Chapter 557: Midnight

In the spring of the 22nd year of Jiajing, the three northern provinces were in an extremely strange state, 20,000 strong soldiers were stationed at the junction of Beizhili and Shandong, and the soldiers were mighty.

There are many middle and lower officers in Baoding, Jizhen Town, who are people from Beizhili, and naturally they will not get along with the villagers, as for those who are drawn from various guards, even more so, the people will not make trouble, and they will not take the initiative to do it.

Many tax supervisors thought that it was too peaceful, and the imperial court had already made a decree to come down, saying that the tax supervisors would be recalled in March, and everyone wanted to take advantage of these three months to make more money, but they thought that there was nothing to do in the countryside, but as soon as they got out of the city gate, the ringing horse that had not been seen for a long time appeared again, and it was still ruthless, and the chickens and dogs were not left. When the rebels went in pursuit, they couldn't find anything.

Sending troops to exterminate the rebellious people, but as far as the eye can see, all the docile and incomparably good people, if it is said that they are all good people, where did the wolf-like horses come from when the tax inspectors go out of the city, these soldiers and horses of the imperial court are stationed here, and the daily cost of grain and grass is very large, and the local people are also complaining.

Cangzhou Fucheng is gloomy and bleak, has been completely sacked once the capital city, for the supply of more than 3,000 soldiers and horses in this Tongzhou is very difficult, had to be like the rich in the city and outside the city apportionment, whether it is the industrial and commercial households in the city or the cotton gentry outside the city, they all said that they were scraped by the tax inspector and have nothing left, there is still money to supply the army, one after another.

The garrison who brought reinforcements over became more and more impatient, in this city, he couldn't get any credit, and he had to worry about his own food and clothing every day, when would he encounter such trouble in Tongzhou, Tongzhou was rich, and it was easy to raise food and grass supplies locally.

These 3,000 soldiers are not the kind of military households that have farmed the land for generations, they are all soldiers recruited in the north, naturally not a good role, these days are getting harder and harder, these soldiers are also anxious, at the beginning they are quite restrained, it can be regarded as strict military discipline, after a long time, what do you want to tease the people's girls, buy things and don't give money and other vices that disturb the place are all out, the civilians in the city are really miserable, I think what kind of gods and Buddhas have been offended by Cangzhou Fucheng, and the people who are looted by the tax supervisors are not happy, and at this time there is such an army, and let people not live.

The relationship between the officers and soldiers and the civilians is so tense, the prefect and the yamen are not good at both ends, the whole Cangzhou is smoky and miserable, and there is news that I don't know what to do, saying that the soldiers and horses of Tongzhou have not achieved any results for a long time, and they have not been able to catch any chaotic people, and they have been reprimanded by the superiors, and these Tongzhou soldiers are already preparing to ransack Cangzhou one night recently, killing good people and risking merit, to put it bluntly, they are cutting off the heads of ordinary people and saying that they are chaotic people to receive military merits.

The reputation of these 3,000 soldiers and horses in Cangzhou has been greatly damaged, coupled with the inherent contradictions between locals and outsiders, after such rumors came out, people were immediately panicked, many relatives in the countryside were out of the city to join their relatives, and some people just closed the door at night, holding some heavy objects on the door.

The chaotic rumors are all circulating among the people, and the prefect's yamen is busy handling grain and grass every day, urging the county towns below to share the expenses equally, and the officers and soldiers will not know any local news, but only harass the place.

The people who are worried about the Spring Festival of Jiajing 22 years have not had a good time, so every day of precautions and careful, after a month, the original fear and vigilance of the mind is also slowly faded, the second day of the second month of February, it is said that it is the day when the dragon raises its head, but the people are leading the child to shave his head and haircut, this is also the rule, at night, all the people who are still able to get by in the house, are to buy some wine and meat.

It seems that the days will go on like this, after the night falls, the whole Cangzhou city fell into silence early, the second watch, in the west of the Cangzhou capital city suddenly came out of a noisy sound, slowly the sound is getting louder and louder, starting from the west of the city, the people are alarmed.

Although the vigilance has weakened a lot these days, everyone still remembers the rumor, and this sound suddenly comes to mind, and in a hurry, they put on their clothes and go out of the house, and they see the fire in the west of the city, shouting and screaming everywhere, it is really to kill civilians and take the lead in the army.

Whether this rumor is reasonable or not does not care about him, but everyone thought of this at this time, everyone was panicked, the city gates were closed at night, no one knew where to run, everyone wanted to stay away, many people dragged their families out of the door and ran towards the east of the city.

There were already people covered in blood from the west of the city stumbling over, with a crying voice, when it was about to be two watches, Tongzhou 3,000 soldiers and horses suddenly bombed the camp, the soldiers rushed out to kill people when they saw them, vicious and abnormal, after this person said, the panicked civilians were even more chaotic, and ran towards the east city like crazy, and the sound of scolding and crying resounded in the sky for a while.

The military camp in the west of the city was not the situation they thought, the fire was all the houses and firewood and grass piles around the barracks, and many people wearing soldiers' uniforms and white turbans wrapped around their heads were slashing and killing everywhere, driving the people in the houses away, and the slightest disobedience was to cut them down with a knife, and shouted loudly:

"You and the others are all chaotic people, and today you will borrow your head in exchange for military merits!"

The people didn't care about anything, they just wanted to run as far as possible, so it didn't matter if it was true or not, although the soldiers with white turbans were vicious, but after driving away the people, they didn't chase and kill, and it didn't take too much time for the area around the barracks to be almost empty.

Someone had already thrown the prepared jar into it, and a lot of liquid splashed out on the ground, and the movement outside had already alarmed the people in the barracks, and the three thousand soldiers in Tongzhou were already about to be assembled, but they had been slacking off a lot in Cangzhou Mansion during this time.

Seeing the fire outside, these people knew that something was wrong, but they were not in a hurry to go out to see what was going on, anyway, it was the suffering of the people of Cangzhou, and they didn't do anything, because the barracks didn't burn at all.

Hearing the sound of crying for help outside, this is the discovery that something is wrong, hurriedly ordered the whole team, just about to go out, hundreds of large and small jars were thrown in from the outside, smashed on the ground, the crackling sound scared people enough, everyone shrank back, did not think of what liquid was in the jar, the landing is splashing everywhere, but there is no other harm.

Someone was splashed with the liquid, felt a little strange, put his finger between his nose, and said suspiciously:

"Isn't this cottonseed oil?"

I didn't think of what the other party threw this thing in, and threw in a lot of torches from the outside, cottonseed oil is used to burn, the spring of Beizhili is not much stronger than the winter, there are still a lot of heating firewood and grass in the barracks, and it is also used as a barrier on the periphery, and a large amount of cottonseed oil is thrown over, sprinkled on the dry firewood and grass, and is lit by the torch, and suddenly it is a raging fire.

The surrounding area of the barracks was surrounded by fire almost instantly, and the soldiers who were originally sleepy-eyed were agitated by the flames around them, completely unprepared, and suddenly panicked, and the barracks was suddenly in chaos, and at the main entrance of the barracks, more than a dozen people took the flying catch and threw it out, buckled it on the horse beam at the door, and directly tied the rope connected to the flying grab to the horses on the other side.

Immediately the knights shouted in unison, and a dozen horses exerted their strength together, and according to the horse, they were immediately pulled away from the door, and hundreds of people in white turbans and soldiers' uniforms who were waiting at the gate shouted loudly at the same time:

"There are people from the White Lotus Cult in the barracks!"

Screaming and killing in, the soldiers who were hastily assembled inside were already disturbed by the fire, and when they heard the shouts outside, they were even more at a loss, watching the people wearing the same clothes as themselves rushing in, often without reacting, they were cut down by the other party with a knife, and the military camp was in chaos, at this time, who knew whether the other party was wearing a white turban, and they couldn't pay attention at all, everyone was touching the sword, as long as the other party was close to him, he would cut and kill mercilessly.

Soon, the place began to kill each other, the prostitute who was stationed in the center of the camp, and the prostitute of the Qinglou in Cangzhou Mansion had just fallen asleep, and was awakened by the noise outside, and when he ran out to take a look, he immediately knew that he couldn't control the scene, and regardless of the woman crying behind him, under the escort of dozens of personal soldiers, rushed towards the place where the shouting was weaker.

I don't know when, the east gate of the city has been opened, the soul of the people who saw the city gate opened, they didn't care about anything, they all dragged their families to the outside, the fire in the city was soaring, and the sound of shouting and killing was gradually spreading everywhere.

The scoundrel who took advantage of the fire to rob also appeared, the city became more and more dangerous, and no one could care about it, and the same was true for the Cangzhou prefect, and he was too lazy to guard the government and the city that made people rob, so he simply ran out with his family and the government servants with the people, and when the time came, he could be regarded as gathering the hearts of the people.

No one cared about the south gate now, and a large number of horse teams dressed in white turbans and white robes, or cotton gentry's private soldiers, poured in and rushed in the direction of the barracks.

"Maitreya came to the world, and those who don't want to die surrender on their knees!"

The sneak attacker wrapped in a white turban saw that he had an absolute advantage here, and he didn't need to pretend to be a soldier anymore, so he was directly there to threaten to surrender.

In the spring of the twenty-second year of Jiajing, Cangzhou fell......