Zhang Wei immediately made a decision and said to Yang Tinghe in a loud voice: "Yang Shoufu, we can't defeat them, I still evacuate this place immediately and mobilize troops and horses outside the palace to encircle and suppress Song Nan and these traitors." ”

Liang Chu shouted: "Marquis Zhang, you can't defeat them with several times their manpower, and after arranging so much time in vain, how can you even enter the palace without warning the Han general's camp, it's really confusing." ”

Zhang Wei said angrily: "I don't have the ability, you Lord Liang go up and taste the taste of fire and iron sand, what you said is light, and anyone who faces such a fierce firearm has no choice." ”

Yang Tinghe waved his hand and shouted: "Don't fight, according to the intention of Marquis Zhang, quickly evacuate here, and gather superior forces outside the palace to encircle and suppress." ”

As soon as the words fell, Wang Yong and others had already rushed to the front, Zhang Weiwei urged more than 20 officers with knives around him to go up to block, and he pulled Yang Tinghe to quickly retreat; When he retreated dozens of steps away and looked back, the two dozen or so officers with knives had all fallen in a pool of blood. Zhang Wei understood that if it weren't for Wang Yong and the others who were afraid that firearms would hurt other officials and the Queen Mother next to Luan, I am afraid that they would have been on fire a long time ago. Shoot and kill, don't think about leaving when you wait for others to go.

As soon as Zhang Wei, Yang Tinghe and others fled, the fork and knife hands were no match for the firearms of the generals of the Jinyi Wei Han Dynasty, and at this moment, the fighting spirit suddenly disappeared, and without waiting for someone to give an order, they immediately fled and surrendered and completely gave up resistance, and the officials on the ground have never been so agile, they got up and ran away with their hands crossed, but a large group of officials with arrows in the back could only watch them flee with their eyes, and scolded them one by one for being bold and unrighteous.

A eunuch reminded the Empress Dowager Zhang, who was trembling in her knees, and said, "Empress Dowager, Lord Yang, they ran away." ”

Empress Dowager Zhang poked her head out of the sedan chair in fear, just in time to see the backs of Yang Ting and their rapid escape disappearing behind the flower tree, gritted her teeth and said: "How can they be like this, don't they care about the death and life of the mourning family?" ”

Song Nan's voice came from not far away: "Don't panic the Queen Mother, the ministers will never be rude to the Queen Mother." ”

Mrs. Zhang's face turned pale, she stood up, and said coldly: "Song Nan, is this how you repay the emperor for your favor?" The emperor has just died, and you have to seek power and seize the throne? ”

Song Nan slowly came down from the steps and arched his hand: "Queen Mother, if you didn't want to put me to death, why would the situation be like this?" As for seeking power and seizing the throne, it was the queen mother who promoted the ministers, and the ministers only knew that they would act in accordance with the emperor's edict, and whoever wanted to disobey the emperor's edict would not be tolerated by the ministers. Someone, escort the Queen Mother Luan back to Cining Palace, send someone to protect the safety of the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother, the outside is not peaceful, if the Queen Mother leaves Cining Palace without permission, the minister will not dare to guarantee your safety, after the situation calms down, the minister will ask the Queen Mother to come to Fengtian Hall to listen to the minister read the emperor's edict, but now the minister has no time, must immediately arrest Yang Tinghe and others, calm the situation in the capital. ”

Empress Dowager Zhang sighed and hung her head silently, she knew that from this moment on, she had lost her freedom.

Song Nan saw the Empress Dowager Luan drive away, turned around, and saw Wanzhi Wang Yong standing behind him, and hundreds of Han generals and captains standing in the square covered in blood and looking at him; Song Nan ordered in a cold voice: "Wan Zhi listened to the order, led the Han general to control all the palaces of the palace, and removed all the guards in the palace. ”

Wan Zhi bowed his hand and suddenly said, "My lord, what should I do at the palace gate?" Do you want to transfer people to guard it? ”

Song Nan shook his head and said: "Each send a hundred brothers to guard the three palace gates of Dongxihua Gate and Daming Gate, if Yang Ting and Zhang Wei really gather soldiers and horses in the city, we will not be able to guard the palace gate even if we all go to guard it." Although I don't want the capital to be in chaos, but I can't take care of it now, Wang Yong, prepare the horse immediately, follow me out of the palace, if I Song Nan still has some appeal, I'm afraid that my people outside the Zhengyang Gate have already been assembled in place. ”

……

Song Nan and Wang Yong led more than 30 Han generals and captains to ride out of the palace from Xihua Gate through Xiyuan Xi'an Gate, and made a detour to Daming Gate; Although they encountered sporadic soldiers and horses in the palace on the road, it was obvious that they were not organized, and they did not attack and block Song Nan and others, but Wang Yong ordered the captains to shoot more than a dozen with fire guns, and the rest of them ran wildly and avoided them.

Out of Xi'an Gate to Fu'an Fangzhong, the street is a chaotic scene, the news of the chaos in the palace has obviously spread to the city, the people on the street are running in a panic, the shops are busy closing the door boards and closing the doors, and there are more unknown soldiers and horses galloping on the street, a scene of impending disaster and everyone is in danger.

Everyone hurried up, along the West Chang'an Street straight to the direction of the Jinyi Wei General Ya, the Jinyi Wei General Ya was on the side of the Daming Gate, and ran to the junction of the West Chang'an Street and the north and south main streets of Dashi Yongfang, and listened to the noisy people and horses in front of them, and a noisy sound of cheering.

Wang Yong hurriedly reined in his horse and said: "My lord, there are unknown soldiers and horses in front, in case there is a change, please wait for a while, and let me go and find out who the soldiers and horses are." ”

Song Nan nodded, and dozens of lieutenants stopped at the corner of the street at the intersection, Wang Yong whipped the horse and rushed out, and went straight to the place where the people in front of him neighed and screamed, everyone waited nervously in place, and after a while, they suddenly heard the noise of soldiers and horses getting closer and closer, and it seemed that they were coming in the direction of Chang'an Street, and a Han general lieutenant exclaimed: "My lord, should we avoid it." ”

Song Nan was also a little hesitant, but suddenly heard Wang Yong's shout: "My lord, come out, it's to calm them." ”

Song Nan was overjoyed, and everyone rode out on horseback, but saw that the street was full of thousands of brocade clothes and flag schools, all fully armed, and Hou Dabiao was riding on a horse in front of the team and was running towards him, more than ten steps away from Song Nan, Hou Dabiao rolled the saddle and knelt down to salute.

"Oh, I can see you, my lord, but we're in a hurry. I waited to learn that the adult returned to Beijing, so I rushed from the yamen to Zhengyangmen to meet, but I didn't expect to pounce, learned that the adult had entered the palace with Wang Yanshi, I wanted to enter the palace, but was stopped by a group of rabbit cubs at the palace gate, saying that the civil and military officials are discussing major matters, and no one is allowed to enter the palace during this period, damn it, what is this called? Jinyi Weibei Town, Fusi Town, Fusi Town, couldn't enter the palace, it was a big joke. ”

Wang Yong said: "Are you also strange? The adults were stopped from entering the city, and they were ordered not to bring their guards in the inner city, and they saw that the emperor had taken hostages to enter. ”

Hou Dabiao was dumbfounded and said, "What the hell is wrong with this?" Is something really happening? ”

Song Nan said: "Why did you appear here with these brothers? Don't you smell something? ”

Hou Dabiao said: "The humble position is to stand up to his brothers, the assembly and mobilization of soldiers and horses in the city is chaotic, and I heard the chaotic sound of fire in the palace, and I feel that the situation is a little wrong. So after discussing with Sun Zhenfu, the two of us decided to immediately gather the brothers in the inner city to prevent the adults from summoning them. The humble post came to the west of the six squares to transfer people, Sun Zhen went to the east of the eight squares, this happened to take the brothers to rush to the gate of the Daming Gate Outer Palace, Wang Yanshi appeared from behind our buttocks. What the hell is going on? ”

Wang Yong hurriedly said: "You are also an official, the more confused you become, you don't know what happened in the capital?" A group of old miscellaneous men in the cabinet and the outer court took advantage of the fact that the adults were not in the capital, and even set up a new emperor's candidate, which was learned by Gonggong Zhang, and he traveled thousands of miles to Anqing to inform the adults, and we rushed to the capital for several days and nights to stop them. Unexpectedly, those guys actually colluded with Zhang Wei and Tan You of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies to control the situation in the city, and the fork and knife hand and knife officer in the palace also fell into their hands. ”

Hou Dabiao opened his mouth wide in surprise and said, "Huh? How dare they do this? ”

Song Nan said coldly: "This matter is secret, and it should be that Father-in-law Zhang did not inform you, after all, Father-in-law Zhang also fled the capital without permission, and he dare not guarantee that the news will not leak." Now that the emperor has died, they have nothing to fear, just now in the palace they intended to kill me, if it weren't for the Han general's camp to come by surprise to relieve the siege, I'm afraid they have been killed. The Han general's camp used the power of firearms to drive them out of the palace, but they must have gathered troops and horses at this moment to prepare for a counterattack on the palace and control the situation in the capital, and what we have to do is to suppress them all. ”

Hou Dabiao almost fell off the horse, and said in a daze: "My God, the emperor has died, and the shape has actually reached such a point, and the empress dowager is still in the dark when he realizes it." If the lord is killed by them in the palace, he will be stupid to death. These eight lambs dare to be pretentious, and intend to murder adults, this is to rebel, it's really fucking tired; But the lord gave an order, and the lowly was determined to arrest them one by one to confess their crimes, and finally cut off their heads one by one, and the lowly had hoped to do so. ”

Song Nan frowned and said: "There are no less than 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses in the Governor's Mansion of the five armies in the city, all of them are the old departments of Tan You and Zhang Wei, this is not just a matter of words, just relying on our Jinyi Wei Yamen These people are afraid that it will not work, I don't know that my brother-in-law can bring soldiers and horses to do it, this time without him." ”

Wang Yong said: "Then needless to say, how can the British Duke sit idly by?" Although the British duke is a little shy and timid, he is still reliable in major matters, otherwise he would not have sent someone to escort Zhang Gonggong out of the city to report the news to you; According to the humble position, the British prince mainly depends on your attitude, and what the adult wants to do, he will follow. ”

Song Nan nodded and said: "You see him very thoroughly, he pities the feathers of the British government, and he is afraid that he will take the lead and will be infamous in the future, which is reasonable." He is different from me, I am not afraid of anything, I am not afraid of saying bad things about me in the history books in the future, I only do what I have to do, and others will judge me. I hope he won't back down this time, otherwise I won't be able to get along happily with him in the future. ”

While speaking, thousands of people and horses galloped to the west of Daming Gate, and heard a shout of killing in the distance, and the captain who was exploring the road in front turned around and reported: "There is a fight at Zhengyangmen, and the fight is a mess." ”

Song Nan asked, "Whose soldiers and horses?" Is it our brother of Jinyiwei? ”

The captain said: "I can't see clearly on the side of the outer city, it seems to be the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp." ”

Song Nan frowned and said, "Let's be clear, whose soldiers and horses are the soldiers and horses in the Beijing camp?" ”

The lieutenant hurriedly said: "The soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp outside the Zhengyang Gate are attacking the Zhengyang Gate, and the soldiers and horses of the battalion and state guards under the jurisdiction of the governor of the five armies are on the head of the city. ”

Song Nan patted the horse and said: "Okay, my eldest brother didn't coax this time, let's do it before we arrived, Hou Dabiao Wang Yong listened to the order, and immediately flanked the rear of Zhengyang Gate, disturbed the soldiers and horses in front of Daming Gate, and signaled that Sun Xuan's people in the east were ordered to enter from the other side and give them dumplings behind their backs." ”

Hou Dabiao and Wang Yong promised loudly, and quickly made arrangements at the moment, 600 banners followed Wang Yong from the fork in the rear of the general office, 700 people followed Hou Dabiao from the main road, and the remaining 100 people followed Song Nan to command the rear sweep formation.

After the distribution, the captains quickly approached the big square between Zhengyangmen and Damingmen in two ways, and after a while, they saw more than a dozen fireworks bombs rushing into the sky with a screaming sound, and soon after, the direction of Mingshifang in the east of Nanxunfang also rose into the air to echo, which must be echoed by Sun Xuan's brocade guards.

Up and down the Zhengyangmen Tower, the battle to attack the inner city has begun, when Li Daniu found Zhang Lun, Zhang Lun was indeed a little hesitant, Zhang Lun had considered this problem countless times, and after Zhang Yong informed him of the edict, he made trade-offs all the time. If Zhang Mao was alive, Zhang Mao would definitely warn him not to participate in this struggle, to become transcendent and independent, and to become an intermediate force in the struggle between all parties; It not only preserved the status of the British government, but also did not offend either side in the struggle for power between the two sides.

However, Zhang Lun knew that he couldn't sit and watch the play, he knew that the interests between himself and Song Nan were the same, and he had stood on Song Nan's side many times before, even if he protected himself this time, he would never end well afterwards. If Song Nan loses in this battle, he will definitely think that he is Song Nan's faction, and he will be marginalized in the future, and he will be infamous instead.

Not to mention anything else, if his sister didn't carry a knife into the British Mansion to chase after her, his name would be written upside down. Brother and sister turn against each other, old and dead do not get along with each other is Zhang Lun's most taboo, he values family affection more than interests in his heart, this is the most fundamental difference between him and Zhang Mao, otherwise he would not have known about the collusion between Song Nan and the little county lord, but he chose to forbear and tolerate, that is, he didn't want his sister to become a victim of the exchange of interests.

But Zhang Lun also knew that the five battalions of soldiers and horses of Song Nan's cronies in the regimental camp were all taken by Song Nan to crusade against King Ning's rebellion, and the remaining seven regiments and battalions were all maintained by interests in addition to the Fenwu battalion led by himself, and Song Nan had already told himself that he wanted to purify the regimental battalion, and even proposed steps and methods, but Zhang Lun always couldn't be ruthless; Now, the bitter fruit of this ruthlessness has been highlighted, and it is a question whether he can mobilize the Hou Ye of other battalions.

In desperation, Zhang Lun made a decision, and immediately mobilized the Fenwu battalion and the Shenshu battalion under his control to control the situation in the outer city, as for the other regiments and battalions, Zhang Lun chose a conservative approach, that is, let them stay put, and did not notify them to send troops at all, Zhang Lun was most afraid that they would not obey orders, but that they would suddenly fall to the Queen Mother and Yang Tinghe, and the defection at this time would be fatal.

When Zhang Lun led the soldiers and horses to Zhengyang Gate, thousands of Jinyi Guards had gathered in the square outside Zhengyangmen, and seeing that Song Nan never left the hands of the 1,000 Jinyi Guards who guarded the fire camp was also here, Zhang Lun couldn't help but sweat for Song Nan's move to enter the inner city and enter the palace alone. The city gate was already tense, and the brocade-clothed guards and horses who could still hold it at first heard the sound of bean-like firearms in the palace, and knew that there was already a fight in the inner city palace, and the brocade guards could no longer hold it back. Hou Dabiao sent people to the Zhengyang Gate to negotiate, knowing that the city gate defenders would not agree, but he still tried to let them open the city gate and let the Jinyi Guard's troops enter the inner city to check the situation, but the Yingzhou guards and horses at the head of the city actually indiscriminately pulled bows and arrows to shoot more than a dozen Jinyi Guard captains, which immediately ignited the air that had reached the critical point of explosion.

As the Jinyi guards and horses immediately began to fight back and swarmed to attack the city gate, Zhang Lun did not hesitate at all, so he ordered the Fenwu Battalion and the Shenji Battalion to start attacking the Zhengyangmen City Tower. In terms of siege, the Fenwu Battalion and the Shenji Battalion are obviously more useful than the Jinyi Guard Captains, they are real combat soldiers, both siege equipment Sasuke and trained siege operations, so they immediately became the main force of the siege. Thousands of Jinyi guards were unwilling to be spectators, Zhao Dapeng approached the city wall with the fire gun camp and fired at it, and the rest of the Jinyi guards of the thousands of households also acted as pawns who climbed the cloud ladder, and regarded the capital of the Ming Dynasty as a battlefield to kill the enemy.

On the vast streets and squares between Daming Gate and Zhengyang Gate, nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army gathered here, and when the Zhengyang Gate Tower and Zhang Lun outside led the Shenji Battalion and the Fenwu Battalion soldiers and horses to arrive, Yang Tinghe and Zhang Wei and others had just escaped from the palace, and when they heard the news that Zhang Lun led the regimental camp to arrive outside the Zhengyang Gate, Zhang Wei couldn't help but shudder.

"The British Duke really made a move, Yang Gong, it's not easy to do now, if all the regimental soldiers and horses are dispatched, there are more than 50,000 troops, we are not opponents."

Yang Tinghe frowned and said, "Zhang Lun's shot is not unusual, can you hear clearly?" Outside Zhengyang Gate, all the soldiers and horses of the seven battalions and regiments were dispatched? The old man has a tacit understanding with them, and several Hou Ye Ke said that they would not participate in it and would never be involved. ”

Zhang Wei hurriedly went up to the city tower to observe, but found that except for Zhang Lun's Fenwu Battalion and Shenji Battalion and Jinyi Guard Captain, there was no shadow of other regimental battalions and horses at all. ”

Yang Tinghe said indifferently: "Of course it's not monolithic, the reason why they are obedient to Song Nan on the surface, first, Zhang Lun and Song Nan hold the position of the chief and deputy governor of the regiment and battalion, and they are their superiors; Second, when the emperor was alive, he favored Song Nan, and Song Nan was vicious, and several marquis who opposed him were removed from the throne of the commander of the regimental camp. But in fact, they were not as loyal to Song Nan as they imagined. ”

Zhang Wei arched his hand and said: "What Yang Gong said is that the current situation confirms your judgment, Yang Gong is wise. ”

Yang Tinghe glanced at Zhang Wei and said, "Do you think they will agree with my words?" That's because the old man promised them benefits, and they are all people who can't afford to be early, and how can there be any faith; The old man promised them that the governor of the regiment and battalion would be theirs in the future, so they would be willing to take this risk and stay still. ”