On the evening of the 11th day of the first lunar month, less than a month before Renshou County was broken by the rebels, scholar Li Chongwen led hundreds of grass markers who were full of expectations for their future life to climb over the Longquan Mountains and rush to a Wangzhuang in the north of Renshou County.

Most of the five Wangzhuang in Renshou County are located close to the county seat. The water and fertilizer conditions of the fields around the county are generally the best in the county. But this time, because this Wangzhuang is closer to the county seat than other Wangzhuang, and it is on the edge of the official road from Chengdu Mansion to the county seat, it was destroyed even more completely and frantically by the peasant rebel army!

Li Chongwen stood outside the village wall, looked at the broken gate, and called Lu Sanjin to investigate. The grass beacons huddled behind Li Chongwen, and no one dared to move forward. What they could see was the blackened ruins of the village wall; What can be heard is the ominous quacking of crows of crows in the sky; What can be smelled is a disgusting rancid stench.

Lu San carried his nine-ring broadsword inside. But in a few moments, he ran out in despair, and he didn't know where to throw the big knife. He stammered in his fingers as he ran: "Dead man...... Plum...... Mr. Li, it's full of dead people, all corpses......" Before he finished speaking, Lu San threw himself aside and retched.

Li Chongwen was not born a bold person. Seeing Lu San's appearance, his whole body was hairy, and his hands and feet trembled uncontrollably. He tried to move his feet, but his feet did not obey him at all, and he could not move half a step.

"Useless waste! Where does Nong look like a man! Li Chongwen scolded softly behind him, and then a woman in red walked straight past him. The maid behind her tried to hold her, but she dragged her in.

Of course, it was Miss Liu who entered. She was recognized, so she washed her face, combed her hair, and changed back into her clothes. Li Chongwen's face was feverish. He shook his head to calm himself down, gritted his teeth and followed. Some bold men behind him also rolled up their sleeves and tiptoed in.

Wangzhuang is a village and town. There are streets built along the terrain, and there are shops, houses, drying grounds, and cattle and sheep fences on both sides of the streets. In the center of Zhuangzi, there is a big house where Zhuangtou lives, and there are also buildings such as theaters and small temples. But here, there is nothing left in front of me, except for the charred ruins and corpses.

There were 100 male corpses under the village walls, some of them holding hoes, firewood knives, etc., apparently killed while guarding their homes.

More corpses were scattered around the drying ground, men and women, old and young, all dead in one pile. Look at what they are wearing, they are all from the bankers.

Some of them had a bloody hole in their bodies, some had no heads, some were naked, some had their stomachs disemboweled, some had their brains cracked, and some were curled up in a ball. Blood seeped into the tamped soil and turned into several black rivers that stretched out. The stinking and swollen corpses are attracting small insects that have not frozen to death to fly around.

There is a small garden in the center of Wangzhuang. Li Chongwen's eyes looked through the ruins, and he saw the rockery and strange stones that looked like those piled up in Tang Fatzi Wangzhuang by a pond, which was also full of floating corpses, and there were women hanging on the branches.

"They were slaughtered here by the thieves!" Miss Liu was extremely calm at this time.

She turned around and said to Li Chongwen, who was gagging, "You can't live here!" We must clean it up quickly, otherwise the epidemic will start as soon as the weather is hot! ”

Li Chongwen's stomach swelled, and finally came to his mouth. He turned around and threw up on the edge of a well. It was easy to vomit, he scraped the residue from the corner of his mouth with his fingers, and was about to straighten up, when suddenly he saw a pair of empty eyes at the bottom of the well looking at him face to face.

Dead person! It turns out that the well is full of dead people! Li Chongwen threw himself on the ground again and vomited.

Seeing Li Chongwen so embarrassed, Miss Liu couldn't laugh at him anymore. When Li Chongwen sat on the ground and gasped, Miss Liu said to Li Chongwen: "The body should be removed as soon as possible, dig a pit and bury it with quicklime!" ”

I never expected that when I first arrived in Renshou, I would see a hellish scene here! Li Chongwen remembered his mission, tried to calm down, and said to Miss Liu, who looked concerned: "You are right. Lv San...... Lv San ......"

Li Chongwen tried to stand up and called Lu San's name loudly, but after waiting for a while, he didn't see his figure. Li Chongwen said to the blank grass marks around: "Everyone has seen it, this is the good thing that the thief Zhang Xianzhong did!" Killing people, setting fires and stealing things, they are a group of out-and-out demons! If we don't organize, with a hoe in one hand and a knife and a gun in the other, sooner or later the thieves will come to plague us! This is your home! All around, your land! What we need to do now is to quickly move the corpses, clean up the rubble, and rebuild our homes! All the men in the team worked with me to remove all the corpses......"

"Mr. Li, Mr. Li! I heard that you have something to tell the little one? Lu San came out of nowhere, and suddenly ran in front of Li Chongwen and said. At some point, he picked up his broadsword and put it back on his shoulder.

"I thought you were frightened and fled back to the provincial capital overnight!" Li Chongwen sarcastically said to Lu San.

Lu San replied honestly: "How can that!" The small ones are still waiting for you to divide the land. The small one started with some fear. Who is not afraid of this scene? But the dead have seen a lot, and they are all like that, and they are not afraid in their hearts. ”

Seeing that it was getting late, Li Chongwen couldn't care about being verbose with Lu San, and hurriedly said: "There is no lime here, so you can only use firewood to get rid of the plague." Find some people, dig some big pits nearby, and chop some fine wood and dry branches, and prepare to burn people to death! ”

Lu San understood it, and hurriedly went to find someone. At this time, a man in his forties walked up to Li Chongwen with more than a dozen men and said, "Mr. Li, all of us are from northern Sichuan and eastern Sichuan, and we are used to seeing dead people, and we also know how to deal with dead people. You and Miss can rest and go, and we'll leave it to us. You are good to us, we know it in our hearts. Leave things to us, you can rest assured! ”

That man turned out to be Wei Lao Er, who asked questions in the crowd yesterday. Li Chongwen nodded to Wei Lao Er, and said continuously: "Okay! Good! Lao Wei, I'll leave it to you here! When moving the dead, remember to wrap your hands tightly with a cloth so that you can't get the corpse water! Cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth so as not to soak in corpse gas. Stained with corpse water and soaked in corpse gas, people are going to be plagued! There are too many dead people in it, and it may not be burned clean. The corpse pit can only be selected in a high place, not dug in a low place! Otherwise, the water will be washed out in the rain! ”

That night, Wei Lao Er led the grass markers and lit torches and worked all night before cleaning up the corpses on the ground in Wangzhuang. As for the corpses in the pond and well, because there are no long iron hooks, we will have to wait for the day after tomorrow. Li Chongwen and Miss Liu organized women and children to set up iron pots on the main road, and poured out the moldy old grain from the grain cart and cooked it for eating.

Early the next morning, the anxious Li Chongwen instructed the farmers to untie all the horses on the grain cart. In order to save trouble, Tang Fatzi transported 60 stones more than Li Chongwen requested, a total of 110 stone of grain, and each batch of grain in the future will be shipped once every ten days. Each two-wheeled cart was loaded with ten stones of grain and transported by two horses, making a total of eleven carts and twenty-two horses. In addition, Tang Fatzi also sent Li Chongwen two carts of things and food alone. These cart pullers are just right for riding.

When Li Chongwen had horses, he sent Lu San and other bodyguards to contact the other four Wangzhuang on horseback in a group of two, one purpose was to find out the situation of the other four Wangzhuang; Another purpose was to bring back some hand tools to help clean up the bodies.

Considering that other Wangzhuang might encounter similar misfortune, Li Chongwen told Lu San to go farther, and everyone who met on the road also asked about the situation in the county. No matter how powerful the thief is, it is impossible to kill all the people in the county in a few days, and there are always some clever people who run out, maybe they are hiding in the mountains to the west.

After the matter was arranged, Li Chongwen took the remaining bodyguards and more than 20 healthy villagers, and prepared to go to Renshou County, a few miles away, to see for himself what the city was like. Because Miss Liu insisted on going, they would also ride horses, so the master and servant were also taken by Li Chongwen.

Renshou County was called Lingzhou in ancient times, and the origin of the name of the county today is because Emperor Wen of Sui lived in Renshou Palace in his later years, and Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, in order to pat his father's ass, asked to change Puning County to Renshou County; Another said that it is named after the landscape. The Northern Song Dynasty Geographical Chronicle "Taiping Huanyu Ji" recorded: "Renshou Water is ten miles west of the county, and the name may be so. ”

Renshou County is a medium-sized county seat, with the Longquan Mountains running north-south to the west. In the southwest corner of the city center, there are two hills not far from each other, like good sisters who live and depend on each other. ONE ON THE NORTH SIDE IS CALLED FEIQUAN MOUNTAIN, AND THE OTHER ON THE SOUTH SIDE IS CALLED YI MOUNTAIN, AND THERE IS A RIDGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TWO MOUNTAINS. The mountain rises abruptly over the flat ground, and there is an octagonal pavilion on the top. There is a straight stone staircase along the mountain to the top of the mountain, because the stone steps are steep, the county people commonly call it the ladder.

Li Chongwen and others entered the city from the north gate. As far as they could see, the city wall was very complete, and the diagonal ladder was still faintly visible on the wall, and there were dead bodies everywhere under the wall, and even more under the city gate. A torn Ming army flag was hung at the head of the city, gently teased by the passing north wind.

The gates had been blown up, and most of them had fallen into the holes. Sandbags and dirt bags were scattered in the doorway, which were clearly used by the defenders to block the city gates.

Li Chongwen and the others got off the horse and led the horse into the city through the gap in the sandbags and dirtbags that had been removed.

The city was littered with corpses. Especially on the stone steps of the upper city, the layers of corpses were built into a low wall, blocking the passage to the upper city. The houses in the city, like Wangzhuang, were set on fire everywhere. Perhaps because the road between the houses was wide, or perhaps there was no wind to help the fire, the fire did not spread. Except for some houses in the city, most of them were preserved.

Li Chongwen was so suffocated by the wet cloth on his face that he ripped it off. He rode on his horse and shouted, "Are there any living people?" We are from the Shu Palace, and the living people came out to answer a word! ”

The wind sends the voice and travels far away. There was a dead silence in the city, and there was no sound. Suddenly, a wild dog with red eyes swooped out from in front of Li Chongwen's horse. The wild dog went in an instant, went and back, barking at Li Chongwen several times, startling his mount's front hooves so high that it almost threw him to the ground. The attendant hurriedly drew his sword, and the dog, seeing that there were many people, puffed at them for a while, and ran away with a puff of smoke.

Li Chongwen settled his mind and pointed to a hill in the city. On the top of the mountain, the green shade is still there, and a pavilion is clearly visible.

Li Chongwen beckoned a bodyguard and said, "You, take people around, and bring them back for questioning when you see a living person!" We met in the gazebo! ”

"Let's go!" Li Chongwen opened his shirt and pulled out the saber on his body awkwardly. The sword and the horse under him were both gifted by Zhu Pingjin when he was leaving. The horse had ridden, but this was the first time he had drawn this sword.