"Dang...dang...dang..."
On the Yangtze River in the early morning, the fog gradually emerged after the plum rain, and thick water vapor filled the surroundings of the capital city lying on the banks of the Yangtze River.
The Qilin Gate built of rammed earth stands tall, and dozens of warriors wearing simple uniforms are on duty on the city wall, but their faces are relaxed. It seems that in their eyes, the capital is the safest place in the world. Even though a war was breaking out in Yangzhou, more than 200 miles away across the river, it had nothing to do with them.
"Tap..."
Suddenly, the sound of horse hoofbeats broke the tranquility of the early morning. The village heroes on Qilin Gate looked sideways and saw more than a hundred warriors in armor in a thick fog, looking majestic, like gods from mythology emerging from the thick fog. out.
Their team advanced towards the city gate in an orderly manner, the sound of hoofbeats was earth-shattering.
"Beep!!"
"Stop, whose subordinates are you!"
The information available to the local warriors was limited, and they did not know whether the imperial court still had cavalry in the south of the Yangtze River, let alone what so many cavalry represented.
But they knew that this cavalry must be no ordinary person.
After hesitating for a moment, several village warriors plucked up their courage. While blowing whistles and shouting, they pulled up their bows and arrows and prepared for an emergency battle.
At this moment, the thick fog gradually dissipated, revealing the true colors of the cavalry.
Their number was not the hundreds that the village heroes saw at the beginning, but more and more, and in the end there were thousands.
Facing the shouts of the village heroes, they remained speechless. They just glanced at the top of the city with cold eyes, waiting for the call.
The village warriors were frightened for a moment, and felt like they were sitting on pins and needles. Chen Yan, who was responsible for guarding the city gate here, climbed up the city tower in his regular clothes. Seeing the thousands of solemn cavalry outside the city, he felt that his blood was almost solidified.
The situation outside Qilin Gate caused shock to the Qilin Gate defenders on duty. All the defenders rushed to the city wall, but the number was less than a thousand.
Standing at the top of the city, they looked at the cavalry in surprise, not knowing whether they were friends or foes.
Only Chen Yan, who was in charge of the task, knew that Yu Tongyuan from Jiangbei would never dare to mobilize thousands of cavalry to the capital without the imperial court's order. Then the origin of this cavalry is obvious.
"How many people have arrived!"
Outside the city, Meng Zhang's face was livid after a night of running around, and many of the soldiers beside him also looked unhappy.
"Less than two thousand..." A commander responded. Meng Zhang heard the words and said directly: "Divide into fifteen teams and surround the fifteen outer city gates from Guanyin Gate to Taming Elephant Gate, and be fast!"
"Yes!" The commander did not dare to neglect, let alone ask how more than a hundred people could guard a city gate.
At this moment, they are racing against time. If nothing unexpected happens, Xu Sheng has already landed in Jiangning Town!
"Clang clang clang clang!!!"
The rapid ringing of bells passed from the outer city to the inner city, and the Tangqi from the Qilin Gate rushed towards the Forbidden City like a desperation.
The people inside and outside the capital were still wondering what had happened. Only the ministers who had just started the morning court were heartbroken and looked at the emperor sitting on the golden platform of Fengtian Hall.
"..." Zhu Yunwen frowned and looked sideways at Li Quan: "Go and ask what happened."
"Yes..." Li Quan bowed and stepped back, but before he could step off the golden platform, he saw a head of the military department panicking and holding a wat board from the side door of Fengtianmen, and trotting into the square without any manners. middle.
Nearly a thousand officials in the venue looked sideways at him, but he looked towards the high platform in a panic.
Qi Tai, who was the Minister of the Ministry of War, seemed to have realized something and took the initiative to walk down the Fengtian high platform. The chief officer also met Qi Tai on the way.
"Why are you so panicked..."
"Mr. Nantang, thousands of cavalry were found in the east of the city. They have divided their forces and surrounded several gates of Waiguo City!"
"What did you say?!"
Qi Tai originally wanted to ask this person why he was panicking, but when the head of the Ministry of War explained what he was panicking about, the panicked person became Qi Tai instead.
For a moment, Qitai's mind went blank.
If there were only cavalry outside the city, he could still convince himself that Yu Tongyuan had transferred him to the capital. But now these cavalry had begun to surround the gate of the outer city. Who else would dare to do this except Zhu Gaoxu's cavalry.
"Are there any signs of the thieves attacking the city?"
When Qi Tai realized what he was doing, he immediately asked. The head of the Ministry of War shook his head: "No, but if we don't stop it, I'm afraid the outer city gates will be completely surrounded."
"You come with me to meet His Majesty."
Qi Tai grabbed the hand of the head of the Ministry of War and walked up to the high platform. When he came to the golden platform, he knelt down quickly: "Your Majesty, the outer city is urgent..."
Qitai originally explained what happened in the outer city, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the officials from the six ministries and five governments on the stage widened their eyes.
"Absurd words, our navy..."
Huang Zicheng wanted to refute, but when he mentioned the navy, he took the initiative to shut up.
If the Bohai Cavalry really appears outside the city, doesn't it mean that the Navy is no longer trustworthy?
"Your Majesty, I would like to recruit local warriors in the city to climb up the outer city and garrison the city wall!"
Fang Xiaoru spoke without thinking, and the military attachés in the five mansions looked at each other in shock.
Most of the five government officials who were good at fighting were sent out. In addition, old military attachés like Guo Ying during Zhu Yuanzhang's time were also idle. Naturally, they could not offer any good advice.
But even so, they also know that improvising is absolutely not feasible, not to mention that the defenses of Waiguo City cannot even block the return artillery, let alone the artillery of the Bohai Navy.
"Your Majesty, please bring the granaries from the outer city into the inner city, occupy the inner city and defend yourself. At the same time, please step up your efforts to urge Xichuan Qu Neng to enter the capital and tease Yu Tongyuan and Sheng Yong to cross the river!"
A military attache spoke, but was ignored by Zhu Yunwen, because Qi Tai spoke directly: "Your Majesty, please take the Elephant Gate and head south quickly to Nanchang to avoid trouble!"
Qi Tai did not suggest taking the water route, because at this moment he already believed that the Yangtze River and Pingjiang Navy had surrendered to the enemy. Otherwise, if thousands of soldiers and horses were transported by river to cross the river, it would be impossible for no one to discover such a thing.
Before the Bohai cavalry completely surrounded the capital, the most feasible thing was to immediately mobilize the tens of thousands of remaining elite guards guarding the inner city to escort the emperor southward to Nanchang by land.
"Absurd!" Upon hearing that Qi Tai actually wanted the emperor to leave the capital directly to avoid trouble, Huang Zicheng immediately refuted:
"There are more than 300,000 people in the capital. Even if you count only the men, you can still pull out 100,000, which is enough to defend the city."
"Besides, the number of thieves is unknown now, but when a mere thousand cavalry arrived at Qilin Gate, they scared Qi Shangshu into this state. Isn't it ridiculous?"
"It would be fine if it was just Shangshu Qi who made people laugh. But if Shangshu Qi asked His Majesty to abandon more than 300,000 people in Beijing and go out to avoid trouble, wouldn't that make the world laugh at His Majesty?!"
Huang Zicheng's words not only scolded Qi Tai, but also reminded Zhu Yunwen.
In fact, Zhu Yunwen was ready to agree when Qi Tai told him to go south, but when Huang Zicheng said this, he couldn't bear to leave with dignity.
"What Huang Shangshu said makes sense. There are no less than 100,000 men in Beijing. What's more, we have hundreds of thousands of troops in the north of the Yangtze River. Is it possible that we are afraid of the less than 40,000 Bohai pirates?"
"Passing my order, I sent Tangqi to summon Cao Guogong Li Jinglong, Jiangyin Marquis Wu Gao, and Prince Consort Li Zhong to quickly lead the army south to quell the rebellion. I ordered Sheng Yong, Yu Tongyuan, and Ping'an to lead their troops across the river to garrison the capital for the imperial court!"
Zhu Yunwen pretended to be calm, but it is not difficult to see from his decision-making that he was already panicking at this moment, and even forgot that Qi Tai had reminded him not to easily mobilize the 200,000 people under Li Jinglong's command.
Right now, he just wants to drive Zhu Gaoxu out of Huainan, as far away as possible.
"Your Majesty, even so, you can first select a general to take over the three or five gates of Waiguo City, so that our troops will not be unable to enter or exit!"
Seeing that Zhu Yunwen could not be persuaded, Qi Tai changed his style and asked Zhu Yunwen to allow him to order all his troops and horses to seize the city gate and build a camp so that the army could enter and exit the city gate at any time, so that hundreds of Bohai cavalry would not block tens of thousands of troops. .
"Let Shangshu Qi handle this matter and withdraw from the court..."
Zhu Yunwen stood up nervously, subconsciously announced his withdrawal from the court, and walked towards the inner court with a calm face.
But his actions undoubtedly put the entire capital into panic.
Soon, the news that the Bohai cavalry was encircling the capital city spread completely. When the Bohai cavalry surrounded the fifteen gates of the outer city, no one thought that the more than 10,000 elite troops stationed in the inner city would be compared with this small army when they left the city. Two thousand cavalrymen engaged in battle.
By the time Qi Tai led his troops to take over the city gate, it was already half an hour later, and Meng Zhang had completely completed the operation of surrounding the fifteen gates of Guocheng outside the capital.
Except for the three outer city gates of Shangyuan, Funing and Jiangdong, which are close to the Yangtze River, all the other fifteen city gates in the outer city were surrounded.
Bohai's cavalry continued to follow from behind, and the number of cavalry outside the city gates was also increasing.
The capital is completely besieged...
"Don't squeeze!"
"Shopkeeper! I want three kilograms of rice!"
"The money is not enough, now a pound of rice costs ten cents!"
"What?!"
After the news of the siege of the capital city spread, prices inside and outside the city skyrocketed. The price of rice, which originally cost three yuan per kilogram, suddenly more than tripled, and the prices of various vegetables and meats increased to sky-high prices.
Qi Tai led his troops to seize the city gate but failed, so he could only distribute tens of thousands of elites to the three water gates in the inner city and the eighteen gates in the outer city.
As for himself, after doing all this, he hurriedly ran back to the Forbidden City.
In Wuying Palace, he finally saw Zhu Yunwen walking back and forth.
Seeing Qi Tai come back, Zhu Yunwen immediately stepped forward to greet him: "Mr. Qi, how is the situation in the outer city?"
"It's not optimistic. The bandit army has surrounded the fifteen city gates from Guanyin to Taming the Elephant. There are at least two to three hundred cavalry at each place. All the routes from the capital to Jiangnan have been cut off."
"Isn't there still a waterway?" Zhu Yunwen's nervous face suddenly relaxed for a moment, but Qitai lowered his head with a grimace:
"My lord... I'm afraid I can't walk on that waterway either."
"Thousands of Bohai cavalry can appear under the capital. I am afraid that Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu have already defected to the Bohai pirate army. Otherwise, they would not be able to transport so many soldiers and horses to surround the capital in five or six days."
"..." After hearing Qi Tai's words, Zhu Yunwen sat in a trance on the chair. Li Quan wanted to step forward to help him, but he raised his hand to stop him, his eyes dull:
"Then I...I...what should I do now?"
"Your Majesty, the only thing we can do now is defend the inner city!" Qi Tai said this bravely, and he also hated Zhu Yunwen in his heart for not listening to his words and evacuating the capital in time.
If Zhu Yunwen had listened to him and left the capital with Qingqi, he would have arrived in Jiangning by now.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Before Qi Tai's blow to Zhu Yunwen stopped, there were wailing sounds outside Wuying Palace.
When the man ran in, Zhu Yunwen saw clearly that the man was actually the Valley King Zhu Sui who was supposed to go to Jiangbei early in the morning.
At this moment, he was in a very embarrassed state. After seeing him, he stepped forward and cried:
"Your Majesty, I went to the north of the Yangtze River according to your order. However, there were warships on the Yangtze River blocking my way. Even though I knew my identity, I still opened fire on my boat. If it weren't for the powerful sailors, I would have fallen into the Yangtze River and become a fish. I’m full.”
Zhu Sui cried and brought the news that the waterway was blocked, which further confirmed what Qi Tai said.
It seemed like it was just the beginning. With the arrival of the Valley King Zhu Sui, the other ministers from the six ministries and five mansions also came one after another, each one crying and howling about the situation in the capital.
At this moment, they no longer had the calmness and calmness of yesterday, and some were only filled with fear and uneasiness.
Among them, Huang Zicheng, Bao Zhao, and Fang Xiaoru are the main ones, and the others are secondary.
"The outer city is more than a hundred miles long, and it is difficult to garrison it without 200,000 troops. We should withdraw to the inner city and rely on the inner city for garrison."
"No! Without the outer city, the capital cannot be self-sufficient. The more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians may not be able to support themselves for even half a year with only the food in the government treasury."
"Half a year is enough time for the army to return for reinforcements!"
"Don't abandon the outer city!"
"We can only withdraw and defend the inner city!"
In the Wuying Hall, the polite civil servants in the past were arguing and arguing. Zhu Yunwen was in a trance as he looked at this.
"Is our Ming Dynasty going to perish..."
"I await the death penalty!!"
He stood up and spoke, and with just one sentence, all the ministers knelt down to apologize. However, he no longer cared about this. What he cared about was what he should do to save this critical situation.
The waterway was blocked, which meant that Qu Neng could not take the Yangtze River to aid the capital, and the 60,000 soldiers and horses nearby such as Sheng Yong and Ping An could not cross the river to aid the capital.
The available troops in the entire Jiangnan area have been almost exhausted. It will take at least two or three months to mobilize troops from Guangdong, Guangdong and Huguang.
Can the capital city be able to hold on for two or three months...
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
There were anxious cries again. The sound gave Zhu Yunwen a splitting headache. He looked angrily and saw a Governor General of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion running into the palace holding a letter.
He knelt down in front of Zhu Yunwen and cried: "Your Majesty, Feige sent a message to Jiangning Town, all three hundred water post soldiers were wiped out, and thousands of soldiers and horses from the Bohai Sea landed in Jiangning!"
"How could Jiang Ning be lost?!"
Zhu Yunwen was so furious that he waved his sleeves and swept away the four treasures on the dragon table, scattering them all over the ground. The fallen inkstone even smashed a large blue and white porcelain vase left over from the Yuan Dynasty.
"His Majesty……"
Qitai's throat was sore, and even he didn't know how to save the capital at this moment.
Zhu Gaoxu restricted almost every step they could take until death. Liangjiang clearly had more than 100,000 troops, but Zhu Gaoxu had less than 40,000 people toying with and applauded them.
They lost this battle, completely.
And compared with Zhu Di, who had always revealed his intention to negotiate, Zhu Gaoxu, who wanted peace talks but directly bombarded him, was more determined.
"Your Majesty, how about sending Wudinghou Guo Ying, commander Xu Yingxu, and left governor Xu Zengshou out of the city to negotiate with the rebels?"
Huang Zicheng asked Zhu Yunwen, and then Zhu Yunwen remembered that he still had Zhu Gaoxu's relatives.
Guo Ying, Xu Yingxu and Xu Zengshou were all relatives of Zhu Gaoxu, and these three were considered loyal to the court. If they were sent out, Zhu Gaoxu would not let anyone bombard his relatives.
"Quick! Send the three of them to the outside of the city to negotiate peace with the bandits!"
Zhu Yunwen seemed to have grasped some life-saving straw. Upon seeing this, Huang Zicheng quickly drafted a decree with Li Quan, fully appointing Guo Ying, Xu Yingxu and Xu Zengshou to go out of the city for peace talks.
When this decree was sent to the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army, Xu Zengshou was holding it and was speechless. He did not expect that boy Zhu Gaoxu could actually succeed.
But on the surface, he still asked Li Quan, who came to deliver the order: "Does your Majesty have any requests?"
"Your Majesty has said that as long as the King of Bohai County is willing to withdraw from Shandong, he can canonize Shandong, Liaodong, and Bohai as his fiefdom, and canonize Beiping as the fiefdom of King Yan. He is also willing to depose the Crown Prince of Yan and change the Bohai County Prince to the Crown Prince of Yan. .”
Li Quan carefully explained the emperor's demands to Xu Zengshou, and Xu Zengshou took a breath after hearing this.
You must know that the Ming Dynasty is not the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties. The vassal kings only have fiefdoms but not kingdoms, so it is impossible to form large-scale vassal kings raising armies like the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms and the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.
This is also the reason why Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di have been quarreling until now, but there is still no response from other vassal kings, because they don't have enough chips to go to the poker table.
But if the emperor canonizes Zhu Gaoxu as the Crown Prince of Yan, and adds the feudal states of these places, then Zhu Gaoxu will control the North China Plain and Qilu, plus Liaodong and the Bohai Sea.
The size of these places can be said to be one-fifth of the size of the Ming Dynasty. It is not an exaggeration to say that the earth is broken to become the king.
Looking at this condition, Xu Zengshou was really worried that Zhu Gaoxu was not determined, so he agreed directly.
"I will convince the common people of Bohai."
Xu Zengshou has not forgotten Zhu Gaoxu's confession. Until now, he is still pretending to be at odds with Zhu Gaoxu. Even though Li Quan has changed his name to Bohai County King, he is still calling himself a Bohai commoner.
Such a title made Li Quan feel relieved, and reminded him at the same time: "It's okay to call him this way in the capital, Governor Zuo. When you go outside the city, you must not call him this way."
"Please don't worry, Li Zhangyin. I wonder when I can set off?"
"That's it now. Wu Dinghou and Brother Ling will accompany them together. This time Wu Dinghou will be the main one, and Zuo Dudu and Brother Ling will be the second ones. No matter what, it's always good to delay for some time."
Li Quan opened his mouth to explain, and Xu Zengshou also pretended to be anxious when he heard the words: "In that case, I will set off to Qilin Gate now to wait for Wu Dinghou and my second brother."
After that, Xu Zengshou saw Li Quan off, then rode on his eldest brother Xu Huizu's bloody horse, and headed to Qilin Gate with a dozen guards from the Duke of Wei's palace.
It took Xu Zengshou half an hour to reach the distance from the inner city to Qilin Gate, which was a full twenty miles.
When he arrived here, he saw a group of village warriors watching the outside of the city on the city wall from a distance, as well as the guards of the Wuding Marquis Mansion wearing armor.
He walked up to the city wall in a hurry, looked outside the city at first glance, and couldn't help but take a breath.
Outside the city, more than three hundred cavalrymen were sitting on the muddy ground, staring at the defenders on the Qilin Gate. The rushing horses got a chance to breathe and were standing aside tiredly, even if there were horse feed and water in front of them. Can't eat it at all.
"Missed the opportunity..."
Guo Ying's voice rang out in the crowd. Xu Zengshou heard the sound and looked over, only to see Guo Ying wearing armor sighing: "If Your Majesty had immediately mobilized the elite troops from the inner city to come out of the city to fight, I'm afraid we could have defeated this army at that time. But now their horse power has recovered a lot, and our army has not occupied the terrain to build camps outside the city. Tens of thousands of troops cannot come out, so they are no match at all."
"Fortunately, he didn't use you..." Xu Zengshou was ashamed after hearing Guo Ying's words.
If Guo Ying's plan is followed, the cavalry outside the city may not be able to surround the capital, but fortunately the overall situation has been decided at this moment, and it is useless to say anything.
"Mobilize artillery from the inner city to the outer city to ensure that our army can seize camps outside the city if peace talks fail."
As soon as Guo Ying opened his mouth, Xu Zengshou took another breath of cold air and his teeth itched with hatred.
"Little old man, those outside the city are your grandson-in-law's troops. It would be beneficial to you to break in."
"Fourth!"
Before Xu Zengshou could curse, he heard his second brother Xu Yingxu calling him.
He looked up and saw Xu Yingxu waving to him.
Looking at Xu Yingxu, Xu Zengshou also had mixed feelings.
He knew Xu Yingxu's attitude towards Zhu Gaoxu very well. Although Xu Yingxu had a good relationship with Zhu Gaoxu when Zhu Gaoxu was in the capital, ever since he learned that Zhu Gaoxu had rebelled, Xu Yingxu had scolded Zhu Gaoxu more than once in front of outsiders, and even in private. is also like this.
He has the same temperament as his eldest brother.
"Wu Dinghou, my fourth brother is here, we can leave the city."
"good."
Xu Yingxu summoned Xu Zengshou and discussed leaving the city with Guo Ying.
Looking at the situation of the two of them, Xu Zengshou murmured in his heart.
If these two people didn't think clearly and said something wrong, it would be a joke. I was still waiting for Gao Xu to break into the capital.
At the same time, Xu Zengshou couldn't help but think of the conditions given by Zhu Yunwen.
To be honest, facing such conditions, it is really difficult for others to refuse. I just don’t know if Zhu Gaoxu has such determination.
As he muttered, the three of them personally led more than fifty guards to open the city gate and walked out of the city.
The moment the city gate opened, the more than 300 cavalrymen who were still resting stood up instantly, got on their horses, and spread out in a fan shape, intending to surround them.
Xu Zengshou, who was worried that Xu Yingxu and Guo Ying had said something wrong, immediately rode forward: "I am the fourth son of the King of Zhongshan, Xu Zengshou, the left governor of the Rear Army Governor's Mansion, and your Highness's uncle. Behind me is the grandfather of your princess, and also There is another uncle of your Highness.”
"We are here for peace talks. Is there any general in the army who dares to step out of the discussion?"
As soon as Xu Zengshou opened his mouth, the Bohai Jingqi who were about to draw their bows and arrows immediately stopped and looked at Meng Zhang.
Facing everyone's gaze, Meng Zhang frowned slightly, and after thinking about it, he said to his left and right, "Go up and invite those three people over."
"Yes!" Two teams of Bohai elites stepped forward and handed over the weapons of Guo Ying, Xu Yingxu, and Xu Zengshou before leading them to the front of the formation.
Looking at the three people arriving in front of him, Meng Zhang also turned over and dismounted and bowed: "Meng Zhang, the commander of Bohai Shandong Capital, has met Wu Dinghou, Second Young Master Xu, and Fourth Young Master Xu..."
"Where's that boy Zhu Gaoxu!"
As soon as Guo Ying opened his mouth, the surrounding Bohai soldiers immediately became angry and put their hands on the handles of their swords.
Looking at this scene, Xu Zengshou felt like crying but had no tears in his heart.
"I knew it would be like this..."
"Bohai Chronicles": "At the end of April, I sent a letter to Dengzhou, and ordered Yi Shiha to go to Baoding to recruit more than 200,000 soldiers in Jinglong."
"Gengshen, Zhang Zibao harbor rushed to attack the capital. In the early morning, troops surrounded the fifteen gates outside the capital. The whole capital was shaken. Lord Jianwen was panicked. He sent Wuding Marquis Guo Ying, Jinwu Guard Commander Xu Yingxu, and Left Governor Xu Zengshou to discuss peace at Qilin Gate. "
"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "In the fourth month of the fourth month, Gengshen sent Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng troops to surround the capital. When the people in the south of the Yangtze River heard that the king's army was coming, they all carried pots and bottles to welcome the king's army."
"Jianwen Jun was shocked when he heard what the people of Jiangnan wanted, so he ordered Wuding Houying, Yingxu, and Zengshou to each lead their guards to negotiate peace from Qilin Gate."
(End of chapter)
