Early the next morning, the Red Lady took her 30,000 horses out of the city and headed towards Tongzhou.
When leaving, Zhu Cixi had all the officials he should be granted, and left a thousand female soldiers to garrison the inner court. The weapons and armor were also replenished, but only enough food and grass was given for three days, so he was obviously still on guard.
Seeing that the Red Lady's men had also left the city, all the nobles heaved a long sigh of relief, but the civil servants were living like a year and all wanted to run away.
Zhu Cixiang really planned to deal with them. He just wanted to call Li Ruolian, so Li Ruolian himself hurried to the palace to ask for an audience.
Seeing his anxious look, Zhu Cixiang frowned: "What happened to Li Aiqing?"
"Your Majesty, the assassin has been recruited. He is a spy sent by Jiannu. According to him, Jiannu broke through Shanhaiguan ten days ago..."
"What?"
"What are you talking about? Jiannu broke through Shanhaiguan ten days ago?"
Zhu Cixiang jumped up in shock.
"Yes, Your Majesty, according to what Na Xizuo said, I judge that Jiannu is likely to use the entire clan's troops to attack this time." Li Ruolian explained with a worried look on his face.
"Damn it, it's been so many days, why has no one come to report it?" Zhu Cixiang punched the dragon case hard.
"Li Ruolian, what's wrong with you Jinyiwei? It took two days to review a detailed work before it was clear. If we changed to Dongchang, it would only take one hour for us..."
"Shut up!"
Fan Xian, who had just taken charge of Dongchang, was still preparing to apply eye drops, but was frightened to the ground by Zhu Cixiang's loud shout.
"I am incompetent, please forgive me!" Li Ruolian apologized in shame.
"Go and call Zhou Yuji."
Zhu Cixiang waved his hands, how could he bother to ask about their crimes, not to mention that he also knew that Jin Yiwei and Dongchang were busy searching homes for interrogation these two days, and Li Ruolian was also unable to do anything at all.
Not long after, Zhou Yuji was brought in.
Hearing that Jiannu had breached Shanhaiguan ten days ago, Zhou Yuji was also shocked and looked solemn.
"Your Majesty, according to the past practice of establishing slaves, the cavalry may have already arrived at the capital on the tenth, but this time there was no trace of the Tatars near the capital.
As the saying goes, if something goes wrong, there must be a demon, so the top priority is to immediately send a detective horse to Yongping Mansion to investigate, find out the true and false status of the Qing Jian slaves, and then make a decision!"
"Well, then I will leave this matter to Zhou Aiqing. We must find out as soon as possible how many cavalry and infantry the Tatars have and whether Shanhaiguan has really been lost."
"yes!"
Zhou Yuji hurriedly resigned, knowing that the matter was too important to delay.
After Zhou Yuji left, Zhu Cixiang had no intention of dealing with those civil servants. If the Tatars really invaded the whole country this time and broke through Shanhaiguan, I'm afraid it wouldn't be as simple as plundering.
Instead, he wanted to break through Beijing and take control of the Central Plains.
Compared with King Chuang's million-strong army, the threat of slave-building is much greater and much more difficult to deal with. Fortunately, there is no shortage of soldiers, horses, money and food in the city now, and the morale is also good. In addition, with the experience of defending the city, slave-building
It may not be possible to capture the city of Beijing.
Thinking of this, Zhu Cixiang's heart relaxed a little.
He secretly thought: This tall city of Beijing is really well built. As long as it is well defended, no matter how many troops or horses you have, you will not be afraid.
However, Zhu Cixiang frowned again when he thought that the last time the intruders broke out there was internal strife first, and then they were attacked by Guan Ning's cavalry and defeated hundreds of thousands of them in one fell swoop.
Building slaves is no better than breaking into a bandit. If they choose to besiege rather than attack, no one can defeat them.
"Damn it, it's been nearly two months since my edict from King Qin was sent out. Except for Wu Sangui, not a single Ming army has come to our aid yet. How shameful!"
When Zhu Cihong thought of this, his teeth itched with hatred.
In fact, what he didn't know was that the soldiers and horses of Qinwang from all over the world had already arrived.
Seven days ago, Liu Zeqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, received the news of the defeat of the intruders. He recovered from his serious illness and immediately rushed towards the capital with a large army.
Gao Jie had also arrived at Hejian Mansion, but when he learned that the intruders had fled south, he turned back to fight against the intruders.
As for Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo, as soon as they received Zhu Cihong's imperial edict, they set off three days later, but the journey was too long.
Tongzhou.
The red lady didn't run away, but really came.
She originally thought that Zhu Cixi was a good emperor and had long wanted to submit to him, but Li Yan was unwilling to do so. Now that he had submitted, she would naturally not have any second thoughts.
"Commander Hong, I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you? I wonder what you are doing here today?"
On the top of the city, Liu Fangliang looked at the red lady below the city and the army behind her, and asked warily with her fists raised.
This red lady and her men came from the capital, and they knew without asking that they must have surrendered to the Ming court. Those who came this time must be evil.
"Brother Liu, let me tell you the truth, my little sister has surrendered to the imperial court. The intruder was narrow-minded, ambitious and lacking in talent. He believed in slander and killed my husband for no reason. How can such a ruthless and unjust beast achieve great things?"
"Now that he has become a lost dog, it is only a matter of time before he is captured alive by Wu Sangui. Brother Liu is a hero of the world, why should he sacrifice his life for such a villain again?"
"Your Majesty is a rare and enlightened king with a broad mind, good manners, and a clear understanding of rewards and punishments. Why don't Brother Liu and his younger sister submit to the imperial court together to find a bright future for themselves and their brothers?"
"What?"
"Commander Li was killed by his eldest brother?"
Liu Fangliang ignored her offer to surrender, but was shocked by Li Yan's death.
I finally understood why the Red Lady went crazy and attacked the West Camp that night.
"Alas! Brother is so confused!" After figuring it out, Liu Fangliang also punched the battlements hard.
Then he looked at the red lady and cupped her fists and said: "Commander Hong, I deeply regret the death of the military advisor, but my eldest brother and I share weal and woe. We swore at the beginning that we would never betray you in this life. If you want me to surrender and be that repetitive villain, I will forgive you for obeying your orders."
!
However, I do have a better suggestion, how about you and I join forces and go to Shandong to pursue great success?"
I have to say that Liu Fangliang's proposal is very tempting.
It's a pity that the red lady is a woman and is not interested in that great cause. She only wants to avenge her husband.
If Liu Fangliang said to join forces and attack King Chuang, he would probably have followed him without saying a word, but now he shook his head and asked.
"Brother Liu doesn't want to be that repetitive villain, but he comes to persuade my younger sister to be that repetitive villain. What's the point?"
"So, Commander Hong is determined to submit to the imperial court?"
"A good bird chooses a tree to rest, so my little sister will naturally choose a bright master. I hope Brother Liu will consider it."
"No, Commander Hong doesn't want to go with me, so please come back!"
"Brother Liu, you are also a man who knows the military. You must know that an isolated city cannot be defended. To be honest, your Majesty has assembled an army of 200,000 and originally wanted Zhou Yuji to lead his army to attack you.
But the younger sister thought that we all belonged to the same lineage of rebels and begged each other hard. Only then did she ask His Majesty to show mercy and agree to let me come and surrender first.
Even if Brother Liu doesn't think about himself, he still has to think about the brothers in the city, right?"
The red lady was obviously not stupid, and she actually started to bluff and threaten.
"Hmph! So what if we have an army of two hundred thousand?"
"Then Wu Sangui has already gone south, and the isolated city cannot be defended. Why can't Liu still leave?"
Liu Fangliang was confident.
If the Ming army hadn't come to attack him, he would have run away long ago.
"Haha, it would have been feasible if Brother Liu had left earlier, but now that my army has arrived at the city, can you still leave?" The Red Lady sneered.
"how?"
"Does Commander Hong really want to disregard his past friendship, sacrifice his life for the little emperor, and want to fight with me?"
Liu Fangliang's face also darkened.
"That night you flanked me and prevented me from killing the intruder to avenge my husband. The relationship between my red lady and the rebels was severed."
The red lady finished speaking calmly.
Then his tone turned cold, he drew his sword and pointed it at the city head.
"Liu Fangliang, don't talk nonsense anymore. If you surrender today, we will serve as generals in the same court. I still respect you as a man. If you continue to work for the intruders, either you will die today or I will die."
"Brother, why don't you surrender?"
"Now that King Chuang is alive and dead, why should we persist?"
The generals around Liu Fangliang saw the red lady's firm attitude and began to persuade her.
There is no other way. If you don't leave and are surrounded in the city, you will die sooner or later. If you want to leave, the Red Lady's men will be watching eagerly. You must defeat them first before you can leave.
Although they had a total of 80,000 troops inside and outside the city, except for the 30,000 who fled into the city at the beginning, most of the remaining 50,000 did not have weapons.
And looking at the Red Lady’s 30,000-strong army, almost everyone has armor, so it’s hard to predict the outcome of a real fight.
Seeing the red lady's attitude of fighting for her life, Liu Fangliang was half angry to death, and even more regretful.
Originally, yesterday, he had to report that a large army was coming out of the capital and heading towards Tongzhou, so he planned to leave.
But knowing that they were the Red Lady's men, he stayed behind and prepared to persuade the Red Lady to go with him. How could they go nowhere in the world if they joined forces?
Who would have thought that she would not care at all about their past feelings, but now she is blocking her, and she is in a dilemma. She cannot fight, leave, or defend.
Not to mention how uncomfortable it is.
"Brother, a good man doesn't suffer immediate losses. This bitch is now red-eyed because of the death of a man. We don't need to fight her head-on. It's better to surrender first and then make a long-term plan."
"All right!"
Liu Fangliang finally nodded helplessly. He couldn't afford to delay. Once the Ming army arrived, there would be no chance at all.
Let's not say whether we can win a fight with the Red Lady. Even if we win, we will probably suffer heavy losses and be chased by the Ming army all the way. So it is better to surrender first and save our strength later.