Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu had just left, and Chen Xin also talked to his old friend Chen Yongfu. He was the tutor of Chen Yongfu's son Chen De. The relationship between the two was extraordinary. He said straight to the point at the beginning: "I'm afraid Kaifeng can't support it.
Yes, what are your plans?"
This is not the first time that Chen Xin hinted to Chen Yongfu that Kaifeng was doomed to fall, but Chen Yongfu still said with a straight face: "As long as the officials, gentry, soldiers and civilians guarding the city work together, nothing will happen to Kaifeng. Wang Chen, I wish you the best."
I will give you my guarantee that as long as I am here, Kaifeng will never be broken into by thieves."
Chen Xun knew that this was by no means Chen Yongfu's true thoughts, so he laughed twice and said: "The battle between Futai and Anyuan became more and more intense. Huang Shu, following the orders of Gao Anyuan, established the Yiyong Grand Society in the city.
The number of these soldiers and horses has been increasing recently, and their number is already higher than that of your officers and soldiers in Henan Town. The King of Zhou and the Kaifeng gentry are now also handing money directly to Huang Shu. The strength of the soldiers is getting stronger and stronger, but the poor officers and soldiers don't even have food.
You still need to pay out of your own pocket to buy food from profiteers."
Nowadays, the price of food remains high, and the soldiers cannot even guarantee sufficient rations. Moreover, the officers and soldiers still have families, and Chen Yongfu even needs to pay for the food for his family and buy it from profiteers.
In comparison, the soldiers themselves were armed forces formed by the gentry. Huang Shu could obtain food directly from the King of Zhou and the Kaifeng officials and gentry, and his treatment was better than that of the officers and soldiers.
Although both Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu repeatedly talked to Chen Yongfu, saying that the social soldiers would only help him and would not undermine him. However, Gao and Huang refused to hand over the command of the social soldiers to Chen Yongfu. Recently,
He also tried his best to win over Gao Qian, so how could Chen Yongfu not harbor a grudge?
When Chen Yongfu heard this, his face looked a little ugly. He stopped talking and walked back all the way, but Chen Xin followed closely, and then advised: "The general attack of the Chuang Army is imminent, and both Futai and Jianyuan have made a decision.
Determined to use water to attack and drive away the enemy. However, the Yellow River broke its banks, which was such a big event. Even if the invading army could really be defeated by the power of the water, if the gentry in Bianzhong came to question the crime in the future, the imperial court would definitely select someone from the civil and military guards of Kaifeng to take the blame, so as to stop the raging people in the world.
Can the general keep himself safe from now on?"
The two happened to walk near Caomenfang at this time, and there was a shop selling grain. Nowadays, not only the price of grain has soared, but there are also very few places to buy grain, so Caomenfang is crowded with people buying grain.
I was very afraid of people, and I could hear people shouting and making a lot of noise across several streets.
Vehicles and large logs were used to block the street in front of the rice store so that no one could enter. But everyone was pushing and squeezing, and there were a lot of people moving around. Then there were several chaos, and in two places, women, the elderly and the weak were crushed and injured.
; In one place, an old woman was knocked down and no one came to help her. She was trampled and died on the ground; in another place, a boy of twelve or thirteen years old was knocked down and injured. Fortunately, he was rescued and could no longer move.
But there was crowding, crowding, noisy, scolding, crying, and fighting, and it was chaos. Everyone wanted to buy food, but the people at the back couldn't squeeze in front, and the people in front were blocked by the people behind.
People pushed them down, and the chaos became more and more terrible.
Chen Xin was lecturing in Kaifeng and had a certain prestige among the locals. When he saw the chaotic scene, he shouted at everyone to stop making trouble, but no one paid attention.
After a while, another group of soldiers came. They beat the people indiscriminately, rushed to the front, and forced them to buy food. The people were dissatisfied, refused to give way, and complained. The soldiers started beating indiscriminately, and many people were injured. The noise became more intense, and the people were in a violent mood.
, there was almost a fight between soldiers and civilians.
Chen Yongfu couldn't stand it anymore, and was even more worried about the popular sentiment and the unstable military morale. Kaifeng would collapse on its own without having to invade the city. He hurriedly called a group of servants, showed the banner of the general officer to separate the crowd, and beat people randomly.
After a lot of soldiers were arrested, the situation at hand was stabilized.
But one of the soldiers arrested by Chen Yongfu's servants spat and shouted: "I am a volunteer soldier of Huang Tuiguan, why do you arrest me?"
When Chen Yongfu heard this, he was furious. He drew his sword and hacked the domineering and lawless soldier to death on the spot. He turned to Chen Xin and replied: "As a military general, even if I am shattered to pieces, I will never take a step back. But if you are a high-ranking person,
, if you want to stab me in the back, you have to be on guard, and I can't just sit back and wait for death. Wang Chen, you are the smartest person in the world I have ever met. If you repeatedly advise me like this, I guess you must have a strategy in your heart.
Please give me some advice."
Chen Xin smiled slightly when he heard this, and handed over all the letters that Chen Kexin had written to him before to Chen Yongfu. When Chen Yongfu saw these letters, his expression changed drastically, and he was shocked. Although he had already had some vague guesses in this regard, but he really saw it
When old friend Chen Xin came into contact with Chuang Jun, she was still extremely shocked.
Chen Xin was a Jinshi appointed by Emperor Chongzhen. He not only served as magistrate of Laiyang County, but also had a high prestige among scholars, which was definitely not comparable to that of Niu Jinxing.
How could Chen Yongfu not be shocked that he secretly defected to the Chuang Army?
"Wang Chen, if you have anything to say, just tell me everything. This is not only a matter of success or failure for the reputation of the two of us in our lives, but also a matter of life and death for the entire city of Kaifeng's military and civilians."
Chen Yongfu finally made up his mind. Kaifeng City had reached a point where the entire city's military and civilians were at a historical fork in the road.
The purpose is to dig up the Yellow River in exchange for the possibility of defeating the Chu army.
Or should we, like Chen Xin, establish contact with Chuang Jun and find another way?
Some time ago, Chen Yongfu heard Chen Xin tell about the historical events of Du Chong in the Song Dynasty. When the Jin invaded the Central Plains, Du Chong was left behind in the Daming Prefecture. But when Wanyan Zongwang's Jin State East Route Army came, Du Chong did not dare to fight with them. The only countermeasure was
He ordered the construction of the Yellow River embankment to divert the Yellow River water from the Si River to the Huaihe River, in an attempt to block the pursuit of troops behind him.
Du Chong's decision to cut off the river not only failed to stop the Eastern Route Army of the Jin Kingdom, but also caused more than 200,000 local people to drown, and the number of deaths caused by displacement and plague was several times that. The Lianghuai region, the most prosperous and prosperous region in the Northern Song Dynasty, was completely destroyed.
Tens of millions of people are homeless and have become refugees.
Thinking about it now, when Chen Xin told him this historical incident, he probably already guessed Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu's plan to break the dike, which was indeed not unwise.
But Chen Yongfu still had doubts and asked: "But...but I shot King Li Chuang in one of his eyes, how could he tolerate me? Once Kaifeng falls, I'm afraid that neither of us, father and son, will be born."
Chen Xin smiled and said: "General, not to mention that King Li Chuang is a gentle man. He will never lose the good opportunity of selling horse bones for a thousand gold coins because of his own hatred. What King Chuang wants is just a Kaifeng city. As long as General
We were able to stop Huang Shu from digging up the Yellow River embankment and make the city of Kaifeng complete and return it to King Chuang. With such a great achievement, are we still afraid that King Chuang will care about old grudges?"
"This... I really don't dare to put all my wealth and life on whether King Li Chuang is lenient and generous."
After thinking about it, Chen Yongfu couldn't believe that Li Zicheng would really ignore the hatred of shooting one eye out. He was determined to protect himself, but he didn't intend to put all the chips in one basket, so he said to Chen Xin: "Huang He
I will try to hinder the breach of the dike, but I will never surrender to Li Zicheng. Although Kaifeng is severely besieged now, as long as I no longer care about the city and try my best to break through the siege to protect myself, I am confident that thousands of people can still escape."
Chen Xin secretly sighed in his heart. It was a pity that although he had contact with Chen Kexin, he did not have a stable communication channel with the Central Plains invaders outside the city. Otherwise, as long as Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu were informed of the plot to breach the dike, there would be no need to worry about anything.
, now it seems that the only way to save the city of Kaifeng and half of Henan is to see whether the invading army can capture Kaifeng first while Chen Yongfu is holding off Huang Shu from breaching the embankment.