Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 59: Fucheng Gate Falls
For the next two days, the battle went surprisingly smoothly.

The rebel army attacked the city for two consecutive days, but they failed to break into the city and even failed to reach the top of the city wall. They left five to six thousand corpses at Deshengmen every day and then retreated in disgrace.

The only change was to move the camp forward another eight miles.

Arrived at a location seven miles away from the capital.

The distance from the camp to the city wall can be reached in half an hour at most.

It is closer than the outer parade ground to the city wall.

Don't know why.

Even though many ministers from Zhu Youjian down knew that this was a test by the Chuang army.

But the soldiers inevitably underestimated the enemy.

Especially the new army, their morale is too high.

Most of them are ordinary civilians and surrendered soldiers, who are originally the lowest class. Suddenly, someone can feed them, someone can make decisions for them, and they can get land without being bullied.

These days are much better than before!
Even Zhu Youjian found it difficult to determine whether Chuang Jun's test was a good thing or a bad thing.

However, this just fits Zhu Youjian's plan. Within two days, Li Ruolian led the Jinyiwei to frantically collect the hidden silver and property of wealthy businessmen and nobles.

Although a quarter of the people had yet to complete the investigation, the amount of silver reserves that had been verified had reached over 14 million taels! !
Most of the remaining ones are nobles who have been doing business in the capital for generations and have countless connections. They need to be thoroughly investigated.

Although Zhu Youjian was eager, he did not order a house search first to avoid alerting the enemy.

Because the Jinyiwei were all busy investigating the money and had no time to take care of the officials in the court.

The rebel army was unable to capture the city after several days.

There is some slackness from top to bottom.

Even the Jinyiwei who patrolled the night were no longer as concerned as before.

At this time, it was the night of March 22, the 17th year of Chongzhen.

The drumbeat at seven quarters past midnight pierced the quiet and silent night sky.

Ten soldiers from the Five Cities Army, wearing mandarin duck battle jackets, walked to Desheng Gate with torches.

There were also five Jinyiwei accompanying him to ensure that the night patrol was strictly enforced.

Lu Zhao, a small flag officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, held down his Embroidered Spring Knife and looked at the iron-clad defense line in front of him.

The triple iron-clad city gate had already been lowered, and behind the parapet there was a new army musketeer every five steps. The red cannons mounted on the ravines were even covered with rainproof tarpaulin.

"Boss Lu, why do we need to patrol in this situation?"

Behind him, Wang Dazhu of the Five Cities Army, holding a straw in his mouth, pointed at the defenders at Deshengmen and said, "How many bandits have we killed with just this bunch? Their bodies have piled up like a mountain in broad daylight! The bandits don't even have time to hide, so why do we need to come here to patrol at night?"

As soon as these words were spoken, laughter broke out everywhere.

The youngest soldier in the team laughed and said, "Why don't we go to Anning Gate first? The garrison there asked me for a drink yesterday."

Lu Zhao frowned and was about to reprimand when the night patrol team started to chatter in agreement.

It is true that Deshengmen was heavily guarded, with the inner walls lined with spears and the outer moat filled with barbs, not to mention that every half a minute there were messengers holding torches and running around the city to deliver reports.

"Let's go!" Wang Dazhu grabbed his companion's torch. The orange-red flames cast distorted shadows in the gate of the city wall. "This damn place is so dark that even a mouse can't get in..."

After hearing this, Lu Zhao felt that there was nothing wrong, so he had to follow him and leave.

As the team turned the corner, Lu Zhao suddenly pressed the scabbard.

In the mud between the bluestone slabs, there were fresh imprints of straw sandals.

You should know that the capital is still under curfew at this time, from the quarter of an hour after Xu to now, just before midnight, a full two hours.

The shoe prints should have dried up long ago, but they are wet!

His heart tightened and he reached out to stop everyone.

"wrong."

Before he finished speaking, there was a slight noise from the window frame of the shop on the right.

"Who?!" Five Jinyiwei drew their swords at the same time.

The torchlight shone on the signs of the shops on the street, and the curtains were trembling slightly.

"I'm afraid it's a wild dog." Before Wang Dazhu took it seriously, the window panel on the second floor suddenly opened and a sharp sword flew straight towards his face!

"Enemy attack!!!" Lu Zhao shouted, and at the same time, he swung his sword to block the flying sword. Dozens of black shadows rushed out from behind the window panel.

These people wore black water jackets, held short knives in their mouths, and were extremely skillful.

As soon as they met, two of the five Jinyiwei fell to the ground.

The small flags of the Five Cities Army, which had no power at all, were even more vulnerable. They didn't even have time to raise their spears before they were chopped down by the swarming assassins. Lu Zhao slashed two assassins with his sword, but saw that the black-clad assassins continued to jump out of the shop.

Knowing he couldn't escape, he steeled himself and stopped swinging his sword. He turned and ran towards Deshengmen, shouting as he ran, "Thieves are breaking into the city!"

He had only taken two steps when a sharp arrow pierced Lu Zhao's throat.

When he fell down, you could still see Wang Dazhu pretending to be dead, trying hard to restrain himself and not make any noise.

Fortunately, the night patrol team was not far from Deshengmen, and Lu Zhao’s last voice could be heard at the city gate.

No matter how many people come to the Yongwei Battalion on duty at night, their orders are to sound the alarm immediately if there is any change.

Two soldiers from the Yongwei Camp lit the giant fire rack while beating gongs and drums.

This fire seemed to have set the entire capital on fire.

The inner and outer parade grounds, the guards at the nine gates, and the patrol teams all lit torches and rushed towards Deshengmen.

At the foot of the Fucheng Gate Tower at this moment.

A dozen or so new army sentries nervously watched the defenders go to support, paying no attention to the figure moving in the shadows.

Because the rebel army focused on the Deshengmen and Guangqumen areas in the past two days, there were almost no defenders at Fuchengmen.

There were only two centurions and a thousand refugees who were just putting on an act for the rebel army.

When the main force went to support, only a small flag of garrison was left behind.

Before they could reach the top of the city wall, their mouths and noses were covered and a dagger was slashed across their throats.

Thirty death warriors filed out and piled the hundred pounds of gunpowder they had brought in with great difficulty at the joints of the city gate.

Amid the sizzling sound of kerosene splashing, the leader took out a flint without hesitation and rubbed it down fiercely.

"boom!"

The Guangqumen city wall collapsed with a loud noise, and bricks and stones fell like rain.

In an instant, drums and horns sounded everywhere!

The 700,000-strong army of the Chuang army came out in full force, transformed into four fire dragons, sweeping towards the four city gates of Desheng, Nanning, Guangqu and Zuoan, attracting the attention of the main force of the Ming army.

The 5,000 elite soldiers of the rebel army who had been lying in ambush outside Fucheng Gate immediately rushed out with the momentum.

They wanted to take advantage of the chaos to capture one gate, so as to distract the attention of the other gates and buy time for the army to capture the four gates.

The plan was excellent. Even if there were 200,000 troops in the city, they would not be able to decide between attacking the Four Gates and Fucheng Gate at night. In the end, they would lose both of them and could only defend the Forbidden City and wait for help.

Unfortunately, Li Zicheng overlooked one thing.

That means there are no people in the Ming army at all!
It’s okay for 50,000 new troops to defend the surrendered soldiers and refugees, but if they really encounter a large-scale attack, I’m afraid they won’t even be able to defend the city.

The few thousand elite troops are of utmost importance.

The Yongwei, Huben, Sanqian and Yulin armies are the key to guarding the four city gates, and it is impossible to transfer them to Fuchengmen.

The order given to the 5,000 soldiers from the old camp of the rebel army was to defend Fucheng Gate to the death.

Since no one informed them of the loss of Fucheng Gate, both sides did not care about the first gate that was breached.

For a moment, even Zhang Nai, the leader of the army, didn't know what to do.

The Black Armor Cavalry only has one chance to attack. If they cannot kill Li Zicheng in one blow, it will be difficult for them to win.

In the warm room of the Qianqing Hall in the Forbidden City, Zhu Youjian was awakened by a series of explosions and jumped up suddenly from the couch.

A faint roar could be heard in the distance, and Wang Chengen tumbled in, tumbling and crawling. "Emperor...Emperor! Urgent news from the Nine Gates!"

"Don't panic, the Chuang army is launching a night attack?" Zhu Youjian had guessed that the Chuang army would launch a night attack, but he didn't expect it to be such a big commotion.

Wang Chengen nodded repeatedly, "Governor Wu sent an urgent report. The rebels have mobilized 700,000 troops and are storming the four gates of Desheng. There's also movement from the Fucheng Gate. The details haven't been ascertained yet."

When Zhu Youjian heard this, he was stunned.

What was wrong with Li Zicheng? An entire army launched a fierce attack in the middle of the night?

You have to know that night blindness was very serious in that era. As long as the moonlight was not bright enough, the refugees and surrendered soldiers who were short of food and clothing could not even see the road clearly.

How dare he?

Although he didn't understand, Zhu Youjian was not idle either.

Walking barefoot on the ground, he quickly walked to the window and opened the window frame. The sky on the south side of the capital was already reflected in red.

"Take my armor!"

"Send word to Ni Yuanlu and Wang Jiayan! Have Li Ruolian lead the troops to maintain order in the city!"

(End of this chapter)