Beijing, Chonghua Palace.

In Shang Kexi's study, three people were staring at each other silently. Today, a distinguished guest came to the residence of Shang Kexi, Prince Zhong of the Qing Dynasty. It was Kong Tingxun, Prince of Li. Kong Tingxun did not come empty-handed, but brought

A handwritten letter said to be written by his sister Kong Sizhen!

This was an extraordinary thing. Everyone in Beijing knew that Kong Sizhen was a chaste and martyr woman who died in the Qing Dynasty together with her husband Fan Wencheng. She was stabbed alive by Emperor Zhu's men with three thousand knives and died miserably in Xuzhou City.

In order to commemorate this virtuous woman, Fulin also ordered people to build a tomb for him in Beijing and set up a chastity memorial arch in Nanjing. This woman was the most chaste and virtuous woman in the Ming and Qing dynasties!

Such a chaste and heroic woman who died in the Qing Dynasty actually wrote a personal letter to Kong Tingxun. This is a bit scary!

So the faces of Shang Kexi and his son Shang Zhixin are quite serious right now!

The room was quiet. Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun sat face to face, while Shang Zhixin stood beside his father. The three of them looked at each other like this. I don’t know how long it took before Shang Kexi breathed out: "

Prince Li, is the letter really written by your sister?"

Kong Tingxun nodded: "Yes, it's a handwritten letter from my sister."

Shang Zhixin asked: "Wasn't she chopped up? Everyone knows about this, how can it be false?"

Kong Tingxun couldn't laugh or cry, shook his head and said: "According to the servant of my family who sent the letter, Sizhen was cut with three thousand knives."

"Not dead yet?"

"Is your sister made of iron?"

"No, no," Kong Tingxun quickly explained, "My sister's delicate skin and tender flesh are not made of iron. It's just that the three thousand knives were all cut on her hair, so she wasn't cut to death."

Shang Kexi rolled his eyelids, "That's called Ling Chi? That's called shaving! Can it still kill someone?" He touched his bare scalp, "According to this calculation, I don't know how many cuts I've made, and I'm not ready yet."

of?"

Shang Zhixin still frowned: "Then, is what your sister wrote in her letter reliable?"

"Well," Kong Tingxun shook his head slightly, "I don't know! But the chief culprit in Beijing is Fulin after all, right? If we hand him over, Emperor Zhu can't ask us about our crimes again, right?"

Shang Zhixin said: "Yes, let's do it, a dead horse becomes a living horse doctor!"

Now the Ming army's trenches are almost dug to the edge of the trench outside Chaoyangmen Fortress. They are digging trenches all the way forward, and the Hongyi artillery and Fran cannons we set up on the fortress cannot hit them at all. And this has been going on for more than a month.

, they used huge cannons to fire explosive shells every day, blasting the city at night and the Chaoyangmen fortress during the day. They have killed and injured more than 2,000 of our people, and also damaged more than a dozen of our cannons. They are almost gone now.

People dare to go up to Chaoyangmen Fortress, but they don’t dare to transport cannons up there either!

Father, they are about to attack the Chaoyangmen fortress! This fortress cannot be defended. But if the fortress outside Chaoyangmen is lost, the next ones to be bombarded will probably be the Chaoyangmen Urn City and the nearby city walls.

!”

Kong Tingxun nodded vigorously: "Yes! The Ming army has many cannons called mortars, which look like big iron pots and can shoot explosive shells. Once they capture the fortress outside Chaoyang Gate, they can use this

The fortress is equipped with mortars for cover and used to bombard the Chaoyangmen Wengcheng. By then it will be difficult to defend the Wengcheng!"

In fact, Kong Tingxun was a little too worried. The Ming army only captured the Chaoyangmen Fortress, which was not enough to deploy large-caliber mortars outside Beijing to bombard the city walls and barbicans. To arrange the mortars in this way, at least they had to capture the Dongzhimen Fortress or the Wengcheng.

Xiaodongmen Fortress.

The parallel trenches used to attack Dongzhimen Fortress and Xiaodongmen Fortress are also being excavated. It will take up to twenty days to dig into place. By then, Chaoyangmen Fortress, Dongzhimen Fortress, and Xiaodongmen Fortress will be captured together.

.

With these three fortresses as support, the Ming army could use 24-pound and 48-pound mortars to bombard the city wall of Beijing. They could also move eight 48-pound cannons forward, and concentrate more 24-pound cannons. 12

The pounder cannon is used to attack the city. After another ten days and a half of bombardment, it will almost be able to blast through a section of the city wall. Because the bottom of the city wall is protected by sandbags, it is impossible to completely collapse it, but it can still blast out a section that can be thrown.

Grenadiers and Fusiliers stormed the ramp.

"Humph!" Shang Ke snorted happily, looked at Kong Ting and said, "If we want to sacrifice the city gate, we will do it, but if we want to capture Fulin, he is squinting in the Meishan Fortress and cannot come out. How are we going to capture Meishan?

The mountain fortress is so strong, and we only have some 12-pound red cannons on hand, so we can't knock it down at all!"

Fulin has learned the lesson now and huddled in the Meishan Fortress and acted like a little turtle, refusing to come out.

Moreover, the people guarding the Meishan fortress are all Manchurian soldiers led by Ban Burshan. They should fight to the death at the critical moment. This is gratifying. The troops of Kong Tingxun and his family may not be able to defeat Meishan!

Shang Zhixin suddenly said: "Father, my son has a plan to coax Fulin down the mountain, or at least coax Fulin to hand over his elite soldiers!"

"What's the plan?"

"Say it quickly!"

Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth: "Father, King Li, why don't we go out of the city and fight to the death with the man named Zhu!"

"What? What did you say?"

"Your Majesty, my father, King Li, King Yi, and King Xiao have discussed it and decided that we cannot sit back and wait for death. We must go out of the city and fight to the death with Zhu!"

"Leave the city for a decisive battle? Why? Are we going to run out of food?"

"It's not that the food is exhausted, but that the Ming army has dug trenches under the Chaoyangmen Fortress."

On the top of Meishan Mountain, Shang Zhixin was holding a memorial jointly signed by Shang Kexi, Kong Tingxun, Geng Zhongming, Shen Yongxing and other four kings, requesting Fulin to leave the city for a decisive battle.

Fulin was so frightened by this suggestion that his face turned pale!

There are hundreds of thousands of troops outside Beijing!

And they also have very powerful cannons! Although Meishan has not been bombarded these days, Fulin, from his condescending position, can clearly see the scene of bombardment in the Chaoyang Gate area in the east of the city. The 48-pound bombs exploded! Fireworks rose.

Not to mention, several houses were blown down from time to time, causing several fires. After more than a month of tossing, the area around Chaoyang Gate was almost turned into scorched earth.

The Ming army is so powerful that the city is like this. How can they go out of the city to die?

"Now it seems that the Chaoyangmen fortress will inevitably not be defended," Shang Zhixin said. "Once the fortress is lost, the Ming army's artillery will move forward, and then the city wall around Chaoyang Gate will not be able to be defended. Once the city wall is lost, the Ming army will be able to

Directly bombarded Meishan."

"What?" Fulin's voice trembled, "Bombarding Meishan"

"Your Majesty, you will just sit back and wait to be killed, and you will be shot to death!"

"Kill to death" Fulin was afraid, "What should I do?"

"Fight it!" Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth, "Your Majesty, why not fight them!"

"Can, can I win?"

"Win?" Shang Zhixin was stunned, "What are you talking about? There are at least 300,000 Ming troops outside Beijing now. How can we win with only 50,000 soldiers?"

"Why go to war if you can't win?"

"Break through the siege!" Shang Zhixin said, "I risk my life to save the emperor and fight my way out of Beijing!"

"Fight out of Beijing?" Fulin's face drooped, "Where else can I go?"

This is a problem!

Shang Zhixin couldn't answer for a while. Where else could Fulin go? Besides Zhu Cixiang, there was a "disobedient prince" for him to serve as, so where else could he be taken in?

"Go to the grassland!" Shang Zhixin thought for a long time, "Your Majesty, you have served as the Mongolian Khan. There are always some people on the grassland. Besides, there is a way to survive in the north of the grassland."

"North? Khalkha Mongolia?" Fulin asked.

"Further north," Shang Zhixin said, "you can go to Lake Baikal and join the Rakshasa Kingdom! Then go to Europe through the Rakshasa Kingdom and join the Rishbanians, or go to Mongolia in Tianzhu. This is always a way to survive, right?"

I seem to be able to live in exile overseas! But the question is, can I go there?
Chapter completed!