"Who is the governor of your family? What does his life and death have to do with me?" In an instant, Liu Chenggui felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, but he bravely shouted loudly. "Come here, set fire and thunderbolts for me to destroy these nonsense.
The gibbering bastard!"
"That's your order!" Several guards agreed, quickly opened the mechanism on the crossbow, and fired the crossbow loaded with gunpowder cans in the direction of the plain man. In the blink of an eye, thick smoke billowed out of the city.
Although none of the crossbows hit the target due to accuracy issues, the explosion of gunpowder completely covered up the cries of the plain man.
"The old man is looking for death!" Unexpectedly, Liu Chenggui's reaction speed was so fast. King Yong Zhao Yuanfen was furious, pointed at the city, and shouted loudly, "Fight back to me! Since he is looking for death, I will make it happen!"
After that, he turned around and retreated quickly under the protection of the guards. After a while, he was completely out of the attack range of the bed crossbow.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh -" The crossbow carts arranged by the Divine Guards outside Xuande's men quickly entered the battle after receiving the order from King Yong. With their absolute numerical advantage, they fired rows of crossbows at the city head.
.In the blink of an eye, the bed crossbow on the top of the city was completely suppressed.
"Boom!" The window on the second floor of Xuandemen's watchtower was unfortunately hit by a crossbow gun, and half of the window frame was blown away.
"Boom! Boom!" Two crossbow guns landed on the horse's face on the west side of Xuandemen, and exploded one after another, completely blowing a bed crossbow placed on the horse's face into parts.
The guards and eunuchs on the top of the city, according to Han Qing's command, hid behind the crenels again. Liu Chenggui, with the support of several guards, once again evacuated to the horse road. Soon, the top of the city was no longer visible.
A standing figure. However, the rebels outside the city were still not satisfied with the explosion. They fired the fire and thunder crossbows at them for free, blasting round after round.
"King Yong is cunning. He deliberately arranges for people to wear mourning clothes and pretend to be generals of the Zhenrong Army. You must not be fooled." On the horse road, with his back to the south wall of the palace city, Liu Chenggui gasped and warned his generals.
"You all know, don't worry, we swear to live and die with the imperial city!" Zhang Yiban took the lead, and the other generals stood in awe and handed over their hands. Everyone agreed firmly.
However, at this moment, everyone's expressions revealed the fear deep in their hearts.
Compared with the fire and thunder crossbows that kept exploding on the city, the blow to everyone from that team of generals and commanders, who were all covered in armor, was ten times heavier.
It even far exceeded King Yong's previous rhetoric, saying that he led troops to besiege the imperial city just to capture Han Qing, the reincarnated robber.
The reason why everyone had the confidence to hold on to the imperial city before was because they believed that Li Jihe, the governor of the Zhenrong Army, could lead his troops back in time to quell the rebellion when he heard that there was a rebellion in Bianliang City.
But now, someone was crying and saying that his captain had returned to the west. Although he didn't have time to specify who his captain was, Liu Chenggui used a fire and thunder crossbow to forcibly interrupt the crying. However, up and down the city,
Anyone with a little military acumen can probably guess that the capital prisoner mentioned by those people is none other than the old general Li Jihe who has been ill for a long time!
"Before I returned to Bianliang, I made a special trip to visit Superintendent Li on behalf of the official family. His body and bones have already healed. This can be testified by Deputy Huang of Zuoban and the entourage around me!" Knowing that at this moment, the military's morale was high.
It cannot collapse no matter what, Liu Chenggui thought for a while and added loudly.
"Indeed, Li Jihe was already well at that time, and he asked Liu Douzhi to send a message to the officials on his behalf, saying that he could lead his troops across the Yellow River to expel the Liao invaders at any time, as long as the officials gave an order." Deputy Zuo Ban of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Everyone knew that Huang Hao stood up immediately and endorsed Liu Chenggui in a hoarse voice.
After hearing this, the guards and eunuchs felt a little calmer in their hearts. However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the explosion at the top of the city suddenly stopped, followed by hundreds of people shouting in unison.
It was passed over, "Liu Chenggui, stop dreaming. Commander Li of the Zhenrong Army has died of illness. If you quickly open the palace door and hand over Han Qing, there is still a way to survive. Otherwise, all the guards and eunuchs will have to be buried with you!"
"
"Fart, fart! Li Jihe is obviously fine. He cursed his own uncle to death. Zhao Yuanfen, you are a son of a man in vain!" Liu Chenggui was so angry that he cursed. However, one voice could not overpower the hundreds of people outside the city.
People shouting.
"You know, don't argue with him. Prepare to go to the city to fight!" At this moment, Han Qing was the clearest one in the entire imperial city. He walked quickly to Liu Chenggui and warned him. "No matter what they say,
What nonsense, in the end, we still have to attack the imperial city to achieve our wish!"
"Go to the city, everyone, follow me to the city!" Liu Chenggui was in a state of confusion and ordered loudly through gritted teeth.
Under his leadership, the guards and eunuchs returned to the city again and prepared to face the rebels.
The rebels outside the city were just as Han Qing expected. After shouting the news that Li Jihe had died more than ten times, they immediately launched a new round of attack.
This time, the rebels' offensive was far more violent than the previous ones. They learned from the lessons learned from the previous battles and prepared a large number of buckets and fire-fighting equipment to accompany them.
As a result, the effect of the thunderbolts and rockets fired from the city was greatly reduced. Especially the rockets were quickly doused by the rebels with water ladles and pumps before they could create smoke, which was a huge blow to the attackers.
The threat is worse than an ordinary arrow without a gunpowder pack.
Han Qing had no choice but to ask everyone to change the gunpowder arrows into ordinary arrows.
The rebels outside the city saw that the new tactics were effective, and their morale was greatly boosted. While organizing archers to shoot at the defenders on the top of the city, they accelerated the advancement of siege equipment.
About a quarter of an hour later, seven or eight aerial ladders were finally set up on the city wall. Hundreds of rebels shouted aloud and climbed up the aerial ladders along the river.
Liu Chenggui commanded his guards and eunuchs to fight desperately. However, they were able to block one end but not the other. As he watched helplessly, a group of rebels successfully rushed to the city wall.
"Brothers, follow me!" At the critical moment, Han Qing shouted and rushed towards the rebels with weapons in hand. He was highly skilled in martial arts and had far more combat experience than most of the soldiers on both sides. The spear in his hand turned up and down.
He flew and knocked down seven or eight rebels who rushed to the city. The remaining rebels suddenly lost their energy, screamed and turned around to run for their lives.
All around, guards and eunuchs immediately chased after them and killed them one by one. Before everyone could raise their hands to wipe the sweat from their foreheads, another exclamation came from not far away. But it was another one.
A group of rebels broke through the brothers' defense and successfully stormed the city.
Han Qing rushed over with guns in both hands to block the gap. Zhang Yaoban, Deputy Huang, and more than a dozen guards followed closely behind him.
Everyone worked together, fought to the death, spent half a stick of incense, and finally wiped out the second rebel army that rushed to the city. However, not far away, there was a new exclamation. Third, the third
Four rebel armies also stormed the city, each occupying a territory and supporting their accomplices to board the city.
"It's broken!" Han Qing knew in her heart that the situation was not good, but she gritted her teeth and continued to pounce on the third group of enemy troops. After only four or five steps, another piercing warning signal came from outside Xihua Gate, "
Wuwuwuwu,wuwuwu,wuwuwu——"
Immediately afterwards, a scarlet flag was raised on the watchtower he ordered to build, informing everyone that a group of rebels had launched a new round of attack on the imperial city from outside Xihua Gate.
Several groups of eunuchs were standing in the city preparing for the battle, their faces were ashen and they were looking around.
Several exhausted guards poked their weapons on the ground and gasped for air.
There were also many servants who quietly dropped their weapons and fled to the woods and rockeries inside the palace, preparing to escape the immediate disaster first and then change the door.
"Go to the harem and take Empress Liu and the eldest son of the emperor to break out. Leave this to me!" Knowing that the situation was over, Liu Chenggui jumped up and shouted to Han Qing, "The official family only has one son like this. No matter what, he cannot fall into this trap."
In the hands of King Yong! Go quickly, go quickly!"
"It's better for you to grow old. I'm not familiar with the imperial concubine! I just want to stay here to break up the queen." Han Qing responded with a smile without even thinking about it.
To be honest, so far, he still can't regard himself as Zhao Heng's subject. Therefore, he doesn't have much interest in risking his life to protect the latter's wife and son.
However, he would not abandon the people around him and run for his life alone. Although, he and most of the people around him met each other for the first time in the middle of the night yesterday.
Everyone had risked their lives to save him before, but now, he fought side by side with everyone until the last moment.
God is just and fair. It has nothing to do with loyalty or disloyalty to the court.
"You, don't be ridiculous. I'm injured, and my abilities are far inferior to yours. I can't even rush out, let alone protect the imperial concubine and the eldest son of the emperor!" Liu Chenggui obviously misunderstood what Han Qing meant, and kept urging with red eyes.
As soon as he finished speaking, drums suddenly sounded outside Xuande Gate. Immediately after, the rebels' offensive stalled.
He and Han Qing instinctively turned their heads to look at the source of the drum sound.
I saw hundreds of Kaifeng Prefecture officials and an unknown number of soldiers rushing towards the rebels' main formation. The leader was a general, holding two guns, stabbing left and right, and there was no enemy in front of his horse!