Only five days...
Zhu Cixiang turned to look at Wu Xiang, who nodded. His estimate was also five days! If we still have to delay for one more day, we can only hold on to the Imperial City and the Forbidden City.
As for whether his son Wu Sangui could come before the fall of Beijing, he himself was not sure.
So the best option is to run away immediately!
"Commander Li," Zhu Cixiang asked, "five days is too little. Is there any way you can hold the position for a few more days?"
"Yes." Li Ruolian nodded, "Abandon the outer city!"
"Abandon the outer city?" Zhu Cixiang frowned, "Is it to concentrate troops to defend the inner city?"
There are a total of sixteen gates in the inner and outer city of Beijing, nine inside and seven outside. If the outer city is abandoned, the limited garrison of the capital will be divided among the nine inner gates, and there will be slightly more garrison troops at each city gate and on the surrounding walls. But it’s not that much, it’s good if one stall can accommodate 1,000 people.
"Concentrating troops is only one of them;" Li Ruolian said, "attracting the old camp of Chuangni into the city to attack Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu gates is the second; and the third is to use Zhengyangmen Wengcheng as the final stronghold!"
Zhu Cixiang asked: "How do you know that Chuangni Laoying will attack Chongwen, Zhengyang and Xuanwu from the outer city?"
Li Ruolian replied: "I am from Shuntian Prefecture and I am familiar with the situation inside the capital city. The outer city of the capital city is also a prosperous place with many shops and dense population. How can Chuangniang be willing to let the subordinate Wuhe and rebel soldiers enter the city and plunder it?"
Moreover, the area in the outer city near Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu gates is very prosperous, with densely packed houses and numerous buildings, which can block the defenders' sight and is not conducive to the use of artillery. In order to prevent his old camp from suffering too much loss, Chuangni must let his old camp attack Chongwen, Zhengyang and Xuanwu gates from the outer city. At the same time, Wuhe and Xinfu troops were used to attack from outside the city as a response. "
Hearing what Li Ruolian said, with Zhu Cihong's cunningness, how could he not understand what he meant? If most of King Chuang's old camp had entered the outer city, then there would be fewer old camps outside the city... It would be difficult to stop the Kenan camp commanded by Wu Xiang and Wu Sanfu with the help of newly attached soldiers and ragtag troops.
Who said there were no loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty? This Li Ruolian is a very loyal minister!
Zhu Cihong said to himself, those who think that the Ming Dynasty has no loyal ministers will definitely not discover potential loyal ministers! Loyalty stocks, like undervalued stocks, need to be analyzed, researched and discovered.
I am obviously good at discovering loyal ministers, and today I discovered several loyal ministers and good eunuchs. If this trend continues, a group of loyal ministers and good generals will definitely gather around me, and there is hope for the Ming Dynasty to revive!
"Okay!" Zhu Cixiang nodded approvingly, "Commander Li is indeed a pillar of the country... Which city gate are you in charge of now?"
"Reporting to the Crown Prince, I am in charge of the Chongwen Sect."
"You don't need to worry about Chongwenmen," Zhu Cixiang said, "just go to my side to advise the military... Just give it to Chongwenmen, give it to Zu Zepu. He is a tiger general in the ancestral army, and there are many ancestral soldiers around him. The servant must be able to manage the Chongwen Sect well."
With that, he said to his butler Huang Dabao: "Give Zu Zepu another 3,000 taels." He waved to Wu Sanfu and asked him to come forward, and then whispered: "Sanfu, you and Huang Dabao went with him to tell Zu Zepu that the defenders of Chongwenmen must be under my control... I trust him. When he gets to Jiangnan, he will be used in important ways. His future status will not be that of his father. under."
Zhu Cihong's promise to Zu Zepu was of course difficult to fulfill...because there was always someone who would act as cannon fodder and a target to attract Li Zicheng's attention.
Wu Xiang and Wu Sanfu and his son are very important and cannot do this. People like Qiu Zhizhong and Zhu Chunjie were Zhu Cihong's close ministers and confidants, so they could not be sacrificed easily, so Zu Zepu had to be sacrificed. However, Zhu Cixiang would not let his sacrifice be in vain. When he arrives in Nanjing, he will definitely be listed in the Zhongshi Temple and buried with great splendor!
Seeing that Li Ruolian had suddenly become a close official of the Crown Prince, the group of gatekeepers were naturally jealous, and a second one immediately stood up to offer advice to Zhu Cihong.
This man is also wearing a flying fish suit. He is in his thirties, tall, fair-faced, long-bearded, and has handsome features. He looks like a handsome man. Zhu Cixiang recognized his name as Luo Xiushen, the younger brother of Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyi Guards. The official worshiped the Jin Yiwei to command the generals of the Han Dynasty.
The so-called Han generals are the guards in front of the palace. When they go to court, they stand there with golden helmets and golden armor to show off. They are all handsome men. Luo Xiu Shen was their leader. He was naturally handsome and looked like a famous general.
Perhaps because they looked so much like each other, Wang Chengen recruited a young man and sent him to guard the port.
"Your Highness, I am now the gatekeeper of Fucheng Gate." Luo Xiu bowed and said, "I believe that the bandits will come from the northwest, and they will most likely be at Fucheng Gate, Xizhi Gate, Desheng Gate, Anding Gate, etc. Set up camps outside the four gates. We should make preparations in advance, collect flags, gongs, drums, and artillery, and concentrate them on the above four gates. Then recruit strong warriors and arrange them at the four gates to make a big splash and make the thieves think that the capital is being defended. There are many and the defense is tight. In this way, the bandits will not dare to spread their troops too far around the capital."
Zhu Cixiang turned to look at Wu Xiang, who nodded. Zhu Cihong asked: "Who is the guard of Xizhimen, Deshengmen and Andingmen?"
Three generals from the Beijing camp stood up in response. One of them, Zhu Cixiang, recognized him. His name was Zhang Shizhong. He was the cousin of the British Duke Zhang Shize. He was now a general in the Beijing camp and was assigned by Wang Chengen to guard the Anding Gate.
The other two people also knew each other by name, namely Zhu Guoyong, the cousin of Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, and Lin Yihu, a member of the Jinyiwei family and a martial arts scholar in the 16th year of Chongzhen. Both of them are young, Zhu Guoyong is only in his early twenties. Although he comes from a noble family, he looks a bit rustic, but he is quite strong. Lin Yihu is slightly older, in his mid-twenties, and although he is a martial arts scholar, he is gentle and elegant, with a medium build, delicate features, fair skin, and a short beard.
"I will give you two more 3,000 taels of silver. We will recruit people early tomorrow morning. The maximum we can give is one tael of silver a day! The original soldiers in the city will also give each of them one tael of silver a day... If the money is not enough, I will I’ll give you more money!”
Zhu Cixiang also took the risk! There must be a brave man under the heavy reward! Now we can only offer heavy rewards to attract people. It's hard to say whether they are brave or not. Anyway, there are enough people and it seems that there are many soldiers. Let's scare Li Zicheng.
What he fears most now is Li Zicheng's siege. Once surrounded, it would be difficult to stand out, and they could only passively wait for Wu Sangui to lead his troops to approach Beijing.
But it’s really hard to say whether Wu Sangui will listen to his father’s words!
The so-called seeking for others is better than seeking for yourself. Now he could only maximize the power of the Fu army and bluff to make Li Zicheng think that there were still more defenders in Beijing, so he would not adopt the tactic of dividing his troops to siege the city.
But whether his current arrangement is effective or not, only God really knows.
…
Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian was summoning Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Chengguo, Luo Yangxing, the commander of Jinyi Guards, and Gong Yonggu, the commander-in-chief of Prince Consort.
People of later generations always regarded the eunuchs in the middle and late Ming Dynasty as very powerful, but at the same time they ignored the existence of nobles.
In fact, nobles have always been an important part of the power game of the Ming Dynasty. Even after the power of Xungui declined severely due to the attrition of the Battle of Tumu Fort, the power of Xungui still cannot be ignored in the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty.
Because the Beijing Camp and Jinyi Guards that protect the two capitals in the north and south have always been under the control of nobles!
In other words, the emperor himself has always been under the protection of the Xungui Group!
The ultimate reason why Emperor Chongzhen could easily get rid of Wei Zhongxian was that Wei Zhongxian had no way to take the Beijing Camp and Jin Yiwei away from the noble hands.
At that time, the governor-general of the military affairs in Beijing was Zhang Weixian, the grandfather of the British prince Zhang Shize who helped Zhu Cixiang block the door. Luo Yangxing's father, Luo Sigong (his ancestor Luo Yicheng was a martyr in the founding of the Ming Dynasty), has been in charge of Jinyiwei for 42 years! Moreover, the Luo family has been involved in Jinyiwei for six generations, and there was a Jinyiwei General Constitution before Luo Sigong!
Compared with the nobles who were deeply involved in the Beijing camp and the Imperial Guard, Wei Zhongxian's foundation was really not worth mentioning. It was not surprising that he was beaten to death by Emperor Chongzhen.
Although Zhu Cixiang, who suddenly rose up in the dangerous city, is not comparable to Wei Zhongxian and others, he is also daydreaming if he wants to take over Chongzhen, who has been the emperor for seventeen years...
