In Dantu City, it is also a doomsday scene where the sky is falling apart.

With the spread of the news of the people and volunteers who had escaped from the guards one after another from the towers and the wall plates, and rushed back to escape; All kinds of panic and panic and strange rumors have also become the surging and boiling tide in this city that does not fall.

"The thief army used the demon magic and let the earth dragon turn over and swallow the officials and soldiers alive. But the thieves are safe and sound."

"The thief has a miraculous skill, and he can summon thunder and fire with the clear sky of the ground and destroy the officers and soldiers."

"The thieves used a strange technique, and the officers and soldiers in the entire city gate died."

"The thief's demon law made the officers and soldiers guarding the city fall asleep, and obediently opened the door and came out to die by themselves."

"The officers and soldiers who fell into the demon law wiped their necks, cut off their heads, and then jumped into the river."

(In fact, it was the process of driving the captives to the river to fetch water to clean up, but they were mistaken for killing the prisoners, and they cried and shouted at the moment, and they were watched by a few of the most noisy, so that they could be obedient and obedient.) ）

and rode on horseback and galloped across the long street, and crashed headlong into the right wing of the Zhenhai camp at the gate of the inner city; There was no time to pay attention to these headless flies on the streets, screaming and fleeing in all directions; or those lawbreakers and prodigals who take advantage of the fire and rob and make a noise, crying and crying; Or those who have gathered their families, tribesmen, and slaves, picked up swords to plug the door, and fought against them to the end.

He rushed out of the inner city gate to meet him, but he couldn't avoid several doormen, and then kicked over the other party's screaming body, and rushed to the long street where Yacheng was located. And this place has been gathered and rushed, and the fleeing crowds, chariots and horses in all kinds of silk brocade clothes have been stuffed again.

He could only shout, kick and draw his knife together with his own soldiers to cut a temporary path, and only then could he intermittently rush to the gate of the aconitum at the exit of Yacheng and the festival; Only then did I see the sergeant in the dark shirt who was a little panicked and overwhelmed, but he was still insisting on duty.

Diao Gang gathered them together and followed them, and then hurried inward; At this time, I found that between the various offices inside, there was already a mess all over the place, and there were all kinds of figures running in and out with things.

From time to time, there are people carrying and carrying these large bags and small bags, and they do not shy away from running over their side and running outside. And Diao had no heart to pay attention to them, and rushed through these subordinates and officials along the short and wide middle road, and he saw the main hall of the festival again;

However, the whole row of drums and singing bells that summoned many officials and generals on the side of the door had been pushed to the ground and scattered. Diao Hao couldn't help but be shocked in his heart, and turned into a kind of angry resentment, and couldn't help shouting loudly.

"Where is the king, where is the prince."

"Why is there no one to convene and preside over the situation."

However, as he drove straight in, there was no one to answer his question, only the figures of the subordinates, doormen, and officials who appeared from time to time, like snakes and rats emerging from flooded ditches; and shouts one after another.

"I'm going to blacken my face. , if the thief army enters the city and plunders it, it will be too late. ”

"This is my old robe that I used to save my life, you can't grab it."

"How about sharing some with me, you can go to the market and buy another one"

"I'm going to kill myself to serve the country, quickly give me a batch and get a knife again."

"I'll kill you first, and the officials must not be humiliated by thieves."

"You can't burn it, if you want to die, you have to find another place, and I still have to count on these things to find a way to live."

They were almost staging a live farce, and some of them were arguing that they would no longer beat each other apart despite Sven, or stumble and fall to the ground in the middle of running, and Shuai rolled out of his arms with a pile of gold and silver goods.

And the only one who is mixed in with it and claims to kill himself to serve the country is actually an old general with a gray beard and cloudy eyes, who usually acts as a gatekeeper; Before he could get the armor, he was already panting and knocked to the ground and couldn't get up.

Then Diao, who became stronger and stronger behind him, crashed into the back house of the festival government that was originally heavily gated; But he was shocked by the loud screams and cries coming from the oncoming face, and he couldn't help but cover his ears.

"The king spares his life."

"Poor Tianjian."

"The thieves have come in."

He had been rushing through several corridors and pavilions, and finally came to the Zhishou Hall, where Zhou Bao lived every day, only to see the door wide open and the curtains and curtains being torn to the ground.

"What about the tooth soldiers in Zhou Ya, and the back building of the wing-protecting Linggong, why are they all gone."

A military general who came with him still shouted in a tone that included crying and horror.

Then he searched the whole huge garden without giving up, except for the concubines and slaves who could only cry and beg for mercy, but still pounced; Zhou Linggong, Zhou Jieshuai, who was once a powerful "good general of the four dynasties", together with his special supervision of the back building of the back house.

In the end, they only found the small courtyard door that had been demolished and knocked down by the front, a few objects scattered outward, and many faint ruts that stretched out. At this moment, the generals behind him seemed to have lost their last backbone, and no longer ignored his restraints and orders, and turned around and rushed into the courtyard to wreak havoc;

Soon after, they were holding the barricades and the objects wrapped in the curtain, dragging the weeping and disheveled women; As they walked, they took off their hats, helmets, and iron covers, belly holders, knee covers, and boots that represented the identity characteristics of the officers and soldiers, and walked towards the distant city square.

"Since Ling Gong is no longer there, let me be loyal to the court at the last moment. Disperse and escape."

And Diao, whose face was gloomy, sighed heavily; Said behind him.

"We were originally the tribes and furniture that the Lord brought out of the village, how dare we leave the Lord alone to live and steal life."

An old-faced, pro-soldier shouted pretendedly.

"Don't you let your hometown father laugh for the rest of your life, even if you go underground in the Nine Abyss, you really have no shame to see each other."

"Then let's kill it and die with the thief."

So, with dozens of subordinates and relatives who refused to disperse at the end, he resolutely rushed to the nearest inner city gate.

。。。。。。

When the sun rose again the next day, the basic process of changing the Great King's Banner at the head of the city had been completed.

Vigorous start and foreshadowing, anticlimactic results and finishes; Even the pre-prepared method of blasting the cave did not have time to come in handy; When the last stubborn officers and soldiers outside the city abandoned their weapons and begged for mercy, the remnants of the defenders of Dantu City also opened the East Corner Gate overnight and surrendered.

This news is both an unexpected and an unexpected consequence; Because according to the statistics of battlefield gains, with this five-gate attack, the Zhenhai Xing battalion, unity soldiers and tooth soldiers who were destroyed outside the city added up to at least eight or nine thousand people, which can be regarded as occupying most of the essence of the city's military strength.

Therefore, even if there are still some stubborn defenders left in the city, they are more of the subordinates of the local regiments and village soldiers whose combat effectiveness and morale are not of great use, or they are newly recruited and brave among the residents of the city.

There are always some "smart people" who can't stand the possible fate and try to take measures to save themselves, which makes the Taiping army's next strategy against the city easier and less worry-free.

It's just a pity that the tunnels under the city have been dug up, and they have to be abandoned before they can come in handy; Although this also greatly saved the Taiping army from unnecessary casualties. Except for the slight stubborn resistance encountered during the attack on the west gate of the inner city and the location of the festival office; The rest of the city was the result of overwhelm and surrender on the spot.

It's just that Zhenhai Jiedu, which is the number one target, made Zhou Bao run away; Probably before the defeat outside the city was a foregone conclusion and the defenders opened their doors to surrender, they were already disguised and rode out of the inner city under the escort of some tooth soldiers and a small number of new troops, the Houloudu.

Although the patrol team composed of the Taiping army that entered the city was still in the city to carry out the location and screening, it is estimated that the possibility of finding it is not very likely. Because according to the report from Wang Chongba's side, the naval vessels that stayed on guard and on standby on the river also discovered and bumped into more than a dozen large ships that had dived out of Dantu Harbor overnight.

However, due to the limited manpower of the division of troops and support for the shore, only some of them were intercepted and captured, and seven or eight large ships were able to escape from the mouth of the river downstream. Combined with the previous news, I am afraid that the probability of Zhou Bao being in it is not small.

When Zhou Huai'an stepped on the Guocheng Tower outside the West Gate with this mixed feelings, the only remaining messy traces on the market had been cleaned up, leaving only pools of blood that could not be wiped off and had not yet dried off the occasional wall or ground, or other smoky stains.

Compared with the generally depressed and dilapidated ancient cities such as Xunyang and Jiangning that I have seen before, this Dantu city is obviously an outlier. It is not only a double city with two walls inside and outside the river, but also a large city built by the tooth city, and it is also a prosperous and wealthy city.

Because it is located in the southeast where the products are gathered and circulated, and for a long time, it has been in a corner of peace and there are few arms; The only Zhenhai Jiedu rebellion that happened was quickly extinguished by the anti-water subordinates.

Therefore, it was able to survive the turmoil since the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and successively attracted and gathered a large number of wealthy families, eunuchs, and big families in the southeast of the country since the past dynasties, and moved into it with their families to buy real estate.

Thus, along the stone and pebble paved down the ruts are obvious, and the vertical and straight streets and cobwebbed alleys; Gray tiles and green ridges with arches and cornices are almost everywhere, and there are basically no traces and existence of the roof of the thatched hut;

Neat and colorful, adjacent to the city platform with the previous Penghu thatched cottage, vegetable chicken dogs mixed with the ancient city of Jiangning, simply formed a kind of sharp contrast between the present and the past.

In the distance is the famous Xijin Gudu across the sandbar in the middle of the river, and it is also one of the focus and ancient battlefields of the previous dynasties when they conquered the north and south; The more famous events, such as the unprecedented scale of the "Yongjia Nandu" during the Six Dynasties, most of the northern refugees landed from here.

In the fifth year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (401), Sun En, the leader of the righteous army called for Wudou Midao, led "100,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships" to enter the river from the sea to Zhenjiang, control the Xijin ferry, cut off the north-south connection, and besieged the Jin capital Jianye (now Nanjing), and was later defeated by the Beifu soldiers led by Liu Yu nearby.

Of course, because of the incessant wars in the late Southern Dynasty, it also quickly declined, and with the battle of the early Sui Dynasty to destroy Chen, it hibernated in depression for several years; Only because of the hundred years of recuperation between the rule of Zhenguan and the prosperous era of Kaiyuan, it became prosperous and rich again.

Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, it was also one of the important hubs and nodes for the transfer of wealth in the southeast; The goods and products from the land of fish and rice in Jiangdong and Zhejiang should be connected to the various water systems of the Jiangnan Canal, and then they will cross the river to the other side by boat, and thus enter the middle section of the Grand Canal in Huainan.

Especially after entering the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Dantu, including Xijindu, also became an important national financial node for the Tang Dynasty court center to continue to transfuse blood and continue its life and maintain its authority and operational foundation in the Tang Dynasty, together with Yangzhou Jiangducheng.

The marshals of the past dynasties who can be allowed to be here are also the top choice of rank and power in the world's feudal towns, and often the officials worship the Taige and hold the title of the commander or the envoy of the camp, and can sit in the local generation of important ministers and famous generals.

It can be said that after the Dantu was under the Dan, the source of wealth that the Tang Dynasty relied on to maintain in the southeastern provinces was basically truncated and cut off; While completely losing many of the wealth and property detained and stranded in the local area, it has also lost its basic control over the south of the Yangtze River and the basic channels for maintaining influence.

Therefore, between the wharf trestles lined with warehouses, many official and civilian ships have been densely stranded or blocked; It just looks like a forest of sails and a lifeless appearance, squeezing the inner and outer layers of the artificial embankment and the arm-like harbor area to the water.

On the east side of the embankment on the side, there is also a Dantu naval division garrisoned, a large and a small water and land camp; Usually moored this size of dozens of officers and soldiers with wide heads and flat bodies. Now, in the midst of a roar and roar, the blue cross-wave flag was quickly pulled out, and it was replaced with the Taiping green flag one after another.

"The festival office, the transportation division, the degree branch, the salt and iron, the patrol court, the governor's office, and the assassin history of the inner city have all been sealed and counted, whether to choose them to settle in first."

Yuan Jing, the undertaker on duty next to him, also spoke.

"No, let's go to Beigu Mountain by the river first."

Zhou Huaian waved his hand.

(End of chapter)