On the morning of November 30th, Thang Long Mansion.
Thang Long Palace is Hanoi in later generations. Ever since Annan became independent during the Five Dynasties, it has been one of the centers of governance of the Annan Kingdom, and the previous Chen Dynasty was no exception. Therefore, the palace of Thang Long Palace has been repaired and expanded by the Chen Dynasty for nearly two hundred years. It is still far smaller in size than the Imperial Palace of the Ming Dynasty, but it is also unique. At this time, it looks quite exquisite and beautiful under the warm sun.
But Hu Jima's mood was not as beautiful as the palace. He was standing in the main hall where he usually held meetings, pointing his right hand at the person kneeling in front of him, and said with a slightly trembling voice: "What did you say? Duobang City has already Captured?" His voice was trembling, but there was also a trace of uncontrollable panic.
The man kneeling in front of him was wearing a piece of fish scale armor, which should be very bright on normal days, but at this time it was covered with mud, blood stains and black spots, which was very disgusting. Especially the blood stains, which were completely stained at this time. When it dries up, the black and red colors appear on the armor, just like a smashed cockroach.
After hearing what Hu Jisao said, the man immediately said: "Your Majesty, this is absolutely true! Duobang City has fallen!"
"Last night, thousands of Ming troops secretly sneaked into Duobang City with the help of the rebels, and Yu Yinshi set fire to the city. Then tens of thousands of Ming troops landed on the beach in the north of the city and attacked Beicheng. Although the soldiers of Beicheng fought hard, they were still gradually defeated. Falling at a disadvantage; at the beginning of the Mao period, suddenly a huge fire broke out in the south of the city. The soldiers fighting in the north city thought that the Ming army had entered the city, so the entire army collapsed and Duobang City was lost."
"General Ruan Renlie was trapped in the city and did not know whether he was alive or dead. I hurriedly led the remaining soldiers to escape from the east gate before the Ming army blocked the east gate, and rushed all the way to Thang Long."
"Ruan Renlie was lost in the city?" Hu Jishen received another heavy blow. The loss of Duobang City was already a very heavy loss. Now that he learned that Ruan Renlie was probably killed in the battle, he couldn't hold on anymore and fell on the chair. .
However, he didn't pay attention to the fact that he fell on the chair, and blurted out very rudely: "Cong Dao, you are Ruan Renlie's general. Ruan Renlie died in battle, why didn't you die with him?"
Congdao immediately fell to the ground, trembling all over and not daring to say a word.
Hu Jisao had already lost his mind at this time. The loss of Duobang City meant that the door of Shenglong Palace was wide open, and the entire Red River Plain was open to the Ming army. Although the rivers could still be used to resist at a few joints, from now on The initiative lies in the hands of the Ming army. The Ming army will fight when they want and leave when they want. His plan to fight a protracted war completely failed.
More importantly, Annam had a population of nearly 7 million at this time, half of which were in the Red River Plain area centered on Thang Long Province. The Ming army occupied this area and could recruit people and food on the spot without having to mobilize them from the country, which was a huge logistical pressure. In order to alleviate the situation; on the other hand, Dayu lost complete control over the Red River Plain, and it was difficult to sustain no matter whether it was soldiers, horses, money or food.
It can be said that after losing Dobang City, he had actually lost this battle. Even if he was lucky enough to be able to retreat to Ngai An, Ha Tinh, or even further south to Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and other places, Ming Dynasty The army no longer continued the attack and was just lingering.
In this case, it is no wonder that he lost his mind and vented all his anger on Cong Dao. At this time, when Hu Jisao saw Cong Dao acting like this, he lost his mind even more and threatened to kill him.
But at this moment, an old voice suddenly sounded from the door: "Your Majesty, what happened? Your Majesty is so angry?"
Then a man with white hair walked in and saw Cong Dao kneeling on the ground, shaking and covered in stains. He was surprised and said: "Isn't Cong Dao in Duobang City? Why did he suddenly return to Shenglong? He's still so full. The stains on the body? Could it be that the Ming army was storming Duobang City and came back from the road to ask for help? "
This person is Li Duan, one of Hu Ji-yao's important confidants. This morning, Hu Ji-yao sent someone to announce that he had come to the palace to discuss something, so he came to the palace. As soon as he walked to the door of the meeting hall, he saw him kneeling on the road. On the ground, Hu Jiyou said something very angrily, and immediately walked in to relieve the siege.
When Hu Jisao saw that it was him, he suppressed his anger involuntarily, regained his consciousness, and said to him: "Li Aiqing, Duobang City has been lost. He escaped from Duobang City and reported to me. In addition, not only Duobang City has been lost, but Duobang City has been lost." The city fell, and Ruan Renlie was also trapped in the city, and now he is probably martyred for his country."
"Nguyen Ren Lie is dead?" Li Duan was shocked.
"Yes, Ruan Aiqing is dead." Hu Jiya muttered this, and then pointed at the disciples and shouted: "As a general under Ruan Aiqing, he actually escaped from the battle. I want..."
Before he finished speaking, Li Duan said: "How dare Cong Dao escape from battle? His Majesty, the Emperor, should remove Cong Dao from all official positions and send him to serve in the army to punish his crimes."
It didn't sound right to him. Although he was bound to offend him, he couldn't care less about it. Congdao was Congqi's nephew, and he was usually very favored by Congqi. At this time, Congqi was the general guarding the south of Annan. , if Hu Jiya was allowed to speak out and kill Cong Dao, no one knows what Cong Qi would have thought. In order for Dayu to be able to hold on for a few more days, he could only interrupt Hu Jiya.
And then Le Duan said: "Your Majesty, the most important thing at this time is to arrange the defense of Thang Long City. It is only a few dozen miles from Do Bang City to Thang Long City. Now Do Bang City is lost, and the Ming army takes a rest there. It is very likely that Thang Long will be attacked soon, and His Majesty needs to decide how to defend himself immediately."
Hu Jiya was very upset when he was interrupted by Li Sun, but he suddenly thought of the relationship between Cong Dao and Cong Qi. He suppressed his anger, sat on a chair and closed his eyes for a while, then opened his eyes. He opened his eyes and said: "Zongdao, please get up. It is rare that you can rush back to Shenglong to report the news. Although you have made mistakes, they are not entirely without merit. I promise you to still command the headquarters and make meritorious deeds."
"I thank your Majesty for your grace!" Zongdao kowtowed a few times and stood up.
Hu Ji Yao immediately said to Li Duan: "How can Thang Long Mansion be on guard? There are only 10,000 soldiers in the city at this time, and they are all troops that are not very capable of fighting. There are no artillery; and the Ming army has 400,000 people. There are not as many people as the Ming army in the entire Shenglong Mansion. Even if the Ming army piles up people, it can submerge Shenglong Mansion, not to mention there are several elite troops. It is impossible to defend Shenglong Mansion no matter what."
Hu Ji-sao had completely calmed down at this time, and continued to say to Li Duan: "Go and pass on my oral instructions immediately, tell the soldiers in the city to pack their bags, take all the items they can take with them, and set off for Nam Dinh at Shen Shizheng in the afternoon. "
"Tell all the civil and military officials in the city that the Ming army is about to capture Shenglong Mansion, and ask them to flee with me." At this point, Hu Jiya suddenly laughed at himself: "Now all the officials in the city probably know that the Ming army has conquered many places. If you are willing to follow me to retreat, you should already be packing up. If you want to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, you will probably stay behind closed doors and wait for the Ming army to arrive to greet the Ming army. There is no need to send any more people. Notified them."
Hu Ji Yao gave several more instructions, and finally said to Li Duan: "All things in the city's treasury, especially grain, that cannot be taken away will be burned. Not a grain of grain or a piece of cloth will be left to the Ming army. "
"Your Majesty, this is not appropriate." Li Duan said: "Your Majesty, if the food in the treasury is burned, then the people in the whole city will know that it was the imperial court that left the city without food. Even if the Ming army requisitions food in the city later, they will resent the imperial court. "
"I think it is better to open the treasury and allow all the people in the city to get food. In this way, the people in the city will definitely miss your majesty's kindness."
"Secondly, when the Ming army came to Thang Long Palace, because all the food was distributed to the people by His Majesty, they would inevitably requisition food from the people. At the same time, because of the food requisition, there would inevitably be many rapes and plunders, and the people would be very resentful. Ming Army, if Your Majesty sends people to lurk in Sheng Long Mansion to assassinate Ming Army generals and massacre Ming Army soldiers, the people will also provide convenience, which will make it easier to disrupt the city and delay the Ming Army's advance."
"So I think that your Majesty should distribute all the food that cannot be taken away to the people inside and outside the city."
"Okay, I will immediately order the officials guarding the granary to open the granary after the armies in the city have taken the food, allowing the people to take food." After thinking about it for a while, Hu Ji Yao realized that Li Duan's strategy made sense. And He also considered that it was not particularly easy to burn the grain. There was no guarantee that there would be officials in the city who decided to rebel and join the Ming Dynasty and incite the people to grab the grain, so it was better to distribute the grain directly to the people.
Hu Jisao then gave Li Duan a few more instructions and asked him to go down with Cong Dao.
Hu Ji Yao immediately returned to the harem and asked the harem to be tidied up. At this time, time was urgent, and he had no time to take away all his concubines and all his children. He only asked the empress (the emperor's empress) and several The important concubines and a few of his favorite children were immediately packed up and left with him in the afternoon. As for the others, they could only be left to the Ming army.
At this time, the city was already in chaos. After Cong Dao led troops into the city, many ministers guessed that Duobang City had been lost and made preparations one after another. Just as Hu Jiya had guessed, the ministers loyal to Hu Jiya ordered his family to He quickly packed up, sent people out to find out where the army was gathering, and rushed to the place. The minister, who was ready to accept the new master, closed the door tightly and ordered his family to draw the national flag of the Ming Dynasty urgently, preparing to hold the national flag to welcome the Ming army after they entered the city. At this time, these people were all glad that the Ming Dynasty invented the national flag, otherwise there would be no props that could express their submission so easily.
There are also some ministers who are not loyal to Hu Ji Ya and do not want to join the Ming Dynasty. These people are either taking their families to escape from Sheng Long Mansion, or their families are leaving the official residence and hiding in their own small houses that were not known before. Wait for the chaos in the city to pass before pretending to be an ordinary citizen and come out.
But ordinary people have no reaction to the fact that the Ming army is coming. For ordinary people, no matter who is under the rule, they have to pay food and serve, there is no difference. At most, there will be some chaos in the first few days of the change of dynasty, but they can tolerate it. Okay; and, "I heard that the Ming Dynasty is much more powerful than the Yu Dynasty. If you become a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, will you no longer have to worry about changing dynasties?"
"It's almost the same."
"That's great. Thang Long is a big city. Even some bandits and bandits don't dare to attack the city casually. We don't have to worry about unrest in the future."
All of this is like the scene in Beijing after the Eight-Power Allied Forces captured Tianjin in history.
At Shen Shizheng in the afternoon, Hu Jisao came out of the palace with his family. He finally looked back at the palace where he had lived for more than two years, sighed, and left without looking back.
Soon he brought his family to the south gate and asked his concubines and princes to get on the carriage. The very precious treasures he took away from the palace were also wrapped in cotton and loaded into the carriage. After no one or anything was left behind, Hu Jiyou waved his hand and asked five thousand soldiers to escort them and the trucks carrying some weapons, gunpowder, food and other items to Nading. The soldiers needed to escort the carriages for thirty miles to the Huangjiang River, where they would board the ship to Nading. city.
The soldiers will stay in the Huangjiang River. The Huangjiang River is a branch of the Red River. There is a very large water fortress there, which is equivalent to the home port of the Annan Navy. This fortress is very strong because it was built since the early Chen Dynasty. It is stuck in the narrowest channel of the Yellow River, and now all the remaining large ships of Annan are here. As long as the Nanyang Navy of the Ming Dynasty in the Beibu Gulf cannot enter the Red River, the Yunnan Navy alone may not be able to capture this place.
Just now, while Hu Jiya was watching the soldiers packing their belongings, he said to his eldest son Hu Yuancheng: "Father has decided to appoint you as the commander-in-chief of the Huangjiang Water Village to resist the Ming army."
