Chapter 140: Cooking Oil with Fire (Part II)

Henan, Kaifeng

With a burst of golden sounds indicating the withdrawal of troops, another city attack and defense battle with a sea of corpses and blood was temporarily subsided.

The last pillar of the Ming Dynasty who was still resisting the Tatar soldiers, Fan Shangxiao, the governor of Henan who was trapped in the lonely city of Kaifeng, was trembling and surrounded by a group of cronies, standing on the tall wall of Kaifeng City, holding the battlements with his left hand, squinting at the scene in the wilderness outside the city.

On the city wall beside him, the most eye-catching thing is not the rows of soldiers and people who are holding various blades and concentrating on the city wall, but a dark red that pierces people's eyes, whether it is the broken and broken female wall, the messy horse road, the collapsed and burning city tower, the hot and smoking artillery, or the robes and armor of the soldiers, all of which are covered with such a muddy and dazzling dark red:

That's the color of human blood when it dries up!

Dots of blood covered almost every inch of the city tower, mixed with the old and the new, and exuded a pungent fishy smell, which made people feel sick. In addition, there is no shortage of severed limbs and wreckage that have not yet had time to be cleaned up, as well as internal organs flowing from the corpses.

The scene at the base of the wall was even more unsightly than what was on the wall. Layers of corpses were piled up at the foot of the city walls, and the blood that flowed turned the dirt into a swamp. Among these dead people, it was already considered lucky to be able to keep a whole corpse, most of the corpses were smashed to pieces by rolling stones and wood, intestines and internal organs were scattered on the ground, and then repeatedly trampled by the soldiers behind, almost all of them were trampled into flesh.

There are also many destroyed ladders, crashes and other siege equipment scattered everywhere, and at this time they are still sparsely emitting flames and black smoke.

Both the corpses and the ground were filled with dense arrows, like lush weeds in the wasteland.

Everything is like the legendary Shura Purgatory.

Looking at such a scene of corpses and a sea of blood again, Governor Fan Shangxiao's face turned pale, and his hanging right hand tightly grasped the folding fan.

This is not the first time that Fan Shangxiao has taken advantage of the gap between the enemy attacks outside the city to go to the city to watch the battle. I remember that when he first walked up to the city, he saw the bloody corpses inside and outside the city, and he immediately vomited on the ground. Until now. He still couldn't take it lightly.

“…… This is the chaos of the world......" he muttered to himself in a bit of distraction.

But the rest of the city did not have the leisure of the governor to be so sentimental about current affairs.

Only a "poof" sound was heard, and a large bucket of water was poured out of the hands of a sergeant, washing away the blood and stumps on the road.

“…… Quick, hurry up and carry the corpse down, and rinse the blood again, so that you don't have to walk on it later! ”

Under the leadership and reprimand of this sergeant. A large number of people poured into the city, carrying away the corpses. While pouring clean water on the road, it was quickly swept away by the people behind with brooms, and the muddy sewage slowly flowed through the walls, and finally washed down the city at the preset drainage holes in various places.

Immediately afterwards, the gang of people ran back and forth on the city wall, carrying the rolling stones and sassalwood and other city defense equipment to the city head and placing them behind the female wall. At the same time, they raced against time to repair the gaps in the city walls. The large notches are hastily plugged with gravel and timber, while the small notches are too flawless to pay attention to.

“…… Hurry, hurry. Go and bring the copper up again! Don't overturn the charcoal fire! ”

“…… Something seems wrong with this bed crossbow! Who's going to fix it?! ”

“…… There aren't enough stones here! Go down there and carry a few baskets! ”

“…… What the? Out of stones? You're not going to tear down the house, are you? Just go! ”

……

For a time, the city was full of people shaking, you came and went, and the noise was unusual, including the shouts of officers, the collision of weapons and armor, and the chaotic footsteps. The shouts of the south and the north were chaotic. Only Governor Fan Shangxiao was alone in a daze.

It's just that Governor Fan Shangxiao didn't be able to take a break for a while, only to see a middle-aged man in a yellow robe, surrounded by a team of armored guards, walked to the collapsed city tower. Behind him. There was also a group of servants carrying baskets of bread and meat, the heat of which steamed with the aroma. Seeing that food was being served, the people and soldiers at the head of the city were overjoyed and immediately rushed to scramble. And Governor Fan Shangxiao, who recognized the middle-aged man at the head, was suddenly agitated and hurriedly adjusted his official uniform. Said politely:

“…… Lord, why are you suffering? To reward the soldiers, just send a steward over, and the prince only needs to rest in the city, so why bother to come in person? Moreover, please forgive the officials for saying more, the vassal king is not allowed to make friends with foreign ministers and generals, this is an iron law that has always been in the imperial court! ”

Although the words are polite, they are actually quite unkind with guns and sticks. The middle-aged man known as the prince frowned, and said in a deep voice:

“…… Governor Fan, now that you have reached such a situation, what are you worried about, are you worried that this king will take refuge in the Tartars?! ”

“…… Uh, it's just a little reminder of the prince, the lower official lost his words for a while, and I hope the prince won't be surprised! ”

Hearing these angry words of Zhu Gongqiao, the king of Zhou, Governor Fan Shangxiao hurriedly bowed and said with a smile, but he still did not give an inch on the issue of principle.

In addition to hearing cases and managing people's livelihood, the local governors and officials of the Ming Dynasty also had to monitor the local relatives and nobles to prevent them from plotting against them. Although the official treasury in Kaifeng City is so clean that it can starve rats to death, and even the gold, silver, grain and rice that was collected to defend the city were all begged by the governor Yamen to be taken out by the king of Zhou, but no matter how critical the war situation was, Governor Fan Shangxiao refused to let the king of Zhou get involved in the slightest military power.

“…… Hum! This king naturally won't blame you, but please don't forget that this world is still the world of my Zhu family! ”

King Zhou snorted coldly, and then also came to the battlement, first looked down at the pile of corpses under the wall, and immediately felt a burst of overturning in his stomach, so he had to cover his nose with his sleeve, while taking out a monocular from his arms, looking towards the Qing military camp in the distance, and was suddenly taken aback, "...... This is...... How many miles of company camps? How many horses did the Tartars who came to Kaifeng? Isn't the slave chief Huang Taiji here? ”

“…… The Tartar commander who came to Kaifeng was Dolgon, who was the white banner of Jiannu, and his subordinates were at most two or three thousand true Tartars, even if the Guanning rebels and the Liaodong Han army were added, it was less than 10,000 people. The remaining 100,000 horses are all Henan refugees recruited by the Tatars! Governor Fan Shangxiao replied with a gloomy face, "...... At this time when the world is in turmoil and the community is dying. These Diao people don't want to serve the country loyally, and they actually recognize thieves as their fathers, they really deserve to be killed! ”

In this regard, Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, also nodded again and again, thinking deeply, but completely forgot what kind of living state the people of Henan were in during the Chongzhen period. The northern provinces are plagued by disasters for many years, and the people of Beizhili, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi are all struggling to make a living. But the most miserable place is Henan. Several years of severe drought and years of water conservancy in disrepair have made this fertile land of the Central Plains bareland for thousands of miles without harvest, and the imperial court has not only provided relief, but also has to levy heavy taxes on the victims who have nothing. Coupled with the cruel exploitation of a group of vassal kings and countless landlords, the back-and-forth of rogues and officials and soldiers from all walks of life...... As a result, the whole province is full of endless famines, too many soldiers, and many places have been depopulated.

The Ming court once sealed several vassal kings in Henan, as for the rest of the imperial relatives and officials. The list goes on and on. These powerful families occupy most of the land in the province, but because of the official fame of these people, their land does not have to pay taxes from the imperial court, and their tenants do not have to serve the imperial court's servitude. However, any increase in the Ming court, such as the famous Lian Salary, Suppression Salary and Liao Salary, included Henan in the scope of taxation. Naturally, the bearers of these taxes and forced labor can only be the poor people who have no power or power.

Moreover, the maladministration that is common in the world is especially powerful in Henan, and if the imperial court wants to get a salary of one or two silver, it can receive as much as twenty or thirty taels below. So every time it is added. A large number of Henan peasants went bankrupt, and the fields of these bankrupt peasants were naturally embezzled by the vassal kings, nobles, and gentry. As a result, most of the landless peasants became displaced people, which became the source of the country's troubles. The peasants were fewer, and the taxes and oppression they had to bear became heavier, and they were soon left bankrupt and in exile, or in despair they raised the knife of revolt.

Therefore. Long before the soldiers of the Eight Banners broke through the pass and went south, except for the provincial capital Kaifeng, there was still some order in the whole of Henan, and the situation in the rest of the country was already as tragic as hell. In the countryside of all prefectures and counties, there are no pedestrians on the roads, there are no people for hundreds of miles, and large groups of displaced people gather together, busy killing officials and rebelling. The gentry and the powerful built dock forts one after another, gathered their families and people to defend against the hungry people, or attacked each other. The peasants, on the other hand, either starved to death in the countryside, or gathered in gangs to fight to the death with the landlords' militias and officers and soldiers to see if they could find a way out.

At this time in Henan, almost every peasant had experienced a catastrophe, forced by the government, and watched the hellish scene of their relatives starving to death beside them. Therefore, for these Henan people who are almost tormented to madness by hunger and despair, what national righteousness and what loyalty to the country are all bastard words that are full and do not know that hungry men are hungry. For the Ming court, which forced their entire family to a dead end, everyone naturally only had incomparable hatred in their hearts. As long as someone can manage their food, as long as someone can take revenge on them by killing the officers and soldiers, whether it is a rogue, or a Tartar, they are willing to follow.

When Dolgon was ordered to attack Henan, he was very keenly aware of this, so he played the banner of "doing the right thing for heaven and opening a warehouse to release grain". According to his military orders, every time a county town or a mansion was breached, after taking enough military rations, the remaining grain had to be distributed to any hungry people who had time to arrive, and the countryside was already full of starvation, but there was still so much food in the homes of the gentry, which was ironic enough.

As a result, a large number of hungry and crazy homeless people have thrown themselves into the command of Dolgon, willing to make cattle and horses for these Eight Banner Masters. So that Dolgon, who was originally outnumbered by his troops, soon snowballed like a snowball, repeatedly attacking various prefectures and counties, not only seizing countless gold and silver materials, but also coercing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, as cannon fodder for attacking the provincial capital Kaifeng City.

It's not that these homeless people don't know what happens when they fill the trenches as cannon fodder, but after so much terrible suffering, they are no longer afraid of death. Compared to those relatives who starved to death in their hometowns, or even were eaten by others. They were able to struggle to survive to this day, and they were already lucky to be driven to fight with the officers and soldiers! As long as you can eat a few full meals before you die, what can you do if you sell this cheap life?

However, as the ruling class of the Ming Empire, Zhu Gongqiao, the king of Zhou, and Fan Shangxiu, the governor of Henan, of course, will not understand the resentment and despair of these Henan people, and will only stand on the head of Kaifeng City, stomping their feet and cursing these Diao people for acting as tigers, not knowing loyalty and righteousness, and living up to the kindness of the imperial court......

However, although these Diao people, who disregard the grace of the country, have been going forward one after another to attack the city these days, Fan Shangxiao, the governor of Henan, still has enough confidence in holding Kaifeng City. After all, the city walls of Kaifeng are tall and strong, and now the food hoarded in the city is also very sufficient, relying on the silver taels generously rewarded by His Royal Highness King Zhou, the morale of the defenders is also maintained very well, and there are enough strong men in the city to levy them.

In addition, in his opinion, although the iron cavalry of the Jurchen Eight Banners was invincible in the field, it was not of much use in siege warfare. And the Dolgon in front of him is obviously not carrying a huge cannon that can break the city, if it is, it should have been used these days.

What Governor Fan Shangxiao is really worried about is that after thwarting the Tartars' partial division, whether Huang Taiji, the Great Khan of Jiannu, will personally lead the army to retaliate, if so, how long Kaifeng City can support it, I'm afraid it's a bit hanging.

However, what he didn't expect was that if the enemy wanted to break through the city wall of Kaifeng, he didn't necessarily have to use heavy artillery bombardment, and there were other tricks If history is any guide, then almost the same trick has been used as early as when Qin destroyed Wei......

Just as Governor Fan Shangxiao finally persuaded King Zhou to go back, and then planned to return to the governor's yamen to rest, he suddenly felt the city wall under his feet as if trembling, and some ominous rumbling sound came from the air.

The next moment, feeling the alarm, he quickly raised his eyes to look, and saw a rushing and roaring turbid wave, looming at the end of the horizon!

At the same time, there was a terrible wail, which echoed hysterically over the head of Kaifeng City:

“…… The levee has burst!! The Tartars dug the embankment of the Yellow River and irrigated the city!! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )