Only Qin Jianxun and his white pole soldiers of the Fourth Corps were left on the Huaihe front line in Xuzhou.
When leaving Xuzhou, the Supreme Emperor told this veteran white-pole soldier to keep an eye on the Huaihe River defense line. If the Ming army dared to invade north, he would resolutely fight back.
Qin Jianxun asked: "Your Majesty, what if the thief Zuo Liangyu can't retreat?"
Emperor Wu Ding responded this way: "Jianxun, you have to remember that when dealing with Nanming, you have to do it. If someone doesn't offend me, I will offend him. If someone offends me, I will kill someone."
Qin Jianxun looked confused.
Liu Zhaosun further explained: "Our army's military strategy on the Huaihe River border is: not to stick to the covenant, but not to break the covenant. Every half a month, small groups of troops are sent across the river to create pressure on the Southern Dynasties and let them know that on the north bank, there are still There are millions of troops waiting for them, and one million troops can cross the river at any time!"
Qin Jianxun was speechless. The troops and horses left to him by the court were fully calculated, but there were less than 8,000 men, which was too far away from a million. Moreover, they had to commit crimes and kill people, keep promises and cross the river.
It's so hard.
~~~~~
At the end of October in the second year of Taichu, after completing the peace negotiations with Nanming, the Emperor's Xingluan set off from Xuzhou, crossed the Huanghuai Plain, and headed all the way to Luoyang, Henan. The attendants packed up the Emperor's luggage like ants moving. , carried all the way west.
Following the Supreme Emperor Xingluan heading north, there were also the main forces of the 1st, 2nd, and 7th Corps, with a total of more than 20,000 soldiers. They escorted thousands of carriages loaded with food and cloth, and drove toward Henan in a mighty manner.
As the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, Luoyang is not as good as Chang'an with its eight hundred miles of Qinchuan and four fortresses that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, but its geographical advantages should not be underestimated. Luoyang is surrounded by mountains in the north, including Taihang Mountain and Wangwu Mountain in the north, Songshan Mountain in the east, Xiong'er Mountain, Funiu Mountain, and Waifang Mountain in the south, and Weishan Mountain, Mangshan Mountain, and Zhongtiao Mountain in the west. Good geographical conditions are definitely a good place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
When the capital was initially selected, some ministers of Henan origin urged Luoyang to be the capital. Emperor Wu Ding also hesitated, but in the end he chose Jingxiang as the capital.
After all, the gradual decline of the North is a general trend and something that cannot be changed.
On October 30, the second year of Taichu, the Ministry of War issued a document ordering the Third Corps stationed in Fushun to cross the Yalu River and fight in North Korea to replace the Eighth Corps, which was unfavorable in fighting in Pyongyang.
At the same time, under the organization of Zhang Dong, Pei Dahu, and Yang Tong, a new round of great purges was launched in Hubei and Henan provinces.
The coir raincoat guards and the imperial guards were sharpening their knives. With the cooperation of the First Corps, former Ming gentry and subordinate officials were picked out every day in various places. Also arrested were some middle-level civil affairs officers, training officers, and military officers. These people The crimes ranged from corruption and dereliction of duty to colluding with Rakshasa ghosts, and some even tried to assassinate Emperor Wu Ding. In short, they were all serious crimes.
There are rumors that Zhao Lejiao, the commander of the Eighth Army Corps, will also be purged because he is unfavorable to the North Korean war.
Even officers of Zhao Lijiao's level could not escape sanctions, which shows the horror of this purge.
Suddenly, everyone in the court was in danger. When everyone saw Zhang Dong and Yang Tong, their teeth couldn't help but chatter, as if they had seen the black and white impermanence coming to claim their lives.
~~~~
On the second day of November, the convoy entered Henan from Bozhou. Everything it saw was dilapidated, the fields were barren, and the villages were dilapidated. The living people along the way looked at the army team as if they had seen a ghost.
The Huanghuai Plain was originally densely populated, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, floods, droughts, and locust plagues continued, and the Yellow River changed its course at regular intervals. The land was barren, the food harvest failed, and the fields that were not affected by the disaster became saline-alkali land, and nothing could grow if seeds were sown.
The natural disaster in the first year of Wuding swept across the north of the Yangtze River, and Suzhou, Huainan and other places suffered heavy losses. Thousands of miles of bare land, people were in dire straits, and almost no one in the disaster area survived.
In the first year of Wuding, the farmers in Huaiyang finally fled their hometown after eating all the food. On their way to wandering, they were involved in the army of refugees rolling in from Shaanxi, Henan and other places. These people plundered all the way north and eventually became the people of that year. One of the many cannon fodder who followed Li Xianzhong to besiege the capital.
By the end of the second year of Taichu, the remnants of Liu Zongmin who were entrenched in western Liaoning were completely annihilated by the Qi army. Under the joint attack of the plague and the Qi army, the invading army once spread across the three provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, reaching Shanhaiguan, and at its peak reached hundreds of thousands of invading troops. The thieves were almost completely lost and annihilated. The number of core bandits was reduced sharply to a mere hundred people. They retreated to the Jingxiang Mountains and were no longer able to survive.
The prosperity of the people will be miserable, and the destruction of the people will be miserable.
Although the invading army was put down, millions of Huaiyang people were buried with Li Xianzhong, Ma Jinxing and others. This land was gradually dying.
~~~~~
The new wind was blowing loudly, making the grass on the field rustle. A round of white sun hung slanting over the field, shining coldly on the land.
During the day, only a few ruined walls remained in the abandoned village. There were shacks in twos and threes built between the ruined walls. There were several large pots supported in the shacks. Something was cooking in the pots, and a faint aroma of meat wafted from a distance.
The road at the entrance of the village was covered with grass. The grass was deep enough to cover the calf. Several wild dogs with red eyes gathered around a starving man who was about to die. They dragged the man into the grass before he could die.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the distance, like thousands of lugworms eating leaves. The wild dogs looked at each other, and the rustling sound quickly approached from the sky and turned into the sound of running water.
A long black dragon moved forward quickly on the wasteland. The long dragon stretched as far as the eye could see. The head and tail of the dragon could not see each other. Countless weapons collided with the armor, making a clanking sound, mixed with intermittent bamboo whistles.
The wild dog's eyes were full of fear, and it barked at the fiercely fluttering black dragon banner at the front.
"Woo~~~"
A low roar came from the grass, and the blood-red eyes of the wild dogs immediately showed fear, and they hurriedly turned around and fled in the direction of the shack.
A tiger as tall as a person suddenly jumped down from the sky, swung its claws, and there was a clicking sound. Half of the body of the wild dog at the back was torn apart by the tiger's claws...
"Whoosh!!"
A sharp arrow shot through the air, knocking a wild dog in front of him to the ground, and then a long knife came up.
"Go into the shack and see if they are eating human flesh. Leave two people behind to bury the dead man."
Jiang Liuer rubbed the knife against the dog, cleaned the blood on the blade, and then put the knife back into the scabbard.
"Quick! Everyone move!"
More than a dozen Ye Busuo, armed with muskets and short crossbows, immediately sneaked into the deserted village. They divided into two groups and surrounded the shacks that were smoking from the left and right.
The remaining two soldiers dragged out the corpse that was half eaten by wild dogs from the grass, wielded their pickaxes and began to dig holes to bury people. Their movements were skillful and there was no sloppiness, which showed that this was not their first time doing this job.
Jiang Liu'er finished the arrangement, pulled out his sword, turned around and said to an officer in Jianzhou costume behind him: "Old Sa, you stay here, be careful of Liu bandits and ambushes, don't startle Long Chaan."
Alsa spat thick phlegm, stepped on the wild dog carcass, and scanned the surroundings vigilantly. The emperor's car was still two miles away. The Jianzhou night watcher looked at the carcass that was eaten by wild dogs, shook his head and said:
"People eat people, and dogs also eat people. They don't believe in immortality, so they got retribution."
After saying that, he raised his bow and followed the captain Jiang Liu'er towards the shack.
~~~~~~
The low sound of the horn echoed in the wilderness for a long time. Under the black dragon's banner, six horses pulled the dragon chariot and came slowly.
The body of the dragon chariot is inlaid with precious stones and pearls, and the dragon and phoenix patterns on the wheels show the noble and luxurious style of the royal family.
Jin Yuji poked her head out from the black curtain, wearing a black bun, and looked towards the end of the village.
Ye Bushou, who was at the front, was burying the body. Suddenly, sporadic crackling sounds of firecrackers were heard in the village. Jin Yuji turned around and said:
"Husband, is this the human world or hell?"
"When you think he is on earth, he is hell. When you think he is hell, he says he is on earth."
Liu Zhaosun put down a book called "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" with yellowed pages without even raising his head.
Jiang Liuer and his men stayed up all night, dragging corpses one after another to the entrance of the village. They threw the corpses into the large pits that had been dug and buried them with soil.
When Jin Yuji was about to look back at her husband, a group of ragged villagers appeared in her field of vision. They followed Ye Bushuang and staggered to the entrance of the village.
"Are we going to give out porridge again today? There don't seem to be many people here."
The Empress Dowager Cisheng's question was soon answered. Under Xie Yang's personal command, the town soldiers and civil affairs officials set up a large iron pot at the entrance of the village, lit the firewood, and bags of rice rolled up and down in the pot, making a faint sound. of fragrance.
Liu Zhaosun raised his head and glanced outside, then said unhurriedly: "I brought so much food just for people to eat."
He followed Jin Yuji's eyes towards the deserted village in front of him, his eyes fell on several dead dogs, and he fell into silence.
"Husband, how many people can you save?"
Two months ago, Jin Yuji followed Liu Zhaosun from Xiangyang south. They took the waterway and did not pass through Huainan and other places.
During the past few days while traveling through Huaiyang, the tragic scenes she saw along the way frightened the Empress Dowager Cisheng. After witnessing the tragic scenes, the Empress Dowager Cisheng finally gradually understood why the Emperor suddenly became so murderous and cruel.
"I have sent troops to clear out the wealthy and unkind wealthy households in the surrounding areas. They have built strongholds to support themselves and have strong defenses. Therefore, ordinary refugees cannot attack them. If the army is short of food, we will make up for it from these people."
After hearing her husband's explanation, Jin Yuji did not immediately object as usual.
In the years of great famine, people exchanged their children for food, and human flesh became the main source of food. Abundance itself was an original sin.
Liu Zhaosun looked at his woman curiously and said with a smile: "Why don't you persuade me?"
Jin Yuji murmured to herself: "I said that I will listen to my husband from now on."
While the two were talking, there was a noise outside. Pei Dahu shouted and ordered the imperial guards to strengthen the protection.
Lin Yu stayed in place, while Wu Xiao led his guards on horseback to drive away the hungry people who were pouring in from all around.
"Don't make a mess, line up one by one!"
The policemen waved wooden sticks and beat the hungry people in chaos. After a scream, order was finally restored around them.
Emperor Wu Ding stared at the scene in front of him with an indifferent expression, grabbed the "Lu Spring and Autumn" he had just put down, and continued reading.
At this time, Jin Yuji saw a woman holding a baby in the queue of hungry people waiting for porridge.
The woman was ragged and unkempt, but she tried hard to hold the baby tightly in her arms and looked warily at the soldiers maintaining order.
"What a poor kid."
Jin Yuji sighed in a low voice. She was going to ask Dongfang Zhu to give the mother and son some food. At this time, the Supreme Emperor followed the eyes of the Empress Dowager Cisheng and also noticed the woman holding the baby:
"Do you think the child in her arms is dead or alive?"
Jin Yuji was immersed in the memories of her and her daughter Liu Yufei's flight to the state, when she suddenly heard her husband ask this question. She was stunned at first, and then said angrily:
"Why are you so mean? You have children after all!"
Liu Zhaosun looked at Jin Yuji and said: "In the year of the great disaster, it is not easy to survive with a child until now. When I saw her, I thought of myself when the Wanggong Factory exploded, and I tried my best to survive."
After Emperor Wu Ding finished speaking, he closed his eyes. Dongfang Zhu stood quietly at the door of the dragon chariot, waiting for the Emperor's order.
~~~~~
A few large pots quickly reached the bottom, and the hungry people who came from behind to serve porridge cursed and left in a hurry.
Liu Zhaosun opened his eyes.
"Cook another 20,000 kilograms of rice and ask Lin Yu Zhangdong to be more vigilant. Anyone who loots and causes trouble will be killed without mercy."
Dongfang Zhu said with some reluctance: "Your Majesty, we can't save that many people. We have just arrived in Suzhou. There are still hundreds of miles to Luoyang. We can't save them."
Emperor Wu Ding suddenly raised his head and glared at Eunuch Dongfang fiercely.
"Of course I know, that's why I have to distribute the food as soon as possible! What I distribute is not food, but people's hearts!"
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