The imperial list only said to defend the city, but it didn't say who the enemy was. This made many people confused and guessing whether they should be wary of King Zhennan outside the city.
The imperial list cannot clearly state that he is on guard against King Zhennan, because at present, King Zhennan is still a minister, a minister of the emperor, and has not yet been classified as a rebel.
Therefore, we cannot say clearly that we are on guard against the King of Zhennan, but we only say that we must be on guard against invasion by foreign enemies.
If the imperial list says to be wary of King Zhennan, then it is equivalent to defining King Zhennan as a rebel and an enemy. King Zhennan will immediately attack the capital.
But now that the capital's defenses are empty, it may be difficult to resist.
Therefore, young and strong people must be gathered to guard the city first, and then King Zhennan can be identified as a rebel.
Since ancient times, politics and military affairs have been inseparable.
Because the imperial list did not clearly state who the enemy was, and the people knew that they should be wary of King Zhennan, so they were not very enthusiastic.
Because the people still can't tell who is right and who is wrong in this matter, whether what King Zhennan said is true or what the court said is true.
In addition, King Zhennan was a wind person, and they did not believe that King Zhennan would kill the people who were also wind people after he came in, so they all stayed at home and refused to come out.
If barbarians or Qi people come to attack, there is no need to mobilize. The people themselves will take the initiative to work and contribute to resist the enemy.
After all, the nature of beating the enemy is different from beating one's own. The enemy can really massacre the city.
At night, the general and others saw that the people were not active and few actively participated in the defense, so they ordered the army to go from house to house to capture the young men.
At the same time, King Zhennan outside the city also learned that the court mobilized people to resist him.
That night, King Zhennan issued another statement, saying that the right minister and the general, two sycophants, had hijacked the emperor and issued a false imperial list, intending to drag the people of the capital to death together to resist King Qin's royal division.
All preparations have been made, and the King of Zhennan also gave the whole army a feast and prepared to attack the city tomorrow.
The number of troops on the city's edge was not large to begin with, and most of them had to defend the enemy. Only a few thousand men were sent out to capture the strong men.
But the people are not stupid either, most of them hid their young people at home in advance.
Those soldiers were all members of the imperial court, and they could not threaten people to hand over their young men by destroying, looting, or destroying like the invading army.
Therefore, after working all night, they did not catch many people in the end. When they were all gathered together, there were only ten thousand people.
After the emperor heard the news, his heart dropped.
The right minister comforted him and said that it was because the people did not know that what they were going to fight were rebels. All they had to do was wait until dawn, send out a message to punish the thieves, and issue an order from King Qin. The people would definitely participate enthusiastically, and they would definitely be able to resist by then. enemy.
In the evening, the emperor sent out hundreds of people, each carrying the order of King Qin and a message to punish thieves. He denounced the King of Zhennan and his subordinates for committing crimes, intending to rebel and usurp the throne, and called on all the people in the world to work hard for the king and defend the capital.
Some of the destinations of these people are to be distributed to the other three kings, some are to be distributed to the county guards, and some are to be posted directly to the county town and outside the county town.
These hundreds of people were all palace guards, the most loyal people. They took advantage of the darkness of the night and rode fast horses to run quickly across the country.
In the morning, a new imperial list and a proclamation against thieves were posted in the capital, and the palace guards also rode fast horses along the street shouting that King Zhennan had rebelled, and the emperor ordered the whole city to jointly resist the enemy.
At the same time, the Zhennan King's army outside the city also gathered in the southeast corner.
The troops carried makeshift ladders and armed with swords, guns, bows and arrows, lined up neatly and walked out of the military camp.
Then the troops divided into two groups and marched toward the East City Gate and South City Gate in a mighty manner.
The two groups of troops seemed to be similar, but the difference was that the army at the south gate was just a feint attack, and the main force was all at the east gate.
The King of Zhennan did not raise his commanding flag and quietly moved to the east city gate. Coupled with the heavy fog in the winter morning, he could only vaguely see the figures, and there was no way to count how many people there were.
The south gate took the lead in launching the attack. The soldiers shouted and waved the flags wildly, while the archers kept firing arrows at the top of the city.
Sima Luan stood on the top of the city. Although he was a general, he had never fought in a war. He had never seen such postures before. When he heard the loud shouts of killing outside, he panicked and was so scared that he lost his mind.
"Quick! Go and send an order. The enemy's main force is at the south gate. Let people from other city gates come over to support you and bring all the young and strong people over!"
"As you command!"
The messenger immediately received the order and quickly rode towards the other city gates.
The purpose of King Zhennan was to attract the enemy's main force to the south gate, and then storm the east gate.
Therefore, the time to attack the East City Gate is much later than the time to attack the South City Gate.
East gate, on top of the city.
Unlike the panicked Sima Luan, Left Prime Minister Zheng Sanlang could be said to be calm and relaxed.
He even sat on a chair, holding a cup of hot tea, wrapped in a thermal blanket, and looked at the enemy troops outside at leisure.
The guard general of Dongcheng is a general in his forties. Of course, a general only has two to three thousand people under his command, that is, he is a larger commander.
The generals in the imperial army were not valuable, with only 20,000 soldiers and horses in total, but there were many children of nobles and officials, and there were dozens of miscellaneous generals.
If you really want to calculate it, one general can only divide hundreds of people.
So most of them are generals in name only, like Sima Nan. As Sima Luan's nephew, he was lucky enough to get some military power and be able to lead the troops.
The current general of the East City Gate was assigned the task of defending the East Gate in times of crisis, and he was able to obtain the military power of several thousand men.
Of course, he still had to listen to the left prime minister Zheng Sanlang, because the emperor personally ordered the left prime minister to guard the east gate.
The general stood on the top of the city, looking intently at the looming army outside, very nervous.
"Report!"
A messenger quickly ran up and shouted,
"General, there is an emergency at the south gate. General Sima asked the villain to send an order to each city gate to send reinforcements immediately to help defend the city!"
In fact, the Zhennan King's army on the other side of the south city gate was just thundering and not raining. They did not attack the city at all, they just fired arrows and shouted.
Just this, Sima Luan was so frightened that he quickly asked for support. He even said it was very serious. When the messenger came, it was already a serious matter.
With such a commander in chief, there is no need for our army to worry about being invincible.
"What? Is the south gate in a hurry?"
Left Prime Minister Zheng Sanlang suddenly stood up.
