The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 189 "Your Majesty, please stop being stubborn"

Qianlong felt desperate about the situation outside the city and was also worried about the state of affairs inside the city.

So on June 16, the 42nd year of Xianning, Heshen and Ji Yun were sent out of the city for negotiations again.

The two men did not meet Zhu Jianxuan, and it was Duan Yucai who received them.

Heshen carefully expressed Qianlong's intention that the Qing Dynasty could be willing to retreat to North America and hand over all the land of China to the Ming Dynasty.

Duan Yucai coldly reminded them again that they were not qualified to negotiate at all.

The only condition is to keep them alive, nothing else is discussed.

Then they sent the guests away directly and gave them a batch of new "gifts", including the heads of Qing army reinforcements and local Manchu generals from all over the country.

Heshen and Ji Yun were on the verge of collapse. After returning to the city with the gifts to report, Qianlong was also almost on the verge of collapse.

Qianlong shook his head at the boxes of heads, then looked at Agui beside him:

"What should we do now?"

Agui is 71 years old and was in good health.

Ever since he learned that his eldest son had been murdered, he has become noticeably more depressed.

Hearing Qianlong's question, Ah Gui sighed and said:
"There is only one solution now. Open the city and let the people out so that we can continue to hold out."

Qianlong seemed to have another idea:
"Can we disguise ourselves and leave the city among the fleeing civilians..."

Ah Gui sighed and shook his head:

"Let's not talk about whether the King of Nanming Wu would directly kill all the people who left the city...

"Now all the people of the Eight Banners in the city know that the Southern Ming Wu Wang specifically wants Your Highness to surrender.

“If His Majesty were to disappear, the Southern Ming Wu King would most likely massacre the city.

"So... others can try to escape, but Your Majesty, you can't leave like this."

Agui's meaning was very clear. The strategy of leaving the city during the chaos was a bad one.

The key point is that other people could still try to escape, except Qianlong, who was specifically wanted by the Southern Ming Dynasty.

If you leave, everyone will die, so no one will let you go.

Agui was no longer very polite to Qianlong.

The main reason is that the situation of the Qing Dynasty is now almost at the end of its rope.

Qianlong's authority also weakened to the extreme.

Even if Qianlong were still alive in the future, and even if the Qing Dynasty could still exist as a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, it would most likely not allow Qianlong to continue to be the monarch.

It is very likely that no direct descendant of Qianlong will become the monarch.

The ministers in the city also became less and less afraid of Qianlong.

At the same time, Qianlong was unwilling to order surrender, making the situation of all the Eight Banners descendants in the city increasingly difficult, and the probability of being massacred also became higher and higher.

So people's complaints about Qianlong were increasing day by day.

But even so, Qianlong was still unwilling to give in.

Qianlong did not know that his historical self lived to be eighty-nine years old. Now he felt that as a seventy-seven-year-old man, he should be content to die soon.

Moreover, Qianlong had already arranged for several of his sons to go to North America, including his designated heir, the fifteenth son Yongyan.

He also sent Fengshen Jilun, the eldest son of his favorite daughter, to North America.

Qianlong even had malicious thoughts, deliberately waiting for unrest in the city and for the Han army banner to rebel, and then he would burn down the Forbidden City himself.

Then he let the furious King Wu massacre all the remaining incompetent Eight Banners descendants.

But he was also worried that the King of Wu might continue to attack North America and slaughter his descendants who had been sent there.

So much so that Qianlong was still hesitant and could not make up his mind.

Qianlong dismissed his ministers and said he wanted to think carefully alone.

Agui, Heshen, Ji Yun and others immediately took their leave.

But after these people went out, they immediately started discussing among themselves.

"Your Majesty is still undecided. I'm worried that Prince Wu's patience may be running out."

"The key is the war in the south. This time we have local generals from Shandong and Henan, as well as reinforcements from Inner Mongolia and Liaodong."

"Now only Zhili is left. I'm worried that I won't be able to hold out for much longer."

"After the Southern Ming occupied Zhili, they should have started attacking the city regardless of whether our Emperor surrendered or not."

"We have to think of a solution. We can't let His Majesty suffer like this."
-
One month later, in mid-July, many northern expeditionary armies arrived at the city of Shuntianfu.
With enough manpower, Zhu Jianxuan formally ordered to take over the Great Wall in the north.

Except for the Shuntian Prefecture, the entire northern Zhili region was liberated.

All the remaining generals in the Mancheng area of ​​the Central Plains were sent there, and the garrison generals in Jinghai, Nurgandusi and other places were also sent there one after another.

Zhu Jianxuan ordered the dispatch of two main divisions and two auxiliary divisions to advance into Shanxi and Shaanxi from the north and south to recover the last two provincial governments within the Great Wall.

At the same time, a new batch of generals' heads were sent to the Forbidden City.

A brief note was also attached, telling Qing officials led by Qianlong that the next batch might have to wait for several months.

Since most of the troops in the Central Plains have been delivered, the next batch will be the generals from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaodong and other places, as well as the North American camp. Next, the Wu Kingdom will prepare to send troops to North America. It should take two to three months for the steam sailing ship to go back and forth, so please wait patiently.

Zhu Jianxuan is now very patient and is not in a hurry to take over Shuntian Prefecture.

Zhu Jianxuan is no longer planning to move into Shuntian Prefecture.

According to historical experience of previous lives, after the industrial age, the significance of city walls has been limited.

The city walls of this era, especially the most advanced ones like Shuntianfu, actually have good defensive capabilities against modern army artillery.

After all, the interior is made of rammed earth that is more than ten meters thick, and it takes a lot of energy to forcibly blast it open.

Usually, it is necessary to continuously bombard the base of the city wall, or directly work through tunnels, bury explosive packs under the city wall, and blow up the city wall from the bottom.

After a gentle slope and gap are formed, the troops can climb up the wall along the slope.

That is, a bit of a hassle, but solvable.

In the future, as the power of army artillery continues to increase, the speed of destroying city walls will continue to increase, and the military significance of city walls will become increasingly lower.

At the same time, the size of cities in the industrial age will expand rapidly, and the area within the city walls is no longer sufficient to sustain a large city.

So on this basis, Zhu Jianxuan prepared to choose another place to build a city as the central city in the north.

The local population carrying capacity of Shuntian Prefecture City is limited, and the supply of water resources is very difficult.

Although there was the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the previous life, this project just told Zhu Jianxuan that if he had a choice, he should choose another place.

As for the Shuntian Prefecture City itself, Zhu Jianxuan planned to make some simple repairs after peacefully taking over, and preserve it as a whole as a museum of the old city of Shenzhou.

Although there are many old cities in the Ming Dynasty, most of them have begun industrial transformation, especially Yingtian Prefecture City.

Only the places once occupied by the Qing Dynasty still basically retain the characteristics of the old era.

As for other cities in the Ming and Qing dynasties, firstly, the cities were not large enough and their levels were not high enough, and secondly, it would be a waste of time and money to forcibly relocate all the residents.

The Manchu cities in other parts of the Qing Dynasty mostly occupied one-quarter to one-half of the size of the city.

The entire inner city of Shuntian Prefecture was full of people.

The property rights of Manchuria in the Qing Dynasty all belonged to the Qing royal family and the Eight Banners descendants, which of course the Ming Dynasty would not recognize.

It can be completely cleared out when cleaning out the Eight Banners descendants.

On July 15th, a new batch of gifts from Zhu Jianxuan were delivered to the Forbidden City. After seeing them, Emperor Qianlong was finally completely desperate.

Now only a few Qing strongholds remain on the grasslands and inland areas of Northeast China.

The key is Zhu Jianxuan’s final plan and reminder that the Wu Kingdom is about to launch an attack on North America, and Qianlong’s son and grandson in North America will not be spared.

In fact, even if they wanted to escape now, they had nowhere to escape, because the east coast of North America was also Zhu Jianxuan's territory.

Qianlong had no strength left in his body and slumped in his chair, looking at the sky.

At the same time, the various royal palaces in the capital city, the commanders of the Manchu, Mongolian and Han banners, the princes and ministers in the court, the ministers, grand secretaries and military ministers of various departments.

He received the news for no apparent reason and immediately rushed to the Qianqing Palace to pay a visit to Emperor Qianlong.

Without paying any attention to the guards arranged by Qianlong, a large group of people poured into the Palace of Heavenly Purity and knelt in front of Qianlong:
"Please, Your Majesty, give me a chance to live—"

The true core members of the entire Qing Dynasty, the true rulers of the entire country, a large group of people knelt down and kowtowed to Qianlong.

Qianlong couldn't help getting angry when he looked at this group of people, but he also knew that he couldn't delay any longer today.

If I don't agree, they will force me out of the city and surrender.

Qianlong coughed twice:

"Heshen, Ji Yun, go out of the city again and request that my son Yongyan be conferred the title of Prince of Qing, or Duke of the State, or anything else..."

Heshen did not move after hearing this, and knelt directly in front of Qianlong:
“Your Majesty, there is no need to discuss this request specifically. His Royal Highness the King of Wu will not agree to it.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu of the Ming Dynasty has made it very clear that we must surrender the city without any conditions or demands.

"Allowing everyone in the city to survive is the guarantee that His Royal Highness the King of Wu can give us.

“As for the rest, what the Ming Dynasty will give us can only be decided by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, not by us asking for it.

"As the saying goes, thunder and rain are all grace from the emperor. Your Majesty, please stop being so stubborn..."

Qianlong was furious when he heard this, and he walked up to Heshen and kicked him:
"You bastard slave, I really misjudged you before--"

He Shen was not angry at all after being kicked. He immediately crawled away for a distance and continued:

"We just want to stay alive. Please, Your Majesty, give us a chance to live..."

The people around immediately kowtowed and shouted at the same time:
"Please, Your Majesty, give me a chance to live—"

When Qianlong heard this plea, he stood there and sighed deeply:

"Forget it, forget it. I will do whatever you say. Ji Yun, go and write the surrender letter.

"Heshen, please go out again and ask the King of Wu's secretary how we should leave the city and surrender.

"King Wu... whatever your highness asks, we will do as you ask."

In fact, Qianlong could not hold on any longer, and the tireless pleadings of the people helped him to accept reality.

When everyone heard Qianlong's agreement, they all bowed their heads again:
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy..."

(End of this chapter)