Chapter 864 The Fall of the Imperial Capital! (Bottom)

For centuries, countless literati and poets had showered praise upon this city. Even foreign writers, when composing poems and lyrics, loved to compare "Shangjing" to paradise in their hearts.

It was a label, an imprint branded upon the era and its culture.

To be more sentimental, it's no exaggeration to say that even the ancient and austere history books could not obscure its radiance.

But now, this magnificent city was undergoing the baptism of war.

It was so beautiful, yet so fragile.

The more enchanting it was, the more it could ignite the desire to destroy beautiful things in people's hearts.

The conflict between Yan and Qian could be traced back a hundred years. In recent years, old grievances and new hatreds had only increased.

In the past, the Yan people mocked the Qian people for their cowardice, while the Qian people mocked the Yan people for their vulgarity.

In the eyes of the Qian people, everything north of the Three Borders was the territory of barbarians. The so-called Yan people were just Yan barbarians.

Generations had grown up amidst "regional discrimination."

The so-called Zhuxia (Han Chinese), the so-called common roots and ancestry, very few people truly understood this principle. Moreover, among these few, many pretended not to understand even when they did.

A hundred years ago, the Qian people took advantage of the Yan people's decisive battle with the barbarians to launch a northern expedition, stabbing them in the back. A few years ago, in the Jin region, the Chu people and savages joined forces to treat the Jin people as two-legged sheep.

The former Yan Emperor had the ambition to annex Zhuxia, so he would naturally exercise restraint in some aspects.

But this did not include the Pingxi Prince, surnamed Zheng,

Nor did it include the Yan soldiers who were currently attacking Shangjing.

For Zheng Fan, he had already chosen to fight to the death for survival. And for the Yan soldiers, after their mental and physical exhaustion had reached a certain point, swinging their blades had become an instinct.

However,

Fortunately,

Even though Chen Yang, in his capacity as the Earl of Yishan and the commander of this army, had issued a military order to "not sheathe their swords,"

First, now that the main force had scattered into Shangjing, the organizational structure was inevitably chaotic, and it was almost impossible for the military order to be fully conveyed.

Second, the Yan army this time was still too small. Compared to the size of this great city, it was unrealistic to swallow it whole in one bite with only 30,000 soldiers.

After the Yan army stormed into the city through Zhengyang Gate, they were basically divided into two groups. One group, led by Fan Li, shouted the slogan "Capture the Qian Empress" and went straight to the imperial palace.

The other group, led by Chen Yang, began to attack the organized resistance that was trying to form within the city.

These two groups alone accounted for almost all of the Yan army's strength.

And as the outer city of the imperial palace fell, when Fan Li led his troops to prepare to attack the inner city, which was the true living area of the emperor and his concubines, they finally encountered fierce resistance.

Initially, the Yan army had been far too successful. The defense camp outside Shangjing had been almost emptied beforehand, so it failed to stop the invading enemies on the periphery.

Naturally, the walls of Shangjing had not had time to be cleared and fortified. Without any preparations for defending the city, they were directly stormed in by the ravenous Yan people.

Even the imperial palace had been infiltrated by the Yan army, along with some unknown Qian people from some faction or other, due to the chaotic situation.

But when the Yan soldiers' blades were about to touch the most core and fragile area of the entire Shangjing, no, of the entire Qian Kingdom, when the Qian people here realized that they had no other way out, they burst forth with a considerable will to resist.

The Silver Armor Guards responsible for the safety of the inner palace, the palace guards, plus the guards brought by other officials, and even the eunuchs in the harem, all began to pounce on the ferocious Yan people.

The walls of the inner city were actually not high, basically just for show, but relying on this small city wall, the Qian people inside and the Yan people outside engaged in a desperate struggle.

This forced Fan Li to order more Yan troops to come in from outside the palace to join the assault.

On Chen Yang's side, after continuously defeating more than a dozen organized forces from who knew which yamen, which duke, or which large family, he encountered resistance from the guards and servants of each household.

The location where the Yan army entered the city, coupled with their direct approach to the imperial palace, meant that the Yan army's activity area after entering the city was basically confined to a very narrow area. And this area happened to be the location of the famous wealthy residences of Shangjing.

Because Shangjing had too many people, it had been expanded several times in history, so it was not like other traditional cities that simply divided into inner and outer cities, with nobles and royalty in the inner city and ordinary people in the outer city.

Its rich areas basically radiated out from a single area, with the slanted "central axis" referring to the imperial palace.

Yao Zizhan's poem once mentioned "Tonight broken tiles, rain jingles, someday three streets, books flourish."

"Three streets" refers to the "rich area" of Shangjing. Yao Zizhan never used the term "inner city."

Therefore,

When Chen Yang's order was issued,

The Yan soldiers who had been "restrained" in Lanyang City and Chuzhou City began to "go on a rampage."

The mansions of wealthy families and the homes of powerful officials were kicked open, and they charged straight in.

These hillbillies had simple minds but still knew that only in these large households could they find real treasures.

After rushing in, the guards of the mansions immediately began to protect their masters, fighting with the Yan soldiers.

These were actually the hidden armed forces of Shangjing. They did not officially exist on the military rolls, but they could not be ignored.

Some of the bolder families even allowed their guards to use military crossbows.

Although these so-called guards were unlikely to gain any advantage against regular troops and were basically on the defensive, the Yan army had really stirred up a hornet's nest, with fighting everywhere.

"Damn it, are the Qian people this brave in civilian life!"

This was probably the feeling in the hearts of many Yan soldiers.

In fact, a proper siege would give the soldiers and civilians in the city a buffer time. When they realized that the situation was hopeless, most people would choose to "submit" to save their lives.

The "three streets" were often the most eager to save their lives, but everyone just happened to run into each other and started fighting.

The imperial palace was still in a stalemate, constantly calling for troops, while outside the imperial palace, the soldiers were trapped in mansions, fighting fiercely with the guards and retainers.

This made the Yan people's forces become increasingly insufficient.

The Yan people had entered the city, and Zhengyang Gate had also fallen, but the Yan people had not been able to spread their forces out in time. Even now, nearly three-quarters of Shangjing had not been truly touched by the Yan army, and three of the four main city gates were still in the hands of the Qian army.

This was not due to Chen Yang's command mistakes, nor was it a problem with the Yan army's military discipline.

It was that, facing this first great city of Zhuxia, the city's area, scale, population, and everything else exceeded the imagination of the Yan army, from top to bottom. You wouldn't even practice and drill like this, because you simply hadn't seen it before.

Even the capital of Yan, Yanjing, was still slightly miniature compared to Shangjing.

Therefore, the Yan army was completely like country bumpkins entering the city, instantly dazzled.

So, in theory,

If anyone could raise their arms and call out, no, even if it wasn't a single person, but three or four, or even seven or eight people, to start gathering the scattered troops, assembling the wandering knights, guards, and courageous civilians who dared to take up arms, and then link them together, perhaps the situation in Shangjing could still be reversed!

This was no exaggeration, because this was, after all, the Qian people's home ground, the Qian people's capital, and the Yan people, despite appearing fierce now, were actually at the end of their strength. If they really fought a long battle, the outcome was still unknown.

But first, Chen Yang personally led a force to charge back and forth. Moreover, the first batch that could be organized, whether officials or heroes, or the so-called Shangjing sects, were all the responsible and courageous ones. This first batch, because they reacted too quickly and had too strong of an organizational ability, became the first targets of Chen Yang's forces.

After they were defeated, and many were even directly killed, the quality of those who grew out later was not as high as the former.

Moreover, the Yan people suddenly appeared in Shangjing like divine soldiers descending from the sky. The first reaction of the soldiers and civilians in Shangjing was naturally not that the Yan people had taken a large detour, exhausted themselves, and touched a corner of Shangjing. They would only instinctively think that the northern court's army had been defeated, the official who had personally led the expedition had also been defeated, and the Yan people had entered in such a dignified manner.

They had no hope at all!

It wasn't that there were no discerning people who could analyze that the official's 200,000-strong army couldn't have collapsed so silently, without even a hint of news reaching here.

But unfortunately, most people had no brains in this situation.

So,

Based on,

The official army has been defeated, the official has died in battle, the court has collapsed...

Under this series of impressions,

The defeated Imperial Guards not only could not be effectively reorganized, but even those Imperial Guards who had not yet fought with the Yan people directly transformed from official soldiers into bandits at this time.

Everyone began to plunder wantonly, all thinking that the Great Qian was gone, so they should quickly grab some loot and escape.

In earlier years, the Yan Kingdom had also encountered the problem of the Imperial Guards' poor combat effectiveness, so they exchanged the Imperial Guards with the Northern Garrison Army, which was equivalent to a rotation for training.

Here, after the Qian official was furious at the terrible situation of the Shangjing Imperial Guards' corruption and embezzlement, he reorganized the Imperial Guards, led by Li Xundao. Many of the original Imperial Guard families were sent out, and the newly organized Imperial Guards were mostly recruited from other places.

Li Xundao once secretly reported: The people of Shangjing are happy-go-lucky and glib, and are not suitable for training soldiers.

And this led to the fact that the Imperial Guards had truly no psychological pressure when they transformed into "bandits" at this time.

In any case, most of them were not from Shangjing, so they quickly burned, killed, and looted, taking their wealth back to their hometowns.

Therefore,

Looking at the overall situation, it could be found that the vast Shangjing was presenting a strange bipolar pattern at this time.

On one side, the Yan army was trapped in the imperial palace and the wealthy family area, and their forces were temporarily stretched thin.

On the other side, the Qian people's own official soldiers, plus hooligans and ruffians, and wandering knights without a sense of chivalry, etc., began to frantically burn, kill, and loot their own people.

And whether it was the imperial palace or the three streets, these places were characterized by a large area, a small population, and strong resistance.

In other areas, the population was large, and they basically had no ability to resist these soldier bandits. At least at this time, the casualties caused by the Qian people's own people were far greater than those caused by the Yan army.

Subsequently, it even evolved to the point where, when Chen Yang led his troops to continue clearing the other Qian army resistance in Shangjing, those defeated soldiers who were originally burning, killing, and looting the people instinctively dropped their wealth and began to flee when they saw the black-armored Yan army appear.

Whichever street Chen Yang led his troops to, that street actually became stable.

This made the Earl of Yishan of Great Yan somewhat astonished:

Damn it, how does it seem like I'm the one maintaining order in Shangjing?

It was because of this bizarre situation that the Yan army was able to get through the chaotic period after entering the city, allowing Chen Yang to even have enough time to redeploy his forces.

He immediately sent his personal guards to the three streets to give the order, telling the soldiers trapped there to quickly go to the imperial palace to reinforce.

At this time, the fighting in the three streets was still continuing. Large-scale, organized counterattacks were impossible. Most of them were guards from a certain household or several households organized together, fighting with the Yan army around a courtyard or a building.

Many Yan soldiers were also injured or killed by some well-skilled guards due to carelessness, and their comrades were desperately chasing after that one person.

Fortunately, with Chen Yang's new military order, the Yan army began to continuously withdraw from other battlefields and head to the imperial palace.

Even Chen Yang himself began to consciously shrink his forces and move closer to the imperial palace. As for this chaotic Shangjing filled with blood and fire, let it be for now.

The resistance at the imperial palace was very fierce, but as more and more Yan troops entered, and the battle was no longer just a single line but began to penetrate in from other directions, the Qian people's last resistance began to become pale and powerless.

Finally,

The Yan people stormed into the harem like a tide.

At this time, the sky had already darkened, but because they were getting closer and closer to their goal, the morale of the Yan soldiers gradually showed a strange excitement.

"Capture the Qian Empress alive and offer her to the Prince!"

"Capture the Qian Empress alive and offer her to the Prince!"

The Yan soldiers shouted this slogan and began to search everywhere.

It was well known that the Qian official was not here. In theory, the next thing to do should be to capture the Crown Prince or the chief ministers, but the Yan army in the imperial palace, from top to bottom, had their minds filled with the Qian Empress!

Oh, the Qian Empress Dowager would also do!

It seemed ridiculous, but it was precisely because of this "belief" and "persistence" that these Yan soldiers were able to maintain their sharpness after fighting for so long on a long-distance raid.

Finally,

Outside a palace, the Qian people's last resistance broke out.

A grand eunuch, along with a Silver Armor Guard commander wearing a red official robe, led the last group of guards and engaged in a final battle with the Yan people.

At first, the Yan troops who had just entered were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

But then, the Yan soldiers, realizing that they had encountered true experts, began to gather crossbows and shields to suppress them.

For these elite troops, they had their own set of experiences on how to deal with the strong enemies they encountered on the battlefield.

The most fortunate thing was that the official had personally led the expedition and taken away most of the expert guards, such as the Bai Li siblings, who were not here at all.

If there had been enough experts in the imperial palace from the beginning, they could have used one group to cover the retreat while another group took the important people to escape, taking advantage of the chaos at that time and the fact that the Yan people had not completely entered the imperial palace. It really wouldn't have been difficult to escape.

But the problem was that the Qian people's own chaos, coupled with the lack of experts, prevented them from seizing the opportunity that the Yan people had left them.

The old eunuch died in battle, and the Silver Armor Guard commander also died in battle. The rest all fell.

The Yan soldiers, holding shields in formation, stepped over the corpses and continued to advance.

"Bang!"

The palace door was kicked open.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and there were even objects like luminous gems illuminating the place, making it look extremely grand and imposing.

A group of children and teenagers huddled together, holding their heads.

There was also a group of women, guarding the children's perimeter. Some of them were palace maids, but some of the women, judging by their attire, were definitely not simple, probably concubines and the like.

And at the very top, a woman wearing gorgeous clothes sat cross-legged, very dignified.

In front of her was a sword.

All the Yan soldiers' breathing quickened when they saw this woman.

Was this... the Qian Empress?

Fan Li, with one arm bandaged, pushed aside the soldiers in front of him with the other hand holding a large axe, and walked in.

"Damn, the Empress?"

Fan Li carefully looked at the woman. She was a bit older, but well-maintained, and her figure was quite plump.

Hmm,

Once over the threshold,

She was still the type that the lord liked.

Among all the demon kings, the one with the least ethical concepts was actually Fan Li, not Demon Pill, because his way of thinking was very different from ordinary people.

"Very good, very good, thick legs, slender waist, and big butt, the lord will like it, hehehe."

Fan Li wanted to rub his hands together, but because one arm was broken, he could only rub his chest with the back of his axe. This appearance almost perfectly matched the Qian people's folk legends about the Yan barbarians.

"This Empress would rather die than suffer the humiliation of the Yan dogs!"

The Empress revealed a determined look, drew the sword in front of her, and placed it on her neck.

Without hesitation, she slashed horizontally.

Sizzle...

Her neck was cut,

It hurt a lot,

And then the sword also fell down, because it was too heavy, and her hand couldn't hold it.

The Empress was somewhat surprised, surprised that she had not successfully committed suicide. Wasn't this how suicide was portrayed in the palace operas?

In fact, even for an adult man, it was very difficult to commit suicide with a sword, let alone the pampered Empress.

Fan Li immediately rushed in, kicked the sword in front of the Empress away, and then slapped the Empress on the neck without any mercy, knocking her unconscious.

Then he picked her up and carried her on his shoulders,

And roared:

"Caught her!"

The Yan soldiers let out a deafening cheer.

…

"So, Xundao, you're saying that the main force of the Yan people had already detoured behind us long ago, and their target is actually our Shangjing?"

"Your Majesty, today our army launched a tentative offensive against the Yan army, and the Yan people only chose to retreat, retreating to the point where any camp of 50,000 troops could no longer retreat any further.

This has already proven that the main force of the Yan people is not here, and according to the time of our three armies' encirclement, they had already left a long time ago."

"Shangjing has the Crown Prince overseeing the country, as well as tens of thousands of Imperial Guards left behind, and officials from all sides, and several chancellors. How could a mere tens of thousands of Yan barbarians break through our capital?"

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Guards left behind have not yet been trained, and the elites in the capital are already all by Your Majesty's side.

Although Shangjing is tall and majestic, it is actually not conducive to defending the city.

Without a sufficient force capable of fighting,

Even if there are only tens of thousands of Yan people,

Shangjing,

Is still as fragile as paper!"

The official lay on the dragon bed,

His mouth slightly open, his eyes somewhat vacant:

"So, our Shangjing is gone?"