"Brother, the two groups of people sent by my younger brother to contact Huang Degong didn't come back..."
"What? Didn't come back? What happened?" When Xu Hongji heard the command report from his family, he felt a buzzing in his head.
"I don't know!" The conductor spread his hands, "Two groups of people were sent in front and back. The first group of people should have returned a quarter ago, and the second group of people should have returned at three minutes, but now Yin Shi has arrived. We're almost there, but no one is back. Could it be..."
He only said half of what he said, and the other half was too scary!
Could it be that Huang Degong rebelled?
If he rebels, then all the distinguished nobles and ministers in Nanjing City will be destroyed, and they will not be able to hold on to Zuo Liangyu's rescue!
By the way, Zuo Liangyu will probably not come... Now Gao Jie, who has the largest number of troops among the four towns in Jiangbei, has defected to Zhu Cixiang. If another Huang Degong, who has the strongest combat power, also joins him. What else is Prince Zhu afraid of? The prince himself has tens of thousands of people, and with the troops of Gao Jie and Huang Deguo, he can make up to 100,000 people!
Zuo Liangyu came to die...
Just when there was deathly silence on the tower of Chaoyangmen Wengcheng, a chief servant of the Xu family who was guarding the gate of Chaoyangmen came running out of breath, holding a name card in his hand. When he saw Xu Hongji, he shouted: "Duke Sir, Ma Zhijun just sent someone over, saying that he and Huang Zongrong are about to lead their troops down the mountain to rescue Xiaoling Acropolis. Can we send troops?"
Xu Hongji and the nobles and ministers in the Wengcheng tower of Chaoyangmen breathed a sigh of relief. They were overly worried. Huang Degong did not rebel. Something happened to the person he sent to contact him. Maybe he met Ye Bushou sent by the prince, or maybe he ran away when he saw something was wrong.
"Send troops! Send troops! Send troops quickly..." Xu Hongji was actually confused already. He didn't think much about it and immediately ordered to send troops.
Although he had served as a guard in Nanjing for many years, he was a guard who was reincarnated. How could he fight?
If Zhu Cihong hadn't taken away the salt profit from the Xu family and wanted to take back the occupied land of the guard station, he would have been recovering at home and waiting to die. How could he be in the current situation?
But sending troops is not easy. There are more than 10,000 people here in Chaoyangmen Wengcheng. It can be said that it is too many or too few. How to assemble so many people, how to line up, how to march, how to set up battle formations, how to learn a lot!
There are no experienced generals like Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, and Li Ruolian in Nanjing, and there are no people like Wu's servants, veterans of the Yongwei camp, and junior officers of the Beijing camp who can be used. There are only a group of hereditary military attaches who cannot lead troops and noble servants who have never been on the battlefield. In peacetime, we can also bring the team together to deal with the Minister of War like Shi Kefa. If we really want to start a fight, it will definitely turn into a mess!
As soon as Xu Hongji's order to send troops was issued, Chaoyangmen Wengcheng immediately became chaotic. The troops couldn't get together, and no one in the front line was willing to fight. The officers leading the troops below all went up to the tower to ask Xu Hongji for money - it wasn't them who wanted it, it was the top soldiers below who wanted money! No one is willing to go out without a reward of two or three!
This made Xu Hongji so angry that his tuberculosis was serious. He had heartbreaking coughs and vomited blood... How could the battle be fought when the coach was like this? But now the Xu family has been put on the fire, and it won't work without a fight. If the prince usurps the throne, why not destroy his family?
In the end, the old man gritted his teeth and took out 30,000 taels of silver (the silver had already been transported to the tower) and rewarded them. Then he reluctantly gathered 10,000 troops (the actual number is a mystery) and drove out of Chaoyang Gate.
Old Man Xu couldn't lead the troops himself, and he didn't trust his son Xu Yunjue to go into battle, so he sent his cousin Xu Yongji to lead the troops and went under the banner of King Fengtianqin.
Of course, Xu Hongji did not expect the 10,000 people led by Xu Yongji to perform exceptionally. What he was counting on was Huang Degong on Zhongshan Mountain!
As long as Huang Defong leads 6,000 elite troops and kills Zhu Cixiang before he breaks through the Xiaoling Acropolis, there will be hope for the Battle of King Qin in Nanjing.
However, Xu Hongji never imagined that Huang Degong would be in big trouble at this time, and he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.
He got angry because Ma Shiying was missing!
Is it necessary to be so anxious that Ma Shiying is missing?
Of course! Because Ma Shiying's 3,000 Guizhou soldiers lined up blocking the mountain gate of Linggu Temple, while Huang Degong's 3,000 servants lined up inside the mountain gate.
If Ma Shiying's Guizhou troops don't move, Huang Degong's servants can't either, unless they go over the mountains. But the topography of Zhongshan is not familiar to people like Huang Degong. It is not easy to go through the mountain and take the trails without taking the main road.
Now there was a fierce battle at Xiaoling Guard at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain, and Huang Degong knew that he had to send troops. Otherwise, once Xiaoling Guard is lost, his troops will be blocked on the mountain, and it will be difficult to send out troops again.
But at this critical moment, Ma Shiying disappeared, and his 3,000 Guizhou soldiers blocked the mountain gate and refused to leave. Oh, it’s useless to say anything to them! Because they can only speak Guizhou dialect and cannot understand Mandarin. And Huang Degong was from Liao, and his subordinates were all Northern soldiers. No one understood Guizhou dialect, so the two groups couldn't communicate at all!
Huang Degong had no choice but to order his servants to fight the Guizhou people, so he could only ask people to look around for Ma Shiying, but he couldn't find him.
This really made Huang Degong anxious to death...
...
When Huang Degong was about to die, Zhu Cixiang had already met Ma Shiying at the newly established Chinese army's main formation outside Xiaoling Acropolis.
"His Royal Highness, this is the memorial jointly drafted by me and Huang Degong to respectfully request His Majesty to abdicate the throne to His Highness!"
Ma Shiying took out the memorial he had just written, raised it above his head, and handed it to Prince Fujun of the Ming Dynasty who was riding on horseback.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and took the memorial. He looked through it and saw that it was indeed signed by Huang Degong. He nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay... Ma Qing and Huang Zongrong are indeed loyal to the country and are the pillars of the country! This Once Nanjing was quelled, you all made great contributions and were responsible for overcoming the difficulties!"
He deliberately raised his voice so that Zhang Shenyan and Han Zanzhou, who were being escorted by Chen Shifang, could hear clearly and let them know that Huang Degong was a traitor!
At this moment, Wu Sanfu, who was commanding the attack on Xiaoling Acropolis, suddenly reported loudly: "Master Qiansui, Ye Bubu found that a large group of rebel troops marched out from the direction of Chaoyang Gate and were heading towards Xiaoling Acropolis along the road! Their marching speed is not fast, the team is noisy and scattered, they are obviously a ragtag group!"
"Hahaha!" Zhu Cixiang laughed, "You are here to die! Great... Sanfu, how do you want to fight?"
Wu Sanfu thought for a while and said: "We can first ambush on Zhongshan Mountain, then send the rebels into Xiaoling Acropolis, and finally cut off their return and trap them in Xiaoling Acropolis."
"Okay!" Zhu Cixiang nodded, "As you say, let the rebel soldiers enter the Xiaoling Guards!"
Although Zhu Cixiang liked to visit the front line in person, he rarely interfered with the general's command. That is to say, he stubbornly fought against the Tatars in the Battle of Dagonkou. This time, the battle to quell the rebellion in Nanjing was basically guaranteed to win. If a mediocre general like Wu Sanfu fought step by step, he would be sure to win.
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang boldly delegated power and became a spectator on the battlefield.
At the other end, Xu Yongji, who led about 10,000 chaotic troops to attack, had no idea at all. They neither arranged for vanguards to explore the road, nor sent people to the realm of the two wings, nor sent people to control the edge of the southern foot of Zhongshan Mountain. The team of more than 10,000 people was almost the same as a daily march, and it was also very noisy and chaotic.
Wu Sanfu's trick to lure the enemy was actually not very clever. He sent a small number of "magic gunners" under the cover of Ye Bushou cavalry to launch turtle-dove-footed fire cannons from a long distance, inducing the opponent to launch fire cannons to counterattack, and then fight and leave. When the sky became slightly brighter, they coaxed ten thousand Nanjing soldiers led by Xu Yongji to the Xiaoling Acropolis.
Then, without waiting for them to enter the city, a group of fire gun soldiers and two battalions of cavalry who had been ambushing in the Xiamaping area at the southern foot of Zhongshan hurriedly fought out and got stuck between Xiaoling Acropolis and Chaoyangmen Urn City.
Xu Yongji, who discovered that his retreat was cut off by the enemy, really cooperated with Wu Sanfu. He did not organize a breakout and fight back to Chaoyangmen Wengcheng, but led his men to squeeze into Xiaoling Acropolis, which was being bombarded, and stood there waiting for help. I just don’t know who else can come to his aid now?
. m.
