"In the seventh and eighth years of Chongzhen, the thieves in Xingxian County killed and injured the people, and the years were very serious. The plague of heaven and the sun and the evening of death. In one night, the whole family was dead, the people fled, and the city was empty. ”?

"Tongzhou County Chronicles", "Chongzhen's sixteenth year was not a July epidemic, and the house was infected, and there were people who lost their families and had no restraint." ”

"Wujiang County Chronicles", "In the fifteenth year of the epidemic in Chongzhen, there were more than 100 families in one lane, none of them were exempt, dozens of people in one door, and none of them survived. ”

"Meditation Notes", "In the summer and autumn of the year of Kwai Wei, the epidemic in Beijing, the puppet gave birth to a fat bulge, and died immediately after a few moments, which is called pimple plague." All people suffer from this in the fourteenth five-year plan. In the spring, there was vomiting blood, and he died in half a day, or several members of the family died together. ”

During the Chongzhen period, the Ming plague was rampant, and nine out of ten households died.

Sixty percent of the population of Beijing died of the plague, 230,000 households in Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, and only 50,000 households survived after a major epidemic.

In the year of Jiashen, Li Zicheng was able to capture the Jingshi in just a few months, and he also had a contribution to the plague.

The harm that a pandemic can bring to a family, a village, a city, and a country is unimaginable.

The spread of the plague in the city has filled the city of Yangzhou with a sense of despair, with soldiers and civilians around them who are quarantined because of infection every day, and relatives who are dying every day.

The old man has just died, and the new man has died, so that the survivors have no time to grieve, but become numb and lifeless in the face of constant death.

The sky of Yangzhou seems to be dim with the smoke and dust of burning and the despair that pervades it, but in this dead silence, there is a touch of bright color, shining on the people around him, wherever he goes, there is a moment of light.

The soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou in despair regarded Wang Yan as their hope, and he became the spiritual pillar of the entire Yangzhou.

Although the plague has been controlled, the new infections every day still make the soldiers and civilians in the city feel terrified, and the corpses burned every day still make them still have a sluggish dead air on their faces.

The people of Yangzhou were immersed in sadness, and seemed dead and silent, only when Wang Yan came to inspect them, a bright color appeared in their eyes, and they got up and said: "General! ”

Wang Yan also always waved his hand, so that the soldiers and civilians did not have to be polite, had a good rest, and said some words of encouragement, so that the soldiers and civilians could rest assured.

In Zhenjiang City, Hu Weizong woke up slowly, feeling weak and dizzy.

At this time, he was lying on a large bed, and this sleeping position made him a little uncomfortable, so he wanted to change his position, but he moved slightly, and there was a huge pain in his back.

He couldn't help but recall that night, he and a hundred brothers, jumped into the canal, swam across the Yangtze River, and came to the south bank to ask for help, but were successively robbed and killed by the canal and the Qing army ships on the Yangtze River.

There are 100 brothers, how many will survive?

Hu Weizong felt sad in his heart, and at the same time remembered his mission, so he struggled to sit up.

At this moment, the door of the room opened, and a man who was not tall walked into the room, and when he saw that Hu Weizong was awake, his face was suddenly happy, and he hurriedly walked to the side of the bed, held him down and said, "You don't want to move, I am afraid that the wound will be torn." ”

The man was Liu Shun, when he inspected the riverbank, he found Hu Weizong unconscious, and hurriedly brought him back to the camp for medical treatment, and then found a letter of help wrapped in oilcloth paper from his clothes, knowing that the situation in Yangzhou was already in crisis, he stayed around Hu Weizong, hoping that he would wake up as soon as possible.

"In Xia Hu Weizong, thank you for the general's life-saving grace." Hu Weizong lay down and thanked him, he saw Liu Shun wearing a set of Ming army chain mail, and immediately asked: "I don't know if Yu is in Zhenjiang City?" ”

"Exactly!" Liu Shun saw him ask, nodded hurriedly, and then asked with some eagerness: "You are prominent in the city, do you know that my family's commander is still good?" ”

"General Wang from the Qing army butcher knife, saved the people of Yangzhou, is the great benefactor of Yangzhou, now he leads the army to resist the Qing Dynasty, is the pillar of Yangzhou, Yangzhou people are all loved, naturally will fight to the death to protect each other, the general does not have to worry." Hu Weizong listened to Liu Shun's words and knew that the general in front of him might be an officer under Wang Yan, so he spoke out.

"That's great!" Liu Shun was overjoyed when he heard this, but when he thought of the situation in Yangzhou, he asked worriedly: "Yangzhou has been besieged for many days, how long can it last?" ”

Hu Weizong thought about the miserable situation in Yangzhou City before leaving the city, and couldn't help but feel sad. "Duoduo threw the city with dead bodies, so that the epidemic in the city broke out, Yangzhou was besieged on all sides, and there was a lack of medicinal materials in the city. When Yu left the city, there were thousands of people who died every day, and I am afraid that it would not be able to last long. ”

When Liu Shun heard this, he was shocked, and then he realized that in the past few days, the pillar of smoke rising in Yangzhou City was burning corpses, and his heart immediately tightened.

"Does the general know that there are others who come to the south bank to ask for help?" Hu Weizong thought of the hundred warriors who entered the river with him, and asked casually.

"In Zhenjiang City, there is only one person, and I don't know where it is!" Liu Shun replied.

Hu Weizong thought of this result, but he couldn't believe it, and now listening to Liu Shun's words, his heart suddenly hurt, and the whole person was silent for a while.

Seeing this, Liu Shun said: "You rest, I will go and report what you said to Lord Zheng in person!" ”

Liu Shun came out of the room, and went all the way out of Zhenjiang City, to bring the riverside water village, and saw Zheng Hongkui, the general of Zhenhai, the head town of the Jiangshui Division, and reported Hu Weizong's feelings about Yangzhou one by one.

When Zheng Hongkui heard this, he was also frightened, he got up and came to the riverside, and saw that there were as many as ten pillars of smoke in Yangzhou City on the other side, knowing that what Liu Shun said was true, he was afraid that Yangzhou would not last long, so he asked Liu Shun to take the letter of help he had obtained before, and quickly reported to Nanjing.

Liu Shun left Zheng Hongkui's water army camp, and he didn't have time to say goodbye to Wang Wei and others, so he took a few knights and went straight to Nanjing.

Zhenjiang and Nanjing are one hundred and fifty miles apart, Liu Shun and other knights put a small urgent flag on their backs, change horses along the way, and run to the outside of Nanjing that night.

The guards at the east gate of Nanjing hurriedly reported to the gatekeepers, checked the documents, and saw that it was an urgent report from Zhenjiang, so they immediately opened the city and let Liu Shun enter the city.

On the streets of Nanjing at night, there was a sound of horses' hooves, and Liu Shun went straight to the military headquarters.

The next morning, Ruan Dacheng, the secretary of the military department, presented Wang Yan's letter of request for help to the emperor, and the emperor personally watched it.

The commander of the Chenzhong Battalion made Wang Yan worship: "The northern captives besieged the city, attacked Yueyu, and the ministers resisted the Qing Dynasty in order to save the country and protect the people, and they knew that they had the responsibility to defend the land, and they did not dare to give up." The captives were many priests, and they could not break the ministers after a long attack, and they threw away the corpses, so that the epidemic in the city was great, and there was no medicine in the city, and the infected people died for life. There was no help for many days, the west city was broken, and the 700,000 soldiers and civilians in the city were consumed by the epidemic. ”