Daming kill

Chapter 184
It was almost dawn when Zhao Jin left, and the two communicated a lot that night.

Li Ping learned about the thrilling battle between Zhao Jin and Shi Ming at Baimadu, the chaos in Xiangyang City that night, and the terrible scorched-earth policy of the left army when they went eastward along the Han River, and so on.

At the same time, he also figured out what happened in Wuchang and Hanyang during this period, and many doubts that he didn't quite understand were finally solved one by one.

The Huangpi garrison with excellent city defense conditions fled without fighting in the face of the peasant army's light soldiers. It was by no means a simple cowardice and accident. It is not accidental that a large number of ships and people with their families were brought out by the clearing.

Li Ping finally had the answer to why the two cities of Wuchang and Hanyang were so dark and silent when he went up the river to attend the night banquet the night before.

Before Zuo Liangyu's army went down the Han River and reached Wuchang, most of the residents of Hanyang, Wuchang, who heard a lot of horrible news, had already fled.

The officials in Wuchang City obediently labored when Zuo Liangyu arrived in Hanyang and had not crossed the Yangtze River.

No one wants to be burned, killed and looted, and not many people still believe that Zuo Liangyu has a bottom line.

Facts also proved that the officials and people in Wuchang Hanyang were not wrong. Those who did not run outside the city, whether they were officials or the clan, all regretted it, and ruined everything about them, leaving only the survivors in the city trembling.

Although Zhao Jin didn't describe too many details, Li Ping completely looted the countless bustling cities outside the two cities of Wuchang and Hanyang with Zuo Liangyu's army alone. The fires on both sides of the subordinate and the Yangtze River have been burning continuously for no less than ten days, which is enough to judge the tragic situation at that time.

Even Zhao Jin set up his military camp far away from the civilian houses, and he had to use the reason of being on guard to appease his subordinates. This was the last effort he could make to prevent his army from being completely brutalized.

The idea of ​​being completely alone among a herd of wild beasts is simply a dream.

"The army looted and the fire shone on the river." This is the description of the tragic scene in Hanyang, Wuchang at that time in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

According to the records of a witness surnamed Feng at that time (Volume [-] of "Ming Ji Beilue").

When he arrived at Lanxi (now in Huanggang, Hubei Province) by boat, he saw many people fleeing for their lives from Wuchang in the upper reaches. They rumored that Zuo Liangyu led hundreds of thousands of soldiers to suppress the border and was attacking Wuchang.The interior of Wuchang City has completely lost order and is in chaos, and the people are fleeing in panic.

After Zuo Liangyu arrived in Hanyang County, he sent troops to grab boats to cross the river, causing all the residents outside Hanyang County to flee, and there were no boats on the river.

On December [-], those who witnessed it took advantage of the strong wind to arrive in Wuchang on a boat that was lucky enough not to be snatched, and the boat stopped at Jinshazhou in the dark night.

It was already dawn at that time, and there were as many refugees as ants inside and outside Wuchang City. They fled to the south one after another. It is said that Wuchang City has fled to an empty city.

However, this statement should be more of an exaggeration.

It is possible to evacuate some areas of the city, but it is impossible to escape all or most of them. After all, ordinary people and the young and old can leave as they please, and those with a lot of wealth and families can’t do it. Just go as soon as you say.

Not to mention that the king of Chu, who lived halfway across the city, remained motionless in the city, and the series of evil deeds of the left army that the witnesses saw and heard later also showed that many people still chose to stay.

Zuo Liangyu's soldiers crossing the river went around raiding and looting.They stuffed the captured children and women into the cabin and took them away, forcing the men to do coolies on the shore or exile into the army. Once the soldiers found someone disobedient, they would immediately cut off their heads.

Rape and looting were even more commonplace. Most families were scattered and killed, and some families were even buried at the bottom of the river or died at the knife edge of the rebels.

On the second day, Zuo Liangyu's army went further out of control, and without hesitation at all, they began to swarm to occupy and rob Jinshazhou, which was in charge of grain delivery.

So far, there is no place outside the entire Wuchang and Hanyang cities that can be spared, and there is hell on earth everywhere.

But the officials and civilians who ran away were not lucky.

There is another sentence in the history of the Ming Dynasty: "The people of the royal family ran to the valley, and most of them were killed by the local bandits." It is even more cruel to express the dilemma that the people cannot escape the disaster even if they escape by chance.

Starting from Wuchang, the two sides of the Yangtze River downstream began to enter many mountainous areas, and the mountainous areas were a paradise for bandits in troubled times.

Li Ping knew very little about these situations before.

Because Zuo Liangyu's army looted almost all the ships in the Han River and the Yangtze River, it actually caused the basic isolation between the north and south banks of the Han River and the east and west banks of the Yangtze River, and most of these news could not reach Li on the north bank of the Han River. Flat ears.

And after Li Ping arrived, he had been focusing all his attention on the north of Weishui and Huangpi County, and he really didn't have the energy and manpower to go south to investigate nonsense matters that had nothing to do with military affairs. Of course, he was unwilling to take the risk of disobeying Zuo Liangyu. The military order is just to see what's going on south of the Han River.

However, where there is a loss, there is a gain.

If Zuo Liangyu's army hadn't been stimulated by the crimes of burning, killing and looting along the Han River, many people in Hanyang and Hankou would not have fled to the harsh water swamp area north of the Wei River before the Zuo army arrived (mostly The officials and people in Wuchang and Hanyang all fled to the south where the natural conditions are much better), Li Ping may not get enough ships, even if most of these ships are small boats.

And without enough ships, it would definitely be a disaster for Li Ping's future march.

Moreover, due to Zuo Liangyu's frantic looting along the Han River and Wuchang, many trackers who lived on the Han River had to go to the Wei River and the River River to hide and find food, which made Li Ping unexpectedly get a lot of money. boat tracker.

It was these trackers who finally helped Li Ping a lot.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of trackers on the Han River, and they mainly did the work of going up the river when there was no favorable wind.

According to the records in "Records of Taihe Mountain, Dayue Taihe", when the main building complex on Wudang Mountain was built in the tenth year of Yongle, a large amount of building materials were first transported from the Yangtze River to Wuchang for assembly, and then the boats were carried up the Han River by the trackers, and then transported to Wudang via Xiangyang. Mountain.

In Wuchang in January, the northeast wind is mostly, and it is very windy.

There are not many large boats in Li Ping that need to hide in the river. If there are no trackers, it will be impossible to go up the river that flows north-south.Although Houhu Lake is large, it is a closed shallow lake connected to Weishui in the south after all, and it is not an ideal place to escape in times of crisis.

But when talking about Zuo Liangyu's looting of Wuchang and Hanyang, Zhao Jin also remembered one thing.

And this incident also made Zhao Jin no longer hope for the relationship between Li Ping and Zuo Liangyu.

During this period of time, Zuo Liang's armies were fighting and playing very happily. Almost all the generals of the barracks were accompanied by singing girls and dancing girls all night long, but Zuo Liangyu always stayed alone.

Once he hosted a banquet for his subordinates at night, and summoned more than a dozen military prostitutes to serve wine, and they walked back and forth in the room.After a while, Zuo Liangyu suddenly turned his face to the left and coughed a few times, and the military prostitutes hurriedly withdrew one by one.

Seeing this scene, all the guests were silent and respectful, no one dared to talk nonsense, no one even dared to look up at Zuo Liangyu.

This incident seems to be Zuo Liangyu's self-discipline, and it seems that Zuo Liangyu is still effectively controlling the army, but it also shows that Zuo Liangyu is always looking for opportunities to show his authority, and he does not want anyone Question his authority.

On the morning of the 16th day of the first lunar month in the [-]th year of Chongzhen, the Yangtze River outside Wuchang City was extremely noisy for the first time in a month, and there was also a rare scene of thousands of boats gathering and waiting to go.

Zuo Liangyu's more than 20 troops began to prepare to go eastward along the river.

Suddenly, a big fire ignited on a pier in Hankou Town on the west bank of the Yangtze River and smoke billowed out, and soon all the wharves in Hankou Town started burning, and then countless wharves on the entire west bank of the Yangtze River also burned.

But there was no one to put out the fire, and no one to watch. Even the entire long west bank of the Yangtze River was silent and saw no one, only small boats carrying torches in the middle of the river, looking at each other coldly.

However, with the raging flames, the opposite east bank of the Yangtze River is another scene.

There was a lot of voices everywhere, there was chaos everywhere, and there were cries everywhere.

Countless soldiers are boarding countless ships of various sizes and shapes along the long banks of the Yangtze River, and countless women and strong male civilians are also being held hostage.

Crowds of old people, sick people, old women and children knelt on the east bank of the Yangtze River, begging, hoping that the cold-blooded and brutal army would return their daughters and wives for the sake of their dedication to serving them for a month. , son or husband.

But what the rioters gave them was laughter, indifference and cursing.

Zuo Liangyu's army is taking away all the young women, girls, and middle-aged men they have captured. Countless families are still falling apart after a month of begging for justice.

It's just that Zuo Liangyu didn't hear all this. At this time, surrounded by his generals, he was boarding a big boat parked on the Xunsi River.

The Xunsi River flows from east to west along the south of Wuchang City and flows into the Yangtze River. It is the separation river between Jinshazhou and the east bank of the Yangtze River. The northern edge of Jinshazhou is just outside the Wangshan Gate in the southwest of Wuchang City.

The Xunsi River is not big, and the water flow is very stable. Many pontoon bridges are usually built on it to connect Jinshazhou and Wuchang City.

Therefore, Jinshazhou is relatively convenient in terms of transportation, and this favorable location is also an important reason for the water transport exchange to be set up on Jinshazhou. Zuo Liangyu's account here is also very convenient for him to contact with officials in Wuchang City and the king of Chu.

Zuo Liangyu boarded the boat from the Xunsi River probably because the wind, waves and currents here are the most stable.

But after boarding the boat, Zuo Liangyu didn't enter the cabin to rest. Instead, he stood on the deck and looked up at Wuchang City, which was close at hand in the northeast, and was stunned.

Although Zuo Liangyu has been looking at the top of Wuchang City, staring at the Wangshan Gate, but the top of Wuchang City is terribly deserted.Except for the flags, there was no one in sight, and even the guards did not know where to hide, and the gate of the city was closed as usual.

No one knew what the officials in Wuchang were doing or thinking at this time, they probably hid in some corner and peeked with dark faces.

Of course, no one knew what Zuo Liangyu was thinking, but his face was dark but he didn't run away.

Zuo Liangyu didn't say anything, and the generals didn't dare to say anything, and the entire fleet also stopped steadily.

Finally, a burst of more and more violent crying in the distance caught Zuo Liangyu's eyes. It was the people on Jinshazhou who had been hustling for a month were mourning for their relatives who were about to part.

Behind Zuo Liangyu's big boat, several boats were full of young women. They were all holding the side of the boat and looking at their relatives in the distance with all their sorrow.

Zuo Liangyu's soldiers didn't allow them to cry, and those who dared to cry would have their heads cut off. Just now several women couldn't bear it anymore and had their heads cut off with a knife. fierce reason.

When Zuo Liangyu was looking at the stern of the boat, it happened that a headless woman was kicked into the river on a boat in sight because of the curved river behind, and then the crying of the people on Jinshazhou also suddenly There was another high-profile.

Under the nervous gaze of all the generals, Zuo Liangyu just looked at it blankly for a while, and then turned his gaze back to the city of Wuchang.

After an unknown amount of time, Zuo Liangyu glanced sideways at the sun and suddenly said "start the boat", and then walked into the cabin.

But when the fleet passed by Weishui, Zuo Liangyu came out of the cabin again.

With a complicated complexion, under the guidance of a personal soldier, he continued to stare blankly at a camp surrounded by chariots and horses in the distance to the west.

The camp was full of smoke and peaceful, as if all the chaos in the Yangtze River had nothing to do with them.

Description:

Regarding Zuo Liangyu's use of military prostitutes to show his majesty when entertaining guests, and the fact that his subordinates beheaded a woman crying when they retreated, these are historical facts at that time, not fiction.

(End of this chapter)