Li Ming and Song Tao stayed in Linqing for a day, then said goodbye to Wang He and flew all the way to the capital of Daming by airship. At this time, a newly built cavalry division of the Northern Corps of the Central Plains Campaign Command of the Far Eastern Army and a field division of the Northeast Corps had surrounded the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the participating troops did not attack, but held the outer passages of Beijing, completely cutting off the connection between the capital and the outside world.

At this time, the Ming court had become a mess, and Emperor Chongzhen and the Manchu Dynasty were all panicked. The attack of the Far Eastern Army was lightning fast, and before the capital of the Ming Dynasty could react, it was surrounded by the Far Eastern Army, and now even if you want to, you can't run.

At this time, many courtiers and nobles of the Ming Dynasty saw that the general trend had gone, and they were thinking with trepidation how to turn their backs on the Lord and seek glory, so that they could become an official and a half-official in the New Dynasty of the Far East.

Chongzhen appointed the hereditary governors of Jingying Rongzheng and Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen as the commanders of the city, and appointed Wang Chengen, the eunuch who supervised the Beijing camp, as the commander of the Nine Gates to work with Li Guozhen.

They were ordered to organize the soldiers and horses of the Beijing Battalion, Tengxiang Four Guards Battalion, Warrior Battalion, Internal Exercise Eunuchs, Guards Shangzhi Army, Imperial City Guard Army, Capital Patrol Battalion and Warrior Battalion to strengthen the city defense, and even the eunuchs and soldiers who participated in the "Internal Exercise" in the palace were also sent by Chongzhen to guard the inner city.

And in the city to gather young and strong, but also mobilized the noble generals in the city, this barely gathered more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, together to participate in the defense of the city.

Although the number of troops in the Beijing camp was more than 100,000, it had long been abolished, and most of the squad troops that had been regularly recruited from various garrisons had been converted into silver taels or sent to border towns to garrison and build fortifications.

The pro-army and the sergeants of the Beijing guard stationed in Beijing were either old, weak, sick and disabled, or asked someone to take the roll call on their behalf, or they were occupied by the family of the honorable relatives for hard labor. Since the rise of the army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing camp has never had a record at all. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, there were 110,000 soldiers on the books of the Beijing camp, but half of them were dead, and the rest had no combat effectiveness.

Tengxiang Siwei Battalion and Warrior Battalion, the two emperor's pro-armies, had gone out to suppress the people's rebellion under the leadership of generals such as Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong, but they had been lost for a long time, and at this time they had no combat effectiveness.

In the past, when the Mongolian army and the Qing army entered the country, the Ming court would summon the Ming army from all over the country to return to Beijing and Qinwang. But at this time, there were no Qinwang troops under the city of Beijing.

Because under the rapid offensive of the Far Eastern Army, the Ming troops in Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Jizhen and other places that defended Beijing were either crushed at the first touch, or surrendered to the Far Eastern Army en masse.

Including Wu Xiang, the general soldier of Liaodong stationed in the Guanjin defense line, the Northeast Corps only fired one shot, and their father and son were so frightened that they handed over the Guanjin defense line and tens of thousands of Guanning troops to the Far Eastern Army in Jinzhou.

Liu Zeqing, the chief soldier of Shandong, was even more unbearable, and before he understood what was going on, his soldiers and horses were broken by the troops of the Northeast Corps landing on the coast of Shandong, and he was also captured by the men bought by the Far East Intelligence Department in Jinan, and Kaesong surrendered to the Far East Army.

Even the defenders from all over the country did not even have time to send urgent documents to Beijing, and when the assault troops of the newly built cavalry division of the Far Eastern Army appeared near the earthen city wall of the Yuan capital in the north of Beijing, the defenders in Beijing knew that the Far Eastern Army had already arrived in the city.

It is said that the defenders of Beijing should garrison troops and horses outside the city and engage the invading enemy under the city. However, no matter how Li Guozhen, the uncle of Xiangcheng, ordered, and even the bounty and military law were used, no one was willing to go out of the city to fight a decisive battle with the Far Eastern Army.

Li Guozhen had no choice but to strengthen the fortifications of the city, hoping to use the strong city defense of Beijing to resist the attack of the Far East. The people in the city also learned the news of the siege of the capital, and the city became chaotic.

At this time, Zhang Jinyan, the secretary of the Ming Army, secretly contacted many officials in the city frequently to discuss how to deal with the next situation. After several discussions, they decided to open the gates at the right time and offer them the merit of the city in exchange for their future in the new dynasty.

The airship that Li Ming and Song Tao were riding slowly landed at the airship take-off and landing field on the outskirts of Beijing. Shi Mingfeng, political commissar of the Central Plains Campaign Command, Lin Hua, chief of staff, and others, as well as Qiang Quansheng of the Northeast Corps, and other corps leaders rushed to greet Li Ming's arrival.

They saw Li Ming and Song Tao jump off the airship and greeted them. Shi Mingfeng, the political commissar at the head, said with a smile: "Commander, everyone is looking forward to your return, if you don't come back, these guys will rebel." ”

Li Ming listened to Shi Mingfeng's words and said with a smile: "No way, there are some mistakes in the Yangtze River fleet's plan to plunder Jiangnan, I have to rush over to deal with it, I'm afraid everyone can't wait." ”

Lin Hua held Li Ming's hand and said with a smile: "These guys look at Beijing City every day, and their hearts are anxious, and they think every day that they can lead the troops into Beijing City as soon as possible." ”

Song Tao next to him shouted: "Don't talk about you, even Lao Tzu is in a hurry, I still want to go into the city to talk about life with Chongzhen." ”

Everyone laughed when they heard Song Tao's words.

Li Ming exchanged pleasantries with everyone, and then came to a high ground outside Beijing together, holding a telescope to observe the city defense situation of Beijing in the distance.

Beijing has always been known by feng shui scholars as the ideal capital city where "mountains and rivers are embraced". In terms of geographical pattern, "Liaojie in the east, Taihang in the west, Shuodesert in the north, the military capital in the back, and the Central Plains in the south." "A strategy conducive to development and control.

In August 1368, the Ming general Xu Da led his troops to capture Dadu. In order to facilitate military defense, the Ming soldiers shrank the north city south by 5 miles and built a new city wall, thus laying the northern boundary of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty.

In the first year of Yongle, Ming Chengzu changed Beiping to Beijing. In the nineteenth year of Yongle, the capital was officially established in Beijing. The Beijing city of the Ming Dynasty was the reconstruction of the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty, the north wall shrank 5 li to the south, and the south wall was displayed 2 li to the south, becoming a rectangle in the east-west direction. The palace and the imperial city were rebuilt. The basic outline of the city of Beijing is the palace city, the imperial city, the inner city and the outer city.

Beijing's city defense system consists of city walls, including arrow towers, corner towers, enemy platforms and other ancillary buildings, moats and garrison troops. "Miyagi is in the center, the four sides are arched and guarded, the main seat faces south, the central axis is prominent, and the two wings are balanced and symmetrical." This is the biggest feature of the planning and layout of Beijing City in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Ming put down the binoculars, turned to the people behind him and said, "Daming has invested a lot of soldiers and horses on the city wall of Beijing, hehe...... I don't know if we shoot past and there will be a few people left on the city wall. ”

"Haha...... Haha......"

Everyone laughed when they heard him.

Song Tao next to him also said with a smile: "Why waste shells, let the air boat troops fly around at a low altitude, it is estimated that there will be no one in the city." ”

"In the past few days, some people in the city have gone out of the city to meet us, hoping to lead their troops to surrender and open the city gate to let our Far Eastern Army enter the city."

Li Ming listened to Chief of Staff Lin Hua's words, turned his head and smiled: "There is still this matter, how do you reply to them." ”

Lin Hua smiled and said, "Although I didn't agree to him immediately, I also comforted and encouraged him, and asked the intelligence officers in the city to contact them." (To be continued.) )