In the fourth armistice negotiations, the reason why the negotiator of the Mites Qing and the minister of the Qin Mission, who no longer had any bargaining chips in his hands, did not agree to the harsh conditions of the Wu army, was not that he was stubborn and stubborn, but that he could not be the master of Tuhai and Yue Le, and could not agree with them to agree that the Qing army in Wuchang would all lay down their arms and surrender to the Wu army, and wait for the silver grain and grass of the Qing court to redeem them back to Jiangbei to reunite with their families. So there was no way, even if he was already tempted, considering that the future of the Qing Dynasty was ready to be wronged, he had to return to Wuchang again to discuss with Tu Hai and Yue Le and others to discuss whether to accept Wu Jun's condition.

Of course, as the last general of the older generation of mite Qing Dynasty, although the surname of Ji Bilong is quite weak, he is afraid of taking responsibility and is afraid of carrying the black pot, but he still has the last ray of hope in his heart, that is, he hopes and hopes that a miracle will appear, and the Qing army in Wuchang can block the Wu army in the street battle and even severely damage the Wu army, forcing the Wu army to take the initiative to open the net and let the Qing army and the mite Qingqi people in Wuchang City cross the river - although this hope is slim, but it is not hopeless, after all, the Qing army in Wuchang City has a huge strength of 60,000, The Wu army's superiority in strength was not obvious, and it was difficult for the Wu army's superiority in strength to be fully brought into play in the street and alley battlefields.

When the warship of Kubilong and others returned to the watergate wharf west of Wuchang, his warship was no longer able to dock, the southern part of the wharf has been occupied by overwhelming Wu soldiers, although the north is still in the hands of the Qing army, but the Qing generals and soldiers on the wharf and on the shore are obviously no longer in love with the war, and they are just desperately rushing to board the ship. The reason why the Wu army was unable to quickly occupy all the docks was not because of the resistance of the Qing soldiers, but because of the dense crowd of ordinary people.

In order to get on the boat as soon as possible and escape for their lives, the generals and soldiers of the Qing army either jumped into the water and swam onto the warship, or frantically slashed and killed their companions and people who snatched the gangplank, and even some Qing soldiers cut down the people who had been lucky enough to get on the boat and threw them into the river in order to compete for the deck position, or directly pushed them into the river! On the wharf, the crying and shouting for help on the river shook the sky, the heads of people on the wharf were like ants, the living and dead in the river were sinking and floating, and the black smoke of the warships hit by the Wu army's incendiary bombs was billowing out, and it was like a pot of boiling rice porridge. As for the Qing Dynasty Belle Ye Chani, who was in charge of commanding the defenders of Ximen Wharf, he didn't know where he had disappeared, and he didn't know whether he had died in battle, or if he had already fled for his life.

Seeing such a scene, the barely well-lit Kubilong couldn't help but burst into tears, couldn't cry, and scolded, "Tuhai, national thief!" Traitor! This is all caused by you, a national thief, if you don't stop the people from crossing the river in advance, don't spread rumors that Wu Gou will slaughter the city after breaking the city, will the situation be like this? National thief, national thief, you deserve to die for your crimes......! ”

After explaining the situation to Wu Jun by docking in a small boat under a pure white flag, Wu Yingjing, who was commanding the Wu army to fight on the dock at the West Gate Wharf, readily agreed to the request of Kupilon, let Curb Pilon and others land in a small boat with 20 followers, and sent a team to escort Curb Pilon and others into the Water Gate, and let Curb Pilon and others go to the inner city and the north gate with a white flag to find Tuhai and Yue Le and other Qing army commanders to negotiate surrender.

At this moment, the chaotic situation in Wuchang City is better than the wharf, the fleeing people and the armies of the two warring sides will block the streets and alleys, the hooligans who take advantage of the fire to rob kill people and set fires, smash and rob, men's yells and women's cries for help come and go, the ground is full of corpses, the blood stains the canals red, and also overflows, the houses and houses on both sides of the street are on fire, black smoke rises to the sky, and the cries and cries of the old people and children and the sound of smashing over the cabinets are heard from time to time in the sea of fire. But no one rushed into the fire to save people, and no one stopped the robbery. On the contrary, it was Tuhai's descendants who were the most energetic in robbing, killing, and forcibly annihilating.

If it weren't for the desperate protection of Curb Pilon's entourage, and the timely display of the Qincha banner by Zheerken and others, Curb Pilon would definitely not have had a chance to return to the negotiating table - a Qing army camp team defeated by the Wu army took a fancy to the luxurious clothes on Curb Pilon and others, and planned to kill Curb Pilon and others and steal the clothes. After showing his identity in time to stop the defeated Qing army, Kubilong didn't have the heart to pay attention to their military discipline anymore, but just forced them to ask about the whereabouts of Tuhai's Chinese army, but this group of Qing defeated soldiers told Kubilong that after dawn, they never saw Tuhai's banner and team again.

In desperation, Kubilong could only take over the command of the Qing army camp on the spot, and rushed to the inner city of Wuchang as if it was a stroke of luck, to find the Fuyuan general Tuhai Tu Zhongtang who had sworn to live and die with Wuchang City, in order to avoid the battle and the flow of people, Kubilong and his party could only go around the inner city for a small half circle, and finally entered the inner city from the north gate of the inner city to the same chaotic inner city. Fortunately, fortunately, after Suppilon and the others struggled through the inner city for half an hour, they finally saw the banner of Tuhai on the south gate of the inner city.

"When he returned to the capital, the old man was desperately responsible for shaking the hearts of the front-line soldiers, and he also had to revisit this picture in front of the emperor! If it weren't for the incompetence of this national thief in governing the army and his penchant for robbery, the loss of Wuchang City would not be so great! Now, even if Wu Sangui's old thief is willing to withdraw from Wuchang City, Wuchang City will basically be abandoned! ”

With this thought in mind, Kubilong hurriedly climbed the north gate tower, but what made Kubilong stunned was that although Tuhai's banner was still planted on the city tower, Tuhai and his huge team of pro-soldiers were not there, and the person who really gave the command to the commander was Zhou Bangning, the general soldier of Henan! And what made him even more angry was that as soon as they met, without waiting for Curb Pilon to ask where Tuhai was, Zhou Bangning preemptively asked: "Curb Zhongtang, what about Tuzhongtang?" Why hasn't he come back yet? ”

"You ask me, who do I ask?" Crupil angrily asked, "When did he leave?" Did you say what to do? ”

"As soon as the day dawned, about halfway through the hour, Tuzhongtang sent someone to send the last general back from the street battle battlefield." Zhou Bangning replied with a sad face: "Tu Zhongtang said at that time that the last general and Wu Gou had been fighting bloodily all night and were very tired, so he changed the general to command in the center, and he went to the east gate to personally command the street battle to cover the retreat of the North Gate wharf. In order not to shake the morale of the army, Tu Zhongtang also left the flag here and allowed the last general to use his reputation to issue commands. ”

"Dog thief!" Ji Bilong couldn't help but scold, "No wonder hundreds of thousands of Qing troops died in Guizhou, you can retreat with your whole body, it turns out that you are good at this ability!" ”

"Containment of Zhongtang, escaping from the battle is a capital crime, Tu Zhongtang may not dare to do this." Zheerken kindly persuaded: "Maybe Tuzhongtang is really on the battlefield of the East Gate, but it was entangled by the Wu Dog army, and there was no way to withdraw it." ”

"I hope so." Ji Bilong stomped his feet and sighed, grabbed Zhou Bangning again, and ordered: "General Zhou, the old man now orders you in the name of Zhongtang and the minister of the Qincha, the inner city is allowed to enter and not go out from now on, and the order is to go down, and all the troops and people will retreat to the inner city to hold on!" Tell all the soldiers that now Wu Gou has occupied the two water gates in Wuchang, and now when he leaves the inner city, not only can he not escape the Yangtze River, but he will also not be able to save his surname! Only by temporarily holding on to the inner city can the old man have a way to keep them alive! ”

"Cover!" Zhou Bangning didn't dare to slack off on a major matter related to his life, so he had to quickly agree. There was no time to delay any longer, so he hurriedly led his team to the east gate again to find Tuhai Tu Zhongtang, who claimed to have fought bloody battles to resist the Wu army there.

Because the main direction of attack of the Wu army is at the south gate, although the situation in Wuchang Dongcheng is better than that in the south city, it is not much better, the fleeing crowd is still blocking the streets and alleys, the Wu army is still advancing step by step, the Qing army is still retreating, the streets and alleys are full of soldiers on both sides fighting desperately, but it is obvious that the Qing army is completely desperate and desperate, and the will to resist is very weak, and the Wu army is full of momentum, and it is only a matter of time before the East City is completely occupied.

When he inquired about Tuhai's whereabouts from many Qing army teams, all the Qing generals replied that they had never seen it, and they had never seen it since it was completely dark, even if Tuhai had fed the soldiers of the brigade with silver women. After receiving such an answer, Ji Bilong wanted to cry without tears, and scolded Tuhai for being greedy for life and afraid of death, misleading the country and the people, so he could only retreat to the inner city with all the troops to hold on, temporarily save his surname first, and then accept the advice of Fu Dali and others, and hurried to the north of the Water Gate with the escort to find Yue Le, Prince An, the deputy marshal of the Qing army.

At this moment, the situation at the North Gate Wharf in Wuchang is slightly better than that at the West Gate Wharf, the Wu Army airship that has been exhausted of ammunition has flown back to the position to reload, and the Wu Army has not yet attacked the North Gate Wharf for the time being, so that the refugees and defeated soldiers on the North Gate Wharf that have been piled up like a mountain of corpses can successfully board the ship and cross the river, but the Qing warships that were damaged and sunk by the Wu Army airships and the large and small ships that were sunk by overload and crushed have blocked many waterways and waterways, making it difficult for the Qing warships to quickly get on the wharf to carry soldiers and civilians, even if there are a few warships that occasionally dock on the wharf, It was also immediately filled with the defeated soldiers and civilians who swarmed up, and the Qing soldiers who maintained the order of boarding the ship were either squeezed to death and trampled to death or ran on the warship to escape for their lives, making every warship seriously overloaded, not only difficult to operate, but also often subverted and overturned tragedies, which increased casualties and delayed the retreat of the Wuchang army and civilians.

"Heaven is dead, I am clear!"

Crying sadly, Kubilong finally found Yue Le, the deputy marshal of the Qing army, on the wall of the Water Gate, but at this moment, Yue Le was already covered with sweat and soil, his eyes were bloodshot, and his helmet didn't know where it fell, and when he heard the news of Tuhai's disappearance, Yue Le also scolded wildly, "National thief!" Dog thief! Not again! This king dares to bet on the head of the king, that dog thief must have fled for his life! It was the same last time in Yuezhou, shouting to live and die with Yuezhou, when Wu Gou broke through the gate of Yuezhou, he was the first to board the ship and flee for his life! ”

"And that Cai Yurong! Dog mongrel! Before Wu Gou attacked the city, he had already prepared a warship to escape for his life, and after the city was broken, this dog mongrel disappeared! This will be, this dog mongrel must have escaped the Yangtze River! ”

"Ao Zhongtang I was wise, how could he look away at the last moment? Chose a despicable villain like Tuhai to command the whole army? Ji Bilong burst into tears and choked up: "If it weren't for the villain Tuhai who intimidated and coerced the people, how could the people of Wuchang be so chaotic and panicked after the city was broken?" If he hadn't fled, how could our army be so chaotic? Ao Zhongtang, you have misled the country-! ”

"Curb Zhongtang, it's useless to say this now." Yue Le tried to calm himself down, and quickly asked, "Ji Zhongtang, how are you negotiating with Wu Gou?" Now that the West Gate Wharf is basically finished, the North Gate Wharf is in chaos like this, I'm afraid that if Wu Gou is killed here, even 20,000 people will not be able to withdraw from the Yangtze River! The situation has been placed here, for the sake of the future of our Qing Dynasty, Xiao Wang thinks that as long as Wu Gou's side agrees to stop the attack and let us cross the river, then we can agree to the armistice conditions they proposed before! ”

"The old man has already done this." He cried and replied: "But Wu Gou's side insists that we all lay down our arms and surrender, and only when our Qing court fulfills its promise can we be allowed to cross the river, otherwise, they would rather form an alliance with Taiwan's Zheng Yi and join forces to make trouble, and never let us go!" ”

"Wu Dog-!" Yue Le roared, drew his knife and slashed at the iron cannon guarding the city next to him, slashing sparks and breaking the steel knife.

"Lord An, the old man is only negotiating, not the front-line commander, and he has no authority to order you to lay down your arms." Ji Bilong sobbed and said: "Now Tuhai can no longer be found, Lord An, you are the deputy marshal, you can make up your mind, do you accept Wu Gou's harsh conditions and temporarily save the precious lives of our Qing soldiers?" ”

Yue Le hesitated, just like Hu Guozhu commented on Yue Le, although Yue Le's character is indeed a hundred times stronger than Tu Hai and Cai Yurong and others, but it is not selfless, now no one knows whether Tu Hai is dead or alive or fleeing, if Yue Le orders the whole army to lay down their arms and surrender to the Wu army, then all the consequences will have to be borne by Yue Le alone.

At that time, Wu Jun broke his promise and killed the prisoners and slaughtered all the Eight Banner Lords in Wuchang City, then Yue Le was the eternal sinner of the Qing Dynasty. Even if Wu Jun kept his promise, Xiao Mazi also ransomed these prisoners of war with astronomical amounts of grain and silver, Yue Le was still the culprit, and it was ironclad to go to the heavenly prison and squat in prison, and no one could say for sure! Can Yue Le afford such consequences?

Falling is death, not descending is death, in a dilemma, Yue Le really didn't know what to do, staring blankly at the crowd on the dock crying and screaming, and refused to say a word for a long time. However, Zheerken and Fu Dali were so anxious that their heads were full of smoke, and they pulled Yue Le's sleeve together and begged, "Lord An, you have an idea, hurry up and get an idea, it's too late!" ”

"Lord, I beg you, come up with an idea! You haven't seen the situation in the city, but the lowly officials have seen it all, the Wu dogs are frantically slaughtering our soldiers and people of the Qing Dynasty, and if you delay for a while, hundreds of people will die! Lord, you have a word! ”

No matter how Erken and Fu Dali pleaded, Yue Le still didn't speak, completely deaf to him. At this moment, another seriously overloaded Qing warship capsized on the river more than a mile away from the river bank, and the soldiers and civilians on the deck cried and fell into the water one after another, and the terrible cry for help pierced through the sky, and the muscles on Yue Le's extremely tight face couldn't help twitching, but his eyes quickly dimmed again, and he continued to remain silent, so anxious that Erken and Fu Dali cried, beat their chests and feet, and were helpless.

"Don't force Lord An." Ji Bilong suddenly calmed down, grabbed Zheerken and Fu Dali and said: "Prince An has his troubles, if he gives this order, he will have no way to explain to the court, let alone the emperor." ”

"Then you can't watch our soldiers being slaughtered by Wu Dog, right?" Falken asked, crying.

"This sinner, the old man will do it." Ji Bilong was dressed upright, and said calmly: "Lord An, you get on the boat and leave, the old man will take over the command of the whole army, after you leave, the old man will immediately raise the flag to let the navy retreat, and lead the whole city to surrender to Wu Gou." We have already had three princes captured by Wu Gou in the Qing Dynasty, and you can't be the fourth. ”

"Curb Zhongtang-!" Erken cried out heartbreakingly, "No! Ji Zhongtang, you did this, return to the capital, the court and the emperor will not let you go! ”

"If the old man doesn't do this, after he goes back, he will also have no way to explain to the court." Ji Bilong's face was full of seriousness, and he said slowly: "The emperor's bottom limit is that he only wants to give Wu Gou 10 million taels of silver and 1 million stone grain, but the old man promised to give 35 million taels of silver and 5 million stone grain, and after returning to the capital, the emperor and the court will not spare the old man." Anyway, it's death before and after, so why drag Prince An into the water? ”

"Besides, the old man is also a person who should have died a long time ago." Ji Bilong looked up at the sky again, and said lightly: "During the period of Ao Zhongtang's dictatorship, the old man was afraid of Ao Zhongtang's authority, and he didn't dare to publicly stand up to support the emperor. This time, the old man was sent to negotiate with Wu Gou, and his intention was nothing more than to let the old man carry this black pot of betraying the country and seeking glory, and carrying this infamy, and the old man had already been mentally prepared for this, so he didn't care about carrying one more infamy and one more crime. ”

"Curb Zhongtang-!" Erken and Fu fell to their knees together, hugged Suppilon's thighs and cried. Yue Le also burst into tears, knelt down slowly to Ji Bilong, put his forehead on the ground, and cried bitterly and blamed himself: "Ji Zhongtang, Xiao Wang is shameless, Xiao Wang is selfish, Xiao Wang is not a thing...... thing." ”

"Lord An, you don't have to blame yourself, this is human nature, no wonder you." Kubilong said sincerely: "You are still young, there is a future, in the future, we and Wu Gou will have to restart the war sooner or later, the court can't do without a general like you, but the old man is already old, I don't know if there will be a bad old man tomorrow after today, even if he can continue to live, the old man is not much use to the Qing Dynasty." However, you are different. ”

Yue Le cried bitterly, and Ji Bilong patted the top of Erken and Fu Dali's heads again, and said with a smile: "You all get up, this matter has nothing to do with you, the old man will bear all the consequences alone, and you will not be implicated." ”

"Zhongtang-!" Zheerken and Fu Dali still have a bit of a conscience, and after hearing Ji Bilong's words, they will inevitably be even more heartbroken, and they will cry together with Yue Le. Kupilon urged: "Lord An, we don't have much time, you go quickly, take the army you can still mobilize on the boat, and cross the river immediately." ”

Yue Le was extremely ashamed, and said that he didn't have the face to get up and give this order, but Ji Bilong grabbed him and shouted, "Don't hold it, go quickly!" We don't have time, are you going to be captured by Wu Gou like Jieshu, Leerjin and Shang Kexi? To suffer the endless humiliation? Walk! Go to the old man immediately! ”

"Zhongtang-!" Yue Le let out a loud cry, kowtowed three times to the curb, got up and rushed down the city wall with a big cry, and went to the dock with the army that maintained order under the city wall.

"Prince An, please tell the emperor." Ji Bilong shouted at Yue Le's back again, "Please remember that Lu Yifeng, the lackey of the Wu thief, is both civil and military, and his talent is far superior to that of the other lackeys of the Wu thief!" If this person can't be used by my Qing Dynasty, he will be killed! Otherwise, this thief will become a disaster for my Qing Dynasty, and the degree of harm may even be higher than that of Wu Sangui's old thief! ”

Yue Le stopped suddenly, nodded with his back to his back, and then led the army forward, letting the army show its swords and guns, put on a charging formation, and frantically expelled and killed the defeated refugees all the way, and forced a bloody way from the crowd to the dock, and then boarded a Qing army boat, drove down the defeated refugees who followed up, and sailed away from the dock. It was also at this moment that the Qing army on the tower of the city decisively ordered the Qing army on the tower to play the flag of the retreat of the naval division, and the Qing army's naval division, who was worried about the return of the Wu army's airship on the river, was amnesty, and the flagship that Yang Jie rode quickly played the banner and ordered the whole army to retreat to the north of the river.

"Gone! Let's go! The sailor doesn't care about us anymore! ”

Seeing the Qing army's naval division slowly retreating towards the north of the river, the Qing army's defeated soldiers and refugees on the dock suddenly broke out into an earth-shattering cry, countless Qing army defeated soldiers and refugees jumped into the river, swimming in the water to chase the Qing army's naval division warship, even if it was swept away by the river, it was one after another, and the floating corpses on the river surface were like layers, almost covering half of the Yangtze River. More civilians and defeated soldiers beat their chests on the wharves and on the banks of the river, grabbing the ground with their heads, and the sound of crying without despair echoed on the surface of the Yangtze River for a long time.

"Soldiers, people, rest assured." The old man burst into tears, choked up and muttered: "You don't have to be afraid, even if the old man doesn't want to fight this old life, he will try his best to protect your thoughtful ......." ”

After muttering, Kubilong wiped away his tears and ordered the surrounding Qing army soldiers: "You all go and give an order, let all our troops lay down their arms and surrender to the Pingxi Palace." Tell them, and also tell the Manchu and Han people in Wuchang City that Ben Qincha has negotiated with the Xiwang Palace, and after surrendering, there will be no slaughter of the city, and there will be no killing of prisoners. The old man ...... and vouched for them with his head. ”

On the afternoon of the fourth day of October in the 11th year of Kang Mazi of the Great Qing Dynasty, after receiving the promise that the Yunnan-Guizhou army would never kill prisoners and never slaughter the city, the Mite Qing Taishi, the minister with plenipotentiary for armistice negotiations and the temporary commander of the Wuchang Qing army, Kubilong, issued an order to lead the army and people of the city to surrender to the Yunnan-Guizhou army, and the Wuchang war, which lasted for more than a month, finally ended in the complete victory of the Yunnan-Guizhou army.

At this point, although the Yungui army, which was exhausted from top to bottom, no longer had the strength to expand its control territory, Xiao Mazi's Jinghu defense line used to prevent the Yunnan-Guizhou army from going north had also been actually broken by the Yunnan-Guizhou army, and the strategic and tactical initiative of the Jinghu battlefield finally fell into the hands of the Yunnan-Guizhou army. Hunan, the new rear of the Yunnan-Guizhou army, has finally won a valuable strategic buffer zone!

In the evening of the same day, the Qing court signed his name on the armistice treaty, and in exchange for the immediate truce of the Wu army, the Qing court promised to put Sichuan, Guangxi, Piyuan and Huguang Wuchang Mansion under the management of the Pingxi Palace, and the army, personnel, and civil affairs were all managed by the Pingxi Palace, and the Qing Dynasty only had the right to approve and appoint, and did not have the right to veto. At the same time, the Qing court compensated the Pingxi royal palace for 30 million taels of silver, 5 million stones of grain and grass, paid 5 million taels of ransom to the prisoners of war, and agreed to pay 70% within three months, and pay all within one year.

"The ancestors of the Great Qing Dynasty! The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty! The ancestors of the Qing Dynasty! ”

After signing his name on the first treaty of loss of power and humiliation of the country that had been advanced for more than 20 years, Kupilon threw down the brush, cried three times, a mouthful of blood spurted out, and he fell to the ground and fainted on the spot.

"Poor old fellow, Xiao Mazi made it clear that he was letting you carry this black cauldron, so you should ask for more blessings." After glancing at Kupilon, who fell to the ground and fainted, Lu Fatzi gritted his teeth in his heart and said, "Kang Mazi, wait!" In order not to let you dogs sign more after a hundred years, Lao Tzu swears that in the future, you must sign more such treaties! ”

(To be continued)