, at this time the sky has broken down, the east is exposed to the belly of the fish, the mountain is exhausted, all thoughts are gray Chongzhen fell to sit in the pavilion, want to cry without tears, zuihou he bit his fingers, the placket of the book is the edict, and then hanged himself in the mountain pavilion with silk.

At this Zuihou moment, only one eunuch Wang Chengen has been accompanying Chongzhen and hanged himself in the mountain pavilion with Emperor Chongzhen.

In China's thousands of years of history, many monarchs have been captured or killed by the enemy, but only Chongzhen committed suicide. With his own life, he drew an end to the Ming Dynasty's 'Son of Heaven guards the country, and the monarch dies in the society'.

Here I want to talk about the edict left by Chongzhen Zuihou, which is not long, and it is written in blood: I Liang De bowed, and the heavens were to blame, causing the traitors to go straight to the Jingshi, and all the ministers were mistaken. I died, I saw my ancestors without a face, I took off my crown, covered my face with my hair, let the thieves split, and did not hurt the people.

From the zuihou sentence in this edict, it is not difficult to see that people are about to die, and their words are also good.

Some people say that Chongzhen is still shirking responsibility until his death, saying that he is mean. In fact, no, from the perspective of common sense, there is no need for a person who is discouraged to shirk responsibility.

Throughout the seventeen years of Chongzhen's reign, he is certainly to blame for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but the responsibility is indeed not on him alone.

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he immediately and decisively cut off Wei Zhongxian's eunuch clique; Then, while severely punishing corrupt officials and corrupt officials, he encouraged the governors of all localities to cheer up and work hard for the country, and warned the ministers to abandon their views and seek common ground through differences.

He is determined to prosper the Ming Dynasty, and he has worked hard for this purpose, and has been sleeping all night for 17 years, and has not slackened for a day.

However, look at what those ministers who have been reused did, first Qian Qianyi fought for the position of cabinet, bribed eunuchs, excluded dissidents, and once again led to the dispute between the Donglin Party and other parties.

Then there is the formation of a party of 10,000 people in the Restoration Society, controlling public opinion, cracking down on dissidents, controlling the imperial examinations, and controlling the government and politics.

and then Yuan Chonghuan, shouting out five years of Pingliao, exhausted the essence and blood of Daming Zuihou, but the result was not to mention it.

The list goes on and on.

Some people say that Chongzhen himself is stubborn and self-serving, and he is negligent in employing people. Let's ask, the Manchu Dynasty is full of ministers who form parties and run private interests, who can Chongzhen trust?

Was he stubborn in the first place? It was after the Manchu ministers disappointed him again and again that the appointed ministers had to give up the court and promote more Zhongzhi, which was a big reason why Chongzhen was accused of being stubborn and self-serving.

Looking back at Chongzhen's testament, he said that "all the ministers are mistaken", which shows that he is not just shirking responsibility.

And this edict announced the defeat of a great country and the beginning of a catastrophe of Chinese civilization.

**************************************

PS: I have seen a lot of news about the HP370 missing airliner, and I dreamed of a big airliner flying around all night last night, but unfortunately I never dreamed of where the HP370 lost airliner flew.

Blessings to the passengers on board. (To be continued......)