Chapter 131 Hangzhou Bloodless City Opening (I)

It is said that such a thing as fleeing from the battle should be done in secret. But the problem is that, just as Gou Xunli did not dare to leave Zhang Dai and flee back to Nanjing, Zhang Dai did not dare to deceive a large group of scholars into death, and then he himself pulled out his feet and slipped away - this would definitely ruin his reputation as a scholar!

If he leaves behind the infamy of a professional pit person, he Zhang Dai will no longer have to mix in the circle of scholars in the future.

Therefore, while ordering the housekeeper to pack up and prepare to leave the city, Zhang Dai ordered someone to quickly inform the enthusiastic soldiers who came to Hangzhou with him to "resist the enemy", telling them that Hangzhou was no longer defensible, and the road to the south could not be taken, so they had to turn back to Jinling and plan again......

In addition, after all, Zhang Dai has lived in Hangzhou for many years and has many friends and friends in the city. At this point, it is reasonable to inform and warn them before leaving. Anyway, the news has already been leaked to so many people, and it shouldn't matter if there are a few more!

Unexpectedly, the result of this was that one stone stirred up a thousand waves, and in an instant, a vigorous wave of escape was set off in Hangzhou!

-- With the level of secrecy that the Ming government has always been comparable to a sieve and a funnel, as early as yesterday, when the prefect Liu Mengqian entertained Zhang Dai and other "righteous men" to drink flower wine, the bad news that "the Nanjing Imperial Court could not send reinforcements, and when the princes of the court decided to let Hangzhou City fend for itself, it was best to fight to the death." It had already spread throughout the entire city of Hangzhou in one breath with the momentum of wildfire, and the gentry and wealthy families in the whole city could not sleep at night.

Although Zhang Dai only notified so many families before leaving, he couldn't help but have relatives and friends among those who were notified, and now the atmosphere in Hangzhou is tense, and everyone is paying attention to this matter, so the relevant news spreads at the speed of light -- Zhang Dai and the others have not had time to leave the city, and the news that they thought that they could not do anything when they first came to Hangzhou and were scared away by the crisis has already spread to every street and alley in Hangzhou.

What's worse is that it seems that because of the exaggeration of the atmosphere of war, some people even casually said that the Nanjing court planned to beggar-thy-neighbor and sacrifice the property of the Hangzhou gentry to bribe the thieves in exchange for the peace of those prefectures and counties in Nanzhili. And Zhang Dai came to secretly ventilate to the prefect, preparing to collude with thieves to slaughter the city, so that he could use the blood of the Zhejiang gentry to ensure the well-being of the Nanzhili official family...... Under the false rumors, all kinds of more and more terrifying rumors spread on the market in this way, and finally caused an uproar in the whole city! Everyone thinks it's too late if they don't leave!

Therefore, when Zhang Dai and other "righteous men" had just opened the city gate with the prefect's token on their front feet, dragged countless suitcases and cages on the awning boat in the Grand Canal, and prepared to set off for the north. Hundreds of local gentry from Hangzhou also flocked to the city, and without much effort, they broke the blockage of the Ming army defending the city, and followed them to the wharf of the canal. Then they brought in a great variety of ships and carried their families and their gold and silver to the north, and as the tide of war became more and more unfavorable, many of them were ready to slip away at any time, but they had not yet made up their minds. If they couldn't get a boat, they staggered north along the snow-covered official road with wheelbarrows or carts.

For this sudden doomsday escape, the Ming army defending the city did not dare to stop it at all - now the composition of the Ming army guarding the city gates of Hangzhou is very complicated, including the hereditary military households of the local guards, the officials of various yamen, and the local people who are temporarily requisitioned. But they have one thing in common, that is, they are basically Hangzhou natives, and they are inextricably linked to the rich gentry and wealthy families in the city who are the de facto ruling class. Many of the Hangzhou Minzhuang who were temporarily requisitioned were still working as hired laborers in the house of a certain gentleman a few days ago, and their sons and daughters may still be working as maids in the master's house. Now that they see that their master is going out of the city, how dare they stop it? Those officials were also locals, and their positions were basically secured by the support of the gentry, and their loyalty to their benefactors was far greater than that of the prefects from other provinces. And they knew the danger of the war better than ordinary people, and they were also not optimistic about the prospects of Hangzhou City, so they also went home to pack up and prepare to flee.

Not to mention those military households. The basic atmosphere of society at the end of the Ming Dynasty was that of nobility and martial arts. And in this place in the south of the Yangtze River, the literary style is outstanding, and there are few wars, so the status of the warriors is even lower to a desperate level. As for the status of those low-level soldiers, it is almost the same as the untouchables of India in later generations, and its members are mainly composed of beggars and slaves, and they must sell their children and daughters to barely survive, and even because of their status, they even join the beggar gang to beg for food, and they are discriminated against by other beggars...... Under normal circumstances, even if they were beaten to death by the gentry's servants on the street, they could only consider themselves unlucky, how could they dare to embarrass the noble gentry for the sake of a mere military order?

As a result, once the gates in the north of Hangzhou were opened, they could no longer be closed. All kinds of chaotic traffic and people completely blocked the streets, and thousands of people of all colors poured out like crazy -- as a large number of gentry and wealthy families fled, the small people in the market who got the news also moved when they heard the news: In the past, in order to strengthen the determination of the military and people in the whole city to resist, the prefect of Liu Mengqian carried out a considerable degree of demonic propaganda against the thieves, but now it has become a stone and shot himself in the foot -- because of excessive fear, more people in Hangzhou have been scared away.

All of a sudden, from the nobles of the clan, to the scholars and wealthy merchants, to the peddlers and pawns, as long as they could raise the trays and dry food, they all began to flee to the north of the city one after another, and finally even the soldiers and horses defending the city followed in large numbers. I don't know that the city of Hangzhou today is crumbling and dangerous, but the suburbs of northern Zhejiang are now full of bandits, and the roads are not quiet. When many bandits heard about the war situation in Zhejiang, they thought that the sky in the south of the Yangtze River was about to change, so they shaved their heads under the banner of imitating thieves and horses, and set up cards on the official road to collect the money for buying roads.

In addition to these mountain kings on land, the heroes on the water were not willing to be lonely, and began to use the canal to rely on the water to draught, and wantonly robbed the rich who fled with a lot of gold and silver. In particular, those boatmen and slender men who have lost their livelihood since the fall of Beijing and the cessation of transportation are really sad on the one hand, and on the other hand, they rely on the advantage of being familiar with waterways to engage in the business of killing people and selling goods, which is really handy...... For a time, all kinds of terrifying legends of cannibalistic black shops and slaughtering customers and black ships bloomed everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River, causing rumors to fly everywhere in the prefectures and counties, and people were panicked.

In short, Zhejiang Province is now out of control, and even those prefectures and counties that are far from the coastline and have not been directly attacked by thieves and horses are in chaos outside the cities. The officials all firmly grasped the only troops at hand, and did not dare to go out of the city to enforce the law - it is conceivable that in the eyes of all the strongmen on land and in the water, so many rich gentry who fled from Hangzhou in a hurry were definitely first-class fat sheep!

It can be seen that these Hangzhou people did not know how many bones they had to fall during the journey to the north in the wind and snow......

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However, no matter what the fate of these gentry who escaped from Hangzhou in the future, at least those who remained in Hangzhou were in a hurry.

Poor prefect Liu Mengqian, who is good at cursive calligraphy, has just drunk in the luxurious high-class green building, and found a woman to solve his physiological needs that he has been holding for many days. Over there, a confidant family member hurriedly came to report: Zhang Dai, a righteous man who just came yesterday, and others actually incited the gentry of the whole city to abandon Hangzhou and flee north! Now the rich families of the whole city are rushing out of the city gate, and the market is already in chaos, and even the city defense soldiers and horses have been completely washed away......

- Well, is that a particularly unusual way of saying that "every fortress is breached from within"?

As a result, as soon as the poor Governor Liu was woken up, he was immediately angry: he originally thought that Zhang Dai's gang of "righteous men" who were powerless to restrain chickens were at most a useless stimulant -- of course, the ancients did not have such a word as stimulants. Now it has become a life-threatening poison!

Although these damn bastards didn't directly offer the city to the thieves, if all the gentry escaped, how could this Hangzhou city be defended?

Without these gentry and big families who should pay for labor every day to maintain law and order, and pay for the money and food, should he be allowed to take a group of officials to defend the city?

But it's useless to be angry, and the gentry of Hangzhou are still pouring out of the city like a dam burst. Governor Liu had no choice but to ignore the kidney deficiency and physical loss, and insisted on going to the north of the city to curb the escape and close the city gate...... Of course, he also knows that if he wants to solve this kind of thing, it must be deterred by force, just like the anti-rent riots that suppressed the mud legs in the countryside in the past. Otherwise, even if his prefect comes forward, he will still be squeezed and trampled by the violent crowd. Therefore, as soon as he left the Qinglou, he summoned his subordinate officials everywhere, and went to the rest of the city gates, wanting to mobilize a group of soldiers and horses to come over and accompany him. Although the defenders of the Wulin Gate have been scattered by the thieves, and the officers and soldiers of the two city gates in the north have probably also been crushed, there should still be some people in the other city gates, right?

However, what made Governor Liu feel desperate was that after such a round of tossing, not only were all the subordinate adjutants nowhere to be seen, but even the defenders of several other city gates seemed to have basically slipped away! He, the prefect, has almost become the commander of the light pole!

In general, except for not opening the city gates to meet the thieves, the defenders of Hangzhou have done everything that can ruin the situation of the war.

-- Previously, although Governor Liu's preparation policy was a mess, he still requisitioned a lot of military households and Ding Zhuang from the city to defend various sections of the city wall. In the face of the government's conscription, first of all, the ordinary ordinary people did not dare not come, and secondly, the prefect's yamen set a very good subsidy and reward, just because of the war in Hangzhou, all industries withered, and many unemployed local strong men wanted to go to the city wall to work hard, so as to earn some money to support their families; Some bold scoundrels and idlers even received an old uniform from the prefect's yamen, and were ready to throw bricks and stones outside the city with the defenders, so that they could not only earn more silver, but also fantasize about being favored by officials, earning themselves a personal soldier or even a petty officer.

Obviously, under the bombardment of the thieves like a meteor shower, the illusions of these guys were quickly shattered. The Houchao Gate, which was the first to be shelled, and the Wulin Gate, which was the main battlefield next, quickly fled to the strong men on the city wall. But in the remaining city gates, there are still some people who are surviving. After the outbreak of the whole city's fleeing tide, the last straw that broke the camel's back was also put up, so those strong men who wanted to earn money immediately dispersed, and the scoundrels who wanted to earn military merits also threw down the uniforms they had just received, ran home and hid under the bed.

As a result, Governor Liu's bloodshot eyes ran from one city gate to another, only to find that the military officials and the people who were guarding each gate had already dispersed in a hurry, and there was no way to call them out from behind the closed door. When Governor Liu returned to his private residence as a temporary official in despair, he was hit by a thunderbolt from the sky - just when he was running around the city of Hangzhou just now, a group of routs who maliciously demanded wages raided the private residence of the prefect, not only burning them on a large scale, but also looting the eunuch bags that the prefect had worked so hard to accumulate for so many years!

――How did this happen? If there is no silver to go to the Nanjing court to carry out activities, this crime of defeat and capture of the city is enough for him to raid his family and destroy his family!

At this point, the prefect Liu Mengqian, who was completely mad, immediately had black eyes, a weak body, and a hideous expression, and fell down with a crooked mouth, so panicked that his cronies and housekeepers were in a hurry, and he didn't know for a while whether to run out to ask for a doctor, or stay to take care of the master...... Fortunately, probably for the sake of Governor Liu's conscientious support of the Ming Dynasty for so many years, Lord Yan sent Liu Taishou back to Yang with a stroke of his pen.

And the prefect of Liu, who woke up slowly, no longer had the spirit to continue to defend to the end, let alone the idea of committing suicide in the city with his full name, but suddenly a flash of inspiration came to his mind to bless his soul - I am a scholar from a dignified scholar, and I should be loyal to the orthodoxy of the imperial family, so why bother with the punishment of the puppet imperial court in Nanjing? At present, the true son of heaven is still wandering in the Central Plains, and he must be thinking about how to pacify the puppet emperor and occupy the southern capital to restore the throne. If he, the prefect of Hangzhou, went to Emperor Chongzhen's imperial car, it might also be a way out...... At least it's better than staying in Hangzhou to join the thieves or going to Nanjing to die!

So, Liu Mengqian, the prefect of Liu Mengqian, who had regained his spirits, immediately commanded the servants of the family to take action, first packing up some of the utensils needed for travel from the messy mansion, and then digging out a box of silver from a secret cellar as a coil. Then he dispersed a group of beggars and military households who came to ask for money, and then followed the fleeing tide of the wealthy gentry in Hangzhou, and went out of the city and went to southern Anhui.

At this point, with the final shutdown of the prefect's yamen, the city of Hangzhou officially entered a state of anarchy in which the demons danced wildly.

At the same time, the thieves outside the city remained calm and unmoved, but continued to shoot Hale rockets into the city unhurriedly......