Seeing that the muzzles of more than a hundred black holes were pointed at him, Li Zicheng's face changed in an instant, and he turned his head and asked Niu Jinxing beside him: "Prime Minister Niu, where is our artillery, have you transported it to the city wall?" ”

Niu Jinxing's face changed slightly, "No, because the artillery is too heavy, we will leave the artillery outside the city." ”

As soon as he said this, Niu Jinxing saw Li Zicheng's face sink, his heart couldn't help jumping, and he hurriedly said: "But King Chuang doesn't have to worry, there are already a lot of artillery at the head of Yanjing, let's first order the soldiers to push the artillery up the city wall and prepare for a counterattack." ”

Hearing Niu Jinxing say this, Li Zicheng's face returned to normal slightly, "Well, then bother the prime minister to arrange it!" ”

Niu Jinxing secretly wiped the sweat on his forehead and hurriedly went down to prepare. Just as he was preparing, at the camp of the Great Zhou army outside the city wall, the artillery battalion guerrilla Dong Guo had already come to Pang Gang and said: "Lord Qiqi, the artillery camp has been prepared, whether to fire the cannon immediately, please command!" ”

Looking at the dense figures on the city wall, Pang Gang smiled faintly, waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, since we are here, how can we not say hello to the thieves, Dong Guerrilla, you first send someone to ask them, whether it is a battle or a surrender to give us a good word." ”

"Yes!"

After getting Pang Gang's approval, Dong Guo saluted Pang Gang, and then rode back to the artillery camp position, and after a while, a knight in black armor rode his horse to the city wall, and stopped less than a hundred steps away from the city wall, and for a time the eyes of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the battlefield were staring at him.

I saw this knight slowly riding his horse and stopped, and shouted loudly to the city wall: "Listen, the people on the city wall, I solemnly advise the thief leader Li Zicheng on the order of my prince, and wait for the thieves to harm the people and the Quartet, and now they are invading the important land of Gyeonggi, if you don't rein in the precipice as soon as possible, and wait for the time when our army attacks the city, you will regret it too late, and you will not quickly open the city wall and dismount and surrender!" ”

This knight is a naturally loud voice, in this era when there is no electronic horn, his voice can be described as "resounding in all directions", Li Zicheng and others on the city wall can all hear it clearly.

"It's good that you Pang Gang, you look down on the Lone King so much."

Li Zicheng, who was so angry that his face turned pale, shouted without thinking: "The archer obeys the order and shoots that daring madman to death!" ”

"Shoot the arrows!"

"Whoosh"

With Li Zicheng's order, the archers on the city wall bent their bows and arrows, and the arrows shot down the city wall like rain, but as if he had expected this result, the knight had already beaten his horse and ran back, and the rain of arrows could only chase after him.

"It's too much to deceive people, Pang Gang'er is too much to deceive people!"

Li Zicheng's hand on the city wall was still holding the city bricks because he was too hard, the green tendons on the back of his hand were protruding, his teeth were also clenched, and he almost roared and roared: "Niu Jinxing, is your artillery ready, if it is ready, you will open the cannon alone!" ”

"King Chuang, don't worry, Prime Minister Niu is still preparing." Someone on the side dissuaded.

Looking at Li Zicheng who was thundering on the side, Li Yan was silent, at this moment he was already very disappointed in Li Zicheng, compared with two years ago, Li Zicheng at this time was like a cannon battle that ignited at one point, the former King Chuang who could share weal and woe with his brothers and was humble has disappeared, replaced by just a person who is filled with arrogance and arrogance.

At this moment, Li Yan was very confused in his heart, he didn't know if it was a correct choice for him to work hard for several years to assist this rebel leader who was born as a postman, judging from the situation in front of him, this scene was similar to what happened to the Ming Dynasty before, he was also surrounded by people, and he was also ordered to go out of the city and open the door to surrender, and now this scene is so ironic in his opinion.

When Li Yan looked up at the city wall, after seeing the arrows shot down from the city, Dong Guo was angry, and immediately ordered the gunner to open fire.

As the order was given, the artillery erected five hundred paces outside the city had already spewed orange flames, and one after another swarthy projectiles pierced the air and flew towards the city with a sharp whistling sound.

"Boom Boom"

Due to the first round of test firing, the landing point of this batch of shells was not very accurate, many projectiles fell in front of and behind the city wall, but there were also more than a dozen projectiles on the city wall. Soon, a thunderous explosion sounded on the city walls, and after the projectile exploded, the shells that were only a few millimeters thick flew out in all directions under the impetus of the kinetic energy that exploded when the gunpowder exploded.

Projectiles flew everywhere in the dense crowd of soldiers on the city wall, and many soldiers of the Dashun Army fell to the ground screaming, and the city wall was in a mess. Yesterday, the Dashun army that entered the city reached 160,000 people, and because of the abundance of manpower, the city wall was now full of dense soldiers, and because there were so many people standing on the city wall, that a single shell would take the lives of more than 10 or even dozens of people.

Although the city wall was blown up to the point of jumping chickens and dogs, but on the artillery camp position more than 500 steps away from the city wall, Dong Guo was still not satisfied with the effect of the first round of shelling, just now a round of shelling, more than 100 rounds of shells were fired, but only more than 20 fell on the city, the hit rate was too low, in view of this, Dong Guo ordered the gunners to readjust the firing angle.

After a cup of tea, the artillery battalion, which had readjusted its firing angle, began to roar again, which was much better than the first round of shelling, and nearly half of the more than 100 projectiles fell on the city wall.

As the projectiles continued to explode, the flames and waves of the explosion continued to devour the lives of the soldiers on the city wall, and in less than half a meal, thousands of soldiers were killed.

"What the hell is going on?"

Li Zicheng, who was dizzy by the explosion, looked at the violent explosions that kept sounding around him, and he was both panicked and anxious when he was protected by more than a dozen escort regiments, and turned around and scolded: "Where is Niu Jinxing? And what about the artillery? Why haven't you come here yet, you quickly send someone to tell him that Lone will give him two more cups of tea, and if he doesn't pull the artillery again, Lone will cut off his head! ”

Li Zicheng, who has been in the career of Rong Ma for half his life, is not an uninformed bun, he has fought with the Ming army for more than ten years, he is naturally very familiar with artillery, and he is not without fighting with Pang Gang's soldiers and horses, the first two years of the Battle of Luoyang, his more than 100,000 troops were broken up by Pang Gang, and in the past two years, he has been constantly rubbing with the Great Zhou Army under Pang Gang on the Hubei border.

But it was the first time that he had stood on the city wall and faced such a large-scale bombardment, and a flowering bullet landed less than ten steps away from him, blowing more than a dozen of his guards into bloody flesh, which also aroused his anger even more.

Seeing that the cannonballs continued to fall on the city, the dense crowd was not only not beneficial to their own defense of the city, but could only increase their own casualties, and in desperation, Li Zicheng had to order some soldiers to go down the city wall first, and then go up the city wall to defend against the enemy after the other party began to attack the city.

The attack lasted for a meal, and almost every cannon under the city fired dozens of flowering shells, although the artillery under Pang Gang's command was of good quality, but due to the heat of the barrel, the rumbling cannon slowly stopped.

When the sound of the cannon completely stopped, and after another cup of tea, the dust and black smoke on the city head were slowly blown away by the majestic wind, and the scene on the city head slowly appeared in front of everyone.

The originally neat and mighty city wall is now like a rat-bitten flatbread all become pitted, bloodstains, ruins and broken walls are everywhere by the flowering bomb killed no less than 2,000 soldiers, the explosion of soldiers even more injured, many missing arms and legs of the soldiers lying on the ground and wailing loudly, some of them begged their companions to save him, some are begging their companions to give them a good time, for a while, the city wall is full of the sound of ghosts crying and howling wolves.

Seeing his soldiers around the dead and wounded, Li Zicheng took out the treasure knife on his waist, and was about to order someone to arrest Niu Jinxing, who was responsible for mobilizing artillery to counterattack, to ask for the guilt, only then did he see Niu Jinxing hurriedly running over with a pale face, and said to Li Zicheng with a crying voice: "King Chuang, I just went to see, although there are a lot of artillery in the treasury under the city, but there is no gunpowder, and then I asked those soldiers to know that all the gunpowder in the warehouse was stolen and sold by the officers guarding the city!" ”

"What!"

Li Zicheng only felt a flower in front of him, his feet were soft, and he was almost about to fall, but fortunately, the guards around him supported him, Li Zicheng pointed at Niu Jinxing and shouted angrily: "You idiot, why didn't you pull our artillery in when you entered the city yesterday, even if the artillery doesn't pull in the gunpowder, it's good, you are really angry!" ”

Li Zicheng became more and more angry the more he spoke, and then stretched out his right foot and kicked Niu Jinxing upside down, looking at Niu Jinxing who fell to the ground, no one stepped forward to intercede, they can see from this incident that although Niu Jinxing can speak well, but when it comes to the critical moment, the chain will be dropped, and due to his negligence, the artillery that Li Yan spent more than a year hard to cast was left outside the city and captured by the Great Zhou army in vain, even if he looked at his head.

Looking at Li Zicheng with a murderous face, Niu Jinxing, who fell to the ground, was anxious, he knew very well that if he couldn't immediately come up with a way to resist the enemy, Li Zicheng, who was already red-eyed, would really dare to kill, thinking of this, Niu Jinxing quickly got up and said loudly: "King Chuang, since our artillery has been lost, continuing to stay in the city can only wait to be bombed, that can only be the way to die, let's order all the soldiers and horses out of the city to fight a decisive battle with that Pang Gang, maybe there is a chance to turn defeat into victory!" ”

"You talk nonsense!"

A loud shout came from behind Niu Jinxing, and everyone turned their heads to look, it turned out to be Li Yan and Song Xiance, who were hiding in the corner of the city wall to avoid the projectile, and hurriedly walked over, only to see Li Yan pointing at Niu Jinxing's nose and shouting: "Prime Minister Niu Cheng, are you crazy?" Now the morale of our army is low, and going out of the city to fight the enemy at this time is not a decisive battle, it is to die! ”

As soon as Li Yan got up from the ruins, he heard Niu Jinxing actually advocate to Li Zicheng in order to save his life that he would take the initiative to attack the Great Zhou army that took the initiative to open the city gate and go outside the city. If you are in a wide area, it is fine, but if the whole army goes out of the city through the narrow gate to fight the enemy, the place only needs to point the guns and artillery fire at the city gate, and you will not be enough to die.

"You know what!" It's about his own life, Niu Jinxing can't care so much, he pushed Li Yan's finger away and retorted loudly: "Li Yan, don't wait for Zhuge Liang after pretending to be here, I know, you are jealous that I became the prime minister, and you will be unwilling if you don't fix me down, right?" Don't think that Prime Minister Ben doesn't know what you have done, you secretly sent several sets of outposts to the south a few days ago, it stands to reason that you should have known about Pang Gang's dispatch of troops, but you didn't report a word to King Chuang, what crime should you be guilty of? ”

"You!"

Li Yan didn't expect Niu Jinxing to be so shameless, and in order to survive, he even beat himself upside down, ignoring the friendship between the two for many years, and said such vicious language.

Sure enough, all the surrounding generals, including Li Zicheng, looked at him, Li Zicheng frowned and said, "Li Gongzi, is what Prime Minister Niu Cheng said true, have you ever sent a sentry to the south?" ”

Li Yan was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and said, "King Qi, the students did send outposts to the south, but these outposts are either missing or have not found out any news, so they have not reported to you. ”

"Humph!"

Li Zicheng snorted coldly and said angrily: "Since you know that your outpost is missing, why didn't you make it clear to Yu Gu as soon as possible, could it be that you deliberately concealed the enemy's situation and did not report it?" ”

Li Zicheng's words hit Li Yan's heart like a thunderbolt, since he entered Li Zicheng's command, Li Zicheng has never spoken to him in such a tone, although Li Zicheng is dissatisfied with him during this time, but he is not as polite as today, and now when he says this, it is obvious that he has been dissatisfied with Li Yan to the extreme.

"Hehehehe"

After listening to Li Zicheng's words, Li Yan laughed angrily and said: "King Chuang, I didn't expect that the students would work hard for you for several years, and in the end, would it end like this?" Could it be that students are the kind of people in your heart? ”

"You"

Li Zicheng couldn't help but be speechless, and at the same time, every bit of Li Yan since he took refuge in him came to his mind, from proposing him to enter Hubei, moving to Shaanxi, developing the foundation, and then establishing the Dashun regime, everything was quickly filtered in his heart like a marquee.

"Could it be that Li Gongzi really doesn't know?"

Li Zicheng hesitated for a while, seeing Li Zicheng's expression, Niu Jinxing on the side was anxious, he knew that he had torn his face with Li Yan today, if he couldn't move it down, even if he could escape death today, he would not have his own good fruit to eat in the future.

Thinking of this, Niu Jinxing turned his heart sideways, pointed at Li Yan and shouted: "Li Yan, don't deceive King Chuang with lies, you have sent so many outposts, even if the whole army is wiped out, with your Li Gongzi's resourcefulness, will you not know that there must be a situation?" Even if you don't know, won't you report it to King Chuang? And you concealed the military situation and did not report it to King Chuang, what crime should you be guilty of! ”

"Hmm!"

After hearing Niu Jinxing's words, Li Zicheng's eyes couldn't help but condense, and he felt that Niu Jinxing's words were very reasonable, he turned his head and asked in a deep voice: "Li Gongzi, what else do you have to say?" ”

Looking at Niu Jinxing, Li Yan only felt that the face of his former friend was so ugly, and he only felt that his mouth was bitter and he said helplessly to Li Zicheng: "The student has nothing to say." ”

"Okay, since you still have nothing to say, then don't blame you for being lonely and ruthless, come on!" Li Zicheng was about to summon people, but he saw that the generals around him knelt on the ground one after another, and even Song Xiance bowed down and said: "King Chuang atoned for his sins, Li Gongzi can be said to be loyal to you." At that time, we were busy capturing Yanjing, and Li Gongzi was very busy, so how could he have time to pay attention to a few sentinels? Just spare him this time! ”

"Yes, King Chuang." Liu Zongmin on the side also said: "Although Lao Liu, although I am a rough person, I still trust Li Gongzi's character, has he done less for our rebels over the years?" This matter can't be all thanks to Li Gongzi, and please ask King Chuang to spare Li Gongzi's life in the past love! ”

"Please break through the king's grace!"

More than a dozen generals around him also pleaded one after another.

Looking at the generals who knelt on the ground, Li Zicheng took a deep breath, his eyes quickly changed a few times, and then he said slowly: "Brothers, please get up, you all misunderstand what Gu meant, Gu Ke never said that he wanted Li Gongzi's life, but the death penalty can be avoided and the living crime cannot be escaped." Li Yan, from now on, I will be relieved of your position as a military advisor, but the Henan battalion is still under your command, can you be convinced? ”

Li Yan's eyes were full of tears, he bowed down slowly, and said in a trembling voice: "Li Yan thanked King Chuang for his grace not to kill." ”

After Li Yan finished speaking, he slowly stepped aside, closed his mouth and never spoke again.

After Li Zicheng disposed of Wan Li Yan, he turned his head and glared at Niu Jinxing angrily, and shouted: "Niu Jinxing, due to your negligence, Gu will also be exempted from your responsibility as prime minister, but in your past merits, Gu allowed you to temporarily take the position of military advisor, what do you think?" ”

Niu Jinxing's body trembled, and he hurriedly bowed down and said: "Niu Jinxing thank you for the great grace of King Chuang!" ”

Looking at King Chuang's disposition, everyone's hearts were flooded, Li Zicheng's disposition seemed to be fair, and Li Yan was removed from the post of military advisor, and at the same time, he was also removed from the post of prime minister of Niu Jinxing, but after thinking about it carefully, it was not like that, after Li Yan was removed from the post of military advisor, he could only honestly lead his battalion of soldiers and horses, and did not have the right to directly contact Li Zicheng and give advice, that is to say, he has been excluded from the highest power circle by Li Zicheng. And although Niu Jinxing was nominally removed from the post of prime minister, he can still stay by Li Zicheng's side, and everyone knows which punishment is lighter and which is heavier!

(To be continued)