: Delegation of life in danger

The early years of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty were destined to be a time point that people of this era would never forget, because so many things happened in this short year. In the first month of the reign of Chongzhen, the eunuch party that had been in charge of the government for several years was destroyed, and even the nine thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian, who had been in power for a while, was cut into pieces. Before people could recover from the turmoil of this political situation, another great victory was reported in Liaodong. The Ming Dynasty, which had never had the achievements of expanding territory in the past decade, finally regained a large area of ​​land in Liaodong.

These two major events are far away from ordinary people, but the subsequent killing of corrupt officials in Zhejiang made them feel closely related to them. When the eunuch party was in power, the court was full of corrupt people, and the death of corrupt officials in Zhejiang who harmed the people really made the people feel very pleased. They also imagined that the court could further eliminate corruption and greatly enhanced the people's sense of trust in the court.

As for the subsequent series of agreements between the court and the people, not many people knew about it, but it was a good thing to grow up the prestige of the Ming Dynasty. When the people of the whole country were full of joy and thought that this year would be concluded with good news, the largest and only bad news of the year came - the Jin army suddenly appeared on the northern border, had already taken down Zunhua, and came straight to the center of the Ming Dynasty, and came to Beijing!

On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, when they knew that the bad news came, the people who were still preparing to celebrate the New Year happily were panicked at that time. When this time came, the joyfulness on the streets disappeared. Some people began to doubt this statement, but when they saw that the officers and soldiers in the city were moving, and the troops of Shuntian Prefecture and the Wucheng Military and Masjids patrolled and walked around the city from time to time, they knew that all this was true.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, Zunhua was defeated. The news had already reached the capital on the morning of the 24th. Everyone was stunned for what the officials in the court knew, and some were even more shocked. At the court meeting on this day, Chongzhen also had a gloomy face. After a while, he said: "An urgent report came from this morning. Zunhua was defeated by the Jin people yesterday. Their purpose was obvious. Do you have any solutions?"

Seeing the emperor asking, the officials had to come forward to answer even if they were unsure, and someone said, "I would like to ask the emperor to issue an order immediately and take the defenders from Liaodong and other places to quickly bring people to rescue them. I will also order the three major guards in Beijing to guard the city. As long as I keep it for a while, the Jin people will naturally retreat."

"I think this is inappropriate. The emperor is a man of a thousand gold coins, so how can he stay in such a dangerous situation? In my opinion, it is better to take advantage of the arrival of the Jin army and protect the emperor from leaving the capital before the Jin army arrives. It is not too late to wait until the Jin people retreat before returning." Zuo Dun, an official from the Ministry of Personnel, stepped forward and said.

A hint of anger flashed in Chongzhen's eyes: "Zuo Dun, have you asked me to abandon the people of the city and the foundation of our ancestors to be a king who lost his country and his family?" As soon as he said this, the faces of the ministers in the palace became even more ugly. At this time, the person who was incompatible with Zuo Dun took the opportunity to suppress him: "Long live the remarks, Zuo Dun's words are really punishable! This capital is the foundation of my Ming Dynasty. How can I easily abandon it just because there is an enemy attack? What's more, the walls of Beijing are high and thick, and they can defend the most. If the emperor leaves him, it will be even more dangerous. I ask the emperor to punish him for his nonsense!"

Zuo Dun is still waiting to be argued, but the emperor has ordered it to be dragged down. Chongzhen looked at the ministers below and said, "I have never had a king who left in the Ming Dynasty. If you dare to say such words again, Zuo Dun is the lesson of the past! Ministry of War, how many people are available in my capital now?"

"If you go back to the emperor, in addition to the three camps, there are also some patrol officers and soldiers in the capital, with a total of 100,300 troops."

"Since that's the case, why can't we send troops to resist the enemy, but we just want to defend ourselves? Beijing is the capital of our Ming Dynasty. How can we ask the barbarians of the Jin Kingdom to drive in? Pass my will and order the three camps to go out of the city to meet the enemy!" Chongzhen ordered at that time. Although he was already the emperor, he was a young man with zero twenties and had never really seen the power of the Jin people. Of course, there would be no concept of what to do after failure.

But among the ministers, there were veterans who had a deep understanding of the combat power of the Jin army. Someone immediately put forward different opinions: "Your Majesty must not be. The Jin people are brave and are best at confronting me head-on. Most of them are cavalry, coming and going like the wind, while the defenders in the capital are mainly infantry, I am afraid they are not his opponent at all, the emperor!"

Chongzhen was slightly stunned when he heard this. He recognized that the official who risked his life was Zhu Zekai, a veteran who had dealt with the Jin people in Liaodong. He could not ignore his words and asked, "Since that's the case, what do we do?"

"The enemy situation is unknown now, and the Jin people are coming in full force, so the only way is to defend to the death. As long as you guard for a while, the troops who serve the kings in various places will come one after another, and the morale of the Jin army will be frustrated at that time, and it will not be too late to go out of the city to fight."

The other ministers were best at talking and writing. If they really wanted to use force, they would have no idea. Since they saw someone saying this, they all agreed with General Zhu's intentions. Seeing this, Chongzhen had to adopt this safe method and nodded and said, "Since that's the case, then everything will be left to General Zhu, you, to command it."

"The old minister will never let down the emperor's high hopes, and he will defend my Beijing..." At this point, Zhu Zekai suddenly coughed, and he coughed so hard that he was so scared that he couldn't speak for a long time. After all, he was eighty years old. Although he still wanted to serve the country, his body might not be as good as he wished. Chongzhen sighed in his heart when he saw his appearance, knowing that he could not bear such a heavy responsibility, so he looked at the ministers and said, "Who else can solve this danger?"

All the ministers looked at me, and I looked at you, and I couldn't speak for a long time. They were all civil officials. Even if there were officials from the Ministry of War, they were all people who could only talk about war on paper. Now they were fighting with real swords and guns, and it was related to Beijing. They were not dared to take on such a heavy burden. Chongzhen knew that no one could take on this responsibility when he saw their bitter appearance, so he had to look at General Zhu, who had just recovered, and wanted to take the risk of letting him take on the heavy responsibility of defending the city.

But at this moment, he stepped forward: "Your Majesty, I recommend one person and I will be able to defend the capital." The emperor opened his eyes and found that it was Chen Wei, the Minister of Rites, and said strangely: "Chen Qing, you are an official of the Ministry of Rites, why can you still use troops? Let's talk about it, who should lead troops to defend the city?"

"Your Majesty, it is not only that General Zhu, who had fought with the Jin people in Liaodong in Liaodong, but also Tang Feng, an official from the Honglu Temple of the Ministry of Rites, also went to Liaodong. Moreover, in the winter of the fourth year of the Tianqi period, it was his several tricks in Ningyuan that resisted the siege of tens of thousands of Jin troops. Now, my Beijing is much more beneficial than Ningyuan's city, whether it is strong or the troops. Tang Feng will definitely be able to defend the city until the king-supported army arrives."

"Tang Feng..." Chongzhen realized that he had really forgotten this most useful talent. He had heard of his affairs in Liaodong at the time, but because later he always worked in the Jinyiwei, he was more fighting with the treacherous and slandered in the court, and no longer involved in the battlefield, so he gradually forgot about the fact that he could still lead troops. Now that he thinks, Tang Feng is indeed the most suitable candidate to lead troops to defend the city, regardless of his ability in military use or his trust in him. So Chongzhen nodded at the time and said, "I will be allowed to report, and I will order Tang Feng to defend the city of Beijing as the leader of all the people in my capital!"

At noon, Tang Feng had already received an imperial edict to lead his troops to defend the city. It was not until this time that he knew that the Jin army had rushed from the north to head straight to Beijing. "How could this be like this?" Tang Feng frowned deeply. He still had a lot of memories of the history of the Ming Dynasty. He knew that in the nearly three hundred years of Ming Dynasty history, Beijing had been besieged by foreigners twice. Once, after the defeat of Tumu Fort, the Oirat Taishi also led his troops to surround Beijing, which was defended by Yu Qian. Another time, during the Chongzhen period, the Jin Dynasty Huang Taiji led his troops to attack Beijing, but was defeated because of Yuan Chonghuan's appearance. But in his memory, this war should have been several years late.

But then Tang Feng shook his head and smiled bitterly. It turned out that the seven-year-old Tianqi Dynasty had become six years ago, and Nurhaci had returned to heaven one year earlier. Why couldn't the Jin people appear under the city of Beijing this time? History is no longer the history that he is familiar with, so anything can happen. If he was not careful, he might be attacked by the Jin people in Beijing this time, and by then he would become the biggest sinner of the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Tang Feng felt that the burden on his shoulders was a little heavier. He no longer delayed and immediately drove the horse to the base of the three camps and gathered tens of thousands of people there. The three camps were arranged by Tang Feng on the walls of the outer city, while the officers and soldiers who were patrolling the city, the five-city military officers and the people from the Shuntian Prefecture were sent by Tang Feng to guard all over the city to prevent any ***. Tang Feng knew very well that these individual horses were not really elite soldiers who could go to the battlefield, and they could not be compared with the army of the three camps. With them, they would drag down the three camps, so it would be more suitable for them to stay in the city to stabilize the people's hearts and situations in the city.
Chapter completed!