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On Zujia Street in the Xicheng District of Yanjing, there is a large courtyard facing north and south. This is the residence of Zu Dashou, the general of the Plain Yellow Banner of the Han Army.
Ever since the rumor of Zu Dabi's surrender to the Qin Dynasty spread, Zu Dashou, his brother Zu Dale, his sons Zu Zerun, Zu Zeyuan, Zu Zepu, Zu Zehong and others were all deprived of their military command rights in disguised form. Even his adopted son Zu Kefa, who was fighting in Guanzhong with He Luohui, was not spared.
Although Dorgon never held the Zu family accountable for the sake of the stability of the Han Army's Zhenghuang Banner, the real power of the Zu family had been basically hollowed out.
It was already the second watch in the morning. In the study room in the west wing of the Zu family compound, a light was dim and the atmosphere was solemn. Zu Dale, Wu Sangui, and Zu Dashou's eldest son Zu Zerun were all looking at Zu Dashou, waiting for him to make the final decision.
Wu Sangui was Zu Dale's nephew. His smooth forehead was covered with sweat. Seeing that Zu Dashou was still hesitating, he simply knelt down and advised: "Uncle, if we don't try our best now, our Zu and Wu families will never have another chance."
Zu Dashou was in his fifties, and his courage was not as strong as that of a young man. He was sweating profusely. "Wait... wait... Uncle Chang, if we start a rebellion now, we are not well prepared. I am afraid that it will be difficult to succeed."
Wu Sangui kowtowed three times and anxiously advised: "Uncle, no one expected that Gong Dingzi, Xiong Wenju and others would fail to escape today. We can no longer make any more preparations. Dorgon has ordered people to carefully investigate the Han officials' families. Tomorrow they will find our Wu Zu family. If we don't take action, we will be killed."
It was a long time ago that Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou sent their wives and children out of the city. At that time, there were rumors that Zu Dabi had surrendered to the Qin Dynasty, and the Zu family was implicated and dismissed. In order to be on the safe side, Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui began to plan from then on, preparing to bet on both sides, quietly sending some of their children away, and at the same time writing a letter to Zu Dabi to express his loyalty to Qin Mu at the right time.
In this way, if the Qin Dynasty conquers the world in the future, these families can go to Zu Dabi for help, so that the Zu and Wu families will not be completely wiped out in the turbulent historical tide. Even if they can no longer hold high positions, the incense can always continue.
Today, Gong Dingzi and several others escaped, but their plan failed because of Xiong Wenju's loud fart. Because of their failure, Dorgon ordered a large-scale search of the families of Han officials. Anyone whose wife and children were not in the inner city would be brought to justice immediately.
Wu Sangui and Shou Dazu were thus forced into a desperate situation. They had no other choice but to fight back or wait for the Qing army to interrogate them.
However, as the matter happened suddenly and he was not sure about it, when the time came, Zu Dashou was hesitant, which almost made Wu Sangui anxious to death.
"Uncle! Even if we want to bring our family back now, it's too late. Dorgon has already become suspicious of our family. If he finds out tomorrow that we are the one who is going to die!"
The eldest son Zu Zerun also urged: "Father, think about it. At this point, instead of inviting death, it is better to fight hard and win wealth and honor for the Wu and Zu families!"
Shou Dazu turned to Zu Dale, who had just returned to Beijing, and said, "Third brother. What do you think?"
Zu Dale looked a little sad and angry: "Brother, do we have any other options?"
Zu Dashou turned to Wu Sangui, who was kneeling on the ground, and said, "Uncle Chang, what if this plan fails?"
Wu Sangui resolutely responded: "A real man cannot eat from five pots while alive. He should be cooked in five pots even after death."
Wu Sangui was once a brave man. He led 12 riders into the Qing army and rescued his father.
Ever since the battle of Fanshanggang, when his Guanning Army was captured by Qin Mu, he has been living in seclusion in Yanjing, leading a miserable life. He is only in his thirties and is unwilling to live his life in such a cowardly way.
Zu Dashou couldn't help but be inspired by this. He was not an old man without any strength. He had killed countless people in his life. He subconsciously clenched his fists and asked in a deep voice, "Uncle Chang, what's your plan?"
"Uncle, we are few in number, so we can only make a feint to the east and attack the west, take the enemy by surprise, and capture Nanyuan in one fell swoop and capture Dorgon alive. This is the only feasible way."
Zu Dashou nodded, and the uncle and nephew whispered for a while under the lamp, and then hurried out of the house to prepare. The Zu family used to be a big family in Liaodong, a family of military generals with many people. Wu Sangui was also the commander-in-chief of the Guanning Army, and after the defeat at Fanshang Village, he had dozens of loyal subordinates who followed him back to Beijing. It was not difficult for the two families to quickly gather some manpower.
To the west of the Forbidden City are Zhonghai and Nanhai, and the Regent's Palace is located in the northwest corner of Nanhai.
At three o'clock in the morning, Zu Zehong led twenty people to set fire to Xuanwu Gate. They were well prepared, and the fire spread quickly. The people in the Xuanwu Gate area screamed and howled in panic, and there was chaos. Zu Zehong and others were mixed in with the people, shouting:
"Dodo's entire army was wiped out!"
"The Qin army is entering the city!"
"Oh no! The Qin army has entered Beijing!"
"The Qing Dynasty was defeated..."
More and more fires broke out in different places. The whole city was in chaos and there were screams of fear everywhere. The hungry people and ruffians in the city took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, causing a great chaos. Countless people ran to the streets in fear. In order to create greater panic, Zu Zehong and others took knives and hacked people everywhere. Amid the fire and blood, people fled everywhere, pushing and stabbing each other, and the city was in chaos.
The Qing troops patrolling everywhere rushed to Xuanwu Gate. In the Regent's Palace, Dorgon had just fallen asleep when he heard shouting all over the city. He quickly got up and asked the guards outside: "What happened?"
"Your Majesty, I don't know either, but... people everywhere are shouting that the Qin army is entering the city."
Dorgon was shocked, but soon realized that this was impossible: "Quick, send someone to check, what's going on? Go quickly."
"twitter!"
The city suddenly became so chaotic that Dorgon could no longer sit still. He paced back and forth in the back hall. The guards who went to investigate soon came back in a hurry and could not explain clearly what was going on. They only said that there were many fires in the city, tens of thousands of people were fleeing in all directions, and there were shouts of killing everywhere.
Dorgon knew that the situation was not that simple, but for now he could only dispatch personnel to suppress the rebellion first, and then put out the fire. Only after putting out the fire could he investigate the cause of the incident.
The military force in the capital was stretched to the limit. In order to quell the rebellion quickly, Dorgon had to send out some of the guards from the palace as well.
Zu Dashou was waiting for this opportunity. He and his younger brother Zu Dale led a hundred men and took advantage of the chaos to rush to the main gate of the Regent's Palace.
Because they were wearing the same Qing army uniforms, other Qing soldiers along the way thought they were also coming to quell a riot or put out a fire, and no one suspected anything.
When they arrived at the gate of the Prince Regent's Palace, Zu Dale had someone pretend to be panicked and yell:
"Your Majesty, this is bad. The Qin army has really entered the city!"
"Your Majesty, something bad has happened..."
It was dark at night and the fire was flickering. The guards in the palace were frightened when they saw one of their own running to the door to "report the news". In panic, they opened the door and came out to get clarification.
"Your Majesty, this is bad!"
"Your Majesty, run! It's bad! The Qin army is coming!"
Zu Dashou and his men rushed into the palace while shouting and yelling, hacking and killing anyone they saw. The guards in the palace were caught off guard and twenty or thirty of them were hacked to death before they could react and started to fight back.
At this moment, there were no more than 200 guards left in the palace. Zu Dashou, Zu Dale and others were fierce generals. Although they were outnumbered, they killed them equally in a short time. As a result, the guards of the palace were constantly attracted to the front gate.
At this time, Wu Sangui and others who had been hiding near the palace took the opportunity to rush to the back door of the palace.
This was a chain of attack plans. Zu Zehong first set fire and killed people near Xuanwu Gate, causing chaos in the city and luring the Qing troops there.
Then, Zu Dashou and Zu Dale disguised themselves as Qing soldiers (in fact, they didn't need to disguise themselves, as they were Qing soldiers to begin with), attacked the main gate of the palace, and lured the palace guards to the front gate.
Finally, Wu Sangui, Zu Zerun, Zu Zeyuan, and Zu Zepu, with more than a hundred people, broke into the palace from the back door and quickly captured Dorgon.
This plan was perfect. As the city was in chaos, they were all wearing Qing army uniforms, so no one would check them and they could quickly reach the front and back doors of the Regent's Palace.
But man proposes, God disposes. Wu Sangui had just ordered his men to blow up the back door of the palace when Hao Bilon, the Meilezhangjing of the Plain White Banner who was guarding the Xuanwu Gate of the imperial palace, came rushing in with hundreds of cavalrymen, torches at hand. They were originally planning to go to the Xuanwu Gate to quell the riot.
The back door of the Regent's Palace was blown to pieces. The sudden explosion startled Hao Bilong. He took advantage of the firelight to see that it was Wu Sangui who was preparing to rush into the palace. Although this was strange, Hao Bilong reacted quickly and shouted, "Wu Sangui, you are so bold! You dare to rebel! Kill!"
Hundreds of riders immediately rushed towards Wu Sangui and his men. Wu Sangui secretly thought that something was wrong and shouted to Zu Zeyuan and others, "Quick, don't get entangled with them, charge into the palace and capture Dorgon alive, quick..."
Wu Sangui was halfway through shouting when he heard the sound of bowstrings. A hundred men of Hao Bilong came galloping over and shooting arrows to stop them. The powerful arrows whizzed past and the seven or eight people who rushed to the back door were almost shot into hedgehogs.
"Charge! Don't pay any attention, only by charging in can you survive." Wu Sangui waved his sword to block the arrows and continued to rush towards the back door of the palace.
Zu Zeyuan shouted: "Cousin, you order some people to rush in first, I will stop him..." Zu Zeyuan was halfway through his words when a sword slashed across his forehead, leaving a bloody groove, and his face was immediately covered in blood.
"Zeyuan, rush in quickly and talk inside the mansion! Quick!" Wu Sangui shouted urgently. Hao Bilong's troops were all cavalrymen, and it would be a thankless task to confront them on the street.
Hao Bilong rushed over in an instant, his hooves thundering, his sword wielding like a sharp blade, and fiercely rushed straight into the back door of the palace, trying desperately to entangle Wu Sangui and his gang... .
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ps: Please subscribe and recommend. Yesterday, someone suggested moving the capital to Beijing. What do you think? I heard that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing was not able to provide enough supplies. Every year, it would cost a lot just to transport supplies from Jiangnan. Moving the capital has both advantages and disadvantages.
.(To be continued..)
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