However, just as Chongzhen's order was issued, the second sentence was that the Third Cavalry Battalion of the Shandong Army had already descended outside the capital like the wind, and the capital was martial law for a while.

A nervous atmosphere was filled with the city. Four thousand cavalry blocked the gates of the capital. Although the number was very small, the soldiers in the Beijing camp in the city did not dare to go out of the city to fight.

However, the Third Cavalry Battalion did not dare to get too close to the city wall because there were artillery on the top of the city.

Moreover, some artillery was built by Denglai and used grenades. If they were bombed, they would have to be killed or injured.

Two days later, Zhao Yan brought the artillery battalion outside the capital.

Zhao Yan looked up at the high city wall under the city. The city walls of the capital were the most majestic existence in the Ming Dynasty. Nurhaci led the Later Jin army to attack, but ended up retreating in a panic.

"I have a letter of a letter, and the villains in the court are in charge of the sages, and I bewitched the sage king. Now Zhao Yan sent troops to the capital, so I returned to the Qingming Festival to the city. When I entered the city, I said that I would not kill anyone or plunder a fortune. You can be assured as possible. Those who have made merits in the capital will be rewarded." After Zhao Yan finished speaking, he said, "Punch into the city together with the Qing Dynasty's Announcement."

"yes."

The General Staff immediately took action, quickly copied hundreds of copies of the notice, and then sent dozens of cavalrymen to break into the city wall, and risked the danger and shot into the capital with a long bow.

However, it seems that the effect is not very good. More than a dozen people were injured during the process and one person was killed on the spot.

"Lord, the capital is high, and it is not a temporary matter to conquer it. It is better to ask the Academy of Sciences to send hot air balloons and launch a psychological offensive with hot air balloons." One of the staff officers said to Zhao Yan.

"Well! Send the letter back immediately and ask the Science and Technology Academy to send five hot air balloons over." Zhao Yan nodded. The hot air balloon was developed not long ago. This thing is simple and does not require any special technology.

In the stage where there are no other aircraft, hot air balloons still have good military uses.

On the way, Zhao Yan had already determined the offensive plan, so he directly attacked the inner city from Chaoyang Gate, then attacked the imperial city, and then attacked the Forbidden City.

Before the infantry battalion arrives, only shelling is carried out temporarily and reinforcements are annihilated.

After resting outside Chaoyang Gate for a night, Zhao Yan launched an artillery bombardment on Chaoyang Gate in the early morning of the second day. The artillery battalion launched a fierce bombardment on Chaoyang Gate.

Under the bombing of howitzers, the artillery at the top of the city and behind the city were destroyed one by one. Many of the artillery at the top of the city were red barbarian cannons. Although they were very advanced in this era, they were still too backward in the face of the artillery at Zhao Yan's hand.

At the same time, there are some 75mm howitzers mixed in. This was presented by Zhao Yan to Chongzhen. Originally, Zhao Yan was afraid that Li Zicheng would return to Beijing, so he deliberately strengthened the defense capabilities of the capital. However, the maximum range of these 75mm howitzers were only 1,200 meters, and they could not compete with the 125mm cannon with a range of 2,000 meters.

The shelling lasted for nearly five minutes, and no one was standing on the city wall.

The military officers of the Beijing camp on the top of the city saw that Zhao Yan's soldiers were all cavalry, and the howitzers were powerful, but they did not have high damage to the city walls, so they did not have any threat to the city. There was no reason to let them eat shells on the top of the city, so they all retreated.

"Siege cannon, advance."

"Siege Cannon..."

Amid the repeated orders of the artillery battalion, the artillery pushed a hundred 125mm siege cannons and approached the city wall.

"Barrelative cover."

The howitzers continued to shell, and the shells kept falling on the top of the city, suppressing the troops of the Beijing camp who were trying to control the remaining artillery. Finally, the 100 artillery pieces advanced to the predetermined position.

"fire!"

"Boom boom boom..." The shells kept firing out of the cannon chamber, and the huge penetration force directly blasted into the city wall, and then the shells exploded directly.

However, the walls of the capital are extremely strong.

The exterior wall is poured with glutinous rice juice, and the interior is made of selected blue bricks. Each blue brick is engraved with the name of the kiln factory. If there is a problem, just look for the kiln factory directly.

Even on the siege cannon, it cannot achieve the effect of destroying the dead.

Each gun can only leave a dent on the city wall. When the shell explodes, it cannot explode inside, but it is no different from the solid bomb.

"Stop shooting." The commander in front immediately ordered a ceasefire and began to select a concentrated bombardment point.

Soon, the bombardment point was selected.

Hundreds of siege artillery bombarded the fixed point one by one under the formation.

I saw shells bombarding towards the set target one after another. Not every shell could be accurate, but the gap value was very small when the distance was so close.

Under the continuous bombardment of shells, a concave point finally appeared on the city wall. The shells hit the concave point and then exploded, finally increasing the damage to the wall.

The thick cast layer was gradually blown away, revealing the blue bricks inside.

For a moment, every shell was shot into the hole, and after the explosion, bricks were flying. At the same time, the howitzers began to move their attack positions and began to clean up the artillery on both sides of the city.

The soldiers in the Beijing camp in the city were so scared that they retreated under such fierce artillery fire.

Even Yang Sichang could not see anything on the top of the city. The cannons too far on both sides could not hit the dead corner, nor could they hit the howitzer group that Zhao Yan placed far away.

As for rushing out, there is no need to think about it. People are hoping that they will rush out! Yang Sichang was not so arrogant that he thought he could defeat the eight thousand Shandong cavalry outside the city.

Not to mention morale and training issues, you can see from the equipment of those cavalry that they are elite troops. They wear dark plate armor and their protective abilities are absolutely strong.

The only thing that made Yang Sichang feel at ease was that Zhao Yan only brought eight thousand cavalry on his side, and there were only some gunners. In other words, even if he exploded the city wall, he would not be likely to rush in.

As soon as reinforcements arrived... Yang Sichang was unsure at this time, because Zhao Yan was carrying cavalry. He could chase after victory and defeat him. It seemed unlikely that he would encircle Zhao Yan under the capital.

Zhao Yan was already invincible, and Chongzhen was in the Forbidden City. Once the Forbidden City was lost, the court would be defeated and he would be finished.

For a moment, Yang Sichang was sweating coldly and screamed in his heart that he was wrong!

In a hurry, Yang Sichang quickly attacked and asked to see Chongzhen. Chongzhen heard the rumbling sound of cannons in the Forbidden City and walked back and forth in the imperial study anxiously. Hearing the little eunuch saying that Yang Sichang was imprisoned, he hurriedly passed Yang Sichang in. When he saw Yang Sichang, he asked anxiously: "Yang Aiqing, what is the situation of the battle outside the city?"

"Your Majesty, Zhao Yan's cannons are too fierce. The cannons on the top of the city are completely defeated. A big hole has been blown out of the city wall. However, this thief only brought eight thousand cavalry and several thousand artillery soldiers. Even if he exploded the city wall, it would be unlikely to attack the city. However, the capital is already a dangerous place, so your Majesty should leave quickly to avoid falling into the hands of the thief." Yang Sichang said anxiously. The only way at present is to waste it, but the prerequisite for consumption is to Chongzhen escape from the capital.

"How can I leave the people in the capital?" Chongzhen's face changed drastically. Thinking of his escape and a history book will be published in the future, he will be infamous for thousands of years. He scolded Yang Sichang with a gloomy face and said, "Don't mention this matter."

"It's Your Majesty." Yang Sichang hurriedly knelt on the ground.

Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief and asked Yang Sichang: "How long will the reinforcements arrive?"

"The Ji and Liao soldiers and horses can come one after another after two days, and the Xuan Da soldiers and horses should be able to arrive even after seven or eight days." Yang Sichang expected, "The thief can be surrounded by the city at that time."

Although Yang Sichang felt that he was wrong, he would not slap himself in the mouth when it was told, and he still insisted on his previous words.

However, he felt extremely difficult to avoid Chongzhen's attitude of resolutely not escaping. If Chongzhen escaped, he still had a chance to turn the tables.

But Chongzhen did not escape, and Yang Sichang felt that the chance of winning in this game was not very good, but in general, he could still take a try. As long as reinforcements from all over the country arrived, Zhao Yan could still be shot away.

Zhao Yan fired outside the city for two days, and one hundred siege cannons fired one after another, and finally a gap was blasted on the city wall of Chaoyang Gate.

As Yang Sichang expected, Zhao Yan did not charge after knocking down the city wall, but the officials in the city were all worried.

Within two days, officials kept sending letters out of the city to Zhao Yan. Among the six ministers, except for Yang Sichang, the other five people sent letters to Zhao Yan.

At the same time, almost all the cabinet ministers sent letters, explaining to Zhao Yan that it was Yang Sichang's proposal to discuss peace with the Qing Dynasty and restrict the people of various provinces from entering Shandong.

Everyone was afraid that Zhao Yan would settle the accounts on their heads after entering the city. They all expressed their support to continue the battle in Liaodong in the letter, and also supported immigration to Shandong.

Zhao Yan saw how hard the bones of these civil servants were. No wonder even the enemy of the thief attacked the capital, they hugged the thief on the thief.

After hugging the thief's thighs, he ran to hug the Qing Dynasty's thighs.

Having said that, Chongzhen was just a puppet of the upper class. Although he held the power of life and death, as long as he could protect the interests of these upper classes, it would be fine to change his master.

On the 13th day of August, Zhao Yangang wanted to continue shelling the city wall to expand the gap. At this time, the scout came to report that Zhu Mei, the general of Ji Liao, came to rescue with eight thousand soldiers.

"Zhu Mei, an unknown person." Zhao Yan couldn't remember this person, so he sent the Third Cavalry Battalion out. His order was very simple and he defeated his troops.

The Third Cavalry Battalion dragged thirty 75mm howitzers and went out directly.

Both sides encountered directly in Tongzhou, and Zhu Mei also sent 4,000 cavalry to fight. The Third Cavalry Battalion immediately launched a charge and easily penetrated Zhu Mei's cavalry.

In just two or three rounds, the four thousand Ji Liao cavalry could no longer support it and fled back to their original formation in a hurry.

Seeing that the Shandong cavalry was strong, Zhu Mei had to set up a formation to defend on the spot. The Third Cavalry Battalion immediately pulled the howitzer forward and bombarded Zhu Mei's Ji Liao soldiers and horses.

Under the bombardment of howitzers, the Ji Liao soldiers who were in a dense formation to defend were in chaos. The Third Cavalry Battalion took the opportunity to charge, and Zhu Mei was defeated and his troops were greatly defeated.

Eight thousand soldiers and horses were instantly defeated by the Third Cavalry Battalion. As the shout of surrendering and not killing, many official troops dropped their weapons and knelt down and surrendered directly.

After nearly half of the hunt, the Third Cavalry Battalion returned triumphantly. After counting, more than 4,000 Ji Liao official troops were captured and nearly 2,000 were killed.

After Zhu Mei escaped in a panic, she rushed back to Ji County and lost the idea of ​​rescuing the capital.

...At the same time, Zu Dashou from Liaodong had already brought 20,000 troops and horses to the Shanhaiguan and enter the pass.

However, Zu Dashou did not want to fight with Zhao Yan. After leaving Shanhaiguan, he immediately sent a scout to investigate the capital, but he remained still.

Zu Dashou felt the strongest when the Shandong Army was so powerful.

He fought with Jianlu in Liaodong for a long time, and Jianlu was not so easy to deal with. As time went by, Jianlu became stronger and stronger.

But it took less than a few months for the Shandong Army to surround Huang Taiji in North Korea and annihilate nearly 100,000 Eight Banners Army. Zhao Yan has such strong strength, which is definitely not something he can mess with.

The scouts that Zu Dashou eliminated returned a few days later. Due to the limitation of troops, Zhao Yan could not completely block the passage into the city.

Many times, people can not walk through the city gate.

"This time, Zhao Yanqing only dispatched eight thousand cavalry and three thousand artillery soldiers. He was so arrogant. Do you think our Guanning Iron Cavalry can't fight?" Wu Sangui estimated, and said to Zu Dashou happily: "Uncle, go ahead! It's a great contribution to victory."

"Confused." Zu Dashou scolded, "He Zhao Yan is strong and powerful. Will he only have these soldiers and horses in his hands? If he doesn't kill the snake, once he retaliates, our death period will not be long. Even if this kid dares to rebel against Emperor Yanjing, he will not dare to touch a mere general?"

Wu Sangui was shocked and said, "It was his nephew who was reckless."

"It's not a question of whether to save it or not, but we should think about how to swear the court and not offend both." Zu Dashou said, "The situation is unpredictable this time, and Zhao Yan is afraid that he will use the emperor to command the princes. We will still watch the wall and not offend both."

"The court is weak and my uncle is in hand. Even if he doesn't save him, he will not dare to attack him." Wu Sangui said proudly.

"Hey, you guy can see clearly, but the emperor is now confused. Even Zhao Yan dares to mess with him." Zu Dashou grinned.

...Lu Xiangsheng received a letter from Zhao Yan when Zhao Yan bombarded the capital. Such a shocking change made Lu Xiangsheng seem to be mentally prepared.

Although he was prepared for a long time, Lu Xiangsheng was still anxious during the incident and didn't know how to choose for a while.
To be continued...