Xue Laoer and Zhang Hongbing separated into two groups. The former led ten guards in golden uniforms and pushed away the horses blocking the way outside the city gate, while the latter led a dozen soldiers and ran to the top of the city tower.

Under the command of Zhang Hong, the soldiers who entered the gate tower of the city worked together to push the winch, and the suspension bridge outside the Zuo'anmen gate was slowly lowered in the darkness.

As Xue Laoer opened the originally closed city gate at the same time, the boundless darkness outside the city was unreservedly revealed in front of Zhou Shixian and his party.

While several city gates in the west and north were broken, the main force of the Shun army was already scrambling to enter the city from those places. The defense forces left in other places were already very weak.

After all, the capital city was the capital of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, gathering together the world's dignitaries and the huge wealth they had looted and exploited for decades or hundreds of years.

Although the Shun Army was subject to strict military discipline under Li Zicheng, it did not mean that the soldiers would not be tempted, nor did it mean that the generals had no selfish motives.

When the city is broken and in chaos, the troops entering the city can naturally take the opportunity to plunder. Therefore, those who can enter the city immediately are naturally direct descendants of the army and the real elites of the old camp.

Moreover, the capital city had been destroyed, and Li Zicheng had countless eunuchs in the palace, and countless generals from the capital camp on the city walls to provide intelligence and coordinate internally and externally. Naturally, he ignored Zhou Shixian's force, which was completely outside the plan.

In fact, because there were so many young men and women in the capital rushing to join the Shun Army, Li Zicheng had the illusion that the situation was completely under his control.

As soon as the city gate opened, Zhou Shixian immediately ordered the Jin Yiwei to scatter nearly 100,000 taels of silver from more than a dozen wheelbarrows on the Zuo'anmen avenue, and then ordered the team to leave the city.

Behind them, the sound of horse hooves from the vanguard of the Shun army was approaching, and densely packed torchlight spots could even be seen moving rapidly.

These coins may be able to stop the pursuing army for a while.

The Jin Yiwei opened the way, and Zhou Shixian led the team and quickly crossed the moat outside the city. The huge city gate behind them was immediately closed from the inside by Xue Laoer's men, and then Zhang Hong's soldiers struggled to pull it open.

Lift the suspension bridge.

After Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong finished their work, they quickly lowered themselves from the city wall through ropes and returned to the escorting team.

After the Shun army chasing in the city collected nearly 7,000 kilograms of silver, it might not be so easy to catch up. That was a full 100,000 taels of silver!

Therefore, the most critical thing now is to break through the barrier of the Shunjun outside the city and leave the capital without anyone noticing.

After all, Zhou Shixian's escorting troops and horses were still too few. It was possible to deal with the Shun army at one or two checkpoints, but if it attracted the attention of most of the Shun army in the south and was besieged, it would be impossible to escape.

You must know that the southeast of the capital city is an endless plain, and there are hundreds of thousands of loyal troops inside and outside the city. Even if these soldiers under Zhou Shixian's command are heavenly soldiers and generals, they will not be able to escape intact after being discovered.

Zhou Shixian then briefly organized the team on the edge of the moat outside the city, and finally confirmed the tasks of each team.

Xue Laoer led most of the soldiers and horses from the Jinyi Guards and the Beijing Camp as the main force to raid the Shunjun pass. Zhang Hong cooperated with him and led more than thirty capable sentries from the 3000 Battalion to disperse to both sides to intercept any possible

The appearance of the Shunjun Sentinel Cavalry.

Then there is Wang Chaodong, whose task is to assist Zhou Shixian and lead the remaining one hundred cavalry to guard the holy cavalry, including more than eighty musketeers.

They had to wait for Xue Laoer to deal with the more than thirty soldiers in the previous level before continuing their march.

At the same time, Zhou Shixian was also prepared to rush in at any time, and no one knew what kind of accidents might occur in the process.

Once the situation is out of control, he will not sit still and wait for death. The more than 80 muskets are his last resort to break out of the encirclement.

The scouts Zhou Shixian originally sent outside the city had returned to the team at this time. The situation was just as Zhou Shixian expected. After confirming that it was correct, Zhou Shixian immediately ordered Xue Laoer to take action immediately.

"Of the thirty or so intruders, can we kill them all without letting any of them escape, let alone alert the thieves in the surrounding camps?" Zhou Shixian asked seriously.

"Don't worry, Prince Consort, there will be more than 80 and more than 30. If one of them escapes, I, Xue Laoer, will raise my head and come to see you." Xue Laoer patted his chest and promised.

"I don't want your head, I want you to chop off the heads of those thieves." Zhou Shixian said sternly. He then winked and signaled the other party to take action immediately.

Xue Laoer was also unambiguous. After bowing his hands to Zhou Shixian and performing a military salute, he immediately rode off.

Although there were hundreds of war horses moving at the same time, the slight movement caused by the horses running with cotton hooves covered with cotton cloth was almost negligible in the noise of the city being breached.

In fact, the so-called "siege" cannot really besiege a city, especially a "giant city" like Beijing that is located on the plain. Not to mention that Li Zicheng only had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, even with hundreds of thousands of troops, I'm afraid

It’s also difficult to do.

Not to mention, the Shun army had only besieged the city for a few days, and the city gate had already been breached. Even the trench walls outside the city that had been besieged for a long time had not yet been built.

At this time, the main force of Shun's army had all entered the city, and the defense outside the city was very empty. There were less than a thousand guards in each camp. As long as Zhou Shixian planned well, it was not impossible to break through.

You must know that there are large gaps between each camp of the siege troops. The most that the Shun army can do is send patrol troops and sentries to keep vigilance, but they cannot completely surround it.

The current situation is also very obvious: as soon as the gates to the west and north of the capital are broken, the Shunjun who are responsible for defending and intercepting the Ming army in the city who take advantage of the chaos to break through have completely relaxed their vigilance.

After all, most of the Shun troops outside the city were the former Ming court frontier troops who had recently surrendered to Li Zicheng. Naturally, their military discipline and combat effectiveness could not be compared with those of the old Shun troops. The laziness they had developed in the Ming army was

It is difficult to get rid of anger in a short period of time.

In addition, Li Zicheng's thoughts are all on Emperor Chongzhen in the Forbidden City, so how can he be distracted outside the city?

Xue Laoer led his soldiers and horses straight to the checkpoint of Shunjun. Under the cover of night, he pretended to be Shunjun coming from the city to meet him.

After all, no matter how careful you were, the sound of the suspension bridge being lowered outside Zuo'anmen just now must have attracted the attention of these loyal soldiers, but their lack of reaction was enough to show that they underestimated the enemy and were negligent.

This is an opportunity for Xue Laoer.

More than a hundred Ming troops quickly approached the Shunjun checkpoint that blocked their breakout. Under Zhang Hong's flank cover, the whole process did not encounter any obstacles. The only two Shunjun sentries had been killed by Zhang Hong silently.

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Chapter completed!