The battle in Liaocheng has reached a fever pitch.
The Song Dynasty rammed earth wall in the inner city fell into disrepair for a long time. It first degenerated into a small earth hill, and then was repeatedly used by local residents to build houses and roads. By this time, only a thin layer with little defense power was left.
, the core position that the defenders relied on to hold on was the military training ground converted from the government office and official garden of Dongchang Prefecture.
Ren Jirong has always stood firm and had no intention of surrendering. The number of Qing troops who had rushed into the city was already large, many times more than the defenders.
The soldiers and civilians in Liaocheng all knew what would happen after Cizhou and Daming were conquered. Everyone believed that even if they surrendered, because the Qing army had already suffered a lot of casualties, it would be difficult for the local people to escape the fate of being massacred.
Since surrender is no longer an option that can be considered, then if you want to sacrifice, sacrifice heroically. Let the enemy pay more price and leave more corpses in front of the Dongchang Mansion Office to demonstrate the courage of the soldiers of the Laozhong Battalion.
and glory.
The space of the military training ground is larger than that of the government building, but it also lacks the depth of defense. The focus of several attacks by the Qing army was also on the military training ground. After the enemy failed to attack repeatedly, they began to set fire to the city, but
Due to the tenacious resistance and desperate efforts of the defenders and civilians to put out the fire, the enemy's plot failed to succeed for the time being.
In front of the training ground, there were bones of the dead from both the enemy and our armies. Ren Jirong leaned on the rockery to catch his breath. He himself was injured in several places, and even his face was hit by a stray arrow. If the position had not been slightly off the vital point, it would have just been scratched from the side of his cheek.
, I'm afraid he has been sacrificed.
"Can you hold it?"
In order to avoid being massacred, the local gentry also took their families and servants with them and followed the defenders to retreat to the training ground and the government office to defend. In addition to the defenders, the small positions were also filled with ordinary people.
Women, children, old and weak, as the fighting situation became more and more unfavorable, there were cries everywhere.
Fu Yijian, a local celebrity representative in Liaocheng, was horrified. He was afraid that after the city was broken, the fierce resistance from the defenders would harm the people of the city, so he persuaded Ren Jirong:
"Commander... Now that things have come to this, does Commander want to see so many women, children, old and weak being burned alive in the government office?"
Ren Jirong remained silent. He looked at Fu Yijian coldly. If Ren Jirong hadn't heard before that Fu Yijian was born in poverty. His family was poor when he was young. He only had a great reputation in Shandong by studying hard and studying hard. He was also said to be a good person.
He is still honest. Otherwise, based on Fu Yijian's words, Ren Jirong would have dealt with him.
"Mr. Fu, is this the sage's teaching that you scholars have learned?"
Fu Yijian looked ashamed and said helplessly: "I also feel for the people in this city!"
Ren Jirong waved his hand, and two soldiers came over:
"Take Mr. Fu to the government office and have a good rest. Don't let him talk nonsense. Will the Manchus let the folks in Liaocheng go if we surrender? I, Ren Jirong, am not a good old man like Mr. Tian. My eldest brother died on the city wall outside.
Last time, the war has reached this point and it is already going to be a fight to the death. If anyone says anything about surrender, no matter who you are, I will kill you directly."
Another young scholar representative from Liaocheng, Ren Kepu, climbed on the wall and shouted:
"Commander! Commander! Master Wang is here!"
Ren Kepu ran over rolling and crawling on the ground, shouting as he ran: "Master Wang is here, Master Wang is here, Liaocheng will survive——"
Ren Jirong's eyes lit up, but then he thought of the urinary nature of these scholars, so he asked again:
"Master Wang? What Master Wang? Is the Ming Army coming or the Dashun Army?"
Ren Kepu said ecstatically: "It's me who has arrived from the Wang division - Dashun, Dashun, of course the Dashun soldiers have arrived. It's me who has arrived from the Wang division!"
Ren Jirong stood up excitedly and clapped his hands vigorously. Soon he also saw groups of cavalry filing into the city, tearing apart the Qing army's line from behind, causing the whole city to fall into fierce street fighting.
Ren Jirong felt that the time had come and there was no room for argument or waiting. He immediately boosted the morale of the soldiers and said:
"Reinforcements are here! Gu Jinglue is here to save us! Brothers, everyone rush out with me and take back the outer city in one fell swoop!"
"Take back the outer city in one fell swoop!"
There are only a few hundred remaining defenders and soldiers with sufficient physical strength guarding the government building.
Even if this kind of troops cooperates with Ma Bao to attack from inside and outside, it will be difficult to defeat the Qing army's siege team. Fu Yijian hurriedly said:
"Commander, Commander, my family still has a few houses and property in the outer city. If the king's division can drive out the Donglu, after the victory, my family's property can be used to reward the army!"
After Fu Yijian finished speaking, other Shandong rich gentry who followed the Shun army to the training ground in order to save their lives and property also spoke one after another. They all said that as long as they could defeat the Qing army, they would be willing to part with part of their family property to reward the soldiers after the victory.
Military officers.
Ren Jirong patted his chest and laughed: "Okay, okay, then let's reward the local militia!"
In addition to the defenders, those who retreated to the military training ground also included many temporarily organized rebels and militiamen in the city. In addition, many gentry fled to the military training ground with their slaves. These slaves also had certain combat effectiveness after being distributed weapons.
Ren Kepu came from a prominent local family in Liaocheng. Because he had the same surname as Ren Jirong, he had joined forces with the Ren Jirong brothers to form a family.
At this time, Ren Kepu also came up with an idea and said: "There are still slaves in each family. At this moment of life and death, slaves are also human beings. The parents of each family should release the slaves immediately to make the slaves willing to fight to the death."
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, under the influence of the peasant war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang promulgated a decree that exempted slaves as a good thing and imposed strict restrictions on officials, gentry and livestock slaves.
But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the custom of animal slaves became popular again. Especially in the south, the gentry landowners owned a large number of slaves through purchasing and accepting refuge. The peasants who became slaves, "their surnames are slaves for the whole world, and they are not the masters. They have no rights."
You have to get off the register."
Their children are called slaves or maids born in the family, and the owner of the family has the right to use and transfer them. In some places, slaves are strictly prohibited from reading and literacy. The purpose is to keep them in a permanently ignorant and easy-to-serve position. The slaves live in poverty.
He had little food, lived a life of heavy labor, and had to endure all kinds of bullying from his master.
Ren Jirong immediately agreed with Ren Kepu's idea and asked all the gentry on the spot to declare that it was good to avoid slavery, so as to stimulate the fighting morale of the slaves.
Fu Yijian and other prominent gentry officials were certainly not satisfied with Ren Kepu's idea, but they were frightened by the current situation and had no choice but to agree against their will.
Fu Yijian said with a bitter face: "Since the pace of the country has changed, the Ming Dynasty's nobles and relatives who have retired from the country have been abolished. The nobles are so humble and so are the humble ones. Is there any reason why slaves and generals can live together with heaven and earth?"
Ren Jirong laughed heartily, and the slaves in the training ground all cheered when they heard that their slave status was revoked:
"The sky and the earth are thinning, and the nobles and the lowly are changing. Why should we be slaves for a long time?"
In addition to abolishing slavery as a good thing, Ren Jirong simply declared that it is a good thing to avoid being humble, and abolished all slave and humble status.
The caste status is hereditary and cannot be changed. The social status of the degraded people with the caste status is very low. They are not allowed to participate in the imperial examinations. They engage in the so-called "mean jobs" in the society at that time and suffer social discrimination.
The reforms of the Dashun Army have always been aimed at land relations, and have not targeted the various old personal dependence relationships in the Ming Dynasty. Although in Huguang and Henan areas, due to fierce wars, a large number of gentry were physically wiped out, and their slave status and Low status also naturally fades away during war.
But in places like Shandong, the old slave and humble status systems of the Ming Dynasty still existed and were not affected by the Dashun Revolution at all.
The men with low status are engaged in catching frogs, selling soup, etc.; the women are matchmakers, selling pearls, etc., and also engage in prostitution. These people are "ugly and extremely humiliating". They are all despicable, and their lives are extremely miserable.
What's more, most of the ancestors of the low-class people in Shandong were officials who firmly supported Emperor Jianwen when Zhu Di conquered the world. After Emperor Yongle came to the throne, in addition to harming these political opponents themselves, he also punished their wives and daughters into Jiaofangsi. They have been working as official prostitutes for generations and have been accustomed to a lowly career for a long time. They want to escape from their humble situation, but because they are trapped in a happy position, the government does not allow them. Moreover, the local gentry and bullies also target them and do not allow them to escape from the pit of fire.