Chapter 279: Ashes
In the early morning, there were more than 40,000 young and strong people resting under the green shade. They were all the people of Fengyang Prefecture. The Qing soldiers had their own tents and simple beddings, but these people could only sleep on stones and wooden blocks.
The tired and hungry men tried their best to scatter, but they were still crowded together. Because the Qing soldiers were afraid that they would escape, they set a strict boundary for them. Once they walked out of here when they were not working, they would be ruthlessly chopped.
Finally, the unbearable night passed, and the even more unbearable day came. The Qing soldiers who were responsible for taking care of them stretched, and a whip was hung in the air to pull out a whip flower, and a huge sound echoed in the mountains. When the tycoons heard the whip, their bodies were unconsciously striking, dragging their extremely tired bodies and getting up to work.
Sixty thousand people were forced to go up the mountain to repair Qingliu Pass, but now there are only 40,000 people left. Those who were exhausted and starved to death on the way, those who were whipped to death by Qing soldiers, and their bodies were thrown to the cliff and became food for birds and beasts.
A weak country and a small country are not as good as a peaceful dog in troubled times.
These people had no idea that they seemed weak and had become the protective umbrellas of the Qing soldiers.
If it weren't for these Han people, Hou Xuanyan would have set fire to the mountains. This time, unlike Changzhou, he repeatedly ordered the people to withdraw from the city. So those who hid secretly could abandon their families for everyone and burn Duoduo's army first.
But this time, the tens of thousands of people on the mountain were unaware of it. They were forced to come to Qingliu Pass by the Qing soldiers with swords. They really couldn't bear to give orders, so the time delayed to the seventh day.
Within seven days, Hou Xuanyan had someone secretly dug a huge pit from the underground under the large stairs of Qingliu Pass. When the mountain top fires, someone will definitely escape from here in a panic. Hou Xuanyan has already dug a grave for them.
The Qing soldiers' work has been almost repaired, and they are going to do it too...
Various ignition materials have been prepared at the foot of the mountain, and the stone throwing machine has been built, and the wind direction is just right. Hou Xuanyan and others have deduced it. They estimated that the renovation of the top of the mountain today should be completed. It is impossible for the Qing soldiers to stay on the mountain for a long time. In the Northern Expedition Army, Qianxiang Camp went through a lot of hardships, and finally sent a few spies from hunters to climb over the mountains and ridges in front of Qingliu Pass and hid on the mountain to find out the news on the mountain.
As long as the strong men go down the mountain and send a signal from the mountain, it is the time when the Northern Expedition Army sets fire.
Under Jirgalang's instructions, the Qing soldiers divided the captured men into dozens of batches and scattered in various corners of Qingliu Pass to prevent them from raising resistance.
Soon, the first scream echoed between the valleys, and the massacre began. Spears, bows, arrows, stones... All the Qing soldiers turned into butchers. Perhaps when they were at home, they would close their eyes to kill chickens. But after becoming traitors, they became used to massacre and had already treated their compatriots as humans. In their eyes, it was natural for the strong to slaughter the weak.
The Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia smiled beside them, watching the Han people massacre Han people, which was very fun in their eyes, and there was also a sense of conquest.
After the eight banners of Han and the green camp killed people, the heads of the dead were cut off, and few could be cut off with one knife. The blades and bones collided, making a creepy sound, gathered in the valley, making all the beasts tremble.
The smell of blood instantly spread throughout the valley. This day was the second year of Longwu, July 20th, early morning.
The massacre lasted for a day and a night. Hou Xuanyan woke up early in the morning. He stood in front of the mountain anxiously waiting for news on the top of the mountain, preparing to burn the mountain. Logically, they could not have kept the strong men on the mountain for so long. An unspeakable anxiety slowly accumulated in Hou Xuanyan's heart.
The Qing soldiers piled up the chopped heads and transported them to the stairs in front of the Qingliuguan Mountain Gate.
Several wooden boards were set up in front of the stairs to block the heads on the mountain. The Northern Expedition Army was not sure of this. Anyway, they had built fortifications, and even if the Qing soldiers on the top of the mountain attacked, they were not afraid.
Finally, the Qing soldiers on the top of the mountain smiled and removed the wooden boards. Countless heads rolled down the mountain. The Northern Expedition Army could not see clearly at first, but thought it was the Qing soldiers rolling stones. Hou Xuanyan heard the sound and arrived in a hurry.
The scene in front of you, all the Northern Expedition Army witnessed will never be forgotten. They were heads and blood still seeping in. Just like a child's ball, it rolled down from the mountain, and tens of thousands of them mixed together.
There were arrogant and cruel laughter on the top of the mountain. The Northern Expedition Army at the foot of the mountain was shining with hatred in their eyes, and their hearts were suppressed with anger. What Su Bandai said was obviously a failure to use these heads to scare the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Army.
Hou Xuanyan looked at the scene in front of him, his stomach was overturned, and he felt vomiting in his chest to his throat and could not be suppressed. Hell... It's just that.
Zhu Dadian laughed terrified: "Duke, don't be afraid of fire attack now."
The spies on the top of the mountain fired a signal, and then hid in Fengyang Mansion as agreed. Their mission was to see the men who went down the mountain and sent a signal. Now the men who did go down the mountain have indeed gone down the mountain.
The Qing soldiers on the top of the mountain continued to laugh. They looked into the mountain and were quite disappointed. Because the expected panic did not appear, the Northern Expedition Army stood motionless.
Soon, strange things were carried out from the camp of the Northern Expedition Army.
The cans filled with turbulent oil were placed in the stone thrower and shot toward the top of the mountain in cans. The Qing soldiers hurriedly hid in the fortifications, but did not see the explosion. Su Chaha hurried to Jiergalang's tent and shouted: "Prince, the Ming army at the foot of the mountain threw some strange jars to the top of the mountain. I don't know what the purpose is."
Jiergalang suddenly stood up and came outside and saw all the Qing soldiers behind the fortification, stretching their heads and pointing their fingers. Enjoying the wonder of the jars falling from the sky, the sound of porcelain shattering constantly came, crackling like "big beads falling from the jade plate".
The strong bloody smell blocked the smell of hot tinder. The dense attack of the jar can lasted for a long time. Only then did Li Benshen, the general of the Eight Banners of Han, reacted: "No! They want to set fire."
Jirhalang's eyes widened in vain and asked sternly: "What did you say?"
"This thing is just getting stuck in the fire. Now it is poured on the trees in front of the mountain. If the Ming army sets fire."
Before Li Benshen finished speaking, artillery roared at the foot of the mountain, and the divine fire flying crows piled up in the weapon warehouse of the fire setting fire shone brightly again. This thing has always been criticized, and its power is too small and useless, but after a little transformation in Hou Xuanyan, it became a one-rate divine fire setting weapon. After lit the lead, the divine fire flying crows carrying a large number of strange and flammable objects roared to the top of the mountain.
The various fireballs that were burning were thrown to the clear stream, and the fire slowly rose. There was no sufficient water source on the top of the mountain, and it was not enough to drink water from the three armies. It was a fantasy to try out the fire.
The fire gradually became bigger. If the Qing soldiers wanted to escape from the fortification, they had to face the rolling smoke and the cannons blooming everywhere. Under the scorching heat, many Qing soldiers had fallen into madness. Countless "fire people" fell from the cliff mountain.
There was only one road down the mountain. Two elite vanguard battalions on both sides of the Inlaid Blue Flag escorted Jirgalang and the two deputy commanders, and took the lead in escaping Qingliu Pass.
They did not even order to retreat down the mountain, because once the rugged road was crowded, even the prince would have to choke to death on the mountain.
When the middle and lower-level generals were looking for the main general without any lordship, they found that they had already escaped.
When Jirgalang arrived at the foot of the mountain, he began to instruct the withdrawal of troops. He was not very anxious. After all, as long as the fire was still there, the Ming army could not pass the Qingliu Pass. But soon he realized that things were not that simple, and retreat became crowded and trampled. When people realized danger, running and escaping were human instincts. Most of them would "panic" because of fear.
If you stay for a moment, your life will be in danger. The people behind you are already anxious and push your comrades in front of you frantically. The more you go to the back, the more crazy you are, and finally the ones in front can't resist it. The path can only accommodate very few people. As long as one person falls, he will trip up the person next to you, causing a reaction like a Dogunomi card. The fallen crowd was trampled and trampled to death. The body was blocked on the road, and the already narrow intersection was blocked directly.
Jirgalang ordered his vanguard to slash with a knife, pull and pull hard, trying to clear the path. However, few people were squeezed down, and the fire continued to worsen.
The road behind the mountain is difficult to walk, and it is a dead end in front of the mountain.
The Northern Expedition Army vented its anger and fired all the firearms in its hands, and even picked up stones and threw them at the top of the mountain. Although most of them fell at the foot of the mountain, it was useless. However, Hou Xuanyan did not stop these useless childish behaviors. The depression caused by the massacre of the Qing soldiers must be released to a certain extent.
The fierce tinder oil was still firing along with the Divine Fire Crow, and the heat waves that were coming to the face at the foot of the mountain were already feeling. The fire rose into the sky, and the heroic pass was finally ignited.
Hou Xuanyan, who was full of "red light", ordered that the entire army retreat, and the best way to walk on the mountain was the big ladder in front of him.
Although it is difficult to climb up, it is much easier to get down. The Qing soldiers on the top of the mountain do not care about the direction and run down the stairs to escape.
The musketeers raised their guns to shoot, harvesting the rolling Qing soldiers. In the past, dozens of musketeers could kill a person, even if it was efficient. This time, there were dense crowds of people, allowing people to shoot.
Finally, several Qing soldiers, who were full of fire, dodged the dense bullets and came to the foot of the mountain. Before they could be happy, they fell into a big pit. The ones behind couldn't stop and fell into the pit one after another.
After hundreds of Qing soldiers filled the huge pit, the people behind them stepped on their bodies and continued to rush forward.
The Northern Expedition Army blocked these evil ghosts from hell in front of the mountain behind the fortifications. The Qing soldiers wailed and begged for mercy, knelt down and asked to surrender, and hit the newly built fortifications with their heads. If the Northern Expedition Army had probably felt pity yesterday, but today's heads rolled down, which made them more hatred than the sky and more deep than the sea.
Finally, the dead end in front of the mountain was blocked by the bodies piled up into mountains.
Countless corpses behind the mountain paved the path down the mountain into a corpse road, and tens of thousands of Qing soldiers were able to escape. They rolled and crawled from the corpse, and with the help of Jirgalang, they fled to the foot of the mountain.
The fire burned for seven days and seven nights, and was finally extinguished in a cloudy torrential rain.
There were 170,000 Qing soldiers on the mountain, and more than 80,000 people fled. In addition, there were beasts and birds flying in the mountain, so there were probably millions of people who killed the fire.
In the Northern Expedition Army, Zhu Dadian looked at the lightning as thick as his arm that was passing by the sky, and said with lingering fear:
Chapter completed!