In the past half a month or so, all the new troops in Guangzhou have been transferred to various places, and His Majesty the Emperor has also found this bad, and issued an order to the inspection department and the local guard station in Guangzhou to be strictly guarded.

And Zhang San, as the inspector of the four inspection divisions in the city, and at the same time Zhu Hongsan's old department of Huguang, is naturally very attentive to the emperor's orders.

After the Spring Festival, Zhang San stayed in the yamen at night, urging his soldiers to patrol seriously every day.

And today Zhang San was sitting on duty in the yamen, and suddenly heard the noise outside, Zhang San paid attention to it, and shouted something, "Someone!" The Tartars are in town! "Wait.

"Come on, go outside and see what's going on!"

The soldiers standing guard at the gate hurried out to ask what was going on. A moment later, the soldier came back to give a report.

"My lord, it's in the direction of Beibianmen, and there are many people shouting that Tartar has entered the city, and at the same time, they find that there is a fire in the houses near Beibianmen!"

There is a fire, which means that something has happened, Zhang San quickly stood up and shouted: "Come on, bring all the soldiers in the inspection station, and go with me to see what's going on!" ”

In fact, there are not many soldiers in the house, and it is now midnight, and all the patrols have gone out to patrol, and there are still more than 30 people in the yamen.

Zhang San walked out of the door, glanced at the Chu Wangfu in the distance, and thought to himself: "Don't disturb His Majesty the Emperor!" "Call over a henchman soldier and ask him to hurry to the Chu Palace's mansion to report the emergency.

After the arrangement, Zhang San took more than 30 people to the north gate.

The Beicheng Inspection Division was not far from Beibianmen, and there were no pedestrians at night, so it didn't take a quarter of an hour to come to the vicinity of Beibianmen.

At this time, you can already see the chaos here in Beibianmen. This place is inhabited by dignitaries, and the families are all domestic servants, and now many people are fighting fires.

Zhang San pulled a person who looked like a family member and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

The man saw that Zhang San was wearing the clothes of the Inspection Division, and hurriedly said: "I don't know, we are sleeping, and suddenly a lot of torches came in from outside, setting fire to the houses in our house, you hurry in to help put out the fire, our lord is Lang Zhong of the Ministry of Finance!" ”

Zhang San, as Zhu Hongsan's old department of Huguang, put a small Wupinlang in his eyes, and now Beicheng is in chaos, so let's go and see what the cause is.

Zhang San led the people to the north gate here, and came to the banknote storehouse street, which was one street away from the city gate, and now there were fires on both sides of the road, and the surrounding area was like daylight. At that moment, a group rushed from the opposite side, and in the light of the fire, it was clear that these people were wearing turquoise leather armor with iron bubble nails inlaid on it, and they held all kinds of weapons in their hands, some with swords and some with maces. The guys were killing people everywhere to prevent anyone from putting out the fire, and saw a few torches thrown in the empty house.

Zhang San could see very clearly in the firelight, these people were all bald and without hats, and they all had the legendary money rat tails.

Zhang San was shocked, he knew that this was the symbol of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Dynasty, but he didn't expect that it was really the Manchu Tartars who entered the city.

At this time, the Tartars on the opposite side also saw Zhang San's more than 30 people, brandishing weapons and rushing up with strange screams.

Zhang San saw that there were only a dozen of these people, and he had more than 30 people, twice as many as the other party, and he was bold in his heart, ready to lead people to destroy these Tartars.

But Zhang San's wish is very beautiful, the reality is very skinny, as soon as they fight, these Tartars are like fierce tigers, and the soldiers around them have been cut down one after another, and within a few minutes, only more than a dozen soldiers are still standing on his side.

Zhang San is not at a loss to the old department of the King of Chu, and when he found that it was not good to shout, he ran away as soon as possible, and the soldiers of the Inspection Division under his command saw that their heads had run away, and they dared to fight to the death with the Tartars, and they all followed Zhang San and retreated.

These Tartars on the other side should be on a mission, and when they saw Zhang San running, they didn't chase after him, they stopped and then set fire to them everywhere.

Zhang San ran more than 500 meters wildly, looked back and saw that the Tartar did not chase him, and only then did he dare to stop and take a breath.

As a person in the market, Zhang San knew that something big was happening now, and his first thought was to go home to protect his wife and children. But looking up at the Chu Wangfu, which was not far from the North City Gate, he gritted his teeth and said secretly in his heart: "I have been in the nest for a lifetime, and only by following the King of Chu to Guangdong can I be considered a mixed person, my wife can be found again if I am gone, and my son can be reborn if I am gone." But the King of Chu must be fine! ”

Zhang San, who had made up his mind, rushed to the Chu Palace, with the remaining seven or eight people.

Came to the Chu Palace, no, it should be called the west gate of the palace, at this time, the henchmen soldiers who sent the news in the early stage were waiting at the door, and when they saw Zhang San coming, they hurried to greet him.

"How? Do you know inside the palace? ”

"My lord, these Qiu Ba didn't let me in, and said that if they entered the palace wall five meters, they would kill me!"

Zhang San scolded the soldiers who guarded the city, and took people to the outside of the palace city.

Guarding the west gate of the palace today is Li Fugui's eldest son Li Fu. After Li Fu joined the New Army, he participated in all battles, accumulated merit and was promoted to company commander, and because of his bravery, he was transferred to Zhu Hongsan's side and served as the platoon commander of the guard company.

Today is the day when Li Fu is on duty, just guarding the west gate of the palace, everything went smoothly in the first half of the night, and the fire began to appear at the north gate in the second half of the night, and Li Fu stood in the palace and saw it very clearly. At this time, a guy wearing the uniform of the inspection department came over and said that he was going to enter the palace to see the emperor, saying that the Tartars over there in the north city had entered the city.

Of course, Li Fu did not let him into the city easily, there was a law in the palace, and no one was allowed to enter the city without a holy decree after the sun set. But Li Fu, who was talking about it, didn't dare not report it, and quickly ordered one person to enter the palace and report it to the chief.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the messenger left, more than a dozen people came outside, and Li Fu hurriedly ordered his soldiers to prepare to prevent these people from taking advantage of the chaos to attack the city.

Unexpectedly, these people stopped fifteen meters away, and a person came out and shouted loudly: "Brother upstairs, I am Zhang San, the Beicheng Inspection Division, the Beicheng Gate has really entered the Tartar, you must tell the emperor!" ”

Li Fu heard that it was Zhang San, and he recognized that his father's follower when he was in Wuchang before, but he hadn't heard of it in the past few years and went to be the inspection department.

"Zhang San? Is it the third uncle? I'm Li Fu! Li Fu shouted loudly.

Hearing that he met an acquaintance, Zhang Sanxi exclaimed, "It's Da Lang!" It's your third uncle, go and report to Your Majesty, it's really a Tartar who has entered the city, and we just fought with them! ”

I didn't expect it to be true, Li Fu was just about to speak, and a large number of horse teams rushed over from the north of Miyagi, and it was Li Chengdong who came.

Li Chengdong had actually entered the city a long time ago, but he was not familiar with the roads in Guangzhou, and there were no people in the north city, so it took a long time to catch a person who came out to see the excitement, and finally rushed to the palace under his leadership.

Zhu Hongsan's temporary palace is not the same as the Forbidden City in Beijing, where the walls are more than 10 meters high and there is a moat more than 50 meters wide. In order to save silver, Zhu Hongsan's palace only built two of the four palace walls, and the north and east walls were borrowed from the city walls of Guangzhou. The height of the palace is only three meters, and the material is not the bluestone strip of the palace, but rammed earth. Zhu Hongsan originally did not plan to stay in Guangzhou for a long time, and was ready to go to Nanjing after a few years, plus he thought that under the protection of his powerful new army, Guangzhou was very safe, so the construction of Miyagi could naturally be saved.

Li Chengdong saw that the city wall was only three meters, and he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and shouted: "Boys, attack the city!" Capture Zhu Hong alive, and the beauties and treasures in the Chu Palace, you can pick them at will! ”

Li Chengdong's subordinates were originally outlaws, and they were experienced in robbing houses and houses, and when they heard the marshal say this, they all took out the flying claw ropes and threw them at the city wall.

Li Fu couldn't help but feel anxious when he saw that it was really a Qing army attacking the city, now there were only 400 guards in the entire palace, plus some Jinyi Guard Han generals were less than 600, and his own Ximen was even less than 50 people.

"Quick, shoot! Don't let them come up! Someone, go to the palace to report the news, saying that the Tartars are attacking the city! ”

After all, the soldiers of the guard company were all elites who had experienced battles, and immediately stood in line on the city wall and began to shoot at the Qing troops under the city.

As soon as the gunshots rang out, Li Chengdong's soldiers were knocked down. Li Chengdong's heart jumped, isn't this the army he met in Nanzhili? It seems that it is really the army of the king of Chu. However, it seems that there are not many people on the city wall, and the main force should not have arrived yet. You must capture the city gate before the main force comes, otherwise you may be left here.

Li Chengdong looked at his soldiers, there was no siege equipment except for the flying claw rope, his heart moved, and he hurriedly called Liu San. "Sanzi, you go to the city to see if there is a firecracker shop, get some gunpowder, and blow up the city gate!" Liu San was ordered to go down.

Li Fu resisted the Qing army on the city wall, and the soldiers who reported the news had come to the yamen of the palace guard company, and it was Zhang Sanqiang, the deputy company commander, who was on duty tonight. Don't look at it as a deputy company commander, Zhang Sanqiang is a descendant of Zhu Hongsan, a member of the first batch of non-commissioned officers, and he is also at the level of deputy division commander when he is released.

Zhu Hongsan was not in the palace tonight, and the corresponding guard company commander Zhu Hongyi was not in the palace.

At this time, the soldiers outside the door came to report.

"Sir, a large number of Qing troops have appeared outside the West Gate, and they are now attacking the West Gate!" By this time Simon had already begun to fight, and the sound of gunfire was far away in the night.

Zhang Sanqiang was shocked, he didn't expect the Qing army to enter the city, and hurriedly asked, "How many people are there?" ”

"I can't see clearly when it's dark, there are about three thousand to four thousand people!"

So much! Zhang Sanqiang didn't dare to delay, now Zhu Hongsan and Zhu Hongyi are not in the palace, so they can only go to find Ma Xiaofang.

"Come on, transfer a hundred people to the west gate to assist in the defense, and the others are all concentrated in the rear to protect the emperor's holy family!"

After speaking, Zhang Sanqiang hurriedly went out and ran to the back, at this time only Ma Xiaofang in the palace could calm the scene.

The palace is not very big in total, and the lively palace on the west gate can be heard very clearly, and Ma Xiaofang has also gotten up and stood in front of his small building waiting for news.

At this time, he saw Zhang Sanqiang running over, and hurriedly asked, "Sanqiang, what's going on?" Why do you fire guns late at night? ”