Chapter 38: Sit and Enjoy

From the evening to the early morning of the next day, Yu Shengliang and Liao Xingxiang did not close their eyes for a moment. Under the swords, guns, and sticks of Li Yaobi, the guards, and the county officials, they finally stopped some soldiers who tried to flee to Yanchuan, gathered up two or three hundred people, and drove them all up to the city wall, especially the section near Yanshui in the southwest corner, and did their best to obey the fate of heaven, hoping to inflict maximum damage on the thieves who came the next day.

However, the soldiers could be stopped, but the people could not be stopped - there were too many people who fled with their families. To the south of Yanchang County is Yanshui, and the west and north gates are blocked with large stones, but the east gate cannot be blocked: because of its proximity to the Yellow River beach and its disrepair, the walls of many sections have collapsed, and people can walk directly from the city to the woods on the river beach. Due to the looting of Guan Shengyun's troops in Yan'an Mansion, coupled with the exaggerated propaganda of Yu Shengliang and others who spared no effort to mobilize Latin, the thieves were simply demons who ate people's hearts and livers in the eyes of the people. From the afternoon onwards, the people in the city flocked to the east, at first there were not many people, Li Yaobao had only four or five hundred frightened birds in his hands, and half of them were escorted to the wall if they wanted to desert, and there was really no one to stop them. Near evening, seeing the fireworks in Yanshui, all the people who could run ran out, and one hundred and ten soldiers took advantage of the chaos to mix into the crowd and flee for their lives.

But in the early morning of the next day, Yu and Liao were fighting hard to boost their morale and prepare to fight to the death with the thieves who were about to attack the city, and were once again hit by a fatal head-on blow: the people who fled yesterday cried again and ran back one after another!

After careful questioning, they learned that they had run early and fast, and before evening, they had arrived at Yaozigou, which was dozens of miles away, where they met hundreds of officers and soldiers who had come from Yanchuan to support Yanchang on the orders of Lord Bao's Mansion. At first, these officers and soldiers saw the scattered fleeing people's eyes lit up, shouting to kill the thieves and rob them of their belongings. Later, seeing more and more people fleeing, the officers and soldiers were obviously scared and clamored to return to Yanchuan. At this moment, a horse team of more than 100 people was killed from the west, and the officers and soldiers suddenly dispersed!

This group of cavalry directly blocked the retreat to Yanchuan, and drove the crowd back in circles, fortunately, they did not indiscriminately slash and kill, and the officers and soldiers who tried to escape back to Yanchuan died one after another under the guns and knives, but as long as they fled to the direction of Yanchang, whether it was the soldiers or the people, they didn't pay much attention...... It was not until it was dark that the cavalry stopped pursuing, and all the people and the routs hurried in the field in the dark, and most of them had night blindness, and could not see anything, so they catted in the field, and waited until the light of day was a little brighter, and then ran back to Yanchang together......

A bolt from the blue!

The strong enemy was in front of the reinforcements and the reinforcements collapsed, and the carefully prepared magic weapon to defeat the enemy was wiped out, Yu Shengliang barely supported himself back to the city, and looked west, only to see wisps of cooking smoke rising from the enemy camp a few miles away: the thieves were actually making breakfast unhurriedly at this time - obviously, in their eyes, Yanchang County was just a thing in the pocket at any time, and they were in no hurry to launch an attack.

It is equivalent to Shengliang turning around and preparing to make a generous statement to the defenders that "the mourning soldiers will win", "arousing their loyalty and bravery", and sadly found that only Yu Sanhe and Li Yao Cake were left around him, as well as a few guards - the defenders were all gone!

The fleeing civilians and the routs quickly spread the terror throughout the city. There are horse teams in the north, thieves in the west, Yanshui in the south, and the Yellow River in the east. Some closed the doors and windows, and the whole family huddled together and shivered; More people bumped around like headless flies in the woods on the banks of the Yellow River, found a place they thought they were hidden, and got into it. Those who are strong and strong try to swim across the Yanshui at risk, and those who are exhausted in the middle of the journey are swallowed up by the waves one after another, and of course, they take advantage of the fire to rob. There were robberies on the streets, burglaries, and even more people who took advantage of the chaos to set fires, and the blind ruffians -- a large proportion of whom were "officers and soldiers" who had been temporarily recruited not long ago and had just escaped from the wall -- many of them made a windfall...... Guan Shengyun's army was still eating breakfast leisurely a few miles away, and Yanchang County was already a hellish scene.

Yu Shengliang, accompanied by Liao Xingxiang, silently returned to the county office and sat down. took out a cloth bag from his arms, which contained a letter of "Desperate Shu" that had already been written. In addition to bitterly Chen Liukou's sudden arrival and his determination to "repay the king's kindness when he dies", he also painfully pointed out all kinds of shortcomings such as deceiving superiors and concealing lies, turning defeat into victory, and even abolishing military equipment and slacking off the people's livelihood. trembling and re-reading it, I realized that it was really a cry of blood, every sentence was heartbroken, and I thought that the Son of Heaven would see it one day, and he would die without regrets. He put the cloth bag on his chest and commanded: "Yu San, when the thieves arrive, tell them that the old man's body will be scattered with their bones, but please don't destroy this desperate seal." Tell them that the old man said that at the beginning of man, his nature was good, and today's thief is not yesterday's pure and good people? Although they have committed heinous crimes, the old man also knows their suffering. The old man's recital is to tell the Son of Heaven all this! Even if it is for their children and grandchildren, it should not be destroyed, otherwise, the old man will turn into a powerful ghost, and he will haunt them forever! If they don't kill the corpse to vent their anger, then please help the old man to restrain it and transport it back to his hometown for burial, I don't think they will embarrass you much. Thank you for your hard work. As he spoke, he bowed to Yu San.

Yu San was so shocked that he lay on the ground and kowtowed: "The villain can't stand it, master!" The villain can't stand it! ”

Yu Shengliang said: "You don't accept the old man's worship, the old man is not at ease." I'm sorry for you. ”

Yu San had to stand up, bowed sideways, and then bowed to the ground again: "Master, the villain can't serve you anymore." The villain swears that he will definitely send you back. Woooooooo ”

Yu Shengliang nodded: "The old man's official salary should still have more than twenty taels, you can take the rest of the cost along the way, don't be too little." ”

Yu Sanfu cried on the ground.

Yu Shengliang turned his head and said to Li Yaobian and the others, "You are all gone." At this point, there is no need to take your life for nothing. If you can escape, you will always recognize a few old husbands, and you should be able to go over and find a bowl of rice to eat. It's better not to join the army anymore, there will be no way out without a backer. But no matter what, don't be a thief! The old man said this not because of personal grudges, but because of heaven. There are sun, moon and stars in the sky, and people talk about kings and ministers, fathers and sons, how can there be a reason for a good family to serve a thief. Don't look at them rampant for a while, for rebellion will eventually be punished by heaven, and in the end they will be doomed to death and the descendants of the clan will be destroyed. ”

The Li baked cakes also fell to the ground and cried.

Liao Xingxiang helped Li Yaobi and a few people to tie two white silk on the beam of the county government hall, and said to Shengliang: "Lord Yu, Xiaguan will go to burn the granary first, you go slowly, and Xiaguan will go to have a companion with you in a while." ”

Yu Shengliang replied with a half-salute: "You and I eat the king's fortune, and the matter of loyalty to the monarch should be so." The old man went first. After speaking, Yu Sanhe stepped on the stool with the support of Li Yaobi......

When Liao Xingxiang said goodbye to Yu Shengliang, he didn't notice that several soap officials behind him exchanged glances with each other.

Out of the county office, the soap officials patted their chests to reassure Mrs. Liao, as much as they could go home first, and arrange for such trivial things as burning the warehouse immediately. But Liao Xingxiang couldn't rest assured, the warehouse and the warehouse were next to the county office, so he still rushed over by himself.

Liao Zhixian did not go to the silver warehouse, but went directly to the official warehouse where the grain was stored. Although there is not much official silver and copper coins stored in a poor county town in the northwest, it is impossible to destroy them in a short period of time, no matter what, sooner or later they will be found by thieves, so burn the stored grain, and they must not be used as enemies.

When they arrived at the granary, the soap officials who pushed away the obstruction lined up and went straight in, shouting for the officials of the bucket level (the officials who watched the granary) to pile up firewood and grass. A few soap officials agreed, but they refused to do it. Liao Xingxiang, who was anxious, scolded a few times with the official shelf on weekdays, but he didn't expect this group of guys to simply come over, gossiping, politely saying that he begged the master to leave a way for everyone to live, and there were people who tore their faces and showdowns to say that the officials and iron officials said that the grain was burned and the city was broken, everyone had to bear the anger of the thieves, and the court would commend you if you died, and everyone should be counted as alive if they died, and some people said angrily, you better hurry up and go where to go, if you don't tie you up and open the city gate, it is the righteousness of the brothers......

Liao Xingxiang, who wanted to cry without tears, returned to the county office alone, cried three times at Yu Shengliang's body hanging in the air, and also stretched his neck into the white silk and kicked over the stool......

When Gu Baihua's fleet set sail towards Yanchang, he saw the west gate wide open from a distance, and two ox carts pulling two coffins to the west—inside were the bodies of Yu Shengliang and Liao Xingxiang.

This was the end of the uninitiated resistance in Yanchang County.

After learning everything from the mouths of the soap officials, Gong Derun bid farewell to Gu Baihua, who was in charge of the aftermath of Yanchang, and took his Zhenyong battalion directly to Yanchuan County, which was like an empty city, and met Gu Baisong, the temporary officer of the horse team, on the way.

Knowledge points in this article: officials, soap officials and officials.

Officials: Officials are officials, from the first rank to the ninth grade, regular state cadres, wear official uniforms, wear official hats, and the state pays salaries. Officials are officials, clerks who are not much in the compilation, such as scribes, transcribers of official documents, and management of archives...... The salary is settled by the subordinate officials themselves, and the state is not responsible - the most famous is Song Jiang, and Song Zhisi is even a scribe. The officials are often literate and literate people.

Xu officials: a general term for two kinds of people - Xu is a servant, and a clerk is a scribe.

Soap Officer: At first, it specifically referred to the errand in the yamen, and was named after the black color of the uniform on his body. Note that the ancient soap clerk was a cheap profession, which is described in detail below.

Servant: This scope is wider, and in addition to the soap officials, it also includes all those who work as errands in the yamen. Include:

Minzhuang: Those who carry sedan chairs are temporary workers. Similar to militia, volunteers, activists.

Kudin: Guards of the treasury, security guards and the like.

Bucket level: the people who guard the grain depot, the business establishment, and the people who eat the emperor's grain (of course, the private grain eats more, the Qing people have records, whenever the grain depot has grain, whether it is a "bucket" or a "level", each person first privately divides a bucket and then does the storage).

Soldiers: Soldiers who are assigned to the local government and are responsible for patrolling and delivering official documents, similar to armed police and armed postmen.

Note that the above-mentioned personnel are considered "good citizens", and the most important sign is that their children and grandchildren can participate in the imperial examination and become civil servants.

———————— here is the dividing line————————

Soapman: I said it earlier.

Kuai: The abbreviation of "Kuaishou" (well, it's called "Kuaishou", can't you think of it?) ), refers to "the official service who captures thieves" - note that the "thief" in the ancient saying is not a thief, but a thief who endangers national security.

Arrest: The abbreviation of "arresting", "the official service of arresting bandits" - those who steal things are called thieves, and those who rob things are called bandits. Later, the two were simplified and merged, collectively known as "catching fast".

Done: Coroner, Forensic Doctor.

Jailer: Also called a jail, a prison guard.

Menzi: The janitor of the official office, the security guard of the communication room.

Note that the above personnel are considered "lowly industries", and they are ranked alongside "slaves, prostitutes (you know), excellent (singing), and beggars" - the three generations of children and grandchildren cannot be examined. It is also not allowed to intermarry with the families of officials, scholars, and doctors, and in some places, those who do these professions will be removed from the family ancestral hall. Therefore, generally these occupations are hereditary, so there is a saying of "flowing officials and iron officials": officials change every few years, and the next ones are inherited from their fathers from generation to generation.

Cangli: As soon as I say it, those who store grain are called cangs, and those who store rice are called cangs. Another said that those who store new rice are called warehouses, and those who store old grain (national strategic reserves) are called warehouses. In the past, there was the identity of "Disheng", which refers to the three levels of students at the government, state and county levels (those who have student status in the government, state and county schools), and the state pays six buckets of rice every month, so that you don't have to work hard to farm and study with peace of mind.

Library: A place where large quantities of materials are piled up. In ancient times, the word "warehouse" probably meant two, or even three places: the warehouse was a granary, a warehouse, which could be either a silver warehouse or an arsenal - a storage place for swords, guns, armor, gunpowder, various offensive and defensive equipment, and military supplies.