This night in the Eastern Capital is destined to be a sleepless night.

Wave after wave of dark guards returned to the Eastern Capital with a body full of wind and dust, and one after another military information was passed upward, from the Secret Guard Mansion to the Great Prime Minister's Mansion, and finally delivered to the imperial palace in the center of the Eastern Capital at dawn, and after passing through the hands of the eunuch Sun Shilin, the master of ceremonies, it was handed to Qin Xian's bookcase.

After learning of this earth-shattering news, the Jade Empress Dowager and the little emperor Qin Xian urgently summoned the great prime minister Xiao Lie to the palace to discuss the matter.

Smoke rose from the curling air, filling the entire imperial study, the Jade Empress Dowager and Qin Xian sat side by side on a wide soft collapse behind the imperial case, in front of the imperial case, Xiao Lie's hands folded in front of him, hidden in the sleeves of the wide robe, the cuffs drooped to the knees, showing the transcendent demeanor of the first prince.

Behind him, most of the people behind him were high-ranking officials in the Eastern Capital who were still drinking in Qiutai not long ago, except for Sun Ligong, Zhao Qing, Zhang Haijiu and others, there was only one more Xiao Gongyu.

The Empress Dowager Jade looked at Xiao Lie, her face did not see the charm of being entangled with Xiao Lie on weekdays, only worried, and said: "Since the failure of the last time the general manager of the soldiers and horses conquered Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu's arrogance has been worse day by day, and now he is knocking on the Dayi Mansion, and his intentions are unknown, I don't know what the prime minister thinks?"

Xiao Lie said in a calm tone: "In terms of combat power, Xiao Yu's Northwest Army is the best in the world, especially after the fall of the traitor Qin Zheng and the defeat of Mu Wangye, it is even more incompetent, and my Eastern Capital Jingying is no exception, if you want to confront the Northwest Army on the frontal battlefield, it is difficult." ”

Zhou Jingchao echoed and said: "What the prime minister said is good, the rebellious people in Jiangnan and the five kings of Houjian are a lesson from the past. ”

The Empress Dowager Jade threw the urgent report in her hand on the case, and said dejectedly: "Do you want to sit still and wait for death?"

As one of the insiders of the Taimiao Change, the Jade Empress Dowager knew very well who killed Emperor Zheng and Qin Gong, and who overthrew the Qin family's family, and she also knew the past of the prince's rebellion, Xiao Lie could be indifferent to Xiao Yu leading the army into the customs, and it was a big deal to wait for Xiao Yu to become a prince after he ascended the throne, but at that time, how should she deal with the Qin family, the royal family of the previous dynasty? So she would rather be a puppet queen mother in the hands of the powerful minister Xiao Lie than fall into the hands of Xiao Yu, who wants to be the emperor.

At this moment, Zhao Qing came out of the ranks, and said loudly: "Weichen thinks that the Northwest Army is powerful, but it is not unresistible, the last time the army of the King of Liao invaded the northwest, although it was finally defeated, but the northwest side also suffered heavy losses, and now Xiao Yu is surging, known as 800,000 troops, but in Weichen's opinion, there are only 12 out of 100 veterans, about 80,000 people. ”

The Empress Dowager Jade looked at Zhao Qing, as if a drowning person had grabbed a life-saving straw, and asked urgently: "In this way, Zhao Qing's family has a good plan to break the enemy?"

Zhao Qing said: "A procrastination, the bitter cold in the northwest, after being blocked and transported, is even more stretched on the issue of money and grain, so Xiao Yu will risk the world's disapproval to conquer the two states of Shuhu in the south, and build five kings after the Northern Expedition, just because of lack of food." This time, Xiao Yuxing's division moved the crowd to enter the customs, and the huge amount of grain and grass consumed was immeasurable, and our army only needed to stick to the city, not giving the Northwest Army a chance to take advantage of, and if it dragged on for several months, the Northwest Army would definitely run out of grain and grass, and at that time, no matter how invincible the Northwest Army's combat strength was, it would also collapse without a fight. ”

The Empress Dowager Jade swept away her previous gloomy look, showed a little joy on her face, and said: "What the Zhao Qing family said is extremely true, and it is very much in line with the wishes of the mourning family, what does the prime minister think?"

Xiao Lie had no joy or sorrow on his face, as if it was none of his business, but he said indifferently: "Since this is the case, you might as well let Zhao Qing supervise the frontline of the army." ”

Empress Dowager Jade nodded and said, "Zhao Qing's family is indeed a good soldier, how about being appointed as the head of the soldiers and horses in the north?"

Xiao Lie cherished the words like gold and said: "Yes." ”

Empress Dowager Jade glanced at Qin Xian, who was stunned beside her, cleared her throat, and said, "Emperor." ”

Qin Xian suddenly stirred up, came back to his senses, and said softly: "Queen Mother." ”

Empress Dowager Yu said calmly: "Chief Manager Sun, I plan to edict, promote Zhao Qing to be the chief of soldiers and horses in the north, supervise the front-line military affairs in the north, control Qizhou, Yuzhou, and Zhili Prefecture, and let the emperor use the seal later." ”

Sun Shilin, who had been standing aside, lowered his hand and responded, "No." ”

Qin Xian looked up at the ministers in front of the emperor, his gaze was immediately separated from Xiao Lie, who was expressionless, and then he lowered his head and said, "Everything is decided by the father and the queen mother. ”

——

At dawn, there was no longer half of the dungeon outside the city of Dayi, and wolf smoke rose from it.

The main army in the northwest has already arrived in the city.

After a night of offensive and defensive battles, the head of Dayi City was in a mess, and Ding Shiguang pressed the handle of the knife to step over a corpse, and came to a lookout to look out.

I saw that under the strong wind and yellow sand, a small character with gold characters on a black background was waving in the wind, and under the king flag was a tide of black armor that could not be seen at a glance.

Ding Shiguang is already at the age of knowing the destiny of heaven this year, and his appearance is upright and elegant, not like a military general, but more like a civil servant. In fact, he should indeed be regarded as a civil servant. Ding Shiguang was originally the political envoy of Shaanzhou, and after Xiao Yu captured Xiliang Prefecture, he was ordered to serve as the governor of Xihe, taking over the military and political power of Xihe Prefecture and Shaanzhou, and guarding the Dayi Mansion. Later, Qin Zheng led 200,000 Tianzi pro-army into the first line of the north, and he, the governor of Zheng Erpin, was controlled by Qin Zheng, and inexplicably became a rebel party of Qin Zheng, and then later, Xiao Lie defeated Qin Zheng, and he returned to the rule of the Dazheng court, but he could no longer be a governor, and could only be a Da Yi general from the third grade.

Even so, as a traditional literati, he was still loyal to the Dazheng court in his bones.

I don't know if it's because of the strong wind, Ding Shiguang squinted his eyes, looked at the black gold king flag in the depths of the layers of black armor, and suddenly laughed, and said: "The fact that the king of the northwest is here in person really flatters me Ding." ”

Ding Shiguang could laugh, but the other people around him couldn't, and even worse, their faces were already gray. They didn't know if the king of the northwest would be able to enter the eastern capital in the end, but they knew that wanting to rely on the city under their feet to block Xiao Yu's army was tantamount to a fool's dream.

The fall of Da Yi City seems to be only a matter of time.

All the city leaders subconsciously clenched the handle of the knife, and the hand holding the handle of the knife was slightly cold.

Ding Shiguang restrained his smile and said with a solemn expression: "Are the grain and treasury silver in the treasury ready?"

A middle-aged man dressed in a five-grade official robe: "It's all ready." ”

Ding Shiguang said: "All of them are distributed, this is a critical moment of survival, there must not be the slightest mistake, if anyone dares to stretch out his hand at this time, don't blame the official for not being emotional." ”

The middle-aged man in charge of the money and food affairs looked slightly grim and said, "No!"

Ding Shiguang said to the Da Yi Governor behind him: "Gather the gentry in the city, ask them to generously help defend the city, and tell them that this king of the northwest is a thin king who is accustomed to raiding his family and destroying his clan." ”

The prefect of Dayi Mansion went as promised.

Ding Shiguang pondered for a moment, turned his head to the deputy general beside him, and said: "Gather the young people in the city, let them be ready to assist in defending the city at any time, and at the same time send people to demolish the houses in turn from the south of the city to make rolling stones." ”

The lieutenant shouted a promise, then turned and went down to the city.

After arranging all this, Ding Shiguang seemed to be a few years old, and said softly: "Everyone, the time has come to be loyal to the imperial court." ”

A desolate whimpering trumpet sounded suddenly, followed by the rumbling of drums.

Ding Shiguang'an's hand on the handle of the knife trembled slightly. If the grassland or Houjian goes south, he still has some confidence to defend the Dayi Mansion, after all, the grassland and Houjian are longer than cavalry warfare, and weaker than siege, for thousands of years, the Central Plains has relied on Xiongguan to keep these nomads out. But this time the opponent is different, this time the opponent is the Northwest Army, the most elite Northwest Army of the Great Zheng Dynasty, they once garrisoned the world's first Xiongguan Zhongdu, good at defending the city, and naturally good at attacking the city.

Unlike the steppe cavalry, which can only use simple ladders and crashes, this time the Northwest Army was equipped with the necessary ladders, crashes, shield vehicles, etc., and also used the Western Regions cannon that was personally supervised and improved by Elena.

Since ancient times, offensive and defensive weapons have been as good as cannons. If the attacker has the art of artillery, the city will be invincible, and if the defender has the skill of artillery, he will be able to defeat the enemy. Later, when the army attacked Xiangyang, it was to destroy the city wall of Xiangyang with a salvo of boulder cannons, and the three-year battle of Xiangyang finally settled in the sound of artillery.

This time, Xiao Yu used the Western Regions cannon, which was also one of the few in the Zhongdu City, and renamed it the Zhongdu Cannon.

A full thirty Zhongdu cannons were aimed at the city wall of Dayi Mansion together.