Section 42: Escape
"Since Brother Shien can find out, the Tartars can also know." After hearing Shien's experience, Zhu Wu suddenly recalled, "The boat has been found, we went to the river bank overnight and crossed the river at dawn."
Cao Zheng said: "The Cao family village is incredible. The housekeeper asked the wife and the wife to get up and clean up the fine and soft things. Our whole village crossed the river."
The entire Caojiazhuang seemed to wake up from the sleep, with the shouts of men, the shouts of women, and the howlings of children.
Cao Zheng was also considered to be good at managing the family, but the whole village was still struggling until dawn to be considered as a slap in order to stop working.
It was dawn, and Cao Zheng stood next to a big cart. Some families in the clan were unwilling to leave. An old man said to Cao Zheng: "Son-in-law, as soon as you leave, the village will be changed back to his surname Liu. Have you become a portal? Are you worthy of my elder brother?"
Cao Zheng said: "Uncle Fifth, for the livelihood of the Liu family, you should follow us. If you don't leave, are you waiting for the Tartars to come and kill them?"
Cao Zheng persuaded a few words, and saw the men from the Liu family standing behind Uncle Wu, with gloating expressions on their faces. He knew that they were waiting for him to leave and could share their own property. He was reluctant to persuade him again and said, "Brothers, if you can't survive by the Tartars, you can come to Kaifeng to find me. I am the son-in-law of the Liu family and always a family. I will definitely take care of my family's meal."
Cao Zheng took fifty or sixty villager stations and drove eight big carts with Zhu Wu and others to the bank of the Yellow River. When he arrived at the scheduled crossing of the river, Cao Zheng was shocked. He saw that the river bank was full of people, and the boats Cao Zheng collected on the bank had long been "borrowed".
Cao Zheng held someone up: "Why are you so nervous?"
"The Tartars arrested spies from Song State everywhere and took the opportunity to plunder, and had already broken many villages. Hebei can no longer stay, so they can only go to Henan."
Zhu Wu also sent someone to inquire privately on the river beach, there were both Zhuanghumen under Heyang Prefecture who fled because Zhuangzi was captured by Jin soldiers, and refugees from Xiangzhou, Hebei were blocked by Jin soldiers at Baimadu, so they had to change routes to cross the river from Mengjin.
Shi Jin looked around and saw that there were crowds of people in the river beach, and he could not see at first sight.
In another time and space, history books record that "there has been 50,000 or 60,000 people in the river beach, and the military and civilians' houses are merging like ants. The women's houses are surrounded by wives and are trapped in the floating sand, and they are missing for a moment. A woman is trapped in the sand, raising her arms and raising her arms. The gold tangled and shouting for help, but she dared not go to the rescue. She disappeared when she was still not moving." It was said that at that time, the military and civilians, family members, officials, etc. on the river beach were like ants, and countless people were trapped in the floating sand when fighting, and the mud flooded the people in a while. A woman trapped in the mud held gold ornaments to ask for help, but no one dared to go to save her. She was soon submerged.
Now on the Mengjin River beach, I am afraid that 50,000 or 60,000 people will escape from Henan. Moreover, most of the ships on the north bank of the Yellow River have been conscripted by the Song army to the south bank, and a small number have been kidnapped by the Jin soldiers. The ships that Cao Zheng had hidden were also driven to the south bank.
Now, about 200 people including Shi Jin, Zhu Wu and Wu Song, and Cao Zheng’s Zhuang Ding are trapped on the north shore.
"You can't stay here. There are tens of thousands of people here, and the Tartars will come soon."
"What should I do? Go back to the village?"
While talking, a horse ran towards Caojiazhuang. The person on the horse's back saw the crowd on the beach and slowed down. A young man stretched his neck and looked for something everywhere.
"It's my nephew." Cao Zheng quickly asked someone to lead the young man over. When the young man saw Cao Zheng, he knelt down on the ground: "Uncle, the Tartars have broken the countryside."
Cao Zheng asked carefully and found out that shortly after they set off, the Jin soldiers arrived and said that Zhuangzi colluded with spies from the Song Kingdom, rushed into Zhuangzi without saying anything, killed everyone when they saw it, and plundered everywhere. The young man waited for an opportunity to secretly find a horse from the village, sneaked away from the back door, and came to find Cao Zheng.
"Uncle, the other couples are trapped in the village, I'm afraid it's inevitable..." The young man cried loudly.
Zhu Wu said on the side: "It's all us who implicated Caojiazhuang."
"What are you talking about in the Zhu Zheng?" Cao Zheng pointed to the crowd on the river beach. "Are these 50,000 or 60,000 people involved in the Zhu Zheng?"
"Don't talk about the ones next to you. Where are we going?"
"All follow the command of the Shi Zheng Zheng, and the commander of the Zhu Zheng Zheng."
"There is no choice but to find a place to retreat first, send someone to contact the other side, and then make plans."
While everyone was planning to discuss, suddenly there was a noise on the river beach. Everyone heard everyone shouting: "Boat, big ship, you can save it now."
Everyone looked up and saw dozens of big ships coming from above the river. The bow of the ship was high and Huyan and Shengjie were two big banners. On the other side of the river, hundreds of big ships could be vaguely seen.
"It is the Lord's fleet."
"The fleet sent Wang Jieshuai back."
Shi Jin, Zhu Wu and others also cheered.
At this time, I saw the fleet stopping ten feet away from the river bank. A large boat lowered the boat, and the soldiers on the boat used bamboo poles to detect the depth of the riverbed.
At the same time, a man with a short figure brought twenty soldiers to the shore.
Hula suddenly surrounded the crowd. The soldiers who followed the man ashore blocked the crowd with their spears.
The man chose a slightly higher place, stood up, and shouted, "Wu Yan River, Yu Hou Ling, Huier and others cross the river." The people around him cheered, far apart, and wanted to come forward to figure it out if they didn't hear it clearly. The people in the middle wanted to follow the short and strong man immediately, so as not to miss the opportunity to cross the river, and the crowd suddenly became crowded.
At this time, the ship suddenly launched a cannon of the continuous beads, and the bulge was like a thunderbolt, suppressing the noise.
All the people were scared. The short and strong man took this opportunity to return to the river beach and directed the big boat to keep putting down the boat. He fixed the boat with wooden stakes on the river bank, and then nailed wooden boards on the boat to lay a trestle.
At this time, the soldiers on the big ship got off the ship one by one and went ashore along the pier. Not only were infantrymen, but also cavalrymen leading horses.
A fat monk walked over from the pier with a ink-wash Zen stick. The short and strong man took the initiative to say hello to him: "Master Zhishen, have you been ashore in this command?"
Lu Zhishen waved his hand: "It's all ashore, and the Sa family is the last wave. Brother Zhang Heng, have the guide on the shore been found?"
It turned out that this short and strong man was Zhang Heng, who was the navy's leader, and Zhang Heng, the bow of the boat. He replied: "The guide has not been found yet."
Lu Zhishen came to the shore and ordered his command to drive away the crowd at the beach and clear out a clearing. The soldiers each took wooden stakes and circled the open space, forming a narrow passage. People had to walk into this passage before they could step onto the pier.
The smart boy had already grabbed the entrance of the passage and was about to run towards the pier. Lu Zhishen held the back of his neck with one hand and threw him aside: "Young and young, without family, what are you robbing?"
The boy begged for mercy. Lu Zhishen ignored him and shouted in a loud voice: "The Marquis of the Duke of the River Defense Department, Hu Yangeng, ordering to carry all officials and people across the river with a ship. One work permit can pass by one person." His voice was so loud that the people next to him were numb. While he was speaking, the soldiers had already set up a table at the entrance of the passage, and a basket of calculation sheets were placed on the table with special marks engraved on it.
The smart people had already gathered around the table to ask. A erectile soldier said, "Every day a male student works for the River Defense Department, he can get a calculation plan. Each calculation can send one person to the boat to cross the river. If there are four people in the family, one male student works for four days, or two male student works for two days, he can cross the river. Those who need to work must get all the work under the flagpole."
Someone asked, "I am willing to work, but my wife and children are sleeping on the river beach. It's really pitiful."
"Women and children can cross the river first. After you finish the work, you can use the calculation plan to settle the settlement. If you don't come to settle the settlement, your wife and children will be exiled."
There was a burst of joyful laughter around.
A fat man asked: "Does he have to work? Grandpa Bing, I'll give you two stale money, so you can put me on the boat."
"We all said that we will never charge money this time. If you have money, you can buy money from others. Or hire someone to work on your behalf."
At this time, dozens of men had gathered under the flagpole, and all of them took them to dig trenches.
Lu Zhishen was a little relaxed and felt something was wrong with his body. He touched his arms and found that his wallet was gone. He looked up and found that the boy he had just caught was holding a dead grass, squatting on a big stone in the distance, looking at him leisurely.
Lu Zhishen was furious and walked towards the boy, shouting: "Give me my grandfather's wallet back."
Seeing that it was approaching the boy, the boy waved his hand and threw a stone over, hitting Lu Zhishen's bald head. Lu Zhishen was furious and ran towards the boy. Seeing that the situation was not good, the boy ran away and ran away in the crowd.
Lu Zhishen walked back angrily, but someone talked to him in front of him: "Brother, I'm just seeing you."
When Lu Zhishen looked up, he saw that it was Shi Jin, and grinned and said, "I'll just say that Shi Dalang is like a big insect, so he must be fine."
"Brother, please sue me quickly. As soon as I arrived by the river, a boat came. Why did the Lord make such a calculating?"
Shi Jin hurriedly asked Lu Zhishen why the ferry came so coincidental?
Lu Zhishen said: "There are many people gathering on this river beach. We are on the south bank and can see clearly. General Huyan said, "Don't let the people be ravaged by the Jin thieves on the north bank." Zhang Heng just happened to send Wang Jieshuai back, and he discussed the plan with us for half a day, and crossed the river to pick up people this morning."
"Will mainly take all the 50,000 or 60,000 people across the river?" Zhu Wu and others also came over at this time. When they heard the conversation, Zhu Wu couldn't help but ask.
“That’s right.”
Zhu Wu looked worried: "So many people are crowding on the river beach. If the Jin thieves send cavalry to attack, what should we do?"
"General Qiu Muling also advised the general and the general said, "If you act according to Dunkirk, you will be worry-free."
"What does Dunkirk mean?"
"I don't know about the Sa family, so I'll follow the instructions of the Lord."
"What command does the Lord have? Please show me my brother."
"When Sajia crosses the river, not only should we set up this wooden stake and let the people board the boat in sequence, but we should also dig out the fortification area along the riverbank terrain to protect the river beach and ferry. Now we should send a post to prevent the raids of the Jin thieves. We need local people to be guided."
"Brother, don't worry, this owner of Cao Zhuang is a local." Zhu Wu introduced Cao Zheng to Lu Zhishen.
Chapter completed!