Long before the transfer of the first battalion in the west, Xu Ping had already dug trenches and repaired the bases along the official road from Lanyang to Kaifeng. When Li Dingguo's troops arrived, they also immediately began to repair fortifications with the Guards Battalion. In this defensive system, all the core fortifications were also powerful bastions, but they were not too large, each fort could hold up to a few hundred soldiers, and the walls were also made of wood.

Xu Ping was satisfied with the speed with which these forts were built, and he had no intention of holding on to one of them for long, but planned to use continuous fortifications to drain the impact of the new army, which was one of the reasons why he built the forts out of wood instead of earth and stone.

The news from the Shandong Provincial Government and the Imperial Court sent a steady stream of the movements of the new army, and together with the information collected by the camp itself, Xu Ping was quickly alerted after the new army received troops and equipment in Shandong. The grain and grass of the new army were provided by Shandong, and the Beijing division provided the three battalions of the new army with reinforcements and major supplies, while some other equipment was sent from Nanjing, and these supplies were always under the protection of the new army in Shandong along the way, and the staff of the new army hoped to rely on this to avoid a large amount of unnecessary wear and tear - if it was handed over to the direct subordinates with a sound official system to be responsible for transportation, the staff of the new army was very suspicious of how much supplies could be delivered in time.

Although the new army avoided the interference and greed of the local government, its marching route was greatly restricted. After confirming that the new army was close to the Yellow River, Xu Ping ordered the implementation of the policy of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness, and along the official road, that is, around the perimeter of the Xuping defense area, all the villagers must be evacuated immediately, and all settlements must be burned.

After hearing the news, Hei Baoyi hurriedly went to the headquarters to find Xu Ping, but heard that he had already gone to the front line to supervise the implementation of the plan. Hei Bao didn't say much and went straight to Lanyang. Most of the people were evacuated to the south, but the official roads were still full of people, and those who could not bear it in the south formed a constant flow of people and meandered westward. Next to this long snake, Hei Baoyi found Xu Ping who was watching on the side of the road.

"Brother Xu, why did you give such an order?" Kurohoichi asked angrily.

Xu Ping glanced at Hei Bao and then turned his gaze to the rolling crowd on the avenue. The people braved the cold wind to the safe zone designated by the intruding army, and the Guards Battalion also dispatched a large number of officers and soldiers and mobilized all their vehicles to assist the people in relocating.

"It's not that I don't know that it's causing suffering to the people, and it's not that I don't know that the houses I burned down are the meager property of these people. However, I had to do this for the sake of victory, and I felt deep pain and guilt for it, and I will definitely do everything in my power to make up for their losses today. Xu Ping had already answered Hei Baoyi's question in his heart, but he didn't say this in his mouth, he could say this reason to his subordinates, but he felt unspeakable in front of this rectum.

Seeing Xu Ping's extraordinary words, Hei Bao shouted loudly: "Brother Xu, we beat away the officers and soldiers in order to prevent the people from starving and cold, how can we do something to let them starve and freeze?" If they are all about harming the people anyway, then why should I go to the officers and soldiers? ”

Xu Ping was still speechless, Shen Yunchong, who was following him, was the planner and one of the executors, and when he saw that Xu Ping was silent, he defended him and said, "Lord Hei, why don't you listen to what the people mean?" ”

Without waiting for Hei Bao to answer, Shen Yunchong ran to the side of the road and shouted to the people passing by: "Folks, are you willing to let the government go back to Henan?" ”

"I don't want to!"

"We don't want to!"

Although the people on the road were in a hurry, everyone who heard Shen Yunchong's question replied like this. Shen Yunchong turned around and walked slowly back to Xu Ping and Hei Bao, and there were still bursts of shouts from the people of Henan behind him: "Heroes who broke into the camp, kill officers and soldiers." ”

"Hei-sama, you heard it all." Shen Yunchong asked, "Before the general officially issued this evacuation order, we planned to go and explain to the people. However, before we could explain our intentions, after hearing that there might be officers and soldiers from somewhere, these people fled west to avoid them. Shen Yun never said politely: "Lord Hei, we are conforming to the will of the people." ”

"We are collecting grain and taxes in Henan, Brother Xu, didn't you keep saying that it was to beat away the officers and soldiers?" Hei Baoyi didn't argue with Shen Yuncong, and asked Xu Pingdao: "Didn't you keep saying that this is a contractual relationship?" Since it's a contract, how can you not keep it, if you don't defend the people's homes, won't you take the money and don't do anything? ”

"I'll do it, and I'll keep the contract." Xu Ping suddenly opened his mouth and said: "I asked the army to help every family bring as much furniture as possible, and I also sent someone to record what they had to leave behind, and we will double the repayment when we break into the camp next year, and we will also rebuild their houses." After Xu Ping finished speaking, he looked at Hei Baoyi calmly: "Brother Hei is satisfied?" ”

"I'm not satisfied!" Hei Bao retorted loudly: "Brother Xu, you just think too much, this world is just a test, you care too much about winning or losing, when the officers and soldiers come, we will fight to the death with them, if Allah lets us win, we will continue to follow our path; If Allah wants to summon us to meet Him, Brother Xu, no matter how much you calculate, it will be useless. ”

"Many of the people here do not believe in Allah, do you want to see them go to hell, brother black?" Xu Ping calmly retorted: "Don't you think that the mission that Allah has given you is to protect the good and fight against the murderers, Brother Hei?" Xu Ping talked about the tragic situation on the way he and Hei Baoyi fled: "Do you want to go to heaven to enjoy happiness as soon as possible, and you don't want to stay in the world for a while, and you don't want to help others?" ”

Thinking of all kinds of heinous bestiality in Henan, the anger on Heibao's face gradually faded, since Xu Ping besieged the officers and soldiers in Kaifeng, the people here have indeed lived a lot better, he looked at the fleeing crowd, and said to Xu Ping with a tiger face: "If we can't regain the lost land in the spring, they will be homeless, and it will delay their spring ploughing." ”

"Yes, so we must not lose, we must defeat the new army, not only for ourselves, but also for the tens of millions of people in Henan."

As soon as Hei Bao left, looking at his burly back that was gradually moving away, Xu Ping's chief of staff, Zhou Dongtian, said with some concern: "My lord, do you really want to hand over the armored battalion to him?" I'm afraid he'll do something bad. ”

"Don't you think he has a point?" Xu Ping asked coldly.

"Reason?" Zhou Dongtian looked at Xu Ping inexplicably: "What is the truth?" Regardless of the recklessness to fight the New Army? If we can fight like this, then what do we need to do? ”

"I'm not talking about his fighting, I'm talking about his worries."

"What worries?" Zhou Dongtian's face was full of confusion.

Xu Ping had already discussed the countermeasures in detail with his subordinates before, and the best way to weaken the new army was to take advantage of the weather. When the officers and soldiers come, the people will definitely flee in large numbers, but their remaining houses will be used by the new army to shelter from the cold, and with these ready-made buildings, the daily workload of the new army will be greatly reduced, and it is not necessary to cut down trees to build barracks for all soldiers to shelter from the cold; It would not be possible for the people to take all the necessities with them, and these things would also reduce the burden on the new army and reduce their need for supplies. Therefore, Xu Ping ordered a thorough sabotage work, and in the face of this policy of clearing the wilderness, those imperial troops with corrupt military discipline, plundering habits, corruption, and waste were likely to collapse directly. But with the strict military discipline of the new army, Xu Ping estimated that this could only weaken them, so that the two battalions of the guards and the west head could fight them.

"Many people are indeed going to flee to avoid the officers and soldiers, and the local government that came with them and was escorted back by the new army, but there must be some people who are unwilling to go, although there are not many, but there will always be some people who are reluctant to leave their family property and want to stay and try their luck." Xu Ping always used the help of the people who would have fled spontaneously, so that these fleeing people would not suffer from hunger and cold on the road: "But now, they all have to go, and no one can stay." No matter how careful we are to sleep on the road in this weather, there will always be some misfortune among those who intend to stay and try their luck, and if they do stay, maybe the new army will not do anything to them, after all, there is no civil overseer of the imperial court. ”

"Then many more of our soldiers who broke into the camp will die, and their lives are not their lives? If our army is defeated and all the magistrates in Henan come back, will the lives of the people who will die in the future not be fate? Zhou Dongtian quickly asked.

"Now I feel like the driver of a carriage that is about to lose control, speeding down the road, with a fork in the road in front of me, with five people on the left and one on the right." Xu Ping muttered that no matter what choice is immoral: "Should I go left or right? ”

Xu Ping said to himself: "Or I can be like Brother Black, close my eyes and let Allah choose." Even if five people were killed, I could console myself by saying it was their fate. ”

"Your Excellency, you're thinking too much." Zhou Dongtian said with relief.

"I didn't need to choose before, I didn't need to think about it, but now that I'm sitting in this position, I can't help but think about it." Xu Ping's heart is full of depression, his status has improved dramatically in the past year, and the speed is so fast that he has no time to adapt: "I used to be very dissatisfied with Hou Ye, but now I am wondering, is Hou Ye also facing such a problem?" Hou Ye didn't want God to choose, he planned to kill a few and save a few, and I happened to be what Hou Ye planned to kill. ”

"Master Hou," Zhou Dongtian said hehehe: "I know that you are thinking too much, my lord." First: I feel that Hou Ye can't help himself, he can't bump into his relatives and friends, so he has to bump into us; Second: No matter what the reason, if someone wants to hit me, then I will not ignore him as an enemy. ”

"We're not talking about the same thing," Xu Ping shook his head, "I never imagined that a person with hundreds of millions of living people, including my life, would not suffer for what happened to the people of the world." The people I have helped are far from being compared with Hou Ye, I don't believe I can understand Hou Ye's love for the people, but when I see that the people are not living, I will still be miserable when I personally beat the people who want to survive into the sea of fire, why can Hou Ye bear to look at it? ”

"But this is all my lord, you are thinking, but I feel that Hou Ye's sharpness has been smoothed out, Hou Ye is a noble lord of the imperial court, and he has been both prosperous and lost with the imperial court." Zhou Dongtian said: "I feel that what we do is to obey the heavens. ”

……

On November 4, heavy snow fell on Henan, not the first snow this year, but a heavy snow not seen in decades, and the snow reached deep into people's calves overnight. When Xu Ping woke up in the morning, the heavy snow was still falling, and even if he was only a few steps away, he couldn't see the scenery clearly. Countless officers and men poured out of their tents and cheered in the heavy snow, and some soldiers from peasant families even wept with joy.

The snowfall in Kaifeng and Guide has been fluttering for two days and three nights, and the people of Henan, regardless of men, women and children, are cheering in the heavy snow. An old man who is over eighty years old because of his longevity, in previous years, even the county officials would give him New Year's greetings, on weekdays he always sat majestically at home, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, but now he was lying in the snow like a child, holding the thick snow on the ground with both hands, and his face was full of tears: "Such a heavy snow, or seventy years ago, I only saw it once, this is the blessing brought by King Chuang, the king is really the lord of destiny." ”

The old man didn't know that this snowfall not only appeared in Henan, but also in Zhili and Shanxi, and in Datong, Shanxi, the snow fell for five days before stopping. For a time, the old people in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be rejuvenated, telling the younger generations who had never seen or heard of this scene about similar scenes in their youth and childhood—it was not a rare sight at that time.

In the winter of previous years, although the snow drifted in the capital, most of the time even the ground could not be covered, just after the ground melted completely, accidentally spread a thin layer on the ground, and the people in the city happily went out to "step on the snow". Although the snow near Jingshi this year is slightly shorter than in Shanxi, it is also two days long. Joy does not only appear among the people, since the arrival of the heavy snow, everyone in the court is happy, rushing to write to the son of the day to congratulate the son.

In the imperial city of Beijing, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen made a special trip to the Taimiao to pay tribute. After returning to the palace, his face was still full of joy, and when he laughed and talked with his queen, he couldn't help but get up several times and thank the heavenly prince repeatedly.

Since Wanli, the great drought in the north has become more and more frequent, and the temperature in the south has plummeted, this phenomenon has become the norm for decades, and the courtiers have attributed the reason to the emperor's lack of virtue, and the blame has been weighing heavily on the shoulders of the Ming Emperor. After the death of Wanli, the culprit who caused the catastrophe in the world, this responsibility was shouldered by the Emperor of the Apocalypse and Wei Zhongxian.

In the early days of Chongzhen's accession to the throne, he had always secretly shifted the responsibility to the previous emperors in his heart. But more than ten years have passed since he ascended the throne, and the disaster has not improved, and even worsened. The sea in Guangzhou began to freeze; It snows in Fujian and Guangdong in winter; The entire lake of Taihu Lake froze and hundreds of fishermen died of hunger and cold; There are several counties in Henan and Shanxi that have not rained for several years...... All this frightened Emperor Chongzhen, and he reduced his meals again and again, until he ate only one meal on the last day; Again and again, he was frugal until he wore the clothes that the queen and the concubine had woven for him by themselves. Chongzhen asked himself, let his wife and children starve together, the crown prince can't even get the dowry, so he can only drag it and can't get married, I'm afraid that he is the only one who has been the emperor since ancient times, but this god still doesn't rain, and he says nothing about it.

The various signs since his accession to the throne seem to be informing the people of the world that the Ming Dynasty is coming to an end. Emperor Chongzhen didn't say it, but he was actually shocked in his heart. He also cried bitterly to his concubine out of shape: "Is there a sign of the death of the country everywhere? ”

"My sincerity has finally touched the heart of heaven." Today, Emperor Chongzhen, who had a big heart, made an exception and drank a small glass of wine, and he said to the queen with a smile: "But don't increase the meal, you should take the relief of heaven as the first priority." ”

In the midst of the national jubilation, only one person knew exactly what he was seeing. Zhen Donghou stood in the courtyard of his house, stretched out his hand to catch the falling snowflakes, and watched it slowly melt in his palm. The wife next to him said happily, "What a ruizhao." He just casually echoed when he heard it.

The sun's sunspot activity has returned to normal, the ice caps at the Earth's poles are retreating, and the water content in the atmosphere is increasing; As temperatures continue to rise, the snow and ice on the Tibetan Plateau will double in the coming year, and the runoff from the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and other rivers will soar in large quantities.

As in China, there is a glimmer of hope for the revival of agricultural civilization around the world. High-yielding crops from North America had spread to the Old World, and soon skilled farmers in these agrarian civilizations would produce far more food than they needed, supplying large numbers of people to become scholars and workers. Britain, France, Russia, and Germany in Europe will enter an unprecedented period of great development, and this time the agricultural civilization will give birth to a newborn of industrial civilization in the great development, and the entire human civilization is about to get rid of its infancy.

"For twenty years, I have suppressed the ambitions of my subordinates and the anger in my heart, hoping that China will not suffer a tragic war and devastation during the Xiaoice River disaster. For this reason, I even broke my oath to help the imperial court build an elite army with a clear conscience, and let them slaughter innocent people......" Zhendong Hou gently clenched his hands into a fist, holding that little bit of snow water tightly in his hands, and he asked himself in his heart: "Is my choice right or wrong?" Does it increase or decrease the suffering of the people? ”

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