On the night of October 16th, in Jinling City, at the house of Li Yuankui, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry of Nanjing.
Wang Qi, the attendant at the Secretariat of the Hanlin Academy of the Da Chu Empire, and Li Yuankui, the owner of the place, sat at the top.
Below them were several heads of the Chu Empire's intelligence agencies and some Ming court civil and military officials who had decided to surrender to Chu.
They are discussing their actions tonight.
According to the decision, at dawn tomorrow, they will open the Chaoyang Gate to welcome the main force of the Chu army outside the city into the city.
However, although the hundreds of troops responsible for garrisoning Chaoyang Gate are their subordinates, there are still many troops around who are not theirs.
In addition, the hundreds of troops in Chaoyangmen seem to be their subordinates, but when that time comes, no one knows whether there will be any changes, especially whether those middle and low-level officers will obey their senior civil and military officers. The official order to open the city gate is also unknown.
After all, so far, none of the hundreds of troops at Chaoyang Gate, including the middle and low-level officers, actually know that their immediate superiors have decided to surrender to the Chu Empire.
If something happens and a fool appears who disagrees and wants to resist, then accidents can easily happen.
At this time, Wang Qi said to a middle-aged man wearing a smart suit and a martial artist's attire: "General Song, in order to avoid an accident at Chaoyang Gate, I will ask the personnel of the Military Intelligence Department to cooperate with you until the plan starts in the middle of the night. When the time comes, please be sure to completely control Chaoyang Gate, and any opposition must be completely suppressed, and there must be no accidents."
General Song showed a hint of determination: "Don't worry, Mr. Wang, the eight hundred officers and soldiers of Chaoyang Gate are all Song's subordinates. Even if there are some objections, Song still has fifty personal soldiers, plus three people supported by the Military Intelligence Department. Ten good players are enough to suppress any opposition!"
Wang Qi looked at General Song and nodded slightly.
He is very satisfied with General Song's attitude. As long as General Song can control the 800 Ming troops at Chaoyang Gate, then opening Chaoyang Gate will be a foregone conclusion. Even if the next thing happens again, it will never affect the overall situation. .
Because Wang Qi had absolute confidence in the strength of the Chu army entering the city.
The Chu army that attacked Jinling City this time did not have any garrison troops with low combat effectiveness, but was all the main force.
At this time, the three main divisions of the King's Division gathered outside Jinling City. No matter which unit enters the city from Chaoyang Gate, it will be the absolute main force, and its combat effectiveness is definitely not comparable to that of the Ming army in the city.
The First Division of the Chu Army is the number one ace unit of the Great Chu Empire. It has participated in all the wars and its performance has always been very stable and excellent. The combat effectiveness of this unit goes without saying.
The First Guards Division, His Majesty's Guards unit, is the best-paid and best-equipped unit in the entire army. It has also participated in many battles and performed quite well.
The Sixth Division, although this division was formed a little later, it has been undergoing hard training since it was formed until the Eastern Expedition was launched. It is also one of the few Chu troops that has undergone complete training for more than half a year. The elite of the time, and after the launch of the Eastward Campaign, the division participated in a series of battles in northern Jiangxi and the Battle of Anqing, which are all remarkable.
At that time, the first ones to attack Jiujiang City were the elite troops under the Sixth Division.
The above three main divisions, no matter which one they are in terms of combat effectiveness, are all top-notch elites even within the Chu army.
No matter which troop entered Chaoyang Gate, it was enough to reassure Wang Qi.
Therefore, the key to this battle is not the battle after entering the city, but whether they can successfully open the Chaoyang Gate.
Whether the Chaoyang Gate can be successfully opened depends on whether it can successfully control the eight hundred Ming troops stationed in the Chaoyang Gate.
Looking at General Song's appearance now, he should be very confident.
And even if General Song couldn't control the eight hundred Ming army in the end, Wang Qi would still have a backup plan.
The power controlled by this group of people was not the 800 Ming Army under General Song Shen. It was only because General Song was responsible for guarding Chaoyang Gate that the 800 Ming Army became more important.
In addition to the 800 Ming troops under General Song Shen, there are also two guerrillas, three thousand households, and six hundred households among the Ming army generals who have defected to the Chu Empire.
The total number of direct troops controlled by these generals is nearly two hundred.
These direct troops refer to the personal soldiers and retainers of these generals, and do not include the ordinary Ming army they command.
If the ordinary civilian troops, young and strong, etc. under their command were also added up, there would be more than 2,000 people.
In terms of proportion, there are more than 20,000 Ming troops in the city, and one-tenth of them have defected to the Chu Empire.
Well, just talking about their commander-in-chief.
Under such circumstances, if the Chu army cannot take out Jinling City, it will be unreasonable.
In addition, the civil servants who came over can more or less pull out some nursing staff and servants. For example, Li Yuankui can pull out at least more than a hundred people, including his own nursing home and Feng Feng. and the guards of the trading house.
Although these people are not professional soldiers, they can be used at critical moments.
Finally, there are the manpower secretly controlled by the Chu Empire. The several intelligence departments add up to hundreds of direct manpower. Excluding the civilian personnel, there are at least two hundred people who can pick up swords and guns to fight.
In addition, some of the peripheral intelligence personnel who can be bribed can also be used.
The Dachu Empire's intelligence agency has been working hard in Jinling City for more than a year. Although the power in its hands is relatively scattered, it is not small.
It would be difficult to confront the Ming army head-on, but secretly seizing a city gate to welcome the army into the city would be enough.
After Wang Qi made several more arrangements, he turned to look at Li Yuankui: "Master Li, if you have anything else to say, please say a few words!"
Wang Qi still attaches great importance to Li Yuankui. Although he must be the leader of today's meeting, he still bought face for Li Yuankui.
After all, this person is the big boss behind Fenghe Trading Company and an important supplier of strategic materials in the rise of the Chu Empire. He is a person with a name in front of His Majesty, which is completely different from the ordinary civilian officials who surrender.
If nothing else goes wrong, after the Battle of Jinling City, this Li Yuankui will officially change into the official uniform of the Chu Empire, become his colleague, and there is a high probability that he will gain real power.
With the weight of Fenghe Trading Company and Li Yuankui's contribution, it is estimated that he can be guaranteed a position of third rank, and if he is lucky, he may even become a minister of a certain department.
Therefore, his attitude towards Li Yuankui is relatively respectful.
Li Yuankui showed a smile at this time: "Master Wang's arrangements are extremely appropriate. Even if Li wants to find out the omissions, he can't do anything. He is worthy of being an Imperial Attendant valued by His Majesty. With this planning ability, Li is his own. It’s a shame.”
"If Master Wang's plan is carried out, Li can already foresee the grand occasion of the Holy Emperor entering the city."
As he spoke, Li Yuankui gave Wang Qi a complimenting smile.
Just as Wang Qi valued Li Yuankui, Li Yuankui also valued Wang Qi.
This Wang Qi seemed to be only a fourth-rank official in the Great Chu Empire, but he was often the minister in front of the emperor. He appeared in front of Luo Zhixue more time and more times than ordinary ministers.
Naturally, such a close minister of the emperor cannot view his political status with ordinary high-ranking standards.
According to Li Yuankui's understanding of the official system of the Chu Empire, after the Battle of Jinling City, Wang Qi, who had made a contribution to welcoming the army into the city, would be promoted in a short time.
At that time, there is a high probability that he will be transferred to a certain department as the director, or he will be sent to another place as the chief envoy, that is, the second-in-command of a province.
I'm afraid it won't take long for him to be further promoted to a bachelor's degree or governor of a province.
This is a new political star that is about to rise rapidly.
Although he has a special relationship with the Chu Empire, he has never been an official in the Chu Empire in the past. After the Battle of Jinling, even if he joined the army and gained real power, he would still be isolated and helpless. status.
At this time, being able to make friends with Wang Qi in advance, who had a bright political future, would also be of great benefit to him in the future to gain a foothold in the officialdom of the Da Chu Empire.
If you can get to know some other high-ranking officials in the Hanlin Academy through Wang Qi, especially the bachelor of the academy, the bachelor of attendants, the bachelor of lecturers, or several other attendants.
Then, coupled with the several officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Trade that I had met before, my high-level connections in the Dachu Empire could be considered to have been initially established.
Now Li Yuankui has begun to pave the way for his official career in the Chu Empire.
After the two main figures Wang Qi and Li Yuankui had no objections, the group soon began their own secret operations.
The intelligence agency of the Da Chu Empire began to mobilize the manpower that had been secretly assembled before and made the best preparations.
In addition to the 30 personnel from the Military Intelligence Department sent to support General Song, the direct armed personnel gathered by the four intelligence agencies and the peripheral members recruited were more than 200 people.
More than two hundred people gathered in a remote courtyard under Li Yuankui's name, and their tasks would be different depending on the situation.
If the operation at Chaoyang Gate goes smoothly, the armed personnel of these intelligence agencies will cooperate with the guards, servants and other troops assembled by Li Yuankui and others to attack and protect several important official warehouses in the city.
The defenders in the city were completely overwhelmed. When the city was breached, they set fire to the food, or someone simply wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rob money and food.
Not for anything else, just because it is full of money and food.
When the Dachu Empire attacked a city, the most important thing was not only to invade the city itself, but the second most important thing was money and food.
Therefore, it is one of Wang Qi's important tasks to ensure that the large amount of money and food officially controlled by the Ming Dynasty in the city is not lost.
Of course, this is assuming everything goes smoothly.
If the operation at Chaoyang Gate does not go smoothly, they will change their plan and join forces with other surrendering forces to launch a strong attack on Chaoyang Gate, and cooperate with General Song to force open the city gate to welcome the army into the city.
But this is just a plan to prevent accidents.
If nothing serious happens, Song Shen will be able to capture Chaoyang Gate without their help.
After all, the 800 Ming troops stationed at Chaoyang Gate were originally subordinates of the Song generals. Today's Ming court military system has long since collapsed. It seems that there are civilian officials on top, but in fact, the soldiers have already become generals.
These eight hundred Ming troops were directly under General Song, and General Song had great control over them.
Not to mention that General Song has more than 50 personal soldiers. These more than 50 personal soldiers are the most elite force under General Song. They are all wearing armor and all of them are veterans who have experienced many battles. , and provide good food and drink every day.
Under normal circumstances, General Song could defeat more than 800 ordinary Ming troops with more than fifty soldiers.
Not to mention, General Song also has thirty people from the Military Intelligence Department to help. Although the people in the Military Intelligence Department are not professional soldiers, they are all strong and well-equipped. In addition to ordinary weapons such as armor, swords, and spears, , and also had a Suifa pistol, which was still very small in the Chu Empire.
It's not a big problem to deal with some ordinary Ming army camp sentries with low morale and poor equipment.
After the Great Chu Empire's flintlock research and development work achieved a breakthrough this year, the first product produced was not the Suifa rifle, that is, the two-year-old flintlock gun.
Instead, it was a two-year-old pistol.
Because the Great Chu Empire made a breakthrough in the research and development of flintlock guns, the first one was the Suifa pistol. Hantian Factory was inspired by the Western-style spring wheel flintlock gun, and also made reference to the original weapons spread from the west in recent years. For the impact-type flintlock gun, the firing mechanism was changed from a lighter type to an impact type, and finally the firing mechanism of the Suifang gun was finalized.
It is worth mentioning that last year, an official of the Ming court, Bi Maokang, the right minister of the Nanjing Ministry of War, also reported many Western-style firearms to the Ming court through "Illustrated Weaponry", including the early percussion flint from the west. Fire the gun.
The Bi Maokang who spoke of this is still in Jinling City.
It needs to be made clear that Bi Maokang was only ordered to compile a "weapons illustration" report on the situation of many firearms, including the situation of early percussion flintlock guns. He did not invent the early percussion flintlock.
Flintlock guns, probably the early percussion-type flintlock guns, had also spread from the west side of the Maritime Trade Road.
After the Ming court learned about this early impact flintlock gun, the reason why it was not used on a large scale was definitely not because the Ming court was complacent. In fact, the emperors and ministers of the Ming court were very receptive to new weapons. The previous Franco machine gun, Hongyi cannons, bird guns, and now thieves-killing cannons and thieves-killing guns were all imitated and used on a large scale by the Ming Dynasty.
The reason why they didn't use flintlock guns was simply because the early flintlock guns that came from the west were not very good.
The ignition success rate is too low and the cost is high. It is not suitable for large-scale equipment as the main equipment of the infantry.
Even in the West at the same time, people were not equipped with these early percussion flintlock guns, and the rifles mainly used matchlock guns.
Some cavalrymen have flintlock muskets, but they are spring-wheel flintlock muskets that are more expensive to make and have more complicated craftsmanship. They are not the early percussion-type flintlock muskets, and spring-wheel flintlock muskets are even more difficult to use. Equipped on a large scale.
The cavalry pistol produced by the Da Chu Empire was an improved percussion flintlock gun based on the two. The performance was acceptable, but the price was still high and the output was limited due to the complex process.
Even if the Dachu Empire throws the design drawings of the two-year-old flintlock gun they developed to the Mingting, they probably won't be able to make many of them, and they won't be able to equip them on a large scale.
After the Suifa pistol was developed, Hantian Arsenal began to set up a production line for the 2-year-old Suifa pistol and began mass production and equipping cavalry.
However, the output has not been high. So far, only more than a thousand have been produced. Moreover, these more than a thousand cavalry pistols were issued, and part of the equipment was given to the cavalry regiment of the newly trained Second Guards Division, as well as Part of it is equipped with the cavalry regiment of the 1st Guards Division.
A very small number were assigned to intelligence agencies with mission requirements such as assassinations and small-scale killings. In this way, the Military Intelligence Department had dozens of pistols.
With Suifa pistols in hand, the combat effectiveness of these thirty Military Intelligence Department personnel in a close-range melee is still very impressive.
——
While General Song, the Chu military intelligence department, and others were making preparations, Li Yuankui, together with several other officials who had surrendered to Chu, began to secretly summon the guardian Ding Qingzhuang.
As one of the principals, Li Yuankui was the right minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, and he was also a person with a certain amount of energy in the officialdom of Jinling City. Therefore, the officials who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty were led by him.
After Li Yuankui gathered his own nursing home and some loyal and available servants, he also gathered dozens of people. Together with the nursing homes and servants summoned by other officials, the total number was more than two hundred.
More than two hundred people gathered in Li Yuankui's mansion that night.
With so many people gathered together, even those who didn't know what was going on beforehand, most of them guessed that they were about to participate in a major event.
Some are afraid, some are reluctant, some want to leave secretly to report the news, and even more are looking forward to it and want to change their life and destiny with a big chaos.
There is something for everyone.
At this critical moment, Li Yuankui and the others showed great courage and distributed large amounts of money to everyone on the spot.
They also promised that if there were casualties, they would be responsible for the treatment and rest of their lives, and the family members of the deceased would also be properly accommodated.
More importantly, Li Yuankui promised that once the matter is completed, these people will receive an official status in the Chu Empire regardless of their origin.
Either join the garrison, join the patrol bureau, join the tax bureau, or become a clerk in an ordinary yamen, etc.
No matter what happens at that time, they will break away from their current life as servants and get a new life, and it will be an extremely decent new life.
At the same time, the deeds of sale of some of the domestic slaves, including those of their family members, were also torn up on the spot.
Give freedom, give money, give the future!
Li Yuankui's combination of punches made many people put away their last worries and even fears.
As for the few people who still have other ideas, because there are only a few people who can't make any trouble, they can't even leave here secretly to find other people to inform others.
That night, around five o'clock in the morning, everyone started to have a meal in advance, and then began to put on armor and distribute weapons to wait for the last moment.
At the same time, General Song was also wearing heavy armor, and more than fifty of his close relatives were all wearing armor and holding sharp weapons. On one side, there was also a soldier who was also wearing armor and holding weapons. At the same time, he also had a pistol on his waist. Division armed personnel.
More than eighty people gathered in the courtyard!
General Song looked at the clock on one side, took a deep breath and said, "Let's get started!"
Now that the time is almost up, it’s time to get started!
After General Song gave the order, he quickly began to assemble troops. The first thing he assembled was about a hundred garrison troops on duty at night.
The more than a hundred people didn't know what was going on, but after seeing General Song and his soldiers appearing in heavy armor, they thought the Chu army was about to attack the city.
However, they soon heard what General Song Shen said about the cruelty of the Ming Dynasty and the immorality of Chongzhen. Although they did not understand many of the words, they roughly understood the meaning.
General Song Shen was betraying the Ming Dynasty and preparing to join the Chu Empire.
"Brothers, I am going to take you to Dachu now, and from now on you will be the most popular!"
"Open the city gate and welcome the army into the city!"
During the whole process, no one raised objections. One hundred households jumped out and said some nonsense. General Song didn't bother to talk nonsense with him. He just picked up the strong bow in his hand and shot an arrow, killing him on the spot.
Ever since, everyone else has been obedient.
After initially gathering these troops on duty, Song Shen would arrange for people to open the city gate and lower the suspension bridge, while continuing to gather and control other troops.
There are 800 ordinary battalion sentries in the Chaoyangmen area. Now they only control more than 100 people. If the remaining 600 to 700 people cannot be properly controlled, it will be troublesome if any accident occurs.
But General Song's abilities were pretty good. The most important thing was that the more than fifty soldiers and more than thirty personnel from the Military Intelligence Department under his command gave him great confidence.
Although a few people opposed or even resisted during the entire process, they were all ruthlessly suppressed.
In the darkest hour before dawn, a firework suddenly rose from the Chaoyang Gate and exploded!
Immediately afterwards, a large number of torches lit up outside the originally dark city, and the torches formed a long dragon and quickly approached Chaoyang Gate!
Just a few minutes later, hundreds of Chu army commandos wearing heavy armor and holding torches arrived.
The leader was a major, who was wearing heavy armor. The mask under his helmet was pulled up, revealing the face of a man in his mid-twenties.
After this person arrived at Chaoyang Gate, he glanced left and right, and then walked towards General Song.
Before anyone arrived, he said, "You must be General Song Dalin. You have worked hard this night. Leave the rest to us!"
Song Dalin is also a person who is used to seeing strong winds and waves. At this time, he nodded slightly and said: "We have 800 people in our department, including about 100 elite people. We will try our best to cooperate with you!"
By the light of the torch, Song Dalin could tell at a glance that the Chu army that arrived first must be the elite, and the elite among the elite.
