The third prince of Zhu supported himself to get up, and then moved himself to the side of the ship, while Yang Ziyun pushed open the window on the side of the cabin for him, so that he could see the situation outside.

At this time, the sky was already a little bright, so the third prince of Zhu could have a full view of the situation on the nearby shore. The official ship he was on was indeed on the Qinhuai River, and it was also on the river section of the inner city of Nanjing, near which was the original Jiangnan Gongyuan, which is now the base camp of the Restoration.

Through the window, the third prince could see at a glance the sea of red that had gathered outside the Restoration School!

I don't know how many Chinese and national soldiers in red robes, holding long swords, bows, crossbows and muskets have gathered in the open space outside the gate of the Restoration Hall, and are shouting to "protect the Ming Dynasty, punish the national thief"!

Some of them had drawn their swords and held them high, reflecting a blinding glow in the early morning sun.

A high platform has been erected at the door of the Restoration Hall, and on the high platform stands a "red-clothed Confucian" wearing a red robe with a collar, and the third prince of Zhu still recognizes him, who is the big leader of the Restoration faction and Lu Liuliang, who is also the deputy head of the Nanjing Restoration School.

Lu Liuliang seemed to be mobilizing, holding a horn rolled up in cardboard in his hand, and making a speech at the top of his voice, but the surrounding was too noisy, and the third prince of Zhu could not hear it clearly, and could only vaguely hear words such as "The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the people", "The Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty of the people", "Anqing has been conquered by the heavenly soldiers, and the British army is coming" and other words.

Hearing that "the British king's army is coming", Zhu Cijiong suddenly came to his senses - as long as Li Datou's army arrived, he, the third prince, would be "Zhu Mochou".

"Quick, quick, get the boat up, the widow will be with the nation!" Zhu Cijiong said.

"No!" Yang Ziyun next to him immediately stopped, "The king, just watch how the people of Nanjing, Yingtian Lianjun, and Huaixi Red Scarves kill thieves. When the thief is destroyed, the king can be embraced as the Son of Heaven. If the king comes forward now, I'm afraid it will be misunderstood."

As he spoke, Yang Ziyun raised his hand and gently wiped it on his long neck!

Zhu Cijiong is a smart person, and he immediately understood that Yang Ziyun was speaking for others!

That "someone else" needs a puppet emperor!

After all, this emperor still wants it!

Because the process of reviving the Ming Dynasty is a process of fighting the world, and fighting the world will play a lot of heroes. Heroes must be knighted, and if they are knighted, they must be passed on to their descendants, if there is no hereditary emperor, how can the nobles be hereditary?

So it can't be done without the emperor. At least for now, we can't do without the emperor.

Since there is to be an emperor, then for the Southern King, the Northern King, the Ying King, the Loyal King, the Wing King, as well as Lu Zhongtang and Chen Zhongtang and others, it is more appropriate to support a legitimate heir to the throne of the Ming Dynasty with a very upright bloodline and legal system - otherwise whoever comes to power to become the emperor will have the risk of losing their heads, and then others will definitely not be able to agree!

For example, now that Geng Jingzhong is quite an emperor, the other kings and Zhongtang will join forces to deal with him!

Of course, the rightful heir of the Ming Dynasty must be incompetent and cowardly enough. This is a good puppet emperor.

Otherwise, with the old Zhu family's history of killing heroes, if the third prince of Zhu wants to show a little bit of domineering, then he will be killed by Geng Jingzhong!

"Ai Concubine, the widow thought about it again, and found that he couldn't do anything, it seems that if he went, he would also cause chaos to the country, so what should the widow do now?" Of course, the third prince of Zhu is willing to lie down and be a puppet emperor.

Puppet emperor, that's also the emperor!

The emperor should have a lot of benefits, and he doesn't have to deal with all kinds of opportunities, he doesn't have to intrigue with the power and traitors below, just open a harem at home every day, where can I find such a good job?

Yang Ziyun had already shown a satisfied smile - the third prince Zhu had passed the assessment!

"Your Majesty," Yang Ziyun said with a smile, "you don't have to do anything, just sit on the boat and watch the people of Nanjing quell the chaos under the command of King Ying, Lu Zhongtang, and Chen Zhongtang!" ”

"Kill Zhu San, destroy the remnants of Ming, and protect King Geng!"

Just when the third prince Zhu made up his mind to lie down, the sound of gunfire and killing had already resounded around the palace of the king of Jianguoding on the north side of Xi'anmen Street.

This palace is the original Liangjiang Governor's Yamen, south of Xi'an Gate Street, east not far from the city wall of the imperial city, north of the North Wangfu and several military camps and warehouses, west of the two streets is the bustling business district.

After the third prince of Zhu lived in this palace, the renovation and reinforcement of the palace did not stop, in addition to the interior decoration and the "fake Wenhua Gate project", the focus of the palace reconstruction is to strengthen the exterior wall and open an eye-catching on the exterior wall!

The exterior walls of the reconstructed palace are not high, but they are very strong, not made of rammed earth and bricks, but made of stones taken from a section of lime mountains in the northern part of the outer city of Nanjing, and very hard green bricks, which can defend against artillery bombardment.

At the same time, a number of firing emplacements and firing holes were opened on the inner side of the perimeter, through which the gunners could hide and fire.

Just after the third prince of Zhu left the Dingwang Mansion and fled, Luo Dawei sneaked in from behind the palace with Li Zhongshan's warrant and 2,000 Huaixi Red Turban soldiers who had infiltrated Nanjing, and then quickly took over the palace guards, and then completed the arming.

Soon after their deployment was completed, Geng Jingzhong's artillery began to bombard the Dingwang Mansion with red-coated cannons.

The cannonballs hit the outer wall of the Dingwang Mansion, and there was the sound of cannonballs falling masonry everywhere, but this solid outer wall still withstood the test, and after receiving dozens of solid bullets of eleven or twelve catties, it still remained intact, and none of them collapsed.

After firing hundreds of shells, the "Su Song Army" (that is, Yue Le's army), which had already driven out of the Xi'an Gate, had already surrounded the Dingwang Mansion. Most of these were the Eight Banners and Green Battalion soldiers who were stationed in Jiangning earlier, and Zhu Cijiong, the king of Tongding, had a deep blood feud - although the people who killed their families were Geng Jingzhong's soldiers, but Yue Le didn't tell them the truth, they thought that it was the third prince of Zhu, the number one thief in the Qing Dynasty, who ordered the slaughter of Jiangning Mancheng!

Of course, if the third prince of Zhu gave an order that worked, he would definitely give such an order without hesitation.

Therefore, Geng Jingzhong can be regarded as carrying out the "wish" of the third prince of Zhu, and at this time, Yue Le's soldiers will not find the wrong person to seek revenge on him.

The Yue Le soldiers, who shouted the slogan of "Kill Zhu San", launched a charge, approaching from all sides of the Dingwang Mansion, and opened fire as they advanced.

The defenders of the palace did not show weakness, and fought back desperately through the shooting holes in the wall.

On the periphery of Dingwang's Mansion, the smoke of gunpowder was filled for a while!

Geng Jingzhong stood on the tower of Xi'an Gate, crouched behind a battlement, looking at the battlefield in front of him, surrounded by his accomplices, all of them looked at the direction of Dingwangfu with red eyes, and hated to raze this luxurious and spacious mansion to the ground.

But the defense of the Dingwang Mansion was surprisingly strong!

Originally, I thought that it was a battle that could be done with just a charge, but now the Yue Le soldiers who were attacking the Dingwang Mansion were suddenly hit by a very deadly gunfire that was not very dense, and the soldiers who rushed in front had already been shot and fell to the ground when they were still dozens of steps away from the outer wall of the Dingwang Mansion. The soldiers behind were probably frightened by this scene, and did not dare to rush forward again, but began to fire their guns from a distance. But how could their bullets get into the narrow holes?

As a result, the bullets only hit the walls, and could barely inflict any damage on the defenders inside.

Where is this attacking, it is clearly giving people heads!

"Lord Wang, it's not okay to fight like this!"

Shang Zhixin suddenly spoke at this time, "Let's take the people of the headquarters to support Prince An, by the way, pull a few more red-clothed cannons down, and fire at the Dingwang Mansion, as long as the outer wall collapses, there are many of us, and we are not afraid that we will not be able to win." ”

"Good!" Geng Jingzhong nodded, "I have to answer the father, I have to work!" ”

"Lord Wang," Shang Zhixin's sister-in-law, Shang Shuying, saw her brother asking for battle, and she also had a little itchy hands, "The concubine also wants to make some efforts, and the concubine wants to take the people of the headquarters from the north of the Dingwang Mansion to take the North Wangfu and the north camp of the city, as well as the Lion Rock Heights." The Yuejiang Tower on the Lion Rock also has a cannon, as long as the Yuejiang Tower can be taken, it can condescendingly bombard Yifengmen and Longjiangkou. If you can capture Yifengmen and control the Longjiang Estuary, then the army of the Northern King will be able to come from Puzikou. ”

"Good way!" Geng Jingzhong smiled, "I didn't expect that Sister Shuying, you are also proficient in military affairs!" ”

Shang Shuying said with a smile: "Look at what you said, I can be in charge of the Xushun Mansion for many years, and the five leaders of the Xushun Mansion, the female feudal lord, are all under my command!" ”

"Well, let's go!" Geng Jingzhong nodded.

"Huh!"

Shang Shuying and Shang Zhixin had just left the Xi'an Gate Tower, and a guard from the East Wangfu hurriedly came to report.

"King Yudong, Li Guan's soldiers and horses were blocked by Yingtian Tuanlian and a part of Yingtian's civilian army on Changfu Street, and they couldn't attack for a while, so I asked for support!"

"What?" Geng Jingzhong was stunned, "Changfu Street"

He was surprised when another elongated "newspaper" sounded.

"King Yudong, Fan Guan's soldiers and horses encountered stubborn resistance from the Ying Tianren in Taiping."

Geng Jingzhong is a little stupid now.

How can this be disadvantageous?

If you don't count Shang Zhixin and Shang Shuying's two roads, he had sent Yue Le, Li Zhifang, Fan Chengmo and other three people before, but now they are all blocked!

How good is that?

"Lord Wang, send reinforcements!" Geng Jingzhong's military advisor Yu Renying immediately suggested, "Now is the time for the brave to win when they meet on a narrow road!" ”

"Lord Wang, now is not the time to preserve your strength!" Li Daoren also suggested, "If you count the men and horses of the Shang family brothers and sisters, we have now sent a five-way army and invested more than 20,000 people!" If you can't win quickly, once the people of Nanjing are mobilized, then the third prince of Zhu will not be 10,000 or 20,000 people, but more than 100,000 or 200,000! ”

More than two hundred and twenty thousand. Geng Jingzhong was taken aback by this number, and said in his heart: Why did the people of Nanjing go to the rabble when they planned major events before? How is it not a rabble now?

Thinking of this, Geng Jingzhong gritted his teeth and stomped his feet: "Come on, order all the eight thousand elites for this king, and this king will personally conquer Changfu Street!" ”

"Huh!"

Changfu Street, as the name suggests, is the street where Chang Yuchun's house is located. This is an old place name, originally there was no Chang family on Changfu Street, but this time when the Ming Dynasty opened again, the Chang family invested in the shares!

Now, of course, I'm going back to Changfu Street!

Therefore, Li Zhifang's men and horses encountered Chang Wei's men and horses of the Jiangdu Red Turban Army on Changfu Street!

Chang Wei's soldiers are not as capable as Huaixi Red Turbans, but they are well equipped! They are Chen Yonghua's people, Chen Yonghua is a big capitalist! And they occupy the treasure land of feng shui in Yangzhou, and elsewhere they are eating pot pulp to welcome the king, but the salt merchants in Yangzhou are particularly simple, and they don't engage in that set of falsehood, and go directly to silver! Yinshan Yinhai welcomes the king!

Therefore, Chang Wei's army is a spear for flint, and the inventory of Guangfu Foshan has been bought out!

In addition to being equipped with flintlock pistols, the regimental warriors of the Changjia Army also wore armor, and they were all dressed in high-quality cloth iron armor, the cloth on the outside, and the iron on the inside, all of which were made of full materials, without any reduction.

Therefore, as soon as they rushed out of the two big mansions on Changfu Street, they gave Li Zhifang a dismount. Hit them with dense flintlock fire so that they couldn't even lift their heads!

If it weren't for the timely arrival of the 8,000 people led by Geng Jingzhong, Li Zhifang's men would have almost been defeated by Chang Wei!

But Geng Jingzhong personally led 8,000 people out of the imperial city, and after arriving at the battlefield, the two or three thousand Jiangdu soldiers under Chang Wei couldn't withstand it - after all, the opponent had more than 10,000 people!

Moreover, Changfu Street is not a battlefield where an army of 10,000 or 20,000 people can be set up to fight, it is surrounded by streets, and it is also very prosperous, and the houses are densely built, which affects the shooting boundary very much.

In addition, these streets are all interconnected, and Geng Jingzhong has many people, so he can completely disperse and march separately to outflank Chang's army.

In this outflanking, Chang Wei had no choice but to take people to hide in several big mansions around him, relying on the walls and doors to resist.

And Geng Jingzhong's generals were not ambiguous, and directly found something to ignite the fire, and the fire was lit around the mansion guarded by Chang Wei and others!

This is a terrible thing!

In these years, there are a lot of old wooden houses, and Nanjing is also a textile center, and there are also many machine owners near Changfu Street, stacked with many spinning wheels, silk threads and silk cloths, all of which were set on fire at once.

The fire spread rapidly, and the more it burned, the more it burned!

Encouraged by the fire, Geng Jun and Li Jiajun in eastern Zhejiang (in fact, the original Green Battalion and Zhejiang Banner Army) also rose up and began to approach Chang Mansion from all directions.

The walls and doors of the Chang family's mansion were full of flintlock muskets, but these Chang soldiers were obviously not as well-trained as the Huaixi army, and when they saw the surrounding fire and the approaching enemy, they also began to panic, completely ignoring the officer's orders, and just fired indiscriminately. From a distance, the walls of the Changfu mansion were filled with smoke, and the flames of guns were dotted with them.

In the Changfu mansion, at this time, there were a lot of people who avoided the fire, and there were also many national scholars and Chinese people living in the area of Changfu Street - the Chang family mansion on Changfu Street was originally a gathering place for these national soldiers and Chinese people. They were all dressed in red robes, dressed in all kinds of armor, armed with spears and large knives, and some of them carried crossbows on their backs, all with angry faces.

Geng Jingzhong burned down their home!

Seeing the soldiers on the wall firing in a hurry, many soldiers and people couldn't help for a while, so they simply shouted and cheered and became cheerleaders!

"Be on point, kill a few more thieves!"

"Kill all the thieves!"

"Is the thief closer?"

"General Chang, we want to kill the thief."

Chang Wei couldn't hear their shouts at all, he was lying on a wall at this time, stepping on a coffee table under his feet, his fingers picking at the brick cracks, just staring at everything in front of him, watching the crowd of Geng Jun rushing in the firelight, watching them keep moving forward, and people kept falling.

His big white face was still quite calm, but the sweat in the vest was already flowing one after another.

You can't afford to lose this battle, and if you lose, it's all over. Not only did the Chang family never turn over, but even Ding Zhuang in the clan had to be killed and injured.

It can be said that the Chang family has blocked everything!

If you win, the Chang family is the "shareholder" of Daming and loses

It's not just the Chang family who gambles on everything, but also Shang Zhixin and Shang Shuying!

At this time, one of the two brothers and sisters was helping Yue Le besiege Dingwangfu with the embers of the Shang family, and the other led 5,000 Liu family troops to march on an open street in the north of Nanjing, near the Beiwangfu.

The north of Nanjing is relatively depressed, both sides of the street are either barracks or warehouses, and the North Wangfu is the only mansion. It's pretty big anyway.

Shang Shuying had been walking along the wall of the North Palace's mansion for a while, and she hadn't seen her head yet. Suddenly passing by a three-way intersection, she saw a familiar figure out of the corner of her eyes, it was actually Liu Jinzhong!

Shang Shuying hurriedly reined in her war horse and looked back, sure enough, it was her husband, Liu Jinzhong, the king of the Northern Ming Dynasty!

(End of chapter)