The French strategic bombing ended in the evening. The original twenty-four-hour bombing lasted only twelve hours before reaching Gong Cheng's goal, which was fear.
A whole day of indiscriminate bombing was enough to let every Ryukyu family pay their respects. In this bombing, more than 10,000 houses were destroyed in Naha, and no less than 50,000 people were killed or injured.
King Shangtai stood at the entrance of the deep valley. He looked around and saw that the valley was full of fleeing people. Women and children were crying, adults were sighing, the injured were wailing, and those who had lost their loved ones were in pain. Everyone's faces were covered with deep sorrow. of fear.
Many military doctors and nurses in white coats were walking back and forth in the crowd. Many were shaken by fatigue but still persisted. The family members of the injured looked at them as if they were looking at gods.
There are more soldiers in military uniforms. Some of them are distributing rations, some are taking care of the wounded, and some are cleaning up corpses. It is hot summer now, and all the dead must be buried in time. If there is a plague, it will be terrible. .
Whenever a corpse was carried out of the crowd, relatives and friends would burst into cries like wolf howls. Every time King Shangtai heard such miserable cries, his heart would break.
"Your Majesty, please drink some water..." Jin Changsen came over with a broken porcelain bowl. Before His Majesty could take it, he lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, I just saw it on the hillside. This day The French did not fire a single shot at Shuri Castle. The palace is still safe. It is almost dark now. Your Majesty, please go back..."
King Shangtai shook his head, "The people are bleeding. Do I want to enjoy the blessings in the palace? When the country is in crisis, I don't have the ability to go into battle to kill the enemy. Why can't I accompany the people to endure hardships?"
After saying that, King Shangtai took the water from Jin Changsen's hand, turned around and handed it to a wounded person beside him.
"Your Majesty..." The wounded and the surrounding people subconsciously kowtowed, but unexpectedly King Shangtai held them down. "Don't, don't, don't... don't move, you all, don't move... I am incompetent and can't protect this person." It’s my country’s fault.”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" King... you are a holy king."
King Shangtai smiled bitterly and sat down regardless of the dirt on the ground. "Don't kneel down, all of you. What kind of holy king am I? I can't do anything to see my people bleeding. What kind of holy king am I?"
Wang, who shook his head and sighed, said in a very lonely voice, "I have already thought about it. If our Ryukyu Kingdom continues to prosper this time, if we can survive this disaster safely... I decided to join the army, and I will also go to the military academy. I want to start from a big soldier." Start doing it, I will no longer be a cowardly emperor..."
"No way." Jin Changsen and the surrounding civil servants fell to their knees. They looked at King Shangtai in horror. They heard clearly that it was me, not me, that King Shangtai said just now.
Oh my God, what on earth was King Shangtai thinking? He actually wanted to join the army and be a top soldier. Is he abandoning civility and embracing martial arts? Is he abandoning us Confucian officials?
It has to be said that since the Song Dynasty, the problem of different paths of civil and military affairs has been left in the hearts of Confucian students, and even the civil servants of these vassal states who were deeply influenced by Confucian culture also contracted this problem.
The emperor wants to join the army, which is not bad. The tradition in East Asia since ancient times is to use civility to control military force. If King Shangtai does this, it will bring down the sky. It is not bad if the military minister is the leader. Even if Xiao Letian leads the army, he is still carrying a Even with the title of Prime Minister, a group of veteran ministers gossiped behind his back.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" The collision caused blood to flow all over his face.
King Shangtai was not angry or flinched. He smiled faintly and helped all the Confucian ministers who were kowtowing to their feet. "Don't say that. The sage has long said that the people should respect the king and despise him. Am I not strictly abiding by the sage's words?" .”
"What is the foundation of Ryukyu's founding? It's not whether King Shoutai is here or not, nor whether Shuri Castle has collapsed. It depends on whether the people have a sense of identification with this country. As long as Ryukyu is in the hearts of all people, even if the country is destroyed, the country will be destroyed." It's still there, if the people's hearts are still there, we can still restore our country..."
"This is the country and nation that the Prime Minister talked about. I only vaguely understood it before, but today I completely understand it..."
Just when these Confucian ministers were still trying to persuade them, a loud voice suddenly came from outside the valley: "Your Majesty is right, what are the different paths of civil and military affairs? Those are all remarks made by corrupt Confucians in the past that harmed the country and the people. A great man in heaven and earth, why can't he be versatile in both civil and military affairs? What's the use of distinguishing between them? If the country is broken, everyone will be a slave."
Everyone looked up and saw that the person speaking was actually General Liang Kun. The general was already injured at this time. His forehead was bandaged with white cloth. Two soldiers were carrying a stretcher and the general was lying on it. There was a bullet piercing his left leg. hurt.
"General, you are injured." King Shangtai and the ministers rushed over at once.
"Ashamed, I failed to complete my mission... I encountered French artillery bombardment on the Beishan path, and Guotou Village still failed to be captured..." Liang Kun lowered his head regretfully.
How could King Shangtai blame the right-hand man of the Ryukyu army? He hurried over to support him, "General, don't be upset. This is not a crime of war. The French ships and artillery are indeed difficult to withstand... But don't worry, General, as long as we are united, I firmly believe that Ryukyu will be defeated." Can hold it."
It was as if Liang Kun was meeting the young man in front of him for the first time. He couldn't help but think of Brother Thumb in his heart, thinking that King Shangtai really asked the Prime Minister to give him to him. Everything he said and done today was impressive.
As a compliment, under such crazy bombing by the French today, the order of the refugees did not collapse. He really deserves more than half of the credit for this.
Night had fallen, and the stars in the sky began to blink above people's heads. When the last ray of sunset in the west disappeared above the sea level, the French bombing finally ended.
When the sound of cannons stopped and calm returned to people, all the survivors were still a little uncomfortable. It took more than half an hour before people thought about today's dinner.
King Shangtai, General Liang Kun and the civil servants sat on the big bluestone and chatted. The bonfire was lit in the refuge valley. After a while, the aroma of cooking porridge began to fill the air, and people's mood finally improved.
Just when dinner was about to be cooked, there was suddenly a burst of messy footsteps outside the valley, and then the light of jumping torches rushed into the valley.
"It's General Cai Mao... The general has come out from the fort!" A large number of soldiers cheered and surrounded him.
Cai Hao was so tired at this time that he could hardly speak. He didn't know whether it was caused by the gunpowder smoke or the heat he got in the past two days. His voice was extremely hoarse and his face was ashen and black.
"Your Majesty... there are also General Liang, Jin Shangshu, Lin Shangshu... Let's take a step to talk..." Cai Mao raised his hand, and a group of soldiers ran over and formed a warning circle in a remote place, gathering several people from the Ryukyu Kingdom. All the powerful people are included in it.
"Your Majesty, I will make a long story short. A Chinese who claimed to be an envoy was just picked up from the beach at the foot of Qixing Mountain. He waved a white flag and said he wanted to negotiate with us..."
"Well, negotiate, the French are going to negotiate with us." Lin Yuanmiao asked differently, and Liang Kun shook his head on the spot, "It's impossible. The French have not suffered any casualties in the past four days, let alone thousands. How can they negotiate? Even if they negotiate, the conditions will be very harsh."
Liang Kun was born in the Heavenly Kingdom Army and naturally distrusted foreigners. It is normal to have such an extreme view. However, Cai Hao, Jin Changsen, and Lin Yuanmiao are natives of Ryukyu after all. Now that they hear the French Negotiations suddenly felt a little more exciting.
King Shangtai frowned, "Since the envoy has arrived, there is no reason why we should not see him. We have to listen to their conditions...General Cai, haven't you found out the details of this Chinese envoy?"
King Shangtai's question made Cai Mao sigh, "Your Majesty, this is where I'm struggling to explain... This messenger said his boss is..." Cai Hao hesitated for a moment and finally came up with a name.
"Gong Cheng...Gong Banlun."
"Ah, it's him." Everyone present was dumbfounded. They may not have known who Gong Cheng was before, but in Xiao Letian's small class for more than a year, this guy has been used as a negative teaching material. .
"The one who led the British and French forces to burn down the Old Summer Palace, the one who quarreled with Prince Gong, saying that his father did not become a Hanlin scholar, so he took revenge, the one who lost four and a half of the Five Luns and only half of the Luns were left, the one who took the The one who lived freely in the Shanghai Concession on a commission from the British."
"That's what Prime Minister Xiao said, the one who has no bottom line in life and is worse than an animal."
People present, look at me, I look at you, and you are speechless. If the person negotiating is Gong Cheng and Gong Banlun, this negotiation will be difficult. On the one hand, although this person's morals are corrupt, he is definitely an old fritter with a super high IQ. , it is definitely difficult to deal with.
On the other hand, Xiao Letian showed his disgust for this traitor more than once. If we didn't get the Prime Minister's nod and negotiated with this kind of peace alone, how could we meet the Prime Minister in the future.
Liang Kun was lying on the stretcher and was so angry that he sat up. "No, absolutely not. This is the enemy of the Chinese people all over the world. Don't stand in front of me. If he dares to show his face, I will kill him with a knife..."
When Jin Changsen saw that Liang Kun was so excited that the gauze on his forehead was bleeding, he quickly supported him and persuaded him, "Calm down your anger, general. Gong Cheng didn't come ashore. He was just one of his subordinates who sent a message. We just want to listen." It’s definitely not a negotiation. Just relax and recuperate..."
After speaking, Jin Changsen winked at King Shangtai. King Shangtai hurriedly knelt down beside the general and said kindly, "I regard the prime minister as my father. How can I go against the wishes of the prime minister? General, please don't get angry. We just want to listen to what the messenger wants." Whatever you say, just listen to it."
