At the Xiazhen Pier, a group of Qing and Han flag soldiers with rat tails trailing behind their heads were waving whips to hit people, "Hurry up!" Under the whips of horse whips, the captured Xia Town people were forced to rush to repair the wharf, as well as the common people
Then he carried a rope on his back to tow the cannon for the Qing army.
One scholar stood in the water, holding on to a thick wooden stake, while another scholar used a sledgehammer to drive the pile.
Looking at the dilapidated Xia Town, he couldn't help but sigh, "The summer sun is at its peak, half of the city is adjacent to the river, the buildings are full of boats on a moonlit night, and the spring breeze surrounds the city."
After hearing this, the scholar who was swinging the hammer couldn't help but stop, and also recited a poem to echo, "The wind is strong on the sails and the setting sun hangs, a town distinguishes the northern and southern borders, the colors are dark and white, thinking of Teng County, and the sound of bells sends Peicheng cold in the distance!"
"
"What a poem, what a poem." Several students nearby also praised it.
An old man stood in the water, holding on to another wooden stake, and sighed, "Today's Xia Town is just like Qicheng in the past. Qicheng was reborn because of our Ming water transport, but I don't know if this Xia Town will ever exist again."
It’s time to revive.”
Although Xiazhen comes from Xiacun, it was actually the ancient city Qicheng.
Qicheng was the seat of Qi County established by the Qin Dynasty. Liu Bang once passed here at the end of the Qin Dynasty. Qicheng had an earthen fence and four gatehouses with brick gate structures built on Thursday. Until the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Qi County was abandoned and merged into Liu County.
With the dismantling of Qixian County, the prosperity of this area gradually faded.
It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the canal was rerouted eastward, bringing rebirth to this place.
The current Bucheng was originally called Xiacun, a remote village. During the Jiajing period, a new canal for water transportation from Xiacun to Nanyang (Yutai) was opened, which was also called Xiazhen Xinhe. Xiacun became a canal wharf, and was used for industry and commerce.
prospered.
This new canal city was built by the Ming Dynasty, but it was also destroyed by the Ming Dynasty.
A young member said, "I think the day of revitalization is not far away." Lu Jianguo could lead the Northern Expedition all the way to Xia Town, is it still far away from revitalizing the Ming Dynasty?
On the other hand, the faces of several old scholars are full of worry. They are already in their twilight years. In these years, they have experienced all kinds of natural disasters and wars, including the rampant plague in the north, various floods, droughts, locusts, famine, wars, and even this day.
It gets colder every year.
It was only early September, but after they had just soaked in the canal for a while, they felt that half of their bodies were cold and their feet were numb.
"Winter is coming, and it will be a severe cold this year."
The old man sighed, his eyes full of despair. All this is a doomsday scene, especially this winter, which is getting colder every year.
I heard from the elders that at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was an extremely cold winter for eighteen consecutive years. How cold was it? The canal was three feet frozen, the Yangtze River stopped flowing, the ice on Taihu Lake and Dongting Lake was enough to pass a carriage, and even Chaozhou in Guangdong was frozen.
The snow was a foot thick, and it rained sleet all over Hainan Island.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in Hongwu, the weather gradually warmed up and experienced a century-old warming period.
Then around the time of Wanli, the Great Cold began to continue, getting colder year by year.
Those older people who know the weather say that the cold in Tianqi and Chongzhen is not the coldest. The current celestial phenomenon may enter a colder period. They say that it will be the same as in the late Yuan Dynasty. It is estimated that it will be colder from now on.
Lasted for about fifty years.
Even now there are rumors in many places that the canal will be frozen for three feet, the Yangtze River will be blocked by ice, and the Taihu Lake will be ice-thick.
"Snapped!"
The whip was violently thrown at an old scholar who was distracted, "You dare to be lazy, you didn't see that the sun was about to go down, it was already dark, and you are still lingering here, hurry up and drive piles to repair the pier, it can't be repaired."
, Just stay in the water tonight and don’t come up!" A Qing soldier cursed and whipped him.
The once aloof scholars could only grit their teeth and lower their heads to continue building the pier.
A young scholar couldn't help but said, "If I had known earlier, I should have followed Master Wang and retreated to Xuzhou."
"Master Wang doesn't want to defend Xuzhou, so what if he goes away? In this period of prosperity, the people are suffering, and in death, the people are also suffering. The people are like grass and grass, and their lives are the lowest in troubled times."
When the Ming army demolished Xia Town and left, they also mobilized the people to leave. However, many people were still reluctant to leave their homeland, especially those with land, shops and other industries, as well as those gentry with fame and fame. They did not want to give up their connections here.
, connections, status, wealth, etc.
It's hard to leave your hometown these days, not only because of the plot of your hometown, but also because you have left home and it's too difficult to survive outside.
Who would want to leave their hometown unless absolutely necessary?
But what everyone didn't expect was that the Tatars treated respectable people like them so harshly. The dignified scholars went down to the river to drive pilings and build wharves, and they hauled cannons. The female relatives of the family were driven to cook for them, and the little food stored in the house was
They were also looted.
Screams were heard in the distance.
But it was a group of cavalry driving a group of people over.
Everyone looked up and found that they were some common people who had followed the Ming army. Some of them regretted it halfway, so they left the team and stayed in the countryside, only to be discovered by the Qing army.
Because these people had cut off their braids, they were considered to be rebels and rebels, and were driven back.
City gate.
Kong Youde looked at the more than a hundred men, women, and children who had rushed back, his eyes filled with ruthless coldness.
"It's quite positive to cut off the braids."
"In that case, let's chop them all down."
"Hang their heads on the city wall as a warning to others!"
······
After hearing Kong Youde's verdict on everyone's fate, many people knelt down and begged for mercy on the spot.
"I was confused for a moment, please forgive me and spare my life."
A middle-aged man knelt down and cried in fear, but his wife next to him grabbed him up and said, "The meat has been sent to the tiger's mouth and you still want to survive. How is this possible? If you kneel down, you will become a slave!"
But the man still struggled and knelt down to beg for mercy. His wife slapped him in the face angrily, "Dear husband, even if you die, you have to be a man. If you cry, don't you become a bitch? Stand up, don't disgrace our Xia Zhen Zhang family.
The face of the family!”
This movement alarmed Kong Youde.
A Qing soldier raised a knife and wanted to kill the woman, but Kong Youde called him to stop him.
"Your husband is cowardly and afraid of death. I never thought that a woman like you would be so courageous. Your husband's crime deserves death and cannot be forgiven. However, if you are willing to beg for mercy, I can spare your life. Even if you serve me well, in the future,
You can still live a prosperous life."
But the woman just sneered twice, "The little girl has also read books and is enlightened. She also knows loyalty and justice. When you marry a chicken, you will follow the chicken. If you marry a dog, you will follow the dog."
"Your husband will be put to death!"
"That little girl is willing to be executed together!"
"Beheading is not a joke. If you keep cutting with one knife, you have to cut it two or three times. When you die, you will be a headless dog. Even before the execution, you have to strip off your clothes and behead you. Aren't you afraid of pain and humiliation? Aren't you afraid?
Will you go down to the underworld and become a headless ghost?"
"You are the one who wants to kill us innocently, but now you are saying this, don't be pretentious. I know you are the great traitor Kong Youde who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Even if I am a headless ghost, I will never obey you."
"Pooh!"
The woman spat at Kong Youde.
Kong Youde looked at the woman in front of him. She was thirty years old and had some beauty, but she was not very beautiful, but her fiery temper made him very interested. He wanted to conquer her, but he didn't want to make him lose face with her saliva.
"Chi Nizi, since you are bent on seeking death, then I will help you." He stood up and said to the Qing soldiers, "Behead them all."
More than a hundred people were beheaded in front of the city gate, and the last one killed the woman.
Kong Youde came to her again, "I will give you another chance, will you obey me?"
"Bah, chop off my head quickly and let me follow my husband."
"May I have your name?"
"It's the Jin family of Zhangmen. You, a big traitor, have no right to hear the name."
Kong Youde was angry and ordered Jin to be beheaded. He first stripped off her clothes, cut off her tongue, cut off her breasts, stabbed the female with a knife, and then beheaded her.
When the Qing soldiers came forward, Jin had already bit his tongue and committed suicide.
Kong Youde still refused to let go and ordered the female to be beheaded by stripping her clothes, cutting off her breasts and stabbing her breasts. The scene was so bloody that countless people in the surrounding Xia Town watched silently and shed tears.
When the Qing soldier stabbed the female with his sword, it was stuck and could not be pulled out.
Even with all their strength, they could not pull out the sword. At this time, among the people in Xia Town who were forced to watch the execution, some people knelt down and shouted that Jin's spirit had appeared.
As a result, more and more people knelt down and chanted Buddha's name.
The soldier of the Qing Dynasty pulled hard, but could not get the sword out. Amidst the roar of Buddha's chants from the crowd, his hand suddenly slipped and he fell to the ground. The soldier looked at the Jin family who was still standing, suddenly showed fear on his face, and shouted, "You
If you want to kill me, kill me, why insult me?"
He shouted several times, and when Kong Youde next to him saw this, he slapped him several times. As a result, he continued to shout to the sky as if he was possessed by a demon. Someone then shouted that Jin was possessed.
Kong Youde looked at this subordinate with a gloomy expression, and finally drew his knife and cut off his neck.
The execution soldier fell down, but Kim's body still stood there with the knife under her arm.
Countless people in Xia Town knelt on the ground, weeping and praising the Buddha.
"unlucky!"
Kong Youde didn't expect such a bad thing to happen. He wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, but he ended up like this. He had been fighting for half his life. He didn't believe in ghosts and gods. Instead, he believed that the soldier just lost his mind in this scene. This kind of behavior
In fact, there are many situations on the battlefield, especially when many new soldiers first enter the battlefield and see blood, they often have this kind of crazy situation, but it is usually a short-term behavior.
But when this guy appeared in this situation, he couldn't get off the stage, so he had to kill him with his own hands.
But looking at the people kneeling on the ground, he also knew that something went wrong today.
"unlucky,"
Kong Youde shouted bad luck, threw the knife and left the place.
night.
In the city of Xia Town, a thunderbolt suddenly erupted, a huge fire shot into the sky, and the entire Xia Town seemed to be shaking violently.
There was another loud noise.
"Oh no, the Jin family is angry." Someone shouted in panic.
Kong Youde put on his clothes and stood up, "Some thieves must have attacked the gunpowder cart carried by the army. Go and investigate quickly."
There was another tremor, and Kong Youde was unable to stand firmly, and a large crack opened in the house behind him.
The night sky in Xia Town was completely illuminated.
The elite banner soldiers of the Han army under Kong Youde were also frightened.
That night, the gunpowder carried by Kong Youde's army exploded. Tens of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder were exploded, and hundreds of artillery pieces of various types were also exploded.
Also destroyed by the bombing were Kong Youde's two artillery battalions, which killed hundreds and injured thousands. Kong Youde's 3,000 cavalrymen carried 6,000 mounts, and the artillery battalion's 2,000 horses and mules who pulled cannons were also destroyed.
Hundreds of them died, and thousands of them broke away when frightened.
The area of the city where the gunpowder was located was flattened by the explosion, and several sections of the adjacent city wall collapsed.
At dawn, Kong Youde inspected the whole city. When he saw the result, his eyes were red and he couldn't believe it.
But the people in Xia Town were all saying that the Jin family borrowed dark soldiers and thunder from the underworld to take revenge on King Yama last night.