In the palace of Nanjing City, Zhu Youxiao just scolded all the civil and military ministers again, and the battle actually reached the city of Nanjing, I really don't know what these marshals on the front line are doing.

Looking at the banner of the Qing army under the city, it should be the troops of Hong Chengchou in Shandong, doesn't it mean that the Hong army was dragged by Xu Zengshou on the front line of Jinan and Qingzhou, and is fighting fiercely? How did you get to Nanjing overnight? And those people who are Caoyun Yamen and Yangtze River sailors all eat white rice? How can you watch the Qing army come from the canal with such a swagger?

Zhu Youxiao dropped a few blue and white porcelain vases, vented his anger, organized the Gyeonggi army to defend on the one hand, and ordered people to send telegrams to Liu Ziguang in succession, asking him to gallop to help in the starry night, as for his uncle Xu Zengshou with low eyes, Zhu Youxiao didn't dare to count on it, as for the soldiers and horses of the Jiangnan Guard, except for the soldiers of the Shanghai Guard, it is said that they have a little combat effectiveness, and the others have been abandoned for a long time, and their martial arts are no different from sending them to death at all.

Hong Chengchou, Xu Zengshou, Liu Ziguang, these generals all went out to fight in the capital, and there was not even a general who could handle it, fortunately, the city wall was tall and had complete defense facilities, and the soldiers and horses of the five cities of Jinyi Wei were pulled to the city wall, which should be able to resist for a while.

Hong Chengchou's army began to attack the Shence Gate, the sound of artillery rumbling and killing shook the sky, Nanjing City implemented emergency martial law, this is a situation that has never appeared in more than ten years, the enemy actually came to the city, for a while, people were panicked, countless people packed up the soft congestion at the south gate, but the thirteen gates of the capital have been tightly closed, the people outside can't get in, and the people inside can't get out, which aggravates the chaos.

From Zhu Youxiao to the cabinet officials, to the ordinary people, there is one thing in their minds, that is, the Jin soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty broke through the old things of Bianliang, Sheng, and captured the second emperor and all the royal families, so some people also talked about moving the capital to Shanghai, but Zhu Youxiao was very determined, resolutely unwilling to leave Nanjing, and not to be the emperor who escaped.

The Ming army shrank the front, including several yamen in the south of the city, and withdrew to the city, the defenders of the capital were insufficient, and even the Nanchang Fanzi went to the city wall, and the twelve or thirteen-year-old schoolchildren in the first grade of the martial arts hall also held swords and guns to help the war, plus all kinds of weapons of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the capital that were still in the experimental period were taken out to fight, and the Qing army could not take advantage of it for a while.

However, this did not last long, Zhu Youxiao sent thirteen telegrams to Liu Ziguang in one day, asking him to personally lead the troops to rescue, one was more harsh than the other, as if Liu Ziguang did not come, Nanjing would fall in minutes.

Liu Ziguang was in a dilemma with Zhu Youxiao's telegram, he knew that he had fallen for the tricks of the Qing court, and Da Yu'er used his weakness of greed for money and affection in exchange for the temporary peace of Beijing and the opportunity for Hong Chengchou to raid Nanjing, and now the situation has really turned around all at once. The initiative is in the hands of the Qing army, if he returns to Nanjing, even if the efforts of the past few months are in vain, he still can't make a choice, and the generals under the tent don't dare to say anything, one side is a low-hanging fruit, victory, on the other hand, their own capital and the emperor, their families are all living in Nanjing, to say that they don't want to go back to the rescue, that's nonsense, but just like this, the trick of the Qing dog really can't swallow this breath.

Liu Ziguang asked everyone with a calm face: "What do you think the rank generals think?" ”

As if they had discussed, the generals said in unison: "But listen to the commander's dispatch." "It means that you can beat us as much as you want us to do.

Liu Ziguang looked around and slammed his fist on the table: "Okay! Then let's go straight to Beijing tonight! ”

The Red Shirts are all preparing for war 24 hours a day, and after the three-way drum sounded, the heavily armed soldiers stood on the school ground, and Liu Ziguang did not do much mobilization, so he said: "All the kings, the Ming Dynasty, the national fortune is here, please!" Then he was the first to ascend to the Castle in the Sky.

This was a large-scale airborne operation that was decided on an ad hoc basis, and only airships could be used to cross the tall Beijing city walls, and the cardboard buildings such as the chaotic Lingxiao Treasure Hall and the South Tianmen Gate on the Sky City were demolished, and the elite troops such as the Death Camp, the Water Ghost Team, and the Green Flat Hat boarded the airship, and in order to carry some more soldiers, unnecessary things were dismantled.

In the entire Hebei battlefield, all the airships and hot air balloons were concentrated, and they could pull as many people as they could, and the unpowered hot air balloons were dragged behind the airships with ropes, and the hanging baskets were full of soldiers, even so, the number of people who sent troops at a time was only more than 1,000 people, so these people were all elite soldiers among the elite soldiers.

Although the action was hasty, the Red Shirts were well-trained and quickly completed their pre-war preparations, and the mighty airships flew towards Beijing in the twilight.

The afterglow of the setting sun inlaid the silhouettes of the soldiers on the Sky City with a layer of gold edges, because the load was too heavy, the Sky City had to be very low, and the six refined oil internal combustion engines were running hard, driving the Sky City to drag a long series of hot air balloons to the north, and in the cabin of each airship, there were soldiers with stern faces in the gondola of each hot air balloon, the sun was sinking in the west, and their resolute faces gradually became less clear, but a pair of eyes were still shining in the night.

Except for the airborne training of the death battalion and the special airborne battalion, most of the troops have no experience of falling from the sky, but they know that after this battle, everyone can wear a gold-plated airborne badge on their chest, which represents the supreme glory and an allowance of one or two more silver per month, to participate in this airborne operation in Beijing, every soldier is full of pride, although everyone understands in their hearts that this is going to die nine lives, but to be able to die generously for the Ming Dynasty and Liu Dashuai with so many good brothers, it is worth dying.

Night falls, tonight the stars are dim, in the sky except for the occasional flash of hot air balloons, alcohol blowtorch firelight, nothing can be seen, there is no electric light and television in these years, people eat and sleep as soon as it gets dark, the whole land of North China can not see a trace of light, the airship troops can only rely on the compass to advance, fortunately, it is dark and also cover the attack, I am afraid that the Ming army will kill outside Beijing, and the Qing army will not appear.

At the same time, the heavily armed troops led by Li Yan are also marching fast on the main road from Tianjin to Beijing, relying on lightly armed paratroopers and weak air firepower alone, it is difficult to suppress the 130,000 Qing army, and the large army of the Red Shirt Army must keep up, and just received an urgent military situation, Shanhaiguan has been attacked by the Qing army outside the Guan, because the Red Shirt Army left in Shanhaiguan has only 2,000 troops, so the military situation is also very critical, everywhere is asking for help, everywhere is in an emergency, but now no one can take care of everything, for Beijing, as long as Beijing is conquered, all problems are not a problem, it seems that two people play chess, both sides are soldiers in the city, it depends on whose action is fast, Li Yan helped Liu Ziguang analyze, Nanjing's defense force is not so weak, Hong Chengchou's army is in a hurryThe raid must not have carried too much provisions, and it won't last long before it will be defeated, so don't worry about it for the time being.

Thirty medium-sized airships, sixty hot air balloons, and a huge city in the sky, after several hours of marching, finally under the guidance of the compass to the outside of Beijing, at this time it was already late at night, Beijing in the night was silent, only the pine oil torches every ten steps on the Yongding Gate shone in the night sky, and the rest of the place was still as dark as death.

The defenders of Yongding Gate were dozing off with arquebuses, and suddenly saw a black and oppressive thing floating in the sky, and there was a low roar, it is hard for you to imagine the frightened feeling of a normal ancient person when he saw the airship in the sky, the Qing soldier who first saw the enemy attack couldn't even speak, and the person next to him saw his legs trembling, a drop of water flowing down from his pants, and the people next to him looked at his eyes, and they all entered a petrified state, and their heads rotated with the sky, these huge and friendless things, just like this, watching these mysterious invaders cross the walls of Beijing。

For the safety of the airship, the flight altitude of the airship is very low, almost grazing the top of the Temple of Heaven and flying into the city of Beijing, the layout of Beijing City has been firmly remembered in the hearts of every airship pilot, crossing the Yongding Gate, flying over the Xiannongtan and the Temple of Heaven, along the dark street, flying over the Zhengyang Gate of the inner city, the people of the capital are still asleep, the low motive roar in the sky can not wake up their sweet dreams.

When the airships in the sky were already all over the imperial city, the Yongding Gate sounded the alarm, the poignant gong sounded from the outer city to the inner city, from the inner city to the imperial city, every household began to hold the lanterns, and many soldiers with torches and weapons appeared in the barracks, and the city of Beijing gradually lit up, and the outline of a huge city was displayed in front of the eyes of the red shirts.

As the object of protection, the city in the sky was moored in the center of the protection of the airship, that is, above the Forbidden City in Beijing, Liu Ziguang put on his helmet, checked the weapons and equipment on his body, and raised his arms to a pair of eager eyes behind him, and shouted: "Brothers, get down!" ”

Twenty ropes were thrown down from the sky city, and they hung down to a height of one zhang from the ground, and the airborne troops grabbed the rope and slid down quickly, they all wore half-fingered leather gloves on their hands, specially used to prevent abrasion of their palms, and a team of elite airborne troops took the lead in jumping out of the airship, grabbing the rope and falling quickly, like a divine soldier, after the sky landed on the ground, he rolled on the spot, took off the fire gun on his back, and knelt on one leg to establish a defensive position in the airborne field.

The airborne troops are all wearing light armor, in addition to the upper body has a Western-style iron shoulder, only in the knee and elbow position there are anti-collision knee pads, elbow pads, feet are canvas leggings and light canvas rubber shoes, thick rubber soles are silent on the ground, excellent elasticity, hands are black lambskin, fingerless tactical gloves, on the head is no helmet cherry glue lined steel helmet, the face is painted with oil paint, one by one is like a ghost, in addition to the firing pin in the hand after the firebolt is loaded with firearms, each person also has two four short firearms, a dagger, a saber, four grenades, can be said to be armed to the teeth.

The internal guards of the Qing court were not slow to react, and after a while, a large number of people rushed over with torches and steel knives, but they were shot and killed by the airborne soldiers one by one as soon as they appeared.

Liu Ziguang came down after the establishment of the airborne field, when his feet stepped on the brick ground of the Forbidden City, a long-lost battle leak filled his body and mind, for a long time without taking the lead in the decisive battle, he took a deep breath, from the hand of the guard Dai Wenlong, took a three-pointed two-edged knife weighing sixty-four pounds, danced in the air, and pointed ahead: "Brothers, follow me to arrest Kangxi Xiao'er!" ”