Chapter 232 New Year's Eve - Battle of the Imperial City (1)
The two guard companies of Shang Yi came to rescue him, with a total of more than 400 people. They were guarding outside the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial Palace. Just now, when the Taihe Palace was in chaos, Shang Yi sent Wu Liang to sneak out of the hall, ignited the signal flare, summoned them to enter the palace, and then waited for them to come in near the Meridian Gate. It was precisely because of this reinforcement army outside the palace that Shang Yi dared to defend the Taihe Palace.
The two guard companies waiting outside were commanded by Andrei. When they saw the fireworks signal in the palace, they knew that Shang Yi was in danger and immediately led the soldiers into the palace. The journey from Chengtian Gate to the Meridian Gate was unblocked, but when they entered the Meridian Gate, they encountered a blocking attack. The same group of men in black blocks were mixed with some guards in the palace.
But the merchant army doesn't care about that, because in their hearts, Shang Yi is above everything else. Although the attack on the palace may still make the Chinese soldiers hesitate, the black soldiers have no scruples at all. The Chinese palace has no special significance to them. In their hearts, Shang Yi turned them from slaves to normal people, so they are all grateful to Shang Yi from the bottom of their hearts. And only under Shang Yi can they have the dignity and freedom of being human. Once they leave Shang Yi, they will become slaves again and cannot even survive in China. Therefore, no matter who is in front of them, they will raise the rifle in their hands without hesitation and shoot at the people who are in front of them.
There were not many people in black guarding the Meridian Gate, with only fifty or sixty people in total. They could not resist the volley of the Meridian Army's rifle, and were soon dispersed. Andrei also led the Meridian Army to rush through the Meridian Gate and entered the palace. Then he met Wu Liang, who was waiting for them here secretly, and led by Wu Liang, and rushed towards the direction of the Supreme Palace.
At this time, the men in black who besieged the Taihe Palace also discovered Shang Yi's reinforcements and rushed into the Meridian Gate. In fact, until now, they still haven't figured out how many people there were in the Shang family army guarding the Taihe Palace. According to the leader of Zhou, there should be at least twenty people. But now they are trapped in the front and back of the Shang family army, so the Shi Guardian had to order to temporarily retreat.
So after the group of men in black retreated, Andrei and Wu Liang also led the guard company to rush into the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Seeing that his guard finally arrived, Shang Yi couldn't help but feel relieved. With these more than 400 people and more than 400 guns, even if there were many enemies, they could resist for a while, and then they all came down from the golden rank. Then they uncovered the hoods of several dead men in black, and they were indeed bald or braided.
Shi Kefa and Wu Yan were also a little surprised and said, "They are all mankind?"
Shang Yi nodded, but did not say anything. It seems that Xiyan and the Qing Dynasty's detailed staff had planned this action for a long time. Judging from the number of people who were involved in the palace, this scale is definitely not a decimal point, and the group of men in black just retreated just now must still stay in the palace. Therefore, we must take action as soon as possible to eliminate them.
At this time, the other civil and military ministers in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, as well as the palace ladies, eunuchs and a small number of guards were relieved. At least Shang Yi was still reliable. During the battle just now, everyone instinctively hid on both sides of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and the men in black were only concerned about attacking the Jin ranks, and they did not take any attention to them. Therefore, the ministers, eunuchs, palace maids, and guards were not injured. They were affected by fragments of grenade explosions. More than a dozen people were injured, but their injuries were not serious. At this time, seeing that the men in black retreated, the merchant army controlled the Hall of Supreme Harmony, they all came out of the corner and surrounded Shang Yi for questions. Some people also asked Shi Kefa and Wu Yan what to do?
Shang Yi said: "My dear sir, it's not the time to explain in detail, but everyone has seen what happened just now. Concubine Shu was a spy sent by the Qing emperor to the palace. She also secretly hid a group of Qing emperor's detailed workers in the palace, and she killed the emperor at the banquet just now. Now, there are probably many Qing emperor's detailed workers in the palace, and perhaps there are people who have smuggled into Nanjing."
When the ministers heard Shang Yi say this, although there are still details, it is not clear, but this is the case, because everyone just heard that Xiyan and his group admitted that they were spies of the Qing court, and the few people lying on the ground also had the iconic braids of the Qing people. This is basically unquestionable, and for other things, it is indeed not the time to dig into the bottom of the matter.
So someone asked, "Mr. Shangshen, what should I do next?"
Shang Yi said: "The news of the collapse of the imperial brigade should not be announced for the time being. There are still many detailed works in the palace now. There was such a big stir just now, and there was no guards coming. This also means that they must have come a lot, so don't leave the Hall of Supreme Harmony for the time being. I will transfer people to control the entire palace first, catch all the spies from the Qing court, and then deal with it. What do you think?"
Although Shang Yi was asking the ministers in a negotiation tone, everyone now knew that the entire Supreme Hall was under Shang Yi's control, and even said that the entire Nanjing was taken over by the merchant army. No one could stop him from doing anything he wanted. Moreover, the ministers' minds were blank now, and no one could come up with a way, so they could only listen to Shang Yi.
So Shang Yi immediately ordered Andrei to lead the Second Guard Company to guard outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The First Guard Company drew out three platoons, each platoon searched for two palaces to wait for the guards to lead the way, searched for the location of the Qingting's detailed work in the palace, and ordered Wu Liang to take a platoon out of the palace immediately, go to the Bell and Drum Tower to find Duan Peng, who was stationed there, and immediately brought the special brigade to the palace.
After An sent these things, Shang Yi ordered the eunuch to clean up the bodies in the Taihe Hall and tear off the gauze curtain to cover them. Zhu Yousong's body was temporarily placed with several tables and a large platform, and also a curtain curtain was used to cover them. At the same time, he helped up all the tables and chairs, so that the ministers could sit down. The large team of men from the merchant army rushed to the palace.
Before these things were finished, outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, a guard had already returned. He said that the Qing court's detailed work had been killed again. In the hall, many officials panicked again, and some palace maids were even scared to death. Shang Yi said to Shi Kefa and Wu Yan: "Two Pavilion Masters, I will leave this for you to take care of. I'll go out to command."
Shi Kefa also nodded and said, "Don't worry, let's leave this to us."
Shang Yi left the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Although there was no moonlight on New Year's Eve, the weather was beautiful tonight and the stars were very bright. You can basically see clearly. In the square in front of the hall, there were at least four or five hundred people. Shang Yi couldn't help but be surprised. He didn't expect that so many people had been involved in the Qing court.
It turned out that as early as October, the Qing court tried every means to infiltrate the staff into Nanjing, and sent nearly a thousand people in total. It was said that so many people sneaked into Nanjing, it was impossible for them to have no clues left. Even if the Donglin Party is incompetent, the Xuanhuang Cult can always find something. However, the entire Nanjing was caught in the internal struggle of the Donglin Party, and even the Xuanhuang Cult was energized. Therefore, except for the Xuanhuang Cult discovering the Ziming Tower stronghold, they knew almost nothing about other situations.