The sound of the firecrackers was still as loud as fried beans. The rain of bullets, coupled with the clouds of smoke from the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Folang Machine Cannon, soon turned the area around Zhengyangmen Wengcheng into a cloud of smoke.
After the gunfire, there were shouts of kill!
Rows of foot soldiers with disheveled armor and white felt hats poured out from the streets outside Zhengyang Gate. Holding shields and ladders, they rushed towards the tall city wall like a tide.
At the same time, on both sides of Zhengyangmen Urn City, from the direction of Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen, they launched another attack along the wide city wall!
Although they have been repulsed many times, these former Ming army officers and soldiers who have newly attached themselves to Dashun still have high morale and everyone is vying for the lead.
There is no other reason. The Yellow Dragon Flag of the Emperor of Heaven is still flying on the Zhengyang Gate! The desperate Emperor Chongzhen was probably there too. As long as Zhengyangmen is captured, the Ming Dynasty will come to an end, and Dashun New City will be the common master of the world.
If great success is right in front of you, who wouldn't want to be the first?
The battle for Beijing's inner city has been going on for more than a day. The time has also come to March 22, and the flag with the word "Chuang" was raised on eight of the nine gates in the inner city of Beijing. Except for the Xuanwu and Chongwen gates, the other six gates were broken without a fight. In two gates, the defenders dispersed in despair, and in the remaining four gates, the defenders simply turned against them and surrendered the city gates on their own initiative.
Because Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen were not blocked, Li Zicheng's old battalion soldiers also poured in from Chaoyangmen.
However, what waited for them was not the Ming army officers and soldiers who were stubbornly resisting, but the people of the capital who lined the streets to welcome them and the officials who abandoned the Ming Dynasty and surrendered. The chants of "eat his mother, wear his mother" kept coming, and many people took out the firecrackers they had prepared and set them off to their heart's content. The whole scene was almost like celebrating the New Year!
Dashun Chao was extremely proud on this day.
But amidst this pride, there is also a little bit of dissatisfaction. Even the resistance in Zhengyangmen Wengcheng is still tenacious. It has lasted from noon on the 21st until now, and has repelled more than a dozen waves of attacks by the Dashun Army.
This barbican city is too strong! The city wall is high and thick, and the gates on all sides are composed of thousand-jin gates and double iron leaf gates. They cannot be opened without using Hongyi cannons. What's even more frightening is that the Zhengyangmen Urn City's defense system also includes a huge archery tower made of bricks and stones with a platform four feet high and a building eight feet high. The main body of the archery tower has four floors, with a total of 94 arrow windows on the east, south and west sides for external archery.
This was the first time Li Zicheng had seen such a strong fortress! In the absence of Hongyi cannons and large-scale siege equipment, the losses would certainly not be light if the ants attacked alone.
However, the officers and soldiers of Dashun, stimulated by the heavy reward, still went forward and launched wave after wave of attacks.
Chen Yongfu's soldiers and horses are still the main force of the attack. This warrior who once blinded King Chuang is now wearing heavy armor, and together with his trusted officers, he is trying his best to control the rhythm of the team's advance, so that they will not rush to the front. And it was a mess. Arrowheads and iron sand projectiles were shot out from the arrow tower's arrow window from time to time. Arrowheads pose little threat to Chen Yongfu and others. They are wearing long iron armor and have soldiers around them to help them hold their shields.
But armor and shields cannot protect against fire blunderbuss! There are some well-made Rumi guns on the Zhengyangmen archery tower, which Luo Yangxing collected from the Jinyi guards under his control. The soldiers who wield the guns are also fed with money, and they specially select Dashun officers wearing good armor to fire! Many of Chen Yongfu's trusted officers and servants had been beaten to death, which made him feel heartbroken.
But it hurts because I feel sorry for you, you have to fight when you have to!
The attack on Zhengyangmen Wengcheng was probably the first success of Dashun in destroying the Ming Dynasty! As long as it can be defeated, is Chen Yongfu still afraid that there will be no family to pass on to the family?
The officers and servants under Chen Yongfu are also risking their lives. The prosperity of their children and grandchildren depends on this day!
Under the leadership of these generals and servants, ordinary soldiers also risked their lives. They don't expect to be granted a title, but a person with a hundred households can always win, right? That can last for several lifetimes.
The formation of thousands of people filled the narrow moat in an instant. I trudged forward through waist-deep water. People kept falling down after being shot by arrows, and the cries and screams of wounded soldiers could be heard. However, these sounds are nothing compared to the song of "Eat his mother, drink his mother" to welcome the king of Chuang. This ballad rang out from all over the inner and outer cities of Beijing, converging into a shocking sound, as if it was suffocating this person. The apocalypse was shattered.
Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun were shocked and frightened when they heard this earth-shattering song. This sound came from all directions. Could it be that all parts of the capital had fallen? Is there only one Zhengyangmen Wengcheng left struggling to hold on?
The two loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty were also forced to have no choice. They actually wanted to surrender - Zhu Cixiang's decree agreeing to surrender was in their arms, which could make them the loyal ministers who will go down in history.
But the problem is that Li Zicheng didn't send anyone to persuade him to surrender! Just one onslaught after another! So they had no chance to surrender, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and hold on.
Yes, surrender must be given a chance and conditions must be met. It's not like you just "hand down your gun and don't kill" when you see the ferocious looking enemy soldiers coming to kill you. How can such a good thing happen? Everyone is furious, who cares whether you surrender or not? Kill him first and then talk!
Not only Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun had to insist on supervising the battle, but the brave soldiers who had been deceived by the heavy reward and came to defend them were also in trouble at this time.
Because Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun did not go into the city empty-handed, but brought hundreds of thousands of taels of silver into the Zhengyangmen Urn City - Zhu Cihong gave them all the money that he could not take away. Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun were also extremely generous. They spread money freely and pushed back the enemy's attacks. Everyone would be rewarded! So much so that each of the thousands of people who were still standing on the Zhengyangmen Urn City received at least twenty taels of silver!
This is a huge sum of money!
Even if the officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army spared their lives out of kindness, how could they not take their money?
In order to keep the money they had sacrificed their lives for, they had no choice but to carry it on... until Li Zicheng sent someone to persuade them to surrender. Only then would they be qualified to negotiate terms with the new leader of the world.
Fortunately, they still have a big card in their hands, which is Emperor Chongzhen, the Emperor of Heaven!
On the highest fourth floor of the Zhengyangmen Archery Tower, there were only two people, Guang Shiheng and Luo Xiu Shen. Guang Shiheng pretended to be Emperor Chongzhen, but he was the backbone of the heroic defense of the city. If people knew that he was a Xibei, , who knows whether the people below will disperse in a rush?
So Luo Xiu Shen personally guarded the fake Chongzhen and had people block the road leading to the Four Cities from the third floor of the Arrow Tower.
However, Guang Shiheng had already collapsed. He was huddled in a corner on the fourth floor of the watchtower. He didn't eat or drink, and his hair was disheveled. He just kept crying and didn't look like a loyal person at all.
Luo Xiu Shen had no choice but to persuade him: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid... When King Chuang sends people to persuade us to surrender, we will surrender. Even if we surrender, we will still be loyal and righteous people. What a good thing? We can bear it now." The longer time goes by, the more qualified this loyal man will be. At that time, King Chuang will have to treat us preferentially in order to win people's hearts..."
"Yes, but he didn't send anyone to persuade him to surrender!" Guang Shiheng almost burst into tears, "When will these waves of attacks end!"
"It will come, it will come," Luo Xiushen comforted with a smile, "Zhengyangmen Wengcheng is not easy to fight. How many lives can Li Zicheng take in?"
…
Li Zicheng was standing on the Yongding Gate at this time, with an extremely solemn expression on his face, staring at the battlefield ahead expressionlessly. He watched the performance of both Shunming and Ming armies.
Dashun's soldiers have worked hard enough to attack without risking their lives. But the Ming army defending the city also fought with their lives, even though all parts of the capital had returned to Dashun, and even Wang Dehua, the great eunuch guarding the Forbidden City, had just surrendered. These lonely loyalists of the Ming Dynasty remained unwavering and vowed to defend Emperor Chongzhen to the death.
This kind of loyalty really made Li Zicheng admire him. He couldn't help but sigh: "If all the civil servants and military generals in the Ming Dynasty were as loyal as the Zhengyangmen, how would E'an be today?"
"Your Majesty," Second Military Advisor Gu Junen finally thought of a trick to persuade us to surrender, "Why don't we send Wang Dehua, who has just surrendered to us, to persuade us to surrender... Now that the emperor has lost his kingdom, how long can he sustain it with just one castle? Your Majesty If you can make him a prince, he will probably surrender."
Li Zicheng nodded and said: "I have this intention, go and find Wang Dehua for me!"
