The next day was also the day before the visit, Xu Ping met a lot of Ming Dynasty officials who came to pull relations, he dressed up Wei girl as a prostitute in the morning and let the guards send him away, and in the afternoon he received three prostitutes. After these gifts were rejected, the giver of the gift was sent again after a short time, and Xu Ping, who couldn't cry or laugh, had to leave all the boys behind, and only let them go out and leave on their own after the giver left.

This immediately alarmed the accompanying officials of the Ministry of Rites in the hotel, so that they came to ask the envoy of Dashun what specific requirements he had.

At dusk, a few more mysterious figures came to visit, Xu Ping, who had left an extra eye, had already explained to the guards, and they didn't let them in when they saw that they didn't have beards, Xu Ping blocked the door and asked them what they were doing.

After seeing Xu Ping himself, these visitors did not hesitate anymore, and reported that their homes were originally forbidden eunuchs.

"The villain is Du Xun's friend."

Seeing Xu Ping's blank face, these few hurriedly added: "Of course the general doesn't know Du Xun, he is the envoy of the prison army sent by the emperor to Datong. ”

Xu Ping was still inexplicable, these people had to continue to add that Du Xun was the confidant eunuch of Emperor Chongzhen, and was ordered to go to Shanxi to supervise the Ming army in times of crisis.

"When the general sees the emperor tomorrow, if the emperor intends to be unfavorable to the general, the villains will fight for their lives to protect the general." These eunuchs are small and powerful in the palace, they have discussed with some Jinyi guards in the Jinluan Palace, and reached an agreement with several pavilion elders and Shangshu, if Emperor Chongzhen turns his face and wants to kill, the civil officials will rush up to persuade Chongzhen to think twice, and then some Jinyi guards will take advantage of the chaos to cover Xu Ping to escape from the hall, and these eunuchs will wait outside the palace gate. They also brought a few clothes for Xu Ping to try on today, these clothes are all the style of ordinary eunuchs, and once Xu Ping leaves the main hall, they will change into Xu Ping, and then cover him to hide.

Even the guards guarding the Forbidden City had people who conspired with the group, and they would let Xu Ping out of the palace and cover the envoys of the Great Shun to hide in the city of Beijing and wait for the Shun army to enter the city.

"I am the messenger of Dashun, and it is a matter of dignity ...... Dashun"

Before Xu Ping could finish speaking, his guards applauded together, and helped several eunuchs change Xu Ping's clothes. After finding the best clothes, several eunuchs escaped from the fake beard and razor, and tried their best to suggest that Xu Ping even shave off his beard as soon as possible, and take the fake beard to the Jinluan Hall tomorrow, and when the time comes, no one will notice it.

But Xu Ping said that he didn't agree to shave, and after sending a few eunuchs out of the door, Xu Ping looked a little stunned.

"In the first battle of Niuweizhuang, He Shuai's entire army was annihilated, but tens of thousands of soldiers were killed." Although Xu Ping knew that after the destruction of the new army, the Ming court would have no strong army, but he never thought that hundreds of thousands of Ming troops, including the Praetorian Guard, would surrender without a fight: "I originally thought that the Ming court was sent by King Daishun, although the life and death were uncertain, but if he could persuade Emperor Ming to concede, he could still save the lives of countless soldiers, let the underworld be filled with hundreds of thousands of new ghosts, and let this world be hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows." ”

But the Ming army heard the wind and surrendered, and the Ming officials rushed to change the court, Xu Ping suddenly found that if he didn't come, I was afraid that a few people would not die.

"But there will always be a battle in this Jingshi, even if it is hundreds or thousands, it is still human life," Xu Ping thought about it for a while, and felt a little relieved in his heart: "If you can convince Emperor Ming tomorrow, it will be worth the trip." ”

……

At this time, outside the city, the commander of Xiangcheng Bo Li Guojiao, who was known as the 100,000-strong army of the Ming army, encountered the front troops of the Shun army from Juyong Pass, and the general headed by Tang Tong who had just surrendered to Li Zicheng. When Li Zicheng's main force was resting at Juyong Pass, Tang Tong immediately set off with 5,000 soldiers and horses, becoming the first Shun army approaching Beijing.

After seeing the black flag of the Tang Tong Army, the Daming Beijing Battalion immediately surrendered, and Li Guojiao commanded the whole army to change into the black flag and black military uniform that had been prepared long ago, and turned into Dashun officers and soldiers. While Tang Tong asked his subordinates, who were tired from the long march, to camp and rest, Li Guojiao commanded the former Daming Beijing Battalion, and the current Dashun officers and soldiers distributed the first wave of attacks on the Daming Beijing Division in the middle of the night, and the target was the Changyi Gate, which he was responsible for commanding the Beijing camp to cover.

There was a rumbling cannon sound outside the city, which immediately plunged Beijing into a panic, and Emperor Chongzhen, who did not expect the Shun army to come so quickly, hurriedly ordered Wang Chengen to go out of the palace to inspect and supervise the battle at the city gate.

When Wang Chengen arrived at the head of the city, he saw that the city and the city had been illuminated by countless torches as if it were day, and looked down from the tower of Changyi Gate, only to see black flags all over the field outside, and countless black-clothed and black-armored soldiers rolling in the wilderness, like the turbulent tide of the sea. The magnificent Changyi Gate Tower is like a small reef in front of this heavenly army, which may be swallowed up at any time.

"Li Guojiao of the dog day!"

The defenders of Changyi Gate cursed as they struggled to shoot at the attackers with their cannons.

To Wang Chengen's relief, the morale of the defenders was unusually high, and the rebellion of the friendly troops who called them brothers and sisters yesterday and patted their chests and vowed to protect them from disasters and disasters not only did not completely collapse the morale of the Beijing defenders, but inspired the courage in their bones.

Groups of Ming soldiers rushed to the battlements without fear of death, ignoring the flying locusts and bullets shooting from under the city, and poked their bodies out of the wall in large numbers, pouring boiling oil and rolling stones on the former friendly troops who tried to fill in or cross the trench to attack the city tower.

"The thieves who have lost their conscience, do you want to take Lao Tzu's head as a vote?" A Ming soldier who was in front of Wang Chengen was shot by a lead bullet, and blood gushed from the wound on his chest, and the soldier's life flowed out along with it. The dying wounded soldier completely ignored his injuries, but still struggled to get up, trying to throw at least one more stone under the city: "Lao Tzu will take you with him even if he dies!" ”

The fierce shouts and battles resounded in front of the Changyi Gate, and the surging offensive under the city seemed to never stop, when the first ray of dawn reached the tower of the Changyi Gate, the battlements here had been stained red with the blood of the defenders.

As the sun came out of the mountain, the offensive of the Shun army, which had been subjected to unexpected stubborn resistance, finally began to slow down, and countless soldiers who were still in the Ming Jing camp yesterday fell sideways in front of the trench they were supposed to protect, and the corpses of Rushan almost filled a way in it.

Looking at the seemingly impregnable Changyi Gate, Li Guojiao, who was supervising the battle in the distance, couldn't help but sweat, as Chongzhen's cronies and courtiers, the Ming nobles who could often sit and talk when facing the saint, Li Guojiao urgently needed a great merit to leave a good impression in front of King Shun, and use the image of a meritorious hero to wash away his shame and replace the face of a traitor.

"Don't stop, keep attacking!" Li Guojiao didn't understand how the defenders of the Beijing Division, who had a fluctuating military spirit and no fighting spirit, could become so tenacious overnight that they blocked the surprise attack he had carefully planned.

However, the soldiers who were still full of contributions to the new dynasty last night have lost their fighting spirit after witnessing the heavy losses after the hard battle. The generals under Li Guojiao also thought that they could capture the Jingshi and capture Emperor Chongzhen before Li Zicheng's arrival, waiting for the arrival of King Shun and the ensuing rewards, and one of the most active guerrillas even personally led the city last night and was killed by the defenders. After Liming saw the mountains of corpses piled up in front of the Changyi Gate, these generals also lost the courage to continue the onslaught, and more importantly, their confidence in victory began to waver.

Seeing that the officers and soldiers kept commanding the first group to retreat on their own, Li Guojiao had no choice but to send an order to retreat and camp, and at the same time sent someone to invite Tang Tong's Juyongguan army to come to help in the battle.

……

Xu Ping slept well last night, the sound of cannons outside the city was already commonplace for him and a few of his guards, and the noise did not affect him much. In the morning, Xu Ping washed up, changed into neat and clean black clothes, put on the felt hat in front of the beautiful and rare glass mirror, and then went straight to the Jinluan Treasure Hall with the officials of the Ministry of Rites who had not closed their eyes all night.

After entering the Forbidden City, all the people Xu Ping saw along the way were in a trance, everyone had puffy bags under their eyes, and obviously no one slept well.

Shoufu Wei Zaode took the Ming ministers and waited outside the palace, and after seeing Xu Ping, countless officials nodded to Xu Ping with him, and next to these courtiers, Xu Ping also saw a eunuch who came to visit him yesterday, and received the look he threw at him.

"Your envoy," Wei Zaode stepped forward and introduced to Xu Ping: "After a while, the emperor will go to the court, and he will announce that we will first meet you, and then the noble envoy will be sent in." ”

Wei Zaode's face was also full of haggard and tired, and all the officials of the Jingshi were uneasy last night, but fortunately, the city was still defended, otherwise they would not have had the opportunity to make meritorious contributions in front of the Great Shun envoy. Like them, the eunuchs and brocade guards who intended to defend Xu Ping were grateful for the resistance of the defenders of Changyi Gate, and without their stubborn fighting, the Great Shun Envoys would not need their allegiance.

The person who came out of the palace gate was not the little eunuch on weekdays, to the surprise of all the courtiers, what they saw was Wang Chengen, the eunuch who held the seal of the celebrant and the eunuch.

"The emperor has decreed that Xu Ping will go to Lantai to play."

One stone stirred up a thousand waves, Wang Chengen's words immediately caused an uproar among the ministers, and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites was the first to jump out: "Wang Daguan, this move is not in line with etiquette!" ”

"yes, it's not in line with the courtesy." The officials of the Ministry of Rites jumped up as if they had been burned with a soldering iron, and rushed to Wang Chengen: "Wang Daguan, the envoy of Dashun can't go to Lantai." ”

A group of brocade guards and eunuchs who had no right to speak at all also hid behind the hundred officials and shouted: "The emperor can't see Xu Ping like this, the ministers must guard the left and right!" ”

The eunuch Xu Ping knew shouted the loudest, and looked at Xu Ping while shouting.

"The emperor has already made an order." Wang Chengen said coldly, staring at Xu Ping with his eyes: "Xu Ping! Come with us. ”

"General Xu, you can't go," Wei Zaode suddenly turned to Xu Ping and said, looking at him with a nervous face: "Xu Ping, you can't be so rude!" ”

"yes, yes."

A group of courtiers all shouted and shouted, but their target was no longer Wang Chengen but Xu Ping: "General Xu should go back to the hall first, don't be rude to the Son of Heaven!" ”

The eunuch who visited Xu Ping last night, led a group of subordinates and a few brocade guards, stopped in front of Xu Ping, and scolded him violently: "Xu Ping is rude!" Don't want to retreat quickly? ”

"Xu Ping!" Through the black head in front of him, as well as the boiling voice, Xu Ping heard Wang Chengen's voice again: "General Xu, long live the Lord summoned you." ”

"Obey." Xu Ping replied loudly, walked forward, and stopped in front of him a military attache dressed in a brocade guard uniform, so anxious that he seemed to be about to cry, he did not scold Xu Ping for being rude but said in a mournful voice: "General Xu, you can't go to Lantai." ”

Xu Ping ignored him, or anyone else, pushed a way out of the crowd, and walked in front of Wang Chengen: "What is the name of this father-in-law?" ”

"Our family Wang Chengen," Wang Chengen stared at Xu Ping, lowered his eyelids and made a gesture of please: "General Xu will come with our family." ”

Walking through the empty hall, leaving the boiling voices behind, Xu Ping and Wang Chengen walked on the path of the imperial garden one after the other, and there were *** on both sides who cast awe-inspiring glances at Xu Ping's black clothes.

A little further, Xu Ping saw a group of people wearing eunuch clothes but armed with knives and guns scattered around on guard.

"These are the pure armies that the Lord Long Live asked our family to form," Wang Chengen said in a calm tone, still walking unhurriedly under his feet: "It's not worth mentioning General Xu." ”

Walking to a small lake, Wang Chengen asked Xu Ping to wait by the rockery, and at the same time politely introduced: "This is the fountain made by the first emperor, ingenious workmanship, General Xu may wish to watch it, there are few people in the world who have such blessings." ”

Wang Chengen walked to a pavilion by the lake, Xu Ping stayed where he was, looking at the things that Wang Chengen introduced to him with great interest, it was indeed very novel, Xu Ping had never seen a man-made fountain.

After a while, Wang Chengen walked back and beckoned to Xu Ping.

Xu Ping finally tidied up the clothes on his body and walked towards the pavilion behind Wang Chengen.

"Who's coming?"

Outside the gazebo, Xu Ping heard a peaceful question, and the gentle bass revealed an inviolable awe-inspiring majesty.

Hearing this, Xu Ping immediately bowed to the ground and kowtowed three times respectfully: "Shunchen Xu Ping, knock to see the great tomorrow, long live the emperor, long live, long live." ”

"Flat."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Xu Ping stood up lightly.

Wang Chengen silently gestured for Xu Ping to enter, Xu Ping nodded slightly to the palm print eunuch, and stepped lightly into the pavilion on tiptoe.

The middle-aged man in front of him, also dressed in black, was dressed in black, this was the solemn clothes of the Great Tomorrow, glanced at Xu Ping casually, and the man said lightly: "Get close to the reply." ”

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