Faced with the emperor and his ministers' panic, Sun Kaiyang, one of the ministers, stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, Li's army must have taken a roundabout route and attacked from the mountains of Zhejiang."
What we should do now is send troops to resist Li's bandit army.
Zhu Jianshen looked at Sun Kaiyang, the only minister who had stepped forward, and sighed, saying:
"Order Zhang Huangyan, who is in Zhenjiang, to lead his troops to resist the rebel army."
After he finished speaking, he fell silent again, just about to open his mouth.
Because his next sentence was about recalling the garrison in Anqing.
But then he thought that once the garrison in Anqing was attacked, Li's army would completely sweep into Jiangnan.
And so, Jiangnan was truly finished.
At this moment, he began to miss the troops in the three towns north of the Yangtze River.
If I had listened to Sun Kaiyang's advice and transferred the troops from the three towns north of the Yangtze River to the south, I would definitely have sufficient troops now.
As expected, the troops in the three towns are firmly stationed in Huainan, preventing Li Qin's army from risking crossing the river.
However, the western defense line completely collapsed due to the betrayal of Jin Hufu in Jiangxi.
After Zhu Jianshen finished speaking, Sun Kaiyang stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, the situation is extremely urgent, and the situation in Jinling is also not optimistic."
Your Majesty, I implore you to evacuate Nanjing as soon as possible.
As soon as Sun Kaiyang finished speaking, the ministers present were also taken aback.
During this period, Zhu Jianshen repeatedly stated his position: he would never become a fleeing emperor.
In response, the court even had several ministers who advocated fleeing flogged to demonstrate its stance.
However, when faced with Sun Kaiyang's advice, Zhu Jianshen did not order him to be punished, but instead waved his hand helplessly.
This indicates that his advice has been rejected.
Having observed Sun Kaiyang for some time, he had come to know his official position.
He was different from the ministers who had previously advised him to evacuate Nanjing.
The ministers advised him to evacuate Jinling, just as they had advised him to flee the capital to Jinling in the past.
They all harbored the same selfish motives.
That is, he hopes that he can run away, and at the same time, they can follow him and escape with a legitimate reason.
Having experienced something like this before, Zhu Jianshen knew these officials all too well.
Therefore, they were ostensibly trying to persuade him to leave Jinling, but in reality, they wanted him to escape on his own.
They immediately ordered them to be flogged.
However, faced with Sun Kaiyang's advice, he knew that Sun Kaiyang genuinely hoped that he could leave Jinling, and did not harbor the same selfish motives as those ministers who wanted to escape under a legitimate pretext.
Therefore, in the face of Sun Kaiyang's advice, Zhu Jianshen simply waved his hand to indicate his rejection.
No order was issued to punish him.
He knew very well that running away could only save him temporarily; if he lost Nanjing, he would lose Jiangnan.
He has completely lost the ability to rebuild the country.
Escaping only earns you the title of "Emperor of Escape," and you'll just get caught somewhere else.
So he decided not to leave; he intended to die in the palace.
Faced with Zhu Jianshen's reluctance to flee, Sun Kaiyang stopped trying to persuade him.
He already understood this after the emperor rejected his suggestion to leave Jinling last time.
This time, it was just another effort as he saw the enemy army approaching.
At this moment, he wished that the emperor would be more timid and that he could use Zhu Chenggong's navy on the Yangtze River to evacuate Nanjing.
Seeing the emperor's attitude that he had decided to live and die with Nanjing, Sun Kaiyang could only sigh in despair once again.
After the court session, countless officials witnessed the people of Jinling City fleeing through the city gates, carrying their families and belongings.
At this time, the entire city of Jinling knew that Li Qin's army had captured Hangzhou and was marching towards Jinling.
Everyone knew that Nanjing was about to become a battlefield.
What they need to do now is escape Jinling City as quickly as possible, the farther the better, otherwise they will either be captured and driven to the city wall to defend against Li's army.
Because they didn't run far, they were captured by Li Qin's army and driven to attack the city.
In any case, the final outcome for these ordinary people is to become cannon fodder for these kings and generals, one after another, in the cycle of history for thousands of years.
The deaths of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of them, are recorded in history books in less detail than the accidental falls of emperors, kings, and generals.
So when they learned that war was about to break out in Nanjing, all they could do was run, run as far away as possible.
Not only them, but many officials also took the opportunity to abandon their official positions and flee Nanjing with their families.
The entire city of Jinling was permeated with an aura of impending doom.
There was absolutely no sign of shared hatred and willingness to overcome difficulties together.
Whether it's the ministers or the common people.
Almost everyone is thinking about themselves.
After witnessing this scene, Sun Kaiyang returned home dejectedly, leaving his family behind in Jinling while he remained alone.
He was a subject of the Great Wu, receiving a salary for many years, until the country fell and he died.
Meanwhile, Zhang Huangyan in Zhenjiang received an imperial edict ordering him to intercept Li Xuanshang's army.
After a sigh, he reluctantly led his army away from Zhenjiang and headed south to resist Li Xuanshang and Jin Hufu's 80,000-strong army.
He currently only has about 10,000 soldiers in the Beijing garrison.
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