Daming kill

Chapter 84 Flooded Kaifeng

In the wind and rain, there are more and more officers and soldiers standing on the top of the city, and everyone is staring at the north in dumbfounded.

"The Yellow River has burst", suddenly someone shouted.

Soon, the sound of "Break, break..." was heard all over Kaifeng City, and quickly spread to the distance.

Some people even cheered. They pointed to the distance and danced, shouting "the thief is drowned", "the thief is a fish", "we are saved" and other words, as if they didn't think that meaning.

But more people showed fear and worry.

Zhang Qing and Shouhou'er also looked at each other, looking around, both of them were a little puzzled.

"They went out from the north gate to avoid being noticed by the thieves, and they dug again!" Zhang Qing muttered, and he suddenly understood.

"Can the thieves retreat?" the thin monkey asked blankly.

"I don't know." Zhang Qing was also confused.

"The intruder's left eye can't be shot blind so easily!?" The thin monkey's tone was strange, as if he couldn't believe it.

They all know that when the rebel army besieged Kaifeng for the second time, Chen De, the son of the general soldier Chen Yongfu, shot an arrow from the city, hit Li Zicheng in the left eye, and almost killed him.Shouhou'er always felt that Li Zicheng's insistence on attacking Kaifeng had a lot to do with it.

The two dramatically looked at the chaotic crowd at the top of the city, feeling unspeakably weird in their hearts, and then looked into the distance as if they were watching a play.

That's what Hejue was like!

At this time, the sky began to gradually become less dark, and dawn came, and the wind and rain gradually stopped, but the sky was still cloudy.

With the faint light, Zhang Qing found that he couldn't find the low slope in the distance.It seems that something replaced it, yellow and yellow, like a swaying grassland in autumn, and then everything under the city slowly changed its scenery.

A layer of boundless water flowing over the slope finally came to the city of Kaifeng, but soon plunged into the moat and spread to the surrounding open land. The tall Kaifeng city is obviously not something it can easily shake.

During the day, the worried Zhang Qing stared at it for a while, seeing that the water outside the city was only hovering around the tall city foundation, so he and the thin monkey went home to rest first.

To be on the safe side, he asked his family to make more dry food and prepare some buoyant things on cloudy days.

At night, the heavy rain that started again in the afternoon became pouring again, and the wind also became violent. Zhang Qing, who was guarding the city, was also troubled in his heart. He had never seen such a torrential rain.

At dawn again, several earthen houses that hadn't come and been demolished between the earthen city and the brick city collapsed in Zhang Qing's sight, which finally made Zhang Qing's heart skip a beat.

When he was still confused, the sound of "water has entered, water has entered" suddenly came from the top of the city, and then the sound of gongs began to sound everywhere.Soon, Zhang Qing saw someone running between the walls of the city, and shouted for everyone to go down to the city to block the city gate.

When the thin monkey grabbed the man and asked, he realized that the water was flowing into the city along the gap in the thick city gate. The half-high earth embankment built in the city gate hole during the day was about to be submerged, and the city gate guards urgently recruited troops. Go down to the city to find something to block the gate.

Zhang Qing and the thin monkey looked at each other after hearing this, and then they both hurried down the city.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Qing, who was struggling to carry all kinds of wood and masonry that had just been removed from the house in the wind and rain, was exhausted. However, the huge Caomen doorway filled with various objects was still leaking everywhere like a dustpan. , The earth and stone stuffed in it flowed out like quicksand, it seemed that it could never be blocked, and it was not solid.

But most people are still desperately trying, everyone knows that this is their only hope, giving up is destruction, but the flood outside the city is still rising mercilessly and rapidly.

Cursing, shouting, and discouraged speeches gradually filled the surroundings of the city gate and the city gate. The scattered crowd made all order disappear, and despair began to spread everywhere.

Zhang Qing, who staggered up to the top of the wall, looked at the strange scene in front of him with an almost pale face.

The flood outside the city, which was already as high as the city wall, was violently beating against the city wall in the wind and rain, stirring up waves of spray, and the turbulent yellow ocean was everywhere in the field of vision. The once huge city of Kaifeng was already like a solitary boat.

"Go, go, go home!" Zhang Qing hoarsely shouted to the thin monkey.

In the dark night, when the two of them were trudging through the water that filled the street due to the heavy rain and almost submerged their calves, and when the shadow of home was still far away, a huge yellow mud soup-like water wave suddenly chased from behind made them feel uncomfortable. The two fell down instantly.

Fortunately, Zhang Qing, who was sensitive, quickly got out of the chest-length cement, grabbed the thin monkey who was still rolling in the water beside him, struggled and ran to the nearest building, and fixed his body with a fence...

The flood broke through the city.

When the dawn of September [-]th arrived, Kaifeng City was already covered with a vast ocean, and the yellow-black flood was almost as high as the city wall, carrying countless silt and sundries. Only the two towers of the Bell and Drum, Yanqing Temple, and Zhou Palace could be seen on the water. , the ridge of the Daxiangguo Temple, and the roofs of very few tall buildings.

Holding together a beam of an unknown house that was destroyed, Zhang Qing and Shouhouer leaned against a section of the city wall with difficulty. They couldn't wait to celebrate the rest of their life after the catastrophe, and started running frantically along the city wall to search.

When I finally found three distressed men and women guarding a long broken cabinet and staring at the water by a city wall, when I saw Yuan Ye's ashamed gaze, when I saw my sister-in-law bowing her head and sobbing, when a girl When Zhang Ying cried and threw herself into her arms, Zhang Qing couldn't help but burst into tears.

He knelt facing the water, and kept yelling "Mother, mother..." in grief and anger. Yuan Ye and the thin monkey couldn't help crying. This was the first time they saw Zhang Tou crying.

There are wailing sounds everywhere on the city wall, wives and children are scattered everywhere, and flesh and blood are scattered everywhere.

Those who survive are lucky and very few.

The city wall is very long, but the crowd on it is very sparse, and most people don't even have the chance to approach it. More than 30 Kaifeng city residents have been submerged in the water and under the sand of the Yellow River.

On the vast water surface of the city, countless dying struggles are still being staged, some strong figures are still floating in the muddy debris, and the few high eaves are crowded with terrified crowds.

Some grotesque self-made buoys carry cunning survivors and float down the current towards the south gate. Sometimes the wisdom of the little people is beyond the expectations of nature.

There were a few people who were about to be from rich families, riding on two beams tied together with silk cloth, passing not far from Zhang Qing and the others. They didn't seem to want to get close to the city wall. , they obviously reacted fast enough.

……

When the grief passed and time passed, the people who survived begging on the city wall found that survival was still not easy.

The breach of the Yellow River was unblocked, and the flood in Kaifeng would not recede for a long time. However, those who escaped the flood were unlucky enough not to bring food with them, and most of them had no food to take with them.

In just one day and night, hunger and plunder became the norm on the city wall. Everyone wanted to survive, and the thin monkey also vaguely understood the reason why those rich people resolutely stayed away from the city wall.

Some strong men and villains began to take the opportunity to commit crimes, and crimes were happening everywhere.

There are often people who spy on other people's property, that is, when there is no one around, they push people into the water and kill them; People on the things, looting people crowded on the high eaves.

Even though Wang Xie (the magistrate) of the supervising army ordered his close soldiers to arrest the kidnappers and immediately showed his head to the public, it was still difficult to control the situation.

Zhang Qing didn't want to lose his relatives again, he guarded his sister and sister-in-law tightly like an eagle.

Fortunately, they have food and knives.

Zhang Qing's sister-in-law was lucky enough to save some of the dough cakes prepared before the flood. The package carried on her back was not washed away. Although the taste was not flattering, it survived.

Yuan Ye's knives were always there, Zhang Qing and Shouhou'er's knives were not in the flood, but they also snatched two more, and their fierceness made anyone who saw that they had food dare not approach them.

Zhang Qing can only force himself to deny his relatives and become numb. There is not much food, and any overflowing sympathy will put them to death.

But he still hesitated when he ran into a frail young man two days later. It was a doctor who kept a safe distance from them in a friendly and lonely manner.

Both Zhang Qing and the thin monkey knew the doctor.

For several months, the doctor who could read and write had been helping the soldiers to see a doctor for free at the top of Caomen City, healed their bones and healed their wounds, and he knew Zhang Qing and Shouhou'er very well.

This time, he obviously survived alone, with nothing else in his possession, and was drowsy from hunger, but he still maintained his dignity. He approached Zhang Qing and the others just didn't want to let himself be someone else's food.

Zhang Qing finally couldn't bear it, so he called the doctor to join him.

Because at this time, the city has begun to openly sell human flesh for eating.

Hungry people began to eat everything they could eat, even if there was moss floating on the water, countless hungry people scrambled to eat it; some people survived by fishing for cloth in the water, and some people died of eating paper .

Kaifeng seems to have been forgotten. No matter the official army or the bandit army, they disappeared for many days, and no one came to rescue. Only the survivors on the city wall were left to fend for themselves. And hundreds of family members and palace people also starved on the city wall.

Finally, on September 23, a group of officers and soldiers in small boats approached the city wall from outside the city, but they only took away an extremely large number of family members of King Zhou.

Huang Shu, the pusher, wanted to go with him, but there was no spare space in the ship, so he had to order the soldiers to collect wood and tie it into a raft, and then followed King Zhou out of the city by night.

However, the thousands of officers and soldiers who survived on the city received a magical order to continue to defend the city, because the officers and soldiers who came in small boats actually replenished them with part of the rations, which is really incredible.

On September 25, after two days of preparation, Zhang Qing also decided to flee for his own life, and the government could no longer trust him.Although the two self-made small rafts made everyone feel uncertain, but it was impossible not to leave.Not only was there no food, but more than a thousand bandits also came by boat that day and occupied a small section of the city wall.

When drifting away from the closed city from the Song gate (the south gate), Zhang Qing also saw Li Guangbi and Li Xiucai of the head office taking his wife and children away on a raft.

When the huge city of Kaifeng was finally far away from sight, Zhang Qing knelt on the raft, kowtowed three times to Kaifeng city, and shouted: "Mother, I will definitely come back to worship your old man. Yingzi And my sister-in-law, please rest assured..."

When he stood up straight, he shouted to the sky again: "Little Huang Shu, officials of Kaifeng Mansion, I will..."

Notes:

Note 1: Many histories claim that Li Zicheng's left eye was shot blind by Chen Yongfu, but "Shoubian Diary" records that Chen De, the son of Chen Yongfu, shot him blindly.

There are many discrepancies between "Shoubian Diary" and historical biography, and there are indeed some inaccuracies after textual research, including that the author may have considered some political factors.However, because "Shoubian Diary" was written by Li Guangbi, the headquarter of the defenders of the city at that time, this statement is used here to propagate it to the defenders of the city.

According to many records, it is unknown who shot the arrow that blinded Li Zicheng. Chen Yongfu credited Chen De for his son's promotion from defense to guerrilla.

Note 2: There are many living people in the Zhou Palace and many roof ridges can still be exposed to the water, mainly because it is really high enough.According to the archaeological excavations from 1981 to 1984, it was found that the foundations of some houses in the Zhou Palace were about 1.6 meters above the ground at that time.

Note 3: At that time, there were 37 people in Kaifeng City. After the disaster, there were 3 people and [-] people in the whole city.

(End of this chapter)