In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 231 Daming's Sorrow
Lin Rui originally planned to take it by surprise and seize a city gate before the defenders of the capital could react.

After all, in the past, slaves entered the country from the north. With the Great Wall beacon as a signal, it was basically impossible for the army to quietly attack the capital. When the army arrived, martial law was basically in place around the capital.

But this time, he captured Zijing Pass without causing much commotion. He also went non-stop along the way. Ming Dynasty officials along the way may not have time to pass the information back to the capital. Under a sneak attack, the possibility of capturing the capital is still very high. of.

However, due to the unfamiliar road conditions, the army was twenty or thirty miles away and was discovered by the defenders on the south tower. When Zhou Meng led his men to the moat, the suspension bridge had been closed.

And the alarm bells on every tower in the entire capital were also sounded.

In less than a moment, more than a dozen city gates in the inner city and outer city were all closed.

The reason why the defenders responded so quickly was due to the several military sieges of the capital before and after Jiannu was established.

So when they looked at the overwhelming cavalry in the distance, the soldiers guarding the city immediately mistakenly thought that Jiannu was coming again. They not only closed the suspension bridge, closed the city gate, but also sounded the alarm.

No, the people in the inner city and the outer city were not much frightened. They just quickly returned to their homes, obviously numb to this situation.

In the palace, listening to the sound of alarm bells, the eunuchs and maids just stopped and talked quietly, and there was no look of panic on their faces.

Emperor Chongzhen, who was reviewing the memorials in the imperial study, just frowned and said to Wang Chengen beside him: "My lord, are you going to see what happened? Do you want to sound the alarm?"

"It's your Majesty, I'll go right away..." Wang Chengen responded quickly and hurriedly left the imperial study.

Emperor Chongzhen was minding his own business and started reviewing the memorials again. Apparently he thought it was just an accident and did not even think about an enemy attack. After all, the rebels were all in the Central Plains and could not suddenly come near the capital. If Jiannu entered the customs, it would be impossible for him to suddenly arrive in the capital without any news coming in advance.

It wasn't until half an hour later that Wang Chengen ran back in a hurry.

"Daban, is it possible that the slaves have entered the prison again?"

Seeing his appearance, Emperor Chong immediately dropped the brush in his hand, stood up and said, there was still no trace of panic on his face, but more of anger.

"Back to your Majesty, it's not clear yet whether they are slaves. According to the report from the guard of Yongding Gate, a large group of cavalry appeared in the southern suburbs just now, at least more than [-] cavalry. A group of dozens of cavalry tried to approach Yongding Gate."

Wang Chengen quickly explained.

Emperor Chongzhen frowned immediately after hearing this, but he had to send someone to summon the civil and military officials of the third rank and above to enter the palace to discuss matters.

Outside the city, Lin Rui saw that Zhou Meng had returned without success, so he simply threw away the Ming army's banner and displayed a large banner with Chinese characters.

He was just a little regretful that he could not succeed in the sneak attack, and he was not too entangled. After all, if the majestic capital of the Ming Dynasty was so easily attacked by a sneak attack, then Chongzhen could really find a piece of tofu and kill him.

Immediately, Lin Rui let the large army stay in the southern suburbs to camp and rest, while he led more than 500 horsemen carrying Chinese flags around Beijing to tell the people in the capital and Chongzhen that the Chinese army was coming.

"Your Majesty, how big is the city of Beijing? We walked for half an hour, but we didn't even finish one lap."

"And the city wall is too tall. I thought the city wall in Datong City was very high, but compared with the city wall in Beijing, Datong City is simply a small castle!"

"This moat is scary enough, tsk tsk, I'm afraid it's either dozens of feet wide, or I don't know how deep it is." Everyone trotted along the moat, controlling their horses, while looking at the tall city walls and towers. Frequently exclaimed.

Even Lin Rui's scalp felt numb when he looked at it. In his previous life, because the city wall of Beijing had been demolished, he had only seen one or two sections from some old photos. Now, seeing it up close and immersed in it, he felt The shock to people is far beyond what the photos can compare to.

The towering city wall must be at least four to five feet long, and there is a horse-facing wall every other section. It is so densely packed that you can't see the end at a glance.

The widest part of the moat is probably 200 meters, and the narrowest part is 60-[-] meters. With the tens of thousands of people coming, it is estimated that it will take a year and a half just to fill in the moat.

Originally, Lin Rui planned to go around the city of Beijing, but he found that it was getting dark just after he turned to the East City, so he had to hurry back home. As for the houses outside the city, they had basically been burned into ruins. A habitat for beggars and homeless people.

It is obviously a masterpiece created the year before slavery was established.

At this time, in the palace, as Lin Rui raised a banner with Chinese characters, Emperor Chongzhen finally knew that it was the Chinese army who was coming, and he suddenly became furious and his face became crooked with anger.

All the civil and military officials were also trembling with fear, lowering their heads and not daring to say anything, because even when the slaves were besieging the city, His Majesty had never lost such a temper.

"Who can tell me where this band of thieves came from? What are Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting doing? What are our Ming Dynasty's 20 elite border troops doing?"

"They are all a bunch of losers. It's useless for me to trust them so much. Fortunately, not only did the rebels not be eliminated, but they were allowed to sneak into the capital city..."

At this moment, Emperor Chongzhen really broke through his defenses and wished he could kill Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting and the twelve generals.

Everyone had no choice but to kneel on the ground and lower their heads. No one dared to answer or speak. It was not until Chongzhen finished venting that the British Duke raised his head and said carefully: "Your Majesty, this group of thieves came from the south." , If the veteran guessed correctly, most likely they broke in from Zijingguan Pass."

"Pah! The general at Bauhinia Pass deserves to be killed, and all the officials along the way are also to blame!"

When Chongzhen heard this, he slapped Long An fiercely, with murderous intent on his face.

Everyone was also shocked, knowing that the general at Zijingguan was finished and would definitely end up being executed. And the magistrates of Baoding, Fangshan, and Liangxiang would probably not be able to escape the fate of being dismissed from office and imprisoned.

"British Lord, the bandit army only has a mere ten thousand troops, yet they dare to be so rampant, detouring thousands of miles to launch a sneak attack. It has been two or three years since the soldiers of the Beijing Camp were re-recruited and trained. Are they worthy of a battle now?"

"Back, back to your majesty, although the bandit army does not number more than [-] people, they are all cavalry. For the safety of the capital, I think it is not appropriate for the capital camp to go out to fight in the field at this time. It is safe to send a troop of troops from Xuanfu to encircle and suppress them. Of the policy."

The British prince knows his own affairs. Although in the past three years, the Beijing camp has once again returned to a strength of 6 or [-] people, it is impossible to fight at all. Once it goes out of the city to fight in the field, it will probably be even worse than last time, so it has no choice but to fight hard. He explained while scratching his head.

Ding Guogong and Cheng Guogong also hurriedly agreed, while Liu Yuliang and other civil servants did not agree to go out of the city to fight in the field.

Sure enough, seeing the three princes pushing back, the first assistant and the ministers also had the same attitude, Chongzhen's anger that he had just barely suppressed emerged again, and he roared: "You are all a bunch of trash, what use do I have for you?"

When he thought of the majestic capital of the Ming Dynasty, he was killed by a gang of thousands of rebels who came to the city, and he was helpless and could only watch the opponents arrogantly outside the city. Chongzhen went crazy with anger and felt that he was completely embarrassed. .

(End of this chapter)