Seeing that the Empress Dowager Chu Garlic was so dignified, all the ministers were very impressed, and they admired this woman who was only twenty years old more and more in their hearts.

"Queen Mother, there are still more than 50 strong men in the old minister's mansion, and the old minister is willing to give them all and let them help guard the city wall." Minister He Chong said with his fists clenched.

"Queen Mother, there are twenty strong men in the minister's mansion, and I am willing to give them all."

"The queen mother, the minister is willing to lead the strong men in the family to personally garrison the city and share the worries of the country."

Under the leadership of He Chong, the important ministers in the hall expressed their desire to help defend the city wall and share worries for the country.

Seeing that his construction was not approved by the Empress Dowager, Cai Mo sighed in his heart, and then hugged his fists and said: "Empress Dowager, there are still hundreds of thousands of people in the capital, and there are no less than tens of thousands of young and middle-aged men. ”

When Chu Lianzi heard this, he said loudly: "Spread the will of the mourning family, all men over the age of eighteen and under the age of fifty in the capital have entered the war readiness and are ready to reinforce the city at any time. ”

"Yes, Queen Mother."

"The capital is in danger, all of you Aiqing go back and prepare! Retreat. After Chu Garlic finished speaking, he hugged the little emperor Sima Dan and left the Taiji Palace.

"Congratulations to the Queen Mother." The ministers bent down and saluted, and then got up to leave the Taiji Palace, and on the way out of the main hall, the ministers still gathered in groups of three or five to discuss the current shape of the capital.

After leaving the palace, the ministers performed their duties and went to their respective posts, among them, the officials who were responsible for mobilizing the people led a group of subordinates to convey the empress dowager's decree from house to house, so that the men in the city were ready to prepare their weapons and be ready to go to the city at any time.

#####

In the direction of the north gate of Jiankang City, Yao Gezhong's siege army launched a fierce attack on Jiankang City for several hours, but did not break through the city.

Yao Xiang was also a little annoyed that Jiankang City had not been captured after several hours of attack, but he soon realized that he had underestimated the defensive strength of Jiankang City, the defensive strength of Jiankang City was stronger than he imagined, and the will to resist of the Jin army defending the city was also better than he imagined.

In order to break through Jiankang City, Yao Xiang frowned and thought about it, he looked up at the head of the city where the fierce battle was in full swing, and saw that only a small part of the female wall at the head of Jiankang City was destroyed, and most of the female walls were intact.

A pot of boiling oil poured down from the city, and several Qiang warriors who were climbing along the ladder fell to the ground, and then, a torch was thrown down from the city, and several soldiers who were covered with boiling hot oil were ignited, and several soldiers were immediately surrounded by fire, rolling on the ground in despair, and soon stopped struggling.

Yao Xiang saw it in his eyes, his heart was angry, he looked at the corpses of several soldiers covered in fire, and suddenly had a plan in his heart.

"Father, if you continue to fight like this, the casualties will be too great, and our army should attack with fire and burn Jiankang City." Yao Xiang hugged his fist and built a yì towards Yao Gezhong.

"Fire attack?" Yao Gezhong frowned, obviously not understanding yet.

Yao Xiang pointed to the thunderbolt cart beside him and said loudly: "Father, use these thunderbolt carts to throw a large fire at the Jin army defending the city, so that they can also taste the power of the fire." ”

Hearing this, Yao Gezhong stroked his chin and beard, and said loudly: "Okay, Xiang'er, this matter will be handed over to you." ”

"Yes, father, the boy will do it." After Yao Xiang finished speaking, he turned around and went to prepare.

The siege lasted for another half an hour, and at this time, the sky had already darkened, and the soldiers of the Wuyi battalion defending the city had already lit a large number of torches on the top of the city, and countless torches were also lit on the position of Yao Gezhong's army outside the city.

Under the city wall of the north gate of Jiankang City, Cai Mo came with two thousand men and horses to reinforce, these two thousand people and horses are all young and middle-aged people in the palaces of the ministers in the capital, these people are of different ages, and their positions are different, and they have been mixed in the high gate for a long time, and they are full of a slippery habit, few of them are really willing to come to defend the city, but their lord asked for this, they did not dare to be disobedient, so they had to go to the city wall obediently.

Cai Mo also looked down on these oily and oily families, but this was all the intention of the ministers in the capital, and he couldn't refuse, so he had to bring them to defend the city.

"Father, ** is ready, and you can launch a fire attack." Yao Xiang returned to Yao Gezhong's side and asked for his life.

Yao Gezhong nodded and said, "Then what are you waiting for, launch immediately." ”

"Yes, father." Yao Xiang responded, turned sideways and said loudly: "The thunderbolt will be launched immediately." ”

The operators of the Thunderbolt immediately ignited the prepared incendiary material and launched it.

"Huhuhuhu......" Hundreds of huge fireballs roared towards Jiankang City.

Clusters of flames fell on different positions on the city wall, igniting the rolling wood, fire oil and other garrison materials on the city wall, and some fireballs smashed on the bodies of the soldiers of the Wuyi Battalion, igniting the leather armor on the soldiers of the Wuyi Battalion.

Of course, more fireballs crossed the walls of Jiankang City, throwing huge fireballs into the city of Jiankang City, and many houses near the city walls were ignited, and the fire soon burned, illuminating the direction of the north gate of Jiankang City as bright as day.

Some fireballs fell into the team of 2,000 behind Cai Mo, setting fire to the clothes of more than a dozen family members, and several of them were burned to death on the spot.

The fireballs launched by the Zhao army outside the city were still being thrown into the city, and among the 2,000 people brought by Cai Mo, there were constantly families who were hit by the fireballs, which caused confusion in the team, and the fire in the surrounding houses increased the fear in the hearts of the families.

"It's on fire! Run! Suddenly, one of the housekeepers in the group shouted and ran deeper into the city.

"Run! Run! Soon, many of them followed, and then all the 2,000 families scattered and fled.

"Come back, come back." Cai Mo shouted loudly, but it had no effect at all, the family members were unwilling to come to the city wall to die, at this time, seeing others fleeing, how could they not flee with them, besides, those fireballs falling from the sky were really terrifying.

"My lord, they all ran away, what should I do." The subordinates beside him were shocked.

"A rabble, it's useless to ask for them." Cai Mo sighed, turned around and walked towards the city wall.

#####

Fifteen miles south of the capital, Hua'an, who was riding a horse, could already see the fire burning in the direction of the capital.

"Big brother, the capital is fifteen miles away, and the fire in the city shouldn't be so big! Isn't something wrong? Wang San looked in the direction of the capital and wondered.

"Yes! It seems that the capital is on fire. Thunderstorm followed.

Hua'an took a closer look, it was really the case, according to such a distance of fifteen miles, he could see such a big fire in the capital, which was enough to prove that the flames in the capital were three zhang high, and there was a large flame three zhang high, which seemed to prove that something had happened in the capital from the side.

"There should be an accident in the capital, let the soldiers speed up their march, and a few of you will go to investigate." Hua An said, clamping the horse's belly and speeding towards the capital.

"Yes, General." When several scouts heard the order, they raised their whips and whipped their horses, and quickly ran in the direction of the capital.

#####

Five miles north of the capital, the Sixth Army of Wang, who was resting, naturally saw the huge flames burning in the direction of the capital, and because they were closer to the capital, they saw a greater and more intense fire.

"General, the direction of the capital is on fire, could it be that the capital is lost?" One of the generals frowned.

"Shut up, no, the capital is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it won't be impossible to hold even a day." Wang Liu reprimanded, but in his heart he was not sure whether the capital had been lost.

After all, the scouts he sent out had already explored the deployment of the Zhao army, and the Zhao army was besieging the city with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and three hundred thunderbolts had been erected outside the city wall at the north gate of the capital, and the outcome was really difficult to predict.

"Order, all the soldiers and horses, immediately march to the capital." Wang Liu's voice gave the order.

"Yes, General." The generals were amazed.

After a short assembly, Wang Liu led his 6,000 men and horses to the direction of the capital.

#####

The rout of the two thousand families caused panic among the people in the capital, and at the same time gave some rumors a place to spread, and some people with ulterior motives in the capital began to spread the rumor that the capital had been broken by the Zhao army, and the spread of the rumors was extremely fast, and soon, even the queen mother Chu Garlic, who lived in the palace, heard such rumors.

Standing on the three-story building of the palace, Chu Lianzi also clearly saw the huge flames burning in the direction of the north gate of the capital, which was obviously due to the burning of the houses there.

This made Chu Lianzi have a hint of foreboding in his heart, the large-scale burning of houses in the capital and the rumors circulating in the palace seemed to confirm each other, making people have a feeling of deep conviction.

"What's going on outside the palace?" Chu Lianzi looked at the little eunuch passing by and asked.

"Back to the Queen Mother, there is a mess outside the palace, and the people are packing up their packages and preparing to flee for their lives?" The little eunuch replied truthfully.

"Oh, there you go!" Chu Garlic responded, the surface was not shocked, but the heart had fallen into despair, if the capital really fell, it would be over.

"Has the emperor slept?" Chu Garlic greeted the palace maid beside her.

"Back to the Queen Mother, the emperor has already slept." The palace maid replied in a whisper, and her tone was still quiet.

A smile squeezed out of the corner of Chu Lianzi's mouth, looked at the palace maid who had been with him for a long time, and asked: "The capital may have been breached, Zhao Jun kills people without blinking, are you afraid?" ”

"Back to the Queen Mother, the life of the slave is not valuable, it's a big deal, it's a big deal, there's nothing to be afraid of." The little palace maid whispered back.