Episode 12 From the Great Reckoning to the Holocaust

Unexpectedly, Zhu Yourong was not surprised at all, but still nodded with a smile and said:

"This,."

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Zhang Zhaoxian glanced at each other, and they both sighed: Shen Rongxuan's news is quite well-informed.

Zhu Yourong frowned again and said in a deep voice:

"This incident will have a certain impact on our rear. However, it is limited to the shallow depth of our offensive side, that is, within one or two hundred kilometers. Within a radius of more than 100 kilometers, it is relatively easy for local people to walk to the south, and it is not so easy to go further north. Of course, it can't be compared with the previous southern escape, which died nine times and didn't care, let alone walk. I mean, as we pushed farther and farther, the local people saw that we were able to fight here, and they didn't think that we just hit it and left. Coupled with the long distance to the south, it is easy to persuade the local people to stay. ”

"Your Majesty," Xiang Xiaoqiang was a little anxious, and then said, "Then the current flow of refugees on the north bank of the Yangtze River is no longer easy to control, and our army is about to shoot in the sky." Now our traffic on the north shore is in a mess, the refugees are mixed with our tanks and artillery, and there is no way to move forward! Now that we are fighting Yangzhou and Chuzhou, it is the time when we need heavy weapons to support them...... The entire Jianghuai Plain is waiting for our mechanized troops to advance, and now that the north bank is in chaos like this, do we still need to provide transportation for the flow of refugees and assist them to come? ”

Zhu Yourong nodded and said:

"Oh, the flow of refugees in the right-wing war zone will definitely not work. The military could declare martial law on the fighting, prohibiting civilians from crossing the river to the south. But refugees on the left, it's better not to interfere. ”

"But ......"

"Xiang Qing, Zhang Qing," Zhu Yourong stood up, paced lightly, and said slowly, "The local people are right, since it is already the place of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty does not prohibit the free movement of the people, then they can naturally go wherever they want." ”

She stood still, looked at the two of them, and said:

"You must also know how our representative to the League of Nations debated with the puppet Qing representative. In the League of Nations, the puppet Qing deputies often accused us of how bad and illegal the Ming Dynasty was. And the most powerful response of our representatives is often as follows: 'Although our constitutional monarchy has many shortcomings and problems, we have never locked the people in it with a barbed wire fence like you. ’

"You have to understand that a country that has said this must not forbid anyone but prisoners to go wherever they want. Isn't it too ironic that we encouraged them to flee south before the Northern Expedition and forbade them to flee south after the Northern Expedition? We don't need to be slapped in the face by the puppeteers, our own people and our own media will have to slap us first...... So, even if there is a bit of a slowdown in our offensive tempo, or a little more pressure on our logistics, we're going to do that. It's all the price we have to pay.

"Our Northern Expedition, not for territory, not for resources, not for geopolitics, not for the removal of military threats...... Neither is our purpose. Our Northern Expedition is so that all the people of China will never have to flee south again. Two Aiqing, you must remember that this is the purpose of our Northern Expedition. It is the real and only purpose. …… We can't do anything that is contrary to that purpose. ”

After Zhu Yourong finished speaking, he stood quietly and looked at the two.

Zhang Zhaoxian and Xiang Xiaoqiang slowly glanced at each other, and they both felt that there was no need to say anything.

Then, the two retired.

……

When they came out, neither of them spoke. Zhang Zhaoxian sighed, and he didn't know whether to lament Zhu Yourong's simplicity or regret the inconvenience caused by the military.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was also sighing. This girl is too much this time. Please, there should be a degree of naivety.

To be sure, this may be troublesome militarily, but politically advantageous. This is also the result of Shen Rongxuan's persuasion. This decision is not naïve, but Zhu Yourong's words are naïve.

"Anyone but prisoners must not be forbidden to go wherever they want", hehe, yes, how can I remember clearly how I, who is not a prisoner, almost went to prison last time. By the way, what's going on?

"Not for territory, not for resources, not for geopolitics, not for the removal of military threats," only for the sake of an ideal and values, this kind of thing may happen after the end of the Cold War, such as the United Nations peacekeeping war, and several other wars, completely public welfare, it doesn't matter. But now, before World War II, when the world was still pursuing the "law of the jungle", it was completely impossible.

"Our Northern Expedition is so that all the people of China will never need to flee south again."

This sentence is also very touching, it is very good to sensational when speaking, but when facing his own henchmen and generals, it is not interesting.

Alas, Zhu Yourong, this girl was probably born in the wrong era. If you were born in the 21st century, you might be a UN Peace Ambassador, a UN Children's Ambassador, or a Nobel Peace Prize or something.

The two returned to their command posts and immediately began to arrange for the troops in the East Road Theater to completely prohibit the refugees along the Yangtze River from crossing the river and prohibit the local people of the Northern Qing Dynasty from moving south in droves.

The Eastern Route Theater did this, which was justified both domestically and internationally - a large number of refugees would seriously affect the crossing of the troops across the river, and this was due to military necessity. But the refugees of the West Road ...... That's a headache for the Cabinet government. Let's see how much temporary shelter they can prepare.

……

At seven o'clock in the evening, it was already dark. There was already a different atmosphere in Nanyang City.

Several places in the city were already on fire. There were people shouting and running everywhere, especially in the official and wealthy districts in the south of the city, where smoke was billowing out. The people of the city, mainly the young people, shouted feverishly and flocked to the area. The atmosphere in the entire Nanyang City was weird and crazy.

The first to be besieged was the police station in Nanyang Castle.

The former several-storey, imposing blue-brick building now smokes from every window, and at least half of the windows have flames bursting out and licking the walls outside. There was a huge crowd of people below, and people kept carrying stools, tables, and the like to smash the windows, and every time they smashed it, the crowd would erupt into a "Okay!! Cheers.

However, there were still people in the building. There were a few windows without fire, and from time to time a human figure came out of them, wearing a police uniform of the Northern Qing Dynasty, his head was black, his face was full of burning, and he was breathing in the fresh air. Smoke billowed from the windows behind the men, and it was clear that the fire was about to burn here. They looked at the blackened crowd below and begged in despair.

The following response was the shouting and scolding of the crowd. These usually gentle people now seem to have become bloodthirsty thugs, and hatred erupts from everyone's eyes.

"Don't let them jump off!"

"Burn them!"

"Burn! Burn! ”

"Burn these beasts!"

"Eat people without spitting out bones!"

"You also have today!"

"If you don't want to burn, fall to death! Cheap you guys! ”

The two tall and mighty stone lions at the entrance of the police station are usually so condescending and spotless, demonstrating the absolute authority of the ruling machine. But their current appearance is even more terrifying than the bull head and horse face in hell.

Two stone lions, each with a person tied to the granite base, not only had their police uniforms ripped open, but even their chests had been pulled open. A man's chest was cut open, his black heart and liver were rolled to the ground with blood, his head tilted to the side, and he was already dead. The person on the other stone lion had his stomach cut open, and Bai Huahua's intestines flowed all over the ground. But he was not dead, his head was down, his complexion was already blue-white, his eyes were open and his intestines were open, and his mouth was open and closed.

A big man came out of the crowd, carrying a large kitchen knife in his hand, stood next to the dead man first, grabbed his hair, and cut off his head with a knife.

Everyone "boomed" and retreated, and then there was a burst of applause. Then Dahan came to the side of the second Beiqing policeman, regardless of whether he was not dead or that many people in the crowd shouted "Don't cut, don't cut, let him die of pain", or he raised his knife and cut off his head.

The big man picked up his two heads and slammed them twice, opened his bow left and right, and threw them out. The two heads arced in the air and flew into the windows of the building one after the other, and were engulfed in flames.

Screams began to erupt from the windows of the building, and then people with fires continued to jump down from the windows. When he jumped from the third or fourth floor, he fell to his death. The one who jumped from the second floor did not fall to his death, but was still rolling in pain. The crowd of people with various things in their hands rushed up, and in the blink of an eye, there was a blur of flesh and blood.

……

The same thing happens in many places in the same neighborhood. In this neighborhood, almost the entire street was smashed to pieces, and several tall buildings were on fire. Beneath these buildings were tens of thousands of citizens who had not yet left, shouting and whistling, all in a state of madness, venting their pent-up anger for years.

The streets were already littered with corpses, some beheaded, others doused with gasoline and burned to charcoal.

The atmosphere in Nanyang City is almost the same as the atmosphere on the streets of Batavia City in the Dutch East Indies a few months ago. Even though the city is full of fireworks and blood, those poor people are not afraid at all when they walk on the streets, but feel proud of their eyebrows.

On the contrary, the tragic deaths of the people on the streets, the headless corpses with blurred flesh and blood, are either official or rich. Before yesterday, they were 100 percent "cattle people", walking sideways on the streets, covering the sky with one hand, disregarding people's lives, bullying men and women, monopolizing all wealth and social resources, and making any untouchable person survive without seeking death with their fingers, but now they are all lying on the street and have become dead people.

Those who are not dead have also become the prey of the people, hiding in terror**, and in order to escape for their lives, they can go anywhere: garbage cans, dung pits...... Some even fled into the coffin shop, lay down in the coffin and then closed the lid, hiding themselves inside......

Those who have been captured by the crowd have to seek their lives by kneeling before the untouchables, giving up all self-esteem and weeping bitterly. But even so, it is still inescapable.

At the beginning of the riots, the belief that filled the minds of the people was still very simple: it was for revenge, venting long-suppressed anger, and revenge for justice. Those who were ruined by the powerful people at the beginning are now armed without exception, and are ready to search and kill all the officials and rich people in Nanyang City before defecting to the Ming Dynasty.

But after just over an hour, the taste was completely different. The people who were thrilled by the bloody scenes, especially those who had tasted the thrill of killing their enemies with their own hands, became even more crazy and blind. Their bloodlust began to become irrepressible, and the original belief in justice was filled with more and more evil things.

When they found that they were able to drag those former great men out of the mansion without any scruples, kill, smash them, and set fire to their mansions, they felt that their power was incomparably greater, and it seemed that nothing could stop them from daring to do more. Even if they do whatever they want, they are not bound by anything anymore.

When the things in those mansions were displayed in front of them, when the wives and concubines and young daughters of those corrupt officials and wealthy businessmen were exposed to them in horror, they could no longer control the evil in their hearts. At this time, the people became a mob.

More and more people are breaking into the streets. The mob screamed with excitement, dragging screaming women from every house in the wealthy neighborhood to commit violence in the streets. Mansions were smashed to pieces and then burned. Scattered banknotes, silver dollars, silk and even jewelry. The more valuable calligraphy and paintings, which were not recognized by many people, were also torn off the wall and burned along with the house. Those priceless porcelain vases, porcelain plates, porcelain bowls, etc., were also smashed during the robbery, and the broken debris was trampled all over the ground.

You can constantly see groups of mobs, in the lobby of a certain mansion, in the back garden, ** the wife of the owner. And the owner of this house, that is, a local official, has already died outside.

The riots soon expanded. When the homes of officials and wealthy businessmen were ransacked one after another, and the mob later found that there was no way to loot them, they retreated to attacking those who were only slightly well-off. These families were still holding the mentality of watching the fire from the other side, watching the poor people loot the officials and rich businessmen, but now they suddenly found that it was their turn when the officials attached the capital family to the ruin.

These families are neither officials, nor are they the kind of red-top wealthy businessmen who collude with officials and businessmen, but are just small families whose families open a small shop and do a small business. Like those mobs outside, they can basically be regarded as people of the same class, all of whom are usually oppressed by the government and monopolized by officials and businessmen. But now the mob outside has changed from righteous "insurgents" to robbers just for money.

More ordinary people in the city were broken into, looted, killed, and their female dependents were **.

The "people killing and plundering the upper class" that had already begun again in the riots had evolved into a full-scale "people killing and plundering the people". The entire city of Nanyang fell into total terror.

……

The Ming army was stationed outside the city, and they knew what was going on in the city. However, the People's Guard, which has the most power, has already moved to the front to sweep away, and several army divisions stationed near Nanyang City have strict orders: they are not allowed to enter the garrison in the city, and they are not allowed to fire a single shot at the local people.

In this situation, the Ming army had only a small number of gendarmes in the city, but because of these two death orders, it was not even possible to drive into the city to quell the riots.

In the first hour of the riot, the Ming troops outside Nanyang rushed to Nanjing one after another to report urgently, asking for instructions on how to deal with it. Nanjing, on the other hand, had no expectation of this situation, and it can be said that it was completely confused.

The High Command immediately realized that this was a major political problem, much more serious than the influx of refugees. They immediately approached Shen Rongxuan and asked for a decision in the shortest possible time:

Do you want to go into the city immediately to quell the riots? How to calm down? What are the limits of the means? Can a mob be shot?

……

To be honest, whether it is Shen Rongxuan, Zhu Yourong or Xiang Xiaoqiang, they didn't expect at this moment that how could the docile and kind Chinese people become bloodthirsty beasts like the natives of Nanyang?