Time flies, and several days pass in the blink of an eye.
Li Qin looked at the letter sent by his subordinate Zhou Wentong.
During this period, he carried Emperor Zhu Qizhen's imperial edict and traveled to various prefectures and counties to persuade them to surrender.
After the prefectures and counties were persuaded to surrender, Li Qin ordered that only the troops inside the city be taken away.
Not only should no officials or gentry within the prefecture or county be touched, but they should also be protected.
Li Qin knew that only in this way could he reduce the resistance of the officials in charge of the prefectures and counties.
During this period, in addition to the three thousand cavalrymen he originally led, he also recruited several thousand surrendered soldiers from the surrendered prefectures and counties.
With the addition of several thousand elite soldiers he selected, he now commands an army of over ten thousand.
Although most of them are of questionable character, they are enough to persuade him to surrender and maintain appearances.
The reason Zhou Wentong wrote to him this time was because he had actually succeeded in persuading the officials of Zhuozhou to surrender.
This was a complete surprise for Li Qin, because taking Zhuozhou meant that they now had a barrier south of the capital.
Upon seeing the order, Li Qin immediately wrote a letter and delivered it to Zhou Wentong in Zhuozhou.
Tell him to take his current force of over ten thousand men and garrison Zhuozhou, which he has just captured.
They were tasked with protecting the southern part of their army and defending against reinforcements from the south.
Just in case, Li Qin specially sent his most defensively skilled general, Wei Xiaokuan, to the mission.
Together with Zhou Wentong, they defended Zhuozhou. As long as Zhuozhou was not lost, the imperial reinforcements from the south would not dare to easily cross the enemy's territory in Zhuozhou to support the capital.
After making the arrangements, Li Qin got up and walked out of the tent.
Looking at the situation outside the large tent, the earthen mounds under the capital's city walls had been piled up for several days, resulting in the deaths and injuries of countless conscripted laborers, and had already been built very high.
They will soon reach the height of the city wall, and several tunnels in the camp are almost connected to the capital.
At that time, the army will charge the Wu army from the front of the earthen mounds, and then send a large army to enter the capital through the tunnels.
With combined efforts from both inside and outside, we can surely conquer the capital in one battle.
Just as Li Qin's confidence was rising, he suddenly froze.
Because through his monocular telescope, he saw countless people carrying large quantities of wooden planks and sandbags up the city walls of the capital.
What they did next stunned Li Qin, because they were using planks and sandbags to raise the city wall above the earthen mound.
Upon seeing this, Li Qin immediately slammed his fist into the wood next to him.
He knew that once the enemy successfully raised the city walls, all their previous efforts would be in vain.
Li Qin immediately gave orders to the guards beside him.
"Order Geng Zhixiang to lead his army, and also add the Green Standard Army."
"When attacking the city together, we must prevent them from raising the city walls."
"yes"
Upon hearing Li Qin's order, the guard immediately relayed it to Geng Zhixiang and the Green Flag Battalion.
After the army had assembled and prepared, they immediately launched another attack on the capital.
At this moment, Li Qin stood solemnly on a high point in the camp, using his binoculars to observe the movements of the people on the city wall.
He discovered that the Wu army on the city wall, under the command of Yu Gan, had not only launched an attack on his besieging army.
Meanwhile, the work of raising the city walls never stopped.
Li Qin looked at Yu Gan, who was directing everything from the city wall, and a hint of anger appeared on his face.
But he immediately suppressed it.
Yu Gan was a great talent, and at the time he was definitely one of his biggest rivals.
Because of his presence, Li Qin already sensed that the capital would be difficult to conquer.
Yu Gan sat down on a chair on the city wall, panting, watching the retreating rebel army below.
Yu Gan also breathed a sigh of relief when the city wall, reinforced with wooden planks and sandbags, was successfully erected.
We managed to hold on for another day.
Then Yu Gan looked towards Li Qin's camp, which stretched for dozens of miles across the opposite side.
He sighed. How long could he hold on like this?
Just after he had rested for a short while, a eunuch came over and said:
"Grand Secretary Yu, the Grand Secretary has important matters to discuss in the palace. Please go there immediately."
"Mr. Ge, what's the matter?"
Yu Gan, who was sitting in the chair, heard what the eunuch said.
He immediately thought of what Grand Secretary Yang Shizhong had mentioned to him before.
Is it really going to come to that?
Thinking of this, Yu Gan sighed and said:
"Okay, I'll go after I've set up the defenses on the city wall."
After saying that, he dragged his tired body and arranged everything with the soldiers on the city wall.
Yu Gancai felt more at ease and descended the city wall with the eunuch, heading towards the Forbidden City.
As soon as he stepped off the city wall, he saw the trenches that he had previously mobilized millions of people in the capital to dig inside the city walls.
At this moment, there were many conscripted strong men guarding the top of the trench, armed with simple spears and bows and arrows.
After crossing the makeshift wooden bridge over the moat with the messenger eunuch.
He immediately mounted his horse and rode through a simple earthen wall behind him.
On this earthen wall, countless citizens of the capital, under his orders, reinforced and raised it.
Countless houses in the capital have been demolished and used as raw materials, and all the soil used to dig the moats has been transported here.
After riding his horse past the earthen wall, Yu Gan quickly headed towards the Forbidden City.
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