"Capture the second prince!" Yu Qizhe's voice was cold and stern. The people from the three camps hesitated and did not move. Lu Jin led the Jinyiwei to subdue Zhu Yu. Zhu Yu shouted and yelled for Ji Wudao to save him. Lu Jin immediately stuffed his mouth.
"Lord Yu? Please give an explanation to the soldiers." A general spoke up.
"The Second Prince colluded with Ji Wudao to plot treason!" Liu Yu climbed up the city wall and said, "Before His Majesty left Beijing, he told you to obey Yu Shaoqing instead of the Second Prince. This must be because he had expected this. Don't let the rebels' words disturb your mind. The thief Ji smuggled weapons with the Wala and traded war horses with the Tatars. He is colluding with the enemy and committing treason. Once the capital is destroyed, our families will be destroyed!"
Liu Yu, a pillar of the clean officialdom, had a very good reputation. When he spoke out, most people were willing to believe him.
However, Zhu Xun was a prince who was deposed for his lack of moral character.
With Liu Yu stepping in to stabilize the military morale, the voices of uproar among the soldiers defending the city became less frequent. The smarter ones thought that if they were really here to defend the king, Marquis Dingbei Feng Zheng was the second prince's in-law, and the second prince should summon Marquis Feng to lead his troops back to the capital.
Seeing that he failed to disrupt the morale of the army, Ji Wudao ordered his men to stop shouting. He glanced at Zhu Yu, who was looking very cowardly on the tower, and felt extremely disgusted. He really couldn't count on this useless guy at all.
"General, what should we do next?" Ji Chang asked.
Ji Wudao glanced at Yu Qizhe on the city wall and said, "We must attack by force and break the city before sunrise tomorrow." Otherwise, once the reinforcements arrive, they will be attacked from both sides.
Liu Yu talked with Yu Qizhe for a while. He suspected that Ji Wudao would take advantage of the poor visibility at night to launch another fierce attack, so he asked Yu Qizhe to prepare for defense.
Then he ordered people to take Zhu Xun down from the city wall and sent him directly to the Zhaoyu Prison of the Dali Temple to prevent him from causing trouble again.
In the middle of the night, Ji Wudao indeed ordered another attack on the city. This time the attack was more fierce than during the day. In addition, small groups of rebels appeared at Chengtian Gate, Xi'an Gate and Bei'an Gate to attack the city.
The sounds of shouting and killing were heard all night.
The news of the war in Kyoto spread quickly from the mouths of civilians fleeing outside the city. Word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Yu Jiao, who had just arrived in Northern Zhili after traveling day and night, learned about the incident while she was having a meal in a restaurant. She heard the discussions of the crowd.
Yu Jiao's face suddenly changed. When she heard that the person leading the troops to defend the city was the Dali Temple Shaoqing, the Lord surnamed Yu, she stood up absentmindedly and asked the crowd, "Has Kyoto been breached?"
"Of course not. If the city is breached, where can we sit here and eat? I'm afraid we'll have to wait until another day."
"If there is no reinforcement, Kyoto will probably be breached sooner or later. I heard that the thief Ji has an army of 100,000. I heard that the battle to defend the city last night was very fierce. The rebels have a large number of people and can afford the casualties, but the defenders in Kyoto are in a miserable state."
Yu Jiao was worried about Yu Qizhe's safety, and was also worried about her elder brother and the relatives in the Liu family. Looking at the food in front of her, Yu Jiao found it difficult to swallow.
She put down her chopsticks and said, "Let's eat quickly, and then we'll continue on our journey." It would only take a day to travel from Northern Zhili to Shengjing by galloping.
Jianjia and the others quickened their eating speed, but Cheng Ying was the only one who was not in a hurry. He seemed as if he had not heard that there was a war in Kyoto. His posture was relaxed and lazy, even a little careless. He seemed not to notice the anxiety on Yu Jiao's face.
"Governor, what does the emperor think? When will he return to the capital?" Yu Jiao was uneasy and could not help but lower her voice to ask Cheng Ying.
Cheng Ying served a bowl of rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice wine and placed it in front of her. "Eat first."
Yu Jiao wanted to find out about Emperor Mingzheng, so she had to obey. She picked up the bowl, put a few dumplings into her mouth with a spoon, and swallowed them without tasting the food.
After finishing the bowl, Yu Jiao put down the spoon, her eyes filled with anxiety: "Superintendent, please tell me, what exactly is the emperor planning? Before he left Beijing, he wanted Yu Qizhe to take charge of the three camps. There must be a reason for this."
Cheng Ying put down his chopsticks and said, "I told you long ago that Ji Wudao was plotting a rebellion. What can you do if you rush back? The rebels are outside the city now. You can't get into the city even if you go back. If you are caught by Ji Wudao, it will be easier for him to use him to threaten Yu Qizhe."
"I said, I want to be with him." Yu Jiao knew that she couldn't enter the city, so she was not so reckless. She just wanted to be closer to Yu Qizhe. In case something really happened to him, she didn't want to miss out on seeing him for the last time.
Cheng Ying took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in his heart. He knew that Jiaojiao was stubborn, so he was always worried that she would be trapped by his death.
Cheng Ying was annoyed but helpless, he always had no way to deal with Jiaojiao, and he was unwilling to use any of his ruthlessness and cruelty on her.
"If you want to know what His Majesty is planning, follow me to Xianyang." Cheng Ying said briefly, "There are more than 50,000 soldiers stationed in Xianyang."
Yu Jiao looked at him, her thoughts racing. Did Emperor Mingzheng already know that someone was going to rebel, so he deliberately hid in Xianyang? As long as Emperor Mingzheng wanted to keep his position, he would definitely send the 50,000 troops stationed in Xianyang to quell the rebellion. In this way, Kyoto would definitely be able to be defended.
Xianyang is only half a day's journey away from Shengjing, half as close as Northern Zhili. They can hear news of the war in the inn in Northern Zhili, so the people in Xianyang must have known about it as well.
The Xianyang Wei army might already be on its way to Kyoto.
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