Beijing, Chonghua Palace.
In Shang Kexi's study, three people were staring at each other silently. Today, Prince Shang Kexi, Prince Zhong of the Qing Dynasty, has a distinguished guest at his residence. He is Prince Kong Tingxun. Kong Tingxun did not come empty-handed, but brought a handwritten letter said to be written by his sister Kong Sizhen!
This was an extraordinary thing. Everyone in Beijing knew that Kong Sizhen was a chaste and martyr woman who died in the Qing Dynasty together with her husband Fan Wencheng. She was chopped alive by Emperor Zhu's men with three thousand knives and died miserably in Xuzhou City.
In order to commemorate this virtuous woman, Fulin also ordered people to build a tomb and a chastity memorial arch for him in Beijing. There is also one in Nanjing. This woman was the most chaste and virtuous woman in the Ming and Qing dynasties!
Such a chaste and virtuous woman who died in the Qing Dynasty actually wrote a personal letter to Kong Tingxun. This thing... is a bit scary!
Therefore, the faces of Shang Kexi and his son Shang Zhixin are quite solemn right now!
The room was quiet. Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun were sitting face to face, while Shang Zhixin was standing next to his father. The three of them were looking at each other. I don’t know how long it took before Shang Kexi breathed out: " Prince Li, is the letter really written by your sister?"
Kong Tingxun nodded: "Yes, it's a letter written by my sister."
Shang Zhixin asked: "Wasn't she chopped up? Everyone knows about this, how can it be false?"
Kong Tingxun couldn't laugh or cry, shook his head and said: "According to the servant of my family who sent the letter, Sizhen was cut with three thousand knives..."
"Not dead yet?"
"Is your sister made of iron?"
"No, no," Kong Tingxun quickly explained, "My sister's delicate skin and tender flesh are made of iron. It's just that the three thousand knives were all cut on her hair, so she wasn't cut to death... "
Shang Kexi rolled his eyelids, "That's called Ling Chi? That's called shaving! Can it kill someone?" He touched his bare scalp, "According to this calculation, I don't know how many times I have cut my head. Isn't it better now?" of?"
Shang Zhixin still frowned: "Then, is what your sister wrote in her letter reliable?"
"Well..." Kong Tingxun shook his head slightly, "I don't know! But...the chief culprit in Beijing is Fulin after all, right? If we hand him over, Emperor Zhu can't ask us anymore It’s a crime, right?”
Shang Zhixin said: "Yes, yes... let's do it, a dead horse becomes a living horse!"
Now the Ming army's trenches have almost reached the edge of the trench outside Chaoyangmen Fortress. They dug trenches all the way, and the Hongyi cannon and Fran cannon we set up on the fortress couldn't hit them at all. Moreover, for more than a month, they used huge cannons to fire explosive shells every day, bombarding the city at night and the Chaoyangmen fortress during the day. They have killed and injured more than 2,000 of our people, and also damaged more than a dozen of our gates. gun. Now almost no one dares to go up to the Chaoyangmen Fortress, and no one dares to transport the cannon up!
Father, they are about to attack Chaoyangmen Fortress now! This fortress cannot be defended... But if the fortress outside Chaoyang Gate is lost, then it is probably Chaoyang Gate Urn City and the nearby city walls that will be bombarded next! "
Kong Tingxun nodded vigorously: "Yes! The Ming army has many cannons called mortars, which look like big iron pots and can project explosive shells. Once they capture the fortress outside Chaoyang Gate, they can use this The fortress is equipped with mortars for cover and used to bombard the Chaoyang Gate Urn City... By then it will be difficult to defend the Weng City!"
In fact, Kong Tingxun was a little too worried. The Ming army only captured the Chaoyangmen fortress, which was not enough to deploy large-caliber mortars outside Beijing to bombard the city walls and barbicans. To arrange the mortars in this way, at least Dongzhimen Fortress or Xiaodongmen Fortress must be captured again.
The parallel trenches used to attack Dongzhimen Fortress and Xiaodongmen Fortress are also being excavated, and it will take up to twenty days to dig into place. By then, Chaoyangmen Fortress, Dongzhimen Fortress, and Xiaodongmen Fortress will be captured together.
With these three fortresses as support, the Ming army could use 24-pound and 48-pound mortars to bombard the city wall of Beijing. It could also move eight 48-pound cannons forward, and concentrate more 24-pound cannons and 12-pound cannons. Pound artillery is used to attack the city... With another ten days and a half of bombardment, a section of the city wall can almost be blasted away. Because the bottom of the wall is protected by sandbags, it is impossible to completely collapse it, but it is still possible to create a ramp for grenadiers and fusiliers to attack.
"Humph!" Shang Ke snorted happily, looked at Kong Tingxun and said, "If we want to sacrifice the city gate, we will do it, but if we want to capture Fulin...he is squinting in the Meishan Fortress and cannot come out. How are we going to capture it? The Meishan Fortress is so strong, and we only have some 12-pound red barbarian cannons on hand, so we can’t knock it down at all!”
Fulin has learned the lesson now, huddled in the Meishan Fortress and acted like a little turtle, but refused to come out.
Moreover, the people guarding the Meishan fortress are all Manchurian soldiers led by Ban Burshan. They should fight to the death at the critical moment. With the strength of Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, they may not be able to defeat Meishan!
Shang Zhixin suddenly said: "Father, my son has a plan to coax Fulin down the mountain... At least he can coax Fulin to hand over his elite soldiers!"
"What's the plan?"
"Say it quickly!"
Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth: "Father, King Li, why don't we go out of the city and fight to the death with the man named Zhu!"
...
"What? What did you say?"
"Your Majesty, after discussion with King Li, King Yi, and King Xiao, my father decided that he could not sit back and wait for death. He must come out of the city to fight to the death with Zhu!"
"Leave the city for a decisive battle? Why? Are we going to run out of food?"
"It's not that the food is exhausted, but that the Ming army has dug trenches under the Chaoyangmen Fortress..."
On top of Meishan Mountain, Shang Zhixin was requesting Fulin to leave the city for a decisive battle with a memorial jointly signed by Shang Kexi, Kong Tingxun, Geng Zhongming, Shen Yongxing and other four kings.
Fulin was so frightened by this suggestion that his face turned pale!
There are hundreds of thousands of troops outside Beijing!
And they also have very powerful cannons! Although Meishan has not been bombarded these days, Fulin, from his condescending position, could clearly see the scene of bombardment in the Chaoyangmen area in the east of the city... 48-pound shells exploded! Not to mention the rising fireworks, they also blew up several houses from time to time and caused several fires. After more than a month of going on, the area around Chaoyang Gate was almost turned into scorched earth.
The Ming army is so powerful that they can go out of the city to die?
"Now it seems that the Chaoyang Gate fortress will inevitably not be defended," Shang Zhixin said. "Once the fortress is lost, the Ming army's artillery will move forward, and then the city wall around Chaoyang Gate will not be able to be saved. Once the city wall is lost, the Ming army will be able to Directly bombarded Meishan."
"What?" Fulin's voice trembled, "Bombarding Meishan..."
"Your Majesty, you will just sit back and wait to be killed, and you will be shot to death!"
"Death by gunfire..." Fulin was afraid, "What should I do?"
"Fight!" Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth, "Your Majesty, why not fight with them!"
"Can, can I win?"
"Win?" Shang Zhixin was stunned, "What are you talking about? There are at least 300,000 Ming troops outside Beijing now, and we only have 50,000 in full force... How can we win?"
"Why go to war if you can't win?"
"Break through the encirclement!" Shang Zhixin said, "I risk my life to save the emperor and fight my way out of Beijing!"
"Fight out of Beijing?" Fulin's face drooped, "Where else can I go?"
This is a problem!
Shang Zhixin couldn't answer for a while. Where else could Fulin go? Apart from Zhu Cihong, who could be a "disobedient prince" for him, where else could he be taken in?
"Go to the grassland!" Shang Zhixin thought for a long time, "Your Majesty... you have been a Mongolian Khan after all. There are always some people on the grassland. Besides, there is a way to survive in the north of the grassland."
"North? Khalkha Mongolia?" Fulin asked.
"Further north..." Shang Zhixin said, "You can go to Lake Baikal and join the Rakshasa Kingdom! Then go to Europe via the Rakshasa Kingdom and join the Rishbanians, or go to the Mongolian Kingdom in Tianzhu. This is always a good idea. A way to survive?"
This is an exile...it seems like I can survive! But the question is can it go?
Fulin sighed: "Let me think about it and I will give you an answer tomorrow, tomorrow!"
