On the third day of the fourth month, Wang Yuanyong in the city finally had news.

The patrol team outside the Qingbo Gate found an arrow cluster shot from the city at night, and there was a note tied to the arrow cluster, and the soldiers of the patrol team sent it to Su Yan as soon as they found it. ”

It turned out that this note was written with the information that Wang Yuan had collected in the city in the past few days, as well as his evaluation of Chen Xinyou.

The more than 16,000 defenders of the Qing army were mainly stationed at the four gates of Fengshan Gate, Qiantang Gate, Wulin Gate and Hou Chao Gate, of which the garrison of Qiantang Gate and Wulin Gate was the largest, because Su Yan's camp was outside Qiantang Gate, and the main force of the Ming army was also concentrated here, and Qingbo Gate only had Chen Xinyou and more than 1,000 soldiers under his command, and there was another Manchurian soldier of Niu Lu sitting in the town - this was arranged by Li Shutai out of caution and fearing that the appearance of the city gate would lead to the loss of the city gate.

However, this Manchurian soldier of Niu Lu did not need to worry, because Chen Xinyou had a way to deal with them, he said that he could drug the food of those Manchurian soldiers, let them fall into a coma and could not prevent the Green Camp from rising, as long as those Manchurian soldiers fell into a coma, they were lambs to be slaughtered.

According to Wang Yuanyong's contacts with Chen Xinyou these days, he judged that Chen Xinyou's credibility was very high, and he walked around the garrison of Chen Xinyou's soldiers and horses, and learned that many Green Battalion foot soldiers were more or less oppressed by the Manchurian soldiers on weekdays, and had suitable reasons to participate in the uprising.

Therefore, Wang Yuanyong suggested that Su Yan should seize this opportunity to take Hangzhou Mansion before the Qing army moved south.

There is no doubt that Su Yan took his suggestion, and took advantage of the night to gather the Shenji Battalion to bypass the West Lake and go to the Leifeng Pagoda to ambush a day in advance, because the Ming army's station outside the Qiantang Gate was behind the Gem Mountain, with the cover of mountains and forests, and the Qing army would not find out about the movement of the Ming army, which gave Su Yan a good opportunity.

Of course, it was impossible for Su Yan to launch an attack on the city from only one part of the Qingbo Gate, so he wrote a few letters and ordered them to be sent to the main generals of the other gates, asking them to wait until tomorrow evening to open the letters and act according to the content - Su Yan asked them to immediately attack the city gate opposite each other after the battle broke out in the Qingbo Gate to contain the Qing army.

At the same time, he also ordered someone to inform Wang Yi and the Xiaocai battalion that were still within the boundaries of Jiaxing Mansion to return, and set up an ambush at the city gate of the Genshan Gate to the Wangjiang Gate on the east side of Hangzhou.

It's a pity that Lin Xingzhu and the rattan battalion did not participate in the Northern Expedition together, and stayed in Fuzhou City, otherwise with the rattan battalion as the vanguard, the victory rate would have increased a lot.

……

As Su Yan expected, the movement of the Ming army outside the Qiantang Gate was not noticed by the Qing army, and the Shenji battalion bypassed the West Lake under the cover of night, and stationed in the mountains and forests behind the Leifeng Tower.

Su Yan also reached a consensus with Chen Xinyou in the city, and decided to launch an attack in the early morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, when three torches were used as the trumpet - Chen Xinyou's men opened the city gate, held and shook three torches on the top of the city, and the Ming army then attacked the city.

In order to confuse the public, Wang Yuanyong also proposed to Chen Xinyou to send people to set fire to houses everywhere in the city, creating chaos, so that the Qing army could not react immediately, Chen Xinyou accepted his proposal, prepared flammable materials in various places in the city in advance, and set fire to them as soon as the hour came.

With the passage of time, as soon as the early hours of the morning passed, three shaking torches appeared on the head of the Qingbo Gate, Su Yan immediately pulled out his saber and ordered: "The hour has come, enter the city from the Qingbo Gate, and the soldiers will be divided into two roads, all the way to the Yamen and the Governor's Department, and all the way to attack the Fengshan Gate!" ”

"Let's go!"

Su Yan's voice fell, and the soldiers and horses of the Shenji Battalion under his command all ran towards Qingbo Gate quickly, and at this moment, the city suddenly burst into flames, obviously Chen Xinyou arranged people in advance to light the fire everywhere, after the fire spread, I heard the city shouting "go water", countless people were awakened from their sleep, and the city was in an uproar.

Under such a noisy background sound, Chen Xinyou ordered to open the Qingbo Gate, the noisy sound just covered up the noise of the city gate opening, after opening the city gate, he left a part of the people to respond to the Ming army, and he was with a heavily armed soldier murderously rushed into the Manchurian garrison, and picked up the machete at the Manchurian soldiers who were still asleep after being drugged, but the poor Manchurian soldiers didn't even have time to scream, and lost their lives in their sleep.

At the same time, seeing the flames in the city, the main generals who had already opened the letter and learned that they were going to attack at night tonight mobilized their troops and horses, sounded the horn of attack, and launched an attack on the city gate.

For a time, the sound of shouting and killing outside the city shook the sky, and the Qing army who was still asleep was first woken up by the shouts of the water, and just wanted to go to carry water to put out the fire, but heard several cannons outside, and the Ming army attacked the city, so they had to hurriedly put on their armor, take their weapons and run on the city wall to resist the enemy.

In the courtyard of the governor's headquarters, Li Shutai, who was talking with Chen Tai, the general of Jingnan, and Liu Zhiyuan, the real of Gushan, was discussing how to join forces with the army to eliminate the Ming army outside the city, suddenly heard a commotion outside, and the light reflected in the firelight could be seen in the window, so he hurriedly pushed open the door and ran out of the courtyard, and then they saw that there were raging fires all over the city, and the flames were soaring, and countless figures were shaking on the street.

Seeing this scene, Li Shutai only felt that his blood was surging, his brain was dizzy, he held his forehead and shouted loudly: "It's not good!" This must be the Ming army should set fire to the city, you two quickly return to their respective stations, mobilize troops and horses to prepare for the Ming army to attack the city! ”

As soon as his words fell, as if in response to his words, several cannons rang out outside the city, accompanied by the Ming army's passionate attack horn, several people's faces changed greatly, Chen Tai and Liu Zhiyuan didn't care about speaking, and hurriedly ran out of the governor's department, one south and one north to their respective stations.

Li Shutai looked at the back of the two of them leaving, thought about it, and ordered someone to come and put on armor for him, and prepared to go to the front line to inspect it in person.

Qingbo Gate, the Shenji Battalion quickly controlled the city gate under the leadership of Su Yan, and saw Chen Xinyou and Wang Yuanyong beside him anyway, as well as the three hundred Manchurian heads that were cut off, Su Yan first praised Chen Xinyou's move of abandoning the secret and turning to the light, and said that after the recovery of Hangzhou Mansion, he would reward him for his righteous deeds.

Subsequently, Su Yan asked Chen Xinyou to lead the way, and he divided the Shenji battalion into two roads according to the original plan, and went all the way to the Yamen of the Political Envoy Department not far from Qingbo Gate, and all the way under the leadership of Chen Xinyou, he bypassed Wushan and went straight to Fengshan Gate, and joined the Su Ci Department outside Fengshan Gate.

------Off topic------

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