Chapter 165, Ten Days in Suzhou
While Qian Qianyi, Qu Shishu and other celebrities from the south of the Yangtze River and aristocratic gentry families were discussing strategies to resist the Qing Dynasty and save the nation on the Thousand People's Stone in Huqiu, a group of people were pushing and shouting on a stone bridge outside the gate of Huqiu Mountain. They scratched their throats and quarreled with each other.
Although someone had already put up a sign at the bridgehead saying "No crowds waiting, please stop", the people outside obviously didn't take this warning seriously.
I saw a thin, handsome young man in Confucian robes, facing a group of Fushe scholars who were guarding the stone bridge, and said angrily: "...Get out of the way! This Tiger Hill is a famous place in the world, and it is not your own. You can get the ancestral property, but why can’t others?”
The bystanders who rushed to the stone bridge heard what the young man said was reasonable. Even if they had not planned to go in to watch the excitement, they all raised their fists and shouted to cheer: "...Yes! This Tiger Hill is again It’s not your own private property, how can you take it so casually?”
The middle-aged scholar who was ordered to guard the door saw that he seemed to have offended the public, so he bowed repeatedly and said: "...Everyone, please stop making trouble. We occupy Huqiu to discuss world affairs. The space on the mountain is limited and cannot accommodate any more people." People, I’m afraid something might happen, so please be patient.”
"...No! Isn't this looking down on us? As the so-called major events in the world are everyone's responsibility, why don't you let me go up and discuss them together! Now the current situation is in chaos, the Tartars' ambitions are poisoning the south of the Yangtze River, and Suzhou is also in danger. These lives are at stake. How can we just rely on you to be arbitrary in matters? ”
However, the young man who took the lead in breaking through the door refused to be ignored. Seeing that there were people helping him, he became more confident. He actually raised his head and shouted loudly: "... Anyway, I must listen to the countermeasures of you gentlemen!" It’s God’s will to grow up in your own family, but it’s God’s will that you stumble and fall off a cliff. Who should you take care of?”
"...We also have good intentions..." The middle-aged scholar guarding the gate couldn't help but panic when he saw more and more people gathering on the bridge, and the handsome young man in the lead was acting recklessly. But the young man took the opportunity to come over and shouted: "...let me pass? If you want to stop us again, we will have to force our way through!"
However, the middle-aged scholar guarding the door took a closer look and suddenly smiled at the young man in Confucian uniform who led the way: "...Hahaha, girl, the people gathered in Huqiu now are either celebrities from the Jin gentry or officials and scholars. You A prostitute wants to join in the fun with men, what is her intention? ”
When her identity was suddenly revealed, the girl dressed as a man turned pale and said in surprise: "...How did you recognize..."
"...Haha, girl, although you have taken off your hairpin, the holes on your ears are still there, how can you escape from my eyes!" The middle-aged scholar guarding the door stroked his beard and smiled proudly, " ...I was far away just now, so I couldn’t see clearly, but now you are coming closer, aren’t you just asking for trouble?”
The girl dressed in men's clothing reached out and touched her earlobe, her pink face turned red for a moment, she stamped her feet and said angrily: "...You, you bully others! I, I..." She faltered a few times, couldn't help but feel so angry that she covered her face and choked. Only then did the people who were booing behind her understand, and they started talking about it:
"...Hahaha, I'm really blind. It turns out to be a girl. I wonder why she is so petite!"
"...Such a pretty little girl, who disguised herself like this, must have secretly come to have a secret meeting with her beloved brother!"
"...Tsk, tsk, tsk... Looking at her pink face and rosy cheeks, she looks like a young lotus root in a pond. I wonder which descendant is so beautiful..."
"...Hey, the world is really declining! She ran around without even taking a maid. This girl is so unruly!"
"...Well, looking at her temper and demeanor, I guess she is not a serious woman!"
……
Under the criticism, the eyes of the men around her gradually became obscene. The girl dressed in men's clothing was ashamed and angry for a moment, but she couldn't keep her face and act in public... Fortunately, just when she was so ashamed and angry, , but saw A young scholar led by E Guan came slowly. His eyes suddenly lit up and he shouted loudly, "...Chen Zilong! I had such a hard time looking for you! Why didn't you come to see me even when you arrived in Suzhou?!"
Chen Zilong, a celebrity from Songjiang over there, was talking to a few friends beside him. When he heard the call from the girl dressed in men's clothes, he was suddenly stunned. It wasn't until the girl took off the scarf on her head, revealing her long, cloud-like hair, that she suddenly realized it and quickly reached over and reached out to hold her.
"...Oh! How could it be you! Yang Yinglian, when did you arrive at Tiger Hill?"
"...I just arrived at Huqiu, and I haven't even entered the door yet! I was stopped! What a bad luck!" The girl dressed in men's clothes rubbed her hands, exhaled a puff of white air, and said displeasedly, "...Also, Don't call me Yang Yinglian. My surname is Liu now, my given name is Yin, and my name is like this. You must remember it clearly..."
"...Haha, your new name is really weird. It doesn't distinguish between willows and willows. You hide your real name and look at it this way. It's even more grand than your old name!"
Seeing the two of them flirting and flirting with each other, looking so familiar, the scholars next to them couldn't help but feel a little curious, and even showed a bit of ambiguity and envy, "...Brother Chen, this little lady... Could it be the confidante you made in Suzhou? Why don’t you introduce her to me?”
"...Haha, okay, okay, let me introduce you to everyone. She is the daughter of Xu Fo from Guijiayuan in Shengze Town. She met me in Songjiang last year. Even though she is not very old, she is very smart. . Even Tian Rugong (Zhang Fu) praised her poems! ”
With that said, Chen Zilong took Liu Rushi and introduced them to several friends from the society next to him. Liu Rushi also greeted them one by one, calmly and calmly. Seeing that she was just a weak teenage girl, everyone dared to go out of the city to break into Tiger Hill alone, and they couldn't help but secretly praise her for her extraordinary courage.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
——The girl dressed in men's clothing standing at the foot of Huqiu Mountain and calling the door is the famous courtesan in the late Ming Dynasty, Liu Rushi, who is sixteen years old this year.
Liu Rushi, whose original surname was Yang, was born in the forty-sixth year of Wanli (1618). He was smart and studious at a young age, but due to his poverty, he was robbed and sold to Wujiang as a maid since he was a child. In the first year of Chongzhen (1628), Liu Rushi was adopted by Xu Fo, a famous prostitute in Jiangnan, and named herself "Ying Lian", which means "self-pity in troubled times".
At the beginning of the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632), Liu Rushi was married by her adoptive mother Xu Fo to Zhou, a bachelor who was over sixty years old, as her concubine. Zhou DaSheng, who was born as a scholar, often held her on his knees and taught her to read poetry and literature, which made other wives and concubines very jealous. However, just a few months after the marriage, Zhou suddenly died violently. Because Liu Rushi had not given birth to any children, she was not tolerated by the head of the house, so she was forced to leave the court. She immediately took a flower boat in Suzhou and Songjiang to resume her old brothel business.
When he lived in Songjiang, Liu Rushi (who was still called Yang Yinglian at that time) had many contacts with Fushe scholars and Donglin Party members. He often wore Confucian men's clothing, talked about current affairs with everyone, sang poems and made surprising remarks. , was favored by those Jiangnan literati at that time, and seemed to play the role of a social butterfly in later generations. Many young celebrities, including Chen Zilong and Zhang Pu, were her guests. Among them, Chen Zilong has the best relationship with her and has a vague affection for her.
After that, Liu Rushi returned to Suzhou and changed his name to Liu Yin until not long ago, with the word "Suchi", so Chen Zilong didn't know it yet.
(Although Liu Rushi was listed among the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai by later generations, she was actually a famous prostitute in Suzhou and basically lived in Suzhou and Songjiang. There is no conclusive evidence to show that she had been a prostitute before she married Congliang. Go to Nanjing to compete with local flower boats on the Qinhuai River)
After the introductions and greetings were completed, everyone couldn't help but admire Liu Rushi's bright eyes, white teeth, and outstanding demeanor, while Chen Zilong was handsome and heroic. They really looked like a couple of gods and immortals. After Chen Zilong exchanged greetings with Liu Rushi and recounted his excitement about meeting again after a long separation, he blamed her for being a weak woman who should not have rashly left the city at such a time of war and chaos, let alone blindly participated in the men's fight against the Qing Dynasty to save the nation. event.
Unexpectedly, Liu Rushi instead said coquettishly, "...you gentlemen, in the past, didn't you always talk about family affairs, national affairs, world affairs, and care about everything? Now, you gentlemen are talking freely about the strategy of saving the nation on the Thousand People Stone, which is related to the safety of your hometown, so Even though I’m a woman, can’t I care about it?”
In response to Liu Rushi's rebuttal, Chen Zilong coughed dryly and was about to say something when he suddenly felt the ground shaking slightly. I couldn't help but turn around and stand on tiptoes, looking into the distance. It seemed as if there was a vague fog of dust and snow rising in the wilderness at the end of my sight.
The rest of the people gathered in front of the gate of Huqiu Mountain gradually stopped making noise at this time, and felt a vague sense of something strange in the air.
So someone used their hands and feet to quickly climb up a big tree nearby, put up a pergola with their hands and looked into the distance. Suddenly, they trembled suddenly and almost fell down, but at the same time they let out a heart-rending cry. Shouting: "...It's the Tatars! The Tatar cavalry is coming!!"
Suddenly, there was silence in front of the mountain gate of Huqiu. Everyone was stunned and seemed to be in disbelief.
But at the next moment, everyone reacted and fled in all directions. Due to the narrow road, many people trampled on each other, and even a few unlucky ones were squeezed into the cold midwinter river, and they could only float and cry for help.
In this extreme chaos, Chen Zilong first looked at the gate of Huqiu, hesitated for a moment, but finally gritted his teeth, shouted "I'm sorry, little boy", and picked up Liu Rushi's delicate body. Then regardless of her struggle, he rushed towards a awning boat parked on the river next to him... Next, Chen Zilong personally grabbed an oar, and together with the boatman, he punted the boat away from the shore, desperately heading towards the distance. Cross out everything.
At the same time, on Qili Shantang Street behind them, the neighing of Tartar war horses and all kinds of tragic wails could be heard.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
In the first month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the leaders of Donglin, Qian Qianyi and Qu Shishu, sent their descendants to publish famous posts, in the name of Donglin and Fushe, inviting a gathering of gentry from all over the world to Huqiu, Suzhou, to discuss the preparation of volunteers and the defense of their hometown. Then they formed the "Righteous Alliance" and elected Qu Shichun as the leader to preside over military affairs.
However, the Tiger Hill Conference had been planned for many days and could not be kept secret. Therefore, the news was leaked before the alliance meeting was held.
At that time, Huang Taiji, the leader of the captives, drove out of Nanjing and issued an edict to gather troops at Zhenjiang Ferry to prepare to cross the river and go north to attack the traitor Dorgon in Xuzhou. Unexpectedly, before the army was assembled, spies came to report that people in Suzhou had gathered to cause chaos. Huang Taiji, the leader of the captives, ordered a U-turn and an eastward expedition to attack the rebels in Suzhou first.
At noon on the 15th day of the first lunar month, Huang Taiji personally led thousands of captives and rode to the outskirts of Suzhou. Qian Qianyi, Qu Shizheng and hundreds of Jiangnan scholars gathered at the Thousand People Stone in Tiger Hill. They were unable to escape for a while and almost all of them were killed, leaving corpses lying on the Thousand People Stone and blood flowing everywhere. Among the people in Huqiu and the assembly, there were only a few dozen people, including Songjiang scholars Chen Zilong and Xia Yunyi. When the captives arrived, they boarded a river boat in time and managed to escape along the waterway.
After killing all the scholars in Huqiu, the Qing army advanced into Suzhou along Shantang Street. The prefect of Suzhou and the gentry in the city heard about the incident in Huqiu and hurriedly closed the city gates and prepared to hold on. However, the city lacked major generals and weapons. The Qing army then set up artillery to attack the city. With a thunderous drum, the defenders fled in panic. The Suzhou prefect committed suicide by taking poison in the lobby of the Yamen. At this point, the entire city of Suzhou had fallen. However, after the city was defeated, the people were still dissatisfied. Some righteous men armed with bows and arrows secretly attacked the captive chief Huang Taiji at night and shot him in the right shoulder. Huang Taiji, the leader of the captives, was so angry that he ordered a massacre of the city for ten days to reward the soldiers and serve as a warning to others...
As a result, Qing troops from all walks of life were overjoyed to receive the order, and they swarmed into the city one after another, killing and looting wantonly. They did not seal their swords for ten days, killing more than 500,000 people before and after. After this catastrophe, Suzhou, a famous city in the south of the Yangtze River known as paradise, has become like a hell - those smart and lovely young boys and girls, kind and kind old mothers, literary and elegant people. Confucian scholars, knowledgeable wise men, hard-working farmers, shrewd and smooth businessmen... all kinds of people, under the butcher knife of the Qing army, all turned into putrid corpses that filled the streets and silted up the rivers.
According to the survivors' descriptions, by the time the Qing soldiers retreated, the city was already filled with babies, either on horse hooves or on human feet, their livers and brains smeared on the ground, and the sound of crying filling the field. Walking through ditches and ponds, there are piles of corpses, hands and feet resting on each other, blood stained blue snow, and the pond is flat. The roads are littered with corpses, bulging rotten skin and ruptured flesh and blood. The stench is overpowering, and the stench becomes even worse when exposed to the sun again and again. Even in the severe winter, the smell can be heard for hundreds of miles... The various places where people have suffered a lot are too numerous to describe. However, just as the prosperous and splendid city of Suzhou was gradually being destroyed in blood and fire, His Majesty Huang Taiji, the chief culprit, lived in the luxurious villa of Qian Qianyi, Emperor Wenzong of the Southeast, located under Fushui Rock in Yushan Mountain. Fushui Villa, enjoy the elegance of Jiangnan gardens...