Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde's army from the west of Jiankang down the Yangtze River, the army was stationed in Linjiang County, here to Jiankang's precursor Stone City is only a dozen miles away, Xiao Zhengde's forward army has even arrived under Jiankang City, and the defenders of Yangkan have broken up and retreated.

Outside the city, Hou Jing's troops had already beaten the cannon to the ground, and Xiao Yan in the palace in the city was hiding behind the dragon bed trembling at this time, his face was pale and he muttered Buddhist scriptures in his mouth, and suddenly the steel Buddha beads in his hand were broken, but he was too nervous, too strong, and too fast, causing the steel Buddha beads to rub and thread, and finally overheat and cause them to break. Looking at the Buddha beads scattered on the ground, he lay on the ground like a life-saving straw and rowed around frantically, trying to gather those scattered Buddha beads, but unfortunately the old age and frailty hands and feet were sluggish, and the slippery Buddha beads were like long legs, which were not under his control at all.

Just as his empire was scattered and shattered by the impact of Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde, at this time, Xiao Yan, who was full of white hair, could only hide in the corner and cry like a child who had been robbed of a toy. Imagine that he pacified the civil strife of the Qi Dynasty, supported the puppet emperor, sat behind the scenes, and later abolished the Qi Emperor as the Marquis of Haidu, and ascended the throne to establish the Liang Dynasty, what a great achievement, how heroic he was at that time, how proud he was in the world, but unfortunately the hero was also in the twilight, Xiao Yan at this time was just a gray-haired old man, acting strangely, acting in a political stupor, killing bloodthirsty and moody.

Wang Yong, the chief eunuch of the inner chamberlain, walked in quickly from outside at this time, wanting to report the latest battle situation to him, and when he entered the door, he saw that there was no one around, and the maids and the little eunuchs were standing outside the hall waiting, Wang Yong shouted a little anxiously: "Your Majesty? Your Majesty? Finally, he found Xiao Yan with messy hair and a demented face in the curtain behind the dragon bed, and he looked more and more old at this time.

Wang Yong hurriedly walked up and knelt down and whispered, "Your Majesty, what's wrong with you, are you looking for something here?" Looking at the Buddha beads scattered all over the ground, Wang Yong hurriedly helped him pick up the pillar with both hands and feet, held it in front of Xiao Yan with his palm and said, "Your Majesty, the old slave helped you find all the Buddha beads." ”

Xiao Yan looked at the beads in his hand, and then he came to his senses and asked, "How is the war outside the city?" Will Yang Kan be able to withstand Hou Jing's rebels? Wang Yong helped Xiao Yan stand up and straighten his clothes and hair, and said calmly: "General Yang sent someone to inform the old slave early in the morning that Hou Jing had taken advantage of the night to sneak attack Stone City, and the King of Xianyang had led the remnants to retreat into the city. Xiao Yan was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "How about throwing this stone away?" ”

Wang Yong comforted him and said: "General Yang also told the old slave, our city wall here is high and thick, the soldiers are good enough to wait for work, Hou Jing's rebels are tired and demoralized, and they will definitely not dare to attack rashly for a while. That's the best way to go. ”

Xiao Yan hurriedly nodded and agreed: "I will go and write a letter to the royal families of various feudal towns now, and ask them to quickly lead troops into Beijing to escort them." Wang Yong nodded and helped him to walk towards the Qinzheng Palace, along the way, the palace maids and eunuchs ran around in a chaotic manner, Wang Yong scolded loudly: "What are you flustered about?" Those who disturb the morale of the army will not be spared. At the moment, everyone honestly bowed their heads and walked slowly. The edifice will be destroyed by the wind, and it will be difficult to unite people's hearts when they collapse.

Xiao Yan trembled and wrote a letter for Wang Yong to take to Zhu Yi, a scholar in the middle school, and asked him to immediately proclaim the world and let the generals of the Sifang Town come to rescue him.

In the Zhongshu Palace, Zhu Yi didn't know whether to send this text or not, he had already learned that Xiao Zhengde was supported by Hou Jing as the supreme, and Xiao Yan's side was obviously weak, although it was possible that Hou Jing's army would not be able to enter for a while, but according to the swiftness of Hou Jingjun's actions and the difficulty of defending the lonely city, it was only a matter of time before Jiankang fell, and what Zhu Yi was thinking about at the moment was how to save his life.

The political doctors on the side were waiting for his order, and immediately sent letters to the various feudal towns in a step-by-step manner. Someone was stunned when he saw Zhu Yi sitting on the top with a text in his hand, and couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "My lord?" When are we going to post this article? My lord? Zhu Yi eased up from his thoughts, looking at the people in the room, he wanted to find a reason to delay for a while.

Since ancient times, there have been villains like Zhu Yi in all dynasties, who have forgotten their righteousness and are treacherous and shameless. But it is this kind of person who causes the collapse of a country and the emergence of a new king. It is inseparable from this kind of villain who changes the trend of history, and at this time, the fate of Liang Guo has changed from Xiao Yan's hands to his hands. It's just that none of them know, only the wheels of history roll forward.

At this time, a waiter outside the door ran in anxiously and cheered: "Lord Qiqi, our reinforcements have arrived in Dongfu City outside the southern city." Zhu Yi hurriedly got up and asked, "Is this serious?" The waiter wiped the sweat on his head and said happily: "Well, that's right, it's the prince's troops who have returned to the court, accompanied by people from Huiji and Shanyin counties, about 10,000 people." At this time, Zhu Yi had already made up his mind, turned around and immediately said to everyone in the room: "Everyone, everyone hurry up and send this copy to all places, act quickly!" ”

It turned out that Xiao Yan's prince Xiao Gang replaced himself to patrol the southern counties, and just walked to the Huiji and Shanyin areas to learn of Hou Jing's rebellion, although most of the accompanying eunuchs and maids, but there was also a Praetorian Guard with a number of 2,000, plus the temporary requisition of the two counties of Aki Shanyin with a total of 12,000 people, although the troops were a patchwork army, but in view of the severe guard situation at this time, it was better than nothing.

Xiao Gang's troops were stationed in the east mansion in the south of the city, and Yang Kan and Xiao Fan worked together to defend the city in the city. Over there, Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde were also discussing how to break the city.

In Stone City, Xiao Zhengde and Hou Jing sat side by side at the top, and the generals of both sides sat on both sides below, and at the bottom were Taishou and Sima who were sitting in several neighboring counties. This stone is close to Jiankang, standing on the city tower can clearly see the movement of the defenders in the city, to say that it is difficult to hear a few marksmen with a giant bow to shoot arrows into the city, it is estimated that it can be shot into the palace.

Xiao Zhengde looked at the generals who were discussing below, cleared his throat and said, "Everyone be quiet, let's listen to the latest information from the scout report first." After speaking, an armored warrior with a red flag feather on his back ran in from outside the door barefoot (the inside of the house is a wooden floor, and you must take off your shoes at the door) Dong Dong Dong, knelt down to Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde, and said: "The young general is the scout captain, and now we will explain the general defense deployment of Jiankang City that we know." With that, he hung a topographical map of the Jiangkang area in the middle of the room and began to explain, and the generals looked sideways at him to explain on the map.

"The west of the city is the key area of the enemy's strict defense at the moment, here, here, and here there are a large number of archers, here and here a large number of foot soldiers, here and here there are artillery arranged, the west city wall is about 15,000 people of defensive troops, the guard will be Yang Kan, in the area of Jilong Mountain and Zhoushan is distributed arrow tower artillery, Xuanwu Lake is arranged with naval ships, the number is about 8,000, the guard will be Xianyang Wang Xiao Fan. To the south of the city was the army of the crown prince Xiao Gang, which also had more than 10,000 people. At present, only the defense of the east of the city is weak, and as for the number of defenders in the palace, due to the tight defense of the enemy army, it is impossible to send people in to investigate for the time being. ”

Hou Jing got up and walked to the map when he heard this, and the scout captain quickly stepped aside. In fact, he couldn't understand this map, but as the main general, he had to come up with his own troubles, and he couldn't let these people who followed him think that he was two hundred and five, so he asked the scout captain as if he was thinking: "Xiao Gang's troops in the south of the city actually didn't enter the imperial city, but were only stationed in that small city in Dongfu?" The scout captain hurriedly explained: "Like, according to the information found by the villain, this is exactly the case. ”

Xiao Zhengde said very confidently at this time: "With my understanding of that Xiao Gang, he must be afraid that he will be surrounded by our army after entering the city, and he will not be able to escape at that time, so he is stationed in Dongfu outside the city and does not dare to enter the city." "It's not that there is no such possibility, even if it is not Xiao Gang's own wishes, it must be the strategists and generals around him who ask for this, let alone husband and wife, what about father and son, it is not their own calculations, everyone wants to leave a way back for themselves to escape.

It is indeed not Xiao Gang's attention not to enter the city, and his generals have said that they can only be surrounded by all of them when they enter the city, and it is better to temporarily garrison in Dongfu, and form a horn with Yang Kan in the city, if the imperial city is attacked, they will sneak attack Hou Jing's ass, if Dongfu is attacked, Yang Kan will lead the army out of the city to attack the rebels on both sides. Xiao Gang and his father are not all the way, they have no opinions, and seeing that everyone is reluctant to enter the city, they can only be stationed in Dongfu.

Hou Jing heard Xiao Zhengde say this, and immediately decided to send a large army to surround the west first, and personally led the cavalry to the East Mansion to meet this Xiao Gang to see how much strength he had. Xiao Zhengde himself sat in Stone City, and asked his generals to assemble on the north bank of Xuanwu Lake, preparing to attack Beicheng from the water.

The soldiers and horses of several rebellious counties were used as cannon fodder to make a feint attack under the city in the west.

At this time, the text denouncing Hou Jing had been secretly sent from Jiankang to various places, and soon the troops of the local feudal towns would come to encircle and destroy him.

In Dongfu City, Xiao Gang's camp, at this time, the prince Xiao Gang was reading the secret letter given to him by his father Xiao Yan: If there is an accident, don't worry too much, just wave your army south to meet with Xiao Duo, the king of Xiangdong, and then gather the army to destroy Hou Jing. Xiao Gang read the secret letter with tears in his eyes, Xu Jiuqi, the Taishou of Shanyin, and Mi Mazhong, the prince of the Shaofu, were also very moved, and the Huiji Taishou stood up and said: "It is useless for us to cry all day here, it is better to quickly find a way to save Your Majesty from danger, I heard that Xiao Zhengde, the Marquis of Xifeng, has defected to Hou Jing, and the situation is becoming more and more unfavorable, please cheer up Your Highness and lead us to exterminate Hou Jing's rebels." ”

Xiao Gang was very surprised when he heard that Xiao Zhengde had surrendered to Hou Jing, and hurriedly asked, "Even Uncle Huang ...... How far has it got? At this time, the scout outside the gate reported: Hou Jing sent someone to shoot a letter of persuasion in the city. Huiji Taishou took the letter of persuasion and handed it to Xiao Gang, Xiao Gang took it and looked at it, patted his thigh and scolded: "This Hou Jing is simply too deceitful!" Mi Mazhong took it and took a look, the content is as follows: Since my return to Hou Jingbei, the external enemy has humiliated the internal town of the country, although he did not dare to compare himself with the founding fathers, but he also paid a lot for the country. The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty did not read the emperor's grace, did not prepare for the invasion, but the friends were traitors, and they could only raise troops with the Marquis of Xifeng to enter Beijing to the side of the Qing monarch and support the country. If the civil and military forces in the city read the emperor's grace, they should open the door to greet them, and if they resist stubbornly with Zhu Yi, Yang Kan and other small corners, they will not be spared in the future.

"Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengde have already blatantly begun to demagoguery before they enter the city, which is a public rebellion in the name of the Qing monarch." Mi Ma Zhong said in a contemptuous tone. Xiao Gang was so angry that he trembled and scolded: "Hou Jing was like a lost dog who was forced into a desperate situation by Gao Huan, it wasn't his father who saved his life, and now he doesn't know where to wander." Such a lowly villain with a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs against his master really deserves to be executed with a thousand knives. ”

Huiji Taishou said indignantly: "It's better for us to rob the camp tonight and capture Hou Jing and Xiao Zhengdesheng." Xu Jiuqi and Mi Mazhong looked at him like crazy people, Xiao Gang didn't squeak, these people are all literati, and they are more powerful than anyone else, so they will be cowardly if they really want to go into battle, not to mention that the opponent is Hou Jing, who is old and cunning and experienced in a hundred battles. (To be continued.) )