An hour and forty-five minutes.
This number is not the time some foolish author took to write this chapter, but the final time it took Xiaozhao to successfully take over the Imperial Palace.
That's right.
Not even three hours altogether.
The 'loyalist' army occupied the entire Imperial Palace.
After the battle in the Forbidden City began, the choice for the southern, northern, and western garrison troops was only one:
To support the battlefield.
Having abandoned the city gates, which were the defensive 'fortress', the garrison troops lost their most crucial protective barrier, and the entire battle situation instantly turned into a ground confrontation.
Not to mention the Forbidden City had only a little over two hundred personnel on duty; after Old Zhong and others captured the Huaitong Gate, they even had ample time to lay an ambush along the 'enemy's' route using the cover of night.
