12-7o The fall of Kyoshi

This group of Ming troops down the river was 10,000 people, and because they were not equipped with horses, they did not land on the shore to pursue, and after shelling the north bank for a while, they approached the south bank.

A general who got down from the ship, followed by more than a dozen partial generals Ma Ben, hurriedly ran to the city gate where the emperor was, ran to the city and knelt down and shouted: "Minister, Liu Zongmin, the chief soldier of Lanzhou, is late to save the car, capital crime, capital crime!" ”

Zhu Youxiao looked down, and saw that this general was born with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, his face was red, and he was holding a fierce general, and he was very happy in his heart, and said, "Please ask General Liu to come up and speak." ”

The city gate opened, Liu Zongmin and his party entered the city and came to the enemy tower of Yifeng Gate, unarmed their weapons and bowed to the emperor three times and nine times. ”

Liu Zongmin kowtowed and said: "Long live, the Tartars are under the banner of avenging the traitor Liu Ziguang, and the 500,000 army is brazenly marching eastward, originally our weapons are sharp and can be prevented, but the rats of the Red Shirt Army have no national righteousness, greedy for life and afraid of death, surrendered to the Tartars and acted as a pawn for the tiger, and attacked my Lanzhou for a long time without a detour, and attacked the capital for a thousand miles. ”

Don't look at Liu Zongmin, who is a big old man, this remark is quite beautiful, the ministers all stroked their beards and nodded, Zhu Youxiao said: "No wonder the Tartars can run so far, it turns out that there are traitors, hmph, this is a good soldier taught by Liu Ziguang!" By the way, what is Liu Aiqing's official position? ”

Liu Zongmin knocked: "The minister temporarily takes the post of the chief soldier of Lanzhou." ”

"Okay, I will add you another rank of squire in the military department, and Liu Aiqing will have a good life to serve the country."

"Thank you for your grace!" Liu Zongmin kowtowed, and the smile on his honest face couldn't be hidden.

"Get up and speak, come here, give Liu Aiqing a seat." Zhu Youxiao was very satisfied with Liu Zongmin's attitude, if only the Ming Dynasty could have more loyal and brave generals like Liu Zongmin.

The stool was moved over, Liu Zongmin didn't dare to sit down, he only dared to take the stool on the side of his buttocks, not so much to sit, but to squat on the horse, and his demeanor was also very humble, Zhu Youxiao and the ministers all smiled faintly, and said in their hearts that this son was teachable. So everyone began to ask.

"Lord Liu, how many soldiers and horses did you bring with you this time?"

"Does General Liu have a chance of winning against the Tartars on the North Shore?"

"What help does General Liu need? Grain or equipment? ”

In the face of many problems, Liu Zongmin calmly dealt with it, saying that he came with 15,000 men and horses this time, all of whom were elite divisions of a hundred battles, and had beaten the Tartars in the Western Regions, otherwise the Tartars would not have seen him today Liu Zongmin's banner and fled, he was very sure of dealing with these small children, but now there is a lack of war horses and ammunition, it is difficult to effectively pursue, and there is also an important problem that the brothers galloped to the aid of the starry night, so many people were crammed into the cramped cabin, and they had not slept for seven days and seven nights. Haven't had a decent meal anymore. If possible, provide a straw mat for the soldiers, and then get a good night's sleep before killing the tartars.

All the ministers wept and sighed, what a loyal and brave soldier, with them they are no longer afraid of the Tartars, the soldiers have suffered for so long, but they have to take a good rest, it just so happens that the Beijing army has lost 50,000 people, and the barracks are vacant, so go directly to rest.

Zhu Youxiao immediately issued an order, opened the door to welcome King Qin's soldiers and horses into the city, and rewarded pigs, sheep and wine banquet to celebrate the victory of the three armies, if those old ministers were still there in the past, they would never act so hastily, is the Gyeonggi important land so easy to enter, at most take out tents to let them camp outside the city, but now there are only people left in the court, and there are people who have this heart.

Liu Zongmin's troops drove into the city, and it was really very strong, at first glance, it was a hundred battles of heroes, and there was a solemn atmosphere in his eyes, Zhu Youxiao inspected the army on the city gate and entered the city, and he was in a very good mood, and there was one more fierce general, can you not be happy.

A catastrophe was spared, from the emperor to the small people are very lucky, the Tartars have fled north in a hurry, and there are more than 10,000 elite guards of the Western Army, what is terrible, tonight the whole world celebrates, not drunk and does not return, it is night, the emperor held a banquet in the Fengtian Palace to celebrate the victory, and took out a hundred taels of gold to reward Liu Zongmin, other generals and schools of the Western Army have been rewarded, brave the frontier to explore the enemy camp, meritorious service, and was crowned as a co-organizer of the university scholar, the Ministry of Rites, Wei Zhongxian, Hou Sui and others have made great contributions to strategizing, and they have also been rewarded, and everyone is happy for a while, Shouting long live the Holy Wisdom.

On the other hand, the people's house in the capital is a depression and deserted, 50,000 troops were wiped out on the north bank, the court did not want to quickly collect their corpses, but there was a little victory and celebrated, I really don't know how much money is a pound of shame, in the evening, the earth security struck the gong again, saying that it was to reward the division of the king of Qin, and each family had to sacrifice a penny, and there was no money to take chickens, ducks and geese to top, anyway, they couldn't treat the soldiers of the Western Army badly, and the people were even more indignant, obviously the Western Army was not strict enough to put the Tartar in, At this time, it is natural to rush to the rescue, why should you be rewarded, besides, didn't the imperial court just loot the people's wealth once, and the land was scraped down three feet, how can you collect money again, does this still make people live.

The emperor held a banquet, naturally he couldn't guess the boxing order, and he ate Haisai, in fact, it was just a formality, everyone tasted it and stopped, after three rounds of drinking, Zhu Youxiao retired, and the ministers also dispersed, and they went back to their homes.

Liu Zongmin returned to the barracks, his subordinates had already finished eating, and one by one he was waiting for him to return, seeing that the chief soldier was coming, several generals took off their helmets, revealing the Mongolian pigtails inside, and asked coldly: "Is it all arranged?" ”

Liu Zongmin replied: "Okay, I divided half of the reward to those who were officials in the Beijing Camp Army, they will not return to the camp tonight, and the defense of the city will not be tight, we can do it, but ......"

"But what?"

"You must do what you promised me."

"Don't worry, I will never miss you who promised you, didn't the emperor of the Ming Kingdom just give you the false title of a soldier squire, our majesty will promise you a dignified throne, much more generous than Zhu Youxiao, what else do you have to hesitate."

Liu Zongmin was relieved and said in a deep voice: "Okay, everything is according to plan." ”

Late at night, a group of soldiers came out of the military camp in the north of the city, all dressed in black, with a strip of white cloth wrapped around the left arm, and the weapons in their hands were also painted black, their target was the city gate and the Beijing army barracks, at this time the Beijing soldiers had drunk enough old wine and fell asleep, and the soldiers standing guard at the gate also dozed off with guns, and the team of black-clothed people quickly solved the sentry with crossbow arrows, touched the barracks, and sprinkled fierce fire oil everywhere, ready to set fire to the camp.

At the same time, inside the Yifeng Gate, a team of brocade-clothed officers and soldiers came over with lanterns, and the soldiers guarding the gate shouted: "What person, stop." The officers and soldiers in Jinyi replied: "Jinyi guard, I came to inspect the city defense by the order of Gonggong Wei." The officers and soldiers hurriedly greeted each other with smiling faces, opened the deer barrassment, and let these messengers in, who knew that after they came in, they pulled out the steel knives and suddenly became difficult, hacked to death the officers and soldiers defending the city and rushed up to the city tower, and the soldiers who were drinking in the enemy tower heard the movement and came out to watch, and were forced by them to use firecrackers, one by one to the ground, and pressed their heads with futons, and the firecrackers shot at close range, and killed all the people without making a loud sound, and then lit a few lanterns and shook them at the river in the night.

The same lights appeared on the dark river, which was the response of the Western army left behind on the ship, the Yangtze River Naval Division had been killed by them, and the warship quickly sailed to the north bank to carry the Mongol army.

On the north bank, Anu sat on his horse with a smile on his face: "Nanjing City, it doesn't take any effort to get it." ”

Just after the hour, the north of the capital suddenly ignited a fire, the flame was as high as more than ten zhang, it was terrifying, countless chaotic troops wandered between the markets, shouted that the Tartars had entered the city, for a time people shouted horses neighing, dogs barked endlessly, the soldiers of the five cities of the soldiers and horses who patrolled the night did not know where to go, no one maintained order on the street, and the chaos reached the extreme.

Nanjing summer is extremely hot, the common people are sleeping in the yard, hearing the chaos outside, they get up and lie down in the crack of the door to look out, only to see that the street is a large group of Tartar cavalry galloping on horseback, holding torches and scimitars in their hands, hideous! The common people were shocked, didn't they still say that they had defeated the Tartars today, why did they enter the city at night?

The common people were surprised, the officials were even more surprised, people with a little brain knew bad things, it must be that the Western Army that entered the city today led the wolf into the house and brought in the Tartars, and there is no good way to do it now, it is a death to go out in a hurry, it is better to hide at home and wait for dawn to see the situation.

Wei Zhongxian's mansion is very close to the palace, and it is also the target of the rebels' main attack, but Wei Gonggong's personal soldiers still have a bit of combat effectiveness, seeing that someone can't answer the order and fire, the two are together, Wei Zhongxian hurriedly put on his clothes and got up, he thought that someone had come to assassinate it, and he heard that it was the Tartars who entered the city and was so frightened that he had no idea, and it took him a long time before people broke through and rushed to the palace to protect themselves, where the city walls are tall and guarded by elite royal guards, which is the safest place.

There are a lot of yamen in the capital, and there are more errands, but the poor people of these units such as Dongchang Jinyi Wei Ying Tianfu only go to work in the morning, and do not live in the yamen at night, but live in their own homes, so it is difficult to organize effective resistance, and the Beijing army is concentrated together, but it is easier to be dumplings, and it is pitiful that those who are soldiers are drunk and die in the sea of fire when they sleep in a daze, and they die more unjustly.

In fact, if it was changed a year ago, the Tartars were not so easy to get, the key is that all the people in power in the capital are Wei Zhongxian's descendants, a water wine bag and rice bag, the upper beam is not right, the lower beam is crooked, they are all thinking about how to make money, no one takes serious work to heart, coupled with paralysis and carelessness, thinking that the capital has not been invaded by foreign enemies for a hundred years, and this time it must be safe, it is these reasons that caused such an ending - the capital of the Ming Dynasty actually fell into the hands of the enemy overnight.