A red firework was raised, and the officers and soldiers outside the city suddenly shouted like thunder, surging over like a tide.

The rogues in the city were all shocked when they saw this, and after a brief period of confusion, they immediately attacked the west gate, trying to retake the west gate and prevent the official army from attacking.

However, at this time, the White Lotus Sect in Ximen had reached as many as four or five hundred, and they surrounded Ximen and launched a fierce battle with the rogues who came to the rescue.

After a while, I don't know from which corner, more than 400 people dressed as civilians rushed out, and they were naturally also from the White Lotus Sect.

Ding Tian, the thief general who was responsible for the defense of the West Gate, quickly mobilized three or four thousand people to encircle and suppress the eight or nine hundred White Lotus Sect people, but the White Lotus Sect people were all fearless of death and had a strong will to fight.

Ding Tian immediately ordered the archers and crossbowmen to fall, and under the blow of the rain of arrows, the White Lotus Sect, who did not have a few shields, fell one by one. However, they did not rest on their laurels, but organized more than 200 people to rush to the camp of archers and crossbowmen. However, these men were soon surrounded by the outfantry.

Soon after the fierce battle between the two sides, the White Lotus Sect had already lost two or three hundred people, and four or five thousand rogue soldiers had also gathered at the gate of the city - because they knew that the official army was outside the gate, so there would naturally be heavy troops at the west gate.

But the officers and soldiers immediately rushed to the west gate. First, a thousand heavy cavalry roared in, and a single charge crushed the crossbowmen and archers of the rogue, and then a thousand light horsemen came in, slashing and slashing everywhere, killing these rogues crying dad and mother.

Immediately afterwards, the infantry of the official army rushed into the city from afar and began to attack the city walls and some of the street fighting points under the city walls.

Li Zicheng in the city was shocked and angry when he heard that the West Gate had been broken through by the people who had joined forces with the outside to break through! However, he did not panic, and immediately boldly withdrew half of the soldiers at the South, North, and East Gates, and then took the remaining reserve troops in the city, totaling 30,000 people, and began to arrange street battles in an orderly manner.

He already knew the street in Ankang City, where it was suitable for street fighting, and he was very clear about the street fighting and ambush after the city was broken, and he had already planned for the street fighting after the city was broken, so he was handy to arrange!

It took more than a quarter of an hour for the officers and soldiers to let all the thirty or forty thousand troops enter Ankang City, and after the last officer and army entered the city, the rogue defenders at the West Gate had basically collapsed. The official army successfully captured the city wall and annihilated about 2,000 defenders of the West Gate, while they only paid the price of more than 600 people.

There were about 6,000 rogues guarding the West Gate, and when they saw that Li Zicheng did not send troops to help, they immediately chose to retreat, and they were not willing to fight to the death with the official army.

More than 4,000 people fled into the city in a hurry, and the officers and soldiers only pursued and killed a short distance, and about four or five hundred people were killed, and they were ordered back by He Kegang.

He Kegang was an experienced general, and when he saw that Li Zicheng had abandoned Ximen and not come to reinforce him, he knew that he was preparing to fight in the streets, so he ordered the officers and soldiers not to chase after him, so as not to fall into an ambush.

The veteran He Kegang ordered the whole army to be on guard and repair in situ, and wait for tomorrow dawn to advance again. Why? Because the officers and soldiers were not familiar with Ankang City, and Li Zicheng had clearly laid an ambush in it, wouldn't it be easier to be ambushed in the dark?

As a result, Ankang City is very strange to garrison two sides of the people in a city.

At the same time, He Renlong and Zuo Guangxian had besieged the city for two days with an army of 40,000 (plus 5,000 more allocated to them by Qin Shuhuai), and they had tried to attack several times in the past two days, but each time they had failed to return. The defenders in the city are good at fighting and are well equipped, so they don't have a good way to do it for the time being. He Renlong fought very fiercely, and was called a madman, but he was not really crazy, and he saw that it was not easy to fight, so he had to frantically cut down the surrounding trees, make a large number of ladders, archer platforms, etc., and prepare for a strong attack that could accommodate 10,000 people at the same time.

In Shanxi, in order to cooperate with Qin Shuhuai's offensive in Shaanxi, the new trilateral governor Lu Xiangsheng also ordered Du Wenhuan and He Huchen, two generals, to launch a summer offensive against Zhang Xianzhong's troops, so that Zhang Xianzhong hid in the mountains and did not dare to come out, but the official army could not attack, and they were just to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from running to Shaanxi and help Gao Yingxiang.

In the Forbidden City, Chongzhen was in a hurry.

The military department came to report that Huang Taiji in the north with hundreds of thousands of troops had already arrived outside Da'ankou again, and could attack at any time. Chongzhen asked how many tens of thousands, and the people from the military department reported that it should be the 100,000 army that Qin Houye said, and then said that there might be some Mongolian soldiers and horses, and the specific number needs to be investigated, so angry that Chongzhen gritted his teeth.

However, it is not to blame the people of the military department, they are not on the front line, how do they know how many men and horses there are on the other side? The one who is most likely to know about the other side should be Yuan Chonghuan. It's a pity that Yuan Chonghuan can't help it, he doesn't have long clairvoyance, and the spies sent out often can't come back - if they are in the pass, the spies can still pretend to be ordinary people, business travelers and the like, but outside the pass, no matter who you pretend to be, as long as you are Han, at this time, you will go out of the customs at this time, and you will be killed as soon as you are discovered. The spies can't come back, how can Yuan Chonghuan know how many people are on the other side?

In fact, not only Yuan Chonghuan's spies couldn't come back, but even the people of the White Lotus Sect were now having a hard time finding an opportunity to pass information on the pass.

However, Yuan Chonghuan still knows a rough idea, that is, hundreds of thousands, as for whether it is 110,000 or 190,000, he may not know very well, but of course he has to report higher. Saying that hundreds of thousands are hundreds of thousands, if he wins, his merits will be even more obvious, and it is understandable that he will lose-this is a practice that everyone was more accustomed to at that time, it can be said that it is a convention, and it cannot be said that Yuan Chonghuan is very wrong.

Straight to the point.

Another thing that also gave Chongzhen a headache was that after hearing that Zhou Yanru was arrested and imprisoned, the Donglin Party members in various places pleaded for him. said that it was a plea, but in fact their attitude was very tough, and in the recital, they would imply that Chongzhen was a tyrant like King Xu, and then they would want Chongzhen to learn how Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, humbly accepted advice, but did not mention Zhou Yanru's wanton framing of Qin Shuhuai, as if Qin Shuhuai was originally a rebellious general and deserved to be punished.

In short, the core purpose is one, that is, to force Chongzhen to release Zhou Yanru, and they even used words like "Otherwise, it will make thousands of subjects cold and detached". What is this? This is completely a threat from Chiguoguo! Does it mean that if Chongzhen doesn't let him go, they will "deviate from morality" with him?

There are more than ten governors such as the governor of Caoyun, the governor of Xuanda, the governor of Sichuan, the governor of Huguang, and the governor of Henan and Baoding.

Chongzhen was so angry that he exploded his lungs! As an emperor, he couldn't even cure a minister, which was a great shame!

But he was helpless! Now the Ming Dynasty is a critical moment of life and death, if those governors rebel collectively, then he, the emperor, will also do it.

He was indignant and helpless, and when he was writing a letter to Qin Shuhuai to ask for advice, it happened that Qin Shuhuai's performance had arrived!