Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 7 Breakout
Outside the city gate was endless darkness. Zhu Cilang led a cavalry team consisting of only 26 people and 55 horses, including himself. They quickly built three trench bridges bought with gold from the defenders of Dongzhimen City Wall, and then crossed the moat quietly.

You must know that six or seven miles outside Dongzhimen, there is a large camp of Shun army stationed there, with at least two to three thousand soldiers and horses. If the drawbridge on the city gate is lowered, it will definitely alarm the scouts responsible for patrolling and guarding.

Now, Xizhimen and Fuchengmen in the west of the city and Deshengmen in the north of the city have just been breached by the Shun army, and the news has not yet spread. The Shun army in the east of the city has not yet fallen into chaos due to the breach of the city, and naturally will not increase its vigilance towards the east of the city. This is an opportunity that Zhu Cilang must seize.

In order to prevent the defenders of Dongzhimen from making any mistakes at a critical moment, Chang Denggui simply scattered the bag of gold, silver and jewelry that he had robbed from Wang Zhixin's mansion along the street.

As a result, the hundreds of Beijing garrison soldiers on the Dongzhimen city wall, who had not seen their pay for who knows how long, were all busy snatching the gold and silver on the ground. They had no spare energy to care about them, let alone stab them in the back and surrender to the Shun army.

Seeing this, Zhu Cilang's opinion of Chang Denggui instantly rose to a higher level. He was so thoughtful and thoughtful, and he was willing to spend money at a crucial moment. He was a promising talent.

As soon as they left the city, the huge gate behind them was immediately closed. Before Zhu Cilang even crossed the moat outside the city, a noisy sound of shouting and looting could be heard from inside the gate:
"Gold, it's gold, make a fortune, make a fortune!"

"Damn it, I saw this first... Don't leave, give it back to me... I'll kill you..."

"Don't grab it, don't grab it, this is my leg, this is my..."

Immediately afterwards, there was a clanging sound of weapons clashing, followed by wailing and screaming. The hundreds of defenders in Dongzhimen actually started killing each other, and the entire city wall was in chaos.

In fact, this group of defenders had originally planned to open the city gates as soon as the city gates in other directions were broken, welcome King Chuang, and then take advantage of the chaos to plunder the capital and make a fortune.

However, they could never have imagined that Dongzhimen, which had been safe and sound until now and even the rebel army did not even look at it, would suddenly have such a group of people whose background was unknown. Moreover, just by looking at their armor and horses, they knew that they were elite soldiers that they could not defeat.

Although these weak soldiers of the Beijing camp are not good at fighting, they have served in the army for so many years and have some eyesight. Moreover, the leading officers can lead hundreds of brothers and have not collapsed at this time. Naturally, they have some ability. They can tell the strength of the soldiers at a glance.

Originally, they wanted to delay time and wait for the pursuing troops of the rebel army to arrive, and then attack this unidentified group from both sides as a token of surrender, or even rob them of some money. However, as soon as Chang Denggui took out the silver, several small military leaders gave up the immature idea.

Although Chang Denggui did not have any reputation in the Beijing camp, he was also a tough guy. He was strong as an ox, and now he was riding a tall horse, wearing two layers of heavy armor, hanging a bow, and hanging a thick-backed Qi knife and two short axes on the belt around his waist. Who would dare to provoke him?
The most important thing is that the current Dongzhimen is not controlled by one person. At this time, since you can get money for free, not everyone is willing to fight for it!
The reason why Zhu Cilang brought more than a dozen of his guards back to the imperial city to collect weapons and armor in such a critical situation was to be able to intimidate these little devils at the critical moment.

However, although they knew they could not defeat Chang Denggui, they also did not think that the small number of troops under Chang Denggui could break out after leaving the city.

These dozens of cavalrymen are probably not enough to wipe out the thousands of rebel troops outside the city in one round. Several towns in Xuanda, Shanxi, with hundreds of thousands of border troops, could not defeat the rebel troops, let alone them!

However, these people never expected that the master that Chang Denggui was guarding actually brought so much silver and used the method of throwing gold, silver and jewelry to stop them, which was simply a waste of resources.

So, seeing this scene, how could these hundreds of officers and soldiers have any intention of defending the city? They just closed the city gate to prevent this powerful army from returning, and then they all rushed to grab the money.

This is the current mentality of the Beijing troops. How can they possibly defend the city by relying on them?
The troops recruited by Li Zicheng, as well as the Ming troops from the Central Plains and Shaanxi that were recruited and absorbed in the past two years, were all of the same character before. The main force of the Shun army based on them was defeated by the Qing army with its entire army mobilized. Although there were many accidental factors, it was not actually unfair.

Zhu Cilang saw all of this. He knew that his first priority when he went south was to win over the people's hearts, restore the finances, and reorganize the army, otherwise everything he did would be in vain.

After the entire army crossed the moat, Zhu Cilang simply reorganized the troops and, after confirming that no one was left out, immediately ordered Chang Denggui to lead his elite cavalry to attack, conduct reconnaissance on the front line, and intercept any possible Shun army scouts.

Then, it was the son-in-law of the emperor, Captain Zhou Shixian. His task was to lead his cavalry to guard the two wings, and when necessary, to block the scouts traveling between several Shun army camps in the east of the city.

Zhu Cilang, Li Banghua, the Lin Changfeng brothers, and Zhu Cilang's two initial guards followed closely behind Chang Denggui's troops, having already made preparations for a strong charge. In this situation, no one knew what kind of accidents might occur along the way.

Although Li Banghua and Zhou Shixian had just been encouraged by Zhu Cilang and were filled with heroic spirit, and were willing to take a risk and gamble even though they knew it was impossible, they could not help but waver when they were really on the battlefield.

After all, they were only twenty-six people, but the rebel army numbered tens of thousands. Could they really break out? If not, there would be no room for maneuver, and they wouldn't even have a complete body!

In the pitch-black night, even the hooves of the fifty-five horses under Zhu Cilang's command were wrapped in cotton cloth, but the quieter it was, the more frightening it was.

However, Lin Changfeng was an exception. He had been living in misery for so many years since the Battle of Dalingh River, and was even occupied by Wang Zhixin as a servant. He finally came across such an opportunity and now wanted to give it a try. If he still had a chance to kill the Tartars and take revenge in the future, he would accept the loss.

Moreover, this is the crown prince. Unarmed, he dared to instigate the remnants of the Beijing camp to rebel, and killed the powerful eunuch in the midst of laughter and conversation. Such heroic spirit can be seen at a glance that he is the seed of a powerful ruler. It is worth his gamble!
Lin Changfeng believed in his own judgment, while Lin Changping believed in his elder brother. The two brothers rode their horses closely to guard Zhu Cilang without any hesitation.

At least, they still have a glimmer of hope!

You should know that the so-called "siege" does not mean to surround the entire city tightly. The besieging troops only choose a suitable location outside the city to set up camp, and use it as a stronghold to build a fortress and dig trenches. After besieging the city to be attacked, they will launch a siege.

As a result, there are inevitably large gaps between each camp, and these places can only be guarded by sending troops and scouts to patrol.

So, to a certain extent, there is no real possibility of trapping a city to death.

Moreover, Beijing was located on a plain, with a circumference of nearly 100 miles between the north and south walls. The Shun army had only been besieging the city for two days, and hadn't even had time to build the fortifications needed for a long-term siege. How could a mere hundred thousand troops possibly trap such a vast capital?
Now, the main force of the Shun army has entered the city from the west and north. There are only three camps in the east where Liu Fangliang's army is stationed. There are only a few thousand soldiers stationed in each camp, and none of them are the Shun army's veteran soldiers. The defense is very weak.

If they had been prepared in advance, these Ming army surrendered soldiers recruited by Liu Fangliang along the way might have been able to stop Zhu Cilang's cavalry squad and inform the surrounding Shun army cavalry, forming a siege and attack from both sides.

But the current situation is very clear. The Shun army in the east of the city is completely unaware of the news that Zhu Cilang led his troops out of the city. In fact, because of the news that the city gates in the west and north had been broken, these defenders have completely relaxed their vigilance.

After all, this was the capital of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, gathering most of the world's dignitaries and the huge wealth they plundered.

Under the control of Li Zicheng, although the Shun army had strict military discipline, it did not mean that none of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers were tempted, nor did it mean that the generals of each camp had no selfish motives. The first army to enter the city must be the Shun army's direct line, the real elite of the old camp, but there must also be other troops taking advantage of the chaos to enter the city.

The soldiers and horses left behind in the east of the city are naturally the newly surrendered old Ming troops. They have not had enough food for several days, their morale is unstable, and their combat effectiveness is completely incomparable to that of the old camp of the Shun army.

This is also one of the reasons why Zhu Cilang dared to take the risk of breaking out. If his so-called elite troops of the Beijing Camp encountered the veteran soldiers of the Shun Army, they might not be able to win.

Fifty-five war horses galloped at the same time in the night, all with cotton on their hooves. The slight movement of the horses running on the plain was almost negligible amid the huge noise of the fall of Beijing and the sound of artillery fire.

Under the cover of night, Zhu Cilang deliberately had his men make a detour, pretending to be Shun army scouts coming from the camp in the northeast of the city. They quickly approached the area between the camps and blocked their checkpoint.

Chang Denggui led his six cavalrymen in the vanguard. These were the most elite soldiers of the Beijing Camp, each of them proficient in wielding several weapons, and drawing a bow and arrow was no problem at all. As they rode towards the Shunjun checkpoint, they were already prepared for battle.

(End of this chapter)