In fact, even when the Wu army was lucky enough to blow up the city wall in the eastern section of the Shence Gate, the Taiping army still had hope of holding the city of Nanjing, because not long ago, Li Xiucheng's godson Li Rongfa had just sent someone to send a batch of fire oil and gunpowder to the city.

There were indeed nimble minds in the Taiping army on the city wall, who had just recovered from the panic and shock after the collapse of the city wall, and immediately yelled and asked their companions to quickly smash the powder barrel and pour fire oil, but unfortunately, the scene was too chaotic, and the crazy shouts of several sober people were not heard by many companions, and Li Rongfa, who sent gunpowder and oil to the city from Liuxiang, was blocked by the chaotic crowd and failed to send gunpowder and oil to the gap at the first time, and as a result, he missed this precious opportunity.

The Taiping army missed the opportunity, but the elite battalion directly under the leadership of Hu Huaizhao, a veteran of the Wu army, firmly seized the opportunity, taking advantage of the opportunity of the sudden collapse of the city wall causing serious chaos in the Taiping army, Hu Huaizhao's direct battalion charged directly into the city from the gap, although the Taiping soldiers had a counterattack to block it, they could not stop the footsteps of the Wu army's soldiers, and after rushing into the city, the well-prepared Hu Huaizhao's direct battalion did not even blink an eyelid, and a little clear saw the direction of the enemy was to throw bitter acid grenades one after another, The crowd of Taiping troops who tried to intercept them was blown up like a ghost crying wolf, with many dead and wounded, and at the same time quickly advanced into the city, regardless of the dead and wounded, and the Taiping army competed for positions in the city, like an iron nail, firmly rooted into the interior of Nanjing!

At the same time, Hu Huaizhao's army and Zhou Anyu's troops, who had been stopped by the flames, also quickly withdrew from the urn city, and entered the city at the gap in the city wall not far away, and although the Taiping army had gradually restored a certain order, it began to throw gunpowder and oil at the gap in the city wall, causing a lot of casualties to the Wu army, but Zhou Anyu's battalion still smoked and burst into the fire, one after another, rushed into the city one after another, strengthened the Wu army's strength in the city, and also helped Hu Huaizhao successfully take a not small position space in the city.

"Up! Above! Rush up and drive the demon soldiers out of the city! Drive all the demon soldiers out of the city! ”

Li Rongfa, who was red-eyed, and other Taiping generals roared wildly, forcing the Taiping soldiers to charge forward, and the Taiping soldiers who also knew that the situation was critical were also brave, and everyone rushed to the Wu army's position like a tide. But there is no way, the weapon and equipment advantage of the elite battalion of the Wu army is too great, in the face of the crazy counterattack of the soldiers of the Taiping army, the soldiers of the two elite battalions of the Wu army Hu Huaizhao and Zhou Anyu calmly faced the battle, first with a firing pin gun to quickly shoot the enemy on the opposite side, as much as possible to kill and injure the enemy in long-range warfare, and then attack the approaching enemy with picric acid grenades, at the same time, some of the soldiers of the Wu army who acted flexibly also directly hit the grenadiers, and the guns and cannons exploded one after another, and the Taiping soldiers fell to the ground one after another like cutting wheat. There was hardly any chance to approach the Wu army's position in clusters, and occasionally a few fish that slipped through the net were lucky enough to get close, and they were also knocked over by the grassroots generals of the Wu army with revolvers, making it difficult for the Taiping army to even get close to the Wu army to fight a white-knuckle battle. Therefore, although the Taiping army's counterattack offensive was fierce, it was always ineffective, on the contrary, it was constantly killed and wounded by the Wu army's needle gun, and was blown up all over the ground by grenade grenades.

During this period, Wu Chaoyue, who had already personally led the army to the gate of Shence, never stood still, and did not rush to invest troops in the city again, because Wu Chaoyue did not know how much position space Hu Huaizhao had taken, and was worried that investing troops too early would cause crowding and receive counterproductive effects, and at the same time, Wu Chaoyue also trusted the combat effectiveness of the elite battalion of his own army, and believed that Hu Huaizhao would definitely be able to hold the gap road. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue has always been very patient, and it was only after the Wu military camp team that had successfully landed in the city before asked for help, Wu Chaoyue unhurriedly sent an ordinary battalion to carry a flying ladder forward to reinforce the equally important city head position.

The veteran Hu Huaizhao did not disappoint Wu Chaoyue, under his calm command, more than 800 Wu soldiers who first entered the city were like mainstays, firmly nailed to the gap in the city wall, repelled the Taiping army's wave after wave of charges, held the position and annihilated a large number of enemies at the same time, but also occasionally freed up their hands to reinforce the city battlefield in the west, helping the Changliang battalion that had miraculously succeeded in landing the city to deal with the remnants of the enemy in the city, and also allowed the Changliang battalion to free up a little to receive reinforcements to climb the city with a flying ladder, fighting calmly and bravely, methodically, Show the demeanor of a strong army.

Finally, after more than half an hour of hard fighting, the Wu army of the second battalion finally attached itself to the city, and joined forces with Chang Liang's subordinates who had previously gone to the city to expel the remnants of the Taiping army on the Shence Gate City, and took the position of the city tower that had been burned to ashes, and planted the banner of the Wu army with teeth and claws on the head of the Shence Gate that Wu Chaoyue had personally defended! As a result, after seeing this situation in the telescope, Li Rongfa, Fang Haizong and other Taiping Army generals also fell into despair, and they all screamed in their hearts: "It's over!" It's impossible for the gods to hold the gate! ”

After taking the position of the city tower, the Wu army not only had a condescending advantage, but also completely shattered the hope of the Taiping army to re-plug the gap - the top of the city wall at the other end of the gap has been controlled by the Wu army, and the Taiping army can no longer plug the gap with earth, stone and sand. Therefore, the Wu army sent troops to the city again and completely took control of the Shence Gate, in fact, it was only a matter of time. In addition to desperately forcing the army to continue to step forward and strive to create a miracle, they could only quickly send someone to contact Li Xiucheng and ask Li Xiucheng to instruct him on the next battle plan, whether to continue to fight in the streets and resist to the end? Or hurry up and abandon the city to break through and fight for the hope of escaping?

At 1:08 a.m., Li Rongfa's battle report and request for instructions were first sent to Li Xiucheng, and Li Xiucheng pondered for about half a minute with a blushing face, and then roared hoarsely: "Tell Li Rongfa to fight to the death, no order, no step back!" Yuan Dehou, Fang Haizong and Chen Decai's side are the same! ”

After that, Li Xiucheng turned to Li Shuxiang next to him, and said in a serious tone: "Shuxiang, the next command of the whole city will be handed over to you for the time being, remember, no matter what tricks the demon soldiers play, the requirements for each of our armies are to defend them on the spot!" Don't take half a step back! ”

"King Zhong, are you going to see Long live the Heavenly King?"

Li Shuxiang guessed the reason why Li Xiucheng temporarily left the headquarters, Li Xiucheng nodded calmly, and said in a deep voice: "If my expectations are correct, even if the demon soldiers take the Shence Gate, they will never rush to advance into the city." So now that we have broken through the siege, we still have hope, I will do my best to persuade the king of heaven to abandon the city, and when things come to this point, I don't believe that the king of heaven will still be obsessed. ”

Li Shuxiang didn't ask any more, just nodded and told Li Xiucheng to be careful, and Song Yongqi, Li Xiucheng's brother-in-law who had been waiting next to him, took the opportunity to jump out and said: "Zhongwang Chitose, it's useless for me to stay here, I'll go with you, and I'll give you something on the way." ”

didn't have the heart to deal with his brother-in-law, Li Xiucheng just nodded casually, Song Yongqi was overjoyed, and hurriedly followed Li Xiucheng out of the palace of Zhongwangfu. As a result, when it was time to get on the horse and go out, Song Yongqi, who had not been well-intentioned for a long time, also had a chance, and whispered to Li Xiucheng: "King Zhong, Chitose, the city is about to be destroyed, don't you want to think about the future for your aunt and my poor nephew?" ”

"When is it, I don't have that mind." Li Xiucheng replied impatiently: "And now I can't think about the future for them!" ”

"King Zhong, you have a way." Song Yongqi was not polite, and said in a low voice: "Now most of the troops in the city are under your command, if you raise your arms and shout, take the army to take down the king of heaven, and dedicate him to the king of Zhennan......." ”

"Smack!"

A heavy slap interrupted Song Yongqi's instigation, and refused to relieve his anger, Li Xiucheng lifted his horsewhip again, and slapped Song Yongqi with his head and face, and then roared angrily: "Song Yongqi, who do you think Lao Tzu is?" If you weren't Lao Tzu's brother-in-law, Lao Tzu would have slaughtered you now! ”

"Yiwen, don't be angry." Song Yongqi didn't have a scared look, and called Li Xiucheng's nickname, touched Li Xiucheng's swollen face and said, "It's because I'm your brother-in-law that I have to think about it." On the one hand, there is a glorious future, glory and wealth, and on the other hand, there is an abyss, and there is no place to bury you. ”

When Song Yongqi said this, he didn't know what the reason was, but Li Xiucheng's mind suddenly flashed the letter of surrender that Wu Chaoyue wrote to himself. But it's a pity that Wu Chaoyue's ugly handwriting just flashed in Li Xiucheng's mind, and didn't bring any waves, Li Xiucheng just paused, and then kicked Song Yongqi to the ground with one kick, and shouted: "Go back!" Wait for Lao Tzu to come back and send you down! ”

After kicking Song Yongqi, Li Xiucheng rode on the war horse sent by his own soldiers and walked away, without paying attention to Song Yongqi, Song Yongqi slowly got up and sat on the ground, looking at the direction of Li Xiucheng's departure, his face was full of sinister smiles, and muttered: "Yiwen, if you didn't kill me, it proves that you still have this idea." Make up your mind, my glory and wealth, my beautiful wife and concubine, it's all up to you. ”

Not to mention Song Yongqi's daydream, just say that Li Xiucheng led a team of personal soldiers to fight horses and hurry in the faint sound of gunfire, and came to Xihuamen Street, where the former Liangjiang Governor's Mansion is now the Tianwang Mansion, and immediately found that the Tianwang Mansion had already been three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, and the streets were crowded with well-equipped Taiping Army soldiers, and all of them were the teams of Hong Xiuquan's two cronies and favorites, Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang. After entering the street, these troops not only demanded that all Li Xiucheng's personal soldiers be disarmed, but also demanded that Li Xiucheng himself also hand over their weapons.

didn't have the heart to care about these trivial matters, Li Xiucheng happily handed over the sword and pistol to Qin Rigang's subordinates, and then went to the gate of the Heavenly King's Mansion to ask for an audience. The result was okay, and soon a female official came out to invite Li Xiucheng in, but what surprised Li Xiucheng was that when he came to the Golden Dragon Palace, there were actually three civil and military officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom kneeling outside the Golden Dragon Palace, and when he took a closer look at their appearance, Li Xiucheng immediately exclaimed, "Hong Renji? Zeng Lichang? What have you done? Why was it taken down? ”

Among the three Taiping Army civil and military forces who were pressed to kneel outside the Golden Dragon Palace, there were indeed two people who were Hong Xiuquan's relative Hong Renji and Zeng Lichang, a veteran who had made great contributions to the Taiping Army, hearing Li Xiucheng's voice, Hong Renji and Zeng Lichang immediately shouted together and begged Li Xiucheng to save his life, Li Xiucheng was even more confused, and asked again: "What did you do?" ”

"Chunwang Chitose, I don't know." Hong Renji cried and said with a sad face: "I didn't do anything at home, and I was arrested here in a daze." ”

"Chung Wang Chitose, I'm even more confused." Zeng Lichang also said with a sad face, "Long live the King of Heaven sent a decree asking me to temporarily hand over the army to my subordinates and come to the Heavenly King's Mansion to meet me, and I obeyed the order." But as soon as I arrived, I was immediately taken down. ”

"Chung Wang Chitose, Chung Wang Chitose, help." Another middle-aged man who was pressed and kneeling cried even more aggrieved, and said with a crying voice: "It's true that my daughter gave birth to a son for the Transcendence Demon, but not only have I never had a relationship with the Transcendence Demon, but I also have a grudge against him!" Please say long live the king of heaven, ask him to investigate, I dare not collude with the little demon beyond the little demon, I dare not have different intentions towards the kingdom of heaven, I am loyal to the king of heaven! ”

"You are Zhou Lichun?" Li Xiucheng guessed the identity of this person, and after Zhou Lichun hurriedly nodded and admitted it, Li Xiucheng sighed and said, "I'll try my best, you're unlucky, your daughter accidentally married the wrong person, and you must be involved." But there are those who are more unlucky than you, Hong Renji and Zeng Lichang are both, and Dongwang is nine thousand years old. ”

Speaking of this, Li Xiucheng suddenly remembered Yang Xiuqing, who had been arrested before, and hurriedly asked Yang Xiuqing's whereabouts, only to learn that Yang Xiuqing was on the Golden Dragon Hall at the moment, and at the same time, the female official also urged Li Xiucheng to hurry up to the palace, Li Xiucheng had no choice but to walk up the steps amid the cries of Hong Renji, Zhou Lichun and others for help, and entered the Golden Dragon Hall with bright candles. Then Li Xiucheng immediately saw that Yang Xiuqing, who was tied up with five flowers and his face was covered with blood, was frantically cursing Hong Xiuquan who was sitting in the palace!

“…… The surname is Hong, where am I Yang Xiuqing sorry for you? I laid down the kingdom of heaven for you, and I earned your dragon chair for you, and you listened to slander and wanted to harm me, and you wanted your two brothers to kill me, what did I do to you? Have you forgotten all this? Forgot? Your conscience has been eaten by dogs? ”

"Lao Tzu colluded with the Qing Demon, it was not right, but I colluded with the Qing Demon to deal with the Transcendence Demon, and it was also for the sake of Heaven! Leaked the rumors, the people of the kingdom of heaven are against me, and I also admit it, in order to stop the civil war in the kingdom of heaven, I will return the military and political power of the kingdom of heaven to you, how did you promise to treat me in the first place? Now that you are doing this to me again, am I colluding with the Transcendence Demon, or am I going to dedicate Tianjing City to the Transcendence Demon? Why do you do this to me? ”

"Surnamed Hong, you son of a bitch, ungrateful dog offal! I'll lose your mother! Eighteen generations of your ancestors! Shameless and incompetent, the territory of heaven is so big, and it has only taken a lot of time for you to be thrown away, you shameless and incompetent fool! ”

couldn't stand Yang Xiuqing's vicious insults, Hong Xiuquan simply drank the guard's palm, and the guard who escorted Yang Xiuqing opened his arm and opened the bow left and right, until Yang Xiuqing was full of blood, and his skin was open, and it was not easy for Yang Xiuqing to close his mouth. Then Hong Xiuquan pointed at Yang Xiuqing and roared, "Yang Yada! Shut up! I kindly sent someone to invite you to meet you, I was going to invite you to the Heavenly King's Mansion to protect your life, why did you disobey my holy decree and set fire to it behind closed doors? ”

"You don't ......."

Yang Xiuqing's voice was vague and ready to refute, but after glancing at Li Xiucheng, Yang Xiuqing's eyes rolled, and he suddenly closed his mouth, letting Hong Xiuquan scold him angrily. Not to mention the result, after roaring for a while, Hong Xiuquan's anger rested for a while, and he really let Yang Xiuqing go temporarily, turned to Li Xiucheng and asked, "King Zhong, you are not in charge of military affairs in King Zhong's mansion, what are you doing here?" ”

"Long live the Heavenly King, you must already know that the demon soldiers have blown down the walls of the Shence Gate." Li Xiucheng was not polite, and while kneeling and saluting, he directly reported the current bad situation, and said: "Your Majesty just confirmed that the gap is too big, and the demon soldiers have directly entered the city, and it is impossible to block it anymore." ”

"The demon soldiers blew down the walls of the Shence Gate? When was this?! ”

Hong Xiuquan's reaction surprised Li Xiucheng again, his face changed as if he had just known about this, and he quickly turned to Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang next to him and asked, "The demon soldiers blew up the city wall of the Shence Gate?" Why didn't you report such a big matter to me? ”

Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang glanced at each other helplessly, and then Meng Shiyong came forward and said cautiously: "Long live the king of heaven for forgiveness, the night is too late, every street in Tianjing City is under martial law, it is inconvenient for us and the Shence Gate, but I heard that not long ago, the wall of the Shence Gate seemed to have been blown down by demon soldiers, but I am not sure, so I didn't dare to report to you." ”

"Lose your mother, it turns out that these two miscellaneous people have concealed the news, and they don't dare to touch the moldy head of the king of heaven."

Li Xiucheng suddenly realized, and immediately understood that Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang were afraid that Hong Xiuquan would be angry with him, and did not dare to immediately report the bad news of the collapse of the city wall. At the same time, Li Xiucheng was very careful to find that Yang Xiuqing's bloodstained face flashed with joy, obviously gloating.

originally wanted to wait for Hong Xiuquan's mood to improve a little before making a roundabout report, but because of Li Xiucheng's personal report, Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang, the two unlucky guys, still couldn't escape Hong Xiuquan's monstrous anger, and was so angry that Hong Xiuquan not only scolded Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang on the spot to the point that he was out of his body, but also asked the guards to be the palace staff and two people with a hundred sticks each! The two unlucky guys hurriedly cried and wiped their tears and kowtowed to beg for mercy, Li Xiucheng didn't have the patience to waste time with Hong Xiuquan on this, and stood up and said: "Long live the Heavenly King, maybe you really misunderstood the Palm Rate and the King of Yan, the Shence Gate is in a mess, and there are many traitors spreading rumors to shake the hearts of the army, they receive news that there is no way to confirm the truth or falsehood, so they dare not report it casually and confuse the Holy Hearing." ”

Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang were overjoyed when they heard this, and hurriedly followed Li Xiucheng's explanation to defend themselves, insisting that they were hiding bad news for fear of misreporting the news, but Hong Xiuquan saw Li Xiucheng's face, and temporarily let go of these two unlucky guys, and roared: "Get up, get out of the way, and I'll settle accounts with you in the future!" ”

Meng Shiyong and Qin Rigang hurriedly kowtowed desperately to thank them, but Hong Xiuquan no longer paid attention to them, but just turned to Li Xiucheng and asked: "King Zhong, the city wall has been blown down, and the demon soldiers have entered the city again, what should we do now?" ”

"Long live the King of Heaven, there is only one way, let the city not leave! Abandon the city and break out! Li Xiucheng replied very simply, kowtowed and said: "Taking advantage of the fact that we still have the strength to break through now, hurry up and take the army to abandon the city and transfer, and your subordinates are willing to personally lead the palace, and swear to protect the king of heaven long live the demon soldiers to surround and move to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Suzhou and Hangzhou!" ”

"Don't let the city go? Abandon the city and break through? ”

Hearing Li Xiucheng's words, the muscles on Yang Xiuqing's blood-stained face next to him suddenly twitched, his eyelids jumped a few times, and he subconsciously pursed his lips. Hong Xiuquan's round face was stunned at first, then sank suddenly, and said angrily: "Why do you want to abandon the city and go away?" Tianjing City really can't hold it? ”