The fighting sounded all day and it didn't stop until it was dark. Liu Zongmin issued an order to stop the attack earlier than yesterday.

In addition to these, three other things happened.

One is that, temporarily put together a team of about 3,000 people, a group of about 3,000 people from Yingzhou and came to the capital to serve the king. However, before they even arrived at the capital, they were defeated by the rebel army halfway. The general was killed in battle, and even his name was not left. All three thousand people fled.

Another thing is that the Xibian Gate guard secretly surrendered to the rebel army and opened the city gate to welcome them into the city. The Xibian Gate gate was narrow and the incident happened very quickly. In fact, there were not many rebel soldiers entering the first time.

But the panic warning sound caused panic among the defenders of the outer city. They left the city and hugged Xuanwu, Zhengyang and Chongwen Gate, and the outer city fell immediately.

It was said that it was an outer city, but it did not surround the capital, but was just a circle of city walls surrounded on the south. The Temple of Heaven and Taisui Altar were all inside, and it was there. Emperor Chongzhen sacrificed the world and personally sent Li Jiantai out of the city to fight against the rebel army.

The outer city belongs to the Nine Gate, and the city wall is also much lower than the inner city. Considering that the rebel army came from the northwest and the lack of troops in the city, Zhou Xian did not place many soldiers there. Its fall was expected, but this fall method was enough to show that the people in the city changed their minds. Now the defender of Xibian Gate surrendered to the enemy, and perhaps soon the guard of the Nine Gate of the inner city will be the guardian of the inner city.

The result of the fall of the outer city was that the three gates to the south were blocked, and it would be very difficult to get out of the city from there. Moreover, if the rebels occupy the outer city, they could directly set up artillery to bombard the inner city, which was a heavy blow to the morale of the defenders.

The last one was that Bai Zhu led a large army to continue to fight against the enemy in Baoding, but ordered Wu Zhiying to lead all the cavalry to the north to reinforce the capital.

There were not many people, only three thousand cavalry. They first appeared outside Yongding Gate and sneaked into a group of siege infantry who were siegeing the city. When the siege cavalry arrived, they had disappeared. Then they appeared at Fucheng Gate on the west side, and attacked again, and then disappeared.

The chaos in the command system of the trench army and the numerous personnel gave them opportunities, causing infinite chaos. Liu Zongmin issued a retreat order early this day, which was not unrelated to the chaotic scene they caused.

The losses of each sect gradually gathered together, with more than 6,000 people killed in battle and Yu Wan injured.

Also, because of the fall of the outer city, most of the soldiers responsible for defending the place directly abandoned their weapons and fled in scattered their weapons, and less than three thousand escaped into the inner city through the three gates.

The artillery in the outer city was obtained by the rebels. They put the artillery on the walls near the inner city and kept firing the artillery into the city. There was no accurate sign in the night, and the rumbling artillery sounded and destroyed many houses near the city walls. This caused a big fire, and the pillars of fire rose into the sky, dyeing the night red.

Zhou Xian led a team of people to the palace on horseback.

Although a curfew was opened, it seemed that it was useless at this time. Along the way, he not to mention the ordinary people for now, but he saw dozens of scattered soldiers, and he saw that they had escaped from various sects.

When he arrived at the Meridian Gate, the palace gate was not closed. Countless eunuchs and palace maids came out with big bags and came and went in a hurry. Lu Ming came up and brought one over and opened the package he had with him, full of gold, silver, jade, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings.

The city has not yet been broken, but the city has become in chaos.

Zhou Xian shook his head helplessly, left a flag of soldiers to watch the horse, and led dozens of people to walk into the palace. The palace was completely in chaos, and no one intercepted him along the way.

After asking a few eunuchs, I found out that Emperor Chongzhen had gone to Kunning Palace and also figured out the reason why the palace was so chaotic.

Emperor Chongzhen felt desperate when he saw the beacon fire outside the city and said, "The capital has been broken, let's disperse themselves!" The eunuch below was not clear about the situation outside the city. After hearing Emperor Chongzhen's words, he thought the capital had been broken, so Emperor Chongzhen asked them to escape.

The sound of cannons outside the city was rumbling, and various rumors became more and more mysterious. In horror, someone took the lead in escaping from the palace. Emperor Chongzhen was lazy to take care of it, and no one came out to stop it, so the chaotic scene appeared in front of him.

When I walked to Wenhua Hall, the order was slightly better, and at least several major halls were guarding. First, I met Hou Fangyu, and then I met Li Yulan with more than a dozen imperial guards.

Zhou Xian glared at Li Yulan, "Li Yulan, you can really do it. An imperial guard commander can actually sit and watch the chaos in the palace look like this without any movement. The capital has not yet been broken!"

Li Yulan looked ugly, "The emperor raised the imperial guards' external defenses, and there were not many imperial guards left in the palace. In addition, most people said they were sick and asked for leave, and the remaining ones were scattered in various sects, so the number of people was not enough. Besides, the emperor did not give an order, so his subordinates really didn't know what to do?"

Zhou Xian smiled angrily and said, "I don't know what to do if you are a good person. Then let me tell you, now click all the soldiers to go to the four gates of the imperial city, close the palace gate, and prevent everyone from leaving the palace. Send people to find the supervisors and tell them. Even if Li Zicheng really attacks the capital, he still needs to serve him. Now that he escapes from the palace, he must at most be gold and silver. Take care of their subordinates and surrender to Li Zicheng in the future, and maybe he can continue to take power in the palace."

Li Yulan was stunned in the local area, thinking that she had heard it wrong for a moment. It was not until Hou Fangyu coughed low that he reacted and left with his fists.

After Li Yulan left, Hou Fangyu whispered: "Master General, are you leaving Beijing?"

Zhou Xian nodded, "Just tonight. Stay here first, look at Wenhua Palace, I'll go find the emperor."

Outside Kunning Palace, several palace maids saw a group of soldiers coming and ran inside screaming. Zhou Xian ordered everyone to stay outside and walked in alone.

Before he was in the main room, he turned to the backyard and saw Emperor Chongzhen sitting in a pavilion, drinking one cup after another. Empress Zhou sat next to him without stopping or talking. Several palace maids stood beside him, filling up the wine glasses for Emperor Chongzhen from time to time.

Seeing Zhou Xian, he was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's Zhou Xian! Come here quickly and have a drink with me. I thought you would leave directly! I didn't expect that I would say goodbye to me. The king and his ministers will come... One cup won't work, we have to drink three cups in a row."

Zhou Xian put down the wine glass that Emperor Chongzhen handed him, "Master, you are drunk."

Emperor Chongzhen was blindfolded, "Are I drunk?" He suddenly sternly said, "I am not drunk, I will let you drink."

Zhou Xian looked at him quietly. After a while, he picked up the wine glass and drank it all.
Chapter completed!