The rebels did not expect that the soldiers defending the city would fire cannons, and they immediately broke into chaos.
However, after a period of panic, they retreated in an orderly manner under the command of several generals.
"boom!"
"boom!"
"boom!"
...
At this time, although the artillery shells attacking the city were dense, there were obviously more and more dumb cannons, and their power was no longer as powerful as before.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, he looked out of the city with a livid face.
With the help of a telescope, he could clearly see the situation outside the city.
At the beginning of the attack, there was an occasional dud among the six or seven shells, but after two rounds, only one of the three shells was able to explode, and its lethality was much weaker than before.
Seeing that the artillery fire was powerless, Zhu Yuanzhang was about to put down his telescope when he suddenly found several "Li" flags rising more than ten miles away.
However, the flag was put up for a while and then put back.
Zhu Yuanzhang searched for a long time but never found those flags again.
He pondered for a while and handed the telescope to Li Ruolian, who had been staying by his side.
Then he looked at Wang Dehua, whose eyes were rolling, and shouted: "President Wang, should you explain to us about the Squib?"
When Wang Dehua saw Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze, he immediately knelt down, kowtowed and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I discovered the dumb cannon incident when I first arrived at Zhangyi Gate."
"I have also consulted my soldier Zhang on this matter. Master Zhang said that the workers are not skilled and the funds are limited, so there are many dumb guns."
"I also wanted to report this matter to Your Majesty, but seeing that Your Majesty has been very worried recently, and the matter cannot be dealt with in the short term, I did not report it. Please forgive me."
Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that Wang Dehua could not be defeated based on this matter alone. Seeing that he was pushing the matter to the Ministry of War, he followed suit and said: "The Ministry of War said that you sell firearms, but you said that there is a problem with the firearms of the Ministry of War. Your dignified admiral of Dongchang actually solved it." Can’t handle this matter?”
"I'm too lazy to pay attention to these embarrassing things. You can deal with it yourself. Give us an explanation before sunset today, otherwise don't blame me for not giving you a good face."
When Wang Dehua heard this, a look of surprise flashed across his face, and he kowtowed again and again, but when he lowered his head, there was a hint of murderous intent in his eyes.
It turned out that yesterday Wang Dehua heard that Zhu Yuanzhang had Cao Desi beheaded alive, and that after the owl leader Wang Quede and others, he suspected that Zhu Yuanzhang had discovered his plan. When he was hesitating whether to act in advance, he heard that Jin Yiwei had captured a rebel leader, and he was even more shocked.
Because although he has not had direct contact with the rebels, he also knows that several important people from the rebels have entered the city, and his subordinates have also contacted them.
After thinking about it, he felt that there was no way out, so he decided to take action in advance.
In order to have a clear grasp of the situation in the palace, he also deliberately checked the distribution of troops in the palace under the pretext of visiting Wang Chengen.
After investigation, he found that most of the royal guards in the palace had been mobilized, and the defense at this moment was actually more lax than before.
This made him doubt his previous judgment, so he summoned his confidants to discuss the matter overnight.
They had only discussed it for a while when a decree came from the palace, allowing him to enter the palace to handle the official affairs of the Royal Horse Supervisor.
He saw that the visitor was just a young eunuch, and he had never heard of any mobilization of troops in the palace. After making some arrangements, he put on his armor and entered the palace.
He originally thought that he would be reprimanded at the least after entering the palace, but who would have thought that he would actually be dealing with official business, and he would have to deal with it all night.
When he came out of the palace early in the morning, he happened to see the royal family members being beaten again, and he couldn't help but feel a little confused.
That's why he sent Du Xun to the city just now, just because he wanted to use Du Xun to test Zhu Yuanzhang.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang went to Changyi Gate in person and skinned Du Xun alive.
Seeing Du Xun's fate, he had already prepared for the worst.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang actually put aside the Du Xun matter, questioned him about the squib problem, and only ordered him to explain without any punishment, which made him even more confused.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Wang Dehua looked suspicious, he feigned anger and told Zhang Jinyan all the accusations.
When Wang Dehua heard this, he kowtowed in apology and at the same time his face became even more sinister.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this and was thinking about how to end it, he happened to see Li Guozhen, Wang Jiayan, and Jin Xuan boarding the city wall.
It turned out that the three of them were supervising the army nearby, and they hurried over after hearing the sound of cannons.
When they saw Zhu Yuanzhang, they were shocked at first, and then immediately knelt down to apologize.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the three of them had red eyes and were covered in dust, so he knew that they must have been busy all night.
However, he remembered the squib incident just now and still gave them a severe scolding.
Li Guozhen thought he would get another beating from the court, but he didn't expect that after Zhu Yuanzhang reprimanded him, he dropped the matter and asked him about the meals and pay of the soldiers guarding the city.
When Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the food problem of the soldiers defending the city had been solved and part of the arrears had been repaid, he didn't say anything else.
After letting Jin Xuan temporarily guard the city, he turned around and left Changui Gate.
When the soldiers and eunuchs saw Zhu Yuanzhang leaving, they took a long breath.
"Li Qing, go and tell Huang Nilu personally that it is our will and that he must check the ammunition status of each door before six o'clock."
"When the time comes, you assist him. If there is anyone who doesn't cooperate, kill him on the spot. No need to ask for a separate order!"
"But you must complete the allocation of ammunition for each gate before noon, especially Changyi Gate and Desheng Gate. You must have enough ammunition. Can you do it?"
As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang walked down the city wall, he stopped and said to Li Ruolian behind him.
Li Ruolian had just seen the situation at Zhangyi Gate. Now seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's serious face, he immediately said loudly: "The general will definitely complete the task on time!"
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him again and said, "Okay, then go and do it quickly!"
Li Ruolian bowed, gave a few words of advice to a householder next to him, and left in a hurry with a dozen people.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang saw Wang Shoulin hurriedly running this way again.
He then said to Wang Chengen: "Chengen, go find Xinlehou yourself and tell him that he must hand over 5,000 troops to Jin Xuan at noon!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Chengen glanced at the Jin Yiwei behind Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "I will wait for you to return to the palace and immediately go to Xin Lehou."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "No, we still want to see the situation in the outer city. You can go and deliver the order first."
Wang Chengen also saw Wang Shoulin at this time, bowed and left quickly.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked the accompanying Jin Yiwei to wait where he was, and quickly stepped forward to stop Wang Shoulin, who was about to salute, and said, "But is there any news from Wu Mengming?"
Wang Shoulin nodded and said, "The general has just received the news. After Wu Tongzhi followed Li Mou out of the city, he found that Li Mou had indeed gone to find Tang Tong and Bai Guangen."
"But when Li Mou left, he had an angry look on his face. I guess he didn't convince Tang and Bai."
"Later, Li Mou went directly to the Chinese army's tent. After waiting there for a long time, he entered a military camp, but he did not come out until dawn."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "It doesn't matter, Li Mou is just a stone asking for directions. We don't expect him to really play any role."
"Send a message to Wu Mengming and ask him to act according to our plan and not to act too hastily."
Wang Shoulin responded respectfully and left in a hurry.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Wang Shoulin's retreating back and was silent for a while. When he was about to move forward, he found Wang Chengen standing not far away.
He waved his hand to call Wang Chengen over and said, "Why didn't you go and convey our will?"
When Wang Cheng'en heard this, he immediately knelt down and said, "Because I saw that Long Live Lord only had a royal guard by his side, I was really worried, so I made the decision without permission and sent someone to deliver the order. Please forgive me."
Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Wang Chengen for a long time, and then said in a deep voice: "Okay, we know your loyalty. We have something we need you to do now, but you may have to suffer some hardships. Are you willing?"
When Wang Chengen heard this, he said without hesitation: "Please give me your orders, I will fight to the death to complete the task."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, glanced at the Jin Yiwei in the distance, and gave instructions in a low voice.
When Wang Chengen heard Zhu Yuanzhang's words, his expression changed several times, but he nodded firmly.
Suddenly, Zhu Yuanzhang sternly scolded: "You eunuch, how dare you neglect your duties and disobey our will, we will not spare you!"
After that, he shouted to the Jin Yiwei behind him: "Come here, pull Wang Chengen to Zhangyi Gate and beat him with fifty imperial sticks!"
The guards in Jinyi were stunned when they heard this, but seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's face full of anger, they immediately captured Wang Chengen like a wolf and took him to Zhangyimen.
After a while, the banging of the imperial staff and Wang Chengen's screams came from Zhangyi Gate.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked back at the tower, then withdrew his gaze and walked forward slowly.
When the five imperial guards behind him saw this, they immediately got on their horses and followed cautiously.
