The end of the twenty-seventh year

  It was already December of the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign.

  By December, the Imperial Guards Division will set up a decorated archway in front of the steps of the Palace of Heavenly Purity and fire crackers every day during daylight hours.

  The holy vehicle enters the palace and fires one shot; when the holy vehicle arrives at the outer court for an imperial audience, it will also fire cannons.

  At the same time, large lanterns and lampstands are set up in the palace, and the eunuchs start changing the lantern scenes and adding festive touches to their clothes, creating a joyful atmosphere before the Lunar New Year.

  However, this year's end is really not something to be happy about.

  Li Zicheng broke through Tongguan in early October, occupied Weinan, and then captured Xi'an in mid-October, clearing the area south of the Yellow River. However, Li did not stop there. His years of military campaigns had made him strong and fearless, and with Gao Jie in northern Shaanxi... this man had earned Li's deep hatred, as it was Gao who had eloped with Li's original wife, a crime that could not be forgiven at the time or in later generations. Therefore, when Li learned that Gao was hiding in northern Shaanxi, he personally led his army of about 70,000 men, leaving Liu Zongmin behind and bringing only a few trusted generals like Li Guo, to pursue Gao across the river.

  In November, history took a slight turn... Qin Zhong Er Shuai, also the only usable heavy minister of the current Ming Dynasty, Sun Chuanting did not die in Weinan, nor did he go to Xi'an, and he did not lead his troops alone.

  On the contrary, he brought his own two thousand Du Biao soldiers and horses, and chased Gao Jie all the way.

  At first, Gao Jie was startled and thought that Sun Chuanting had caught up with him to arrest him... After all, at Tongguan, he had escaped first, and then Bai Guang'en had also escaped, leaving Sun Chuanting behind.

  Of course, this is also a compelling reason. Gao Jie knew that anyone could surrender, but he had no way to surrender. If the Ming dynasty were to perish and Li Zicheng gained power and became the founding emperor, then not only would his life be in danger, but even the ancestral temple of the Gao family might not be preserved... So he was, apart from Li Guo, the most stubborn anti-Li water army general. His subordinates also had several thousand brave warriors, who were quite capable of fighting.

  But if they really can't beat them, then they can only run away. As for how to escape, Gao Jie also has some ideas.

  After all, he had been a bandit for several years and was far superior to ordinary government army generals in this regard.

  When Gao Jie knew that Sun Chuanting had come to join forces with him, preparing to escape together, he was also quite moved... Indeed, General Sun is all-powerful, how did he know that I planned to flee all the way to Xu and Huai?

  Under Li Zicheng's fierce pursuit, Gao Jie and Sun Chuanting shamelessly fled in the wind. They first escaped from northern Shaanxi to Shanxi, then from Shanxi to Hebei, and then from Hebei to Henan. Then, along the traditional canal route, they traveled south from Linqing and finally arrived at Xuzhou.

  Finally safe.

  Historically, Gao Jie was chased by Li Zicheng all the way from northern Shaanxi to southern Jiangsu, like a dog chasing a rabbit. Although it was a long journey of several thousand miles and they ran wildly, miraculously their basic strength remained intact. After regrouping and reorganizing in Xuzhou and Huai'an, they transformed again and became the strongest among the four towns north of the Yangtze River...

  As of now, there is still a strong player in Gao Jie's team, Sun Chuanting... History has finally changed its predetermined course due to the existence of this little butterfly, Zhu Ciyan.

  However, on Li Zicheng's side, there was not much change. Sun Chuanting was very fierce, but his attraction to Li Zicheng was still not as great as Gao Jie's. The two combined only made Old Li chase them for over 300 miles.

  It's really can't catch up, then forget it.

  Later developments were the same as historical records, Li Zicheng went north, took down his hometown of Mizhi, returned home in glory, and then attacked the state and county government offices. Except for encountering resistance from retired General Yu Shiwei and other Ming military leaders under the city of Yulin, all other states and counties fell without a fight. Along the way, officials and soldiers either fled or surrendered, and there was no enemy to be found.

  In December, Li Kuo returned to Xi'an and went on an inspection tour everywhere. Every day he watched the soldiers drill and perform maneuvers. Since a new dynasty had not yet been established, military affairs were still the first priority.

  Li Zicheng already had his imperial guards behind him, and they were about to lay down yellow sand on the path as he walked, with a small yellow umbrella following behind... Although he hadn't yet declared himself emperor, he already had the actual imperial regalia.

  At this time, the capital city had already spread rumors that Li Zicheng would formally establish a new dynasty on New Year's Day, only temporarily not holding the grand ceremony of ascending to the throne... As for where to ascend to the throne... cough, need I say more?

  The situation is such that, as the dawn of a new era approaches, people's hearts are inherently unpredictable. Rumors in the city have suddenly increased, and folk songs are being sung more and more every day. This thing, actually, is just a manifestation of the people's small talk and sentiment, so throughout history, rulers have attached great importance to folk songs. In the past when Li Xue was still struggling in Henan, there were rumors about "Eighteen Sons, Master of Divine Instruments". Now that it seems like they are about to come true, the prestige of the Imperial Guards in the capital is not as strong as it was back then, so these rumors have become even more rampant.

  It was originally a bleak and desolate scene of the end of the world, and with all sorts of rumors spreading throughout the city, so although it's approaching New Year's, this entire Beijing city doesn't have even a hint of festive atmosphere.

  The streets were filled with the gloomy faces of the common people, and the officials who had lost their prestige. As for the imperial relatives and eunuchs who were originally arrogant and domineering, they became like rats crossing the street, although no one dared to beat them, but they themselves felt ashamed and did not dare to cause trouble again.

  As for the Beijing garrison troops, they would rather desert if possible. If they really couldn't leave, it was just to get a day's worth of military pay, which was one hundred copper coins... Anyone with any connections at all would absolutely refuse to eat this bowl of possibly deadly rice!

  The situation has become so dire, but it's not just a rumor. Ordinary people are not very clear about it, but those with some information channels have all heard about the looting of the military camp... The first to suffer was the Fan family of Shanxi merchants, followed by the Tian imperial relatives' household, and then several other merchant families, high officials, and imperial relatives... Adding them up, there are probably dozens of households that have been affected. Of course, the wealthy families who suffered from the disaster would not voluntarily publicize it, after all, everyone has a tradition of pretending to be poor. However, the servants in various government offices don't have such strict mouths, and they exaggerated the bandit troops' abilities to an absurd degree. Moreover, as the defensive strength of the wealthy households increased, there seemed to have been several larger-scale conflicts... In several imperial relatives' households, especially in the residence of Zhu Chongming, Duke of Chengguo, more than 20 corpses were once removed at one time.

  Such things can't be hidden from people, but the wonderful thing is that no family chose to report it to Shuntian Fu or Jin Yiwei, so on the surface, they were happy to pretend to be ignorant and not make a fuss.

  Who knows when Chuang Jun will be able to fight his way to Beijing? At this time, intervening in such matters is like the God of Longevity hanging himself, isn't it because he's tired of living too long?

  So in the city, there was only a surge of undercurrents, with many people coming and going, or secretly lurking, performing one magnificent play after another, but for many ordinary people, it was just rumors passed down by word of mouth, as to what really happened, except for a few people and those directly involved, I'm afraid no one else would know...

  ……

  ……

  The sky was overcast all day, and the old man didn't know what was wrong with him, he hadn't cracked a smile all day. By dusk, when the Western clock struck four, many prodigal sons had already lit up their homes.

  The guards at the city gate were also lazy, who would want to stand at the city gate in such cold weather? The daily pay was barely enough for a family's food, and with Chinese New Year approaching, there wasn't even enough money to buy some snacks for the kids or redeem the pawned cotton-padded jackets... This job, except for crazy people, was probably done by anyone without enthusiasm.

  It's just muddling along...

  As soon as the sky turned dark, without paying attention to the time, just closing the door on schedule was enough. At this moment, a guard suddenly said with his hands clasped together: "Hey, something strange has happened! You see, there's a group of people coming towards the city gate."

  They were guarding the Yongding Gate of the outer city. These days, only camel teams, horse teams, mule teams and carriages went south, with families and children in tow, looking like they were moving house. But a whole team of people came from the capital, this was the first time in these days.

  Even the annual merchant caravan that must come to deliver goods from the south is nowhere to be seen, so where did this group of over ten people in front of us come from?

  "Wait until it's closer and then ask again...... Good guy, how many days has the market been closed?!"

  The guards all looked eager to take action, no wonder now that very few merchant teams are willing to head north. Henan has already lost more than half of its territory, and Shandong also has a small number of bandits roaming around. The overall situation is like this, normally people who would head north at this time don't dare to come anymore. They have to wait and observe the situation until things settle down before making any moves.

  No one comes, and naturally there is no oil to be extracted from guarding the city gate... Compared with the large merchant groups, those small common people only have a few dollars on them!

  Seeing that his subordinates were like this, the leading officer of the guard also just smiled. The Imperial Guard used to be an iron rice bowl, but now they are struggling too. Military officers have not been paid for several months, and the families of the guards also have no surplus grain left.

  "Hey, it's Lord Wei!"

  "Lord Wei!"

  "Big Brother Wei!"

  The gatekeeper who was about to make a big move suddenly became noisy, and the guard officer also shook his whole body when he heard the sound. He turned his head to look back and found that it was indeed a tall man wearing a sixth-grade military uniform riding a horse from the city gate. This person was Wei Yue, the selected vanguard general of the Imperial Guard, whose position was not high but had an important task. The entire five-military-camp vanguard general only had eight people. His martial arts skills were unmatched, and he was also generous, so he had a good relationship with others in the Imperial Guard. When they saw him coming over, the soldiers along the way all nodded and bowed, busy rushing forward to greet him.

  "Big brother, it's you."

  Shou Bei and Wei Yue also had a good relationship, so he stepped forward, grasped the saddle, and laughed: "What's wrong? What has startled you?"

  "Come and get him personally." Wei Yue just smiled, jumped off the horse, took a look outside the city gate, nodded and said: "Mr. Feng is a trustworthy person, he said it was this time, and indeed he has arrived."

  "Hey, originally we brothers wanted to open a profitable business, it turned out to be big brother's acquaintance."

  "No need," Wei Yue took out a small silver ingot, smiled and said: "Recently, my brother has made a fortune, my brother has the habit of sharing wealth... I happen to have some silver on hand, there are about seven or eight taels here, let's buy some wine and dishes for my brothers to eat."

  "Alright, alright." Shoubei smiled with a hint of embarrassment, took the silver, and made small talk, asking "Who's the one receiving it?"

  "The son of the Tianjin governor, came to Beijing on business. I received kindness from his uncle and father in the past, so I came to greet him, nothing else..." Wei Yue replied casually, seeing the cavalry approaching, he stepped forward to welcome them.