Chapter 187 Wildfire

Although they are as poor as most other places in the Ming Dynasty, the people of Guangwu Temple in Taihe County, Yingzhou always have a sense of pride: this is the only place in the Ming Dynasty named after the year of the Son of Heaven - have you heard of the Guangwu Emperor of the Han Dynasty? Well, it was his old man who ordered it himself! The faces of those who say it are full of pride, and those who listen are envious, and they often forget that the grace of the true dragon emperor is no matter how dazzling it is, chewing on the same wild vegetable balls in each other's mouths, and the clothes on their bodies are also patches and patches.

The only place in the Ming Dynasty named after the year of the Son of Heaven, really? , of course! It is true that Liu Xiu is called Emperor Guangwu, but that is the nickname given to his father by his son Liu Zhuang of the Han Ming Emperor after his death! After all, don't laugh at them, after all, the literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty is less than five percent, and it is understandable for rural slang people to put gold on their faces to make a joke...... In the hit "Kangxi Dynasty" in later generations, Siqin Gaowa is not a mouthful of "I am filial piety" - didn't the screenwriter who knew those many words also not understand what was going on with the nickname?

Wrong is wrong, should we be proud or proud? To make this pride concrete, people here have a special habit: to wake up late.

There are many legends of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu in the area of the first area, and the most famous is "Wang Mang drove Liu Xiu*". It is about Liu Xiu running in front, Wang Mang's army chasing behind, and one day when it was nearly dusk, both armies were stationed here to rest. Wang Mang's troops were stationed in the north of Jitou, and the small troops of Guangwu Tianzi were stationed in the south. Separated by a village, both sides don't know that the other party is close at hand! If you wait until dawn and Wang Mang's horse comes out of the camp, there may be no more Guangwu Emperor in the world. However, the true dragon Tianzi, of course God wants to protect - the sky has not yet been dark, and the dawn roosters at the end of Nanji crow one after another, and when Liu Xiu's whole army was pulled, the chasing soldiers were still sleeping! By the time the chickens in Jibei began to crow, the pursuers got up sleepily, and the Son of Guangwu had been gone for a full hour!

Because of this legend, the people here always get up at the hour after the rooster crows - to show their special relationship with the Emperor of Guangwu through customs that are very different from those of other places. Unfortunately, self-esteem without strength often comes at a terrible price, and this habit of satisfying vanity has brought them a monstrous tragedy.

The white morning mist shrouds the four fields like a light veil, and the distant mountains loom in the distance, like a faint ink freehand. The clear morning breeze blows through the rice fields, making a light rustling sound, and the sound of the water adds a bit of tranquility to the early morning. The early chaffinches began to chirp and chirp and fly around, looking for insects whose wings were wet with dew. The mixture of grass and earth fills the air, and it is a unique taste of the countryside. The blades of grass were hung with crystal dewdrops, reflecting the first rays of morning light. A drop of dew slowly rolls down the leaf facing, moving its position little by little, as if it is inexhaustible to linger on the companion who has snuggled all night. Another dew dropped, followed by a third, a fourth...... All the dew began to tremble, and they jumped up in terror, and hurried into the air, plunging headlong into the dirt, as if to escape the approaching terror. A series of muffled thunders rang out, getting closer and closer, continuously. No, it's not thunder, it's the hoofs of galloping horses! In the morning light, the black silhouette of a team of armored horsemen appeared, and from time to time there was a sharp sword light reflecting a little cold, they were like demons from the dark abyss, the horses' hooves stomped on the ground, like the trills of death, and in the blink of an eye, all the poetic beauty was shattered!

The horse team passed straight through the road that ran through the set, galloped to the south and then spread out to the east and west wings, rolled back, and in less than half a burnt of incense, the entire Guangwu set was surrounded by iron buckets, and there were dozens of horsemen shouting and guarding the large and small intersections leading to the wilderness, and there were a hundred and ten knights in the field of the outer circle, sometimes raising their swords and galloping for a short while, sometimes reining in the horses to look into the set for a moment, and letting the horses under the crotch hang their heads and eat the green seedlings.

The people in the group got up in panic when they heard the commotion outside, and ran out of their houses in panic, but it was too late. A little farther to the north, a large group of soldiers with swords and spears were pouring here, and the heads of black crows and crows were probably tens of thousands. The eastern, western, northwestern, and southwestern intersections were guarded by cavalry, and it was impossible to escape. How could the few men who had escaped over the wall and into the wilderness be as fast as the rangers in the outer ring? The cavalry was intimidating in a south-to-north tone, and as long as they didn't turn around and return to the set, a bright steel knife would immediately fall from the top of their heads! So people cried and fled south, there was Yingshui, and most of the men in the set, young and old, knew how to swim over, and maybe there was a glimmer of life. Soon, however, a stream of people rushed back, the first to run to the river, and from their desperate cries the villagers learned that there had been a long boat moored in the river, and that all those who tried to venture out of the river were mercilessly slaughtered with spears and bows and arrows, and that Yingshui had now become a river of death.

The crowd crowded and trampled on each other, rushing from one place to another like headless flies, shouting and crying, but their fate was sealed. The soldiers from the north finally drove up. In fact, strictly speaking, they are not soldiers, but several auxiliary battalions of Zhang Hu. One knife and one gun per person was enough to deal with the unarmed villagers, and there was no need to use armored soldiers for such a thing. The war camp only needs to guard the women, children and cannon fodder of the old camp, and wait for the reward that will come soon--the veterans have an evil light in their eyes, and they are talking all kinds of obscene words, and they are guessing with great interest: no matter how few women are dragged into the camp at night for such a large set, it will not be a problem to get one for each fruit...... This is already the usual practice of Zhang Hu's department: the old soldiers with military achievements and qualifications will be rewarded with women, but they cannot be killed - the next day they will be sent to the old camp to become the new cannon fodder to be driven by the concern, those who loot the village the hardest auxiliaries, especially those who do not hesitate to wave their butcher knives at the rebels without mercy, will be considered "courageous" and incorporated into the war barracks, and from then on eat the war rations. Zhang Hu was surprised to find that it was often those who suffered the most and suffered the most not long ago, but they were the most ruthless in the next looting. When he asked the military advisor, Wen Juren told him that this was a kind of psychological compensation. Zhang Hu didn't understand this word, and Zhang Hu understood Wen Juren's words: "I'm already so unlucky, why do I make you feel better?" I'm going to make you even more unlucky! Then Wen Junshi shook his head and said four more words: "For the tiger." After listening to the explanation of the military advisor, Zhang Hu smiled: It doesn't matter if he is a human or a ghost, it would be better to have a tiger in our name and work for our Lao Tzu - anyway, they will all die in that trench sooner or later.

Like the village in front, there were a few of them who tried to resist. Seeing that he was already in a desperate situation, some people picked up hoes, and some people raised kitchen knives. After all, those who entered the set were all auxiliary soldiers, and most of them relied on the courage of the people, and when they saw those who were desperate to fight for their lives, many people ran away with a shout, and those who ran slowly were killed and lay on the ground. Knowing that they were no longer physical, the rebels went mad and brandished their weapons at their underground bodies to vent their anger and fear. The officers of the auxiliary battalion shouted and stepped forward, commanded several shield soldiers to surround them, and the spearmen surrounded the shield soldiers, forced people from a distance with their spears, and drove them in the direction of the wheat field - this is also the method that Zhang Huxin figured out: kill a hundred people, and let his subordinates know the fate of the rebels. Soon, the three men were driven to one place, surrounded on all sides by walls of shields and spears. Zhang Hu rode over, looked at the bloodstained people on his body and smiled: "It's quite bold." I Lao Zhang likes people with courage the most! But you all killed my people, if this spares you and others, isn't everyone able to cut Lao Tzu with a knife? In this way, if any of you wants to live, cut down the other two, and Lao Tzu will spare his whole family! ”

The three people who were bound to die were stunned when they heard this, but they didn't expect that they seemed to have a glimmer of life! Guangwuji is so big, the three of them know each other even if they are not familiar with each other, they glanced at each other, and one of them said: "Don't believe in this thief...... Yes! As soon as he said this, he was stabbed in the waist by the smashed hoe, and let out a miserable cry of pain, and involuntarily bowed his waist and curled up in a ball. The attacker shouted: "Second Brother Pei, I'm sorry for you, I still have a family of old and young ......" As he spoke, the hoe in his hand had smashed heavily on the Heavenly Spirit cover of this Second Brother Pei.

Blood splattered.

The attacker, who had cut the carotid artery with a kitchen knife, clutched his neck and fell on the corpse of Pei Erge, who was smashed by him. The last person muttered: "Uncle Meng, I also have a family, so I can't stand you." Then he knelt down on Zhang Hu's knees: "The king spares his life!" The king told me to kill, and I killed it......"

The onlookers burst into laughter: they had seen this before.

"Ho."

Hearing this soft voice, the auxiliaries respectfully moved out of the way, and Niu Youtian rode his horse slowly into the circle. The kneeling man hurriedly turned to Niu Youtian and kowtowed his head again: "The king spares his life! The king said he could bypass the villain......"

Niu Youtian stared at him condescendingly for a while, and then replied, "Well, you get up, I heard it." ”

"The villain Kong San has thanked a few kings!" After three more knocks on his head, Kong San threw away the kitchen knife and stood up tremblingly......

"Ahh Kong San clutched his almost severed right arm and fell down again, rolling and struggling in a pool of blood, only hearing Niu Youtian's cruel laughter in his ears: "Did you hear me say that I spared you?" You have a kind of person who kills Lao Tzu, even your own people are killed, when will you, a white-eyed wolf, come to kill Lao Tzu? ”

The onlookers burst into laughter again, and they had also seen this double reed by several handsomes, but this time it was Deputy Marshal Niu, and last time it was Vice Marshal Fang.

"Find out all the people from these three families for our Lao Tzu, don't cheap them, and teach those who dare to fight with our Lao Tzu to see the end clearly!" This was the last sentence Kong San heard in the world.

Thick smoke billowed out, the entire Guangwu temple that had been plundered was burning, and Zhang Hu's army wrapped all the newly captured people, marching towards Yingchuan, and the team stretched for nearly twenty miles. There were hundreds of large and small ships in Yingshui, loaded with the baggage of a large army, and they followed behind - wildfires that could no longer be easily extinguished finally spread in the heart of the empire, and everything in its path would be burned to ashes by this raging wildfire!

* In fact, this legend is everywhere, the content of the characters is basically the same, the only difference is only in the name of the place. For example, the legend of Wang Mang in Shijiazhuang who drove Liu Xiu was even selected into the fifth batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage list in Hebei Province! Anyway, no one can dig out the main owner to testify - where did you dig a pit, and insisted that Yang Yuhuan and Tang Xuanzong had taken a mandarin duck bath in this pit, and they also bought tickets to come in and have a look. Even Sun Wukong's hometown can fight for red faces, why not?

However, to be fair, the chances of this happening are slim to none: even if neither army sends out the Scout Pond Cavalry's military tentacles, and even if the two armies miss each other...... Whether the army is marching or camping, it must always make a fire and cook - so close to him, so many fires and smoke rise, are the people of both armies blind?