The first year of Shaowu in the Ming Dynasty, it can also be said that the first year of Hongguang, or the second year of Shunzhi, anyway, in the year of 1645 AD, several era names appeared on the land of China.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15 of this year, there was no festive atmosphere in Nanjing City. The reason is very simple, the Qing army outside the city has besieged the city for several months, and the contact between inside and outside the city has been cut off, and at the same time, Ma Cheng in the city has made people angry and resentful in order to collect some surplus grain, so naturally no one is in the mood to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Although the people have little desire to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, they still have to put on a festive atmosphere on the official face, because this year is the first year of the new emperor Zhu Lunkui's accession to the throne, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is still one of the traditional Chinese festivals.

So on August 14, the palace issued an edict, although the country is now in danger, everything should be simple, but in order to show my great magnanimity, the Mid-Autumn Festival still has to be mostly special, but outside the city Beiyu besieged the city, so the Mid-Autumn Festival will not be held, and the emperor will celebrate with the people on August 15.

The atmosphere mentioned in the holy decree is actually that the emperor gives the whole city a full meal to eat, after all, Ma Cheng's surplus grain collection is noisy, as long as there are not strong soldiers in the city, everyone's daily ration is only half a catty.

As soon as the emperor's decree came out, the people felt a trace of warmth from the emperor, after all, they had been hungry for half a month, and it was not bad to have a full meal. In this way, the citizens of Nanjing, according to their place of residence, took their household letters and went to the county offices of Shangyuan and Jiangning counties to receive their little bit of grain.

On the evening of 15 August, the citizens of Nanjing could finally have a full meal, and the whole city was shrouded in joy.

However, there is no such mentality in the Baoguo Mansion near the Lion Bridge in Beicheng, and the entire Baoguo Mansion is in a tense and busy atmosphere.

It was already dark, and there were still a few hours before Zhu Guobi and the Qing army outside the city agreed on the time, Zhu Guobi sat in the lobby in military uniform, and sat in the lobby silently with Xu Wenjue, Xu Jiujue, Liu Zuochang, Deng Wenyu and several other nobles who participated in the rebellion, waiting for news.

As early as half a month ago, Zhu Guobi transferred 800 people from several noble families to Dinghuai Gate through Zhu Tong, a Chinese officer of Ma Cheng.

Today is August 15, the emperor is more stingy with ordinary citizens, but the soldiers defending the city are not bad, in addition to the new army plus meals, the guards and the people can finally have a full meal, at the same time, Nanjing town guard Ma Cheng also through the request, for their new army to win the privilege of drinking, of course, not to let go of the amount of heavy drinking, but each person got two taels of yellow wine.

On August 15, the temperature in Nanjing at night has dropped to 15 or 6 degrees, and it is still very cold on duty at night, so it is still good to drink a sip of rice wine to warm up.

Everything developed in the direction that Zhu Guobi predicted, but at the last moment, the most critical Chen Hongfan did not come.

According to the previous agreement, after dark on August 15, all the core figures who participated in this rebellion must gather at Zhu Guobi's house, and Chen Hongfan, who is the leader of the party, naturally wants to participate, and he shoulders the heavy responsibility of liaising with the Qing army outside the city, how can he do if he does not come?

But at this critical moment, Chen Hongfan dropped the chain, and when Chen Hongfan arrived, Chen Hongfan had not come, and Zhu Guobi couldn't help but be very suspicious.

Zhu Guo

Bi looked at Xu Wenjue, who was also like an ant in a hot pot, and asked, "Wei Guogong, why hasn't Chen Hongfan come yet?" ”

Xu Wenjue said anxiously: "Uncle, the little nephew doesn't know!" Yesterday was fine, I set to gather at my uncle's house today, it's all time, why hasn't it arrived yet? ”

Zhu Guobi was the most cautious, thought for a moment and asked, "Could it be that Chen Hongfan was discovered by Ma Cheng?" Thinking of this, Zhu Guobi hurriedly went out and called the captain of his own soldiers, asked him to send a few people to the city to have a look, and then sent a person to Chen Hongfan's house to ask why this guy didn't come yet!

The soldiers sent out soon came back with the news that there was no problem on the North City side, and there was no movement on the streets. The captain of the pro-soldiers was very dedicated, and he also sent someone to Dinghuai Gate to take a look, and there was no movement at the city gate, except for those new troops drinking and eating, there was no abnormality.

But Zhu Guobi's sixth sense told him that today's situation was a little abnormal, and he didn't know if there was a mistake in that place. Just when Zhu Guobi was suspicious, the personal soldiers sent to find Chen Hongfan came back, and the news was that Chen Hongfan was found by Ma Cheng to drink. However, it was not Chen Hongfan who went by himself, but it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Ma Cheng invited the officials above the fifth grade of the entire town to drink in order to reward his subordinate officials of the yamen, so Chen Hongfan was not at home.

Xu Wenjue let out a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said to Zhu Guobi: "Uncle, I just said that nothing can happen, it turns out that Chen Hongfan was found by Ma Cheng to drink!" ”

Zhu Guobi thought about it and was still not at ease: "The old man still feels a little wrong, why did Ma Cheng, a bastard, invite guests to dinner at this time, did he find out about us?" ”

Dingyuan Hou Deng Wenyu is Xu Wenjue's uncle, and he is also an old Jianghu, and said on the side: "What Bao Guogong said is also right, otherwise, isn't Bao Guogong Zhu Tong's uncle?" Just send a family member to find Zhu Tong and ask him? ”

Zhu Guobi was right to think about it, and found a confidant family member and asked him to go to the yamen to find Zhu Tong, and said that during the Mid-Autumn Festival today, his uncle would invite his nephew to dinner and let him come over.

The family was ordered to go out, and it was a good hour before the family returned.

Zhu Guobi saw the family member come back and hurriedly asked, "What is the situation with Zhu Tong?" ”

"Back to Grandpa, Master Zhu is drinking in the yamen, and the villain waited for a while to see him! Master Zhu said that he was having dinner with Lord Zhenshou, and he couldn't accompany Grandpa Guo to dinner, so he would definitely come to the house tomorrow to say goodbye! ”

"Did you see Ma Cheng?"

"The villain saw it from afar, Lord Zhenshou was drinking with a bunch of generals, and they all drank a lot, and Master Zhu also drank a lot, and his tongue was big!"

When Zhu Guobi heard that Zhu Tong had drunk too much at this critical moment, he scolded angrily: "This bastard, what kind of wine do you drink at a critical time?" What else did he say? ”

"Back to Grandpa, Master Zhu said that he couldn't leave, and he arranged everything at the city gate, let Grandpa do his own thing!"

Hearing what the family said, the people in the house were relieved, and Ding Yuan waited for Deng Wenyu to say: "Baoguo Gong, don't worry now, there should be nothing wrong, Zhu Tong and Chen Hongfan should have something to delay, let's start it ourselves!" ”

Zhu Guobi waved his hand to let the family out, and then said: "A few old brothers, it's not that the old man is careless, this kind of thing almost has to be beheaded by the whole family, but it's not sloppy!" ”

Xu Jiujue is brave and unscrupulous, he can't look down on Zhu Guobi's hesitant character, and said dissatisfiedly on the side: "Uncle, there is no turning back now, if we don't do it, can the emperor and Ma Cheng spare us?" So we can only go one way to the dark! ”

Although Xu Jiujue said it politely, but the truth is so, now they can't turn back, even if Zhu Guobi repents and runs to Zhu Lunkui to cry bitterly, but the crime of treason has been completed, and the fate of Zhu Guobi's family is still beheaded.

Zhu Guobi heard Xu Jiujue say this, and knew that he couldn't turn back now, so he had no choice but to stand up and say, "Since that's the case, let's do it!" ”

With Zhu Guobi's order, all the people in the Baoguo Mansion were mobilized, and most of the families gathered by several nobles were already in Dinghuaimen, and there were still a hundred people left in the Baoguo Mansion to protect the safety of several leaders.

Zhu Guobi and Xu Wenjue changed into the clothes of ordinary soldiers, and left the Baoguo Mansion through the back door under the protection of their own soldiers.

At that time, Zhu Guobi had no money, so he could only buy a house in Beicheng, but Zhu Guobi's home was not far from Dinghuai Gate, less than two miles away.

Now the hour is already three o'clock, equivalent to the first o'clock in the evening, the Ming Dynasty implemented a curfew, so the entire Gulou Street is empty.

Zhu Guobi and others walked back to Longqiao and entered Dinghuaimen Street under the escort of their own soldiers, and the number of soldiers patrolling the night on the way here began to increase, after all, they had entered the range of the city gate. But fortunately, Zhu Guobi and others had the waist card issued by Zhu Tong, and they came to Dinghuai without danger.

Dinghuaimen is located in the north of the city, and there are two hills in the city, Gupinggang and Ma'anshan, so Dinghuaimen is sparsely populated here, and there are few houses.

Zhu Guobi and others came to the Dinghuai Gate, and a hundred households under the city saw an army coming to the door, stepped forward and asked, "You are from that part?" ”

Zhu Guobi's personal soldier captain took the waist card given by Zhu Tong and said: "We are here to change the guard on the order of the Chinese officer Zhu Zongzhen!" ”

Hearing that it was the officer's order, the hundred households did not suspect him, and just about to inquire in detail, the person behind him reached out to cover his mouth and inserted a dagger from under his side. This knife hit the heart directly, and the hundred households struggled a few times and then did not move.

When Zhu Guobi saw it, he hurriedly waved his hand, let his soldiers touch it, and killed more than a dozen soldiers at the gate of Dinghuai, so that the first urn gate of Dinghuai Gate was in hand.

Nanjing's city gate is not like your own house gate, you can pass after opening, Nanjing's city gate is a complete defense facility. Although there are three-story urn cities here in Dinghuai Gate and Zhengyang Gate, there are still two-story urn cities. In addition to these urn gates, there are three gates, which are made of thick wooden planks and iron plates, and in addition to these three main gates, there are also broken dragon gates.

It was a one-foot-thick iron plate, the size of the city gate, which could be lowered after the gate was breached, and used to isolate the enemy's follow-up troops. This is only the city gate, there are also a large number of hidden caves in the urn city, which are used to kill and injure the enemy troops who enter the urn city and store the materials for defending the city.

The entire Dinghuai Gate is a defensive facility, and the commander at the head is a general, and there are 3,000 soldiers under him who are responsible for guarding this city gate, so it is useless for Zhu Guobi to just seize the first city gate, and the difficult battle is still to come.