Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 420 Minato

It turned out that some time ago, Zhen Dialun's intelligence officers hijacked the Yizhong County Prince, and the Yizhong County Prince himself also cooperated.

Otherwise, Zhen Dianlun would not be so smooth.

The old lady lowered her head and said: "Haha, you still want to get to the capital safely? I think you will be killed on the way."

Prince Yizhong also knew this. He sighed and sat on his seat, not knowing what to do.

"Your Majesty, getting rid of Jia Rui's control is the first step. Now it's time to take the second step, which is to become a free man completely, and then recruit troops to make a comeback."

Prince Yizhong said in frustration: "What can we do even if we escape? We have no money and no people, and we still want to make a comeback. It would be good if we can save our lives."

"Your Majesty, the Queen Mother has also left behind connections and a lot of assets. It's not like we have no chance when we go out."

It turned out that Prince Yizhong and the entire Jinling City did not know that the Queen Mother had committed suicide.

Prince Yizhong lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said: "Can't we just hold on for a while? As long as we hold on for a month or two, the army outside the city will have no choice but to retreat if they run out of food and fodder?"

"My lord, please stop daydreaming. This is Jiangnan. You can keep hundreds of thousands of people operating for a few more months just by plundering and plundering."

When she said this, the old mama also sighed a little. She completely lost interest in Zhen Dialun, a man with great ambitions and limited talent.

Jinling City is now a completely isolated city, and Zhen Dianlun doesn't know what he thinks, but he doesn't even prepare food and grass.

Although there is a lot of money now, there is no money in Jinling City to buy food.

According to her observation, the current Jinling City can barely survive, and can only last for half a month. After that, there will be a food shortage in the city, and the people will cause trouble. By that time, let alone defending Jinling City, the chaos in Jinling City can be stabilized. That’s pretty good.

Prince Yizhong lowered his head. He sighed one last time, and then said, "It's not easy for us to leave even if we want to. The outside of the city has been blocked to death. Where can we escape from?"

"My lord, don't worry about this. I have bribed a general outside the city. As long as you make up your mind, we can leave quietly."

Prince Yizhong was still a little undecided.

It is safe to stay in Jinling City for the time being, but once you leave Jinling, life or death will not be up to you.

Just when King Yi Zhong was undecided about raising his flag, he suddenly heard loud shouts of killing outside. King Yi Zhong was startled and hurried out and ordered someone to find out what happened.

After a while, the eunuch who was reading the news trotted in from outside. He quickly kowtowed to Prince Yizhong before saying, "Your Majesty, the bandits outside have attacked the city."

Prince Yizhong nodded, and then immediately ordered people to prepare for Luan Jia, and then he came to the city in person.

As soon as they got upstairs, they saw Zhen Dianlun holding a sword and directing the defense of the city.

However, although this guy Zhen Dianlun is very ambitious, he really has no military career experience, so under his command, the city is full of loopholes, and from time to time, soldiers below rush to the city tower.

Fortunately, this was a tentative attack and they did not use all their strength, so Zhen Dianlun's side was able to reluctantly drive them away again.

When King Yi Zhong saw this, his heart dropped.

Can this kind of idiot and the mob under his command be able to withstand the attack of hundreds of thousands of elites from the imperial court?

No, I can't wait for death here, I'd better listen to the old lady and run away quickly.

After thinking of this, King Yizhong was no longer in the mood to talk to Zhen Diangling. He hurriedly walked down the tower and returned to his "imperial palace".

Immediately after that, he called the old nanny over and said, "Pack up your things. As you said, we will leave tonight."

The old mama was very happy to see Prince Yizhong making up his mind. Then she bowed and went out to make arrangements.

According to the old grandmother's plan, as long as she escapes from Jinling City, she can go to Hangzhou, and then go to sea and return to Ryukyu.

After all, Ryukyu is still the fiefdom of King Yizhong. Although Jia Rui has soldiers living there, there are not many soldiers and horses. With a little operation, Ryukyu may be able to separate the kingdom.

At that time, as long as Jia Rui does not blatantly declare himself emperor and change dynasties, he will really not be able to deal with Prince Yizhong calmly.

Because no matter what, Prince Yizhong is also the Emperor's favorite grandson. As long as this name is still there, Jia Rui will not be able to let go.

The first day of the siege ended hastily.

The imperial army under the city was actually just a test and did not fully exert its strength. However, even so, Zhen Dianlun, who was on the top of the city, complained endlessly.

The 50,000 men he relied on were immediately exposed as soon as they met the elite army of the imperial court.

These people are simply farmers, even worse than farmers, because farmers still have some strength, but these people don't even have strength.

Fortunately, he followed Prince Yizhong's plan and pulled many old, weak, women and children to block the guns, which made the people attacking the city have some scruples.

Otherwise, Jinling City would have been breached on the first day. Just when the main hall breathed a sigh of relief and was about to go back to rest for a day and prepare for the next day's defense battle, outside the city Tang Zhen, Song Jian and the Jinling Jiedushi were discussing how to break through Jinling City as soon as possible.

"Everyone has seen today's siege battle. The defense in the city is very weak. As long as we use a little force tomorrow, we can break through the city." Song Jian was very dissatisfied with Tang Zhen's weakness today.

Tang Zhen glanced at him, and then said: "What should we do with the ordinary people in Jinling City? We can't kill them all indiscriminately, right?"

"Since they went to the city to help the rebels defend the city, they are treasonous and deserve to be killed." Song Jian said angrily.

At this time, Jinling Jiedushi put down the wine glass in his hand and said slowly: "If we kill innocent people indiscriminately and the news reaches the court, even if our prince wants to protect us, he has to give an explanation to the people below. In the end, we will be unlucky." It’s still us.”

Tang Zhen nodded slightly and agreed with Jinling Jiedushi's statement.

"Then what should you do? Can't we just waste it like this?"

Tang Zhen said confidently: "Have you noticed that Jinling City's defense against Watergate is very weak?"

The two people below looked at each other. Among them, Jinling Jiedushi suddenly realized, but Song Jian was still there with a confused look on his face.

Tang Zhen saw that Song Jian did not understand what he said, so he ordered someone to bring the city defense map of Jinling City, put it on the table, pointed to a water gate near the river and said:

"This place has always been controlled by the Yangtze River Navy. Even when we surrounded Jinling City, the situation has not changed. It was only in the past two days that Zhen Dianlun seemed to have reacted and took over the water gate."

Song Jian looked at the map and said doubtfully: "So what?"

Tang Zhen smiled slightly, and then said: "Although the opponent has temporarily controlled this water gate, they don't know the defensive position here very well. It will take some time to get familiar with it. I am not going to give them time. I will send the navy tonight. Break through the water gate and enter the city from here."

Jinling Jiedu nodded very happily, "I know this water gate. Although ordinary people don't use it, rich merchants often use this water gate to transport goods."

Song Jian didn't know much about Minato, but he felt that since there was a gap, there was nothing wrong with giving it a try. What if it succeeded?

"Then let's do what Mr. Tang wants. I hope it will succeed." Song Jian said nonchalantly.

After the three people made their decision, Tang Zhen immediately went out to make arrangements.

This time, he dispatched thirty of the most elite small and medium-sized warships in the navy.

The soldiers on these warships were all former members of the Yangtze River Navy, and they were all very familiar with this water gate.

When the sky completely darkened and everything fell into silence, thirty small and medium-sized ships quietly left the navy camp and then slid towards Jinling City in silence.

At this time, there were also three to four hundred people defending near the water gate of Jinling City.

It's a pity that these people were recruited in a hurry from the common people near Jinling, and they had only served as soldiers for a few dozen days.

Although I barely trained for a few days, my basic skills were all on the surface.

For example, right now, these people should send most of their people to strictly defend, because it is war time after all, but except for a few people dozing there with long guns, everyone else is sleeping in the camp.

Therefore, other people's warships were approaching the water gate, and these people did not notice it.

If it hadn't been for the heavy damage to the water gate, I'm afraid they wouldn't have known it when they arrived.

The people sent by Tang Zhen came to the Qianjin Gate, and then carefully slid down the water one by one.

Then they used their proficient water skills to dive into the water and crossed the Thousand Jin Gate.

Things went much smoother after that. After they landed, they quietly killed a few watchmen on duty and arrived near the Qianjin Gate. Together, they twisted the ropes and slowly raised the Qianjin Gate.

However, the sound of the Qianjin gate being raised finally alerted the soldiers guarding the water gate.

Several of them came out of the tent, looked outside, and saw the gate slowly being raised in the darkness. They immediately knew what was going on, and then there was a loud cry.

"Here comes someone, Jianxi broke in, and the Qianjin gate was lifted."

"Come on, come on, come on, the thieves are coming."

Following the call, the people in the tent also reacted one after another. They didn't even have time to put on their clothes and came out with their own weapons.

But when they came out, the Thousand Jin Lock had been pulled up, and dozens of small boats behind them also swarmed ashore, followed by hundreds of elite naval soldiers who came ashore to defend the key points.

In the face of these wolf-like soldiers, these common people who had just picked up the sword were no match. Therefore, after a charge with heavy casualties and no threat to the navy who came ashore, they could only flee backwards. .

Of course, they didn't go back to report the news, but threw away their weapons, took off their clothes and sneaked home directly.

Because no one is a fool. Now that the Watergate has been breached, a steady stream of imperial troops will come in after that. If you are still working hard at this time, what is that if you are not a fool?

(End of this chapter)