Midnight, Chaoyang Gate Tower.
"There's something going on in the southeast direction. Go and notify Commander Liu." The soldier on night watch at Chaoyang Gate shouted.
Each of the Five Military Governorates had a left and a right governor. The commander guarding Chaoyang Gate was Liu Jizu, the left governor of the Right Military Governorate. He and Liu Wenyao were uncle and nephew.
Before Liu Jizu reached the city wall, shouts and screams came from the southeast.
Climbing up the city wall, Liu Jizu looked towards the southwest.
The Shun army's endless camp was pierced through by a fire snake. The fire snake moved very fast. In the blink of an eye, the vanguard troops passed through the camp and came within the range of the Ming army's artillery.
Immediately afterwards, more than ten cavalrymen holding torches quickly came to the city gate.
"Who are you? If you take another step forward, don't blame us for being rude!" the defenders shouted.
A cavalryman under the city shouted back, "Open the city gate quickly! We are the subordinates of Liu Zeqing, the former Shandong General, and are now under the command of Liu Wenyao, the Left Commander-in-Chief. Tonight Commander Liu is leading 10,000 troops to Beijing to defend the king. Open the city gate quickly and let us in."
"Please wait a moment!"
Liu Jizu was standing nearby. After waiting for a moment, he said, "I am Liu Jizu, the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Right Military Commander's Office. Since Liu Wenyao is here in person, let him come to the city to see me in person!"
The cavalry at the city gate had already anticipated this, and they immediately turned their horses around and ran back.
After a while, a group of cavalry returned with torches.
One of the cavalrymen shook the torch in his hand and shouted, "Uncle, my nephew Liu Wenyao is here. Please open the city gate quickly. It will be bad if the bandits react."
The height of the city wall plus the width of the moat meant that the two sides were several dozen meters apart. Although there were torches to illuminate, they could not see each other's faces clearly.
This is also the reason why Li Zicheng dared to do this.
As for the voice, just find someone who was born in Beijing and has a similar voice.
Seeing the hesitation on the top of the city wall, the person pretending to be Liu Wenyao continued to shout: "Uncle, if you don't open the city gate, the reinforcements I brought with great difficulty will be wiped out."
Liu Jizu looked around and saw that the tents of the Shun army in the distance were lighting up one after another. It was obvious that those people were ready for battle.
The fire dragon behind "Liu Wenyao" was slowly gathering outside the range of the Ming army's artillery.
"Hurry into the city! I'll have someone open the gate right away!"
The people in the city were overjoyed when they heard the news and immediately arranged for someone to go and inform the others.
Each city gate in the Ming Dynasty had a moat, a suspension bridge and a sluice gate.
The Thousand Jin Gate of Chaoyang Gate was first built in the early Ming Dynasty. The gate is made of iron sheet covered with solid wood and covered with reinforced iron nails. The gate is six meters wide, about six and a half meters high, and nearly one meter thick. According to the weight unit of the Ming Dynasty, the entire Thousand Jin Gate weighs about 3,400 kilograms. When opening the gate, the gate rises to the gate groove in the city platform above the gate; when closing the gate, the gate falls smoothly from the gate groove, forming an unbreakable barrier.
With nearly a hundred people pulling, the Chaoyang Gate's gate began to rise slowly.
"Liu Wenyao" was not in a hurry to enter the city, but waited while shouting to the city: "Uncle, please wait a moment, these people are Shandong soldiers, I will enter after they reach the capital."
When the vanguard arrived outside the city gate, the gate had been raised by one third.
Just as these people were about to draw their swords and rush in.
With a loud bang, the gate suddenly fell down.
Then, someone on the tower shouted, "Beat him! Beat him to death!"
At one time, bows, crossbows, catapults, various artillery and guns were fired at the same time.
At the same time, something happened at Fuchengmen.
I saw a torch on the top of the city wall swaying left and right in the air, and then it disappeared.
After a moment, the torch reappeared and then disappeared again.
Upon seeing this, the Shun army hiding outside the city immediately stood up, wrapped cloth around their horses' hooves, held grenade launchers in their mouths, and rushed towards Fucheng Gate at the fastest speed with weapons in hand.
There were not many Shun troops, only about a thousand in total.
They came to the moat quietly and crossed it quickly.
Due to limited time, the Ming army only arranged for people to fill in the dug walls. There was no time to clean up the long wood and corpses in the moat, which had turned the wide moat into flat ground.
The Shun army soldiers stepped on the corpses of their former companions and arrived outside Fuchengmen.
Sure enough, the gate at Fuchengmen was rising.
There were loud shouts and cries of killing from the city walls and inside the city gates.
Seeing this, a thousand Shun troops rushed in without hesitation.
The last Shun soldier reached out and took out a firework, placed it on the ground and lit it with the fire starter on his body.
whoosh!
After the sound, a brilliant firework exploded and bloomed in the air.
"Kill!" Shouts of killing rang out across the mountains and plains, rushing towards the city that had just fallen asleep like a flood or a beast in the darkness.
The second wave of Shun troops also had only about a thousand men. When they saw that the gate was still rising, the leader shouted happily, "It's done, it's done! Kill them! Kill one and you'll get a reward of ten taels of silver. Kill three and you'll be promoted two ranks!"
After saying that, he also took out a firework, placed it on the ground and lit it with the fire starter he carried with him.
After the fireworks bloomed, the shouting and screaming in the distance gradually became clearer and clearer.
The defenders on the city seemed to have not reacted yet. Apart from the sporadic sounds of bird guns and muskets, no other large-scale resistance was seen.
The shouts and cries are loudest near the city gate, and the fighting here is also the most intense!
The third wave of Shun troops' night attack had the first two fireworks signals, and they ran faster and charged more fiercely than the last.
After all, the credit for rushing into the city gate first and rushing into the city gate later is different.
Just as the third wave of people rushed to the city gate, they suddenly discovered that the first two waves of Shun troops were running backwards. There were no pursuers behind them, only flames.
“Run!”
"We were fooled and ambushed by the Ming army."
At the same time, arrows, bullets, rolling logs and stones fell from the city walls like a torrential rain.
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