Jiangyin County, north of Changzhou Prefecture and adjacent to the Yangtze River, was guarded by Chen Chengqi, the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After Li Taitai was sent away, Xuan's army immediately started and attacked Jiangyin from Changshu. Except for Liu Yulin's Lin Zi Regiment to the south and deployed in the direction of Changzhou, the rest of the regiments surrounded Jiangyin County.

The county seat is not small, and there are still nearly 10,000 Taiping troops in the city, so Guan Zhuofan decided to go up to Shashan in person to take a look at the situation in the city.

Sand Mountain is in the northeast of Jiangyin City, the terrain is not particularly high, but overlooking the whole city, it is more than enough. Guan Zhuofan took Liu Xunjiao and Tulin of the Chinese army, and dozens of personal soldiers followed him, and galloped out from the big battalion, and arrived at the foot of the sand mountain in a short time. You don't have to dismount, you can follow a not steep mountain road to the top.

When I looked up, I saw everything. The city wall encloses a long strip, long from north to south, narrow from east to west, looking from afar, like a long-waisted beauty, prostrating herself on the ground.

But when the handsome man speaks, it is naturally not good to compare the waist of a beautiful woman.

"Jiangyin City is boat-shaped, with the south and the north," Guan Zhuofan said while pointing, "If you attack the head and tail, it will not be easy to break the city." If you block the waist, I guess Chen Chengqi will not be able to stop it! ”

In other words, as long as you concentrate on Liliang's waist, you will definitely be able to break her.

Regarding this opinion of the handsome, Liu Xunzhi naturally agreed. Looking up at the sky, not only was it already dark, but the bad thing was that the dark clouds were rolling, and I saw that there was a heavy rain.

Spring rain is as expensive as oil, but for people who go out, it is a nuisance, wet and cold. If you're not careful, you'll get sick. So under Liu Xun's reminder. Ride your horse down the hill and back to camp. However, before we reached the bottom of the mountain, the raindrops of beans had already begun to fall.

"Master! There's a temple over there! Thurin pointed his hand at the horse, "Let's go over and avoid it first, shall we?" ”

Everyone looked in the direction that Túrin was pointing, and sure enough, they saw a dark temple, with the bright light of the lights shining through. Dozens of horses turned around and galloped to the temple gate in an instant.

Outside the door, Túrin jumped off his horse first, his boots splashing the muddy water. Raise the horsewhip and hit the door: "Open the door!" We are passing, come in and take shelter from the rain! ”

After knocking for a while, the door creaked open. The one who opened the door was a thin old man, and when he saw these people, he was stunned at first, and suddenly shouted madly: "There is no place! Don't come in! Don't...... Don't come in! ”

"What is it worth!" Túrin gently blocked the old man with one arm, and said with a smile: "If I soiled your place, I will pay you the silver...... Master, please come in, it's clean inside. ”

Guan Zhuofan walked into the palace gate. I saw that the old man's face was red and his breath was short. Obviously he was sick, and his mind didn't seem to be very clear, but what was supporting him was a little girl in a red jacket, who was more than ten years old, and she was smart. When the little girl saw so many people coming in at once, she looked surprised and anxious, and while desperately pulling the old man back, she said very sensibly: "Master Rank, my grandfather is the person who guards the ancestral hall, he has a fever and talks nonsense, don't care about him." ”

"Mr. Liu, go back and call the doctor to take a look at him." Guan Zhuofan said to Liu Xunjiao, "Old and young, full of pity. ”

"I don't need you to be kind......," said the old man, struggling, but the little girl stopped him from talking and pushed him all the way down the side aisle.

Guan Zhuofan smiled, didn't take this scene to heart, and looked around under the light of the torches in the hands of his soldiers. Although the ancestral hall looks small, it is clean and tidy, and it must be the main hall inside. He was pondering who was enshrined in this hall, and a poem inscribed on the wall attracted his attention.

The rot and white bones are all over the field,

Ten thousand dead lonely cities refused to surrender.

A message to passers-by to cover their noses,

The living are not as fragrant as the dead.

In the dim and flickering firelight, Guan Zhuofan only felt that this poem was quite forest-like, and the inscription was also very peculiar, with the title of "Jiangyin Woman". The aphorism in the poem is naturally "the living are not as fragrant as the dead", but the theme is "the lonely city of ten thousand deaths is not willing to surrender". He couldn't help but look up and think, which allusion is this?

After thinking for a while, I suddenly felt a pang in my heart: This is the ancestral temple of Yan Yingyuan, the history of the former Ming Jiangyin Classic!

In the second year of Shunzhi, the Qing soldiers went down to the south of the Yangtze River, and the soldiers of the Prince of Yu Duoduo pointed out, and all over the country looked at the scenery. Only Jiangyin County, the officials surrendered and the people rebelled, and the righteous people in the city killed Fang Heng of the county and guarded Gu Yuanmi, and made a blood alliance in the Minglun Hall, vowing never to shave his hair, and elected Yan Yingyuan, who lived in Shashan, as the marshal and guarded the county seat. Speaking of which, Yan Yingyuan, whose ancestral home is Tongxian, was only a former official who had not entered the stream at that time, but he was heroic and resourceful, and he was admired by the people of Jiangyin. So he brought 600 Zhutang warriors into the city from Shashan and presided over the city guard.

After entering the city, Yan Yingyuan immediately compiled the household registration of the whole city into a book, and selected young and strong men to form a militia. He also strictly interrogated passers-by in the city to eliminate the traitors. Under the leadership of Yan Yingyuan, the people made the best use of their talents, the materials were used, and the distribution was well organized, and Jiangyin City was immediately turned into a well-guarded fortress.

Zong Hao, the prefect of Changzhou, heard the news, sent 300 soldiers to suppress it, and was easily annihilated at the foot of Qinwang Mountain, and then the former Ming Dynasty sent Liu Liangzuo's 50,000 soldiers to arrive, surrounded Jiangyin, and repeatedly persuaded to surrender, and finally began to attack the city.

In the place of the round, the small city of the projectile, Liu Liangzuo is full of plans to break it with one drum, who knows that since this day, he has been fighting for more than 40 days, and he has been bleeding under the city of Jiangyin! The soldiers who attacked the city, the casualties were more than 10,000, the Jiangyin city was immovable, and the defenders of the city were all the officials of the end - the east gate guarded, it was the Wuju people Wang Gongluo, the south gate guarded, it was the general Wang Xiangyang, the west gate guarded, it was the current classic history Chen Mingyu, the north gate of the most fierce attack and defense, then it was guarded by Yan Yingyuan himself, every time he patrolled the city, he must be followed by a Yang family with a big sword, and everyone who saw it was afraid, thinking that it was the reincarnation of Yun Chang, and Zhou Cang was reborn.

At this time, the Qing court was shocked, and Duoduo was furious, and successively sent Gongshun Wang Kong Youde, Belebolo, Beylerican, etc., to lead a large number of soldiers to reinforce, and for a while, under the small city of Jiangyin, 200,000 "Qing soldiers" gathered, and the resistance in the city was only tens of thousands of people.

Who knew that it still couldn't be captured! The most tragic thing is that more than 100 people from Jiangyin, dressed in red and hanging colors, went out of the city to surrender, and when they went to the camp of the Qing army, they suddenly triggered the gunpowder hidden in them, killing hundreds of officers and soldiers.

On the seventy-ninth day, it was really until the ammunition was exhausted, and the feelings knew that they could no longer hold it. So the people of the city, pot of pulp, poured onto the city wall, under the bright moon hanging, together with the militia children in the city, drank relatively bitterly, and sang loudly: "Yixing people, a gun." Wuxi people, a group of incense. Jiangyin people, fighting for 80 days, would rather die than surrender. ”

Guan Zhuofan, who reads history, every time he sees this, he can't help but sigh, wet his eyes with tears, and praise: Jiangyin people are awesome!

Two days later, Bolodu's army stormed, with red-coated cannons and more than 200 artillery pieces of various types, broke through the northeast city wall at Huajiaba, and finally broke the city. Yan Yingyuan stabbed his chest with a short blade and committed suicide by jumping into the lake, but he was picked up by the Qing soldiers who arrived and tied up in front of Bolo. Yan Yingyuan stood with his back to him, scolded loudly, and was stabbed by the Qing soldiers with an iron spear to break his tibia, but he still stood on the ground with a severed limb, and he was out of breath, and his knees were not slightly bent.

The battle of Jiangyin, before and after the eighty-one days, the Qing soldiers killed and wounded more than 40,000 people, and the people inside and outside the city of Jiangyin died in this battle, all 97,000 people, it was the most tragic battle in the south of the Yangtze River.

Even for Guan Zhuofan, who has traveled to this era, this is the history of more than 200 years ago, but unexpectedly, in such a rainy night, he suddenly saw this ancestral hall dedicated to Yan Yingyuan. sighed for a long time, took off the oil coat on his body, and was dressed properly, deciding to bow down and salute before going to the spiritual position inside.

He was accompanied by Liu Xun and several personal soldiers, entered the main hall, and sure enough, he saw a statue in the middle against the wall, with a plump torso, eyebrows and straight eyes, a red face and a beard, and a long wind. A small incense table was set up in front of the statue, offering a wooden plaque, and a cigarette in front of the plaque would burn half of it.

Guan Zhuofan's face was solemn, and he just took a step, but he heard the anxious voice of the little girl in the corridor next to him.

"Grandpa...... Grandfather...... You don't go ......"

Then the side door next to the statue was pushed open, and the old man, holding a long-handled knife in both hands, shouted "Bah! Rushing into the hall like a mad tiger and stopping in front of Yan Yingyuan's statue!

Guan Zhuofan was so shocked by him that he took two steps back, and the soldiers around him made a loud noise, the knife was unsheathed, the gun was off his shoulder, and he invariably pointed at the old man. The old man suddenly didn't realize that a big knife was slashing in front of him, the sword was bright, and the tiger was full of wind, and he really couldn't see that this thin old man was actually carrying martial arts.

It wasn't until more soldiers poured in with torches in their hands that the hall was a little brighter, and everyone could see that the knife in the old man's hand was not a real knife, but a wooden broadsword used on the stage. Everyone looked at each other, and then they all looked at Da Shuai, waiting for his signal.

Guan Zhuofan was shocked, took a step forward, and said politely: "Old man......"

"Phew!" The old man was like a martial artist on the stage, he shouted again, interrupted his words, took a three-step step back in front of the incense case, turned his knife horizontally, looked at a room of officers and soldiers with a hideous face, and suddenly said an earth-shattering sentence as if reciting a play.

"Eighty days with allegiance, the seventeenth dynasty of Taizu! 100,000 people died with one heart and left 300 miles of the Ming Dynasty! ”

This Yan Yingyuan's fateful poem, at this moment, is sandwiched in rolling thunder, roaring out of the mouth of this crazy old man, which can shake the sky and the earth! In such a place, when he suddenly heard such a sentence, Guan Zhuofan only felt that the hot blood all over his body surged to the top of his head, and he was so excited that he trembled all over, and it was difficult to hold himself, and the tears and the rain dripping down his forehead were mixed together, almost blurring his eyes.

A lightning bolt lit up, illuminating the ancestral temple brightly, but I saw that the old man turned the knife over again, and his body slowly leaned on the statue of Yan Yingyuan, the end of the knife was on the ground, and the blade of the knife was obliquely in front of the thin body with both hands.

"This is the spiritual seat of Yan Yingyuan, the general of the Great Ming God, and the Manchurians are not allowed to come close!"

*(To be continued......)