I have a cornucopia

Chapter 194 Death of Shi Kefa

"As expected, a militia that doesn't burn, kill, and plunder is not a good militia."

In the early morning sunshine, Yang Feng looked at his men who were looting with emotion...

Of course, not his followers.

There was no need for his followers to plunder.

As soon as his entourage entered the city, led by his followers and insiders who were familiar with the local area, they occupied the money houses of the Shanxi merchants and the homes of several guard commanders in the city, which was also the place where the wealth was most concentrated in the city.

Especially for money houses, it was common for Shanxi merchants to use Huipiao at that time, but they were only used within small groups or business alliances to ensure credit. Tianjin, as the current trading center of Changlu Salt in the Qing Dynasty system, certainly had such money houses, and they also had a large amount of silver deposited in them. After all, salt merchants traveling between Tianjin and the inland needed a lot of silver for procurement.

Just copy these directly.

But the other Confucian knights and their followers were different.

They were sweeping the city.

The poor are certainly not worth attacking; in fact, they are stealing food.

Yang Zhuguo recovered Tianjin and opened the warehouses to release grain. The Qing army could take the grain from the warehouses at will. There was no need to be polite. He couldn't transport it away anyway. Although he could burn it, he still divided it up! After all, many poor people in the city had starved to death.

And those Confucius and Mencius knights and their followers happily looted the gentry in the city.

Although they are most likely old acquaintances.

Old acquaintance?

You and I are old acquaintances, but the bullet is not.

Yang Feng did not forbid his men from looting. He just forbade them to bully women and kill children. He did not impose any other restrictions. In this era, if burning, killing and looting were strictly prohibited, who would follow you? Especially the militiamen he led now. The only motivation for these people to take risks was to follow him to burn, kill and loot.

Team training!
Which militia goes abroad to fight without the intention of burning, killing and looting?

Zeng shaved his head and gave a thumbs up.

Compared with him, Yang Zhuguo, who prohibited bullying of women and killing of children, is already comparable to a sage. After all, Zeng the Barber was almost touted as a sage. He must be better than Zeng the Barber. He would not massacre a city, even against my Qing Dynasty, he did not massacre a city.

It's just that they arrested everyone.

So even though Yang Feng himself believed that he was being polluted by this era and was getting worse and worse, compared with this era, including those guys in the next few hundred years, he could actually stand at the highest moral position and look down on these dregs of the world...

"Feng Sheng, this is too ridiculous!"

Du Li frowned and looked at a group of followers who had just come out of a gentleman's house on the street.

The latter were all happily holding various valuables and carrying large bags. An old villager with a golden rat tail on his head pulled one of them in anger, trying to pull the large bag off the latter's back. The follower then turned around and swung the short gun wildly. This thing was like a hammer when held upside down, and they used to swing it to hit people in an emergency. A short gun was more than sixty meters long, and the handle was usually clamped with steel bars to strengthen it. A few hits hit the old villager's face with blood.

The latter saw Yang Feng while holding his head and screaming, and immediately rushed over crying...

"Zhuguo, Zhuguo, I am an old acquaintance of your father, nephew Du, I am your uncle Wang!"

He howled.

The attendant, who had been chasing him, stopped and knelt down to salute.

"Does this uncle have any achievements?"

Yang Feng looked at Du Li.

"Yinjian."

Du Li said.

"Since you are a Yinjian, and also a descendant of a famous minister, how can you face your ancestors and His Majesty with your money and rat tail? The common people have no choice but to submit to the Jianlu. Since you are a Yinjian, you are the one who receives the emperor's grace. You are not loyal to His Majesty, and you are not filial to your ancestors. How can you face the younger generation if you are not loyal and filial?

I have been ordered to march north to punish you on behalf of Heaven.

Drag him aside and shoot him!"

Yang Feng shouted.

The old fellow was stunned for a moment.

The follower behind him, who was nobody's boss, immediately realized what was happening, stood up without hesitation, kicked him to the side of the road, then stepped on his back and started loading his pistol...

"Please spare my life, Lord Zhu. I am willing to offer a thousand taels of silver. I have a daughter who I am willing to offer to you as a maid..."

The old countryman struggled anxiously.

"Old man, I'll kill you, and I'll naturally give these to the country as a gift!"

The attendant said.

Then he opened the hammer and pulled the trigger against the old man's head.

"Pass the order down. All those who have made contributions in the city and have been officials of the imperial court, whether civil or military, but have shaved their heads and become captives, will be shot. Civilians can submit to the Jianlu. These people have received the grace of the country for generations, but they do not think about being loyal to the country and disregard the clothes and hats of their ancestors. They deserve to be killed. After receiving the food, the civilians in the city are free to leave. All the captive Jiannu who surrendered from outside the pass, as well as the Eight Banners Manchus and Mongols, will be beheaded, and the property will be sent to the new city of Gegu. Rest for a day and set out for Lutai tomorrow."

Yang Feng said as he looked at Li Zhifang who was walking over after hearing the gunshots.

"If the Jianlu come back, we will still surrender and give the food we have been given to them.

It would be better to just burn down Tianjin and let these unruly people go south on their own."

Li Zhifang looked at the poor people who were walking by carrying food.

He is a ruthless person.

After all, he is the Minister of War of the Qing Dynasty.

But his suggestion was correct. After all, Yang Feng's main goal was to destroy the Qing army's material reserves for the attack on Gegu. After dividing the food, the Qing army would occupy Tianjin again. At most, they could force them to hand it over. But if they burned the food, and even the city of Tianjin, they could destroy it completely. The Qing army would not be able to accumulate supplies for at least several months after returning.

"If they don't even dare to protect their own survival rations, then we have done our best.

There is plenty of armor, weapons, and cannons here, and tens of thousands of young and strong men will not just sit there and wait to die."

Yang Feng also looked at those poor people, then sighed and said.

He just took a gamble.

He distributed the food that the Qing army had accumulated to the hungry and cold people in the city. The Qing army had left behind a lot of armor and weapons. Tianjin was a military city after all. If the Qing army came back, these people would rather their families starve to death than give up the food to the Qing army. There was no need to care about the lives of such people. But he couldn't do it this time. After all, he was not Zeng the Barber. Li Zhifang should have a lot in common with the latter...

Li Zhifang was probably also secretly criticizing his womanly kindness.

But Knight Li didn't dare to say much.

Then he turned around and left to thoroughly clean up everything in the city that needed to be cleaned up.

And at this time.

Fengyang.

To be precise, it is Hongxin Posthouse in the southeast of Fengyang.

"Minister, I will carry you on my back!" Amid the chaotic shouting and killing, He Gang anxiously urged Shi Kefa.

Shi Ge's army of 200,000 was defeated in Fengyang.

The reason was very simple. Ajige led 40,000 Qing troops across the Huai River, and crossed the river upstream on the ice of the Huai River. Shi Kefa, who was besieging Fengyang, was unprepared. In fact, Shi Kefa had never considered that the Qing army would appear here. Because the news of the Jianlu's large-scale attack on Shandong had arrived long ago, Shandong Governor Qiu Zude was still seeking help, and the Shandong Tongshan Association also asked the court to send troops north. Zhang Guowei had already rushed to Huai'an and prepared to go north to reinforce with Zhu Dadian when necessary.

Yang Feng's memorials on the Northern Expedition have arrived.

In this situation, Shi Kefa did not even consider the possibility of a surprise attack by the Qing army.

And his 200,000-man army...

Of course, in fact, the 120,000 troops had besieged Fengyang for several months, although they had never broken through. This was not surprising. After all, his men were basically a motley crowd. Except for Huang Degong and Liu Zhaoji, the rest were militiamen from various places.

Miscellaneous official troops.

Former subordinates of Liu Liangzuo were recruited.

These guys failed to capture Yangzhou, which was guarded by Liu Zhaoji and a bunch of rabble, for several months, and of course they were not able to capture Fengyang, which was defended by Liu Liangchen and the Eight Banners Han Army. As for Huang Degong, after losing his favorite generals such as Tian Xiong and Ma Degong, his strength was greatly reduced. After all, these rebel generals were his true subordinates, and more importantly, all the troops were playing bandits. The siege of Fengyang was a battle. If they needed money, they had money and food. Some of the miscellaneous soldiers came just to eat. When they thought the enemy was an isolated army, the mentality of each army was very consistent, and they just gathered around to eat.

Surrounded by a year.

Everyone inside starved to death.

Under such circumstances, the Qing army's sudden march southward caused the army of 200,000 to collapse directly.

"I have failed the Holy Spirit!"

Shi Kefa, with a wounded leg, sat on the ground, looking at the soldiers fighting beside him with a sad face.

These are the militia led by He Gang.

His best friend Xu Du allocated 500 militiamen to He Gang and asked him to follow Shi Kefa. As for the participation of the Jiangnan militiamen in the siege of Fengyang, this idea was rejected by the Elders' Council. After all, there was nothing to rob in Fengyang. The last battle of Tianchang still made several elders feel painful. Since Fengyang could be resolved by siege sooner or later, why waste their money? The militiamen were all paid for by them.

Use your own money to do things for the court?
Are the elderly stupid?

So Xu Du had no choice but to give 500 to He Gang as a contribution.

At this moment, these militia became the last savior of Shi Kefa who was being hunted down.

"Boss, don't think about it, just retreat quickly, as long as we can retreat to the mountains, come on, I'll carry you."

He Gang urged.

To the west of here are the mountains.

Now, in fact, all the armies were in chaos, because they were caught off guard and were originally a patchwork. The Qing army had only crossed the Huai River, and before they even started fighting, the former subordinates of Liu Liangzuo who had been incorporated into the army fled first, and some even ran to surrender. Then the militia in Jiangxi also fled. When they fled, the militia in Luzhou and other places also fled, and the rest was a complete defeat. In fact, this battle was comparable to the great defeat of the 100,000 imperial guards on the banks of the Yellow River. Basically, there was no battle with the Qing army. Of course, the imperial guards did not fight either. They were scared to death by the drums of Loushi in the middle of the night, and the collapse of the Ming army this time was similar. Basically, it can be said that they collapsed at the first sign of trouble.

“Why can’t I understand why Yang Feng’s men can fight?

They are all imperial troops, all the same, so why are they invincible just because they follow Yang Feng?"

Shi Kefa said painfully.

Of course, he actually understood.

Yang Feng really gave money.

Everyone knows that Yang Zhuguo is the most benevolent and righteous. He took out all the silver that Zuo Liangyu had hidden last time and divided it all up without reservation. No matter how much Yang Feng gained from the war, he really took it out and divided it according to the rules. It was clear who should get how much. No matter how much it was, he only took what he was supposed to get according to the rules.

But what about the other generals?

Are you kidding me?
In the end, the soldiers would be lucky to have a full meal after eating meat, drinking soup and gnawing bones.

If you really pay them, the soldiers will fight for their lives.

Just like the militiamen around him who were still fighting desperately against the Qing army's siege.

These militias that had experienced the Battle of Tianchang had made a qualitative leap. They used the tactics of the Qi Family Army and chariots as cover to continuously shoot at the surrounding Qing troops. They were even stronger than the Zhejiang Army in the Battle of Hunhe, because these militias were equipped with far superior equipment to the Zhejiang Army. The Zhejiang gentry, who were not short of money, equipped them with all-match dove guns and forged steel armor.

The hand cannon bought from Yang Feng.

It has a cup-shaped muzzle in the front with small bombs inside, like a grenade launcher.

There were even incendiary bombs that were purchased, which were Yang Feng’s sugar bombs.

Not in summer.

But it works great this season.

Amid the smoke of musket fire, the grenadiers threw lit sugar bombs at the Qing army.

Then fireworks exploded above the Qing army's heads.

The burning nitrate flames fell like a rain of fire, sticking to the cloth armor of the Qing army, and then quickly burned up. The Qing soldiers, with flames, screamed and collided with their companions. The Qing army, which was blocked in the chaos, had to face the bullets that kept shooting at them. These were turtle dove bullets, not the three-cent bird bullets that they ridiculed as lead bullets that shook the ground after the war. Under the protection of the chariots, the militiamen kept repeating the process of loading and shooting, and their companions holding spears and other cold weapons beside them desperately blocked the enemies who tried to rush into the formation.

But this resistance would eventually fail, after all, the Qing troops continued to arrive.

And the militias were also falling down continuously.

The Qing troops surrounding them continuously shot sharp arrows into their formation.

Some Qing troops even bravely broke through their defense lines.

However, the scattered Qing troops were useless and were soon beaten to death.

"Xue Ren, take them back to the mountains. I can't walk anymore. I feel so sorry for His Majesty and the Regent. I should have committed suicide during the Nanjing Incident. Now that we are defeated, I am ashamed to face the wise men of Jiangnan."

Shi Kefa said.

Then, the sound of a sharp arrow breaking through the air was heard above his head. He Gang quickly raised his shield. The heavy arrows of the Qing army almost penetrated the shield, but were finally blocked. He Gang ignored what Shi Kefa said and dragged him to a large rock nearby...

"Minister, I promised you that I would follow you through thick and thin."

He Gang said as he mopped.

But at this moment, an arrow fell from behind him, piercing directly into his neck from the upper edge of his half armor. The Qing army's heavy arrows penetrated like javelins in an instant, and then emerged from the front.

He Gang slowly fell down with frozen astonishment.

"Brother Xuren!"

Ding Ruzhang, the Xudu general who led the militia, screamed.

Then he raised his flintlock pistol and knocked down a Qing soldier who had rushed through the defense line. He rushed to He Gang's side, but the latter had already died. Shi Kefa fell there and looked at He Gang, then drew his sword and put it on his neck...

"Nephew Ding, take your men with you and leave. You are Jiangnan's support."

He said.

Then he pulled suddenly...

(End of this chapter)