Chapter V Rise and Fall and the Suffering of the Common People Part 1
Gouwa was stripping off the dead man's clothes. Suddenly he saw two people lying on the ground looking at him. The three of them stared at him in silence for a moment. Gouwa yelled and was so frightened that he peed his pants and backed away towards the two brothers.
go.
When Deng San heard Gouwa's cry, he took out the pitchfork from the schoolmaster and rushed over with the fork tip directly touching the two people on the ground. The man surnamed You also arrived immediately and stood aside.
But it was Chongzhen who spoke first. He gently opened the tip of the pitchfork, raised his hands, and stood up slowly.
"Thank you two heroes for your life-saving grace. I can't repay you in return, but I don't know how to call the heroes?" After saying that, he sincerely bowed with fists in his hands.
Deng San was a little nervous by this man's inexplicable behavior, and he clenched the pitchfork tighter.
The man surnamed You pressed Deng San's shoulder and said: "Jin Yiwei and I have nothing to say. I just wanted to avenge my brother's personal vendetta and it has nothing to do with you. We are not interested in your affairs, so let's just say goodbye."
"
Chongzhen heard that although this man couldn't deal with the flying fish suit, he had no intention of harming him, so he said no more and nodded.
Wang Chengen stood behind Chongzhen and watched as the man surnamed You took Deng San and Gouwa away with the horses. Only then did he take a breath and whispered: "Long live Lord, what should we do next?"
Chongzhen sighed, "If according to the previous report from the Ministry of War, Shandong has not yet fallen. At this time, going south and going to Yingtian via Jinan Prefecture would be the best choice, but I don't want to do that this time."
"Wang Chengen, do you know where this bandit army came from and why they want to rebel?"
"My servant only knows that the intruder was originally a postman guarding the horses, and the soldiers who broke into the camp were mostly mutinous soldiers from the Nine Sides. As for why they rebelled, they are the rebels and traitors, causing trouble in the world."
Chongzhen pointed to the corpses of the refugees on the ground and said: "What kind of mutinous soldiers are these? They are all farmers and village women with no clothes on. At this time, what's the use of putting gold on my face? Do you know,
They rebelled because they had no food to eat. Also, why did the Nine Sides rebel? Same thing."
When it came to this matter, Wang Chengen did not dare to take it anymore, so he had to let Chongzhen continue talking on his own.
"The Ming Dynasty has been more than two hundred years old. Why did the intruders gain power in one day, and Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei were all defeated, and there were only a few defenders? It was because of my previous actions that I lost the support of the people and the hearts of the ministers! I think Taizu was the same at the time.
Having made their fortune in the fields, the Zhu family relied on the support of the people to build the world. Now that the people have lost their support, the consequences can be imagined."
"Long live my lord, you just said you didn't plan to go south, but where are you going?"
"I want to see with my own eyes what kind of dire straits the people under my rule live in, so much so that they risk their lives to rebel. I want to find out how corrupt the imperial court is, to the point where it loses again and again.
!You go find a set of refugee clothes and change into them, I am the same as you. Remember, from now on you are only allowed to call me Brother Huang outside."
"This...this...this...slave..." Wang Chengen didn't know what to do.
"Also, you are not allowed to call yourself a slave!" After Chongzhen said this, he lowered his head to look for clothes that fit him. The emperor stripped the clothes off, and he would never have been able to do it if he had been like before.
Seeing that Long live the Lord was like this, Wang Chengen could no longer worry about it, so he pinched his nose and changed into refugee clothes.
After the two of them changed their clothes, they grabbed some dirt and smeared it on their bodies and faces. In this way, they looked like refugees.
"Let's go. We can't stay here for long. I just hope that the intruders can treat the subjects of the capital well!" Chongzhen looked back at the huge city gate and the Jin Yiwei who died in the battle.
"Long live my lord, you haven't said where you are going yet?" Chongzhen heard this and glared at Wang Chengen.
Wang Chengen realized that he had made a mistake and quickly covered his mouth. A burst of sweat made him hold his breath. The clothes on his mud legs were too smelly!
“Go to Shanxi!”
"Yes, Brother Huang, ah? Shanxi?" Wang Chengen almost fainted...
——
dawn, daybreak
The people and horses around the capital were noisy and the city was abuzz. Under the powerful offensive of the Shun army, the nine gates of the inner city were broken through one by one. The defenders of the capital, which had little morale, no longer resisted stubbornly and opened their doors to welcome the surrender. The capital was defeated.
Li Zicheng was overjoyed when he saw the situation and was about to lead his troops into the city. Song Xiance, the military advisor next to him, suggested: "Your Majesty should first appease the people in the city before entering the city. This is the benevolence of the emperor."
After Li Zicheng heard this, he praised Song Xiance very well and repeatedly said that what he said was absolutely true. Then he ordered the messengers to inform the whole army that if the soldiers entered the city and injured one person, they would be killed!
"Mr. Song, do you have anything else to teach me?" Li Zicheng sat on the horse and leaned sideways to ask.
In the dead of winter, Song Xiance shook his feather fan in his hand and replied: "Your Majesty brings a great victory to Beijing. It is best to go through Desheng Gate."
"Deshengmen, victory is good, good, good, so I will drive as you command!" Li Zicheng couldn't hold himself back any longer. He clamped his legs together and rode away, followed by the army behind him.
From time to time, red-coated cavalry flashed by in various streets in the city, holding arrows in their hands and throwing them everywhere, shouting: "He who opens the door with an arrow will not die!"
This move caused the people in the capital to go crazy, and everyone rushed to receive arrows. Those who got the arrows returned home, set up incense stands, lit Yongchang incense, opened their doors, and welcomed the Dashun army into the city in the curling white smoke.
It's strange. In the past, when the dynasty was overthrown and the capital city was defeated, everyone was frightened. But today, when the Shun army entered the city, there was a sense of joy among the people. What's more, they were decorated with lanterns and colors. I don't know if it was to celebrate King Chuang's victory over the world or to celebrate the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
?Or maybe both.
However, there are always exceptions to everything, and the rich and dandy princes, nobles, and nobles in the capital are now in mourning. But what most of them are worried about is not the situation in the Ming Dynasty, but how to keep their money bags in the coming military pay. How can they not have a home?
The country you came from? So.
Thanks to the development of water transportation and the influence of the canal on the road planning in Beijing and central China, the western area of the city is located along the Cao River, where nobles live. The eastern area is mostly the granary of Beijing, such as the old and new Taicang and the shipping warehouse, so merchants mostly live in the eastern area.
This is why there is a saying in the capital that "the east is rich and the west is noble".
At this time, in the East District, there was a grain merchant in Nanjuxianfang.
A family of fifteen, a grain merchant, knelt tremblingly in the atrium, while soldiers from the Shun Army were rummaging through boxes and carrying belongings in the inner room. Thousands of families from the Shun Army stood in front of them, slapping them in the face with the bright tip of a knife, until the grain merchant's wife
Stop.
The Qianhu rolled his eyes and said, "Come here, this woman is suspected to be a spy of the Ming army! Take her back to me and I will interrogate her severely." There was a wretched look on her face.
The soldiers understood, grabbed the woman's hair on the ground, lifted her limbs and dragged her directly to the door. The woman was in pain and screamed loudly.
"Master, please spare your life, Master, please spare your life! Let my wife go, all the money in the family will be given to Master! I beg you, Master, please let go of my wife, she is not a spy." The fat merchant's body kept shaking, and his hands
They put their hands together and prayed to the thousands of households. Seeing this, the rest of the family covered their faces and cried bitterly.
Qianhu ignored him and walked around behind the grain merchant, where he saw a little girl curled up hiding behind her father's back.
"Take this one away too, take this one away too!" Qianhu pointed, and another soldier came up to drag away the grain merchant's daughter.
The grain merchant finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted, "Bitch thief! I will fight with you!"
Qianhu wiped the blood on the spatula, with the grain merchant's body lying at his feet. "Who else wants to fight for their lives? Come now. It's late. Don't blame grandpa for not giving you a chance."
A stone hit Qianhu on the head, which stunned him for a moment. When he reacted, he saw a child standing at the end of the crowd, staring at him.
Qianhu couldn't help but laugh and said: "Hey, you are a bunch of trash, you don't even have a little kid to think about. Grandpa is laughing to death. Little kid, come here."
The child was innocent. Seeing his father die in the hands of this man, and his mother and sister being forcibly taken away, he felt a burning hatred in his heart. As the saying goes, a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers. The child clenched his little fists and walked towards Qianhu. A family member secretly
He doesn't care if you pull down his trouser legs.
When Qianhu saw the child walking up to him, he inserted the knife into the sheath, smiled and patted his head. The next second, he kicked him away and the child was far away, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.
"It's really boring." Qianhu spread his hands, lost interest, turned around and walked out of the courtyard with his hands behind his back.
"You divide the rest, remember, don't leave any alive."
A group of soldiers rushed forward with fierce looks on their faces. This chapter has been completed!