In early April, Ajige adopted the strategy of cage cities, collected all the soldiers from Hebei, conquered the food of the people, strengthened the walls and cleared the fields, and defended the city of Beijing.

After Xie Qian's troops withdrew their troops at the Heluohui, they immediately occupied Shanhaiguan and entered Yongping Prefecture. They temporarily stopped marching and sent only a small number of scouts to peek at Beijing, waiting for the Regent Zhao Ming to lead the main force to come.

After all, there are more than 100,000 Qing troops, more than 100,000 Manchu relatives, and 30,000 cavalrymen in Beijing before the main force arrives, so as not to advance rashly to avoid frustration.

Moreover, Xie Qian's 30,000 elite cavalry had little effect on siege. Their main mission was to monitor Beijing and prevent the Manchu nobles from escaping.

If Ajige dared to abandon the city and flee, the 30,000 Ming army cavalry would launch a ruthless pursuit of more than 100,000 people, which would inevitably lead to the corpses everywhere and floating a hundred miles away.

With such a Ming Dynasty elite cavalry, Ajige had no choice but to stick to the city.

When Xie Qian's troops entered Yongping Prefecture, Zhao Ming led more than 200,000 Ming troops, 30,000 Shandong rebels, and tens of thousands of civilians who had advanced north along the Grand Canal.

At the same time, the Ming army's 20,000 naval troops had arrived at Dagukou and approached Tianjin.

Since Ajige collected all the troops from Hebei, the Ming army almost never encountered resistance, and they were in a storm and fell in love with the scene of the king's army.

Zhao Ming went north, passed Cangzhou, Jinghai, and arrived in Tongzhou.

The biggest difficulties caused to the Ming army along the way were not the Qing army, but the people of Hebei and the flag slaves of Manchu manors.

Ajige collected all the surplus food for the people a few months ago, causing Hebei to fall into a severe famine. He hoped to rely on refugees and bandits, and a chaotic Hebei to drag Zhao Ming into the army.

After Zhao Ming saw a mess, he was discouraged.

However, Zhao Ming had long expected this, so he led a large number of merchants and gentry to march north together.

Zhao Ming was responsible for regaining lost land, while merchants and wealthy gentry were responsible for resettling refugees and recruiting tenants for his farm.

Ajige did not expect that his actions not only did not delay Zhao Ming, but instead allowed Zhao Ming to take the opportunity to win over the hearts of the people, making merchants and wealthy gentry return. The people of Hebei were relieved and were grateful to Zhao Ming.

What Ajige did not expect was that Zhao Ming used the Northern Expedition to directly skip the bloody and cruel land enclosure movement, disintegrate the small peasant economy, realize a new planting model of large manors and large farms, saving nearly a hundred years of time, and making the Ming Dynasty ahead of the world.

Zhao Ming went north and divided the areas for the accompanying merchants and wealthy gentry, took over the flag fields, flag villages, and liberated flag slaves. Ajige did the evil things. Zhao Ming only gave a little favor, which won the hearts of the people and gained support.

On the tenth day of April, the main vanguard of the Ming army arrived in the southern suburbs of Beijing.

Li Yuanyin and other vanguard generals appeared at the city of Beijing and were immediately shocked by the behemoth in front of them.

This former capital of the Ming Dynasty had a height of walls and a wide moat, which was far more majestic than what the Ming army had seen before, and was even more majestic than Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Yuanyin led hundreds of cavalry to attack the city and found that the Beijing city wall was more than 40 miles long, with a height of about four meters and a few hundred thousand people. It was really impossible to defeat it.

While Li Yuanyin was peeping, thousands of cavalry rushed out of the city of Beijing. Li Yuanyin did not dare to look down on him, so he immediately evacuated and went to Tongzhou to report to Zhao Ming.

Since Beijing was designated as its capital, it has relied entirely on strong attacks and has not been captured yet.

In the past, the emperor fled or someone in the city rebelled.

For example, Yuan Dadu was in a hurry and fled north, and was easily captured by Xu Da.

By the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, but the traitor in the city opened the city gate, and the city fell in just a few days.

The Qing army was able to take over Beijing because Li Zicheng led the crowd to flee.

Let’s look at the time when the military and civilians in the city were united and there was no civil strife, neither the Ola nor Huang Taiji were able to conquer Beijing.

Therefore, it was not easy for the Ming army to attack Beijing, and this may be Ajige's confidence in sticking to Beijing.

Li Yuanyinfei reported to Zhao Ming and explained the situation in Beijing, while Zhao Ming had led a large army to Tongzhou.

Although it is not easy for Beijing to attack, Zhao Ming has long been confident in leading hundreds of thousands of troops to come.

If Beijing cannot be recaptured, what else can we talk about reviving China and unifying the world?

Zhao Ming then ordered the army to set sail and the troops entered Beijing.

April 12th, sunny.

On the city of Beijing, Qing soldiers and Manchu family members were busy carrying arrows, gunpowder, wood, stones, turtle oil and other objects.

On the city wall, the red cannons and the Folang machine cannons lined up. Behind the city wall, there were stone throwers hidden in the corners of the wall, which would throw thunderstorms to prevent the Ming army from approaching the city wall.

The Ming army artillery has used flowering bullets in large quantities. The Qing army began to study flowering bullets a few years ago, but the technology of fuses has never been broken. The flowering bullets they created are only a little stronger than the flowering bullets used to be in the Ming Dynasty, and are not as reliable as the rock-throwing machine to shoot thunders and explosive packs, so there is not much production and equipment.

On the top of the city, the Qing army and Manchu family members were so busy that they were all facing the sky.

Azig will earn all the people in Beijing, and Beijing has become their last fortress.

More than 100,000 people were full, and there was no way out. They could only defend the city to the death. Otherwise, once the city was broken, what would await them was the massacre of the Ming army.

Since entering the pass, Manchus began to enjoy a life of having no worries about food and clothing in the pass, and many people have not been engaged in labor for more than ten years.

At this time, many people were so tired that they were panting and sweating profusely.

This made them start to curse, Zhao Ming who put them in such a situation. At this moment, a man who had just put a piece of log on the city stood up and beat his weak waist, but suddenly found that outside the city, a fiery red figure was moving towards the city.

The man looked closely and his eyes suddenly raised, and he exclaimed, "Here is here! The enemy is here!"

The busy Qing army and Manchu family members on the city wall put down their work, stood up, and looked out of the city.

In a moment, the city wall was filled with Qing troops, and the originally noisy city wall suddenly became quiet.

At this time, a Qing general separated the crowd, took out the Qianli Mile Mile Mile, and looked out of the city. Under the camera, there were all moving plate helmets and bright flags flying in the wind.

On a sunny day, the vision is excellent. Under the mirror of a thousand miles, I can't see the beginning and end of the Qingming Army. The marching team may have spread for dozens of miles.

At the top of Beijing, there was a silence for a moment, and the defenders felt tremendous pressure.

At this time, the Qing general put away the Qianli Miles mirror with a little trembling hands. After a while, he turned his head, grabbed the chest of a soldier, and shouted anxiously: "Report to the emperor quickly, Zhao Zamao is here!"
Chapter completed!