After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

…………

Thick smoke billowed.

The flickering firelight.

Ashes filled the air.

Corpses littered the ground.

The aroma of pine resin filled my nostrils.

The still-burning logs hissed and crackled.

Inside a courtyard house in a hutong on Dong'anmenwai Street.

Huang Zhongcai stared at the burning wooden behemoth before him, his face ashen, the iron helmet on his head and the yellow armor on his body slightly hot in the heat.

He gripped the sword at his waist, enduring the blinding dust and the ashes that made him cough, and roared:

"Search! Search thoroughly! Look for tunnels! Look for hidden compartments! Even the wells need to be searched with ropes! Every brick must be firmly knocked down!"

"twitter!"

One response after another rang out.

The hundred or so soldiers who rushed in were either dragging a dozen or so corpses from the ground or carrying buckets of water to extinguish the fire on the huge burning log in the middle of the yard.

Some would kick open the main room, side room, and ear room, and then randomly stick knives between the wardrobes and wall panels.

Huang Zhongcai, the commander of the Han Chinese army of the Plain Yellow Banner, held the second rank of official.

After the Manchu and Mongol troops of the Plain Yellow Banner went to the Northeast, he, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Han Army, was actually the highest-ranking military officer of the Plain Yellow Banner in the capital.

As a Han Chinese, Huang Zhongcai was always grateful to the Emperor for allowing him to stay in the capital instead of going to Ningguta and Aihui to suffer from the cold.

Today, disaster strikes the Forbidden City.

Upon hearing the noise, he broke out in a cold sweat and immediately donned his armor and went outside. The order from the Infantry Commander's Office arrived in an instant, ordering him to bring his men to take full control of the defense.

Huang Zhongcai, with a base of 1,000 men from the Plain Yellow Banner in the inner city, led 4,000 men transferred from the Infantry Commander's Office to encircle and annihilate this band of thieves who dared to use catapults and gunpowder.

There were actually only a little over a hundred thieves here, scattered across eight courtyards.

Each of them used a trebuchet to throw bamboo baskets filled with gunpowder toward Dong'an Gate.

At the same time as the explosion, a fire broke out at Dong'anmen, fueled by pine resin and smoke signals inside.

At the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), the bandits launched a surprise attack.

By the second quarter of the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), the patrolling soldiers in the surrounding area had almost discovered all the thieves.

The thieves burned the trebuchet while putting up a stubborn resistance.

Gunpowder weapons were emerging in large numbers. Some of the thieves in the courtyard houses even had matchlock guns and three-barreled guns, catching the patrolling soldiers off guard.

By 3:45 AM, the bandits had been mostly wiped out. Only a small number remained, fleeing and setting fires.

Huang Zhongcai ordered his men to guard the streets where the bandits could retreat, so that they could be surrounded and killed.

The thieves gradually found themselves with nowhere to escape.

It is now the second quarter of the Yin hour.

Under Huang Zhongcai's command, a total of 115 thieves' corpses have been found.

He is ordering his men to search house to house.

If someone smells of gunpowder, blood, smoke, or pine resin, they are undoubtedly a thief!

Huang Zhongcai walked through each courtyard, ordering a second search and directing the men to water the area, thus saving the catapults that the thieves had brought into the inner city.

To verify how the other party brought in such a catapult.

but……

It is a pity.

Huang Zhongcai gritted his teeth as he looked at the catapult in front of him, which was already close to being charred.

This was the last courtyard house he had ever seen.

All eight of the bandits' catapults were burned without exception.

Even though the soldiers tried their best to put out the fire, they could only get covered in soot and dust when faced with the catapults that were soaked in pine oil and wine. Many of them even lost their hair and were powerless to save the day.

On the city wall, a sharp-eyed observer remarked: "These bandits started lighting the catapults one after another after releasing the third and fourth rounds of gunpowder from the bamboo baskets, and began to set them ablaze."

It would take a long time to completely burn something this big. During the burning process, they used catapults to drop several rounds of gunpowder.

"Report! Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief!"

Someone broke into the courtyard and came to report, bowing respectfully.

"The Emperor summons you!"

Huang Zhongcai's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly straightened his face and reprimanded the crowd:

"Keep searching! Do not slacken your efforts. Anyone who lets the thief escape will have their head on their shoulders!"

"twitter!"

Everyone's foreheads were covered in sweat from the heat, and they hurriedly responded loudly.

Afterwards, the deputy commander and several officers were instructed to continue monitoring the situation.

Huang Zhongcai, accompanied by about ten personal guards, rushed towards Dong'an Gate without stopping.

The smoke from cigarettes hit us in the face, and Dong'an Gate was charred black.

The soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and although some people had come to clean up the mess, there were still many severed limbs on the ground.

However, both the Dong'anmen city gate and its gate tower were coated with tung oil, making them extremely waterproof and fireproof, and thus very difficult to catch fire.

The thieves only managed to create the illusion that a major fire had broken out at Dong'an Gate by relying on the pine resin and smoke they carried in the bamboo basket.

The city gates were naturally closed at this time.

The commander guarding the city gate was covered in charred soot and was so frightened that he dared not even open the side gate.

Huang Zhongcai of the Plain Yellow Banner did not make things difficult for the Plain Blue Banner commander on the city gate tower.

They remained silent, waiting for the general at the city gate to lower the basket.

After being hoisted up in the basket, Huang Zhongcai strode down the city gate tower without stopping for a moment.

An eunuch was standing there. It was this eunuch who had just delivered the Emperor's summons to the city gate, where the gatekeeper relayed it to the commander outside, which led to Huang Zhongcai's arrival.

The two continued walking westward without stopping.

Step across the stone bridge spanning the Moon River.

Facing you is the Donghua Gate of the Forbidden City.

At this time, Donghua Gate was also tightly closed.

The gatekeeper was pale-faced and dared not even open the side door, so he also lowered the basket.

Take a gondola up.

Descend from Donghua Gate.

Several eunuchs carrying lanterns came to greet them, and the group headed towards the inner court together.

After passing through the Hall of Literary Glory, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, they entered through the Gate of Heavenly Purity. It took them a full quarter of an hour to finally arrive at the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

Under the bright moonlight.

Step into the Qianqing Palace through the Qianqing Gate.

A strong stench of blood hits you right in the face!

Huang Zhongcai paused, instinctively gripping the hilt of his knife.

After a moment of disorientation, his pupils suddenly contracted, and the scene inside the Qianqing Palace left this dignified commander of the Plain Yellow Banner Han Army speechless...

dead body.

dead body……

Corpses everywhere...

The gaze moves westward from the Qianqing Palace, sweeping towards the Yangxin Hall to the west.

Corpses lay scattered haphazardly between the two palaces, and the silver broken blades reflected the moonlight on the ground.

Crimson entrails, flying limbs, rolling heads... a thick, nauseating stench permeated the scene.

The blood that flowed out of the arena congealed into a stream and flowed to his feet.

He suddenly felt that his soap shoes had become sticky.

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" Someone was carrying the corpse eastward.

"Move! Move it over there!"

"They threw all the ones over there that we can't tell whose belonged to! They might be thieves! We'll check their identities tomorrow..."

Hearing these shouts.

Huang Zhongcai then noticed that the corpses on the ground were all Eight Banner soldiers wearing Qing Dynasty armor, and he also saw many familiar faces.

"Thieves have stormed the Forbidden City?!" he exclaimed in shock.

The old man who brought him here was pale, his stomach churning, and he barely suppressed the urge to vomit, saying:

"Lord Huang, please don't say any more... quickly come with me..."

That's all.

The eunuch gritted his teeth, stepped over the horrific scene on the ground, and led Huang Zhongcai to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, towards the emperor's bedroom.