After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 25 Surrender (Part 2)

"boom!!"

A cannonball flew over the city wall and landed inside the city, shocking the resting Shun Dynasty soldiers.

Shi Nai was extremely anxious and said to the people beside him, "We can't let the enemy army continue to bombard us. We need to find a way to destroy their cannons!"

"What can we do?" someone asked him. "The enemy's artillery is powerful, has a long range, and is incredibly accurate. They've destroyed more than half of our cannons this morning. Now the defenders don't dare to climb the walls, and even if they do, they're cowering."

"I don't believe there is no way!"

Shi Nai gritted his teeth, put on his armor and went up the stairs to the city wall. A few people followed him because they were afraid that something might happen to him.

Taking advantage of the tall corner tower as cover, Shi Nai looked out from the city wall and saw that the Qian Wang army below was densely packed and laying siege in an orderly manner. They were eating away at the city wall bit by bit, filling up the moat, and pushing the battering rams to the bottom of the city gate. More than ten ladder trucks had been erected, and the enemy army could overlook the defenses on the city wall.

"Quickly send people to the east corner tower and the city wall. The enemy army is about to launch an offensive!"

Shi Nai didn't know much about fighting, but he could see that the rebel army was fierce and the imperial army was weak. He also saw that the east corner tower was poorly guarded and that the rebel army was gathering in large numbers.

"Yes!" The messenger took the order and went to deliver the message.

But just as he was about to go downstairs, he heard a commotion coming from under the city wall, as if someone was shouting.

Then the commotion quickly spread.

“Surrender!!”

"The Emperor has surrendered!!"

When everyone on the city wall heard the shouts of the soldiers below, their faces changed instantly.

"Who's trying to shake the morale of the troops?! Quickly send someone to arrest the person who's shouting!"

Shi Nai shouted angrily.

A soldier hurriedly climbed up the city wall and saluted him when he saw him: "Sir, an imperial edict has arrived. The emperor has ordered us to fight against the Qianwang army immediately!"

"……What?!"

Shi Nai and the generals around him who were loyal to the court were all in disbelief. They ordered a fight to the death in the morning, but were willing to surrender in the afternoon?

"Who will deliver the order?!" Shi Nai asked him in a deep voice.

"It's Prince Zhongshun!"

"What about others?"

"In the city gate tower, talking to Lord Wang."

When Shi Nai saw Prince Zhongshun, he immediately asked, "Your Majesty, the Emperor wants you to open the city gates and surrender?!"

"Never before! The Emperor has ordered me to urge you to cease fighting!" Prince Zhongshun breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The Emperor cares for his soldiers, so he is willing to abdicate the throne to Prince Qian! However, the specific abdication method and the subsequent preferential treatment conditions will need to be discussed with Prince Qian tomorrow."

The biggest dispute during the peace talks the day before yesterday was that Emperor Yongning did not want to abdicate. Now that he is willing to abdicate, everything can be discussed again.

"Ugh!"

Shi Nai sighed deeply, "If you didn't open the city gates and surrender, why did you announce it to the outside world? Now that the soldiers have heard this, their morale is even lower. Even before Prince Qian arrives, this city will be lost!"

"This..." Prince Zhongshun's expression changed.

Wang Ziteng said helplessly: "I told His Highness not to tell anyone else, but now it's too late."

"I was confused for a moment!" Prince Zhongshun said in frustration, "I was just trying to get you to stop as soon as possible, to prevent Prince Qian from losing a few more soldiers..."

Everyone knew the reason. Prince Qian once said that if one soldier died, three princes would be killed. Prince Zhongshun had been worried about this, so he was eager to stop the fighting between the two sides.

Wang Ziteng said, "Since that's the case, let's contact Prince Qian as soon as possible. Come, copy a few documents for me and shoot them out with a bow and arrow!"

King Qian's army.

Chu Yan was observing the siege from a distance through a telescope. He soon noticed something unusual and squinted his eyes at the city wall, asking, "No, why has the imperial army's offensive suddenly slowed down so much?"

"I'm afraid they've started to make trouble." Chu Ming said with a smile, and also raised his telescope to look.

"Not like... Good! Our men are on the city wall!"

Chu Yan was cheered up and his soldiers climbed up the city wall. Unfortunately, due to the angle, they could not see what was happening on the wall.

But it can be vaguely seen that the imperial army did not immediately besiege and recapture the city wall.

The two sides seem to be in a standoff?
The strange situation caused the battlefield to suddenly become much colder.

Not long after, a messenger came on horseback and delivered several arrows with letters tied to them to Chu Yan.

The letters on several arrows had the same content. Chu Yan read them quickly, threw them down, jumped on his horse, and galloped towards the front line.

His subordinates hurried to follow.

Arriving at the bank of the filled-in moat, Chu Yan quickly learned about the situation on the wall:
A hundred or so imperial soldiers confronted a few Qian Wang soldiers who had first scaled the city walls. The imperial soldiers declared, "The emperor has surrendered. We won't move, and you, Qian Wang soldiers, won't move either. Don't scale the city walls again!" The situation then reached a stalemate, with both sides ceasing their arrow fire.

"Your Majesty!"

Li Changjin, the front-line commander, arrived with a letter in his hand, and learned that Prince Zhongshun had come to convey the emperor's decree.

"Your Highness, be careful of traps." Xu Zhiyi only reminded him once and said nothing more.

The situation is already clear.

"He's only surrendering now!" Xiahou Xin cursed. Ma Ji agreed with him and cursed him, "If you want to surrender, just open the city gates and surrender. You're dithering like a woman. If we can't reach an agreement tomorrow, won't we still have to fight?!"

Chu Yan's subordinates all agreed.

After siege for most of the day, they could see that it was only a matter of time before they captured the capital of Shun Dynasty.

Chu Yan did not say anything, but looked at the battlefield around him. The soldiers he brought were brave and valiant. At this moment, many of them gathered around him, waiting for him, the King Qian, to give orders.

"It's good to have fewer casualties."

Chu Yan said, and ordered them: "Write a letter for me and get my bow and arrows."

The guards hurried to get pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. Chu Yan told Chu Ming to write, "Tell them to either open the city gates or do as I say: hang ten large white cloths with the characters 'Wish to Surrender King Qian' written on them. Instruct the soldiers to shout it out. When I see it, I will temporarily withdraw and negotiate with them tomorrow."

After hearing this, Xu Zhiyi couldn't help but praise him, "Your Highness, this is a good plan. This move will greatly undermine their morale. Even if they are pretending to surrender, everyone knows it and speaks out loud, and the fake becomes real!"

The group of rough generals suddenly realized what was going on.

A moment later, Chu Ming finished writing the letter, tied it to the arrow, and handed it over respectfully.

Chu Yan took the longbow, bent the bow and drew the arrow, then shot the arrow into the window of the arrow tower across the moat.

After waiting for a while, Xiahou Xin became impatient and asked, "Why don't the government troops hang white cloth?!"

"Don't worry, I gave them a quarter of an hour." Chu Mingdao said. King Qian did not specify the time, so he wrote it down according to his own estimate.

The battlefield fell eerily quiet.

The soldiers who were far away from the city wall sat on the ground to rest, while those who were close to the city wall, such as those on the city wall, could only continue to confront each other in armor.

The people who were carrying loads to fill the river did not stop and continued to widen the road on the moat.

About a quarter of an hour later, a large red cloth slid down from the city wall and hung on the wall. On it were several large black characters:
May King Qian descend!

There was an uproar inside and outside the city wall. The soldiers who were sitting and resting rushed forward, squinting their eyes at the red cloth hanging in the distance. After recognizing the words on it, they were all ecstatic.

"Didn't the king ask for white cloth? Why did he use red cloth?!" a general scolded with a smile.

"I guess they think white cloth is unlucky, just like their emperor is dead."

All the generals burst into laughter. Even Chu Ming, who was usually steady, couldn't help but smile. He listened carefully and heard the soldiers of Shun Dynasty start to shout, saying that they were willing to surrender to King Qian.

Now, even if the city wanted to organize a defense again, it would be ten times more difficult than before.

"Your Highness, should we retreat?" Xu Zhiyi said with a smile.

"No rush, what about the other city gates?"

"I'll send someone to check it out right away!"

Soon after, everyone confirmed that red cloth was hung on several city gates. The news that the court intended to surrender and the emperor wanted to abdicate to King Qian spread throughout the army of more than 100,000 people. There was one commotion after another, and the soldiers clamored and shouted "Long live King Qian."

Chu Yan then gave the order: "Sound the horn, retreat!"

Hanging the red cloth was not only to let the people in the city know, but also to let his soldiers know. Once the people in the city changed their minds, the soldiers would feel that they had been fooled, and when they went to the battlefield again, they would be holding back their anger and want to vent it.

Of course, if this energy is not used properly, it can easily evolve into looting and massacre.

Ma Ji chuckled and said, "They got it easy. If they had surrendered a day or two later, we would have stormed into the city. What would we have to talk to them about?"

"Your Highness cares for his soldiers, so this is as it should be." Xu Zhiyi said.

"Talk to them? No, no, no need to talk."

Chu Yan laughed, shook his head, and said, "As long as there are still smart people in the city, the city gates should be opened tonight!"

Ma Ji's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, I will lead my men to guard the city gates tonight. As soon as the gates open, I will rush in!"

Chu Yan nodded and said, "Just occupy the city gate, don't go inside."

The sound of gongs soon rang out, and the Qian Wang army surrounding the city wall slowly retreated. The few people who climbed up the city wall also retreated step by step and returned to the ground from the ladder.

Chu Yan remembered them and said to Li Changjin, "Those who climbed the wall didn't fight, but they survived. They should be rewarded as the first to reach the wall."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

(End of this chapter)