Da Ming started to ascend the throne

Chapter 796 The Mysterious Boy
On May 5, Li Zicheng led his army to besiege Kaifeng for the third time.

He changed his previous frontal assault and only carried out a long siege of the city.

In order to deter the guards from surrendering, he promised that there would be no crimes in Huiqiu after the opening of the city, and that the original civil and military officials would still be employed.no
Then break the dikes and let the water of the Yellow River swallow the whole city.

Although Li Zicheng's threat was convincing, the scale of the Chuangjun's water attack was always very limited.

The officials of the main combat faction in Kaifeng City also sternly rejected all persuasion to surrender because they were afraid of being responsible for the failure.

They are going to imitate Suiyang in Tang Dynasty and sacrifice millions of lives in the city.

Not surprisingly, a terrible disaster befalls all Kaifeng people.

With the depletion of the original 80 shi of grain storage, the market for grains of rice and gold appeared in the city.

The hungry officers and soldiers began to loot the city frantically, digging three feet to search for food.

Many people also tortured the people to extort property, and destroyed other buildings in the city except the county king's mansion.

Some greedy officials also took this opportunity to make a fortune.

Knowing that grain in the city is expensive by tens of thousands of dollars, they still collected grain from wealthy families in the city at a price of 5 taels and 10 shi.

If such a large amount of grain cannot be handed over, it will be paid at a price of 300 taels per stone.

In the end, all the wealthy households in the city went bankrupt, and the ordinary middle class fell into abject poverty.

This is true for city guards and wealthy households, but for ordinary people, their families are waiting to die.

Because the lack of food in the city was not caused by the hoarding of individual profiteers, there was no way to buy food with all their life savings.

They had to eat all the birds and animals, and began to gnaw the bark and roots of the trees.

Others picked out maggots in the cesspit, mixed with rotten cotton, broken leather and paper to eat.

By August of this year, more than half of the population in Kaifeng City had died of hunger and disease.

Soon, someone was openly selling a strange kind of meat.

Although it is called horse meat, it is actually mixed with half a catty of corpses.

But the price is extremely high, and it can sell for several taels of silver per catty.

Although everyone has doubts about the strange color and texture of the meat, they are unwilling to delve into it due to the situation.

One month later, most people in the city, including the city guards and soldiers, had no food except the king of Zhou or some senior officials.

At this time, the whole city has been completely reduced to a hell on earth.

No one dared to go out alone during the day, lest they be killed and eaten by robbers hiding in the dark.

In the night, the wind and cranes roared, and screams echoed throughout the city.

Hungry people and robbers often cooperate to kill and cut flesh, but the government is powerless about it.

The officers and soldiers who could not get the rations no longer obeyed the commander's orders, and robbed people for food in groups.

The residents of the city also united to guard the neighborhood, and often fought openly with the officers and soldiers.

The dead and prisoners in the conflict will naturally become the rations of the day for both sides.

However, Li Zicheng failed to get his hands on Kaifeng in the end.

Huang Peng, the frenzied official in Kaifeng, joined forces with Yan Yunjing, a patrol official in Hebei, to open the Bian embankment in order to use the water of the Yellow River to unblock the city.

Although the Chuang army was quickly withdrawn due to the flood, the potential energy caused by the breach of the embankment was beyond expectations.

Due to the continuous rain in Zhongzhou, the water potential of the Yellow River quickly rose all the way from the upper reaches.

The turbulent yellow soup not only drowned tens of thousands of Li Jun who had not moved the camp in time, but also flooded the city in one fell swoop, making many soldiers and civilians food for fish and turtles.

King Zhou and officials could only leave by boat.

So far, the second largest city in the north of the Ming Dynasty has been reduced to ruins in the water.

Li Zicheng didn't have to worry about other resistance in Henan, which relieved the security risks for the subsequent eastward expedition to Beijing.

After the Battle of Kaifeng, Kaifeng, the ancient capital of the Eight Dynasties, was reduced to ruins.

After the war to defend the capital, the imperial army took back Kaifeng from the bandits, and began to rebuild the ancient capital of the Eight Dynasties since then.

From that day on, a 12-year-old boy built Kaifeng together with adults.

Originally a clean boy, he mixed with adults and worked all day, and gradually turned into an out-and-out country brat.

But they are not like ordinary country kids, they are not only sensible but also able to endure hardships.

Because he was a child, the adults took great care of him. Later, he found that there was some ink in his stomach, so he was asked to keep accounts, and he was not allowed to do heavy work.

No one knew where he came from, and no one knew who he was. The name that everyone knew later was Wang Shiyuan.

The construction site foreman is Yang Chengzhi. He likes the child very much. He follows the child to his home after work at night.

After talking with Wang Shiyuan, Yang Zhicheng learned that there was only one uncle in his family.

But after Kaifeng was taken back by the court, his uncle disappeared inexplicably.

Now he is the only one in the child's family, and the two houses were bought by his uncle.

Yang Zhiben was always a kind-hearted person, with only one daughter, Yang Qian, under his knees, and no son.

So I wanted to take Wang Shiyuan in:
"My child, you are still young, and you are alone at home with no one to take care of you. Why don't you move to my house?"

Wang Shiyuan knew that Yang Zhicheng was a very good person, and that he was a little lonely at home alone with a child, so he nodded and agreed:

"Okay, thank you uncle for taking me in."

In this way, Wang Shiyuan moved to live with Yang Zhicheng.

Yang Zhicheng's wife, Yang Shi, is also a kind-hearted person. After hearing about Wang Shiyuan, she sympathized with him very much and treated Wang Shiyuan like her own son.

Daughter Yang Qian is 13 years old this year. She looks sweet and handsome, and has a good heart. She also treats Wang Shiyuan as her younger brother.

In this way, Wang Shiyuan stayed at Yang's house, went to the construction site with Yang Zhicheng during the day, and taught Yang Qian to read and write when he came back at night.

For a long time, the two soon became sisters and brothers who talked about everything.

As time goes by, two years have passed in the blink of an eye, Kaifeng is getting better and better.

Because Wang Shiyuan is educated, Yang Zhicheng often takes him with him when he goes out to buy materials.

Wang Shiyuan also saw the rapid changes in Da Ming, and his mood became better and better.

He knew that he could not continue to stay in Kaifeng and had to go back to his father.

But thinking of leaving the Yang family, Wang Shiyuan felt very reluctant, especially Yang Qian.

In the past two years, the beautiful and gentle Yang Qian has left a deep imprint on Wang Shiyuan's heart.

At the same time, Yang Qianfang's heart has long been moved by Wang Shiyuan, and she feels that she is deeply in love with this younger brother who is one year younger than herself.

At this time, Wang Shiyuan was 14 years old and Yang Qian was 15 years old.

At that time, girls were already married at the age of 15.

Not only is Yang Qian sensible, she is also becoming more and more beautiful. Many people come to her door to propose marriage.

But Yang Qian refused to agree, she always said that she would never marry for the rest of her life, and would just stay by her parents' side like this.

Yang Zhicheng and his wife also saw their daughter's concern. Although Wang Shiyuan was an orphan, he was very sensible.

He is also very talented in management and operation, and manages the construction site in an orderly manner. Although he is young, everyone recognizes his ability.

It would be great if my daughter could be with Wang Shiyuan, just to be a door-to-door son-in-law.

This evening, Yang Zhicheng asked his wife to cook a table of good dishes and prepared a pot of good wine, ready to express their thoughts to Wang Shiyuan.

From the point of view of Yang Zhicheng and his wife, this matter is almost a sure thing. It is impossible for an orphan to reject their family and their beautiful daughter.

But before Yang Zhicheng could say anything, Wang Shiyuan led them and gave them a stick.

"Thank you Uncle, Auntie and Sister Qian for caring and taking care of me in every possible way in the past two years. Although I am very reluctant, Wang Shiyuan has to leave because of important matters. Please forgive me..."

(End of this chapter)