Three days later, the capital.
The atmosphere in Huangji Palace was depressing.
Cabinet Chief Li Banghua is reporting military intelligence.
"Your Majesty, Tang Tong was defeated at Juyong Pass and is leading 7,000 remnants of his army to retreat to the capital. They have now reached the Changping area. The bandit army is following closely behind them and is coming in full force! In this battle, our army lost more than 3,000 people, and the bandits lost more than 10,000 people, but 70% of them were civilians who were taken hostage by the bandits."
Fang Yuegong clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
In the eyes of the bandits, the common people are no longer human beings, they are even worse than pigs and dogs. Because the bandits will not use pigs and dogs as shields!
"The bandit Liu Fangliang's troops have arrived fifty miles southwest of the capital, and are expected to arrive at the capital tomorrow."
"All the grain in the Tongzhou government warehouse has been transported to the capital and stored in the homes of nobles and court officials who have left the capital, and heavily guarded. The grain transport has been completely stopped, and all ships have left Tongzhou and docked at the Tianjin dock."
"The Yongwei Battalion returned to the capital last night. Except for one injured person, there were no other losses. In this expedition, a total of 27 bandit scouts were killed, two bandits were captured, and 29 war horses were captured."
The battle reports of the Yongwei Battalion should be sent directly to the emperor, but their food and wages and rewards for killing enemies are handled by the Ministry of War just like the Beijing Battalion. When Li Banghua learned about it, he chose to read it out in order to boost the morale of the troops.
"Left Commander Liu Wenyao and his 13,000 soldiers have arrived outside Tianjin and are expected to arrive in the capital in three days. Considering that the bandits will have surrounded the city by then, I suggest that Liu Wenyao stay in Tianjin and wait for the opportunity."
"The prince sailed into the sea and has now arrived near Haizhou. Everything is going well."
As Li Banghua read out one Fengtang report after another, the atmosphere in the court became more and more depressing.
Although people knew the bandits would come, they still showed fear when they actually arrived.
The bandits' deeds had already spread throughout the capital.
Everyone has one thought in their mind: Can we defend the capital?
It would be fine if we can hold on to it, but what will happen if we can’t?
Steal money? Steal food? Steal houses and women?
Will it kill people?
Or...will the city be massacred?
Chongzhen had no expression on his face and acted very calmly. He had already done what he should and shouldn't have done. The outcome was entirely up to fate!
Besides, he was the emperor, the backbone of all officials and the capital, and he could not show any panic.
"Master Li, how many people have you recruited these days?"
"Your Majesty, a total of 78,247 civilians have been recruited and all have been issued weapons. However, there is a shortage of armor, and the Ministry of Works is busy making paper gunpowder, so this is the only way to go for now."
Chongzhen frowned and nodded.
There are still 800,000 people in the capital now, and the number of recruits accounts for one tenth of the total population, which is already enough.
He had no idea about the armor. Whether it was dark armor or cotton armor, the production was very complicated and he couldn't make many in a short time.
etc...
He came up with a good idea.
"Lord Li, Minister Fan, please come to the Palace of Heavenly Purity after the court session. I have something to confirm."
"I obey the order."
"Minister Fang, how many people were relocated?"
Fang Yuegong stepped out of the class and bowed: "Your Majesty, all the people within a radius of 50 miles of the capital have been relocated into the city. The places outside 50 miles... are out of reach. A small number of the people who moved into the city were resettled in the idle houses of ordinary people, and most of them had nowhere to go and were sleeping on the streets."
Chongzhen nodded and said nothing.
There is no way, it is impossible for every citizen to have a place to live. Fortunately, it is already mid-March (Lunar calendar), and although it is still cold, it is not as cold as in February.
It was dry and rainless in March in the capital, so people could bear to sleep on the streets.
"Okay, everyone, go back and get ready. Tomorrow, go up to the city wall with me and see what the bandits look like!"
"Retreat--" Wang Chengen was interrupted before he could finish his words.
"Your Majesty!" A man stood up from among the civil officials.
"I impeach Dingxi Bo Tang Tong!"
Chongzhen was stunned. Impeachment?
When he heard these two words, his eyebrows twitched and he felt murderous.
What a time to impeach, isn't this just internal strife? What's more important is that the person he wants to impeach is Tang Tong, who resisted Li Zicheng's army of more than 100,000 at Juyongguan.
In history, Tang Tong first surrendered to Li Zicheng and then surrendered to Dorgon. Judging from these performances, he must die!
But not now, and certainly not at this time.
Fang Kezhuang, the Right Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, stepped forward and said, "Former Shanxi General Zhou Yuji only had 7,000 soldiers under his command. Despite the lack of soldiers and food, he was able to hold off the bandits at Ningwu Pass for more than ten days. In the end, although the bandits broke through Ningwu Pass, they lost 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers!"
"Juyong Pass is the gateway to the capital. Tang Tong has 8,000 soldiers and horses, plus the 2,000 defenders, totaling more than 10,000 people. He has more soldiers and more food than Zhou Yuji. If we fight hard, we will definitely be able to stop Li Zicheng outside the pass."
"Even if we can't defeat them, we can still hold out for a dozen more days!"
"But Tang Tong not only lost the pass, but also suffered almost as many casualties as the bandits!"
"I ask Your Majesty to punish Tang Tong! Punish him for losing the battle, being afraid of the enemy, and running away from the battlefield!"
"I second the motion!"
"I second this motion!"
Under the leadership of Right Censor-in-Chief Fang Kezhuang, three or four censors and imperial secretaries stood up to impeach Tang Tong.
"What Censor Fang said makes sense..." Chongzhen nodded with a serious expression.
He had long known that there were bad people in the court. Now that Li Zicheng was about to lay siege to the city, those bad guys who had been hiding very deeply could not help but jump out.
In that case, we might as well take advantage of the situation.
"But now is the time to use people. It's a bit inappropriate to punish him, isn't it?"
"Your Majesty!" Wu Weihua, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, spoke.
"I heard that Tang Tong had correspondence with the bandits when he was guarding Juyongguan. I think Tang Tong may have surrendered to the bandits. He returned to Beijing this time to be the bandits' internal support! Open the city gate with internal and external support and let the bandits in!"
"Your Majesty, please be careful!"
Chongzhen nodded on the surface, but his heart was already filled with murderous intent.
I heard...I thought...maybe, he wanted to kill Tang Tong with just three ambiguous words.
He didn't want to kill Tang Tong, he clearly wanted to stifle the loyalty of his soldiers!
They were fighting bravely on the front lines, doing a life-threatening job, and these civil officials behind them not only did not help, but they even wanted to sabotage them!
If that were done, would the soldiers still be loyal? Without loyalty, the Ming Dynasty would also be gone!
Wu Weihua, you deserve to die!
No, there must be more bad guys than just him!
Sure enough, just when Chongzhen was thinking.
Jin Zhijun, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Tang Tong left behind a large amount of supplies before retreating to Juyong Pass. It is said that there are food, gunpowder, muskets, and red cannons."
"This is clearly an act of aiding the enemy. Your Majesty, please punish him!"
Another rumor!
These civil officials are very scheming. Unless there is solid evidence, they always use words like "it is said" and "maybe" when impeaching.
It doesn’t matter if it’s exposed. After all, nothing was said definitively during the impeachment, so it can be covered up.
After waiting for a while, seeing that no one seconded the motion to impeach Tang Tong, Chongzhen slowly said: "I already know what you all mean. This matter is of great importance. Please allow me to think about it."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
