Ping An Biography

It was only one month after Yu Qian, Xue Lu and others came to Huguang that they basically understood the relatively complicated military and political situation in the area.They discovered that there were more than 2000 Yuezhou soldiers from Qin Yousheng stationed in the east of Lizhou; they also found out that the deployment of the rebels in the three counties of Lizhou, Shimen, and Cili was actually relatively weak.At this time, there were only 300 main forces of the "rebel army" in the three counties, and nearly a thousand peasants and soldiers were recruited locally. Those peasants and soldiers had hardly formed combat effectiveness and were still training; Arrived at the whereabouts of the eastern officers and soldiers.

The three counties are far away from Chenzhou, the center of rebel rule, and it is difficult to get reinforcements.Although Xue Lu was not ready to fight against the rebels at this time, and he had not mobilized troops from various places to gather; but Yu Qian still suggested that he be allowed to recover the three counties first, to make a good start.

Xue Lu immediately ordered Ma Dai, who was escorting the artillery and luggage, to lead 2000 people to leave the waterway, join forces with Qin Yousheng, and immediately raid Lizhou to annihilate the main force of its defenders.

A few days later, Kong Wuyang, the commander of the soldiers and horses in the three counties, sent a fast horse to Chenzhou for emergency, and was immediately besieged in Lizhou.Qin Yousheng and Ma Dai's army of more than 4000 people attacked all the gates of Lizhou with an absolute superiority. Kong Wuyang resisted for three days. The gates and walls were seriously damaged, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties and were exhausted.

At dusk, the official army sent envoys into the city to persuade them to surrender.Kong Wuyang convened a team to discuss with the general banner officials, thinking that the gunpowder and arrows were exhausted, the city could not be defended, and the reinforcements would not arrive, so it was meaningless to continue to resist.

"Many brothers have young and old. I hope everyone can save at least one life and survive." Kong Wuyang said to the generals sincerely.

Everyone was silent for a long time, and finally someone said: "What will the government do with us?"

Kong Wuyang said: "Accordingly, they will be convicted by the judiciary. Some may be sentenced to death, some will be imprisoned, and most of them may be exiled to the border. I hope that the brothers can meet again in their hometown one day in the future."

Many of the generals among them were Jianwen Yuchen, and they couldn't help but look sad after hearing this.Where is your hometown?In the mountains of Wuling, maybe the real hometown should be in Nanzhili.

Since there was no objection, Kong Wuyang then met with the envoys and promised them to disarm and surrender the next morning.That night, Kong Wuyang ordered to burn all the confidential letters and files related to Chenzhou, and blew up more than 100 muskets and two cannons.

In the early morning of the next day, the defenders of the three counties of the Suzaku Army played military music for the last time, and slowly lowered the dilapidated military flag on the top of the city, and the whole army disarmed.The veterans cried bitterly in the military music, and the farmers and soldiers were still at a loss because they had just joined the Zhuque Army. Most of them were just farmers from all over Lizhou.

The south gate opened, and about 1000 surviving officers and soldiers of the Suzaku Army came out of the city gate unarmed, ready to surrender to the officers and soldiers.Outside the city is Tan Yousheng and Ma Dai's large number of troops waiting in battle.Commander Kong Wuyang and others of the Suzaku Army rode forward and presented their swords and military flags to express their surrender.Because Ma Dai also suffered heavy casualties during the three-day siege, he was furious and ordered Kong Wuyang to kneel down and kowtow to humiliate him on the spot.Unexpectedly, Tan Yousheng dissuaded him, and kindly said that he would accept the surrender of the rebel army, and asked Kong Wuyang to restrain the soldiers to obey the arrangement, so that there would be no confusion.

Kong Wuyang was asked to lead his troops to assemble in Wengcheng.Once the front and rear doors in the urn city were closed and the infantry on the city defended it, it was tantamount to entering a dead end.But since they had already surrendered, they could only agree to the request. Kong Wuyang ordered the teams to enter the Wengcheng, and then they were locked inside.

In the afternoon, the officers and soldiers brought food down in hanging baskets, and the soldiers were safe.

Qin Yousheng succeeded to Xue Lu, the commander-in-chief who was supervising the military movement in Changde. In the letter, he mentioned the tragic loss of many troops in the siege battle, the purge of military discipline when the rebels surrendered, and the destruction of firearms and letters.Xue Lu has an idol in his heart, that is Chang Yuchun, the founding general. General Chang said that he is invincible and the enemy is all terrified, but this man is bloodthirsty; Xue Lu is no exception. He believes that generals who are good at war are made of bones. , as the saying goes, one will succeed and ten thousand will die.So Xue Lu immediately sent a secret envoy to order all the prisoners to be executed on the spot to deter the rebels.

Tan Yousheng and others did not dare to neglect after seeing the military orders written by the secret envoy and the chief soldier.Ma Dai easily said that the captives happened to be in the Wengcheng, so it was very convenient to kill; but Tan Yousheng is a man with a bit of officialdom... He was supposed to attack the three counties a few months ago, and Zhu Yong was the one who gave the order. Zhu Yong was soon defeated; Tan Yousheng was afraid that he had conquered the three counties, but if the officers and troops were newly defeated and the reinforcements were not strong enough, they might be lost again.

This time Xue Lu ordered him to kill the prisoners again, of course he had to obey the military orders, but Tan Yousheng also understood that not only is it not honorable to kill the prisoners, but it is against the law to really pursue them.The Ming Dynasty always had the iron law of the country. Although the court may not hold the responsibility for massacring the rebels;What's more, killing prisoners in the city will have too bad an impact.

...Two days later, Kong Wuyang received an order from the government to take all the soldiers out of Wengcheng in batches with the general banner as the unit.Kong Wuyang asked where he was going, but got no answer.

In the next half an hour, the city gate will be opened, and a team of heavily armed officers and soldiers will be waiting outside the city to escort a prisoner of more than 60 people from the general banner to leave Lizhou.At noon that day, Kong Wuyang left with another member of the General Banner, and the rest of the generals bid him farewell one after another, hoping that one day they could meet again in a foreign land and renew their life-and-death friendship.A general smiled and said: "If one day I go back, the boy commanded by Kong will recognize me as a godfather." Kong Wuyang also laughed back: "That's the deal."

Under the urging of the officers and soldiers, Kong Wuyang led dozens of generals out of the city gate.After leaving the city for a while, another group of officers and soldiers came, took the hemp rope and tied all the prisoners behind their backs without any explanation, and tied them together with the rope to prevent them from escaping alone.

They were escorted to walk east, along the main road for a certain distance, and then they were driven onto a small road, dozens of people lined up along the long road.In front of the path is a forest in the east of Lizhou. Kong Wuyang found that there were water bags and iron helmets used by the Suzaku army on the road, which proved that the previous people also walked the same path; instead of detaining them separately as the government said.Kong Wuyang suddenly felt very bad.

His face was getting paler and paler, but there was nothing he could do, his hands were tied behind his back, and there were officers and soldiers in sharp armor watching around him.

Walking to the edge of the mountain forest, I saw a group of loose officers and soldiers there. Some were sitting on the ground eating dry food and drinking water, and some were looking at the captives with a sneer.Kong Wuyang was driven into the forest, and within a short while, he saw several large pits in the forest. The soil around the pits was sticky and full of blood, and he also smelled a disgusting fishy smell in his nose.Everyone was in an uproar and stopped moving forward one after another. They wanted to run, but the ropes were tied together. It was impossible for them to run in one direction together in the chaos, and many people fell to the ground immediately.A small team of horses rushed over quickly, raised their whips and beat the crowd indiscriminately, screaming and screaming.

The crowd was already very chaotic, and two groups of officers and soldiers surrounded more than 60 people on guard, but they did not kill them immediately.Soon more than a dozen officers and soldiers came out, and a young general drew out his waist knife and cut the rope. He whipped and drove the separated dozen people to a big pit, and ordered them to kneel down fiercely; behind him stood a row of officers and soldiers with knives. , gave an order, and then he swung his saber and chopped off the back of the captives. Most of the heads were not cut off, but they almost couldn't survive. Blood splashed on the spot, and the people fell into the pit. The officers and soldiers with long guns poked indiscriminately in the pit to ensure that all the prisoners were killed.

Kong Wuyang was soon driven to the edge of the pit. He was usually respected, and even the prince Zhang Ning would not yell when talking to him, but now he was whipped like an animal. With one foot, he had to kneel down in front of him.He looked down and saw that there were messy corpses inside. Many dead corpses had their eyes wide open, mud and blood were mixed together, and the scene was horrific.Kong Wuyang didn't struggle any more, he closed his eyes, he couldn't tell whether it was regret or some kind of feeling for a while, and finally the immature child in the family appeared, hoping that their mother|child could live a good life.