Linxia

Chapter 251, Going to Sea (Finale)

Huai'an.

"Yingtian City was destroyed, and the Hongfu regime collapsed. Today, the Qing Dynasty has occupied 50% of the world. Although the former Great Xia Princes Lu, Tang, and Yong ascended the throne in the south, they are no longer popular. Great Xia has no chance to recover... Looking at the decline of the Great Xia Dynasty, during this process, there were people like the Kong family and Qian Qianyi who surrendered, as well as people like Chang Gong, Brother Dong, and even women like Liu Yin. These tragic and heroic characters, like epic stories, made the three hundred years of Great Xia a relatively decent end."

Fang Lin sighed slightly, knowing that even though there were two battles in Xuzhou and Yangzhou, the Qing Dynasty did not suffer any serious damage. Instead, most of the wealth accumulated by his family over the years was lost.

For example, the black powder machine gun was indeed a high-tech, but after two battles, 70% to 80% of it was damaged due to jamming caused by impurities in the black powder. Another example is the black powder rocket, which is difficult to make and requires a steam engine to process. These two battles also destroyed most of the years of inventory.

Also, these things are shipped from overseas, and the supply lines are extremely long, which is expensive!

"We can only sustain one or two extravagant battles like the ones in Xuzhou and Yangzhou at most. We have to go to the sea eventually. This has been planned long ago, but why are we still unwilling to do so?" Fang Lin closed his eyes and sighed.

"Master, the Qing envoy, Minister Qian, is here!"

"Let him in!"

The person who came was indeed Qian Qianyi, whom he had met once at West Lake.

"I didn't expect that it was Minister Qian of the Qing Dynasty who came to lobby for me."

Fang Lin looked at the man and said, "When they first met at West Lake, Minister Qian and Liu Dongjun married despite the ridicule of the world, without changing their expressions. What a charming demeanor...Now, Liu Dongjun, despite his low position, has not forgotten his concerns for the country and committed suicide by slashing his throat. Minister Qian also left behind the stories of 'the water is too cold' and 'itchy scalp', which will be passed down to future generations. The world is ever-changing, I really don't know where to start!"

Qian Qianyi was a man of letters, so he still had some dignity. Hearing these words, he covered his face with shame, stammered twice, and said, "I and all the officials of Yingtian have no choice but to open the city and surrender, just to prevent Yingtian from repeating the disaster of Yangzhou..."

"Haha!" Fang Lin laughed when he heard that, pointing at the man and saying, "Minister Qian, you really dare to take credit for this? At that time, in Yangzhou, Duoduo repeatedly took in troops with complicated composition, and urgently needed a looting to ease internal conflicts, so he massacred the city. The situation in Yingtian was very different... It's fine if you are afraid of death and want to live a cowardly life, but there's no need to find such an excuse."

Qian Qianyi had not expected Fang Lin to be so sharp-eyed and merciless in his words. He felt ashamed that the last fig leaf had been exposed. He could only avoid the issue and change the subject: "Sir Fang, the situation in the world is now clear, and the Mandate of Heaven has returned to the Qing Dynasty. I, the Regent of the Qing Dynasty, really do not want to commit more murders and cause suffering to the people... Sir Fang, why don't you stop fighting? The Regent is willing to make Sir Fang a real prince and rule Huaibei for generations. Isn't that wonderful?"

"I killed two Qing kings, but Dorgon could still be so tolerant? Let me guess, the condition behind this is probably that I have to hand over the new weapons technology, and when I have digested these in the future and the time is right, then I will be liquidated."

Fang Lin sneered, "But it's still generous. It's true that the Qing Dynasty ruled the majority with a small number of people, and was the best at selling out the interests of the people of the world. You Confucian scholars and feudal landlords like them very much..."

"Lord Fang's words are biased. He has a prejudice against our Qing Dynasty and is too concerned about the debate between Chinese and foreigners..."

Seeing Fang Lin's indifferent expression, Qian Qianyi shook his head and said, "I know that Lord Fang has great benevolence and ambition in his heart. He believes that what he does is to save the people of the world, but Lord Fang has forgotten whether the people of the world need you to save them? Are they willing to be saved by you? I brought a man named Huang San with me. Let's hear what he says."

Huang San, standing beside him, saluted and said, "I am Huang San, born in Longdi. In the second year of Chongxiang, there was a severe drought. We could not harvest much sweet potatoes from the fields. The dog emperor also wanted to collect Liao taxes. If you can't pay, you will be forced to sell yourself as a slave, sell your children, or be taken away for hard labor. Those who go will never come back... I had to sell two acres of land at a low price to get enough money to pay the Liao taxes. But if I sell the land, what will my family eat?
My parents could only take my brother and me to escape the famine… It was miserable on the road, we couldn’t survive, people ate each other… Later, King Chuang started an uprising, I joined in, got a piece of land, got married… Then they fought their way into the capital, Daxia was destroyed, I also robbed some money in the capital, then we fought the Qing, we were defeated again, I fled back, my wife and brother were killed by the rebels, and we lost our land… Later, we surrendered to the Qing, and then we got a piece of land to farm, the taxes were not light, but it was much better than the time of the dog emperor Chongxiang, we were able to survive, and we could breathe a sigh of relief.”

He told his experiences and looked at Fang Lin: "Master Fang, everyone says that the Tartars are bad, but whether they are good or not, don't we ordinary people know? Chongxiang, the dog emperor, is a Han Chinese, but he wanted to kill us; King Chuang is also a Han Chinese, but it was this righteous army that killed my wife and brother, and never let me live a peaceful day; now the Manchus are here, and you insist that they are Tartars, but even under the hands of the Tartars you are talking about, although it is more difficult and tiring, at least I can survive."

"Sir, it's not easy for us ordinary people. We really don't want to fight anymore. We just want to live a peaceful life..."

Fang Lin listened to this and fell silent.

Huang San continued, "Sir, we common people don't understand the truth, and we don't know what Tartars are or aren't. We just want to survive. We will follow whoever can help us survive and live a stable life."

"Master Fang, I heard that you also come from a poor family. If you were like my family, forced to live by the dog emperor, and your mother and brothers were killed by the rebels, but you were able to survive under the hands of the Tartars, would you still say such words?"

He paused, and then continued, "Master Fang, there are so many people like me in the world. Let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. If you really want to do good for us ordinary people, please stop making trouble and let us live a peaceful life for a few days, okay?"

Faced with such a request, Fang Lin suddenly laughed and couldn't stop laughing. Besides feeling it was absurd and ridiculous, his heart was filled with sadness.

Indeed, no matter what, the common people are always exploited, the only difference is that they have a different master. Their expectations are also extremely low, and they just want to survive... It can only be said that Emperor Chongxiang did a very bad job, and the meat-eating class of Daxia went too far and pushed too hard, so we really can't blame the people.

However, it is also true that ordinary people like Huang San are short-sighted and limited in their vision.

Now, after a series of turmoil, enough people have died, leaving a large number of resources vacant. Therefore, in order to quickly take control of China and stabilize the situation, the Manchus are not reluctant to relax their oppression for the time being. But in the future, as the population grows, the Manchus will ride on the heads of the Han people, act tyrannically, and take their share. The Manchus will rule the majority with a small number of people, and transfer power to the feudal landlords, who will also take a share. With so many "meat eaters", they will inevitably exploit the lower-class Han people like pigs and dogs, and squeeze their bones and marrow...

It can be said that people like Huang San, who are content with the current stability and the Qing Dynasty, will sacrifice their future.

——The most direct example is the so-called "Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity" of the Qing Dynasty in the past. Whose prosperity was it? Was it a prosperity in which large areas of Han people starved to the point of cannibalism?
'But as I thought, and as Huang San said, it also proves one thing. Now the people are determined and will not support me in fighting against the Qing Dynasty. The large-scale feudal landlords in this land will not support me either because the Qing Dynasty is willing to give up their power and rule the world with them.'

This is the general trend, which means that Fang Lin is now fighting against the Qing Dynasty and has no foundation in Daxia.

'The last person who went against the general trend and did something knowing it was impossible was Zhuge Kongming. How do I compare to Mr. Kongming? But even Mr. Kongming failed!'

"With the savings from my overseas arsenal, I can indeed fight one or two more battles, but it will be difficult to sustain for a long time. Even if I can cheat and win one victory after another and establish a regime, facing these scholars who are poisoned by distorted Confucianism, feudal landlords everywhere, and the people who have not awakened everywhere..."

Fang Lin glanced at Qian Qianyi and Huang San and said, "Even if we drive out the Tartars and establish a regime, we will be assimilated by them within a few generations. Then, in two or three hundred years, my descendants will follow the same old story as Chongxiang."

He thought about this and shook his head slightly. Qian Qianyi saw Fang Lin's hesitation: "Master Fang..."

"No need to say more. Considering our past encounter, I will not kill you today, but I will not follow your example and serve the Qing dynasty as a dog either...Tell Dorgon a message for me: Treat the people of Daxia well. If the Qing dynasty kills one Han citizen, I will kill ten of them in the future. If they dare to massacre the city again, I or my descendants will fight back and destroy the Tartars and destroy their Jurchens, even if I have to kill a million of them."

Fang Lin didn't wait for Qian Qianyi to say anything, he just waved his hand and had him sent away.

……

Qian Qianyi refused the Qing Dynasty's call for surrender. After returning and reporting, Dorgon did not send troops immediately, but continued to deploy troops cautiously.

It can only be said that the battles of Xuzhou and Yangzhou did buy Fang Lin a lot of time. At the same time, it made Dorgon attach great importance to Fang Lin and continuously transferred troops to him... During this time, Fang Lin transferred all the merchant ships from overseas bases, and reactivated the ships that had been obsolete in recent years, as well as the ships that could be hired in Nanyang. He used all the capacity to evacuate the people day and night, and had already evacuated most of the people from Huai'an and some of the people from Xuzhou and Yangzhou who had retreated.

Fang Lin, Tian Xuan, Fang's father and Fang's mother were the last group to follow the army. Before leaving, they returned to Xixiang Hutong.

At this time, most of the residents in the alley had left, and the place was empty, with no one in sight.

They came out of the old house and saw the orange tree at the door, which had now grown tall and majestic.

"I remember that this orange tree was picked up by my father."

"Isn't it? Your father picked it up and Xiaoxuan planted it. We originally wanted to grow it and eat the oranges, but we didn't eat them for two years before our family moved away... Guaiguai and Huahua are also buried here..."

Three years ago, Guaiguai was already very old. He suddenly disappeared that day. No one expected that he had come back here by himself... Later, the big cat Guaiguai was buried next to the tree. Later, Huahua was also buried here.

The family walked forward while talking, and Fang Lin paused slightly at the door of Master Ou's house.

Five years ago, Master Ou passed away in his sleep, without any pain or illness, at the age of 102. The house was later sold by Master Ou's daughter, and now the osmanthus tree at the door has disappeared, probably cut down by the later owner.

Fang's mother grumbled: "I remember there was an osmanthus tree here before. At that time, Master Ou often sat on a rattan chair under the tree and fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan... I really don't know who was so cruel that he didn't even let go of an osmanthus tree..."

"Oh, let's go!"

As Fang Lin spoke, he walked forward with Fang's father, Fang's mother, and Tian Xuan. The whole family suddenly fell silent. They all knew that they probably would never come back.

The family walked towards the entrance of the alley. The bluestone slabs behind them shone with white light in the afternoon sun, just like they had walked through it many summers before. Only now, everything was empty. Only the orange tree was still standing tall and straight, full of vitality, with its treetops reaching up to the blue sky.

……

On August 9, the second year of Shunping, Fang Lin and the last group of people in Huai'an evacuated. The next day, Dorgon sent a large army to pursue them. The upstream water storage dam was blown up as designed, flooding Huai'an and causing more than 100,000 casualties among the Qing army.

……

Haizhou.

Fang Lin and his party had evacuated to the sea and had already reached this point.

In the cabin, Tian Xuan was performing shadow play for the children: "These wild vegetables are great. I envy you for picking so many..."

This is a shadow play she made up based on her experience of fleeing.

Like Fang's father and mother, Fang Lin watched with a gentle expression. Those long-forgotten memories were opened, and vivid characters seemed to reappear in front of him: Sister Guihua, Song Guangcheng, Song Kai... Manager Liu, Grandma Man...

He sighed softly, and walked out of the cabin to the deck. The sun was about to set, and from somewhere on both sides of the river came the cry of partridges, which made him chant involuntarily: "Where is my hometown at dusk? The misty river makes me sad!"

"Dad, look over there, is that the mirage you mentioned?" The youngest daughter Fang Xing also came out of the cabin and pointed to the sky.

Fang Lin followed the direction to look, and it was indeed a mirage. He didn't know where it was reflected. The continuous palaces, carved railings and jade bricks were burning and collapsing, and in the end, everything was empty.

He looked dazed, as if he saw that in the tide of history, the dawn of progress of the Great Xia civilization was extinguished, the prosperity collapsed, and the land returned to the old feudal path.

As the sun set, the light on the land behind them gradually dimmed and was shrouded in a shadow that covered the sky. The ship they were riding was heading upstream, to where the sun would rise tomorrow.

……

【End of text】

(End of this chapter)