Late at night, south of the Yangtze River, in Jiangning.

A barren place on the plain, the fire is full of light, the fire is like a star, dotted, criss-crossed, and there are tents set up everywhere, and a team of Dashun troops are patrolling, wandering everywhere.

In the handsome tent, Li Zicheng and the generals sat on both sides, Tian Jianxiu stood at the top, a huge map was hung next to him, and while holding the command stick in his hand and drawing on it, his unhurried voice was also slowly narrating, explaining the terrain to everyone.

"Your Majesty, generals, please see, this is the outer Guo of Nanjing City, that is, the outer Guo City, commonly known as the head of the earth city, known as the circumference of one hundred and eighty li, but according to the data obtained from our actual measurements, it is one hundred and twenty li."

"This outer Guo city, firmly look around the city of Nanjing in the center, its city wall itself is mainly hills, the base of the earth, all the city gates together, a total of 18 places. Therefore, if we want to attack Nanjing City, we must first cross this outer Guo City. ”

Moreover, most of the places where these gates took were narrow places, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack, which was not conducive to the development of large armies. Therefore, if you attack by force, the cost is too great, and it is definitely not the best policy. ”

"This is the north gate of Waiguo City, Guanyin Gate, the southwest is the Foning Gate, and the southeast is connected to the Yaofang Gate......"

......

With Tian Jianxiu's narration, looking at the topographical map of Nanjing City, his eyes wandered with the gesture of the baton, and the top-down outline map of Waiguo City appeared in everyone's minds, and an irregular eighteen-sided diamond appeared, with long or short sides, embedded in the periphery of Nanjing City, and each intersection point represented a city gate.

Ravines, mountains, cliffs, cliffs......

"yes, how did you forget this stubble?!"

Liu Fangliang screamed, slapped his thigh suddenly, and the whole person jumped up, interrupting Tian Jianxiu's speech, and everyone was even more startled by this babbling. Wu Ruyi complained unceremoniously: "Liu's big head, you can talk when you speak, why are you still shocked?" ”

"Hey~hey~"

Liu Fangliang suddenly realized his gaffe, smirked twice to hide his embarrassment, touched his head, and said apologetically: "That... That, Emperor, generals, why did you forget, we still have a ladder? Since the gate of Waiguo City is built on the mountain, as long as we assemble the ladder long enough, we can climb to the hills near the city gate, so as to seize the city gate, and the army can enter Waiguo City? ”

A word woke up the dreamer and reminded everyone that in the past two years, most of them have fought head-on, or directly blasted open the city gates, or personnel sneaked into the city to respond, not only the assembled long ladder is rarely used, but even the dragon chariot is rarely used for siege.

"Yes, Your Majesty, Marshal Liu is right, in this situation, you can just use a long ladder."

Liu Tichun agreed, nodded slightly, looked at everyone, and continued: "The gates of those outer Guo Cities were built according to the danger, not only for us to be narrow, not conducive to the development of the army, but also for the Ming army, and the defenders will not be too many. Moreover, the gate of Waiguo City is so far away from Nanjing City, and when Nanjing City needs troops to defend the city, it is impossible to garrison too many Ming troops. ”

At this moment, there is no need for Liu Tichun to explain, and everyone understands the truth, but Li Zicheng still said loudly: "Okay, just do it, tomorrow morning, send several teams to seize Guanyin Gate, Foning Gate, and Yaofang Gate first." ”

The next day, as time gradually passed, the Dashun army from all directions entered the Waiguo City from the north like a stream, concentrated around the city of Nanjing, and approached the city.

Not only that, because the western wall of the outer city wall is not enclosed, a huge north-south gap is formed, until it extends to the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River is used as another form of "city wall" of the outer city.

Therefore, there was also a Dashun army that did not hesitate to make a detour to the westernmost part of Nanjing City to land, so that the troops approached the west gate of Nanjing City.

Less than 20 miles away from the north gate of Nanjing, Li Zicheng led a Dashun army that was slowly moving forward, at this moment, the army suddenly stopped, and Li Zicheng shouted: "Camp in place and rest on the spot!" ”

The sun was scorching, the army was encamped by a river, and Li Zicheng stood on a mound, facing south, looking in the direction of the city of Nanjing.

At this time, Li Jin appeared next to Li Zicheng, with a look of hesitation, and after a while, he still opened his mouth and asked: "Uncle, it is less than twenty miles away from Nanjing City, why don't we go straight to the city in one go?" In that case, there will be a sense of oppression, forcing the defenders of the city to surrender. ”

However, Li Zicheng did not immediately answer Li Jin's inquiry, as if he had thought of something, and suddenly said: "By the way, after a while, immediately send out a scout horse and inform the other troops that they must all be stationed ten miles away from Nanjing City, rest for a day, and tomorrow morning, after the army arrives, they will approach Nanjing City together, and the troops will come to the city." ”

"But... But... Uncle, in this way, Emperor Hongguang sees that the situation is not good, and it is very likely that he will abandon the city and run away, which will cause endless harm! Li Jin's heart was anxious, and he did not immediately carry out Li Zicheng's order, but hurriedly persuaded him.

"Okay, later, I'll listen to my uncle, and go and let people inform the other troops."

When he finished saying this, Li Zicheng waved his hand, signaling Li Jin not to persuade anything, as if I had my own plan, as if I didn't care that Zhu Yousong would run away when he was in time.

Although he didn't explain too much, Li Zicheng looked at Li Jin's departing back, that unwilling look, but said in his heart: "Guo'er, your uncle and I are not ordinary people, a person in the future, a traverser, I still have some understanding of the history of the Ming Dynasty, even if I catch a Zhu Yousong, there are many vassal kings behind, and they can still ascend the throne and become emperors one by one." In that case, why do I have to arrest Zhu Yousong? ”

The Dashun army is constantly assembling, all of them are stationed ten miles away from the city of Nanjing, near or far, distributed in the west and north respectively, with the army gathering more and more, quite the trend of Mount Tai overwhelming.

Black clouds crush the city and want to destroy it, nothing more!

In the city of Nanjing, martial law has been put under full limit, and it is even more chaotic, not only are there teams of Ming troops patrolling the streets, but there are also officials arresting people everywhere, or collecting propaganda leaflets scattered all over the ground, tearing up the propaganda leaflets posted on the wall.

However, at such a tense moment, there was a very strange scene, which provoked some pedestrians to whisper and point fingers.

"Hey, what's going on? How can there be so many young women on the street? Why is there still yellow paper on everyone's forehead? ”

"Who knows? It's really weird that happens every year, and this year there are a lot of them! ”

"Hey, hey... You don't know, do you? Let me tell you, according to the information revealed by a friend of mine, the emperor is choosing a lady to enter the palace, and he is searching everywhere in the city of Nanjing. ”

......