From spring to summer, and then to early autumn, Jingnan has been under siege for almost six and a half months.

After the weather began to cool, although the climate in Jingnan was dry, after the autumn, it was still cloudy for more than ten consecutive days, raincoats were put down for a few days, and then the weather began to clear. Although the rain was not heavy, the streets were muddy and the potholes were full of stinking water. There were few pedestrians on the street, and the deserted and miserable appearance did not look like they were in the human world.

And in some corners of the roadside, you can always see some white bones, after nightfall, there are phosphorus fires floating in the air, most of these white bones are human bones, people eat people, in the current Jingnan City, it is a very common thing.

In the past, there were many houses inside and outside Jingnan City, but now the dead houses are empty, the empty houses are demolished and used for firewood, the houses are demolished, people grow potatoes there, and there are more empty places in the city. If there is a big Jingnan City, now you can't even hear a dog barking, and the dog has already entered the stomach of a person. Even the birds are extinct. Every time a bird flies by, people always try to catch it or kill it with a slingshot. It may also be because there is no food in the city, and there is no grass or insects to make food, so over time, the birds do not fly anymore. Not to mention the birds, even along with the mice, there are fewer and fewer of them, and for the hungry, the rats are also a rare delicacy.

For the hungry people, the potatoes planted in the open space are even more rare and delicious, even if they are not ripe, only the size of eggs, they will pick out more potatoes to fill their stomachs, and this vicious circle will further aggravate the famine in the city.

Food is getting scarce and people are getting hungrier.

In the afternoon of that day, in the bleak sunset, Jin Fu rode a skinny old horse out of the prefect's yamen, followed by more than 20 soldiers and errands. In normal days, there was no need to bring so many people to escort them, but now the situation is different, and now it is a very common thing for people to eat people in the city, even in the vegetable market in the city, you can also see people selling human flesh on the street, in case of an order, maybe the person will be taken away and killed, and will be eaten, or sent to the meat stall.

So every time he came out, Jin Fu had to bring a few more people out in case someone killed him on the street. As for the horse he was riding, it has now become a rarity in Jingnan, only some war horses in the army have not been killed, and in the rest of the various yamen, there are only one or two horses left at most, Jin Fu's horse now looks dull and dull, and the rib socket is also deeply sunken, not only the rib socket is so thin that you can see the ribs, and even the head looks thin and ribline. It carried Jin Fu and walked through the muddy streets with difficulty, stopping and walking. In fact, the skinny horse could no longer walk, and only barely moved forward under the impetus of the whip.

In fact, Jin Fu was originally reluctant to ride it, but he himself was hungry and had no strength, although as a prefect, he had 200 catties of food every month, but so many people in the family relied on his 200 catties of food, which was not enough to eat, and after being hungry for so many months, his body was already extremely weak, if he didn't ride a horse for a long time, I was afraid that people would fall.

After coming out of the yamen, Jin Fu's mood was very heavy, on the side of the road, once upon a time there was a porridge field set up by the imperial court, but now, the porridge field has long stopped, and the imperial court has no extra food for the porridge field, everyone can only rely on themselves, relying on the little potatoes planted in the yard and open space.

But now, in order to fill their stomachs, people have taken out the potatoes that have not yet grown and eaten them.

What about later?

What about when it's winter?

In fact, Jin Fu doesn't need to care about the life and death of the people in the city, all he needs is to wait, wait for the day when the city is broken, and when the city is broken, he will be rewarded for his merits, and his past efforts can be rewarded, but now, after witnessing the changes in the city, he can't help but think - when will the city be broken?

After almost six and a half months of siege, many people in the city have died, and both the soldiers and civilians and the gentry have suffered greatly. Now that the imperial court has reached the end of the mountain, it can no longer support it, and even the soldiers who defend the city can only drink a few bowls of porridge per day.

Jin Fu understood that the city could not be defended.

Therefore, he sent information outside the city many times, telling them the information inside the city, telling them that they should attack the city immediately.

But every time, every piece of information is like a stone in the sea.

"Why don't you storm the city?"

Again, such a thought popped up in Jin Fu's heart.

As the prefect of Jingnan, he can go back and forth between the inner city and the outer city at will, the earthen walls of the outer city are not vulnerable at all, even if it is the brick wall of the inner city, it can be easily blasted open with cannons, as for the soldiers and civilians in the city, they are now hungry, let alone fighting, I am afraid that now as long as the Ming army scatters leaflets and says to surrender and take care of the food, I am afraid that many of them will surrender immediately.

Hunger!

Not to mention ordinary people, even Jin Fu himself can't remember how many days he hasn't eaten a full meal!

Back in the courtyard of the Li Yamen, Jin Fu was helped to dismount and walked directly to the signing room at the back. But he had only gone a few steps when he looked back and saw that the horse he had ridden earlier was being led by the groom to the stables in the side yard. But it accidentally touched a stone, planted it in front of it, and almost fell down.

Looking at the horse that was about to fall, Jin Fu suddenly thought that the soldiers, officials, and officials in the entire yamen were all like him these days, they were also hungry, and it was difficult for this horse to ride anymore, so Jin Fu gritted his teeth and commanded the steward on the side with a ruthless heart.

"Slaughter this horse, and give each man a pound of horse meat. The rest will be divided until tomorrow. ”

Why will the horse meat be divided tomorrow, Jin Fu doesn't know. As for the servants in the yamen, they didn't care if they were tomorrow or not, and when they heard that the master was going to kill the horses and divide the meat, they all happily walked to the side courtyard. A pound of meat may make a family live for a few more days!

Jin Fu walked into the signing room, and his master Xu Chenglin was already waiting for him there. Xu Chenglin, who couldn't eat all day, had a thin face, as if he had become another person, as a master, he relied on 15 catties of grain from the yamen and 15 catties of grain given to him by Jin Fu to make a living, this food was enough for him to eat alone, but not enough for the family to eat, but now, a family of three relied on these 30 catties of grain, fortunately, he could still drink a bowl of gruel in the yamen every day.

Seeing Jin Fu coming in, Xu Chenglin waved his hand to make the servants withdraw and asked in a low voice.

"The master has gone to see the prince of Li, what are the instructions of the prince of Li?"

Jin Fu smiled bitterly, shook his head, and then whispered.

"What else can the prince command, it's nothing more than telling us to do a good job and not to live up to the trust of the master, and what reinforcements are coming, but where are the reinforcements?"

Now, for Jin Fu, it is no longer a secret that the prince pinned his hopes on reinforcements, because the food in the DPRK and China is becoming increasingly tight, the army and the people are hungry, in order to boost the morale of the army, so the imperial court has told them as early as a month ago that the flag soldiers stationed in the south are deploying troops and will soon come to reinforce Jingnan.

Although this news boosted the morale of the army, Jin Fu, like many people, is becoming more and more desperate, not because he can't see the reinforcements there, but because in his opinion, the current Jingnan will not be able to support the arrival of reinforcements at all, because he vaguely guessed that the Ming army probably had no idea of attacking the city, and they wanted to starve to death the nearly 700,000 soldiers and civilians in the city.

Of course, there are not so many people anymore, and many are starving to death, or have become food for other people's mouths......

"Now the people in the city don't care about reinforcements, but about life, food and ......."

Jin Fu then said:

"I went to see the prince today to save the lives of a city, but ...... Ay. ”

Shaking his head and sighing, Jin Fu sighed.

"The prince can't help over there!"

Xu Chenglin was taken aback when he heard this, then regained his composure and said in a low voice:

"It seems that the imperial court really has no food."

"If the Ming army didn't burn grain at the beginning, then the imperial court could use grain to help the people in the city, but after the Ming army burned grain, most of the food in the city was lost, and the imperial court can't even feed the soldiers now, let alone ordinary people."

mentioned the original burning of grain, Jin Fu sighed in his heart, and he also made a contribution to the burning of grain. But this credit starved too many people to death.

Ay...... It's all fate!

After thinking for a moment, Xu Chenglin said again:

"Think more about the bad in everything. In case the court has no food, and when the winter comes, when the people have eaten all the potatoes they have grown, then the court will not release grain, and the whole city will be wiped out? ”

Jin Fu nodded.

"I'm afraid that's it......"

"It's already getting cold on this day, and when it comes to winter, there will be no food and no firewood, I'm afraid that this Jingnan won't last long."

Xu Chenglin stared at Jin Fu and continued.

"Once the soldiers and civilians in the city run out of food, people's hearts are different. Within three or two days, the city will definitely collapse, and it will collapse without a fight, and the Ming army will enter the city, and when the time comes, it will be all over...... Adults need to plan ahead. ”

Lowering his voice, Xu Chenglin said again.

"Now that it has reached this point, the Great Qing Kingdom has no direction, if you are interested, you may wish to consider the strategy mentioned earlier."

When Xu Chenglin said this, Jin Fu just groaned and sighed, neither saying that it was feasible nor that it was not feasible.

What is the strategy of what he is talking about?

Xu Chenglin had euphemistically mentioned it once before - surrender!

However, at that time, Jin Fu was the same as now, since he did not agree or object, it was precisely because of this that Xu Chenglin felt that there was a drama in this matter.

"Your Excellency still has to make a decision early!"

Again, Xu Chenglin said solemnly.

Jin Fu shook his head again, and then said with a wry smile,

"How can I, as a civil official, decide on this matter? As a last resort, I had to repay my master with a death. ”

Jin Fu is just a civil official, even if he wants to make a decision, how can he make a decision?

"My lord, in fact, as long as the adult is willing, this city gate can still be opened......"

Jin Fu, who knew what Xu Chenglin was referring to, just diverted the topic and said.

"The city gate is open, what can it do, don't forget, the Ming army is still ten miles outside the city, and there is still a large army of the imperial court in the way."

Without an order from there, how could he easily open the city gates? It's not that Jin Fu is unwilling to surrender, but he has to wait for orders from there.

"It's not easy to get them to surrender?"

Xu Chenglin looked at Jin Fu and continued.

"As long as there is no food, they will definitely not be able to hold on, and when the time comes, once the gates of the city here are wide open and the people are scrambling to go out of the city, when the time comes, will those people be killed or not? Of course, this is also the last move. However, as soon as this chess is used, this Jingnan City will naturally be broken, and when the time comes, the adults will be a great achievement! ”

Listening to Xu Chenglin's suggestion, Jin Fu pondered for a moment, and then said:

"The risk of doing this is too great, if you are not careful, you will lose your life."

Xu Chenglin stared at him and said in a deep voice:

"But if you don't think of a way, you must also lose your life? In any case, as long as you open the city gates, it will definitely be a great achievement when the time comes! ”

As for Xu Chenglin's suggestion, Jin Fu was silent, although he had already made contact with the Ming army, and he knew that he should obey the orders outside the city, but on the other hand, he had to admit that Xu Chenglin was telling the truth, and it was indeed a great achievement!

More importantly, Jin Fu believed that he was definitely not the only one who had contact with the Ming army in the city, there were other people, and if those people robbed the first credit for sacrificing the city, what should they do when the time came?

The first merit of the city!

After pondering for a moment, Jin Fu asked.

"Where is Chen Junmen?"

"Still there, in the camp, he is also thinking about finding a way to live. As soon as there is an order from the lord's side, he will open the gate immediately. ”

Seeing that the adults were still hesitating, Xu Chenglin continued to persuade.

"Chen Junmen has led troops for many years and has a lot of experience. He also knows the situation in the city best. He said that the hearts of the people in the city today are already unstable, and that the hearts of the people in the city have been lost since the time of the food shortage. He also said that the guards and soldiers also complained a lot, complaining that they were desperate or starved to death, they were all working for the emperor, but the emperor did not give food to their families, they defended the city, but their families were starving, and some people starved to death every day, and even disappeared inexplicably. ”

"I know, I know people are in turmoil now, but ......"

After pondering for a moment, Jin Fu shook his head and said.

"It's not time yet, it's not yet, the time is not ripe, if you do it at this time, you may lose our lives!"

"Your Excellency, do you agree?"

Xu Chenglin swallowed his saliva, his expression looked a little excited, and he stared at the adult and asked.

"Yes, if that's the case, I'll go out of the city to contact people outside the city......"

……………………………………

I recommend a friend's "New Age Mentor", a good book.