Chapter 78 Cao Huachun

These days, Yu's army blocked all the contacts between the palace and the outside world, and only sent people to supply some food and vegetables to the palace every day. However, it was not too difficult for the people in the palace, but no one was allowed to leave or enter the palace and inform him of the situation in the city, which made it impossible for Chongzhen to understand the current situation inside and outside the city. It has reached that point.

But by listening to the voices from all directions in the city, he can still guess that the capital has been gradually controlled by the family army, and the chaos in the city is gradually suppressed.

In the first few days, he could still hear some firecrackers from all over the city from time to time, but in the past few days, the capital has gradually quieted down, and it is difficult to hear the sound of bursting beans.

Just when Chongzhen was eager to understand the situation outside the palace, an eunuch quickly walked into his bedroom and reported to him: "Cao Huachun asked for a meeting!"

Chongzhen stood up at once. It turned out that he thought that even if Cao Huachun was not dead, he should have escaped from the capital, or he was captured by the Yu family army. With Cao Huachun's position in the court, Yu Xiaotian would not let him go easily, but he did not expect that Cao Huachun was still alive. And in Beijing, he even returned to the palace today. At this time, Chongzhen immediately became excited and quickly shouted, "Come and see him..."

Cao Huachun actually fell into the hands of Yu's army a few days ago. Originally, Cao Huachun had a complete chance to escape from the capital. On the day the city was broken, Cao Huachun sat at Zhengyang Gate. After the Yu's army invaded the city, he also tried to dispatch troops and tried to drive the family army out of the capital again, but the result was very quickly. The officers and soldiers he sent were defeated one after another, which also made him lose control of the Beijing camp.

Cao Huachun later ran to the Fuchengmen area, trying to collect the defeated soldiers, continue to fight against the Yu family army, and tried to attack the palace and save Chongzhen from the palace. However, at this time, these soldiers of the Beijing camp had already lost their fighting spirit and no one listened to his greeting and helped him fight against the Yu family army.

Cao Huachun finally found only hundreds of so-called righteous men and launched a counterattack on the palace with these loyal righteous men, but the result was obvious that his counterattack at this level could not play any role at all. These hundreds of rabbles were killed on the spot, and the rest were suddenly scattered as birds and beasts.

Cao Huachun was protected and fled back to Fuchengmen. Originally, he had a chance to escape from the capital, but Cao Huachun thought that he was deeply favored by the emperor. So he was not loyal, so he finally gave up escaping. First, he hid. Later, after the Yu family army controlled the whole capital, he walked out of his hiding place by himself. He took the initiative to find the military general of the Yu family, reported his identity, and asked to see Yu Xiaotian.

When he learned that the old eunuch in front of him was Cao Huachun, the military general in charge at that time was immediately shocked. Unexpectedly, the old eunuch would jump out and surrender by himself, so he quickly reported the news to Yu Xiaotian. Yu Xiaotian was also surprised and felt a little strange. According to reason, Cao Hua Chun had a lot of opportunities to escape from the capital, but why didn't he leave, but when the capital was closed, he came out and asked to see him?

So Yu Xiaotian ordered Cao Huachun to be brought to the front and saw this famous eunuch at the end of the Ming Dynasty. There are literati records in Cao Huachun's history that when Li Zicheng attacked the capital, it was Cao Huachun who opened the door to welcome the thief and welcomed Li Zicheng into the capital.

But whether Cao Huachun opened the door in history or not was an unsolved case. Later, Cao Huachun defended himself and said that he was not in Beijing at all at that time, so he could not open the door to welcome the thief at all.

On the whole, it is likely that those literati deliberately smeared Cao Huachun later, and the credibility is not very high. Although Yu Xiaotian has never met Cao Huachun, from the detailed feedback he arranged in the capital on time, Cao Huachun is relatively loyal among the eunuchs. Basically, there are not many bad deeds to speak of.

And after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he overturned Wei Zhongxian's party. Cao Huachun made friends with the Donglin Party members and did a lot of good things for many Donglin Party officials who were framed by the Wei Party at the beginning. However, he did not expect that after the fall of the Daming Dynasty, the Donglin Party and many scholars would smear him so much, which shows that he read at that time The shamelessness of the book.

So this time, although Cao Huachun, as the governor of the capital, led the army to resist the family army, after Xiaotian invaded the capital, he did not order the search and arrest of Cao Huachun, and did not let people move Cao Huachun's house and relatives in the capital, just because Cao Huachun is a good person and there are not many bad deeds. Words.

But he didn't expect that at this time, Cao Huachun would take the initiative to come out to see him, so he had another good impression on Cao Huachun.

After seeing Yu Xiaotian, Cao Huachun knelt down and begged Yu Xiaotian to treat the current saint well and not harm Emperor Chongzhen, and expressed his willingness to return to the palace to continue to serve Emperor Chongzhen.

After listening to this, Yu Xiaotian personally came forward to help him up and order someone to give him a seat. It was another good explanation. He insisted that he entered Beijing this time for the sake of the Qing emperor's side and had no intention of harming today's emperor. Although the emperor's unfair treatment of him in Xiaotian, these things were all listened to those treacherous tycophants. The fault of slander is not in today's saints.

As for Cao Huachun's desire to go back to the palace to serve Chongzhen, Yu Xiaotian also agreed at that time and let Cao Huachun stay and serve him well, treat him deliciously, and let him freshen up and change into new clothes, so he was sent to the palace.

It's nothing more than Xiaotian took Cao Huachun to his temporary residence before sending Cao Huachun to the palace. He talked with Cao Huachun behind closed doors for more than two hours. Others did not know what he said.

After talking secretly with Yu Xiaotian, Cao Huachun was sent to Donghua Gate, where the palace gate was opened, and Cao Huachun entered the palace.

When Chongzhen saw Cao Huachun, Cao Huachun immediately knelt down and cried bitterly. Since Chen was guilty, he was a governor, but he could not stop his family's army from entering the capital, and he could not rescue Chongzhen, the princes and imperial concubines from the palace, so that Chongzhen was trapped in the imperial city and trapped by the emperor. City, please punish Chongzhen.

Chongzhen originally hated Cao Huachun. He had high hopes for Cao Huachun and Gao Qiqian, hoping that the two of them could cooperate to prevent the rebels from entering the capital, but in the end they failed to trust him and lost the capital. Even he, the emperor, was blocked in the palace and became a trapped cage. Beast.

Before Cao Huachun came back, he repeatedly scolded Cao Huachun and Gao Qiqian, claiming that they would be punished one day, but today when he saw Cao Huachun coming back, he was a little overwhelmed.

Chongzhen scolded Cao Huachun with a black face, and then asked Cao Huachun how he returned to the palace. Cao Huachun then told Chongzhen about the situation of the fall of the whole capital, and took the initiative to get out of his hiding place, asked Yu Xiaotian to see Yu Xiaotian, and finally how he was sent back to the palace by Yu Xiaotian.

When Chongzhen learned that Cao Huachun had voluntarily given up escaping from the capital, insisted on staying in the capital, and took the initiative to appear at the risk of his life to plead for him, he also sighed in his heart. He thought that there were really not many loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty, and only Cao Huachun, Wang Dehua and Wang Chengen, who followed him, were still right. He is loyal. Since Cao Huachun would rather escape from the capital, how can he bear to punish him?

So Chongzhen waved his hand and made Cao Huachun stand up, and then Chongzhen quickly asked about the situation of the capital outside the palace.

Gao Qiqian also told Chongzhen what he had seen and heard outside these days. After listening to Gao Qiqian's evaluation of the family army, Chongzhen closed his eyes and sighed.

He really didn't expect how Yu Xiaotian ruled the army. Not only could he create such a good army, but also the rebel soldiers under him could be able to obey the order and observe the discipline. He had long known that the military discipline collapsed, but because the world is in chaos and it is time to employ people, even if he heard it Some military generals do not practice military discipline, and often just turn a blind eye. As long as the generals are still useful, he usually won't touch them.

So this also led to the very bad military discipline of the Ming army, but he didn't expect that the military discipline of the Beijing camp at the foot of the emperor had also collapsed to such a point, and it was enough that the officers and soldiers were not good at fighting, but after their defeat, they still did so many evil deeds in the capital city, which was really deserved to be killed. .

Originally, the people in the capital had a sympathetic attitude towards the rebels, but now the rebels have invaded the city, but the defenders are so virtuous that they have dropped the reputation of the court to the bottom.

Nowadays, the rebels have controlled the capital. Although they are still under martial law in the whole city, they rarely disturb the people. Compared with those officers and soldiers whose military discipline has collapsed, they have made higher judgments. What's more terrible is that they are fighting the banner on the side of the Qing Dynasty and can get the support of the people. If it goes on like this, who will pay attention to the imperial court?

When Chongzhen thought of this, he couldn't help sighing again, knowing that he was afraid that the Ming Dynasty would really return to Xiaotian this time.

In addition, Gao Qiqian also brought a very important news, that under the leadership of Yan Jizu, Shandong reinforcements came quickly and entered Tongzhou City, but they collapsed before the front of the family army. Even Yan Jizu, the governor of Shandong, was captured on the spot and became Yu Xiaotian's prisoner.

The whole Shandong has now been in chaos, and the governor has fallen into the hands of the rebels, making Shandong lose its unified control. Now Shandong's defeated soldiers have fled back to Shandong. Most of them have become soldiers and bandits, harming the people everywhere, so that many local governments and counties and even towns in Shandong have raised their hometowns to protect themselves, but the defense is These regular officers and soldiers.