Chapter 140, Cooking Oil in Fierce Fire (Part 2)
Henan, Kaifeng
Accompanied by a golden sound indicating the withdrawal of troops, another city offensive and defensive battle involving mountains of corpses and seas of blood was temporarily declared to be over.
The last pillar of the Ming Dynasty who was still resisting the Tartars, Fan Shangxuan, the governor of Henan who was trapped in the isolated city of Kaifeng, was tremblingly surrounded by a group of close servants. He stood on the tall city wall of Kaifeng City, holding the crenel with his left hand and squinting his eyes. Looking at the scene in the wilderness outside the city.
On the city wall around him, the most eye-catching thing was not the rows of soldiers and civilians holding various weapons and guarding the city wall, but an eye-catching dark red color - whether it was the incomplete and damaged female wall, a piece of The messy horse paths, the collapsed and burning city towers, the hot and smoking cannons, or the soldiers' robes and armors are all covered with this turbid and dazzling dark red:
That’s the color of dried human blood!
Dots of blood covered almost every inch of the area near the city tower, a mix of old and new, and exuding a pungent fishy smell that made people nauseous. In addition, there are also the remains of severed limbs that have not yet been collected, as well as the internal organs flowing out of the corpses.
Compared with the situation on the city wall, the scene under the wall is even more unsightly. The layers of corpses piled up into a hill at the foot of the city wall, and the flowing blood turned the soil into a swamp. Among these dead people, it is considered lucky to be able to leave a whole body. Most of the corpses were smashed to pieces by rolling stones and trees, and their intestines and internal organs were scattered on the ground. They were trampled repeatedly by the soldiers behind them, and almost all of them were trampled. Rotten to pulp.
There were also many damaged ladders, crash carts and other siege equipment scattered everywhere, and at this time they were still sparsely emitting flames and black smoke.
Both the corpses and the land were covered with dense arrows, like lush weeds on the wasteland.
Everything is like the legendary Shura Purgatory.
Seeing such a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood again, Governor Fan Shangxuan's face turned pale, and he held the folding fan tightly in his lowered right hand.
This is not the first time that Fan Shangxuan took advantage of the enemy's attack outside the city to walk to the top of the city to watch the battle. I remember when he first walked up to the city, he immediately vomited all over the ground when he saw the bloody corpses inside and outside the city. Until now, he still couldn't deal with it calmly.
"...This is the war in the troubled times where all life is devastated..." He muttered to himself in a daze.
But the other people on the top of the city did not have the leisure and leisurely mood of the governor who was sentimental about current events.
There was only a "pop" sound, and a large bucket of water was poured from the hands of a sergeant, washing away the blood and residual limbs on the horse path.
"...Quickly, carry the corpse down and wash away the blood again to prevent your feet from slipping when you walk on it later!"
Under the leadership and scolding of this sergeant, a large number of civilians rushed to the top of the city. While carrying away the bodies, they poured clean water on the horse path. The people behind them quickly swept it away with brooms, and the turbid sewage slowly flowed across the wall. , and finally rushed down the city through the preset drainage holes.
Immediately afterwards, this group of civilians ran up and down the city wall again, carrying rolling stones, wood and other defensive equipment to the top of the city and stacking them behind the parapet. At the same time, they raced against time to repair the gaps in the city wall. Large gaps were hastily plugged with gravel and wood, while small gaps were ignored.
"...Hurry, hurry up, go bring up the copper juice again! Don't overturn the charcoal fire!"
"...There seems to be something wrong with this bed crossbow! Who can fix it?!"
"...There are not enough stones here! Go down there and bring some baskets over!"
"...What? No more stones? You won't demolish the house? Go quickly!"
……
For a moment, figures were moving everywhere on the city top, people were coming and going, and it was extremely noisy. Among them were the shouts of officers, the collision of weapons and armor, the sounds of chaotic footsteps, and the shouts of southern and northern accents, all in a chaotic mess. Only Governor Fan Shangxuan was left in a daze.
However, Governor Fan Shangxuan could not take a break from his busy work for long - a moment later, a middle-aged man in a yellow robe was seen walking up to the collapsed tower, surrounded by a group of armored guards. Behind him, there was a team of servants carrying baskets filled with bread and meat. The steam was steaming along with the aroma. Seeing the food being served, the people and soldiers at the top of the city were overjoyed and immediately started scrambling for it. Governor Fan Shangxuan, who recognized the middle-aged man at the head, suddenly got excited, hurriedly adjusted his official uniform, and said politely:
"...Your Majesty, why are you doing this? To reward the soldiers, you can just send any steward over. Your Majesty only needs to rest in the city, so why come in person? And, please forgive me for saying more, the vassal prince cannot It has always been the iron rule of the imperial court to make friends with foreign ministers and generals! ”
Although his words were polite, he was actually quite unkind. The middle-aged man known as the prince frowned and said in a deep voice:
"...Governor Fan, now that we are in this situation, why are you worried? Are you worried that I will defect to the Tatars?!"
"...Well, it's just a little reminder to the prince. The official made a mistake for a moment. I hope the prince won't be offended!"
Hearing the angry words of Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhen, Governor Fan Shangxuan quickly bowed and said with a smile, but he still refused to give in on the issue of principle.
——In addition to hearing cases and managing people's livelihood, the local governors and governors of the Ming Dynasty also had to monitor the local nobles and nobles to prevent them from plotting evil. Although the official treasury in Kaifeng City is so clean that it would starve a mouse to death, and even the gold, silver, grain and rice used to raise people to defend the city were all obtained by the governor's Yamen begging the King of Zhou, no matter how critical the war situation is, Governor Fan Shangxuan also refused to let the King of Zhou have any military power.
"...Hmph! Of course I won't blame you, but please don't forget that this world still belongs to my Zhu family!"
King Zhou snorted coldly, and then he also came to the crenel. He first looked down at the piles of corpses under the wall, and immediately felt his stomach churn. He had to cover his nose with his sleeves and took out a monocular telescope from his arms. , looking towards the Qing army camp in the distance, he was suddenly shocked again, "...this is...how many miles away is the company camp? There are so many people from the Tatars who invaded Kaifeng? Could it be that the slave chief Huang Taiji came in person?"
"...The Tatar commander who invaded Kaifeng was Dorgon, who established the Zhengbai Banner. He had at most two to three thousand real Tatars. Even if the Guanning rebels and the Liaodong Han army were added, the number would not be more than ten thousand. The remaining hundreds of thousands of troops were all captured by the Tatars Henan refugees recruited by my son!" Governor Fan Shangxuan replied with a sullen face, "...At a time when the world is in chaos and the country is in danger, these unruly people do not want to serve their country with all their loyalty, but they actually regard thieves as their fathers. They really deserve to be killed!"
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In this regard, Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhen also nodded repeatedly, deeply agreeing with it, but he completely forgot what kind of living situation the people of Henan were in now - during the Chongzhen period, the northern provinces suffered from successive disasters, including Beizhili, People in Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi are all in dire straits, but the most miserable place is Henan. Several consecutive years of severe drought and years of disrepair of water conservancy have turned this fertile land of the Central Plains into a barren land with no harvest. Instead of providing relief, the court also imposed heavy taxes on the destitute victims. Coupled with the cruel exploitation of a group of vassal kings and countless landowners, the fighting between various bandits and the government and soldiers... the whole province was filled with endless famine, and many places were depopulated due to the heavy soldiers.
——The Ming Dynasty had granted several vassal princes successively in Henan, and there were countless other royal relatives and official officials. These powerful and aristocratic families occupied most of the land in the province. However, because of their official titles, their land did not have to pay taxes to the court, and their tenants did not have to serve the court's corvee. However, any increase in taxes by the Ming court, such as the famous Lian pay, suppression pay and Liao pay, all included Henan in the scope of taxation, and the bearers of these taxes and corvees could naturally only be those Powerless poor people.
Moreover, the evil government of increasing levels of government, which is common in the world, is especially severe in Henan. If the imperial court wants to get one tael of Liao salary, the following can receive as much as 20 or 30 taels. Therefore, every time taxes were increased, a large number of farmers in Henan went bankrupt, and the fields of these bankrupt farmers were naturally occupied by feudal princes, nobles and gentry. As a result, most of the landless farmers became refugees and became the source of the country's troubles. There were fewer farmers left, but the taxes and oppression they had to bear became heavier. Naturally, they would soon be bankrupt and exiled, or they would raise the knife of resistance in despair.
Therefore, long before the Eight Banners soldiers broke through the border and went south, except for the provincial capital Kaifeng, which still had some order, the situation in the rest of Henan was already as tragic as hell. In the countryside of all prefectures and counties, there are no pedestrians on the roads and hundreds of miles of uninhabited areas. Large groups of local refugees gather together and are busy killing officials and rebelling. The wealthy and powerful Jin gentry built forts one after another, gathering their servants and people to defend themselves against the rogue bandits and hungry people, or to attack each other. The peasants either starved to death in the countryside, or gathered in groups to fight to the death with the landlord militia and officers and soldiers to see if they could find a way to survive.
At this time in Henan, almost every farmer had experienced the hellish scene of a major disaster, being pressed by the government, and watching their loved ones starve to death beside them. Therefore, for these Henan people who were tortured almost to madness by hunger and despair, any talk of national justice and loyalty to the emperor and serving the country were all nonsense words about a well-fed man not knowing how hungry a hungry man is. Naturally, everyone has incomparable hatred in their hearts for the Ming Dynasty that forced their whole family to die. As long as someone can take care of their food, as long as someone can lead them to kill the army and take revenge, they are willing to follow them, whether they are rogues or Tatars.
When Dorgon was ordered to conquer Henan, he noticed this very keenly, so he adopted the banner of "walking for heaven and opening warehouses to release grain". According to his military orders, every time a county town or powerful house is conquered, after enough military rations are taken away, the remaining food must be distributed to any hungry people who can arrive in time - the countryside is already full of hungry people, but there are still some in the homes of the wealthy gentry families. It's really ironic that there is so much food in reserve.
As a result, a large number of hungry and crazy refugees joined Dorgon's command one after another, willing to work for these Eight Banners men. As a result, Dorgon, who originally had a small number of troops, led this partial division into Henan, and quickly snowballed into various prefectures and counties. Not only did he seize countless gold and silver materials, but he also took away dozens of people. Tens of thousands of refugees were used as cannon fodder to attack the provincial capital of Kaifeng.
——It’s not that these refugees don’t know the fate of being used as cannon fodder to fill trenches, but after experiencing so many horrific sufferings, they are no longer afraid of death. Compared with those relatives who starve to death in their hometown, or even be eaten in pots. They can be said to be lucky people if they can survive to this day and be driven to fight with officers and soldiers! As long as I can have a few good meals before I die, what will happen if I sell this miserable life?
However, as the ruling class of the Ming Empire, Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhen and Henan Governor Fan Shangxuan certainly would not understand the resentment and despair of these Henan people. They would only stand on the top of the Kaifeng city where the corpses were smelly, stamping their feet and cursing these unruly people. Working for the tiger, not knowing loyalty, betraying the kindness of the court...
However, although these unruly people who have no regard for the country's favor have been attacking the city one after another these days, Henan Governor Fan Shangxuan still has enough confidence in defending Kaifeng City. After all, the city wall of Kaifeng is tall and strong, and the food stockpiled in the city is also very sufficient. Relying on the silver generously rewarded by His Highness the King of Zhou, the morale of the defenders has been maintained very well, and there are still enough strong men in the city to recruit.
In addition, in his opinion, although the Jurchen Eight Banners' cavalry were indestructible in field battles, they were of little use in siege warfare. And Dorgon's partial division in front of him obviously did not carry a huge cannon that could break the city - if it had, it should have been used these days.
What Governor Fan Shangxuan is really worried about is whether Huang Taiji, the great Khan who founded the slaves, will personally lead an army to retaliate after defeating the Tatars' partial attack. If this is the case, how long can Kaifeng City be able to sustain it? A bit hung up.
However, what he did not expect was that if the enemy wanted to break through the city wall of Kaifeng, they did not necessarily have to use heavy artillery bombardment. There were other tricks. If history is a guide, then almost the same trick had been used to destroy the Qin Dynasty as early as the Qin Dynasty. It had already been used once during the Wei Kingdom...
Just when Governor Fan Shangxuan finally persuaded King Zhou to go back, and then planned to return to the governor's office to rest, he suddenly felt that the city wall under his feet seemed to be shaking, and there was some ominous rumbling sound in the air. The next moment, feeling the warning sign, he quickly raised his eyes and saw another roaring turbid wave, vaguely appearing at the end of the horizon!
At the same time, there was a scream that could be described as tragic, hysterically echoing repeatedly over the Kaifeng city:
"...The embankment has burst!!! The Tatars have dug up the embankment of the Yellow River to flood the city!!!"