Signed to Zhu Cihong, Prince of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 51 51, a decree and a letter, Sangui refused to offer advice
Outside Tongzhou City, Wu Sangui's army camp.

Although there are only a few thousand invaders in Tongzhou, to Wu Sangui, this Tongzhou seems to be stronger than the Shanhaiguan he is guarding.

On this day, a man came out from Tongzhou. This man rode a horse, wandered to Wu Sangui's camp, and said a word.

"I am Song Xiance, under the command of Emperor Dashun, and I have come to see Ping Xibo."

Song Xiance was Li Zicheng's think tank who was as famous as Niu Jinxing, so Wu Sangui met him soon.

Just seeing Wu Sangui, Song Xiance said with a smile: "Ping Xibo's death is imminent, don't you know it?"

Wu Sangui was taken aback for a moment, then laughed, and stopped many subordinates who were about to explode.

"Mr. Song, what you said is quite like Su Qin and Zhang Yi in ancient times. It's just that I heard that your Dashun army lost troops and generals under the capital, killed Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang, and injured Li Yan. This is what you said To make me and Daming die imminently?"

Song Xiance chuckled, took out a letter, and said to Wu Sangui, "If Ping Xibo doesn't believe it, just read this letter."

Wu Sangui took the letter, looked at it, and his face became shocked: "This, this is..."

Song Xiance said with a smile: "This letter is the letter written by the four people who signed it to our Majesty. Dare I ask Ping Xibo, if these four people are really as stated in the letter, then... the city of Beijing Can you still hold it?"

Wu Sangui was speechless for a while.

This letter was indeed a letter of allegiance to Li Zicheng written by Cao Huachun, Wang Huamin, Wei Zaode, and Zhou Kui from the city of Beijing.

Why is there such a letter?The principle is actually the same as before the Battle of Guandu during the Three Kingdoms period, a group of Cao Cao's officials secretly wrote letters to Yuan Shao to express their allegiance.

What surprised Wu Sangui was the identities of these four people, a supervisor of ceremonies, Bingbi, a governor of the East Factory, a chief assistant of the cabinet, and the emperor's father-in-law.

If these four people all betray Daming, can the city of Beijing... still be defended?

Song Xiance looked at Wu Sangui in front of him with a smile, and said, "Now Ping Xibo should know, why did I say that you are dying? Wait until our Emperor Dashun captures Beijing before leading the army eastward. Dare I ask Ping Xibo if he can stop it?" Can it hold our Dashun's million-strong army?

Why not take this opportunity to surrender, our Majesty is willing to canonize Ping Xibo as the county king, and let Ping Xibo enter the cabinet, and also lead the post of Minister of the Ministry of War. I wonder what Ping Xibo wants? "

Song Xiance offered more generous conditions than the previous lobbyist Niu Jinxing. This is because Li Zicheng's confidence has become weaker than when Niu Jinxing came, so he can only use this method to increase his efforts to win over Wu Sangui.

In Li Zicheng's mind, if he could get Wu Sangui's help, he would be able to continue besieging the city of Beijing with the help of Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army even without support from the city.

Wu Sangui's face was cloudy and uncertain, and his heart was indeed shaken.

How exactly?

After contemplating for a while, Wu Sangui said: "This is a big matter, and Wu really can't make a decision. Please ask Junjun Song to wait a while at the back, and wait for Wu to discuss with his brothers before making a decision."

Song Xiance chuckled and said, "That's right, then I'll wait for the good news from Ping Xibo."

Wu Sangui ordered Song Xiance to be taken away, and then he summoned his generals to discuss the matter.

The Guan Ning Army has had its own system since Li Chengliang in the Wanli Period. Although there have been many replacements over the years, in the final analysis, he is just the "martial arts leader" of the Guan Ning Army.

So Wu Sangui really didn't lie to Song Xiance about this matter.

After listening to Wu Sangui's words, several confidant generals had different expressions and completely different ideas.

Someone said: "We have been good at the court over the years. Although it is true that His Majesty the current emperor is a bit mean, but I am a general of the Ming Dynasty. How can I betray the Ming Dynasty at this time?"

Some people also agreed with Song Xiance's words: "For many years, Da Ming has only regarded our Guan Ning Army as a tool. We have given them life and death for so many years, and what have we got in exchange? Otherwise, we will turn against this Da Ming. Let’s go directly to King Chuang.”

Some people were ingenious: "Why do we have to rely on any side? Let me tell you, just support Ping Xibo to become king here, and everyone can make me a founding general."

The statement of self-reliance as a king was too nonsense, and was immediately omitted by Wu Sangui.

Now Wu Sangui has no territory or population except an army. What can he do to establish himself as king?

However, the other two ideas are indeed in Wu Sangui's consideration.

Should he continue to fight with Daming, or directly rely on Li Zicheng?
Just when Wu Sangui was still hesitating, another piece of news suddenly came.

"An envoy came from outside the camp, claiming to be from the capital, and there was an imperial decree to bring to the general."

After hearing the news, Wu Sangui was stunned.

"Holy decree?"

After a while, when seeing the envoy, Wu Sangui discovered that it was really an imperial decree.

"Ping Xibo Wu Sangui has made great achievements, and he is specially awarded the title of Grand Bachelor and Minister of the Ministry of War!
The other generals also received rewards, official positions and titles, each of which was promoted by one level.

Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang and other thieves have already given their heads. In order to prevent Dorgon from leading troops to the south, Ping Xibo quickly led the troops to conquer Tongzhou and rescue the capital. I have another reward! "

After hearing the edict read out by the envoy, Wu Sangui was even more shocked.

It didn't matter that he was originally the governor of Jiliao, but this time he was directly promoted to a bachelor and concurrently served as the Minister of the Ministry of War. He was already an out-and-out important minister of the Ming Dynasty.

The official position of a bachelor means that Wu Sangui has already entered the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, which means that as long as he makes more contributions, he is likely to become the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only that, but all the generals under Wu Sangui were promoted to official positions, which is undoubtedly a way to win over the generals.

So after hearing the imperial decree, many generals who were originally neutral began to change their attitudes and tended to rescue Daming.

Daming is really bad, this is something everyone knows, but Daming is indeed what the people of the world want, it is China's orthodox, this is also something everyone knows.

If that was the case, forget it. After reading the imperial edict, the envoy took out another letter and handed it into Wu Sangui's hand.

As soon as Wu Sangui saw the handwriting on the envelope, his pupils shrank immediately.

This letter was written by none other than Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang in Beijing.

Three things are mentioned above.

First, Wu Xiang has just been named Uncle Anding.

Second, most of Wu Xiang's family wealth conscripted has been quietly returned by the palace.

Thirdly, Wu Xiang believes that Beijing City is likely to be held without any foreign aid.

After Wu Sangui read the letter, he thought for a long time and finally spoke.

"Brothers, stay here. Someone, please come here, Song Xiance."

Soon, Song Xiance walked in briskly, smiled at Wu Sangui and said, "Have Ping Xibo made up his mind?"

Wu Sangui nodded slowly, and said: "Yes. I, Wu, have been favored by the Daming Emperor for generations, and now that Daming is in danger, how can I, Wu, abandon Daming and leave?

Please don't mention the matter of persuading surrender.Come on, send Mr. Song out of the camp! "

Song Xiance was taken aback when he heard the words, and couldn't help but said, "Master Wu, you..."

Song Xiance really didn't understand, just now Wu Sangui was still in shock, why did he suddenly become so decisive after half an hour?

But Wu Sangui obviously made up his mind, and with a wave of his hand, someone immediately "invited" Song Xiance out.

After a while, Song Xiance rode his horse unhappily, left Wu Sangui's camp and returned to Tongzhou.

"What exactly went wrong?"

Suddenly, someone shouted from behind: "Wait a minute, Army Master Song!"

Song Xiance turned his head suddenly, and found that it was a general he knew in Wu Sangui's army who had chased him out.

Song Xiance asked hurriedly: "General, what happened?"

The general told Song Xiance the whole story of the future, and said, "Please leave Tongzhou quickly. If my predictions are correct, our Guan Ning army will launch an attack on Tongzhou City tomorrow at the most."

Yes, after so many days, this is the first time that the Guan Ning Army has launched an attack on Tongzhou City.

Song Xiance stood in a daze for a while, and couldn't help sighing.

"It turns out that an imperial edict and a letter from home ruined my important affairs. I didn't expect that there would be such outstanding talents in the Ming Dynasty!"

What Song Xiance didn't know was that what happened today actually originated from what Zhu Cihong said to Chongzhen a few days ago!

Zhu Cihong also didn't know that what he said a few days ago was adopted by Chongzhen, which actually prevented Wu Sangui from defecting to Li Zicheng.

Song Xiance was unhappy, so he could only hurry back to the Chuangjun camp outside the capital to report the bad news.

(End of this chapter)