Chapter 213 Hell

As the governor of a province, if in normal times, the two martial artists would never dare to play so openly - the governor of the Ming Dynasty has Shang Fangjian! Although under normal circumstances, Shang Fang's sword can't cut down the chief military officer of the second grade*, but it is not a problem to take it down on the spot and cut down a bunch of generals or something, not to mention that there is also the imperial history representing the Holy Son of Heaven himself on the scene!

However, at this moment, Guiyang's defense is all in the hands of Generals Zhang and Huang, and Li Jingwu, Shi Yongan and others can really not help them except to return angrily and angrily.

Back in the yali, Li and Shi looked at each other and sighed for a long time. Fools can also see that counting on these two thieves to break the siege is like a fool's dream, and with them, it can only deter An Bangyan from rashly attacking the city. However, defending the city always consumes grain and grass, and at this moment, the grain depot has bottomed out!

The whole city has already promulgated a "food restriction order": Zhang and Huang, who have received half of the grain from the treasury, can only talk about it, and the original defenders of Guiyang only give one liter of grain and rice a day - and this is only theoretical, in practice, the officers and soldiers only send miscellaneous rice five hes a day, and the other half is folded into seven centimeters and five millimeters of silver, which is called "silver and rice are also supported", and the victims can only receive a bowl of wild vegetable porridge that is so rare that they can see the shadow of people every day!

What else?

"Lord Li, Master Shi, in extraordinary times, there is a way for the lower officials to be a solution......" It was Liu Xixuan who spoke.

"Yushou (Liu Xixuanzi Yushou) Speak quickly, as long as you can get food, it's a good way!" Li Jingwu immediately replied.

"Yushou, just say it directly, when is it, as long as you can relieve the current predicament, even if there is anything to attract criticism, I will come and go to say it in the holy place!" Shi Yongan said urgently.

"Alas!" Liu Xixuan sighed heavily, "It's not a rare method, it's just a matter of selling the official beard." Liu is a scholar, and he can only think of exchanging the fame of the imperial court for some food for emergencies. However, the city has been besieged for nearly half a year, and it is estimated that it will not be exchanged much, and it is better than nothing. ”

Li Jingwu's eyes lit up: "No matter how much, it's better than nothing!" However, only by persuasion, I am afraid that there will not be a few households that can respond, simply, let's buy at a high price! If you sell more, you will be rewarded with fame, so that the effect may be better. Brother Panshi, what do you think? ”

Of course, Shi agreed with both hands. At an extraordinary moment, to alleviate the country's difficulties and save lives, it can't be regarded as selling official positions, so let's do it! By the way, when Brother Yu Shou said this, Shi suddenly thought of a very terrible thing...... When the food is finished, what can I eat? The next step is cannibalism, right? The most worrying thing is the women and children who have been driven into the city by the thieves! The old and helpless can't be saved, and the orphans and children have to find a way. Let's sum it up and make a proclamation. ”

Notices stamped with the three bright red official seals of the governor, the imperial historian, and the scholar were pasted all over the city of Guiyang, and the officials struck the gong and shouted loudly: one stone for the "example of rice", five taels of silver for those who offered ten stones, one for those who adopted orphans and children, and three taels of silver for each person, and one for those who adopted children who were still alive on the day of the siege of Guiyang*.

There will be brave men under the great reward. Selling grain can not only get five times the usual market price, but also sell ten stone rice to get an additional fame from the imperial court - this means that the whole family will no longer have to pay the field tax and be exempt from forced labor and apportionment! Many wealthy families who have grain storage at home are moved, "so they get more than 600 stones in the rice market, and 1,000 stones in the warehouse" (as for why there is such a big error between the city bucket and the warehouse bucket...... You think to yourself, hehe).

As for the effect, the history of "and again delay the death of Qiancheng in January, the power of this case is also!" ”

I have to say that the three-person wartime leading group headed by Li Jingwu really racked their brains in order to support it. The most commendable thing is that they not only blindly stared at the people, but also the officials in the city: in response to the behavior of many officials stepping on two boats to secretly leave a way out for An Bangyan to ventilate and report to themselves, they also implemented the "law of sending rice to raise soldiers", ordering officials suspected of "thieves" to send rice to raise soldiers, "to relieve the suspicion of rebellion": everyone said that you had an affair with An Thief, so let's do it, your family will give 100 stone of rice for 600 soldiers to eat for a month, which can be regarded as a clear suspicion, and this matter will not be investigated!

In July, the two generals Zhang Fang and Huang Yunqing were really running out of grain, so they went to the governor's yamen to ask for it. Of course, Li Jingwu and the three of them will not give them another grain of grain unless they are crazy, no matter how you threaten and intimidate, you can just say: either you go and kill the thief, or simply kill a few of us who rebelled and sacrificed the city to An Bangyan. See for yourself!

To fight An Bangyan, these two will not dare to do it no matter what, and the end of killing officials and rebelling is clan punishment, and they will not dare. So Zhang and Huang chose the third way: to rob the people.

Li Jingwu was dumbfounded.

The officials went to find these two scourge theories again and again, and at first they patted their chests and said that they must investigate thoroughly, and then they played tricks on a 625 basis, and in the end they simply had a direct showdown: give food and money, otherwise we will not be able to restrain the extremely hungry rebels!

In desperation, the Guiyang government issued an unprecedented proclamation: Xu Jiefang, Linyou and other people, under the leadership of the chief of the security and the lieutenant chief, defend themselves, and kill the rebellious army who "strip our soldiers and people of the blood and cause trouble to the people", and "the victim calls the locality, and the local government does not quickly rescue those who kill the officers and soldiers together, and immediately beheaded"!

The soldiers and civilians killed each other, and Guiyang was completely chaotic. Now the biggest enemy of the people is no longer An Bangyan besieging the city, but the Ming Dynasty's own officials and troops in the city.

However, the chaos of the local defenders helping the inhabitants resist the "coming to help" lasted less than a month – and the situation became even worse: by August, the local defenders were also out of food.

Li Jingwu, who was helpless, released the notice of "Paimi Law" in tears. To put it bluntly, it's to search from house to house and grab it! "If you recover more than 600 stones, you will have to fight thousands of stones."

September.

Demolition of official warehouses.

In order to prevent insects and rats and prevent flooding, the grain in the official warehouse is stacked on wooden planks two or three feet above the ground. Tear down all the wooden planks and collect the bits and pieces that fell into the ground and embedded in the brick cracks, and collected nearly 100 stones of old grains. This is the last unique thing in the city to continue life, Li Jingwu ordered: all supply to the defenders of the North Gate, others and so on...... Each has a destiny.

October.

"Serpents, finches, rats, worms, chaff, pits, grass, wood, leather...... Everything that can fill the stomach is eaten", and finally, there was "cannibalism" - "simmer the dead first, then cook the living", and Guiyang City fell into hell on earth.

As for the two generals Zhang and Huang, they have already started to eat people. Because of the control of the defense of the city gates, it is not a problem to extort the people who fled out of the city: each person pays one or two gold and is allowed to leave, and those who have no money rob their luggage and go back to the city to die, and there is really nothing to rob, then kill people and eat meat-"The soldiers kill and eat their flesh, and the soldiers lose human flesh every day, so that they can eat for all idle servants and concubines!" "Order the subordinate soldiers to pay a certain amount of human flesh every day as a task - whether it is the disaster victims or the aboriginal people, most of the female dependents of some beautiful postures are taken advantage of by the second general and officers at all levels to forcibly occupy them, and the soldiers take care of prostitutes, and the price of exchange is human flesh! Liu Xixuan called Huang Yunqing a "greedy general" and scolded to his face: "Half of the Qianren died of thieves, and all of them died from the ears of evil generals!" ”

There is a poem in the time: The lonely city is struggling to guard the clouds, and the tears of the hopeless helpers are dry. The beacon fire was dark and miserable, and the zombies were covered with blood.

Guiyang was besieged for nearly a year, more than 400,000 soldiers and civilians in the city, and when the siege was lifted, there were only 2,000 survivors (one said 20,000 people, more on later). Of course, there were those who died of war, starvation, and disease, but many more were eaten by the defenders. In the end, it became that the officials and soldiers went directly into the house to arrest and kill people to eat. These officers and soldiers not only eat people, but also sell human flesh for money: a pound of human flesh is one tael of silver, and the price is clearly marked - in comparison, rice is much more expensive, and a liter of rice is worth twenty taels of silver! Every nightfall, the fire of cooking human flesh is lit everywhere in the city, and there is no place in Guiyang City, and there is no night in Guiyang City that does not burn into the sky.

When the siege is finally lifted, there are indeed not many people left in the city. Combined with various historical records, I personally guess that the total number of military and civilian people is 2,000 seems to be more accurate, and 20,000 may be the statistics after the return of those who fled.

There are three reasons for this inference.

1. At that time, it was recorded: "Killing a horse can be a day's food". In the final stage, dozens of stagecoaches were all killed and eaten, and a horse with a belt bone of about 500 catties maintained a minimum supply, and the limit was about 1,000 defenders.

2. Guiyang scholars and scholars also actively participated in the defense of the city, using Xuedao as the supervisor to climb the wall to fight, and another five or six hundred people were on duty at night - according to this estimate, there were at least 1,000 participants. However, from November 11 to December 7, the last month of the siege, the Confucian students recruited, at this time there were only a few survivors, and the survival rate was only a few thousandths. The Confucian scholars (the families that could support the scholars in that era were not too bad) and the officials were still a few of them, and the survival rate of the common people could not be much higher than theirs.

3. According to other records, there were 100,000 original residents in Guiyang, more than 400,000 men and women, and only more than 200 people remained after Wang Sanshan lifted the siege. "Xizong Record" recorded: "Suiyang is not enough to be more than Lie"! The cruel truth is often hidden between the lines - where is "Suiyang" and "Lie"? Zhang patrolled Suiyang and ate more than 30,000 people! More than 30,000 people were eaten "incomparably fierce...... Think for yourself.

Despite this, there are still forty or fifty horses in the camp of the second general - they all eat people, why not kill horses and eat meat?

Joke! In case the city is broken, what will the two generals rely on to escape for their lives?!

Guiyang has become like this, why hasn't An Bangyan come to attack yet?

It's been almost a year, where is the new Fu Wang Ershan?

*Yuan Chonghuan's killing of Mao Wenlong is an exception and completely illegal. But Chongzhen, who was eager for quick success and quick profit, was mean and unkind because he believed in the big cake of "Five Years of Pingliao" painted by Yuan, and he did not pursue the matter at first - in his heart, as long as he could achieve this great achievement in Pingliao, the death of a few warriors was nothing! This move completely chilled the hearts of the Liaodong soldiers, and in the end, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi and others under the command of Mao Wenlong all voted for the former sworn enemy Huang Taiji, sounding the death knell for the fall of this dynasty.

Of course, when Huang Taiji hit the city of Beijing, the extremely disappointed Chongzhen put Yuan Chonghuan in prison, and "beheading the commander for money" finally became one of his capital crimes - at this time, Zhu Youzhen remembered this again!

* These three (Li Jingwu's prototypes are called Li Lu, Shi Yongan, and Liu Xixuan) did promulgate the "Instructions for Adopting Children" during the siege of Guiyang, which is very good. I didn't find the original article, but I made up the last one - because I think there should be such a guarantee, to prevent orphans from being killed and eaten in the name of adoption...... In the end, the merits of these three were also fully affirmed.

"History of the Ming Dynasty": "The lonely city is fixed, and Yong'an and Xiyuan (there is no Chinese pinyin and Mandarin in ancient times, and the two sounds of "Yuan" and "Xuan" are similar, which should be a clerical error after word of mouth, and this kind of error is very common in historical books). Xizong used the words of Zou Yuan, the imperial history of the capital, the right servant of the military department, the servant Shaoqing of Yong'an, and the right of Xiyuan to participate in politics. "The work of three people" is discussed and Zhu Xieyuan's defense of Chengdu is praised".