Shang Yi led the soldiers to protect the officials, palace maids, eunuchs, and two concubines of Zhu Yousong, as well as the bodies of Zhu Yousong and Zhu Shicheng, and left the imperial city from Xi'an Gate of the Imperial Palace. At this time, Duan Peng also led his men and horses to the west wall of the Imperial City from Xi'an Gate Outside Street and Xizhang Street of Pearl Tower respectively.

After the two sides met, Shang Yi immediately ordered Duan Peng to set up a defense line and prepare to fight the Qing army, and then recruited all the officials, saying: "My lords, the Qing army has entered Nanjing City, and the imperial city may not be able to defend it, but we will not let the Qing army occupy Nanjing like this, and we will definitely fight the Qing army to the end. Now only the merchant army is stationed in the northwest. As long as you pass the bell and drum tower, you can protect everyone's safety, so everyone is moving to the northwest."

At this time, an official said, "Mr. Shangshu, my mansion is now in Nancheng. I will go back and take out my family's small family and then transfer it to the northwest region. Do you think it's okay?"

After he said this, the others said one after another: "Yes, yes, my home is here too. Everyone in the house is waiting in the mansion. We want to pick them up."

Shang Yi nodded and said, "Okay, if you want to pick up your family, you will go quickly, but now that the Qing army has entered the city, everyone must be careful. After picking up their families, they will gather at the Bell and Drum Tower. I will arrange people to pick you up there."

After saying that, Hula dispersed half of the officials and many eunuchs. Nearly 200 people were originally out of the palace together, but now only 3040 people remained. Among the officials, only six or seven were left, but among them, Shi Kefa and Wu Qi, because their families were not in Nanjing, they did not have to care about the mansion. In addition, Zhu Yousong's two concubines, including palace maids, eunuchs, etc., as well as more than a dozen people from Akishiji and Dehuang's Sect.

Shang Yi said: "Master Shi Ge, Master Wu Ge, the horses here are about to fight. You should protect the emperor's body first and retreat to the bell and drum tower?"

Shi Kefa and Wu Qi also knew that they would not help me stay here, and protecting Zhu Yousong's body was also a big deal, so they agreed and left with the others. Shang Yi pulled out one from his guard and protected them from evacuation.

After Shi Kefa and others retreated, Shang Yi began to arrange troops. The current distribution of the military forces of the Shang army was: Li Dingguo's troops were stationed in Mochou Lake west of Nanjing, guarding the Shicheng Gate and Sanshan Gate. An infantry brigade was stationed at Jubao Gate. Only the special forces brigade stayed in Nanjing.

The troops stationed in the city were obviously not enough, and Jubaomen is the main attack direction of the Qing army now, and people cannot be drawn from here, so people can only be sent to draw a regiment from the 9th Division of Li Dingguo to reinforce the troops stationed in Nanjing.

From the west gate of Nanjing Palace to the bell and drum tower is the central urban area of ​​Nanjing City and the most prosperous area. The streets in this area are crisscrossed with many forks, as dense as chessboards, and are not a good place to garrison. When Shang Yi planned the street battle in Nanjing, he regarded this place as a battlefield rather than a guarding point. Moreover, there is only one brigade of troops, so it is even more impossible to defend it.

However, the street fighting layout originally planned to be the support of the Imperial City and the Bell and Drum Tower was also destroyed due to the loss of the Imperial City, so this central area could not be easily abandoned. Therefore, Shang Yi ordered the entire brigade to be scattered into battalions, with seven main streets, namely the right yamen of the Mansion Army, Xizhangzi Street, Xi'an Menwai Street, Changfu Street, Mafu Street, Zhongzheng Street, and Taipingli, as the main garrison. Shang Yi and Duan Peng led the remaining battalion and Shang Yi's guard to garrison on the Huapaimenlou Bridge as a reserve team. The temporary command center was set up in Yuanfu.

Shang Yi had just assigned the defense forces, and only the two streets, Xi'an Menwai Street and Pearl Bridge 18th Street, had arranged the defense forces. The garrison troops from several other streets and regions had just set off, and the Qing army came out of the imperial city with the passage. Therefore, Shang Yi immediately ordered the special forces battalion stationed at Xi'an Menwai Street to immediately launch an attack on the Qing army to attract the Qing army's troops so that the various troops in the area could get time to enter their own defense zone. The reserve team arranged defensive positions on the street and prepared to respond.

The Qing army also came out of the Xi'an Gate of the Imperial City. Tonight, the Qing army was led by the chief general Han Dai, and launched a sudden attack on Nanjing from Zhengyang Gate and Chaoyang Gate. Although Huang Degong, who was stationed in these two gates, led his troops to resist tenaciously, at this time, another part of the personnel who had infiltrated Nanjing and started an action in the city, first launched an attack within Chaoyang Gate.

Although the meticulous work in the imperial city was controlled everywhere in the battle with the merchant army, they fought easily during the battles of other Ming troops, fully leveraging their personal advantages of outstanding force and strong melee ability. Soon the Chaoyang Gate opened a gap. The Qing army took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack outside the city, first breaking through Chaoyang Gate, and then divided the troops into two groups, one from Dong'anmen to attack the imperial city, and the other along the city wall to support the Zhengyang Gate's troops.

Therefore, the people guarding Zhengyang Gate could not resist and immediately abandoned Zhengyang Gate. Huang Degong also led the people and fled from Tongji Gate and fled eastward along the Qinhuai River.

After breaking through Zhengyang Gate, the Qing army immediately advanced northward and rushed into the palace through Hongwu Gate, Chengtian Gate, and Meridian Gate. At this time, the imperial city had no power of resistance at all, so both Qing troops rushed in and met in front of the Taihe Hall in the Forbidden City. The Qing court defeated by the merchant army and attacked the imperial palace, Xi Zuo, who was defeated by the merchant army, also rushed to join the Qing army and guided the Qing army to attack the merchant army.

After leaving the Imperial City, the Qing army spread across the streets of Xihuangchenggen Street, and at this moment, the merchant army also launched an attack on the Qing army from Xi'an Gate Street.

Urban street fighting was also the key training of the merchant army some time ago. The attack was carried out in a three-dimensional manner, and it was carried out from the street and the roof at the same time. First, a volley of guns fired from the street, and more than a dozen grenades were thrown down on the roof.

This raid immediately gave the Qing army a blow, leading the Qing army commander Nushan, who was the commander of the Forward Battalion. In his opinion, breaking through the city wall was equivalent to a determination and occupying Nanjing. At this time, the merchant army should have fled in panic. They did not expect that they would take the initiative to attack themselves, and forty or fifty people were killed in one go.

Therefore, Nushan was furious. It seemed that the merchant army was too ungrateful, so he immediately led his troops to attack the merchant army along the Xi'an Gate Outside Street. The merchant army attacked and retreated, leading the Qing army deep into the Xi'an Gate Outside Street and retreated to the near the entrance of Sanzhao Lane of Xi'an Gate. At this time, the merchant soldiers left behind were at the entrance of Sanzhao Lane of Xi'an Gate and measured the defense line. In fact, they moved out of the residents' homes to arrange the furniture into a simple cover, blocking the entire street horizontally.

After this period, under the mobilization of the merchant army, most of the residents in the central urban area of ​​Nanjing had evacuated to the northwest region. Of course, a considerable number of residents were unwilling to leave their residences, and they were not willing to force themselves to do so. However, the majority of them evacuated, so there were many empty rooms and no shortage of furniture. The soldiers hid behind the bunker and were ready to fight. The soldiers who were responsible for luring the Qing army turned into the Sanxiang Lane of Xi'anmen and gave up the entire street.

At this moment, behind the bunker, there were also roofs of houses on both sides and windows of the building, and there were many muzzles stretched out at the Qing army at the same time. Suddenly, countless dazzling tongues of flames flashed in the darkness, and the gunshots were loud and the firepower was fierce, far exceeding the strength of the rigid force to lure the Qing army, and it continued.

The Qing army never expected that the merchant army would be ambushed here and caught off guard. There was no obstruction on the street, so countless casualties were immediately killed or injured. The Qing soldiers rushing in the front row fell one after another, screaming for a while, and shouting sounded on the street outside Xi'an Gate.

At this time, Nushan couldn't help but be surprised. Seeing this, the merchant army did not seem to be in a hurry to fight or resist stubbornly, but seemed to be prepared and organized to resist. He was too careless, so Nushan hurriedly ordered the entire army to withdraw from the street outside Xi'an Gate immediately.

But fighting in the streets is not as good as in the wild. Although Xi'an Menwai Street is a wide street in Nanjing, this is the largest place compared to other streets, which is only four or five meters wide, and at most it cannot exceed fifteen people. Thousands of Qing soldiers squeezed into such a narrow long street, pulling more than two hundred steps away. It is not easy to change the direction of the horse. The soldiers in the front row heard the order and turned back, but the soldiers in the back row did not hear it and continued to advance. As a result, they collided with each other and squeezed into a group. On the contrary, they could not move forward, and could not retreat.

Moreover, grenades were constantly thrown from the roof and fell into the Qing army's crowd. In such a dense crowd, the explosive power of the grenade was fully exerted. A grenade could at least kill and injure more than a dozen Qing soldiers. The Qing army had been in chaos, so they were beaten to complain, and they were only scrambling to escape to the streets. Some Qing soldiers even fought against each other in order to fight for the escape route.

It was only after the Qing army retreated to the intersection of Xi'an Gatewai Street that it stopped, but in this short period of time, five or six hundred people had been lost, and another two or three hundred were injured. Even the head general Nushan was injured in seven or eight places, staining the battle robe with blood. Most of the wounds were scratched by the grenade explosion, and two were accidentally injured by their own people.

Nushan couldn't help but be secretly frightened. Unexpectedly, after the city wall in Nanjing was broken, the merchant army not only did not panic, but also immediately organized an orderly counterattack. It seemed that this was indeed a strong enemy. But he did not dare to launch an attack easily. While asking the medical officers who followed the army to cover his wounds, he notified Han Dai and thought of other ways.
Chapter completed!