"Your Majesty, the rebels are strong and reinforcements are coming. Please enter the Meridian Gate to take shelter temporarily!"
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was staring at the battle situation, Wu Laoliu hurried over and requested again.
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head slightly and said calmly: "They can't come, so don't panic!"
As he spoke, he looked towards the city wall on the left again.
I saw that Zhu Yuluo was still entangled with several palace ladies, but could not get rid of each other. Not far from the palace ladies, there were three or four soldiers guarding the periphery, watching the surrounding situation.
Zhu Cixiang was running back and forth on the city wall, directing the gunmen to shoot, and looking at Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhou Hou from time to time.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, he was both happy and a little sad.
Then he turned his attention to the back of Zhou and saw that Fan Fucui and others were tightly surrounding him. He thought for a moment and then shouted: "We have asked you to escort the queen back to the palace, why are you still here?"
When Wu Laoliu heard this, he said helplessly: "The general wanted to send the Queen back to the palace earlier, but Fei Zhen'e said that the Queen was too seriously injured and could not be moved easily, so the general..."
"Then send Fan Fucui and those civil servants to the Meridian Gate first!"
Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted Wu Laoliu with some dissatisfaction, looked at Empress Zhou and shouted loudly: "It's chaos now, we must not let these loyal ministers get hurt!"
Wu Laoliu did not understand what Zhu Yuanzhang meant, but still shook his head helplessly and said: "The general has already said it before, but Fan Fucui and others said they would protect the empress and refused to leave no matter what. The general... "
"Wu Laoliu!"
Zhu Yuanzhang shouted sharply: "Is this your first day on duty?"
Wu Laoliu's body trembled slightly, and then he responded loudly: "The last general takes orders!"
After he finished speaking, he immediately pointed to the guards in uniform beside him and said, "You guys, stay here!"
"You, you, and the rest of you, come with me!"
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw Wu Laoliu taking the order, he looked towards the city wall again and frowned when he saw Zhu Cixiang suddenly running in a hurry towards the gate tower.
"You don't need to persuade me, I won't leave!"
"Yes, we must protect the Queen!"
"How dare you attack me!"
...
At this time, there was a noise from Zhou Hou's side.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but frown deeper when he heard the sound.
After sighing secretly, he was about to go and deal with it personally, but he stopped when he saw that Jin Yiwei was already dragging several ministers towards the Meridian Gate.
"The Queen is awake!"
"Very good!"
"The Queen wants to see Your Majesty!"
...
Just when Wu Laoliu was forcibly taking the courtiers away, there was a burst of cheers from behind Zhou, and then Fei Zhen'e hurried over and said, "Your Majesty, the Queen wants to see you!"
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that although Fei Zhen'e's face was full of tears, there was no panic on her face, and he pondered: "How is the queen's condition?"
When Fei Zhen'e asked, she immediately choked up and said: "The Queen has been poisoned before, and now she has been stabbed by Wang Zhang. I'm afraid... I'm afraid... Your Majesty, please go see the Queen quickly." Empress!" ap.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not see the assassin clearly due to the previous chaos. Now that he heard that it was Wang Zhang who assassinated Queen Zhou, his heart sank again.
He looked at Fei Zhen'e carefully and saw that although she lowered her eyes, she was not as afraid of him as other palace people, so he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go see the Queen with you!"
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's consent, Fei Zhen'e hurriedly asked him to go ahead. Unexpectedly, she heard the other party's voice saying: "You guys just stay here and watch our horses!"
When Fei Zhen'e heard this, she looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's back for a moment, then quickly followed him.
When she arrived at Queen Zhou's place, Queen Zhou had passed out again, and Zhu Yuanzhang was squatting down, carefully wiping the blood stains from the corners of Queen Zhou's mouth.
Seeing this, Fei Zhen'e hurriedly stepped forward to support Queen Zhou, and said slightly nervously: "The Queen, the Queen..."
"Your Majesty is here. You just said that you have something to say to His Majesty. You..."
Before she finished speaking, she started twitching again.
At this time, Zhou Hou opened her eyes with difficulty, looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty... King... Wang Chengen... has... .. He is dead... Don't... leave... Kill the king... Wang Dehua!"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, a flash of anger flashed in his eyes, and then he said softly: "Queen, you don't need to think too much, we have our own arrangements!"
Queen Zhou shook her head slightly, and at the same time slowly but resolutely raised her trembling hand, grabbed Zhu Yuanzhang's sleeve and said: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."
"Kill!"
After Zhou Cai struggled to utter two words, he was drowned by the roar from the Meridian Gate.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked sideways and saw a large group of eunuchs and palace servants rushing out with swords, muskets and other objects.
Although there were more than a dozen people staying at the Meridian Gate, they were immediately swallowed up by the impact of these people.
When the Jin Yiwei who led the minister to the Meridian Gate saw this, he immediately pulled out his long sword and rushed forward quickly.
But although they were brave, their numbers were too small, and they fell in an instant.
On the contrary, the three ministers escaped because of the obstruction of the Jin Yiwei.
At the same time, Wang Dehua also launched a fierce attack.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, he stood up angrily and shouted to Wu Laoliu: "Bring our war horses!"
After he finished speaking, he couldn't help but look at Empress Zhou. When he saw that the other party had passed out again, he became even more angry.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
At this time, there was a continuous and rapid sound of fire cannons from the Meridian Gate, and Zhu Cixiang's roar was vaguely heard: "Huang Nilu, charge over with the fire cannons!"
"Chief Guard, follow me and kill these eunuchs!"
After a while, the eunuchs were in chaos.
Then Huang Nilu, Jiang Dejing and others rushed over with more than a hundred people.
After Huang Nilu arranged his volley of fire guns, he and Jiang Dejing ran to Zhu Yuanzhang, knelt down to plead guilty and said: "Your Majesty, because the people in the palace were causing trouble, my rescuers were late in arriving. Please punish me!"
Zhu Yuanzhang saw that although they were civil servants, they were both covered in blood. He hurriedly stepped forward to help them up and said, "You two are so loyal and brave, so why are you guilty?"
After he finished speaking, he looked at Huang Nilu and said, "Huang Qing, we think your new firearm is very powerful. Is it possible that you can win the first attack against the rebellion today?"
Huang Nilu was stunned when he heard this, and then said loudly: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will definitely repel the rebels and keep your Majesty... and the Queen safe!"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, we are here to see your achievements!"
After Huang Nilu bowed in agreement, he stepped forward to command the fire gun soldiers.
Soon after, Zhu Cihong and Zhou Jing killed the eunuchs and led their troops to help.
With the addition of these two new forces, Wang Dehua's side gradually fell into a disadvantage.
Seeing that the momentum was not right, Wang Dehua wanted to lead his troops to retreat, but saw that Jin Shenghuan was still fighting hard. He also thought that Zhu Yuanzhang had alienated them before, and if he abandoned Jin Shenghuan now, he would definitely cause a lot of trouble.
In desperation, he had no choice but to order a fight to the death, and at the same time kept looking back, wondering why reinforcements had not arrived yet.
What Wang Dehua didn't know was that the reinforcements he was counting on were also looking forward to rescue, because they had now been beaten by Jin Xuan's troops and were unable to fight back.
