In the early morning of the second day of December, Hao Feihu, Yu Wenshan, Luo Wenhu and other generals led their troops out of the Jiangmen Gate to retreat westward, and went out of the city in the name of recapturing the west peak fort of Jinling Mountain in the south of the city.

At the beginning, there were a small group of generals who could not hold the military discipline and went out of the camp to plunder, and the fierce military discipline supervision team of the past was nowhere to be seen, and at the corner of the day, the riots began to spread to the whole city; The last group of hidden piles left by the Zhejiang-Fujian army in Jiangning City also set fire everywhere.

The weather is dry and dry, and the arson is deliberately deployed by the Zhejiang-Fujian army for several days, one arson, one burns is a piece, the whole alley is strung together, and a huge fire dragon is formed in the blink of an eye.

The people were like frightened birds, watching the fire and rebellion, and scattering in fear......

The chaos in the outer city naturally quickly attracted the attention of everyone trapped in the imperial city.

The imperial city is divided into the inner and outer cities, the outer city is where the six official offices are located, the inner city is the palace city, Chen Xiyan, Gao Zongting and others retreat to the imperial city, so as to fight to the last soldier to prepare, from the outer imperial city to the palace city, are all layer by layer of defense, Gao Zongting and Chen Xiyan and other Jiangning officials and the family members of the officials who came in to take refuge in the chaos and the civilians near the east city are crowded in the palace city on weekdays.

At night, the patrol did not rest until the early hours of the morning, and in the early morning, Zhang Yubo was still wrapped in a big hat and leaned in the corner of the wall and slept sweetly.

Listening to the footsteps approaching, Zhang Yubo opened his loose eyes and saw that it was the servant beside Zhao Hu. This person's face is pockmarked, Zhang Yubo only knows that everyone calls him Zhao Mazi, he is a brave general, Zhang Yubo saw with his own eyes that there are as many as six enemy soldiers who have chopped him down in the city in the past few days.

Seeing Zhao Mazi coming over, Zhang Yubo was shocked, listening to the movement of the soldiers outside, it was the generals who were assembling, thinking that something was going on outside, so he hurriedly got up from the ground and asked, "The thieves are attacking again?" ”

"I didn't attack it, but the city was in a mess, and something big happened." Zhao Mazi fought bravely, but he was a stupid mouth.

Zhang Yubo listened confused, picked up the saber and walked out, and just went out and almost collided with Yuan Jinqiu, who was holding Chen Xiyan.

"Master Zhang, you slow down, Chen Xiangye's body can't withstand your collision......" Yuan Jinqiu quipped.

"Little flim, the old man is not a paper paste," Chen Xiyan held himself as an elder, and spoke politely to Yuan Jinqiu, who attacked the Marquis of Yongchang, first scolded Yuan Jinqiu with a smile, and then explained to Zhang Yubo, "Gao Zongting said that the thieves have been in chaos since the early morning, and it seems that the main force of the Huaidong soldiers and horses has arrived, and the thieves can't bear the siege of the Huaidong army, so they will flee first......"

Chen Xiyan, who has white hair and a bright head, is as thin as a piece of dead wood, but his spirit is still very vibrant. In the past few days, Chen Xiyan has patrolled the city, more frequently than Zhang Yubo, but people can't see that his body can't support it at all, but Mu Laoguo fell ill after retreating into the imperial city, and he has been lying on the sickbed for several days and has not been able to get up......

Zhang Yubo watched Chen Enze organize the soldiers in the palace city to gather in the outer city, it seemed that he was going to organize a counterattack from the imperial city, he watched Zhao Shuhan, Fan Jiliang and others all hug out, and hurriedly asked, "Where is the old prince Mu?" He is looking forward to this moment, he has to let him always see the scene of the thieves being expelled! ”

"Can his body and bones still go to the tower to blow the cold wind?" Chen Xiyan's voice was hard and tight, and it sounded loud, which made people feel refreshed......

Although it has only been three or five days, for the people trapped in the Imperial City, it is as long as the past three or five months.

When he was forced to abandon the outer city and stick to the imperial city, the situation in Jiangning had reached the most critical edge, and he knew that the main force of the Huaidong Army would come north from Xiaoshan to help, but what choice would the luxury family make, whether it would forcibly take Jiangning, and then lead the Yan to invade the south, and completely destroy the last point of the Yuan clan of the Yue Dynasty......

The so-called doing one's best to obey the destiny of heaven, even Gao Zongting, who is good at scheming, cannot know for sure whether the main force of Huaidong's soldiers and horses will encounter other variables on the way north. Even an unexpected heavy rain can drag the Huaidong soldiers and horses for several days and change the direction of the entire battle situation - after the Zhejiang-Fujian army occupies the outer city, because the city wall of the outer city, especially the city wall of Donghua Gate, which is not dangerous, is particularly high, blocking the view of the imperial city tower, the people who retreated to the imperial city have no idea the development of the outside situation in the past few days, and the days are naturally extremely slow, which makes people feel like a year......

How can one not be excited when he hears that the bandits in the outer city are showing signs of unstable escape? Count on your fingers, from the time you retreat to the imperial city, this is only the fifth day. In the past five days, although everyone seems to be panicked, the days are not difficult.

In the end, the officials who stayed in Jiangning and retreated into the imperial city were not only Chen Xiyan, Fan Jiliang, Zhang Yubo, Zhao Shuhan and others, Mu Guogong and Yongchang Hou Yuan Jinqiu, all took the people of the palace to avoid entering the imperial city, and even included Xie Chaozhong, Liu Zhi and other criminals who were imprisoned by Emperor Yongxing, and Emperor Yongxing also forgot about them before abandoning the city, and they were always locked in a prison in the imperial city.

After Gao Zongting decided to stick to the imperial city, before the Zhejiang and Fujian armies rushed to encircle it, there was still nearly half a day to evacuate, and as far as possible, the families of the officials and the people near the eastern city were brought into the imperial city for refuge, including Chen Qingqing, who was as famous as Su Mei, and also followed Yongchang Hou Yuan Jinqiu to avoid the imperial city and escaped into a catastrophe.

Zhang Yubo, Yuan Jinqiu and others surrounded Chen Xiyan and walked to the outer city, Zhao Hu had already put on his armor and mounted his horse, and it seemed that he personally led the armor soldiers out of the imperial city, Zhang Yubo didn't care to talk to Zhao Hu, and almost used his hands and feet to climb the tower in the southeast corner, Gao Zongting and Zhao Shuhan and others had already been here......

The city was full of fires, and the rebels came out in all directions, which was similar to the situation when Emperor Yongxing abandoned the city and fled westward.

The Zhejiang-Fujian army does not control the chaos in the outer city, and even no longer restrains the military illusion and connives, which means that the Zhejiang-Fujian army in the outer city has begun to collapse, and even the Zhejiang-Fujian army surrounded outside the imperial city has continued to flee to the west and south, and there is no longer the intention of besieging the imperial city, and the armor and weapons are thrown everywhere, and there is no general in Zhejiang and Fujian who has come to supervise and suppress the ......

In this case, it was not even necessary for the Huaidong soldiers and horses outside to come in, just with the defenders in the imperial city, the army of Zhejiang and Fujian in the outer city could be defeated with loose military discipline and signs of collapse.

Moving the blockage behind the main gate of the imperial city, Zhao Hu rode across the horse, brandished a cavalry gun and led his troops to kill, and the last hundreds of enemy troops in the barricades outside the main gate of the imperial city also fled in all directions almost in the blink of an eye, Zhang Yubo was so excited that his hands began to tremble: the rebels of the Zhejiang-Fujian army have collapsed, and the recovery of Jiangning City is in sight......

At this time, there was also a shouting sound in the direction of Donghua Gate, and soon I saw a cloud ladder on the city wall over there, and a soldier climbed up from the mouth of the battlement wall, it should be the soldiers and horses of the Huaidong army outside the city noticed the chaos in the outer city, and decisively began to attack the city.

Zhang Yubo, they opened their eyes on the tower of the imperial city and saw that the enemy army on the tower of Donghua Gate was almost defeated without any resistance, and fled by the way.

Looking at the red battle flag of Huaidong planted in the Donghua Gate Tower, Zhang Yubo was full of emotion, the city head changed the big king flag, who would have thought that Jiangning City would change hands in such a short period of time?

The city is full of chaotic soldiers, and there are more than a dozen fires, but don't look at Jiangning City so chaotic, they are all in a hurry, as long as the Huaidong soldiers and horses can enter the city in time, send troops to suppress, control the riots, and extinguish the fire, it will not hurt the roots......

Chen Enze then went out of the imperial city with his soldiers to expel and suppress the rebels, but the city was full of fires, chaotic people and mixed rebels, and it was more important to prevent the fire from spreading everywhere than to suppress the rebels. Zhang Yubo and the others couldn't help at this time, so they could only stand on the tower excitedly and anxiously and watch all this.

"Chen Xiangye, Chen Xiangye!"

Listening to Yuan Jinqiu's panicked shouting, Zhang Yubo looked back, but it was Chen Xiyan's body that was stiff and about to fall backwards in Yuan Jinqiu's arms - seeing that Chen Xiyan's face was full of tears, but the expression on his face and eyes were frozen there, Zhang Yubo was shocked, he and Fan Jiliang were faster, and helped Yuan Jinqiu hold Chen Xiyan's body, and Chen Xixi's body was already stiff.

Just when everyone was excited and anxious to look at the outside of the imperial city and downstairs, Chen Xiyan stood among the crowd, watching the grand scene of Huaidong's generals recovering Jiangning quietly passed away, his eyes were not closed when he died, and tears were hanging on his face, no one knew what he was thinking at the moment of death......

Emperor Yongxing insisted on abandoning Jiangning and fleeing westward, Chen Xiyan made the last struggle, and although he had to stay behind, he was abandoned by Emperor Yongxing in Jiangning City. At that moment, Chen Xiyan almost exhausted his last spirit, and he could support him to return to the light and support his last few days of hanging his life, perhaps to see Huaidong reinforcements enter the city to relieve Jiangning's danger......

Fan Jiliang and Chen Xiyan's second son, Chen Zhen, couldn't help but cry, at this time, Zeng Shou, the old family member next to Zeng Mingxin, climbed upstairs and said sadly: "The old grandfather has passed!" The old grandfather has passed! ”

Zhang Yubo was stunned, he couldn't help but shed tears, Gao Zongting also stood there for a while, silent for a while: Fan Jiliang cried: "The emperor abandoned the city and left, Mu Guogong invited Chen Xiangyu to accompany him on the street, but I didn't expect it to become a prophecy!" ”

At this time, the Donghua Gate had been opened, and a group of Huaidong soldiers came in from the direction of the Donghua Gate, and there were almost no interceptions along the road.

Donghua Gate is the main camp of the Zhejiang-Fujian army garrison, but Dongcheng is mainly the official residence and various government offices, and next to the imperial city, at this time Dongcheng robbed nothing to rob, Huaidong Army attacked from Donghua Gate, the defenders of the imperial city took the initiative to attack, and the defenders near Donghua Gate spread their feet and ran the fastest. At this time, those who could run were all exhausted, and the remaining disabled people were unable to escape, so they simply surrendered......