Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 312 The Fall of Beijing
Compared to Chongqing, the battlefield that Lao Zhu chose was actually not very good.

Because Chongqing is located at the confluence of two rivers, the terrain would be much narrower if the enemy wanted to attack, as the Jialing River and the Yangtze River would block their path.

The area where the Qing army was located, Daping, is about three kilometers between the north and south banks of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River. Although the terrain behind it is very large, including Jiulongpo District and Shapingba District, the area covers nearly 1,000 square kilometers.

However, if the Qing army wanted to attack Chongqing, it would inevitably have to concentrate its forces in one place, making it less dispersed and easier to bombard.

Beijing's terrain was too open; east of Baiwang Mountain, it was flat as a pancake, with a large number of Qing troops scattered across the vast plains, making it very difficult to bombard them.

After all, artillery needs to be constantly adjusted in position and calibrated in direction.

Although cavalrymen are much slower than cars, typically marching at around 20 kilometers per hour and only reaching 30-40 kilometers per hour at full speed, escaping before the cannons can be adjusted is still quite easy.

This is why it's said that the era of cavalry needed to be ended by tanks and armored vehicles. Even in the age of firearms, it's all for naught if you can't catch up with cavalry.

Although Zhu De did not have the armored forces of Germany during World War II, he could cut down the Polish cavalry as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.

But he had a plan.

A series of stratagems forced a large number of cavalry to converge on his location, resulting in countless cavalrymen crowding an area of ​​more than ten square kilometers, allowing the artillery to deliver precise strikes.

From the mountain, one could see hundreds of 105mm howitzers firing simultaneously, and in an instant, a tremendous roar erupted from the Qing army's cavalry.

Countless small mushroom clouds rose up with a roar, sending earth and rocks flying, and people and horses flying through the air, torn to pieces.

"What is this? What is this?"

"Go quickly, go quickly."

"Heavens above, Eternal Heaven, have you abandoned us?"

"Ahhhhhh! Father, Grandma!"

The Qing army ranks were thrown into chaos. They watched in horror, trembling with fear.

Artillery fire involves more than just explosions; it also produces powerful shockwaves.

The cavalry units were close together, and when the blast hit, several cavalrymen and their horses were instantly killed, and at least dozens of cavalrymen around them were swept off their horses by the shockwave.

Many horses also fell to the ground, neighing and roaring, startling the horses into running wildly and indiscriminately, plunging the Qing army into chaos in an instant.

Those who weren't hit by the bomb wanted to escape, while those who were hit but weren't killed or injured, only thrown from their horses, struggled to get up and find their mounts. The frightened horses led the soldiers in a chaotic stampede, with trampling, collisions, screams, and wails filling the cavalry.

Before the Tartars could react, another shell came flying in, and it wasn't just cannons; Ming mortars were also firing, causing countless casualties among the nearby Qing troops.

"Quickly, sound the retreat horn!"

Shang Shan, standing at the rear, had bloodshot eyes. He knew there was a trap. Luckily, he was a coward and chose to go to the rear to supervise the battle instead of staying at the front.

However, when the mournful bugle call resounded through the sky, the retreat signal was no longer of any use.

Even though the orders on such a large battlefield are given by many people blowing horns together, it still cannot drown out the booming sound of constant explosions.

The battlefield seemed shrouded in a dark cloud, with countless lightning bolts and thunderclaps falling within it, causing Qing soldiers to fall and their horses to tumble. Countless people died in the explosions and shockwaves.

Seeing this, Shang Shan did not hesitate at all. Even though his family was in Beijing, he gritted his teeth, reined in his horse, and fled northeast.

Surrounded by hundreds of personal guards, they hurriedly disappeared into the plains.

Meanwhile, the Qing army, which was watching the battle from afar in Beijing, was dumbfounded.

Ebilun, Sony, Fan Wencheng, Hong Chengchou, and others were waiting on the city wall for Qing reinforcements.

They originally planned to wait for the cavalry to arrive and assess the situation. If the Ming army did not demonstrate strong combat capabilities, they would immediately open the city gates and charge out to fight alongside the cavalry against the Ming army.

However, what they saw during their anxious wait was a completely different, miserable scene.

Flames raged across the battlefield, billowing smoke rose, and countless cavalrymen were blown to pieces by artillery fire, their blood staining the vast grasslands.

"This this this this this..."

On the distant city wall of Beijing, Ebilun, Sony, Fan Wencheng, Hong Chengchou, and others stared in disbelief at the north.

They had considered that the Ming army might have set up an ambush or had a backup plan, but they hadn't expected it to be this terrifying.

After all, the mortar did demonstrate great power, but who could have imagined that the explosive power and kill radius would suddenly more than double?

That moment.

The hopes that Sonyebilun and others had gained because of the arrival of reinforcements quickly vanished.

Instead, there was decadence, loss, and profound terror.

The disparity in strength is too great.

Even with their utmost efforts, their battles with the Ming army seemed to be filled with a chasm between heaven and earth.

"How could this happen? How could this happen?"

Sony wept uncontrollably, muttering to himself.

They finally understood why Ao Bai's army was wiped out and why Jiang Ning suffered a crushing defeat in an instant.

Faced with such terrifying firepower, no matter how many people there are, it would be futile.

"us."

Ebilun was about to say something.

Suddenly, a guard beside them exclaimed in horror, "What...what is that?"

Everyone hurriedly looked in the direction he was pointing.

At least tens of thousands of Qing soldiers on the city wall, who had been watching the explosions coming from afar to the north, all looked up at this moment.

They saw dozens of enormous objects hovering in the sky, rumbling in like dark clouds.

These things seemed to have strange afterimages above them, were huge below, and seemed to have two strange long objects hanging from their abdomens.

Just as the Qing soldiers were wondering what was going on, they saw the long, thin objects below those things suddenly fly towards them, and everyone stared wide-eyed, at a loss for what to do.

Those who reacted quickly scrambled to their feet, shouting, "Run!"

"boom!"

However, no human can outrun a rocket.

In an instant, hundreds of rockets bombarded the city walls, creating huge mushroom clouds.

After launching the rockets, the unmanned helicopter did not stop but flew towards the city wall, and then the machine gun on it began to fire.

The gun barrel was flaming!

The surviving Qing soldiers were instantly torn to pieces by the terrifying metal barrage, and the city walls were littered with corpses and Qing soldiers fleeing in panic.

"Run!"

"Mother, Mother! Waaah!"

"My leg, my leg is broken, help me, help me."

The cruelty of war was on full display at this moment.

Almost the instant modern firearms appeared, the fate of the Tartars was sealed.

What remains is slaughter!

Artillery fire continued unabated on Baiwang Mountain, mortars bombarded the area incessantly, and unmanned helicopters roared overhead.

After about fifteen minutes, the shelling finally stopped.

Then came the cavalry charge.

The Hongwu soldiers mounted their warhorses and swarmed northward.

By this time, there were no Qing cavalrymen left alive on the battlefield; those who survived were the first to flee north. Meanwhile, unmanned helicopters had already cleared the Tartars from Deshengmen and Xizhimen.

"Come on!"

Li Dingguo and other Southern Ming soldiers immediately erupted in a roar like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing down.

From a high altitude, one can see countless corpses lying haphazardly on the city wall after the drones swept over it.

The city was also in chaos.

The Southern Ming soldiers surged towards the two city gates like a tidal wave, then set up ladders, quickly rushed up the city walls, opened the gates, and let people in.

Seeing that the entire battlefield had been won as he had predicted, Old Zhu, who was watching from the mountain, looked towards Beijing and said, "Let's go into the city."

"Enter the city!"

The Ming army's imperial guards then moved to the capital.

After reaching the foot of the mountain, Lao Zhu and Zhu Yunfeng got into the car and headed towards Beijing.

At this time, Beijing was in complete chaos.

The streets and alleys were littered with all sorts of junk, including corpses, knives and guns, flags, leather armor, as well as wooden planks, baskets and other household items.

The people had long since hidden themselves in their homes, and shouts of killing echoed everywhere inside and outside the city.

Southern Ming soldiers, carrying swords, searched the city for any remaining Tartars. However, unlike before when they spared no Tartars, this time they did not kill prisoners.

Soon, many prisoners were captured on the street. They lost their weapons and squatted in the corners of the walls on both sides of the street, trembling.

The reason why no one was killed this time was because Zhu knew that these Tartars were conscripted by the Manchus and were not the original Green Standard Army veterans of the Manchus.

Those Green Standard Army veterans deserve to die. Although they surrendered with their commander, they had to die for killing their own people.

Many of these newly recruited Green Standard Army soldiers were deceived.

Old Zhu was clear on this point; he did not harm the innocent, but after ordering them to surrender, he did not start another killing spree.

In fact, by now, Zhu Yuanzhang had dominated both the Chongzhen and Southern Ming dynasties, killing far more than a million people.

During the Chongzhen era alone, he killed at least two million people, including bandits, gentry in Jiangnan, corrupt officials, and Tartars from beyond the Great Wall.

Now, he has unleashed a massacre in the Southern Ming, truly slaughtering a million soldiers in Jiangnan. His sword at his waist is still stained with blood, and he can be said to have slaughtered a million and become a hero.

Therefore, when Zhu's carriage entered the city in a grand procession, the Green Standard Army soldiers who had surrendered and were kneeling on the street, as well as the Southern Ming soldiers who were guarding them, all dared not look at him and knelt down to kowtow.

The Hongwu guards escorted the carriage with great fanfare toward the Forbidden City.

At this time, the Forbidden City was also in chaos.

The palace guards, eunuchs, and maids either ran away or took the opportunity to rob others of their valuables. People came and went, and screams could be heard constantly.

Li Dingguo, Bai Wenxuan, Yuan Zongdi, Li Laiheng, Hao Yaoqi and more than ten other major Ming generals rushed towards the palace as soon as they entered the city.

Capturing Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi would be a great achievement, so we naturally had to act immediately.

A large number of Ming soldiers rushed into the palace and found it in chaos. They then arrested the fleeing guards, maids and eunuchs, interrogating them about the whereabouts of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi.

However, everyone said they didn't know.

no way.

After the city fell, the entire palace was in chaos, and no one paid attention to the situation of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi, so naturally no one knew where they had gone.

It wasn't until Zhu Yuanzhang's forces were almost inside the city that Li Dingguo and his men finally captured one of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's close attendants.

It turned out that Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, seeing that all was lost, returned to the inner palace and secretly threw herself into the well with Emperor Kangxi in her arms.

Led by his attendants, a group of people rushed over, but by the time they were pulled out, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi were already corpses.

Li Dingguo and the others could only take the two bodies away and wait for Zhu De to come outside Fengtian Gate.

It was late afternoon, around four o'clock. The sun had not yet completely set and hung in the northwest sky, its dazzling light enveloping the earth. The glazed tiles in the palace shimmered with dazzling colors.

A carriage slowly approached along the marble slabs outside Fengtian Gate, crossed the Jinshui Bridge, and arrived at the gate. The area around the city gate was filled with Southern Ming troops, and the Ming army controlled the entire city of Beijing.

Old Zhu lifted the curtain and glanced at the Jinshui Bridge outside Fengtian Gate. Its structure was almost identical to that of the Forbidden City in Nanjing. The water flowing under the bridge was like the marks left by time.

A group of generals walked out of the city gate and knelt on one knee. Li Dingguo, who was in the lead, kowtowed and said, "Your Majesty, we are incompetent. When we came, the bandit leader, the fake empress dowager, had already taken the fake emperor and thrown themselves into the well. When we found them, they were already dead."

"It doesn't matter."

Old Zhu got off the carriage and saw two wet, pale-faced corpses lying beside him.

One was a woman in her forties, and the other was a child of seven or eight years old.

He frowned and said, "These are Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi?"

"probably."

Zhu Yunfeng also came down, looking at the corpses with some discomfort, and said, "It's a pity we didn't capture them."

"There's nothing to regret. Even if I catch them, it'll just be a quick death for them. I won't mistreat women and children, even if they are bandit leaders."

Old Zhu shook his head.

The execution of Shang Kexi, Liu Liangzuo, and others by slow slicing was due to the immense harm they caused to the Han people.

How could Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Emperor Kangxi, a woman and a child, make any decisions during a massacre?
If anyone should be executed by slow slicing, it should be the Manchu Tartars like Dorgon, Dodo, Ajige, and Hauge who ordered the massacre.

Therefore, there's no need to vent one's anger on women and children; simply execute them.

"However, Wu Sangui must be kept alive as much as possible; this fellow should be executed by slow slicing."

Old Zhu then asked, "How's things going with Fourth Brother? Didn't they say this morning they were attacking Xuanfu? Hasn't it fallen yet?"

"I'll ask about it later."

"Yes, let Lan Yu take some people over there."

"it is good."

Zhu Yunfeng nodded, called Mao Xiang over, and asked him to take the shortwave radio to contact Lan Yu.

"Go in and have a look."

Old Zhu looked up at Fengtian Gate, then got into the carriage.

The generals who had been kneeling in front of him stood up and made way for him.

The carriage slowly entered the palace.

What comes into view is the square outside the Fengtian Hall.

of course.

During the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and Fengtian Gate was also called the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

The magnificent palace stands there.

This magnificent palace, which has witnessed nearly five hundred years of history during the Ming and Qing dynasties, stands tall amidst the changing times.

Even though it has been the subject of countless stories, it has never faded.

Old Zhu stepped down from the carriage, put his hands behind his back, looked at the magnificent palace in front of him, and walked up naturally.

He was an emperor, whether in the Ming Dynasty or in the present Qing Dynasty.

Even though this is now the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty.

Then let's destroy the Qing Dynasty.

He will still sit on the high dragon throne, ruling the world!
(End of this chapter)