As soon as Wang Yong uttered these blunt words, the hall erupted in chaos.
"Ah?! Did Your Highness realize the situation was bad and run away early?"
"What...what should we do?!"
"Could it be that the rebels are really about to storm the city?! How could it have come to this! Aren't there still many troops inside the city?"
"We've deployed almost all our troops to the city walls these past few days, and it's already about to fall after just one night??"
"If the city walls fall, then the imperial city is doomed..."
The ministers, trembling with fear, voiced their concerns all at once, turning the once solemn and quiet Japanese palace into a scene of utter chaos, like a marketplace.
The ministers lost their composure and at this moment were no different from ordinary people. As for King Jin Fengluan, his face grew increasingly grim as he listened to the various comments from the audience.
Every word they uttered seemed like a sharp blade, slowly piercing their defenses. Sweat trickled down their temples, making their already tired and haggard faces appear even paler.
Jin Fengluan leaned back in the dragon throne, her stiff body almost shrinking into it. The vast, magnificent, and resplendent dragon throne was right beneath her, and the dragon head resting on the table was tightly gripped in her palm. The hard touch was so real. She had been sitting on the dragon throne for eight years.
Could he really step down from the throne so easily? Absolutely not!
So she took a deep breath, and then shouted angrily:
"Shut up, all of you!!"
This angry shout startled the assembled officials, instantly silencing their murmurs. However, a look of panic remained on their faces as they gazed at the furious king.
"Bang bang bang!"
The table was slammed loudly as Jin Fengluan pounded it with one hand while pointing at the ministers below and shouting:
"Let's not even talk about the fact that the rebels haven't even entered the city yet. Even if they do manage to get in, so what?!"
"Look at the state of you all now! You're even worse than peasants and commoners!"
The ministers exchanged bewildered glances, and upon hearing this, they all lowered their heads. Jin Fengluan, seeing their dejected appearance, grew even angrier and then shouted:
"The rebels attacked the city all night long. Do you think they're all heavenly warriors? Don't they get tired?! Huh?!"
"In order to deal with this war, I have deployed all my troops in the inner city, except for leaving a few thousand soldiers in the capital, so that they can deal with the rebels!"
"There are tens of thousands of troops at the city gate, plus the reserve army in the inner city, totaling more than 200,000! Do you think we can just let the rebels break in like that?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Jin Fengluan scanned the faces of everyone present. Seeing that they all seemed hesitant to speak, she slammed her hand on the table again and angrily rebuked them:
"Yes! I know you will say that the city's defenses have been breached by the rebels time and time again! But you must know that they achieved this at the cost of countless lives!"
"Now, even if the city walls are surrendered, let alone the possibility of them being breached, the people in the inner city are prepared to fight. Their soldiers are well-trained and brave, and they will fight to the death to prevent the rebels from entering the city!"
"The war is still undecided, how can we afford to lose our composure? What kind of behavior is this, jumping around like this? My brother went out of the palace to coordinate the troops, and you all are saying you ran away?"
"Where do you think you're going? Nanze is the foundation of our great enterprise. No one is allowed to run away, and no one can escape! Just you wait! Wait for the results to come from the front!"
Her cold gaze swept back and forth across the audience. At this moment, Jin Fengluan transformed into a majestic monarch once again. The crowd below remained uneasy, but everyone understood that if they said anything to anger her at this moment, they would surely be captured, or even sentenced to death on the spot.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Everyone had no choice but to composed themselves and bow in response.
Jin Fengluan took a few breaths, trying her best to calm her emotions, but her agitated heart could not find peace for a moment. Her brother had been gone from the main hall for some time, and in fact, she didn't know where he had gone.
The urgent reports that arrived were already causing her great distress. Although she knew there were still many troops in the inner city, she had indeed lost a lot of confidence after the series of defeats she had suffered the previous night.
But that was all the troops the court could control. If they couldn't place their hopes on them, where else could they place them?
Back in Jinling, I commanded several large armies, including Huang Long's Panlong Army and Xiong Qian's heavy cavalry. Jianren had even more and stronger troops, but all of that vanished with the fall of Jinling.
The only remaining Shenji Battalion was almost entirely deployed to the city walls in response to the battle.
If it weren't for the hundreds of thousands of troops already stationed in Nanze, there would be almost no troops available. However, the battle of Datong resulted in significant losses, leaving only a few thousand imperial guards in the imperial city, apart from the troops stationed at the city gate.
If the city walls were to collapse completely, then... Thinking of this, Jin Fengluan frowned, and couldn't help but touch her forehead, but she couldn't smooth out the fine lines on her forehead no matter what she did.
Jin Fengluan had a gloomy face, as if dark clouds were swirling around it.
——
Daylight broke quickly; the brilliant red light that shone down at sunrise wasn't yet hot, but by now the sea was already a sea of golden waves.
The red sun turned into a blazing sun, and the golden light that burst forth was like a furnace of boiling steel, making the black armor of the advancing Yan army look as if it were coated with a golden film.
The procession came in a grand manner from the main east gate. Along the way, Qin Ze could not hear any noise. Every household had its doors and windows tightly closed. The houses, rising and falling, passed by one after another. As they got closer to the imperial city, the streets became wider and the houses became more orderly, with more and more magnificent detached mansions.
With its dougong brackets, flying eaves, glazed green tiles, and colorful wine flags fluttering in the wind, this ancient capital of the old dynasty is magnificent and elegant. It seems to be no less impressive than Nanjing, except that it lacks a bit of liveliness at this moment.
There were still remnants of soldiers escaping from the city. Qin Ze sent several detachments of troops along the way to capture them, and also dispatched several other forces to surround the imperial city from different directions.
Nanze was gradually expanded by the ancestors of the Jin family over several decades, so the structure of Jinling is roughly similar to that of Nanze. The entire Nanze is divided into about two hundred wards and markets. The imperial city is not located in the center, but rather to the east, which is meant to symbolize "the rising sun".
Of course, after the capital was moved to Jinling, for security reasons, the imperial city of Jinling was located in the center. Now, the imperial city near the old capital has reduced the distance to travel. When passing through the various wards and markets, the guards at the gates of the wards under the walls have all run away.
Without any obstruction, the thunderous sound of iron hooves alone was enough to drive away all the enemies with the crimson banner that had accompanied the army.
The entry into the city went smoothly, and the army's marching speed increased considerably. Before 9:00 AM, Qin Ze touched his brow with his hand, and the towering and majestic spectacle in the distance came into view.
"Let's go, take it over!"
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