When Pang Gang received a report that he had discovered the traces of the Qing army, he muttered for a moment and ordered his troops to speed up their march and immediately advance towards Tianjin.

Seeing this, Da Zhuang on the side couldn't help but wonder: "My lord, the Tartars have conquered Tianjin, although there are no heavy troops to guard at this moment, but there must be a lot of scattered Qing soldiers around, if we go to Beijing through Tianjin, we will inevitably be slowed down by them, and then Lu Inspector will blame it may not be good for the adults, we might as well bypass Tianjin and not entangle with the Tartars." ”

Pang Gang glanced at this loving general who was loyal to him but had a straightforward surname, and sighed lightly: "Da Zhuang, Tianjin was robbed, hundreds of thousands of people were taken captive, but there are still more than 100,000 people living in all directions, these people are all the people of my Ming Dynasty, if we don't care, they will either be starved to death or killed by Tartars." If we bypass Tianjin at this moment, where will we put those people? ”

Da Zhuang was stunned for a moment, and then bowed down and said: "My lord's bodhisattva heart, the end will be ashamed of himself." ”

In fact, Pang Gang has other thoughts, at this moment, half of the territory in Shandong under the direct control of Pang Gang has been accounted for, and the remaining half is also under the control of his father-in-law Wei Tongnian, at least nominally. If Pang Gang wants to take Shandong as his old nest and base in the future, he must develop Shandong into a place where he can live and work in peace and contentment, so it is necessary to increase the number of people on his own territory, and with a sufficient population, Pang Gang can carry out better both military recruitment and agricultural development.

With a large population base sufficient to support him, Pang Gang's next reforms that touched the landlord class could be carried out smoothly, and the Naxi exiles were Pang Gang's best potential supporters.

On the fifth day of the fourth month of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Pang Gang came to the outside of Tianjin, which had become a ruined wall, and what greeted the eyes of the army was a scene like the end of the world, with burned houses and undisposed corpses everywhere.

Pang Gang rode on the horse, looked around blankly, on the endless flat and dry yellow earth, it was difficult to see trees, and after the people and horses, the dust raised was all over the sky. Although the land was vast, there were not many people along the way, and Pang Gang saw that many small villages had been abandoned.

At this moment, due to natural disasters in Tianjin, coupled with the entry of the Qing soldiers this time, the places near Tianjin were tragically looted, and the grass and trees were scorched everywhere inside and outside Tianjin, and even the mountain trees were white flowers everywhere they saw, and the wild vegetables and weeds had long been eaten up by the homeless people, and the bark of the trees had been stripped off, and even the grass roots had been dug up.

Everywhere there were dead bodies of homeless people starving, and even scrapers on the side of the road were seen like slaughtering pigs and dogs. Except for some large villages and forts, it is difficult to see small villages with people when walking in the wilderness.

"Life in troubled times is not as good as a dog!" Seeing such a bleak scene, Pang Gang couldn't help but shake his head and sigh again and again.

Such a tragic scene even the soldiers who followed Pang Gang sighed, many of them were homeless before they became soldiers, they have seen a lot of such a scene, and seeing such a scene again at this moment evoked the unbearable memories in their hearts, and compared with the life they can eat and dress up now, it has strengthened their minds to follow the huge people.

After entering the city of Tianjin, under the ruins and broken walls, on both sides of the street, there were ragged homeless people everywhere, and they were lying on the streets one by one. Countless girls who were lucky enough not to be captured by the Qing soldiers knelt on the street, with grass rings made of dry grass stuck on their heads, signaling that they would volunteer to be slaves and maids of other families, just begging for a full bite to eat.

Pang Gang really couldn't stand it anymore, sighed and whispered to Da Zhuang: "You hurry up and call the battalion officer of the baggage battalion, hurry up and open a porridge shop on the street, remember that the porridge can't be too thick, otherwise the stomachs of these homeless people will not be able to stand it." ”

"The last general will obey the general's order!" Da Zhuang immediately clenched his fists and left.

For the opening of the porridge shop, the Qingzhou army under the command of Pang Gang has already been familiar with the car, and soon, hundreds of cauldrons have been set up on the streets of Tianjin City, under the pot is the burning firewood, the pot is boiled with thinner millet porridge, which looks golden, and there is a stream of millet porridge around the fragrance, attracting countless displaced people around, looking at the rice porridge in the pot, their eyes shot a hungry wolf-like green light.

However, next to each iron pot, there stood dozens of soldiers who were eyeing each other, and no one dared to mess around under their threatening guard.

The burly man stood beside a cauldron with a waist knife and shouted: "Fathers and fellow villagers, my family is the right governor of Nanjing, the general of Dingguo, and the commander of Qingzhou, Pang Gang, a huge person, and a huge person is a benevolent and righteous person. ”

At this time, under the word of mouth among the homeless people, the homeless people in the city flocked to each cauldron, and hundreds of homeless people surrounded each cauldron.

After a while, seeing the rice porridge in Da Guo floating around like a flower, Da Zhuang nodded at the baggage soldiers who were boiling porridge next to him, signaling that he could start the porridge.

The stout baggage soldier opened his loud voice and shouted: "It's time to start the soup kitchen, everyone is coming to line up, the women and children are in front, and the young man is behind, everyone must line up, otherwise they will all be driven out with big sticks." ”

Hearing the words of this heavy soldier, the young men among the displaced people around him began to stir, obviously unable to understand why these officers and soldiers would take care of those incapable old and weak women and children first.

In fact, the priority of the elderly, weak women and children is a hard surname rule set by Pang Gang in Qingzhou, and this regulation has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in later generations, and Pang Gang is naturally no exception. Moreover, Pang Gang also believes that a nation can suffer, but it cannot lose some traditions, especially when these traditions also involve basic human ethics and moral bottom lines.

Although some of Pang Gang's subordinates began to understand Pang Gang's regulations, they got used to it over time, and under the influence of Pang Gang, Qingzhou also slowly erected a habit, that is, the big man must have a big man's responsibility, even if he starves to death, he can't do something that violates the bottom line of being a man.

Those old and weak women and children trembled in front of the line, looking around with a little frightened eyes, in their impression, in the troubled times, these people are often the priority to be abandoned, if they meet the hungry young and strong, they are even in danger of being eaten, how can they have the right to give priority to porridge now.

A thin young woman led a thin little girl to receive the porridge, and then knelt down beside Da Zhuang who was standing next to the big iron pot with a "poof", choked and cried: "The little woman has thanked the general for his great kindness, but you have saved the life of the little woman's family!" ”

Da Zhuang couldn't bear to help the woman, sighed and said: "This eldest sister, it is not me who saves you, but my family, but I can't wait for the army to stay for a long time again, and I have to rush to King Qin, Jingshi, I can't stay here for a long time, you have to cherish yourself." ”

"How's that okay?" The woman asked in a panic as she tugged at her big sleeve, she was fed up with the taste of hunger.

Seeing that the opportunity had come, Da Zhuang said loudly: "We are the officials and soldiers from Qingzhou, we can't stay here for a long time, it is the responsibility of the government to help the victims, and it has nothing to do with us, but my family can't bear to see you starved to death, so I have a kind heart." If you don't have a place to go, we can send someone to send you to Qingzhou, Laizhou, Dengzhou and other places, or for the military or for the people, then someone will settle everyone, you can think for yourself, whether to stay in place and wait for starvation or go to Shandong to find a way to live! ”

The surrounding homeless people began to whisper, after all, they had all lived here for half their lives, and they suddenly had to go to another place to start their lives again, and anyone else had to think about it carefully.

After the soup kitchen, Pang Gang took his own soldiers to patrol around the city, and when he saw that if someone wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rob and destroy the silver women, he was immediately dragged out by the personal soldiers around Pang Gang and hacked to death. This kind of torture deterred those young people with bad intentions.

Seeing Pang Gang doing his best to protect his old, weak, sick and disabled, the hearts of the displaced people gradually stabilized. Pang Gang walked to an old man and a little boy who were sitting on the side of the road drinking porridge and sat down, he smiled and asked the old man, "Old man, are you willing to live in Qingzhou?" ”

The old man put down the porcelain bowl with a missing corner in his hand and sighed, "Hey, what if you don't go to such a situation now, the little old man is sixty and four this year, even if he is dead, he will not lose money, but he can't let go of this little grandson next to him, his father and mother were taken away by the Tartars, if I let go of the old man again, he won't be able to live." ”

Pang Gang asked again: "Old man, now that the Tartar is gone, can you still continue farming here?" ”

"Farming?" The old man laughed miserably, "Even if you wait for the Tartars to retreat, can you still plant the land here?" There are so many taxes and miscellaneous taxes from the government, it is difficult for us ordinary people! After I leave this place, my family's land will definitely be occupied by those powerful squires, and if I go, it will be a dead retreat. ”

Hearing this, Pang Gang sighed, the people of China are really full of disasters and difficulties, but in the history of more than 5,000 years, there are not many years that can be called living and working in peace and contentment, either by war or by corrupt officials. But even so, the Chinese nation still survived like this, and there was no fault in the middle, but it continued to later generations.

Pang Gang didn't want to go down anymore, turned his head and ordered the soldiers around him, let them quickly arrange manpower to prepare to transfer these people to the dock of Tianjin Wei, and use the big ship that is still docked to transfer these people away, the surviving people in Tianjin City are estimated to have 30,000 or 40,000 people, and after transferring them to Shenmi Island or Dengzhou, Laizhou and other places, he will have another firm supporter.

(To be continued)