Episode 43 The Three Qins (1) collapse

Xiang Xiaoqiang originally planned to return to the headquarters that night, but now he is infected with the flu, and the headquarters is in the Purple Mountain Fortress, although the ventilation is okay, but the density of personnel is so large, if it is really infectious, then the entire Ming army will be wiped out by him. Don't fight the war of reunification.

Xiang Xiaoqiang thinks about it, only sleeping in the princess's mansion. Sure enough, Xiang Xiaoqiang began to have a fever in the second half of the night, and by the morning, he couldn't afford to be sick.

As a result, inside and outside Xiang Xiaoqiang's room, there was also a strong smell of formalin. Xiang Xiaoqiang called it "mortuary flavor".

On the morning of the 25th, Tang Yunsheng didn't see Xiang Xiaoqiang come back, and was about to go crazy, but he received a call from Hu Jiong from the princess's mansion, reporting that Xiang was not well isolated because he visited the princess's bed, and he also contracted the flu and fell ill. Then the chief imperial physician of the princess's mansion took the phone and confirmed it in person.

Tang Yunsheng heard that Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't come back because of His Royal Highness the princess @#¥%&, but because he was infected with the flu, he felt a little relieved, and felt that this young man was quite stable, after all, he didn't think about what he was worried about, so he was fooling around.

Then he asked the imperial doctor when Xiang Xiaoqiang would get better, and the imperial doctor said that this kind of cold is not easy to get better, at least three or four days, and more than ten days.

When Tang Yunsheng heard this, he was so angry that he smoked.

"More than ten days? The war is over for more than ten days! He shouted, "I command him that I must be healed in three days, or military law will be done!" Pass my word to him! ”

When the imperial doctor heard this, his anger also came up. He was a professor at Nanjing Imperial Medical University before he was hired by the Royal Medical Association to "exert his residual heat" after his retirement. Even Her Royal Highness the princess usually respects him very much. At this moment, his expert temper also came out, and he said lukewarmly:

"Your Excellency, you can only call God about this. I would like to advise you, don't talk to God in this tone. God is not yours. ”

Tang Yunsheng was stunned for a moment, and hung up the phone angrily.

……

Fortunately, before Xiang Xiaoqiang fell ill, he finally brought back a great idea. The benefits brought by this good idea to the Ming army were enough to make up for the losses of Xiang Xiaoqiang's absence for a few days.

On the battlefield of the Zhengzhou Corps, from the night of the 24th to the morning of the 25th, after a whole night of collapse, the 13th Group Army of the Qing Army, that is, the Zhengzhou Corps, had no regimental structure at all, and completely collapsed into a group of bandits.

But unlike traditional bandits, these "bandits" are almost no harm to the people along the way. The purpose of ordinary bandits is nothing more than to grab money and food, and the purpose of these "bandits" is only concerned with one thing: to get on the road.

On the road of more than 200 kilometers from Zhengzhou-Luoyang-Hanguguan, especially the people in the villages and towns along the Qinqi Railway, they suddenly watched a group of soldiers "roaring by" at night, followed by another group of soldiers "roaring by", and then another group of soldiers "roaring by...... The speed of the march and the high morale of the army completely devoid the appearance of the slack garrison in peacetime.

In the dark, many people began to speculate that the Ming army might have arrived, and they welcomed it on the side of the road with food and drink.

Many people who have already shouted words such as "Long live the Ming Dynasty", "Welcome to Wang Shi", and "I can look forward to you" are even more frightened to throw away the jars and jars, turn around and run, and pack up their things as soon as they get to the house, ready to go up the mountain to hide. This thing is going to be robbed and killed!

In peacetime, these officers and soldiers can easily let go of this opportunity to make money, don't they even have to arrest the seven aunts and eight aunts and knock them to death? But I didn't think that these officers and soldiers who usually live like the king of Hades, but at this moment they have no interest in these "rebellious" people, and they don't even bother to look at them, and they all run over from the village entrance with a gust of wind.

Many bold villagers stood at the entrance of the village, watching as the soldiers ran away without even hats and heavy weapons, carrying only rifles, and at most machine guns and mortars. Their means of transport are also varied: cars, mules, horses, motorcycles, bicycles, tanks, tricycles...... The common people thought they were running away, and there were Ming troops chasing after them. But if you look closely, they don't look like they're fleeing, but their morale is high and they're excited.

It was easy for hundreds or thousands of soldiers to run over, and before a while, before the dust had dispersed, they ran up again. Then there was an explosion in front of him, and a series of gunshots were heard. This is obviously a fight between two groups of officers and soldiers......

These ordinary people really can't understand it.

But in troubled times, the people at the bottom are the smartest. Like the animals at the bottom of the food chain, they have the most sensitive awareness. Now, although there are still waves of Qing officers and troops roaring in front of them, although the morale of these Qing troops is so high and abnormally high, although there is no shadow of the Ming army yet...... However, the common people already smelled the imminent collapse of the Manchu regime.

This is because the local county magistrates and township magistrates have been hurriedly packing up their bags in various localities more than 200 kilometers long, and the local military, police, constitutional, special, taxation, and other real power departments, as well as those privileged figures who are usually arrogant and rampant, have been holding their tails and living in seclusion in recent days, especially last night and this morning, it can be said that they have fallen into a panic. In all counties, towns, and townships, large wooden boxes and rattan alleys have been almost out of stock for several days, and the gasoline and diesel fuel monopolized by the government and businessmen have long been divided up internally, and they are completely unavailable on the market.

Even the teenage kids knew what that meant—the officials were ready to run away.

More important than the "escape of the officials" was that the usual strict household registration control like a tin bucket almost completely collapsed on the night of the 24th. With the advance of the Ming army, the capture of Kaifeng, and the attack on Luoyang, Zhengzhou, the garrisons have gone to fight defensive battles, and the people who check the roads are only some garrison troops and militia towns, and people are panicking, and individuals are worried about their future, and they all want to leave a way back for themselves. For those who fled south, they all turned a blind eye, and even fled south with them.

On the night of the 24th, the Zhengzhou Army collapsed, and the last obstacle to the south was gone. In almost every village and town, every household is packing their belongings and preparing to flee south in groups as soon as dawn.

In normal times, most of the people who fled south acted alone, which was convenient for them to avoid arrest. But now people are in groups, and what they are on guard against is no longer the investigation of the officials and soldiers, but the robbery of those stragglers and bandits and bandits.

Everyone knows that at least in their hometown, the Qing Dynasty is going to collapse, the world is going to be chaotic, and there may be a change of dynasty.

……

On the morning of the 25th, planes of the Ming army began to appear in the sky.

But the target of these planes was not a group of Qing troops squirming westward on the ground, but the villages and towns along the Qinqi Railway. They dropped a lot of leaflets.

These leaflets were not the same as those scattered to the Qing army. The leaflet to the Qing army was the usual 16-carat paper, the size of a book, which was convenient for each soldier to pick up and circulate, and also convenient to hide in his pocket. And this time the leaflets were not the same, they were 4 carat size, and each one was the size of a newspaper. Because considering that the literacy rate in the rural areas of the Beiqing Dynasty is very low, the large leaflets are conveniently posted on the wall at the entrance of the village, so that the literate people in the village can read them to everyone.

The judgment of the Ming army was very accurate, in the past two days, from Zhengzhou to Hangu Pass, the rule of the Northern Qing Dynasty has shown signs of collapse, the towns are a little better, and in the countryside below, the rule of the government has basically ended. Not to mention that the villagers posted Nanming leaflets at the entrance of the village to read, even if they fled south in groups, no one cared.

On the morning of the 25th, leaflets of the Ming army were pasted by the villagers on the earthen walls at the entrances of the villages and in the villages. Under each leaflet, there was a large circle of people, and there was always a literate and hyphenated person reading aloud at the innermost.

The contents of the leaflet were jointly issued by the Ming government and the Ming army.

The Ming government implored the people of western Henan not to move south on a large scale, to stay in the local area, to stay in the urban residents to stay at their posts to maintain the normal operation of society, and to take care of their homes and land, not to miss the agricultural time, and not to make it barren.

At the same time, the Ming army assured the people that the Qing army's Zhengzhou Corps had been defeated on all fronts, and the Ming army's recovery of western Henan, Guanzhong, Sanqin, and Shanxi was just around the corner. Now the place where this leaflet has gone is already the land of the Ming Dynasty, and the people on the land are not only the people of the Ming Dynasty in name, but also the people of the Ming Dynasty in the actual sense.

The leaflet also demanded that the people protect all their property in the name of the Provisional Military Management Committee of the Ming Empire. The Ming army has sufficient logistical support, and wherever the army goes, it will not forcibly levy a grain or a penny from the local residents. The people must protect their property and food, and strictly prevent the Qing army from routing and looting. Once the Qing army is routed and robbed, please do not resist and protect your own lives. At the same time, write down the number and rank of the other party, and when the Ming army comes, there will be a special unit to count all this, and then make decisions for the victims.

The leaflet solemnly declared: All the Qing troops passing through your local route, their purpose is Guanzhong, and their final destination will be the prisoners of the Ming army. Every time they harass the people along the way, they will be punished after a few days, and you, the witnesses, will be the witnesses.

In addition, along with the leaflets, there were countless Ming flags. The leaflet said that anyone could hang these Ming flags wherever they wanted if they wished.

……

The ruling apparatus of the Northern Qing Dynasty, those privileged and violent organs in peacetime, were already too busy to take care of themselves at this time. They have also heard of an incident in which the people liquidated the government in various parts of Jianghuai. What they fear most now is that the same fate will befall them. An unpopular regime depends on the military to maintain its rule. And those government and police agencies, although they are usually the most arrogant and domineering, although they are usually as feared as man-eating beasts, once the army that supports the regime falls, their vulnerability will immediately be revealed, and they will immediately become the first targets of liquidation by the angry people.

Fear prompts the bureaucratic apparatus everywhere to unite in order to protect itself.

It is usually the local police who act as bodyguards, escorting the evacuation of the bureaucratic privileges of the entire county or township. The dirt roads in the countryside were full of such processions: long processions of donkey carts and mules marching slowly, and in addition to large and small boxes, there were big-bellied, fat-brained, and soulless bureaucrats, as well as crying and crying women, who were several times their number.

On either side of the convoy were the policemen with meaty faces and long guns and short guns. Most of these policemen are also pot-bellied and fat-headed, and they can't find a normal body shape at all. Even young police officers in their twenties who have just put on their uniforms eat like pigs.

These people, who are dressed in "tiger skins", who usually act as powerful and lucky, and who are eager to eat alive, are now acting as bodyguards for the high-ranking officials on both sides of the convoy, and they are also sweating profusely, with gold stars in their eyes, and blistered on the soles of their feet. They usually live a life of delicacies from the mountains and seas, eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling, and their bodies have long been hollowed out by wine, how can they suffer this crime. But there is no way, the army is gone, and they are the only violent organs.

Carrying heavy box guns and rifles, they panted as they walked, and at the same time they tried their best to show their usual majesty, glaring viciously at the crowds of people on both sides of the road.

The people didn't say a word, they just stared at them so hard that their hearts were pounding, their hands were sweaty, and they clutched their guns.

At this time, the gun is life.

……

Suddenly, there was a "buzzing" sound overhead, and everyone looked up, and a black dot appeared in the sky. The black dots swooped down differently, getting bigger and bigger, and soon turned into a Ming fighter jet.

The plane lowered its nose and brushed against the heads of the fleeing team.

After a few moments, the fighter rushed down from the opposite side again.

And then—

"Dada............"

Four machine guns on the sides and wings of the fuselage spewed tongues of fire, and four pillars of dust exploded on the dirt road, speeding past the fugitive convoy.

When the dust column reaches the convoy, it becomes a column of blood. In an instant, the fleeing convoy was beaten to the ground, blood mist and brains exploded everywhere, and twenty or thirty corpses lay down on the spot, and many more were screaming and crying.

The people on both sides were also stunned. Suddenly, they erupted in a thunderous cheer:

"Good ————!!!"

"Good Kill————!!!

"One more !!"

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!!"

"Well killed!! Kill it all!! ”

"One more !!"

As if in response to public opinion, the fighter swooped down from the other end in the blink of an eye and fired again. This time, there was another corpse left behind.

Then, the plane circled, pulled up and flew away.

In the sky, the pilot said only one sentence on the radio:

"It was found that armed personnel of the Northern Qing Dynasty were escorting a large number of goods with guns, which were not like military supplies after observation, and were judged to be the proceeds of robbery. As ordered, the attack has been carried out, and it is over. ”

There was thunder on the ground. The team of fugitive officials has been completely dispersed, and the surviving policemen are too frightened to get up, even though they are still carrying guns. Now, the angry "sea of people" on both sides is squeezing into the middle and will do what the Ming army planes did not do - turn these people into meat sauce.

……

On the morning of the 25th, after the leaflets were widely scattered, the hearts of the entire people in western Henan immediately stabilized. The tide of the southern escape immediately eased, and many people who fled halfway saw the leaflets, looked at the Ming national flag fluttering everywhere, and returned to their homes.

By noon on the 25th, although there were still hundreds of thousands of Qing troops, police, military police, spies, bureaucrats, and garrison militias in the entire land of western Henan, the Ming flag was already fluttering everywhere. And those Qing soldiers, policemen, gendarmes, spies, and bureaucrats, under these fluttering banners of the Ming Dynasty, under the spitting and humiliation of the people, like lost dogs, rolled up in soft covers, fled westward in embarrassment.

The entire 10,000-square-kilometer western Henan region, overnight, is equivalent to saying that it is already the rear of the Southern Ming Dynasty. The Ming flag fluttered everywhere, and leaflets of the Ming army were pasted everywhere. Although the local people have not seen a Ming army, they have already regarded themselves as Ming people from the bottom of their hearts. Most of them stay in their homes and posts, maintaining the normal operation of society. During the power vacuum, there was no large-scale chaos.

It was not shells and bombs that settled all this, but just leaflets.