Half a day after the battle of Anqing, the Ying Long army, which went to pursue the rout, was the first to return, and there were more than 100,000 strong men who came back like the Ying Long army. Most of these strong men are people from Wuchang, or refugees from the north, after the battle of Anqing, they have an incomparable awe of Zhu Cihong, the emperor, many strong men have long been hungry and tired, there is no food on their bodies, perhaps because they feel that the emperor should not ignore them, so most of them have returned, only a small number of strong men really miss their relatives, worried that after they were captured, the panic at home, the anger pursued the rout halfway, these few people left the team, rushed to Wuchang first.

"It's all poor people!" Zhu Cihong sighed slightly, and ordered people to bury the pot and cook for these strong men, give them a full meal, and at the same time give the soldiers and horses who are still pursuing the rout to finally gather Jiujiang.

An hour later, Zhu Cihong led the Jingying and Yinglong armies and about 140,000 strong men all the way to Jiujiang.

On the way from Anqing to Jiujiang, although it was not looted by Zuo Liangyu's order, it was still a miserable defeat, because the military discipline of Zuo Liangyu's army was not good, and after the looting of Wuchang and Jiujiang, they had already become animalistic, and they took the initiative to loot the places they passed along the way without Zuo Liangyu's orders.

Many peaceful villages were burned, women were killed, and the rebels died tragically, and the looting of goods and food gave rise to countless bandits, who once again abused these miserable people.

Zhu Cihong witnessed all this with his own eyes along the way, and his heart was sad, these sins were all committed by Zuo Liangyu, if Zuo Liangyu hadn't died first, Zhu Cihong really wanted to cut him with a thousand knives.

"Your Majesty, the Qianfeng Jingying encountered a group of bandits robbing a village, and the bandits have now been captured by the Qianfeng Jingying, please send the emperor!" A herald came on horseback to give the report.

"Take me to see it." Zhu Cihong frowned and ordered.

The place where the incident occurred was very close to Zhu Cihong's location, and Zhu Cihong's dragon chariot soon came there.

This is a village with more than 20 families, several houses have been burned down, the surviving people gathered together, all the young and old, all the yellow and thin, together, about 60 people survived, all of them looked nervously and vigilantly at the surrounding soldiers, although these soldiers saved them from the scourge of bandits, but they were the same soldiers as the Zuo Liangyu soldiers who came to loot more than half a month, who knows if it will harm them again, after a tragic catastrophe, The population has developed a fear of people dressed as soldiers.

In addition, 278 young and strong bandits knelt on the ground, guarded by the soldiers of the Beijing camp, and a pile of wild vegetables, young grass blades and other plundered food were piled aside.

"Look, who is that!" A citizen's eyes widened as he watched a sumptuous chariot, escorted by a dozen knights, enter the village through a long line of soldiers.

"He's wearing a dragon embroidered with a golden dragon, a dragon robe!"

"Hey, is the person who came the emperor?" Zhu Cihong's identity was called out by an old citizen, and all the people who came widened their eyes and were at a loss, and they all knelt down after a while, shouting earnestly: "Long live the emperor!" ”

"The people don't have to be polite!" Zhu Cihong got out of the chariot and said softly to these people, the tone was like a spring breeze, and the tension and vigilance of the people almost disappeared at once, after all, this is the legendary emperor, the emperor should be supreme and benevolent, but it is impossible to issue an order to harm their people.

"Your Majesty, this is that gang of bandits!" Ji Feng, who came with him, noticed the so-called property looted by the bandits, frowned, and drew Zhu Cihong's attention to the bandits.

"Hehe, wild vegetables, tender grass blades, it's really everything!" Zhu Cihong glanced at the looted things piled aside, felt a slight pain in his heart, sneered, and said sarcastically.

All the bandits trembled, since they knew that the person who came was the supreme emperor, they knew that they were miserable, and now the emperor's tone made them pale and frightened, and some of them were even so frightened that they came out.

"Emperor, Emperor, spare your life, we are all people nearby, the food at home has been robbed, we are also forced to do this, please spare your life!" A slightly more courageous bandit, trembling and crawling forward two steps, said in fear.

It turned out that these 20 or so thieves were people from another village dozens of miles away, after the food at home was robbed, there was no way to make a living, at the beginning they could still find some wild vegetables or something to fill their hunger, and then because there were many people in the whole village, they all came out to find wild vegetables, and soon all the things that could be eaten near the village were exhausted, and these 20 or so young people organized together in order not to drag down the village, and became a group of bandits to rob some small villages everywhere, because there were fewer young people in these small villages than them, and it was difficult to resist. Therefore, they broke into the door of every household, no matter what it was, as long as they could eat it, they would grab it, and if they couldn't finish it, they would take it back to their own village.

Although they have a conscience for the people in their village, they are based on the suffering of others, and they don't want to think about it, they are also miserable people, they have robbed all the food of others, and they have eaten themselves, but how can those who have been robbed by them survive.

After Zhu Cihong knew what was going on, he was silent, and after a while, he sighed and gave an order: "Come on, all the thieves who came to loot cut off one of their left arms." Five days' worth of food was left for the village, and the bandits also left twenty pounds of grain for each to take away. And spread the decree along the way, the relief grain of the imperial court will arrive in the county seat within five days, so that all the people can rest assured. ”

"Long live the emperor, long live, long live!" All the Baixin in the village cheered, and they knelt down on the ground and thanked them.

The faces of the more than 20 thieves were like ashes, but after hearing that each of them also had 20 catties of food, they breathed a sigh of relief and knelt on the ground silently, with mixed feelings.

The decree was issued, and it was immediately executed, and all the two dozen bandits had their left arms cut off.

The army set off again to Jiujiang, and at the same time hundreds of soldiers on horseback, scattered in all directions, along the way to inform the people who suffered from the war disaster that the relief food would arrive in a few days, the news spread along the Anqing to Jiujiang all the way to Wuchang, all the people who received the news shouted long live, tears flowed, and in the end the court was concerned about the people, and the emperor was a holy king.

When the army was on the road, Zhu Cihong noticed that Zhou Cao had been frowning, and after a slight groan, he said to Zhou Cao.

"Zhou Cao, if you have any questions, just ask, I won't blame you."

"Huh?" Zhou Cao reacted, he did have some doubts, hesitated for a moment and then said: "Your Majesty, the last general doesn't understand, why did the emperor order to cut off the left arms of those bandits, but he took pity on them and left them food?" ”

"I do have mercy on them, these people are also suffering people, I know that they are forced to do so, but they also base their survival on the life and death of others, some things are done and must be responsible for this, I can see that they are also suffering, and I am forced not to kill them, but I must also punish them accordingly, since they have the heart to do the plunder, the evil thoughts in their hearts have been stimulated, they have benefited from the plunder, if they have not been punished accordinglyI have pity on them, but I can't feel sorry for the other people who have been harmed by them. As for leaving them some food as well, it was my kindness, and considering that the people of their village were also suffering, I would not ignore it if I knew it. Zhu Cihong said slowly.

Zhou Cao nodded clearly and said no more.

Seeing the scene just now, and experiencing the misery of the victimized people, Zhu Cihong felt heavy, this is just the people who were only robbed of food and property, if they arrived in Wuchang, the people there were not only robbed of food, but even the young and strong were all taken away, leaving a bunch of old, weak, sick and disabled, now two months have passed, the people there are not even more miserable.

Zhu Cihong cared about the people, and ordered the people who transported grain from all over the country to speed up, and I don't know how many people would starve to death if they were delayed for one more day.

When Zhu Cihong arrived in Jiujiang, all the pursuit of the rout army also arrived in Jiujiang, Zhu Cihong encouraged them, announced that they would let the household pay them for two months, and after compensating the soldiers who died in the war, they sent all the people back to their original station, Jianghuai's return to Jianghuai, Lingnan's return to Lingnan, the army only left Ying Longjun and Jingying, and Huang Degong's men and horses followed Zhu Cihong to Wuchang, accompanied by the hundreds of thousands of strong men, these people witnessed the tragic situation of the people all the way, and returned to their hearts like arrows, I also want to know what is going on in my own home.

The relief grain went up the river, soon reached Jiujiang and other places, was allocated to all counties, and again along the river almost at the same time as Zhu Cihong arrived in Wuchang, and began to give relief to all the people who were suffering.

Wuchang because of the loss of most of the young and strong, is really several times more miserable than Jiujiang and other places, now two months have passed, here is everywhere starving corpses of old and young, strangely, these corpses are rarely decomposed, but even so, in order to avoid the plague, Zhu Cihong or immediately ordered the accompanying medical officer to urgently formulate defensive measures.

"Your Majesty, He Tengjiao, the governor of Hubei, see the emperor, long live the emperor, long live the emperor!" When Zhu Cihong entered Wuchang City, an old man wearing tattered official uniforms, white hair, and yellow and thin muscles knelt in front of Zhu Cihong, who was He Tengjiao, the governor of Hubei.

Zhu Cihong glanced at the dozens of strong men who followed behind He Tengjiao, as well as a few corpses that were ready to be carried out of the city, and suddenly realized that the corpses of the starving dead people he saw along the way were almost not decomposed, and it should be He Tengjiao who organized some strong men who escaped the catastrophe to go out regularly to bury the corpses, so as not to let the corpses rot and prevent the plague.

Not far away in a wide place, Zhu Cihong also saw dozens of pots, there was some soup in the pot, this is a soup made of wild vegetables, leaves and other things, Wuchang's old and weak women and children relied on these hardships to get through these two months.

"You've done a great job!" Zhu Cihong's eyes were moist, although He Tengjiao was the governor of Hubei, but Zuo Liangyu's rebellion could not be blamed on him at all, just because he did not abandon and personally led the people of Wuchang through these two difficult months, he also deserves Zhu Cihong's words.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" He Tengjiao was in tears, and his body shook after he finished speaking, but he fainted, and he was hungry and fainted.

"Doctor, treat it immediately!" Zhu Cihong was startled and immediately shouted.

Just when Zhu Cihong was preparing to restore Hubei to life, the military situation came from Shandong in the north, and the Manchu regent Dolgon in order to clear the way to the south in the future, took advantage of all the armies of the imperial court to go out to fight Zuo Liangyu, and sent 10,000 eight banner iron cavalry, 20,000 Mongolian iron cavalry, and 70,000 Han banner troops and other 100,000 troops, with the Manchu Shuoying Prince as the commander, invaded Shandong, attacked Jinan, and the Qing soldiers besieged the city for three days, and the governor of Shandong, Shi Kefa, together with the Xuzhou general soldier Li Huaxi, led his 40,000 horses to suddenly rebel, The city of Jinan fell, the governor Shi Kefa was nowhere to be found, and Shandong was in danger.

I accidentally fell asleep.,This chapter is even later.,I'm sorry.。

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