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Yan Gaofei quickly rushed to the lobby. Liu Meng handed him the letter. He checked it and said, "This letter was indeed shot down by our people. It has the mark of "not being received at night..."
Huo Sheng clapped his hands vigorously and said, "That's great. Fortunately, that thief Huang Lianshan is not spending his time in Jinling. Commander Liu, give the order. I will lead all my troops to attack Zhengyang Gate."
"General Huo, wait a minute. I have something else to say." Yan Gaofei pondered, "It is true that this letter has a hidden note that Ye Bu Shou has received, but I have some doubts."
"Tell me quickly, what questions do you have?" Liu Meng shot a sharp look at Yan Gaofei.
"This kind of secret code is only used by ordinary members of Ye Bu Shou. For such an important matter, Commander Huang should be informed in advance. If it is a message sent by Commander Huang, this secret code should not be used, and even ink should not be used to write the letter."
"What to use if you don't use ink?"
"Ye Bushu has a special potion for writing. Once the potion dries, the writing will disappear. There is also a set of secret codes. Even if someone without the secret code book gets the letter, they won't be able to know the true meaning. Such important information was not kept secret using these methods. It is very suspicious."
Liu Meng thought for a moment and asked, "Under normal circumstances, the city would be strictly investigating spies at this time, and it would be difficult to communicate with each other. Could it be that someone you planted in the Green Camp sent a letter improvisationally because he couldn't contact Huang Lianshan? Also, from Taiping Gate to Zhengyang Gate, we have to bypass the entire Zhongshan Mountain, and time is urgent. The person who sent the letter couldn't be sure that there were members of the Yebushou in our army, so he didn't dare to use secret language or potions to write the letter?"
"I don't rule out this possibility, but for the sake of caution, I think it would be appropriate to send another letter to Commander Huang to inquire."
Huo Sheng asked, "How long will it take to exchange letters with the city?"
"It's hard to say. I can send a message via carrier pigeon, which will be quick, but since this is a temporary location, I'm not sure if the carrier pigeons in the city can find it in time."
"Where's the nearest pigeon station outside of town?"
"Near Yanziji."
Huo Sheng shook his head and said, "It's too late. It's past the first watch now. To get from Taiping Gate to Zhengyang Gate, you have to go around Zhongshan Mountain. If you don't leave now, you won't be able to reach Zhengyang Gate by the fourth watch."
Liu Meng also asked unwillingly: "Is there no other way to contact us?"
"During the day, the water flow of the Qinhuai River can be used to transmit information, but at night, it is dark and the wax balls cannot be seen after being put into the river, so there is no way to salvage them. The last type of fireworks is used in emergencies, but they can only give warnings."
"Commander Ma, let me lead 5,000 troops to the outside of Zhengyang Gate first, and then decide the situation after the fourth watch." Huo Sheng suggested.
It is extremely difficult to attack a strong city like Jinling. Apart from digging tunnels and blowing up the city walls, the only way to quickly break into the city is to rely on internal support.
Qin Mu did not give Liu Meng much time. The Zheng family's fleet could enter the Yangtze River at any time. If the navy was defeated, the Yangtze River would be controlled by Zheng Zhilong. His 40,000 troops would be trapped in a dead end.
With Taiping Prefecture in the east and the Qing army in Jiangyin in the west, they were attacked from both sides, and Hong Chengchou attacked from the center. The 40,000-man army had little chance of survival.
Therefore, although there were some doubts about the letter, under great pressure, Liu Meng still followed the principle of believing it is better than not believing it, and asked Huo Sheng to lead 5,000 troops and Yan Gaofei to set off to the Zhengyang Gate in the south.
Compared with Liu Meng outside the city, Hong Chengchou inside the city was under greater pressure. Nanjing was the largest city in the world today, with a population nearly twice that of Yanjing. Leaving aside the hundreds of millions of people in the abandoned outer areas, the population in the capital alone was nearly two million.
The whole city is now under martial law, and nearly two million people are restricted to their homes. One day may be enough.
But how many people need to live? If the restrictions last for a long time, the people will not be able to survive, and even without anyone to incite them, some people in the city will rise up in resistance.
However, Hong Chengchou had only more than 20,000 troops in the city, which was not enough for city defense. How could he have so many people to suppress the people in the city
The siege of Nanjing and the loss of its outer outskirts was not only a military problem, but would also cause a major political crisis. Apart from anything else, the public sentiment in the city would no longer be easy to control.
Under the instigation of Qin's spies, the people in the city might not necessarily take risks. Even if only one percent of the people were instigated, there would be 20,000 to 30,000 people, which would be a catastrophe for Hong Chengchou.
Tonight, it depends on whether we can inflict a heavy blow to the Qin army. Tomorrow, the strict order prohibiting people from going out must be lifted, otherwise there will be no such opportunity again.
Hong Chengchou led dozens of personal soldiers and rushed to Zhengyang Gate in the south, with a lot on his mind all the way.
He suddenly felt a little lonely. When Nanjing fell, most of those who surrendered were "gentlemen" like Qian Qianyi. People like Lu Zhenfei, Lu Daqi, and Ma Shiying, who had managed local military affairs and led troops in battles, were unwilling to surrender to the Qing.
Faced with such a dilemma, Hong Chengchou didn't even have anyone to discuss it with. Then he looked at his opponent Qin Mu, who was surrounded by many talented people. Even people like Lu Zhenfei and Lu Daqi had joined Qin Mu. Could it be that this world would really belong to Qin Mu
Feeling a little irritated, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but think too much. He quickly gathered his thoughts and brought his mind back to the war in front of him.
Only by inflicting a severe defeat on the Qin army outside the city can the two million people in the city be intimidated and prevented from acting rashly, and only then can they have the opportunity to wait for Bolo to return for support and Zheng Zhilong's fleet to arrive.
Walking through the wide streets, there was no one to be seen in the night except the Qing army patrolling with torches. The once prosperous Jinling city was shrouded in dead silence. All the lights in thousands of homes were out and it was pitch black, like a ghost town.
Occasionally there would be a cough in the house on the street, but the sound would be kept as low as possible.
The barking of dogs in the deep alleys could be heard from far away, making people feel frightened.
Hong Chengchou knew that in this city shrouded in darkness, no one could truly sleep tonight. In the houses on both sides of the street, there must be countless pairs of eyes carefully peeking out in the darkness, and their eyes were full of hatred. This feeling made Hong Chengchou feel like a thorn in the back and very uncomfortable.
Either perish in silence or explode in silence. This is the atmosphere that permeates the dark city of Jinling.
This atmosphere was suffocating. "Go!" Hong Chengchou whipped his warhorse vigorously and galloped through the bluestone-paved streets with his personal soldiers, as if he was fleeing for his life.
Go south from Taipingmen Inner Street, pass the West Imperial City North-South Street outside the west wall of the imperial city, enter Tongjimen Street, turn east into Chongli Street when you are almost at Tongjimen in the south, and then you will reach Zhengyangmen. In total, it is only ** miles away.
Zhengyangmen is a city gate located on the same central axis as the main gate of the imperial palace. There is a urn outside the city gate and two more urn inside the city gate. In addition to the wooden city gate, there is also an iron gate, which is raised and lowered by a wagon on the city. Once the enemy enters the urn inside, the iron gate will fall and they will be trapped.
After Hong Chengchou arrived at Zhengyang Gate, he personally inspected the iron gate of the city gate and the weapons reserves in the soldier caves on both sides to ensure that there were no accidents.
At three o'clock in the morning, Bai Yintu, with five thousand troops, quietly rushed over from the east city wall and began to ambush at Zhengyang Gate.
Time passed by minute by minute, and the waiting was the most anxious thing. Looking outside the city from the battlement, it was pitch black and no sound could be heard. Could it be that the Qin army would not come
It was almost four o'clock in the morning, and even Hong Chengchou couldn't help but feel a little impatient. If the plan failed, it would be impossible to inflict a severe blow to the Qin army.
In any case, at four o'clock in the morning, Hong Suichou still had people raise fire on the top of the city wall as agreed in the letter. After a while, he saw a torch burning beside the mountain and river altar outside the city in response. Hong Chengchou was overjoyed and quickly ordered people to slowly open the city gate.
Huo Sheng's 5,000 troops arrived just after three o'clock in the morning, but in order to avoid alerting the enemy, the army hid near the Temple of Heaven on the east side.
After seeing the message from the torches on the city wall, he hurried to the Zhengyang Gate.
Huo Sheng was on guard, looking at the faint firelight on the top of the city wall. At this moment, the Zhengyang Gate slowly opened in the night, and it was as dark as the bloody mouth of a giant beast.
Thousands of Qin soldiers were so nervous that their palms were sweating. The main gate of Nanjing City was opened just like that. Is this true
Huo Sheng was also very nervous. If the 5,000 troops could successfully enter the city, it would mean that Nanjing would be captured. But if this was a trap, his troops would never return.
To enter or not to enter
*************************(To be continued...)
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