"Your Majesty, the rebels are exhausted. Why don't you go back to the palace to rest first, and let me handle the rest?"
Liu Wenbing was worried about Zhu Yuanzhang's safety and had been guarding him every step of the way. Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang looked tired, he whispered suggestions.
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "No, look, there is a steady stream of torches moving in the distance. Those should be reinforcements from the rebels!"
"Moreover, it is raining continuously at the moment, and the auspicious time has not passed. Li Thief will definitely try again. Only by holding on to this wave of attacks will tonight be truly over."
Hearing this, Liu Wenbing glanced at the soldiers guarding the city wall and saw that after more than an hour of fierce fighting, most of the soldiers were scarred and looked exhausted.
In addition, the artillery and ammunition were approaching at this moment, and the rebel reinforcements were coming in an endless stream, which greatly increased the pressure on the city defense.
He was worried that if he continued to defend passively like this, his morale would decline and the city would be lost, so he whispered: "Your Majesty, let me lead a suicide squad to go out and kill for a while. If we can destroy the suspension bridge and those ladders, our pressure will be reduced." Some."
Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he wanted to boost the morale of the army through this move, but no matter whether he succeeded or not, he would never return.
So he glared at Liu Wenbing with dissatisfaction and said: "We are training you like this, not to make you do reckless things!"
"Don't just see that we are tired. In fact, the rebels are even more tired, because they are not only tired physically, but also mentally."
"You must know that they were frightened back by the golden dragon at noon today, and in the evening they were determined to win a battle, and we captured more than a dozen generals."
"At this moment, they are afraid that if the news spreads, the army will lose morale, so they are attacking the city in such a frenzy, but they can't last long, they are so crazy, we estimate that they can hold on for another half hour at most."
"So, we must stay calm now. As long as the city is not lost, the rebels will inevitably retreat, and the offensive and defensive situation will also be reversed!"
As he spoke, he glanced in the direction of the imperial city, pretending to be unintentional.
"Quick, quick, push me up!"
At this time, Huang Nilu's voice came from the steps on the city.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the sound, he immediately walked over quickly and said to Huang Nilu, who was covered in mud: "Huang Qing, you are finally here. Everyone is waiting for your cannonballs!"
When Huang Nilu heard this, he said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty, I have tried my best to adjust, but I only got more than a hundred shells."
"Only a hundred or so rounds?"
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said: "Due to the lack of artillery shells, we have already suffered a lot of casualties. We will definitely not be able to continue like this. Can we transfer some more from other places?"
Huang Nilu shook his head and said: "No, Wei Chen has tried his best to compress the shells of other doors. If the number is reduced further, it will be very dangerous once the other doors are attacked."
"However, Wei Chen has mobilized more than a hundred thunderbolts from various sects, which should be able to make up for the lack of ammunition. Please don't worry, Your Majesty!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was a little disappointed, but when he heard that there were more than a hundred thunder cannons, he smiled and said: "Okay, Huang Qing, the firearms attacks at Zhangyi Gate will be under your unified command. They must exert their maximum power."
"Wei Chen accepts the order!"
Huang Nilu was not humble when he heard this. He bowed in agreement and then went to adjust the placement of artillery and thunder cannons.
After being adjusted by Huang Nilu, Zhangyimen's firearms were 30 to 40% more powerful than before, and they defeated the rebels again.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!..."
Just when the ammunition on Changyi Gate was about to run out, there was a crisp sound of clang from below the city, and then the rebels slowly retreated.
But what is a bit strange is that there are still 300 black armor cavalry leading nearly 5000 people to go against the trend and rush towards Zhangyi Gate.
"boom!"
"boom!"
"boom!"
...
The timing chosen by that team was very precise. It was already beyond the range of the artillery. Unexpectedly, Huang Nilu adjusted the angles of the three artillery pieces in time and accurately hit the rebels with the cannon.
Then nearly two hundred thunder cannons fired one after another, covering all areas under the city.
The group of rebels wanted to charge, but the sound of clangs from behind became more urgent. They hesitated for a while, and finally retreated slowly.
"Okay, I finally got through tonight!"
Liu Wenbing was a little worried when he saw the wave of people rushing towards him before, but now he felt relieved when he saw them retreating.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the rebels had really retreated, and at the same time found that it was already half past midnight. He guessed that Li Zicheng felt that the auspicious time was hopeless, so he chose to retreat.
So he steeled himself and said to Liu Wenbing: "Xin Lehou, please quickly order three thousand elites and follow me back to the city to put down the rebellion!"
"Counterinsurgency?"
When Liu Wenbing heard this, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise.
"Yes, hurry up. Shen Qing has been here for nearly an hour and there is no news yet. I'm afraid the matter is quite difficult and we can't delay any longer."
Zhu Yuanzhang said as he walked down the tower.
Upon seeing this, Liu Wenbing hurriedly asked three thousand households to organize their troops and horses, and then quickly followed.
Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Wenbing led 3,000 people along the way. When they arrived at Xuanwu Gate, they saw that everything in the inner city was fine, and they relaxed a little.
Just when they were about to move on, they happened to see Li Ruolian arriving with more than a dozen royal guards.
After Li Ruolian saw Zhu Yuanzhang, he quickly got off his horse and apologized to Zhu Yuanzhang.
It turned out that after Li Ruolian returned from Zhangyi Gate, he immediately went to search the Wei Mansion and accidentally discovered a secret passage in the flower bed of the Wei Mansion.
Li Ruolian led people to follow the secret passage and finally arrived near Wang Dehua's mansion.
Since the gate of Wang Dehua's house was guarded by people from Dongchang, Li Ruolian did not want to cause conflicts, so he asked people to monitor him secretly and sent people to search everywhere.
At this time, Jin Yiwei, who happened to be guarding the secret passage, sent someone to report that the whereabouts of Zhang Jinyan and others had been discovered nearby.
Li Ruolian heard the report and immediately led people there, but only caught Zhang Jinyan.
Just as he was searching around, he suddenly saw the defeated army coming to report that the eunuchs in Wang Zhixin were rioting and were leading people to besiege Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace.
Li Ruolian was shocked when he heard this and immediately led his people to the imperial city.
At this time, another spy came to report that Zhu Chunchen had united more than a dozen noble families and gathered hundreds of people to ambush him at Chongwenmen.
Li Ruolian knew that the world was urgent and did not want to get entangled with Zhu Chunchen, so he asked his deputy general to lead people to encircle and suppress Zhu Chunchen, while he took a dozen people to take a detour to the imperial city.
I never thought that he would hurry up and hurry up, but in the end he was still a step behind.
By the time he arrived at the imperial city, not only had the Qianqing Palace been breached, but even Zhang Yan, Queen Yi'an in the Ciqing Palace, had been captured by Wang Zhixin.
Only the Kunning Palace, under the desperate protection of the prince's bodyguard chief Zhou Jing and others, and Wang Chengen's intervention to divide part of Wang Zhixin's power, was not lost.
When Wang Zhixin saw Li Ruolian coming, he immediately retreated to the three main halls and took advantage of the situation to set fire to the palace.
As the Jinyi Guards arrived one after another, Li Ruolian surrounded the three main halls, but he did not dare to force the siege.
It was not until Shen Zhanran arrived and understood the situation clearly that he had people pretend to be Zhu Chunchen and Li Laiheng's subordinates, pretending to defeat Li Ruolian and trap Wang Zhixin, and then rescued Queen Yi'an Zhang Yan.
Later, Li Ruolian returned to Chongwenmen, defeated Zhu Chunchen's servants, and took advantage of the situation to capture Wei Zaode, Zhu Chunchen, Chen Yan and other nobles, and then the civil strife was completely quelled.
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Li Ruolian's story, his face turned pale and he asked: "Where are these people now?"
Li Ruolian said: "The general has imprisoned them all in Zhao Prison. If your Majesty wants to ask, the general will bring them immediately."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "No, to avoid staining our eyes, you should immediately pass the order to keep them under strict guard and behead them in public tomorrow morning!"
