Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 76 Silver! Silver!
When this news reached the capital, it was already afternoon.

The two yellow flags plus the bordered blue flag, with more than 50,000 elite soldiers from the Eight Banners, were enough to make Zhu Youjian lose his appetite.

The presence of two yellow flags represents the presence of Dorgon!

This historical hero who successfully entered the pass put too much pressure on Zhu Youjian.

Although only more than 50,000 people entered the pass, it was certain that the entire Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty was dispatched.

The pressure brought to him by the army of 200,000 was greater than that of Li Zicheng's army of one million.

After all, it was a famous elite force of the Eight Banners.

But he only had a mere 70,000 new troops.

Long-term malnutrition and lack of training meant that these new troops had no strength to fight the Qing army in the field.

Apart from the capital, he didn't even have a decent fortified city.

The reinforcements from Henan Province, which is closest to the capital, will take about ten days to arrive.

Wang Chengen has already gone to inform Ni Yuanlu and others.

Zhu Youjian sat on the dragon throne in the Qianqing Palace with a frown on his face.

I kept thinking of ways to break the deadlock.

He didn't know any battlefield strategies, but his good education gave him a strategic perspective that far exceeded that of ordinary people in this era.

If you want to break the deadlock, you must first find out what the Qing Dynasty wants to do.

Northern Zhili had just experienced a great war, and was fortified and cleared by Li Zicheng and the Ming army for a period of time. Now it has only been a few days since the spring plowing, and it can be said that it is extremely poor.
The Qing army's purpose of entering the pass now is definitely not to plunder money.

In his previous life, Chongzhen was hanged on Coal Hill. Dorgon took advantage of the situation under the banner of revenge for the Ming Dynasty and eventually conquered the world.

But now, he is still alive, has successfully defended the capital, has 100,000 elite soldiers under his command, the backbone of the Ming Dynasty is not broken, and there are still hundreds of thousands of troops in the south. It is even less likely that Dorgon will dream of overthrowing the Ming Dynasty.

So what is his purpose?
Simply take Shanhaiguan, the last pass between northern Zhili and Liaodong?

That's even more unreasonable. Shanhaiguan, which was guarded by 5,000 people, could be taken by just sending one flag. There was no need for Dorgon to personally lead the two yellow flags to fight.

If it’s not for money or food, and if it’s not for conquering the city, what is this old man’s purpose?

Bringing the Eight Banners here for a stroll? Testing his own abilities? Scare himself?
Want to get something out of this? Want to force myself...

and many more!

Zhu Youjian suddenly thought of a possibility!
A big shot in the previous life once said that war is a continuation of politics.

No matter what kind of war it is, it ultimately serves politics.

If Dorgon came this time not for supplies, then it was to achieve some purpose.

Dorgon can be called a great hero, and he must have his own unique strategic vision.

Zhu Youjian's expression brightened, as if he was getting closer to the truth.

If I were Dorgon, why would I want to enter the pass after Chongzhen defended the capital and Li Zicheng retreated?
Either they see some kind of benefit or they feel some kind of threat.

Or...both!
He hurriedly stood up and walked to the map beside him, his eyes moving back and forth between Liaodong, Shanhaiguan, the capital, and Datong.

An extremely shocking thought came to Zhu Youjian's mind.

Dorgon wanted to force me to move south! !

Because from Dorgon's perspective, his best choice at the moment was to move south.

The north is empty, the new army is not formed, and there is a shortage of food and grass. There are Jiannu in the north and Chuang army in the south.

If they moved south at this time, they could not only avoid the impending attack of the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty, but also take advantage of the natural barrier of the Yangtze River and the prosperous environment of the south to form the situation of the Southern Song Dynasty and hold out against the Qing Dynasty across the river.

Watch Li Zicheng and Dorgon fight to the death.

Once he moved south, the entire area south of the Yangtze River would be handed over to Dorgon.

The latter could easily take over half of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he did not take advantage of the army's assembly, but personally led the two yellow flags and the blue flag to march day and night, heading straight to Shanhaiguan without any concealment.

The purpose was to frighten him and make him want to move south.

That's why the Eight Banners of the Han Army did not appear. Dorgon never thought of attacking the city from the beginning!

He didn't even have any intention of starting a war!
I just took the Eight Banners out for a stroll.

After Zhu Youjian figured it out, he was suddenly shocked.

No wonder Dorgon was able to take on the title of regent with the power of a single banner in the Qing Dynasty, which was a combination of military and political power.

It turns out this old guy is a capable politician!
Fortunately, Zhu Youjian had no intention of moving south. He even issued an imperial edict in the early morning, blocking his last path.

It is not known whether Dorgon will change his mind after learning the news.

As Fan Jingwen said, moving south is good in every way, but once you move south, it will be the biggest disadvantage.

After learning of Dorgon’s specific goal, Zhu Youjian felt relieved.

Now he just needs to find a way to delay it for about ten days.

Once the first wave of spring plowing is completed and all the major cities are repaired, we can sit back and watch Dorgon perform.

However, Zhu Youjian didn't think it was a big deal to just keep getting beaten.

It would be great if there was an elite cavalry that could compete with the Qing Dynasty at this time.

However, when the capital was defending the city, he almost took away all the silver in the city.

Even if we were to search now, we could only scrape out a few million taels at most, and we would also run the risk of rebellion among the ministers.

Zhu Youjian planned to stop after scraping off another two or three million taels, upgrade the court's entry, and then make another ten or twenty draws.

These are certainly not enough, but this is where the potential of the capital lies.

There is a high probability that the 70 million I got in my previous life was fake.

Now if Zhu Youjian wants to improve his strength quickly, he still has to find a way to get money from other places.

Although Fan Jingwen and Li Ruolian went to the south, given the situation in the south, they probably wouldn't see any money for two months.

Just when they were worrying, Ni Yuanlu and Song Ye finally arrived at the Qianqing Palace.

It was a time of post-war rest and spring plowing, and facing the invasion of the Jiannu, the officials in the capital, whose number was only half of what it was before, were now busy.

It was purely because these two people could not leave the capital, otherwise Zhu Youjian would not even have anyone to question.

As soon as the two of them stood still, Zhu Youjian went straight to the point.

He told them the urgent news and his recent speculation.

After hearing this, Ni Yuanlu also agreed.

"Dorgon's entry into the Pass at this time is probably just as Your Majesty expected, intending to overpower the enemy with force."

Song Ye then added, "I'm afraid it's more than that. If they simply wanted to force the imperial court to move south, why didn't the Jiannu advance on multiple fronts simultaneously, making it impossible for the various regions to take care of each other?"

"I believe that mobilizing such a large army would be extremely costly. Given the old bandits' intelligence, it is impossible for them to enter the pass based on mere speculation."

"If I were Dorgon, I would not rely on just one point, but would advance on multiple fronts simultaneously. For example, I could send a small force out of Xifengkou to attack Tianjin, or out of the south of the desert to attack Xuanfu. After all, the rebels have already retreated to the Datong area, and my royal army has no heavy troops, so the Jiannu can march straight into northern Zhili."

"Let the capital be attacked from both sides, or even collude with the rebels to put pressure on the capital and force Your Majesty to retreat to Nanjing."

"In my opinion, if the Jiannu's deployment is indeed like this, then after Dorgon captured Shanhaiguan, he would definitely not continue southward. Instead, he would wait for the detachment to arrive before moving together. Whether the detachment went south of the desert or through Xifengkou, it would be about ten days slower than Dorgon's army."

Zhu Youjian nodded involuntarily. Song Ye's analysis was more comprehensive and more likely to happen.

"Therefore, I believe that the Ming Dynasty still has ten days to make arrangements. We should urgently summon the troops of Liu Zeqing, the Governor of the Grand Canal, who is still in Shandong Province, to the north to support Tianjin."

"Also inform General Huang of Xuanfu to speed up the repair of Xuanfu and other important cities. Be careful of Jiannu sneak attacks and don't give them a chance to break into the city."

"Alright, Wang Banban will immediately draft an edict according to Lord Song's wishes and have it delivered to Liu Zeqing's army by express horse. Also, send another edict to urge King Zhou to hurry even faster. If not, send cavalry to escort the military pay and provide assistance."

In fact, Zhu Youjian didn't have much hope for Liu Zeqing.

Although Liu Zeqing was one of the four towns in Jiangbei of the Southern Ming Dynasty in his previous life, he was greedy by nature, afraid of death, and was a fence-sitter.

Before Zhu Youjian arrived, Chongzhen asked him to lead troops to defend the king, but he refused on the grounds that he had fallen off a horse and was injured.

Later, Zhu Youjian defeated Li Zicheng, and this guy immediately said that he could leave at least and would come to the capital to support the king immediately.

However, after learning that there was no food in the capital and the 500,000 soldiers and civilians brought by Wang Yongji had been separated, he began to hesitate again and again, and the action was delayed again and again. Seven days had passed since he wrote a letter to the king to support him, but he had walked less than a hundred miles and had not yet passed Jinan Prefecture.

King Zhou of Henan Province, Chongzhen's uncle, is more reliable.

At least King Zhou really cares about the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Youjian's transfer order came, he took Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and the Kaifeng Prefecture Guards, a total of 100,000 troops, and headed north.

At the same time, he also brought one million taels of silver as military pay, perhaps because he had a change of heart or because he thought Zhu Youjian could accomplish great things and made the investment.

Anyway, this is real money. It's still ten days' journey to the capital.

If it is as Song Ye speculated, then Zhu Youjian still has some time to operate before Dorgon comes.

Looking at the two people in the hall, he asked seriously, "Let's put aside the matter of Dorgon for now. Do you two have any plans to gather silver?"

"Collecting silver? Is Your Majesty going to increase taxes?" Ni Yuanlu looked at Zhu Youjian with some concern.

There is nothing wrong with raising taxes at this time. Your Majesty's power is already established. As long as the people have something to eat, they will basically not rebel.

But the key point is that distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. Even if taxes are levied now, it will take until after autumn for the tax silver from all over the world to arrive in the capital.

Zhu Youjian shook his head. "It's too late to collect taxes now."

"I believe you two are also aware that when the Chuang army besieged the city some time ago, I mobilized nearly ten thousand elite troops from the palace."

Ni Yuanlu and Song Ye looked at each other and didn't dare to speak immediately.

They had noticed those elite troops a long time ago, and Ni Yuanlu was sure that there were absolutely no such people in the capital before.

The inner training ground of the Forbidden City can accommodate three thousand people at most, so it is impossible for it to be hidden in the palace.

It's just that this matter was too shocking and involved the emperor's secrets, so I didn't ask about it.

And now Zhu Youjian actually brought up the matter himself, and the two didn't know whether they should listen or not.

Zhu Youjian didn't care what they thought. It was impossible for him to tell them about the entry anyway.

Supernatural and other such things are even more unacceptable. They may fool ordinary people, but who among the real elites would believe in them?

He spoke to the two of them about the speech he had prepared long ago.

"In fact, ever since I inherited the throne, I have been secretly training elite troops. However, at first, there were eunuchs, then Donglin, and later there was no money or grain to support them. After each training session, they would hide in the imperial farms in the capital. During the busy farming season, they would cultivate the farms, and during the slack season, they would go out for training on their own."

"If it weren't for the rebellion in Lincheng, I would have been determined to rebuild the country and take down all the corrupt officials, which would have given me some money and food. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to support these ten thousand elite troops!"

Even though Zhu Youjian's explanation was still full of loopholes, Ni Yuanlu and the others could not question it because of his status as emperor.

Moreover, these words sounded more like an attempt to cover up something in the ears of the two men.

But this has little to do with them. They are now completely tied to Zhu Youjian. They prosper together and suffer together.

Since His Majesty is unwilling to tell the truth, they will make this explanation reasonable.

"So Your Majesty means that there are still such elite troops?!" Song Ye grasped the key point.

Zhu Youjian did not confirm, but said, "If there is enough silver, there will be so many elite troops in the world!"

"What's more, the capital's cavalry and infantry number over 100,000, and the monthly expenses are quite high. Now that the Jiannu are about to enter the pass, the more silver the better."

"My two beloved ministers, you know what I mean. I don't want to take the common people's money. How much money do the common people in the world have?"

Seeing that Zhu Youjian was about to say something shocking again, Ni Yuanlu hurried forward to interrupt him.

"I understand! I am awake now!"

"The capital is in trouble, the Ministry of Revenue is struggling, and we need the people's support. All officials and nobles should report this to the emperor!"

"I request that you follow the example of the late emperor and order the wealthy merchants, nobles, and princes of Henan, Shandong, and even the Southern Zhili regions to contribute silver to the military expenses. Minister Fan has already begun to rectify this in Nanjing. If the salt and iron projects can be expedited, we can increase our revenue."

"Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst." Zhu Youjian drummed his fingers on the huanghuali imperial desk. "Let's not even talk about how many people are willing to contribute. Even if they manage to scrape together three or five hundred thousand taels, what will they even be able to do with it? By then, Dorgon's Eight Banners cavalry will have already crushed northern Zhili into dust!"

Ni Yuanlu was about to say something, but Song Ye suddenly took a half step forward and said, "I dare say that if I were to say the richest man in the world, it wouldn't be the wealthy merchants, the nobles, or the princes, but Li Zicheng, who is now retreating to Datong, seven hundred miles from the capital!"

Suddenly a gust of spring wind blew in from outside the hall, making the hanging map rustle.

Ni Yuanlu turned his head suddenly and looked at Song Ye in disbelief.

"Is Zuo Chu (Song Ye's pen name) going crazy?"

Zhu Youjian also didn't understand what Song Ye meant. "The rebels just lost a million troops in the capital a few days ago. Even if they don't attack the capital now, they won't send us money either."

"It is precisely because the rebels have just been defeated that we have an opportunity to take advantage of them."

Song Ye turned and walked to the map, pointing to the winding Taihang Mountains. "Datong is only seven hundred miles from the capital. If transported by four-wheeled carts, it will arrive in ten days. Your Majesty, do you remember that there are nearly ten thousand prisoners from the old camp of the rebel army still detained outside Xihua Gate?"

Zhu Youjian suddenly woke up, "You mean, exchange prisoners for silver?"

"Exactly!"

"These veteran soldiers are elite soldiers who have fought with Li Zicheng for ten years. Many of them are veterans from the Xingyang Conference. These captives cost us two hundred dan of millet every day. Seven of them have attempted arson, and twenty-three have gone on hunger strike, swearing to die rather than serve the Ming. Rather than wasting money and food, we'd better exchange them for cash."

"Since Li started his rebellion, he has been plundering without restraint, and has completely plundered the two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi."

"In one battle in the capital, a million-strong army was annihilated, and the Jiannu were also watching closely."

"What they lack right now is not money and food, but soldiers who can fight!"

Ni Yuanlu took two quick steps forward, almost pointing at Song Ye's nose and cursing, "This is aiding the enemy! Nearly ten thousand tigers and wolves have returned to the mountains. One day..."

"The first person they will have to deal with in the future is Dorgon!"

"Li Ni's base is in Shanxi and Shaanxi. If the old bandits are still here, Li Ni will certainly not be willing to abandon this place. May I ask Minister Ni, is it better to let the bandits continue to linger in Shanxi and tie down the Qing army, or force them to move south and join Zhang Xianzhong?"

While Ni Yuanlu was still struggling, Zhu Youjian had already made up his mind. It was just more than 10,000 soldiers from the old camp. If he could defeat them once, he could defeat them a second time!
"Minister Ni, please do not speak any more. Immediately dispatch an eloquent person to Datong to inform Li Zicheng that the Jiannu are preparing to attack Datong and Xuanfu from the south of the desert. I, putting the people first, have decided to release 10,000 soldiers from the old camp to assist Li Zicheng in defending the city."

"One old soldier for five hundred taels of silver. No banknotes or grain, just pure official ingots!"

"Are you still accepting military aid from wealthy merchants, princes and ministers from all over the country?" Ni Yuanlu asked fearfully.

Zhu Youjian raised his eyebrows, "Yes! Why not? That's what they should do!"

"Tell them I don't want much, just half of my fortune. If they hand it over honestly, the whole thing will be over. If they don't, hmph... notify Li Ruolian and find a few chickens to kill for them to see."

"Also, have Fan Jingwen move faster, and have Shi Kefa's Nanjing Camp march north to Tianjin immediately. Don't wait until Tianjin falls before submitting your apology to me!"

"I obey your order!" The two men bowed deeply and turned to leave.

Wang Chengen left Song Ye alone at the palace gate.

"Censor Song Lian, Your Majesty has something else to discuss."

Song Ye suddenly felt a bad feeling in his heart, but he had to go back.

As soon as I entered the hall, I saw Zhu Youjian flipping through a booklet.

Seeing Song Ye return, Zhu Youjian casually threw the booklet over to him, "Song Qing, take a look first. This is what Li Ruolian left behind when he went south. Eighty-nine out of ten names have been removed, but the remaining ten percent cannot be left untouched. I will give you five hundred black armor cavalry, and you should do it quickly."

Song Ye opened the booklet filled with handwriting, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

This is actually the evidence that the Jinyiwei used to search the officials in the capital! !

It was filled with a person's name, official position, property and crimes.

Song Ye immediately understood what Zhu Youjian meant.

"I want to see the silver deposited into my private treasury before tomorrow. Do you understand?"

"I...I obey your order."

……

In the middle of the night.

While the capital had already extinguished its candles and banned drums, Nanjing was still brightly lit, exuding a peaceful atmosphere.

There are many pleasure boats on the Qinhuai River, and the sound of string music mixed with the fragrance of cosmetics drifts through Sanshan Street.

When Fan Jingwen's blue cloth carriage passed through Jubao Gate, the wind lifted a corner of the curtain, revealing the porridge stalls that stretched for miles outside the city. The wooden barrels where the porridge was supposed to be distributed were filled with moldy rice husks.

The refugees fleeing from the north could only huddle under the city walls and wail, begging for a chance to live from passing nobles.

Fortunately, they didn't freeze to death.

Zhang Huangyan sat next to Fan Jingwen, tightly gripping the Emperor's Sword at his waist, and almost couldn't hold back.

Fortunately, Fan Jingwen was there. He was used to being cheated by Ni Yuanlu and had already completed his transformation by now.

"Remember His Majesty's secret order. Today, you and I will be the bait to catch the giant turtle!"

Zhang Huangyan also knew this and could only sigh.

The carriage stopped in front of a huge painted boat on the river bank.

Next to the painted boat, there were parked extremely luxurious carriages.

Duke of Wei, Xu Yunjue, stepped forward, twirling his beard. "Lord Fan, you've been on horseback for a long time, so I've prepared some wine for you."

Before he could finish his words, dozens of Jinyiwei cavalrymen rushed to the carriage and isolated Xu Yunjue.

Fan Jingwen and Zhang Huangyan then got off the carriage and bowed to Xu Yunjue with a smile.

"It is Fan's fault that you have to come to greet me again, sir. Please go in first."

(End of this chapter)