Chapter 187 It's not my intention to form a clique
November 19th, early morning.
The entire city of Kaifeng is shrouded in a mass of death, sadness and despair.
Since yesterday afternoon, a flood of water suddenly surged out from the breach of the Yellow River. In less than an hour, the surrounding area of Kaifeng City was completely submerged.
The water outside the city is more than ten feet deep. At least there is a city wall inside the city, which can temporarily block most of the water, but the amount of water that seeps in is enough to accumulate several feet on the flat ground.
Even if adults cannot be drowned directly at this depth, ordinary people can no longer sleep on their beds at night. For any bungalow with only one floor in the city, the bed will definitely be submerged at such a height.
Cooking food has become a luxury, and can only be done by "cooking in a cauldron". Most of the remaining food that is not saved in time will be soaked in water, and the firewood and straw are basically used up and destroyed.
Bodies that died of starvation during the bloody siege of the city in the early months and could not be disposed of, or bodies that were only shallowly buried and soaked in water for several days, would cause plague to break out.
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Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, climbed up and stood on the city tower, looking at the vast ocean and stayed up all night.
Throughout the night, he walked around the city wall countless times, and finally fell down due to exhaustion, but his eyes were still wide open, his muscles were tired, and his brain could not sleep.
"I, Gao Mingheng, will end up starving to death here, contracting the epidemic, and waiting to die. If I had known that, I would have been happier than climbing up the wall myself and being shot to death by Li Zicheng's thieves.
Could it be that I also have the desire to die together with the thieves who dug the river and drowned them, and God wants to retaliate, but why should it only be on us! Why didn’t Li Gou also suffer this punishment from God!”
Gao Mingheng suddenly started talking nonsense against the female wall.
It turned out that he had been besieged for so long, and he had entertained the idea of digging a river to drown the thieves. However, he had not yet reached the last desperate situation, and the defenders in the city did not dare to organize death squads to break out and dig embankments, so he never implemented it.
This is not to criticize him or Li Zicheng. Historically, he and Li Zicheng both did things to destroy the embankment of the Yellow River. One of them ruined the country and the city, and the other wanted to hold each other up and die together.
It’s true that the war has reached this point, and I’m already red-eyed. I just want to completely kill the opponent at any cost, no matter what the price is. After all, everyone knows that after digging the Yellow River, as long as Li Zicheng still wants to open the city,
That means both sides will suffer losses. If you kill a thousand enemies, you will suffer at least eight hundred losses.
However, due to the butterfly effect in this life, Li Zicheng gave up on taking Kaifeng and did not have the ability to do so, so he chose to completely destroy it.
Therefore, although Gao Mingheng also had the intention to dig the river, he had no chance to implement it. It does not mean that he has a good conscience. (Let me explain it, lest the peasant army fans say that I only blackmail Li Zicheng. I drink a bowl of water evenly, and the officers and soldiers
There are also people on one side who want to dig the river, and the peasant army is not the only one who thinks so.)
Gao Mingheng was in despair, and soon another desperate news came to him.
"Gaofutai, Gaofutai! Why are you here? All the generals have sent people to the governor's office to look for you. They all say that you have not returned from patrolling the city all night, so it is easy for people to find you."
Gao Mingheng looked aimlessly in the direction of the sound, and saw a tall and thick-framed general with thin muscles and protruding meridians. He was not wearing any armor and only had a sword on his shoulder. He was panting and climbing up the steps of the tower.
It was Chen Yongfu, the commander-in-chief of Kaifeng.
Chen Yongfu was not like this originally. He was also a tall and strong man, but now only his skeleton and meridians are left, and his skin and flesh are all attached to his muscles and bones. This is all because of hunger.
As the commander-in-chief, Chen Yongfu has had enough to eat in the past few months, but he has basically eaten no meat. Supervising and fighting every day consumes a lot of money. Over time, even part of the muscles have broken down to provide energy——
Anyone who has ever exercised in later generations basically knows about this. If you only eat carbohydrates without protein, you will lose muscles if you practice too much and for a long time. Although people in the late Ming Dynasty did not know the scientific reason, they can still understand it with common sense in life.
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Gao Mingheng flapped his dry lips: "Didn't all the intruders retreat? What could be worse?"
Chen Yongfu took a few breaths and sighed: "This is news from the Zhou Palace. Your Highness is afraid that something bad will happen. After all, Your Highness is old and has been trapped in the siege for a long time. I'm afraid he won't be able to bear it any longer. Why don't you go to Futai?"
Let's see."
Gao Mingheng's heart sank, and another sense of powerlessness came to his heart.
Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhen can be regarded as a virtuous king among many vassal kings today. After all, he does not begrudge his family wealth and has spent all his savings to reward the army to defend the city. The palace's granary has also been completely released to supply military rations.
But after all, Zhu Gongzhen was born in the eighth year of Wanli (1580). He is already sixty-two years old this year. At this age, compared with other Henan vassal kings who suffered from military disasters and were displaced, such an old man obviously cannot bear the pain for too long.
day.
After Gao Mingheng accepted this reality, he sighed together: "His Royal Highness is a wise king. It's a pity that now, what else can we do? But fortunately, he died of illness, which can be regarded as the end of his life. He was not trapped in the vassal, and the court did not
They will blame me."
Chen Yongfu also sighed: "Sir, do you still have thoughts about what the court thinks of us? We can only resist for ten days and a half longer than the king of Zhou at most. Sooner or later we will either starve to death or contract the epidemic, so what crime do we have to fear?
If you think there is still hope for survival, you might as well send people to dismantle some house timbers and temporarily build some rafts to see if you can fall from the city wall and cross the water to break out.
Once outside, there is always a way to survive and find something to eat, but if the Yellow River bursts, the population will be extinct for at least a hundred miles, or even hundreds of miles, and food will be hard to find. Moreover, if you really abandon the city and flee across the river, you will be left behind.
Soldiers and civilians, it is the imperial court that really has the chance to punish you. How many people can the raft carry away?"
After Gao Mingheng was reminded by Chen Yongfu, his mood went up and down again.
He was desperate at the beginning and never thought about survival. Chen Yongfu mentioned that he demolished the house and made a raft to cross the water, which gave him hope of survival. Later, he was blamed for abandoning the military and civilian vassal and escaping alone, which poured cold water on him.
According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the temperament of Emperor Chongzhen, if the city is flooded, it is not completely forbidden to escape, but you cannot only escape from the officials. You have the responsibility to organize the people to survive.
Gao Mingheng thought for a while and became more and more irritable, then he tried to cut through the mess quickly and asked:
"Then let's see if it's possible to rescue the King of Zhou. If His Highness can escape along the Bianshui River to Shouxian County and ask the doctor for medicine, we will have an explanation. I wonder if the doctor in the palace has seen it? Your Highness is
What kind of disease? How long can it last? Can it still be saved?"
Chen Yongfu: "In fact, it is not a serious illness. It is just exhaustion of qi and blood, and dampness and wind evil enter the body. If you take good care of yourself and have a warm and tonic diet, it is possible to delay it for a year and a half. As for a radical cure, I am already old after all.
, the doctor said it’s impossible to cure it.”
Gao Mingheng heard that the prince could be saved, and at least his life could be temporarily prolonged. He also had more desire to survive in his heart. After all, who wants to wait for death if there is a way to survive?
"Let's go, let's go to the palace first." Gao Mingheng's eyes regained some light and he was about to check the situation.
But at this moment, a battalion guard responsible for the defense of the east gate tower at the top of the city suddenly called out to Futai and the commander-in-chief: "Sir, commander-in-chief, look! Another bandit army is approaching! There is a string of fire on the horizon.
Approaching!"
Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu looked at each other with disbelief on their faces.
Chen Yongfu: "How is it possible? The intruders can flood the city and then attack it again? Even if they have to wait for the city wall to collapse, they can't do it so quickly."
Gao Mingheng: "How could the intruder take out so many ships at once? This is impossible. He thinks he is Zhao Xiangzi, Wang Ben or Guan Yu!"
But it was unbelievable, and the fact was before their eyes. The two men and the soldiers were still nervous for a long time.
Because it was still dark and the field of vision was not clear, it was not until the fleet sailed for more than a quarter of an hour and only two to three hundred steps away from the city wall that we could vaguely see what seemed to be a large ship.
Some nervous soldiers were almost about to fire arrows and even ignite the two remaining Folang machines. Fortunately, Chen Yongfu had the insight and quickly stopped him: "Don't fire arrows! The intruders cannot have such a good ship! Could it be reinforcements from the imperial court?"
"
The incoming ship finally approached within a stone's throw. A group of scolding soldiers on the ship began to shout: "Listen to the defenders on the city. We are the navy under Shen Futai of Huguang. We defeated the intruders and pursued them here a few days ago. Open the city gate quickly.
, our Chief Zhang has brought reinforcements from Shen Futai!"
"It's reinforcements!"
"There is food!"
Many officers and soldiers who were already dizzy from hunger suddenly became energetic.
Some officers were almost about to command the city gates to be opened, but then they remembered that the city gates had long been blocked. After the water rose yesterday, Mr. Chen sent people to strengthen the blockade of each gate and filled it tightly with earth.
Really.
If the gate were really opened, the water level outside the city would still be seven or eight feet higher than inside the city, and most of the people would probably drown.
After a lot of fiddling, Chen Yongfu took the initiative and asked someone to prepare a hanging basket to hoist up the officers and some grain bags on the ship outside the city for negotiation and identity confirmation.
If it is confirmed that it is a friendly force, organize people to go to the location where the gap was made in the city wall, remove some earthwork, and pile the soil inside and outside the gap to form a slope for reinforcement. If the height of the slope top is only a few feet higher than the water surface, then
It is convenient for grain ships to dock directly.
After about a stick of incense, Zhang Mingzhen, the commander-in-chief of coastal defense, finally arrived at the city in person and met Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu.
Before Zhang Minzhen came, Shen Shuren did not tell him that he wanted to recruit people.
After all, Shen Shuren could not predict that "Li Zicheng would definitely dig the Yellow River and Kaifeng would be temporarily unsuitable for human survival," so he could not make any more demands.
However, Zhang Mingzhen had been following Shen Shuren for several years, and at the beginning of the year, he and Zheng Chenggong personally participated in the task of transporting grain by sea to Shanhaiguan, and then went to Bijia Mountain to rescue the retreat of the besieged Ming army in Xingshan, Tashan.
The Tatars fought a bloody battle.
Since then, Zhang Mingzhen has also thought about it, and he knows that his immediate boss Shen Shangshu and the eldest son Shen Futai seem to like to win over people's hearts and expand the power of their direct lineage in these troubled times.
So Zhang Mingzhen also had this idea, and whenever he had the opportunity, he wondered if he could help win over some more people. Although he was somewhat self-independent, he believed that if Mr. Futai was here, he would rescue more loyal soldiers.
After a brief meeting between the two parties, Zhang Mingzhen took the initiative to extend an olive branch: "Gao Futai, Mr. Chen, you are all loyalists who defend the isolated city. Naturally, I admire you.
My family, Shen Futai, was also ordered by His Majesty. After the defeat of Yang Ge Lao Zuo Liang Yu and Sun Chuanting, he still rescued Kaifeng alone, and finally managed to defeat Li Zicheng.
Kaifeng is in such a state now. People in hundreds of miles around have had no harvest this year. I think that even if Shen Futai uses Jiangnan to transport grain to reinforce, he will not be able to save hundreds of thousands of people for half a year——
At least before next year's autumn harvest, it is impossible for Kaifeng to get food from the surrounding areas. Even if there is an autumn harvest, there may not be food. Now that the flood has not receded, there is no manpower to block the Yellow River. Spring plowing will take place in more than two months. Will the water be enough?
Has it been cleared? Otherwise, how can spring plowing be done?
For the long term, you can still evacuate as many people as you can."
Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu had already wavered before, but now that they found a way to survive and someone bringing food in, Gao Mingheng inevitably wanted to get the best of both worlds.
He thought for a while and said: "I have the responsibility to defend the land and cannot abandon the people for the time being. Mr. Chen, why don't you lead an army to escort the King of Zhou out of the city first, go south along the Bian River, and find a suitable place for medical treatment."
Chen Yongfu also wanted to be shameless. He was afraid of being said to be a deserter, so he quickly humbly said: "The last general is the commander-in-chief. How can we escape first? We should first send a guard to escort the prince, and then transport away some injured brothers.
Now that Mr. Zhang has brought military rations, Kaifeng City can still hold on for a while, but we must be wary of intruders who come back..."
When Zhang Mingzhen heard that they had been thinking about providing food support from Huaihe and Yingchuan for a long time, he couldn't help but feel disgusted and reminded:
"The grains in Gaofutai, Mr. Chen Town, Shouxian County and other places were originally prepared by Shen Futai for the decisive battle with the intruders. There are still some leftovers now, all thanks to Shen Futai's miraculous calculations to win the battle quickly and in advance.
He caught the intruder and forced him to retreat.
If these grains are transported back to the south, they will have to go through a lot of troubles and losses, and then they will be used to reinforce Kaifeng. But if the grain reserves in Shouxian County are used up, Shen Futai will never waste manpower to transport grains to Kaifeng.
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There are hundreds of thousands of people in Kaifeng. Instead of staying in such a lonely place with no food and unable to engage in production, it is better to transport all the young men and soldiers out and go to places where food is plentiful to eat on the spot! The general also said it bluntly.
, the food in Shouxian County will definitely not be able to feed hundreds of thousands of people until next year! It can only temporarily relieve urgent needs!"
Gao Mingheng's old face turned red. He also knew that he was now begging for food, so he couldn't ask for too much. There were so many people that it was really impossible to save. Being able to save some of them was already a great act of kindness.
So after emergency consultations, the two parties finally reached a condition: Zhang Mingzhen continued to transport grain to Kaifeng to prevent too many people from starving to death. And every time he unloaded grain and returned, he would take as many people as he could to a safe place.
people.
As for who to pull or not to pull, Zhang Mingzhen has the final say and Gao Mingheng does not interfere.
Priority was given to selecting veterans from the nearly 20,000 Kaifeng garrison under Chen Yongfu and transferring the best ones, and then it was the turn of the young and middle-aged civilians.
All men and women over forty years old will have no luck for the time being. Children who cannot walk, run or jump on their own, or who are too young and prone to die on the road, will not be lucky. We will talk about other things that are easy to survive after the luck is finished.
Zhang Mingzhen also agreed that when he comes to transport grain next time, in addition to grain, he will also transport some lime. The defenders in the city can also find ways to raise it to see if there is any lime that has not been damaged by water.
When hungry soldiers and refugees retreat, they must be sprayed with lime for disinfection to prevent the outbreak of plague due to crowding on the ship. These are also tricks Zhang Mingzhen learned from Shen Futai, and are very useful in preventing epidemics when shipping intensive troops.
In the afternoon of that day, the seriously ill Zhou King Zhu Gongzhen was first rescued by Zhang Mingzhen. This also served as a fig leaf for the retreat. It was said that it was not the officers and soldiers who wanted to escape, but the purpose of escorting the Zhou King to escape.
Zhu Gongzhen was lying on the hospital bed and was carried away by the whole bed. When he saw Zhang Mingzhen, he burst into tears: "I am already at this age, what else can I save? Why don't I let my fallen leaves return to my roots and live in peace on the spot?"
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Zhang Mingzhen said expressionlessly: "Your Majesty wants to live in peace in Kaifeng, but I'm afraid it's impossible. Kaifeng is flooded all over, and the soldiers and civilians who died were thrown into the water. It's better to go and meet King Lu and King Fu with peace of mind. The rest of Henan
All the kings, as long as they are still alive, were rescued by Shen Futai."
Zhu Gongzhen had been isolated from the world for a long time and had no idea what was happening outside. Hearing these words, he was deeply moved.
"The Ming Dynasty has to be saved by these young people in the end. When I die, I will definitely speak highly of Shen Futai's great virtue to His Majesty."