Li Zicheng arrived at Diaoyutai in the western suburbs of the capital on the afternoon of the 17th. According to the plan formulated by Song Xiance, he was supposed to rest at the Diaoyutai Palace for one night and then send troops to attack the city tomorrow morning.

But at this time, Li Zicheng was in an extremely excited state. The final victory seemed to be within reach of his hand! But if he thought about it carefully, he found that the final victory was under the protection of the strongest city in the world...

So Li Zicheng, who was excited but worried, changed his plan and launched a "war for the heart and soul" of Beijing in advance.

On the way to the Diaoyutai, he ordered Liu Zongmin, who came to greet him, to first find a suitable place to set up the formation on the west side of the capital city wall, and at the same time set up a huge yellow felt tent.

After receiving the order, Liu Zongmin rushed back to the west of Beijing. He first made some observations and then set up a formation in the open space outside Fucheng Gate.

The reason why he chose Fucheng Gate was because he found six dragon flags and one flag of the Three Armies Command on the tower of Fucheng Gate. The six dragon flags belonged to the honor guard of the crown prince Zhu Cihong, while the three flags of the Three Armies Command were

The general's flag symbolizes the location of the general's tent.

Zhu Cixiang originally wanted to station the Chinese army at Xizhimen, but after discovering that Li Zicheng would use Diaoyutai as his base, he moved the Chinese army to Fuchengmen, which is opposite Diaoyutai.

After Liu Zongmin saw the Dragon Banner and the Three Army Command Banner, he thought that Emperor Chongzhen had gone to Fuchengmen, so he came to a "king vs. king" and placed Li Zicheng's Chinese army outside the Diaoyutai, facing Fuchengmen.

On open space.

Just after the end of the seventeenth day, Emperor Li Zicheng of Dashun had finished his lunch. He was surrounded by the imperial guards led by his adopted son Li Shuangxi amid the shouts of 30,000 and 40,000 Dashun soldiers.

, arrived at the huge yellow felt tent.

In addition to Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Gu Chengen and other civil and military generals from the Dashun Dynasty who arrived with him, there were also Tang Tong, Wang Chengyun, Du Xun, Du Zhizhi and other surrendered generals and ministers who had surrendered to Dashun before.

, in addition to Zhu Cunji, King of Qin in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Shenxuan, King of Jin in the Ming Dynasty, who surrendered after being captured.

Li Zicheng himself sat in front of the felt tent, with his civil and military officials and a group of surrendered ministers lined up on the left and right. He also asked the two kings of Qin and Jin to sit on the ground on his left and right in front of him. He was so unhappy!

When Li Zicheng was feeling proud, two Ming Dynasty eunuchs, Du Xun and Du Zhizhi, who had surrendered to him at Xuanhua and Juyongguan, trotted over one after the other. Each of the two eunuchs was holding a monocular telescope.

, is used to watch the situation on the Fuchengmen Gate Tower.

After one look, the two eunuchs thought there was something wrong with their eyes!

Because what they saw was the crown prince’s dragon flag and the flags of the three armies placed together! What does this mean? The crown prince left the palace to care for the army? Impossible? The Ming Dynasty had a prince to oversee the army, but he never caressed the army.

The prince of the army. And the current prince is only 16 years old. How can he be a child? How can he command the army? Even if Emperor Chongzhen had a whim and asked his son to lead troops to defend the city, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty would not agree! Someone had previously suggested that the prince should go

The governors of Nanjing are all opposed to it. Now that the prince is asked to command the army, why should there be a huge quarrel?

But the problem is that the two eunuchs looked at it again and again, and it was clear that the six dragon flags of the prince and the command flag of the three armies were together!

Isn't this the prince who is pacifying the army? And the prince not only left the palace to pacify the army, but also went up to the tower of Fuchengmen!

Isn't this prince too courageous?

"Your Majesty, I looked at it with a telescope and found that... I found that there were six dragon flags of Prince Ming and the flags of the three armed forces on the Fucheng Gate tower."

Du Xun first reported to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng looked at this majestic-looking Dajuan who had gone thirty miles out of the city to meet the surrender with Wang Chengyun, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, and frowned slightly: "Could it be that the prince of the Ming Dynasty went up to the tower?"

Du Zhizhi, who surrendered with Tang Tong at Juyongguan, interjected: "Your Majesty, Zhu Ming's prince is only sixteen years old this year. He will not dare to go up to the city tower to face our Dashun soldiers. Hanging the prince's flag on the city tower may be a bluff.

.”

Li Zicheng squinted his right eye and chuckled: "You can kill people at the age of sixteen. My godson Li Shuangxi started killing people with me at the age of fifteen!"

Du Zhizhi said: "Your Highness Qian is a brave young man, how can the crown prince of the Zhu family compare with him?"

Du Xun also said: "Yes, the prince of the Zhu family was raised in a deep palace, so he only knows how to eat, drink and have fun, which is of no use at all."

At this time, Gu Junen went out to the class and said: "Since the prince of the Zhu family is a useless person, your majesty just wants to use a tactic to attack his heart... You can tell the soldiers and people defending the city to open the city gates and surrender as soon as possible, and at the same time send envoys into the city for peace talks."

After a night of thinking, Gu Junen's "attack plan" became much more detailed. Not only did he have to use his plan against the Ming Dynasty officials in the capital city, but he also had to use it against the generals guarding the city.

Therefore, when the envoys entered the city to negotiate with Chongzhen, they had to send people to the city to shout and persuade them to surrender.

"What conditions should be used for peace talks?" Li Zicheng asked.

Gu Junen glanced at the two eunuchs kneeling in front of Li Zicheng, smiled and said: "Any conditions are lies. The important thing is to allow the envoy to go in and come out safe and sound, and it will be delayed for a few hours. Okay.

Let our soldiers have enough time to shout to the city!"

Li Zicheng nodded. Now that we have already reached the enemy's gate, why talk about it? It's just a tactic to attack people's hearts.

And if you want to use peace talks to attack people's hearts, you can't put forward conditions that the other party must reject. Otherwise, the envoys of the negotiations will be killed as soon as they come up, so how can you use tricks?

"Then..." Li Zicheng thought for a while and said with a smile, "Then tell the emperor of the Zhu family that I have no intention of taking over the Zhu family's world. I only want to split the earth and divide the king. If I can protect Qin and Jin for the rest of the world, I will not enter."

Beijing can also lead a large army to conquer Liaodong. If the emperor of the Zhu family likes it, he will send a few high officials out of the city to discuss it in detail. After the agreement, the emperor of the Zhu family will swear an oath to the heavenly alliance, and the emperor of the Zhu family will issue an imperial edict to the whole world, and the world will hear it.

.”

After saying that, he glanced at the two kneeling eunuchs below with one eye, "Which one of you will go?"

"Your Majesty Du Xun is willing to perform this service!" Du Xun spoke quickly.

"Your Majesty, Du Zhizhi, is also willing to go into the city to use your majesty's plan!" Du Zhizhi reacted a little slower, but he was no less dedicated to making contributions to Dashun than Du Xun.

Li Zicheng laughed loudly, "You both want to go, but you only need one. Jun En, who do you want to ask?"

Gu Jun'en said: "Rong Chen asked them a question."

"Okay." Li Zicheng nodded, "Ask."

Gu Junen asked: "How can you two ensure that you can reach the top of the city? Don't let the defenders on the city shoot you with an arrow."

This question confused Du Zhizhi, but Du Xun's brain was relatively easy to use and he immediately came up with a countermeasure.

He pointed to the two kings of Qin and Jin who were sitting on the ground and said, "These two kings can be used as hostages! The emperor of the Zhu family likes to seek fame and reputation, so he always attaches great importance to the vassal king. Trapping the vassal is an unforgivable crime. As long as there are two kings as hostages, the defenders on the city will definitely

Don’t dare to kill me.”

"What a plan!" Li Zicheng nodded with satisfaction and said to Du Xun, "You are quite clever, you eggless eunuch... When you enter Beijing City, I will let you be that... Chief Supervisor of Ceremonies! It's just ugly.

Well, I said it at the front, we don’t want eunuchs to be involved in politics here, do you understand?”

Du Xun was overjoyed when he heard this and kowtowed repeatedly: "I obey your order. I will serve your Majesty honestly from now on!"

"Go, go." Li Zicheng waved his hand, and then asked his adopted son Li Shuangxi to bring two hundred soldiers, and escorted the king of Qin and Jin, who was as scared as a puddle of mud, and the arrogant Du Xun, and went there

Leave through Fuchengmen.

…

"You artillerymen, please listen to me. The man standing next to me is the artillery instructor invited by the imperial court from Western Rome. You all must obey his command and make no mistakes! Who dares to cheat?

If you let this palace know about your trick, you will be killed without mercy!"

Zhu Cixiang was already on the front line at this time, standing under the archery tower of Fucheng Gate, which was on the tower outside Weng City, lecturing a group of Beijing artillerymen. Next to him stood an old foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a smart suit.

In the official uniform of the imperial court, and also wearing a black gauze hat, it is none other than Tang Ruowang, the eunuch of Qin Tian Jian.

Tang Ruowang was not an ordinary missionary, but a very erudite scholar-missionary. He was proficient in mathematical astronomy and was also keen on introducing Western science and technology to China. He successively wrote or translated "Telescope Theory" (an introduction to Galileo's telescope)

, "Kunyu Gezhi" (translated from "Encyclopedia of Mining and Metallurgy" by German mining and metallurgist Agricola), and also participated in the compilation of "Chongzhen Almanac".

In addition, he also knew a lot about cannon casting, cannon handling, and gun handling knowledge, and helped the firearms expert Jiao Xu compile the book "Zekulu", also known as "Fire Attack and Key Points", which specifically introduces artillery, muskets, and gunpowder.

- This book was buried for a time due to the fall of the Ming Dynasty. 200 years later, it was valued again because of the Opium War, and a "Supplementary Record" was published. After the Taiping Rebellion broke out, it attracted the attention of Emperor Xianfeng.

He attached great importance to this book, published it in the late Ming Dynasty, and sent it to the Heavenly Soldiers of the Eight Banners for study...
Chapter completed!