The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 568 The city is broken
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather became colder, especially at night. There was a torch burning every twenty meters on the top of the city, making the lights bright. The rebels huddled in the corners of the walls in groups of three or two to take a nap, keeping a distance from each other, as if they were on guard against something. Occasionally, when someone passed by, the rebels opened their eyes alertly and even sat up.

The officers who came to inspect the city walls were even more nervous. They were surrounded by trusted soldiers and hardly spoke a word the entire time. They certainly wouldn't ask about the well-being of the rebels huddled in the cold wind. They just inspected the city walls as a routine and then hurriedly left. Occasionally, a rebel soldier would stand up and salute them, but would be whipped.

It is obvious that Jia Huan's strategy of division is working. Now not only are the rebel officers suspicious and wary of each other, but there is also suspicion and wariness between superiors and subordinates, and even between ordinary soldiers and between soldiers and civilians.

According to the leaflets thrown in from outside the city, Emperor Qiansheng promised to kill only the core stubborn elements among the rebels, and the rest would be forgiven as long as they surrendered. This was a minor point, the most fatal ones were the following two: if a subordinate killed his superior, he could replace him and obtain his superior's official position; if the people killed the rebels, they could get a generous reward, ranging from two taels of silver to several thousand taels, which was simply a windfall.

As the saying goes, there will always be brave men when there is a big reward. In fact, more than a dozen rebel soldiers have disappeared in the past two days. At first, they were thought to be deserters, but the headless bodies of several missing rebel soldiers were found in some dark and remote places.

It was obvious that these rebel soldiers were either killed by civilians or by their comrades. Once the news spread, the rebel army was in a panic and everyone was in danger. They even tried to turn a blind eye when sleeping, for fear that they would be killed by someone if they were not careful.

In the past few days, both officers and ordinary soldiers have not eaten or slept well, and their bodies and minds have been under tremendous pressure. They also have to resist the attacks of enemies outside the city during the day, which is really miserable.

As the night deepened, Xue Pan, along with ten personal soldiers, carefully climbed to the top of the city wall to inspect. The cold wind blowing in his face made him shiver uncontrollably.

These ten personal soldiers were selected by Xue Pan himself. They were treated with good wine and food, and each of them was given five taels of silver every month. There should be no problem with their loyalty, but Xue Pan still felt uneasy, fearing that they would be stabbed in the back, so he looked back every few steps.

"Damn it, I thought being an official was prestigious, but I didn't expect it to be so precarious. I have to be careful even when I take a shit. If I had known this would happen, I would not have bothered to be the commander of the Five Cities Army." Xue Pan regretted it so much, but he had to continue serving as an official since he had paid for it with his own money.

"It's too vicious. I wonder which idiot came up with such a vicious plan of division and alienation." Xue Pan cursed secretly as he inspected the area.

At this time, Xue Pan and others were patrolling and passing by three rebel soldiers. These three rebel soldiers should be friends or relatives, so they huddled together to rest. One of them was dozing off against the wall, he should be in charge of guarding, and the other two were lying down and snoring loudly.

Probably startled by the footsteps of Xue Pan and others, the dozing rebel opened his eyes, subconsciously picked up the spear lying beside him, stood up and saluted, "Greetings, Commander Xue."

Xue Pan scolded: "What are you talking about? Go to sleep!"

At this time, a rebel soldier who was sleeping on the ground shouted in his dream: "Kill!"

Another sleeping rebel was probably frightened. He jumped up and slashed at the rebel who was standing next to him and saluting. Poor rebel, his head rolled down before he could react.

The rebel soldier who chopped people had blood all over his face. He swung his knife at Xue Pan and others like a madman, injuring several people on the spot. Xue Pan was so scared that he almost peed himself and shouted, "This man is a spy, kill him quickly."

All the bodyguards drew their swords and fought back. At this time, the rebel who was lying down and having a dream was awakened. Seeing the blood on the ground, one of his companions had his head chopped off, and another companion being besieged, he subconsciously rushed forward with a sword in hand to help.

However, the frantic rebel soldier was like a possessed man, his eyes were red, and he didn't distinguish between friend and foe at all. He chopped down his companion who rushed forward to help with a single blow, and roared from his throat: "Kill, kill, kill, kill them all, kill them all!"

The other rebel soldiers on the city wall were awakened from their sleep one after another. When they smelled the blood, they began to swing their swords like crazy, attacking all moving targets around them.

At the beginning, a considerable number of rebels were still sober, but in order to protect themselves, they had no choice but to defend and counterattack, and gradually they became blood-thirsty, and the situation became more and more intense, with shouts of killing shaking the sky!
Camp Roar!!!

That's right, the rebels have been fighting fiercely for more than a month and have been under tremendous psychological pressure in recent days. They are nervous and afraid of everything, and they can't eat or sleep well. They are like an extremely dry bomb that can explode with just a spark. Finally, a camp roar broke out tonight.

Camp howling is quite terrifying. There are actually quite a few camp howlings recorded in history books. The cause of the incident was that the soldiers were under tremendous psychological pressure and suddenly committed acts of hurting others or self-harm in their sleep, thus triggering a chain reaction, like a plague. Those crazy soldiers basically lost their autonomous consciousness and killed out of instinct. The destructive power was quite terrifying, and there was no good way to stop it, because once a sober person approached, he would be attacked mercilessly and would not be able to get close at all.

Therefore, when dealing with camp cries in ancient times, generals would usually shoot the mad soldiers directly, or even block the camp and let them kill each other inside until they all died or fell to the ground exhausted.

Xue Pan had never seen such a scene before and was so frightened that his face turned pale. His personal soldiers were also unable to take care of themselves and had no time to protect him.

Seeing those blood-thirsty rebels rushing towards him ferociously, Xue Pan was so scared that his soul left his body and he turned around and ran away. However, there were irrational rebels killing each other everywhere. If he got close to them, he would be attacked immediately.

Although Xue Pan was not as fat as Xu Wenhou, he was still full of fat, so he could not run away. He was soon forced to the wall by a rebel soldier. The rebel soldier had red eyes and a fierce look. He had obviously lost his mind and only had the instinct to kill.

Xue Pan's legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees. He held onto the wall and managed to stand firm. He shouted tremblingly, "Brother, wake up. We are one family. Don't...!"

Before he could finish his words, the rebel soldier had already rushed over with a sharp roar. Xue Pan gritted his teeth, flipped over from the gap in the battlement, and fell straight down from the top of the city wall. The rebel soldier chopped on the battlement with a knife, and when he saw Xue Pan fall, he seemed to be stunned for a moment, and looked down at the city wall. The cold wind blew, and his bloodshot eyes blinked and regained clarity. However, at this moment, a knife stabbed from behind, directly piercing his heart.

This rebel was unexpectedly stabbed to death by another mad rebel, and his body fell from the top of the city wall.

The Beijing troops stationed outside the city heard the shouting and killing from the top of the city wall and thought that the rebels were trying to sneak out of the city to set up camp, so they hurriedly put themselves on high alert. Later they realized something was wrong, as the rebels on the top of the city wall were clearly fighting each other.

The Prince of Nan'an was quite bold. He personally led his generals to observe closely. Seeing corpses constantly falling from the top of the city wall, it was obviously not a show. He immediately concluded that someone was about to surrender, or there was an internal conflict, or even a camp fight.

However, no matter which situation it was, it was a godsend opportunity for the Beijing army, so the Prince of Nan'an made a prompt decision and ordered the army to attack quickly.

At this time, the Chaoyang Gate was in chaos, with the rebels killing each other and no one guarding the city. Therefore, the Beijing army easily captured the top of the city and opened the gate from the inside.

"Kill! Kill!" The Beijing troops rushed in like water, and the shouts of killing shook the earth.

"The city has been breached, Chaoyang Gate has been captured!"

After more than a month of stalemate, the morale of the defenders in the city was already low. When they saw the city gates were breached, they no longer had the heart to fight. They almost collapsed at the first blow and fled in all directions.

The army that suppressed the rebellion was unstoppable and broke into the inner city with a force that crushed dead wood and rotten wood. They advanced to the outside of the Meridian Gate and then blocked all the gates of the Forbidden City.

Xiyuan.

Eunuch An stumbled into Jingxinzhai and said solemnly, "Grand Emperor, Chaoyang Gate has been breached and the enemy is charging in. Please move quickly, Grand Emperor."

Emperor Kangping was wearing only pajamas, with his white hair loose. He stood in front of the Three Pure Ones, lit a stick of incense with a calm expression, and then asked calmly, "Where should I move to?"

Eunuch An fell silent.

Emperor Kangping returned to the bed and sat cross-legged, and asked, "Ande, you have been serving me for sixty years, right?"

"It's been sixty-two years. I started serving you when Your Majesty was eight years old." Eunuch An replied.

Emperor Kangping seemed to be trying hard to recall for a while before nodding and saying, "It has really been sixty years and two decades. Look at you, your hair has turned completely white, and there is not a single black hair left on my head. Time flies like an arrow, but the way of heaven is as curved as a bow. Heaven will not allow us to be young again. What can we do?"

When Emperor Qiansheng arrived excitedly, Jingxinzhai was already engulfed in flames, and all the palace servants, led by Ande, were kneeling on the open space outside Jingxinzhai.

Emperor Qiansheng stared at the raging fire with a gloomy face. After a long time, he retracted his gaze, walked to Eunuch An, and asked coldly, "Do you have anything to say, old man?"

Eunuch An said truthfully: "The Emperor said: Heaven will not allow me to be young again, what can I do!"

Emperor Qiansheng laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes. He gritted his teeth and said, "The old man really refuses to repent. Could it be that he still dreams of immortality and being the emperor forever?"

Eunuch An added: "The Emperor said that Your Majesty has done a great job, and we can rest assured that the throne of Great Jin will be handed over to Your Majesty."

Emperor Qiansheng sneered and said, "He didn't give it to me. I got the country myself." He turned around and left.

East Palace.

Crown Prince Xu Wenhong hacked the Crown Princess and all his children to death, and finally put the bloody sword on his own neck, but he did not have the courage to cut it off, and was eventually captured by the Beijing army that rushed in.

(End of this chapter)