Seeing that the other ministers remained silent, Bi Ziyan sighed and said nothing more.
Not long after, a member of the Imperial Guard jogged away from the palace.
They hurriedly left the capital and headed towards the area beyond the Great Wall.
When the Imperial Guard passed through Shanhaiguan, before even entering the city, he saw a blaze of fire inside the pass, which startled him.
"Good heavens, has the city caught fire?"
The courier leading the way laughed and said, "Commander, you're mistaken. This isn't a fire in the city; the people are actually celebrating."
At this point, the courier seemed somewhat agitated.
"Most of the people in the city were forced to flee here after the Jurchens swept through Liaodong."
"Now that the Jurchens have surrendered and Liaodong has been liberated, the people are naturally overjoyed at the thought of returning to their homes."
“There are even wealthy families who set up continuous banquets that don’t stop until night, which is why you, Hundred-Household Commander, can see the city brightly lit.”
"The city has actually been in turmoil for several days now."
The Imperial Guard breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
"I see."
"But they can't keep making trouble like this forever."
As he spoke, he patted a box tied to his front.
"His Majesty wrote the imperial edict himself. I imagine that once the edict arrives, they will be able to return to Liaodong."
"They should start making some preparations now."
It turns out that the Imperial Guards were on their way to Liaodong to deliver an imperial edict.
Meanwhile, Shengjing had also completely changed.
After Li Ruolian and Qin Liangyu's army of over 100,000 entered the city, they immediately began demolishing houses.
They razed all the palaces and princely residences built by the Jurchens to the ground.
Then, using these wood and stone materials, a surrender platform was built outside the city.
Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Wenlong, and Qian Qianyi also hurriedly traveled from Goryeo to Shengjing.
Seeing the bustling scene in the city, the three of them felt a little down.
Although they all made some contributions, they did not share the greatest credit at all, which must have made them somewhat disappointed.
Especially Mao Wenlong, who got up very early but arrived late.
In order to capture Hauge alive, he disregarded Li Ruolian and Qin Liangyu's military orders and went to Goryeo instead of Shengjing.
As a result, he didn't get any credit at all.
"That Hauge is a complete waste!" Mao Wenlong cursed.
"He actually got captured by his own men and then killed. What a piece of trash! A coward!"
Yuan Chonghuan glanced at Mao Wenlong but did not say anything to stop him.
Qian Qianyi, however, offered him a few words of advice.
"Lord Mao, there's no need to be too angry. There's plenty of time in the future."
"What do you mean 'there's plenty of time'?" Mao Wenlong shook his head irritably.
"The Jurchens have been pacified. Even if the court needs to wage war again, it will be against the Mongols."
"This has nothing to do with me anymore!"
Seeing this, Qian Qianyi didn't know what else to say.
He had no choice but to turn back and ask Yuan Chonghuan, "Minister Yuan, where is Zhang Xianzhong? Why has he disappeared?"
Yuan Chonghuan shook his head.
"Where else could he have gone? He must have gone to the city a long time ago!"
"He also said that he and Hauge were lifelong rivals, and now that Hauge is dead, he is going to pay his respects."
At this point, Yuan Chonghuan laughed.
"This kid has never even met Hauge, so how did he become his lifelong enemy?"
However, they were unaware of the inside story, while Li Zicheng was very clear about it.
"Old Zhang, that's enough for you."
Li Zicheng looked at Zhang Xianzhong, who seemed indifferent, and sighed helplessly, "These past few days you've been running around to the prisoner-of-war camp all the time, scaring those Jurchens to death."
Zhang Xianzhong rolled his eyes.
"You're quite composed, kid. You haven't even gone looking for trouble with that Dorgon."
Li Zicheng squinted his eyes.
"What does this have to do with whether you can keep your temper in check?"
"History has already changed. I have no grudge against Dorgon now, so why would I look for him?"
"Your mindset is truly impressive; no wonder Mr. Gao always praises you," Zhang Xianzhong said, giving him a thumbs-up.
Then he finally got serious.
"Little Li, what do you think the Emperor will do with those Eight Banners this time? Will he kill them all, or what?"
Li Zicheng shook his head.
"You're far too murderous."
"The emperor certainly won't kill them all; he'll most likely make them serve the court and expand the territory of our Great Ming."
After thinking for a moment, Zhang Xianzhong nodded.
"This is indeed something an emperor would do."
"But doesn't that seem a bit too lenient on them?"
Li Zicheng stood up and went to the window to look outside.
Looking at the chaotic scene in Shengjing City, he said calmly, "What's so cheap about this?"
"It's nothing more than making use of waste."
"As for those traitors, they certainly won't have a good ending."
"By the way, have all of Fan Wencheng's men been captured?"
Zhang Xianzhong seemed to remember something and suddenly burst into laughter.
After he finished laughing, he said:
"Of course we caught them!"
"That old bastard Fan Wencheng even tried to escape through a dog hole, but he didn't realize that we've taken over the entire Shengjing City. Even if he did escape through a dog hole, where could he possibly go?"
"And then there's Sun Degong, who surrendered Guangning City. That kid tried to break through and escape, but he was shot off his horse and is now half dead."
"I personally found doctors and told them that only public execution by slow slicing was the proper way to punish such a criminal, and persuaded them to treat his wounds."
"Otherwise, Sun Degong would probably have died of illness by now."
Li Zicheng sneered, "They deserve it."
"Since you dared to betray the Ming Dynasty, you should be prepared for this."
Just then, a guard rushed in.
"My lords, someone from the capital has arrived, carrying an imperial edict written in the emperor's own handwriting."
"Generals Li and Qin, along with other officials, have already come out of the city to greet us."
Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong exchanged a glance.
"Haha, the imperial edict has finally arrived."
"Let's go out of the city and greet them."
They soon arrived at the city gate and found that all the prominent civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty were guarding the entrance.
Although the Imperial Guard who delivered the order was only a centurion, he held the emperor's edict high in his hand.
All the ministers could only stand obediently, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
Upon seeing this, both of them nodded to themselves in agreement.
It seems that after the battle in Liaodong, Zhu Youjian has thoroughly established his authority.
While it's not to say he only rivals the founding emperor, he's in no way inferior to the founding emperor.
Meanwhile, in the prisoner-of-war camps, the Jurchen leadership was also in a state of panic.
"Wouldn't the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in a fit of anger, drag us all out to be beheaded?"
Amin spun around in place, occasionally turning back to look at Yue Tuo.
"You went to the capital and met with that Zhu... that Ming emperor. Tell me, what do you think he will do?"
Yue Tuo wasn't really confident, but he knew that if he didn't say something nice, Amin would definitely explode.
He rushed up and fought to the death.
So he could only say earnestly, "Amin, don't worry. We Manchus have surrendered sincerely. How could the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty go on a killing spree?"
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