The sun was scorching, the wind was blowing, and there seemed to be a woman's whimpering in the wind, which sent chills down one's spine.
What exactly happened here? What kind of person could do such a cruel thing? Even if he kills a good person and takes credit for his crime, he cannot do such an immoral thing.
There were rumors everywhere that officers and soldiers killed innocent people indiscriminately and massacred Qingyuan in order to claim credit. But Tie Mo and others knew deeply that these were all lies.
When Hei Yunlong walked into the dilapidated county government office, he saw broken walls and a human head hanging under the plaque in the lobby. This head had been burned beyond recognition.
Finally, unable to suppress the anger in his heart any longer, Hei Yunlong drew out his knife and looked at the broken wall beside him crazily, "Beasts... These beasts actually do such a vicious thing... They are in vain...
....”
Of course Hei Yunlong was angry. Someone had committed such atrocities, but in the end the blame fell on him.
The officers and soldiers closest to Qingyuan County were Hei Yunlong and Tie Mo. Although they didn't say it explicitly, in fact it was clearly stated that they were killing good people and taking credit for their merits.
Tie Mo couldn't control his emotions like Hei Yunlong, and he didn't have much of a good impression of those so-called rebels.
Those rebel leaders sounded like great heroes, but in fact they were all careerists. Even these people were not much better than the so-called heroes in Water Margin.
Before, I couldn't figure out how the thieves could get out of this predicament, but I didn't expect that these people were so ruthless that they just threw away all the burdens that slowed down the march.
Tie Mo secretly swore in his heart that if he knew who caused the tragedy in Qingyuan City, he would put that person in a frying pan and fry him.
In the middle of summer, corpses cannot be kept for long. In less than a day, mosquitoes are already flying all over the place, and a disgusting stench is emitted everywhere. There are tens of thousands of corpses in Qingyuan City, and if not handled in time, it will easily cause epidemics.
It was not safe to dig a hole to bury the body, so hundreds of fires were set up to burn the body.
This is the difference between officers and soldiers and thieves and soldiers. As saboteurs, thieves and soldiers can burn, kill, loot, and leave, but officers and soldiers cannot do this and must clean up the corpses.
Destroyers and builders, it is always easier for destroyers to do things, but it is difficult for builders to do things.
...
The siege of Taiyuan Mansion was lifted, but before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, they heard bad news again.
The fleeing rebels conquered Wenshui County and Fenzhou all the way. In order to retaliate for the atrocities committed by the officers and soldiers in Qingyuan City, the rebels looted the two county towns. The men and women in the city were killed and robbed, almost turning the two county towns into
ruins.
It can be said that after being looted by the bandits, Wenshui and Fenzhou were no different from Qingyuan County, and most of the women in the two cities were also taken away by the bandits.
On August 12, the first year of Chongzhen, the rebels Kewen River crossed Fenzhou and entered Shaanxi. They gathered in groups in Suide and Mizhi. They fled along the way and looted countless people, which directly led to the ruins of three cities and nearly a million Shanxi
The people were left homeless, especially Qingyuan County, which almost turned into a dead city.
The military information was sent back to the capital, and the court was furious. Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, who knew the whole story, was furious and wanted to take Taiyuan prefect Ye Heng back to the capital for questioning.
However, due to the pleas of the cabinet and most of the ministers in the six ministries, Zhu Youjian had no choice but to give up. In the end, the prefect of Taiyuan, Ye Heng, was demoted and transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of Civil Affairs to take charge. Gao Jie, a member of the Donglin Party and the imperial censor, was the new prefect and would take office soon.
.
Ye Heng was demoted, which made Tie Mo very unhappy.
Ordinarily speaking, considering Ye Heng's mistakes, cutting off his head ten times is not enough. The situation in Shanxi is so corrupt, which is directly caused by Ye Heng's blind command. If Ye Heng hadn't randomly deployed troops, the traitors would not have been able to easily break into Shanxi.
.
If someone else had made a mistake like Ye Heng's, they would have died long ago.
Sure enough, there are people in the government who are good at becoming officials, so forming a party is still beneficial.
When someone is demoted, someone is promoted. Tie Mo is one of them. In view of the two battles at Taihe Ridge and Heishui River, Tie Mo accumulated meritorious service and was promoted to Qianzong. The soldiers and horses under his command no longer belong to the guard establishment, but directly under the
The battle sequence of the Xuanfu capital camp.
Although he was promoted to Qianzong with meritorious service, his actual power responsibilities did not change much. He was still the commander of Zhangbei garrison and Anzhuang fort.
...
Zhangbei is full of waste, but here you can clearly see a busy scene. It may still be desolate, but there is vitality everywhere.
Tie Mo's biggest gain from sending troops to suppress the bandits this time was not military success, but the distribution of a lot of supplies.
When the materials changed hands, almost every Shanxi merchant could receive no less than 30,000 taels of benefits.
These benefits have strengthened the confidence of several Shanxi businessmen and made this cooperative relationship more stable.
Seeing the benefits, the Chang family and the Cao family also supported Tie Mo's military expansion and training operations, especially the ordnance, without any restrictions.
In a month, Zhangbeicheng has undergone earth-shaking changes. The Chang family, Cao family, and Yang family have transferred their shops to Zhangbei. In addition, Duofuhao is also making preparations in an orderly manner.
...
In the west city of Zhangbei, a place was set aside for a firearms workshop, and the strange old man Zhao Jinrong became the general manager of the workshop.
Although the workshop is only newly built, Zhao Jinrong, a firearms madman, has already devoted himself to the improvement of firearms. When he came to the workshop today, he was also dragged over by Zhao Jinrong.
"Dad, my son has fought many battles and is exhausted. Can't you let me sleep well for two days?"
"What are you complaining about? Sleep is more important, or firecrackers?" Zhao Jinrong opened a wooden box and bent down to pick up the firecrackers inside.
After seeing this firecracker, Tie Mo's eyes straightened, and the sleepiness in his head suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The shape of the fire blunderbuss in front of him was no different from the bird blunderbuss used in the army, but Tie Mo still saw some differences.
First of all, there is an extra triangular-shaped thing in the loading port, which reduces the slot for setting off the fire rope. The top of the barrel has also changed, with an extra round slot, and the barrel is also longer.
With just one glance, Tie Mo was sure that this was definitely not a traditional firecracker.
Coming to the open space outside, when Zhao Jinrong opened the slot for filling gunpowder, Tie Mo discovered more differences.
In addition to the groove for filling gunpowder, there is actually a long groove in the front. What is this extra long groove for?
Before Tie Mo could ask questions, Zhao Jinrong took out something from the bag on his waist and placed it in the groove.
At this time, Tie Mo was so excited that he was speechless.
The cone-shaped long strip of ammunition is similar in shape to later bullets. More importantly, the ammunition is not inserted from the barrel.
Breech loading.....
Oh my gosh, it's loaded into the breech, and it's not a spherical lead bullet.
After loading, I poured some gunpowder into the groove at the back, closed the slot, raised my hand and fired a shot in the distance.
With a bang, a black hole appeared in the big willow tree more than thirty feet away.
Looking at the big willow tree in the distance, Tie Mo kept swallowing his saliva and staring with eyes as if he was demented.
It has such a long range. Look at that black hole. The effective range is at least ten feet farther than the blunderbuss. The most important thing is that it is loaded in the breech.
It is definitely a qualitative leap from front-loading to breech-loading. Thinking about stuffing lead bullets into the barrel before and then poking it, it feels like you have eaten shit.
How much time does breech loading save?
Also, for muskets, the real soul is not the musket itself, but the bullet.
The ammunition used by Zhao Jinrong already had the prototype of later bullets, although it still required ignition with gunpowder.
As for why it can be fired smoothly without a match rope, Tie Mo still knows a little bit about this. It must be fired by flint, which is what later generations would call a flintlock gun.
Flintlock, breech loading, tapered bullets!
Tie Mo looked straight at Zhao Jinrong, his eyes glowing golden.
Phew, this dad is not losing money, he is making a lot of money.