Flowers on the other side [Comprehensive Red House]

At dawn, the deafening first explosion sounded at the north city gate of Shenyang, and immediately drew the sight of all the guards on the north city wall.

Fortunately, after Wang An conveyed the imperial decree, Xiong Tingbi made a firm plan to stick to it after he was not able to stick to it, and it would be a great contribution.Several city gates were ordered by him to use straw bags filled with earth and stones, and stack them thickly and high, almost at the same level as the city gates.

At the same time, he also asked the forbidden troops scattered in Fengji and Liaoyang to bring his autographed letters, and to deal with their respective city gates according to his requirements.

Chen Ce, the officer-in-chief on duty, was on the top of the city wall. Seeing that the soldiers were a little flustered, he immediately drew his knife and waved at them.

"Whatever you look at, what you look at. Be careful of Jiannu attacking the city for a while. The city gate has long been sealed. It is frozen and as strong as the city wall."

Chen Ce yelled as he walked, but before he reached the city gate, he had already yelled.

Under the protection of the guard's shield, he looked down and couldn't help but scream in his heart, if there were no piles of earth and rocks, the city gate would have been blasted open by Jiannu.

And he raised his head and looked outside the city under the twilight sky, and immediately turned pale with shock.The vague shadow outside the north gate gradually revealed its true face. It was Jiannu who came over with the artillery, followed by the cavalry of the brigade.

"Send an order to point the artillery on the city wall at the slave cavalry assembled outside the city gate."

The guard who sent the order ran away quickly.

"Go quickly, please come to the North City Gate."

Another guard who sent the order hurried down the city wall, and galloped towards Jinglue Mansion on horseback.

Chen Ce continued to order, "Give me water under the city gate, hurry up, hurry up."

In the first deafening explosion just now, Xiong Tingbi put down the towel he was wiping his face, ignored the washing water splashed on his robe, and hurriedly dressed neatly and left the bedroom.He happened to meet Zhou Yongchun at the gate of the mansion, and Wang An, who had already tidied up not far away, ran towards them in a hurry.

"Master Xiong, Master Zhou, what happened to the explosion just now?"

What Wang An is most afraid of is that an accident will happen to the place where the gun is stored, but it would be annoying to ask it outright.

Xiong Tingbi frowned, "It's in the direction of the north city wall, let's hurry over and have a look."

Zhou Yongchun saw that Wang An's worries were written all over his face, and he comforted him, "Don't worry Wang Neixiang, the city walls of Shenyang are thick."

The guards led the horses over, and a group of more than two hundred people surrounded the three giants in Shenyang City and headed for the north city wall.Encountering the messengers sent by Chen Ce on the way, Xiong Tingbi and Zhou Yongchun immediately learned of the shocking change at the North City Gate.

"Meng Tai, send someone to transport the spare bluestone strips that are going to be repaired to the north gate of the city, and water them first to freeze them. Prevent Jiannu from entering the city through the blown gate."

Zhou Yongtai promised to turn around and leave, and Xiong Tingbi shouted after him, "The other city gates also do the same."

At the moment Xiong Tingbi gave the order, there was an explosion from the southern city gate.Then there were explosions from the east and west.

Xiong Tingbi got angry and shouted decisively: "Chuan You Shigong went to the South City, Jiang Bi went to the East City, Zhu Wanliang went to the West City. First pour water on the city gate."

As for He Shixian, he would rush to the north wall without sending orders.

Following Xiong Tingbi's guards, several people responded loudly and galloped on the horses to deliver the order.

Zhou Yongchun turned around immediately, cupped his fists to Xiong Tingbi and said, "Brother Feibai, the city is here, and I am with you."

Xiong Tingbi nodded vigorously, "Meng Tai, don't worry, the city will be here, and I will be with you."

Then the two each led a guard team divided into two, and galloped to their respective destinations on horseback.

Wang An followed Xiong Tingbi, and his eyes turned red from the resolute and decisive words of "the city is here, I am with you".

Xiong Tingbi misunderstood what Wang An meant, and snorted coldly while riding the horse, and asked with contempt: "Wang Neixiang is scared?"

Wang An shook his head, "Jing Lue, our family is as good as you, and the city is in our family."

"Okay. I, Xiong Feibai, will wait and see how the inner minister will perform as a hero."

Amidst the silent explosions at dawn, Shenyang City lifted the shy and half-covered veil that had been besieged for several days.Hundreds of strong men sprang out from nowhere on the street. These people armed with long knives and hatchets, shouted on the streets of Shenyang City, "Jurchen has entered the city."

"Jianu has entered the city, hurry up and run out of the city."

There were also people shouting: "Hou Jin Da Khan has entered the city. Hanging the heads of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on the door can exempt the whole family from the death penalty."

The voice came rushing towards the city gate in the north.

Xiong Tingbi's face was covered with frost, he drew out the Shangfang sword hanging from his waist, and said to his guard chief: "Hurry up and take people to the barracks, and draw 3000 people from the forbidden army from the capital to form ten teams. No matter men, women, old or young, they will be shot to death. Inner Minister, you go to the Imperial Guard to monitor this matter."

Wang An bowed immediately, and clasped his fists at Xiong Tingbi: "Your Majesty." Then he followed Xiong Tingbi's chief guard and galloped towards the barracks.

The 1 soldiers of the Forbidden Army in the capital that Wang An brought over were all healthy soldiers selected by the British Duke himself.Of the 6000 people who remained in Shenyang, 1 were sent to Fengji, and [-] were sent to Liaoyang.Although Wang An handed over all the soldiers of the imperial army to Xiong Tingbi when he arrived in Shenyang, these soldiers still respected the head of Qianqing Palace in front of the emperor and No. [-] in front of the emperor.

The commander-in-chief of the army was the distant nephew of the British Duke Zhang Weixian. After hearing the order from Xiong Tingbi's chief guard, and seeing that Wang An was in charge of the suppression of the incitement of the people in the city, he immediately ordered [-] soldiers into ten teams. Armed with knives and guns, they rushed to the streets of Shenyang.

Those strong men who gathered and shouted really incited some people to walk out of their homes.

Seeing this, Wang An hurriedly said to Zhang Zongbing: "Quickly tell the people to go home."

Zongbing Zhang smiled ferociously, "Interviewer, what do you think those common people are holding? They want to take the heads of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and hang them on the lintel of their houses."

"Little ones, let me kill you. Those who take to the streets are Jiannu's undercover agents."

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The soldiers of the imperial army shouted and rushed towards the crowd who walked out of the house, onto the street, and towards the city gate.

These forbidden soldiers are not local soldiers from Liaodong, they have no relationship with anyone in Shenyang City, and there is nothing unbearable about killing ordinary people who violated the martial law order and dared to take to the streets .Those strong men shouted loudly as they moved towards the city gate.

"The Jurchens have entered the city. Hanging the heads of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on the door can avoid disaster."

The increasing number of people on the street seemed to exceed the three thousand soldiers brought out by Wang An from the forbidden army.

Wang An fought in two battles. Seeing the soldiers of the imperial army slashing at the people who walked out of the house with sticks, door bolts, kitchen knives, and wood chopping axes in their hands, the doubts in their hearts became more and more intense. Could it be that they were soldiers who were going to defend the city? Swinging sticks, knives and axes behind you?Is this the people that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are desperately trying to protect?

No one needs to tell Wang An, those sticks, knives and axes swung at the imperial army cruelly and coldly threw the answer in his face.

Wang An shook his lips and said to Xiong Tingbi's chief guard: "Go, hurry up and pass on the order of our family's military supervision, call out all the other soldiers of the imperial army, and call out all the soldiers who are taking turns resting in the barracks. Come out. Anyone who walks out of the house, no matter men, women, old or young, will be shot to death."

Under the order of the military supervisor, the soldiers from the barracks came out in full force.

Within half an hour, the city of Shenyang was quiet again.Groups of soldiers returned to the barracks under the leadership of their respective hundred households.

Zongbing Zhang ordered his guards to cut off the head of the corpse, and tied the head to the nearby treetop with the dead man's hair.

The northwest wind was blowing these human heads, spinning them in the air.The chill in the air frightened those who peeked out from the crack of the door.

Under the cold sky after the heavy snow, I don’t know if the sun hiding in the thick clouds will come out to see Shenyang City today:

Look at the sudden appearance of human heads on the treetops in this quiet city like in the past;

Look outside the city where the artillery is roaring, and the post-golden cavalry are neatly dressed and leading their horses, waiting to charge.

Look at the streets in the city, there are thousands more corpses scattered in the streets and alleys.

Look at these corpses are the same as the besieging Han people who were hit by shells outside the city. Their blood stained the blizzard that fell beneath them red last night.

The bright red on the white snow adds a strong, dazzling red and white background to the brutal fight on the city wall in the bleak winter.

Wang An looked at the teams of yamen servants with a livid face, and was ordered to move the stripped and headless corpses to the rack carts, and then groups of three or five yamen servants, those who pushed the carts and those who pulled the carts, silently threw the corpses on the Outside the city gates, I watched the soldiers pouring water non-stop, freezing the corpses into a new barrier at the city gates.

Under the surveillance of the imperial guards, the yamen servants quickly cleared away the corpses.But those sticks, knives and axes thrown on the snow seemed to be pressing on Wang An's neck in the gloomy air, making it difficult for him to breathe and prevent him from straightening his back.

Zhang Zongbing waited until the order in the city was restored, and then he noticed that Wang An's face was still not looking good, so he began to persuade him: "Interviewer, why don't you go back and rest."

Wang An shook his head.

"It's better for our family to go to the top of the city to have a look. You should also be careful. Our family is afraid that there will be chaos in this city. If something like this happens again, don't wait for our family to send someone to pass the order, and kill them all quickly." These spies and traitors."

Zhang Zongbing shouted loudly: "The last general respects your order."

Then he added, "Master Supervisor, please rest assured that there will be no trouble in the city."

Enduring the discomfort, Wang An followed Xiong Tingbi's head of guard to the tower of the north city wall.He held the armrest of the chair tightly, and his mind was full of the people holding knives, axes and sticks just now, and all those eyes that had never closed on the treetops.he asked himself in his heart

——Are these people here to kill the soldiers defending the city, or did they come to help defend the city after hearing that Jiannu had broken the city?

Xiong Tingbi listened to the chief guard's report, and greatly appreciated Wang An's act of decisively calling out all the soldiers in the barracks.There is still a difference in being able to become the No.1 in front of the emperor.

It seems that in the past, I have underestimated this eunuch Bingbi who has become the supervisor of the Qianqing Palace from the supervisor of the Rites, the admiral of the East Factory, and the supervisor of the Qianqing Palace.

When the fighting eased a little, Xiong Tingbi walked up to Wang An who was still in a tense state, and bowed with fists in his hands.

"Wang Neixiang, I thank you for your decisiveness this morning, so that all the defenders of the city will not be attacked."

Wang An stood up and returned the salute.

"Jinglue, do you think those common people who have left their homes are going to join the soldiers in resisting Jiannu?"

Xiong Tingbi sneered, "So what? Are you uneasy about killing such a person by mistake? But have you ever thought about it, if those Mongols rushed to the city wall, if there were any Han Chinese who had the same thoughts as the Mongols, the guards would When the soldiers in the city are already having a hard time dealing with the overwhelming number of traitors rushing forward, can this city wall still be defended?"

Wang An na na, "How could it be possible to hold on..."

"That's right. The old man issued a martial law order as early as the first day of the siege of slaves, and he was regarded as a spy when he went to the streets. Hmph, in order to defend Shenyang City, for the 10,000+ people in the city, it is also wrong to kill thousands of people. no way."

Wang An knew that what Xiong Tingbi said was reasonable, but he couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart. He always felt that among the civilians he ordered to kill, there must be some who would help the soldiers to defend the city.

When Zhou Yongchun stepped into the gate tower, the first thing he saw was Wang An's changing expression.Wang An's decisiveness in dealing with the riots in the city just now made him very surprised and grateful.After he finished reinforcing several city gates, he came to Wang An to thank him.

Xiong Tingbi told Zhou Yongchun about Wang An's concerns.

"Meng Tai, look at Neixiang's benevolence, it's not in the right place."

Zhou Yongchun bent down to salute Wang An.

"Xie Neixiang saved Brother Feibai and me. Otherwise, the riots in the city would spread and the soldiers guarding the city would be distracted. This Shenyang city would have to be lost today. The straw bags at the south gate of the city were stuffed and bombed/ medicine."

Wang An froze when he returned half of the salute.

"The straw bag was filled by you and Xiong Jinglue after our family entered the city. The spies got mixed up with the soldiers?"

Zhou Yongchun sighed, "That's right, if the straw bags hadn't been splashed with water and frozen, and the spies who wanted to light the fire were caught by the vigilant soldiers guarding the city gate, the south gate would have been blown up. Internal Prime Minister knows that there are not as many guards on the other three walls as there are on the north wall."

Hearing this, Wang An shuddered shiveringly, and felt the cold air rushing up the back of his spine.

"When our family came out, the emperor reminded our family to tell the two adults to pay attention to the spies in the city, so as not to be co-opted by Jiannu and Mongols when the siege was critical. Fortunately, our family did not miss this sentence .”

Zhou Yongchun nodded, "So, Inner Minister, Brother Feibai has no choice but to use martial law to discipline all the people in the city. He is just afraid that there will be a combination of inside and outside. Otherwise, why would there be an explosion at the city gate, and those people would shout to destroy the city? It can immediately incite thousands of people."

Xiong Tingbi's chief guard said: "It's so cold and not allowed to go to the streets, who doesn't cuddle in his hot bed."

Wang An nodded, finally put aside the idea of ​​pestering him, and saluted the three of them.

"It's our family's photoshoot. I almost let the person with ulterior motives go."

Zhou Yongchun laughed, "Wang Neixiang, if you think highly of me, Zhou Mengtai, based on what you did this morning, I will be at your command."

Wang An was very moved. The officials of the imperial court might send them eunuchs because of eunuchs' pretentiousness, but Zhou Yongchun recognized him because of his behavior this morning. He excitedly saluted Zhou Yongchun.

"Thank you Governor Zhou for thinking highly of Wang An."

The soldiers on duty lined up neatly to replace the comrades who had fought bloody battles for two hours.Zhou Yongchun's servant came in with a food box wrapped in a quilt.

"Xiong Jinglue, Wang Jianjun, my lord said that you haven't had your breakfast yet, so ask the younger one to bring some food up."

Xiong Tingbi's chief guard took the food box, "Master Zhou didn't eat either?"

Zhou Yongchun said: "You guys can eat here, I don't think the war is serious now, I'm going back to Xun'an Mansion."

Xiong Tingbi was not polite to him either, and the three of them ate a few warm meat buns with ginger soup.

When Chen Ce came in, Wang An greeted him, "Chen Zongbing, let's make a bed together."

"Master Xie Jianjun, I'm just here to take a look, and I'll go back to have dinner if I have nothing to do."

Xiong Tingbi stuffed two meat buns into his hands, "I know you were defending the city in the middle of the night yesterday, and you haven't eaten breakfast yet? Why are you being polite? Eat it while it's hot, and then go back and have a good rest. I Seeing that Jiannu is going crazy today, maybe he will call you to go up the city wall in the afternoon."

When Chen Ce saw Xiong Tingbi say this, he didn't hesitate to shirk it politely. He ate the steamed stuffed bun and drank the ginger soup, and finally found the warmth that a living person should have.

He finished eating in two mouthfuls, and saluted Xiong Tingbi and Wang An, "I'm going to see the injured soldiers just now."

Wang An grabbed the cloak and said, "Our family will go over with you to visit."

Xiong Tingbi cupped his fists, "Thank you for your hard work."

"Everyone, each other, should be, should be."

After Xiong Tingbi watched Wang An get down from the tower, he said to the chief guard beside him, "Good luck, old man, to put on such a supervising army."

"Yeah, you can help your hands with things without making trouble."

In Shenyang City in winter, night falls very early.At the beginning of You, the sky that had been gloomy all day gradually darkened, and it was almost completely dark before Youzheng.

In the Jurchen camp that was sieging the city frantically, there was a call to withdraw troops.

Then the sound of the whimpering horn resounded desolately over the smoke-filled sky of Shenyang City, setting off the staggering retreat of the soldiers on the snow covered with stumped limbs and arms, making them even more terrified.

After a day of fierce fighting, there are not many Han Chinese left as cannon fodder.Those who are alive are just as uneasy as the Nu/Erhachi brothers 30 years ago, wondering whether they will see tomorrow's dusk again.

Under the scolding of the soldiers of the Eight Banners Jurchens, these Han people numbly put their comrades who died on the battlefield on the backs, even if they were stumps and arms, they had to pick them up and bring them back to the barracks as extra meat for the Eight Banners Jurchens.

Numb expressions, dull eyes, ragged clothes, weakly leaning on spears, wooden sticks, and Han Chinese carrying corpses on their backs, the most appropriate word to describe them is walking dead.

All of a sudden, a Han citizen carrying his comrade's corpse on his back, after being whipped several times in a row, raised his head to the sky with a strange cry, shook off the corpse he was carrying, and rushed towards the soldier beside him, with his hands firmly stuck on the unstoppable I's petty officer."He He" smiled strangely, and immediately pinched the man and rolled his eyes. Some Han slaves nearby stopped in their tracks, as if they couldn't understand what happened.

A few Jurchen soldiers ran over, brandishing their horsewhips and beating the pinched Han Chinese non-stop. Immediately, the man's back, head and face were covered in blood.But such whipping and beating failed to make the Han people let go.

A well-armored Jurchen Niu Lu ran over from a distance, drew a sharp blade from the waist of a soldier dancing wildly with a horsewhip, and split the Han citizen in half with the force of Mount Tai.Blood sprayed out, and the Jurchen soldiers who surrounded and whipped the Han were inevitably splashed all over their faces and bodies.

But even though the Han man's body was split in two, his hands were still firmly clasped around the neck of the Jurchen who was strangling him.The pinched Jurchen used his hands to break the restraint on his neck at first, but now his arms have loosened limply. After the Han man who pinched him was split, he lost his support, his knees bent, and he carried two halves His dead body fell with a crash on the trampled snow.

Niu Lu hurriedly scolded the soldiers to break off the Han man's fingers.

Breaking off two thumbs and ten fingers, the lying Jurchen was released.But the Jurchen's throat collapsed, and she was already lifeless.

Standing on the city wall and watching from a distance, one of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty shouted loudly, "Good man! You are a good son of the Han family. If you die, you will catch a slave."

The loud shouts were sent to the place where the incident happened against the northwest wind, and the surrounding Han people were awakened by the shouts, and looked up at the shouting soldiers on the city wall not far away.

A soldier of the Ming Dynasty screamed: "Strangle them, strangle them."

The soldiers around him also shouted, and more and more soldiers on the city wall joined in the shouting.

"Strangle 'em, strangle 'em."

Niu Lu, who cut the man in half with the knife, held the sharp knife that was still bleeding, yelling and scolding strangely.The soldiers on the city wall were far away, so they couldn't hear or understand what he was saying, but they could guess that it was nothing more than blackmail and threats.

Suddenly, a tall and thin Han man held the arms of the dead body on his back, and smashed the dead body on Niu Lu's face. Once or twice, Niu Lu blocked the body with a sharp blade in his hand, and inserted the sharp blade into the dead body. In an instant, the Han man rushed forward and strangled him tightly by the neck.

Under the continuous demonstration, more than a dozen Han people also got rid of the corpses on their backs. In just a short moment, those Jurchen corpses were lying in the wild.

Then the shouts on the city wall strangled them and inserted "Come here quickly, come here quickly."

In an instant, all the shouts gathered together became "Come here, come here."

The dozen or so Han people seemed to be stunned, and then someone reacted and took the lead to run down the city.Following those Han people who were carrying the dead bodies, they also shook off their burdens and started running down the city together.

The Jurchen officer who supervised them was stunned for a moment, then yelled the Jurchen words, took off his bow and arrow and started shooting at the fleeing Han people.

Someone was shot, staggered and fell to the ground, crawled a few times towards the city wall with difficulty, and lay frozen on the snow without moving.

The soldiers on the city began to shoot arrows down, but unfortunately the distance was too far to help them.Seeing these Hao Erlang of the Han family who had just killed Jiannu, they screamed and fell down in the direction of the city wall.

The night darkened, covering the fallen corpses below the city.In the northwest wind at the top of the city, there was a low cry, circling and circling on the city tower, so many years later, Wang An could still think of the vague figures of those Han family Haoerlang that night.

The author has something to say: The time point of this chapter is the twelfth lunar month of 1620.

In history, in 1621, the first year of the apocalypse, Shenyang City was destroyed because of the cooperation of Mongolian spies.