I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 542: Shocked Jiang Bin

At this time, the city of Beijing was still relatively small, and its scope was roughly the same as the area within the Second Ring Road in later generations. At this time, the capital only had an inner city, but no outer city, because the city wall of the outer city was built during the Jiajing period, so it naturally did not exist at this time, and it was estimated that it would not exist in the future.

Although South City has no city walls, many people live here, so it is also a very prosperous place.

The inner city is divided into nine gates, with two gates in each of the east, west and north directions, and three gates in the south.

Under Zhu Houxuan's governance, Beijing became more prosperous and populous than in history, so there were many residential houses outside the city walls.

The Guards appeared in four directions of the capital at the same time, but the South City had a large population and a complicated situation, so it was definitely not suitable as the main attack direction. Therefore, only a heavy military group of 5 was deployed in the South City, and 5 people were deployed at the six city gates in other directions, which consumed people. As for the remaining people, were used as reserves and were used in other places.

The formation Zhu Houxuan deployed was so plain and simple. Since he had sufficient troops, he had to make use of the advantage of sufficient troops and make the people in the city run around in a hurry.

Jiang Bin quickly jumped off his horse, threw the whip to an attendant, and asked a military officer waiting at the foot of the city wall: "Wanshan, what's going on? They even sounded the warning horn?"

"Duke, you should go up and see it yourself!" Shi Wanshan said with a complicated expression.

Jiang Bin felt that Shi Wanshan's expression was very strange, which gave him a bad feeling. He did not ask any further questions, but walked quickly to the stairs and soon climbed up to the city wall.

When he climbed up the tower and saw the scene below clearly, he felt dizzy and almost fell down, but was supported by his followers.
There were tens of thousands of people, and it was endless. That was the feeling of being in it. Jiang Bin was now standing on a high place, so he could naturally see the edge of the large red team. However, after seeing the edge clearly, Jiang Bin felt even more palpitating.

And that’s not all. Countless laborers dressed in colorful clothes were transporting supplies in an endless stream. Their figures were particularly conspicuous against the white background.

"What's going on? What happened?" Jiang Bin asked in disbelief.

No one could answer him. Everyone looked at the city in confusion. This was the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and they were surrounded in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
And the uniforms of the troops surrounding them were so familiar.
It took Jiang Bin a while to recover and calm down. He picked up a telescope and looked down.
The first thing he noticed was the flags of the army under the city. Among them was the Three Stars Flag that the Guards were most familiar with, but what caught his attention most was the black dragon flag with a red background that could be seen everywhere.

The meaning of so many red-bottomed black dragon flags is self-evident.
Jiang Bin calculated in his mind that only 22 days had passed since the incident happened, and only 15 days had passed since he began to seal off the capital. In such a short period of time, only that person could have gathered so many people near the capital.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but get a little anxious.
At this time, news from various city gates continued to be sent in. After receiving these news, Jiang Bin quickly calmed down.

"No, no!" Jiang Bin slapped his thigh and said.

He believed that Zhu Houxuan could organize so many people to surround the capital in a short time, but he did not believe that Zhu Houxuan could raise so many combat-capable troops in such a short time. He believed that those wearing the uniforms of the Guards were employees of the Royal Group. He had fought in many battles in the south and the north for so many years and was very familiar with the military. He knew too well the difference between those who had received military training and those who had not. He had not thought that the people wearing the uniforms of the Guards under the city were retired veterans of the Guards, or rather, he thought of it but was unwilling to believe it.

Moreover, he did not believe that Zhu Houxuan could come up with so many weapons to equip these troops. Now there were more than 150,000 troops around the capital. Although these troops did not wear armor, they were fully equipped with fire guns and various cold weapons.
The incident happened extremely suddenly, so suddenly that he himself was not prepared at all. He believed that it would be even more sudden for Zhu Houxuan, so he did not believe that Zhu Houxuan could take out so many weapons and equipment under such a sudden situation, unless he had already started preparing for rebellion, but this possibility seemed even lower.
Of course, there is also a possibility that the muskets held by the enemy soldiers below are fake, made of some kind of wood.
Just as Jiang Bin was thinking about this, Shi Wanshan asked hesitantly, "Duke, what should we do?"

"What should I do?" Jiang Bin was suddenly awakened.
He looked at the blinding red below the city and suddenly asked, "They don't seem to be showing any signs of launching an attack. What are they doing?"

"In such a cold day, if you don't launch an attack, are you conducting an armed parade?" Jiang Bin asked.

"They seem to be building a railway," Shi Wanshan said uncertainly.

"Build a railway?" Jiang Bin said with some disbelief.

"Duke, look in that direction." Shi Wanshan said, pointing in a direction.

Jiang Bin picked up the telescope and looked in that direction. Sure enough, he saw a group of laborers repairing the railway. Behind them was a fully loaded train that was emitting black smoke and white steam. They kept unloading various materials from the train to repair the railway on the ground.
They built the railway quite quickly, and soon they completed a large section.
"Why are they building a railway?" Jiang Bin felt that this was strange.
"I can't figure it out either, but from the news coming from other city gates, it's the same at other city gates. There are laborers building railways. It seems that they want to use the railways to surround the capital," Shi Wanshan continued.

Jiang Bin nodded silently, then picked up the telescope and looked for a while, and said: "I see clearly that the soldiers outside the city are not attacking, but preventing us from rushing out."

"Why are they trying to prevent us from rushing out?" Jiang Bin asked with sharp eyes.

"Are they afraid that we will stop them from building the railway?" Shi Wanshan said with a frown.

"Yes! That's right. No matter what, the more the enemy doesn't want us to do, the more we must do it!" Jiang Bin said.

"Can the artillery on the city wall hit the civilians who are building the railway?" Jiang Bin asked.

"The railway built by those civilians is about 4,500 meters away from the city wall, which is within the range of our artillery, but there is no accuracy at this distance," said Shi Wanshan.

(End of this chapter)