The moment he saw Aiko's body, Taira Kiyomori knew that everything was over.
His political and physical life as a military strongman has reached its final conclusion and no one can stop him.
Once the core competitiveness of a strongman's regime is destroyed by a more powerful external force, the internal contradictions suppressed by the strongman will first break out and, together with external forces, tear the strongman to pieces.
How powerful he was when he was in power, how ugly he was when he died.
The Ming army was a qualified external factor. They did not stop after the battle, and did not even bother to clean up the battlefield. Kong Zhende led the main army to pursue the victory and pursued it all the way to the foot of Ping'an Capital.
The Ming army used powerful firepower to clear out all military facilities, destroy three military camps, and complete the siege of Ping An Jing in just one day.
Before the Ming army arrived at Pinganjing, a large number of residents and dignitaries from the peripheral areas of Pinganjing rushed into Pinganjing.
They were also in a panic and did not know which place was safe. As a result, most of them poured into Heian Kyo, and only a small number of people fled to Tamba Country in the northwest region.
The former emperors and current emperors all fled into Heiankyo, as did all the accompanying nobles and bureaucrats, and the troops that had not had time to complete their preparations also fled into Heiankyo.
At this moment, they had nothing else to rely on, only this city and Taira Kiyomori and his Taira army in the city.
Although the drainage function of this city is very poor, it is full of stolen goods, there are many places with stinky smells, and there is only a small area of clean and refreshing places, but this is a city after all.
Although the 30,000 troops who went out were all wiped out, there was still an elite force in the city that could defend the city. This was something they could confirm.
After they rushed into the city crazily, they collectively went to look for Taira Kiyomori, but Taira Kiyomori locked himself in the house and stayed with Taira Shigemori's body. No one could see him. Now everyone in the Taira family could only rely on Taira Kiyomori's third son, Taira Munemori.
However, compared to Taira Shigemori, Taira Shigemori did not show any military or political talents. On the contrary, he was arrogant and timid in major matters, so he was never favored by everyone.
But who would have thought that Ping Chongsheng would die like that?
Faced with the extreme predicament inside and outside the Heian capital, Taira Munemei could not come up with any effective plan. Faced with the inquiries from the Taira family retainers and the subordinates sent by the Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he was at a loss and hesitant, even saying a complete sentence. Not coming out.
Some senior retainers knelt outside Taira Kiyomori's room, crying and begging Taira Kiyomori to come out and take charge of the overall situation.
But Taira Kiyomori seemed to be addicted to the pain of losing his son and could not respond to their cries for a long time.
Kong Zhende would not give them too much time. The Ming army also felt quite urgent. They were worried that if it was delayed for a long time, the raid would be blocked by reinforcements from other places, so they sent out a large number of sentries to explore the surrounding situation. While seizing the opportunity to attack Heianjing.
All the artillery carried by the army were pushed into the battle, and there were fierce shellings one after another.
A large number of siege equipment obtained from the surrounding Japanese military camps also came in handy at this time. The Ming army also found a small number of trebuchets in the Japanese military camps, which they just pulled out and came in handy to throw thunder cannons and increase the attack power against the city walls. .
Under the overwhelming bombardment of thunder cannons and artillery shells, the interior of Heianjing was in chaos.
Due to the lack of unified orders, the soldiers on the city could not prevent effective defense, the soldiers below the city could not prevent effective logistics, and the various armies could not coordinate and assist each other. The goal of effectively defending the city could not be achieved at all.
The Ming army did not wait for them to recover and directly began to storm the city wall.
The elite melee troops were approaching step by step under the cover of shield soldiers. The Ping army on the top of the city finally reacted to the shock of the gunpowder explosion. Just as they were about to fire arrows to stop them, they were faced with the attack of Ming army musketeers.
The walls of Heianjing are not high or thick, and their defense power is very limited.
Although it is said to be built in imitation of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty, in the final analysis, the only similarity is the plan on the drawing. Japan's national power is simply not enough to build a huge city like Chang'an City.
Because there were considerable problems with the site selection, the city's terrain sloped from northeast to southwest, causing Ukyo, named after Chang'an, to be soaked in puddles for a long time. The nobles of the Heian period were unable to solve Ukyo's drainage problems, resulting in the rapid development of the right part of Heian Kyo. It was deserted, and most of the people gathered in Zuojing, named after Luoyang.
Kong Zhende learned this news from the Tianwang Army spies, so he planned to concentrate the artillery and main siege ordnance in Zuoking. Once he launched an attack, he created a huge momentum to force the city defenders to deploy their main military forces in Zuoking.
Then he sent Commander Qi Hetong of the 41st Division to lead a force of 2,000 men to hide behind the large army. While the war was in full swing, he quietly marched to the Ukyo part. As expected, he found that the Ukyo part of Heian Kyo was very dilapidated and desolate. The whole city is almost gone.
According to the spies, the large area of the city wall at Ukyo was almost dilapidated, with or without it, and had no defensive power at all.
It was not until Taira Kiyomori dominated the trade with the Song Dynasty that he made a lot of money. As a wealthy man, he felt that Heian-kyo should look like a capital city, so he allocated funds to repair Heian-kyo, but he only repaired the Zukyo part where dignitaries lived.
The Ukyo part is mainly inhabited by common people, homeless people and other lower-class people, so it can be renovated to look a little better, that's all.
Moreover, due to bureaucratic corruption, a lot of money for repairs was embezzled. Ukyo's repairs were really just superficial, and did not solve any drainage problems at all. It was so dirty that even homeless people rarely appeared here.
So much so that the city walls in some areas can really be dug out just by kicking them, let alone using any siege equipment to attack them.
At this time, Zuo Jing of Ping'an Jing was under the command of Kong Zhende, and the artillery troops were fighting in full swing. Everyone's attention was on Zuo Jing, and no one paid attention to You Jing at all. Qi Hetong seized this opportunity very well, leading two thousand elite troops to rush in. To Ukyo.
What's funny is that after Qi Hetong broke into Youjing, he didn't encounter the defenders of the city. Only a large number of ragged, disheveled and short civilians looked at them in horror.
Then they ran away.
Qi Hetong had no intention of caring about these civilians and led his troops through Youjing and directly to Zuojing, killing the Japanese defenders and catching them off guard.
The center bloomed equals.
With the internal and external cooperation, Ping'an Jing quickly fell, the Ming army surged in, and the palace city was quickly breached.
When the news reached Ping Qingmori's ears, he was stunned.
His son had just died, and he just wanted to feel a little sad, but how long had he been sad before the city was destroyed?
The Ming army treated everyone fairly.
We will not give you any mercy just because of your noble status. No matter who you are, you will be killed as long as you resist, and you will be spared only if you drop your weapons and kneel down to beg for mercy.
Taira Kiyomori's retainers and elite private soldiers protected the Taira family and wanted to break out of the siege. However, facing the elite and capable Ming army, this idea was undoubtedly very dangerous.
To make matters worse, the Heike breakout army accidentally encountered a complete Ming army formation, and more than 20 muskets were fired directly at them.
Taira Kiyomori finally witnessed with his own eyes what was going on with this strange firearm that killed his son. After a loud noise, a large plume of white smoke came out, and the arm of a guard next to him who was holding the knife was inexplicably broken. He fell to the ground, twitched and died.
How cruel and powerful a weapon is this?
Taira Kiyomori didn’t know.
(End of chapter)
