On March 15, 17th year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's army surrounded the capital.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty was not without a chance at this time. During the siege, Li Zicheng once negotiated peace with Chongzhen through eunuch Du Xun, "to cut off the northwest area, entrust the king, and rewarded the army with millions of silver."

As long as Chongzhen agreed, Li Zicheng not only led his army to leave, but was also willing to help the court resist the Qing Dynasty, but he did not obey the imperial edict or pay homage.

Chongzhen hesitated about this and quickly consulted with the ministers. However, Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet at this time, was originally an incompetent person. He was unwilling to take the blame for Chongzhen because of Chen Xinjia's murder, so the matter was delayed. Finally, the Dashun army invaded the city. Chongzhen was extremely disappointed and finally hanged himself to death.

After hearing the bad news of Chongzhen's death, the ministers in the court responded differently. Officials represented by Grand Secretary Fan Jingwen, Minister of Revenue Ni Yuanlu, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Li Banghua, Censor of the Left Censor of the Left Censor Shi Bangyao, Minister of the Dali Temple Ling Yiqu, Minister of the Taichang Temple Wu Linzheng, Minister of the Left Zhongyun Liu Lishun, Right Minister of the Ministry of Justice Meng Zhaoxiang, Prince of the Prince of the Prince Gong Yonggu and others all committed suicide by their whole family, while most officials represented by Wei Zaode, Chief Secretary of the Cabinet chose to surrender.

However, ironically, many surrendered officials did not get the glory and wealth they wanted, but were arrested by the Dashun Army and tortured in order to plunder wealth.

As the chief minister of the current dynasty, Wei Zaode thought he could be valued, but he didn't expect that Li Zicheng would sarcastically say: "So many people are dead. As the chief minister of the current dynasty, why don't you die for your country?"

Wei Zaode shamelessly said that he would stay for useful bodies and serve Dashun Army. Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng sneered and said, "For someone like you, Chongzhen will treat you as a treasure. If you have Ma Luan Sanzheng's ability, I will not be able to attack the capital."

Wei Zaode was speechless when he heard this and didn't say a word.

Then Wei Zaode was arrested by Li Zicheng and tortured, and he forced out tens of thousands of taels of silver from him.

Even so, Li Zicheng did not spare him. He tortured him for five days and nights, and finally killed him. Even his son was not spared and was killed by Liu Zongmin.

Chongzhen never expected that the important ministers he relied on would have such a result. When Wei Zaode proposed that the ministers donate money, he himself symbolically took out 500 taels and took the lead in destroying it. In the end, the matter was left alone. However, after these days of plunder, Li Zicheng actually got 70 to 80 million taels of silver!

After Chongzhen's death, the body was placed in Donghua Gate. Chongzhen ordered the ministers of the Ming Dynasty to go to worship, but in the end there were only more than 30 people who cried and worshiped, and more than 60 people who did not cry. The rest were just looking at it and left. You should know that there were more than 1,300 Ming Dynasty officials who surrendered to Dashun at that time, but only about one hundred officials came to worship his body, less than one tenth!

Because the distance is relatively close, Ma Shiying, as the governor of Lufeng, had already received news of Chongzhen's death long before Ma Mingfeng got the news.

After hearing the news suddenly, Ma Shiying was so shocked that she couldn't speak. It was not entirely because the emperor was actually killed, but more importantly, it was Ma Mingfeng's amazing judgment.

To be honest, Ma Shiying was originally skeptical of what Ma Mingfeng said before leaving, because he did not believe that the Ming Dynasty would be defeated by a group of bandits. At most, it would be just a title of king for Li Zicheng and then use him to deal with the Qing army. "Water Margin" is a realistic textbook, and Ma Shiying believed that Chongzhen must have seen it.

But the reality was like this, and the capital was easily compromised. Emperor Chongzhen ignored his identity as the Lord of Wancheng and even hanged himself to death. Although this behavior showed Chongzhen's strong character of not being bent, it also brought considerable losses to the Ming Dynasty, making it impossible for the Ming Dynasty to organize effective resistance in a short period of time.

As for the performance of the officials after Chongzhen's death, Ma Shiying was even more shocked. He really did not expect that the ministers could be so cold-blooded that the king who was deeply grateful for his mercy had just hanged himself and his body was right in front of him. They ignored it and immediately went to the enemy to report, and continued to be his own official with serene satisfaction.

When Zhang Pu died, he was a stranger who had never met him before. He traveled thousands of miles to collect his body and handle the funeral. So if it were him, he would never have been so cold-blooded.

The gold and silver that Li Zicheng scooped out from the officials in the court, even the corrupt official Ruan Dacheng felt that it was far apart. Even Ruan Dacheng felt that he was far worse than Wei Zaode. How long did this guy have been the chief minister of the cabinet? He actually plundered tens of thousands of taels of silver. This is really

"Oh, the court is such a corrupt and mediocre minister. How can the Ming Dynasty not perish?" Ma Shiying sighed. He was originally a crime and had not been reinstated for a long time, so he paid great attention to the popularity and cared about others talking about his past. However, in this comparison, his past is much nobler than those people. He even thinks that even Ruan Dacheng is better than those people. Although Ruan Dacheng is a dark and fierce person, he is quite reliable in doing things.

"But I understand this before, Luan'er told me not to get too close to Ruan Dacheng. After all, Brother Ruan's reputation is not very good. Fortunately, Luan'er ordered someone to pay back the 10,000 taels of silver that Ruan Dacheng respected to Zhou Yanru. Otherwise, I really don't know when to pay back this favor. In fact, there is no need to think so much. Luan'er just said that he would not let me get too close to Brother Ruan, nor did he say that he would not let us date. Besides, how could my friendship with Brother Ruan for so many years be broken up with a few words from a child? Although the money was paid back, how could I have the opportunity to reinstate the job without Brother Ruan? What's more, this time I support King Fu, I still need to cooperate with Brother Ruan with sincere cooperation."

Ma Shiying was immediately excited when he thought of this. Although he was also dressed in a filial piety, he got the "news" from Ma Mingfeng in advance, and had already made all preparations before, so he was not panicked. He immediately contacted Ruan Dacheng, eunuch Han Zanzhou, Nanjing Right Prefecture Admiral Cao Jiang and Jiang Guardian Liu Kongzhao, Baoguo Duke Zhu Guobi, General Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing and others, as well as Nanjing Minister of War Shi Kefa, Nanjing Minister of Revenue Gao Hongtu, deposed Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi and others to discuss the issue of supporting the new king.
Chapter completed!