Chapter 113 Horror
Hu Guangfu was busy in the fields with mixed emotions when he suddenly smelled a fishy smell, which became heavier and heavier. He felt something was wrong. When he looked up, he couldn't help being shocked - the water in the branch canal next to the field had changed color, like As red as cinnabar. The water in the branch canal was brought from the main canal, and the main canal diverted the Keishui River. Hu Guangfu ran upstream along the canal with a hoe. The closer he got to the Keishui River, the stronger the smell of blood. Before he reached the river bank, Hu Guangfu saw the river. Seeing the hellish scene, his knees weakened and he collapsed on the ground. Then he felt an overwhelming feeling of nausea in his stomach, and he vomited. Unconsciously, snot and tears flowed down together, and Hu Guangfu was frightened and cried.
The water has turned into a crimson river of blood. One corpse after another floats slowly downstream on the river. There must be thousands of them, but they can't be seen to the end!
Not to mention the honest farmer Hu Guangfu, even the great general who killed people without any calculation, never saw so many corpses at once!
After being paralyzed on the ground for an unknown amount of time, Hu Guangfu finally managed to stand up, wiped his face, and struggled to send a message to Mr. Hu - now that he was a member of the Hu family, he would be the first to report anything to the family head, not the government. This rule is deeply imprinted in the hearts of every Ming Dynasty citizen. Whether they are free peasants or domestic slaves with personal dependence, this is a common sense of the times that is as natural as a conditioned reflex and does not need to be reminded.
Mr. Hu only occasionally returned to the village to stay for a few days, and spent most of his time living in Xiangyang Mansion. Hu Guangfu stumbled back to the village in despair and found the housekeeper Hu Jiuye. The latter was also shocked when he heard the news and led several nursing staff to the river. They were also frightened like Hu Guangfu.
Huzhuang is very close to Xiangyang Prefecture. You can drive along the Feishui River and enter the Gunhe River, and then you will arrive not far to the southwest (the section after the Han River passes Xiangyang is called Gunhe River, and the section of Gunhe River near Zaoyang is called Bishui). Hu Jiuye was also anxious to send a message to the old man, but he couldn't. The river was full of floating corpses, and no one had the courage to sail among the piles of corpses - let alone sailing, the boats tied to the shore had already blocked several corpses, and their hands and feet were entangled with the outdoor mats stuck on the shore by the cables. The grass was rising and falling with the current, and the colorless people glanced at each other. No one had the courage to step out and board the boat.
In fact, there is no need for them to report the news.
At this moment, Mr. Hu was already sitting in the second hall of the prefect's yamen, together with the prefect of Xiangyang Mo Qiushui (also known as Kewang), his fellow magistrate Zhang Kexin (also known as Weiting), the chief minister of Xiang Wang Gan Zhihai (also known as Nachuan), and the deputy general of Xiangyang Deng Sen. The others looked at each other in fear.
The old man himself is just a scholar. At best, he just refuses to pay homage to the officials. He is not qualified to sit on an equal footing with other imperial officials. However, a father values his son. The second son, Hu Zhiqi, once served as a capital official and now serves as a long history officer in Prince Shou's Mansion. As the saying goes, the official in the capital is the third level. Although it is a bit exaggerated, in a small Xiangyang mansion in Huguang so far away from the capital, Mr. Hu is quite prestigious.
Everyone sat with their heads down and stared at the ground in front of them. They were silent for a long time and no one spoke. Mo Qiushui knew that he was the chief officer of this palace and had to express his position first, so he cleared his throat and sighed: "Oh, the day before yesterday I heard that a large group of thieves had invaded from the direction of Nanyang. I didn't expect it to be like this! Looking at the scale of the floating corpses, the thieves Are you afraid that all the chickens and dogs in Nanyang have been slaughtered? At present, there are no more than four strategies for the enemy: fight, defend, avoid, or surrender. We are not outsiders. If you have any good strategies, feel free to speak out. We are tied to each other. The city is closely connected and the situation is extremely dangerous. As long as we can cope with this catastrophe in the past, don't have any scruples about what you say. Mo is all ears."
Gan Zhihai seemed to hear the overtones of Mo Qiushui's words, and was the first to respond: "Master Mo, surrender is absolutely impossible. The vassal king surrendered the thieves without mentioning the family law of the ancestors. Since the thieves broke Nanyang, I thought that the prince of Tang must have died for his country. It is impossible for a thief who has no escape route to give Prince Xiang's house a break."
Mo Qiushui smiled bitterly: "Brother Nachuan, Mo has been blessed by heaven, and he can swear to the heavenly alliance that he will never surrender to thieves. Even if he wants to be modest, he has to take into account the lives of more than a hundred members of the Mo family. Brother Nachuan, please don't Misunderstanding, Mo just confessed a few ways to face the enemy. Saying it and doing it or not are two different things."
Gan Zhihai's words just blurted out out of desperation. He immediately understood that Mo Qiushui was telling the truth. He blushed and cupped his hands and said, "Master Mo, please don't blame me. I'm stupid."
Zhang Kexin, the magistrate's colleague, then said: "Then there are only three ways to fight, defend and avoid. The thieves are in full swing. If you go out to fight in the city, you are seeking your own death. Isn't this the only way to avoid? The prince has a body of thousands of gold, golden branches and jade leaves, and his love is You must take precautions if you have to," he said, glancing at Lieutenant General Deng Sen, "We and other local officials have the responsibility to protect the land. The imperial court is a law. After all, if you abandon the land and run away, you will not escape death, and your family will be affected. I am waiting for you. If I swear to defend for a few days, I can always block the prince for a moment."
Deng Sen knew that the civil servants were just expressing their opinions, and that they had to rely on their own soldiers to fight the war. He quickly took over the conversation, left his seat and clasped his fists at the officials and said, "I will die if you dare not obey me!"
Mo Qiushui bowed his hand to Mr. Hu, who had been silent all this time: "Mr. Hu, in your opinion, how should we deal with this?"
Hu Chuanlu bowed and raised his hands in vain: "All of you, sir, are the pillars of the country. How dare a commoner like Hu dare to speak nonsense. However, in the face of a formidable enemy, we should do our best without presumption. I dare to ask Deputy Commander Deng, what are the tigers and wolves under his command? If we just stick to it, how sure can we be?"
Deng Sen looked at Hu Chuanlu blankly, then looked at Mo Qiushui. Zhang Kexin explained: "Mr. Hu is asking how many soldiers you have and whether Xiangyang City can be defended."
Deng Sen blushed to the point of his neck and hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "My lords, don't be surprised. Deng is an illiterate rough man. He didn't understand it for a moment and thought that Mr. Hu was going to hunt tigers and wolves, which made all your lords laugh. Then he shook his head and said, "You can't defend for more than a few days. You all know how many soldiers the general has under his command. There are five thousand and six in the book, but the actual number is less than three thousand. If you can really pull it up to the top of the wall, you have to reduce it." Half. They have never seen blood. They have been digging with hoes all day long and have rarely touched knives. It is okay to scare ordinary people on weekdays, but we can't expect to fight. Even if we can recruit tens of thousands of young men to help defend, these more than a thousand In fact, soldiers are no different from ordinary people. Not to mention commanding, if you don't wet your pants, you are brave. There are two or three hundred people on each wall. If they can last for a day or two, they are blessed by gods. Moreover, it has been spread in the camp. Yes, when the general came over, many people had left the camp and went to the Han River to see. Who has seen so many dead bodies? I am not afraid of the jokes of you adults. The general himself felt weak in his legs even at a glance. Those soldiers were probably even standing there. You won't get up..." As he was speaking, he saw that the faces of the officials were wrong, so he hurriedly added, "The general will tell the truth, gentlemen, don't blame me. The general has one hundred and fifty personal bodyguards, so he must fight to save the road. You can count on these gentlemen to help you, my lords, escape from danger."
"well!"
Mo Qiushui sighed heavily. If in the past, this unabashed martial artist had said nonsense such as "The adults know how many soldiers there are", Governor Mo would never have tolerated it - it was common practice to report a few more men and lose some silver and grain, and this was not the case in Xiangyang Prefecture. Do this! Not to mention that this is an unspoken rule and everyone does it. If you are the only one who is spotless, how many days can you sit in this official chair? Who doesn't understand the principle that "a tree that is as beautiful as the forest wind will destroy it"? How can you pretend to be a white lotus when everyone's hands are dirty? If you don’t immediately attack in groups, I’ll bite you to death first! However, when the book is used, it will be less regrettable... Ask yourself, it is the same if you replace the word "book" with the word "soldier" at this moment. Especially since this guy had one hundred and fifty personal guards, he was the only one he could really count on at critical moments. Therefore, Mo Qiushui couldn't help but sigh.
Zhang Kexin turned to Gan Zhihai: "Brother Nachuan, how about the palace guards? Their weapons should be much better than those of the guards, right?"
When Hu Chuanlu heard Deng Sen's words about recruiting people to join the defense, he suddenly came to his senses. Without waiting for Gan Zhihai's reply, he said hurriedly: "My lords, whether it is an army guard or a guard post, we are all our own people, so don't worry about it now. The common people think that at this moment We need to organize the civil servants first, otherwise, if the news spreads, it will be difficult to find people when the outside world is in chaos!"
When all the officials heard the words, they were enlightened. Mo Qiushui praised: "Mr. Hu is so wise!" Then he raised his voice and said, "Here comes..."
Before he finished speaking, squad leader Wu Youde hurriedly ran into the second hall from outside and knelt at the door: "Sir, it's not good! Many people saw the corpses in the Han River. The news spread that the city had been bombed. Damn it, all the people in the city are fleeing out of the city now, there is no way to stop them, even most of the soldiers in the camp have fled!"
Immediately afterwards, there was a noise outside, and the sound became louder and louder. Soon everyone's ears were filled with wailing, footsteps, things overturning, horses neighing and dogs barking... The noise was so loud that They have to shout into each other's ears to hear what the other person is saying.
a bolt from the blue!
When everyone left the government office, what they saw was a crowd of shouting and running people all over the street. There were all kinds of people, men, women, old and young. Mo Qiu Shui noticed when he saw the familiar figure of a blue narrow-sleeved robe occasionally flashing through the crowd. , even the yamen on duty in front of the yamen have disappeared! It's a completely apocalyptic scene.
All the officials looked ashen and knew in their hearts: At this time, the King of Heaven could not stop the frightened crowd, and recruiting people to join the defense was already a pipe dream.
The officials stood there in silence for an unknown amount of time. The noise in their ears gradually died down. There was no one on the street. The gate guards had disappeared. They could even see the south through the wide open city gate. The small backs of the crowd fleeing south in the field outside the door! The gate of Xiangyang Mansion was open, and even before Guan Shengyun could be seen, it seemed to be an empty city that could not be defended at all.
Her nose was sore and tears welled up in Mo Qiushui's eyes. She turned around and bowed deeply to Deng Sen: "Deputy Marshal Deng, take your servants to protect Prince Xiang Qiansui and take shelter in Chengtian Mansion (today's Jingmen, Zhongxiang, and Qianjiang areas). Well, the prince's safety depends entirely on the deputy commander. Don't blame the deputy commander for the things he has been sorry for in the past. He will be more tolerant."
Deng Sen hurriedly jumped to the side to hide, but Mo Qiushui turned around half a circle and bowed down. Deng Sen, who had not escaped, knelt down and shook his hands together and said urgently: "I can't help it, Master Mo, at the end of the day I won’t be able to bear it..."
Mo Qiushui shook his head and did not answer any more. He turned to Gan Zhihai and said, "Brother Nachuan, I am an incompetent official and have betrayed the divine grace. Xiangyang Mansion cannot be defended, and the royal city cannot be defended either. You and Deputy Commander Deng protect Qiansui. I would like to express my condolences to the prince."
Gan Zhihai was stunned for a while and didn't think of how to persuade him. He nodded heavily and returned the gift: "Brother Ke Wang, please let me take care of the few adults, and Mr. Hu. I will send someone to pick him up later." I will go to Chengtian Mansion with the Wang Mansion. My lords, take care."
Mo Qiushui turned to Zhang Kexin and others: "My lords, the time has come for us to serve the imperial court. We each arranged for people to pile firewood in the warehouse. When the firewood is piled, I will light the fire myself, and then throw myself into the flames. Lest the body be disgraced by thieves!"
Zhang Kexin returned the salute miserably: "That's alright. Mr. Mo is going to burn the granary, and the lower official is going to burn the arsenal. Brother Nachuan quickly sent some people to move the treasury, silver, cloth, etc., and take away everything that can be taken away. There are still more. Please, Brother Nachuan, please pray for us to have a thousand years of age..."
Gan Zhihai hurriedly stopped what he was saying: "King Gan is destined to die, and I wish I could die together with all of you. Sirs, Gan must show your integrity to Qian Sui and the court, and the future of all your nephews will also fall on Gan."
The officials were about to split up to make arrangements to burn the warehouse. Hu Chuanlu, who had been silent for the whole time, hurriedly stopped him: "My lords, don't be anxious. Common people are brave. We haven't seen the thief yet. Just make full preparations. This fire cannot be ignited." Ah! When the smoke comes, the thief will be convinced, and he will rush to kill him. The prince, a thousand years old, can't go far, so it will be dangerous! It seems that it is not too late to set fire to the thief when he sees him coming."
All the officials suddenly understood from their trance and thanked Hu Chuanlu one after another. As they were talking, they suddenly heard a greeting: "My lords, I have been entrusted by someone to give you good news. Congratulations to all your lords in advance!" Turning around, I saw a well-mannered scholar in a long gown who had just turned around from the east corner. He bowed his hands in a distant manner and then walked over quickly.
When he came closer, the visitor grinned, raised his hands and saluted again: "Student Luo Shifan has met all of you!"
