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Looking at the dark city gate in the night, Huo Sheng was full of vigilance. He was about to send a team of soldiers to charge in as a test, when suddenly three red fireworks rose in the city.
"Chi... ...Bang!" Fireworks bloomed in the night sky. In the silent city of Jinling, countless people were startled by these three unusual fireworks, including Hong Chengchou on the Zhengyang Gate.
"There is an ambush, retreat quickly! Retreat quickly!" Yan Gaofei shouted loudly at the moment the fireworks burst into light. The Qin army was alerted and quickly retreated to the east side of the Temple of Heaven along Tiantan Street outside Zhengyangmen.
Hong Chengchou looked at the Qin army going away, annoyed and angry. He pointed to the place where the fireworks had just risen and shouted: "That's near the Imperial Examination Hall. Go quickly and catch the spy!"
The Qing army on the city wall quickly ran down the inner horse path and rushed towards the Jiangnan Examination Hall in the west.
Jiangnan Gongyuan is located on the Qinhuai River west of Tongji Gate. It is a grand place, connected to Confucius Temple and Zhongshan Palace in the west. This is the most prosperous area in Jinling City, with double eaves and tiles, thousands of households, and it is not easy to find someone in such a place;
The Qing army conducted a massive search near the Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall, causing chaos and arresting thousands of people, but they failed to find any spies. Instead, the people were furious and their hatred towards the Qing army grew.
There was even a team of ten Qing troops that was attacked by unknown persons while on patrol. All ten were killed, their heads were cut off and hung on trees on the street, and a few big words were written on the wall with blood: The end of the Tartars has come!
These bloody characters were so horrifying that the patrolling Qing soldiers became so panic-stricken that they even dared not walk through those remote alleys.
Hong Chengchou faced a difficult decision: whether to lift the ban on people taking to the streets or to continue the ban.
Now the people in the city are in a state of antagonism with the Qing army. Two million people have to live. If the people are still prohibited from going out, it will sooner or later lead to a mass rebellion. But if it is not prohibited, the Qin army's spies will definitely take the opportunity to cause great damage and incite everywhere, which may also bring disastrous consequences.
The next morning, after careful consideration, Hong Chengchou reluctantly lifted the ban, only blocking some main streets.
But this obviously had no effect. The people who were confined at home poured into the streets. Although the streets were dangerous, the seven necessities of life, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, were indispensable to every household.
Huanglianshan had been operating for nearly two years, and the Yebushou gangs were spread across every corner of Jinling City. Once the ban was lifted, these people became active, engaging in incitement, rebellion, and sabotage.
In broad daylight, a Qing soldier patrolling near Taoye Ferry was shot dead by an arrow from a corner. Dozens of nearby Qing soldiers rushed over to arrest people, and the people in the streets cried and fled, causing chaos.
At this time, seven or eight big men rushed out and threw the ignited thunder bombs into the Qing army, killing and injuring more than 20 people, and shouted at the same time: "The King of Qin has fought back. We don't have to be afraid, let's fight the Tartars!"
Seeing the Qing army being blown to pieces, the bullied people, encouraged by the big men, turned around and rushed forward, instantly overwhelming dozens of Qing soldiers.
When the Qing army arrived, they saw dozens of corpses scattered all over the streets, and none of them were intact. The deaths were extremely tragic.
Baiyintu was furious after hearing this and wanted to lead his troops to massacre all the people in the Taoye Ferry area. Hong Chengchou hurriedly stopped him, saying, "No! A large-scale massacre of the people at this time will definitely cause riots in the city. You must not do that."
Baiyintu said angrily: "How can we deter those rioters if we don't kill them? If we don't deter them, more people will surely dare to rise up and rebel against the Qing Dynasty tomorrow. And how can we calm the army if we don't kill them?"
"Master Baiyintu, have you ever thought about this? We only have more than 20,000 soldiers, while there are more than 2 million civilians in the city. Outside Taiping Gate, the Qin army is attacking the city urgently. If they slaughter people at this time, there will definitely be riots in the city. How many troops can we spare to suppress them? If we can't suppress them, even without the Qin army coming in, the 2 million civilians in the city alone will be enough to kill us without a burial place."
If there had not been fierce resistance in Jiangyin, Jiading and other places, Bai Yintu would have scoffed at such words. However, with the precedent of Jiangyin, Bai Yintu no longer dared to regard Hong Chengchou's words as alarmist.
But he still insisted on his own opinion and said, "Master Hong, if we don't kill them, the rioters will be fearless and their arrogance will definitely become more arrogant. If they can kill dozens of my soldiers today, they will dare to kill hundreds tomorrow. If this continues, riots will happen sooner or later. Besides, we only have 3,000 bannermen, most of whom are from the Green Camp. If we show weakness, what will those Green Camp soldiers think?"
Hong Chengchou didn't know how to answer for a moment. This was a dilemma. A massacre would lead to resentment among the mob, but not killing would not be enough to deter the rioters. Hong Suichou's mind raced, hoping to find a solution that would satisfy both sides. But in this situation, how could there be a solution that would satisfy both sides
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Bolo, the prince of the Qing Dynasty, had passed Zhenjiang with an army of 30,000 and was rushing towards Nanjing. Only 50,000 troops were left under the city of Jiangyin, and most of them were Green Camp soldiers, who were commanded by Li Chengdong.
Li Chengdong was originally a subordinate of Li Zicheng, nicknamed "Li Hezi". Later, he surrendered to the Ming Dynasty with Gao Jie. After Gao Jie's death, Shi Kefa was the first to flee south. Li Chengdong saw that the Qing army was powerful, so he led his troops to surrender to the Qing.
Gao Jie's troops were looters by nature, and they became even more aggressive after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. A while ago in Jiading, Li Chengdong encountered resistance from the rebels, and his brother was ambushed and killed by the rebels. In a rage, he carried out a large-scale massacre after capturing Jiading. Among the citizens, some hanged themselves from the beams, some jumped into wells, some jumped into rivers, some had bloody faces, some had broken limbs, some were chopped but not dead and their limbs were still moving, and their flesh and bones were in disarray.
The women in the city were brutally raped. If they resisted, these beasts would nail the resisting women's hands to the door panels with long nails, and then rape them at will.
After the massacre, Li Chengdong's subordinates went around looting property. When they saw people, they shouted "barbarians offering treasures" and slashed them with their swords, not killing them. When the people they chopped took out gold and silver, they left in joy.
Those who did not have much gold and silver in their pockets were chopped three times, each time with a knife, until the bones were cut. At that time, "the sound of the knife was heard everywhere, far and near. The cries of begging for life were as noisy as a market. The massacre lasted for a day, until the bodies blocked the river. About 30,000 people were killed in Jiading.
Li Chengdong and his group of traitors with pigtails robbed three hundred large ships of property in Jiading, and all of them were transported away under the command of Li Chengdong.
Li Chengdong's crimes were too numerous to list. After Bolo led his troops to urgently rescue Nanjing, he left 50,000 Green Camp soldiers to him and only left 500 Qing troops under the command of General Alian to supervise the battle.
Li Chengdong felt uneasy and planned to lead his troops to retreat to Changzhou, but was stopped by the commander-in-chief A Lian and had to hold on.
At this time, Yuan Zongde had led 10,000 cavalrymen to attack eastern Zhejiang, but after Su Jin gathered the troops of Hui Xiangdeng and Jin Shenghuan, he still had 70,000 troops. Together with the rebel forces coming to support from various places and the 20,000 rebel forces originally in Jiangyin City, a total of 100,000 troops.
Su Jin hated Li Chengdong so much that he was a beast, so how could he let him come and go as he pleased
Shortly after Bolo left, Su Jin deployed tens of thousands of volunteers, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain. Under the unified command of Yan Yingyuan, they fought guerrilla warfare, plundered the enemy's food supplies, and even threatened Changzhou and other places.
Su Jin and Hui Dengxiang led an army of 70,000 to launch a fierce attack on Li Chengdong. Hui Dengxiang's 60,000 troops were not reorganized and their combat effectiveness was not strong, but their morale was very high. In addition, they had more victories than defeats in the battle for several days, and finally defeated Li Chengdong and dared not leave the camp to fight.
The Qing army held on to the camp desperately and had numerous artillery pieces for defense. Su Jin was helpless for a while. At this time, Jin Xiucai offered Su Jin another plan. Taking into account the fact that the Qing army was camping by the Xicheng Canal, he decided to send troops to intercept the flow and attack the camp.
The Xicheng Canal was dug in the Song Dynasty, connecting the Grand Canal in Wuxi in the south and the Yangtze River in Jiangyin in the north. Some sections are only ten feet wide and less than two feet deep.
After Su Jin inspected the river, he thought it was feasible, so he ordered Yan Yingyuan's peripheral troops to collect boats and sacks and wait for orders;
Two nights later, Su Jin led 30,000 troops to attack the enemy camp;
Under his cover, Yan Yingyuan and Jin Xiucai led more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians to intercept the river upstream.
First, hundreds of ships filled with stones were sunk in the river, and then more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians acted together, either using boats or carrying sandbags on their shoulders or hands, throwing countless sandbags into the river.
Previously, the people of Jiangyin had created a miracle of holding out for sixty days under the fierce attack of one hundred thousand Qing troops without any external aid. That night, they created a miracle again. Overnight, the Xicheng Canal, which was more than ten feet wide, was successfully blocked.
The river is blocked by high dikes, and the water level is rising... ... ... ... ..
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.(To be continued..)
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