At three o'clock in the afternoon, a fire broke out at Xuande Gate. Rongxian opened the door to welcome the rebels into the palace, causing chaos in the palace.
However, this is just the beginning.
After Wu Mou took control of the Five Cities Military and Horse Division, he sent out his rangers to run through the streets of Bianjing City. When they encountered flammable wooden houses, they poured kerosene on the roofs, threw torches, and set fire to the houses.
In the dark night, the burning torches flashed across like a meteor shower, extremely eye-catching.
Not long after, raging fires broke out everywhere in Bianjing City. The fires became bigger and bigger, lighting up the entire night sky.
Such a large fire quickly attracted the attention of the patrol soldiers under Kaifeng Mansion.
Patrol soldiers are spread throughout the city of Bianjing, totaling 3,000 people. They are mainly responsible for daily anti-theft, fire prevention, street sweeping and other common tasks in the city.
If they can be organized effectively, these patrol troops can serve as a new force to rush to the palace and pose a threat to King Yan's rebels.
However, these patrol soldiers did not know what happened in the palace at this time. When they saw fires everywhere in the city, they immediately focused all their attention on the fire, and immediately dispersed and threw themselves into the fire. It’s time to do my job of putting out fires.
This was also the purpose of King Yan asking Wu Mou to send people to set fire to the city, to use the fire to contain the last armed force in the city that threatened the rebels, so that the rebels could attack the palace without any distractions.
In the city of Bianjing, flames shot into the sky, the gongs and clappers responsible for warning rang rapidly, and the sounds of hurried fire-fighting could be heard from all directions.
The patrol soldiers picked up fire-fighting tools such as water bags, pumps, and hemp bags to put out the fire, and threw themselves into the fire scene closest to them. They were too busy and exhausted.
At this time, the sleeping people were also awakened by the noise outside.
When they opened the door and saw the chaos outside, some people immediately picked up their belongings and helped put out the fire;
Some people hurried home, locked the doors and locked them, hiding in their homes and not daring to go out;
Others, with their eyes shining brightly, took advantage of the chaos to have their own little thoughts...
However, in just one or two hours, Bianjing City went from silence to noisy and noisy at midnight. The people in the city were as distracted as headless flies. People everywhere were panicked and there was a chaos of war.
Chaos spread throughout the city of Bianjing, and Wei Zhai, located in Laoya Lane, could not stay away.
At this moment, everyone in Wei's house was woken up and gathered in the front yard.
Rulan and Minglan were both shocked when they heard the servant's report. They had never encountered such a situation before, and they were inevitably at a loss.
But now that Wei Chen is away, the two of them are the backbone of the family. After the brief tension and panic, Ru Lan and Ming Lan quickly forced themselves to calm down.
They first summoned the home guards and servants, distributed weapons to them, and asked them to light torches, guard the front door and the back garden wall, and divided into several teams to patrol the yard to guard against being taken advantage of.
After such an orderly arrangement, the originally frightened people in Wei's house finally calmed down.
Seeing this scene, Ru Lan, who had been working hard, couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She sat back on the chair, tugged on Ming Lan's sleeves, and whispered: "How is it? I performed pretty well just now, right?" ?”
"Not only is she good, she is calm and composed, not afraid in the face of danger, and does not change her composure even if the mountain collapses in front of her. She is a model of a matron!"
Minglan joked with a smile, but suddenly her voice became lower, her brows furrowed, and she sighed softly: "Looking at it, it's already a mess outside. I don't know if my husband will be in the Hanlin Academy." Is there something wrong?"
"Don't worry, the Hanlin Academy is an important palace. What kind of thieves dare to go there to run wild?"
Ru Lan smiled reluctantly, but her face was also filled with worry.
Although her eyesight is a little worse than Minglan's, she can still clearly see the current situation in Bianjing City. There is such a chaos outside. Except for a few patrol soldiers, no sergeants have come out to maintain order. Obviously, the court has Lost control of Bianjing City.
If someone really rebels and causes rebellion, not to mention the Hanlin Academy, even staying with the emperor may not be safe, and it may be even more dangerous.
Thinking of this, Ru Lan couldn't help but look pale.
Upon seeing this, Minglan quickly comforted her in a low voice: "Sister, don't worry, my husband is so smart, nothing will happen to him."
"Well, everything will be fine." Rulan held Minglan's hand tightly and nodded heavily.
…
At this time, a tragic fight was taking place in the dark alley on the other side of Bianjing City.
Tonight in Bianjing City, there were many similar street fights, and they were basically small-scale fighting in units of more than ten people.
A small group of people separated after the rebels entered the city, rangers who set fire everywhere, bandits who took advantage of the fire, patrol soldiers who tried to maintain order, soldiers who escaped from Wu Mou, the commander of the five-city army, and some voluntary organizations organized by the people. The rising escort...
The forces of all parties are mixed, and it is difficult to identify the identity of the people in the darkness. When they meet on a narrow road, they will start fighting if they disagree.
At this time, in this dark alley, there were rebels at both ends, blocking the inner hall of a group of seven or eight people in the alley, and the young man who was guarded by the inner hall was the young man who had just returned from Fu. Wei Chen escaped from Ning Dian all the way.
Nowadays, the imperial city is full of rebels, and Funing Hall, where the emperor's palace is located, is even more surrounded by rebels.
】
However, with the guidance and help of the Imperial City Secretary, Wei Chen successfully escaped from the palace.
Of course, escaping all the way made Wei Chen very embarrassed.
First, they walked out of the palace through the tunnel, and then went to the outside of Funing Hall through a path where the palace maids and the guards had an affair. Then they climbed up trees, climbed over walls, dug into dog holes, and lay in the ditch...
With this set in place, Wei Chen was almost half alive when he escaped from the imperial city. His clothes were dirty and torn, his face was covered with mud and dead leaves, and he didn't know where he got a few blood stains.
After going through this, Wei Chen finally understood why Zhao Zhen didn't escape by himself even though he knew the way out of the palace.
With Zhao Zhen's physique, he was out of breath even after taking two steps. He was afraid that his body would have been broken into pieces before he could escape from the imperial city.
However, although the Imperial City Division is powerful, it is not omnipotent, otherwise King Yan's rebellion would not have happened.
After Wei Chen and his party escaped from the imperial city through all kinds of hardships, they unexpectedly encountered a small group of rebels and were blocked in this dark alley.
Under the night, a fierce battle was going on.
The seven inner palace guards formed a semicircle formation to protect Wei Chen, and faced the more than 20 rebels on the opposite side without fear. The two sides fought together, and the inner palace guards who were inferior in numbers did not lose at all.
This is of course because as the emperor's personal guard, the inner palace is strong enough and good at fighting, but Wei Chen is also indispensable for his contribution.
Wei Chen held a long bow captured from behind the rebels, stood directly behind the inner hall, and kept firing the bow and nodding arrows.
The first arrow shot into the left eye of a rebel; the second arrow opened a bloody flower on the face of the second rebel; the third arrow pierced the heart of the third rebel.
Three arrows were fired in succession, but none of them were missed.
After three arrows, when Wei Chen raised his hand again, the rebels on the opposite side had frightened faces and began to retreat involuntarily.
Seeing this, the seven inner palace members became energetic and immediately shouted in unison. Taking advantage of the rebels' daze, they raised their knives and slashed them down, killing five more people.
These rebels didn't know Wei Chen's identity, but they just happened to bump into Wei Chen and his party, hoping to get some credit.
Seeing how troublesome Wei Chen and the others were, these rebels immediately lost their intention to fight again, threw down the bodies of their companions, and hurriedly turned around and retreated.
After this battle, several inner palace officials were completely impressed by Wei Chen's courage and determination.
Who would have thought that a dignified Hanlin scholar could have such precise archery skills? Relying on Wei Chen's archery skills, only three of our party were slightly injured, and we were able to repel the rebels who were several times their size.
When they looked at Wei Chen, who was leaning over to recover the missing arrow, the eyes of the inner disciples all had a little more respect. One of the inner disciples clasped his fists at Wei Chen and asked, "Scholar Wei, how should we go next?"
Wei Chen couldn't help but lower his head and think after hearing this.
From Bianjing to Yuzhou, it is natural to take the West Gate which is the closest. However, the western suburbs camp with heavy troops stationed is just outside the west city gate. If King Yan and his party want to succeed, they will definitely guard this direction.
As a result, the west gate will be inaccessible.
At this moment, a familiar face suddenly flashed through Wei Chen's mind.
If I remember correctly, Sheng Hualan's husband Yuan Wenshao seems to be stationed at Xuanhua Gate in the south, right?
When he thought of this, Wei Chen suddenly had an idea in his mind. He raised his head, looked at the inner hall in front of him solemnly, and said in a deep voice: "Let's go south, to Xuanhua Gate!"
