Almost at the same time as the nine gates fired cannons and raised flags, a gray column of smoke rose from the direction of Chongwen Gate. It was like someone was constantly adding firewood and pouring oil. After a while, it turned into billowing black smoke. When blown by the wind, it soon covered the southern sky, like a layer of black veil.
A servant guarding the gate shouted in surprise: "There's a fire! It seems to be outside Chongwen Gate!"
At this time, pedestrians on the street also pointed to the east and exclaimed: "Look! There's a fire in the east too!" Everyone at the gate of the palace heard the sound and took a look, but no, a thick smoke also rose outside Qihua Gate.
If the huge fire outside the city was just a surprise, the fierce gunshots coming from the south immediately shocked everyone in front of the palace. This is the capital, the center of the world! What happened? Could it be that the damned Northern Pirates are attacking Tianjin again?
Time goes back half an hour.
Under the Baita Mountain fort located in Qiongdao, Amurta, the chief information and artillery officer, was drinking tea leisurely in the house. The arrival of several uninvited guests suddenly wiped out his good mood for the day. The arrivals were five Ouchi guards wearing yellow mandarin jackets. They were all tall and thick-waisted, wearing waist knives and had sharp eyes. Before the announcement was even made, the leader shouted in a loud voice: "Where is Amurta? Come out to receive the order!"
Amurta in the office room took a mouthful of hot tea and spurted it out. You must know that in this place, it is easy for no one to come to deliver orders, and it will be no big deal if he comes. He didn't bother to wipe the tea on his chest, and hurriedly ran outside the house, knelt down in the tunnel and said: "Slave Amurta accepts the order!"
"Important, the pirates from the North Sea have invaded the capital in large numbers. Thousands of troops in the vanguard are besieging Miyun County. Fire artillery warning from the Baita Mountain fort and the nine gates are under martial law!"
After the leading guard finished reading, he first handed over the edict in his hand, and then took out a gold medal from his arms and said: "This is the gold medal, please inspect it."
Amurta first received the edict with both hands raised high, and then received the gold medal. On the front, he saw the four characters "Burning Cannons by Order" engraved from top to bottom. He composed himself, and then he cupped his hands and said, "Please wait a moment. I have to verify the regulations before firing."
The leading guard nodded and said, "Your Excellency, you can call the artillery officer on duty to inspect together to avoid delays."
"As it should be!"
Amurta stood up hurriedly and asked his men to go to the fort to call for people. Then he returned to the official room to wait, and several guards followed him in. Not long after, the officer on duty came running out of breath. After entering the room, he was about to salute when he heard the guard who had delivered the order say: "The military situation is urgent! No need to make false remarks!"
The flattery failed, so I had to stand at the bottom. When Amurta saw someone coming, he took off the brass key tied with a red rope from his waist, tremblingly opened a boxwood box on the table, took out a book, quickly flipped through a few pages, and then Start checking with the token in your hand.
He first checked the imperial edict, and found that there were no problems with the paper, text, and "Emperor's Treasure" seal; but when he checked the gold medal, he couldn't help but look stunned, and a trace of doubt appeared in his eyebrows. He was silent for a moment, then raised his head and cupped his hands to the guard who was delivering the order: "Your Excellency is very anxious about having a baby, may I ask your name?"
"My name is Ushba, and I am now the second-class imperial guard. Why do you ask? Have you finished the verification? You can give the order to fire. I will go back to deliver the report later."
"I can't fire this cannon!"
"You dare to resist the order?!"
"As the Chief of Information and Artillery appointed by the Emperor, how can I resist the order? It's really such a gold medal."
Before Amurta finished speaking, Ushba suddenly rushed forward, raised his hand and punched the opponent in the face. Although Amurta holds a military position, he has not practiced bowing and mabuku for many years. He was caught off guard and knocked to the ground. Stars appeared in front of his eyes, the sky and the earth were spinning, and even the official hat fell off his head.
Ushba took out his sword from his waist, pointed at Amurta on the ground and shouted angrily: "Why are you delaying this? It's obvious that you are colluding with the pirates! The emperor has an order before you come, and anyone who refuses to obey it will be punished. Kill with the ground!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed the other person's braid, forced him to raise his head, and then used the sharp blade to cut the carotid artery hard. The blood from Amurta's neck shot out like a sharp arrow and splashed onto the wall a few meters away; while he himself groaned, rolled on the ground a few times, his legs twitched, and his whole body trembled violently. , only a moment later, he kicked his feet and stopped moving.
With a ferocious look on his face, Ushba turned around and pointed the bloody Yan Fei Dao at the stunned counselor leader and said, "Do you dare to resist the order?!"
The already frightened Shenling's legs went weak, he knelt on the ground, his upper and lower teeth trembled and said: "I, I, I don't dare, I don't dare."
"Here's the gold medal holy object, let's fire off the cannon immediately! If you delay a big event, you will end up like this!"
"Come here, go, go, go."
Ushba nodded and said: "You know what's going on, lead the way! If you dare to have different ideas, be careful!"
As the counselor walked, he kept turning his head and replied: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. My ancestors followed the dragon outside the pass, followed Emperor Taizong to conquer east and west, and followed Lord Shizu in." close."
Ushba sneered and said: "Then the pirates in the North are full of rebellious people?! There is no good person in the group outside the customs!"
The counselor hurriedly said: "Xiaguan is different. The whole family is in the capital. I dare to swear to God that I will be loyal to the court and the emperor!"
Several people climbed up the steps and soon arrived at the foot of the Beihai White Tower. Ushba and several of his men had never been to this place before. They saw that there was a granite fort over half a foot high on each of the north, east and west sides of the tower, and two on the south side; five guns were mounted on them. The black, straight-cylinder iron cannon is no more than one foot eight inches long. There are no patterns engraved on the barrel, and it is only tied with thick iron hoops in the middle and tail of the barrel. There are also five bare flagpoles standing in the four directions of the fort and near the middle.
This is the famous Baitashanxin Fort!
It is said that when the Manchu Qing Dynasty first entered the customs and occupied Beijing, they knew that their foundation was unstable, so in order to ensure the security of the capital, they were afraid that if there was a police force, they would not be able to gather the crowd, so they imitated the Shengjing system of beating drums to gather the crowd, and set up on Meishan Mountain. Signal cannons for military alarm were obtained so that the Eight Banners stationed in Beijing could quickly gather to defend against the enemy.
Later, in the 10th year of Shunzhi, at the request of Gadahun, Minister of the Ministry of War, Prince Zheng Jierhalang seconded the proposal to move the fort to the top of Baita Mountain in Qiongdao, Beihai. At the same time, five signal cannons and five flagpoles were set up at nine gates in the inner city. If something happens, the yellow dragon flag will be hung during the day and the lantern will be hung at night.
The defenders of the Baitashan Xin Fort are composed of the left and right wings of the Eight Banners Han Army. According to the requirements of two shifts every day, there are 2 staff-level signal artillery officers, 2 leaders, and 16 Xiaoqi to guard and guard. As for the signal cannons on the nine gates of the inner city, the infantry commander's Yamen sent people to guard them.
In the early years of Yongzheng's reign, in order to secure the throne and prevent the danger of a coup within the Eight Banners, Longkodo, then the governor of the Nine Gates, codified the early warning system of cannons and made it a law; at the same time, in order to keep it confidential, all contents were written in full language writing. This can be regarded as the most complete urban early warning and citizen mobilization system in classical China.
Although there were basically no wars in the Gyeongsang region in the early Manchu and Qing Dynasties, and there were few opportunities for signal artillery to play a role, the three generations of Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong attached great importance to the management of information artillery. For example, in the eighth year of Qianlong's reign, some eunuchs in the palace spread rumors that someone had taken something from the Xin Fortress. As a result, the next day after the incident, Qianlong severely punished the two eunuchs for leaking Eight Banners military secrets.
However, no matter how complete the early warning system is, it is based on the strong combat effectiveness of the military. The fighting power of the Eight Banners comes from the "banner people", a group of soldiers and civilians; once this group becomes corrupted, the artillery system can only become a big firecracker that only hears the sound.
In October of the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, after the Battle of Changxing Island, the Northern Navy's troops arrived at Dagukou, causing everyone in the Qing court to panic, thinking that Zhao Xin was going to attack the capital. Qianlong ordered the Baita Mountain signal cannon to be fired in preparation for a general mobilization of the Eight Banners, but the result almost made him angry to death.
At that time, all five cannons in Baita Mountain fired, and the Yellow Dragon Flag was raised, but the nine forts showed no response. There are still crowds of people and cars under the city gate. In the teahouse, the bannermen are drinking tea when they should be drinking tea, and listening to the opera when they are supposed to be. As for the princes and belles at home, they were all startled after the cannons were fired, and then sent people to Shuntian Mansion to demand an explanation. They must catch the stuffed guy.
Fortunately, Zhao Xin had no intention of attacking the capital at that time, not even Tianjin. When the Northern Navy left Dagokou with the signed and sealed agreement and the first batch of refugees, Qianlong, who got up from his bed, became more and more angry, so he issued an edict to unify all banners and deputy capitals. The king's ministers were summoned into the palace, cursed and cursed, and all of them were fined for one year. Afterwards, he sent He Shen, Zong Renfu, Mian En, who was still the king of Dingjun, to form a joint team to inspect the various forts on Baita Mountain and the city gate, and even performed an unprecedented performance.
In the escape plan discussed by He Shen and Ma Baishan, the two of them had the idea of letting guns in mind from the beginning. You must know that there are only two to three hundred people in the He Mansion, including the confidants and minions, not counting the ordinary servants and slaves. It is simply impossible for so many people to leave the capital at the same time without being noticed; the only way is to time the difference. Even if they find something wrong, the people will have already run away and they will be unable to catch up.
And our Lord He, as the Chief Military Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of War, and the Admiral of the Nine Gates, is very familiar with the operating procedures of the Baitashan fort.
So he took advantage of Qianlong's stroke, first controlled the palace ban and the entry and exit of news, and then obtained the jade seal. He could pass the forged edict, and then let his minions take the gold medal that was forged in advance and "fired with the order" to go to Baidu. Tashan ordered to fire cannons as a warning.
Immediately afterwards, he ordered Prince Yi and Prince Ding to enter the garden, detained them, and obtained the military talisman of the nine admirals. The yamen of the infantry commander in the city could only listen to him. Nowadays, all the fools in the capital know that He Zhongtang is backed by the emperor and has overwhelming power. Who dares to disobey his orders if he thinks he has a long life? !
The counselor took the previous edict and gold medal from Ushba's hand, raised his hands high, and shouted loudly to the eight defenders kneeling in front of him: "The emperor has an edict. The pirates from the North Sea have invaded the capital. Please call immediately." Gun warning!"
"Long live my emperor! Long live!"
At the same moment, in the backyard of a silk flower shop on the east side of the Fire Temple outside Chongwenmen, seven or eight men with their faces covered with cloths, their heads wrapped, and dressed in shorts were being killed by them. The shopkeeper and his wife carried them into the side room; there were piles of Tongcao and damask used to make silk flowers. Then these people poured tung oil, gunpowder and other materials prepared in leather pockets into various houses. When they were almost ready, these people gathered in the courtyard again, took out the revolvers made in Beihai Town from their back waists, and started Loading.
The masked man at the head lowered his voice and said to his subordinates: "Be careful for a moment! Don't hit one of your own!"
"Don't worry, Boss Ma. It's not like our brothers have never fired this gun before."
"If you ask me, it's no wonder that the imperial court can't defeat the Northern Pirates. Look at this rapid-fire gun. It's much more powerful than a shotgun carried by two people! It's just that there are a little less guns."
"The fire will spread in a while, and there will be a big fire next to the Fire Temple, hehe~~"
The masked man known as Ma Boss cursed in a low voice: "Stop fucking talking nonsense! I'll say it again, after the shooting is finished, we will leave the city from Guangqumen! The boat in Zhangjiawan is not waiting for anyone, until the time Just leave!"
At this time, a guy with a thin voice, perhaps out of nervousness, asked: "Boss Ma, how far is Yunnan from the capital?"
Boss Ma thought for a while and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to stop it for three thousand miles."
He curled his lips in a thin voice - even though he was covering his face so that no one could see him, he said, "It's his grandma's! After this is done, I don't know when I can come back!"
Boss Ma ignored him and urged his men to quickly load bullets and primers into their revolvers while listening to what was going on outside. In the afternoon, the flower market street is crowded with people, and shops selling silk flowers and paper flowers are bustling with people.
Suddenly, these people heard the sound of a "bang" from the distance in the north, and not long after, there was another sound. Boss Ma's eyes immediately widened and he counted the cannons carefully. When the fifth cannon sounded, he immediately ordered: "Do it!"
When various rooms were set on fire, several masked men quickly came to the closed door of the courtyard. They had already taken off the cloth towels on their faces and heads, then opened the door, and filed out with nonchalant expressions, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Arrived among the panicked crowd.
Soon, a shrill voice sounded in the street: "It's not good! The pirates from the North Sea have entered the city! Li San's family has been killed! Everyone, run to the inner city!"
Immediately afterwards, three explosions of "bang bang bang" were heard, and then more gunshots rang out on the flower market street. The crowd immediately became chaotic, and hundreds of people rushed towards the direction of Chongwen Gate. Children's There were cries and women's shouts, and fallen items were everywhere on the ground.
At this moment, no one noticed that a raging fire was burning in the backyard of the silk flower shop, with tongues of flames and thick smoke rolling upwards along the eaves. Just listen to a "boom" explosion, and as a fireball rises, countless ignited silk fragments and grass are blown into the air by the hot air waves, and then fall into the yards of the two houses on the left and right. The fire quickly Thinking about the spread of the two alleys on the left and right sides.
However, when the fleeing crowd came to the Chongwenmen Urn, they were shocked to find that the heavy city gate was slowly closing. So they ran forward desperately, trying to get into the gap before others. The city gate soon became crowded. However, the more they behaved like this, the more frightened the defenders who were closing the city gate became.
"Get back! Get back! Damn it!"
"Come here and help close the door! If you don't come over, the city gate will be knocked open!"
"Master! Come on, okay, the pirates from the North Sea are coming outside the city, let's go in and take shelter!"
"You bastard! Send them all back!"
"Changshun, you kid, let me in, I'm your second uncle!"
"Hey! Second uncle, why are you here? Come in quickly!"
"Mr. Qi, I'm Liu San. We were listening to a show together a few days ago! Please be kind and let me go!"
"Go away! I don't know anyone!"
The gatekeeper at Chongwen City Gate stood at the crenellation of the city wall. When he saw more and more people below, he felt panicked like an ant on a hot pot. Just when he didn't know what to do, he saw a large group of officers and soldiers from the infantry commander's office running along the city wall from the direction of the front gate. The deputy commander at the head said sharply: "Why hasn't the city gate been closed yet?! Are you delaying something important and waiting to lose your head?"
He ignored the gatekeeper who came over to salute, turned around and led the next person: "You! Take fifty people down. Anyone who dares to squeeze in the door will be stabbed with a gun!"
Not long after, exclamations and screams rang out from outside Chongwen Gate, and people kept falling in a pool of blood. As the crowd retreated in panic, the heavy door was finally closed tightly, leaving countless people crying in the urn.
Just as the officers and soldiers of the infantry commander's office took control of the city gates and walls, dull conch trumpets sounded throughout the city, and the general mobilization of the Eight Banners in the inner city began.
There are still two or three bases of the Beihai White Tower Fort. If you have the chance, you can go and take a look.
