The Qing army was stationed in Guangling County, not only controlling all the passes and passes in the territory, but also dividing troops to plunder the four fields and cruising back and forth. Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuanheng passed through the county, and as far as they could see, it could be said that the county was not complete with a village, a village without a complete family, a family without a perfect family, and a woman without a perfect person. Every household is broken and cries everywhere.

At that time, it was in the scorching heat, and Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuanheng secretly copied the mountain path to a town market, and they were supposed to wait for the right and rest to replenish supplies, but they did not expect that there were Qing soldiers entrenched here, so they took seven companions and a total of nine people to hide in the forest and wait and see. But on the road, there were Qing soldiers driving the people, and those people were all in rags, tied around their necks with thick ropes, and the front and back were connected like beads, and they fell step by step, and they were covered in mud. The Qing soldiers straddled their horses in front, holding a thick rope in one hand and waving a long whip in the other, shouting endlessly, like driving cattle and sheep. The cries in the middle of the road are full of wild voices, and there are babies scattered all over the ground that no one cares about, and people and horses pass by, turning a blind eye. Babies are either hooves pressed, or trampled on, liver and brain smeared, miserable.

Chen Hongfan and others were afraid of being detected, so they quietly moved under the cover of the mountains and forests. Who knows that the closer you get to the town, the more shocking it is. On the periphery of the town, there are many bones that have been burned and piled up into a fu, ash like snow, and on its side are countless corpses that have not had time to be burned, hand and foot pillows, pieces of blood ochre. Nowadays, the scorching heat is empty, and the decay of the corpse pile attracts flies and insects to gather food, hungry birds to peck at the intestines, and skulls to pile up. In the town, a large area of fire is burning, and black smoke billows into the sky, even if you don't enter, you can imagine the scene.

"There are too many Tartars here, let's go another way." Chen Hongfan said in a low voice.

At that moment, the nine people were about to quickly cross the road and run to the opposite side, when suddenly there was a cry, so they pressed in time to continue to lurk.

I saw a mother and son running along the road, and several Qing soldiers chased after them, smiling in their mouths. Soon the mother suddenly fell, and all the Qing soldiers rushed up and stepped on her head. A son and a daughter were frightened and stopped, and they were also arrested one after another. The Qing soldiers were happy, three of them insulted the mother and daughter, and the rest stopped to shout and cheer, and tied the child's hands tightly and led them behind the horse.

The mother and daughter wailed, terrible and abnormal, and they still didn't let go after the Qing soldiers were happy, and hugged the mother and daughter on the horse. The child was weak to follow behind, thinking that he was very hungry, and kept begging his mother for food, Qingbing was irritable when he heard it, and turned around and waved a few knives to chop Xiaoer to the ground, but the poor mother held Qingbing in her arms, and saw it in her eyes, but she was angry and couldn't make a sound at all.

The Qing soldiers walked away, and Chen Hongfan and others took the opportunity to withdraw and bypassed the town to Deyi Fort. But he saw that the inside and outside of the fort were burned and destroyed, and the bricks and stones were blocked, and the small river that flowed through the west of the fort turned back, and the corpses and bones were also useless, and they were red.

"I can't stay here." Zhao Yuanheng said with red eyes.

Passing through the fort to the north, passing through several walled cities again, most of the cities are incomplete, the houses have no tiles, and the basil is long and thick. Among the people who could not bear the humiliation or were killed, there were countless people who hung beams, threw themselves into wells, and threw themselves into rivers, and occasionally there were only a few remnants, and they basically roosted on grass, and survived in the ruins.

Chen Hongfan found an old man and asked, "Uncle, how can I get to Datong Mansion from here?" ”

The old man replied, "There are tartars everywhere, and the road is not easy to walk. ”

Zhao Yuanheng said: "The old man escaped from the city? ”

The old man nodded and said, "The Tartars entered the city and forcibly broke into the room, and the little old man's house was occupied by them." ”

"Why wasn't my uncle poisoned?"

"The Tartars plundered dozens of beautiful women from inside and outside the city, and they all took away their dresses and hid them indoors, and did not avoid the neighborhoods, and committed adultery day and night. If anyone refuses, he puts his hands on the board with spikes and continues to commit sexual immorality. As soon as he left, there was a constant stream of back and forth, and he only regarded it as a kiln. For several days, the girls did not know how many tartars they had wasted, and several people died every day. Alas, the Tartars were lewd, and no one looked at the little old man, so the little old man begged for his life and hid here. ”

When Chen Hongfan and the others heard this, they all sighed and were silent.

"Ten miles north of here, there is a temple that is remote, it should be able to accommodate you, and a few masters can go there to avoid it first."

Chen Hongfan followed the old man's instructions, turned to the north, the wind blew yellow sand, along the way husband and wife, father and daughter, old and young followed, all fled in a hurry, full of desolation.

When they arrived at the area of the nine-story mountain where the temple is located, before they could go up the mountain, two monks swooped down from the forest. Chen Hongfan looked up and saw that there was blood flowing from the forest and trees, all of them became streams, and large strands flew down like streams, and even small relics were visible in ups and downs.

"There were thousands of women hiding in the top monk's house, and the Tartars searched here, and suddenly heard that there were children in it who were frightened, so they forcibly searched and killed them, and all the women and children, and the monks were slaughtered."

The two monks thought they had fled down the mountain in a panic. One was killed when he hit his head on a boulder while rolling down, and the other had a broken leg. But even though it was extremely painful, after he finished speaking, he hurriedly limped away and fled.

"The Tartar who has suffered a thousand knives, since he can't hide, then meet him for the real thing!"

Hiding all the way to Tibet, Zhao Yuanheng's patience had long been exhausted, and all he remembered was the miserable scene of the people of the Ming Dynasty being ravaged by the Qing soldiers.

"Killing Tartars, there is an opportunity. We have a heavy responsibility, and we need to return to it, so don't spoil the big thing because of anger. Chen Hongfan was quite calm, and dissuaded, "You will kill more Tartars here, have you sent the news back smoothly to help my army kill more Tartars in the future?" ”

Zhao Yuanheng respected Chen Hongfan in the end, and was silent for a long time when he heard the words, and put away his knife.

On the bank of the Sanggan River, Yang Zhaofeng heard this and said, "Why did the two of you get entangled with the Tartars again?" ”

Chen Hongfan said: "There are many Tartar guerrillas, and they strictly control the paths, so we have to mix in the pedestrians and risk passing through the Ranling Pass at the end. There are more than ten Tartar guards stationed near the sentry camp, and there are more than ten Tartars guarding the pass, and we wait to follow behind, and when we see that every time the Tartars meet someone, they shout 'Barbarian Offering Treasure', although the passers-by take the plate and wrap it up, they will inevitably be cut three times. Everyone is stabbed three times, and no one is spared, if you don't die, you can go. When the poor man was not entangled or the amount of money was insufficient, the tartar was killed on the spot, and he shouted 'Kill the barbarian,' which was no different from slaughtering cattle and sheep. ”

Zhao Yuanheng said hatefully: "Before I waited, there was a man who was slashed at the beginning of the year, shouting 'Master Du's life', and was slashed again, screaming non-stop." The Tartar laughed, slashed wildly, and even more than ten knives, the man's voice gradually weakened, and he died silently. I was unwilling to wait for death, and rushed to the pass, unfortunately the entourage of seven people all died in the hands of the Tartars, only I clashed with Chen Gong, but there were three Tartars who chased after them on horseback, and they could always find them, but they couldn't get rid of them, and they ran for a day and night before they came here. ”

"Escaping from the tiger's mouth is a blessing in misfortune!" Yang Zhaofeng said abruptly.

Hao Mingluan said: "Let the first two Tartars escape, the Tartars of Guangling County will get the news to be prepared in advance, it seems that it is not good to spy on them again in the near future." He added, "At most, it is just a rough reconnaissance deployment on the periphery." ”

Chen Hongfan nodded and said, "Tartar be alert, it is most appropriate to do this." Then he asked about the situation of the war during this period.

Yang Zhaofeng briefly described the situation in Shanxi, and said: "The two of you can go to our military camp in Datong Mansion first, and then let someone escort the two back to Huguang." ”

Chen Hongfan said: "It's okay, there are some things to tell Manager Hou to know." ”

Yang Zhaofeng thought of the reconnaissance and sighed: "There are thousands of Tartars in Guangling County, and I often hear people say that 'Tartars are invincible'. ”

Chen Hongfan shook his head and said: "It's just that everyone is the same, my father had previously followed Li Ning to attack the Beiguan Tartars, and at that time, the Tartars had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and in the end, the birds and beasts were scattered." ”

Beiguan is the name of the Haixi Jurchen Yehe Department, Chen Hongfan was born in a family of Liaodong military generals, and his father served for the former Liaodong general Li Chengliang all his life. In the sixteenth year of Wanli, Li Chengliang led the army from Kaiyuan Weiyuan Fort to attack the Buzhai of the Yehe Department and the Nalin Polo brothers.

"I read the history of Wenguan, and I know what the words of 'Jurchen Man is invincible' actually came from the Two Song Dynasty, and it was first used to boast about the Jin Tartars at that time, and I heard that the Hulun tribes to which the Beiguan Tartars belonged and the Jin Kingdom in the Two Song Dynasty had the most inheritance, so it can be seen that the rumors about the Tartars are just alarmist." Hao Mingluan also said.

The Haixi Jurchens settled in the Hulan River Valley, the strongest of which were Wula, Hada, Yehe, and Huifa, and the Hulan and Hulun sounds were similar, and the Ming Dynasty usually referred to the Haixi Jurchens as the Hulun Four. Compared with the Jurchens of the East China Sea and the Jurchens of Jianzhou, the Haixi Jurchens are descendants of the Wanyan Department of the Jin Dynasty royal family, so they have the most direct blood connection with the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty.

"In the early years, the old chieftain of Jiannu unified the Tartar tribes, and the founding name was 'Jin', obviously the successor of the former Jin State, the Beiguan Tartars are nothing, and the Qing Tartars of the Qing Dynasty today must not be despised either." Yang Zhaofeng frowned and said.

"The strength of the army is like a finger, the synthetic fist is strong, and the scattered palm is weak, before the Tartars were scattered outside the pass, each of them was fighting, no matter how capable it was, it was difficult to offend my Ming Dynasty, but since Li Ningyuan, no matter how big or small, gradually from the old chief of Jianzhou, from small to large, it has finally become a chronic disease that I have been in the Ming Dynasty for decades." Hao Mingluan sighed, "Without the Jianzhou Tartars stirring up trouble, how could a mere rogue shake my Ming Dynasty's hundreds of years of foundation, and give him ten more Li Zicheng would not be able to touch the wall of Beijing City." Xiong Tingbi's words are contrary to his words, but it's a pity! ”

Not only Hao Mingluan, but also Chen Hongfan and Yang Zhaofeng all know the general history of books, and when they heard this, they were all silent.

As Xiong Tingbi, the former Liaodong Jinglu, said, the Jurchen tribes have always been divided, and "the union begins with the slave chieftain, and the union begins with Li Ningyuan" - the "slave chief" is Nurhachi, and "Li Ningyuan" is Li Chengliang, who was praised as "the prosperity of the border marshal's martial arts, which has not been seen in 200 years" and was named "Ning Yuanbo"—pointed out bluntly, whether Li Chengliang deliberately connived at Nurhachi at the beginning to continue to carry out a series of military campaigns to integrate the Jurchen tribes, whether it was for the purpose of using razing to defeat the Jurhachi or out of personal friendship with Nurhachi, He bore unshirkable responsibility for the major military pressure that the Ming court later received in Liaodong, as well as the overall military constraints.

However, the wood has been completed, and the predecessors have long been ancient, and it is useless to sigh.

"In any case, now that the Tartars are bullied in front of us, the only one who can support us is ourselves. The cause that the predecessors failed to do well, we will complete it! Zhao Yuanheng said sternly.

"Well said!" Yang Zhaofeng nodded approvingly, "Everyone has your strength, why worry about the immortality of the tartars!" ”

A few people talked a few more words, and immediately dispersed, Hao Mingluan led the troops to continue to reconnoiter to the east, and Yang Zhaofeng took the soldiers and horses to escort Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuanheng back to the camp.

When he arrived at the camp of Xia Mizhuang, Hou Dagui happened to be absent, so Yang Zhaofeng sent Chen Hongfan and Zhao Yuan Hengquan to settle in the back camp, and went out to find Hou Dagui.

The two were physically and mentally exhausted for several days, and went into the big tent to rest, Zhao Yuanheng fell asleep, but Chen Hongfan was too old to sleep well, and soon woke up Zhao Yuanheng with a loud snoring, and he couldn't sleep anymore because of his heavy heart. I simply got up and walked outside the tent and took a walk to relieve my fatigue.

Most of the baggage in the rear camp was located, and there were many soldiers who carried grain, grass, and armor back and forth. Unexpectedly, after turning a few military tents, a graceful figure suddenly appeared in front of him that was incompatible with the atmosphere of the barracks.