Five days later, the Jinling merchant gang and squire in Nanjing City came with news that they had contacted the guards of the Shence Gate in Beicheng, as long as the Xuanjia army arrived at the city gate, they would immediately open the door to offer the city.

Nanjing City was the capital of the Ming Dynasty, which was built by Zhu Yuanzhang with all his might, and the scale of the Nanjing Palace even exceeded the Forbidden City.

The thirteen gates of the inner city are more heavily defended, there are Chaoyang Gates in the east, there are Jubao, Tongji, Zhengyang three gates in the south, Shence, Taiping, Zhongfu, Jinchuan four gates in the north, and Sanshan, Shicheng, Qingliang, Dinghuai, Yifeng five gates in the west. Among them, the strongest defenses are Jubao, Tongji, and Sanshan Sanmen, each with three urn cities; There are two urns at the Stone City Gate; There is an urn city at the two gates of Chaoyang and Shence.

Shence Gate is located in the north of Nanjing, it is the city gate of the thirteen inner gates of Nanjing City, the only one outside the city gate of the urn city, there are two urn city gate holes on the left and right, it was the prime minister Liu Bowen personally surveyed and built, it is a military fortress with the strongest defense.

Zheng Chenggong's northern expedition to Nanjing City was a fiasco outside the Shence Gate, and after the Manchu Qing Dynasty's victory, the Shence Gate was changed to the victory gate.

When Fang Yuan received the news from the Jinling Merchant Gang, he still had some doubts in his heart if this was a trap. Why didn't they choose to sacrifice the city gate without the urn city, but chose such a city gate with the urn city, once the Xuanjia army entered the urn city, the defenders closed the inner city gate and the urn city gate, and they could easily encircle and annihilate the soldiers who entered the inner city.

The news of the Jinling Merchant Gang could not be trusted, nor could it be disbelieved, Fang Yuan, Jing Jie, and Qin Zhan took twenty elite people, disguised as ordinary people, and went to Shence Gate to investigate.

Beyond the Shence Gate is a barren mountain forest, which is rarely populated.

Fang Yuan, Jing Jie, and Qin Zhan glanced at each other, with their experience and vision, the Jinling Merchant Gang chose this kind of city gate with strong defense, conducive to ambush soldiers, and empty outside the city gate to offer the city, which is fraud.

Fang Yuan stared at the Shence Gate in the distance and asked, "Fourth, the Jinling Merchant Gang's play is really good!" Even I hid it. ”

Qin Zhan shook his head and said, "Boss, the Jinling Merchant Gang's previous defection doesn't seem to be a fraud, Jinyi Wei has probed the guard of the Shence Gate, it is Li Cheng, the overseer under the command of Han Zanzhou, the garrison eunuch of Nanjing City. There are not a few of these eunuchs who are loyal to the imperial court, it should be the Jinling merchant gang who leaked the news of the dedication of the city, and the defenders of the Shence Gate are planning it! ”

Since the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, the military defense of Nanjing City was generally presided over by the garrison eunuch and the military department of the counselor.

Fang Yuan desperately recalled history, and then remembered that this Han Zanzhou was the garrison eunuch of Nanjing City, and had a very good relationship with Ruan Dacheng, and was also a eunuch loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

It seems that the Shence Gate is really a trap, just waiting for Fang Yuan's Xuanjia Army to take the bait.

Fang Yuan asked, "Third brother, do you think you should give up the plan to attack the Shence Gate and then think about breaking the city?" ”

Jing Jie said loudly, "Boss, I have only heard of a tiger pounceing on a sheep, and I have never heard of a sheep setting a trap to catch a tiger!" The so-called one force overwhelms ten skillful, no matter what tricks the Ming army in Nanjing City plays, it will be a laughing stock in front of the thunderous military might of the Xuanjia Army! ”

Fang Yuan listened to his bold words and was also proud, no matter how the Ming army played strategy, it couldn't beat the Manchu Qing who held the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as the art of war, and how the Song army played strategy was also crushed by the Jin people who came out of the deep mountains in the northeast. Before the overwhelming superiority in strength, any trickery in the art of war is a joke.

laughed and said, "Okay, third child, how should this battle be fought?" ”

Jing Jie said, "Since the Nanjing defenders want to set traps, we will completely annihilate the Nanjing defenders at Shence Gate, so that we will have to fight street battles to annihilate them one by one." I suggest that the plan be calculated and divided into three teams of the Xuanjia army entering the city, one team will enter the urn city to lure the enemy, waiting for the opportunity to blast the inner city gate, one team will wait for the enemy army in the mountains and forests outside the city to ambush and annihilate the ambush soldiers, and the other team will patrol outside the city, waiting for the opportunity to annihilate the reinforcements who came to the rescue of the Shence Gate. ”

Fang Yuan nodded and agreed with his tactics, "Okay, this battle of Nanjing, you will be in command of the third brother, and I will cheer you on." ”

At nightfall three days later, the 5,000 Xuanjia Army was divided into three teams, with 1,000 men in the front team and 2,000 in the middle and rear teams.

Gan Hui, the commander of the infantry battalion, led the 1,000 people of the front team to the Shence Gate according to the agreement with the Jinling Merchant Gang, and began to call for the city gate.

Li Cheng, the guard of the city gate, was also puzzled when he saw that the 1,000-front team of the Xuanjia Army was still carrying a heavy shield. According to common sense, the decapitation operation is of course won by mobility, what is the Xuanjia Army doing with a heavy shield?

But this trap of the Shence Gate is a conspiracy determined after the deliberation of Ruan Dacheng and Han Zanzhou. All the ambushes and reinforcements were also prepared, and even a single defender did not dare to refuse to let the Xuanjia army enter the city based on speculation. Otherwise, once the plan to catch the turtle in the urn fails, he will not be able to bear this responsibility.

Gan Hui kept shouting outside the city gate, and Li Cheng didn't dare to hesitate more, so he could only open the city gate according to the agreement and let Gan Hui's Xuanjia army front team enter.

After the Xuanjia army entered the gate of the Urn City, they were preparing to break through to the gate of the inner city.

Li Cheng shouted loudly and ordered the defenders to immediately close the gate of the inner city, and the entire urn city was already brightly lit, and hundreds of Ming archers appeared on the walls of the urn city.

"Shoot the arrows!"

Li Cheng gave an order, and thousands of arrows were fired in unison, throwing them at the Xuanjia soldiers in the urn city.

Gan Hui had already received the news that the Ming army was pretending to offer the city gate, and according to the previous deployment, the formation of the Xuanjia army changed, and the three hundred sergeants raised a hundred large shields, forming a solid fortification, blocking most of the arrow rain outside.

In the fortifications of the Great Shield, ten gunners piled the black powder bags that had been prepared earlier under the city gate of the inner city of Shence Gate, made a lead, and began to detonate the black powder, preparing to blow up the city gate directly.

At the same time, the 3,000 Ming troops who were in ambush outside the Shence Gate also went out in unison, preparing to enter through the gate of the urn city and annihilate the Xuanjia soldiers who were ambushed.

As soon as the ambushed 3,000 Ming army was dispatched, there was a commotion behind the mountains and forests, and 2,000 Chinese troops led by Feng Ting, the deputy commander of the infantry battalion, suddenly appeared on the side of the mountains and forests and began to attack the Ming army ambushes in the mountains and forests.

The two sides fought endlessly in the mountains and forests outside the Shence Gate, most of the Ming army was composed of prisoners, no matter the fighting spirit and combat power were far from the Xuanjia army, as soon as the battle was in an absolute disadvantage, it could only rely on the terrain of the mountains and forests to support it.

"Boom!"

Outside the inner city gate of the Shence Gate, the first huge explosion sounded, and the entire urn city trembled. The impregnable Shence Gate also trembled, but fortunately, the gate was still strong and resisted the first blast.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the guard Li Cheng would blast the Xuanjia Army once or twice, and the Shence Gate would probably collapse. He immediately ordered the sergeants of the Urn City to start throwing the prepared boulders into the Urn City, smashing the Xuanjia soldiers below who wanted to blast the Shence Gate. At the same time, fireworks were also released as signal flares, sending a signal to the Ming army near the Taiping Gate to prepare for war: Shence Gate is in danger, come to the rescue immediately!

In the urn city, the Xuanjia army that was smashed by the boulders on the city wall was very difficult to support, and in less than a quarter of an hour, the fortifications of the big shield were smashed to a corner, and the sergeants without the cover of the giant shield were immediately shot into hedgehogs by the rain of arrows, and at least one or two hundred people were killed and wounded.

Gan Hui ordered to abandon the smashed corner, began to shrink the formation, and continued to hold on, while ordering the Demoman to prepare for the second blast of the Shence Gate.

"Boom!"

When the 3,000 Ming troops of the Taiping Gate rushed out of the Taiping Gate to the Shence Gate, the second blasting in the urn city also sounded.

The impregnable gates of the Shence Gate were crumbling after two violent blasts. And the defensive position of the Xuanjia Army in the urn city was once again smashed by a corner of the boulder, with more than 300 casualties.

On the gate of the inner city, Li Cheng commanded the Ming army to throw boulders even more frantically, which was bigger and more fierce than before. The Xuanjia army that was sticking to the city gate was in a bit of panic, and was ready to give up the position under the city gate a little and move to the urn city.

The commander Gan Hui once again showed his courage that he was not afraid of death, and each person raised two large shields and personally guarded the gate of the inner city, ordering all the soldiers not to take a step back.

The main generals are all fighting for their lives, how dare the other Xuanjia sergeants retreat? Rushing forward again and erecting a two-tiered shield to defend against the boulders smashed from the city gate.

The Xuanjia army under the Shence Gate did not retreat, and under the smashing of hundreds of catties of boulders, they also vowed to take the Shence Gate in one fell swoop, Li Cheng was stunned, and now he can only hope for reinforcements from the Taiping Gate.

He was on the tower of the city gate, watching the torches lit up at the Taiping Gate, and a large number of Ming troops went out of the city gate, ready to rush to the Shence Gate to support.

Li Cheng was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he saw a torrent of torches suddenly emerge from the wasteland in the distance, killing the reinforcements from Taipingmen. As soon as the reinforcements of the Ming army came out of the Taiping Gate, they were sniped by the Xuanjia Army, and they could no longer rush to the rescue of Shence Gate.

"Boom!"

"Bang!"

When the guard Li Cheng had nothing to do, a third blast came from under the gate of the Shence Gate, and the extremely strong city gate also collapsed.

The Divine Gate has finally been breached!